Dumb and Dumber: The Flowers of Florida and Michigan Bloom

As long predicted on this blog, the DNC's decision to disenfranchise the voters of Florida and Michigan in the seeking of electoral advantage is coming back to bite them in their collective tuchis.

Sanctioned States Put Democrats in Quandary

The Democratic National Committee sanctioned Michigan and Florida for moving up their nominating contests in violation of party rules; it declared their primaries unofficial and denied them the right to seat their delegations in Denver. At the time of the sanctions, there was a widespread assumption that the eventual nominee would relent and allow both states full participation at the convention.

That was when it was also assumed that there would be an early outcome to the Clinton-Obama contest and that the winner could appear magnanimous toward two states with pivotal roles in the general election. That was when it was assumed the delegates wouldn't matter in the nomination battle. Today, it's clear they could.

Clinton won both Michigan and Florida handily. She won Michigan in part because Obama and other Democrats took their names off the ballot in solidarity with the DNC and as part of a pledge to Iowa, New Hampshire and other early-voting states not to participate in unsanctioned contests.

WaPo naturally blames...Michigan and Florida, for bucking the party's clever strategy.

Had Michigan Democrats not engaged in gamesmanship over the shape of the nomination calendar, they would be holding the premier contest on today's slate, by far the biggest and most influential of the events between Super Tuesday and next week's Potomac primaries, rather than the nonbinding event that was held Jan. 15.

Michigan Democrats long argued that the party needed a major industrial state playing an early and influential role in the nominating process. Instead, Michigan Democrats -- and those in Florida -- have left their party with a monumental problem: what to do about their delegations to the national convention in Denver in August.

Let me note just once again--Michigan and Florida did NOT create this mess. The DNC leadership did, by unilaterally breaking the McGovern Compact, seeking to gain an advantage in the Presidential election by structuring the Democratic primaries to (they thought) produce an early frontrunner who would have more time to campaign while a (hopefully) divided Republican field had to fight their way to the convention. All Michigan and Florida did was not bow down to the DNC.

As Jules Crittenden so ably and aptly put it today in his post Petard Hoistmanship:

Magnificent in its execution! If they keep up this level of performance through the August games in Denver, this judge will give them a perfect 10.

Well, we warned them.