To Seat or Not to Seat...That is the Question.

I confess. I'm torn. I don't have anything brilliant to say. Not even a rant really. I'm just torn.

As an Obama supporter, I don't want them seated. As someone who wonders what's the point in having rules if they aren't going to be enforced, I don't want them seated.

But, as a voter, who desperately wants my voice to be heard, and feel that it has too often been taken wrongly, I cringe at the thought of other's not having theirs heard. Especially at the hands of some higher up persons who decided when their elections should or should not be held.

It seems unfair to have the delegates all seated as they would have had Hillary one two legitimate contests, because regardless of how she or her campaign wants to paint the picture, neither of those contests were normal, or even fair. The people campaigning at the time had agreed not to in either of those states. She chose to go ahead and do so.

At least in Florida, all the candidates were on the ballot. Though Obama didn't campaign there, at least his name was on the ballot. He didn't campaign there, but then again, no one campaigned here in Alaska. I'm willing to let Hillary call Florida a solid win. I guess I'm OK with her getting the lion's share of delegates in that contest, if the delegates are seated.

But Michigan is different. I don't care how she paints the story, that was not a normal and fair election. There is no viable way she can really claim triumph there, simply because people voted for the only person on the ballot. And I'm not accepting the argument by Clinton's legal team that Obama shouldn't get any Michigan delegates because he took his name off the ballot.

That's not a legitimate argument because he, like most of the democratic candidates, believed they were acting in accord with the rulings passed down by the DNC. Moreover, as has been repeatedly pointed out, everyone, including the Clinton campaign, was fine with the rulings handed down by the DNC (to not accept the results of Florida and Michigan) until it became such a tight race. The fact that Clinton left her name on both ballots and continued to campaign in Florida makes me wonder if perhaps, in the back of her mind somewhere, she wasn't trying to be prepared for exactly this sort of scenario.

To deny Obama any Michigan delegates would be to punish him for actually following the rules. Since when is justice really complete by punishing those who follow the rules and awarding those who dance around them?

I don't know what the DNC is going to do this weekend. It will be interesting. I hope it demonstrates (at least) a modicum of justice for both the candidates AND the voters. It's all just a mess. And not what the democratic party needs to be dealing with just now.