alternative hippopotamus

progressive cyberdadaism from our nation’s capital

March 26, 2008

A Brief Note on “Disenfranchisement”

by AltHippo @ 3:00 pm. Filed under 2008 Elections

I often see the folks at certain Clinton-supporting blogs accusing the Obama campaign of “disenfranchising” the voters. To wit:

Despite the lies and the selectively quoted data, Hillary Clinton can still win the popular vote. Barack Obama’s apparently successful disenfranchisement of the voters of Florida and Michigan does not completely negate that possibility.

There are two questions here. The first is: is the Obama campaign disenfranchising the voters? The second is: how about the timing of the complaint?

With regards to the first question it would be more accurate to say that the two campaigns couldn’t agree on rules for a revote. As a result of this, and because of the actions the DNC took on primary violations, the votes of the Florida and Michigan delegations do not count. If one wants to argue that they are disenfranchised, the fault lies at the feet of many people, including their own. Is the Obama campaign somehow more to blame than the Clinton campaign? You’d really have to show me the money to convince me on that count.

Second. The timing of the complaint. As Carl Bernstein writes (my emphasis):

When the facts surrounding such characteristic episodes finally get sorted out — usually long after they have been challenged — the mysteries and contradictions are often dealt with by Hillary Clinton and her apparat in a blizzard of footnotes, addenda, revision, and disingenuous re-explanation: as occurred in regard to the draconian secrecy she imposed on her health-care task force (and its failed efforts in 1993-94); explanations of what could have been dutifully acknowledged, and deserved to be dismissed as a minor conflict of interest — once and for all — in Whitewater; or her recent Michigan-Florida migration from acceptance of the DNC’s refusal to recognize those states’ convention delegations (when it looked like she had the nomination sewn up) to her re-evaluation of the matter as a grave denial of basic human rights, after she fell impossibly behind in the delegate count.

I will add that if the Clinton supporters are genuinely concerned about voter disenfranchisement, and see it as a human rights issue, they have an opportunity right here in our fair city. It turns out that the people of DC are so disenfranchised that they have no voting representative to either the House or the Senate! The city can’t even spend city money without the parental supervision of Congress. I’m pretty sure that’s a more serious disenfranchisement than the current primary situation in Michigan and Florida.

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2 Responses to “A Brief Note on “Disenfranchisement””

  1. Mr Anthrope Says:
    March 26th, 2008 at 3:22 pm

    Why are we Dem’s doing McCain’s work for him? This tit-for-tat between the campaigns is going to cost us the White House in November if it we can’t come together soon. I’m all for diversity of ideas, but a solidified front is what’s required now.

  2. AltHippo Says:
    March 26th, 2008 at 3:41 pm

    It’s a bit depressing isn’t it? How will the two campaigns move on after the primary at this point?

    I figure I can’t make anyone fight fair, but I can point out when someone is using charged rhetoric.

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