A must read from Senator Joe Lieberman in the Wall Street Journal on the ails of the Democratic Party.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121132806884008847.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries
What ever happened to the Democratic Party of Roosevelt, Truman, and Kennedy?
What ever happened to the party whose philosophy was:
"it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures." Harry Truman
"pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of freedom." John F Kennedy
Showing posts with label democrats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label democrats. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Monday, May 19, 2008
The End of Democracy?
Here is an interesting thought to ponder, right now Barack Obama has 1610 pledged delegates and Hilary Clinton has 1443 and the DNC requires 2025 delegates for a candidate to win the nomination. Left on the table are the following states, 5/20 Kentucky (51) and Oregon (52), 6/01 Puerto Rico (55), 6/03 South Dakota (15) and Montana (16). Which according to my calculations means there are only 189 voter delegates left, it's not going to happen, but giving all the delegates to either of the candidates results in: Obama 1799 or Clinton 1632, both short of the 2025 required to win the nomination.
What does this all mean? What it means is that the Democratic nomination for the President of the United States will be determined by some combination of the 795 super-delegates created by the party. That means that the Democratic nominee will be chosen by 19 Distinguished Party Leaders, 31 Democratic Governors, 48 Members of the Senate, 223 Members of the House, 398 Democratic National Committee members, and the 76 unpledged add-ons (usually party state chairs, etc).
The problem in this entire scenario is that the super-delegates, created by the party, are unpledged... meaning they may vote their conscience and do not have to follow the will of the people. The problem is that the people get 3253 and the party gets 795, that works out to approximately a 75/25 percent split, so 795 people get 25 percent of the say in who the next presidential party candidate is. Not exactly what I think our founding fathers intended when they established this Federal Republic of ours.
What is the worst case scenario here? Obama gets the popular vote and Clinton gets the nomination (Don't think it can't happen... the Clinton's have a lot of friends in the DNC, and simply because an unpledged delgate declares for a candidate doesn't mean they have to vote for them come convention time). As of right now Obama has 303 and Clinton has 278 'pledged' super-delegates. All this comes down to is a very interesting convention this August in Denver.
It means, that no matter what, the Democratic nominee is going to be the result of back-door political politics, decided not by the people but by party officials.
Only time shall tell where we go from there.
~Finntann~
What does this all mean? What it means is that the Democratic nomination for the President of the United States will be determined by some combination of the 795 super-delegates created by the party. That means that the Democratic nominee will be chosen by 19 Distinguished Party Leaders, 31 Democratic Governors, 48 Members of the Senate, 223 Members of the House, 398 Democratic National Committee members, and the 76 unpledged add-ons (usually party state chairs, etc).
The problem in this entire scenario is that the super-delegates, created by the party, are unpledged... meaning they may vote their conscience and do not have to follow the will of the people. The problem is that the people get 3253 and the party gets 795, that works out to approximately a 75/25 percent split, so 795 people get 25 percent of the say in who the next presidential party candidate is. Not exactly what I think our founding fathers intended when they established this Federal Republic of ours.
What is the worst case scenario here? Obama gets the popular vote and Clinton gets the nomination (Don't think it can't happen... the Clinton's have a lot of friends in the DNC, and simply because an unpledged delgate declares for a candidate doesn't mean they have to vote for them come convention time). As of right now Obama has 303 and Clinton has 278 'pledged' super-delegates. All this comes down to is a very interesting convention this August in Denver.
It means, that no matter what, the Democratic nominee is going to be the result of back-door political politics, decided not by the people but by party officials.
Only time shall tell where we go from there.
~Finntann~
Thursday, May 8, 2008
The Worst in Politics
Steven Ybarra, democratic super-delegate has offered his vote...for $20 million.
http://cbs13.com/local/Superdelegate.Vote.Ybarra.2.718616.html
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iyFKKPMWWE3914VCwkVV7XndqacgD90H0F203
Ostensibly, he wishes to use the money to register and educate Mexican-American voters.
This has got to be the most disgusting behavior I have seen yet, I am totally and utterly appalled. This man belongs in jail for he is the epitome of corruption...and if his behavior under federal and state law is not illegal, it ought to be.
You might argue that his motives are just and he is not seeking personal gain...but is he? Undoubtedly, as a Democratic super-delegate, his intent is to register and educate these Mexican-American voters to be good democratic party voters. I seriously doubt he is out there registering voters for the Republican party. In the end, is his intent not to get another 1.3 million (his figure not mine) democratic voters out there for the presidential election? Is his personal gain not getting his party into office? Welcome to the new Tammany Hall!
This is the perfect illustration of the 'rot' in American politics, and the perfect reason to get rid of super-delegates. What is a super-delegate after all? Whatever happened to 1 man 1 vote? Now the political elite of both parties are given undue influence in our government as a form of political patronage. It is estimated that right now, the vote of a super-delegate is worth the vote of 10,000 of the common man. Is this what we fought a revolution for? This disgusting subversion of our democratic ideals?
This is behavior worthy of the backroom political machinations of the Kremlin, not the world's bastion of democracy. I for one am outraged and utterly ashamed, as an American, of this despicable and abhorrent political intrigue.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, unless you kiss enough posteriors in your political party in which case we'll make you a super-delegate.
~Outraged~
http://cbs13.com/local/Superdelegate.Vote.Ybarra.2.718616.html
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iyFKKPMWWE3914VCwkVV7XndqacgD90H0F203
Ostensibly, he wishes to use the money to register and educate Mexican-American voters.
This has got to be the most disgusting behavior I have seen yet, I am totally and utterly appalled. This man belongs in jail for he is the epitome of corruption...and if his behavior under federal and state law is not illegal, it ought to be.
You might argue that his motives are just and he is not seeking personal gain...but is he? Undoubtedly, as a Democratic super-delegate, his intent is to register and educate these Mexican-American voters to be good democratic party voters. I seriously doubt he is out there registering voters for the Republican party. In the end, is his intent not to get another 1.3 million (his figure not mine) democratic voters out there for the presidential election? Is his personal gain not getting his party into office? Welcome to the new Tammany Hall!
This is the perfect illustration of the 'rot' in American politics, and the perfect reason to get rid of super-delegates. What is a super-delegate after all? Whatever happened to 1 man 1 vote? Now the political elite of both parties are given undue influence in our government as a form of political patronage. It is estimated that right now, the vote of a super-delegate is worth the vote of 10,000 of the common man. Is this what we fought a revolution for? This disgusting subversion of our democratic ideals?
This is behavior worthy of the backroom political machinations of the Kremlin, not the world's bastion of democracy. I for one am outraged and utterly ashamed, as an American, of this despicable and abhorrent political intrigue.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, unless you kiss enough posteriors in your political party in which case we'll make you a super-delegate.
~Outraged~
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