The DNC and/or state orgs should change their rules

[Jim Lane]

92. Thanks, your clip of Ickes strongly SUPPORTS the point I made

The issue here isn't deciding whether Hillary Clinton acted nobly and will go to Heaven when she dies. I have no interest in refighting the 2008 primary. The issue here is the practicality of stevenleser's recommendation in #27 that the DNC abandon its current rule that requires neutrality among the candidates, and instead pick one or more candidates as favored and the rest as "non-sanctioned" (based on tax disclosure, length of party membership, and/or whatever other criteria might tempt the DNC members to substitute their judgment for that of the voters).

If you believe, as I do, that the DNC doesn't have the power to bar a "non-sanctioned" candidate from the ballots in the primaries, then the only way it could enforce its choice would be at the convention. It could refuse to seat the delegates pledged to a candidate who didn't have the DNC's approval, or it could prohibit them from voting for the candidate of their choice (see #27).

Such a plan would be unfair, undemocratic, and harmful to the eventual nominee's chances in November. Putting aside those objections, however, my point in this context is that it's impractical. The lesson of 2008 is that the drastic step of refusing to seat elected delegates generates too much blowback.

The Ickes clip illustrates this. Michigan had violated the DNC's rules for primary scheduling. The DNC decreed that no Michigan delegates would be seated. Obama took his name off the ballot, Clinton left hers on, and so of course she won. Then we saw Ickes condemning the "hijacking" of delegates, talking about "fundamental" principles, and alluding several times to "600,000 Michigan voters" who should not be disenfranchised. That's precisely the kind of attack that I was envisioning.

The upshot was as I stated: At the convention, the DNC backed down and seated full delegate slates from Michigan (and from Florida, similarly situated). Your RealClearPolitics link refers to those two states with an asterisked footnote "Delegates After DNC Penalty". Therefore, although I don't see a date on the page, we know that it was before the convention, because the convention lifted the penalty. The Democratic Party had a rule, clearly stated well in advance of the scheduling of the primaries, that no delegates would be seated from any state that jumped the gun. Michigan and Florida jumped the gun -- but when push came to shove, the party backed down and imposed no penalty on those states.

So my statement was completely accurate.