Selected, Not Elected

Ah, the irony! The Democrats are facing an impending crisis that could tear their party apart, thus assuring an almost certain Republican victory in November. And it all ties into what was a Constitutional crisis back in the 2000 election.

We all remember the insanity of Florida's electoral process in 2000. First, we had the exit poll victories and retractions. Then came the myriad recounts. Then the tales of dimpled and hanging chads. Then the lawsuits. Then the supreme court came in and ended it, splitting along ideological lines. And in all the recounts, Bush had won. But there were enough regularities to cast serious doubt over what the vote would have been if there had been one clean count. Thus, those who were in the losing camp, with their traditional lack of thought and singsongy toddler delivery, started screaming "selected, not elected" at the top of their lungs any time George W Bush walked into a room. And they kept screaming it for most of 2001.

But that was then. Now, the Democrat party is facing a similar situation. With Senator Obama holding a lead in the popular vote and a lead in delegates, it appeared he was on the way to winning until Ohio and Texas came along. Now, he still holds those leads, but Senator Clinton gained victories in those two states. Now neither candidate can win the nomination without the superdelegates. These are party leaders that can decide who to vote for without input from the voters. Essentially, they get to select the candidate.

The big problem here is that this is not a fair way to select a candidate. Wait, this is politics. Of course it's not fair.

Add to that the delegates of Michigan and Florida. Currently, they will not be seated for violating party rules. Clinton wants them, as she won those states. The problem is that Obama was not on the ballots. So Clinton wants them. But others want a revote. But then they have to find a way to pay for it.

So if the candidate with the most votes (Obama presently) loses, there's sure to be problems, both from the losing candidate's people and from whatever minority loses (presently, that's the race whores). And even if the leader in votes and delegates wins, especially if it's Obama, it's very likely that the Democrat candidate will be bloodied up even before the general election fight begins.

So with Clinton bloodying up Obama, Obama faced with the need to bloody up Clinton, both of them wishing they could bloody up Jon McCain, and McCain getting to sit back and consolidate a party that bloodied him up for a while, this fight, or bloodletting, is going to be fun to watch.

(Sorry about all the bloody blood. Must be reading my Rush talking points just to taunt liberals.)