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05.20.2008 5:47 pm
Should Mich. and Fla. count, or should Clinton play by the rules?
Kurt Greenbaum
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

In the dawn after the Kentucky and Oregon primaries, let’s not talk about them, OK? Instead, let’s focus on the bigger picture. By some accounts, Sen. Hillary Clinton’s accounts in particularly, she is leading in the popular vote — as long as you count the votes in Michigan and Florida.

As you may recall, the Democratic Party penalized those two states by stripping them of their delegates for moving up the dates of their Democratic primaries.

At the time, Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama were not the only Democrats in the race. Neither of them campaigned hard in those large states, knowing that the Democratic Party rules had rendered their votes moot.

In fact, Obama’s name wasn’t even on the ballot in Michigan when voters went to the polls.

And meanwhile, there is a key vote within the Democratic National Committee on May 31. The party’s rules committee will vote on whether, indeed, those states should be allowed to seat full delegations at the Democratic convention.

By the time most of us see this, Obama could have enough delegates to secure the nomination. But the question we’ll debate is this: Should Florida and Michigan count? Is Clinton trying to change the rules after the game?


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