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 There is a question of fair play in the Demoratic party being decided this weekend and there are two important sides to the debate. One side, which seems to be the proverbial squeaky wheel right now, says seat all the delgates. We’re Democrats and every vote should count.

The other side says the rules were made and broken with Michigan and Florida knowing the consequences of breaking the rules. Permitting them to break the rules and still get what they want is like promoting anarchy. Worse yet, it is rewarding them for breaking the rules by giving them exactly what the state parties wanted in the first place, a bigger role in the nominating process.

The proposed comprise has been that the Rules Committee of the Democratic National Committee seat half the delegates, allowing some acknowledgement of the votes, but still punishing the states. this compromise stinks! It claims that a vote in Michigan and Florida is worth half as much as a vote elsewhere in the nation. And, it penalizes the politician who played by the rules.

Obama played by the rules and did not campaign in either state. He even had his name removed from the ballot in Michigan as a way of saying to the state party that they needed to comply with DNC rules. That left 40 percent of Mihigan voters saying they were undecided as Obama and John Edwards were not on the ballot. Others voted for alternate candidates like Dennis Kucinich rather than vote for Hillary Clinton, but now we are saying that it’s okay to give her delegates he could not possibly have won?  Obama played by the rules and Michigan and Florida state parties didn’t. So why punish him?

The problem is that those who seek to seat all the delegates are either Clinton supporters or believe that the individual voter should not be punished for state party decisions. The second part of the argument is atleast somewhat valid. For the most part, rank and file party members have no say in what the state party does or when the primary is held.  Those who voted wanted to be heard and are guaranteed that right but state and federal constitutions, though there is NOTHING in the national constitution that determines how the candidates are chosen.

So, what is the delegates from Florida are apportioned based on the pecentage of votes the candidate got.  Clinton got 50 percent of the vote there and Obama got 33 percent. That means she gets 105 of the states 210 delegates and he gets 70. The remaining 35 go into the convention as undecided or supporting a candidate like John Edwards who has already withdrawn from the race.

In Michigan, things are a little more complicated. There are 156 delegates at stake and Hillary won 55 percent of the vote. If she gets to keep just the delegates she actually won, that means she gets about 86 delegates. Barack wasn’t even on the ballot so he won none, officially. But we know that 45 percent of Michigan voted “Not Hillary” so why not give those delgates to the only other nominee still in the race.  Or just give him the 40 percent of the vote that was undecided, meaning they could not choose a candidate on the ballot?   Those 62 delegates (from the undecided votes alone), give him the magic number of delegates to win the nomination.

Honestly, even though it is unfair to Obama, a punishment for playing by the rules, if all the delegates are seated and assigned based on the percentage of the popular vote that each candidate earned, he is still the nominee. Hillary can gain another 191 delegates and make it so much closer than it is, but the 70 delegates from Florida would put Obama over the 2,026 delegates needed to win the nomination.

Obama shouldn’t be punished for obeying the rules. Fair play should mean something in the nominating process. But at this point, Senator Obama has everything to gain by asking that the delegates be seated with the proviso that they be spilt acording to the popular vote. The 191 delegate gain for Senator Clinton still leaves here about 80 delegates behind Senator Obama.  He satisfies the demands of the voters and becomes the legitimate and unquestioned nominee of the party.

Really, the math is easy. It’s the ethics of the situation that are difficult. Michigan and Florida voters should be counted, but the rule of law or the rule of rules is a basic tenet of the American political system. Without it, we invited anarchy to replace our representational system of government. The DNC must find a way to punish the state parties that disobeyed the rules, but disenfranchising the voters is not the way to do it.

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