Over the week-end several key events have been in the public eye but have not brought the Democratic fight to an end. One may even say that these events may prolong the fight.
On Saturday, the Democratic Party's Rules and By-Laws Comittee handed down its much awaited decision on the issue of the Michigan and Florida delegates. A very quick reminder : these two States had held their primaries in January, in defiance of the Democratic National Committe's calendar rules. In consequence, the DNC made it known that the delegates would not be seated at the Convention in Denver. The two States ploughed on regardless, eager as they were that their vote should "count", or make a difference in the race by voting before Super Tuesday. All the candidates abided by the rule that they were not to campaign in these States and all candidates except Clinton took their names off the ballot in Michigan.
The results of these two primaries were favourable to Clinton. And ever since, the candidate has been clamoring to have the delegates seated at the convention, lest the voters of these States should feel disenfranchised and fail to turn up at the polling stations in November.
The DNC was in a bit of a pickle : either it stuck by its rule or it allowed the delegates to be seated and thus lost all authority.
Amidst agitation and demonstrations, the Rules and By-Laws Committee approved a compromise, as expected by the media and the politicians : the delegates from Florida and Michigan will all be seated at the convention but each will have half a vote. They then proceeded to allocating the delegates betweeen Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
For Florida, 105 delegates were awarded to Clinton and 67 to Obama.
In Michigan the problem was a bit more complicated due to the circumstances : who should get the 55 "uncommitted" delegates? Obama, or should they be kept "uncommitted" ( open to being convinced by the Clinton camp, for instance)? Clinton's campaign insisted that it had won 73 delegates, while Obama supporters wanted to split the delegates in two, allocating 64 to each side. The Rules committee chose a different allocation altogether : 69 delegates to Clinton and 59 to Obama.
For some this ruling is unfair and Clinton has been cheated of 4 delegates. It might only fuel Clinton's outrage and undermine Obama'a chances of winning Michigan when comes November : for more on this read Thurlow Weed's article on Real Clear Politics.
A staffer of the Clinton campaign has said that they might take the issue to the Credentials Committee for an appeal. In that case, the primary contest would continue through until July, when the committee is expected to meet. The other scenario of a never ending primary is one in which the fight continues until the Denver National Democratic Convention at the end of August. What this means is that Clinton would refuse to step down and thus encourage the fight to be settled by the vote of the delegates. This is often referred to as a brokered convention.
The other important event was Senator Clinton's win in Puerto Rico. She trounced the Senator from Illinois by a 2 to 1 margin. Clinton remains a huge forcein the field even if the media have been trumpeting the victory of her opponent for over a week now.
Once again this primary showcased the strength of Clinton in the Latino constituency. Will Obama manage to do well in the general election if he only has lukewarm support in several key Democratic constituencies : working class voters, women and Latinos?
An interesting question worth considering by the super-delegates that have not made up their minds is : who is really winning the popular vote?
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