Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Democrats: Are they dumber than concrete?

That was the actual heading to Mike Thomas 's column in today's Orlando Sentinel. Gotta love it!

Oh, and Mike, the simple answer is "YES!"

Here's the full text of his colum for ye socks who find this sort of political talk interesting:

I am not a political analyst. But I was around for the great Florida voting fiasco of November 2000.And I'm getting flashbacks with talk of a brokered Democratic convention decided by "superdelegates."

Consider this scenario, which no longer seems so far-fetched:Barack Obama goes into the convention having won the majority of primaries and delegates. But he doesn't have enough delegates to win the nomination.

And so the superdelegates -- a group of politicians and political insiders -- go into their star chamber and pick Hillary Clinton.

The fallout not only would cost Democrats the November election but would haunt them for many elections to come.

Now let's return to November 2000. Many blacks in Florida were blocked from voting when they erroneously popped on lists of convicted felons.

Many more who did vote had their ballots tossed out for technical errors -- for example, writing in Al Gore's name as well as punching it on the ballot. The problem was compounded by antiquated machines in rural counties.

More than half the rejected Florida votes in 2000 were cast by black voters. In its report, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights referred to "injustice, ineptitude and inefficiency."A subsequent analysis noted that nationwide, a million votes by blacks may not have been counted. This has been a rallying theme among Democrats.

In a speech to the NAACP during his 2004 campaign, John Kerry said, "Don't tell us that in the strongest democracy on earth that a million disenfranchised African-Americans and the most tainted election in American history is the best that we can do."

And so consider the fallout if eight years later, Democratic Party bosses basically do the same thing that they accused the Republicans of doing. They defy the will of the voters, including the vast majority of blacks, and rig the election for their candidate.

This system of superdelegates is a perversion of the very principles the Democrats pretend to follow.

How can you have a party that professes to be of the people when party bosses, who don't have to follow the will of the people, make up about 20 percent of the convention delegates. There is a public campaign played out in the various state contests and a secret campaign carried out on phone lines.

The Republicans are more democratic than the Democrats.

The backlash of a Clinton backroom win would be harsh.

John McCain would have the inside track on the independent vote. Those energized blacks who turned out with such passion for Obama would lose their zeal. So too would the growing number of young voters looking to the Democratic Party after eight years of George W. Bush.

The Democrats' only hope would be Obama taking the second spot on the ticket. But why should someone who came into the convention in the lead accept the Morgan Freeman role in Driving Miss Hillary?

Obama has won 19 state primaries and caucuses to 11 for Clinton. He also should win the next four primaries.

Yet many projections have Clinton ahead in the total delegate count because she leads among superdelegates.

If this dynamic continues to play out and Clinton wins the nomination, here are two words you can put in the bank: President McCain.


Mike Thomas can be reached at 407-420-5525 or mthomas@orlandosentinel.com.

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