a proposal for Florida and Michigan
I have a modest (non satirical) proposal to solve the issue of Florida and Michigan.
First, the easy one, Florida. Since the playing field was largely level, simply honor the results, but assign only half as many delegates to Florida's pool. Thus, both Clinton and Obama retain their fraction of the delegate pool, but the state as a whole is penalized for breaking the DNC rules (delegates which would have gone to Edwards, etc would be discarded, not halved).
For Michigan, to be fair, Clinton did outperform "Uncommitted" by 55-40. The argument for a 50-50 split is unfair because it awards Obama votes that were intended for Clinton (voter intent is sacrosanct in those situations where it can reasonably be determined). Therefore Clinton should indeed gain her 55% fraction of Michigan's delegates. However, Obama should then receive the full remaining fraction. It is true that Obama may not have received 100% of the non-Clinton votes, but many voters likely did not vote, so these factors may be assumed to cancel. Again, however, reduce the total delegate count by 50% as penalty for violating the DNC rules.
I am deliberately NOT going to do the delegate math for the above so that my proposal is minimally tainted by my admitted pro-Obama bias. I hope that we can debate the proposal on its fairness merits rather than on outcomes.
First, the easy one, Florida. Since the playing field was largely level, simply honor the results, but assign only half as many delegates to Florida's pool. Thus, both Clinton and Obama retain their fraction of the delegate pool, but the state as a whole is penalized for breaking the DNC rules (delegates which would have gone to Edwards, etc would be discarded, not halved).
For Michigan, to be fair, Clinton did outperform "Uncommitted" by 55-40. The argument for a 50-50 split is unfair because it awards Obama votes that were intended for Clinton (voter intent is sacrosanct in those situations where it can reasonably be determined). Therefore Clinton should indeed gain her 55% fraction of Michigan's delegates. However, Obama should then receive the full remaining fraction. It is true that Obama may not have received 100% of the non-Clinton votes, but many voters likely did not vote, so these factors may be assumed to cancel. Again, however, reduce the total delegate count by 50% as penalty for violating the DNC rules.
I am deliberately NOT going to do the delegate math for the above so that my proposal is minimally tainted by my admitted pro-Obama bias. I hope that we can debate the proposal on its fairness merits rather than on outcomes.
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