JUST AN ORANGE

The FRIDAY POLITIC ~ because one can’t be transcendent all the time.

If you’re a parent, you’ve done it. Your child has threatened to do something you have forbiden and you’ve misjudged the strength of your own enforcement abilities against the situation. You say no. Your kid does it anyway. The consequence is levied. You pat yourself on the back. Way to follow through!

Only wait. Suddenly a conundrum presents itself, and you’re stuck. You realize the punishment has unintended consequences that seem a little harsh. In fact, it now seems rash, and utterly unthoughtful. You got caught in the moment. You made a tactical mistake. You’re tempted to back down. But if you do your child only learn that you don’t follow through, and in some odd way, ends up rewarded for the very behavior that was the cause of the situation in the first place. What do you do?

And so, the Democratic National Committee finds it’s self in this very parenting conundrum.
The situation as I understand it is this, in a nutshell: Florida and Michigan scheduled primaries. The DNC said they were going out of turn and that the states’ delegates wouldn’t count in the nominating process at the Democratic Convention. The states went ahead and held their primaries anyway. Now voters feel disenfranchised. And with no clear front runner, Clinton and Obama are, naturally, at odds over the solution.

Clinton says the delegates should be seated. Of course she does. She won both states. Obama has a problem with that, because the DNC asked the candidates not to campaign in the states, which they agreed to, and his name was not even on the ballot in Michigan. He says he followed the rules, and shouldn’t be punished for that.

Some suggest a do-over in June, but because of the closeness of the primary, that seems like Michigan and Florida get a chance to have more influence on the decision in the end, and is that fair? Seems like more of a reward than a punishment. And even then, who pays for it?

Poor Democrats. This could be your year. If you can manage not to stumble on the rug as you go out the front door.

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