US presidential hopeful Barack Obama has called for delegates from Michigan and Florida to have their voting rights restored at the Democratic convention. They were stripped of those rights when the two states held early primary votes in February, breaking party rules. Both states were won by Hillary Clinton, who had lobbied fiercely for their representatives to be included.
Obama - who later won enough delegates to secure the nomination - had until now opposed the move. However in a letter to the party's credentials committee sent on Sunday, he asked members to reinstate full voting rights for the delegates from Michigan and Florida. They were originally stripped of these rights, but were given half-votes in a compromise reached at an acrimonious party meeting in May.
The convention, due to be held in Denver from 25 to 27 August, is expected to confirm Obama as the party's presidential candidate. The latest news on the reinstatement of Florida and Michigan delegate votes is just another political move that Obama is making to bring the Democratic Party together before their convention later this month. In fact, Obama's letter only justifies what I said three or four months ago that Obama was afraid that if Florida and Michigan regained its delegates that Hillary might be the Democratic nominee over Obama. Now that Obama has secured the nomination, he sees no threat now in reinstating Florida and Michigan delegates.
While the credentials committee will ultimately decide whether to reinstate both Florida and Michigan delegate votes to full strength, it is quite interesting that when Hillary suggested it during the long, hard and bitter Democratic Presidential fight primary, some of the credentials committee who were Obama supporters were against it while Hillary supporters on the committee wanted to reinstate Michigan and Florida delegates. Now that Obama has the Democratic Presidential nomination, it should be quite interesting to see what the credentials committee does now. Will Hillary supporters do a flip flop and vote against reinstating the full voting rights of Michigan and Florida or will Obama supporters do a flip flop and vote yes now that their nominee is the Democratic Presidential candidate.
Then there's the answer that Michigan and Florida will regain their full voting rights, showing that Obama supporters are political and that Obama is like every other politician in the sense that they will do anything to win even preventing others from having their voting rights blocked. Nonetheless, Obama has shown me yet another political blunder and makes me question his real intentions. I am all for a candidate doing whatever it takes to win but right now, Obama is flip flopping on everything he believed in during the Democratic Primary. What's next for Obama now, will he flip flop on the gas tax holiday next or offshore drilling?
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