Congratulations Florida And Michigan!! You're Both Half A State!!

Congratulations Florida and Michigan!! You're both half a state now. Well, at least according to the DNC rules and bylaws committee, Obama, and Howard Dean. Throw in Clinton too with respect to Florida.

Florida, Michigan get all delegates, but each gets half vote

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- After a day of wrangling in front of a sometimes unruly crowd, the Democratic National Committee's rules and bylaws committee reinstated all of Florida and Michigan's delegates to its party convention, with each getting a half-vote to penalize the states for moving their primaries earlier than the party had approved.

The move will leave front-runner Sen. Barack Obama's lead over rival Sen. Hillary Clinton intact.

"This results in Sen. Clinton obtaining a substantial number of additional pledged delegates, but I also understand that many members of the Florida and Michigan delegations feel satisfied that the decision was fair," Obama said after a campaign event in Aberdeen, South Dakota. "Our main goal is to get this resolved so we can immediately turn the focus of the entire party on winning Florida and Michigan and delivering on the needs of the people in Florida and Michigan -- states that are enormously important, states where a lot of people are struggling."

The Florida decision, which follows the pro-Clinton results of that state's primary, was greeted by virtually all sides as an acceptable compromise on a thorny issue. But Clinton backers vowed to fight the Michigan decision, which gave the New York senator a 10-delegate edge over Obama in a state where his name didn't appear on the primary ballot.

"Today's results are a victory for the people of Florida, who will have a voice in selecting our party's nominee and will see its delegates seated at our party's convention," said a joint-statement from Clinton advisers Harold Ickes and Tina Flournoy. "[But] we strongly object to the committee's decision to undercut its own rules in seating Michigan's delegates without reflecting the votes of the people of Michigan."

With no Michigan or Florida delegates included, Obama led Clinton by 202 delegates.

The committee's ruling gave Clinton 105 pledged delegates from Florida and 69 from Michigan, with a total of 87 votes.

Obama received 67 pledged delegates from Florida and 59 from Michigan, casting a total of 63 votes.

That tally leaves Obama ahead by the equivalent of 178 delegates.

If each delegate had been granted a full vote, Clinton still would have trailed Obama.

During the daylong committee meeting, supporters of Clinton, who came out ahead in both votes despite the fact the states had been penalized for moving their primaries earlier in the season, pushed the committee to give each delegate a full vote and to count the election results as they were registered.

"I feel like we should not penalize them for something they did not cause and couldn't prevent," said Alice Huffman, a California superdelegate for Clinton, noting that it was a Republican legislature that changed the date.

Huffman sponsored an unsuccessful motion that would have counted Florida's results and given delegates a full vote.

She later supported the compromise. While voicing her support, she was shouted down by the same crowd members who had cheered her effort moments earlier.

As the committee voted, people attending the open meeting applauded, cheered and booed as the vote came in.

Clinton supporters interrupted the proceedings, loudly chanting "Denver! Denver!" Denver is the site of the Democratic convention, where Clinton could appeal any decision made by the committee.

"Mrs. Clinton has asked me to reserve her rights to take this to the credentials committee," Ickes said during a fiery speech after the vote.

Later, party leaders were celebrating the compromise as a way to reinstate delegates from two crucial swing states Democrats want to win in November.

The DNC had penalized both states for holding their primaries early by excluding them from representation when the party nominates a candidate at the August convention.

No candidates campaigned in Florida ahead of its vote, and Clinton's was the only major candidate's name that appeared on Michigan's ballot.

She received 55 percent of the vote in that state, with 44 percent of voters voting "uncommitted."

As the committee's session began Saturday, DNC Chairman Howard Dean said that deciding how to handle Michigan and Florida will be a huge step in moving past the division of a sometimes-bitter primary campaign.

"On the blogosphere, and the airwaves, emotions have run high and heated discussions have led at times to blatantly racist comments and blatantly sexist comments, particularly by some members of the media," Dean said in prepared remarks. "We know that those comments have no place in our society and certainly no place in our party.

"It has got to stop. We have got to come together and unite our party. Every one of us has the responsibility to help ensure that our party is united."

That's right!! You're each half a state. So, I guess instead of 50 states we now have only 48 WHOLE STATES and 2 HALF STATES. Not only that, but your citizens are now each half a person.

I watched this entire sham today, and that's exactly what it was. It was a sham!! None of these people have any integrity. Sitting there watching their smug-ass faces, acting like this was a fucking game, made me want to jump through my tv screen and smack them.

They have the balls to talk about unity? Essentially saying that you're half of a person, which is exactly how this ruling can be interpreted, is not going to bring about this unity that they speak of. They talk about rules. Their rules are bullshit. How dare they tell someone when they can vote!! How dare they strip people of their votes because they didn't vote like they wanted them to!!

Some of the people in the audience at this meeting were equally asinine. They stood up and cheered these votes. Each and every one of those people who cheered disgusted me, but especially those who were black. How quickly they forget that black people were considered 3/5 of a person. Now they're content with being considered 1/2 a person, or are content with allowing others to be considered 1/2 a person. That's truly asinine!!

If any of these people on this committee had any integrity, they would have walked out of that meeting today. They would have said that this was complete and utter bullshit. They would have said what one audience member said to the committee, FUCK YOU!!

That's right DNC!! FUCK YOU!! That's right Democratic Party!! FUCK YOU!!

If people really want to send a message, don't vote. Period!! Regardless of who wins this election, this country is going to get exactly what it deserves. If Obama wins, a year from now people are going to be pissing and moaning that he isn't doing a damn thing for them. They deserve him. If McCain wins, that means that morons actually voted for another four years of the same old bullshit. If they vote for him, they deserve what they get. Only this time, they'll get a lunatic in the White House instead of just a braindead puppet!!