The Democrat's Dilemma

On Sunday, Terry McAuliffe joined Bob Schieffer on "Face the Nation." In that interview, Mr. McAuliffe hinted that the Florida and Michigan debacles were the fault of Howard Dean. (I did try to locate a transcript, but was unable to, and I was only reminded of this when I noted Ed's post @ Hot Air.) Mr. Schieffer questioned him on his own threats to states when he was the head of the DNC, but Mr. McAuliffe would not bite, and stated that the Republicans handled their problem with states jumping ahead in the primary schedule better than Howard Dean had.

And that is true. Instead of banning the entire delegation, the GOP cut the delegates in half. This still allowed the representation in the convention, and it did punish the states for jumping ahead. It basically nullified their effectiveness in the early primaries.

But the way Howard Dean handled it was a disaster. He is punishing voters, who abided by the rules, and intends to disenfranchise them because of the audacity of state leaders. It is not thew voter's fault that Florida leapt ahead. That was a Republican legislature who decided to move Florida up. And it was Democrats in Michigan who decided to move their primary date up. The voters had absolutely nothing to do with it. What did Howard Dean want the voters to do, stay home?

This has shown not just Democrats how inept Howard Dean is, but the nation as a whole. He was a clown in 2004, and we can see that, just four short years later, he still is a clown now.

Marcie