Let's face it - it's unfair, undemocratic and quite preposterous for the Democratic party to select a candidate for president without including voters from every state in the union. Now that it seems unlikely that either Florida or Michigan will have a revote for the presidential primary, the Democratic National Committee needs to move forward with a decision that empowers those states' voters without undermining DNC Rules and Bylaws and the state courts that have gotten involved in DNC's decision to strip those two states of their delegates.

It's likely that no matter what the DNC does at this point they won't please everyone, but since we're seeing an unprecedented response from Democratic voters this year the DNC needs to move forward quickly to ride the wave of public engagement this primary has already engendered.

Let's face it - it's unfair, undemocratic and quite preposterous for the Democratic  party to select a candidate for president without including voters from every state in the union. Now that it seems unlikely that either Florida or Michigan will have a revote for the presidential primary, the Democratic National Committee needs to move forward with a decision that empowers those states' voters without undermining DNC Rules and Bylaws and the state courts that have gotten involved in DNC's decision to strip those two states of their delegates. It's likely that no matter what the DNC does at this point they won't please everyone, but since we're seeing an unprecedented response from Democratic voters this year the DNC needs to move forward quickly to ride the wave of public engagement this primary has already engendered.  
A productive way for the DNC to validate rank-and-file voters is to find a reasonable way to reinstate their pledged delegates without seating any of those two states' superdelegates. Superdelegates are supposed to be experienced party leaders with the vision and judgment to do what is best for the Democratic party, even when it means overturning the will of the voters. Florida and Michigan's supers could have used their "superior judgment and vision" to get their states to comply with the primary plan that had already been agreed to by the DNC and their states. Yet those supers were either supportive of, or chose not to reject, the decisions to move up their states' primaries which led to the dilemma the Democratic party now faces. They may have figured their states could best influence the primary by shaping early perception of the candidates, even if it meant forfeiting their delegates. Their poor judgment last year and now their blaming of the DNC in a refusal to acknowledge their key role for this fiasco indicates they lack the vision and leadership skills required of superdelegates. To send a strong message that prevents future line-jumping by other states, the DNC is right to penalize the supers of these two states by refusing to seat them at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

The diary below was originally posted in my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal on May 11th.

I was an avid reader of Bill James' annual Baseball Abstract while growing up in the 1980s. As both a nerd and baseball fanatic, his methodical statistical analysis and incisive prose influenced me almost as much as listening to the Beatles. Perhaps the most memorable essay of James' career was in his 1983 abstract when he wrote about, "The Law of Competitive Balance." Twenty-three years ago I copied words of wisdom from that essay into the spiral notebook I was supposed to use for algebra:

"The Law of Competitive Balance: There develop over time separate and unequal strategies adopted by winners and losers; the balance of those strategies favors the losers, and thus serves constantly to narrow the difference between the two."

This is an idea off the top of my head. Everyone complains about how "The Democrats" don't represent us adequately, ignoring that WE are "The Democrats" as much as "they" are. But our elected officials do NOT always reflect our views.

But can we train them?

That is my interpretation of what Dean says in his email today...and I, for one, am willing to join in.

The Republicans are certainly not down for the count yet. But they are down. They are on the floor whining about how unfair the Democrats are because we are trying to hold them accountable for their failure against terrorism, the failure of their Iraq policies, the failure of their response to Katrina, and their shameful corruption. They are down on the ground hoping we will give them a chance to recover so they can counter attack.

Howard Dean just announced that the 2006 DNC Spring Meeting will be held in New Orleans.  An excerpt from the press release:

"Today I am pleased to announce the Democratic Party's small effort to help rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region. I look forward to joining Democrats from all across the country in a revitalized New Orleans for the 2006 DNC Spring Meeting.

"Democrats are committed to rebuilding the Gulf Coast, and to rebuilding America's sense of community. Our nation was founded on the notion that we have a responsibility to each other, a shared investment in one another, and the belief that we should leave no one behind. The American people are heroes for coming together the way they did after Hurricane Katrina, and being extraordinarily generous in a time of crisis. We are honored to be a part of that. Together, America can do better."

I think it's a great idea, though I'm somewhat uncomfortable with the turf wars between the RNC and DNC over the (still soggy) soil of New Orleans (see RNC, 2008 here).

More below the flip.