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The art of compromise

James Forsyth

Friday, 30th May 2008

This Saturday, the Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee will meet to try and find a compromise for what to do about Michigan and Florida’s delegates. To recap, Michigan and Florida moved their primaries up before the date on which the DNC allowed them to be held. The DNC responded to this violation of its rules by stripping both states of their delegates. However, both primaries went ahead but in Michigan Senator Obama, in deference to the party’s rules, took his name off the ballot.

Hillary Clinton ‘won’ both primaries and her campaign want their delegates seated in full. That’s not going to happen, though. Chuck Todd, NBC’s political guru, runs through the likely compromises and finds that they will see Hillary bag a net gain of 14.5 or 28 delegates. This would probably leave Obama needing 15 or 19.5 super-delegates to wrap up the nomination once the final contests are over.

The dilemma for the Obama supporters on the Rules Committee is how much ground to give. The nightmare for them is that Hillary continues with her demands that Michigan and Florida be seated all the way to the convention. So, it would be wise for Obama’s representatives to cede enough ground that Hillary can claim some kind of vindication.