The Democratic Delimma In Michagan

Today is primary day in Michigan, but Barack Obama and John Edwards aren’t even on the ballots. Last November they pulled their names off the ballot in support of the Democratic National Committee’s decision to punish Michigan for having an early primary. The DNC also punished Florida which will hold it’s primary later this month, but for some reason Obama and Edwards choose to stay on the ballot there. This leaves a problem for Democratic voters in Michigan since the only major candidates on the ballot are Hillary Clinton, Dennis Kucinich, and Mike Gravel. They have come up with a few solutions to this dilemma. Former Michigan Sen. Don Riegle is suggesting people vote “uncommitted.” He feels that Clinton is trying to rig the election by staying on the ballot. “What happened in Michigan is not very different from what used to happen in the old Soviet Union,” Riegle said. “The Clinton machine manipulated the ballot. They don’t care how they win, only that they do. It’s wrong and people need to know that.” That is a pretty tough charge since she didn’t do anything illegal or wrong. She did not campaign in Michigan to support the decision of the DNC. In fact the only Democratic candidate to show up in Michigan was Kucinich. If the Democratic voters in Michigan feel disenfranchised they should blame their candidates and the DNC. It makes sense to vote “uncommitted” for Obama since he votes that way so often. Others have suggested Michigan Democrats should vote for Mitt Romney to keep the Republican vote up it the air. An article in the Daily Kos suggested, “We want Romney in, because the more Republican candidates we have fighting it out, trashing each other with negative ads and spending tons of money, the better it is for us. We want Mitt to stay in the race, and to do that, we need him to win in Michigan.” There is also the Ron Paul option for Democrats for the same reason as Romney, to further fractionalize the Republican ticket. So that is the options for the Democrats in Michigan. They can vote for or against Hillary, vote for a Republican, or waste their vote on Kucinich or Gravel. Thank you DNC for making things so fair and simple in this election.
Alan Cosgrove
Here is a video suggesting Michigan Democrats vote for Romney;