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Democrats face Michigan, Florida puzzle

Barack Obama

WASHINGTON: As Sentor Barack Obama appears poised to win the Democratic presidential nomination, the party faced the daunting task of dealing with two states stripped of their delegates and avoiding a rift that could hurt the party’s chance at the White House.

The party’s rules committee met on Saturday to decide how to divvy up Michigan and Florida delegates between Mr. Obama and rival Hillary Clinton. The states’ primaries were not included in the overall delegate count because they defied the national party by holding their nominating contests too early.

The committee’s decision is unlikely to fully satisfy anyone, but the party is seeking to avoid angering loyal Ms. Clinton supporters and alienating two states that could be crucial in the November election against Republican nominee-in-waiting John McCain.

The fate of Michigan’s 128 pledged delegates is the more complicated of the two situations. The state’s January 15 primary was not recognised by the national party, so Mr. Obama and other candidates took their names off the ballot. Ms. Clinton left her name on and won with 55 per cent of the vote to 40 per cent for “uncommitted.” The Clinton campaign has insisted that Mr. Obama is not entitled to any pledged delegates from Michigan. But Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said such an outcome is unacceptable to the campaign and “I don’t think is a position that people find terribly reasonable.” Mr. Plouffe said the Obama campaign was willing to give Ms. Clinton the edge in delegates from the two states, but they were not willing to accept the Clinton camp’s hard-line stance that all the 368 delegates should be fully seated in accordance to the January elections.

Several Democratic officials and committee members said a consensus seemed to be forming over how to divvy up the Florida delegates. Party rules call for stripping half the delegates of a state that violates regulations. — AP

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