Voters Lose Obama Wins

After watching the DNC Rules Committee proceedings I have come to the conclusion that Sen Obama will win in Florida and Michigan but the voters will lose. On behalf of the Obama Campaign, Florida Congressman Robert Wexler told the committee Obama's Campaign was prepared to seat half of the delegation. When asked if the Obama Campaign was willing to seat the full delegation like a lot of Floridian voters demand, Sen Wexler was evasive and told the committee this was all their fault and now they must follow the rules and allow only half. After receiving a negative reaction from the audience Congressman Wexler tried to spin his answer but never did directly answer the question. The Committee inferred by his non answer that the Obama Campaign would reject the seating of the full delegation, thereby letting every vote count.

There is nothing illegal with Obama's position. He is simply using the rules to his benefit. He learned that playing strictly by the rules can be to your benefit, Chicago Politics 101. If you are not familiar with Chicago Style Politics CNN ran a story detailing how an Incumbent running for re-election and other candidates can actually be removed from the ballot, leaving one candidate running unopposed.

"In his first race for office, seeking a state Senate seat on Chicago's gritty South Side in 1996, Obama effectively used election rules to eliminate his Democratic competition.

As a community organizer, he had helped register thousands of voters. But when it came time to run for office, he employed Chicago rules to invalidate the voting petition signatures of three of his challengers.

The move denied each of them, including incumbent Alice Palmer, a longtime Chicago activist, a place on the ballot. It cleared the way for Obama to run unopposed on the Democratic ticket in a heavily Democrat district.

"That was Chicago politics," said John Kass, a veteran Chicago Tribune columnist. "Knock out your opposition, challenge their petitions, destroy your enemy, right? It is how Barack Obama destroyed his enemies back in 1996 that conflicts with his message today. He may have gotten his start registering thousands of voters. But in that first race, he made sure voters had just one choice."

Obama's challenge was perfectly legal, said Jay Stewart of the Chicago's Better Government Association. Although records of the challenges are no longer on file for review with the election board, Stewart said Obama is not the only politician to resort to petition challenges to eliminate the competition.

"He came from Chicago politics," Stewart said. "Politics ain't beanbag, as they say in Chicago. You play with your elbows up, and you're pretty tough and ruthless when you have to be. Sen. Obama felt that's what was necessary at the time, that's what he did. Does it fit in with the rhetoric now? Perhaps not." CNN May 30, 2008

Fours before campaign lawyers swarmed into Florida in the 2000 election, a very similar scene took place in Chicago. Using his army of lawyers Obama successfully wiped out the competition by using registration technicalities. Like counting the hanging shads in Florida, Obama was very successful and gave the Chicago voters only one person to vote for, Barrack Obama.

Knowing this the DNC Rules Committee must question how far is Obama willing to go to get his way in Florida and Michigan. Will he fracture the party forever? While he brags about a new kind of politics and uniting the country it is clear the change in politics he is pandering is a change to Chicago Politics Nationwide.