Recreate ’68

The Democratic National Committee’s Rules Committee decided today, following a televised hearing, to seat the Florida and Michigan delegations at the party’s August convention, but give them all a half vote apiece. This was construed as a defeat for Hillary Clinton, who gained delegates but, pundits say, not enough. Later, it was reported that the Obama campaign is negotiating with Hillary to give her a cabinet-level position supervising health care reform if she withdraws from the race. Maybe I should have titled this post “Recreate ’93;” I can think of some things more off-putting to voters than another run at Hillarycare, but not many.

Clinton supporters demonstrated outside the DNC; this was pretty typical:

Quite a few Clinton supporters are threatening to defect to McCain in the general election. Not many will, but not many would have to for a few swing states to go red. Best of all, for us Republicans, is the report that Hillary is preserving her options:

“Mrs. Clinton has instructed me to reserve her rights to take this to the credentials committee,” [Harold] Ickes said before the final vote, raising the specter of a fight until that committee meets, at the end of July. Others say the fight could go all the way to the convention in Denver.

What we’d really like to see is a credentials battle over the Florida and Michigan delegations at the Democratic convention, complete with demonstrations, walkouts, and chaos in the streets. That’s probably too much to hope for, but for Obama to announce that he’s putting Hillary in charge of health care is a close second.

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