Michigan Democratic Party Stars in ‘The Forgotten Primary’ - Political Opinion

Michigan Democrats will have the historic opportunity to play a key role in determining who the Democratic Candidate for President will be in 2008 by voting in the Michigan Democratic Presidential Primary on January 15, 2008. Or at least that is what the Michigan Democrat Party would like you to believe.

It is indeed a historic primary from the point of view that two of the major candidates will not even be on the ballot. The Democratic ballot will have 6 choices:

Hillary Clinton
Christopher Dodd
Mike Gravel
Dennis Kucinich
Uncommitted
Write-in

Of course you may never have heard of candidates ‘Uncommitted’ and ‘Write-in’ or know what their policies are but due to some tinkering in the politics of setting the date for the primary the voters now have these extra choices instead of names like Obama and Edwards.

Its also not as if ‘Write-in” means write in the name of your candidate, as under state law you cannot write in the names of Obama or Edwards and have the votes counted as valid.

Voters for the missing candidates are being urged to indicate Uncommitted as their choice. This will mean that delegates will then be able to make their own minds up when it comes to voting at the National Convention leaving behind the principle of democracy for the masses and giving the power to the delegates personal politics. This may or may not be a bad thing as they are supposedly better informed politically than the average voter but it does seem a little un-American.

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“On 1 December 2007, the DNC has determined that the date of Michigan’s 15 January 2008 primary violates party rules and has decided to strip the state of its delegation. The determination was made official on 5 January 2008. Michigan had 128 pledged delegate votes (83 district, 28 at-large, and 17 PLEO) and 28 unpledged delegate votes (17 unpledged DNC members, 1 Governor, 2 Democratic U.S. Senators, 6 Democratic U.S. House Members, and 2 add-ons). Total delegate votes changed from 156 to 0.”

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