Barack Obama Should Say No To FL & MI Re-votes

NYTimes:

There’s still no resolution to the question of what to do with the results from Florida and Michigan, but a few of the principals involved seem to be leaning toward some type of do-over.

On ABC’s “This Week,” Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, said officials were trying to hammer out some type of compromise short of letting this delegate divide go all the way to the convention.

(Just to recap, because Michigan and Florida moved their primaries ahead of what the national Democratic Party permitted, they have been stripped of their delegates. With the two Democratic candidates, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, dueling in a tight march delegate-by-delegate with Mr. Obama holding a lead, those delegates in the outlier states have become more and more precious.)

Ever since it became clear that Senator Clinton would win the Sunshine State on Jan. 29 — in a state where the candidates had agreed not to campaign — she has vowed to have those delegates seated. And their numbers aren’t insignificant, given that even her wins in big states like Ohio don’t push her ahead in the delegate tally.

Florida and Michigan broke the rules so they should paid the consequences. The only reason a do-over is even being considered is because Hillary Clinton's campaign wants it due to the fact that they think they can win both states. But if it wasn't for the fact that Hillary is still behind Barack Obama in delegates, despite being heavily favored to win the Democratic nominee just months ago, that she's even pushing this issue.

Of course it should be noted too that it's impossible for Clinton to take the lead in pledged delegates no matter what happens with Michigan and Florida. So no matter how you slice it, Obama will have the most pledged delegates at the convention and the Super Delegates aren't about to overturn the pledged delegate results. The Super Delegates are also smart enough to understand that Obama has long coattails, and Clinton doesn't. And I'm sure they're well aware that half the voters in the country of all voters in the United States still have an unfavorable view of Hillary Clinton. At the end of the day, despite what that idiot Howard Dean would have you think, a FL & MI re-do not only hurts the Democratic party's credibility as a whole, but it's a huge diss against Senator Obama.