Hillary disses Michigan

Looks like the Hillary Clinton campaign is determined to make every last mistake possible as the primary season winds down. Today we learn that:

Michigan Democratic leaders settled today on a plan to give presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton 69 delegates and Barack Obama 59 as a way to get the delegates seated at the national convention

. . .

The plan would shrink Clinton’s delegate edge in Michigan from 18 to 10 and allow the state’s 157 delegates and superdelegates to be seated at the convention.

Note that while this is not good news for Hillary (she loses 8 delegates), it's good news for Michigan Democrats. They have apparently realized that they made a mistake pushing their primary early, accepted the consequences, and are moving on. But their interests are now divergent from Hillary's interests. The goals of the people in Michigan are to have their delegates seated at the convention, unify behind the Democratic nominee so he can get started campaigning against McCain, and stop wasting their time on this. Supporting Hillary is no longer in their best interests. Not only is it not in their best interests, it's not in their interests at all. Why do they care about Hillary's campaign any more? They don't. It seems like Michigan Dems agree on this:

The 69-59 split was proposed last week by four prominent Michigan Democrats who have been working for months to find a way to get Michigan’s delegates seated at the Aug. 25-28 convention in Denver: U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger, U.S. Sen. Carl Levin and DNC member Debbie Dingell.

If there is a national representative of white working class voters in the heartland, it would be the president of the UAW. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick is Chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus and mother of the current Mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick. Debbie Dingell is married to John Dingell, Dean of the House of Representatives, and very close to the car companies. Carl Levin is the longest serving Senator in Michigan history. They represent just about every possible Democratic constituency in Michigan, with the exception of the Arab American community, and I'm guessing they all have strong connections with them. If the four of them have made a decision, the state of Michigan has made a decision. Game over.

But, according to Talking Points Memo, the Hillary campaign has not signed on:

"This proposal does not honor the 600,000 votes that were cast in Michigan's January primary. Those votes must be counted."

Guess what, folks. If those four people listed above agree that this is a good plan to have Michigan's delegates seated at the Democratic National Convention, damn well near all of those 600,000 people agree that this is a good plan to have Michigan's delegates seated at the Democratic National Convention. Those votes are now being counted.

The Obama campaign, on the other hand, is taking advantage of its frontrunner position to be diplomatic.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton said of the decision, “It is clear results in January won’t be used to allocate delegates, and we agree with that decision. We have been talking with Michigan leaders about this proposal and will continue to do so.”

That's something you're supposed to include in most statements to the press about anything involving sensitive negotiations: your own willingness to continue engaging in dialogue. Be nice, and people will be nice to you. Or at least pretend to be nice, and they will pretend to be nice to you. And then if an opportunity comes along when you actually can be nice, guess what? You're already halfway there.

This is a great illustration of why Hillary lost: she puts her interests above everybody else's, even when it is very clear that she has lost, and when it is very clear that her close allies and/or powerful Democrats have made a decision that is contrary to her wishes. The Hilary Clinton campaign does not speak for the voters in Michigan. Elected representatives and people with huge constituencies in Michigan speak for the people of Michigan.

I was born and raised in Michigan. My parents were born and raised in Michigan. Three of my grandparents were born and raised in Michigan. Most of my aunts and uncles and cousins were born and raised in Michigan. I think I have a clue how people in Michigan thinks on this kind of issue.

OK, all my fans in Michigan, back me up on this one.