The new number is 2117

According to Democratic Convention Watch, the result of today's decision by the Democratic Party's Rules and Bylaws Committee (RBC), which seated Florida and Michigan's delegates with half a vote each, means that the new magic number of delegates is 2,117. Obama is currently 65 short of that figure; Clinton is 240.5 away.

Plenty of smart folks have been weighing in on the RBC's decision, but one point that seems to be largely overlooked is why the party chose to penalize Michigan and Florida in the first place. Or rather, why anyone ever punishes anyone. Some punishments are surely for revenge, but this doesn't strike me as that sort of situation. The point of this punishment was deterrence. The party (both parties, actually) were protecting Iowa and New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation status and the general order of things as it has emerged over the past four decades. Whether that order is worth protecting is besides the point; the national parties have the right to establish a system and members of those parties, should they have problems with the system, have plenty of avenues to change it or protest it. Michigan and Florida chose to gamble. They wanted to go earlier than the national parties wanted them to, knowing full well they could face a serious sanction for doing so.

So why did the national parties punish them? To deter other states from following their path. Imagine that the Democratic Party had decided to fully reinstate those states' delegates based on the vote allocation from January, as the Clinton campaign had urged. What would deter other states in 2012 from doing the exact same thing that Michigan and Florida did this year? Nothing. A lot of noise, but ultimately, no penalty. 2012 would be chaos. State after state would leapfrog earlier and earlier, and the first primary of 2012 would be next month. Okay, maybe some chaos wouldn't be the worse thing to hit this system, but the national parties certainly have the right to deter such chaos.

Meanwhile, Hillary should be proud of the sorts of voters she's mobilized this year:

As the votes on the agreements were taken, one woman, wearing a blue “Team Hillary” shirt, shoved a man in a suit and tie wearing a small Obama button on his lapel. Another woman in a white Clinton shirt hung her head in her hands.

“That was a crime!” a man shouted.

“McCain in 08! McCain in 08!” a woman yelled from the back of the room. “No-bama! No-bama!”

McCain in 08. There's a good Democrat for ya.

1908

Today's Rocky Mountain News has some entertaining stories and photos from the 1908 Democratic National Convention, which was held, of course, in Denver. One curious story was that among the convention attendees was Alice Roosevelt Longworth, the daughter of Republican President Teddy Roosevelt and the future wife of Rep. Nicholas Longworth (R-OH). Alice apparently came as a guest of William Jennings Bryan's daughter, Ruth. The Rocky correctly notes that this would be much like Jenna Bush attending this year's Democratic convention as a guest of Chelsea Clinton. Weird.

Another thing I found odd was this photo of Bryan (left), taken outside the Denver Democratic Club. He's dressed a wee bit warm for Denver in July, isn't he? Shouldn't that have tipped people off that there was something wrong with the prospective nominee? No? Okay, how about his previous two general election losses? Still no?

Okay, how about his uncanny resemblance to Denver madame Mattie Silks, operator of the brothel at 20th and Market streets?

Don't ask, don't tell.

More on the Obama caucus advantage

Idaho had a primary on Tuesday, mostly to nominate some people for down-ballot races. But Obama and Clinton were on the ballot, as well. Obama bested Clinton there 56-38, which is a pretty resounding win, unless you note that he beat her 80-17 in the February 5th caucus, at which delegates were assigned.

Endgame?

I'm guessing that Clinton will win in Puerto Rico this weekend, but Obama will probably take Montana and South Dakota next Tuesday. Just making some blind guesses about the percentages using Slate's delegate calculator, I see Obama picking up around 35 delegates between these three contests. As of today, he's only 45 short of a majority. This may be over soon.

I recognize, of course, that this math may change later this week, depending on how the Democratic Party's Rules and Bylaws Committee rules on Michigan and Florida. But it still seems like the end is in sight.

CO Dem party chair endorses Obama

So much for neutrality. Pat Waak's move should rankle roughly a third of the state delegation. This rather changes the tenor of Saturday's meeting.

Whither Arnie?

When did Schwarzenegger's approval rating drop to 37%? What happened?