My Kind of Town....

So it seems like huge chunks of the DNC are being moved to Chicago.

People familiar with the plan said that state party staffers paid for under Howard Dean's 50 State Program would be shifted to working for the presidential campaign, at least in targeted battleground states.

The move reflects Obama's desire to maintain an unusually streamlined campaign, as well as his swift and complete takeover of a Democratic Party that isn't always known for its unity.

One party, one message, far from the Washington bubble. I like it.

Obama Bans Lobbyist & PAC Donations to the DNC

Yesterday, Barack Obama and Chairman Dean announced a bold new policy for the Democratic National Committee. In line with the restrictions he has imposed on his own campaign, as the new leader of the Democratic Party Obama has new declared that special interest money is not welcome at the DNC.

There are two important and impressive factors to note in this decision:

1) Obama has quickly and decisively set his mark on the Democratic Party. Traditionally, the Presidential Nominee becomes the de facto leader of the party, and remains so either until defeat or through the Presidency. That Obama has moved so quickly after seizing the nomination to make a significant change within the DNC shows that he is completely ready to take charge. On the other hand, he is not making change just for the sake of it - he has also indicated that he is happy for Dean to remain as Chairman, something that makes a lot of sense given the synergies between Dean's 50-State strategy and Obama's own plan to compete in a much broader swathe of the country.

2) With this move, partly a symbolic sacrifice (lobyists only contribute a very small part of the DNC's funding) and partly real pain (PACs are large givers to the party) Obama has made it clear that his expects the Party to reflect his core message - a new kind of politics, strong ethical standards and a move away from Washington insiders. He has also innoculated himself against accusations of hypocracy later on - since the DNC will provide major support to the campaign, if he had not imposed this rule Republicans could have claimed he was having it both ways.

This is an impressive start. But remember, without lobbyist and PAC donations to rely on that only leaves Barack with one remaining source of funds. You. Don't let him down.

Just for the Record...

I think this proposal for how to resolve the Michigan delegate conundrum is reasonably fair and logical.

Both the Florida and Michigan delegates are impossible situations for the DNC - there simply is no way of resolving the problem that is fair to the voters of those states, to both remaining candidates, AND to the other states which did follow the rules from the outset.

And although there has been a lot of talk about supposed concerns over "disenfranchising" those voters who chose to participate in the beauty election primaries in these two states, it would be equally problematic (in my view) to then disenfranchise those people who chose not to participate in what they had been told was a non-binding election. The voter participation in both states was considerably lower than it has been in other states this cycle as a proportion of the population- we have to assume that this is at least in part because some people who would have otherwise voted believed the words of the party leadership when they insisted that this vote would not be valid.

Also, consider the fate of the Michigan voter who is not allowed to vote for his preferred candidate, even in the "beauty contest" race - only Clinton, Kucinich and Dodd were on the ballots there, leaving not only Obama voters but also Richardson, Edwards and Biden out in the cold.

It sucks - it really does. What about a full re-vote in both states. A clear and fair solution, right? Well, yes and no. First of all, there was a concerted campaign by Daily Kos in Michigan to persuade Democratic voters to vote in the Republican primary in order (ironically) to keep that race going for longer. This would prevent those people from then voting in a new Democratic primary.

What's more, this resolution of the problem would effectively turn these two states and their new elections into by far the most important races of the primary so far - thereby penalising each and every state that chose to play by the rules from the outset. Look down the line into the next cycle - in 4 years from now, doesn't this give each and every state an unbelievably strong incentive to break the party rules and set their primaries even earlier? If we're not careful we'll be chosing our next nominee before we've even managed to elect this one! This is precisely the outcome that Howard Dean, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were ALL trying to avoid when Dean proposed the penalties and the candidates agreed to support them.

I'm not saying that excluding the Michigan and Florida delegates from the Convention is in any way desirable - but I just don't see any solution at all that is fair to everyone. And I don't want to argue this from a narrow, pro-candidate position either - this is about the long term health of the party. When the Rules and Bylaws Committee meets on Saturday, they need to find a miraculous solution that will take all these factors into account, be acceptable to both campaigns, operate under a clear reading of the rules, and hopefully draw a close to the whole discussion so we can move on to fighting Republicans. I just can't think was that miracle solution might be!

Can you?