Michigan Pullout--What's the damage?

[bain_sidhe]

Poll question: Michigan Pullout--What's the damage?

(note: edited for stupid typo!)

I've been posting, and some news stories have noted, that the candidates pulling their names off the ballots might put Michigan's electoral votes at risk in the general election. But is that true? I know how I feel... As I said in one of my posts, I understand the "no campaigning" and the taking away of delegates, really I do. The National party has to enforce its rules. Not campaigning is a passive affirmation (by the candidates) of the rules.

But the candidates who took their names off the ballot *actively* slapped Michigan voters in the face in a pure pander to Iowa and New Hampshire voters. They essentially said "out loud and in our faces" that Iowa and New Hampshire voters are *more important* to them than Michigan voters. That doesn't sit well with me, and I *think*, not with many people here.

Michigan is purple, nearly 50-50, in fact (Kerry only won it with 51%), and *I* think it could definitely make a difference in who wins the state. While I suspect die-hard Democrats will hold their noses and vote for the Dem nominee even if it is one who took their name off, I also think that a lot of those die-hards won't work as hard for a candidate that slapped them in the face.

And a lot of swing voters don't consider themselves "married" to any particular party, but they ARE hurting--Michigan's economy really *is* in dire straits--and being slapped in the face by those candidates on top of it *will* have an effect on their enthusiasm for the candidate, if it's one of the slappers. They may not vote for the republicon, but they're more likely to just stay home... and that has consequences down-ballot as well.

As for me, I am, at the moment, disinclined to donate or work for the GE campaign of any of the slappers. Yeah, I'll vote for them, and I may do some down-ballot volunteering and donating, but the slappers have lost my money and my energy.

Someone asked, in reply to that post, how widespread my own feelings might be among Michigan voters, and I don't know, so I thought I'd ask other Michigan voters who might hang out here.

(Note, this is on the honor system, there's no way to enforce it, but if you can't vote in Michigan, please don't vote in the poll. And if you're a Michigan voter and do vote in the poll, please leave a note below so we can at least compare totals.)

As of today (I understand your feelings might change over time, but this is about how you feel right now)... If the eventual Democratic nominee is one of the candidates who pulled their name off the ballot (and I include Kucinich here, because he *tried* to do so, he acted "with intent to slap," even though he screwed up), will you:

[bain_sidhe]

1. Weird...

I just got a "notice" that my poll wasn't sucessful because I had another window open (I was copying my previous post on the issue), but here it is.

Weird.

[bellasgrams]

2. Who took their name off? n/t

[bain_sidhe]

4. Dunno

somebody voted for "vote, donate and volunteer" but there's no way of telling if it was a Michigan voter, if they don't leave their name.

[gateley]

3. I'm not in Michigan and I didn't vote, I promise! You bring up a viewpoint

I hadn't considered - how this could be viewed by the Michiganders (is that right?) and how it could be interpreted as saying, as you put it, "that Iowa and New Hampshire voters are *more important* to them than Michigan voters."

I have no comment or opinion - just wanted to thank you for sharing your side.

[bain_sidhe]

5. Yeah,

I'm more angry about the pull-outs than about the threat not to seat our delegates OR the candidates not campaigning. I understand that's a consequence of our "civil disobedience" - but pulling their names off the ballot was just an unecessary insult to curry favor with Iowa and New Hampshire, IMHO.

[gateley]

8. I'm leaning toward your view on this one. If they made a united statement

saying they were going to follow the party guidelines and delay fund raising and campaigning there, that would have gotten the message across.

But don't shoot yourselves in the foot because of your anger. Try to objectively determine who you think is the best candidate for YOU and go with that because you'll win in the long term. Don't "settle" due to campaign tactics -- campaigning results in actions that really aren't indicative of how goodl a particular candidate would be as President.

[bain_sidhe]

10. They did that

If they made a united statement saying they were going to follow the party guidelines and delay fund raising and campaigning there, that would have gotten the message across.

They did that, and I accepted that as part of the "price."

As far as "shooting myself in the foot" - I'm trying not to, but day-um, this was a bad move for those guys. Now I find myself hoping Hillary *does* get the nom, just so I don't have to worry about it...

(I was leaning toward Edwards, but I really hadn't decided on any of them yet.)

[gateley]

11. It would piss me off, too but not enough to hope that Hillary gets the nom! :) nt

[rucky]

6. If you look even further ahead to the next election cycle...

it's going to be a good thing. all this has done is expose the inherent flaws in the primary process that we have lived with for years. now it seems to have come to a head, and even though it won't be resolved this time, we'll have four years to figure out a better way to do this.

[bain_sidhe]

7. I agree

I posted a thread (that sank like a stone, of course, as most of mine do) that the early primary was like the old-style sit ins... you know there will be consequences, but if it draws the attention you need to your cause, it's worth it.

[gateley]

9. Excellent point, Rucky. nt

[bain_sidhe]

12. LOL! Well

your guy pulled out (I think. There seems to be some confusion about that), or I'd consider him. He made sense in a lot of the debates, IMHO.

**edit--ACK! This was supposed to be a reply to gateley!**

[bain_sidhe]

13. Bumping for the weekend crowd

There doesn't seem to be a lot of interest in this poll, but I thought I'd give it a bump for those who didn't see it last night. If it sinks again, so be it. I've already got more responses than I usually do to my posts. ;-)