Every vote counts twice, it seems

The Clinton supporters were out in force to watch over the meeting of Democratic party elders who were deciding what to do about the screwed up voting in Florida and Michigan: "Inside a ballroom filled with suits who were looking for a 'dignified and high-minded resolution' to a problem threatening the Democratic Party, which should be in the driver's seat en route to the White House. Instead, it felt like they were preparing to throw one of the party's rock-star candidates under the bus... A civil war -- that's how it felt. Democrat against Democrat. Not long ago, they were united in the cause to wrest the White House from the Bush legacy, end the war, stop global warming, empower the middle class. But now many of them were so angry they said they planned to defect from their party for the first time if Hillary Rodham Clinton did not emerge as the nominee.
In a setback for Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential hopes, Democratic Party officials cut by more than half the delegate support she was hoping to receive from disputed primaries in Florida and Michigan. After an all-day meeting punctuated by applause and jeers from a raucous audience, the party's Rules and Bylaws Committee decided that the Florida and Michigan delegates could attend the Democratic National Convention in August but that each delegate would carry only half a vote. In addition, rival candidate Barack Obama came away with more Michigan delegates than the Clinton campaign believes he earned -- a sore point that Clinton aides said she might appeal all the way to the convention floor. That is a scenario that Democratic officials want to avoid. They have been hoping to settle the Michigan and Florida question in a way that ends the dispute, appeases all sides and unites the party for the general-election matchup with presumptive Republican nominee John McCain. Under the committee's ruling Saturday, Clinton picked up 19 more delegates than Obama in Florida and five more than him in Michigan. Superdelegates who can now attend the convention due to the panel's ruling boosted Clinton's margins a little further. Obama is now 66 delegates shy of clinching the nomination, something he may be able to accomplish in the next week. He has 2,052 delegates to Clinton's 1,877 1/2 , according to an Associated Press tally. A candidate now needs 2,118 delegates to win the nomination, 92 more than before the rules committee agreed to seat the Michigan and Florida delegates. Alice Huffman, a California member of the committee who backs Clinton, argued that Florida's Democrats should not be blamed for the early primary date. The date was set by the Republican governor and Legislature, she said.