Why was there no protest over the GOP with FL and MI?

[Erc]

The Republican primaries still mattered, to both the campaigns and the media---they were hard-fought battles that, in the case of FL, decided the outcome of the nomination.

On the Democratic side, by stripping all of the delegates (and forcing both campaigns not to work there, even to the point of removing Obama's name from the ballot), it was never actually a contest.  If only half had been stripped, we could debate all we want to about whether that's fair or not, but the result (whichever way one goes) would make some sense.  Here, we're left with either stripping them of all representation (a bit extreme), or seating them as they are after no campaigning in the state (and with the possibility of a lot of the 'Uncommitted' MI delegation going to Clinton), which is hardly representative either.

In the end, though, as has been pointed out...it only matters because the delegate count matters for the Democrats.  Had the Republicans fought out to the convention, there would have been a fight about seating the MI delegation, for example.  And, in the end, now that McCain's won, all the delegations will probably be seated fully.


I am a little bit miffed that MI & FL are effectively getting rewarded for their intransigence---they get to have a say anyway (and a much, much larger say than they would have had had they had their primaries on Feb 5), despite breaking the rules.  And, given the rigamarole involved in all of this, it may be impossible to enforce these sorts of penalties in future years...and the process will move into December.