Florigan, Begin Again

What happened to following rules? Without rules, we have no civilization, we have no order, we have chaos and anarchy. Once we create rules, we need to follow them or they lose their worth. As I sit and watch the returns from the last Presidential primary, I’m reminded of the importance of rules.

Two states – Florida and Michigan – decided that they didn’t want Iowa and New Hampshire to get all the attention of the first caucus and primary, so they moved their primaries ahead on the calendar. The Republican and Democratic leaders told them that they were not to have a primary before Super Tuesday (Feb. 5th). Both ignored the leadership and had their primaries anyway.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but when you blatantly break the rules, you are not allowed to whine about the consequences of those actions. As soon as Florida and Michigan decided to move their primaries ahead of Super Tuesday, the Republican committee penalized them by removing half their delegates. (This was not good news for Rudy Giuliani, who made the biggest bone-head move in political history by ignoring all the caucuses and primaries and putting everything on Florida.)

The Democrats said that neither state could have any delegates at all because of breaking the rules. Almost immediately, one candidate (cough, Clinton, cough) started whining about it. Why is that? Well, in Florida, all the major candidates had agreed not to campaign. Of course, it was way too late for Hillary to pull her TV commercials, and that public appearance? Oh, that was scheduled way in advance and she had to show up there on Election Day. So of course, she won the majority in Florida.

Then there was Michigan. Obama and Edwards agreed to remove themselves from the ballot completely, but apparently the Clintons didn’t get that memo. (Make no mistake, it is “the Clintons.” As much as they want to say that the McCain campaign is a “third Bush term,” they fail to mention that Hillary’s campaign is definitely a third term of the Clinton administration.) So Hillary got over 50% of the vote, even though “uncommitted” almost beat her. That would have been really funny.

As if on cue, she started talking about the poor voters being “disenfranchised.” In other words, I want those votes! I earned them by stabbing my fellow candidates in the back, and they’re mine! Mine, mine, mine! So in order to get them, I’m going to blame the Democratic leadership for not allowing these poor people to have their votes counted. Nice, Hillary (and Bill). Well played.

So, predictably, the Democratic leadership caved in and allowed Florida and Michigan to have half of their delegates. In other words, they changed the rules in the middle of the game. Didn’t you hate it when the kid who was losing tried to do that? I remember that. I always hit the baseball over the fence easily, so they made up a new “rule” just for me. Not only did I have to hit the ball over the fence, I also had to hit it over the street on the other side of the fence for it to count as a home run. Over the fence was just a double. (Oh, and I had to climb the fence and retrieve the ball, too.)

That’s what this reminds me of. The whiny kid isn’t good enough to win in an even match, so he/she changes the rules in the middle of the game. So now we are teaching our children that this is acceptable behavior. If you’re not good enough, just bitch and moan about it and they’ll change the rules so you can win. If it works for the Presidential candidates, why not for you too?

Of course, in this particular case, Karma won out, because Hillary didn’t win even with the extra votes from Florida and Michigan, so maybe there is a lesson there for the kids. If you’re not good enough to win on your own, and you whine about it and get the rules changed, that still doesn’t mean you are going to win. You’ll look even more pathetic as a whiny loser. So if you’re going to lose anyway, lose with a little dignity and you’ll earn some respect.