Spin Cycle

Watching the Democratic primary is kind of like a merry-go-round, where the same issues keep circling around again and again.

This week, it's back to looking at Clinton's chances of getting the Florida and Michigan delegations seated, and two on-line looks at the Credentials Committee which will decide who gets seated at the convention reach a similar conclusion: Hillary doesn't have a lot to be hopeful about.

Both make good companions to the piece by Wayne Barrett, flagged earlier, which gives the history of the Michigan and Florida exclusions and argues that it was a bad and unnecessary decision in the first place. And they're pegged to Hillary's comments over the weekend that she's still focused on taking the seating issue all the way to the convention.

This article at TPM looks at the process, and says that Clinton doesn't look likely to be able to marshal the kind of majority either in the Credentials Committee or on the convention floor necessary to seat the delegations.

And this article at Politico adds some numbers to that analysis, concluding that under the committee formula Obama currently controls more state seats 65-56 with 23 still to be decided, and the balance of power is likely to be held by 25 members named by Howard Dean -- who, so far, has taken the position that unless the rules are enforced, the party won't be able to control its own primary calendar.

Together, the articles support the notion that the Clinton campaign's endless insistence that it will fight to the end for Florida and Michigan is motivated by a desire to convince donors and voters that she's in the race till the end, and a desire to curry favor with voters from those two states in the increasingly unlikely event that some plan for a re-vote is agreed upon.

Not, in other words, by any real belief they can win a fight at the convention.

And by the way: For those not up on their state animals, that's a Michigan wolverine on the right, keeping the Florida gator company.