All Blog Posts from Horserace

If you haven’t been hiding in a cave somewhere over the past couple of weeks, you’ve likely seen some type of promotion for HBO’s upcoming movie, “Recount,” which tackles some of the behind-the-scenes drama of the 2000 Florida recount.

Aside from the inevitable grumbling about the accuracy of the film and how it portrary certain players, the timing of it – the film debuts Sunday night -- couldn’t be more potentially important for the Democratic primary contest. The party whose mantra in Florida was “every vote counts” finds itself in a position of debating whether any votes in that state, along with Michigan, should count at all when it comes to selecting their nominee.

That question will be brought up at a meeting of the DNC Rules and Bylaws committee next weekend where Hillary Clinton’s campaign can be expected to make an argument similar to that Democrats made in 2000. Regardless of what settlement the party finally comes to on Florida and Michigan, it’s almost certain not to help Clinton win the nomination. But all this comes together to point out some of the more bizarre democratic aspects of the Democratic nominating system.

Take Texas, for example, where one person effectively gets two votes. Delegates to the convention were selected in both a primary and in caucuses held on the same day. While Clinton won the primary, Obama won more delegates overall, thanks mostly to the caucuses. But here’s the catch – in order to participate in the caucuses, voters had to have cast a vote in the primary, meaning their “votes” counted twice in the nominating process. Then there’s the delegate allocation system in the party that gives Puerto Rico more delegates to the national convention (55) than Kentucky (51) or Oregon (52). And that’s not even addressing the differences between caucuses and primaries as tools of democracy. They ought to make a movie about that.

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader, whose very name can rile up Democrats still stinging from Al Gore's narrow loss in the 2000 election, is flirting with what would be his third major run for the presidency. News reports indicate he's filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission and he's also launched a new Web site, NaderExplore08.org.

The site's launch comes on the same day as Democrat John Edwards' exit from the presidential race. Nader had kind words for Edwards previously, praising his progressive stance on a number of issues and his willingness to challenge corporate interests.

Nader's committee is asking for initial contributions of $300, for which the donor will receive DVDs of Michael Moore's documentary "Sicko," a documentary about Nader, "An Unreasonable Man," along with three books. A posting on the site says the exploratory committee hopes to enlist the support of 1,000 people in each congressional district.

"Maybe we’re wrong," the site's main page says. "Maybe the Democrats and Republicans will nominate Presidential candidates this year who will stand up against the war profiteers, the nuclear industry, the credit card industry, the corporate criminals, big oil, and the drug and health insurance industries. We doubt it."

Nader's latest flirtation with a run is likely to be greeting with eye rolls from the many Democrats who believe that his presence on the Florida ballot in 2000 prevented Al Gore from overtaking George W. Bush in the state and, therefore, the electoral vote. They can take solace, however, in the fact that Nader's 2004 bid had nowhere near the following of his previous try, and he was largely a nonfactor in that race.