March 7, 2008 12:00PM

The Political Playground Needs New Rules

By Alexis Glick

It’s the end of the week and I’m fired up. Fortunately for me — and probably unfortunately for you — I have to do some venting!

What is the Democratic Party thinking? Who in their right mind would think that, in one of the closest contests in history, we should do a “redo” in Michigan and Florida? I understand that this contest on the Democratic side is the tightest that history’s probably ever seen, but I don’t like revisionism. Is that a word? We wouldn’t be discussing the delegates in Florida or Michigan if Senator Clinton hadn’t won three important states this past Tuesday.

I see several problems with this call to action on the part of two states (which, may I remind you, moved their primaries up and were penalized by the DNC for doing so months ago). If they were so concerned about their voice and voters being heard, then why didn’t we hear more about it before those contests? It’s too convenient to now say their voice is not being heard. It’s also insulting and undermining the DNC and the quality of the two candidates at play. Perhaps the DNC made the wrong decision from the start to penalize them. I don’t know, but maybe someone should look at the rules and make an effort to clean up this mess of a system that so few understand.

Several months I ago, I interviewed former Tennessee congressman and Fox News contributor Harold Ford about this very issue. He, too, said that electoral process on the Democratic side is too difficult to interpret. Who could possibly remember or understand the state-by-state count depending on county and % votes in those counties and how the delegates are handed out? Politics shouldn’t be this difficult.

Plus – I don’t know about you, but is now the time to be fighting about Florida and Michigan when McCain is the clear nominee for the Republican Party? The Democratic Party needs to look itself in the eye and make a decision. If they want to win, then they need to unite, not divide among their constituency. Yes, we have two excellent candidates on the Democratic side and this race couldn’t be more exciting – but if we continue to go down this path of finger-pointing and downright negativity toward one another, the Democrats will lose the election. All Senator McCain needs to do is sit back and watch this happen.

Today, I read stories about the name-calling between the Clinton and Obama staff and the Canadian Prime Minister questioning the integrity of the candidates on NAFTA and I’m angry. This is not what we want to see, nor is what we need. This economy is not doing well; people are losing their jobs and people are reading negative headlines every day. This past Tuesday, Super Tuesday Part II, was exciting and surprising. Leave it at that. The race continues. Competition on issues and a national dialogue about the issues is tremendous… but don’t become so competitive with one another that you forget why you are here. No one likes mudslinging. Least of all, me!