Q & A: Florida and Michigan Delegates
Extract from The New York Times Political Blog
By Kate Phillips and Katharine Q. Seelye
Related Michigan and Florida Q & A

Q: Now, Mrs. Clinton may have won Michigan, but Mr. Obama’s name wasn’t even on the ballot. So how does the committee divide up the delegates from Michigan?

A: Can of worms! Mr. Obama’s name wasn’t on the ballot because he took it off, as did most of the other Democrats. They were under pressure from the four states that had permission to go early (Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada). All were trailing Mrs. Clinton at the time and didn’t want to do anything to upset those early states, especially Iowa. Remember, back then, Mrs. Clinton supposedly had a lock on the nomination. So she as the front-runner stayed on (Hey, anything can happen in politics).

As for how to divvy up Michigan’s delegates, that’s one of the thornier issues at hand. Some people say that Mr. Obama should get about 40 percent of the delegates because that’s the proportion who voted for "uncommitted," and his supporters were whipping up people to vote for "uncommitted." The Clinton camp, of course, ideally wants him to get zero, but that won’t fly, so they are likely to give him at least some portion, if not all, of the votes for "uncommitted." Mrs. Clinton won 55 percent of the vote.