Strange stuff: Puerto Rico will have more delegates than 27 actual states

From Daily Kos:

"I'm really confused as to why on Earth the DNC would create a system that gives a non-state like Puerto Rico more delegates to the party convention than more than half of our states?

Delegates
Puerto Rico: 63
Alabama: 60
Connecticut: 60
Kentucky: 60
Iowa: 57
South Carolina: 54
Oklahoma: 48
Arkansas: 47
Kansas: 41
Mississippi: 41
DC 39
West Virginia: 39
New Mexico: 38
Nevada: 34
Rhode Island: 33
Maine: 32
Nebraska: 31
New Hampshire: 30
Hawaii: 29
Utah: 29
Montana: 25
Delaware: 23
Idaho: 23
South Dakota: 23
Vermont: 23
North Dakota: 21
Alaska: 18
Wyoming: 18

That's 27 states that have fewer delegates than Puerto Rico does, even though Puerto Rico is not a state. Even if apportioned by population, Kentucky, South Carolina, and Alabama are larger than Puerto Rico. And, to top it all off, Puerto Rico doesn't even have Democratic and Republican parties on the island running for and holding political offices."

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/5/21/114532/130/44/519661

It's not a state. It doesn't deserve such status.

Another fucked up piece of garbage that needs to be fixed after this primary is over.

make it a state or give it independence already. None of this half-cooked colony business.

No more half baked solutions.

PR either comes on board as a state or stands on it's own as an independent nation.

count those who live in foreign countries.

statehood.

IF you were born in Puerto Rico, you CANNOT run for president of the United States.

Yes, Puerto Ricans are US Citizens. And somebody born there could, in fact, be President.

Barry Goldwater was born in the Territory of Arizona -

There is no case law precedent that would conclusively support your argument that a person born in Puerto Rico could be elected President.

As for degrees of citizenship, there are, unfortunately, de facto degrees of citizenship. For instance, unlike US citizens born within the US, Puerto Rico's residents pay no income tax.

Move to PR, and you won't pay income tax either.

If that were the case, Americans would be moving to Puerto Rico in droves.

1. Doing business with the US government,
2. A Federal employee,
3. Sending funds to the US,
4. Working for an American business that pays Federal taxes (I believe, not sure on this one)

Then you pay PR taxes and not Federal taxes. On the other hand, as a PR resident you are not eligible for SSI, and the island's Medicare/Medicaid funding is 15% of what it would be as a state.

The reason people aren't moving to PR would be:

1. The language,
2. The culture
3. The economy
4. The benefits.

The Supreme Court has never issued a definitive ruling. But nobody makes a serious legal case that Barry Goldwater was ineligible to be President, or that John McCain is ineligible.

Both were US citizens at birth, as are Puerto Ricans.

seems fair if they have no vote in the GE

in a territory. Once we move to the mainland, we get the only right that we don't have while living in PR- voting for the President.

is for Puerto Rico to become a state BEFORE they do so.

That's how Barry Goldwater was eligible.

Admittedly, that is the one aspect of US citizenship that Puerto Ricans do not currently have.

that's the most absurd argument I ever heard.

Are you claiming that Goldwater's citizenship status somehow changed when Arizona was added to the Union? That he somehow became a "natural-born citizen" at the age of 3?

The Panama Canal zone has never become a state, and yet John McCain is qualified to be President.

who were in Panama. You can be born on the moon, but if a parent is a US citizen, you are too...........

presidents have to be natural born. Territories I'm not sure about, but foreign countries and extraterrestrial areas are definitely out.

you need to change the size!

just like you do.

was that you in that Norman Rockwell painting?

:smoke:

Well, no, but I've always enjoyed the Four Freedoms, and someone was pissing on town meetings the other day, so I thought I'd pay a little homage to a fine tradition. :)

Yet another weird thing about the primary process that no one seems to have noticed until this year.

a bit one way or another.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/03/13/latecomers_get_more_delegate_sway/?page=1

(...)

As the race for the Democratic nomination between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama develops into a delegate-by-delegate scramble, the contest is drawing fresh scrutiny to the party's unorthodox system of allotting delegates, including an obscure provision that gives more sway to jurisdictions that vote later in the process.

Under the rule, which was adopted last year, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and South Dakota, along with every other state remaining in the primary season, were awarded extra delegates as an inducement not to move their primary dates forward.

Those 54 "bonus" delegates would not have made any difference in past nomination contests that were effectively over by April. But now, with the candidates chasing every vote, the rules mean that jurisdictions voting in April, May, and June - eight states plus Guam and Puerto Rico - carry more weight than other states their size and may have a disproportionate effect on the outcome.

Many states got bonus delegates this year because they agreed to keep their primaries late in the year. My home state of Oregon was one of those states and it actually ended up paying off in two ways 1) bonus delegates; 2) more attention put on the state then ever before because it was crucial late in the election. We definitely took a gamble on leaving our primary where it was, versus the rush of other states that said, "me, me, me, me".

Back on topic:

It's great that PR gets some attention in the primary given they don't get to vote in the GE. They (along with some of the other territories) deserve a place in the sun every once in awhile.

That would be over 400 delegates still up in the air? But we can't count MI and FL? Because they broke the rules? It's all so simple, isn't it? They didn't do what the good doctor ordered so they don't get to participate? Sounds fair, doesn't it?

But, God forbid that they find a way to count those delegates. A 150 delegate lead could disappear into thin air. But we will not talk about impossibilites, right? That wouldn't fit into our preconceived ideas, right?

I had no idea.