Lonnie R. West

I’ll make my point early: Michigan and Florida DO NOT COUNT. Period.

Now, as a resident of Florida and a concerned voter, you would think this a contradictory statement from me. Why would I not want my vote counted in this primary?

The reasons are simple: Both Florida and Michigan decided to hold an early election, and the penalty for doing so was losing the delegates for that state. With the clusterfuck of “hanging chads” hanging in the nation’s mind from prior elections, it does not surprise me at all that Florida decided to vote early: it would prevent the state from coming under national scrutiny in what looked like was going to be another close race.

Both Obama and Clinton agreed to this, vowed not to campaign in those two states, and Obama even went so far as to remove his name from the roster in Michigan. Great.

Now Clinton is losing, and she wants to change the rules.

Let’s consider the lessons we all learned as children in elementary school: when we agree to the terms of a contest, that’s it. If you lose the contest after you agreed to play, it’s too late to try to change the rules, crybaby.

When the loser pouts and starts crying “It’s not fair!” everyone else thinks it’s pathetic. You are a sore loser, and if you keep it up NO-ONE will want to play with you.

Did it upset me that my vote did not count? Yes. But those of us who voted, those in the contest, and the people at the polls all knew the rules.

I do not, and can not, trust anyone who is going to try to change the rules AFTER they agreed to play by them.

In particular, how does Hillary’s proposal handle Michigan, where Obama had his name removed from the ballot deliberately so people would NOT vote for him?

This is a sad, pathetic little game. Her hit-and-run debate tactics leave me cold, and her emotional reactions to political and business situations flat out scare me. If people in our own country have a hard time feeling comfortable with her, how will leaders from other countries react when dealing with her?

I prefer calm, cooler heads in leadership roles. People who play fair, make agreements and stick to them. People who embody the attitude of Dr. Suess’s Horton: he says what he does, and does what he says.

That is not Hillary.