DETROIT -- At first glance, the sudden agreement by Michigan's Democrats on a solution to their primary mess looks like a victory for Hillary Clinton. But in fact, it is anything but.
In fact, the proposed deal to divide the delegates 69-59 in Clinton's favor amounts to a tacit admission that Illinois Sen. Barack Obama is almost certain to be the Democratic presidential nominee.
If accepted by the national party, it would end an impasse that has threatened to bar Michigan completely from the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August.
That small a delegate gain might help Hillary Clinton save face, but would do her no real good. She has insisted on being recognized as the winner of the disqualified Jan. 15 primary, an election in which Obama's name did not even appear on the ballot.
Yet she now trails overall by more than 150 delegates, with more superdelegates moving to Obama every day. The math is stark and inescapable; she cannot possibly catch him in the remaining primaries. Gaining a handful of Michigan delegates would be statistically meaningless.
But Michigan Democrats need a face-saver at least as badly, and to save themselves from total irrelevance. Michigan, like Florida, has been barred from the party's national convention since January.
Both primaries were ruled invalid because they were held earlier than party rules allowed. None of the candidates campaigned in either state. Michigan party leaders at first thought the Democratic National Committee was bluffing about not seating their delegates.
Then they found out they were deadly serious. For months, Michigan Democrats then dithered, trying and failing to come up with a scheme to hold a new primary or a caucus or to persuade Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean to relent.
He said nothing doing, and so did the Obama camp, whose clout increased as their candidate grew steadily stronger. Complicating the problem was that most of the state's top Democratic leadership had endorsed Hillary Clinton back in the days when the campaign was seen as just the prelude to her inevitable coronation.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm was said to have been hoping for a cabinet position. But as the Clinton star waned, young voters and African-Americans in Michigan became increasingly irate that nobody in their state was even allowed to cast a vote for Obama.
Eventually the establishment offered a potential deal: To divide the elected delegates 73 for Clinton; 55 for Obama. His camp said no way; they would only agree to an even split. (There are another 28 superdelegates, most of whom are for Senator Clinton, or are still undeclared.)
Everyone held their breath after Clinton came back to win Pennsylvania. Then came Tuesday night's stunning disappointment for Clinton; a virtual tie in Indiana and an Obama landslide in North Carolina. That signaled to many that it was over, especially given that it came after the frontrunner had been pounded for weeks over his controversial former minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
Suddenly, the Obama camp signaled that it was willing to consider a deal in Michigan. Even most Clinton supporters saw what was shaping up. They did not want to be cut out of the process, or the convention. The Democratic National Committee has to approve any deal, but the chair has sent signals that he could live with whatever the Clinton and Obama camps both approve.
When the United States agreed to a peace treaty with North Vietnam in 1973, the word behind the scenes was that Washington really didn't expect the Saigon regime to survive.
They were tired of the hopeless war, and behind the scenes, merely demanded a "decent interval" before the final victory of Hanoi. One has to wonder, looking at the numbers, whether the words "decent interval" are being whispered in the Clinton camp, if not yet by the candidate herself.
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The Michigan Supreme Court Wednesday struck a devastating blow to same-sex couples. Voting on strict party lines, the Republican majority decreed that public schools, universities and other agencies of government could not provide "domestic partner" health care benefits, even if those institutions are willing to do so.
The court said doing so was unconstitutional under a 2004 state constitutional amendment, which decreed that a marriage can only consist of one man and one woman.
Kary Moss, executive director of Michigan's American Civil Liberties Union, called the ruling outrageous, and noted that the wording of the amendment says nothing about health care. She vowed to fight that decision, though it is not clear that she would get a more sympathetic hearing from the current U.S. Supreme Court.
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