Why is it that nobody in the media is making the obvious statement that both the Republicans and Democrats have stripped Florida and Michigan of half their delegates? It’s amazing to hear angered Clinton supporters say they will vote for the Republican candidate because the Democrats are only giving them half a vote, when the Republican Party is imposing the same penalty for moving up its primary in violation of party rules.

What’s clear is that the DNC Rules Committee did not handle the controversy as well as its Republican counterpart, who gave a 50% penalty right from the beginning (instead of the Democrats giving a 100% penalty, then having to reverse it to 50% yesterday). By issuing a 50% penalty from the beginning, the Republicans were able to hold competitive primaries in those states, giving them a leg up in organizations on-the-ground.

Clinton supporters might well be angry at how the Rules Committee handled the whole affair, but they shouldn’t blame Obama’s camp for their ultimate judgment, especially when there were 13 Clinton supporters on the Committee, and only 8 Obama supporters (9 were uncommitted). It was, afterall, the Democratic Party in both Michigan and Florida that make the proposed delegate allocations; the Rules Committee merely accepted those allocations and restored the full delegation at 50% voting strength (which, according to Democratic Party rules, was an automatic minimum penalty).

Given the anger over the compromise, it is clear that Clinton supporters do not understand that they’ve just restored the equivalent of her delegate gain in Ohio and Pennsylvania combined for primaries that, as both campaigns agreed from the beginning, would not count. It’s time Clinton supporters recognize that this compromise was the fairest solution to an understandably difficult situation, a situation the Rules Committee itself created by not imposing the 50% penalty from the outset.