Super Delegates
Matthew Mosk and Paul Kane, writing in today's Washington Post, show just how sleazy the courtship of super delegates has become. This is a train wreck waiting to happen. If the choices of the super delegates overturn the choices of the directly elected delegates, this will not end well for the Democratic Party.
7 comments:
It is not clear to me that it will not end well. Just a few days ago, you wrote in favor of approval voting. If the super-delegates do decide the nomination, and their choice is the candidate who would have won under approval voting but in fact lost under the current primary system, then I don't see a disaster looming. If they should turn the nomination over to the candidate who would have lost under approval voting, though, a bad outcome would indeed be likely.
Kevin Drum has a post on this that captures what Richard said in his comments.
What I think is the ugly scenario is Obama holds a narrow lead in elected delegates. The Clinton camp will want to seat the Florida and Michigan delegates which would tip the balance to her. Then you have two candidates, both of whom have a more or less legitimate claim that they won the vote. Pile the Superdelegates on top of that and it gets worse. I'm pretty sure neither side is going to gently into the night.
Who knew Florida might find itself at the center of a screwed up/contested election twice in 8 years.
Prior to the MN caucus the word was out that Hillary's team was pursuing a strategy of pressuring the superdelegates (who wouldn't like a phone call from Bill?). Her campaign funding is lagging vis a vis Obama, and going after superdelegates is cost effective, etc.
And sure enough, Obama had a huge presence at my caucus, workers, table, stickers, etc. Clinton was a no show. Nada.
The party insiders know what is going on, and this had a backlash effect for Clinton.
She needs to watch her step with the superdelegate schmoozing. It doesn't work everywhere
How should those delegates vote? By state, by precinct, by popular vote, by personal judgment? Is there any reason to suppose they will be any less divided than the rest? Since each can offer similar rewards, even bribery seems unlikely to work. Soon it ends up as a coin toss. The loser may be disappointed, but it seems unlikely the voters would be, in this case at least.
I've voted Democratic all my life, but if Obama wins the elected delegate count and the super delegates swing the convention to Clinton, it will cause me to vote for the first time for a Republican. To not respect the popular mandate at the convention would make the 2008 convention as bad as 1968. And we know who was elected that year!
Even if Hillary won the popular vote? Seems ludicrous to say delegates should count more than the people that elected them.
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