Here's an interesting read: "Hillary Clinton's Superdelegate 'Firewall'" courtesy of Sean Gonsalves at Alternet. In short, don't think that just because Barack Obama is ahead in the primaries that he will necessarily win the Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States. Hillary Clinton might get the nomination, partly through the efforts of superdelegates voting for her at the party convention at the end of August this year, and the irony here is how essentially undemocratic the idea really is. Normal delegates are supposed to be locked into their votes - there isn't really anything stopping them from being able to vote for whoever they want to, but the whole point of primary elections is to get a certain number of pledged votes at the convention (through the delegates) for the presidential contender. It is very bad form for normal delegates to vote for anyone other than who they are pledged to, which is why most delegates don't do that. Superdelegates, on the other hand, are officially unpledged; that is, they can vote any damn way they please. Essentially, this is a political machine; this encourages candidates to kiss the asses of those prominent Democrats whose support they need, and ensures that nobody gets nominated that the elite party leadership does not approve of (as happened with Jimmy Carter in 1976). This is where Clinton has the advantage; many superdelegates are politicians (including former President Bill Clinton, former Vice President Al Gore, and former President Jimmy Carter) with some of whom she has established relationships. So, Hillary Clinton has a major advantage because of her political experience at the federal level. Obama unfortunately does not have this advantage, being a first term senator who has been involved in politics at the federal level for many less years than Clinton has.
I'm not saying that I buy into the idea of a Clinton nomination as inevitable, which I'm sure the mainstream media is going to start hyping up again, once the superdelegate issue really starts to take off in the nightly televised newscasts. Still, Obama is going to have to win really big in the upcoming primaries to have a true advantage at the convention. Those of you supporting Obama are going to have to step it up to counter the Clinton advantage with the superdelegates.
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2 comments:
good post brother j, I know that the superdelegates do not have any sort of official allegiance to vote a certain way but I highly doubt that with the level of media coverage coupled with the closeness of the race that the superdelegates are going to go against the will of the people. I mean to take the election out of the hands of the people of the party would be like biting themselves in the foot here, how could they do that seeing the record number of democratic voters that are coming out in these primary contests? Plus it would be like Bush v. Gore all over again with the popular vote winner getting screwed. hmm.. course I am assuming that the Obama train is going to keep on rolling with the momentum it has right now.
If it comes down to the superdelegates deciding who wins the nomination and they take it away from the popular vote.. they need to seriously look at the original reasons why they instituted the superdelegate system in 1980 and check themselves.
very interesting shit though.
Ernieboom,
Yes, that's the rub, right there; the only real way to ensure Obama gets the nomination in August is to make it absolutely clear that he has the popular mandate. He has to win the majority of primaries and caucases between now and this summer, and he has to win BIG. Otherwise, you just know the Clinton camp is going to try to spin this (to the superdelegates) as race too close to call, and that they should vote for the candidate with more experience, the known instead of the unknown.
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