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  •  wrong (10+ / 0-)

    Superdelegates were designed to make sure Congressmen and other party bigwigs were able to participate in the Conventions without having to compete against us regular folk for delegate spots.

    In other words, superdelegates were designed to make sure these dudes could keep getting drunk and laid at these relics known as "national conventions".

    There's really no higher purpose.

    "What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is." --Dan Quayle

    by jakester on Tue Mar 11, 2008 at 09:02:26 AM PDT

    [ Parent ]

    •  Ever Heard Of The HUNT COMMISSION? (16+ / 0-)

      Superdelegates' origins:
      The origin of the superdelegates was a Democratic commission, headed by then-North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt in 1982.

      Worried that liberal party activists and outsiders were taking control, the Hunt commission changed the rules so that 14 percent -- later expanded to 20 percent -- of the delegates would be seasoned party leaders.

      http://www.newsobserver.com/...

      They wanted to MAKE SURE that they never ended up with another "populist".

        •  Contradictions (15+ / 0-)

          Does anyone else here the contradiction?

          those super delegates who have not made up their minds or who have decided to remain neutral until all the votes have been cast should resist the pressure to abort the process.

          Oh, but by the way, I've already made up my mind and done what I can to abort the process:

          I have made my own personal judgment, and that is that Senator Clinton is the better qualified,

          And while pro-Clinton delegates won't change, pro-Obama delegates may change their mind.  

          Others have made a different choice, and may yet make a different choice.

          And then of course he wheels out the old tired, illogical arguments:

          Should caucuses, in which citizens who wish to express their choice are obliged to either show up at an appointed hour and sit in a room for up to several hours or not show up at all, be regarded as reflecting the popular will as much as primaries, where voters whose lives do not permit them to spend three hours in a locked room at the end of a workday can simply go into their local elementary school, vote and leave--like voters across the country do on the first Tuesday in November?

          ... as if, if the tables were turned, he wouldn't be defending the caucuses to the death...

          Should the results in states that have rarely if ever voted Democratic in a presidential election over the last half century be accorded the same weight as the results in large states that form the heart of the Democratic base, and which the Democratic presidential nominee must carry in order to win the White House?

          As if those non-traditional states weren't the key to success against McCain, or as if any Democrat could lose the traditional states...

          Should primaries in which voters who are not in fact members of the Democratic party voted in significant numbers be given the same standing for the purpose of choosing the Democratic party nominee as those in which only Democrats voted?

          Yeah, it's a bad idea to let non-Democrats choose, but it's your establishment that did that, and it's Obama who is playing by those rules and winning.  That's gotta hurt, but your pain isn't the issue here.  Fairness is.

          ---

          But the thing that Obama really has to watch out for is how Clinton operatives are working the backrooms to switch pledged delegates.  I hope his campaign is on that issue... it could bite.

          "A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can even get its boots on."

          by Miles on Tue Mar 11, 2008 at 09:35:54 AM PDT

          [ Parent ]

          •  Ah! Noblesse Oblige! (8+ / 0-)

            "By dint of our experience in the community and our public service, we were adjudged fit to fulfill a moral responsibility to act in the best interest of the country as we saw it--"

            "But of course we insider elites know best what is 'in the interests of the country.'" What could mere unwashed masses who have never spent time as party insiders know?

            We elites have an obligation not to let the idiot masses get in the way of what we know is best!

            We can't have too much unvarnished democracy you know! A little bit taken in moderation is all right. But, the outsiders should actually DECIDE anything! That's the job for us smart, sophisticated elites!

            So, go back to you regularly schedule programs, we have things well under control!

      •  that may have been the pretext (11+ / 0-)

        but I have a feeling the desire to get drunk and get laid was the real reason.

        In any case, the bottom line is that superdelegates are anti-democratic, elitist relics that should not interfere with the will of the voters.

        I'm heartened by recent national polls showing Obama with a clear edge.  That should help the supers, hopefully...

        "What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is." --Dan Quayle

        by jakester on Tue Mar 11, 2008 at 09:22:03 AM PDT

        [ Parent ]

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