Let's rename "superdelegates": poll
Thu Feb 14, 2008 at 08:16:37 AM PDT
Hillary Clinton is on to something: "superdelegates" is a misleading term -- last I checked, not a single one of them had owned up to possessing super powers.
(One wonders which one they would choose if they had the choice. I'm guessing "x-ray vision" or "time travel" would win, but that's another poll for another place. And I digress.)
The question is, How should they be renamed?
Possibilities after the jump.
Hillary's choice is "Automatic delegates," which is kind of cool because it makes you think of robots and we could totally kick the Republicans *sses if we had an army of robots (or clones, like in Star Wars). But since they aren't actually robots (or clones), what is so automatic about them? In fact, the Clinton campaign appears to banking on them NOT being automatic for the democratically popular choice, so I'm inclined to reject this one.
One might play with that, though, and come up with "Autonomous delegates", which is probably what the HRC campaign thought of first before deciding that "Automatic" polled better, even if it was less accurate. My verdict: accurate, but boring.
A leading alternative is "Elite delegates," since they represent the party elites. Straightforward enough, but it would inadvertantly help the other party in the continual efforts to mislead the public by branding Democrats as "elitist."
You could also go with "Undemocratic delegates," which gets points for honesty too -- but a good number of these guys and gals are actually elected officials, so its a biut unfair. Also, if you want their support, do you really want to tar them as "undemocratic"?
Soemtimes the media goes with "Soft delegates," but, well ... make your own joke in the comments sections.
Another path is to draw attention to a salient feature of the delegates-soon-to-be-formerly-known-as-super: that their support can be, um, lobbied for. There are a number of possibilities with which to work, here: "Lobby-able" (might not be a word, and if it is, how is it really spelled?"), "Bribable" (a bit over-the-top, as well as prone to mispronunciation; also see comments on "undemocratic"), "For Sale" (same applies), "Open to persuasion" (nice and ambiguous, but too many words).
My personal favorite, which might even be consistent with whomever's ethics rules apply (to the letter, if not in spirit) is "Fruitbasket delegates" -- since the longer you stay uncommitted, the more gentle persuasion efforts you are likely to encounter. And if you remain uncommitted all the way to Denver, you'd better check into a big suite just make room for all the baskets of fruit likely to be coming your way.
That's my say. Now have yours:
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