This was a very striking moment from yesterday’s interview of Debbie Wasserman Schultz about the role of superdelegates in the Democratic nominating process:
(starting at about the 1:00 mark)
TAPPER: Hillary Clinton lost to Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire by 22 percentage points, the biggest victory in a contested Democratic primary there since John F. Kennedy. But it looks as though Sanders and Clinton are leaving the Granite State with the same number of delegates in their pockets because Clinton has the support of New Hampshire's superdelegates, these party insiders.
What do you tell voters who are new to the process who say this makes them feel like it’s all rigged?
WASSERMAN-SCHULTZ: Let me just make sure I can clarify what was available during the primaries in Iowa and New Hampshire. The unpledged delegates are a separate category. The only thing available on the ballot in a primary and a caucus is the pledged delegates, those that are tied to the candidate that they are pledged to support and they receive a proportional number of delegates going into our convention.
Unpledged delegates exist, really, to make sure that party leaders and elected officials don’t have to be in a position where they are running against grassroots activists. We are, as a Democratic Party, really highlight and emphasize inclusiveness and diversity at our convention and we want to give every opportunity to grassroots activists and diverse committed Democrats to be able to participate, attend and be a delegate at the convention and so we separate out those unpledged delegates to make sure that there isn’t competition between them.
TAPPER: I’m not sure that that answer would satisfy an anxious, young voter but let’s move on.
Although with that answer Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is channeling some mighty Sarah Palinesque bafflegab, there is a kernel of clarity buried deep in the verbiage.
How is she saying anything other than: We want diversity and grassroots activists to appear to be a part of our party process. We just want to make sure they can only compete with each other and not against us insiders and our choice of candidate.
Good luck bringing in all the new young hopeful millennial voters being energized by the Sanders campaign with that kind of blatantly cynical bait-and-switch. Anyone with a functioning BS detector — i.e., most millennials — will run screaming in the opposite direction.