Why Superdelegates Won't Yield To Hillary's Threats

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Saturday April 26, 2008 · 8:33 PM PDT

2008/04/26 · 20:33

Clinton fans are fantasizing about how great it's going to be to purge the party of everyone that "betrayed" them by questioning Hillary's march to the White House.

Eleanor Clift's piece in Newsweek is typical of thinly veiled threats and revenge fantasies that are making the rounds

I'm beginning to think Hillary Clinton might pull this off and wrestle the nomination away from Barack Obama. If she does, a lot of folks—including a huge chunk of the media—will join Bill Richardson (a.k.a. Judas) in the Deep Freeze. If the Clintons get back into the White House, it will be retribution time, like the Corleone family consolidating power in "The Godfather," where the watchword is, "It's business, not personal."

There's just one problem with this little fantasy and the problem is that most supers are elected officials. As long as they don't interfere, the public will ignore them. But if they play God, every one of them will be targeted for defeat, and Obama supporters will mobilize to sweep them from office.

If we look at this objectively, Clinton's super delegates would not be able to withstand challengers backed by Obama's supporters:

First, for most supers, Obama supporters make up nearly half or more than one half of the voters.

Second, Obama supporters are willing to outspend Hillary supporters 2 or 3 to 1 to beat the Clintons.

Third, Obama supporters have a much better ground game and are quite capable of taking the fight locally without national support.

Fourth, the Clintons are notoriously indifferent to the fate of Democrats down ticket. Will they suddenly start being concerned about the re-election of super delegates in places that go Republican in the general election? Have they ever?

If Hillary blusters her way to the nomination, it is the supers who supported her that will be purged. And we are left with the image of a wildly unpopular Hillary having a Nixonian meltdown, maybe before she even takes office.

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