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Dem Super Delegates = Spineless Wimps!!!
I've been posting this in other threads but I wanted to blog on it because I'm really getting sick of the cowardly people who call themselves our party leaders. I refer, of course, to our super delegates.
Seems like they are coming out of the woodwork to grumble about Hillary quiting. Well just hold on a minute, Chuckles. You all have some responsibility here, too.
I think our super delegates are a disgrace. They need to man/woman-up and cast their lots with Hillary or Obama. If 200 of them come out and give their support to Obama then it's over. Right? Hillary would be forced to quit. Why do they insist that Hillary quit to make their lives easier?
They are super delegates for a reason. They were given this responsibility to protect the party, correct? That was the whole concept behind the super delegates! They have the power to save the party. They need to get off their spineless butts and give us a nominee.
They won't do it, though. And we wonder why our party hasn't stood up to Bush since the 2006 election? Wonder no longer.
So pardon me while I cheer Hillary for her show of strength by staying in. At least someone has some guts.
Comments (20)
While I can see your point, it is also crucial that Hillary leaves the race once it is obvious to not only her, but the majority of her supporters, that she has no options.
It is also important that the Supers don't make it look like they forced her out. If enough were to endorse that a primary is what puts Obama over the threshold, then that's better than for all of them to just move en masse over to Obama. It has to look like it comes from the voters, not the Supers.
In fact, I would be thrilled if enough Supers endorsed Obama just to tie Hillary's Supers number, and then a primary pushed him over the threshold. Then the rest could move over with less backlash from Hillary's supporters.
May 7, 2008 10:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
They are dems.
Watch them on C Span on the Iraq funding.
Yes, spineless.
May 7, 2008 10:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Unlike your party heroes.
May 8, 2008 12:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
The supers want it both ways. They want to claim that it's "obvious" that Obama is going to win without actually coming out and saying they're going to vote for him.
I'm sorry, but that's just plain GUTLESS!
May 7, 2008 11:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
These comments all talk about how well (or poorly) the superdels have behaved, without stating the obvious: We should not have superdelegates. This race would have been over weeks ago were in not for this superdelegate nonsense. The un-elected superdels are accountable to no one, and the elected ones are forced to hide the ball or, in some situations, go against the tide because they have their own re-elections to worry about. This is nuts. Let the people decide and get rid of them. The whole idea behind superdels is that the voters can't be trusted with this decision alone. They were created with idea that they absolutely WOULD un-do the decision of the voters. That was the whole point of creating them. That they haven't had to do it yet doesn't mean having them around is any less offensive or nuts. Get rid of them!
May 8, 2008 12:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think they've decided to let this play out for another month as long as Hillary "plays nice". They don't want to force her out the door, and thus they are letting her come to the reality in her own time. Another month will not hurt anybody and Hillary will not have to quit, she'll run out of states and it will be over.
If she starts mudslinging at Obama again, expect a flood of SD's and quick.
The Clintons have too much stature in the party to be forced out unless they give you no other alternative.
May 7, 2008 11:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
She just did it again TODAY.
The race baiting is just getting completely blatant & out of line & her statement about him (they're not even subtle anymore) not being able to win the white vote??? Howard Wolfson's statements yesterday saying the same thing??? WTF do you think the psychological effect of that kind of BS coming from our own team is sending to Redneck Dems??? They're essentially telling these people it's OK to vote on skin color when we obviously would like (as a Country) to move on. She & her campaign can not & should not be trusted to act honorably. They've already displayed the willingness to do anything & giving them the chance to do further damage is just STUPID, NAIVE, & Shows the biggest weakness in the Democratic party. An un- willingness to stand up & fight for what's RIGHT!!! I say answer her nuke threats w/ a decisive pre-emptive blow.
May 8, 2008 1:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Then they need to stop the grumbling and let it play out. They're only grumbling because they are worried they'll have to be the deciding factor. Still gutless.
May 7, 2008 11:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think the grumbling serves a psychological purpose. It sends a message to the Clinton camp, reassures anxious Obama supporters, and prepares Clinton supporters for what's coming.
To be honest, I think this psychological preparation started way back with Leahy. It's possible he knew his call for Clinton to get out of the race wouldn't take at that point, but it was Leahy's comments that explicitly introduced the "when should Hillary get out?" meme into the discussion. And when you think about it, it's really never left the conversation since, even if it has been muted at times.
I think Leahy's call and Richardson's endorsement have been two of the biggest turning points in this campaign.
May 7, 2008 11:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've gone back and forth on this. But I'm really starting to think that the supers have handled this about as well as they could have throughout. By trying not to alienate Hillary's supporters, they are protecting the party (and Obama's prospects in the general).
Even if Obama's delagate lead has been impregnable for some time, Hillary just kept winning the contests that could have provided cover for them to come out if she hadn't. In terms of perception, criticisms of Obama not "closing the deal" have been pretty accurate (though I've never bought the argument that this indicates an electability problem).
The perception had to be that Obama clinched it at the ballot box, and that's the perception he was finally able to create on Tuesday. This time isn't like after Ohio and Pennsylvania. This will be a very finite delay. It's probably just a question of timing it well to get a good start on unifying the party. If Clinton doesn't start trouble, this will be a short and painless wait.
And it's worth noting, too, that if Obama's supers hadn't been trickling out over the last several weeks, he wouldn't be nearly as close to 2,025 right now. So they have been taking action at a pace that seemed wise given how the race developed.
As someone else posted here a week back or so, I'd love to see enough supers come out between now and May 20 so that he not only secured a majority of the pledged delegates on that date but also crossed the 2,025 threshold at the polls, but I'm not confident enough supers will come out between now and then.
As an Obama supporter, I definitely empathize with your impatience, though. I'm betting Obama would, too. It's becoming a little tedious to sit through.
May 7, 2008 11:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
I hope you're right. I just don't want the supers to get away with anonymously forcing Hillary out. It seems so craven.
May 7, 2008 11:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have to admit this is the first time I've been calm and rational about this for a while. Trust me, I was calling the supers every name in the book during the two weeks between PA and NC/IN.
And I'm sure there are a lot of supers who are simply spineless, too. I'm really talking about the one's I suspect have been secretly with Obama for a while.
I alluded to this above, but I really think if you want something close to a genuine hero among the supers, it's Richardson. I don't care if he does expect to get something out of this, I really think he stuck his neck out for Obama.
May 7, 2008 11:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think they're just letting her know it's over without telling her it's over. Hillary will use the rest of the month and the remaining primaries to try and get some money back via donations to pay down her campaign debts and try and repair any damage done to the Clinton legacy.
May 7, 2008 11:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Once a snake, always a snake. You can't repair that legacy.
May 7, 2008 11:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
So the sad part is that McCain is raising a lot of money, I think he is raising 7 millions tonight...
Not to mention the free ride he is getting...
Is the democratic party raising money while the fight is going on?
One can wonder...
Just a thought
May 8, 2008 12:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
I agree. If they want Obama to run, the superdelegates can darn well come out in support of Obama. Instead we've got this "after you, my dear Alphonse" cowardice, each of them trying to decide what's the best POLITICAL decision instead of sticking their necks out.
Don't they realize that this--and the vote it led to--is part of why Hillary is losing? She played it "safe" when we needed someone to LEAD.
May 8, 2008 1:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
I agree and disagree. I think they are guiding there influence incorrectly. They need to be keeping pressure on Clinton to make sure she understands that attacking Obama like she has been is not acceptable to them in these final months given the current situation.
She should finish this out, if nothing else then to leave no doubt in her supporters minds about what might have happened.
I think her finishing this race should be about the people who have been so passionate about her campaign. However at this point he really has become the presumptive nominee and she needs to focus on her positives to deflect the major damage cycle to Mcain now.
if she needs to attack lets see what she can do to Mcain.
May 8, 2008 1:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
I tell you what, though. Clinton's USAToday comments are turning me (away from some of my comments above). I'm starting to think maybe she just has to get pushed out and reconciliation with her supporters needs to be approached from a different angle. She just won't stop.
May 8, 2008 2:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
They need to set this up in a way that allows Oregon to finish it off. She should be put on short notice that if she wants to save face she has until then to bow out gracefully. Otherwise face the humiliating mutiny (by party leaders) in advance of the final decision by voters (he is guaranteed to cross the pledged delegate majority there) & the voters should get the chance to drive the final nail home.
May 8, 2008 1:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Of course, they are spineless wimps....we wouldn't still be dealing with the despot that's residing in the White House, if any of them had a backbone........
May 8, 2008 3:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
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