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Now I understand
You know sometimes there is a law on the books that everyone thinks is kinda dumb and useless, even a bit of an annoyance. Everyone complained about the superdelagates, why did they take so long to decide, what was thier use anyway, why should these people have such power.
Finally I understand, they are there to keep this nomination from going to a convention fight. If it were just pledged delegates, a candidate could go all the way to the floor to fight for a few extra votes and make thier case. The difference in pledges delegates between CLinton and Obama is only 120. But becasue of the supers, Obama is going to have about a 700 delegate lead when all the supers come over behind the nominee.
One persons ambtion cannot derail the party with this system. For all the trouble with the primaries, the superdels work.
Comments (5)
I will respectfully disagree with that assumption.
June 5, 2008 9:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, I'm not seeing it either. 120 pledged delegates would've been enough to keep it from going to the convention. In fact, the race might've ended a week ago without the superdels to up the "magic number", or at least a couple days ago (after the RBC meeting).
Speaking of unity, I think recently, even before Tuesday, most HRC and BHO supporters were in agreement that the current system needs to be overhauled.
June 5, 2008 10:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
But there were plenty of stories about flipping pledged dels, challenges at the rules commitee, if florida was given full voting and michigan appealed so Obama recieved no delegates, this would be a legit fight in august. Kennedy didn't stop because he lost the pledged delegates in 1980. Because of the superdels, when they switch support it puts a finality on this race that has been sorely lacking. At this point, taking this to denver will be meaningless, because the few she could pick up will not overcome the groundswell of superdelegates supporting obama.
June 5, 2008 10:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, but the pledged delegate thing was mostly sound and fury. Sure, a couple flipped, but no one (not even Hillary, IMNSHO) ever thought that more than half a dozen might flip.
The RBC issue was real, of course, but we still wouldn't have had this settled any later than Tuesday if they had seated all of MI and FL.
Kennedy's fight in 1980 already changed how the pledged delegates work, so we don't need the unpledged delegates.
The superdels could still switch back, so the finality is only there, I would argue, because of the pledged delegates which the superdels don't want to be seen as fighting against.
June 5, 2008 10:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
I disagree with the "only 120" part. That's a huge margin, particularly considering the way delegates are awarded. It's how Obama got so far ahead and stayed there. "Only 120" is something you apply to vote counts, i.e. Bush won by only 500-some votes. In the Dem primary contests, five is "only," 10 is "only" -- even 20. But when you get beyond that, catching up or overtaking is a very difficult task without winning huge and winning more than one or two contests in a row.
June 5, 2008 1:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
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