Let me just say this about that.
The Democratic nominee is not going to be decided arbitrarily by superdelegates. Despite the media raising apprehension among Democratic voters about votes being irrelevant and party big-wigs picking a candidate, that just won't happen.
The reason it won't is that if this comes down to the convention and our nominee is decided by the 20% unpledged delegates, or Superdelegates, we might as well just hand the keys of the White House over to McCain. There is no way the volunteers, door knockers, phone bankers, and Democratic activists, bloggers and VOTERS, who have spent the last several months supporting our candidates, are going to allow the whims of fewer than 800 party leaders to make our choice for us. And they know it.
Really, it won't come to that. I think a lot of the talk of a brokered convention and superdelegates is the media looking for some new way to stir up controversy. One of our candidates is going to pull away with this soon. Either that, or we'll come up with a good democratic solution, since the last thing any of us wants is to see the party ripped apart and our country in the hands of John McCain.
As Senator/Superdelegate Kerry says very bluntly in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, "... it would be a mistake on either side, whether it's Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, for a superdelegate to come in and say, 'To hell with you the people'."
Video Credit: CNN
Pick your candidate. Vote your conscience and know that your vote will help decide our nominee and the next President.
The people will decide.
Comments (2)
Posted by beachmom | February 14, 2008 9:42 AM
Thanks for the video, Faith. I missed this yesterday. It is clear from what Kerry said, that if Hillary Clinton comes out with the most votes & delegates, that the Supers will ratify it, just like they will if Obama comes out on top. Somebody on DU was having a cow about this yesterday, and she absolutely did not understand the point he was making.
I guess Wolf and friends enjoy lambasting Kerry & Kennedy, because Clinton won Massachusetts, not understanding that being nearly 40 points down kind of means there is no way to win the state, but you certainly can make it closer and get some delegates, which Obama did. Obama also won Boston.
Posted by beachmom | February 14, 2008 9:48 AM
Oh, one more thing:
Chris Bowers on Open Left has started a new project of full transparency of the superdelegates. He is clear that we should not get so hung up on specifically how democracy wins (honoring primary & caucus voters), just that we know what every Super is doing, and that the delegate and vote count should rule the day:
http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3903
"Superdelegate Transparency Project"
My humble opinion is that the Supers should vote unanimously for the winner of the primaries. Honestly, I hope that Obama wins the popular vote, delegate count, EVEN COUNTING Michigan and Florida. Then nobody can complain.