# How can primaries be made to work?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-primaries-be-made-to-work/845813>\
**Category:** Politics & Elections\
**Created:** [January 3, 2020, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-primaries-be-made-to-work/845813 "2020-01-03T02:08:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2020, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-primaries-be-made-to-work/845813/21 "2020-01-08T20:22:17Z")

</div>

> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#):
>
> Too many people think that (a) the smoke-filled room still exists, and (b) it is why Bernie Sanders is not currently President.
> 
> Wasn’t “maintaining the smoke-filled room” pretty much the sole reason Superdelegates existed (and will return if the pledged delegates can’t come up with a majority decision)?

But the SuperDelegates were at the end of the process. You need the smoke-filled room at the start of the process, to ensure a pool of qualified and acceptable candidates. Yes, that might have excluded Bernie, but having Bernie as the candidate would pretty much hand the election to the other party.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-primaries-be-made-to-work/845813.md?page=1)