Superdelegates

[appleciders]

@Santo Rugger

How is that good?

We have built-in foot-dragging clauses all over our government, and for good reason- it prevents a majority from stomping all over the minority as soon as the minority takes power. Imagine if all 100 senators were up for re-election in 2002, right after 9-11; the Senate would have moved so quickly you’d have seen it red-shift as it sped away from the center. But the Founders built in this kind of strangle clause to force moderation in changes in government instead of massive, abrupt ones.

@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies

Aren’t most of their primaries “winner take all”?

Nope, most of the Democratic primaries split the delegates from each state more or less along popular vote lines. Some state split 3/4 along popular vote lines and give 1/4 to the state winner or something like that, though.

[Blalron]

@JohnnieEnigma

If Obama wins enough delegates to overpower Hillary, and the super delegates reverse this… there will be hell to pay.

There should be hell to pay.

I hope the superdelegates are wise enough to realize that they would hurt the party by overriding the will of the voters. The last time the party bigwigs overrode the party voters things didn’t go so well. I’d hate to see a repeat of the 1968 Democratic Convention…

[ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies]

I was responding to Rugger’s question as to why the Republicans don’t use superdelegates, immediately above my post.

[furt]

@Blalron

I hope the superdelegates are wise enough to realize that they would hurt the party by overriding the will of the voters. The last time the party bigwigs overrode the party voters things didn’t go so well. I’d hate to see a repeat of the 1968 Democratic Convention…

The problem is, what’s the will of the party?

The superdelegates are not distributed among the states in the same way as the regular delegates. How to account for this discrepancy?

Do you go by sheer national popularity based on numbers on nationwide votes cast, ignoring state lines completely?

Do you count Michigan and Florida?

[Damuri_Ajashi]

@Martin Hyde

In 2000 I really wanted John McCain to get the GOP nomination, he didn’t. I actually really disliked George W. Bush the candidate in large part because of how he won the primaries in 2000. But, what was I going to do, “punish” the GOP by voting for Gore? Of course not, while I wasn’t strongly pro-Bush, my political leanings synced up with his better than they did Gore’s.

In 2000, the Republicans didn’t nominate the loser of the primaries. Part of the reason I am voting Democrat this time around is because I want to punish the Republicans for ruining the country. If the Democrats turn around and overrule the candidate that wins the primaries, I will have to decide who I want to punish more, the party that ruined our country or the guys who crushed my hopes that the other party represented anything better.