Posted on 04/17/2008 6:20:23 PM PDT by Red Steel
(CNN)— An increasingly firm Howard Dean told CNN again Thursday that he needs superdelegates to say who they’re for – and “I need them to say who they’re for starting now.”
“We cannot give up two or three months of active campaigning and healing time,” the Democratic National Committee Chairman told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “We’ve got to know who our nominee is.”
After facing criticism for a mostly hands-off leadership style during much of the primary season, Dean has been steadily raising the rhetorical pressure on superdelegates. He said Thursday that roughly 65 percent of them have made their preference plain, but that more than 300 have yet to make up their minds.
(Excerpt) Read more at politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com ...
“Elections are governed by State law.”
Well, yes, that is what I had always thought. And now I see that it doesn’t work within that context for primary elections. This is so bad! And to think that WE are the ones supposedly teaching other nations to organize elections in their newly birthed democracies!
This simpleton actually thinks this is an insult to Bush...
Dammit Jim, I'm a constitutional Republican, not a freakin Democrat!
I agree for years all the late states have had no say in who gets the nomination. Now they are having their say and the DNC can’t have that.
I want a debate in each state or two! Come on they deserve it!! No 3 or more!!!! Good-luck with that Dean no way are the Supers going to miss the perks that await them. Denver!!!!
Well if Hill steals it don’t be surprised if we get LA style riots.
It’s not double voting. The Superdelegate vote is a separate vote that takes place at the convention, like the Republican delegates will vote at their convention. They say that Superdelegates have the equivalent of 10,000 votes because unlike the republican primaries, the democrat primaries basically only count partially. It’s like this:
Republican primaries are winner take all delegates per state. So the majority of rep votes in a particular state guarantees all those delegates will vote for that candidate at the convention (technically, they aren’t legally obligated, but it’s extremely rare that they’d flip).
For Dems, the delegates in each state are awarded proportionally. Say there are 100 delegates available, and Hill takes 70 %. That means she gets 70 delegates and Obama gets 30. Sounds more representational, right? But smarter Dems realized that their people had a tendency to popularize unelectable candidates, so they created “Superdelegates” who were the elected party leaders plus a bunch of favored lackeys. These superdelegates are added to the state-elected delegates and they vote along with the elected state delegates at the convention. Because superdelegates number just under 800, they can easily swing the nomination (about 2500 delegates total are needed to win the nomination). “Proportionally” speaking, each superdelegate wields the equivalent of 10,000 votes by the dem primary voters. Thus, the democrat party is far less democratic than the republican.
It’s now mathematically impossible for Hillary to win the nomination without 2/3 of the superdelegate vote. Obama, on the other hand, is increasingly looking unelectable, thus the Dem leaders would have to overturn the will of the dem primary voters to give it to Hillary who even McCain believes is the tougher candidate (and he’s quite right about that). This prospect terrifies the dems because, despite the fact that this is exactly the point of the superdelegate system, their own demagoguery since Florida 2000, has painted them into a corner. And, of course, there’s the debacle with Michigan and Florida delegates this time (though those delegates would still not give hillary the lead without the supers).
Quite hilarious, but also a bit scary. If Hillary gets the nomination on a superdelegate vote, Obama supporters will flip. Never mind that this was the whole point of the superdelegate system, never mind that primaries themselves are a relatively recent invention. The Dems will live and die by their own demagoguery, but I do worry about civil strife caused by obamaniacs at the dem convention and general election.
In the past when the Republican party held the White House, the Democrats held their convention in July, and vice versa. This convention is held later than normal because the Democrats want to ... "maximize momentum for our Democratic Ticket in the final months of the Presidential election".
From http://www.democrats.org/a/2005/11/week_in_review_9.php
No sweat off my back. The rats will pillage, loot, and burn their own neighborhoods in their own parasite nests ("cities"). I'll only get pee'd when my tax dollars have to pay for the rebuilding.
THere are still a sizable number of Democrats who have not had a chance to vote for their choice yet, but Howard is tired of it and wants to get it over, and would rather have the Superdelegates make the choice than let the voters in the last states try to pick the candidate.
I’m not sure why any state picks to have a primary in June or July. It’s almost like they WANT to have no choice for President.
This should be in Breaking News, IMHO.
DECLARE NOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!
Have you heard about the group of Democrat activists, “Recreate ‘68? They’ve got their own form of operation chaos planned.
>WE are the ones supposedly teaching other nations to organize elections in their newly birthed democracies!
Like it or not, and with all of it’s flaws, it is far better than anything any other country in the world has to offer.
And that is the plain, unvarnished truth.
So here’s my dream scenario: Dean forces the Superdummygates to commit 3 months before the convention; they go Obama, then his unelectability becomes apparent long before the convention, and there’s an honest-to-goodness riot. i can’t wait!
” If the Dem super delegates make the decision as to who runs for president does it mean all the
Dems who voted in the primary are disenfranchised? “
Yes. The Superdelegates were created out of the fundamental Democratic Party belief that “People Don”t Know What’s Good For Them”, following the abysmal failure of McGovern in ‘68. The whole problem is that if the Supergoons pick Hidabeast when Obama is the rank and file choice, the rank and file won’t show in November, and several of the less thoroughly sedated and stupefied might actually find out the party doesn’t give a damn about them or trust them. So the Superdelegates HAVE to reflect the popular will, except in the possible case of a last-minute revelation before the convention that would have caused most people to change their vote. They will probably ditch this process after this round of elections. Like most Socialist ideas, it tends to take them 40 years to figure out that it was a stupid idea to begin with.
” Tanya K likes to shout in all caps too. That must mean she is “really serious.” “
Italics, too. I think that means she majored in marketing.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.