Democratic Delegate Mess

This is a very long entry…

For “Beginners,” the first section will allow you to catch up to the more recent and interesting news of Michigan and Florida. For those of you that understand all of this you can skip to the paragraph that starts “FOR THE professionals.” (Capitalized so its easy to spot.)

So the delegate situation has led to much talk about “Superdelegates.” People don’t really understand them or most things about politics, and that is because people don’t take the time to understand politics. However, in this case the American public is not at fault, because “Superdelegates have never mattered before.

Superdelegates are simple enough to understand. Basically, they are selected by the Democratic Party, which invites various high level Democratic Party leaders and other significant Democratic Party players, to cast a vote at the Democratic Nominating Convention. (Superdelegates include Democratic members of Congress, governors, party leaders, even the President and Vice President of College Democrats.)

However, all the confusion and talk about them without really addressing what a Superdelegate is, has lead to some confusion. A great thing to come out of this Superdelegate mess is a Facebook bumper sticker that claims, “Pretending to Understand Superdelegates could be the key to getting laid this summer.” (Guys, you’re welcome!)

The easy to understand part is the pledged delegates. They are chosen based on the results of primaries and caucuses. The more votes a candidate gets the more delegates they receive. This is known as proportional allocation of delegates. (This is used for the Democratic Party’s pledged delegates; the Republicans usually award all the delegates from a state to the winner of its primary of caucus. The infamous “winner-take-all)

Now normally the nominating process is virtually decided by pledged delegates so no one ever paid attention to the Superdelegates, because they never mattered. (Like an ugly girl in high school, that becomes really hot at the reunion) However, this year no candidate in the Democratic Party will win with pledged delegates alone. (Time to hit on the former ugly girl at the reunion) Therefore, Superdelegates will be needed to put the nominee over the top (likely to be Obama).

The nominating process is usually over relatively early, so Michigan and Florida wanted to be apart of the decision making process. The Democratic Party decides which states can vote earlier than the others. Some states were resentful that they were not selected/allowed to go early. (It’s always the New Hampshire and Iowa types that get to go first.)

Michigan and Florida using the conventional wisdom that the winner is decided early on wanted to get in on the action. They held their primaries early trying to gain influence, and were stripped of their delegates. The Democratic Party did this, because it wants to keep as much control as possible over the nominating process to select their candidate.

Now usually if a state violated the rules by moving up they would get a slap on the wrist, but there would be no controversy over their delegates, because the nomination would eventually be wrapped up, with a clear winner, and party unity would be the number one concern.

However, this year the race has become really close so all of sudden Florida and Michigan moving up their primaries and breaking party rules could impact the outcome of the nomination contest, because they have so many delegates.

FOR THE “Professionals,” this section is for those of you that understand politics or read the part for beginners. (Also those of you that fit into both categories.)

So last Saturday the Democrat’s Rules Committee sat down to work out the difficult process of reaching a compromise suitable to Clinton, Obama, and the Party. The decision was to seat the all Delegates, but each only casts a half vote. This decision clearly favored Obama, because Clinton had won in both states so she only got half the delegates for that.

I believe that the Democratic Party did make the right decision. They favored the candidate that was likely to win, allowed Michigan and Florida back into the nominating process, and still enforced a penalty acting as a deterrent for states to break the rules in the future. (No state should want the negative attention that Michigan and Florida received in this nominating process.)

The scary moment at the Rules Committee for the Democrat Party (which was broadcast live on C-SPAN, CNN, and other major networks) was when Harold Ickes, a top Clinton campaign official, declared that Mrs. Clinton reserved the right to take the fight to the Credentials Committee. If she does that, the Democratic Party’s nomination process will be dragged out even further.

However, I strongly believe that If Obama doesn’t have enough delegates after South Dakota and Montana vote on Tuesday (with results coming in after prime time), then Wednesday during prime time he will hold a press conference announcing the support of enough Superdelegates to put him well over the top.

Nomination Conclusion Reflections

The defining moment in the campaign, the turning point, the deciding factor, or whatever you want to call it was when John Edwards endorsed Obama. It negated the big Clinton win in West Virginia and gave Obama plenty of prime time news coverage.

However, It was important for Clinton to stay in the race until all the states vote this year, so her supporters do not feel she was mistreated (making party unification easier). The key for Democratic Party success in November is for Clinton to drop out gracefully after Obama gets enough of the pledged delegates and Superdelegates to win.