Posted on 01/07/2008 3:29:17 PM PST by Richard Poe
| by Richard Lawrence Poe Monday, January 7, 2008 |
Permanent Link Past Columns |
FORGET IOWA. Forget New Hampshire. Forget the Democratic primaries altogether. The fix is in for Hillary Clinton. When Democrats convene this August in Denver, they will nominate Hillary as their candidate for President of the United States.
The day after Hillary’s loss in Iowa last Thursday, her campaign chief Terry McAuliffe told reporters, “Listen, Hillary is going to be the nominee. There’s no question.”
McAuliffe was not indulging in wishful thinking. He was stating a fact. He knows things the rest of us do not.
One thing McAuliffe knows is that Hillary controls a decisive majority of the Democratic Party superdelegates. The superdelegates control 42 percent of the votes needed to nominate Hillary. They may vote for whomever they wish, for any reason, and may change their minds at will. In August, they will nominate Hillary.
Democrats started the superdelegate system in 1984, to give party leaders tighter control over the nominating process.
This was partly in response to the catastrophic defeat of George McGovern, the radical, anti-war demagogue who, in 1972, lost every state in the union except Massachusetts to Richard Nixon.
To prevent such maverick candidates from winning the nomination in future, party leaders rigged the system. State delegates were no longer permitted to nominate presidential candidates on their own. Henceforth party-approved superdelegates would also cast votes.
Superdelegates are party stalwarts, Democrat officials whose loyalties favor party over state. Their number varies from one election to the next. Currently there are 852 superdelegates, including 29 state governors, 232 congressmen, 49 senators, two “shadow” or non-voting senators from the District of Columbia, and 540 Democratic Party leaders and officials of various sorts.
At this year’s Democratic Convention, 4,049 delegates will vote. Hillary must get 2,025 votes to win the nomination. This is the so-called "magic number". The 852 superdelegates total 42 percent of the magic number. In a close race, their votes could prove decisive.
At this writing, CNN reports that 257 superdelegates have already pledged their votes: of them, 154 (60 percent) have pledged for Hillary; 50 (19 percent) for Barack Obama; and 33 (13 percent) for John Edwards.
Should Hillary falter in the primaries, the superdelegates will likely come to her rescue and nominate her anyway.
The Web site 2008 Democratic Convention Watch offers updated lists of superdelegates who have and have not pledged their votes.
Of course, Hillary cannot win from superdelegate votes alone. She must get a sizeable number of state delegates as well. This presents no problem for Hillary. Her political machine is deeply entrenched in America’s urban centers. These crowded cities can overwhelm rural voters, bringing entire states into Hillary’s camp, with large numbers of delegates.
The decisive date will be February 5, dubbed Super Duper Tuesday by political pundits. Twenty-four states will hold their primaries that day.
"These states include some of our largest and most delegate-rich states, such as California, New York, Illinois, Georgia, New Jersey and others," notes Steven Hill, political reform director for the leftwing New America Foundation. "Together these two dozen states hold enough delegates to nearly decide the presidential nomination all by themselves."
Hillary is counting on that. As Steven Hill explains, "Having a single primary day with so many states... gives great advantage to those candidates with the most campaign cash and name recognition... It creates a virtual wealth primary in which new presidential faces will be quickly eliminated."
In any contest of wealth, Hillary has the advantage. Her blue-chip backers include the likes of Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, wife of Sir Evelyn de Rothschild of the famed Rothschild banking dynasty.
“I'm always doing everything I possibly can for Hillary Clinton…”, Her Ladyship told Portfolio magazine. “I have been waiting for this since Bill Clinton left office, frankly.”
Married November 30, 2000, Lady de Rothschild spent her wedding night in the Clinton White House.
OpenSecrets.org reports that Hillary has raised $90.9 million, only slightly higher than Obama’s $80.3 million.
However, most of Hillary’s money is off the books. No one knows how many millions Hillary has laundered through George Soros’ “Shadow Party”, a network of Democrat front groups masquerading as non-partisan charities. These include Fund for America, the Democracy Alliance, America Votes and Media Matters for America, among others.
Republicans need to stop gloating over Hillary's every misstep and see the big picture. Hillary has the money, the machine, and the support of global financial elites. Unless we can muster a counterforce of similar strength, Hillary will win the nomination and the presidency.
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Richard Lawrence Poe is a contributing editor to Newsmax, an award-winning journalist and a New York Times bestselling author. His latest book is The Shadow Party: How George Soros, Hillary Clinton and Sixties Radicals Siezed Control of the Democratic Party, co-written with David Horowitz. |
We should have a contest, pick the date the story calling Hillary the come back kid is written. I’ll go with Feb 1.
Sorry babe, this is a democracy. And a fix in this primary would make the Chicago Democrat Convention of 1968 look like child's play.
There will be no fix. If Hillery wants the nomination, she will have to win it. George Soros has spoken. Terry can't upside Soros. No way.
If she continues running 3rd in the various states, even with Super Delegates, the DNC will find way to drop her. If she can’t win primaries, she certainly can’t win the National.
Superdelegates are Hillary’s secret weapon that nobody talks about.
Her opposition would have to win an overwhelming majority of elected delegates to take her out.
All true EXCEPT if Hilary loses big in the primaries it will be difficult for the super delegates to nominate her. It would turn off a lot of the party base to get the candidate they clearly didn’t want.
If this human toilet hillary is the dem candidate, she'll lose the general election by a larger margin then Kerry's loss to Bush in '04.
The super delegates were before the coronation collapse. When the nut-roots finds out, everything is off.
We’ve been having a discussion about this, Richard. It Obama beats her in big enough numbers, I suspect there will be great pressure on the super delegates to jump ship. The pressure, threats, and bribery from the Clintonistas on them must be intense behind the scenes. If Obama looks like he will deserve the nomination, but the Clintonistas stand in the way, there will be warfare by the Dem’s black base.
“Should Hillary falter in the primaries, the superdelegates will likely come to her rescue and nominate her anyway.”
Not a chance. If Obama is visibly robbed, the nomination won’t be worth anything.
I pick Feb 6th the day after the primaries.
I believe the supuerdelegates are required to vote as pledged on the first ballot; this system could conceivably yield the Dems a candidate they hate. Can’t make up my mind what Dem nominee scenario is the most appealing; I just hope the Republicans can pull together behind someone who will stand for core conservative principles.
Is Osamabama coming down with a lethal case of Arkancide?
So what states does Hillary lose on February 5, Super Tuesday?
If she wins a few big ones even by small majorities, I think she is in. Will Edwards still be in the race on February 5?
A lot of the Super Delegates will be running in Nov also. They’d have some ‘splainin to do to their constituents to keep their jobs
These are proportional primaries — not winner take all. Each of them will get some delegates. I don’t know which states she loses, but she is now apparently up by only 4% nationally.
That's part of the key. The other part is contributions. She has a lot of cash, but will need to maintain a healthy contribution level. If the money boys start to bolt, then look out. There's nothing cast in stone that these super-delegates HAVE to cast their vote as pledged.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
You must know how the Democrat Party machine works - there’s a dude from Illinois that it wants to run over.
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