Posted on 01/20/2008 11:29:20 AM PST by davidlachnicht
WASHINGTON - It’s called the Democratic Party, but one aspect of the party’s nominating process is at odds with grass-roots democracy.
Voters don’t choose the 842 unpledged “super-delegates” who comprise nearly 40 percent of the number of delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination.
The category includes Democratic governors and members of Congress, former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, former vice president Al Gore, retired congressional leaders such as Dick Gephardt, and all Democratic National Committee members, some of whom are appointed by party chairman Howard Dean.
The Republicans do not have a similar super-delegate system.
These super-delegates don’t have superhuman powers, but unlike rank-and-file Democrats, they do automatically get to cast a vote at the convention to decide who the party’s nominee will be.
Although dubbed “unpledged” in Democratic Party lingo, the super-delegates are free to come out before their state’s primary and pledge to support one of the presidential contenders.
On Tuesday Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski announced she was supporting Sen. Hillary Clinton and three weeks ago, New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine declared that he's also backing her. These aren't mere endorsements; these are actual votes putting Clinton two steps closer to the number of delegates needed to secure the nomination.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
This is not quite true. Some states have Republican super delegates. In CO, the two national party members and our state chairman are automatically delegates to the national convention. This may be a state decision only, I don’t know, but it is true that Republicans do have super delegates. We must don’t have as many as the Democrats, nor did we do it to create a special class of delegates, which the Democrats did.
For current count, see: http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/scorecard/#D
As I’ve posted before, the Democrats have established the equivalent of the Politburo inside their own party. Allowing the unwashed masses the chance to elect 60 percent of the delegates provides a veneer of a free election, but since those votes are usually scattered among several candidates, whomever the Politburo wants to see in office gets the nomination.
Which will be Hillary.
And the media and the left in general will not care, since their interest is power for themselves.
It’s not all that different from other Democrat machine tactics 100 years ago in Chicago or Tammany Hall, with a layer of Leninism on the top to ensure better control of ideology and candidates.
I just had someone this morning tell me this morning that he’s not going to vote for the anyone supported by the “Republican machine.” I had to remind him that he’s a moron, told him about the superdelegates, the Democrat history of city politics. He told me that it didn’t matter, since the Republicans are also racist and fascist. The Dems would be proud.
The Democratic National Convention ought to be a real riot this year.
The ‘Rats really know how to brew their political kool-aid, shifting the blame for their own abuses to the opposing party.
Ours might not be much better since we are the path to Rudy McRomnebee.
Some pigs are just created more equal than others.
One pig two votes..
This won’t get much attention from the MSM, but you really can see the pattern of union thugism and commie thinking in the democRat primaries.
I guess republican just won’t stand for this shit.
Only because millions of Republicans will behave as stupidly as Democrats, and change their primary votes to someone who they don't like but is getting more support than their preferred candidate.
Well, at least now, every Dem Congressman and Dem Senator gets a superdelegate slot — back in ‘84, only certain ones did — so far as I could figure, it was the ones that supported Mondale, with a few token others...
When we cast our vote in November, it will be a vote against Hillary and nothing more. We must rise to the challenge of stopping her and saving our country.
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.