Democrats' Nightmare: Back to Smoke-Filled Rooms

Wall Street Journal ^ | 2.7.08 | JUNE KRONHOLZ

[BurbankKarl]

Here's a nightmare for the Democrats: The party's bigwigs, rather than its voters, may end up choosing the presidential nominee.

If neither Illinois Sen. Barack Obama nor New York Sen. Hillary Clinton manages to pull decisively ahead in the next few weeks, the nomination could depend on the convention votes of 796 party leaders, or superdelegates, who are free to ignore the preferences of Democratic voters.

"To the public, that looks like a throwback to the old, corrupt system of smoke-filled rooms," says University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato.

Adds Norm Ornstein of the conservative American Enterprise Institute: "The party pols could make the decision."

The chances of that happening grew larger Tuesday when Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama battled to a near photo finish in the race for convention delegates. Because of the Democrats' delegate-allocation system, which awards votes based on how well each candidate did statewide and in each congressional district, the delegate count may not be final for several days.

In preliminary counts by the non-partisan RealClearPolitics.com and others, the two Democrats were within a few votes of each other, with 600 to 800 delegates each. A candidate needs 2,025 delegates to win the nomination.

Ten states and Washington, D.C., will hold primaries or caucuses Feb. 9 through Feb. 19, with Sen. Obama expected to do well in many of them. Ohio and Texas follow with primaries on March 4, and Sen. Clinton is favored in both.

If neither candidate scores a knock-out blow and they head into the April and May primaries, political experts predict the race will begin focusing on the superdelegates, who hold 20% of the votes at the convention.

[SShultz460]

For years the slam on Republicans was that we only ran Black canidates when they were going to lose.

Now the Democrats have a Black Canidate that could win and the party machinery is going to pull a hatchet job.

I freaking love it

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Here's a nightmare for the Democrats: The party's bigwigs, rather than its voters, may end up choosing the presidential nominee.

After Puerto Rico's 63 delegates (for Hillary) and the remaining Super Delegates (for Hillary) gives her the win, what the heck. Fix + In = Win.

[Free Vulcan]

Except the smoke is coming from a bong now.

[Free Vulcan]

Except the smoke is coming from a bong now.

[Outland]

Big deal. There’s no difference between Hitlery and the Black male Hitlery anyway.

So when is Obama-lama-ding-dong going to make a campaign promise of reparations? I’m sure most Black voters that voted for him have their hopes on high for that.

[VeniVidiVici]

"To the public, that looks like a throwback to the old, corrupt system of smoke-filled rooms," says University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato.

Boy, these left-wingers are certainly hooked on the dramatic. Considering this system has only been in place since, what, 1972, when McGovern made the Democrat Party the laughing stock of the world. Well, then Carter did it again in 1980.

Anyhow, I don't know if the "superdelegates" have had to go to the "smoke-filled rooms" since it was implemented.

[RTO]

I can already taste the blood... Yummy

[BurbankKarl]

Live from DNC the SuperDelegates gathering in Denver...

[montag813]

Obama wins big in two places—states with black voters (who of course would never vote for a candidate simply because he’s black! insists CNN RINO Amy Holmes), and caucuses—where Hillary supporters are browbeaten into white guilt to support Obama (or worse, in Vegas, union supervisors threatened underlings with loss of shifts if they didn’t back Obama).

[montag813]

I think if each of the caucuses was a primary Obama would have lost every one.

[tcrlaf]

Dean said last night that that they would HAVE to get Clinton/Obama together and hammer out some kind of a deal to avoid a “Brokered” Convention...

What he REALLY means is that Obama has upset a very carefully planned apple cart, and Dean desperately wants to avoid the spector of “Super-Delegates/Democrat Hero’s selling themselves to the highest bidder, and to hell with those sniveling voters...

(in other words, exposing them for the corrupt, power-hungry idiots they reallt are...)

[VeniVidiVici]

Trust me. A president and two co-presidents can work. We've done it before.

[Southerngl]

Obama wins big in two places—states with black voters (who of course would never vote for a candidate simply because he’s black! insists CNN RINO Amy Holmes),

*********************

*cough* Georgia *cough*

Of course this how Atlanta government has been voted in for years, why would president be any different?

[nyyankeefan]

if the lib/dems choose the piaps over the more popular b. hussein with super delegates...the disenfranchised lib/dem peons will NOT vote in the general election....the lib/dems will lose all blacks/a good percentage of white males and some women.....the constituency will fracture!!!!

[sphinx]

Now the Democrats have a Black Canidate that could win and the party machinery is going to pull a hatchet job. I freaking love it

Yeah. It might even slash Hillary's share of the black vote in November from 92.4% to 91.8%.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

“Now the Democrats have a Black Canidate that could win and the party machinery is going to pull a hatchet job. I freaking love it
Yeah. It might even slash Hillary’s share of the black vote in November from 92.4% to 91.8%.”

I know that you’re being facitious here. However, what it could do is depress black voter turnout. She’ll be getting 90% + votes of a lot less people.

What I really wish would happen is that the republican nominee take this opportunity to go into traditionally black areas and preach the conservative message to them. After all, what has the liberal establishment ever done for them? Keep them on the liberal plantation and tell them not to get too uppitty.

[SShultz460]

I wouldn’t be shocked to see a different outcome

[sphinx]

We can hope.

[sphinx]

What I really wish would happen is that the republican nominee take this opportunity to go into traditionally black areas and preach the conservative message to them.

Agreed. I'd start with school choice. Running against dysfunctional inner city schools is a winner in African American neighborhoods where the parents line up around the block for any type of opportunity scholarship. These parents know exactly whose kids are being sacrificed in crummy schools and they're mad about it.

I think Social Security reform is another winner if presented correctly. I can't fathom why George Bush, when he was trying to sell personal accounts, didn't do a man-in-the-crowd schtick at every stop:

The Prez: "I like you all to meet Joe, from West 22nd street. I had a chance to chat with him earlier. Joe's retired after 45 years over at ACME, where he built roadrunner traps. Social Security sends him $892 a month. The very same dollars, had they been invested in a broad based index fund from the time Joe started working, would be paying him $6,000 a month now. Joe, how do you feel about Social Security as it is vs. Social Security-plus, with a private investment account?"

Joe: "!*@#\\|$^%*@. "!*@#\\|$^%*@ Social Security. "!*@#\\|$^%*@ Franklin Roosevelt. "!*@#\\|$^%*@ the Democrats. Do I look like Wiley Coyote? You'd have to be Wiley Coyote stupid not to want personal accounts. I think the democrats owe me about $5,000 a month because that's what they've cheated me out of. "!*@#\\|$^%*@. "!*@#\\|$^%*@. "!*@#\\|$^%*@.

Or words to that effect. President Bush didn't play his hand that way. John McCain should. I'd take that message into every working class neighborhood in the country, black, white, or hispanic ... lay out the numbers ... and let the democrats explain why people should be happier with much smaller pensions so as to remain dependent on the government.