Rep. John Lewis will cast his
superdelegate vote for Barack Obama.
He had endorsed Hillary.
Posted on 02/14/2008 8:33:47 PM PST by Matchett-PI
In the Democratic Party there are 796 "Super Delegates." These are men and women who are delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Denver by virtue of their position, not because they were elected in primary or chosen in a party caucus.
Officially, within the Democratic National Committee rules they are known as "Party Leaders and Elected Officials" (PLEOs) but Super Delegates stuck. PLEOs did not.
Mullpal Lanny Davis has reminded us that Super Delegates were never intended to be pledged to one candidate, but were the insiders who could undo a bad decision by those pesky voters in primaries and caucuses.
Yesterday, Mr. Davis (with whom I have appeared as a sparring partner many times over the past decade) pointed out that in an earlier age Democratic Party insiders chose as the Party's nominee Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Adlai Stevenson, and John F. Kennedy.
As we pointed out here on Wednesday, Barack Obama - following Tuesday's "Potomac Primary" has assumed the lead in the actual delegate count.
The way the delegates are awarded in these Democratic primarie, unless one candidate gets 80% of the votes the awards tend to be 54% to 46% one way or the other.
Thus, according to CNN's count, Barak Obama has 1,096 elected delegates (of the 2,025 needed) while Hillary Clinton has 977 - 119 fewer and that ration isn't likely to change much.
While Super Delegates have no requirement to support any candidate prior to the opening of the Convention, CNN reports Obama has the pledged support of 157 and Clinton has 234 closing the gap between them to only 42 delegates.
As there are 796 Super Delegates and only 391 have pledge to support one of the candidates, that leaves 405 Super Delegates sitting around waiting for offers.
So long as Hillary Clinton stays inside of 405 delegates, the Supers can turn the tide.
But, they won't just swoop onto the floor and wrest the nomination away from Obama because that would cause a riot in Denver. Here's what they will do: You may remember that Michigan and Florida were stripped of their delegates because they ignored the DNC dictum that thou shalt not have a primary election earlier than February 5.
They did and Hillary won both.
The Clintons will arrange for their Super Delegates to reach down to the elected delegates who are members of the Rules and/or Credentials Committees over whom they have some control (If you are a sitting Democratic US Senator or Governor and you call an elected delegate from your state, that elected delegate will take your call).
The Super Delegates will instruct the elected delegates on those committees to seat delegations from Florida and Michigan proportionate to the votes Obama and Clinton received.
I guarantee you that the proportions will be just enough to give the nomination to Hillary.
And 1. The Clintons will be able to claim they had nothing to do with it.
2. The Supers will be able to claim they were just doing their jobs by not disenfranchising voters in two crucial states.
3. Just as you read, it is so complex that no one will be able to explain it in the required 12 seconds on television.
Sending Lanny Davis out yesterday to begin the process of inoculating Democrats against Super Delegate skullduggery is only the first step. Between now and August there will be a constant drumbeat that Michigan and Florida cannot be shut out and the Clintonistas will be working the phones to be certain everyone knows their role.
Or else.
On the GOP side, Mitt Romney's endorsement of John McCain (and the release of his delegates who are not bound under state law) will push McCain toward the 1,000 delegate number. On the Republican side 1,191 is the magic number to reach a majority.
Mike Huckabee, by refusing to leave the race, thus goes from running a quixotic and marginally heroic campaign against McCain, to being a laughing-stock or worse, a disloyal Republican.
Fox radio news just reported Rep. John Lewis will cast his superdelegate vote for Barack Obama. He had endorsed Hillary.
This will be a very interesting election.
If Hillary grabs the nomination out from under Obama, do you think it's possible McCain will persuade Obama to switch parties and agree to be his running mate? LOL
As crazy as this election year is turning out to be, nothing would surprise me.
I think that’s the interesting sort of asymmetry to the super delegate quandary.
If you put yourself in their position - they could vote Obama and fear a Clinton victory and the retribution that would follow, but... If they tell Clinton they will vote for her and then simply vote Obama anyway on the floor - Clinton will not know until it’s too late. And if Obama is the nominee, even if he doesn’t get to the White House he gets to pick the party chairman. Thus those that voted Obama anyway would not have much to fear.
I really shouldn’t be spinning so many brain cells handicapping the internal mechanics of the Democratic Party - but it is paramount, to me, that Hillary be defeated. All the better if it is in the primaries.
Hope this is correct. She will then lose to McCain because even Dems will smell the rat at election time.
Ah, telling the big, big lies.
It's the Rodham-Clinton way, n'est ce pas?
Yes, but you're not a career politician.... or are you? :-)
Huck was a joke from the start and it looks like he doesn't mind continuing to be a joke.The extra chromosome crowd is still occupied attacking Romney but McCain has to let the Huck voters play out and do like the rest of us and figure out who is the best of the lot.
A related cross link:
Superdelegates get campaign cash (Culture of Bribery)
boston.com ^ | 02/14/2008 | Foon Rhee via Drudge
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1970665/posts
am i reading this wrong ?
They are switching like crazy now. Those who switch to go to Obama will give others more nerve to do so too.
The Clintons are finding out who their friends are now..
I finally found something to like about the Rev. Al Sharpton
John Lewis is spoiling the plan by publicly announcing his backing of Obama “in hopes of preventing a fight at the Democratic convention.” I’d much rather Hillary be surprised by the defections. Lewis can be assured of a (Hillary) fight at the convention. Perhaps he meant preventing a fight in the streets.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1970658/posts
There won’t be any riots in Denver. Blacks might be angry, but there aren’t many in Denver, and there won’t be huge busloads coming in. Hillary’s Hispanic plan might pay off.
[There won’t be any riots in Denver. Blacks might be angry, but there aren’t many in Denver, and there won’t be huge busloads coming in. Hillary’s Hispanic plan might pay off.]
Don’t make the mistake of assuming Blacks will be her only source of hostility (and Denver has a high dose of them for the Rocky Mountain region). The communist funded anti-war crowd won’t be happy either. In paying close attention to his hoards of mindless followers, I’d guess that they possess 98.7% of all privately owned blowhorns.
Wow, that was some very disturbing reading. I completely agree they will do ANYTHING to win, it’s going to be ugly and the Obama backers will let her slide right in too, it will be a real shame. What we don’t hear and know about is all of the “background work” that is happening to make the Florida/Michigan delegates count. It will be a historically disturbing scene for the nation to witness at the Democratic Convention, and the Clinton Machine is well positioned to pull it off.
Nice...first the Dems defrauded the Reps by crossing over in our primaries, now they have to figure out how to defraud their own defrauded delegates....LOL...Hello
That's bogus. Hillary broke her promise and stayed on the ballot. Obama played by the rules. There's no way of knowing what the outcome would have been if Obama had campaigned or just left his name on the ballot. I don't think this will fly. Certainly not with black voters.
You are right, it’s not just blacks on board with Obama. It is a whole lot of liberal whites, and they will be mad if Hilary snatches victory from the jaws of defeat.
I hope FReepers read the liberal sites from time to time. You think we have issues with McCain? The liberals are berserk over this Hilary/Obama thing.
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