USA Today casts a hard – and somewhat jaundiced – eye on the Democratic party super delegates and the gyrations and machinations the Obama and Clinton campaigns are going through to secure their votes. It is not a really pretty picture.
What do former president Bill Clinton, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and 21-year-old Marquette University student Jason Rae have in common? All are "super delegates" to the Democratic National Convention this summer in Denver.
If neither Barack Obama nor Hillary Clinton emerges from the primaries and caucuses with a clear majority of regular delegates, these super delegates — mostly elected officials and members of the Democratic National Committee — could play an enormous and increasingly controversial role in picking the party's nominee for president.
Each of these super delegates counts the same as regular delegates, which are allocated on the basis of the balloting in each state. The supers will make up nearly 20% of the vote at the convention. And each one has as much say as about 10,000 voters.
For some of those voters, the power of these pooh-bahs, whether former presidents or former Senate pages who've never voted, might come as a shock. After turning out at the polls in record numbers, they could find that the decision on whom to nominate belongs to a bunch of party insiders……
…..Rae, who became a DNC member at age 17, has already had breakfast with Chelsea Clinton and a phone call from her father. Let's hope he doesn't end up with an ambassadorship before this is over.
I wish USA Today hadn't given the campaigns that particular idea. Both campaigns are funneling money to super delegates (Obama being the larger contributer). Regardless of how this all turns out, there is more than a whiff of an unsavory aroma coming from the Democrat's nomination process.
I sometimes wonder why I am so cynical about politics. Thanks for reminding me . . .