Democratic Party May Dump Superdelegates
Seems like only yesterday that the entire nation was thrilling to the sturm und drang of the Democratic Party presidential primary process. Remember that nonsense? Michigan and Florida had their delegates denied! Texas had some three-headed demon-cow thingy called a primacaucus, which no one understood. Delegates were awarded proportionally, based upon voting numbers, a fact which escaped sage-genius and microtrending bridge troll Mark Penn. And somehow, the whole mess culminated in some horrible dust-up at a DNC meeting in Woodley Park, where the only thing everyone could agree on was that Sam Stein needed to be yelled at, repeatedly, while eating a sandwich.
It's impossible to look back on those halcyon days and not wish that they would soon come again, especially that sandwich, because it looked delicious. Well, those monsters at the DNC are aiming to wreck a large part of what made last year's presidential primaries so downright magical. From The Note:
One year after the country got an in-depth lesson on "superdelegates," the Democratic Party may consider doing away with them in the future.
Nooo! Surely this can't be happening! If only because superdelegacy is basically a stupid perk of being a top dog in the Democratic party hierarchy, an honorary title that allows the "some" to feel more important than the "many." Repealing a cliquish privilege? In Washington, DC? Whoever heard of such a thing? There had better be a good reason!
Touching on what may prove to be one of the more contentious issues considered by the DNC, one presenter, Democratic Party activist and Harvard University lecturer and former superdelegate Elaine Kamarck, suggested that it may be time to completely eliminate superdelegates since most of those party leaders clearly determined their role in 2008 to be one of ratifying the decision made by voters in primaries and caucuses.
"We can probably let go of the superdelegates," said Kamarck."Their deliberative role," she added, "has in fact been supplanted by a very very public process."
Ahh. I get it. Being a superdelegate was all fun and games until there actually came a time when it suddenly mattered. Is a perk really a perk if it comes with responsibility? Surely not. And shucking responsibility? Well, that's even more Classic Washington than accruing pointless and inane honorifics!
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First Posted: 06-29-09 12:56 PM | Updated: 06-29-09 01:39 PM