College junior Jason Rae's cell phone is blowing up, not with invites to tonight's kegger from the local sorority at Marquette University in Wisconsin, but with calls from the likes of Chelsea Clinton, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Sen. John Kerry and former President Bill Clinton.
Rae is one of 796 superdelegates, or free agents, who are not required to support the choice of primary and caucus voters for the Democratic nomination. And he's only 21 and has never voted in a presidential election.
And now everyone who is anyone has him on speed dial. On the eve of the South Carolina, Rae was out to dinner with friends when he got a call around 6pm. A voice on the other end said, "Hey Jason, its Bill here." And yesterday morning he sat down for a breakfast meeting with possible two-time first daughter, Chelsea Clinton.
Not that we doubt that Rae is a devoted party activist. He was elected as DNC member of the Wisconsin state party in June of 2004, he was just 17-years-old at the time, running against and defeating the president of the state firefighter's union, who is also a state legislator. On my show last night, Rae told us he's been riding his bike to county party meetings since he was about 14-years-old, volunteered for his first campaign at 15, and made his first donation at 16.
But come on, no offense to Jason here, but this is nuts! His vote has the impact of almost 10,000 voters! So that's why I'm calling all the superdelegates to step aside and support whoever the primary and caucus voters have chosen, before this becomes a purely political battle fought behind closed doors or on the cell phone lines in college town Wisconsin.
More on Dan Abrams.
The Obama camp is hypocritical on the issue of super-delegates because in this case they want to "break the DNC rules" and go by how important it is that the "voters be heard".
However, on the Michigan and Florida, case they want to "go by the rules" and disenfranchise all the people (millions) that voted in those primaries.
In a similar hypocritical position, they want "go by the rules" for the caucuses, which only 1-10 percent of the voters are practically able to participate (typically thousands in a state as opposed to millions in FL/MI) to count as much as a full voting primary.
The Obama camp is simply cherry-picking the rules to their advantage and are contemptuous to the rest of us. They are trying by bullying with the help of the press such as yourself, by demeaning this and other delegates to impose their will on the party. This is typical of their Republican attitudes fomented by their new-found Republican caucus supporters, that the rest of the Democrats find so offensive and will place a barrier to resolving this situation in respectable manner.
It is clear that you are using your big press megaphone to aid and abet the bullying of the Democratic delegates. You are part of the problem and should be called out for this activity just as David Shuster was.
Marline Downs
Sumter, SC
marline@sc.rr.com
So we need to be consistant regardless of our favorites. Follow all the rules or count all the votes. All of 'em. one person one vote. We are at risk of 2.3 Million people and no votes in MI and FL.
Florida and MI. were told if they held their election early, they would not get any delegates. THEN the states went ahead and voted anyway violating the rules that had been clearly laid out. It's not as though the states innocently held elections and then had their votes revoked. The DNC even offered to pay the cost of holding their elections at a later date- or to do a "do-over", now. The states have refused.
To punish Obama for following the DNC's rules by taking his name off the ballot, and for honoring his pledge not to campaign in these states, is reprehensible. (and a national ad, run on cable channels- that he tried to stop from airing in Florida, is not the equivalent of campaigning there)
Both get together and compare notes. Condliffe is going to vote for Obama and Bell will vote for Hillary Clinton cancelling each other out.
We here highly resolve that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the 796 SUPERDELEGATES, by the 796 SUPERDELEGATES, for the 796 SUPERDELEGATES, shall not perish from the earth.
(And Mrs. Clinton's Corporate Campaign Contributions WILL NOT influence her decision-making.)
BARACK OBAMA for President!
Stay safe, healthy and happy,
Love, Loretta
Marline Downs
Sumter, SC
marline@sc.rr.com
As a moderate Republcian this is what you need to do to win in November.
HRC - will energize the Right-wing base like no-ones business. She will get demolished.
BO - will be ripped to shreds because truthfully for all his talk of hope he has done really nothing in the Senate.
The one bill he introduced failed due to his being to busy running for President to submit the redraft in time last October. ( the nuclear energy bill he touted as passing! and interestingly the Nuclear Power plant company in Indiana has contributed $200k to his campaigns ).
So what should the super delegates do if there is not a clear winner?
Abstain abstain abstain until the delegates are free to vote on thier own in 3rd or 4th rounds?
Nope.
Vote Gore, Gore, Gore until the delegates are freed from their obligations and get the clue that GORE would probably demolish McCain.
And Gore would accept the nomination too.
Obama supporters wouldn't hate, Clinton supporters will have to accept. And actually i suspect the whole Democratic Party would love to unit behind Gore.
Basically, the super-delegate vote should be used in the case of a pledged delegate tie. Also, the DNC should fund a new primary for Michigan and Florida.
Anything else is not representative of how our election system works. Otherwise, slug it out with the existing rules.
BTW, the electoral college is a fine system. It prevents one state full of mind-controlled zealots from having a disproportionate impact on other states.
http://nymag.com/news/politics/30634/
It certainly is one more example of how Obama has misrepresented his underdog status. Reading thru that article shows this was a dogfight 11 months ago and it has been close to a stalemate ever since.
Thankfully, the MSM appears to slowed down on their ooohing and aaahing about hope and change and is starting to scratch under Obama's surface. It is becoming increasingly obvious that there is nothing under the surface except ducking controversial votes and lobbying reforms about whether one has to be standing or sitting at a dinner in order to contribute to a candidate.
Just askin'.
one can debate the fairness of using one voting method over another, but ultimately, those pledged delegates represent how that state voted in the nomination process. the super-delegates, on the other hand, are not required to represent anyone's vote but their own.
As for what have they done for the democratic party, superdelegates earn that position by being party activists, fundraising for the party, and actually being the party's elected officials. Clearly, none of these people have done anything.