Will Super-Duper Delegates Change The Race?

There have been a few super-duper delegates so far. Will more of them announce themselves and when they do, will they totally change the primary race?

What makes a person a super-duper delegate? Simple. A super-duper delegate's vote is worth two votes.

This is not a category the DNC has created.

It's a category that is awkward, that can and will cause discomfort and epithets.

But it is very likely that this mutated form of superdelegate will probably begin to become more common in the coming days.

One might speculate that they will come out "for the sake of the party," but I think they'll do it because timing is everything.

As Obama takes the reins, running the Democratic Party, as its presidential nominee, Clinton backers will inevitably lose power and fall in status.

Some of the superdelegates backing Clinton, seeing the writing on the wall, will jump ship and move to Obama. Already, some superdelegates have become super-duper delegates, taking the leap, virtually giving two advantage points to Obama -- Joe Andrew, former DNC chair, rep. John Lewis, of Atlanta, and Nancy Larson, a Minnesota DNC member.

Becoming a super-duper delegate will not be easy. The Clintons-- Hillary, Bill, Chelsea, have made sure of that. The Clinton supporters who leave the fold have been coddled and regularly attended to. But the floodgates have been opened. Sure, there are a lot of superdelegates waiting in the wings for the last primary vote to be cast June.

But there will be some superdelegates who metamorphose into super duper delegates because they have had enough of the Clinton strategists' scorched earth tactics. There will be some who do the switch because they believe it will position them better politically in the new DNC Obama firmament's hierarchy.

There will be some super-duper delegates who declare for Obama because they think the time has come to end the internecine conflict in the Democratic Party -- or at least that's what they'll say.

One thing that is very, VERY unlikely, that we have not seen at all, will be superdelegates going in the opposite direction, becoming super -- duper delegates for Hillary.

Today, Hillary holds a 14 superdelegate lead. My guess is in the coming days, Obama will overtake Hillary. He'll do it with the help of superdelegates who finally declare, but also, with the help of the super-duper delegates. Each announcement by a super-duper delegate will be a body slam to the Clinton campaign, but also a source of gathering momentum for the Democratic presidential nominee.

It may just turn out that the superdelegates who waited actually lost their opportunity to make the big splash, to maximize the influence of their decision. If just eight or ten superdelegates make the leap, Obama will take away the lead from the last significant numeric bastion Hillary held.

At some point, the Democratic party will have to come together.

If 25 or 50 of Hillary's supporters take the super-duper leap, it will send the message Obama has been waiting for. If the superdupers declare their switch this week, the rest of the primaries could become an exercise in futility for Hillary.

Perhaps the Clintons will see it as betrayal. But there will be many in the Democratic Party who will see the switching as the facing of the inevitable sooner rather than later. This is one way that superdelegates can start the healing within the Democratic Party. That will enable Obama and all the Democratic surrogates to start targeting John McCain and the GOP's policies, instead of Rev. Wright, the word 'bitter' and the phrase "more proud" vs. "proud."

I believe that the superdelegates who become super-duper delegates will be the smart ones, the courageous ones. They'll catch a little flack, but at this point, they'll be acting as leaders, making the decision that many superdelegates who have not yet declared yet cannot make -- because their state hasn't voted yet, because of their leadership positions, like Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Howard Dean, Jimmy Carter (though he's telegraphed his preference) and a number of the Presidential primary candidates.

This race is over. The super-duper delegates now have the power to end it in the most painless, least acrimonious way possible. Knowing when to cut bait, when to accept defeat, when to change direction -- that is the characteristic of a strong leader. The super-duper delegates will be exercising that leadership. That's the way the should be characterized. Even Judas invoking James Carville has inhaled enough coffee aroma at this point to know that calling names, at this point, is pointless and counterproductive.

Bring on the super-duper delegates. Their time has arrived.

Read more reactions from Huffington Post bloggers to the Indiana and North Carolina primary results

Crossposted from OpEdNEws.com

Comments

[Sundialsvc4]

(Shrug...) It's a business, Rob. Nothing more than a business.

Three hand-picked so-called candidates, US Senators all, each one carefully schooled to pledge allegiance to the Money and sent on their way. A little shell-game to be played until November, when the paperless-ballot computers stuff themselves and "elect" John McCain. Meanwhile, an amusement for the populace; for the plebes; before the War.

Hundreds of millions of dollars of media-money will buy you an exclusive. Third-party candidates are swamped and drowned-out. But you know, on the very-slender possibility that the voting-machines might have a little "hiccup," third-party candidates are really the only hope that we have at this point.

The Congressional Librarians are faithful, and at http://thomas.loc.gov they carefully record the fact that, if your "choices" are these three, it's just a fool's choice not worth paying the slightest bit of attention to. If things remain as they are, the Constitutional system of government that was bequeathed to us in the 1780's has been conclusively proved to be inadequate; to have failed us all.

[Danny]

Rob,

Here are my two cents on the election --

WE MUST:

Do away with the Super-Delegates -- who elected them? Why do they matter? ( No other country has "Super-Delegates" or equivalent !) We need universal suffrage.

make voting day a holiday (most countries do this, or vote on the weekend)

establish national standards for voting procedure (all other countries do this)

use paper ONLY ballots, no machines of any kind (most countries do this)

have ballots counted openly BY HAND by multipartisan groups of citizens (most precincts are small enough so that the counting can be done quickly -- and most countries do this)

encourage the formation of other parties than the two major parties (yes, we have the Green and Libertarian but their voices are squashed, unlike in other countries)

AND, most importantly, allow INSTANT RUN-OFF VOTING so that the smaller parties get a chance to thrive (yes, this is how other countries vote).

If we don't do this, we will continue to pretend to be a democracy.

[WAstateliberal]

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

[Rob Kall - Huffpost Blogger]

See Rob Kall's Profile

Agreed. And while we're at it, let's clean up the crazy primary schedule. But this year, we are stuck with the mess. Superduper delegates are the best hope for ending this sooner rather than later.

[Orlando]

Doesn't this mean that a handful of delegates will decide who the nominee is?

With the Clintons legendary political maneuvering, payoffs and willingness to put ambition ahead of legality, it seems that this is the best case scenario for them. They only have to put pressure on a few hundred people to win the nomination.

Nice try Barrack, but it's hard to fight a decades old political machine.

We should scrap the electorial college and go to, "one person, one vote" (WITH A PAPER TRAIL).