Obama, Clinton Target Super Delegates
The conventional wisdom was the the Republican Party was so divided that there was a chance to witness a brokered convention, or at least see some hard-slogging delegate trench warfare. After a string of victories Sen. John McCain is close to sealing the nomination up.
The Democratic side is where the real action is. After Super Tuesday Sen. Clinton had a slight lead, but after a string of caucuses and primaries the last few days Sen. Obama now has a delegate lead. That lead could stretch with the “Potomac Primaries” (Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C.) tomorrow.
Whoever wins those contests will still be in a very close race for the Democratic nomination. That’s where the super delegates become all-important.
The Huffington Post is making itself useful for once with two contrast pieces on this unique element to how the Democrats pick a nominee. Ari Emanuel, Rep. Rahm Emanuel’s brother takes the condescending route by writing,
I gave up letting my brother dictate my life since he determined whether he got the top or bottom bunk in our bedroom back in Chicago.
Ari brings up the boogie man that is Florida 2000 and compares the current situation to that one. Fluff and scare tactics: typical Democratic communications strategies.
What was interesting was Ari demanding no “shenanigans regarding delegates from Michigan and Florida.” That’s because “The party and the candidates all agreed that the delegates coming out of those states would not be seated. Unringing that bell after the fact and by fiat would be an outrage.” Yet the party and the candidates all knew about the role of the super delegates. Why wouldn’t “unringing that bell” be as much of an outrage?
Add inconsistent logic to the list of Ari Emanuel’s persuasion skills.
Donnie Fowler, Don Fowler’s son, (gee, yesterday must have been Nepotism Day on The Huffington Post) also doesn’t want a super delegate relative dictating who the Democratic nominee will be. Yet he isn’t worried a (non-tobacco) smoke-filled room of insiders will impose its will on the rest of the party. Outside of the elected Congressmen and Governors the super delegates are die-hard party activists. Fowler notes these same people made Howard Dean the DNC chairman. That surely shows these people are establishment figures.
Who is a typical non-elected super delegate? They’re someone like Marquette University student Jason Rae who hasn’t ever voted in a Presidential race, but gets calls from Bill Clinton and Sen. John Kerry.
Bill called last Friday, just as Rae was headed to dinner with friends, hoping he’d back Hillary. When John called, suggesting Obama, Rae was driving to the grocery store with a friend.
“I said, ‘Hi, Senator Kerry, how are you?’ ” said Rae, noting his friend “looked at me, like, ‘Are you for real?’ ”
Yes. And for real when former (and possibly future) first daughter Chelsea called. And former Secretary of State Madeline Albright. Both were backing Clinton.
“It’s not a huge deal on campus,” said Rae, active in student government. “I’m just a normal student like everyone else. In my private life, I’m a super delegate.”
If the Obama-Clinton race stays close Rae will want to think about turning his phone off most of the time and letting the voice mail do all the work. He could get very popular.
After all the Democratic contests Patrick Ruffini projects Obama with a narrow delegate lead no matter if the Michigan and Florida delegations are counted. It means both campaigns are in the hard slog for unexpected victories to create momentum. Neither one of these candidates wants to deal with a nomination decided by super delegates. Although neither would deny themselves the nomination if gotten in that manner.
UPDATE: Yesterday morning Justin Rae had breakfast with Chelsea Clinton. He should be getting more attention as Wisconsin holds its primary 02.19.
Why wouldn’t “unringing that bell” be as much of an outrage?
There’s a simple reason why counting the Michigan and Florida delegates at this point would be a load of crap:
When the party decided to strip those states of their seated delegates (and we can debate the boneheadedness of that move separately), all the candidates agreed to play by party rules and have their names removed from the ballot…except Hillary. Michigan basically had Hillary and “undecided” on their ballot. Had the delegates not been stripped from Michigan, who knows who would have won? Maybe Hillary, sure, but since the Democrats proportionally divide their delegates, who knows how many Obama would have gotten? Or Edwards? Who knows how many voters stayed home because A) their candidate of choice was off the ballot or B) they thought their vote wouldn’t count anyway because of the delegate situation? Too many ifs. The rules were set before the primary; to go back and change them now would be unfair to the voters of Michigan, to say nothing of Obama.
The super delegate thing is weird, for sure, but everyone knew the rules with them right off the bat–they vote for whoever they want and can change their mind up until the convention. Wacky it may be, but at least the rules didn’t change midstream.