[RP TownTalk] does this seem democratic?
Rob Oppenheim
oppenheim at email.com
Sat Feb 2 07:24:07 UTC 2008
Wikipedia says: "The Democratic Party is often criticized during
election cycles for conducting primary elections in a non-democratic
fashion, since superdelegates are appointed by the party and are not
obligated to support the candidate chosen by the voters."
MSNBC explains that 40 years ago Party Bosses had huge power in picking
the candidate, then in the 70's the Democratic Party went with an all
grass-roots approach. But were not happy with the result: "Then George
McGovern, the leading anti-Vietnam war liberal, won the 1972 nomination.
McGovern turned out to be a disaster as a presidential candidate,
winning only one state and the District of Columbia. So without
reverting to the days of party bosses like Buckley, the Democrats
decided to guarantee that elected officials would have a bigger voice in
the nomination."
You can read more here http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18277678/
In round numbers, Hillary has lined up about 200 super delegates to
Obama's 100 (out of a total of roughly 800 super delegates). The exact
numbers differ depending on who is doing the counting, and some super
delegates may change their minds and many have not announced who they
will support. A break down of the numbers is available here
http://demconwatch.blogspot.com/2008/01/superdelegate-list.html
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