"Pick me, pick me...I want to be a superdelegate!"

[Kiwon]

Superdelegates get campaign cash

Many of the superdelegates who could well decide the Democratic presidential nominee have already been plied with campaign contributions by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, a new study shows.

"While it would be unseemly for the candidates to hand out thousands of dollars to primary voters, or to the delegates pledged to represent the will of those voters, elected officials serving as superdelegates have received about $890,000 from Obama and Clinton in the form of campaign contributions over the last three years," the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics reported today.

About half the 800 superdelegates -- elected officials, party leaders, and others -- have committed to either Clinton or Obama, though they can change their minds until the convention.

Obama's political action committee has doled out more than $694,000 to superdelegates since 2005, the study found, and of the 81 who had announced their support for Obama, 34 had received donations totaling $228,000.

Clinton's political action committee has distributed about $195,000 to superdelegates, and only 13 of the 109 who had announced for her have received money, totaling about $95,000.

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/02/superdelegates.html

[red]

i really hate the idea of the superdelegate, i think its very undemocratic

what would happen if one canidate gets the majority of the popular vote, yet the other is selected because of the superdelegates?

everyones vote should count the same. one person should not be more important then 100,000 common americans

i think its BS

[packinpatland]

Explain exactly how a super delegate works.

[red]

well, you know what a delegate is right? like one state could be worth 40 delegates. think of them as points

so a state of say, 4 million voters would be worth maybe 40 points?

well a super delegate is a person of privilage that is also worth one point. 1 person=1 point in there case

so the super delegates vote counts a whole hell of a lot more then a "normal" american voter

the democrats came up with the idea of the SD to help keep control of the party. the problem is that they've given almost as much power to the SD a the rest of the country has as a whole

[Harlan Huckleby]

super delegates are on balance a bad idea. but so are caucuses, where only a small percentage of voters participate.

Super Delegates consist of current and past members of Congress, former governors, campaign managers. They probably have good judgement about who is electable and who would make a good president, so I can see the argument for them.

I'm more offended by caucuses than super delegates. Caucuses favor the campaigns that have money and organization to pack the local gymnasium with zealots. Highly motivated volunteers can also pack a caucus, as we saw with Mike Huckabee in Iowa. Most people aren't willing to give up several hours of their free time to stand around, and I think votes of people who are not so politically zealous should be counted.

[red]

i'll agree with that

and why we're at it, can we get rid of the freaking electoral college?

[Harlan Huckleby]

ya, I don't get it. why would we ever want to nominate or elect ANYBODY who doesn't win the popular vote? You can make all the arguments you want for the advantages of various checks and balances, but the elections only smell good in the end when the popular vote prevails.