Both Bernie Sanders And Obama Agree: The Role Of Superdelegates Must Be Changed

[Ichingcarpenter]

Both Bernie Sanders and President Obama agree that the role of superdelegates in the Democratic primary must change.

During an interview on CNN’s State Of The Union, Sen. Bernie Sanders again called for changes to the superdelegate system, “The point that I was making is, there’s something absurd, when I get 46 percent of the delegates that come from real contests, real elections, and 7 percent of the superdelegates. And the point that I made a few minutes after that is that some 400 of Hillary Clinton’s superdelegates came on board her campaign before anybody else announced.”

Sen. Sanders is far from alone in his calls to reform the role of superdelegates in the Democratic primary.

The debate over the place of superdelegates has been raging in the Democratic primary since 2008. The Obama/Clinton primary was a total fiasco thanks to fears that superdelegates would swing towards Clinton and narrow Obama’s delegate lead. For some reason that is only known to the DNC, they decided to keep the superdelegates instead of going to a system where the popular vote determines delegate allotment. That decision is the reason the Democratic Party is on track for more angst and chaos over superdelegates.


After President Obama won the Democratic nomination in 2008, a commission that he backed recommended that the rules be changed so that superdelegates are required to vote for the candidate assigned to them by the popular vote. The DNC ignored the recommendation of the commission that Obama backed and kept the current system in place.



http://www.politicususa.com/2016/05/22/bernie-sanders-obama-agree-role-superdelegates-changed.html

[underthematrix]

1. Did they change the rules DURING

the 2008 primary process? Was it changed between 2009 and 2015? Did Bernie know about the superdelegate structure before he registered as a Democrat in 2015? Bernie agreed to the process as it was in 2015, which was superdelegates could declare their support at any time for any candidate who had declared they were running.

Bernie had 41 SDs and now he has 39
HRC has 525 SDs

[uponit7771]

5. Only in Unicornia does this type of thinking exist, he's not the "clear frontrunner" of anything...

... except wishful thinking

[underthematrix]

9. You think Bernie is the frontrunner?

I don't understand how Bernie is the front runner if he has fewer PLEDGED delegates than HRC. How did you come to that conclusion?

[akbacchus_BC]

2. Honestly, super delegates have vested interest with a certain candidate, no wonder they endorse so

soon. If electoral reform is going to happen, get rid of the super delegates. They have no idea who the candidate is and should not endorsed! The electoral system is a frigging failure and it only helps the same old shit to happen all over again. This is how I feel and please feel free to report me to skinner et al!

[Arkansas Granny]

4. It may be that the current system of super delegates should be discarded, but

you don't do it in the middle of a race. Super delegates have been part of the process for decades and all candidates knew the process before they began their campaigns.

[moriah]

6. There is a need for superdelegates in a three-way race.

But in a close two-person primary, a tradition began in 2008 that superdelegates would not overturn the will of the people in pledged delegates.

In 2008, had Hillary attempted to make superdelegates vote on a "winner take all" stance, it would have made the final vote having only a 39.delegate difference. Because of the uncommitted Superdelegates being 71, they could have stolen the nomination from Obama. I haven't had time to do the math on what would have been the result if SDs had went porportionally to either delegate percentage or popular vote percentage.

With this primary not over yet, it's hard to say what the result would be this time, except that there are fewer superdelegates this year and far more pledged delegates, Hillary has won 26 states and territories already compared to Bernie's 20 (by delegates, so leaving Illinois a tie). Hillary only won 23 total in the entire 2008 primary, including NH and Nevada where it wasn't a delegate win, and MI/FL beauty contests).

I honestly think Bernie's best shot is to keep fighting for his vales and votes, and use that leverage to get the party platform and perhaps influence the Veep choice if he doesn't manage to pull an upstart and get ahead in pledged delegates. Even if some barfed to hear Clinton said she welcomed his input into the platform, goals, Cabinet, etc, I think that's very smart of her to make clear.

[JaneyVee]

7. Tad Devine created the superdelegate system.

[Ichingcarpenter]

8. I wish you would read this 2010 article that the super delegates over went Obama's wishes

DEMOCRATS TO KEEP CONTROVERSIAL SUPERDELEGATES
BY COLIN WOODARD ON 8/2/10 AT 9:00 AM

After Obama secured the party’s nomination, he urged the DNC to create a commission to examine superdelegates’ influence and other shortcomings in the nomination process. The Democratic Change Commission (whose members included Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, and House Majority Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina) took a tough stance. Superdelegates, it recommended, should be required to vote for a candidate assigned to them, based on the results of their state’s caucus or primary.

But the rules committee took a dim view of this proposal. While endorsing recommendations to dilute the superdelegates’ influence (mostly by increasing the number of ordinary delegates), it quietly nixed the redefinition of their voting powers at it July 10 meeting. How quietly? Enough that even some members of the change commission hadn’t yet heard about it when NEWSWEEK spoke to them last week.


“People ask: isn’t it enough for folks to have floor privileges and a hotel room and not have an actual vote?” says rules-committee co-chair James Roosevelt Jr., a grandson of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. “The answer is: what you’re doing is creating two classes of delegates, people with the vote and people without the vote. Clearly, the people at the grassroots level should be the predominant voice. But if you don’t give elected officials a real voice, they are basically second-class citizens.”

Political realities played a role as well, as any reforms have to be endorsed by the DNC, whose 447 members are all superdelegates. “The rules committee did not think that the full DNC would vote to take away their own voting rights,” says rules-committee member Elaine Kamarck, an expert on the presidential-nomination process at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government who has previously argued that superdelegates should be eliminated altogether. “It was always going to be difficult to pass this because you were asking a large group of people to vote against their own self-interest,” Kamarck adds. “Frankly, this was not a big enough issue with enough political pressure being put on the rules committee to accomplish that.”


http://europe.newsweek.com/democrats-keep-controversial-superdelegates-71649?rm=eu


The super delegates voted against Obama's wishes for reform.