The Tyranny of Super-Delegates

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Last night, Barack Obama's stirring victory in Iowa was also a good night for our democracy. The turnout broke records and young people – who were mobilized and organized – participated in unprecedented numbers. And now that Iowans have spoken – the first citizens in the nation to do so – here's the Democratic delegate count for the top three candidates (2,025 delegates are needed to secure the nomination):

Clinton – 169

Obama – 66

Edwards – 47

"Huh?" you say. "vanden Heuvel, you made a MAJOR typo."

In fact, those numbers are correct: the third-place finishing Sen. Hillary Clinton now has over twice as many delegates as Sen. Obama, and more than three times as many delegates as the second-place candidate, Sen. John Edwards. Why? Because the Democratic Party uses an antiquated and anti-democratic nominating system that includes 842 "super-delegates" – un-pledged party leaders not chosen by the voters, free to support the candidate of their choice, and who comprise more than forty percent of the delegates needed to win the nomination. Many have already announced the candidate they will support.

In a clear attempt to protect the party establishment, this undemocratic infrastructure was created following George McGovern's landslide defeat in 1972. It was designed to prevent a nominee who was "out of sync with the rest of the party," Northeastern University political scientist William Mayer told MSNBC. Democratic National Committee member Elaine Kamarck called it a "sort of safety valve."

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut?bid=7&pid=266130

[C_U_L8R]

1. They wouldn't dare

nominate someone without the popular vote would they?
That's so... republican.

[dbackjon]

2. Why not

People here are proclaiming Obama the nominee with the vote of 37% of 220,000 voters in ONE state. How Republican is THAT!

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3. I remember 1968 when we first made them let us vote on it.

They would dare, if they thought they could get away with it. After all that is how they did it for a very long time. The super-delegates were a sop to the party hacks, but it still can be an effective anti-democratic weapon.

[Va Lefty]

4. Didn't we learn our lesson with this in '84

Mondale basically won the nomination with super delegates. We all saw how well that worked out.

[DemCam]

5. But then...

after all there was no history-making going on there. There was just Fritz.