Heading into Super Tuesday, the mainstream media seems to be abuzz with talk of just how close the Democratic nomination contest could be all the way into the convention.
(Considering how the polls look in some of the larger Super Tuesday states, I’m not quite as optimistic….but a week is a long time in the current political climate.)
Part of that buzz is over the role of superdelegates in the Democrats’ rules. From a New York Times article on the subject:
National party rules give special status to a select political group, including members of Congress, governors, members of the Democratic National Committee, past party officials, and former elected leaders like Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter and their vice presidents, Al Gore and Walter F. Mondale.
Officially designated unpledged party leader and elected official delegates, members of this high-powered group are usually known by a catchier term: superdelegates.[...]
At the Democratic National Convention in August, there would be 796 superdelegates, assuming the convention sustains the national party’s penalties against Florida and Michigan for moving their primaries earlier in the year. In total, there are 4,049 Democratic delegates; to win the nomination, a candidate must secure 2,025 of them.[...]
Superdelegates were created after the 1980 election and were intended to restore some of the power over the nomination process to party insiders, keeping a lid on the zeal of party activists. They immediately came in handy for Mr. Mondale in his 1984 presidential bid, when they gave him a cushion over the upstart campaign of Gary Hart.
If the Hillary-Obama race remains tight that long, superdelegates would easily form the swing constituency…and in a sense, could render all the primary races effectively moot (except in their roles of weeding out the also-rans and ineffective campaigners).
If that happens… does anyone want to take a bet as to how quickly supporters of the un-nominated candidate will start drawing comparisons between the Superdelegate Cabal and the Supreme Court’s deciding the 2000 elections?
However, I suppose there is one advantage to having superdelegates. Consider the Republicans, where, if Huckabee and Giuliani don’t fade, and McCain and Romney keep battling for the front-runner position, it’s entirely possible that no candidate could achieve a majority of the delegates.
The GOP doesn’t have as many superdelegates in their process.
Without the Superdelegate Cabal at work, I wonder how many ballots it might take… to name the GOP nominee under such a scenario.