Letters to the Editor
Ricardo Malocchio
Published Letters: 151 Editor's Choice: 2
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It's very simple: if the Party installs as its nominee a candidate with fewer pledged delegates, the Party is going down.
[Read the article: Super stuck!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If HRC rolls into the convention with more pledged delegates than Obama, every Obama supporter must accept defeat and support the nominee. Anything less would be sour grapes at best, and utterly anti-Democratic at worst.
If, however, the Party installs as its nominee a candidate with fewer pledged delegates, Chicago-68 will look like a garden party and the Democrats will have no better claim on democratic principles than Robert Mugabe.
The calculus is so simple it's hardly worth discussing. The only hope for a Democratic victory is a united party in the Fall. The only hope for a united party is a candidate that has won the nomination, fairly and squarely, abiding by the agreed-upon rules, and without the assistance of backroom wheeling-and-dealing by the Party elite.
So get out there and drum up votes for your candidate.
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@Susan
[Read the article: Super stuck!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Certainly, you're not the first to express that sentiment, and in most areas you cite I completely agree.
But I sympathize with the Superdelegates' plight a bit more than most (even as I question there reason to exist at all). If I were among the party elite and my vote counted more than everyone else's, I would consider that an awfully heavy burden to shoulder. My understanding of my obligation is simple: I could not be a party to installing as our nominee a candidate with fewer pledged delegates than the other candidate. That would render the primary system a sham. We may as well have just installed our nominee before it began.
If it was absolutely clear to me which candidate that would be, I would go public. Otherwise, I would wait until the entire public has voted. Even though I know this extended process is hurting us.
Yes, I understand that as a superdelegate I would have the power to thwart the popular will. But I remember those occasions when we have done so. And I remember the results. I remember the reforms that were put into place after 1968 to make the party more (small-d) democratic. And I remember the rollback of those reforms in 1980 that gave the party elites more power (including the creation of the superdelegates).
But I would reject any suggestion that I should thwart the popular will. The calculus is so simple it's hardly worth discussing. The only hope for a Democratic victory is a united party in the Fall. The only hope for a united party in the Fall is a candidate that has won the nomination, fairly and squarely, abiding by the agreed-upon rules, and without the assistance of backroom wheeling-and-dealing by the Party elite.
So get out there and drum up votes for your candidate. Whoever rolls into Denver with the most pledged delegates will win the nomination. If not - trust me - there will be hell to pay, and it will be far worse than simply losing a single election.
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dfield, your analysis is largely unassailable...
[Read the article: Super stuck!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...but so long as HRC has even the narrowest pathway to victory, it is entirely up to her as to how far she's willing to go and what tactics she's willing to employ. Going negative is a double-edged sword. Although she's managed to drive up Obama's negatives significantly, her's have gone up much more and are even beginning to approach GWB's.
I'll say it again, if she wins it fair and square, playing by the rules, and without appealing to the party elites to overturn the pledged delegate count, she'll get my vote and I suspect the votes of nearly all Democrats. And that might just be enough to defeat McCain.
Most of you are quite politically connected. You folks didn't need McClatchy breaking the news in the MSM to know what's going on beneath the surface. In the face of repeated attempts to change the rules of the game, to redefine the metrics leading to nomination, as well as other, even less savory tactics, progressive voters, young voters, and African-American voters are joining ranks to make their voices clearly heard utilizing the usual methods (the letters to Pelosi and Dean, the petitions, etc.).
However, in the highly unlikely event that the party ignores those interests, overturns the primary process, and awards the nomination to the candidate with fewer pledged delegates, we will ensure that whomever that candidate is will not win the general election. We are process Democrats. Preserving the republic and (small-d) democracy is more important to us than any one candidate and any one election cycle.