There's another aspect of this though, which is in the war of perceptions. I agree that if Sanders clearly won the majority of elected delegates, there would be significant pressure on the superdelegates to go with the will of the majority.
However, right now, in the war of perceptions, the superdelegates are being invoked in some media to say that Clinton is way ahead, even though Sanders is ahead in terms of elected delegates. So, for example, the NYT reporting on New Hampshire showed Clinton way ahead on delegates, even though Sanders won. And the NYT doesn't report a figure for "elected delegates." This is why the pushback that MoveOn and others are doing is important now - to politically discount and push back against the idea that the superdelegates could overrule the elected majority. Here's an example of how the NYT is presenting things: === http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/us/elections/primary-calendar-and-results.html Delegates Won Clinton Sanders Total 394 44 Superdelegates* 362 8 Iowa 23 21 New Hampshire 9 15 *Party leaders who are free to support any candidate. === Note that they could do a subtotal of "elected delegates" by adding Iowa and New Hampshire. That would look like this: Clinton Sanders Elected delegates 32 36 i.e., it would show Sanders ahead. Robert Naiman Policy Director Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org [email protected] (202) 448-2898 x1 On Thu, Feb 11, 2016 at 4:42 PM, Jean-Christophe Helary < [email protected]> wrote: > A bit of reading here and there indicated that superdelegates are only 15% > of the total vote and even though they are not bound by the popular vote > they still are in a way since they are mostly elected officials who would > feel a lot of heat if they decided against the vote outcome. > > But let's just look at the figures. 15% is about 700 out of 4500, which > means that a 2250/1550 split (which is pretty much what NH was) is enough > to make them irrelevant and even a 55/45 split in the popular vote would > only require a small majority of them to follow the popular vote to get the > nomination. > > Clinton may be a powerful politician (and lobbyists would certainly > pressure a lot of superdelegates to follow her lead) but unlike the > political heist you describe below, HRC's nomination against the popular > vote does not look like a politically probable outcome. > > Jean-Christophe > > > 2016/02/12 4:59、Louis Proyect <[email protected]> のメール： > > > > Although I plan to vote for Jill Stein, I sympathize with his supporters > > who are repelled by the underhanded tactics of Hillary Clinton and her > > mouthpieces. Besides the constant barrage of propaganda from the likes > > of Paul Krugman and Thomas Friedman, there are institutional barriers to > > him becoming the DP candidate for president, especially the > > “superdelegates” who are free to vote for Clinton even if she loses a > > primary as was the case with New Hampshire. Despite being in a dead heat > > with Clinton in Iowa (and on the losing side arguably through fraud > > orchestrated by her minions) and having won in New Hampshire, the > > delegate count is 394 delegates for Clinton, both super and earned > > through the ballot and only 42 for Sanders. > > > > The superdelegates for Clinton are a kind of rogue’s gallery for the DP > > (which I suppose is a kind of redundancy.) Like Andrew Cuomo, the CNN > > reporter, and his brother Mario who is the neoliberal dirtbag governor > > of NY state. Historically the superdelegates were a reaction to the > > hiccup of democracy that emerged in the DP during the 1960s > > radicalization. In 1968 the DP convention nominated Hubert Humphrey for > > president even though the delegate count for Robert F. Kennedy was 393.5 > > and 258 for Eugene McCarthy. The combined total for the two antiwar > > (sort of, anyhow) candidates was 651.3 while Humphrey had 561.5. With > > Kennedy’s death, the only fair outcome would have been a McCarthy > > nomination but LBJ pulled strings to make Humphrey the nominee. > > > > full: > > > https://louisproyect.org/2016/02/11/democracy-the-democratic-party-and-superdelegates/ > > _______________________________________________ > > pen-l mailing list > > [email protected] > > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l >
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