It’s too bad David Macaulay (of The New Way Things Work fame) didn’t expand his expertise to politics. Right about now we could use some detailed diagramming of how on earth one goes from a barely known Illinois senator to the presumptive Democratic nominee of the President of the United States. We could especially use that diagram to explain what superdelegates have to do with any of this.
I promised in my last blog to explain delegates and superdelegates. So for all of you who are wondering what on earth all the hoopla was, now you’ll have an explanation with which to impress your friends. (Okay, it’s not that impressive. . .but maybe after this you can call yourself politically savvy!)
Delegates
Delegates are elected at the state or local levels and will attend the National Democratic Convention in Denver in August. They pledge their support for a particular candidate. These are the delegates that Obama had and Clinton didn’t. (Well, to be fair, it was really the superdelegates where Obama really won.) Although delegates pledge their support, they aren’t obligated to vote for that candidate. Consequently, candidates have the right to cancel delegates from the state list if their support is seen as wavering or inconsistent.
Superdelegates
Superdelegates are generally Democratic members of congress, governors, national committee members or party leaders (such as former Presidents for example). They are not obligated to pledge support for a candidate nor do they have to compete for the privelege of being a delegate–a candidate cannot remove them from the list of delegates.
The Florida/Michigan Debacle: The Abridged Version
Florida and Michigan held their primaries earlier than was allowed by the Democratic Convention. Consequently, the Democratic Party felt it appropriate, justified and necessary to penalize those states. The ‘compromise’ was to allow the delegates “half votes”. In other words, any delegates that a candidate won from those states only counted as ‘half’. While this hurt the Clinton campaign, however, the ruling was according to party rules–but then again the equity of that is up for debate.
So there you have it, delegates, superdelegates, and Clinton’s objections–in a nutshell. Have a question about basic politics or what on earth is going on? Just ask!