“It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s a Superdelegate?!”

OK so this Democratic Primary is getting kind of annoying. In its 16th month, this is officially the longest primary EVER. They should just pick a nominee and go on to fight the general election against John McCain.

This whole system of voters really electing delegates instead of the nominee is seriously screwed. Alright so the delegates of each state are supposed to vote according to the popular vote for their state. But the percentages in most primaries are pretty close and the delegates are awarded proportionately so it is difficult for one candidate to gain a decisive lead. Some of the Republican primaries, on the other hand, were winner-take-all so their nominee, John McCain, was decided relatively quickly.

Now, while McCain has already begun preparation for the general election in November, the Democrats are still busy deciding their nominee. This is weakening the Democratic Party and all the negativity being thrown around by Hillary is damaging Obama and will hurt him in November when he goes against McCain. In addition, now that the race is so close, the Democratic nominee will be decided by SUPERDELEGATES, friends of Clark Kent from the Planet Krypton.

No, seriously, the process is so ridiculous that might as well be the case. These men/women are various members of the Democratic Party who were deemed worthy of the great honor of being able to append “super” onto their position (Senators, Representatives, Governors, Ex-Presidents, Party Leaders, and so on…) Of the 4,049 delegates that are going to be seated at the Democratic National Convention in Denver this August, 796 are “super.” (the other 3,253 are mere mortals…) Furthermore, despite what the popular vote or the delegate counts are, the superdelegates can pick which candidate they want based on nothing other than what brand of socks they wear or what cereal they eat. Also, once they make up their mind and “declare” themselves, the superdelegates can change their mind and switch, as a few have already done.

With his win yesterday in Oregon and about a third of the votes (delegates) from Kentucky, Barack Obama passed a great milestone: he now has a majority of pledged delegates (as well as more superdelegates than Clinton!).

Meanwhile, Hillary is going on about how the delegates from Florida and Michigan should be counted. In every one of her recent speeches she says something like “Gee, well, the nominee shouldn’t be decided by only 48 states…” Both Florida and Michigan were stripped of their delegates because they decided, against Democratic National Committee rules, to move their primaries up to before Super Tuesday. As a result, the votes coming in from those two states won’t count for anything. This setup was agreed upon by everyone BEFORE the primary contests began. Therefore, Hillary’s argument now to count those two states is like trying to change the rules in the fourth quarter of the Superbowl…and we know that cannot happen. (Please note: Obama wasn’t even on the ballot in Michigan...)

With that being said, here’s to hoping for a reform to this crazy method of picking our presidential candidate.

--F-Emu



We at the Ostrich Blog would like to welcome F-Emu to the Ostrich Blog staff and wish him well in his Ostirch Blog career. What a great first post!