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Superdelegates, follow your own judgement....
Superdelegates, follow your own judgement ...
... is what the Official Rules say ..
... and these people are saying again now:
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/superdelegates-say-we-will-decide-2008-05-06.html
Superdelegates say, we will decide
By Alexander Bolton
Posted: 05/06/08 07:57 PM [ET]
Uncommitted Democratic superdelegates in Congress overwhelmingly say they won’t necessarily back the presidential candidate who wins the most primary delegates. Instead, electability will be very important in their decision.
Of 42 lawmakers interviewed by The Hill, only four said they regarded the primary vote as decisive.
The congressional superdelegates’ independence is precisely what Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) is banking on as she trails by about 130 pledged delegates behind rival Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.).
It also means the Democratic Caucus is unswayed by its leader, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), who has warned that the party will suffer if superdelegates overturn the will of primary voters. Pelosi has said superdelegates should take into account whatever is important but not give the nomination to the candidate who lags in delegates.
But Pelosi’s troops on Capitol Hill say they are more concerned about electability, plus each candidate’s momentum heading toward the convention, and how their own constituents voted.READ THIS WHOLE ARTICLE, BOTH PAGES. MOST OF THE UNDECIDED SUPERS ARE LOOKING FOR ELECTABILITY, NOT DELEGATE COUNT
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24264458/
Why won't superdelegates choose now?
Democratic officials could end Clinton-Obama impasse, but probably won't
.....
Rep. Lincoln Davis, an uncommitted superdelegate from a Republican-leaning district in Tennessee, said he would wait until the convention in August to announce his choice.
“You never know where there might be a banana peel out there for someone to slip on,” he said.
He added, “I watched a football game called the Super Bowl and there was no doubt that Eli Manning’s team was going to lose and in the last few seconds the game changed.”
A mistake at the last second?
He said either Obama or Clinton “could make a mistake between now and August that could basically remove them from contention.”
He added, “I don’t know what’s going to happen between now and August, but I do know this much: Each of us was given the responsibility of being a delegate to the national convention” and those who wrote the party rules “meant for us to analyze who we thought could best win, not to put the stamp of approval on someone who may be the most popular or who may have the most votes.”
He said he would vote for “the best person to win the presidency in November” in order “to deny the Republicans the veto pen for the next four years.”He added, “I don’t know what’s going to happen between now and August, but I do know this much: Each of us was given the responsibility of being a delegate to the national convention” and those who wrote the party rules “meant for us to analyze who we thought could best win, not to put the stamp of approval on someone who may be the most popular or who may have the most votes.”
He said he would vote for “the best person to win the presidency in November” in order “to deny the Republicans the veto pen for the next four years.”
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3d03a310-12f7-11dd-8d91-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1
<I>"If it's very very close, they [the superdelegates] will do what
they want anyway," said Mr Dean.
....
"I think the race is going to come down to the perception in the last
six or eight races of who the best opponent for McCain will be. I do
not think in the long run it will come down to the popular vote or
anything else.
....
Politically there will be some feeling at the end of this process that
somebody is better than the other person in terms of taking on John
McCain." </I>
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From Donna Brazile, a DNC official who has been promoting Obama till now.
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4734533&affil=kgtv
I talked to the same super delegates you talked to...They want to win. They want a candidate who can beat John McCain. At the end of the day they're going to look at the (electoral college) math...and say.."okay, who is the best candidate to take on John McCain?" They'll look at the weaknesses of both candidates and... we will determine who will be the best President.
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... and Axelrod and Pelosi and Brazile and Obama agreed early ...
... Obama Strategist David Axelrod said -- "These are elected officials from across the country and they're supposed to exercise their judgment as to what would be best for the party. And as they look at this, they need to decide who would be the strongest candidate for the party...I think they and all the superdelegates should vote according to what they think is best for the party and the country."
Pelosi : “I believe super-delegates have to use their own judgment and there will be many equities that they have to weigh when they make the decision. Their own belief and who they think will be the best president, who they think can win, how their own region voted, and their own responsibility.’” (The Hill March 6)
// insert Brazile quote//
Obama told reporters Friday that the superdelegates should be guided by the results of the primaries and caucuses, saying, "My strong belief is that if we end up with the most states and the most pledged delegates from the most voters in the country, that it would be problematic for the political insiders to overturn the judgment of the voters."
But Obama added that superdelegates should consider who is best able to defeat Republican John McCain in November.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18937761 s... and much of the polled public agree ....
Should the ball end up in the superdelegates' court, most respondents (42 percent) think they should choose the best-qualified nominee in their judgment, while 38 percent believe they should choose the person with the popular vote lead.
http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/3/8/165820/8983
Superdelegates, follow the popular vote ....
... is what Obama and supporters SAID before it looked like Hillary is going to win the popular vote ...
60,000+ Signatures on our Voters Decide petition
Full Page ad in USA Today with MoveOn
Speaker Pelosi, Sen. McCaskill and other leading Democrats came out in support [....]
We explained our concern that superdelegates may choose someone other than the winner of the popular vote and declared that we had every confidence that Governor Dean respected basic principles of democracy, such as the sanctity of the popular vote.
source: http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:vtScfzh_sTMJ:www.dailykos.com/story/2008/2/26/84017/9626/488/464291+Moveon+petition+%22popular+vote%22+%22page+ad%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us&client=operaDemocracy for America has also launched a petition drive on its website. Inspired by the presidential campaign of Howard Dean, DFA describes itself as “a political action committee dedicated to supporting fiscally responsible, socially progressive candidates at all levels of government — from school board to the presidency.” Noting that “after every Democrat has voted and the last allocated delegates are assigned, super-delegates have the power to overturn the popular vote and crown a different winner,” DFA declares, “We can’t let that happen. Our nominee must be chosen by Democratic voters not by back room deals of the party elite.” Feb. 15. 2008 at 10:00 AM EST
http://visiblevote08.logoonline.com/2008/02/15/moveonorg-petitions-against-hillarys-superdelegates-hail-mary-pass/MoveOn.org, an influential liberal activist group, on Thursday said it would launch a petition drive calling on the superdelegates not to go against the popular vote.
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/14/clinton.obama/index.htmlObama told reporters Friday that the superdelegates should be guided by the results of the primaries and caucuses, saying, "My strong belief is that if we end up with the most states and the most pledged delegates from the most voters in the country, that it would be problematic for the political insiders to overturn the judgment of the voters."
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18937761
... and is still (c. March 8) what a Rasmussen poll says 59% of Democratic voters say
-- and 45% of Obama supporters say! (Maybe they haven't got the new memo.)
Among Democratic voters, 59% believe the candidate with the most popular votes deserves the nomination while 25% take the opposite view. [....]
Still, 45% of Obama voters believe that the nomination should go to the candidate with the most popular votes rather than the candidate with the most pledged delegates. Just 32% of Obama supporters believe the candidate with the most pledged delegates should win.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/57_say_candidate_with_most_votes_should_get_nomination
Some bigwigs say it needs ALL THREE: popular vote AND delegate AND states
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/04/13/carter-going-against-popular-vote-would-be-serious-mistake/
"I think it would be a very serious mistake for the Democratic Party…if a candidate had the majority of popular votes, the majority of delegates and a majority of states — all three — were the superdelegates to vote contrary to that, I think it would be very difficult to explain," the former president told George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "This Week."