The super delegate idea was in in many ways a roundabout response to a process set in motion by liberal party activists who felt shut out at the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago. Hubert Humphrey in 1968 was the last major party nominee to win the nomination without entering most of the primaries.
For 1984, the party leadership reasserted some authority with super delegates. It was a “reform” that was really a step backwards.
Super delegates in 2008 are Democratic members of the House and Senate, Democratic Governors, and members of the Democratic National Committee. Al Gore and Bill Clinton (Hillary’s spouse) are also super delegates.
There are approximately 800 super delegates of the 2125 delegates needed to win the nomination.
Since 1984, the percentage of super delegates has increased. It was 14% in 1984 and it is nearly 20% today.
At this point more super delegates were pledged to Senator Hillary Clinton than to Senator Barack Obama.
Super delegates can change their minds if they wish. They can do anything they want.
They are like a House of Lords, or something that crawled over the Berlin Wall.
This process is undemocratic. Delegates should be elected by rank-and-file members of the party. If a sitting Governor or Senator can’t win a spot in a primary or a caucus, what type of legitimacy as a popular leader does such a person have? If Senator Clinton should win, we democrats would drop her like a hot potato. Senator McCain could win by a ‘landslide’. We democrats invented that word also!
