There are three things about Super Delegates to remember...
Disclaimer: I’m supporting Obama
Some things to remember about Superdelegates:
- They are elected. They are my elected officials, or they were elected to party positions in races that were open to every Democrat. I trusted them with these offices. If you want to be a Superdelegate, you can! Run for Congress and knock off your local Rethug. Or (much easier) become involved in your State Party. They need you.
- They Know How To Win Elections. See above. These guys are political professionals who, in most cases, have personally defeated at least one Rethug in a General Election. They have forgotten more about Politics than most of us ever knew.
- They can stop a Train Wreck. What if (god forbid) there is a scandal that cripples a front-runner before the convention? What if there is a 3-way, 4-way, or 5-way split among minor candidates? We need someone to step in and make a tough call. That’s what the Supers are for.
Now there’s a bad side to having Superdelegates. They can trade their vote for influence and favors. But we can stop this from happening as much. All we need to do is make them vote by secret ballot.
The usual response to this proposal is that secret ballots stop them from being accountable. But let’s face it...they aren’t accountable anyway. If your Congressman votes for the candidate that lost your district, what are you gonna do? Recall him? Challenge him in the 2010 primary over his 2-year-old Clinton/Obama choice? Seriously.
But if Superdelegates get a secret ballot, they are more difficult to arm-twist or buy off. They can vote their conscience without worrying that a sitting US Senator is going to retaliate against them.
That said, maybe 20% of the total Delegates is a little much. Perhaps they should only get ½ a vote. But any nominating system that is more weighted towards "who buys the most Iowa/NH TV ads" and less weighted towards "the combined political experience of ½ the Congress" doesn’t make sense.
We need to keep Super Delegates, but put more controls on how they operate.