Regular, voted-for delegates are pledged to support their candidate at the Democratic National Convention. Super-delegates are not. In fact, even if they have expressed a preference, they can change their minds.
Jake Tapper reported the following February 8, 2008, at ABC News' Political Punch blog
Obama this week warned Super-delegates to vote the way their states have voted, "if this contest comes down to super-delegates, we are going to be able to say we have more pledged delegates, which means the Democratic voters have spoken. Those super-delegates, those party insiders would have to think long and hard how they would approach the nomination." Obama suggested "the argument we would be making to super-delegates is, if we come into the convention with more pledged delegates then I think we can make a very strong argument that our constituencies have spoken and I think that's going to be pretty important when it comes to the general election."CNN's Jim Acosta reported "Clinton's lead grows when superdelegates are counted: Clinton has collected 193 to Obama's 106."
CanWest wrote February 7, 2008
But the buzz among Democratic activists was over the growing possibility Mr. Obama could triumph in the race for pledged delegates awarded in the state-by-state primaries, but ultimately lose to Ms. Clinton if she wins the support of more super-delegates. These include party officials and lawmakers who automatically vote in the Democratic nominating convention in August in Denver. So far, they are backing Ms. Clinton by a three-to-one margin.
The day after Super Tuesday, on the February 6, 2008, edition of CNN's Situation Room, Democratic political consultant, Super-delegate-at-Large and DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee member Donna Brazile said:
"If 795 of my colleagues decide this election, I will quit the Democratic Party. I feel very strongly about this. ... There's no reason why we should decide this election. I feel very strongly."
Interesting, very interesting.
Why? Because Donna Brazile, speaking at the September 28, 2007, Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's 37th Annual Legislative Conference forum on The Future of Black Politics, in which "Panelists talked about the presidential campaign of Senator Barack Obama and what it signals for other black candidates," said in regards to Super Tuesday
Over 45% of our delegates will be chosen on that day and if you don't think that we have political power, just wait until February 5th, 2008, we can determine the next nominee of the Democratic Party. We can also expand the number of African Americans who are holding political power. We can also build upon the success of Barack Obama. ... We have enormous political power and its time that we leverage it, and we build upon it, and we expand it...No, this is not an exact transcription, although the tape was rewound several times to capture the statement. Listen for yourself. It comes from this archived video from C-SPAN. Download and skip to the second section where Brazile speaks at approximately 13:20 minutes into the video.
But does this honestly sound like somebody who doesn't think that the super-delegates are significant? Does it sound like somebody who will quit the Democratic Party if the super-delegates—of which she is one—decide the election?
In September 2007, Donna Brazile believed that the regular, voted-for delegates were going to hand Sen. Barack Obama the Democratic presidential nomination.
On February 6, 2008, Super-delegate Donna Brazile apparently decided that if the regular, voted-for delegates weren't going to hand the Democratic presidential nomination to Sen. Obama, then the role of the super-delegates should be ignored -- unless they were going to be voting for Sen. Obama.
As one blogger wrote, Brazile is a super-delegate. "She can vote for whomever she pleases. No one elected her to do this. She doesn't represent anyone." And that's exactly the point. She doesn't have a dog in this hunt -- or does she?
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