My brother Rahm Emanuel is a superdelegate. I love my brother, and I trust my brother. But I gave up letting my brother dictate my life since he determined whether he got the top or bottom bunk in our bedroom back in Chicago.
So, as much as I love and respect him, I don't trust him and his fellow superdelegates to decide for me and the American people who should be the Democratic nominee -- and, therefore, most likely the next president of the United States.
I want voters to make that decision. The superdelegates, my brother included, have not been elected by anybody to name the nominee. They've either been appointed by the Party or, as in my brother's case, have automatically inherited the role simply because they are elected officials. This isn't the place to debate the entire history of superdelegates. Suffice it to say, however, they were created by the Party machine decades ago for the express purpose of giving Party insiders the ability to thwart the popular will.
(After all, American are too stupid for a real democracy)
After what Democrats went through in Florida in 2000, we should be the first to reject any such funny business. We should be as opposed to superdelegates changing the course of an election as we were to the Supreme Court appointing George W. Bush president.
Amen!
The right thing for my brother, and all the other superdelegates to do, is to support the decision of the voters. Whichever candidate has won the most delegates going into the national convention should be granted the endorsement of the superdelegates. Period. And we should put pressure on them to agree to do so now -- before the jockeying, lobbying, and infighting get really ugly, as they inevitably will.
Or we could make it even uglier, in the coming days and weeks, if they don't pledge, now, to either advocate for the people's vote or resign
Likewise, Democrats must firmly oppose any shenanigans regarding delegates from Michigan and Florida. The party and the candidates all agreed that the delegates coming out of those states would not be seated. Unringing that bell after the fact and by fiat would be an outrage. We have only two legitimate options when it comes to Florida and Michigan: either we stick by the original agreement. Or we organize new elections in those states this summer in which both the Obama and Clinton campaigns can evenly compete.
Right On! Hillary Clinton did everything she could to campaign in those states without stepping over the line; she was reallt pushing the envelope. Yet, just yesterday she said that it was important for her to win those states that a Democrat could win in November, ticking off all the states that were not democratic territrory (states Obama won), and all the states she had won as states that were democratic territory (obviously, those states that she won.) So, why all the barely legal "campaigning" in Florida, a state the Democrats haven't won in years? Could this be a set-up?
Who is on the committee that certifies the delagates? How many of them are DLCers? This should be looked into.
We've been watching the GOP implode for years and yet it looks as though it may well be the Dem-bulbs that commit suicide first.
Here is another concern: Is there anyone on the planet that doesn't realize that there has been a sea change in the political landscape in the U.S. People in the southland who voted Bush/Cheney in 2004 have scraped their "W" stickers off their Mercedes long ago. In my lifetime, of 56 years, I've not seen anything like what's happening in the USA this election year. I can also say that it's not so much the politicians, nor the news media that's causing it. It's the people.
If Hillary Clinton doesn't see this, I'm not sure she is capable of governing all of the U.S. The right, blue and purple map used by news casters after the 2004 debacle is trash now. Much has happened since that horrible night when the vote flipped in Ohio. All that has happened has changed more than 9/11 did, as far as the people and politics are concerned.
After the democracy-snubbing arrogance of the Bush years, the last thing Democrats should be doing is wavering on our democratic principles on these issues. No super-power granted to superdelegates. And no backroom fudging on Florida and Michigan. Are you listening, bro?
He had damned well better be. The whole world is watching, including independents. The fight will be for independents. McCain can't win without us. He will only lose us to Obama. We don't like the Clintons anymore. Some of us used to. We don't like dynasties any more than our founders did.
No more Clintons and no more Bushes...pass it on! We've had enough of the funny business that seems to occur anytime they are around.
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The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.
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