The Extended Primary: Against Conventional Wisdom March 9, 2008
Posted by justingerman in 2008 Presidential Election, The Democratic Party.Tags: 2008 Presidential Election, Barack Obama, Democratic Primary, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, John McCain, Republican Party
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The trendy line of thought in electoral politics is that campaigns have to define themselves and their opponents early or risk the possibility of their opponent creating the definitions for them. This idea springs mostly from John Kerry’s disasterous Spring in 2004 when the Bush campaign stuck the soft on defense and flip-flopper labels to his candidacy that he was forced to carry throughout the campaign.
The fear is that like John Kerry, Obama and Hillary will be silent in the face of Republican attacks. However, Spring 2008 could be even worse than 2004 because the candidates will be attacking each other as well as fielding attacks from Republicans. However, I feel like there are several reasons as to why 2008 is not like 2004 that could allow the Democratic nominee to benefit from an extended primary. (more…)
Super Delegates: Just A Horrid Idea March 5, 2008
Posted by justingerman in 2008 Presidential Election, The Democratic Party.Tags: Barack Obama, Democratic Convention, Democratic Primary, George McGovern, Geraldine Ferarro, Super Delegates
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After the 1972 Presidential Election, the Democratic party came up with the idea of Super Delegates to, in theory, prevent another George McGovern type candidate from getting the nomination. The Super Delegates would be prominant members of the party, i.e. governors, members of congress, important party officials, etc. and they would not be bound to vote for the same candidate for which their state or district voted.
Though, at first glance, the idea of a group of party officials coming forward to break a convention stalemate in favor of the more electable candidate doesn’t seem so bad. However, if they had only thought a little harder they would have realized that the prospect of winning the Super Delegates would only lengthen the campaign by months and create a situation where the party elites would be put in a position to vote against the popular will of the party at large.
My suggestion for the future is to keep the Super Delegates but don’t let them vote until the second ballot at the convention. This would serve the original purpose of the Super Delegates by allowing them to function as an obscure tie breaker but also insure that, in a two candidate race, the individual with the majority of pledged delegates will always win. So basically the Super Delegates would only have an impact in the very unlikely circumstance that three or more candidates make it to the convention and none get a majority on the first ballot.
But for now the Super Delegates have likely put us in a position that will disadvantage the Democratic candidate going into the general election. And I’m not just saying this because I’m an Obama supporter, I’m pretty sure I would say the same thing if Obama were behind in delegates because these arguments really aren’t open to dispute.
The other day I actually saw Geraldine Ferraro claiming credit for this monstrosity.
