Superdelegate storm likely to be short-lived

“Superdelegates have the power to overturn the popular vote and crown a different winner,” he said. “That's right, if superdelegates don't like who you choose to be our nominee, they can overturn your vote.”

He envisioned “back room deals of the party elite.”

“The superdelegates could ignore the will of the voters and pick whichever nominee they want,” said Moveon.org in an e-mail Thursday.

Several of my readers are up in arms, too.

“I thought this was a democracy, but I guess it’s only a democracy if you’re super enough to impress the people in power,” grumbled one reader in an e-mail Wednesday. “I don’t recall ever voting to put these people into power or let them choose who I will be able to vote on for president.”

Just like Putin's Russia?
“We're worried about Russia and Putin! About democracy being stolen from the Russians. We need to worry about the thief’s (sic) in Washington,” declared another reader.

“I hope that the superdelegates have no input on this democratic selection,” said a reader from Canada. “The people should decide. Whoever has the most votes (delegates) should be the nominee!”

OK, everyone, let’s review the basics, or learn them for the first time, as the case may be:

• To our Canadian friend: Whoever has the most votes (delegates) will be the Democratic nominee.
• Superdelegates are delegates; they have a vote at the convention just as other delegates do.
• Again, the superdelegate system has been in effect for nearly 25 years. The system of using superdelegates was decided in a democratic process by the members of the Democratic National Committee. Those members are chosen by party activists all across the nation.

“I don't know of any DNC member trying to change the system in 2004 or since,” said DNC spokeswoman Stacie Paxton.

No complaints in 2004
The supposedly “undemocratic” nature of the system did not seem to occur to Democratic voters in 2004, when, for instance, superdelegates Sen. Tom Harkin and Al Gore endorsed Democratic front-runner Howard Dean.

Theoretically, the superdelegates could, as Moveon.org says, “ignore the will of the voters.”

What happened with Dean’s superdelegates in 2004 after he finished a disappointing third in the Iowa caucuses is instructive.

Quietly in some cases, openly in others, many of Dean’s superdelegates abandoned him. It was “the bandwagon effect.” They wanted to go with the winner: Sen. John Kerry.

That same phenomenon may be happening now with Lewis and others who have reneged on their pledges of support for Clinton.

Meanwhile, some of the superdelegates are waiting to see what happens when voters cast their ballots in Wisconsin on Tuesday and in the contests that follow in other states.

“I have been approached by both sides,” said Rep. Jim Marshall, D-Ga. “I think I’m going to sit tight and just see how things progress in the different primaries that we’re about to have over the next couple of months.”

He added, “I’m hopeful that this will be resolved before it gets to the superdelegate level.”

And as in 2004, it might.

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