Editorials & Other Articles
In reply to the discussion: A Bernie Sanders Supporter Confronted a Superdelegate — Then Leaked Their Private Conversation [View all]strategery blunder
(4,225 posts)And FYI, most caucus states tend to report the number of county convention level delegates that each candidate earns from the caucus "vote," not the actual vote count used to do the math to allocate those delegates. So crying "popular vote" instead of using the pledged delegate count disregards caucus states, but that's perfectly fine with Hillary supporters because Hillary doesn't do very well in caucuses.
2008 did not see a 1968 style post-convention meltdown because even if Hillary would have taken it to a floor fight (she didn't), the superdelegates essentially ratified the pledged delegate result.
The possibilities, even indications, are that this year will be very different.
If Bernie manages to catch up to and pass Hillary in pledged delegates (mathematically unlikely but still possible), and we see this kind of behavior from supers giving the nomination to Hillary anyway, there will be hell to pay in the General. The supers can say "that's the rules!" all they want, but using legalistic semantics will do nothing to increase turnout for Democrats in the general. It can only hurt and lead to a 40+ state victory for the party that campaigns on "We didn't steal our party's nomination, because we're more democratic than the Democrats!"
^^ Yes, I can see the from here. But mark my words, if Bernie should enter Philadelphia having won a majority of pledged delegates and the supers, expressing the same kinds of sentiments reported in the OP give it to Hillary, the GOP will win by margins not seen since Raygun. Outside of the DU bubble, the "Democrats rigged their nomination" line will be a very potent attack against us in the general, whether we like it or not. Especially because the DNC and its apparatus have already shown so much favoritism in this primary, above and beyond the usual endorsements.
The superdelegates would be foolish to not consider that very, very carefully.
TBF, after Bernie's recent blowouts there has been some speculation about Bernie's camp trying to use supers to flip a pledged delegate majority for Hillary. If that happens, I expect the general to bear out much the same result. For that reason, I'm waiting until the June 7th results are in before (respectfully I might add) writing my supers.