2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: The concept of "flipping" Supers [View all]Tarc
(10,476 posts)So their role can at most be described as rubber-stamped ceremonial.
At the beginning, particularly after NH, Camp Sanders smugly assumed that their populist message would carry the day, that he would win the most pledged delegates and the overall (though symbolic) popular vote. They stamped and screamed about the superdelegates who had already pledged to Hillary, demanding that they be dissolved or compelled to vote for him so as to not counter the will of the voting public. It was insider politics, collusion, and so on, if they supers did not switch to him at the convention.
But a funny thing happened along the way to Bernie's coronation; he found he has zero appeal with people of color, women, and registered Democrats, thus he is now in an practically insurmountable pledged delegate hole. his only chance now...irony of ironies...is for the supers to do what he feared they'd do for Hillary; jump ship and vote for who they wanted rather than who the voters wanted.