Reply #9: I heard a good explaination of their purpose last week. I think

[napi21]

it was Thom Hartmann, but I'm not positive of that.

The Super Delegates were created to create the ability of the PArty to correct a mistake that only comes to light late in the campaign process. The example that was used was "a situation like Elliott Spitzer". If Elliott had been the Dem candidate who received the required # of delegates and was the presumptive candidate, but his "games" were discovered and made public in say...late July, they believed they needed a method to fix things.