Question: What the heck is a SuperDelegate

[truedelphi]

Carried in today's headline news over at Yahoo is this tidbit:

Neither campaign will publicly divulge its precise tally of superdelegates.

However, one Clinton strategist said she had 257 commitments from superdelegates, with another 11 "in the wings," going into the Super Tuesday balloting, having picked up an additional 14 in the previous five days. The Clinton campaign estimated Obama's total at 159, leaving around 370 superdelegates still up for grabs.

However, Obama campaign manager Plouffe insisted in an election-night conference call with reporters that the disparity between the two campaigns' superdelegate tallies was far smaller, having narrowed to around 55. "We've made a lot of progress," Plouffe added.
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I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THIS SUPERDELEGATE STUFF MEANS.
SOME little bit of my research came up with the notion that in general, superdelegates go with swhich ever way the wind blows, but since the Obama Hillary battle is supposed to be tight, it sounds to me like it will go to whomever can out maneuver the other.

[SoFlaJet]

1. a super delegate

is a person who will be partly responsible for tearing the democratic party to shreds by deciding who our nominee will be-think of them kind of like thye Supreme Court circa 2000

[SteppingRazor]

2. superdelegates can change their minds whenever they want, including on the convention floor...

they consist of elected congresspeople, governors, DNC members, and other party bigwigs. There are 796 of them. And if one candidate pulls seriously ahead of the other, they will hop on the bandwagon.

[COFoothills]

3. It's just like a regular delegate...

...only with magical special powers.

[Blue_Tires]

4. ttt

i've wanted to get this answered myself

[robinlynne]

5. I know Joe Lieberman is one. So I don't like them. I'm guessing Pelosi, and the DLC crowd?

But Lieberman is not allowed to vote because he has publicly endorsed McCain for Pres.

[SoFlaJet]

8. Joe LIEberman was stripped of his super delegate

vote by the democratic party robin for supporting McCain-it is a rule enacted after Zell Miller did the same for Bush on '04

[robinlynne]

9. That's in the second line of my post! It's a wonderful thing.

But he was one.

[islandmkl]

6. they are kind of like a safety valve to make sure...

the 'common' delegates don't do anything crazy like actually service the will of the people.

[MonkeyFunk]

7. Party people are superdelegates

all members of congress, governors and other elected officials, past and present.

Also, members of the Democratic National Committee are superdelegates.