Kerry on CNN- Call out the attack squad! "It's the delegates that count"...not VOTERS?!

[LulaMay]

These men who consider themselves the power brokers of OUR party are making a spectacle of themselves. Are they TELLING us we don't matter, now that their guy hasn't got it sewn up after all?

I thought this party believed in the VOTERS.

You know something is wrong when people are freaking out like this and virtually DEMANDING their candidate be nominated come Hell or Highwater, no matter what, even though he's just over a hundred delegates ahead, and didn't win the most crucial states.

[NJSecularist]

1. The voters and the delegates count.

Obama leads in both categories.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

2. Voters are proportionally represented by delegates.

Sorry you're just finding this out.

[midora]

3. Hillary Sang the Same Tune

When she was leading in delegates.

[shrub chipper]

11. Actually, you're wrong,

Hillary has NEVER once led in delegates.

[weezie1317]

4. You're reading too much into this. He did not say SUPERdelegates.

[johnnydrama]

5. well

the delegates are representatives of the voters.

Only super delegates aren't.

[RL3AO]

6. "It's the electoral college that counts"...not voters?

Of course it is delegates who count. And the voters decide the delegates so whats the point. He didn't say that voters are useless scum.

[LSK]

7. which delegates, the super or the pledged???? can you make a distinction??

Or do you even know that there is a difference?

[karynnj]

19. PLEDGED - The ones determined by the voters and caucus goers

Kerry said in early February that the SUPERDELGATES should NOT overturn the woice of the voters/caucus goers.

[dansolo]

8. You do realize that the General Election works the same way?

At least the delegates are proportional, unlike the Electoral College winner-take-all system.

[tritsofme]

12. But we don't have the legitimacy of the Constitution to fall back on if there is a split

between voters and delegate allocation.

Just arcane rules.

[Gore1FL]

27. That all candidates agreed to before this began

[tritsofme]

30. Exactly. The rules don't say whoever wins the most pledged delegates

Gets the nomination.

If there is a split between pledged delegates and popular vote totals, no reason Clinton can't win the nomination.

[Gore1FL]

33. Yep. except the math is against her.

She'd have to increase her Super Delegate ratio to pretty outrageous proportions for that to work.

[K Gardner]

9. Hillary Clinton: "We are on a search for delegates." I'll find the damned link, but

this was an exact quote from Hillary during her 11 state losing streak.

[Mass]

10. I somehow doubt he said that, and, in any case, Obama has more voters than Clinton,

He was probably explaining a procedural point.

[anigbrowl]

16. He said that; I happened to be watching

but it wasn't like 'we're losing the vote so we've got to have delegates instead'. He was just being factual. Wolf Blitzer kept trying to lure him into making some kind o gaffe but Kerry was comfortable taking time to clarify, and said nice things about Obama without dumping on Clinton in any way, indeed he praised both candidates. No real story here, just some over-excited OP using up one of her 3 posts on an outrage trip.

[Divernan]

20. Over-excited and under-educated - the only demographic group favoring HRC

[bunnies]

13. Pledged delegates represent the popular vote.

A little note to the uninformed.

[LittleClarkie]

14. Hillary thought that entire states didn't matter, only Texas and Ohio.

Because she lost the rest.

[SoCalDem]

15. Voters determine the delegates..

It's just that simple..

win where there are more delegates to be chosen, and you get more delegates..


Whichever one gets to 1444 first should be "the one"..

3253 actual VOTER-determined delegates
-366 (FL & MI)

2887 divided by 2 +1 = 1444.

THAT number is the plurality of what the VOTERS say..

any "extra" comes from the sooooopers..

It would take 581 soooopers to reach *2025...and since that's unlikely, the 1444 SHOULD be the real number..

* 2025 is half of the total WITH sooooopers and FL & MI..

[sjdnb]

23. There's more than one way delegates are apportioned

See http://s3.amazonaws.com/apache.3cdn.net/3e5b3bfa1c1718d07f_6rm6bhyc4.pdf
Page 13

And http://www.demconvention.com/how-to-become-a-delegate/ for more

[housewolf]

17. Ours is a representational democracy

not a direct democracy.

Our primary votes elect delegates to vote "our" way (be that by district or however the states have set it up). In addition to our elected delegates, there are so-called "super delegates".

In the general election, our votes elect "electors" in the Electoral College to vote the way the majority in each state vote.

Kerry is correct - the nominee of the party will be selected based on the delegate count, not the popular vote counts. That's why we (Dems) have a proportional representation sytem of rewarding delegates based on the popular vote counts rather than a winner-take-all system such as the Repubs have.

[jlake]

18. Kerry is being silly. He used to be such a statesman. I saw that kool aid ring around his mouth.

[flordehinojos]

21. after huffing and puffing about having every vote counted back in 2004 and then handing the election

to GWB in a matter of what felt just like seconds after the polls were closed ... shameless john kerry should have the courage to shut up and say no more. Say No More John. Please Say No More.

[Skoods]

22. It's funny that Obama preaches all this change...

Yet he rides Kerry and Kennedy's endorsements? They are the most polarizing people in Washington. Not to mention the fact that Kerry ran a terrible campaign and lost to the worst President in history four years ago.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

24. Pledged delegates are apportioned by the popular vote.

The more votes you get, the more pledged delegates you get.

So yes, delegates do count because delegates = voters.

[nsd]

25. He means this is a hunt for delegates ...

not for that amorphous (possibly fictional) thing called momentum. That might just be a media creation.

[americanstranger]

26. Duh.

How do you think delegates are rewarded? It wouldn't have anything with voters casting votes, would it?

Jesus. Calm the F down.

- as

[stillcool]

28. Damn...I thought we went...

through all this before Iowa. You know, whoever has the most delegates wins?

[ContinentalOp]

29. WHAT!?

I thought this was a race to see who could win the biggest number of blue states with populations over 10 million people but with no greater than a 5% African American population. Now they want to change the rules midstream?

[blm]

31. Don't be silly - the rules are about DELEGATES when it comes to the bottom line.

Just like the general is about electoral votes.

Methinks some Dems skipped civics and US government classes.

[HeraldSquare212]

32. The delegates are apportioned based on votes.