New Yorkers marked Super Tuesday twice over this week, as primary voting coincided
with the Giant's Superbowl victory parade. The Giants stars celebrated their
upset win against the heavily favored New England Patriots with a tickertape
parade down Broadway. Most voters at the event were more focused on Sunday's
football win than Tuesday's primary contest.
"Nah, nah, I don't vote," one football fan said.
The Superbowl Showdown provided
a perfect metaphor for pundits analyzing the Democratic primary faceoff between
the odds on favorite, Hillary Clinton, and the scrappy road warrior, Barack
Obama.
The Superbowl came down to the wire, the game clinched for the Giants
by a last minute catch that put them on top by just three points.
But imagine
if that narrow victory could be erased, by, say, super-receivers. Or super-quarterbacks.
Imagine if NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell or Hall of Famer Joe Montana could
give the beleaguered Patriots five extra points after the final whistle, and
override the score on the field. Thus making the Patriots the Super Bowl champs.
The
Democratic contenders are facing a similar scenario. Clinton and Obama are
now nearly tied for delegates. Four thousand, forty nine delegates up for
grabs, and a candidate needs at least half to secure the nomination. Most
of the delegates get awarded based on people's votes.
But a full nineteen
percent of the delegates choosing the Democratic nominee do not get chosen
by the primary voters. They're the super
delegates.
These seven hundred
and ninety six party bigwigs can vote as they please, for any candidate. They're
like the Democratic Party hall of famers. The superdelegates
include all the
Democratic members of Congress and governors, along with Democratic National
Committee officials and a handful of other privileged party associates.
Many
observers say this system benefits the candidate with longstanding party relationships,
and favors to call in or hand out.
And for the Democratic party, its a pretty
undemocratic system - a built in way to make an end run around the electorate's
choice.
As of today, the super delegates backing Team Clinton far outnumber
those backing Team Obama.
But these super delegates can change their superminds
up until the convention, so keep your eye on the ball until August, when the
delegates, super and otherwise, meet in Denver.
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