Out of Control Super-Delegates
In a move that highlights the potential for mass chaos at the Democratic Convention, Florida Congressman Tim Mahoney is floating the idea of a super-delegate coalition throwing both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama overboard in favor of…wait for it…Al Gore.
While much has been made by the Obama camp of the destructiveness of super-delegates frustrating the will of 51% of Democratic primary voters, the potential of frustrating the will of 100% of Democratic primary voters would be infinitely worse.
And the prospect of yet another droning, preachy Al Gore campaign is enough to make moderates run screaming for the exits from a Democratic Party that currently holds a significant advantage among this critical swing demographic.
Well, that’s cute and all, but besides it being utterly absurd, it’s mathematically impossible. There are 795 superdelegates, so even if 100% of them went with Gore (in itself, a pipe-dream) they wouldn’t have the numbers to overthrow the pledged delegates of either candidate.
Of course technically the pledged delegates could defect at the convention and go with the superdelegate third candidate. Oh and also Obama and Clinton could divorce their spouses, declare that they are getting eloped, and then run a unified ticket, with the first and second slot based on the toss of a Cuban penny and the pledge to make Bush Secretary of Defense.
It’s gotta be something in that Florida air…
Heh. Wouldn’t this be an echo of the 1952 convention where the delegates drafted Adlai Stevenson? That was before my time but from what I understand, there’s some similarity in the appeal of Stevenson and that of Gore, to academic types while they’re not very well liked among the blue collars and ‘common folk’, too.
!!!!SuperDelegates Gone Wild!!!!
I can hardly wait for all the late-night commercials for the DVD series, complete to CGI electro-pasties.
I actually would like Gore the best out of the three, but can see that he has limited appeal among the masses. Though I also would have voted for Adlai, if I was alive in 1952. That being said, its not a viable solution to the Democratic nomination mess. The Democrats are very short-sightedly burning themselves out in the primary fights, instead of concentrating on the real contest.
Tully: I think Spitzer was to have starred in that one, but they’re having to rework the title now.
Well, one difference from 1952: Stevenson really was drafted — in the sense that he, like most viable potential candidates for the Democrats, didn’t particularly want to run. All of them were well aware that the Democrats had no chance against Eisenhower, no matter who they ran. What he was doing was helping his party avoid a nasty internal fight.
In 2008, in contrast, lots of people expect that the Democrats can win the election (although they might yet manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory). I could see Gore deciding to do the noble and self-sacrificing thing and run, if the Democrats were essentially in a position of waiting until the stellar Republican candidate was out of office. But McCain, no matter how much one likes him, is not an overwhelming favorite going in. And I can’t see Gore taking another run where he would be expected to make a serious effort to win an office that I suspect he is just as happy to have avoided.