By eWorldVu

You have to question the wisdom of any political party that establishes obscure rules in which to elect candidates for its Presidential nomination. There appears to have been no planning, vision, or foresight in the establishment of the Democratic Party’s convention rules.

The only reasoning that I have heard to date concerning the Democratic Party’s absurd nomination rules is that the party was not expected to have a primary election that would be this close. Actually that reasoning does make more sense than you might think. Obviously, the Democrats’ convention rules were made to have a coronation party and not to manage a close convention election process.

So it is very possible that, (based on the rules in place or lack of same), the Democratic nominee for President of the United States in 2008 may in fact steal the nomination during the summer. The August Democratic convention will not be brokered. The reality is it will either produce an appropriate elected winner or, because of its hazy, obscure, and absurd rules, provide a thief and as a result a victim.

Assuming the election continues to move forward on its current path and because of the rule of assigning delegates according to the proportionate vote in a state, Barack Obama should have around 1800 delegates at the end of the primary season. At the 1800 pledged delegate mark, he will still be short about two hundred and twenty five delegates in order to stake claim to the Democratic Party Presidential nomination.

However, Obama will have won more primaries and caucuses (he has already won 23 out of 35) and have the most pledged delegates. He should be the winner of the Democratic popular vote cast nationally. Indeed, in any truly democratic election, by every measure, he would then be declared the winner. However, according to the rules of this strange election process, he would be still over 200 delegates short of victory prior to the convention.

While just short of the delegates needed for victory, it would still be possible for Barack Obama to lose an election that by every measure of democratic process, he should have already won. How could it happen? Here are the three ways for Hillary Clinton to steal the Democratic party nomination in the 2008 Presidential election from Barack Obama.

1. Super Delegates: There are 795 delegates going to the convention that can vote for either candidate. They can even endorse a candidate and then change their mind. These are Democratic party members and insiders. It is sure a great time to be a Democratic super delegate. Can’t you just hear the bidding for their delegate vote increasing by the day? The longer the endorsement holdout, the better the potential reward. They can just hear that contribution to their reelection fund now. How about an ambassadorship or a cushy job in the Beltway? The demographic of these super delegates is overwhelmingly middle-aged white men.

2. Unseated Delegates from Florida And Michigan: These two states moved their primary date forward on the election calendar. All the Democratic candidates signed a pledge that they would not campaign in these states. The penalty for breaking the Democratic party rules was that the 366 delegates from these two states would not be counted or seated at the convention. Hillary Clinton won the vote in both uncontested states.

Irrespective of the rules, the Hillary Clinton campaign is already suggesting that the Democratic Party seat these poor disenfranchised delegates from the states of Michigan and Florida. In fact, in Michigan, in their haste to move up their primary election date, they happened to forget to include Barack Obama’s name on the primary election ballot. How, and if, these delegates are seated and who they vote for may become a battle at the convention indeed.

3. Pledged Delegates Assigned from State Primary and Caucus Victories: Incredibly, pledged delegates are not required to vote for any candidate at the Democratic convention. This means that if a candidate wins a primary election or caucus in the Democratic party and the delegate is pledged to the candidate to represent victory, the delegate is not required to have to honor the pledge. The pledged delegate is allowed to overrule the will of the voters and the delegate can vote for any candidate even on the first convention ballot. This means that every delegate at the convention can vote for any candidate.

So it can clearly be seen how the Presidential nomination at the Democratic convention can be stolen. It can come in any combination of the ways heretofore described. The truth is that, according to the Democratic Party convention rules, every delegate at the convention is a possible delegate for a candidate’s opponent, even on the first ballot, regardless of the outcome of each of the primary state elections. Therefore no delegate should be considered safe until they actually vote at the convention.

These are the three ways to steal the Democratic party nomination. If your name is Barack Obama and you have won the most pledged delegates, state election primary victories, caucus victories, and national Democratic primary vote, it may seem impossible to leave the Democratic convention without the nomination. The sad reality is that because of the absurd and obscure Democratic Party convention rules, impossible it certainly is not.

Bookmark and Share

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!