Delegates Choose The Nominee. Not Voters

[TomCADem]

As noted in this article, there is this media fed misperception that the voters choose the nominee. They do not. Delegates do, and while Bernie can't get a majority of pledged delegates prior to the convention, there is a good chance that Hillary cannot either. This is not a defect of the system. This is a feature. That is why we have superdelegates, and why Kent Weaver, Sander's campaign manager said quite correctly that superdelegates are going to decide this race. If you do not like it, then that is tough. Change the rules for the next election, but this is the system we have, and superdelegates were created to mitigate against running a flawed candidate like Hillary Clinton who was unwisely chosen by the electorate.

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/16/we-choose-the-nominee-not-the-voters-senior-gop-official.html

Political parties, not voters, choose their presidential nominees, a Republican convention rules member told CNBC, a day after GOP front-runner Donald Trump rolled up more big primary victories.

"The media has created the perception that the voters choose the nomination. That's the conflict here," Curly Haugland, an unbound GOP delegate from North Dakota, told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Wednesday. He even questioned why primaries and caucuses are held.

Haugland is one of 112 Republican delegates who are not required to cast their support for any one candidate because their states and territories don't hold primaries or caucuses.
Even with Trump's huge projected delegate haul in four state primaries Tuesday, the odds are increasing the billionaire businessman may not ultimately get the 1,237 delegates needed to claim the GOP nomination before the convention.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/04/politics/bernie-sanders-delegate-math-hillary-clinton/

It is mathematically impossible for Bernie Sanders to win enough delegates in the remaining Democratic contests to secure the nomination, but his aides see a path through a convention battle in Philadelphia that would target the party's superdelegates.

The Democratic nominee must win 2,383 delegates to secure the nomination, but with only 933 delegates up for grabs in the remaining contests, it is impossible for Sanders to get there just by winning contests against front-runner Hillary Clinton. The Vermont senator has racked up 1,444 delegates, according to the latest CNN delegate tally, but would need to win more than 100% of the remaining delegates.

Asked about this hurdle Wednesday, Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver dismissed it.

"The truth is, no one is going to the convention with the requisite number of pledged delegates to win. The superdelegates are going to decide this race," Weaver said on CNN's "New Day."

[Metric System]

1. Weaver is the Mark Penn of 2016.

[Maedhros]

2. The big question, though, is whether enough Superdelegates will back Bernie.

I doubt it, because they are for the most part Party apparatchiks whose loyalty has been bought and paid for by the Clinton campaign. I suppose we could take the bright-eyed optimistic approach and hope that they will do what's best for the country rather than their individual political careers, but that would be a bit pollyanna-ish.

They'll proudly stand with the Captain of the Titanic as it goes under.

[Tarc]

3. In the early days of the primary, many Sanders supporters demanded

that the superdelegates vote for the candidate who wins the most pledged delegates. This was back when they assumed Sanders' populist message was going to cruise to the top of the heap, and they worried about Clinton "stealing the nomination via supers.

Now that Clinton is obviously going to win the most pledged delegates, the supers are back to being a big tyrannical evil that should see some "greater good", i.e. go against the will of the voters, and all jump ship to vote for him.

Do you not see the hypocrisy at all, or just choose to ignore it?

[TomCADem]

4. Hillary Supporters Sound Like Trump Complaining About "Rigged" Rules

Hillary of all people should know how to play the delegate game. Instead, she is the one being Ted Cruz'd by Bernie in terms of knowing how to play the delegate game. While we can debate whether superdelegates are proper, the fact of the matter is that this is the current system, and it was designed to allow party elders to mitigate against voters choosing a candidate who could not win in the general election. Thus, under this system, it is perfectly appropriate for Bernie to make the case to the Superdelegates that he is the stronger general election candidate.

Again, this is not defect of the system, but a feature. Next thing you know, I am sure we will have Hillary complaining about "rigged" rules. This is chess, and Hillary is playing checkers.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-idUSKCN0X81HE

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump lashed out at what he called the party's "rigged" delegate selection rules on Monday after rival Ted Cruz swept all of Colorado's 34 delegates over the weekend.

The New York billionaire, who has been outmaneuvered by Cruz in a series of recent state meetings to select national convention delegates, said the process was set up to protect party insiders and shut out insurgent candidates.

"The system is rigged, it's crooked," Trump said on Fox News on Monday, alleging the Colorado convention results showed voters were being denied a voice in the process.

"There was no voting. I didn't go out there to make a speech or anything, there's no voting," Trump said. "The people out there are going crazy, in the Denver area and Colorado itself, and they're going absolutely crazy because they weren't given a vote. This was given by politicians - it's a crooked deal."

[Tarc]

5. That sailed over your head completely, I'm afraid

The Sanders camp placed the highest value on the pledge delegate count and derided the supers' ability to override that.

Now that the supers are his only shot at the nomination, Sanders covets the supers and derides the pledge delegates.

A-to-B there, bro. Please do your best to try to connect those.

[TomCADem]

7. No Reason for Bernie to Unilaterally Disarm

If you don't like Superdelegates then change it. But for now, Bernie is well within the DNC's own rules to make his case that he should be the nominee.

[JTFrog]

6. Lol. Ok. n/t