I've got to be honest. I'm really impressed with the campaign Barack Obama is running. Since November 3, 2004, the majority of media outlets have worked under the assumption that Hillary Clinton would be the next Democratic Presidential candidate and, subsequently, President. Hillary was the "chosen" one. With Barack's sweep of the Potomac Primaries yesterday, Hillary's Kung-Fu grip on the nomination is no longer a certainty, and the role of the super delegate now becomes a critical part of the Democratic nomination process.
So that begs the question - what is a super delegate? Basically, a super delegate is an elected position within the Democratic National Committee. Unlike a normal state delegate, a super delegate can vote for whomever he wants, and conveniently enough, his vote counts for way more than a regular delegate.
The super delegate was created because the DNC leadership felt that the voters (normal people) had to much control over the nomination process. Wait. Why are Democrats removing power from the voters and putting it in the hands of a very few select people? I thought the Democrats were the party of the people, and the Republicans were the elitists? To be fair, the Republicans do have some super delegates, but nowhere close to the number that the Dems have.
I would have a picture of a known super delegate, but none seem to exist. So, here's an artist's rendition of what a Democratic super delegate may look like:
"Me am super delegate. Me know what good for America."Why don't the Dems want the individual voter to pick the party's nominee? There are two readily available explanations - one, they don't trust the general population of the US; or, two, the powers that be want to stay that way, and the best way to go about it is to diminish the power of the vote. So pick one - either way, it's antithical to democracy.
The idea of a super delegate also speaks to Barack's and Hillary's (and the Democratic party as a whole) approach to government: The government is all-knowing and good for you; the individual is stupid. Anything that is wrong in the world can be fixed with the appropriate government agency. Right.
How long has Congress been looking at steriods in baseball? 3 years? Has anything been accomplished? Nope. Since taken the House and Senate in 2006, the Dems have launched a ridiculous number of investigations, but have done nothing to address the biggest problems the country faces: illegal immigration, social securty reform, national security... the list goes on.
Ronald Regan said it best: "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.'"
Sorry for the not-so humorous post. I think it's important to know the nature of who may be the leader of this country in less than a year, and when an entire political party seems dedicated to non-democratic practices, you might want to rethink supporting that parties candidate.
Funny stuff for the rest of the day. I promise.
