Got a Problem? Ask the Super (delegate) by GERALDINE FERRARO

[groovedaddy]

AS the race for the Democratic presidential nomination nears its end and attention turns to the role of so-called superdelegates in choosing the nominee, it is instructive to look at why my party created this class of delegates.

After the 1980 presidential election, the Democratic Party was in disarray. That year, Senator Ted Kennedy had challenged President Jimmy Carter for the presidential nomination, and Mr. Kennedy took the fight to the convention floor by proposing 23 amendments to the party platform. When it was all over, members of Congress who were concerned about their re-election walked away from the president and from the party. The rest of the campaign was plagued by infighting.

In 1982, we tried to remedy some of the party’s internal problems by creating the Hunt Commission, which reformed the way the party selects its presidential nominees. Because I was then the vice chairwoman of the House Democratic Caucus, Tip O’Neill, the speaker of the House, appointed me as his representative to the commission. The commission considered several reforms, but one of the most significant was the creation of superdelegates, the reform in which I was most involved.

Democrats had to figure out a way to unify our party. What better way, we reasoned, than to get elected officials involved in writing the platform, sitting on the credentials committee and helping to write the rules that the party would play by?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/25/opinion/25ferraro.html?th&emc=th

[crispini]

1. Well, it was an interesting read.

I can't say I agree with her about Florida and Michigan, though.

[Yael]

2. Someone needs to get her some cheese to go with that whine.

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

4. She has endorsed Senator Clinton and wants MI to count.

Obama wasn't on the ballot here, which she fails to mention at all, and she states Clinton won MI.
from article:
Because both states went strongly for Mrs. Clinton, standing up for the voices of grassroots Democrats in Florida and Michigan would prove the integrity of the superdelegate-bashers. The people of those states surely don’t deserve to be disenfranchised simply because the leaders of their state parties brought them to the polls on a day that had not been endorsed by the leaders of our national party — a slight the voters might not easily forget in November
end.

Stick to your guns Dean! At least till that summer meeting.

[Yael]

5. Exactly

If Dean lets them be seated, the next primary season will be a complete clusterf*ck.

[susankh4]

3. Thank you.

An excellent read to be sure.

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

6. Geraldine "We only won one state" Feraro?

Forgive me if I take her strategy advice with a tiny grain of salt. You can't change the rules in the middle of the game.