My Father the Superdelegate and Why There's Nothing to Fear

[Hobarticus]

By Donnie Fowler

My father Don Fowler is a superdelegate. I love my father, and I trust my father. And I gave up letting my father dictate my life since he determined how late I got to stay up at night.

So, as much as I love and respect him, I don't trust him and his fellow superdelegates to decide for me and the American people who should be the Democratic nominee.

Truth is, they won't.

There is a tremendous amount of discussion and even paranoia suggesting that a group of party insiders are already at work cutting some backroom deal to pick the nominee they want ... damn the will of the voters and damn the democratic process.

That's pretty much hogwash when one looks at who these superdelegates actually are.

Half of them are superdelegates precisely because of the will of the voters -- all Democratic House members, all Democratic senators (except Lieberman), and all the Democratic governors. The other half are the 450 or so members of the Democratic National Committee -- a sort of oversized board of directors for the national party. These folks come from every state and represent every wonderful, vibrant piece of cloth that makes up the Democratic electoral quilt.

Establishment, you say? These very same DNC members are the reason Howard Dean is Chairman of the Party ... despite the vocal, aggressive, even nasty opposition of the establishment. One very powerful establishment leader said of Governor Dean's chase for the chairmanship after Kerry's 2004 loss, "I don't care who the Chairman of the DNC is, it just can't be Howard Dean." Oops. That was not a lonely sentiment coming from DC. Yet it was the 450 DNC members -- superdelegates all -- who put him exactly where he needed to be.

More:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/donnie-fowler/my-father-the-superdelega_b_85936.html

[Egnever]

1. Cool post thanks!

[Ichingcarpenter]

8. Well, that's one that believes in Gov. Dean vision

but his dad doesn't speak for all the super delegates
who are not in his court.

Dean almost got slammed out of his chair by some of these 'super delegates'

Harold Ford is a super delegate for one, do we need to name more?
I'm suppose to trust the DLC now to do the right thing which would disempower them?

[TexasObserver]

2. I generally agree that superdelegates will do the right thing, but some will

... some will sell out for something, and the only campaign that will promise them judgeships, ambassadorships, and such is the Clinton campaign. They have no compunction about such things at all. Saying these guys have to face their constituencies is right, but some of them will be retiring and they could be major sellouts.

I have no doubt that the Clintons could illegally garner 40 or more superdelegates who simply sell out for some promised plum. Your son need a pardon? Your daughter needs to get into Yale? The Clintons will deal.

[Hobarticus]

3. LOL...can't help yourself, can you?

[TexasObserver]

13. my political mentor, a wizened old populist-progressive, who fought Dixiecrats taught me

"Son, when you get them down, just keep stickin' it to them!"

[ruggerson]

5. Truly pathetic

[truedelphi]

11. I'm not sure about the Yale thing.

But there are a lot of plum jobs that come with the Presidency.

I have always pictured myself as the ambassador to Fiji. Such an offer could indeed entice me away from the Obama camp.

Especially when tonight the temp will be close to mid thirties. Here. And quite a lot warmer in Fiji.

[readmoreoften]

4. I'm sure your father's a nice person, but the superdelegate system is undemocratic.

If it didn't have an agenda, it wouldn't exist. It's goal is to thwart the power of the voters if they should choose someone "unbecoming" as far as the institutional powers of the democratic party. Of course, we'll never see that happen because the media destroys any non-owned candidates before the superdelegates seal the deal.

[donheld]

6. Thank you for posting this

That should make a lot of people feel better.

[Hobarticus]

7. You betcha...

[Demeter]

9. I Just Hope Donnie Fowler Is Right

because otherwise, there won't be a Democratic Party left after 11/2008, either.

[crispini]

10. Yeah, well, the DNC members did it because we all got up and called them and emailed them.

So they were getting a LOT of pressure to do the right thing.

Similarly, I think we need to be in communication with them now and start trying to lean on them...

[noamnety]

12. That post is utter bullshit.

I've watched again and again as The Establishment, including the people who were voted in as senators did everydamnthing they could to support establishment candidates when a more progressive new face challenged them. I'm seeing it here in Michigan, we saw it with Paul Hackett, we saw it when the party was climbing all over itself to support Lieberman against Lamont in the primaries.

Question: I’m curious: Is the DSCC taking a position where it will unconditionally support the eventual nominee of the Connecticut Democratic Party?

Schumer: We haven’t taken a position on that yet. . . (interrupted by crosstalk with staff over timing for a vote). What we do is. . . we are an organization of incumbents, and while we certainly find challengers who go up against incumbents, we support incumbents,

http://firedoglake.com/2006/05/16/schumer-dscc-wont-commit-unconditional-support-for-ct-sen-nominee/