Being Politically Aware Never Looked So Cool!

In the wake of this whole Obama-Wright "scandal", it looks like the media is doing that clever thing where they try to distract the American people from the most pressing issues (a possible recession, a war, not being able to afford anything, the fact that the Democratic convention is a month away and the election is 6 months away and the Democratic party is still devouring itself), and I have to say that it's working. Not only has the media jumped on the anti-Wright bandwagon (perhaps rightfully so), but now the news is filled with images of Miley Cyrus's scandalously bare shoulder and other news of that nature that are mainly human interest stories instead of things that are actually significant. So I'm going to try to bring some dignity back to the media by discussing something of relevance right now: Super Delegates! Let's discuss the process.

While the name may lead you to believe that these special representatives lead normal lives by day but then reveal a spandex costume to fight crime by night, they are in fact delegates in the Democratic party with more sway than normally elected delegates. They are high-ranking Democratic officials (like governors, so Eliot "Spend Time with My Family" Spitzer used to be one) and there are around 800 of them to be won. Basically, their alignment with a candidate isn't chosen during the primaries (like pledged delegates) and they can choose whoever they want to support at the convention, making their official name "unpledged delegates". Unlike pledged delegates, they are not chosen in an approximate ratio to the percentage of votes that each candidate received in a primary or caucus.

So why is this important?

Well, it shows that current delegate counts for Obaminator and HilRod aren't completely accurate because either of them could potentially have as many as 794 more than the primary results are showing, which makes this race endlessly exciting (Who's winning? Who knows?). Also, when a government position changes hands, like from Eliot Spitzer to current NY Governor Paterson, that delegate alignment and therefore vote changes hands and that could impact the candidate chosen.

Now you are an expert at Super Delegates and can impress all your high brow friends at cocktail parties. Cheerio!