Super Delegates Will Crown Dem Nominee

Blogger runs math, fears party choice will 'lack legitimacy'
By Jonas Oransky,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 4, 2008 10:06 PM CST
Super Delegates Will Crown Dem Nominee
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., left, looks on as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., speaks during a Democratic presidential debate in Los Angeles, Thursday, Jan. 31, 2008. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)   (Associated Press)

So-called super delegates will end up crowning the Democratic presidential nominee, Open Left’s Chris Bowers blogs. Even if Hillary Clinton wins a whopping 937 delegates to Barack Obama’s 862 on Super Tuesday, she would have to score 76% of the rest to win the nod. That's where 796 super delegates—governors, congressmen, and other party bigwigs—come into play.

Two hundred of them already back Clinton and 100 Obama, MotherJones reports. Who gets the rest will depend on backroom, undemocratic kingmaking—"a complete disaster," Bowers fears—and produce a nominee who "lacks legitimacy." Bowers' solution is that super delegates must echo the delegates. Failing that, or a candidate dropping out, "we could be facing a crisis in the party," he writes. (More Hillary Clinton stories.)

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