It’s a bird, It’s a plane, It’s Howard Dean

With such a close race for this election
year’s Democratic presidential candidate,
the candidate might be decided by
superdelegates. Like most people, I had
no idea what in the world superdelegates
were until this election.

Were they jettisoned from the planet
Krypton shortly before its destruction
and are invincible to all but Kryptonite?
Are they politicians that have been bitten
by radioactive spiders and thus possess
superhuman powers? Sadly – for both
questions – the answer is “no” . and
Howard Dean, current chairman of the
Democratic National Committee, has
no superpower except his “Beeeeeehhyaaaaahhhh!!!!”

In an effort to explain the term
“superdelegate,” I shall do my best to
break down how the system works.

For the Democratic Party, there
are pledged delegates and unpledged
delegates.

Pledged delegates are, for the most
part, directly representative of the state
vote in a primary. If 75 percent of Alaskan
residents vote in the presidential primary
for Barack Obama, 75 percent of the
Alaskan delegates will go to Obama.

The Republican Party utilizes a different,
winner-take-all system in most
states. In Arizona, John McCain received
47 percent of the vote and Mitt Romney
received 35 percent. Because of the
winner-take-all system, McCain gained
all 50 delegates in the state.

A “superdelegate” is an informal term
for an “unpledged party leader and can
elected official delegate.” Superdelegates
are used only in the Democratic Party
and only matter if no candidate can
get the majority of regular pledged
delegates-the required majority is
2,024 delegates. As things stand currently,
Obama has 1,617 delegates, and
Clinton has 1,498 delegates, according
to the Associated Press, and it is very
possible that neither will attain the
2,024 needed.

If neither candidate attains the
required number of delegates, the
nomination would be decided by the
superdelegates. Superdelegates can be
current or former office holders or party
officials. Not all of them have been
elected into office; they are party insiders
and leaders and are not representative
of the common person.

The use of superdelegates is nothing
more than a further impediment to the
idea of a “government of the people.”
Instead of voters choosing their candidate
in the primaries, the decision will be left
to an elite group.

Call me old-fashioned, but you could
say I’m an Athenian democrat. I am a
proponent of direct democracy, where
everyone – not just a select few – votes
on legislation. This scenario would allow
everyone to have a direct say in his or
her government, and there would be no
way to buy off or bribe voters.

As if the current situation weren’t
bad enough, superdelegates are allowed
to change their vote at any time before
the national convention. Superdelegates
can give their vote to candidates who
already have dropped out of the race.
Even the number of superdelegates
can change before the beginning of the
convention.

This is all ridiculous, and I write as
a concerned citizen-not as a supporter
of either Democratic candidate.

Currently, Obama and Clinton are
only 29 superdelegates apart. The
fact that some elite group of political
officials will control who is the next
presidential candidate is preposterous;
this system should be changed so future
elections will be more democratic and
less elitist.