If you have been paying attention to the Democratic primaries you may have noticed that Barak Obama has to date won more delegates in the various primaries and caucuses than has Hillary Clinton. So you might be surprised that as of today Obama has 158 delegates and Clinton has 232. What? How can that be? The answer is “super delegates”.

In 1972 George McGovern lost in a landslide election tot Richard Nixon. In response to that the Democratic party changed the nomination process so that 842 delegates in 2008 will not be chosen by voters but instead by party leaders.

This surprisingly undemocratic process was created to prevent a candidate from being nominated who is out of sync with the rest of the party. Either this process should be updated or perhaps the party needs to change its name. But “not quite democratic party” does not have a great ring.

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