Funny Thing

Just as I was posting about super delegates and how to interpret Sen. Obama's lead in pledged delegates in the Democratic Party presidential race, here comes an excellent article on the subject from Jonathan Cohn in The New Republic magazined.

Mr. Cohn says that the delegate count ("the will of the people") is often based on rules that are less than democratic: arbitrarily drawn congressional boundary lines, party rules that add delegates in states that have voted Democratic in past elections, which punishes states that haven't, and that what super delegates may look to is the popular vote, that is, the total number of votes each candidate has gotten in this process instead of the delegates:

"That's not to say the 'will of the people' ought to be irrelevant to the superdelegates' deliberations. All other things equal, that's probably the best criteria that superdelegates can use. But the key here is defining 'will of the people' properly.

And the way to do that, I think, is by looking not at the committed delegate count but at the popular vote--that is, the sum total of votes cast by individuals in the primaries and caucuses. It may not be a perfect reflection of the voters' will, but it's surely a more accurate reflection than the delegate count."

You can read the entire piece at:
http://tinyurl.com/2r6ggk

BTW, in the same magazine, the pro-delegate argument is made by Jonathan Chait in a piece suggesting Sen. Hillary Clinton leave the race. You can read this one at:
http://tinyurl.com/39ks9z

I know I am concentrating on the Democratic Party race but that is where the action is at the moment. I'll have more on the Republicans and what nominee John McCain is doing and what his vice presidential selection choice process may be in future posts.