Super delegates could decide it!

The Democratic duel for the presidential nomination has taken a problematical shift from Super Tuesday to the super delegate, opening a kind of shadow primary race for the support of hundreds of elite party members.With Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama less than 100 delegates apart in the chase for the Democratic nomination, the party’s so-called super delegates–roughly 20 percent of the total delegates available–are garnering attention from the campaigns.There are delegates, and there are super delegates at Democratic national conventions. Voters in state primaries and caucuses choose the delegates. Super delegates are party leaders, members of Congress and other VIPs who get an automatic vote on the convention floor–one they alone decide. For the first time since the Democrats set up the system, super delegates could hold the balance of power.Though still considered a long shot, the close race means Denver could host a rare brokered national convention in August. If that happens, the winner of the pledged delegates who represent the popular vote could lose to the candidate who wins the most super delegates.The super delegate was born in 1984. Former Vice President Walter Mondale, fearing rising star Gary Hart, used his establishment connections to create the un-pledged delegate. The argument was that party leaders needed a say in picking a nominee with “electability.”With prospects of a deadlock looming large, pundits are busy predicting that the super-delegates will be the deciders. There are 796 of these “insiders,” as they’re called. They include members of Congress, governors, former presidents and office holders as well as unelected officials. Bill Clinton is working the phones, calling in favors from his days in the White House. And of course, as a former president, he is one of the super-delegates his wife can count on. Obama has several governors on his side, and former presidential candidate Senator John Kerry is also working on recruiting his fellow voters behind the scenes. So far, the Associated Press has 213 super-delegates committed to Clinton and 139 to Obama. More Americans than ever before are standing up to have their voices and choices heard in this election year, especially Democrats. A small, elite group should not be able to cancel out the will of the people. A lot of people wonder how democratic the Democratic Party is if it has to go through the super-delegates. Incidentally, Republicans don’t have any super delegates to worry about.It promises to be a long fight to decide which history maker–the woman or the African American– will become the Democratic Party’s choice for president.