Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Have the Democrats Finally Picked a Candidate?

Today was primary day in New Jersey. In the old days we would have been picking a candidate for president but we did that a few months ago. Today we were picking a candidate for Senate, a sheriff for Union County!, and some Chosen Freeholders (whatever they are).

The big news, though, is that today is the last of the primary contests for president. In a striking blow to our concept of democracy the outcome will not be decided by the voters but by a bunch of people called super delegates. Some of these people were elected but lots of them are just party officials, people that just work for the Democratic Party. Barack Obama has won a plurality of the delegates but not enough to secure the nomination. Now it will be up to the candidates to twist enough of these delegates arms to get them the required number of votes to win the nomination. I really don't understand how this is the will of the people and why anyone thinks that this brings forward the best candidates. Of course, it probably doesn't and that goes a long way to explain how we are where we are.

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