Friday, June 10, 2016

Anonymous Superdelegates Declare Clinton the Democrat Nominee Through the Mass Media

Politico had this back in February, "Sanders supporters revolt against superdelegates."

Too bad their revolt didn't come through.

Here's Glenn Greenwald, at the Intercept, "Perfect End to Democratic Primary: Anonymous Superdelegates Declare Winner Through Media":

LAST NIGHT, the Associated Press — on a day when nobody voted — surprised everyone by abruptly declaring the Democratic Party primary over and Hillary Clinton the victor. The decree, issued the night before the California primary in which polls show Clinton and Bernie Sanders in a very close race, was based on the media organization’s survey of “superdelegates”: the Democratic Party’s 720 insiders, corporate donors, and officials whose votes for the presidential nominee count the same as the actually elected delegates. AP claims that superdelegates who had not previously announced their intentions privately told AP reporters that they intend to vote for Clinton, bringing her over the threshold. AP is concealing the identity of the decisive superdelegates who said this.

Although the Sanders campaign rejected the validity of AP’s declaration — on the ground that the superdelegates do not vote until the convention and he intends to try to persuade them to vote for him — most major media outlets followed the projection and declared Clinton the winner.

This is the perfect symbolic ending to the Democratic Party primary: The nomination is consecrated by a media organization, on a day when nobody voted, based on secret discussions with anonymous establishment insiders and donors whose identities the media organization — incredibly — conceals. The decisive edifice of superdelegates is itself anti-democratic and inherently corrupt: designed to prevent actual voters from making choices that the party establishment dislikes. But for a party run by insiders and funded by corporate interests, it’s only fitting that its nomination process ends with such an ignominious, awkward, and undemocratic sputter...
Greenwald's pretty excitable, and never forget he's a regular demonizer of Israel, etc., but he raises a good point nevertheless.

I can't stand the superdelegates. Would Hillary have won the nomination without them? Who knows? But had Bernie Sanders gone for the jugular early in his campaign, holding nothing back, and tearing into every corrupt, scandalous, enabling outrage that is the Clinton political machine, he might well have been crown the Democrat Party standard-bearer. In the end, that's probably the bigger story.

And remember, Donald Trump's under no such constraint. His challenge will be finding the zone while eviscerating the hulk shell cankles Clinton.

RELATED: At Truth Revolt, "Bill Clinton's Ex-Lover Describes Meeting Hillary: 'Lumpy, Thick Calves, Hairy Toes'."

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