HolyCoast: Delegate Stealing
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Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Delegate Stealing

The Dem contest gets more entertaining by the day. We've all been reading about the coming battles over the superdelegates, but I learned something new this morning. In the Dem party the so-called "pledged" delegates aren't actually pledged at all, and if a stalemate looks likely, each side will try and steal delegates from the other:
Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign intends to go after delegates whom Barack Obama has already won in the caucuses and primaries if she needs them to win the nomination.

This strategy was confirmed to me by a high-ranking Clinton official on Monday. And I am not talking about superdelegates, those 795 party big shots who are not pledged to anybody. I am talking about getting pledged delegates to switch sides.

What? Isn’t that impossible? A pledged delegate is pledged to a particular candidate and cannot switch, right?

Wrong.

Pledged delegates are not really pledged at all, not even on the first ballot. This has been an open secret in the party for years, but it has never really mattered because there has almost always been a clear victor by the time the convention convened.

But not this time. This time, one candidate may enter the convention leading by just a few pledged delegates, and those delegates may find themselves being promised the sun, moon and stars to switch sides.

“I swear it is not happening now, but as we get closer to the convention, if it is a stalemate, everybody will be going after everybody’s delegates,” a senior Clinton official told me Monday afternoon. “All the rules will be going out the window.”

Does anybody think there will be a major rewrite of the primary/caucus rules in the Dem party after this election? You bet, especially if a war ensues that costs them the election. Their system is so full of holes and opportunities for mischief it can hardly be called "democratic".

And don't forget - if they win the White House the same people that created these arcane rules will be running the country. How does that make you feel?

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