Voting is for Naught

[Conveyor Belt]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8583.html

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


If the pledges don't mean anything, then why the hell are we even wasting money holding primary elections? They don't mean anything, according to this story.

Is this democracy? How can we elect our leaders if we can't even elect our leaders?

[fuzzis]

I think Clinton is going to have to be very, very careful if that's the path she wants to walk down. Since it doesn't really matter who the president is (since none of them manage to get a whole helluva lot done), and since McCain is fairly liberal, she runs the risk of alienating those people that she's going to need in the general.

If she wants to practice a scorched earth policy, she may be the one who gets burned. I'd be more likely to vote for McCain than I would someone who doesn't particularly give a damn what the populace appears to want.

[jmb]

I don't understand this either, CB. And what are these superdelegates? Is this something new?

[aaron]

No, these delegates can switch. The primary is basically to get an idea of who will be supported in the general election. The two parties can still support anyone they want to support, but it'd be dangerous because that's all it is. If McCain doesn't get the Republican nomination, he could run as an independent against them and divide the party so everyone loses.

[Conveyor Belt]

If the vote is non binding, they should just have a survey or something. Not an election that costs millions and millions of dollars.

[aaron]

If the vote is non binding, they should just have a survey or something. Not an election that costs millions and millions of dollars.

Well, it really goes a long way to keeping up the illusion that your choosing the candidates for president. Besides, we spent as much on this primary as we spend in one day in Iraq.

[CircusRide]

Can I see a show of hands from those that don't think the Clinton's are as crooked as a corkscrew. They're like that dog crap you can't get off your shoe once you've stepped in it.

[Blockhead]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8583.html



If the pledges don't mean anything, then why the hell are we even wasting money holding primary elections? They don't mean anything, according to this story.

Is this democracy? How can we elect our leaders if we can't even elect our leaders?
What? You thought you lived in a democracy? Have you also recently purchased some ocean-front property in Arizona?

[mspolitics82]

If the vote is non binding, they should just have a survey or something. Not an election that costs millions and millions of dollars.

All the more reason to have a NATIONAL primary election....just like we do in statewide elections.

[Baloo]

I think that the American voting process should be completely changed and that all voters should have to show a valid government issued ID to vote and that each persons vote should count. It is that simple in my book...

I do not agree with having a process by which "delegates" may vote for whomever THEY chose. Especially when delegate choose to vote for someone other than who they were supposed to vote for to represen the people. It is the making of a communistic socitey with an autocratic governing body.

[firefly]

We are screwed, glued, & tattood anyway you look at it!:smt118