Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Courting the Superdelegates

With Hillary Clinton's recent victory in Pennsylvania, some media outlets have claimed that Barack Obama "cannot seal the deal" and secure the Democratic Party's nomination for the General election in November. Despite the fact that the Pennsylvania primary was deemed to be crucial, it has provided almost no change in delegate margins between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. At this point, there can only be a strengthening of the role superdelegates will play leading up to this year's Democratic National Convention.

On Saturday, April 26th Hillary Clinton challenged Barack Obama to a Lincoln-Douglass styled unmoderated political debate. Obama has not declined the challenge, but rather has stated that it will not occur before the North Carolina and Indiana primaries which are set to take place on May 6, 2008. I feel that at this point the courting of democratic superdelegates will increase in some form, thought not enough to discourage the average voter. The results of the May primaries have the potential to shift the remaining course of this campaign season depending on who wins.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

April 2008

For my first blog post, I feel it is probably most appropriate to present what I will be attempting to identify by attending the Democratic National Convention this coming August. As anyone who is following the news regarding the Democratic Primary knows, the race is incredibly close and every delegate will count. I will be looking specifically at the “Superdelegates” and the system under which they function. I want to see if the superdelegates vote the way their specific constituency did, or if they side with a certain candidate. My goal is to create a database of all Democratic superdelegates and examine whether or not they side with their constituency initially and at the convention. At the end of the convention, the data will be compiled, and a final analysis of the superdelegates will be presented. By the numbers, does the system undermine democracy?