Dean says no to idea of a 'super delegate' pre-convention

[sabra]

http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2008/04/post.html

Dean says no to idea of a 'super delegate' pre-convention

Democratic Party chief Howard Dean said today that he does not support staging a gathering of undecided super delegates to pick the party's presidential nominee. (USA TODAY's Fredreka Schouten reporting and writing.)

In a telephone interview, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee said he hopes the nearly 800 uncommitted super delegates -- who may ultimately decide the tight Democratic contest -- will all made their choices known by July 1 to avert a showdown at the party's Aug. 25-28 national convention in Denver. He said is talking with party stalwarts about finding a way to do that.

Dean said there are 330 super delegates whose preferences are not yet known.

Dean does not a support a plan advanced by Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen for a two-day meeting of super delegates in June to pick either Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton or Sen. Barack Obama -- assuming the contenders are still nearly tied in "pledged" delegate numbers -- as the party's standard-bearer.

"We can't have a convention of super delegates because it would look like 330 delegates are overriding the wishes of 30 million voters," Dean said. But he praises Bredesen for advancing the plan. "It's good that he's talking about it because it focuses the attention of the unpledged delegates on the need to put their country and their party first by making up their mind before the convention," he said.

[Skink]

1. Superdelegates should have to wait until the convention.

[cali]

4. nope. they are free to endorse at any time. And most have

thank god.

[cali]

2. dean's right

now if only hillfans would stop their dean hatefest. he's obviously not favoring either candidate.

[madfloridian]

3. Excellent. Also he is on CNN today in the 4:00 hour.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/04/01/dean-democrats-will-unify-around-nominee/

[madfloridian]

6. And also on CNN Election Central at 8:00

.

[DJ13]

5. I think he's worried it will lessen the importance of the real convention

But........wont that happen anyway if (hopefully when) the majority of SD's endorse ahead of the convention?

[madfloridian]

7. There's usually a nominee going into convention.

.

[meow mix]

8. Great interview with Dean just now on MSNBC......

translations.

The fight will not be spilling into the convention. period.
before that, either...

there will be a nominee, the party will make it happen.
(SD's will go to Obama)

or there will "be an agreement between the candidates"
(hillary will drop out)

and FL/MI will be seated but since there will be already be 1 nominee its not of much consequence.

[madfloridian]

9. Let me know if you find the video. I missed it.

Was it with Norah?

[meow mix]

10. yup norah had dean on just now.

dont see any videos yet bleh..

[madfloridian]

12. DNC had it listed for 12:50...

Must have been wrong.

[karynnj]

11. Hidden bias here " ssuming the contenders are still nearly tied in "pledged" delegate numbers"

is positioned as a given. In fact, Obama has 1417 pledged delegates to Clinton's 1248 - this means that Obama has 13.5% more delegates than Clinton (169/1248) - this is not tied, Obama has a real lead.

[UALRBSofL]

13. i posted there would be no pre-convention last week

because there are no bylaws indicating it to be allowed, donna brazille was pushing hard for it knowing a change would or could be cause for litigation, and i emailed clinton camp on a specific email address and suggested they look into it. however i am changing my support to Gravel since he's the only progressive candidate left, and he will make a constitutional ammendment to make same sex marriage inclusive.

[madfloridian]

14. Dean is supposed to be on CNN in the 8:00 hour..Election Central.

Just a heads up.

Here is the video of his interview on CNN with John King today

http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/politics/2008/04/01/king.dean.interview.cnn