Hillary counts on old pals act - a political manoeuvre which is threatening to split the Democrats

[bridgit]

HILLARY Clinton is using an old pals act to win the presidential nomination, a political manoeuvre which is threatening to split the Democrats and leaving some members fearing it will ultimately see them lose another election.

Clinton has inflated her numbers by calling on so-called Super Delegates, many of whom are close friends and colleagues. Like normal delegates, they vote to decide the presidential candidate at the summer convention, but unlike other delegates they are not elected. Instead they are appointed by the party top brass – who are overwhelmingly in Clinton's pocket.

Some Democrats fear a repeat of 1984, when Special Delegates gave party loyalist Walter Mondale victory over the younger, more radical Gary Hart.

This time, though, the stakes are higher. "We really need change, we need a new generation of leaders," says Patricia Horotan, a 36-year-old Democrat Party member in New York who plans to vote for Obama. "If Obama gets the most votes, and Hillary beats him by using her Super Delegates, there's going to be a riot."

http://news.scotsman.com/world/Hillary-counts-on-old-pals.3667460.jp

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

1. Wasn't Gary Hart through after the Donna Rice/Monkey Business deal, long before convention time?

I didn't think that Special Delegates etc. had any role.

[Hippo_Tron]

4. That was 1988

And truth be told that really shouldn't have ended him.

[Lucinda]

2. And Obama and Edwards have tidy piles of super delegates lined up too.

http://edition.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/scorecard/#D

[madrchsod]

3. wow this is getting to be old school!

smoke filled rooms of the 1800`s and 1900`s...nothing really changes does it!

[MonkeyFunk]

5. and those same delegates

are largely old friends and colleagues of all the other candidates, too.

[Perry Logan]

6. The Obamites are smelling defeat.

[Political Heretic]

7. I HATE the way our so-called "democracy" actually works.

We are such a banana republic its not even funny.