Getting rid of super delegates will be a total embarrassment, They are a PR buffer that

[CK_John]

keep outspoken Congress members from being shunned and allowed to go to the convention.

We will re split the Dixiecrat wing into a racist third party.

[JVS]

1. Please elaborate. How would this happen?

[CK_John]

2. You have to go back to at least 72 when many southern states had two set of delegates and women were

never allowed to be a delegate. To make peace, super delegates were a method to get many party hacks on the convention floor without making then fight for elected delegate slots.

Take this away and tou get action then reaction.

[karynnj]

3. Simple solution - have all elected officials and party bigwigs who would have been superdelegates

be there as "honorary" delegates with no power to vote. This would get them to the floor in a way that embarrasses no one and avoids the potential that they could overturn the results in the contests.

I agreed with John Kerry in early February when he said that he did not think the superdelegates should give the nomination to a candidate who did not get the most regular delegates. Now, it is true that the person whose people were hypothesizing that she could still win (due to more superdelegates) if she was merely "close" to Obama's regaular delegates and JK was supporting Obama.
Then there was the attempt to push elected officials to vote with their state/district - leaving just the party delegates to pick the winner in a close election.

[MaineDem]

4. All of the so-called Superdelegates will still be delegates

In the past they have been unpledged. Now, if this passes, they will be pledged based on how their individual state's vote in the primary/caucus. If one decides to remain unpledged they can choose to be non-voting delegates at the national Convention.

[karynnj]

9. Ok - In terms of delegates counted, this would be the same

This really is a good idea, because I think everyone was uncomfortable with the idea that the unpledged delegates could change the result.

[struggle4progress]

5. The Dixiecrats all fled the Democratic Party forty years ago. That was Nixon's "Southern Strategy":

the troglodytes like Jesse Helms walked away voluntarily to join the Publicans. Today they're represented in the Teabagger wing of the GOP

[CK_John]

6. The Dixiecrats are alive and well in the Democratic party of most old south states and

a growing voice in the western belt states.

[struggle4progress]

10. You must use "Dixiecrat" in a nonstandard way. The Dixiecrats were traditionally the

Southern segregationists who were aligned with the Democratic Party because Lincoln and the Reconstructionists were Republicans. That group played a disruptive role in Democratic politics throughgout the middle of the last century, by doing things like throwing tantrums at quadrennial conventions: the 1964 fight over the Mississippi delegation was the last example. In 1968, the Dixiecrats were associated with George Wallace of "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" fame. The group included other assholes like SC's Strom Thurmond (who left the Dems around the time of the Civil Rights Act) and NC's Jesse Helms (who left the Dems with many other Dixiecrats in the Nixon era)

There are, of course, many conservative Democrats in the South, but it is misleading to call those conservative Dixiecrat: the era in which Dixiecrat racism was acceptable within the Democratic Party has passed, as evidenced by the 2008 election

[bemildred]

7. Bring it on. nt

[backscatter712]

8. I don't want racist Dixiecrats in the Democratic Party.

Not that there are many left (as stated, they left in the 70's for the Rethug party,) but if you're going to act like a bigoted nitwit, we don't want you here.

The desire for a big tent only goes so far with me...