Tuesday, February 19, 2008

The coming chaos: Dem convention edition

Check this out, from the Politico, and imagine the fist fights that will be breaking out on the convention floor as pledged delgates jump sides:

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.

But not this time. This time, one candidate may enter the convention leading by just a few pledged delegates, and those delegates may find themselves being promised the sun, moon and stars to switch sides.

“I swear it is not happening now, but as we get closer to the convention, if it is a stalemate, everybody will be going after everybody’s delegates,” a senior Clinton official told me Monday afternoon. “All the rules will be going out the window.”

3 comments:

SheaHeyKid said...

Saw this headline earlier. I'm confused, I wonder if the rules are different for Dem and Repub delegates. My understanding on repub side was that delegates were legally bound in their vote, unless they were "released" by their candidate (which is what happened when Mitt withdrew). Then the next question came up (which I still haven't heard answered) is whether they are now legally bound to McCain since Mitt endorsed him, or whether they are free to do what they want.

Fredo said...

I believe Mitt released his delegates making them free agents, and this was why he "urged" them to vote for McCain. Apparently he can't force them to.

ManBeast said...

Fredo is right. I remember hearing Huckabee comment that Mitt's delegates were now in play for him.

AddThis

Bookmark and Share

Always sniffing for the truth

Always sniffing for the truth

Blog Archive