09-06-2008, 03:43 AM
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| Obama needs Clinton Supporters to Beat McCain?
Democratic Party required number of votes for nomination: 2025 out of 4,049  Quote: Who are Superdelegates??
-Members of the Democratic National Committee
-The Current Democratic President and Vice-President (if applicable)
-All Democratic members of the United States House of Representatives and Senate
-All Democratic Governors
-All former Democratic Presidents, vice-Presidents, Leaders of the Senate, Speakers of the House, Minority Leaders and chairs of the DNC.
These 795 "superdelegates" are almost 16 percent of the 2,025 delegates (4,049 total) a candidate needs to secure the party's presidential nomination, while officially uncommitted and thus "unreplaceable", can publicly endorse a candidate, adding to his and her total.
Voters select delegates in primaries and caucuses through the country. Pledged delegates reflect the preferences of the voters, but are not actually legally bound to vote for the candidate they are pledged for. However, since candidates may remove delegates whom they feel may be disloyal, pledged delegates generally vote for the candidate they represent. | Republican Party required number of votes for nomination: 1,191 out of 2,380  Quote: The Republican National Committee allocates delegates to states and territories in four categories. Three district level delegates are given to states for each of their congressional districts. Ten additional at-large delegates are given to each state regardless of population. States earn additional bonus delegates for having U.S. Senators and governors from the Republican Party, sending a majority-Republican delegation to the U.S. House, maintaining partial or total Republican control of the state legislature, or casting a majority of their 2004 electoral vote for George W. Bush. Finally, each state automatically receives three party delegates: their two RNC delegates and the chairman of the state Republican party. Territories are only eligible to send at-large and party delegates.
Unlike the Democratic Party, which mandates a proportional representation system for delegate selection within a state, the Republican Party has no such restriction. For states with primaries, some states choose to use the "winner-take-all" method to award delegates within a state, while others do winner-take-all within a congressional district, and still others use the proportional process. Unlike the Democratic Party, where pledged delegates support the candidate whom they are pledged, state party by-laws determine whether each delegate is pledged and for how many ballots.
In caucus states, most state parties use a two pronged process. A straw poll, often called a presidential preference poll, is conducted of the attendees at the caucus. The results are released to the media and published on the state party website. Delegates are then elected to the county conventions. It is at the county conventions that delegates are elected to state conventions, and from the state convention to the national convention. At each level, delegates may be bound or unbound to a candidate. If unbound, delegates are not obligated to follow the results of the presidential preference poll. Thus, all estimates of delegates from caucus states are dependent on state law.
Unlike in the Democratic Party, Republican members of Congress (including Senate members, House members, and non-voting delegates), and state governors are not automatically made delegates to the party's national convention, however their endorsements can hold sway on voters in caucuses and primaries.
Each state's two members of the Republican National Committee, and the party chairs of each state and territory are the only automatic delegates to the party's national convention. These superdelegates while officially uncommitted, may also publicly endorse a candidate. | Clearly, if Barack Obama beat McCain on the numbers of the required delegates for nomination alone, he can beat him more with or without the supporters of Hillary Clinton.
Clinton is using these tactics as leverage to get Obama's nod on her request to run as his vice presidential candidate to get rid of her campaign debts amounting to millions of dollar.
It sucks!!!  |