• Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    34
    ·
    edit-2
    7 hours ago

    2008. They were NOT expecting Obama to oust Hillary, and took steps to make sure something like that doesn’t happen again. Allegedly the new DNC head or whatever his title is wants fair primaries, so I guess we’ll see.

      • Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        7 hours ago

        As far as I know/remember it was, at least as fair as any primary with superdelegates can be. Or rather, it was still using an unfair system and enough people turned out so that the system to keep nominations “in check” didn’t work.

        • Optional@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          6 hours ago

          Cynthia McKinney was elected as a Democrat in Georgia around that time. iirc she was looking at a presidential run. You might have seen her on here yesterday for her latest tweet. (Spoiler: super bigot)

          Which is to say, if you open the field to everyone in the country you will spend a certain amount of time winnowing the contenders from the stunt candidates. Republicans don’t do that because they’re all the same candidate. So they spend almost zero time (since Perot) dealing with that.

          Superdelegates aren’t great, but an alternative to achieve that aim of not having to platform every trust fund kid with a boot on their head might be good.

          • Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            5
            ·
            6 hours ago

            She ran as a Green Party candidate, not a Democratic one. I’m not sure how she’s relevant?

            She was pretty suspect even in 2008, so I’m not sure I buy that if we don’t have superdelegates and let voters decide who the candidates are, then the stupid masses will just pick whoever.

            • Optional@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              30 minutes ago

              Oh man you’re right I’d forgotten that.

              I don’t think superdelegates are to prevent popular candidates (see Obama), I think they’re to get a comprehensible slate of candidates to focus on issues and themes and not on turning the Iowa caucus into something bizarre by claiming to be a Democrat who just happens to demand we all live in the sea or something.

              Again, republicans don’t have this problem, and they’re well known to fund ‘spoiler candidates’ with the intention of wrecking momentum or message or other campaign aspects.