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Frames without faces

“Superdelegates” make up 712 of 4,763 total delegates to the Democratic convention, as opposed to 4,051 pledged delegates determined through the primary process. You can get the nomination with 2,382 delegates - meaning the nomination can be captured completely through the primary/caucus process.

Superdelegates, unlike delegates won through the primaries, are not bound to a candidate. A lot more of them have said they support Hillary than Bernie, but they are as free to change their minds as any other voter, at any time before the convention. So in other words, when you read “Hillary tied Bernie in New Hampshire including the superdelegates,” that’s not really true, because Bernie is 100% going to get the 15 delegates that he won, whereas the six superdelegates of the 15 folks are counting for Hillary when they say this could easily vote for Bernie. Bird in the hand and everything.

If Bernie Sanders wins a majority of delegates in the primary process but falls short of clinching the nomination, superdelegates will be under incredible pressure to respect the will of the people. And remember - we’re talking mainly about elected officials, who can be punished at the ballot box, and members of the DNC, who are charged with trying to build the party rather than tear it to shreds a few months before a general election. The fearful scenario MoveOn is describing where the superdelegates thwart… someone… from getting the nomination when they got more delegates/votes in the democratic part of the process is absolutely not what they want.

Whatever the political equivalent of “IT’S JULY YOU ANIMALS” is applies here. There have been 68 delegates selected at the ballot box. 3,983 are still going to be awarded through that process. If the Sanders campaign isn’t working on getting as many superdelegate commitments as possible, that would be bad. But there’s not much reason for anyone else to be worrying about it until at least April.

People are talking about this now because a) this is the sort of exciting, unpredictable scenario that fascinates every political journalist I’ve ever met, b) building up a threat of “the establishment stealing the election from Bernie” benefits the Sanders campaign’s narrative, and c) because the superdelegate lead helps reassure Hillary Clinton supporters. Not because it’s a particularly likely outcome at this point.

STRAWBERRIES AND CREAM SCONES WITH WHITE CHOCOLATE DRIZZLE RECIPE

Really nice recipes. Every hour.

Emma Thompson on Oscars diversity (x)