Democrat Primaries/Caucuses Discussions, Jokes, Predictions

[rainbow]

Comrade Sanders 60.0%
Clinton 38.4%


The only demographic Hillary one was the over 65 crowd. Sanders did a lot better than most polls indicated before the vote, Hillary must be pissed. Wonder who she is going to fire first

Bern, baby, Bern!

[pErvinalia]

Comrade Sanders 60.0%
Clinton 38.4%


The only demographic Hillary one was the over 65 crowd. Sanders did a lot better than most polls indicated before the vote, Hillary must be pissed. Wonder who she is going to fire first

Woot!

[rainbow]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... -1.2526474

Vermin Supreme receives more votes than real candidate Jim Gilmore in New Hampshire primary

[JimC]

"The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."

[DaveDodo007]

I would like to know what difference a democrat leader would make when congress and the senate are republican? I mean the best a democrat can hope for is more stalemate and on and on it goes.

[Tyrannical]

I'm starting to think comrade bernie might eventually win more popular delegates than Hillary, but Hillary will still win since she has almost all the super delegates. That would lead to quite the chaotic convention the likes of which we haven't seen since '68 Chicago.

[pErvinalia]

What's a super delegate?

[Forty Two]

In the primary stage of the election process, candidates are chosen by delegates. So, when a person goes in and votes in primary elections, they are voting for delegates who will go to the Democratic National Convention and cast votes as "convention delegates" for candidates for the Democratic nomination. I.e. when a person goes to the polls now in these primaries and vote for Bernie or Hillary, they are voting for delegates for Bernie or Hillary. Some delegates are bound to vote in accordance with the popular vote.

There are some delegates, however, who are not bound to vote with the popular vote. Those are superdelegates. Superdelegates in the Democratic Party are current or former party leaders and elected officials, and some are chosen during the primary process.

Here are the Democratic Party rules on the issue -- http://demrulz.org/wp-content/files/12. ... .15.14.pdf

[pErvinalia]

I heard that despite Bern's big win in New Hampshire, he only got as many delegates for the final conference as Hillarious.

[Forty Two]

Yep, because they say many of the superdelegates were going Hillary.

This is a deceptive meme, though, basically being sold by Hillary supporters to sell the notion that it just doesn't matter, and Hillary is going to win no matter what we do.

There are I think, 4,763 delegates total, 712 of which are superdelegates. New Hampshire is a tiny state, and it has like 22 convention delegates, of which Sanders won 15, and Clinton 9. The suggestion that Clinton is way ahead because of superdelegates is true, but less meaningful than is being suggested.

A nomination has never been decided by superdelegates, and while some of the superdelegates have said they are backing Hillary, they are not committed by law to stay with Hillary.

If Bernie wins most of the states, he'll have enough convention delegates that the superdelegates won't matter. I.e., it won't be close enough for the superdelegates to tip the nomination.

The whole system is a clusterfuck, though. It's a complex history here - where before 1968, the nominees were chosen solely by the respective parties and there weren't really popular determinations of nominees. Like any private "party" a party is conceptually a private group of people who get together and support a candidate they choose. Like if we formed the Rationalia Party, and just decided to vote rEvolutionist as our nominee. Then we'd just have to follow state law petition requirements to get your name on the ballot.

Since the two major parties got so huge, though, and pretty much prevent any real third or fourth parties from also getting big, there was pressure over the years to set some normal electoral process rules in place to make things fairer. In 1968 things came to a head, because there were huge protests and demonstrations outside the Democratic National Convenction (Remember the Chicago 7, Abbie Hoffman, and the Chicago protests that year). So, they changed it to a the primary and caucus system then -- at first there were no superdelegates and people started getting pissed off when non-establishment candidates like McGovern and Carter started getting nominated. The establishment politicians wanted some say in the process, so they started allowing the current and former elected officials and party leaders become delegates automatically by rule. That's only been around since the 1980s.

Welcome to the sausage making process.

[laklak]

rEv, I'll support you in 2020! But only if I get to be Minister of Titties and Beer.

[pErvinalia]

Free titties and beer for everyone!!

[JimC]

Oz is mostly based on the Westminster system. The members of each party vote for their leader, and if that party is in power, he or she becomes the Prime Monster Minister. In recent years, with fairly constant party room in-fighting, this is lead to a revolving door of Prime Ministers, often down to the members of their party worrying about the electability of the party at the next election, depending on what the polls are saying about the current dear leader...

The US in-party fighting is at least a bit more out in the open, I suppose...

[Forty Two]

rEv, I'll support you in 2020! But only if I get to be Minister of Titties and Beer.

[Tero]

“Several steps are involved in transferring documents from that system to a public-facing website while still protecting sensitive national security information,” Eric F. Stein, a State Department official, wrote in a filing on Wednesday.

In a letter to one of the State Department’s lawyers regarding another request for emails under the Freedom of Information Act, Mr. Baker of the F.B.I. wrote that the bureau had “acknowledged generally that it is working on matters related to former Secretary Clinton’s use of a private email server,” but he declined to detail the nature of that work.

The bureau, he wrote, has not “publicly acknowledged the specific focus, scope or potential target of any such proceedings.”

The next batch of emails will be released on Friday, followed by releases on Feb. 26 and 29. These will include Hillary's famous cookie recipe. Hillary has made cookies exactly 5 times in her life. Once she brought some to work. Workers were able to eat them after dunking in State Department coffee.

NY Times