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White Males of SteelBehold the Democratic Party: the party of the people, the party of the disenfranchised, the party that gives opportunities to minorities and women--or at least to one or the other, in the case of this year's presidential nomination. The campaign between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama has been the most compelling American political drama since the disputed election of 2000. And as in 2000, if the voters turn out to be too evenly split, it may fall to an elite group to break the tie.
No, not the Florida Supreme Court, which in 2000 tried to finagle a victory for Al Gore. We refer instead to "superdelegates"--elected officials, members of the Democratic National Committee and a handful of "distinguished party leaders," who are free to vote for any candidate at the convention and who make up some 20% of the total delegates. Politico has a count showing Mrs. Clinton with 242 superdelegates, Obama with 157.5 and 318.5 uncommitted. These pledges are not binding, however; any superdelegate can change his vote right up until the convention.
Politico reports that some Democrats are complaining the superdelegates aren't diverse enough:
According to a Politico analysis, close to half of the 700-plus Democratic superdelegates who could end up determining the party nominee are white men.
One Obama superdelegate, a House member, had sharp criticism for the superdelegate racial and gender makeup, a reaction that reflects the sensitivities surrounding the issue.
"It's still the old guard, the white men. They always want to control the outcome," the superdelegate said. "But this time, they won't be able to do it." . . .
The percentage of white male superdelegates is disproportionate to the share of white males who make up the overall Democratic electorate. According to a January 2008 national poll by Zogby International, 28 percent of Democratic voters are white men. Women account for 55 percent of Democratic voters.
But superdelegates have never reflected the diversity of the Democratic party as a whole, nor were they designed to. They represent the party insiders, a group that white men still dominate.
The Boston Globe reports that superdelegates have "been plied with campaign contributions by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton":
"While it would be unseemly for the candidates to hand out thousands of dollars to primary voters, or to the delegates pledged to represent the will of those voters, elected officials serving as superdelegates have received about $890,000 from Obama and Clinton in the form of campaign contributions over the last three years," the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics reported today. . . .
Obama's political action committee has doled out more than $694,000 to superdelegates since 2005, the study found, and of the 81 who had announced their support for Obama, 34 had received donations totaling $228,000.
Clinton's political action committee has distributed about $195,000 to superdelegates, and only 13 of the 109 who had announced for her have received money, totaling about $95,000.
In the end, the superdelegates may follow rather than lead, a step the New York Times reports one member of Congress is already taking:
Representative John Lewis, an elder statesman from the civil rights era and one of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's most prominent black supporters, said Thursday night that he planned to cast his vote as a superdelegate for Senator Barack Obama in hopes of preventing a fight at the Democratic convention.
"In recent days, there is a sense of movement and a sense of spirit," said Mr. Lewis, a Georgia Democrat who endorsed Mrs. Clinton last fall. "Something is happening in America, and people are prepared and ready to make that great leap."
Mr. Lewis, who carries great influence among other members of Congress, disclosed his decision in an interview in which he said that as a superdelegate he could "never, ever do anything to reverse the action" of the voters of his district, who overwhelmingly supported Mr. Obama.
What's the purpose of having superdelegates if they're free in theory to vote their consciences but constrained in practice to follow public opinion? Superdelegates, it seems, are an irritant but not a hindrance to the democratic process. Maybe this is an idea whose time has gone.
My Follow Americans Today brings yet another set of creepy Obama stories. A Reuters dispatch gushes:
Barack Obama is the "Yes We Can" candidate of the 2008 presidential race, an Elvis-like presence riding a wave of popular enthusiasm unseen in U.S. politics in many years. . . .
Democratic strategist Liz Chadderdon said Obama is sweeping Americans off their feet.
"It's this incredibly moving speech about how it's time for Americans to turn inward and fix America's problems. You listen to it and you say 'Yes.' Not that what's coming out of her mouth isn't solid, it just doesn't have the same emotional connection that we're feeling with him," she said.
Or consider this letter to the editor of the Seattle Times (fifth item):
Reading "Mammoth turnout gives Obama big win" [page one, Feb. 10], I was delighted to see Barack Obama's overwhelming support in our state.
I'm 56 years old, and since I was 10, I've been waiting for another visionary and idealistic leader who, quite simply, will inspire me. Such people can change this world for the better, and I can't help smiling when I realize my wait might be over.
When I think that the next decade could potentially be one of the most historic and exciting in our history, a turning point for our nation . . . well, it kinda gets your pulse racing, doesn't it?
--Bill Eidsmoe, Bellevue
"Sweeping Americans off their feet." "Emotional connection." "Gets your pulse racing." This is the language of romance, not politics.
Of course politics does inspire passions of various sorts--attachments to country, candidates, ideas, causes; as well, sometimes, as anger and even hatred. So what exactly is it that we find troubling about the Obama phenomenon? It is the prospect that the future of the country may be determined by what amounts to a mass emotional appeal. Reader Doug Artiles writes:
I was listening to "Tommy" by the Who and the song "Sensation" made me think of Obama:
You'll feel me coming A new vibration From afar you'll see me I'm a sensation . . .
I leave a trail of rooted people Mesmerized by just the sight, The few I touch are now disciples Love as One I Am the Light
Of course, there is nothing new about cults or messiahs. I guess the most we can say about this is that it would make a great song parody.
Blogger "Bookworm" quotes from "Destination Unknown," an Agatha Christie novel in which the heroine, coincidentally named Hilary, witnesses a speech by the "The Director," whom Bookworm describes as "an actor, hired by the book's actual malfeasors, to give speeches that say actually say nothing, but into which each listener can read his own beliefs":
Trying to remember his words later, Hilary found herself unable to do so with any accuracy. Or perhaps it was that the words, as remembered, seemed trite and ordinary. But listening to them was a very different thing. . . .
In spite of herself, Hilary was stirred and uplifted. The Director spoke very simply. He spoke primarily of Youth. With Youth lay the future of mankind.
"Accumulated Wealth, Prestige, Influential Families--those have been the forces of the past. But today, power lies in the hands of the young. . . ."
There was more of it--all the same heady intoxicating stuff--but it was not the words themselves--it was the power of the orator that carried away an assembly that could have been cold and critical had it not been swayed by that nameless emotion about which so little is known.
Our worry here is not that Obama resembles The Director or any parallel real-life figure. It is, rather, that the effect he has on his followers is all too similar to that of a demagogue. As far as we can tell, Obama is a perfectly decent chap--but the display of "that nameless emotion about which so little is known" makes us queasy.
Two Papers in One!• "Mr. Mugniyah had not been accused of planning new attacks in more than a decade."--New York Times, Feb. 14 • "Mr. Mugniyah was in charge of Hezbollah's special operations and its military wing. Israeli experts described him as his organization's military chief of staff. Some here believe that he oversaw the capture of two Israeli soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, in a cross-border raid in July 2006 that set off that summer's monthlong war against Hezbollah in Lebanon."--New York Times, Feb. 15
Man Without an Ideology From San Francisco's KGO-TV:
The ABC7 I-Team has the inside story of what lead up to the arrest of popular talk-radio host, Bernie Ward, on federal child pornography charges. . . .
Bernie Ward got indicted in December and got fired from his job at KGO Radio, effective at the end of last year. Now, police reports just obtained by the I-Team tell us who blew the whistle on Ward, and how he came to send the woman child porn, by his own admission.
The report includes lots of graphic details about Ward's kinky online chats. We're not going to bother quoting it; you can click through if this sort of thing interests you. We were just wondering, though, if Ward has any particular political leanings. We couldn't tell from the KGO story.
When Rush Limbaugh ran into trouble with the law a couple of years back, news stories on the subject routinely described him as conservative. By process of elimination, then, Bernie Ward must be liberal.
Count Yourself Lucky, Kid "A graduate student charged in the car crash that killed Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Halberstam was sentenced yesterday to five days in jail, but a judge recommended he serve the time on a supervised work program," the Associated Press reports from Redwood City, Calif.:
Kevin Jones, 27, pleaded no contest last fall to a charge of misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter stemming from the April 23 crash. . . . Mr. Jones nervously read a statement expressing his remorse and said he would dedicate his career to upholding Halberstam's ideals.
"I am sorry for the Halberstam family's loss and I will never forget the pain they experienced," he said. He called the accident "the single worst moment of my life, one that I will never recover from."
Neither will Halberstam!
When Was Berkeley Ever Normal? "Berkeley Back to Normal After Marine Corps Dispute"--headline, San Jose Mercury News, Feb. 14
We Don't Know, but Someone Better Figure It Out Before Baseball Season Starts "Why Are Thousands of Bats Dying in NY?"--headline, Associated Press, Feb. 14
Have Gun, Will Travel "Space Station Crew Can Access Gun"--headline, WESH-TV Web site (Orlando), Feb. 14
All the King's Horses and All the King's Men . . . "Customers' Anger Could Damage Egg"--headline, Financial Times, Feb. 14
News From the High School Science Fair "Smaller Version of the Solar System Is Discovered"--headline, New York Times, Feb. 15
That Was Quick "Instant Photo Finished"--headline, Daily Reporter (Wisconsin construction industry trade publication), Feb. 15
Help Wanted "Serial Arvada Flasher Sought"--headline, Denver Post, Feb. 14
News You Can Use• "£60,000 to Move Four Newts"--headline, Ananova.com, Feb. 15 • "Parent Shock: Children Are Not Décor"--headline, New York Times, Feb. 14 • "Weston Leaders: Men Need to Respect Women"--headline, Wausau (Wis.) Daily Herald, Feb. 15
Bottom Story of the Day "No Candidate Has Firm View on Possible Rail Facility"--headline, Roanoke (Va.) Times, Feb. 14
A Specter Haunts the NFL "Bill Belichick has been illegally taping opponents' defensive signals since he became the New England Patriots' coach in 2000, according to Sen. Arlen Specter, who said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told him that during a meeting Wednesday," the Associated Press reports from Washington:
Specter, from Pennsylvania, wants to talk to other league officials about what exactly was taped and which games may have been compromised.
"We have a right to have honest football games," he said.
A right to honest football games? Talk about an evolving constitution! Is that one of those super-duper precedents?