Why vote if the delegates sew it up?

Joe, if you're under 40 years old, you probably didn't get any civics in high school and have very little idea how our form of government works. If you're under 30 you probably got a very distorted idea of American history. If you watch CNN for your news information, you definitely have received a very distorted view or reality. Almost any book having to do with the constitution and how it works will explain what a representative republic is. (knowledge can be such a burden)

I agree with Joe. The whole delegate concept is antiquated and expensive. In today's high speed information world, the citizens should be able to select their government directly.

Pat, your teaching ability needs improvement. All the guy wanted was some more information that obviously was wiped out of school education. Joe, just go vote and leave the rest to the delegates. It is the delegates that decide the nominees for Presidency, and it is the people who vote the jerk in afterwards. If you don't like who the nominees are, write someone else in on the blank line at the bottom. I hear that is how a dog became governor in California.

For the democratic nominee process, pledged delegates are based on the vote of the citizens of each state on a proportional basis of a primary or caucus. Unpledged delegates (superdelegates) are current or former party leaders and elected officials. Superdelegates make up 20% of the delegates. On the republican side, primary or caucus wins are determined by winner take all method, or winner take all within a congressional district or proportional, depending on each state's rules. The republican party also seat some party officials without regard to primary or caucus results.
Neither presidential nominee (democratic or republican) are determined by popular vote.

Joe, you need to learn that when you vote in a presidential preference primary you are actually voting for delegates to represent you at a convention. The delegates you elected are joined by a super-class of party loyalists who are called "super delegates." The elected delegates and the super delegates choose your nominee. Your government school system thought that concept was too complex to teach to you.

The constitutional theory is that, while the Congress is popularly elected by the people, the President and Vice President are elected to be executives of a federation of independent states. The superdelegate or unpledged notion is from 1982 when the DNC adopted the rule. Unlike the regular electoral college delegates the superdelegates are not beholding to the same rules. Rep also have them but fewer. As harper noted while the DNC has proportional representation, the RNC has that, winner take all, and mixes. Also DNC pledged delegates support who they are pledged, and the RNC is mandated by state law as to whether they are pledged and how many ballots. Since 1796 with the evolution of political parties the situation has evolved into safe states for a specific party and swing states with no obligations. Hence the nominees spend a lot of time in swing states and concentrate on state-by-state rather than concerns of national votes. The influence of these swing states, like Florida, is one of the major criticisms of the electoral college, because there is little incentive for voter turn out to vote in safe states. Keep the college and get rid of the political parties.

Joe asked a very simple question and PT chose to use it to plug her warped opinions that did nothing to answer the question. Regardless, OBAMA 08. Have a blessed day. Basically, the founding fathers didn't think the electorate was smart enough to elect the president because of lack of knowledge of the candidates. (did't have mass media as we do today)- thus we have the electorial college. It is now, ofcourse, oudated and popular vote would be the way to go. Andrew Jackson was elected president despite the fact he had fewer popular votes.
And GW - well, you know what happen there, and we been paying since. JOE, have a blessed day as always.

Is it just me or does it seem like super-delegates disenfranchise dem. voters?

No, that is the job of the supreme court, remember.

Joe, is just a disgruntled Hillary supporter. He wants to change the game in the eighth inning, to get a victory. If you don't know the system Joe, you probably shouldn't be voting. OBAMA 08!!!!

Yep, RCR, Joe just doesn't want to vote for a "black" man, right?

screw the electoral college concept.the winner of the popular votes is the winner,period. why should a big state continually make the selection for us? it's pitiful when the election is already called when people haven't even voted yet.change it prior to 2012 if we're still here then.wait a minute! mcnasty will lose in landslide! yeah! we'll be here but he might not be.

Interesting in the 2000 election Gore carried 20 states plus D.C. and Bush carried 30 states. Gore beat Bush by about 500,000 popular votes, but Bush had 271 electoral votes and Gore had 266 the final tally after the SCOTUS intervention. The election hinged on the swing state Florida which had 25 votes. The 2004 election Bush beat Kerry by about 4 million votes. Similarly as before Bush carried 31 states and Kerry 19 plus D.C.. Bush had 286 electoral votes and Kerry 251. Kerry conceded and did not dispute the election in Ohio (another swing state), but in hind sight he later joined Howard Dean to say irregularities occurred and he would have won Ohio and the erection. This election I predict will be close once again. I predict that Obama will win the popular vote but carry fewer states than McCain. How the electoral college will decide this election-your guess is as good as mine. Let's just hope it isn't another SCOTUS intervention.

"Howard Dean to say irregularities occurred and he would have won Ohio and the erection" - only if he had taken the little blue pill. LOL

After so many divisive elections I am waiting for violence to break out. With a black candidate and the black communities history of rioting we might expect riots if Obama loses by close margins. I hope the black community doesn't do that, but history makes me uneasy. This isn't a criticism but an observation of facts. I can only imagine what would happen if the National Guard goes shooting innocent people again (like Kent State). We need to come together as the human race and as Americans regardless of who wins this election. But I think I am naive to expect so much.

the perfect VP for Osama Huessian would be David Duke....a perfect balance. One hates blacks and the other hates whites.

Its so funny because obama would be a irish president. Since he's half irish obama is. I guess obama hates white, and the irish in his blood. I know that has to be difficult for obama to hate half of yourself. I know that has to suck. Everytime you visit your mother's side of the family that is white. All his anger and racist views must come out huh devilishlymad67. How pathetic some people are. Wow some white people really are racist even against bi-racial people. I see why alot of bi-racial kids call themselves black instead of bi-racial or mixed. Most bi-racial kids have more black friends than white. Unless they grew up in all white area.

I am part black because untill 35000 years ago we were all black. I am a proud white African-American. Hee,hee.

and hitler was part Jewish...what is your point? my dislike has nothing to do with his skin color and everything to do with his beliefs and views and lack of experience.

WOW...not one person addressed why ...WHY the Super Delegates exist in the Democratic party. Okay here goes a history lesson. In 1968 the Dems were beginning to show the Wild Psycho attitude of entitlement Socialisim, Johnson was El Presidente, and their opponent would be Richard Nixon. The Dems selected (at this point don't forget the loons were running the asylum of the Dem Party) A twit named George McGovern. Now McGovern talked BIG GOVERNMENT at a time before the popularity of the FREE MONEY GOVERNMENT. As a result he got his Gnips gnops blown off in the election.

Nowhere, in my comment did I mention race. Jack, lowlife bigots like you always bring up race, but the other guy is the racist. You can't stand Hillary, I wonder why you would say anything on her behalf? I think we all know the answer to that one. OBAMA 08!!!!!

Bizarro, I guess in your little world, whites have no history of rioting? Hell they will riot if their team wins the Stanley Cup. The point is, riots can happen anywhere at anything and for all sorts of reasons.

NObama 57 is more like it. I like devilishlymads idea for a running mate for Hussein. If you are dipping to the bottom of the pot, you might as well get all the scum you can.

Hypocrite, the mental image I get when the word riot comes up is a lot like the old Tarzan movies. There were some whites on Tarzan too.

It is interesting that charlie would want the pop vote to decide and then conclude that with, "why let the big states decide". That is exactly what the electorial college prevents. Typical charlie logic. And it is interesting that if the Democrats used the same method as the general, Sen Clinton would be the nominee. Yikes.

Oh, Hypocrite I knew someone would take the bait. Hee,hee,hee. I just mentioned on another post that Bizarro is bad, bad, bad, bad to de bone. I love to stir the pot, especially since I gave up smoking it-hee,hee,yeehaw! No matter what others may say-you are all right with me Hypo. You shouldn't follow the bait of Christian and others, but I can't help teasing and trying to make the waters a little muddy. I've called Patricia, Cain, probably you and I know myself an idiot at one point or another. I don't discriminate, even against my own stupidity.

I write this for comparison only, but if you treat the Democrat
primaries like a real election and award electoral votes, Clinton had
299 and Obama had 239. I know it means zilch, but it is an interesting
comparison. And we all know it takes how many to win? Two-hundred and
seventy. Hmmmmm.

I'm not even a little surprised so many have no idea what the electoral college is and that so many confused the delegates mentioned in this letter with the super delegates created by the Democrat party to select their candidates. To simplify the concept for those that graduated from government schools, the electoral college was developed originally to compensate for slow communication and transportation and the national votes for president were cast by delegates selected by party votes. The concept is continued today so the four most populous cities won't elect the president. The people in S.Dakota and Alabama have the same vote as the people in N.Y. and Seattle. The fact my 6:35a post confused the usual crowd is also not surprising. The dumbing down of America is the Democrats most successful effort.

PT, I don't think your 6:35a post confused anyone; you just didn't answer the lad's question. Now you have and all is well.

I would like to Thank everybody for their feedback. You have all proven my point. Our system of voting is so outdated and needs to be brought into the present. The savings are huge. To all I will tell you I belong to no party and only vote by viewing the candidates voting records. You can tell me all the lies you want but your record of vote will tell me all I need to know. I believe in my country but most I still believe in the american people so I hope in November my fellow americans will also view the candidates voting records God bless you all.

Joe