Hillary Clinton and the Superdelegates

Fox News reported February 16, 2008, on statements by longtime Clinton toady, Harold Ickes.

A top Hillary Clinton adviser on Saturday boldly predicted his candidate would lock down the nomination before the August convention by definitively winning over party insiders and officials known as superdelegates, claiming the number of state elections won by rival Barack Obama would be “irrelevant” to their decision.

Obama leads handily in the pledged delegate count and has won more states but trails Clinton in superdelegates, making them potential and controversial deadlock-breakers if the race ends up a dead heat come convention time.

Harold Ickes, a 40-year party operative charged with winning over superdelegates for the Clinton campaign, made no apologies on Saturday for the campaign’s convention strategy.
“We’re going to win this nomination,” Ickes said, adding that they would do so soon after the last contest on June 7 in Puerto Rico. “You’re not going to see this go to the convention floor.”

He also said Michigan and Florida, which voted for Clinton, should have delegates seated at the convention, even though he originally voted with the national party last year to strip the delegates because the states violated party rules by holding early primaries.

The title of the book Hugh Hewitt wrote for the 2004 election season is appropriate for any election the Clintons are involved in: If It's Not Close, They Can't Cheat.

Barak Obama is blowing out Hillary Clinton in the primary elections and caucuses, but with the superdelegates in the mix, the count is close. And that means cheating, somehow, someway. Like seating the Michigan and Florida delegates at the convention when it was already decided to strip them. Because--like the primaries--rules are "irrelevant."

Michigan and Florida's delegates were stripped back when Hillary thought she was a shoe-in. Now even her tears can't get enough states to win for her fair and square.

If the Obama-tsunami continues and it comes down to the superdelegates (provided Hillary can hang onto enough of them) throwing the nomination to Hillary, what then? What kind of reaction will there be from a party base that feeds off anger and resentment of "the other"? What kind of cataclysmic explosion will there be against those in the Democratic Party Machine who have thwarted the overwhelming will of their people? It will be ugly.

The Clintons are determined to win. No. Matter. What.

And if they compromise and give Obama the top slot on the ticket and put Hillary in as VP, I still say Obama will need his Secret Service working overtime to keep him safe from Hill & Bill.