Superdelegates: Profiles in Cowardice

The ~~whispers~~ calls are getting louder for Hillary Clinton to drop out of the race for the Democratic nomination. There's rightful concern that the ongoing fight is hurting Barack Obama's chances against John McCain. While Democrats wring their hands, there is a group of people who are sitting on theirs: the unpledged superdelegates.

With a show of hands, the roughly 250 or so uncommitted superdelegates can stop the fight. Instead, they're cowardly holding back as Obama and Clinton duke it out until the final round on June 3.

Sure, Democratic National Committee rules say that superdelegates are free to exercise independent judgment. And they could choose Clinton. But that would be tantamount to political suicide. The Clinton option was foreclosed when she embraced the "politics of division."

The issue is no longer whether Obama or Clinton is more electable. Instead, it's whether the Democratic Party is willing to throw black voters under the bus as they chase after "hard-working," albeit elusive, white Democratic voters. Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, wrote:

But even if superdelegates agree with her, there's a larger reason why she is asking the impossible: The clout of African-Americans as the party's most loyal voting bloc eliminates any chance the superdelegates will stop Sen. Obama's nomination out of concern that he might lose in November.

For the superdelegates to nominate her, they would have to forsake both the Democratic Party's long-term interests and their own personal moral code.

Brown added:

While blacks don't see Sen. John McCain as malevolent as Mr. Bush, there's little chance of a huge African-American protest vote for the Arizona Republican in November if Sen. Obama is denied the nomination.

Instead, millions of blacks would sit this one out. Without a large African-American turnout not just Sen. Clinton, but also Democratic congressional and gubernatorial candidates, might be toast. It would be almost impossible for them to make up the difference among white voters.

Question: What are these party elites waiting for? Even Stevie Wonder can see the end is near. But then again, there are none so blind as those who will not see.

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