Superdelegate Transparency Project

Filed Under Barack Obama, Democratic Party, Election 2008, Hillary Clinton, Superdelegates

Want to know which way the Democratic Party Superdelegates are leaning? If you’re following politics — even if you support the GOP — I bet you do.

For policy wonks, it’s fun to keep apprised of the interparty battle for control of the Democratic Party’s nominating process. Will the popular vote decide the nominee? Will a group of powerful elites throw the nomination to Hillary Clinton, even if Barack Obama wins the popular vote? Will there be battles at the Denver convention and in the streets ala Chicago 1968?

It’s great fun and everyone who blogs or just follows politics sends their thanks to the Democrats for creating a solution to earlier nomination problems that will lead to more structural “solutions” in the future.

People will probably get their master’s degrees writing about the 2008 Democratic Party convention in Denver later this year and the role of superdelegates in selecting this year’s presidential candidate.

The Superdelegate Transparency Project lets readers keep an eye on the trends of these voters whose votes count many times more than the standard Democratic party delegate.

Writes Sarah Lai Stirland in Wired of the Superdelegate Transparency Project:

Critics of the superdelegate process, which many think will benefit the party insider, Hillary Clinton, have created several new websites that use collaborative software to focus attention on the superdelegates, in the hope that once under a microscope, they’ll resist lures like financial contributions and political quid pro quos offered by the competing campaigns.

“There is an unprecedented level of interest in superdelegates, and with this information there’s an unprecedented opportunity to pressure those superdelegates however [voters] want to pressure them,” says Chris Bowers, co-founder of OpenLeft, and one of the organizers of the Superdelegate Transparency Project.

The Transparency Project lets you click on a map to see which superdelegates come from your state, and who they currently support — Clinton or Obama — if anyone. Every Democratic member of Congress is a superdelegate automatically, and the site’s most enlightening feature lets you compare whom they support with whom their constituents favor.

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Technorati Tags: Barack Obama, Democratic Party, Election 2008, Hillary Clinton, Superdelegate Transparency Project

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Comments

3 Responses to “Superdelegate Transparency Project”

Lots of great stuff in this week’s NWI Blog Carnival | NWI Blogs on February 27th, 2008 1:34 pm

[...] Hedges presents Superdelegate Transparency Project posted at ChristopherHedges.com, saying, “Everyone is curious to learn more about the [...]
Daltonsbriefs on February 28th, 2008 3:58 pm

Chris, I still make the case the Hillary will steal this nomination from B. Hussein Obama. She’s got the superdelegates, now she just needs to win a couple states so they don’t look bad.
Chris on February 28th, 2008 7:11 pm

Hi Steve,

This year’s election could go to anyone at this point, it seems. There’s a lot of intensity and passion for Obama, but the flames of infatuation could burn out since he has risen to high and had built up huge expectations. Obama has never had serious political opposition up until now, so he hasn’t really been tested in that arena except for his skirmishes with Hillary.

Will he be able to win the backroom power games against the Clintons? Can he withstand serious political opposition from McCain when it comes time for the general election since he has never gone up against a serious Republican candidate in his career? (Alan Keyes can’t really be considered serious opposition since he came in after the Jack Ryan fiasco from Maryland as a long shot outsider issue campaign candidate).

McCain doesn’t turn off independents, so it will be interesting to see what happens. A lot depends on many unforeseen circumstances.