AP’s Valerie Bauman has manufactured a new mini-scandal: Hillary Clinton’s husband is a superdelegate.
The Democratic nomination for president could come down to a vote-by-vote struggle for superdelegates, and while Hillary Rodham Clinton has lost her delegate advantage over Barack Obama, she knows she can bank on one superdelegate no matter what.
Bill Clinton is guaranteed a spot as a superdelegate: Safe to say his wife gets his vote. With the two candidates separated by 85 delegates, every vote counts.
So, is it an unfair edge to be married to a super-duper-delegate, a former two-term president, the last Democrat to hold the office and a leader who’s still wildly popular within the party?
[…]
Political analysts don’t see the former president’s role as superdelegate as a problem.
“I don’t think the status of superdelegate gives Bill Clinton any more power to influence the outcome of the election than it would if he were not a president,” said Doug Muzzio, a politics professor at Baruch College in New York. “The objection is obvious, the guy’s wife is running for president and he’s voting for her, but he’s one of 796.”
Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause New York, doesn’t object to Clinton the superdelegate. She worries more about his dual roles as a former president and party leader who happens to be married to one of the candidates. “People will be more responsive to him than virtually anybody else,” Lerner said.
Although, judging by the delegate count thus far, apparently not responsive enough.
Photo credit: The Satirical Political Report via Google
