If you needed any further proof of that, here it is:
Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign intends to go after delegates whom Barack Obama has already won in the caucuses and primaries if she needs them to win the nomination.
This strategy was confirmed to me by a high-ranking Clinton official on Monday. And I am not talking about superdelegates, those 795 party big shots who are not pledged to anybody. I am talking about getting pledged delegates to switch sides.
This is, it seems, a surprisingly easy thing to do:
Pledged delegates are not really pledged at all, not even on the first ballot. This has been an open secret in the party for years, but it has never really mattered because there has almost always been a clear victor by the time the convention convened.
But not this time. This time, one candidate may enter the convention leading by just a few pledged delegates, and those delegates may find themselves being promised the sun, moon and stars to switch sides.
“I swear it is not happening now, but as we get closer to the convention, if it is a stalemate, everybody will be going after everybody’s delegates,” a senior Clinton official told me Monday afternoon. “All the rules will be going out the window.”
Rules of good behavior, maybe. But, in fact, the actual rules of the party allow for such switching. The notion that pledged delegates must vote for a certain candidate is, according to the Democratic National Committee, a “myth.”
Virginia’s Doug Wilder is spot-on when he talks about what would happen if it was perceived that the Clinton’s were stealing the nomination or, in this case, literally stealing Obama’s delegates:
“There will be chaos at the convention,” Wilder told Bob Schieffer on “Face the Nation.”
“If you think 1968 was bad, you watch: In 2008, it will be worse
Wilder was talking about the superdelegates specifically, but if you think it would be bad if Clinton loses the popular vote but wins the nomination thanks to superdelegates; it would be, I think, total chaos if she manages to get delegates Obama has already won to switch sides.
February 19th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
As if this is news.