Interesting interview with an anonymous Super Delegate over at TAP. Since everyone else is focusing in on the suggestion that the race will be over by Memorial Day, I'll instead look at this:
A: I think that the missing link to public perception about superdelegates is information. People don't know who we are, what we think, and this is an opportunity to share these thoughts with them Another thing that really got under my skin was people talking about Florida and Michigan and not understanding the back story there and why the DNC has really dug in its heels on this issue. The truth is that the leadership of Florida and Michigan failed their constituents. It was wholly the leadership of those states. They knew what they were doing when they did it and for them to cry "disenfranchisement" when they knew what they were doing is disingenuous.
Q: What reforms should we consider for the next time around?A: I'd like to see fewer superdelegates -- we should cut the number in half. I think [pre-Super Tuesday primaries] helped create a competitive race this time. I wouldn't rule out having all the early states going on the same day. I would like to see a campaign that starts around President's Day (the third Monday in February) -- how fitting would that be -- and then have it end 90 days later. A three-month campaign in the spring with a 90-day delegate allocation window. So if a state wants to go early, let them go early! But if they're not in the delegate-allocation window, they know ahead of time that they're not getting delegates. And that's why it's important that we stick to our guns on this Florida and Michigan thing. Because if we don't stick to our guns with this, all hell's gonna break loose next time.
I'm not crazy about the idea of all of the early states going on the same day - it seems to me that doing so would only increase the likelihood of "inevitable" establishment candidates winning the whole thing - but the rest of it sounds smart.
OK...fine. You want horse race? Here's horse race
I also think there's only three impact primaries left on the calendar. And that's April 22 [in] Pennsylvania; May 6 you've got North Carolina and Indiana; and May 20 you've got Kentucky and Oregon. Nothing after that is going to change the outcome of this election. Nothing after that offers enough delegates to tip it significantly in either direction.
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