Joel Ferguson, a co-chairman of Hillary’s Michigan campaign, reportedly said:
“Superdelegates are not second-class delegates… The real second-class delegates are the delegates that are picked in red-state caucuses that are never going to vote Democratic.”
There is the typical OUTRAGE in the comments at the Politico. Kos derides it. TNR mocks it.
However, even had it been uttered by someone higher on the Clinton flow chart, it would be at most Kinsley gaffe — “a mistaken utterance or action which actually reveals what a politician truly believes.”  Outrage, derision and mockery are all ways to avoid addressing the proposition on its merits. To be fair, Kos asks:
What is it with Clinton’s people and their utter disdain for a 50-state strategy?
Written like someone who would arbitrarily award delegates from Michigan and Florida to Obama. But beyond motive, the question is a straw man, unless Kos wants to explain how Obama (or Clinton) wins Idaho in the general election. Perhaps Kos dreams of Colorado, where Obama won the caucus, but which has not voted Democratic since 1992 (and before that, 1964). Perhaps Obama is going to surmount McCain’s 10-point edge in Utah — which hasn’t gone Democratic since 1964. Kansas (Red since ’64)? North Dakota (Red since ’64)?
Actually, we already know which states Kos thinks Obama can win in a general election to get to the magic 270 number.  Missouri and Ohio look better for Obama now than they did when Kos gave his list, but Obama does not look significantly better than Clinton in those states. Moreover, the list Kos has in mind — Iowa, Missouri, Colorado, New Mexico, Arkansas, Virginia, Ohio, and Nevada — are not the deep Red states listed above, where Obama has picked up cheap delegates (the only overlap being Colorado). Indeed, of the states on the Kos list, Obama has lost Arknasas by almost 3-1, lost New Mexico narrowly, lost the popular vote in Nevada, and narrowly won Missouri. Arkansas has gone Red since 1968 — except for when Bill Clinton topped the Democratic ticket. Virginia just had its Democratic contest, yet McCain was polling at 52% there and beat Obama by a wider margin.
Obama’s supporters are arguing that superdelegates — who in many cases have to run down-ticket of the nominee — should bow to the will of delegates from solid (and fairly solid) Red states the Democrats have little chance to win.ÂÂ
Coming from Michigan, a swing state where Obama voluntarily withdrew from the primary for tactical reasons, whose delegation has been unnecessarily stripped of its delegates by the DNC, Joel Ferguson is questioning authority and speaking truth to power.  Democrats normally applaud dissent… except among themselves.
(h/t Memeorandum.)
Off topic a little but Karl can you explain the “McCain Coronation†meme NPR is trying to launch? Is that just to dig at conservatives who aren’t happy with him you think? That would be my theory I guess. Have you seen/heard that one anywhere else?
the basic problem is there is are going to be A LOT MORE democratic voters if the general in november follows the caucus and primary trends.
better reel in those evangelicals
huck for veep!
and the independents….
Ooooh! So Kansas is going blue this year? Neato.
and the obamacans….
I didn’t find the argument compelling when the anti-McCain forces were using it to deride his victories in New York, New Jersey, and California, so I can hardly agree with it now. The obvious retort is that Obama isn’t running against a Republican in Arkansas, he’s running against the former first lady of that state. I do think the much-ballyhooed “50-state strategy” of Dean and the left is ridiculous (neither Hillary nor Obama will campaign in South Dakota, for example), but they certainly do have to tip a few states from red to blue if they hope to win this year. Clearly a candidate with some crossover appeal is needed, unless we buy the argument that the Democrats are going to win no matter what.
Turn the argument around. Vote for Hillary, she’ll make sure that New York stays blue! You can see how foolish that is, right? The Donks could probably run Mike Gravel and he’d win the Empire State.
Apparently Nishi wants McCain elected even less than I do.
nishi
There was a link in one of the comments here a while back showing how through history the trends in the primaries tend to not follow through to the general. I wish I had saved that link.
EG I tried to post a link to it for ya, but the comment monster eated it. it’s at Willisms dot com.
Thanks maggie. It ate mine when I just tried it too. weird.
Someone at TNR made the point that maybe this is not the best message to get out right ahead of Texas. Actually he said…
I’m not sure what that means exactly really, but I think that this is just blogfoddery stuff mostly. Maybe Chris Matthews can do something with it though.
Hey, what about Republican delegates who are second class citizens in blue states? What are they? Chopped liver?
You can find that WILLisms link in the comments at my blog, since I can’t get that URL to post either.
http://www.drumwaster.com/index.php/weblog/comments/were_through_the_looking_glass_here_people/