Does Your Vote Count?

Don't be so sure. Let's not forget the "Super Delegates" as Keith Olbermann so rightly pointed out tonight.

It’s called the Democratic Party, but one aspect of the party’s nominating process is at odds with grass-roots democracy.

Voters don’t choose the 842 unpledged “super-delegates” who comprise nearly 40 percent of the number of delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination

[...]

The Republicans do not have a similar super-delegate system.

These super-delegates don’t have superhuman powers, but unlike rank-and-file Democrats, they do automatically get to cast a vote at the convention to decide who the party’s nominee will be.

Although dubbed “unpledged” in Democratic Party lingo, the super-delegates are free to come out before their state’s primary and pledge to support one of the presidential contenders.

So much for any hope I ever had for a Kucinich nomination, as if I ever really had such a hope. It would have been nipped in the bud in short order.

Sen. George McGovern, the leading anti-Vietnam war liberal, won the 1972 nomination. McGovern turned out to be a disaster as a presidential candidate, winning only one state and the District of Columbia.

So without reverting to the days of party bosses like Buckley, the Democrats decided to guarantee that elected officials would have a bigger voice in the nomination.

And for those of you keeping score, despite the fact that Obama and Clinton are virtually tied, when you factor in the whims of the super-delegates, Clinton is far ahead.

And you thought your vote might make a difference. As if.

It's like the electoral college. Only worse. Your vote doesn't really count. Case closed. THEY will pick for you.

You may now resume your normal everyday lives.