Reason #16: The Superdelegate Shuffle and the Un-Democratic Party

All told, about 35 million voters cast ballots during the 2008 Democratic primary season. But in the end, less than 800 party insiders got the final say in who got to run against John McCain. Mathematically, each of these so-called superdelegates wielded the same voting power as tens of thousands of regular people. For a party named after “democracy,” that’s awfully undemocratic.

Superdelegates were invented in 1982, two years after Senator Ted Kennedy nearly upset sitting president Jimmy Carter in the 1980 primary. Party bosses were furious with Kennedy’s insurgent campaign, so they vested themselves with the power to offset the will of the voters if those voters chose the “wrong” person for the nomination. In 1984, for instance, Gary Hart was neck and neck with Walter Mondale going into the convention. But the superdelegates tipped the scale for the establishment candidate Mondale - who went on to lose 49 states to Reagan. Nice job!

As Mondale’s utter failure shows, the superdelegate system isn’t about choosing the best candidate. It’s about cronyism and political back scratching, pure and simple.

NEXT: Reason #17: The Myth of the Political Outsider