Obama now may win in Texas; would be victory for old party bosses
also presents paradox for Obama’s campaign

Posted on | 6 March 2008 | Comments Off

Right now, it appears Barack Obama will actually get more delegates in Texas than Hillary Clinton. That’s due to the state’s precinct convention system (called “caucus” by the clueless). The count of delegates continues at a snail’s pace at party headquarters, but is expected to be finished by the end of the day.

Before I go any further, I want it known I do not have a dog in the current cat fight. My candidate was John Edwards. I am committed to whoever wins the nomination, and hope the wounds are not too deep to prevent unity after all the fighting is over. Personally, I am beginning to doubt it, and fear there is too much emotion invested in the current candidates to allow the final necessary push. Each, by the way, will tell you it is the other’s fault, which makes me think we are looking at four more years of Boy George Bush’s failed policies. However, I digress.

So, the popular vote will be for naught. It makes an interesting situation, considering the Obama call to the party’s super delegates. If the number of delegates should be chosen by the will of the people, can Obama accept delegates chosen through a back-room maneuver? You better damn well believe it!

That’s exactly the way the party bosses planned it when they invented the hybrid system. The precinct convention has always been the “secret handshake” of the Texas Democratic Party, especially before the current system was adopted. In the past, the conventions were the only means of selecting delegates (and were more like true caucuses). It was the way the bosses kept control of the faithful. It was the reward of the party loyalist.

As Democrats began to lose their hold on Texas, party bosses were loath to go to a presidential primary. All the county. state and national candidates were selected by primary. However, picking the president was left to the conventions held after the polls closed. In order to have a voice in selecting the presidential candidate, you had to know the secret handshake.

Cross voting has been a problem in Texas long before cross dressing was a problem for Rudy Giuliani. You do not register by party in Texas. In the past, way in the past, if you did not vote in the Democratic Party primary, you did not have much of a say in who took office. The primary was the deciding line with few Republican Party candidates opposing the Democrats. So, folks with Republican views went over and voted for the Democrat who best represented them. If the presidential nomination process were turned over to the actual voters, there would be controls over it.

Hence, the current system. Party bosses wanted to make certain that there was a check on the popular vote, much in the same way the “super delagates” were created to insure a Walter Mondale nomination and much in the same way the Electoral College is kept around in the national election. Let the voters have their say, but those who have the party’s interest at heart will hang on to a signifcant amount of clout.

Ergo, the current situation.

In the long run, I personally hope the debacle of the Tuesday night conventions marks an end to the system. It is time to go one way or the other. Either Texas Democrats return to precinct conventions as the only way to select delegates or delegate selection is left solely to the popular vote.

In the meantime, Sen. Obama, should the popular vote determine the number of delegates from Texas as well?

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