Recently, Samantha Bee explained superdelegates.
Today, John Oliver explains the primary process generally — a mess for both parties — in the course of which he notes this Politifact finding:
Allegations of fraud and misconduct at Nevada Democratic convention unfounded
There’s little disagreement that the convention was chaotic. PolitiFact Nevada was at the convention and saw it firsthand. But does the Sanders campaign’s complaints have merit? . . . [T]here were no last minute rule changes sprung on convention-goers — the rules had been publicly available weeks in advance, largely unchanged for three presidential cycles, and given to both campaigns. . . . Although several videos from the event appear to have louder “nays” than “yeas,” both preliminary and final delegate counts showed that Clinton supporters outnumbered Sanders supporters in the room. . . . The howls of unfairness and corruption by the Sanders campaign during Nevada’s state Democratic Convention can’t change the simple fact that Clinton’s supporters simply turned out in larger numbers and helped her solidify her delegate lead in Nevada. There’s no clear evidence the state party “hijacked” the process or ignored “regular procedure.” We rate this claim False.
By all means read it all if you’re unpersuaded or want the details. (E.g., the 58 rejected Sanders delegates? Only eight actually came to the convention, so even if they’d been seated, it wouldn’t have made any difference.)
Bernie is terrific. Hillary is terrific. Both have worked a lifetime toward the same goals: a better shake for the middle class and the downtrodden. The primaries have not been rigged to produce three million more votes for one than the other. We should work our little hearts out to elect whichever gets the nomination because, as Bernie so excellently said, on their worst days either one of them is 100 times better than the alternative.
But yes: as John Oliver proposes near the end of his piece, let’s set February 2 to sit down and fix the system!
In the meantime — as he goes on to urge — let’s all tweet at the President of Chechnya, who has lost his cat.
