The problem is Mom and Dad aren’t perfect, and they don’t necessarily have OUR best interests in mind. When given the choice between watching Junior’s soccer game and going to the boss’s anniversary party, what will most Dads do?

“The new rules for choosing and seating delegates created an unusual number of rules and credentials challenges. Many traditional Democratic groups such as organized labor and big city political machines had small representation at the convention. Their supporters challenged the seating of relative political novices, but for the most part were turned back by the supporters of South Dakota senator George McGovern. McGovern had amassed the most delegates to the convention by using a grass roots campaign that was powered by opposition to the Vietnam War. Many traditional Democratic leaders and politicians felt that McGovern’s delegate count did not reflect the wishes of most Democratic voters. Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter helped to spearhead a “Stop McGovern” campaign. The stop-McGovern forces tried unsuccessfully to alter the delegate composition of the California delegation. California had a “winner-take-all” primary format, which was contrary to the delegate selection rules. So even though McGovern only won the California primary by a 5% electoral margin, he won all 273 of their delegates to the convention. The anti-McGovern group argued for a more proportional distribution of the delegates, while the McGovern forces stressed that the rules for the delegate selection had been set and the Stop McGovern alliance was trying to change the rules after the game. As with the credential fight, McGovern’s army carried the day effectively handing the nomination to Senator McGovern. The Illinois primary required voters to select individual delegates, not presidential candidates. Most Illinois delegation members were uncommitted and were controlled or influenced by Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley. The delegation was challenged by McGovern supporters arguing that the results of the primary did not create a diverse enough delegation in terms of women and minorities. The credentials committee, headed by Patricia Roberts Harris, rejected the entire elected delegation, including elected women and minorities, and seated an unelected delegation led by Jesse Jackson and pledged to George McGovern.”

In the current scorched earth atmosphere where backhandedly questioning the loyalty to this country of the leading candidate whilst affirming the loyalty of the trailing candidate and the supposed common enemy Republican candidate by the trailing candidate’s husband is considered by some as just a slip or blown out of proportion when characterized as a McCarthyite tactic, which it most definitely was, I begin to take very, very little for granted.

3)Remove themselves from the process and let the contest be decided by popular vote

4)Remove themselves from the process and let the contest be decided by popular vote

Notice anything? May not be the ragtag conspiracy you imagined, but human error…

Do you consider us that stupid?

The anti-war movement took over the ward and precinct elections and went on to become delegates/alternates in 1968, as I recall. I guess that is how they started to gain some clout, moving toward McGovern in ‘72.

Here is what Wiki says about 1968:

“On one side, Eugene McCarthy, a U.S. senator from Minnesota, ran a decidedly anti-war campaign, calling for immediate withdrawal from the region. On the other side, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who did not participate in any primaries but controlled enough delegates to secure the nomination, called for a policy more in line with President Johnson’s, which focused on making any reduction of force contingent on concessions extracted in the Paris Peace Talks.

The Democrats eventually nominated Humphrey, who went on to lose the election to Richard M. Nixon. The confusion of the convention, and the unhappiness of many liberals with the outcome, led the Democrats to begin reforms of their nominating process, increasing the role of primaries and decreasing the power of party delegates in the selection process.”

I believe by the next cycle, 1972, there became “super delegates” who were the remaining vestiges of “party delegates.”

They were supposed to be 25% of the whole total, according to McGovern, who was on Democracy Now recently to talk about it.