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When will the superdelegates speak up?
By STEVE KRASKEThe Kansas City Star
More than 40 state primaries and caucuses are in the bag. The Democratic presidential race is more than a year old.
So Mr. and Mrs. Undecided Superdelegate, whom do you back for president?
That’d be you, Congressman Dennis Moore. And you, Secretary of State Robin Carnahan. And you, Attorney General Jay Nixon. And you, Yolanda Wheat, vice chair of the Missouri Democratic Party.
What in the world are you waiting for? Surely you’ve seen enough by now to make a choice between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
The longer you delay, the more the pressure is building. And here’s a little secret: It’s only going to get worse.
The longer you wait, the longer Democrats go without a candidate, the better it is for John McCain, who is running free and easy, taking potshots at the Democrats and campaigning on Democratic turf.
Republicans are absolutely giddy. They’ve hit the jackpot. They all thought they’d be political roadkill by now.
Instead, they not only have new life, they’re actually thinking they might win this thing. Who woulda thunk it? More than 80 percent of the country thinks the U.S. is headed the wrong way under a GOP president, and Republicans are newly confident. Amazing.
We know this: The remaining primaries won’t decide the Democratic race. Neither Obama nor Clinton can get to 2,024 delegates to win the nomination between now and June 3, when Montana and South Dakota mercifully end this thing.
Meanwhile, the two continue their increasingly unattractive scrum. The Illinois senator with his ill-placed remarks has lost some of his magic. The multimillionaire New York senator? She’s been spotted doing what she often does after work — downing a beer and a bump with the blue-collar boys in Philly.
Come on. Why wait? It’s a fair question now.
So last week, I dialed up Moore and Carnahan and Nixon and Wheat. I just wanted to ask the question: Why wait?
And not a one of them would even come to the phone. Not a one.
“Robin says that she just isn’t ready to discuss any superdelegate issues at all right now,” a Carnahan spokesman said.
“Jay has informed both campaigns that he has no plans to endorse either candidate,” a Nixon spokesman said. “So from our perspective, Pennsylvania doesn’t change anything.”
Memo to the AG: You are a superdelegate, whether you want to be or not. You’ll be making a pick, sooner or later.
With no one talking, a political correspondent is left to speculate, and here’s what I think:
No one wants to be put on the spot. No one wants to take the risk, especially Moore, Nixon and Carnahan, who are on the ballot this year. Go with Obama and you tick off the Clinton crowd, and vice versa.
You’ve also got to conclude that each of them is hoping — OK, praying — that this thing somehow resolves itself before their vote comes into play. Why else decline to make a choice on such a pivotal question?
Some might begin to regard that as putting self-interest before party. Some might begin to raise questions about the failure of party leaders to really lead.
“The key decision for superdelegates, especially elected officials, is job preservation: What is the best thing for me and my re-election?” Democratic consultant Jenny Backus said.
No less a personage than Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is advising the supers to take sides. He’s not saying it, but he’s certainly implying that sooner is better than later.
“I need them to say who they’re for starting now,” Dean said on CNN. “They really do need to do that.
“We cannot give up two or three months of active campaigning and healing time. We have got to know who our nominee is.”
Yes, Democrats, you do.