Change Candidate(s) Obama<->kennedy Mirror The Democrats 80′ Convention Debacle

Holy cow - is this a mere coincidence that Ted Kennedy was also billed as the CHANGE CANDIDATE in the 1980 Presidential Race and is it just another coincidence the exact same issue of delegates at the Democratic Convention was Ted Kennedy’s donny brook when he tried to change the party rules at the convention and tried to get delegates released from their voting commitment for the other candidate.

Deja Vu - The â??exactâ?? same process that the Obama campaign is drumming and drumming and drumming about super delegates right now in the news media played out with Kennedy at the 1980 Democratic Nation Convention at Madison Square Garden.

Kennedy came into the Democratic convention at Madison Square Garden in New York City with 1,225 delegates to Carter’s 1,981 and 122 uncommitted. Kennedy’s only chance to wrest the nomination from Carter, who had enough delegates to win, was to pass an “open rule” motion.

Kennedy wanted the rules governing delegate voting thrown out, minority platform reports presented for floor vote requirement, pledged delegates must be released, the losing challenger must be allowed to address the convention and the president must take a loyalty pledge.
The deciding vote was “the robot rule vote,” which played out in front of the prime time television audience. The contentious debate was over whether delegates should have to vote for the candidate they’d been pledged for, or have an “open” vote during which they could pick Kennedy or Carter.

The 2008 Florida and Michigan delegates are currently counted as zero each after being stripped of their delegates by the Democratic National Committee (DNC), when they leap-frogged into the early voting calendar. Normally, the two states combined would boast more than 350 delegates.

“Imagine the problem if the Florida and Michigan delegates are enough to pick a winner or change the dynamic going into the 2008 Democratic Convention.”

As it stands now, Michigan Democrats are already making plans to be in Denver, and the DNC maintains the issue will go to its convention credentials committee.

John Edwards earned and retains his 62 delegates throughout the primaries before he dropped out of the race. Edwards hasn’t endorsed either candidate during his concession speech in New Orleans.

In 1980, after the convention floor debate, Kennedy picked up support from many of the uncommitted delegates, bringing his vote total to 1,390 — still shy of the majority needed to pass the motion. Jimmy Carter won the “rule vote” and Ted Kennedy quickly conceded.

There are 795 super-delegates to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Super-delegates include governors, members of a state’s congressional delegation and former officeholders.

The super delegates will play a very crucial piece at a brokered convention. DNC rules stipulate they don’t have to vote for the candidate, even the one they’ve endorsed.

The last time the Democrats had a true brokered convention - a nomination that went beyond the first ballot - was in 1952. It took three ballots before Illinois Gov. Adlai Stevenson topped Tennessee Sen. Estes Kefauver and several others to secure the brokered nomination in Chicago.

A brokered Democratic Convention will hurt the party and could be the spoiler the GOP needs to slip back into the White House under the radar.