Conventional Wisdom
In every state that held (or will hold) a primary or a caucus, truly concerned individuals try their best to get the vote out for their candidate. They could do so by attending meetings, soliciting door-to-door or on the phone, putting signs on their lawns, cars, windows, bumpers, or by wearing campaign buttons on their clothing.

In the final run, does the actual vote of the people really count in selecting each party’s candidate at the national convention?

On July 25-28, the Democratic National Convention will take place in Philadelphia, with 4,770 delegates having 4,766 votes to cast for the party’s Presidential nominee. The wining candidate will have to get 2,383 votes, but will they truly earn them?

What’s So Super About Them?

Among the delegates are 715 unpledged delegates, whom nobody has voted for, and they are known as superdelegates. Twenty are distinguished party leaders, twenty-one are Governors, forty-seven are Senators, 193 are Representatives, and 434 are members of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

These Democrats Have

One Thing In Common

The people in the following paragraph, whose names you may not recognize, are among the 438 members of the Democratic National Committee, who have 434 votes at the Democratic National Convention.

They are Rafael Anchia of Texas, Stuart Appelbaum of New York, Belinda Biafore from West Virginia, Rosiky F. Camacho MP, Emelia S. Chargualaf MP, George Wallace of Virginia, David Worley of Georgia, Jose R. Rodriguez of Texas and Mannie Rodriguez Colorado, Andre Ramirez of Nevada and Rion Ramirez of Washington, Javier Morillo-Alicea of Minnesota, Gilberto Hinojosa of Texas, and Marcia Fudge of Ohio.

Actually, there are two outlanders in this list, for Rosiky F. Camacho MP and Emelia S. Chargualaf MP, who each own one superdelegate vote, are both members of the House of Representatives of the Twelfth Northern Marianas Commonwealth Legislature, a U.S. Commonwealth in the Pacific Ocean, with a population of 53,855. As you well know, their commonwealth is a very important part of our democracy, and perhaps they should each have several votes.

All for Hillary

All of the aforementioned superdelegates have one thing in common; they all endorse Hillary, as do a total of 502 superdelegates. Only 41 endorse Bernie, and only Daniel Hynes has said he would endorse Martin O’Malley. An additional 171 superdelegates are not endorsing any candidate, yet.

The distinguished party leaders include current or former presidents, current and former vice-presidents, former congressional leaders, and former DNC chairs. Among those favored few are former vice-presidents Al Gore and Walter Mondale, and former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, along with current President Obama and current vice-president Biden.

First in War, First in Piece

Obama, Biden, Carter and Gore have not endorsed any candidate, while Mondale and Clinton have endorsed Hillary. It is imperative for William Jefferson to vote thusly, if he wants to have any chance of being the first First Man.

Who’s On First?

As of Friday the Thirteenth of May, Clinton has 2,240 delegates including 524 superdelegates, while Sanders has 1,473 delegates, including 40 superdelegates. This means that there are 1,052 delegates not yet allocated for either candidate.

I Pledge Allegiance, Too

Superdelegates are "unpledged,” and they can decide which candidate to support. But if they want to feed at the Democratic Party trough, they are loathe to do anything rash, like vote for Martin O’Malley or Bernie Sanders, for their vote may haunt them when moneys and political favors are available.

Pledged delegates can change their vote if no candidate is elected on the first ballot and can even vote for a different candidate on the first ballot if they are "released" by the candidate they are pledged to. Superdelegates, on the other hand, can change their vote purely of their own volition.

It’s All Narishkeyt

The Yiddish word “narishkeyt” in the broadest sense means “nonsense,” and if ever a political system is full of narishkeyt, where the will of the voters is semi-meaningless, it’s here and now. To quote a man who will make America grate, “The system is rigged.”

2016 Elections Provide a Breath of Fresh Air

Most GOP presidential candidates gathered in Des Moines this past weekend at the Iowa State Fair to show that they were just common folk and great Americans.  The Associated Press wrote a lengthy story describing the activities, emphasizing several times throughout that the leading candidates sampled a pork chop on a stick.

The odds are against me casting a vote for a Republican in the 2016 election; especially since I neither eat pork nor other meat derived from four-legged creatures. For that matter, I would vote for only one of two candidates from the Democratic Party, but I won’t reveal his name now.

I have actively campaigned for only two presidential candidates, and doing so for Norman Thomas in 1948, almost caused me to be ineligible for the Michigan National Guard.

In 1968, when I was living in New Jersey, I was very active and worked hard in Eugene McCarthy’s bid for the presidency. I was optimistic after McCarthy gathered 42 percent of the Democratic primary vote in New Hampshire, but quite disappointed afterwards, when an opportunist Bobby Kennedy decided to run.

I still have a faded McCarthy poster entitled, “A breath of fresh air.” This is in marked contrast to the GOP debates, which could be labeled “A lethal mixture of hot air.”

I also possess a red, white and blue button that reads,  "McCARTHY FOR PRESIDENT”

The red, white and blue color scheme has always been alive and, well it’s alive today on both sides of the aisle, as you can see here, starting with the GOP. Somehow, they all look the same, or so it seems, except for Donald's and Jeb's.

The GOP’s symbol is an elephant, which is indeed an endangered species, perhaps with Trump as the adversarial poacher, out to kill the establishment. However, is there a candidate for either party that you can truly trust?

In 2008, John Edwards seemed like a decent presidential candidate, so I sent him a check. In August 2008, he admitted having an affair with a staffer, at the same time that his wife Elizabeth’s cancer returned. She died in December 2010, and my contributions to presidential candidates also died, until this year.

As far as the party with an ass as its symbol, I have finally sent moneys to 2016’s version of Gene McCarthy, and prefer him and his button to both what’s her name's and Joe Biden's.

There seems to be more than a kernel of honesty and integrity with Sanders, and he is the only breath of fresh air around today.