2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Should this be the last time we have superdelegates? [View all]Recursion
(56,582 posts)Charlie is somebody that 60% of the party hates, but 40% of the party loves. That 40% vote for him. Alice and Bob split the remaining 60%, getting 30% each. (This is roughly a description of Carter's nomination in 1976.) The idea behind the super delegates was that they would get together and unite behind either Alice or Bob, and put them over the top.
This and super tuesday as a concept date back to a time when
a. there were a lot of white southerners in the party, and
b. there were generally at least three candidates who carried their campaign through to the convention (as a corollary, this also means they're from a time when running a campaign was much, much cheaper)
So in some sense they're kind of an anachronism right now, but then again I do think the party institution should have some say.