Posted by Jed Lewison on Tue Feb 12, 2008 at 11:32 AM Pacific

Is the Clinton campaign trying to Orwell-up the Supers?

Greg Sargent (via Ben Smith) writes:

In a sign that the spin war over the significance of super-delegates is underway in earnest, Harold Ickes told assorted Hillary supporters on a private conference call yesterday that the campaign wants them to start referring to super-delegates as "automatic delegates," according to someone on the call.

The person I spoke to paraphrases Ickes, who is spearheading Hillary's super-delegate hunt, this way: "We're no longer using the phrase super delegates. It creates a wrong impression. They're called automatic delegates. Because that's what they are."

This is good news and bad news. The good news is that at least implicitly, Clinton's organization is recognizing they are wrong on the substance. The bad news is that they are trying to confuse the issue by changing vocabulary, a sign that they will be pressing ahead with an undemocratic, superdelegate-based victory strategy -- even though it's the wrong thing to do.

Is the Clinton campaign trying to Orwell-up the Supers?

Greg Sargent (via Ben Smith) writes:

In a sign that the spin war over the significance of super-delegates is underway in earnest, Harold Ickes told assorted Hillary supporters on a private conference call yesterday that the campaign wants them to start referring to super-delegates as "automatic delegates," according to someone on the call.

The person I spoke to paraphrases Ickes, who is spearheading Hillary's super-delegate hunt, this way: "We're no longer using the phrase super delegates. It creates a wrong impression. They're called automatic delegates. Because that's what they are."

This is good news and bad news. The good news is that at least implicitly, Clinton's organization is recognizing they are wrong on the substance. The bad news is that they are trying to confuse the issue by changing vocabulary, a sign that they will be pressing ahead with an undemocratic, superdelegate-based victory strategy -- even though it's the wrong thing to do.

The Jed Report Home Page

© Jed Lewison