The prospect of a brokered convention at the Pepsi Center this summer has political junkies pinching ourselves as we dream of old-fashioned deal-making in smoke-filled — well, smokeless — backrooms.
But the melodrama that could play out this spring and summer as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton try to clinch the nomination by wooing superdelegates will feel more like a summer rerun than high drama to one Coloradan.
For Gary Hart, it’s deja vu all over again.
Tell me if this sounds familiar:
Before the presidential primary season begins, we have a “presumptive nominee” — a stalwart Democratic insider who has the party machinery all locked up. But we also have a young upstart senator trying to abandon some of the trappings of his party’s past and talking about change.
In 1984, that presumptive nominee was former Vice President Walter Mondale. And today, Obama is playing the role of Hart, the little-known senator who shook up the political world.
The 1984 race was the first and only to be ultimately decided by superdelegates. This could be the second.
Hart’s presidential run began in earnest when he stunned Mondale in New Hampshire. On Super Tuesday, Hart tallied an impressive string of victories in Florida, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Nevada, Oklahoma and Washington. Mondale staggered out with only two states: Georgia and Alabama.
Still, some in the media deemed it a sufficient comeback for the presumptive nominee, a la Hillary Clinton this past Tuesday night.
They each took home a big prize in the grand finale: Hart won California and Mondale New Jersey.
When the confetti settled, Mondale had more delegates, but not enough to clinch. Chances are good neither Obama nor Clinton will have enough either.
Hart and Mondale had won an almost equal number of states and votes. So Hart pressed on to the convention, and he and his wife, Lee, began phoning superdelegates to win their support.
The idea for superdelegates was born after the 1980 election, but its roots go back to 1972, when party bosses felt they didn’t have enough say at the convention. Tired of liberal party activists nominating candidates such as George McGovern, who eventually get buried in electoral landslides, they wanted more control.
In 1984, Mondale had the superdelegates all locked up before the primaries were underway, Hart now says. Ironically, the liberal Mondale was buried in his own electoral avalanche.
Hart, an Obama supporter, says this time around he’s “fortified by the willingness of at least half of the delegates to suspend judgment for awhile, which they’re smart to do.” Many superdelegates will be loyal to Clinton, the party insider. But others will weigh factors such as electability and which candidate would help lift the party’s undercard races. That could help Obama.
“It’s almost as if people will make up their mind at the convention,” Hart said. “The determining votes could be undecided the Monday night of the convention.”
That may be fun for political junkies, but it could hurt Democrats. If superdelegates are the deciders, it could disenfranchise millions of those who jammed into caucuses or waited in long primary lines to put some of their faith back into our clunky system.
And if there’s any sign of “manipulation” in Florida or Michigan, or with superdelegates, Hart says, it could “well cost the Democrats the election in the fall. Not because they’ll shift to McCain, they’ll just stay home.”
He doubts a winner will emerge before Denver. But he’s still hopeful the rerun will have a better ending than the original.
Editorial page editor Dan Haley can be reached at dhaley@denverpost.com.
