The 2008 presidential field at-a-glance

[KAPital PHINUst]

Originally Posted by srmom

That may be true, but I can't see the delegates so willfully disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of people nationwide who voted in the primaries. McCain won the majority of the votes, that's it. Ron Paul only got around 7% or so in each state - so it is kind of delusional to think/hope that the delegates would give him the nomination

The delegates are sent to the convention as representatives of the voters, supposedly they have some moral compass that would keep them from just getting together and saying, "to he** with what the voters want, we'll just pick whoever we want."

The delegates' obligation to vote for McCain is only to the extent that they are a legally (as opposed to morally) bound delegate. That's it.

Ex. Ohio (I think) is a "winner take all" state. McCain won Ohio. But guess what? The delegates are under NO obligation to vote for him--Ohio's delegates are unbound.

The MSM is presuming that because Romney and Huckabee threw their support to McCain, their delegates automatically get assigned to McCain as if they are legally bound. Not so. Hence in part the presumption that the nomination is hemmed up. Those delegates can vote for whoever they wish, frontrunner status be darned.

IMO, I think the MSM's numbers on McCain's delegates are significantly, if not grossly, inflated. If McCain had the nomination locked up, we wouldn't have a need for a convention to decide it.