It’s the delegates who matter, dummy!

There’s a reason the popular vote, at this stage of the presidential election process, is referred to as the “beauty contest.”

FOXX TO SANDERS FANS: 'You big dummies!'

It’s downright superficial. It doesn’t mean a thing. When it comes to the process that Iowa and New Hampshire have already performed (and which Illinois will undergo March 15), it’s who you pick for the delegates to the nominating convention that matters.

NOTHING ELSE! NADA!

Those votes you cast on your ballot for the actual name of a candidate? Although fun to do, it was a waste of your time.

And if you are some sort of politically-unaware numbskull who only cast your ballot for the presidential candidate and chose to ignore all that political gibberish about delegates, then you really accomplished nothing.

For it is the delegates who go to the presidential nominating conventions and actually pick who gets to be on the ballot for the November general election. Although in all honesty, by the time the conventions come about, the outcome is so preordained that they really are a formality.

THE EQUIVALENT OF a political pep rally – only with people wearing all sorts of donkey and elephant paraphernalia and most definitely not with teams of scantily clad cheerleaders on the sidelines. (Whether there are scantily-clad women hanging around the delegates hotel rooms is a question for a different day’s commentary).

CLINTON: Will her lead grow?

To me, all of this is incredibly obvious. I remember back in 2008 when I attempted to write a commentary making a presidential endorsement of sorts, I began by highlighting the names of the delegates from my congressional district who were committed to Barack Obama.

Because that was the way to ensure that the Democrats would pick Barack over Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid – which had the same air of inevitability that fizzled out the same as she appears to be weakening in the presence of Bernie Sanders, the U.S. senator from Vermont who goes about bearing the “Socialist” tag with a sense of pride.

But Hillary isn’t politically dead by any means – and this delegate issue is the very reason why.

SANDERS: The N.H. winner -- Not really!

CLINTON MAY HAVE not been the choice of New Hampshire voters any more than Coca-Cola was NOT the “choice of a new generation.” But she took most of that state’s super-delegates (there are two who are so wishy-washy they won’t commit to anyone).

Which is why after Iowa and New Hampshire, it is Clinton – 42/Sanders – 36. And in many of the states coming up in the near future, it will be the establishment Dems likely to make sure all those snot-nosed, punk kids know their love for Bernie won’t mean much.

It is likely that the Clinton delegate lead will continue to grow, no matter how many people are likely to want to make Hillary “feel the Bern.” Actually, by the time the process gets to Illinois, it may not matter much what we think.

We may have a pre-ordained outcome. No matter how many people rant and rage about how New Hampshire could be a “tie” for Clinton and Sanders even though Bernie took about 60 percent of the popular vote.

SUPER-DELEGATES CAN be a fickle batch, because they’re usually the party regulars who have no interest in people who think the process itself (which they have made the effort to master) is the problem – and that if we’d only get rid of the rules, we'd be better off.
 

TRUMP: Whiners bigger than Bernie's

Which is part of my problem with the Bernie Sanders movement – one that seems to be a collection of amateurs – which was never really the way with Barack Obama back in 2008. Which also is why it’s not a surprise that Barack himself now says he’d rather have Hillary succeed him, rather than Bernie.

Then again, it’s also why I consider Donald Trump on the Republican side to be the ultimate political buffoon – making his way to appeal to people who think we win only if the system is gamed in their favor.

Their idea of “revolution” strikes me as being the equivalent of the whiny kid who, realizing he’s about to lose playing Monopoly, decides to knock the game board flying in the air while ranting about how unfair those rules are.

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If Iowa reduces Republican mess, then caucuses will have served a purpose

I have a 13-year-old niece, Meira, who asked a question recently that I have to admit I couldn’t answer intelligently.

BUSH: Time for Jeb to quit?

“Why should we care about the Iowa caucuses?” she pondered. It seems her classes have discussed the way elections are held.

ALL I COULD do was babble some nonsense about Iowa being the beginning of the process of electing a president. How a candidate can get some early momentum if they don’t totally make fools of themselves during the caucuses to be held Monday and the first primary in New Hampshire scheduled for next week Tuesday.

Now I’m not about to go into a rant about how Iowa and New Hampshire aren’t the least bit worthy of having such influence. How those two states are truly insignificant enough to deserve being ignored in the mix of 50 states that will express their say in coming months about who the next president should be.

But what will we really gain from the 99 caucuses taking place across Iowa on Monday by which people will start picking the delegates who will gather at the Democratic and Republican conventions this summer to choose the actual nominees.

There is one way for Iowa, and New Hampshire for that matter, to earn their keep – so to speak – as significant states.

THE REPUBLICANS IN particular need to weed their way through all those would-be nominees and get the people who never had no chance no how to drop out.

Make them realize that if the bulk of the GOP partisans would rather take seriously people like Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, that they really have no legitimate reason to think of themselves as presidential timber. At least not this year.

WALKER: Came to his senses long ago

People like current or former Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Rick Perry of Texas, George Pataki of New York already get significant respect from me politically because they came to the realization early on they ought to drop out of the process.

But people like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, corporate executive Carly Fiorina and former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania (just to name a few) still have the dream.

THEY STILL HAVE the delusion that they will one day take the oath to “preserve, protect and defend” the U.S. Constitution, just before “Hail to the Chief” is played by the Marine Corps band.

TRUMP: Smaller field might make him legit

It is the fact that we still have a dozen Republicans seeking the nomination that real estate developer Donald Trump leads polls – even though the numbers show a majority of people questioned desperately want somebody, anybody, other than Trump to be the Republican nominee.

Perhaps if we get rid of all the “1 percenters” (those individuals who’d be lucky to take 1 percent of the vote if the election was held today), then we’d have a chance to see if Trump truly has the party’s support.

For all we know, he could wind up gaining the bulk of those people who had seriously wanted somebody else. It would help a potential Trump nomination gain a touch of legitimacy.

WHILE ALSO ERASING those people whose fantasies these days is that former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will decide to get himself involved in the presidential race.

If Iowa can help reduce the slew of presidential dreamers, it would help bring a sense of sanity to the rest of the nation. It might help reduce the circus atmosphere touch.

Then again, any production that involves Trump or would-be Democratic nominee Bernie Sanders of Vermont (who likely can already count on a New Hampshire victory just because of his home state’s proximity) is going to border on the ridiculous.

Which may be the crucial fact that my 13-year-old niece has already figured out – nobody ever said she was a stupid little girl.

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