Dems move to sack superdelegates

Jonathan Martin and Ben Smith
December 30, 2009 05:37 PM EST

Democrats are moving to eliminate from the party's national convention the superdelegates, the elected officials and party leaders whose role in the presidential nominating process came under intense scrutiny in last year’s closely-contested primary.

Those superdelegates provided, for a time, a lifeline to then-Sen. Hillary Clinton's flagging campaign, and the effective end of their independent role would be a major step toward reshaping the Democratic Party — and its internal politics — in President Barack Obama's image.