OT: NEED POLITICAL INFORMATION

Sorry to barge in like this, but there's something I need to know.

1) WTF is a 'Superdelegate'

and

2) Why are they all of a sudden intregal to the election process?

I mean, nobody has ever heard of these pinheads up until this election cycle, and now it's as if you can't possibly win without 'em.  If they were THAT important, don't you think our American Studies teachers would have said something?

Stupid new buzzword.

Unlike the Republicans who allow the delegates of each State to choose which candidate they want to run based on the number of votes, the Democrats allow superdelegates to have a say in addition to the delegates of each State.

Superdelegates are important members of the party, past and present, and usually have an important position in politics. I'm sure if u check Wikipedia you'll find more info.

A Superdelegate is usually a congressman/woman or a governor or even a head of some important agency, etc.  Superdelegates are counted for the Democractic Party Primaries, each delegate gets one vote and if a candidate does not have the 2,025 needed by the end of the June 4th primaries then the decision will be made by these delegates, Obama has just tied Clinton and might have taken the lead in superdelegates today, Clinton is now pretty much done because she was holding on to the lead in the superdelegates but now has lost that lead.

That is pretty much the basic definition.

OK, so I guess I have a firm grasp on what they are.  But if they were that 'super' don't you think that we'd have known about them before 2008?

They are this election year's version of the dimpled chad.  I agree that they're this prominent in order to facilitate some sort of end-around like KidDude said. 

aside from elected representatives, they are also college students. . .

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/20/politics/uwi
re/main3855064.shtml

. . .so some Arts & Sciences major gets more of a say than the entire state of Florida.