Legal Commentary

Every Last Vote Counted in the Presidential Primaries of 1960

By davidwanetick

Neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama is likely to secure the 2,025 delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination before the voting season ends. Currently Mrs. Clinton is said to have 256 superdelegates versus Mr. Obama's 170. The New York Times reported that 300 currently undecided Democratic superdelegates may anoint the Democratic Presidential nominee. This situation is reminiscent of the 1960 Democratic Convention.

The Democratic National Committee just narrowly ratified John Kennedy for its candidate for the presidency in 1960. John?s brother Robert who was running the campaign left nothing to chance. He
counted and recounted every delegate. Robert knew the Democratic nominee would only win by a whisker. During the Democratic Convention, the state delegates voted in alphabetical order. Robert
sent Ted Kennedy to go to the Wyoming delegates and get them to promise that if the Kennedy campaign needed the Wyoming delegates that the Kennedy campaign would receive them.

The Wyoming chairman said, ?You must be crazy. The vote will be decided before Wyoming casts its vote. We already are pledging 10-1/2 votes. Are you saying to me that you think the winner will be
chosen by those four votes? That?ll make, really, the difference in your brother getting the nomination?? ?Well, Yes,? Ted Kennedy said. Then, the Wyoming Chairman said, ?If it comes to those four votes, you?ve got them. I?ll take them right away from Lyndon Johnson. You?ve got them.?

Without the four remaining votes cast by the Wyoming delegation, Lyndon Johnson would have been the Democratic nominee for the President of the United States in 1960.

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Full post as published by Vertical Pulse on February 18, 2008 (boomark / email).