Back in 1972, elections were won or lost because of  the Daley Machine of Cook County, Illinois. Idiots lead by Jesse Jackson (who, at that time, had never ever registered to vote) went to the Democratic Convention because Daley's delegation (election winners in Chicago) did not have the decreed proportions of blacks and women. Even more stupidly, the Convention voted to seat the Jackson delegation, not the guys that might have been able to carry the State of Illinois. Columnist Mike Royko denouced that first act of political correctness. Royko pointed out that not a single person on Jackson's slate was Polish, despite the fact that Polish Americans were a large fraction in the city and suburbs. To avoid any such flood of goo-goo [good government] types ever again, the Democratic Party reformed the rules and automatically made officeholders delegates so that no Mayor Daley in the future could be denied a role at the National Convention. Hence the origin of the superdelgates that are the stated pretext for Hillary Clinton to continue her stubborn campaign of 2008. What if the absurd cock-up of 1972 had never happened and Daley's delegation got seated at the convention? With no superdelegates to theorize about, will alt-Hillary have conceded the nomination to Obama by now?