College junior Jason Rae's cell phone is blowing up, not with invites to tonight's kegger from the local sorority at Marquette University in Wisconsin, but with calls from the likes of Chelsea Clinton, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Sen. John Kerry and former President Bill Clinton.
Rae is one of 796 superdelegates, or free agents, who are not required to support the choice of primary and caucus voters for the Democratic nomination. And he's only 21 and has never voted in a presidential election.
And now everyone who is anyone has him on speed dial. On the eve of the South Carolina, Rae was out to dinner with friends when he got a call around 6pm. A voice on the other end said, "Hey Jason, its Bill here." And yesterday morning he sat down for a breakfast meeting with possible two-time first daughter, Chelsea Clinton.
Not that we doubt that Rae is a devoted party activist. He was elected as DNC member of the Wisconsin state party in June of 2004, he was just 17-years-old at the time, running against and defeating the president of the state firefighter's union, who is also a state legislator. On my show last night, Rae told us he's been riding his bike to county party meetings since he was about 14-years-old, volunteered for his first campaign at 15, and made his first donation at 16.
But come on, no offense to Jason here, but this is nuts! His vote has the impact of almost 10,000 voters! So that's why I'm calling all the superdelegates to step aside and support whoever the primary and caucus voters have chosen, before this becomes a purely political battle fought behind closed doors or on the cell phone lines in college town Wisconsin.
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