WTF is up with the democratic delegate counts?

[brandons87]

I'm referring only to pledged delegates, becasue counting superdels relies on polling and is not a very exact count.

But delegate counts should be much more concrete, yet depending on your source they are all over the map.

Real Clear Politics:
1193 to 1034

NY Times:
1117 to 1112 (WTF?)

How can you have 2 news sources that differ so widely from their PLEDGED delegate totals?

this makes zero sense

 

[SomeMildLanguage]

Because their process is not democratic or transparent.

 

[gecko]

Because the D process is designed to thwart the will of the primary voters and leave the outcome in the hands of the powerbrokers.

 

[Creed]

There's actually a pretty interesting history to the process. I read that the primaries used to be largely winner-take-all, but after Jesse Jackson lost the nomination, the party had to agree to make them proportional in order to ensure Jackson's support for Dukakis. I thought it was interesting, here's the link.