Joe Trippi

Hillary Clinton should release her superdelegates and show just how strong she really is.

There are a few things that should be clear to most everyone by now as the final state primaries draw near and Republicans and Democrats prepare for their national conventions.

Both parties' nominating processes have their flaws, and regardless of those flaws, or because of them in the view of some, Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee and Clinton will win the Democratic nomination.

But Clinton can do something now to acknowledge the need to rethink the Democratic Party’s nomination rules, particularly the existence of superdelegates. By addressing one of Bernie Sanders’ fiercest complaints of unfairness, she can demonstrate just how strong her popular vote and pledged delegate leads really are.

Clinton should release her superdelegates to cast their votes on the convention floor for Sanders or herself in the same proportion as cast by voters in their state caucus or primary, and she should do it now.

Doing so will pose no real risk of costing her the Democratic nomination — she is that strong — but will demonstrate that she is listening to Sanders' supporters while potentially easing the path to a unified and uncontested convention.

First, the reality. Clinton has a commanding 3 million vote lead over Sanders in votes cast in party primaries. Clinton has won 56.6% of the popular vote in the primaries to Sanders' 43.4%. Sanders' supporters will correctly point out that most popular vote counts don’t include caucus results. True, but voter turnout is typically so low in caucuses that they have little impact on the popular vote margin between candidates. This fact is borne out by the pledged delegate counts for both candidates, which in the Democratic Party are distributed proportionally.

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With her 3 million vote lead and winning 56.6% of the popular vote, Clinton has won 54.2% of the pledged delegates. With his caucus and primary wins with 43.4% of the popular vote, Sanders has won 45.8% of the pledged delegates.

These facts show how difficult it has been under the party’s proportional delegate distribution rules for Clinton to build the 271 pledged delegate lead she has over Sanders. It's a lead built while garnering 56.6% of the vote over 48 contests and is far greater than the lead Barack Obama held over Clinton in pledged delegates in 2008. Sanders isn’t going to overcome all that in the nine contests that remain.

The other reality — one important for Clinton and her campaign to recognize — is that her 3 million popular vote and 271 pledged delegate leads, no matter how insurmountable, have been clouded by what Sanders and many of his supporters see as the inherent unfairness of superdelegates and the perception that they tip the scales in her favor.

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Clinton can take a big step toward lifting that cloud by doing something she does well. Listen. Listen to Sanders and his supporters. Acknowledge that there is always room to improve the process, and that it's time for the party to rethink the role of superdelegates.

Sanders has said that superdelegates should vote the same way their states have voted in their primary or caucuses. Whether the rules get changed to do this in the future or not, Clinton can do it now, and she should.

If Clinton releases her superdelegates to vote in the same proportion as voters in their states voted in the primaries, she will still likely win the nomination by far more delegates than Obama had over her going into the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

Yes, she would lose a few hundred delegate votes she already has under the existing rules. But she doesn’t need them to win the nomination.

She and her party are stronger without them.

Joe Trippi is a Democratic strategist who managed Howard Dean's 2004 primary campaign.

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