It's Not Right

As some point in the distant past I heard someone ask me if I'd rather be right than happy. I'm not sure how I answered, but the true answer would be "right."

I can't just "get along." When something bugs me, it bugs me, and I have no idea how to stop letting that happen.

Like at least some other people, this year I learned about superdelegates. Now, I can understand some of the reasoning behind the Democratic Party having them, but a lot of people seem to be very upset with the whole idea. "Democracy!" they shout, and while there's a lot to be said in favor of that, a political party, I think, can select its nominee any way they want.

Still, I can sort of see why you might want superdelegates. I guess they're necessary if you need a majority and not just a plurality to select your candidate, but I also like how they add the human factor into the nominating process. It can be like having a human monitoring a computer or piece of machinery. Without the superdelegates, the process could be entirely automated, and I'm not so sure that's always a good thing.

If Barack Obama, who was leading last time I looked, cracks and does something stupid, it's good to have the superdelegates being able to pick someone else. I don't think they should overturn the will of the people on a whim, but if video surfaces of him gnawing on the bones of babies while seated on an American Flag while dressed in only a garter belt and high heels with a butt plug shoved up his ass, I think it would be reasonable to allow the superdelegates to overturn his nomination.

But that's not what bugs me about superdelegates.

It's the way they're referred to by many in the media, as if they were a bulk item. One of my favorite cartoons shows a guy in line at a grocery store correcting the "Ten items or less" sign to read "fewer," and the caption reads "Everybody's an editor."

Okay, not really all that funny, but it tickles my editorial soul. There is a difference between less and fewer, and it bugs me when people use the wrong term. One, fewer, is used to refer to countable items, even if it's a large number the stars in the sky. Less is used to talk about conceptual items, or those who we consider bulk items. There is less sugar on fewer donuts, fewer dollars means less money. It's not really that hard I don't think, but it does require a bit of thinking and evidently that amount of thinking is more than most people care to exert.

It's correct to say Obama or Hillary will need more delegates to win the nomination. But I wince whenever I hear someone refer to the superdelegates in bulk terms, although a specific instance of that escapes me now. Maybe I'll edit one in next time I hear it. If I watch any cable news program, I'm sure it will take fewer than five minutes.

[Edit: Okay, the biggest offense (from a usage standpoint) about these superdelegates is how often some knucklehead will talk about the amount of delegates needed. That's just plain wrong, and I'd be insulted if I were a superdelegate and was being referred to as if I was some sort of bulk commodity. Delegates do NOT come in amounts, they come in numbers! ]

My point is, if I wasn't so insistent on being right all the time, I could more thoroughly enjoy this race.

On the other hand, there's this, which is pretty cool and depressing, and this, which is equally depressing but is a little movie.