Former president Jimmy Carter said Sunday that it would be a “very serious mistake” if Democratic superdelegates would overturn the wishes of the voters, but he also expressed confidence that the party will unite behind a nominee in the fall.
{mosads}Carter, an unpledged superdelegate, said it “would be very difficult to explain” if a candidate who won most states, pledged delegates and the popular vote would not end up being the nominee. Currently, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) is leading Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) in all three categories.
However, the former president also said that superdelegates should not be bound to the vote of people in their own states or districts.
“My hometown, my county, my state went overwhelmingly for Obama,” Carter said on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos. “But if I decided later on to support Mrs. Clinton, I would feel free to do so.”
In the end, Carter stated, he believes that the primary battle will not result in a split of his party.
“I don’t have any doubt, at this point, that no matter who wins at the Democratic convention, that the other candidate and all of the Democratic delegates will fully support the one who is finally chosen,” the former president said.
Carter, who was president the last time the U.S. boycotted Olympic Games, also weighed in on whether a similar step should be taken this year in light of China’s human rights record. He noted that the situation was different in 1980, when the Moscow Olympics were boycotted following the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. Carter said he hopes that “all the countries will go ahead and participate in the Olympics in Beijing.”