Superdelegates were conceived to avoid the problem which George McGovern presented as the popular democratic nominee for the 1972 election. 
Without political guidance, the hoi palloi delegates selected a candidate, the best ever really, who promptly lost to Richard Nixon in a landslide. Since then the party has appointed superdelegates to temper future wayward exuberance. Perhaps the Democrat heavyweights who threw some of their fund-raising clout around –to suggest that the 2008 nomination be left to the appropriate authorities– are worried that Obama looks to be a similarly naive choice.
As indignant as the reaction has been to the apparently undemocratic influencial Democrats who sent the letter to Pelosi, why do the big donors go unmentioned by the news outlets? Capital Eye calculated their cumulative throwing weight at 24 million dollars in donations. They are, in dollar order, from 10M to 80K:
Haim & Cheryl Saban
Bernard L & Irene Schwartz
Robert L. Johnson
Mark & Susie Tompkins Buell
Steve & Maureen White Rattner
Jay T. & Tracy M. Snyder
Alan J. & Susan Patricof
Hassan & Sheila Nemazee
James R. & Mary K. Pritzker
Stanley S. & Sydney R. Shuman
Marc & Cathy Lasry
Pradeep R. & Amy J. Rao
Sim & Debra S. Farar
Clarence A. & Jacqueline A. Avant
Lynn Forester de Rothschild
Christopher G. & Irene Korge
Mark A. & Judith M. Aronchick
