YOU won't have heard of her, but Christine Samuels, a New Jersey politician, has assured herself a footnote in the history of the United States's primary election process. This weekend she became the first so-called super delegate of the Democratic Party to swap sides, announcing that she had switched from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama.

Ms Samuels' move has highlighted the controversial role these unelected delegates play in the primary process Ð and the nightmare scenario that is unfolding for the party top brass.

Unlike regular delegates, the 796 super delegates are not elected by the voters. They are appointed by the party itself, accounting for a fifth of the delegates who vote at the summer convention in Denver to elect the presidential nominee.

And the nightmare for the party leaders is what happens if Mr Obama wins the popular vote, but Mrs Clinton wins the nomination thanks to support of these supers delegates. Present trends make this ever more likely. Mr Obama is winning in the ballot box, but Mrs Clinton has a nearly two-to-one superiority in super delegates, partly thanks to the influence of her husband, former president, Bill.

It wasn't supposed to be this way. Super delegates were appointed in the 1960s to give the party bosses a trump card in the primary process. "The super delegates were supposed to represent the institutional interest of the larger party, as opposed to the crazies in the street," said Phil Noble, a Democratic pollster.

Super delegates include all Democratic members of Congress and governors, as well as ex-presidents and assorted party officials.

In most primary contests they remain in the shadows, as a clear winner soon emerges. Even on the one occasion when they made a difference, in electing Walter Mondale against Gary Hart in 1984, Mr Mondale had won the most regular votes. Never have the supers had to go against the popular vote.

All that could change this summer. The Associated Press says that 213 super delegates are for Mrs Clinton and 139 for Mr Obama.

Already this has created a bizarre situation where Mr Obama has won more states, has more regular delegates and 200,000 more voters, yet is behind Mrs Clinton when all delegates, regular and super, are totted up.

Mr Obama has now warned super delegates to consider carefully how to vote. "My strong belief is that if we end up with the most states and the most pledged (regular] delegates from the most voters in the country, that it would be problematic for the political insiders to overturn the judgment of the voters," he said. Translation: The party top brass can expect trouble from the millions of youngsters who have backed Mr Obama.