Super Tuesday and Superdelegates are coming through big for Hillary Clinton. For that she owes a big thanks to 1980s Southern Democrats, including Jim Hunt and Terry Sanford.

Both “supers” were hatched in the ‘80s by the kind of moderate white Democrats, often from rural areas and small towns, who are scarce today.

A Southern Super Tuesday was conceived in 1988 by Al Gore supporters, including then-Senator Sanford, to help Gore and avoid another Walter Mondale. We got Michael Dukakis, but the plan worked better in ’92 for Bill Clinton, who was himself one of those 1980s Southern Democrats.

Superdelegates go back to 1981-82. They were the creation of a national party commission chaired by Governor Hunt, who brokered a deal between supporters of Mondale and Ted Kennedy. The deal granted automatic-delegate status to party leaders and elected officials. It rolled back some, but not all, of the McGovern reforms adopted after 1968.

Some critics condemn superdelegates as a return to “party bosses.” But the plan makes sense: People who get elected and have to govern are good people to size up candidates and potential Presidents.

The two “supers” don’t just work for moderate and “establishment” candidates. This year, they help Hillary. In 2008, they helped President Obama.