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Thursday, February 07, 2008

Superdelegates are free to switch sides

Check out today's WSJ article by June Kronholz, Democrats'; Nightmare: Back to Smoke-Filled Rooms - WSJ.com:
"Superdelegates won't be easy for either candidate to hang on to, though, and they could make the campaign even more contentious. The high-profile superdelegates are likely to stick with their pledges. Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy isn't likely to waver in his support of Sen. Obama, for example, and Washington Sen. Patty Murray isn't likely to withdraw her pledge to Sen. Clinton.

WSJ.com


Some superdelegates will need constant wooing, though, and as they are free to switch sides, that would set off battles between the candidates. Mr. Ornstein (of the conservative American Enterprise Institute) suggests that smaller-fish superdelegates will continually re-evaluate how either Mr. Obama's or Mrs. Clinton's nomination would affect down-ticket races."
Let's not count superdelegates in the reported delegate totals.

Break it out.

Facts are facts.

Simon Cowell from American Idol makes his vote and sticks with it, if we had superdelegates judging American Idol the show would never end.

Let's take a look at RealClearPolitics.com:


Adjust their totals to remove the superdelegtes and the picture becomes really clear:

Obama 851 (979 - 128)

Clinton 845 (1,056 - 211)

Until you start looking around and see MSNBC with:

Obama 838
Clinton 834

And CNN reports pledged delegates at:

Obama 635
Clinton 630

Where do you go to get hard numbers on the delegate count?

More:
USA Today: Count on confusion when counting Democratic delegates