MSNBC's FirstRead is reporting that three superdelegates have declared or will declare today, two for Obama and one for Clinton.
Senator Clinton is picking up a Pennsylvania superdelegate, AFL-CIO President Bill George. It is noted that George was a former backer of John Edwards. Clinton has picked up 16 of Pennsylvania's 26 superdelegates so far, with 5 for Obama and 5 undeclared. The last five standing are all Congressmembers, some like Jason Altmire who are not expected to endorse anytime soon given the lose-lose proposition he would face in a tight district.
Senator Obama is picking up two Congressmembers, Baron Hill from Indiana and Bruce Braley from Iowa.
FirstRead notes that Hill "represents Indiana's hotly contested ninth congressional district. Hill is a former Indiana high school basketball star who is in the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, alongside NBA legend Larry Bird." This endorsement will help bolster Obama's credentials in a key swing district and also with the demographics that the pundits say he needs to win over.
The endorsement by Rep. Bruce Braley marks the second from Iowa in consecutive days for Senator Obama.
Since the Pennsylvania Primary 13 superdelegates and one add-on delegate have made their preferences knowns. Nine (9) have declared for Obama and five (5) have declared for Clinton.
As I have noted earlier in the Clinton Matrix and other posts, Senator Clinton will need 82.5% of the uncommitted superdelegates to support her if she manages to split the remaining pledged delegates and the remaining add-on delegates with Senator Obama, who is favored to take a majority of those delegates.
This means that for every undeclared superdelegate Obama announces, Clinton will need to produce FOUR of the same undeclared superdelegates to barely keep pace in the long run.
One of my thoughts on the race's status is that Obama can steadily solidify his position with each superdelegate that 'trickles' in. Think of each superdelegate announcement for Obama as time running off the clock for Clinton. There's nothing anyone can do about the calendar for the pledged or add-on delegates, but the stream of superdelegates announcing is something that
Senator Clinton has tried to stop until she could put herself in a position where the superdelegates would HAVE to pick her based on whatever shifts in the political milieu might occur.
The four superdelegates that Senator Obama has produced in the last 24 hours has forced Hillary Clinton to produce 23 new superdelegates just to offset these four superdelegates, if she needs to win at least 82.5% of the remaining uncommitted super delegates. So far she has produced three in the past two days.
N.B.: 23/27 = 85%
I'll do an update later on today on the new numbers in the race. But you can see how precarious the Clinton delegate situation is at this point.
And what does it say when Senator Obama is able to produce four superdelegates in two days? How many more does he have on "reserve"? With six days left until the primary, is it possible he could produce 12 more superdelegates?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment