Clinton Only Needs 153% of Remaining Delegates
by David Swanson
So, the Democratic National Committee has bent the rules for Senator Clinton and effectively given her 87 delegates and Senator Obama 63 from two states that were not supposed to be counted. That gives Clinton a grand total of 1,580 pledged (more or less) delegates, and Obama 1,711. While, technically that still leaves Obama with “the lead,” there are 86 pledged delegates remaining to be awarded in Puerto Rico, Montana, and South Dakota. This means that Clinton can still pull it out if she picks up 153 percent of the remaining delegates, an improvement on the 181 percent she would have needed to pick up if not for the Michigan-Florida deal.
Clinton clearly has the momentum. In addition, the backroom deal on Michigan and Florida’s “pledged” delegates helps to blur the line between pledged delegates (awarded by actual voters and caucus goers, except in Florida and Michigan) and super delegates (awarded by Party control freaks). The distinction is, of course, blurred to virtual nonexistence by any media story covering the election, as over 80 percent of media stories now do.
The above calculation doesn’t count the 19 delegates whom John Edwards has encouraged to back Obama, or the delegates pledged to Clinton who have begun flipping for Obama. It also doesn’t count the super delegates, with whom Obama holds a substantial lead, but whom Clinton fully expects to win over en masse any day now. [more]