Remember the secret stash of 50 superdelegates that Barack Obama was supposed to roll out after his March 4 losses to Hillary Clinton in Texas and Ohio?
Um, nevermind.
On Tuesday morning, NBC News anchor emeritus Tom Brokaw
The only problem? There’s no surprise in store, according to the Obama campaign. “This is just a rumor,” says Obama spokesman Bill Burton today. “There is no secret stash of superdelegates that we are sitting on waiting to roll out.” Maybe the stockpile splintered after Tuesday’s losses; maybe Team Obama wants to release its names as a steady drip rather than a sudden flood; or maybe the whole story was a sham. Either way, no game-changers this week.
If you’re one of the poor saps who bought Brokaw’s story–like me–don’t fret. So did Rep. Lacy Clay, Obama’s Missouri co-chairman and pledged Obama superdelegate himself. Clay told the Columbia Missourian yesterday that the 50 superdelegates would come out of the closet “later this week”–and then took the stats one step further, claiming that “the campaign is Obama’s.” “[Sen. Clinton] will not make up those numbers,” Clay said. “This race is over.” Which wouldn’t have been true in any case–an additional 200 or so superdelegates would’ve still remained uncommitted, and Clinton and Obama would’ve been roughly tied among these party leaders. But it’s even less true today.
Now that Clinton’s death-defying wins in Texas and Ohio have prolonged the contest and slowed Obama’s momentum among party poobahs, there’s a bigger story to watch: an increasing willingness among superdelegates to band together and seek concessions from the presidential candidates in return for votes at the convention. Last night, the Politico reported that bloc of uncommitted Ohio supers–perhaps including Reps. March Kaptur, Dennis Kucinich, Tim Ryan, Zack Space, Betty Sutton and Charlie Wilson, and Sen. Sherrod Brown–is “withholding endorsements from Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton until one or the other offers a concrete proposal to protect American jobs,” according to two state Democrats.
At this point, everyone knows that Obama and Clinton need superdelegate support to put them over the top–the superdelegates included. With the contest now likely to continue until the convention, I suspect it won’t be long before others start making similar demands.
Ah, democracy in action.
UPDATE, 11:51 p.m.: Searching my inbox, I noticed that the Obama campaign has announced seven superdelegate pickups since March 4. So there might be something to my “steady drip” theory. With seven weeks until Pennsylvania, a constant stream of superdelegate endorsements is a good way to create the impression of momentum–whether or not the supers in question decided to endorse today, yesterday or last month. Conversely, a sudden flood this week might’ve struck observers as a show of pre-March 4 support–and left them wondering whether Obama could keep attracting superdelegates after Clinton’s wins in Ohio and Texas. Now it looks like he is.
