‘Release the Superdelegates…’
16 May 2008 1:11 am by Taylor Marsh
Guest post by Scan
David Axelrod
The steady release of Obama superdelegates continues.
Among the four today, the most significant was Rep. Henry Waxman of California, chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Since May 6th, over thirty Obama superdelegates have announced, averaging about five a day. The bad news for the Clinton campaign is obvious, but it also makes me wonder.
If the superdelegate announcements continue at this rate until next Tuesday, there will have been around fifty in this two-week time frame. Could these be the “fabled fifty” residing in Obama’s back pocket that we’ve heard about for months? And, if so, could his superdelegate capital be mostly spent after Kentucky and Oregon? I’ll admit that I’m not privy to such information…but we’ll find out soon enough.
The timing of these has never been an accident. They are announced on good days to strengthen the momentum and bad days to help bandage the bleeding. And they are often accompanied by cookie-cutter statements that often include the Obama magic words: “hope”, “change”, “inspiration”, etc. This two-week stretch does seem like a logical place for such a prolonged superdelegate dispatch, as he needs all the West Virginia/Kentucky help he can get.
I can’t help but be struck, however, by the juxtaposition between these continuing announcements and today’s headlines. For even as the superdelegates rush headlong to give him the nomination, we got a nice little taste of what McCain vs Obama will look like, as well as the Tennessee GOP’s (admittedly amateur-hour) revival of Michelle Obama’s “proud of my country” remarks.
So in response to this, I just gotta ask: Superdelegates, you do know that the far-superior Democratic candidate is still readily available, right? Right?
Just checking.
