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Obama And Hillary Using High Profile Supporters To Woo Superdelegates

The New York Times has a useful overview of the extent to which the two campaigns are wooing the undecided super-delegates who may end up deciding who wins this thing in the end.

The piece delves a bit into the ways both have enlisted their highest-profile supporters to work behind the scenes to win over the these much-prized potential tie-breakers:

The Clinton campaign has established a system, overseen by one of the party’s most seasoned behind-the-scenes operators, Harold Ickes, to have superdelegates contacted by carefully chosen friends and local supporters, as well as by big-name figures like Madeleine K. Albright, a former secretary of state. For particularly tough sells, the campaign has former President Bill Clinton or Chelsea Clinton make the call.

Mr. Obama has enlisted Tom Daschle, the popular former Senate majority leader, as well as Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona and Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the party’s 2004 presidential nominee.

“You know there is something interesting going on when you pick up your cellphone and see all those out-of-state phone numbers,” said Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, who reported getting calls from Ms. Napolitano and Mr. Daschle.

The Times also crunched some numbers and found that of the 796 super-delegates, 204 are for Hillary and 99 for Obama. Other calculations favor Obama more, but if The Times is right, our handy Election Central calculator tells us that this means that there are a startling 493 super-delegates that are undecided -- yet another indication of just how up in the air this contest is.

Late Update: The Obama campaign is disputing The Times's account, sending over this:

The NY Times is wrong. There are 182 superdelegates supporting us -- as NBC reports. The AP reports that the number is 156.

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Where can we see a list of the 796 Super Delegates? If they are going to be choosing the person most likely to be the next president of the United States, then I would like to contact them too.

This is the Washington Establishment politics putting a strangle hold on the nomination process. Many of them are the elected official in which the public has no confidence. What has happened to democracy in America?

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That's a good question. I haven't yet been able to find a list. The Times piece lays out who the super delegates are, but doesn't have an actual list

The running tally at DemConWatch.blogspot.com puts the race at 223-126, with 372 uncommitted. It has the twin virtues of being completely transparent, and based solely on publicly available endorsements.
As I've blogged already, 76 of those 372 are unpledged add-on delegates, and among those that are clearly committed, they break 14-7 for Obama. So your totals are 230-140, for a current lead of 90. The Obama campaign has lately taken to claiming that they've actually got 170 lined up, but until they release the names, the margin is best left where it is.

I've e-mailed my congressman - who has not taken a stand yet - despite his distract going widely for Obama on Super Tuesday. We need to ask our elected officials to represent us. I think the damage to our party will be extreme if the superdelagates go against their own constituents. I think that unless their state or distract has already made it's preference known, they have no business making up their mind. Remember - we are democrats. Let's not let our own primary mirror the 2000 election with the winner of the popular vote denied the presidency, with much damage to country resulting.

Emails are cheap, anybody can send an email saying they're from such-and-such a district. Call him. Area codes speak louder than email.

I've e-mailed my congressman - who has not taken a stand yet - despite his distract going widely for Obama on Super Tuesday. We need to ask our elected officials to represent us. I think the damage to our party will be extreme if the superdelagates go against their own constituents. I think that unless their state or distract has already made it's preference known, they have no business making up their mind. Remember - we are democrats. Let's not let our own primary mirror the 2000 election with the winner of the popular vote denied the presidency, with much damage to country resulting.

My official bet is that about 380 superdelegates are and will be "undecided" until there is apparent pledgie winner and then throw their support behind that candidate (before or at the convention.) Heck, even if they break 60-40 that way, it will be enough to be decisive.

This is the reason I think Clinton's lead due to supers is completely meaningless (although, as I pointed out previously, even including that lead Obama might catch her.)

That is not to say that Obama will certainly win--it is specifically saying that whichever of the two leads in pledgies at the end will take the cake. I think that will be Obama, but Clinton does still have a chance.

party-of-one, the superdelegates are all current (Democratic) Congress members, all current Governors, all past and present Presidents and Vice Presidents and various DNC officials (hazy on the exacts but all the elected DNC'rs as well as state chairs etc. at least.)

Clinton can't win against McCain, and having her on the ticket will poison Democrats running on ballots in red and purple and even light blue areas. The superdelegates need to realize this (I think many have already) and back Obama in any way possible, not only is he the best candidate, he is best for the party.

http://thepersonalispolitical.tumblr.com/post/25882167

The running tally at DemConWatch.blogspot.com puts the race at 223-126, with 372 uncommitted. It has the twin virtues of being completely transparent, and based solely on publicly available endorsements.
As I've blogged already, 76 of those 372 are unpledged add-on delegates, and among those that are clearly committed, they break 14-7 for Obama. So your totals are 230-140, for a current lead of 90. The Obama campaign has lately taken to claiming that they've actually got 170 lined up, but until they release the names, the margin is best left where it is.

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I just went through and tallied up the total popular vote for all primaries and caucuses to date through yesterday. When you add them all up I get:

Clinton 8,611,515
Obama 8,242,286

So in that sense current totals that include super-delegates, where Clinton still enjoys a slight lead, are actually more representative of the will of actual people than the totals of pledged delegates where Obama leads slightly.

I am very upset that hillary lost washington state... I live in seattle and i really thought she was going to pull it off but she didn't

I hope she wins Maine today....hillary please win by double digits because you have to as you head into tuesday.

I think they should do away with this stupid delegate stuff.... Let the american's voice be heard even if that means obama will win....however, since delegates are going to be a part of the race...Hillary better get those delegates seated in michigan and florida.

You're adding apples to oranges, CalD. The raw votes of caucuses and primaries shouldn't simply be added to each other, for a variety of reasons.

By their very nature, caucuses draw less voters.

And some caucus states don't publish the number of voters; I would bet, for example, that the number you added to your total for Nevada was actually county delegates, not voters.

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Clinton 8,611,515
Obama 8,242,286 so the efforts made which produced the margins in the caucus states can be wiped out by one of Hillary's primary victories?

If you eliminate the black vote from the south, and the non black people who attend caucuses, that works pretty well for Hillary.

I don't think it will be very impressive to superdelegates who graduated from the 6th grade.

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Correct. Barack Obama has been been spending massively on caucus states, in what an uncharitable person might be tempted to call an attempt to kind of game the system. He's also done very well in some primary elections, mainly in states with somewhere north of 20% African American population where identity politics appear to be playing a significant role.

But of course next November there will be no caucuses and in terms of elections, most of Barack Obama's biggest numbers are coming from states where no Democrat has any chance whatsoever of winning in the general election -- a fact which may not be completely lost on Democratic party leaders and elected official (a.k.a. super-delegates) who have successfully completed the 6th grade.

What I'm going to do is divide all the votes in states and correlate that to the delegates for the DEMS.

Then take that delegate to voter count and average that ntionally.

And then show how a super delegate has the vote of not one person, but instead THOUSANDS!

So it seems to me that the DEMS have some notions on voting that are really Animal farm in nature.

"All votes are equal, super delegate votes more equal than others."

This is to damn amusing.

FYI-this is feb. 10th. 2;48pm. anybody has seen the washington post front page? according to this news paper slept through last night or whoever runs the paper did not think that OBAMA won 3 states plus the virgin island in this tight race. maybe the washington post does think MCCAINE will be the next president?

sashimi:

What on earth are you talking about? The headline on the front page of the WashPost reads: "Obama Handily Wins in Three States." The Republican race is relegated to the fine print of the subhead.

Why is it so tempting to rail against the national media?

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Mr. Obama has enlisted ... Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona

*Gasp* A woman, calling superdelegates?! What must David Shuster think?!?

Yes, Kjoe, let's "eliminate the black vote in the south." Because after all, only white votes really matter.

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Yep, that's what the clinton people have been trying to do for a month now. Also, eliminate all those caucasian, asian, hispanic and any other race people who voted for obama as well. They must be uninformed and unamerican. Only the clintons' people should count. When they win again their quest for a third term, we should rename the democratic party the clintons' party. He did have a 64% approval rating when he left office you know.

Laughing, the GOP has to get this sort of gig in our party, if Rudy Giuliani had donated 50 million in spending to these super delegates, or had bundled the money, it would have been the best democracy that money could buy.

If I were Clinton or Obama I would announce a money bomb day to get the cash to pay off these super delegates to be president of the United States.

So many votes to buy, so little time.

I wonder what a house race costs? I bet that is the price of that vote. I wonder who gave to who?

Mit Romney should have run as a Democrat and spent his 30 million buying super delegates.

If a super delegate votes for Obama or Clinton and there was some cash that changed hands, do they have to report it?

LOL!!!!

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BTW, thanks for the posts from the ground in Maine. It does give people outside maine a feel for what is going on.

One last inquiry, if a super delegate vote equals hundreds in not thousands of regular votes, do they still get to vote if they are asked to join the ticket as VP?

Is there more super than super delegates? Is there "super duper delegats?"

Just curious because in the GOP every vote counts the same.

LOL!

It is cold in the East, front blew in, will this make a difference in Maine?

Stay tuned, it might not matter.

The super delegates do instead.

ok- I went to that Super Delegate web site -
and this is getting scary

Suppose it would be justified for current elected democratic officals - Gov, Sen and Rep to have a vote - they represent the people (or should) and maybe that's okay --

What is FRIGHTENING is the following who are also superdelegates (aka insiders? hacks? hangers on?)
389 super delegates are DNC members et al
4 former pres and vp
2 former senators (were maj leaders)
3 former house members (were maj leaders or whips)

That is 398 super delegates who could decide who the democratic candidate is and no one to answer to --
---

The current pledged superdelegate list (according to this site) is:
Clinton: 178 (of this 96 are the scary group)
Obama: 96 (of this 28 are from the scary group)

So without these extra people the super delegate count of pleded elected officials would be:
Clinton: 82
Obama: 68

That would be a difference of 24 super delegates-as opposed to the current (with hangers on) total diff of 82--

If the super delegates are going to determine who the dem nominee is -- then at least eliminate all the people who owe favors -- and stick with elected officials

What does anyone else think?

to awb

If the super delegates are going to determine who the dem nominee is -- then at least eliminate all the people who owe favors

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You had instead better organize the Netizens and pick a day to buy these folks off, raise money like Ron Paul did, then fly a blimp to them to deliver it.

If Hillary offers, $10,000.00 per vote, you must offer $12,000.00!

If OBama offers, $14,000.00 per vote, you must offer $16,000.00!

Who ever gets the last bid on the undecided wins!

Think of it as an ebay auction where you have to get the winning votes, and that the price of a vote can rise or drop depending on the timeline between now and the Caucuses.

If Hillary offers, $15,000.00 per vote, you must offer $18,000.00!

But you must make contributions to change these peoples minds.

You must make deals to get the support.

You have no choice but to raise cash and hand it out if you want to win!

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Like most everyone else, I am appalled at the superdelegate concept (as I am at the notion that Michigan and Florida could get the rules reversed at the last minute). But, given that we're stuck with it for now, won't the superdelegates be taking into account the coattail factor? Specifically, it seems like Obama is stimulating especially big Dem turnout - that's good for anyone running for re-election in the primaries, so it would seem to me that he's better for their bottom line (which is of course the most important thing, right? nevermind what's best for the party or the country).

Is that the same Janet Napolitano who was appointed to the position of United States Attorney for the District of Arizona by Bill Clinton?

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