With both candidates claiming victory, I had to click through several sources today to get a sense for last night’s winner on the Democrat side. Finally, I found this MSNBC report which says, “it looks like Obama, by the narrowest of margins, won last night’s delegate hunt. By our estimates, he picked up 840 to 849 delegates versus 829-838 for Clinton; the Obama camp projects winning by nine delegates (845-836). He also won more states (13 to Clinton’s eight; New Mexico is still outstanding), although she won the most populous ones (California and New York).”
Yet, Clinton maintains a slight delegate lead going in to the next round of primaries.
2025 delegates are needed to be nominated.
[UPDATE] The troubling thing about the race being this close is the fact that Democratic Party super-delegates will likely decide the nominee. Katrina vanden Heuvel of The Nation says the Democratic Party uses an antiquated and anti-democratic nominating system that includes 842 “super-delegates†– un-pledged party leaders not chosen by the voters, free to support the candidate of their choice, and who comprise more than forty percent of the delegates needed to win the nomination.
In a clear attempt to protect the party establishment, this undemocratic infrastructure was created following George McGovern’s landslide defeat in 1972. It was designed to prevent a nominee who was “out of sync with the rest of the party,†Northeastern University political scientist William Mayer told MSNBC.