There’s a behind the scenes fight going on between the Clinton and Obama campaigns over what could be a decisive set of endorsements:
A behind-the-scenes battle broke out late Tuesday over superdelegates who had secretly committed to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), with Clinton campaign officials scrambling to “freeze” them before they announced support for him.
The battle reflects the trench warfare that both campaigns expect if the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination stretches on to the Pennsylvania primary on April 22.
Democratic officials involved in the conversations said Obama was lining up a package of superdelegates — the party insiders whose votes help select the Democratic nominee — with plans to announce their support as a bloc.
Obama also plans to announce he raised more than $50 million in February, considerably more than Clinton’s $35 million.
The Obama theory was that the separate announcements would convey juggernaut-like momentum if Obama had big wins on Tuesday, and would help turn the page if he had a disappointing showing in the Texas or Ohio primaries.
But aides to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) became convinced by network exit polls and her own data that she would have a stronger-than-expected showing. So they immediately began urging Obama’s prospective superdelegates to withhold their support.
Given Obama’s seemingly insurmountable pledged delegate lead, discussed further here and here, endorsements from 50 or more superdelegates would go a long way toward blunting the momentum that Clinton is trying to claim from last night’s win. So, it’s understandable that they’re trying to delay an anouncment like this.
March 5th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
The superdelegates better think about electing the candidate with the most voter delegates, which is very cut and dry, and right now that is Obama, and Obama will continuously keep that lead as Hillary can not catch him from this point out. Therefore, without mentioning the reprecussions or reprimand of an action caused by the superdelegates stealing the primary process from Obama, it is best that if they are to be utilized, to keep the country safe and quiet and free from any civil actions, it will be best to warn them to do the right thing or suffer not having a great time of it, as their faces and names are all over the place, they won’t be safe. I would not want to be them if they made that mistake.