Ohio And Texas - The Nominee Can Be Decided March 4

A story out from the New York Times shows that no superdelegates are interested in a suicide mission, no matter how much loyalty they have toward one candidate or another.

Mrs. Clinton held a buck-up-the-troops conference call on Monday with donors, superdelegates and other supporters; several of them said afterward that she sounded tired and a little down, but determined about Ohio and Texas. And these donors and superdelegates said that they were not especially soothed, saying they believed she could be on a losing streak that could jeopardize her competitiveness in Ohio and Texas.

“She has to win both Ohio and Texas comfortably, or she’s out,” said one Democratic superdelegate who has endorsed Mrs. Clinton, and who spoke on condition of anonymity to share a candid assessment. “The campaign is starting to come to terms with that.” Campaign advisers, also speaking privately in order to speak plainly, confirmed this view.

Several Clinton superdelegates, whose votes could help decide the nomination, also said Monday that they were wavering in the face of Mr. Obama’s momentum after victories in Washington, Nebraska, Louisiana and Maine last weekend. Some of them said that they, like the hundreds of uncommitted superdelegates still at stake, may ultimately “go with the flow,” in the words of one, and support the candidate who appears to show the most strength in the primaries to come.

This is why absolutely no superdelegates should be included in any count.

At a recent local Democratic club event with Michael Dukakis, the question of superdelegates came up, and he said to his wife, "Kitty, am I a superdelegate? Do I get a vote?" He didn't even know. Similarly, this supposed doomsday scenario of Democratic elites thwarting the will of the voters is not knowable. The system was set up never to have to employ these rules.

But I'm very confident that this will follow the established pattern of following what's best for the party. What's best is reaching an endgame within the primary process. Every time one of these candidates has had the chance of delivering a knockout blow, the other has come back. Hillary in New Hampshire; Obama in South Carolina; Hillary in Massachusetts and New Jersey; Obama in Missouri. But we're running out of comeback opportunities. Obama is pretty likely to sweep Maryland, Virginia, D.C. and Democrats Abroad tomorrow. Next week could be the same, with Wisconsin and Hawaii. Making Ohio and Texas certainly decisive for Hillary, and potentially decisive for Obama, though that could shift to Pennsylvania on April 22, with winner take all.

Dan Abrams, chief among the media elites who are shocked that political elites could decide a Presidential nomination (because MSNBC's been so impartial), had one of these superdelegates on today, a 12 21 year-old from Wisconsin who won a statewide race to be a DNC representative from the Badger State at 17. Isn't THAT the real story? That the so-called "elite power structure" is susceptible to a hard-working college kid "crashing the gates" and becoming the change he wants to see? I don't have any worries that this kid is the second coming of a political boss sitting in a smoke-filled room. The superdelegates aren't coming into play. It's a doomsday fantasy pimped by a media elite so they can further this myth about the Democratic Party being undemocratic and spinning a yarn about angry supporters of one candidate or the other boycotting the general election. There's no reason to be taken in by it. This race will be decided at the ballot box, in perhaps as soon as three weeks.

UPDATE: If you really want to take a look at political bosses deciding elections, set your browsers to this. And this. Boss Esser of the Washington GOP clearly put the fix in for John McCain. Let's focus on facts rather than fantasy.