Delegate Matters

The unremarked-upon part of Obama's endorsement from John Edwards is that he's likely to get Edwards' 30 or so delegates, and this wipes out the gains in Michigan and Florida that Hillary Clinton would get if and when those states are seated. She has been trying to claim that the new standard for winning the nomination is 2,210 delegates, but never adds the delegates that both candidates would get from Michigan and Florida to the total that they have. That's because if she did, given the new math from the Edwards endorsement, she'd reveal that she's in exactly the same position.

Obama is assured to capture a majority of the pledged delegates on May 20, and at the rate he's picking up superdelegates (my Congressman Henry Waxman endorsed him yesterday), he may have the nomination clinched on June 3. I think Clinton will drop out June 4 after a deal on Michigan and Florida is reached. And as Obama showed today in his blistering rebuke to Bush and McCain on diplomacy, the general election has already begun.