Obama Takes Lead in Superdelegate Tally

Dawn E. Crawford

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  Obama Takes Lead in Superdelegate Tally Hillary Clinton Will Meet With Financial Backers Next Week By JAKE TAPPER
May 9, 2008

Sen. Barack Obama moved into the lead today in the last category that Sen. Hillary Clinton had claimed to have an edge -- support among the Democratic Party's superdelegates.

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has taken the superdelegate lead over Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., in their battle for the 2008 Democratic nomination.(AP Photo)

The Illinois Democrat grabbed the superdelegate lead thanks to a switch by New Jersey Rep. Donald Payne and an endorsement from previously uncommitted Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon.

Those two votes gave Obama a 267-266 lead over Clinton. That is a huge shift since the days when Clinton boasted about a 60-plus vote lead among the party's pros back on Super Tuesday.

Clinton Fights On, Obama Focuses on McCain

While the New York Democrat is refusing to concede defeat and is hoping a victory in Tuesday's West Virginia primary will keep her dwindling hopes alive, Obama is starting to focus instead on his Republican opponent John McCain.

ABC News' senior political correspondent George Stephanopoulos reported on "Good Morning America" that Obama's team is considering using some of his campaign cash to fund ads against the Arizona senator.

Related Clinton's Still in, but Obama Envisions End WATCH: Obama Leads in Superdelegates Parsing McCain's Vice Presidential Picks

His camp is also planning to announce a 50-state registration rally this weekend, a tactic geared to a November election rather than the remaining Democratic primaries.

The rest of the Democratic Party, however, is struggling with how to end Clinton's challenge and worries that a last-ditch effort by Clinton could be damaging to Obama.

They were particularly unnerved by Clinton's comments earlier this week that appeared to be racially insensitive or racially calculated when she said, "Sen. Obama's support among working, hardworking Americans, white Americans, is weakening again."

"This is exactly the kind of talk that is going to make superdelegates nervous," Stephanopoulos said. "Most of the uncommitted superdelegates and party leaders like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are willing to forgo pressuring her to get out of the race as long as the rhetoric stays in tact."

Panetta Calls for Clinton to Concede

Former top Clinton administration aide Leon Panetta told KGO TV in San Francisco, "It's pretty clear unless there's a bolt of lightning, Barack Obama is likely to win the Democratic nomination. She's put up a good fight and put up a good race, but I think there's a time now where she needs to concede and unify the party."

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Obama Pulls Even With Clinton in Superdelegates

By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM Published: May 10, 2008

Senator Barack Obama has caught up to his opponent, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, in the count of superdelegates, one of the few mathematical areas where Mrs. Clinton still maintained an advantage in the race.

Mr. Obama picked up endorsements on Friday from three more superdelegates, the Democratic Party insiders who are granted autonomy to support whomever they wish at the convention in August. One, a New Jersey congressman, switched his allegiance away from Mrs. Clinton, allowing the Illinois senator to pull even with his rival, according to the latest New York Times count.

The Times’s tally shows each candidate with 263 superdelegates, based on telephone polls conducted with CBS News as well as public endorsements. A separate count by The Associated Press shows Mr. Obama still trailing by fewer than four votes. And a measure by ABC News shows the Illinois senator already ahead, 267 to 265.

Mrs. Clinton trails her opponent in the popular vote and the total Democratic delegate count. But this is the first time since the outset of the race that she has lost the lead in one of her few remaining trump cards.

Superdelegates represent up to a fifth of the Democratic convention delegation, and have historically supported the front-runner at the convention. More than 250 superdelegates have yet to publicly announce their decisions.

On Thursday, Mr. Obama picked up the support of Representative Donald Payne of New Jersey, who told The Star-Ledger of Newark that he was switching away from Mrs. Clinton after thinking through “one of the most difficult decisions I have made.” Peter DeFazio, an Oregon congressman, also said he would back Mr. Obama.

Ed Espinoza, a Californian who is a member of the party’s national committee, pledged his support on Friday, according to the Obama campaign.

Mr. Obama’s gains came as other senior members of his party appeared to be closing ranks around him. The Huffington Post reported that Representative <ATITLE="MORE href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/e/rahm_emanuel/index.html?inline=nyt-per" Emanuel.? Rahm about articles>Rahm Emanuel, the influential Democrat from Illinois, referred to Mr. Obama as the “presumptive nominee” at a discussion panel held by The New Yorker on Friday morning.

(A spokeswoman for Mr. Emanuel told the Politico that “all Rahm said was that Senator Obama was now the front-runner, which by and large means, because of the calendar, he is the presumptive nominee, at this point.”)

Meanwhile, the fate of another significant endorsement in the race may hang on the interpretation of a pronoun — for now, anyway.

Appearing on MSNBC this morning, John Edwards said he was “very likely” to endorse the candidate he voted for in the North Carolina primary on Tuesday. But, the anchors asked, which candidate was it?

In his demurral, Mr. Edwards may have slipped: “I just voted — I just voted for him on Tuesday,” he said. But given Mr. Edwards’s Southern accent, that pesky pronoun may have been plural, albeit in a shortened form: “I just voted for ’em on Tuesday.”

David Schuster, an MSNBC host, attempted to ferret out the truth. “So it was a him or a her that you voted for?” he asked, interrupting the former senator. Mr. Edwards then backpedaled, saying, “No, no,” and laughing.

Ariel Alexovich and Julie Bosman contributed reporting.