Legal Commentary

Obama Says He Will Be the Nominee Tuesday

By Jeralyn

Barack Obama said today the nomination for President is effectively his to claim on Tuesday or Wednesday. I heard him say it on CNN, here is the Wall St. Journal:

Is the long Democratic primary finally over? Barack Obama says it will be on Tuesday. When asked by reporters if the general election begins on June 3, Obama gave a one-word answer: “Yes.” When asked if he will be the nominee, he said “I hope so. I believe so.”

So, to Obama, the one plus million voters in Puerto Rico, South Dakota and Montana are irrelevant to the outcome. He perpetuates the myth that the nomination is decided solely on the basis of pledged delegates when the superdelegates can consider pledged delegates merely as one factor, also considering the popular vote totals, electability and the electoral map.

There simply is no requirement that superdelegates vote by the pledged delegate total in their districts or state. Obama may not have 2035 or 2210 (or whatever number in between it turns out to be)in pledged delegates by Tuesday. [More...]

The Michigan and Florida decision on Saturday pertains to delegates. Once they decide to seat any delegates in accordance with the January votes in the state, I think the popular vote totals have to be adjusted to award Hillary the votes she got in both states and Obama the votes he got in Florida. If she ends up on June 3 with the majority of the popular vote, there is nothing that says the pledged delegate total trumps that.

The delegates needed to win the nomination are not the majority of pledged delegates, but the majority of all the delegates.

This race isn't over until he reaches that number or Hillary says he's the winner and suspends her campaign. Until then, there is no nominee

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Full post as published by TalkLeft on May 29, 2008 (boomark / email).