...and by that title I mean, do we really need the role of ‘super delegate’ in our primary process or should we agree to kill it off?

If there’s one thing I come away with from this primary cycle is that ‘super delegates’ don’t seem to bring too much to the table; and what they do bring seems to extend the pain rather than relieve it. Of course maybe if they were required to actually make a decision during the process, I might feel different.

With that in mind, I sent a very oblique Email to the local party list serve and hinted that maybe, just maybe-we can do this thing without super delegates.

In any case here’s my view. Read or don’t read; but don’t just be acerbic because it not your cup of tea.

Super delegates.

I had hoped against hope when I first heard about this nut case, but then the truth rears it's ugly head one more time.

Super delegates should weigh in BEFORE Tuesday's primary in Montana and South Dakota.

The polls are showing Barack Obama currently leading in those two states; but even if he were to tie with Hillary, he would only get around 15 delegates total.  This means he needs at least 33 super delegates to put him over the top.

As a Washington State resident, and committed progressive, I have a very mixed bag of feelings about Patty Murray. But after today's comment I'm starting to sort them out a bit more.

This is the press release  Eileen Macoll endorses Hillary

Senator Patty Murray welcomed Macoll’s endorsement today. "Eileen has been a tireless advocate for the Washington State party, and I look forward to working with her to spread Hillary’s message of change in the weeks ahead."

Didn't see this anywhere else (didn't look too hard though as I am at work)

According to our good friend Marc Ambinder Obama has over 3 dozen superdelegates in his pocket that he is with-holding.

Ambinder's Story says that Obama is saving them up to prepare for the final push next week and put him over the neccessary total for the nomination (depending on the ruling on MI and FL).

I know we have all assumed Obama has it wrapped up, but any news that its getting close is more than welcome and makes this Tuesday go a little quicker.

Also a very Happy Memorial Day to all of the serviceman and their families, I know I am a day late but you should be thanked everyday!

For this diary I am relying on the numbers available at Demcon Watch who have done an amazing job at keeping track of this information. A few months ago I wrote a similar diary to this one. Basically this is an updated version. Back then there was still just under 300 Undeclared Super Delegates and this race could have gone either way. There was a lot of concern the Super Delegates might give the nomination to Clinton. Now there are just over 200 Super Delegates who have yet to endorse a candidate. The vast majority of which really have no reason not too.

Although many suspected there would be no super delegates endorsing this weekend, surprise, surprise!

I like my posts to be analytical, and not too editorial, and I certainly don't like being a scold.  There are far too many posts on Senator Clinton's grotesque remarks already - that's for sure.

Instead, I want to point something else out that, today - the day that Hillary Clinton didn't just cross over the line but rather eviscerated it - that is now required.

Follow me and I'll explain...

Hillary Clinton Finally Admits - Her Only Chance of Winning is if something major happens to Barack Obama, whether that be by some political action, a health issue or somebody kills him.  

Hillary's camp is saying that's not what she meant and that the recent events involving Ted Kennedy just brought back memories -- wrong Hillary.  You said the same thing a few months ago.

Over the past several weeks an assortment of respected colleagues, knowledgable insiders, old friends and family members have individually expressed their fear that the Clinton Campaign is on course to blow up the party by taking the nomination fight to the convention.

Time and again I've made the case that Hillary would not take the fight to Denver.  That she would fold up her campaign tents in the days following the MT and SD primaries on June 3.  That the superdelegates would move, slowly at first and then with a great incoming tide, to put Barack Obama over the (moveable) finish line by June 15th at the very latest.

Please follow me over the side to hear why I still think this is the most likely (95%) scenario.

Does anybody have any theories about why the superdelegate trickle to Obama has slowed? Wasn't the fact that he had a majority of pledged delegates supposed to free up the supers to jump aboard? Is the silence from them a worrisome indicator? Is it the size of the Kentucky win by Clinton and the fact that it was the only story for much of the evening on Tuesday? Or are they just being polite until the May 31st meeting?

And one last question....doesn't it concern you as Americans that your politics is driven by the least educated and the least able to to see things from other points of view? That 1 in 4 voters said race was issue and that it might have slowed Obama from getting the nomination? Aren't you sick and tired of the culture being driven by the very people that represent the darkest part of that culture? Why doesn't Hillary say I don't want the votes of racists instead welcoming them and indicating that they are the reason she is electable?

As long as Hillary Rodham Clinton has ANY possible path to the nomination, she has demonstrated through words and actions that she's ready to make the entire Democratic Party co-pilot on her kamikaze mission.

The evening of the North Carolina and Indiana primaries, all the pundits - except one on MSNBC got it WRONG (Keith included).  That was the evening most analysts began the narrative that Obama had won and there was nothing Clinton could do to swing the nomination in her direction.  Of course, most logical people had come to the same conclusion several months earlier.  That lone voice in the wilderness was Rachel Maddow.  She alone hit the nail firmly on the head.  She explained to everyone's disbelief that even with the nomination basically sewn up Hillary Clinton would not leave the stage gracefully, but rather would ride this thing out to the end and do everything possible to stand in the way of Obama getting her party's nomination, regardless of the consequences to her legacy or the future of the Democratic Party.

Team Clinton has moved the goal posts so many times that they are no longer on the original playing field.

I realize this will be quite short and I apologize for that.

I have noticed that there don't seem to be any super delegate declarations today. It would have made sense that following yesterday's primaries, we would have seen a pretty consistent drumbeat of declarations.

Last week, I wrote a diary thanking Senator Clinton for her hard fought battle, noting that I understood that there were many factors that worked against her in the contest.  I also noted that the Democratic Party could be proud of her campaign but that, unfortunately, there were too many factors that mitigated against her being the standard bearer.

My diary was intended to provide a mechanism for Senator Clinton to be graceful, concede victory for Senator Obama in the contest without need to admit defeat.  Now I have had a change of heart.

after ideating, as they say, I have a solution on the other side

Barack Obama needs approximately 15 super delegates to win the Democratic nomination. With today's results in Kentucky and Oregon Barack Obama has 1961 total delegates according to DemConWatch. There are still 17 more delegates outstanding from Oregon according to CNN's count. Obama will probably get 10 of those when all the counting is done. He then needs another 54 delegates to reach 2025 delegates required to become the nominee.

Hillary Clinton won Kentucky (which is 91% white) and West Virginia (95% white), predominantly white states. She proudly boasts that she is the electable one because she can carry the white hard-working, lower educated demographic. She just had to play the "redneck" card.

"Loyalty" to Hillary Clinton is no longer an excuse to continue this madness.  How about loyalty to the Democratic Party?  After tonight, Obama will have won the majority of pledged delegates in the DNC sanctioned elections.  By any reasonable calculation, he is also going to win the majority of pledged delegates in all of the states (including FL & MI).  He has also amassed the support of enough super delegates to make it clear to any reasonable person that he is going to be the Democratic nominee this November.

What is the point of continuing to support Hillary Clinton in order to give her a platform for arguing that Obama's victory is somehow illegitimate or based on sexism?  What purpose does that serve?

I can't speak for others, but I will support any reasonably progressive primary challenger to a Clinton super delegate that continues to support her after tonight (I'm looking at you Brad Sherman).