Barack Obama Picks Up 10 Superdelegates to Tie Hillary Clinton; Is Now 164.5 Delegates Shy of Nomination

Barack Obama has picked up the endorsements of 10 superdelegates, giving him a virtual tie with Hillary Clinton in that class of delegate to the Democratic National Convention. The Associated Press reported on Friday that Obama had picked up nine superdelegates to two new pledges for Hillary Clinton. On Saturday, another superdelegate publicly endorsed Obama.

Superdelegates are those delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Denver who earned the right to attend the Convention and vote for the party's Presidential and Vice Presidential nominees based on their political position, not on having been chosen by voters or by caucus-goers. Barack Obama is now only 1/2 shy in the total of superdelegates who have expressed support for one candidate or another: 272 have declared their allegiance to Obama while 272.5 have come out for Hillary Clinton.

One of Barack Obama's 10 new superdelegates was U.S. Representative Donald Payne of New Jersey, an African American who had been an announced supporter of Hillary Clinton before changing his allegiance. Clinton once had a commanding lead among pledged superdelegates, but that lead has eroded steadily since she was swamped by Obama on Super Tuesday.

Vernon Watkins of California, who will attend the Democratic National Convention because of his position as a member of the Democratic National Committee, was one of the 10 superdelegates to pledge to Obama. On announcing his decision, he said, "The election is over, everybody knows that. Obama has won."

Barack Obama now has 1,860.5 delegates, which is just 164.5 delegates shy of the 2,025 needed to win the nomination. Political operatives for Hillary Clinton, who trails Obama with 1,698 delegates, have recently began to insist that the true threshold for nomination is 2,208, as the lesser figure leaves out Florida and Michigan. Those two states were stripped of their delegates for defying the Democratic National Committee and scheduling their primaries earlier than was permissible under the DNC's rules.