The State of the Dem Race

I have three stories that give us an idea of where the Dem race stands today. First, the delegate totals:

• NBC: Obama 1,078, Clinton 969
• CBS: Obama 1,242, Clinton 1,175
• ABC: Obama 1,232, Clinton 1,205
• CNN: Obama 1,215, Clinton 1,190
• AP: Obama 1,223, Clinton 1,198

All totals show Obama in the lead, but why doesn't anyone know the actual numbers? Doesn't the DNC have these somewhere?

Secondly, signs of desperation in the Clinton camp:

The Associated Press reports that "top Democrats, including some inside Hillary Clinton's campaign, say many party leaders -- the so-called superdelegates -- won't hesitate to ditch the former New York senator for Barack Obama if her political problems persist. Their loyalty to the first couple is built on shaky ground."
"The fear inside the Clinton camp is that Obama will win Hawaii and Wisconsin next week and head into the March 4 contests for Ohio and Texas with a 10-race winning streak. Her poll numbers will drop in Texas and Ohio, Clinton aides fear, and party leaders will start hankering for an end to the fight."

Possible last ditch strategy: "Two senior Clinton advisers, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the race candidly, said the campaign feels the New York senator needs to quickly change the dynamic by forcing Obama into a poor debate performance, going negative or encouraging the media to attack Obama. They're grasping at straws, but the advisers said they can't see any other way that her campaign will be sustainable after losing 10 in a row."

Thirdly, from the "Nyah, nyah, nyah, you can't catch me!" file, Obama's campaign manager says Hillary can't catch up (from The Politico):

As we wrote last night, Obama has begun to make his own inevitablity case, and David Plouffe made it explicit on a conference call this morning, telling reporters that it's now "next to impossible" for Clinton to surpass what he says is a 136-person lead among pledged delegates.

"The only way she could do it is by winning most of the rest of the contests by 25 to 30 points," he said. "Even the most creative math really does not get her, ever, back to even in terms of pledged delegates."

"This is not about votes -- it's about delegates," Plouffe said.

The other half of this case, of course, is that superdelegates will and/or should follow the pledged delegates.

Hillary tried to present herself as inevitable and that didn't work out so well. Obama may have a better case since so many of the primaries are over and there are not a lot of races left to be decided.