Since his big night last Tuesday, Barack Obama has benefitted from a steady trickle of superdelegates, and according to Democratic Convention Watch is now only 155 delegates away from clinching the nomination as we head into West Virginia tonight, with 462 1/2 delegates outstanding. That means he only needs 33.5% of the remaining delegates. That's not counting Florida and Michigan; if you do count them, Obama is 266 delegates away from crossing the finish line, with 496 1/2 outstanding. In that case, Obama would need 53.6% of the remaining delegates. But that's also assuming that the Michigan delegation is seated as is, and that all uncommitted delegates go for Clinton, which ain't gonna happen. You can probably safely add another 45 delegates to Obama's count here, which would take his magic number in this reckoning down to 221 and reduce the percentage of delegates he would need to 44.5%.
Hillary Clinton must have at least one person on her staff who owns a calculator. Surely they know that the math isn't going to work for them, so there's no rational reason for her to remain in the race unless she's either (1) decided that it would benefit Obama for her to stay in until 5/20, because it would look bad for the nominee to lose uncontested races in West Virginia and Kentucky, which is highly unlikely, or (2) is still counting on something to happen or surface between now and the convention rendering Obama completely unelectable, which is also unlikely and would make Hillary Clinton one of the most delusional people on the face of the earth, if she actually thinks there's a chance of this happening; or (3) she thinks that she can get Florida and Michigan seated on her terms without any compromise, before the nomination has been settled, and that she can take enough pledged delegates and superdelegates to make up the difference between her and Obama. Even this last scenario, while probably the most realistic, is a longshot; she would need to take nearly 2/3 of the remaining delegates, and that's just not going to happen, given how the remaining primaries look to play out and how the superdelegates have broken for Obama since last Tuesday. Of course, (4) Hillary might be staying in the race to give herself added bargaining power in order to negotiate an exit that will help her retire her campaign debt and possibly secure herself the VP nomination and/or a key role at the convention, but every day she stays in the race she actually loses leverage, not gains it.
The only other reason Hillary might be staying in the race is to maximize the political damage to Barack Obama in order to make it more likely that he will lose in November, which would theoretically set her up to run in 2012. The problem with that line of thinking is that if Obama does lose, everone will blame her, and she'll be pretty much unelectable running for re-election to the Senate, much less taking another shot at the presidency. And there's no evidence that Obama is paying a political price with her remaining in the race at this point. In fact, Obama has his biggest lead in weeks according to the Gallup tracking poll, and the ABC News/Washington Post poll shows Obama with a 7-point lead as well.
Why she's choosing to remain in this race is anybody's guess. But at this point, it really doesn't even seem to matter much anymore. Hillary is no longer relevant to this presidential election, and she and her supporters only embarrass themselves more with each passing day that they carry on the charade that she's viable.
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