Jeffrey Berman: Obama's Delegate Mastermind (2009)
Daily Kos
Berman, Sen. Barack Obamas director of delegate selection, chimed in during a conference call with the media to make an unexpected case: Despite Clintons popular vote victory in Nevada and an authoritative Associated Press count giving Clinton the edge in the Nevada delegate count, Obama had actually won the state by the only measure that mattered.
"Obama had a majority in the district that had an odd number of delegates, so he won an extra seat," Berman told the puzzled press; the Associated Press delegate expert, on the call, promised to revise his count.
Obamas Nevada delegate victory was widely viewed at the time as a curiosity, an asterisk to Clintons win. But in February, as Obama amassed delegates despite losing big states, the shape of the race became clear: The name of the game was delegates.
It was the game Berman and a friend, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, had been playing all along. And as Clintons staff scrambled after Super Tuesday to remake her strategy to meet that reality, it began to become clear that Berman had helped build Obama a lead too big to surmount.
Berman is also an automatic delegate supporting Clinton.