Obama: The Slow Rollout (Of Superdelegates)?

[JimGinPA]

Obama camp plays it close to vest on tactics

WASHINGTON - Fresh from a big primary election win Tuesday, Barack Obama yesterday won another victory among the undeclared superdelegates who now represent the most important remaining battleground in the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination.

-snip

In a race that requires 2,025 delegates to sew up the nomination, a net gain of three delegates isn't much. But the announcement reflects a pattern that has proved very powerful for the Obama campaign - disclosing its superdelegates in a steady, campaign-saving drip.

"It's like rationing water in California," said Chris Lehane, a San Francisco-based Democratic consultant not affiliated with a presidential campaign. "Has the Obama campaign been strategically, and smartly, rationing the flow of their superdelegates? Well, you certainly have the impression that every time they've been in a bad spot, they have been able to pull out a couple of superdelegates as a bulwark."

-snip

The Obama campaign declined to discuss superdelegate strategy, and Obama superdelegates on Capitol Hill smile enigmatically when asked if the endorsements have been scheduled for dramatic effect.

"In view of wish to prolong what I think is the inevitable, I think the campaign is setting its strategy accordingly," said Representative Paul Hodes, a New Hampshire Democrat who was among the first House lawmakers to back Obama.

But political specialists not associated with the campaign see a striking pattern. Soon after an ebullient Clinton won Pennsylvania by nearly 10 points, Obama announced that three more superdelegates had joined his camp. When the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's incendiary comments were bringing Obama down in the polls, making him look vulnerable, Obama's campaign offered a two-fer: a former Clinton superdelegate - who was also a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee - had very publicly switched his allegiance from Clinton to Obama.

And yesterday, when a politically wounded Clinton announced that she had won the superdelegate vote of North Carolina Democratic Representative Heath Shuler, within an hour, the Obama campaign revealed the Illinois senator had picked up four more superdelegates.


much more at link

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/05/08/obama_camp_plays_it_close_to_vest_on_tactics/?page=1

[Coexist]

1. I think that article is spot on.

[gristy]

2. Obama apparently not going to run up the score

At least not until the buzzer sounds

"Right now, I think the Obama campaign has a lot more incoming," but is deliberately not unveiling them all at once, Devine said. "I don't think they want to muscle Hillary Clinton out of the race," Devine added. "They have to be really concerned about how they win it. If he is perceived as having shoved her out, that could be bad."

[Spazito]

6. You captured a KEY paragraph, imo

The Obama can afford, politically speaking, to dribble out the SDs as needed, not too many to leave even the perception of trying to muscle Clinton out, just enough to make the already stark numbers even more insurmountable for the Clinton campaign, enough to call attention to the math over and over again.

[TahitiNut]

3. In basketball ...

... a "strong bench" is invaluable. ;-)

[JimGinPA]

4. Kick

:kick:

[book_worm]

5. she also lost one super who supported her from Virginia yesterday.