Posted by Jed Lewison on Sat May 31, 2008 at 3:02 PM Pacific

The mute button

Chris Matthews finally convinced me to mute the box. He said something along the lines of: "Fairly or not, early in the process, after he won 10 or 11 straight contests, Barack Obama was deemed the front-runner."

  1. Early on? Um...after that streak, 70% of the delegates to the DNC had been selected. He didn't become the dominant, widely accepted front-runner until well more than half the people had voted.
  2. I seem to recall that Hillary Clinton was considered "inevitable" not just by the press, but by her own campaign. In fact, she entered January with a lead of about 100 superdelegates on Obama.

Chuck Todd on the other hand is a good reason to unmute the box. He's now saying Michigan is closing in on the 69-59 approach advocated by Sen. Levin, and that the Obama will get the two add-on superdelegates. The delegation would be seated at half-strength.

Update: Chuck says that once the deal is done, Obama will need just another 15 or 20 superdelegates after the voting is done on Tuesday -- assuming that he doesn't get another endorsement between now and then. Remember, both Russert and Ambinder reported that he has three dozen supers in the bank, so assuming that Chuck Todd's source is correct, Barack will have enough delegates to secure the nomination Tuesday night in Minneapolis.

The mute button

Chris Matthews finally convinced me to mute the box. He said something along the lines of: "Fairly or not, early in the process, after he won 10 or 11 straight contests, Barack Obama was deemed the front-runner."

  1. Early on? Um...after that streak, 70% of the delegates to the DNC had been selected. He didn't become the dominant, widely accepted front-runner until well more than half the people had voted.
  2. I seem to recall that Hillary Clinton was considered "inevitable" not just by the press, but by her own campaign. In fact, she entered January with a lead of about 100 superdelegates on Obama.

Chuck Todd on the other hand is a good reason to unmute the box. He's now saying Michigan is closing in on the 69-59 approach advocated by Sen. Levin, and that the Obama will get the two add-on superdelegates. The delegation would be seated at half-strength.

Update: Chuck says that once the deal is done, Obama will need just another 15 or 20 superdelegates after the voting is done on Tuesday -- assuming that he doesn't get another endorsement between now and then. Remember, both Russert and Ambinder reported that he has three dozen supers in the bank, so assuming that Chuck Todd's source is correct, Barack will have enough delegates to secure the nomination Tuesday night in Minneapolis.

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