Posted by Jed Lewison on Sun May 11, 2008 at 12:24 AM Pacific

The Obama Nomination Countdown, Mother's Day Edition

Well, DCW has gone ahead and given all you mothers out there a Mother's Day gift -- Obama is now the superdelegate leader by their count.

As for the countdown, based on my projection that Clinton and Obama will split the remaining 50 add-on delegates, and that Clinton will win a nine delegate edge in the remaining contests, then Obama only needs 24 more delegates to lock up the magic number by the time last add-on delegate is selected. (That would be on June 21.)

Of course, given that Obama has picked up 26 superdelegate endorsements in the last week alone, 24 should be a piece of cake, and he'll actually hit the 2,024.5 magic number sooner -- ideally right after the Oregon primary on May 20th. (Note that it doesn't really matter how many superdelegates Clinton gains or loses -- Obama is in a race against the finish line, not Clinton.)

p.s.: Happy Mother's Day to everybody who qualifies (especially including my own mom, and both my grandmas)!