We just finished up our morning editorial meeting. And in thinking through our reporting — post-Super Tuesday — the big story to me really seems to be the fact that the conventional nomination process may well not generate a winner. That could certainly end up happening. But proportional allocation of delegates is going to make it difficult for one side or another to put his or her opponent away. And the margin of overall delegate ‘victory’ stands a good chance of being smaller than the number of uncommitted super delegates. That would mean a de facto old-style nomination process. With primary voters unable to settle it, it goes to Democratic officeholders, which is by and large who the super delegates are. So that’s what I’m looking at. Who has super delegate endorsements to roll out this morning? Who do elected Democrats want to run with?
In the swirl of Super Tuesday, the Bush Administration launched its latest defense of waterboarding: after years of concealing, obscuring and denying it, the Administration declared it has nothing to hide.
Late Update: The White House admits this was a conscious strategy.
The latest spin from Clinton’s Mark Penn: Obama is the establishment candidate. Which I guess means that Hillary’s the insurgent.
You’ll remember in yesterday’s episode of TPMtv we noted the vast disparity between Zogby’s and SurveyUSA’s final poll of California and said that one of the two organizations was going to be seriously embarrassed. Well, in the clear light of day, I’d say we have a winner.
Actual Results: Clinton 52%, Obama 42%
SurveyUSA: Clinton 52%, Obama 42%
Zogby Intl: Clinton 36%, Obama 49%
So SurveyUSA literally hit the bullseye, getting the exact percentage, while Zogby was off by a net total of 23 points.
Now, it’s not all crow for Zogby. In Missouri, SurveyUSA had Clinton over Obama by 11 points while Zogby had Obama up by 3. The final result was Obama by 1 point.
Still, California was the big prize and the one with the eye-popping disparity. And SurveyUSA left Zogby in the dust.
TPM Election Central reports that Hillary loaned $5 million to her own campaign late last month.
Those super delegates may well end up deciding the Democratic nominee. In today’s episode of TPMtv, we tell you who they are, who chooses them and who they’re likely to support.
Over at TPMCafe, Micah Sifry of techPresident explores: Obama, the Internet and the Decline of Big Money and Big Media.
Lots of readers have written in asking about the delegate count between Obama and Hillary. The process of delegate selection and allocation is byzantine at best, in both parties, so there’s no one definitive count of how many delegates each candidate can claim at this point in the primary season. (That alone should be a red flag raising doubts about how presidential nominees are selected, but we can save that for another day.)
Eric Kleefeld has compiled the estimates put together by the various news networks of how many delegates each candidate has won on the Democratic side. The estimates vary widely, depending on the methodology used. Looking through them, the only hard conclusion you can draw is that the race remains close with neither candidate a lock to secure the nomination. But for you numbers junkies, it’s worth a look.
The White House insists: the Senate must confirm torture memo author as Assistant Attorney General.
Late Update: So many Bush nomination battles. This post originally said “Deputy Attorney General,” but the nominee in question, Stephen Bradbury, is up for an Assistant AG position.
Barack Obama has raised over $4 million since the polls closed last night.