Winning Super-Delegates For Dummies

Ever wondered how Obama and Clinton are going about winning the support of the super-delegates who may just turn out to be key to the selection of this year's Dem Prez candidate?

You'll probably not be surprised, but you may be sorry you asked. Here's the deal, from the Boston Globe's Political Intelligence blog:

Many of the superdelegates who could well decide the Democratic presidential nominee have already been plied with campaign contributions by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, a new study shows.

"While it would be unseemly for the candidates to hand out thousands of dollars to primary voters, or to the delegates pledged to represent the will of those voters, elected officials serving as superdelegates have received about $890,000 from Obama and Clinton in the form of campaign contributions over the last three years," the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics reported today.

About half the 800 superdelegates -- elected officials, party leaders, and others -- have committed to either Clinton or Obama, though they can change their minds until the convention.

The study finds Clinton way behind in this smarmy game, having made just $195,000 in contributions to supers, compared to $694,000 from Obama -- who started doing out contributions way back in 2005! Are we to surmise that Obama saw a close count three years ago?

Obama now has 81 super-delegates who have stated commitment to him. Of those 81, 34 have received donations totaling $228,000, or an average of $6,700 each. Clinton has 109 supers, and has given a total of $95,000 cash to just 13 of them, averaging $7,300 each.

Gotta hand it to the Dems -- they've always been particularly good at taking care of their own.

I think I'll go take a long, hot shower now ....

hat-tip: Jim