Superdelegate Stalemate Shows No Sign of Easing

Jeanne Lemire Dahlman, a Montana superdelegate and rancher, has declared her allegiance to Senator Barack Obama. But she said voters in her state, whose primary is June 3, are thrilled by the unresolved Democratic nominating fight, which gives them a potential voice in a nominating process that has usually bypassed them.

“A part of me would like to wrap this up,” she acknowledged. “But I think Senator Clinton should continue, unless she tanks in Indiana.”

The Pennsylvania primary was supposed to help clarify the picture for the 795 Democratic superdelegates, but Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s strong victory there on Tuesday has in many ways complicated matters for them, furthering a stalemate that has deeply divided the party even as top Democrats called this week for them to make up their minds by June.

The latest New York Times survey of superdelegates — the party leaders and elected officials who essentially have the power to determine the nominee — finds that Mrs. Clinton holds a 16-person edge that slices into Mr. Obama’s overall lead in delegates. And those 478 superdelegates who have declared their allegiances show no signs of switching sides as the primary calendar proceeds toward its June 3 ending.

Donald L. Fowler is a South Carolina superdelegate who supports Mrs. Clinton. His wife, Carol, is a superdelegate too, but she supports Mr. Obama. Needless to say, they have very different views of how the party should proceed in light of Mrs. Clinton’s Pennsylvania victory.

“It’s sort of like what you would have heard at the Super Bowl at the end of the third quarter,” Mr. Fowler said. “Patriot fans are anxious and optimistic, and Giant fans are hopeful and a little bit more anxious. But the game is not over.”

The gist of this article is that we must not be satisfied with the results of Operation Chaos just yet.
There is still much work to be done.

Even after Pennsylvania, Hillary is still very much the underdog and her campaign’s continuation is still very much threatened. She is going to have to win 7 of the 9 remaining contests if she is to stay in all the way until the convention, and she is going to have to have large margins of victory.

Indiana is an open primary to all, and Republicans must turn out to Rush the Vote en masse like never before. A win of 20 points in Indiana will give her the momentum to carry most, if not all of the remaining races. She can survive losing North Carolina that same day, and Oregon later, but she must win everywhere else, and the larger her margins that more startling it will be for the Democrats, which is what we need to happen to silence their calls for her to drop out once the primaries end. We need our girl Hil to keep it going right up until the convention in late August. We need her to take her fight to the floor, and to fight to seat Florida and Michigan. We need the nomination to be in contention right until the end, and the final outcome in doubt. We need the talking heads fighting it out on cable news all summer long over who should win the nomination. We need them stalemated, angry, at each others throats.

This can be done, but only if Operation Chaos continues with great success throughout the end of the primaries, and only if everyone remains focused and keeps on voting for Hillary, and only Hillary, no matter how much she is winning. At no point should we change tactics and vote for Obama. That would spell the end of Operation Chaos, and the premature end of Hillary’s battle. It would mean no Democrat infighting over the summer.

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