Obama contines to gain on delegates, while Clinton is running in place

The old adage, if you are standing still, than you must be going backwards, for time waits for no one, as song by the Rolling Stones. Yesterday in the state conventions and state committee meetings in GA, WY, & AK the Obama campaign picked up 3 Add-on superdelegates to Clinton's one. In GA the campaign's split with Obama gaining the commitment of Stephen Leeds (Add-on-GA), while Clinton picked up Verna Cleveland (Add-On GA) who is their State Party Director. In WY the Obama campaign secured W. Patrick Googles (Add-on-WY), while in AK Obama picked up former Gov. Tony Knowles (Add-On-AK) and the remaining at-large delegate bring his final total to 14 in that state. That is a net 3 for Obama moving the campaign to 274 hard count delegates OR 51 short of the 2025. Today Hawaii meets in their State Party Committee where an additional Add-On superdelegate will be selected, a state that Obama won by over 70%.

I suspect that next week will see another slow, steady progression of superdelegate endorsements will surface, but probably less than the ten needed to absolutely secure the nomination in the eyes of the national press. The reason is that many are going to wait for the DNC Rules Committee outcome on the FL's & MI's delegations. The word among everyone is that the delegations will be seated in some form of half strength, the question is the allotment. The backdrop to the entire meeting next weekend is the prospect that Obama is expected to garnish the cache of 40 pledged delegates (out of 86 possible). Clinton's last gasp strategy is to win the popular vote in the three remaining contests which all the polls state that MT & SD will fall in Obama's win column. Also expect Obama to pick up one more Add-On superdelegate next weekend from Maine, (again which Obama won the state). After that there are 34 Add-On's to be selected from 20 states through 6/21/08.

My projections have it that Obama will win 20 of those 34. Outside the Add-On's there are 169 superdelegates remaining to declare their intentions. Also there are 7 Edwards pledged delegates who still remain uncommitted to either campaigns. In conclusion you can see how close this actually is when the three remaining contests conclude June 3rd. It is there that I believe an unquestioned winner will be declared and the remaining 160 or automatic superdelegates will fold in behind Obama, saying he has earned the mantle of Democratic Presidential Candidate