Sleepless in Seattle, for Delegates

SEATTLE, Wash. Feb. 8, 2008— -- In a packed Pier 30 at the Port of Washington in Seattle Thursday evening, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., made her case to supporters that she's more qualified than her opponent in the presidential nomination race, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., suggesting that his lofty rhetoric about hope and unity is empty and meaningless.

"I am hoping to unify the country," Clinton said, "but to unify it to do the work of the country. Not to unify it just for the sake of saying we are unified. In the meantime more and more people lose health care. More and more kids can't afford college. We need to be unified with a common purpose."

Clinton also seemed to be saying that her opponent's desire for change was misleading Americans about how difficult such change would be.

"What is it we want to see in our country again, what kind of feeling and hope and dreams and aspiration — and reality and practicality, because they go hand in hand?" Clinton asked. "We don't want people just thinking we can do something, we have to be prepared …we have to be able to take the steps."

Clinton and Obama both flew to this Pacific Northwest state Thursday in preparation for Saturday's caucuses. Both campaigns had assumed that by now one of the candidates would have taken the lead, but instead the the two fought to a draw in the 22 Democratic contests on Super Tuesday, Feb. 5.

There are 78 delegates up for grabs at the Washington state caucuses, along with 19 superdelegates. All told, about 161 Democratic delegates are at stake Saturday in Washington , Louisiana, Nebraska and the Virgin Islands.

Washington's two Democratic Senators, Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, have endorsed Clinton — endorsements that mean all the more because the two are also superdelegates. Clinton made sure to send them a strong shout-out Thursday night. Superdelegates can change their votes any time they want, for whatever reason they want.

Another superdelegate here, Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire, endorsed Obama on Friday.

There are more than 800 superdelegates — party leaders and elected officials — who aren't elected by voters but nonetheless make up about 20 percent of the vote at the Democratic convention.

With the elected delegates so far splitting down the middle, the superdelegates have taken on added importance, with both campaigns waging intense behind-the-scenes campaigns for their support. Even Chelsea Clinton, the senator's daughter, is said to be personally lobbying superdelegates.

Superdelegates were created after the insurgent outsider campaigns of then-Sen. George McGovern, D-S.D., and former Gov. Jimmy Carter of Georgia secured the Democratic party nominations in 1972 and 1976, respectively. The idea was to return some power to party officials. Political scientist Rhodes Cook has said superdelegates were created as a "firewall to blunt any party outsider that built up a head of steam in the primaries."

With her vast institutional advantages, Clinton took a lead in superdelegates long ago. This week, however, Obama said, "if this contest comes down to superdelegates, we are going to be able to say we have more pledged delegates, which means the Democratic voters have spoken. Those superdelegates, those party insiders would have to think long and hard how they would approach the nomination.

"The argument we would be making to superdelegates is, if we come into the convention with more pledged delegates then I think we can make a very strong argument that our constituencies have spoken, and I think that's going to be pretty important when it comes to the general election," Obama said.

Obama did not say how that would impact the superdelegates supporting his campaign who hail from states Clinton won — such as, in Massachusetts, Sens. Ted Kennedy and John Kerry, and Gov. Deval Patrick. Every delegate, of course, is being watched and contested.

In New Mexico, which held its contest Tuesday, representatives of the two campaigns were overseeing the final tallying of the ballots, with Clinton holding a 1,123-vote lead over Obama, 68,654 votes to 67,531. Roughly 17,000 provisional ballots remain to be counted.

At her Seattle rally Thursday evening, Clinton said she was happy she'd won the youth vote in Massachusetts and California. "Young people like all of us realize that we need to have a president who is ready on day one, not only a president with the ideas and the know-how to translate all these incredible policies that you care so much about but we also need a commander in chief, we need a hands-on manager."

Of course Obama has won the youth vote in most states to date. Presumably Clinton was talking to young people who have not yet voted, not just extolling the wisdom of the young voters Massachusetts and California.