Democratic Delegate Math Updated

Democratic Delegate Math Updated

21 May 2008 · No Comments

Last week, I posted my back-of-the-envelope arithmetic to double-check the sanity of Hillary’s delegate math.

In case anyone’s interested, here is an update to that reckoning:

Obama’s Lead

Delegates

Popular Vote

Tally as of 21 May

181

559,336

(RCP assumptions in caucus states)

…if FL & MI included

66

-63,745

… ” “, MI unaffiliated to Obama

121

174,423

Puerto Rico Forecast

-8

-156,000

(RedState PV projections, extrapolated to delegate count)

Montana Forecast

1

14,000

South Dakota Forecast

2

35,000

Total Forecasted

-5

-107,000

Projected @ 3 June

176

452,336

…if FL & MI included

61

-170,745

… ” “, MI unaffiliated to Obama

116

67,423

Unpledged Delegates

221

(Undeclared supers & Edwards delegates)

…if FL & MI Included

289

% Unpledged Delegates Needed by Hillary to Win

90%

…if FL & MI Included

61%

…, MI unaffiliated to Obama

70%

Last week, the “% unpledged Hillary needs to win” figures were 80%, 56%, and 64%.

If Hillary could pull off an bigger rout of Obama than is expected — say by getting a margin of victory beyond 225,000 — she would have a better claim to winning the popular vote.

However, it looks like she hasn’t gained much traction with that argument among the superdelegates, so far.  That bodes ill for her candidacy, since in the end, it’s the delegate count that matters.

Tags: 2008 Elections · Democrats · · ·