Super Tuesday Resuts (minus NM)

So Super Tuesday is done and the results (with the exception of New Mexico for the Democrats and here are the results) as reported by CNN:

McCain: 559
Romney: 265
Huckabee: 169

Clinton: 783
Obama: 709

McCain has pulled a head as a clear front runner, but the Democratic race is much closer. There is actually a bit of a misnomer about the results if you examine the contribution of Pledged and Super Delegates

Clinton - Pledged: 590
Clinton - Superdelegates: 193
Obama - Pledged: 603
Obama - Superdelegates: 106

Now if you don't know, the difference between a Pledged and Superdelegate is as follows. Pledged Delegates are what most people think of when they think of Delegates. These are actual "points" awarded to Primary Candidates that are awarded based on how they did in the primary voting. Anyone over 13% (may vary) of the vote gets a percentage of the delegates. Some states have a winner takes all system where whoever wins the primary election wins all Pledged Delegates.

Superdelegates are a special status, used mostly by the Democrats, awarded to their higher officials. That Super delegate's "point" can be assigned to any primary candidate it so chooses. They are not restricted to giving their vote to the winner of the election.

What does this mean? It means that Obama is ACTUALLY winning the election part of the primaries, but by a very small amount (13 delegates). All of Clinton's lead can be attributed to the fact that she has almost 100 more Superdelegate votes than Obama. This means that Clinton is possibly winning because she has more ties in the DNC than Obama does. While favoritism is an obvious scapegoat it is possible that these officials are still basing their vote on the issues and there isn't much to read into this. It is interesting to see that Obama is actually favored in the election and it just shows how close this race really is.

Update: As of 1AM on Feb 7th (yeah, I know I should go to bed) CNN has come out with better Super Tuesday predictions which gives McCain a larger lead and makes the Democratic even closer.

McCain: 680
Romney: 270
Huckabee: 176

Clinton: 823
Obama: 741

The Democratic Delegate breakdown is estimated as follows:

Clinton - Pledged: 630
Clinton - Superdelegates: 193
Obama - Pledged: 635
Obama - Superdelegates: 106

While the Superdelegates haven't changed the Pledged Delegates now only shows a difference of five votes. Obama has claimed Super Tuesday as a victory for this election and I would certainly agree even though he is still behind in the election.