Superdelegates? Maybe Not

Hmm, something may be going on.
Two different bloggers at Daily Kos caught two different Democratic leaders saying...well, it's hard to judge just what Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was saying in Las Vegas. He was mostly monosyllabic. Curt, even. You decide.

Question: Do you still think the Democratic race can be resolved before the convention?

Reid: Easy.
Q: How is that?

Reid: It will be done.
Q: It just will?
Reid: Yep.
Q: Magically?

Reid: No, it will be done. I had a conversation with Governor Dean (Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean) today. Things are being done.

That's all the Nevada Democrat would say about it.

But Maria Cantwell was pretty clear in an interview at The Columbian. It'll be over in June and it won't be superdelegates who decide. And she doesn't seem above switching sides.

U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, one of Washington’s 17 Democratic superdelegates, isn’t ready to shift her allegiance from Sen. Hillary Clinton to Sen. Barack Obama — yet.

But in an interview with The Columbian’s editorial board Monday, she said the candidate with the most pledged delegates at the end of the primary season in late June will have the strongest claim to the party’s presidential nomination.

“I definitely don’t want the superdelegates to be the deciding factor,” she said.

The Democratic party should come together around the candidate with the most delegates, the most states and the largest popular vote, Cantwell said. The pledged delegate count will be the most important factor, she said, because that is the basis of the nominating process.

Obama leads Clinton in pledged delegates, in the popular vote and in the number of state primaries and caucuses won.

Most political observers say the party’s rules of proportionality mean Clinton has virtually no chance of overtaking Obama in the pledged delegate count in the 10 primaries that remain.

Clinton argues that she has won more of the big industrial states that Democrats must take to win in November and has momentum on her side.

Cantwell and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., both endorsed Clinton several months ago.

Cantwell said she wouldn’t object to a primary contest that went into the summer if it focused on the issues facing the nation, but added, “We wouldn’t want to tear apart the party.”

“I think it’s important that we let it play out in June,” she said. At that point, she said, “I’d be urging my party to make a decision.”