Why Clinton Should be Winning

Barack Obama is beating Hillary Clinton in the delegate count only because of the eccentricities of the Democratic Primary system, argues Sean Wilentz on Salon. Like it or not, the general election will be a winner-take-all affair, and if the primaries were conducted the same way, Clinton would lead Obama 1,430 delegates to 1,257, with her total jumping to 1,743 if Florida and Michigan were counted.

If she wins half the remaining primaries, Wilentz calculates, she'd have enough delegates to get the nomination without a single superdelegate. He also notes that while Obama’s side often rails against the anti-democratic superdelegate system, Obama can be anti-democratic himself when it suits him. In Texas and Nevada, Clinton won the popular vote, but Obama came away with more delegates under the rules, and isn’t about to relinquish them. (More Hillary Clinton stories.)