Barack's Payoffs

They are the protectors of the best interests of their party, but super delegates do have a conflict of interest - giving their support to the highest bidder. That's right, the democratic nomination gets decided just like legislation in Congress. First, let's go back to February and this from the Boston Globe:

"While it would be unseemly for the candidates to hand out thousands of dollars to primary voters, or to the delegates pledged to represent the will of those voters, elected officials serving as superdelegates have received about $890,000 from Obama and Clinton in the form of campaign contributions over the last three years," the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics reported today.

Only $195,000 of that money was paid out by Hillary, and she got little in return for it. Barack's paid much more money into the 'politics of old' bribery system and gotten a much better return on investment:

Obama's political action committee has doled out more than $694,000 to superdelegates since 2005, the study found, and of the 81 who had announced their support for Obama, 34 had received donations totaling $228,000.

Ed Lasky explains in the American Thinker that the leverage goes further than cash. Barack, he explains, has created an electoral goldmine that will only be shared with super delegates who play ball:

The Obama campaign has compiled a giant database of supporters that can be tapped by superdelegates who need help -- and of course money -- in their own future campaigns. The Senator has developed the campaign equivalent of a gold mine that has many years of production ahead.

Donors who give less than $200 don't have their names included on campaign filings with the FEC according to election law. These small donors are Barack's bread and butter, meaning he has a huge list of names that no one else has access to:

The Mybarackobama site is the first social network site devoted to a political campaign. Mybarackobama.com capitalizes on "viral growth": by inviting friends to join you in supporting Barack Obama. Powered by this simple but effective mechanism, the Obama campaign's list of contacts, supporters and donors has grown at an exponential rate with zero incremental costs of "acquiring" them. Why buy mailing lists?

This leverage that Obama has over super delegates who are office holders is not to be underestimated, Lasky argues, in considering the likelihood that Hillary could snatch the nomination from Barack.