It’s 5:44 ET, and Obama only needs 16 12 6 more delegates.
Also, I have to link this “statement” from Detroit Pistons general manager Joe Dumars.
Yes, Boston has won four games and Detroit only two. But it’s hard to imagine a more arbitrary and undemocratic way to determine this series’s outcome than “games won.” It is, after all, a bedrock value of the game of basketball that all points must be counted. But how can that be the case when every point beyond the winning point is ignored? There are literally dozens of layups, jumpers, free throws, and (yes, even) dunks that our opponents want to say don’t count for anything at all. We call on the NBA to do the right thing and fully count all of the baskets that were made throughout the course of this series. Once you abandon the artificial four-games-to-two framework that the media has tried to impose on the series, a very different picture emerges, with the Celtics leading by a mere 549 points to 539. Yes that’s right, the margin between the two teams is less than one percent—a tie, for all intents and purposes.
Hilarious. Via Sullivan.
Update: Just a thought, and I may be overthinking this – or it might just be plain stupid. Here’s my theory: Obama will have almost enough superdelegates by the time the polls close to clinch the nomination. Almost, but not quite. Then, after the polls close, Obama will win the nomination based on delegates he gains from the actual primaries. Then, no one can claim the superdelegates decided the race.
Update II (10 second later): Paragraphs like the one above is why I am paid to do work in education, and not to be anything close to a serious political analyst. Just so you know…
I’m patiently waiting for NBC and CNN to call it for Gore.
[/2000]Update III: CNN’s John Roberts just agreed with my scenario re: Superdelegates not taking Obama over the top and, instead, letting the other delegates do it. I now feel vindicated. Either that, or John Roberts is plagiarizing Balloon-Juice.
Update IV (8:07 ET): 5 to go.
Update V: If anyone wants to give a couple hundred bucks to the Obama presidential campaign on my behalf, I would appreciate it. One of my biggest disappointments is that I cannot donate. And by that, I mean you give the money, and think of me when you do it. I’m on a visa, and I am not about to break the law. On this anyway.
We’re down to 4 delegates now.