Obama’s top strategist seems aware that the Democrats can seat the Florida and Michigan delegations under almost any calculation and Obama will still have the lead in pledged delegates. From an upcoming NPR interview:
“We are open to comprise [sic]. We are willing to go more than half way. We’re willing to work to make sure that we can achieve a compromise. And I guess the question is: is Senator Clinton’s campaign willing to do the same?”
Axelrod continues: “Well, obviously, any compromise is going to involve some give, and that means if there’s something on the table, we’re willing to consider it. That may include us yielding more delegates than perhaps we would have, simply on the basis of the rules.”
Now if you seat Florida and Michigan and Clinton does better than expected in the remaining primaries, including Puerto Rico, she may take the popular vote lead. The Clinton campaign will likely hammer that point while making its case to the superdelegates. It’s probably worth pointing out that if popular vote was the key criteria in the race from the beginning, both campaigns would have run different races.
