There are lots of metrics we use to define the contours of the race for president: the content of the candidates' speeches, the impact of those speeches, miles traveled, sizes of crowds, political donations, and of course, polls. But the most meaningful metric is the delegate count. In the race for the Democratic nomination, the first Iowan caucus goer has yet to raise her voice, but the all-important delegate totals for the Democratic nomination already are beginning to mount. The New York Times has a story up about a poll of the super delegates who will attend the Democratic National Convention in Denver next August.
The Times has conducted a survey. It reports that more than a third of these 850 delegates are undecided, but among the decided, a trend toward Hillary Clinton is apparent.
The current findings among the 588 delegates The Times contacted are these:
Undecided 291
Clinton 159
Obama 59
Edwards 29
Richardson 25
Dodd 11
Biden 8
Kucinich 2
Gore 1
Various trends in the data, according to the paper, show that women are more likely to support Hillary than men are. A caveat: The article suggests that before the Iowa caucuses in January 2004, a survey of the super delegates showed them trending toward Dean.