New Hampshire Actually a Tie?

That is what Darren Abrecht of the Kansas City Star is saying, because of the delegate system. Barack Obama is even ahead of Hillary Clinton in super delegates in the state, and those individuals can wait all the way to the convention to vote. I also want to remind everybody that Hillary was expected to mount an early lead among super delegates as the Democratic establishment candidate. This is far from over.

Read for yourself:

Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in the New Hampshire Democratic primary. But this is no more relevant to the outcome of the contest than Al Gore taking the national popular vote in the 2000 elections. The Democratic nominee will be decided on the basis of who can claim the most delegates at the national party convention, not by the popular vote. By that measure, primary elections in New Hampshire resulted in a tie between Clinton and Barack Obama.

Clinton's popular-vote margin over Obama was razor-thin - fewer than 8,000 votes, or 3%, with 96% of precincts reporting. As a result, each will come away from New Hampshire with the pledges of 9 delegates. John Edwards, finishing in a distant third place, will take the remaining 4. A look at the national scorecard finds Obama barely in the lead with 25 delegates to Clinton's 24.

There's more. The real winner in New Hampshire can't be declared until you factor in superdelegates. These are party leaders who are allowed to vote at the convention, but may make their own choices at any time, and without regard to the popular vote results. New Hampshire has 8 superdelegates; of these, 2 have declared their support for Clinton, 3 for Obama, and 3 are undeclared. When all of the declared superdelegates in the nation are tallied, Clinton roars into the lead with 183 total delegates to Obama's 78.

With 2,025 delegates needed for a win, however, both candidates are a long way from locking up the nomination.