Someone explain this to me...

[Counciltucky]

Obama finished with the most county delegates, followed by Edwards and then Clinton was seven behind Edwards.

As a result of this, Obama won 16 national delegates, Clinton won 15, and Edwards won 14.

How did Edwards get one less national delegate than Hillary despite getting more support? From what I understand, superdelegates are not factored in until later. Can anyone (Debi) explain this to me?

[Debi]

1. My head hurts....I'll ask the guru

:P

[haroldgiowa]

2. Vote tally is mis leading

The state is also divided into districts. Clinton could have picked up an additional delegate in a district where Edwards didn't do well. Looking at the state Clinton and Edwards were pretty much tied in votes. Lets say Clinton did better then Edwards in the fifth district enough to pick up an extra delegate. In one of the other districts Edwards top her vote , but not by enough to pick up a delegate. The other three they could be seen as a virtual tie and split what delegates were available to them evenly. With this scenario Clinton would gain one more delegate. It's all a matter of where and how your delegates fall out in the state and districts.

[pstans]

3. What about the super delegates?

I am not sure what a super delegate is exactly, but are they counted in?

I know that Hillary won western Iowa, so Harold might be onto something.

[haroldgiowa]

4. It doesn't appear to have super delegates

High elected officials in the state are super delegates. Culver, Harkin, Boswell and so on and so forth. Also the state chair is a super delegate. I am guessing there are super delegates to protect us from ourselves. To put up somewhat of a road block for rouge or completely incompetent candidates. They used Carter as an example of someone they might block because of his lack of foreign relation experience. I don't agree with their choice, but I do see a problem of choosing a nominee based strictly on popularity, which is supposed to be the point.

[haroldgiowa]

5. Something else to notice

Obama got roughly 25% more votes then Clinton and Edwards but only received one more delegate then Clinton and two more then Edwards. This most likely on overloading the vote tally in the college communities.

[progressoid]

6. It appears you're trying to make sense of this system.

That's just going to give you a headache.

[haroldgiowa]

7. I understand the system.

I take it for what it is. The end results is not about delegate count. It is about organization and delivering ones message in an atmosphere that can support the candidate with limited funding to a candidate with unlimited funding.

I am disappointed that the candidates no longer have a strategy that takes them all the way to the convention.

[Counciltucky]

8. Really, it probably doesn't matter.

Like what usually happens, once there's a nominee, most everyone will go for the nominee.

[Vet31203]

9. Agreed

That is the way it is looking at the moment. Lots of friendliness, Super Tuesday won't end it, but it sure will put things in perspective... The sooner the better

Meyers for House 2008

[IA_Seth]

10. I didn't see this the first time...

But I believe it has something to do with the way they figure the delegate counts moving past the county conventions and then from the district conventions to State. The way the delegates roll up from county to district is the catch I believe.