Superdelegates switching allegiance to Obama· Clinton losing support of influential party officials

[FarCenter]

Elana Schor in Washington and Dan Glaister in Austin The Guardian, Saturday February 23 2008

Hillary Clinton is starting to lose her overwhelming lead in superdelegates, the Democratic party officials whose votes she is counting on to help her close the gap with Barack Obama. He has received a steady flow of backers in recent days while building a streak of 11 straight primary victories. After once leading Obama by a 2 to 1 ratio in the superdelegate chase, Clinton now has 241 to his 181, according to the latest Associated Press tally.

Most unnerving for Clinton is the trickle of superdelegates who have defected from her corner to Obama's. The shift comes as she failed to deliver a telling blow on him in their penultimate TV debate before the Texas and Ohio primaries on March 4.

Latest polling shows them separated by two percentage points in Texas, well within the margin of error, and seven points in Ohio. The Clinton campaign had hoped the debate would halt Obama's momentum. Instead she came under fire for allegedly plagiarising part of a speech by former candidate John Edwards. When asked about the potential influence of the superdelegates during Thursday night's debate at the University of Texas in Austin, both candidates appeared to pull back from the brinkmanship that has been developing over the issue.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/23/uselections2008.barackobama

[Cha]

1. So the UKGuardian thinks she was

playing fast and loose with John Edwards' words, too! What kinda of campaign uses a former presidenttial candidates words in a closing speech where they have just accused the other candidate of using his friend's words? Who does that?