The way the media has been going talking about Iowa and New Hampshire, and Kerry’s wins there, you’d think he was crushing, and nobody else was even really in the picture, although there is some looking toward how Edwards will do in the round of voting coming up in the next 24 hours. But, one must remember that the vote totals in the primaries and such are not really what matters. What matters is Delegates to the convention. Some of those are allocated by primaries and caucuses. There are also superdelegates who are just prominant members of the party that can vote for whoever they want.
In terms of total numbers of delgates who are already committed, Dean is still ahead. It may not stay that way. But the situation right now is actually much closer than you would gather by looking at the reports.
Cumulative Delegate Totals
(USA Today)
114 – Howard Dean
103 – John Kerry
41 – John Edwards
31 – Wesley Clark
25 – Joseph Lieberman
That’s the current top 5. Of course, we’ll see how that changes after the voting today.