A question: Are superdelegate announcements a sign of strength or weakness? The obvious answer is strength. But as I look over the pattern of announcements from the last week, culminating with two for Hillary today, I kind of wonder.
After all, if memory serves, Obama also unfurled two supers during the last week--one on Friday and one on Monday. Now what was going on Friday and Monday? Obviously, it was the high-point of the Reverend Wright hysteria. And what was going today? Lots of glowing media coverage for Obama, with Hillary shunted aside.
If, as I suspect, the superdelegate pickups are kept quiet until the campaigns decide to announce them, then you'd expect to see a pattern just like this. That is, the campaigns would hold their announcements for moments when they're in need of some positive coverage.
--Noam Scheiber