Matt Zeitlin

Let’s say that Clinton gets the Michigan and Florida delegations seated. All this changes is that Obama’s lead in pledged delegates is lessened, but he would still have the lead. He would also have the lead in total delegates, because he’s taken the superdelegate lead. The only thing Clinton would get is the “popular vote.” But the popular isn’t an official metric of anything – the total delegate count is.  But if Clinton is pushing Florida and Michigan to be seated so that she can tell superdelegates that she’s the popular vote leader, then it doesn’t actually matter if the delegates are seated at all. The popular vote is still a unofficial metric, and so it really makes no difference if the states that give her a popular vote lead are actually seated. Clinton can no longer make a case based on delegates, no matter who gets seated, so if she wants to make the popular vote argument, she should just make it without trying to say that Obama’s election is illegitimate.