John Kerry endorsed Barack Obama this afternoon in South Carolina. This is great news for Barack. It could help him regain some momentum lost from Hillary Clinton’s win in New Hampshire. It’s key not only because John Kerry is name-brand, he’s a super delegate. Unlike delegates whose votes are determined by we the people with the results of primaries and caucuses, super delegates are free to give their vote to whoever they see fit. They are used as a ‘check valve’ to make sure the candidate that gets the Democratic nomination isn’t way off the map.

Some don’t like the idea of super delegates, they think it takes away the power of our votes, but I totally get it. When I was doing the Whudat Awards, Your votes determined the winners, but Whudat votes (at the time Keshawnta and I think Tricia were involved) counted 5X as much as to insure the winners really spoke for the site. Not enough to change a landslide or nudge a loser to the top, but in close categories it did make a difference a few times. Which made it that much easier to stamp it the winner.

Same idea with the super delegates, they tend to be political officials, so again, they can feel good about supporting the eventual nominee at the Democratic convention.

There are 792 super delegates. The first candidate to get 2025 delegates wins the nomination.

As of New Hampshire, here’s how the delegate count stands.

Hillary is winning, because she has more super delegates, but we’ve got a long way to go.

Each state has a different amount of delegates, you can see the number in your state here.

Even if it’s for Hillary or Edwards, vote when primary time comes to your state.

I’m looking at “Tsunami Tuesday” February 5th, around 6 - 6:30.. yeah, that sounds right.