politburo diktat 2.0

Media poobahs like Marc Ambinder and Jonathan Singer are just starting to pick up on the “magic number” meme. Once again, TPD was ahead of the pack.

MyDD :: Obama’s Magic Number: 283
Obama’s Magic Number: 283

by Jonathan Singer, Thu May 01, 2008 at 12:39:28 PM EST

This may be the first time that I’ve seen the race phrased this way, but Marc Ambinder puts the race in these terms following Barack Obama’s endorsement by a Texas superdelegate and news that Obama will pick up three more add-on superdelegates from Illinois on Monday:

Texas DNC Member John Patrick, vice president of the Texas AFL-CIO. That’s 12 for Obama since Pennsylvania. He needs 283 to clinch the nomination.

While technically there isn’t a whole lot of difference between adding from the bottom up rather than subtracting from the top down, rhetorically there is a difference. Talking about the magic number — the remaining number of delegates a particular candidate needs to receive in order to secure the Democratic nomination — suggests an end game in sight.