Obama Winning Delegate Race With California Still To Come

With California yet to report, NBC News has put the delegate count from Super Tuesday tentatively in favor of Sen. Barack Obama: 841 to 837.

The totals, the network notes, could swing in either Obama or Sen. Clinton's favor by a margin of ten. But, with early results trickling in, Clinton appeared to be on the cusp of a big victory in the Sunshine State.

Throughout Tuesday night, the Obama campaign sent out memos to reporters offering takes on the Senator's slim but significant delegate edge. An hour before NBC's report, Bill Burton, Obama's press secretary, said his campaign was clinging to a 677 to 634 lead. Burton's total did not include the 370 delegates that California carries with it.

The Clinton campaign, meanwhile, cited strong showings in states where Obama had big-name endorsements (Massachusetts and Arizona most prominently) as evidence that she had withstood Obama's charge.

According to David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager, Obama's big win in Illinois (110 delegates to Clinton's 43) compared to a narrow win for Sen. Hillary Clinton in New York (142-90) produced a fifteen delegate net gain in the candidates' home state match-up. In addition, Plouffe said that Obama would emerge from the Kansas primary with 23 of the state's 32 delegates, from the Minnesota primary with 46 of that state's 72 delegates, and from Colorado with a two-thirds advantage.

"We think the delegates are very close and we may end up with an edge there," he said, before adding that it would be early in the morning before the final results were in.

Prior to Tuesday's vote, Obama held a 15-pledge-delegate lead. Clinton, however, held a large margin among superdelegates, which could be where the race is ultimately decided.