One possible but less favorable scenario
Considering that Hillary Clinton's ONLY rationale for staying the race is the SDs, her campaign has been taking great pains for week now to advertise that SDs are legitimate part of the process, that there is nothing wrong with them picking the winner (or rather in her mind, overturning the winner), that they are just as legitimate and maybe smarter judges than the pledged delegates and voters and yada yada.

In other words, she set the groundwork for a SD move to kill her candidacy outside of actual votes without her being able to complain. If they are just as legitimate as elected delegates, as her campaign has claimed for months, then there is a perfectly legitimate scenario in which a move of enough SDs to Obama (enough to make her nomination ridiculously impossible) could force her out, at least in the  media zeitgeist (they are close enough to that point as it is).

So while I understand Obama would be better off with a clear electoral victory, I personally would be more than satisfied if, say, he pulled even in SDs by the time PA comes around and the media starts clearly treating this race as impossible for Clinton to win. It would be less clean but let's be honest here, this race won't be won in a clean, clear and optimal manner anyway.

And if Obama loses any of the remaining big states, that loss would be close enough in time that the perception may be negative. The last election/loss was a month ago. That has faded long enough in the minds of electors that if he cinched the nomination now, I don't think there would be a perception it goes against any kind of Clinton momentum ala Mondale.

I know it sounds like a pipe dream now but I am fairly certain that the new consensus about how the primary is hurting the party (see endorsement poll here), on how McCain has surged past both candidates and on how Obama is clearly going to be the nominee may convince a large number of superdelegates to step in.
And Hillary unwittingly gave them the rationale to do so outside of the electoral calendar you describe above.


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