WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Sen. Barack Obama climbed within 200 delegates of clinching the Democratic presidential nomination based on a split decision in Tuesday's primaries.

Obama won most of the delegates at stake in the two contests, picking up at least 97 delegates in the North Carolina and Indiana primaries, according to an analysis of election returns by The Associated Press. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton won at least 86 delegates, with four still to be awarded.

Each state had two delegates outstanding. Results were delayed because both states have counties split into multiple congressional districts, and election workers were still assigning those votes to the proper districts on Wednesday.

Like other Democratic contests, North Carolina and Indiana awarded delegates proportionally, based on statewide results as well as votes in individual congressional districts.

In the overall race for the nomination, Obama led with 1,846.5 delegates, including separately chosen party and elected officials known as superdelegates. Clinton had 1,696.

That leaves Obama just 178.5 delegates shy of the 2,025 needed to secure the Democratic nomination.

There are 217 delegates at stake in the final six contests: West Virginia, Kentucky, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Montana and South Dakota. Obama, however, won't win enough of those delegates to claim the nomination because of the proportional method used by the Democrats to award them.

That leaves the nomination in the hands of about 265 superdelegates who have yet to be claimed. Superdelegates are the party and elected officials who will automatically attend the national convention and can support whomever they choose, regardless of what happens in the primaries and caucuses.

Nearly 800 superdelegates will attend the national convention. About 215 remain undecided and about 50 others will be named at state party conventions and meetings throughout the spring.

Obama argues that superdelegates should support the candidate who wins the most pledged delegates. Clinton says superdelegates should exercise independent judgment.

Obama is on pace to reach a majority of the pledged delegates won in primaries and caucuses in two weeks, when Kentucky and Oregon vote. Obama has a 163-delegate lead among pledged delegates.

Clinton leads in superdelegate endorsements, 271.5 to 259, though Obama has been chipping away at her lead since the Super Tuesday contests on Feb. 5. Obama picked up four superdelegates and Clinton added two Tuesday night and Wednesday.

The AP tracks the delegate races by calculating the number of national convention delegates won by candidates in each presidential primary or caucus, based on state and national party rules, and by interviewing unpledged delegates to obtain their preferences.

Most primaries and some caucuses are binding, meaning delegates won by the candidates are pledged to support that candidate at the national conventions this summer.

Political parties in some states, however, use multistep procedures to award national delegates. Typically, such states use local caucuses to elect delegates to state or congressional district conventions, where national delegates are selected. In these states, the AP uses the results from local caucuses to calculate the number of national delegates each candidate will win, if the candidate's level of support at the caucus doesn't change.

Comments from Examiner Readers

2:15 PM MST on Mon., Mar. 17, 2008 re: "Road to Nomination Gets Easier"

Examiner Reader said:
Now we are seeing just how stupid the super delegate thing truly is. In an effort to be "all inclusive" the democrats may allow non-elected delegates to make the final decision. Scrap the system- if Senator blowbag or Mayor windbag want to be delegates, let them run like everyone else.

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7:19 AM MST on Wed., Mar. 5, 2008 re: "Democrats Vie for Delegates"

Examiner Reader said:
know why they have what they call super delegates for,they are put in place to make sure goverment gets the person they want as president regaurdless of what the people want,they say that super delegates wait to see who most of the people of there state are voteing for and they back that person to,but thats not true kennedy endorsed obama before they even had the vote his state and hillary won the votes in his state,that to me shows what kennedy dont even wait to see what his people are saying and delegates are scam.

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6:07 PM MST on Tue., Mar. 4, 2008 re: "McCain Edges Closer to GOP Nomination"

Examiner Reader said:
well vote for mccain since his lobbying efforts cost us thousands of u s jobs by lobbying for airbus.in france. way to go john (mr sellout). should have kept him in the hanoi hilton.

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9:21 PM MST on Sat., Mar. 1, 2008 re: "Obama Wins Democrats Abroad Primary"

Mike said:
Of course they love Obama abroad. They're Socialists too!

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12:15 AM MST on Fri., Feb. 22, 2008 re: "Obama Wins Democrats Abroad Primary"

HankTheCat said:
Democrats abroad... May they STAY there.

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10:58 AM MST on Wed., Feb. 20, 2008 re: "Obama Increases Delegate Lead"

Examiner Reader said:
Hillary seems more and more phoney everyday. Can someone say sore loser.

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10:15 PM MST on Sat., Feb. 9, 2008 re: "Obama Narrows Delegate Gap With Clinton"

Examiner Reader said:
That big meanie Mr. Obama is gonna make that poor little Rodham girl cry again if he doesn't let her win sometimes. Leave the poor thing alone, Mr. Obama. She's just trying to become the most powerful girl in the free world, ya' big bully..., oh, boo-hoo-hoo!!!

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