on the mat & pledged delegates

[rainbow402]

Meanwhile, Mr. Obama’s campaign was left struggling to explain on Wednesday why he had once again been unable to leave his opponent on the mat, as well as his troubles gaining the backing of white working-class voters. But Obama campaign officials were able to point to at least one unyielding reality on their side: he still possesses a lead in pledged delegates that will be almost impossible for Mrs. Clinton to erase.

Hi,

#1 on the mat =?
#2 pledged delegates=? What does pledged delegates refer to?

Thank you!

[curmudgeon]

'on the mat' from wrestling, meaning to have put your opponent down

'pledged delegates' those delegates who have confirmed their support

[AntieAnnie]

Originally Posted by rainbow402

Hi,

#1 on the mat =?
#2 pledged delegates=? What does pledged delegates refer to?

Thank you!

1) "On the mat" sounds like it would come from either wrestling or, probably even better, from boxing. In the sport of boxing, the winner would want to "knock out" his opponent by hitting him, knocking him down and leaving him lying "on the mat." Yesterday, since Hillary Clinton won the election in Pennsylvania, the writer is saying that even though Barack Obama seems to be winning the overall count of "pledged delegates" (I will answer in #2), he's not winning in such a way that he's completely "knocking her out." Please let me know if that doesn't make sense...

2) Pledged Delegates - there has been a lot of discussion surrounding this because in the US system, each states has a number of delegates that vote for the presidential nominee for the democratic party. The "pledged delegates" have to vote based on the popular vote (that is the vote by the people) in each state. As an example, the state of Pennsylvania has 187 delegates for the democratic party. Of those delegates, 158 are pledged and 29 are unpledged.

From Wikipedia:
All of the 158 pledged delegates are allocated (pledged) to vote for a particular candidate at the National Convention according to the results of the Pennsylvania Presidential Primary on April 22. The 29 unpledged delegates (popularly called "superdelegates" because their vote represents the decision of a single person rather than the regular delegate's vote representing the collective decision of many voters) are free to vote for any candidate at the National Convention and are selected by the Pennsylvania Democratic Party's officials.

There is a formula that determines what number of "pledged delegates" vote for which candidate based on the percentage of the popular vote, while the "superdelegates" can vote for whoever they want.

This election is interesting because, at this point, neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama can win enough pledged candidates to ensure the nomination in the democratic party, so the superdelegates will ultimately make the decision.

[rainbow402]

Hi Mr. Curmudgeon, thank you for your help. I got it.

By the way, I once spent a lot of time on memorizing the word "curmudgeon" but fail because it is a long word. I hope to often see your name here.

See you around and have a good one.

[rainbow402]

Antie Annie,

Thanks a lot for the detailed info about my questions, especially the concept of pledged delegates.

Have a good one!

Cheers!