I guess it depends on what your definition of “pledge” is, doesn’t it? I certainly don’t envy you guys right now. You think that you can’t lose, you have the Republicans right where you want us, on the ropes with a candidate who we know can’t win and yet, you are about to have a very ugly fight that may turn off a segment of your electorate. But then again, everyone is used to the Clintons doing what they want no matter what the consequences or the rules, maybe Democrats won’t care and she’ll win the presidency anyway. Who knows? And maybe the delegates will honor their pledge and this could all be moot, but aren’t you going to be riveted to the convention coverage on TV now just to see if anyone flips?
Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign intends to go after delegates whom Barack Obama has already won in the caucuses and primaries if she needs them to win the nomination.
This strategy was confirmed to me by a high-ranking Clinton official on Monday. And I am not talking about superdelegates, those 795 party big shots who are not pledged to anybody. I am talking about getting pledged delegates to switch sides.
What? Isn’t that impossible? A pledged delegate is pledged to a particular candidate and cannot switch, right?
Wrong.
Pledged delegates are not really pledged at all, not even on the first ballot. This has been an open secret in the party for years, but it has never really mattered because there has almost always been a clear victor by the time the convention convened.
[…]
“I swear it is not happening now, but as we get closer to the convention, if it is a stalemate, everybody will be going after everybody’s delegates,” a senior Clinton official told me Monday afternoon. “All the rules will be going out the window.”
[…]
Clinton spokesman Phil Singer told me Monday he assumes the Obama campaign is going after delegates pledged to Clinton, though a senior Obama aide told me he knew of no such strategy.
She’s certainly not going quietly into that good night, huh?