Superdelegate Bashein backs Clinton

Immediately after the morning meeting on the day of the ODP convention May 10, when everybody was buzzing about the Marc Dann resolution, I was fixated on two names that were printed on a handout, but hadn't actually been spoken. One was Dave Reagan (sic), and the other was W. Craig Bashein.

I sought out some info to confirm that these were, indeed, the long awaited add-on delegates, and if so, what Redfern intended by naming them. What I got was that yes, they were supers, and that the intent was that the picks be neutral.

So I wrote that up and posted it, and followed up with info that made Dave Regan seem hardly neutral, and quite likely an Obama supporter. While I was doing this, an AP reporter was actually calling Regan and getting him on the record as an Obama supporter.

The timeline is a bit fuzzy, but around the time that the AP story would have first hit the wires, I was pulled aside at the Convention, and told that my second post was right, and that my first post was the result of a misunderstanding. Instead of "neutral," the operative word was "balanced."

I took this as a signal that Bashein leaned Clinton, though I wasn't as confident of my info from the party after my morning experience, so I posted it with caveats.

Then, Edwards endorsed Obama. I figured that if Bashein had been remaining uncommitted (unlike Regan), it may have been because of the fact that he had been a big Edwards supporter. Perhaps the 'balance' meant that Bashein was considered an Edwards delegate. But no, no word on Bashein after the endorsement.

Today, it turns out that the choices were, in fact, balanced. Bashein has committed to Clinton. So it seems like the whole uncommitted bit was just strategy and meant to play into the post KY/Oregon storyline. We'll see how that works out for them.