Texas Two-Step Leaving Dems Flat-Footed

The Clinton campaign may go to court. The Obama campaign wants to take its delegates and get out of town before sundown. The Texas Two-Step is overheating an already fired up Democratic presidential contest.

The Newsblog mentioned this on Wednesday but there is a very good chance that winning the Texas primary might not mean that Sen. Hillary Clinton gets to take away the most delegates. That because after the primary -- which she won 51-47 percent -- come the caucuses and it looks like Sen. Barack Obama may win those.

Here's where the delegate count gets funky. NPR's Wade Goodwyn and Robert Siegel report that Clinton's primary win means she snapped up 65 delegates to Obama's 61. Not a big difference, but a difference nonetheless. But if the numbers in the caucus vote hold up, then Obama will win 37 more pledged delegates to Clinton's 30. So Obama would have 98 delegates and Clinton 95 and he would leave Texas with three more delegates that Clinton

But wait, there's more. It might not all get sorted out until summer ...

"The end result of the Texas caucuses was that attendees picked delegates. These delegates will then go on to attend a county convention in late March to caucus. Then, the delegates from the county convention must go to the state convention and hold another caucus. The whole Texas process will not be wrapped up until June."

The Clinton camp is none too happy about this development and is threatening to take legal action because it said it won the state. The Obama campaign is trying to retroactively claim victory in a place which many news organizations had already reported that Clinton won.

Somewhere John McCain is smiling.

Original here