Super Delegates

[Tarc]

11. This is how it always works, perhaps you haven't noticed?

2008:

Obama: I will be the Democratic nominee

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In what he called a "defining moment for our nation," Sen. Barack Obama on Tuesday became the first African-American to head the ticket of a major political party.

Obama's steady stream of superdelegate endorsements, combined with the delegates he received from Tuesday's primaries, put him past the 2,118 threshold, CNN projects.

2004

Survey: Kerry has delegates for nomination

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. John Kerry has amassed enough delegates to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination, according to a CNN survey.

Kerry's sweep of Tuesday's presidential primaries in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas left him just 27 delegate votes shy of securing his party's official nod. But additional support since then from Democratic Party officials and officeholders known as superdelegates has boosted Kerry to at least the 2,162 delegate votes he needs at the Democratic National Convention this summer in Boston.

This is the "presumptive nominee" stage, when pledged delegates won + superdelegates who have publicly endorsed puts the candidate over the threshold.