By MAGGIE HABERMAN
May 31, 2008
Barack Obama may be within 15 delegates of clinching the nomination when voting ends Tuesday if party members come up with a deal today for the Michigan and Florida delegations.
The Democratic National Committee's rules panel, which will meet today to hammer out a deal, is eyeing a number of compromises. Most of the Rules and Bylaws Committee members gathered last night for a dinner at a Washington hotel in the hopes of brokering a deal before today's public meeting, sources said.
One of the possible compromises entails cutting by half the votes of the full Florida delegation - a move that would give Clinton a net of 19 delegates, an MSNBC breakdown shows.
Under the plan, the results in Michigan wouldn't count. Its delegates would be seated, but have their voting power cut in half, and they would be split evenly between the two candidates.
If Obama wins 43 of the 86 pledged delegates in the final three primaries, he would be just 15 superdelegates shy of the magic number, MSNBC found.
