The NAACP v. Barack Obama & Al Sharpton

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is now leading his opponent Hillary Clinton in the all-important battle for delegates to the Democratic Convention in August.  But that could change if delegates in Michigan and Florida are counted.  Clinton won both states but the delegates were not supposed to count because the states moved up their primaries ahead of the Democratic Party schedule.  All the candidates agreed not to compete in those states.

In a letter to Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean last week, Bond asked that the delegates in Florida and Michigan be seated at the summer convention.  To do so would ensure that black delegates are represented from those states, Bond argues, but it might also give Senator Clinton a lead in the delegate count that could push her over to the nomination.  Failure to seat delegates in those two states would mean that "millions of voters in Michigan and Florida could ultimately have their votes completely discounted," Bond wrote.

But Sharpton disagreed.  "I firmly believe that changing the rules now, and seating delegates from Florida and Michigan at this point would not only violate the Democratic Party's rules of fairness, but also would be a grave injustice," Sharpton said in his own letter to Dean.

With neither side expected to win the full 2,025 delegates required to earn the nomination, the two campaigns are engaged in a fierce battle -- both behind the scenes and in front of the camera -- over delegate counting, superdelegates and the Florida and Michigan primaries.

Some party leaders have suggested that the problem of Michigan and Florida could be resolved through a new round of caucuses held in those states, that would essentially amount to a "do-over" that counts.  But the Clinton campaign does not fare as well in caucuses as it does in primaries, and Senator Clinton herself has dismissed caucuses as being dominated by activists instead of ordinary voters in the party. 

Barack Obama won the first caucuses in the nation, in Iowa, last month, and since that time has gone on to win in several other caucus states.