Opinion: Rep. Mahoney, uncommitted superdelegate, meets Clinton, Obama, then stays that way

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The Times’ Peter Wallsten had a revealing conversation Thursday with Rep. Tim Mahoney of Florida. He’s an uncommitted Democratic superdelegate and the fellow who won the House seat that once belonged to Republican Rep. Mark Foley. (Don’t look for any text messaging joke here.)

Mahoney’s been busy the last couple of days involved in presidential politics. And if his impressions are any indication, you better stop holding your breath for Sen. Hillary Clinton to give up her uphill return quest for the White House anytime soon.

Mahoney met with her for a half-hour at the Democratic National Committee offices on Wednesday. And he met with Sen. Barack Obama today on the Hill.

Both encounters are part of an ongoing series of meetings and phone calls between courting candidates and their staffers and uncommitted superdelegates that go on around the clock largely out of public view.

‘She wasn’t talking exit,’ Mahoney reports about Clinton. ‘She’s talking winning.’

Mahoney said little about the session between Obama and other Democratic members of Congress today. But the sum total of both gatherings was insufficient to change Mahoney’s mind about not committing to one candidate.

‘I don’t feel compelled to make any decisions before the convention,’ he said.

-- Andrew Malcolm