Opinion: The Democratic superdelegate shuffle accelerates, to Barack Obama’s benefit

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Maybe Barack Obama backers just decided to sleep in longer after Tuesday night’s barnburner of a primary in Indiana.

The day’s first movement by an undeclared Democratic superdelegate was into Hillary Clinton’s camp. But Obama’s team countered with three pickups, and according to the Associated Press he will gain another.

The trio of new supporters announced by Obama’s campaign includes Democratic National Committee member Inola Henry of Los Angeles. More on her and the other two (both from North Carolina) can be gleaned here.

The fourth pickup, reported by the AP, will be especially gratifying for Obama -- Jennifer McClellan, a state lawmaker in Virginia, once had been a Clinton supporter.

A few days ago, McClellan was featured in a Washington Post story on the increasing pressure D.C.-area superdelegates were feeling to either make up their minds or change their allegiance. ‘This is the most stressful thing I’ve been through in my whole life,’ she told the paper. ‘It was never supposed to be like this.’

-- Don Frederick