I found this blog to be an excellent resource for the political novice (I think my last post referred to it as well).
thinkmatter: Delegates and Superdelegates Explained
Also of interest is the Delegate Trackers for Democratsand Republicans.
In case you don’t have time to read it all, a great quote:
Why are Delegates and Superdelegates Important?
This could be the first year that a candidate’s delegate count means more than how many primaries he or she wins. This could also be the first year in nearly a half century that a party might not have a nominee until after the convention.
In order for a Democratic candidate to win the nomination, they must secure any combination of 2,025 delegates or superdelegates. A Republican candidate must secure any combination of 1,191.
Therefore delegates are extremely important in 2008 since the amount of delegates and superdelegates a candidate picks up dictates the winner. All the hype about superdelegates (since they can be persuaded to pick one candidate over another despite who their state primary picks) may not be hype after all. If Hillary wins more superdelegates and it puts her over the 2,025 edge, that’s an amazing victory. If McCain can keep up his current pace, his delegate count may soar out of the reach of his competitors.
Which is why I started the thread about delegates and am struggling to really master how the process works here in Massachusetts.