What is a SUPERDELEGATE???

We all know who Superman is, most of us watch the Super Bowl -- and some of us are even guilty of being "Super-Sized" at the drive-thru...

But what is this mysterious and all-powerful "Superdelgate" that we keep hearing about?

Who are they? And where can I get one?

Well, first of all - a Superdelegate is a party activist or elected official who has a vote at the Democratic National Convention equal to a single delegate.

There are 794 of them and Senators Clinton and Obama are courting and wooing each and every one of them - because they are likely to become the deciding factor in this year's democratic nomination.

Why is that? It's because without them, neither Obama nor Clinton can clinch the nomination. Obama leads Clinton in the overall delegate count, but without the superdelegates, neither can reach that magic number of 2025.

Among the superdelegates currently, Sen. Clinton has the lead with 251 of them to obama's 221 while 322 remain uncommitted.

It's worth noting too that when you hear about them, it only refers to the Democrats because Republicans don't use Superdelegates.

Now what makes these unpledged supers so powerful is that unlike a "pledged" delegate in a primary or caucus, these Superdelegates can change their mind anytime and as often as they like between now and the convention in August.

And to make matters even more complicated, some of the Superdelegates have SUPER POWERS!!

Superdelegates like California’s Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres (who by the way hasn't taken sides yet) has the authority to name FIVE additional superdelegates.

And why do the Democrats have them? Because the party made changes in its delegate selection process after George McGovern’s failed presidential bid in 1972 – IRONICALLY intending to better represent the will of the voters in the primaries and balance or weaken control by the party leaders.

So it’s all eyes on folks like Walter Mondale, Jimmy Carter, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Bill Richardson, Ed Rendell… and a 21 year-old named Jason Rae.

There's even news today by NYT's John Harwood that ANOTHER Super will announce today for Obama - Margaret Campbell, a Montana State Legislator.

So it's official folks: WE ARE ON SUPERDELEGATE WATCH!

And that, is what a Superdelegate is… Want fries with that?

Costa Rica v. Burger King

Burger KING Don’t Surf… Well, maybe he does actually and we just don’t know it!

But he’s definitely not surfing in my favorite surfing Mecca: Costa Rica!

Check out this excerpt from the wires this morning…

Government officials said Friday they have banned commercials for the hamburger chain that depict mothers trying to run over company's plastic-headed signature character or hire a hit man to kill him because their kids prefer burgers to home-cooked meals.

The vice minister of the interior, Ana Duran, said the commercials on national TV trivialized violence.

The Costa Rican newspaper La Nacion on Friday published a letter from a mother asking how she was supposed to explain to her 5-year-old son why somebody was trying to kill the Burger King.

Meet Patrick Hynes

Here's the dirty little secret of this year's Presidential Election: It's taking place ON THE INTERNET!

From the bulk of campaign cash to the campaign message - almost everything takes life FIRST on the web. And for the campaigns -- all three have online armies -- controlling the buzz, conversation and message can be a tough task.

John McCain's official blogger is Mr. Patrick Hynes. His main job is serving as the blog outreach coordinator for the campaign. He is also the President of New Media Strategics (an online PR firm) and proprietor of anklebitingpundits.com.

Patrick has been traveling and blogging with the Senator this week during his "Service Tour," and I caught up with him today to find out what the latest buzz on the digital campaign trail was this week.

Check it out!

Rolling in the DOUGH!

Well the big news on the Campaign Trail today: Barack Obama’s big cash haul of $40 million for March – that included an impressive 218,000 “first time” contributors. Sen. Clinton released her March tally today too – raising roughly $20 million. McCain’s campaign has yet to release their figures, but sources suggest it’s likely to be along the lines of Clinton’s total – or about half of Obama’s figure.

But there is a great, untold story here that no one is paying attention: the parallel presidential campaign taken place on the Internet – and amounting to a virtual ATM machine that’s churning out cold, hard cash!

While many younger voters are getting their issues and political fixes on YouTube, Facebook and MySpace, all three Presidential Candidates – Obama, Clinton and McCain – are raising the BULK of their money from online contributions!

The Obama campaign freely acknowledges the importance of their web-based strategy and noted to FOX News that they held “very few” fundraisers in March and that their average donation was less than $100.

And while the Clinton Campaign only matched half of Obama’s bank for March, Clinton Spokesman Howard Wolfson said in a conference call today that they did have a “million dollar day” on the web at the end of the month.

Perhaps what is MOST interesting about this story to me is that it wasn’t Howard Dean’s notorious online fundraising in 2004 that started it all (although Obama and Clinton both have benefited greatly from the Dean lessson), but rather John McCain’s campaign in the 2000 primaries that “pioneered” the opportunities of using the Internet. In particular, longtime McCain staffers Max Fose and Becky Donatelli (both advisors today as well) are frequently credited with trailblazing the idea of “eCampaigning.”

So if you’re following this presidential race – and you want to know the latest and greatest on the Trail – you better get on the digital side of these campaigns… because that’s where the REAL action is taking place!

Jury Duty!

Yesterday it was my turn to honor my civic duty calling in the District of Columbia. Fortunately, my old neighbor and pal Cliff McKinney was summoned as well -- so the boredom wasn't too bad.

Here's a clip of me finally being called for a potential juror pool and Cliff's disappointment in not getting picked...

But you have to be careful what you wish for because by the end of the day, I was dismissed for good (I'm apparently not juror material) but poor Cliff got picked to serve on a criminal trial through NEXT WEEK!