Today on the Sunday News shows, the main focus of the discussion was, not surprisingly, the Democratic race for the presidential nomination. The pundits were particularly interested in how the party was going to make the final choice, especially if the race remains very close. This discussion was generally broken down into two different issues - how the so-called “superdelegates” are going to vote, and how the party is going to allow Florida and Michigan to be represented in the voting.

It seems agreed that if one candidate, and for all intents and purposes, we are talking about Obama, wins the popular vote and the most elected delegates, even if that vote is close, and the superdelegates overturn it, that would cause a huge uproar within the Democratic party that could threaten the general election.

An interesting exchange was on Meet the Press, where roommates and friends Sen. Durbin from Illinois, Obama’s home state, and Sen. Schumer from New York, Clinton’s home state. These two U.S. Senators are leaders of the party no doubt. They also are friends and roommates in D.C.

They took a more conciliatory tone with each other than say, the two campaign managers did on “Face the Nation.” But they generally followed the positions of the respective candidates. Durbin said the superdelegates should follow the elected delegates, Schumer said they should follow the rules. On Florida and Michigan, Durbin said follow the rules and not count the primaries. Shumer said that some fair way has to be developed to count them. Durbin basically agreed with that. But they aren’t together on how that will occur. Schumer didn't want a new caucus, but didn't rule out some alternative process for choosing representation.

But I do have to comment on Schumer’s use of the phrase “twists and turns” in describing the campaign for the Democratic nomination. He used that phrase 4 or 5 times within the first minute or so of his addressing the situation. He said, “This campaign is going to have a lot of twists and turns....” or some close variation thereof. He said it over and over. It was noticeable to me.

Because he used that phrase repeatedly, it makes me think that this is a code message of some sort. The phrase “twists and turns,” at least in my opinion, indicates unpredicted happenings along a path to a given place that cause the path to not be what everyone thought it would be. To me it indicates a certain amount of everything from unexpected, to mischievous goings on, to chicanery - an outcome not exactly what was expected, but probably not due to accidental happenings.

While I’m not 100% sure what message Schumer was giving, I do think that what he was saying, in the context of the entire conversation, and actually the entire day of news shows, was that Obama needs to be a clear winner if he wants to win, because if there is any doubt, Clinton is going to do what she must to obtain the nomination - even if it gets rough. And, according to what I heard, that included Clinton being close, even if she isn't ahead in elected delegates.

That means that the possibility of the scenario of a candidate winning the popular vote not winning the election. This is pretty unbelievable, considering what happened to the Dems in 2000 in the presidential election. If this happens, it could very well seriously split the party and lose the election. Hopefully no candidate is so selfish.

But did anyone doubt this scenario? I wrote about this a week or more ago. But, the way I see it, Obama, while certainly being within his rights to campaign for the superdelegates on the grounds that he has won the people, should not lobby for a rule change. Clinton should give up her what can rightfully be called two faced, sleazy attempts to get the results of the Florida and Michigan primaries used. Obama needs to win one of the big states. Maybe he will win them all and the question will go away. If I was Obama, I’d be campaigning for a large turnout to insure that this is what happens. Otherwise, he could find his nomination lost to the old Democratic machine. That would be a tragedy, but it could happen.