Nothing like a little campaign cash to help you make your superdelegate decision.  The Center for Responsive Politics has an interesting study this week on how much money presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have donated to superdelegates.  It's all perfectly legal of course.

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland got $10,000 from Clinton and nothing from Obama.  He has since endorsed Clinton.

Representative John Yarmuth from Kentucky picked up $6,000 from Obama, nothing from Clinton and has endorsed Obama.

It will be interesting to see if the pattern continues with Representative Charlie Wilson from Ohio.  He got $7,000 from Obama and nothing from Clinton.

Obama and Clinton both ponied up $10,000 each to Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown and WV Senator Robert Byrd.  Neither has endorsed a candidate yet.  (On a side note -- I bet you both candidates will contribute to congressional candidate and Byrd's former state director Anne Barth.  That would help them get the attention of Byrd too.)

You can check out the Center for Responsive Politics full report at the following address: http://www.capitaleye.org/superdelegates.asp

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It's 2-0 Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama for superdelegates in West Virginia so far.

Here's a quote from a national Associated Press article on the superdelegate situation.

"She's still in the race, isn't she? So I'm still supporting her," said Belinda Biafore, a superdelegate from West Virginia.

Biafore joins Marie Prezioso in announcing plans to cast superdelegate votes for Hillary Clinton when the time comes.

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Did you catch the national AP article this weekend on potential vice presidential candidates?  Ohio Governor Strickland and WV Governor Joe Manchin were both mentioned as potential sidekicks for the Democratic nominee in the article.

Of course -- Strickland would be only a viable option if Clinton got the nomination (see the bit above for the reason).  NewsChannel 3's Amanda Barren tried to get an answer out of Mrs. Clinton in a satellite interview on whether Strickland is being considered.  She told us it's too soon to talk about that.

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Speaking of Manchin, the Palm Beach Post took note of the fact that the Southern Governor's Association meeting this weekend was closed to the public.  Manchin chairs the SGA.  Despite the fact the communication director for the group pointed out the executive committee, which includes Manchin, chose to close the proceedings, Manchin said he had no idea they were closed.

Read the whole Palm Beach Post blog here: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/palmbeach/floridapolitics/entries/2008/02/23/no_sunshine_for_southern_gover.html

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Maybe they were talking about different ways to use the phrase "economic stimulus package", which I contend has become the "lockbox" of 2008.  Remember when lockbox was a phrase every candidate threw around when describing social security in 2000?

Anyway, the buzz words "economic stimulus package" made it through Congress and the White House for the last several weeks.  Then in Governor Manchin's weekly column, he had the following phrase about his visit to the WV Housing Development Fund Board:  "The board responded by unanimously approving an economic stimulus package..."