The Delegate Count

The Washington Post reports that after Super Tuesday the Democratic Party delegate count now stands as the following:

  

Hillary Clinton has 1,052 and Bernie Sanders has 427.  To win the Democratic nomination 2,383 delegates are needed.

The Democratic party sends 712 'super delegates' to its national convention unpledged. These delegates, generally state party leaders and elected officials, are free to support any candidate. So far Clinton has 457 of those pledged to her and Sanders has 22.

I've read several times that Sanders would have to win virtually every primary to over come the obstacle created by the 'super delegates'.

The 'super delegates' were created by the Democratic Party after South Dakota Sen. George McGovern won the 1972 Democratic nomination when the anti-Vietnam war left took over the party.  (McGovern was defeated in the national election by the Republican Richard Nixon.) Since that time the institutional party apparatus created the 'super delegates' to ensure that the left was not able to repeat the 1972 story.