Hillary's Superdelegate Hunter Holds Firm

You can thank or blame one Democrat for the rise of superdelegates and demise of the party's winner-take-all primaries—but strategist Harold Ickes, who negotiated the primary system 20 years ago, is likely too busy to hear you. He's calling up superdelegates for Hillary Clinton, and using such a nasty tongue that Time couldn't print what it overheard.

Ickes’ superdelegate hunt once seemed futile, but with Reverend Wright’s flare-up, and Barack Obama’s failure to attract blue-collar workers, Clinton may just have a shot. Despite being fired by husband Bill, Ickes is still loyal to her and fearlessly badgers her opponents and staffers alike. He even calls her top officials “the thought police.”