With Barack Obama leading Hillary Clinton by only 49 delegates (before Tuesday's primaries), neither one is likely to have the 2,025 delegates needed to secure the nomination after the last primary.

That means the nominee may be determined by the nearly 800 superdelegates, a group of delegates selected by the party and not by the voters.

The debate is now raging over whether superdelegates should determine themselves who they will support or if they should follow the lead of voters or caucus goers in their state, or even their congressional district.

It's a crucial debate, particularly to Obama. Many superdelegates who had committed earlier to Clinton are having second thoughts after seeing Obama record an impressive string of victories.

Muddying the picture even more is the fact that the presidential campaigns have been donating money to the campaigns of many of the superdelegates, many of whom are members of Congress or state or local elected officials.

An Associated Press review found 36 cases where superdelegates support a candidate other than who the majority of their constituents supported. The AP found 21 governors or members of Congress who support Clinton although their states or districts backed Obama. On the other hand, there are 14 superdelegates (elected officials) who support Obama, while their constituents went for Clinton.

Certainly there are other superdelegates, who are not elected officials and outside of the AP's count, who are in a similar situation.

No one is saying that these superdelegates should forego their conscience and who they truly believe will be the best president. They were given their positions because of their past leadership and experience.

However, if one candidate receives a majority of the vote in primaries but is then denied the nomination because of superdelegates there will be significant grumbling among the masses.

The Democratic Party has longed complained about the 2000 vote where Al Gore claimed the most votes but lost the Electoral College vote because of George W. Bush's disputed win in Florida.

For Democrats to then turn around and reward their nomination to a candidate who didn't receive the majority of the popular vote in primaries would be an ironic twist in presidential politics.