UPDATED: 3 Superdelegates Switch from Clinton to Obama, 2 more go uncommitted

All of the talk about the Superdelegates throwing their weight behind Hillary to usurp Barack Obama's support among pledged delegates is turning out to be premature.  Superdelegates are already starting to abandon Hillary, either dropping their support to become uncommitted, or switching over to Obama.

Rep David Scott (D-GA) has announced that he is switching his support from Hillary Clinton  to Barack Obama.

"You've got to represent the wishes of your constituency," Scott said in an interview Wednesday in the Capitol. "My proper position would be to vote the wishes of my constituents." The third-term lawmaker represents a district that gave more than 80 percent of its vote to Obama in the Feb. 5 Georgia primary.

Earlier in the day, Christine Samuels also announced that she is switching her endorsement from Senator Clinton to Senator Obama.  In addition, two super delegates that previously backed Clinton have changed their support to uncommitted.

But Christine Samuels, until this week a Clinton superdelegate from New Jersey, said during the day she is now supporting Obama.

Two other superdelegates, Sophie Masloff of Pennsylvania and Nancy Larson of Minnesota, are uncommitted, having dropped their earlier endorsements of Clinton.

These delegates alone close the superdelegate margin by a total of 6 of delegates.  Look for more to jump off the Hillary bandwagon if she continues to lose primaries, especially if she loses Ohio and/or Texas.  

People need to remember that almost all superdelegates were elected to their position (either in congress or the DNC), and are sensitive to the will of the voters.  If the voters signal Barack Obama as their choice, the superdelegates will not stand in their way.  

It's also important to point out that while Hillary jumped to a substantial lead in superdelegates very early in the contest, but Barack has been matching her at least delegate for delegate most of the way after that.  In the beginning the politically safe thing to do was to endorse Hillary Clinton.  She was the undisputed front runner, and she has deep ties to the establishment of the party.  So if you were a Hillary supporter, there was no risk in throwing your support behind her early.  On the other hand, there was a definite risk in throwing your support behind Obama, especially if you were looking to climb the ladder in the Democratic party.

Most of the superdelegates chose to wait for a reason.  Either they didn't have a strong preference, or they had a preference for Obama but didn't want to make that preference public when there was still a large chance he would be the nominee.  Now that Barack is holding a fairly substantial lead in the pledged delegate count, expect more of those delegates to come out of the bushes to declare their support.  Expect those who waited and don't have a strong preference to get behind whomever the voters support.

UPDATE:  As pointed out in the diary posted just before mine, Rep. John Lewis is switching from Clinton to Obama as well.  This makes his total net delegate margin gain from the defections a +8