Superdelegate McDonald will wait until May 31 DNC meeting to endorse

One of Washington's undecided slate of Democratic National Committee superdelegates, David McDonald, spoke to the press about his status today, but only to announce that he would not be throwing his superdelegate weight around until after the May 31 meeting of the DNC rules committee. That meeting will decide how to seat the delegations from Florida and Michigan who were penalized for moving their primaries earlier than DNC rules allowed.

McDonald is on the DNC's rules and bylaws committee that initially voted to strip Florida's and Michigan's delegates as a punishment. It was a move that McDonald supported. He told The Olympian today that he hoped to reserve the appearance of impartiality prior to that meeting.

"I think the appearance is going to be helped by some of us staying uncommitted," McDonald said. "So I am not planning to make a decision or issue any statements until we are finished with the challenges.''

He also felt it was out of place for the peanut gallery to call on Clinton to drop out of the race.

"At the end of the day I think Hillary's supporters have to decide for her and with her whether she should go forward with the campaign or come up with an exit strategy," he said. "It's not for somebody else to tell them the race is over. Because the race is not over."

McDonald also added that the onus was on Barack Obama to begin to unite the party if he truly hopes to be an effective party leader prior to the nomination.

"If you assume for the moment that Obama is the nominee, and the press today was making that assumption, it seems to me it is his problem to come forward with a solution that works," McDonald said. "If he is planning on being the leader of the party of the free world, he needs to be able to come up with a solution to problems like this."

In other superdelegate news, a spokesman for Rep. Jim McDermott told PolitickerWA.com and State Party Chair Dwight Pelz confirmed to The Olympian that he would remain undecided after yesterday's primary contests in North Carolina and Indiana.