U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton’s own inner circle is confiding to some reporters that she has about a 10 percent chance of edging out rival Barack Obama for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. So all the attention is now focused on winning the support of so-called “superdelegates,” party insiders whose convention voting isn’t tied to how ordinary Americans voted during the primary elections.

On CNN yesterday, another Senator (who backs Hillary) suggested that these superdelegates ought to look to the U.S. Electoral College for help making their decisions. From this morning’s New York Times:

“So who carried the states with the most Electoral College votes is an important factor to consider because ultimately, that’s how we choose the president of the United States,” [Sen. Evan] Bayh said on CNN’s “Late Edition.”

In a primary, of course, electoral votes are not relevant, but the Clinton campaign is trying to use them as an unofficial measure of strength.

So far, Mrs. Clinton has won states with a total of 219 Electoral College votes, not counting Florida and Michigan, while Mr. Obama has won states with a total of 202 electoral votes.

Mr. Obama, of Illinois, is ahead of Mrs. Clinton, of New York, in most other leading indicators [including] popular vote (by 700,000 votes out of 26 million cast …

Two weeks ago on Meet the Press, Clinton supporter and Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell said pretty much the same thing (but with different math):

TIM RUSSERT: Governor Rendell, if, in fact, Barack Obama goes to the convention in Colorado in August with the most elected delegates, having won more contests and a higher popular vote, the cumulative vote, could he be denied the nomination?

RENDELL: Well, sure, Tim, because, number one, Hillary Clinton has won states with about 260 electoral votes. Barack Obama has won states with about 190. And we decide the presidency not by a popular vote, we decide it by the electoral vote. And the traditional role of the superdelegates is to determine who’s going to be our strongest candidate.

Which is pretty funny, since the very first thing Hillary did after winning her U.S. Senate seat was to call for the abolition of the Electoral College:

”I have thought about this for a long time,” Mrs. Clinton said at a rally in an airport hangar in Syracuse. ”I’ve always thought we had outlived the need for an Electoral College, and now that I am going to the Senate, I am going to try to do what I can to make clear that the popular vote, the will of the people, should be followed.”