Why Primary Delegate Counts Sometimes Go to 11

This linked article is a good rundown in the basic differences between how the Democrats and Republicans award their delegates from the primaries.

In a nutshell, the Democrats award their delegetes proportionally, while the GOP has winner-take-all primaries. This is one reason why McCain seems to be winning his race while the outcome of Obama vs. Hillary is still in doubt.

Of course, there are other wrinkles. Some GOP primaries award their delagetes proportionally, and some Dem races have bonus delegates for the winner. Then there's the Democrats' "Super Delegates," Party bigwigs who get about 20% of the delegates to awards as they choose at the convention.

And even I still can't figure out the caucuses.

Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and...
Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?
Nigel Tufnel: Exactly.
Marty DiBergi: Does that mean it's louder? Is it any louder?
Nigel Tufnel: Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?
Marty DiBergi: I don't know.
Nigel Tufnel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
Marty DiBergi: Put it up to eleven.
Nigel Tufnel: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.
Marty DiBergi: Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?
Nigel Tufnel: [pause] These go to eleven.