Delegates? Superdelegates? What does it all mean?

Pledged delegates:
Democratic candidates campaign for the nomination of their party in a series of primary elections and caucus events. The results from these primaries and caucuses determine the number of pledged delegates committed to vote for each candidate at the Democratic National Convention. Pledged delegates are allocated to each of the 50 US states and some territories. Under the party's Delegate Selection Rules for the 2008 Democratic National Convention.[3]. Pledged delegates reflect the preferences of the voters, but are not actually legally bound to vote for the candidate they are pledged for. However, since candidates may remove delegates who they feel may be disloyal, pledged delegates generally vote for the candidate they represent.[4] In 2008, a total of 3,253 pledged delegates will be awarded through the primary process.

Superdelegates:
In addition, there are a total of 796 unpledged delegates (known as superdelegates) who are free to vote for any Democratic presidential candidate at the convention. Superdelegate votes are given equal weight to the votes of pledged delegates. In 2008, the superdelegates include 221 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, 48 senators, 31 state and territorial governors, 397 members of the Democratic National Committee, 23 distinguished party leaders, and 76 others. They represent approximately 20 percent of the total 4,049 delegates.[5][6]
While officially uncommitted until the convention, the superdelegates may publicly endorse a candidate at any point in the process. The presidential candidates compete heavily for these endorsements. News organizations survey the superdelegates periodically throughout the election season and try to calculate how many of them have committed to each of the candidates. The media often includes these superdelegate estimates in their reporting on the race, leading to differing delegate counts from various news sources. This article reports superdelegate estimates from the 2008 Democratic Convention Watch blog.[2]

From Wikipedia