“OBAMA SUPPORTERS” DAILY NEWS Monday March-31-2008

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

WELCOME TO “OBAMA SUPPORTERS” DAILY NEWS

Monday March-31-2008


Delegate Ghalen Warren showed his support for Barack Obama at the
District 16 convention Saturday at SMU's Moody Coliseum, where delegates
waited hours in line.

Esteemed DUer's, please consider taking a moment (or more) to graciously participate
by posting news and announcements about the Obama campaign on this thread. You can:

1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web. :think:

2. Re-post stories and announcements you find on DU,
providing a link to the original thread :applause:

3. Please "Recommend" for the Greatest Page :thumbsup:

4. Clinton supporters or “anti Obama posters please start your own
“Clinton Daily News Thread”.

Get your DU-o-matic codificator (to format your posts) here
Read the Daily News Archives here

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

1. Sen. Amy Klobuchar(D) of Minnesota is expected to endorse Sen. Obama Monday

New Backing for Obama As Party Seeks Unity

By JACKIE CALMES, March 31, 2008 Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON -- Slowly but steadily, a string of Democratic Party figures is taking Barack Obama's side in the presidential nominating race and raising the pressure on Hillary Clinton to give up.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota is expected to endorse Sen. Obama Monday, according to a Democrat familiar with her plans. Meanwhile, North Carolina's seven Democratic House members are poised to endorse Sen. Obama as a group -- just one has so far -- before that state's May 6 primary, several Democrats say.

Helping to drive the endorsements is a fear that the Obama-Clinton contest has grown toxic and threatens the Democratic Party's chances against Republican John McCain in the fall.
....

[grantcart]

7. DemcomWatch adds another Super Delegate Edwards (TX)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/5599765.html

Superdelegate Al Edwards, who on Tuesday staged a comeback by defeating first-term Rep. Borris Miles in the Democratic primary, said he pledged to Obama over the weekend

[thevoiceofreason]

17. I visited with Al as he was walking toward Barack's Houston rally in Feb.

Nice guy - made it clear who he was supporting, said he'd wait a while until he endorsed, then winked.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

2. Clinton Backer: “You Know, Folks, I Think We All Know It’s Over”

Clinton Backer: “You Know, Folks, I Think We All Know It’s Over”

By Al Giordano The Field

California State Assembly member Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley), an early endorser of Senator Clinton’s presidential campaign and former Clinton Administration official, told an audience on Thursday night:

“You know, folks, I think we all know it’s over.”

Hat tip: Nancy In Berkeley at DKos.

Now, as everyone here knows, I don’t think national tracking polls tell us anything about who will win the upcoming Democratic primaries, since 40 states have already voted. But apparently the Hon. Loni Hancock is not alone in her buyer’s remorse. Look at what’s happened in the Gallup tracking poll since Clinton’s fictional memories of being under “sniper fire” (not!) in Bosnia hit the evening news:



Those numbers include people that already voted (supposedly almost half for Clinton, but many of whom obviously no longer support her now). They include “big states” (in fact, California, New York, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio voters make for a significant segment of those polled). They include, also, the states that have not voted yet, and the two that - thanks to Senator Clinton’s operators in Michigan and Florida - won’t get the chance for a legitimate vote.

The trend among all of them combined is evident. See that graph chart above? That’s what sniper fire that never happened looks like.

Posted on March 30th, 2008 by Al Giordano

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

3. Gallup has Obama up — again

Gallup has Obama up — again

By Mike Allen March 30, 2008 Politico

Just in from Gallup:

"PRINCETON, N.J. — Barack Obama has extended his lead over Hillary Clinton among Democrats nationally to 52 percent to 42 percent, the third consecutive Gallup Poll Daily tracking report in which he has held a statistically significant lead, and Obama's largest lead of the year so far."

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

4. NC's 7 Democratic House members poised to endorse Obama as a group by May 6

New Backing for Obama As Party Seeks Unity By JACKIE CALMES March 31, 2008; Page A1 Wall Street Journal

...Meanwhile, North Carolina's seven Democratic House members are poised to endorse Sen. Obama as a group --
just one has so far -- before that state's May 6 primary, several Democrats say.

[grantcart]

9. Later in the article she seems to qualify that a little

One North Carolinian confirmed that at least several of the state's House members would go public in favor of Sen. Obama before long. Meanwhile, elected officials in other states with upcoming contests, including Indiana, Montana and Oregon, are weighing whether to endorse Sen. Obama.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

5. MF Looks for an Exit - Superdelegates won't settle this, finances will

MF Looks for an Exit

From TPM Reader MF ...03.30.08

In the end, I don't believe the superdelegates are going to decide this. I think finances are. We'll see what happens next month, but it's my guess her fundraising figures are going to be WAY down. She's already in trouble financially, and at some point, her backers have got to see that this is just throwing good money after bad. Lately, I've been asking my Hillary supporting friends to play around with the Slate delegate counter. They fool around with it for a few minutes, and they invariably come away saying, "She really can't win this, can she?" That's a sad conclusion for those who have put so much time and energy into Hillary's campaign (Bill and Hillary included), but the fact is, the time for fighting hard was long ago. She's trying to somehow get a do-over for the mistakes she made at the beginning of the campaign. It's too late.
This is the scene in the movie where the doctor is standing over the patient, desperately trying to revive someone who's already flat-lined on the monitor. Eventually, someone tells the doctor, "The patient's gone,
doctor. It's over."

The problem now is to figure out a way to get her to leave the race honorably and gracefully. She could do a lot of damage to the party on her way out the door. Possibly worse damage than her Huckabeean campaign is already doing. But telling her to leave the race is only pissing all of them off. There's a better way. I hope someone figures it out soon.

--Josh Marshall

[grantcart]

8. candidates don't stop because their supporters will keep egging them on

but eventually they sit on their pocket books and they run out of money


She will stop when the money drops

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

6. ALICE WALKER ON OBAMA: Lest We Forget: An open letter to my sisters who are brave

ALICE WALKER ON OBAMA March 30, 2008

Lest We Forget: An open letter to my sisters who are brave.

The author argues that we must build alliances not on ethnicity or gender, but on truth.

When I was born in 1944 my parents lived on a middle Georgia plantation that was owned by a white distant relative, Miss May Montgomery. (During my childhood it was necessary to address all white girls as "Miss" when they reached the age of twelve.) She would never admit to this relationship, of course, except to mock it. Told by my parents that several of their children would not eat chicken skin she responded that of course they would not. No Montgomerys would.
...
When I look back, this is part of what I see. I see the school bus carrying white children, boys and girls, right past me, and my brothers, as we trudge on foot five miles to school. Later, I see my parents struggling to build a school out of discarded army barracks while white students, girls and boys, enjoy a building made of brick. We had no books; we inherited the cast off books that "Jane" and "Dick" had previously used in the all-white school that we were not, as black children, permitted to enter.

...I am a supporter of Obama because I believe he is the right person to lead the country at this time. He offers a rare opportunity for the country and the world to start over, and to do better. It is a deep sadness to me that many of my feminist white women friends cannot see him. Cannot see what he carries in his being. Cannot hear the fresh choices toward Movement he offers. That they can believe that millions of Americans –black, white, yellow, red and brown - choose Obama over Clinton only because he is a man, and black, feels tragic to me.
....
It is hard to relate what it feels like to see Mrs. Clinton (I wish she felt self-assured enough to use her own name) referred to as "a woman" while Barack Obama is always referred to as "a black man." One would think she is just any woman, colorless, race-less, past-less, but she is not. She carries all the history of white womanhood in America in her person; it would be a miracle if we, and the world, did not react to this fact. How dishonest it is, to attempt to make her innocent of her racial inheritance.
....
more at the link

[quantass]

19. Brilliant Woman -- Everyone should Read/See the Pulitzer prized "Color Purple" (amazing)

the book and the movie (directed by Stephen Spielberg)...Amazing film...

[catgirl]

31. The soundtrack is great too! (nt)

[mikekohr]

22. BEAUTIFUL

and thank you.

mike kohr

[Hope And Change]

10. K&R!

:kick:

[grantcart]

11. Eight reasons why extending the campaign helps Obama

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5325121

[ClayZ]

12. K and R

[grantcart]

13. Thank you

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5323202

And thank you WillYourVoteBCounted

[cali]

14. Senator Amy Klobuchar of MN to endorse Obama today

woot. excellent endorsement.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

15. Architect Of Vast Right Wing Conspiracy "Reassesses" Hillary

Architect Of Vast Right Wing Conspiracy "Reassesses" Hillary

NYT/Pittsburgh Trib-Review | March 31, 2008 10:23 AM

To Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton, Richard Mellon Scaife qualifies as a charter member of the 'vast right-wing conspiracy,'" the New York Times notes, "having bankrolled an elaborate multimillion-dollar campaign throughout the 1990s to unearth damaging information about the couple."

But in a striking about-face, Mr. Scaife now says he has changed his mind -- at least about one half of the duo.

"I have a very different impression of Hillary Clinton today," he wrote in an opinion article published Sunday, amid her campaign for president. "And it's a very favorable one indeed."

His sudden conversion from fervid Clinton basher to lukewarm Clinton fan occurred after Mrs. Clinton, a Democratic senator from New York, sat down for a 90-minute interview with reporters and editors of The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, a newspaper owned by Mr. Scaife, the billionaire heir to the Mellon banking fortune.

....more at the link
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/31/architect-of-vast-right-w_n_94235.html

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

16. TPMtv: Should She Stay or Should She Go?

TPMtv: Should She Stay or Should She Go?

Calls for Hillary's exit and her fighting response was the big topic on the Sunday shows, with Obama supporters reeling back some of their more aggressive calls from earlier in the week. We bring you the highlights in today's Sunday Show Roundup ...

go to the link to see it
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/186523.php

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

18. Gore: I am no 'Boss Tweed' (not brokering deals for Dem Nominee)

March 31, 2008
Gore: I am no 'Boss Tweed'
Posted: 11:00 AM ET

Gore said Sunday he does not anticipate getting involved in the presidential race.
(CNN) – His name continues to get mentioned as a Democratic elder who could hammer out a resolution in his party's deadlocked presidential race, but former Vice President Al Gore said Sunday he's not interested in the job.

"I'm trying to stay out of it," the former vice president said on CBS' "60 Minutes" of the prolonged race for the White House.

"I'm not applying for the job of broker," he also said when pressed about the possibility he will be one of the few neutral Democrats who could sit Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton down together.

...
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/03/31/gore-im-not-applying-for-the-job-of-broker/

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

20. Richardson: 'I'm not going to stoop to Carville's level'

March 31, 2008
Richardson: 'I'm not going to stoop to Carville's level'


"...I haven't gotten into the gutter on this. And you know, I'm not going to stoop to Carville's level. I barely know the guy in the first place," Richardson told Bob Scheiffer on CBS's "Face the Nation."


"...I think loyalty to the nation, loyalty to the party is a lot more important than personal loyalty," he said. "I owe the Clintons a lot. I served in the president's cabinet. That loyalty is to President Clinton. That doesn't mean that I'm going to for the rest of my life be in lockstep with whatever they do."

Though Richardson did not personally attack the Democratic strategist, he criticized the Clinton campaign's behavior....

"I ran against Senator Clinton. I was a presidential candidate. And what I ran against this personal venom that people like Carville and many others in the Clinton team that feel a sense of entitlement, that the presidency is theirs. "

more at the link
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/03/31/richardson-im-not-going-to-stoop-to-carvilles-level/

[WillyT]

21. Great Editorial From An OSU Journalism Student

Clinton's support, humanity wanes
Ben Zenitsky
Issue date: 3/31/08 Section: Opinion

<snip>

Barack Obama possesses something his Democratic rival has proven time and again she is fundamentally incapable of bearing: human relatability. No matter how many times Hillary Clinton sends a wide-eyed flurry of acknowledgements to a crowd member she fools the camera into believing she actually knows and no matter how many time she tells us she has been down in the dredges and knows what it is like to face the challenges of everyday Americans (or bullet-dodgers for that matter), I simply do not believe her. And I am not alone.

Obama's March 18 speech, in which he condemned the inflammatory remarks of his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, while defending his association with the man, triggered something within me, as I am sure it did within others who saw it as well. Watching him I saw a man, not a politician but a man. His candor and openness were all too evident as he spoke of Wright as well as his white grandmother who once admitted her fear of walking past black men on the street, saying simply, "These people are a part of me."

Given a chance to tap into this newfound gray region of thoughtful tact - to offer her own brand of "from the heart" eloquence - Clinton shrugged it off and persisted on assailing her opponent for not leaving his longtime church. "(Wright) would not have been my pastor," she remarked during a March 26 press conference.

All Clinton had to do to solicit that same human emotion - that same heartfelt benevolence - was sympathize, and perhaps offer examples of individuals from her own life with whom she disagreed but remained close in spite of the fact. She did not. "We have a choice when it comes to the pastors and the churches we attend," she said.

Obama - in yet another example of his frequenting the high road - refrained from pointing out that we also choose our spouses.

The superb delivery of the Illinois senator's speech, in which he acknowledged the many racial grievances still prevalent in America, was certainly timely if at the very least for the sake of the poll numbers it sought to maintain but also for the content it so lucidly conveyed. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors the nation's hate groups, issued its quarterly "Intelligence Report," in which it cited the number of individual hate organizations in America as having risen 5 percent this past year to 888, a 48 percent increase from the number in 2000.

Clinton must learn that uniting the country means bringing people together who might - heaven forbid - disagree. This whole notion of "disowning" people for their beliefs is what got the country in the divided state it is currently in: split down the middle between red states and blue. Clinton must know by now that her opponent's rhetoric on unification is greatly resonating with now a majority of the very electorate she hopes to win over. Is it that she is too blind to see the impact it is having or is she simply unwilling to channel it into her own campaign?

<snip>

Link: http://media.www.thelantern.com/media/storage/paper333/news/2008/03/31/Opinion/Clintons.Support.Humanity.Wanes-3292621.shtml

:hi:

[grantcart]

23. The Clinton Campaign has flatlined - Fairy Tale on life support

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5328163

[JimGinPA]

24. Obama draws 2,000 for Lancaster visit (pics)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5328808

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

25. Superdelegates Hiding from Wrath of Clintons

Superdelegates Hiding from Wrath of Clintons

Pam Spaulding, Pam's House Blend at 5:02 AM on March 31, 2008.

I'm not sure at this point if there are any Clinton friends who they aren't willing to vilify or toss under the bus for political gain. Post Tools

Will these superdelegates come out of the political closet? Mike Lux at Open Left, on fearful superdelegates who want support Obama but would prefer to not publicly declare lest they piss the Clinton machine off:

...What those remaining undeclared folks are telling me in private, though, is that they hope the race will play itself out and Obama will emerge as the clear winner so that they don't have to piss the Clintons and their machine off.


I think this tells you a lot about the kind of rep the Clinton team has -- no one is making it up; these folks have dealt with them before and know that the Clintonistas hold political grudges and don't mind bashing kneecaps of their "friends" when the going gets tough. We all know what happened when Bill Richardson, a long time friend and former Clinton cabinet member, decided to endorse Obama. Out trotted Carville with that "Judas" comment. The superdelegates are hoping for things to sort out so they don't have deal with the fallout.

I'm not sure at this point if there are any Clinton friends who they aren't willing to vilify or toss under the bus for political gain. The one exception seems to be high-priced Mark Penn, who they keep on the team despite his horrible, bottom-feeding political "strategy." I have to think the reason he's not been tossed over isn't loyalty, but that he must have some serious info about the Clintons that they are afraid will come out if their thug-for-hire is dissed.

more at the link
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/80787/

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

26. The Clinton Firewall

March 31, 2008 at 09:40:23

Headlined on 3/31/08:
The Clinton Firewall

by David Sirota

The New York Senator's last-ditch efforts to win the Democratic nomination could rely on the "Race Chasm" and the trampling of democracy.

Google the phrase "Clinton firewall" and you will come up with an ever-lengthening list of scenarios that Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign has said will stop Barack Obama's candidacy. The New Hampshire primary, said her campaign, would be the firewall to end Obamamania. Then Super Tuesday was supposed to be the firewall. Then Texas. Now Pennsylvania and Indiana.

...The Race Chasm

Since at least the South Carolina primary, the Clinton campaign's message has been stripped of its poll-tested nuance and become a rather crass drumbeat aimed at reminding voters that Obama is black. Whether it is former President Clinton likening Obama's campaign to Jesse Jackson's; Clinton aides telling the Associated Press that Obama is "the black candidate," or Geraldine Ferraro tapping into anti-affirmative action anger by claiming Obama's success is a product of his skin color, barely a week goes by without a white Clinton surrogate injecting race into the nominating contest.

That is one of the twin pillars of the Clinton firewall—a well-honed strategy aimed at maximizing "the Race Chasm." The Race Chasm may sound like a conventional discussion of the black-white divide, but it is one of the least-discussed geographic, demographic and political dynamics driving the contest between Clinton and Obama. I call it the Race Chasm because of what it looks like on a graph. Here's how it works.

...Clinton, knowing the Race Chasm can fortify her firewall, has subsequently intensified her efforts to put race front and center in the campaign, most recently attacking Jeremiah Wright, Obama's former pastor who has delivered fiery speeches indicting white racism. She is so determined to raise race issues in advance of these Race Chasm contests that she gave an in-person interview to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review specifically to criticize Wright. For reference, the Tribune-Review is a conservative newspaper in western Pennsylvania owned by the same Richard Mellon Scaife who funded the anti-Clinton witchhunts of the '90s

.... more at the link
http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/opedne_david_si_080331_the_clinton_firewall.htm

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

27. Is the Clinton Dynasty crumbling?

Is the Clinton Dynasty crumbling?

by Michael Carmichael Global Research 3/28/08

The annual convention of the Young Democrats of North Carolina (YDNC) scheduled for this weekend, appears as if it will be a vortex of political intrigue. With appearances by John Edwards, Chelsea Clinton and James Carville - there is a thinly disguised agenda operating at some level to create the impression of a pending endorsement of Senator Clinton by former Senator Edwards. However, the scene behind the arras is much more convoluted.

In actual point of fact, Senator Hillary Clinton’s bold campaign to become the first woman to be nominated for the presidency by a major party has already failed. The arithmetic of the nomination procedure no longer supports her endgame strategy. The Clinton campaign could be charitably described as the “walking wounded,” but the prognosis is actually quite grave. The political wounds Senator Clinton has sustained render her campaign untenable. The bottom line is now crystal clear: Senator Clinton is no longer viable as a presidential candidate.

The only circumstance in which the situation could be reversed to her benefit would be the retirement or disappearance of Senator Barack Obama. In other words, the Clinton campaign is now in the posture of political parties in states ruled by warlords, dictators and military juntas. Her opponent has won the electoral contest, so now they are hoping for an unpredictable intervention of fate – or force.

...
Today, the majority of influential Democrats believe that Senator Clinton can no longer win the nomination or the November election. She has allowed the malcontent among the right-wing of American politics to metastasize into a virtually global antipathy to her presidential candidacy. She should stop this ruthlessly corrosive process before it devours her and her family.

Off the record commentators in Washington reveal the rising level of concern about the potentially dangerous debacle among the Party leaders in the House and Senate. Both Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid have been reported to be in secret contact with the DNC regarding behind-the-scenes steps to bring the Clinton campaign to a quiet and hopefully gracious end.

more at the link
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8471

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

28. BUSH - CLINTON 2008

BUSH - CLINTON 2008

by Michael Collins March 31, 2008




Ambition Gone Wild or the New "New World Order"
Poised in the Wings?

The 2008 presidential primary has been a close race. It should be over by now except for the shouting. There is "virtually no chance" that Hillary Clinton can claim the delegates needed for nomination. We should be witnessing Barack Obama's triumphal march to the Democratic convention in August.

But much like Michael Myers in Haloween, Hillary Clinton has picked herself up off the canvas every time she seemed down for the count. She lost Iowa, reanimated her campaign by winning New Hampshire, but then failed in 9 of the next 23 official state contests. At the same time, spectacular turnout increases showed that the Obama movement was pulling Democrats to the primaries in record numbers.

...The vulgarity of her campaign created rare agreement by some in the mainstream and alternate media. Clinton's tactics are particularly vicious and her charges and sound bites appear to be an "intelligent design" for the Committee to Elect John McCain President.

Two Vipers at Obama's Throat

The nastiness started when the Clinton campaign chair in New Hampshire wondered why the media wasn't focusing on alleged drug use by Obama in his youth. Clinton was forced to fire the operative and then suffer through the humiliation of a public apology to Obama.

more at the link
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_michael__080331_michael_collins_3a__bu.htm

[Ysabel]

29. thanks for these daily threads...k and r (n/t)...

[grantcart]

30. DUer creates 2 superdelegates

Not quite but it will have the same effect.

DUer TheVoiceOfReason took the time to go back and check the reporting of the counts in the Mississippi primary. He found a few small errors and the difference was enough to change the split of the statewide delegates from 2-2 to Obama 3- Clinton1.

Read how he did it here http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5237601


Then go to his current thread here : http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5330945&mesg_id=5331376


and see how the state has now confirmed his numbers and please make this the #1 rec thread today


I am guessing no one outside of DU knows this yet, not the MSM, other blogging sites or even the campaigns.

[undeterred]

32. Wonderful video- Times they are a changin'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGe8OwnDvXk

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

33. This Modern World: Hillary 's Six Point Strategy (must see)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5323431

[JimGinPA]

34. Democratic ranks swell in Pennsylvania - Almost A Quarter Million!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5333435

[WillyT]

35. Hillary Clinton should pull out

<snip>

Should she stay or should she go? With each passing day, the pressure intensifies on Hillary Clinton to end her campaign to secure the Democratic nomination for November's US presidential contest.

This is not just because she has failed to gain sufficient votes during the fiercely contested primaries and caucuses against the political phenomenon that is Barack Obama; it is also the gradual deterioration in the tone of her campaign, together with her increasingly desperate tactics, that suggests the time has now come for her to bow out while she still retains some shreds of integrity.

Mrs Clinton is nothing if not a fighter, qualities that have served her well during one of the most exciting primary seasons in recent American politics. When Mr Obama first announced himself as a serious contender, with his stunning victory in the Iowa caucus back in January, Mrs Clinton responded to the critics who were already writing off her campaign by recording her own surprise triumph in the New Hampshire primary.

Since then, the "Comeback Gal" has given Mr Obama a run for his money, countering his ground-breaking victories in states such as South Carolina with impressive results of her own in Ohio and Texas.

But in terms of the damage done to her personal reputation and dignity, Mrs Clinton has paid a heavy price for remaining in the contest.

She was the first to introduce negative tactics, by clumsily playing the race card against Mr Obama, and then was caught out about her claims of derring-do in Bosnia and Northern Ireland in the 1990s.

Now she has reached the position where, because she can no longer win sufficient votes to secure the nomination outright, she must rely on the votes of the Democrats' super-delegates if she is to contest the presidential election.

Although Mrs Clinton is perfectly entitled to hope for this outcome, such an arbitrary appointment after all the excitement generated by the primary campaign would serve neither the interests of American democracy, nor the credibility of Mrs Clinton as a presidential candidate.

<snip>

Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/04/01/dl0102.xml

:shrug:

[Scurrilous]

36. K & R

:thumbsup:

[WillyT]

37. Clinton's convention strategy in doubt

<snip>

If the fight over whether to count the results in Florida and Michigan makes it to the Democratic National Convention, Hillary Clinton will not have enough pledged votes on the 169-member Credentials Committee to deliver a majority decision in her favor, according to an analysis conducted for Politico.

Her only hope of getting the key committee to vote out a “majority report” supporting her position rests on her ability to persuade an as-yet-undetermined number of the 25 members appointed to the committee by party Chairman Howard Dean to cast votes for her position.

The DNC’s Credentials Committee consists of 144 pledged members (Florida and Michigan are not included) plus the 25 party leaders and elected officials appointed by Dean. The 25 Dean appointees include a mix of Dean loyalists, Obama supporters and at least several individuals who have endorsed Clinton.

"If the formal process of seating a delegation cannot be resolved," a Clinton senior adviser said, "those 25 will be important."

The analysis was conducted by Matt Seyfang, an attorney and a former delegate counter for past Democratic presidential candidates including Bill Clinton in 1992 to Bill Bradley in 2000. According to his projections and a calculation of the number of committee seats that each candidate is entitled to based on their proportion to the statewide vote or the relevant caucus rules, Obama holds roughly 65 seats and Clinton 56. There are slightly more than 23 seats still to be decided in the remaining contests.

Seyfang’s findings reveal that Clinton faces an uphill battle if, as she signaled on Saturday, her campaign decides to take her fight to seat the Florida and Michigan delegations to the Credentials Committee.

“I have no intention of stopping until we finish what we started and until we see what happens in the next 10 contests and until we resolve Florida and Michigan,” she told the Washington Post. “And if we don't resolve it, we'll resolve it at the convention — that's what credentials committees are for.”

While it is mathematically impossible for Clinton to win a majority without winning over a number of Dean’s appointees, it is also highly unlikely that Barack Obama will have enough votes to capture a majority without doing the same. He would need to sweep the remaining contests by runaway margins to win the roughly 20 seats necessary to gain a majority.

Clinton has, however, already won enough pledged members to meet the 20 percent threshold required to vote out a minority report, meaning that both Democratic candidates could have their positions voted on by all seated convention delegates.

The prospect of a convention that begins with a contentious vote on a “minority” or “majority” report is “the nightmare scenario,” according to one Democratic party insider.

Neither campaign tracks projections on Credentials Committee seats, according to aides charged with the arcane process of counting delegates. The DNC also does not track these totals but relies on state parties to report their totals as they are determined.

Adding to the confusion surrounding the Credentials Committee, a subject that has perplexed many party veterans, is the fact that Democrats have not found themselves studying the minutiae of convention rules since 1980. Since then, convention votes, including those in the Credentials Committee, have been pro forma.

<snip>

Link: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0308/9298.html

:shrug:

[grantcart]

38. WSJ speculation about 7 NC Super Delegates Debunked by Obama campaign

NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann reports:
"Several Democratic sources familiar with North Carolina politics expressed surprise at today's Wall Street Journal story, saying that -- although several members of the delegation are likely Obama backers -- an en masse endorsement would include nods from several Dems who most expected to stay on the sidelines in the Clinton-Obama race.

A staff member close to one of the superdelegates in question confirms there is no truth to the story.

Per Dan Leistikow, a spokesman for the Obama campaign in North Carolina, "Despite the Wall Street Journal’s optimism, none of them has said told our campaign that they are ready to announce their endorsement of Senator Obama -- so we’ll keep working on it."

One Democrat who supports Obama did say that some elected officials and candidates for office in the state have expressed concern about a prolonged nomination, saying that many believe that a popular election result overturned by superdelegates "would destroy the party.." A mass endorsement by the delegation would send a clear message of party unity, he said.

But as of today, added another source familiar with the story, the idea might have simply been born of one Obama supporter's wishful thinking."

[grantcart]

39. *******Breaking News AP: Obama wins Texas********

The Associated Press is considered to be the definitive arbitrator of delegate counts has given the state to Obama based on Saturday's County Convention. Up till now the state was listed as a tie awaiting clearer results
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i_QDnA56kHa3qYl41FUYT3PLHJvwD8VOK68O0

I will have a thread available in about an hour - if anybody wants to post it before then feel free to do so.

Obama Wins Most Texas Delegates



WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Barack Obama has won the overall delegate race in Texas thanks to a strong showing in Democratic county conventions this past weekend.

Obama picked up seven of nine outstanding delegates, giving him a total of 99 Texas delegates to the party's national convention this summer. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton won the other two, giving her a total of 94 Texas delegates, according to an analysis of returns by The Associated Press.

Texas Democrats held both a presidential primary and caucus. Clinton narrowly won the popular vote in the state's primary March 4, earning her 65 national convention delegates to Obama's 61.

Precinct caucuses began immediately after polls closed primary night and quickly devolved into chaos in many parts of the state because of an unprecedented turnout of more than 1 million Democrats. The state party was never able to provide complete results from the caucuses, which is why the AP withheld nine delegates.

The precinct caucuses elected delegates to about 280 county and state senate district conventions on Saturday. The AP awarded the remaining delegates based on results from Saturday's conventions, showing Obama with about 58 percent of vote, compared to 42 percent for Clinton.

Obama won 38 delegates through the caucus/convention system, and Clinton won 29.

The final delegate allocation will be decided at the party's state convention June 6-7, and the numbers could change if either campaign is unable to maintain the level of support they had over the weekend.

Obama leads the overall race for the Democratic nomination with 1,631 delegates, including separately chosen party and elected officials known as superdelegates. Clinton has 1,501, according to the latest AP tally.