that's show bizness

Footage from the 5/31 DNC Rules Committee Meeting. Much less drama than was promised/feared:



...and Clinton operative Harold Ickes gets a bit of a reality check:

stick a fork in it

Olbermann's interview with Scott McClellan

This Week With Barack Obama has all of Keith Olbermann's interview with former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan. A crystal-clear indictment of the Bush presidency.

James Carville gets down and dirty

This video accompanies an article from The Field entitled "Carville: We Want a Hostage Crisis Because Our Feelings Are Hurt". Not really that far from true, it seems...

Michelle

There's no way to choose a fitting excerpt from this amazing piece on Michelle Obama by Dawn Teo. Please just read it top to bottom...and be inspired.

May 31st Rule Committee Meeting in DC

UPDATE, 5/28/07:

Obama HQ has he following suggestions for countering the drama that the Rules Committee meeting is likely to cause this Saturday: voter registration in Virginia --- which is NOT likely to go red this year!

YouTube changes everything...

Eugene Robinson's column

Robinson's Washington Post column, excerpted below, received the most comments of any in the history of the column.

What Clinton's evocation of RFK suggests isn't that she had some tactical reason for speaking the unspeakable but that she and her closest advisers can't stop running and rerunning through their minds the most far-fetched scenarios, no matter how absurd or even obscene. She gives the impression of having spent long nights convincing herself that the stars really might still align for her -- that something can still happen to make the Democratic Party realize how foolish it has been.

Clinton campaigns as if she knows she will leave some Democrats with bad feelings. That's the Clinton way: Ask forgiveness, not permission. But every day, as more superdelegates trickle to Obama's side, it becomes a surer bet that she will not win. She and her family enjoy good health and fabulous wealth. They'll be fine -- unless, while losing this race for the nomination, Hillary Clinton also loses her soul.

Is it true about Barack Obama?

Polls in Puerto Rico

Radio Isla AM 1320 has a poll up on its site.

Please vote!

And a newspaper poll, too.

Both of these can be polished off in under a minute!

ugliness persists...

We're still having to deal with this kind of mentality...

the speech we all remember...

...and some prescient analysis from PBS.

temper, temper

Christopher Hitchens in Slate:

An excerpt:

So, a fresh and sly political subtext in a very bizarre campaign season. The two Democratic nominees remain icily calm when in each other's vicinity—plain as it is that they cordially loathe and despise one another—while huge shudders of molten rage continue to shake the ample and empurpled yet graying frame of Bill Clinton as he broods on the many injustices to which life has subjected him. What a good time to shift the subject to the temperament (or temper) of Sen. John McCain and to hint, as did Michael Leahy in a major piece in the April 20 Washington Post, that we should wonder whether the Republican nominee has his tray table in the fully locked and upright position, whether he lives happily or unhappily in his own ZIP code, whether there are kittens in his granary or bats in his belfry, and whether his elevator goes all the way to the top.

Boston Herald poll: RFK comment

Please vote in this Boston-area newspaper poll re: the RFK assassination comment.

Iraq wrap-up

Click4Obama!

Check out this fun new quiz game! Every time you click on a correct answer, you'll earn money for Obama ads...plus you'll test your knowledge of US history, federal government, and Obama facts!

implosion

Why couldn't she have just said "Bobby Kennedy was still running for the nomination in June of 1968, so I should be allowed to continue"? Instead, she brings up the A-word. Why...what more did that comment add to her nominal argument of "I should continue to be in this race"?

By the way, Sen. Clinton, this isn't 1992...California voted weeks and weeks ago, not in June this time...This New York Times article actually suggests that Bill Clinton's primary race was effectively over in March 1992.

From Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish:

I saw the apology as well - an apology to the Kennedy family, I might note, not to Senator Obama. Since some seem unwilling to point out why this remark was more than unfortunate, it is worth remembering that we have the first black candidate for president. You only have to spend a few minutes talking with African-Americans about this campaign to discover that the fear that Obama could be assassinated is very much on their minds. It is in everyone's subconscious, especially Michelle Obama's. To refer to the June assassination of Bobby Kennedy in the context of reasons to stay in this interminable race against Barack Obama is therefore catastrophically inappropriate. Coming after her pitch for "white votes", it is reckless.

As for her argument that June primaries are nothing new, she is correct. But in no previous primary election did the voting start just after New Years' Day. The New Hampshire primary in 1968 was on March 12, two months later than this year. For June, therefore, read August. Yes, this season has gone on for ever. And for Senator Clinton, it has now obviously gone on too long.

She's been waiting for Obama to implode. Instead, she just has.

More opinion here from icebergslim on Daily Kos.

Please contact DNC Chairman Howard Dean to protest this bomb throwing from Sen. Clinton.

Click the link above, or call (202) 863-8000 (Comment Line), or email: deanh@dnc.org

Also please contact the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (202) 225-0100 (Comment Line),

Finally, Donna Brazile:

donna@brazileassociates.com

To sum up, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann's special comment on the topic:



Please write to Olbermann's bosses to support him (he's taken a lot of heat for his special comment, above):

countdown@msnbc.com

phil.griffin@nbc.com

and more here:



Finally, make sure to vote at AOL about this issue.

yawn...

another of McCain's Reverend supporters

You've probably heard about Rev. Hagee, but have you heard about Rev. Parsley?



UPDATE, 5/22/08: ABC news seems to be picking up on this story, finally.

UPDATE, 5/23/08: Rev. Hagee speaks! McCain has distanced himself from the Rev. and Hagee thinks that's for the best...

Rev. Parsley now finds himself out in the cold, as well...

Erica Jong changes course

Erica Jong, feminist author, was a Clinton supporter until recently. She's reconsidered.

Excerpt:

It's time for Democrats to put all personal bias aside and unite behind the things we believe in: a planet we can live on, reproductive choice, workers rights, health care for all, education for poor and middle class students, fair taxes, a Constitution made whole, rescuing America from war profiteers -- if indeed there is still time.

It's already very late. It's too late for quarrels about whether race or gender is more restricting. It's too late for prognostications about a future presidency we won't know until it has unfolded. Remember so-called compassionate conservatism? It turned out to be neither compassionate nor conservative. Why anybody believes election slogans mystifies me. But we do know this: a landslide for Democrats will change the direction of this country. So let's join forces to make it happen--and let's start now.

Get-well card drive for Sen. Kennedy

Sadly, progressive champion Senator Ted Kennedy was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor this week. Senator Kerry will hand deliver a card (initiated by MoveOn.org) with all the signatures and well wishes to Senator Kennedy. Please add your name and message.

While you're at it, here's a dispatch from one of my fellow Obama Rapid Response members:

MSNBC has been plaguing Senator Kennedy at his home in Hyannis. There is a helicopter dispatched to gather "news" while this man is attempting to recuperate and face cancer. Honestly, this is repugnant and this is part of the politics and media behavior these past years that is truly inhumane and disrespectful.

I know everyone is working on Obama's campaign, but we have some influence in numbers and calling off this kind of invasive torment on behalf of our supporter Senator Kennedy may be a way we can help.

Please join me in writing to MSNBC to ask that they stop the helicopters over the compound and stalking papparazi lurking around the ocean and grounds.

Letters@msnbc.com

fun facts to know and tell about Clinton's "evolving" Florida strategy

Here's a good timeline of Clinton's point of view on Florida from Daily Kos.

McCain seeks internet troops

As Crooks and Liars says, it's like a desperate personal ad!

Head on over to the McCain-approved sites mentioned in the link and spread the, um, good word about the Arizona Senator!

Blue Collar TV

John McCain's blooper reel

Gallup: key constituencies are moving towards Obama

PRINCETON, NJ -- Gallup Poll Daily tracking has documented a surge in Democratic voters' support for Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton in recent days, swelling from a four percentage-point lead for Obama during the first part of May to a record 16-point lead for him in polling from May 16-18.

Sen. Obama is welcomed into the Crow Nation

Sen. Obama was welcomed into the Native American Crow Nation this week. Obama was given the name of "Awe Kooda bilaxpak Kuuxshish" which means "One who helps people throughout the land."

what young veterans are saying about McCain

drinking the Kool-Aid

Sen. Clinton now cites Karl Rove's analysis of the race as her reason for sticking with it.

Sen. CLINTON: Remember, the Republicans want to run against you because they know you're the weaker candidate! That's why they SAY you're the stronger candidate!

And regardless of their reasoning: why would you take your orders from Karl Rove in the first place?

talking back to the GOP

Clearly, strongly, and QUICKLY.

AOL poll

As usual, AOL is from another planet altogether. But it can't hurt to vote in their sorry excuse of a poll anyway!

talking to our enemies

Obama answers McCain's criticisms...



Former Secretary of State James Baker (from the Bush 41 administration) backs it up: the USA should be talking to its enemies.

The Obamas on Good Morning America today

The entire Obama family, including Michelle and the girls (Malia and Sasha), will be on ABC's Good Morning America later this morning.

Pictured: the Obamas in Portland, Oregon on 5/18/08

Unelectable

~75,000 rally for Barack in Portland, Oregon

The biggest crowd yet for Obama '08:



More here and here from the New York Times.

Portland, OR poll

Please vote! This one seems close!

Scroll down, on right.

Andrea Mitchell: Clinton '08 RIP

Andrea Mitchell has caught a lot of flack over the past few months for being biased towards the Clinton campaign (she's a personal friend of Sen. Clinton's).

So this pronouncement from her carries that much more weight...

wow

An AOL poll that favors Sen. Obama! This is a first!

Please vote (scroll down a bit).

tax returns

McCain and the GI Bill

Excerpt from Think Progress:

I was stop-lossed. My one hope and dream in the military was to go to college after I went through Iraq. I attempted suicide. I never deployed a second time. Because of that I received a general discharge. I lost my college benefits, the $40,000 promised to me in the Montgomery GI Bill, I will not be eligible to receive. And currently there is a Senator in Congress currently running for president, who is fighting to kill our Webb GI bill. And I’m one of the soldiers who will never get that money.

time to dust off this video again...

I posted this one a few months ago.



Apparently the Clinton camp is pressuring its supporters to rescind their NARAL memberships due to NARAL's endorsement of Sen. Obama. The interesting thing is that all along, NARAL gave both Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton identical 100% ratings. Now Sen. Clinton's supporters are up in arms about NARAL's move to officially endorse Obama.

NARAL's getting a flood of angry calls, so please send some positive comments from Obama supporters. Call or email and say thanks:

(202) 973-3000

can@prochoiceamerica.org

Or join NARAL and make up for the Clinton supporters who are rescinding their membership (it's free and you can do it online).

McAuliffe at work

I need a beer after listening to this montage. Maybe several beers.

Edwards endorses Obama

The much-sought-after endorsement has finally arrived.



Will Edwards throw his delegates to Obama, too? And will Edwards's support of blue-collar votes give Obama a boost?

today's Keith Olbermann's special comment

In two parts:

is it loyalty to her supporters, or hubris?

I honestly can't tell any longer...

and you thought YOU had problems...

Chicago online poll

Please vote in this online poll from radio station 670, "The Score".

Scroll down, on left. McCain's doing suprisingly well here!

NARAL Pro-Choice America endorses Obama

NARAL endorsed Obama today:



Clinton supporters are howling about this one. If you'd like to support NARAL in this decision, please contact them to thank them, or the establish or renew a membership.

If you encounter any Clinton supporters who are employing a "I'm taking my marbles and going home" mentality re: NARAL or other pro-choice organizations due to NARAL's endorsement (as you'll find on this open thread on Blog for Choice) please remind them of this fact:

NARAL itself gives BOTH Clinton and Obama 100% ratings.

It's a judgment call. NARAL made it.

I hope that Clinton supporters will not be fair-weather friends of the pro-choice movement...which is more important than any candidate, after all.

College Supers support Obama!

Lauren and Awais go for Barack:

vote for change

Click here to find out more information for your area.

Raspberry du jour

ABC is still allowing the Muslim rumor to survive.

Direct quotes from Good Morning America:

GMA's KATE SNOW: Janis said she can't support Obama.

JANIS (VOTER): He's Muslim and that has a lot to do with it. I just, you know, I just would rather have Hillary.

GMA's KATE SNOW: Just for the record he constantly says he's a Christian.

JANIS (VOTER): I know he does.

GMA's KATE SNOW: You don't believe him?

JANIS (VOTER): No.

Tell ABC that an on-air apology and correction are in order.

in your FACE, will.i.am!

just when you thought it was safe...

...to say the "Barack is a Muslim" rumor is dead and gone, comes this op-ed from the New York Times.

An excerpt:

Senator Obama is half African by birth and Africans can understandably identify with him. In Islam, however, there is no such thing as a half-Muslim. Like all monotheistic religions, Islam is an exclusive faith.

As the son of the Muslim father, Senator Obama was born a Muslim under Muslim law as it is universally understood. It makes no difference that, as Senator Obama has written, his father said he renounced his religion. Likewise, under Muslim law based on the Koran his mother’s Christian background is irrelevant.

Comments for the op/ed are closed (the site was barraged with hundreds of comments within just a few few hours, given the incendiary nature of the op/ed), but opinions may still be voiced by writing a letter to the editor:

letters@nytimes.com

Here's a letter I just wrote:

Dear Editors, New York Times:

I write in response to Edward Luttwak's online op/ed of May 12, 2008.

Apparently the writer feels that if a father is a Muslim, then so is the son --- regardless of the logistical circumstances, or the religious beliefs of others, within a family.

It seems likely that Barack Obama's mother, Anne Dunham, a highly ethical woman who chose to worship no god at all, would have taken issue with that viewpoint.

Yes, Barack Obama's father was a Muslim. He also left his wife and child when Barack Obama was only two years of age, and only saw his son on one other occasion during his lifetime. On the other hand, Obama's mother, who actually bothered to raise her child, was a non-believer. Some would say she was an agnostic; others, an atheist.

If the developments of the last few weeks show us anything, it is that a strong ethical framework and a clear record of results, not the details of the religious beliefs of any candidate, that interest the American public.

Please don't publish any more inflammatory writings which only further the cause of those who would divide us based on race, gender, and religion. There are far too many extremely pressing issues for us, as Americans, to address. Your publication can help the American people come to clarity on these issues, or it can further muddy the waters. Please make the right choice, in the spirit of responsible journalism.

Sincerely,

Elise MacDonald
New Ipswich, New Hampshire

young veterans for Obama

from MTV.com:

• MTV
• Music Videos
• MTV Shows
• Entertainment News

Please keep the focus on Obama's leadership on veterans' issues overall. His policies far outpace Sen. McCain's. Sam Graham-Feldstein's blog entry on MYBO lays out many of the details.

whoppers

The PolitiFact column from the The St. Petersburg Times provides us with a list of "Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire" moments. Plenty there from the Clintons and from McCain.

Conspicuously missing from the list is Barack Obama. Could it be because he is, as Time magazine's Joe Klein called him, "scrupulously honest"?

countering Clinton's "Southern Strategy"

From Time Magazine:

“Barack Obama had not been in politics for long when he got his tail whipped by a veteran Chicago Congressman in his own backyard in the 2000 US Congressional race. Obama couldn't win any of the black vote. The only ward he won was the White, Working-class Irish Catholic ward: a conservative community of cops, firefighters and schoolteachers. He took three-quarters of this vote.”

In addition, over 14 million WHITE people have voted for Obama. Why are the media trying to make this into a racial fight when it is not? Because Hillary said so? He won Iowa, one of the whitest states in the union!

The winner of the moveon.org 30-second ad contest

File under "Card, comma, Race"

New levels of snark, dished up by Paul Begala on Tuesday night! Donna Brazile sets him straight...



From The NY Times column "The Caucus":

As if the divisions between race and gender in the Democratic Party hadn’t been further exposed through Tuesday night’s exit polls — and by a very heated exchange on CNN between Donna Brazile and Paul Begala — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s interview with USA Today on Wednesday is further mining those tense depths.

“I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on,” she said in the interview, citing an article by The Associated Press.

It “found how Senator Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.”

“There’s a pattern emerging here,” she said.

Audio of the interview is here:



While she said her remarks weren’t meant to be divisive, they’re already whipping around the Internet. “These are the people you have to win if you’re a Democrat in sufficient numbers to actually win the election. Everybody knows that,” she said in the interview. (Hint, hint, message to the superdelegates still undeclared.)

In Indiana alone, six in 10 white voters went for Mrs. Clinton, where she narrowly won the primary.

Bill Burton, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, told the newspaper that Mr. Obama had made inroads in Tuesday’s contests. And he added that her comments “are not true and frankly disappointing.”

On Tuesday night, we mentioned the dustup between two Democratic pundits, Ms. Brazile and Mr. Begala, who engaged in a prime-time debate about the coalitions being built by Mr. Obama or Mrs. Clinton. Mr. Begala, a Clinton supporter, said the party could not win in November with just “eggheads and African-Americans,” that the party could not ignore white middle-class voters. Ms. Brazile, who said she was not “undecided but undeclared” when it came to her choice for a candidate, shot back that Mr. Begala’s notions were dividing the party. (And that she’d chugged down many a beer with Joe and Jane “six-pack” in an effort to woo white voters.)

We’re revisiting their spirited exchange to demonstrate how divided party loyalists are right now.

UPDATE, 5/12/08:

Peggy Noonan's recent column in the Wall Street Journal centers on the Begala/Brazile dustup. An excerpt:

In case you didn't get what was behind that exchange, Mrs. Clinton spent this week making it clear. In a jaw-dropping interview in USA Today on Thursday, she said, "I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on." As evidence she cited an Associated Press report that, she said, "found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."

White Americans? Hard-working white Americans? "Even Richard Nixon didn't say white," an Obama supporter said, "even with the Southern strategy."

If John McCain said, "I got the white vote, baby!" his candidacy would be over. And rising in highest indignation against him would be the old Democratic Party.

To play the race card as Mrs. Clinton has, to highlight and encourage a sense that we are crudely divided as a nation, to make your argument a brute and cynical "the black guy can't win but the white girl can" is -- well, so vulgar, so cynical, so cold, that once again a Clinton is making us turn off the television in case the children walk by.

"She has unleashed the gates of hell," a longtime party leader told me. "She's saying, 'He's not one of us.'"

She is trying to take Obama down in a new way, but also within a new context. In the past he was just the competitor. She could say, "All's fair." But now he's the competitor who is going to be the nominee of his party. And she is still trying to do him in. And the party is watching.

Again: amazing.

Who can save the situation? The superdelegates.

You know them. They're the ones hiding under the rock, behind the boulder, and at the bar.

They are terrified, most of them. They want the problem to go away. They want it handled, but they don't want to do it. They don't want to tell Hillary to stop, because they would likely pay a price for it, and not just with her.

They are afraid of looking as if they're jumping on a train that's speeding down the tracks and is about to roll over the damsel in distress.

Which is how Hillary -- and her supporters -- will paint it. Even though she's no damsel, and she causes distress.

Sit back, relax...

...get ready to RUMBLE!

This Newsweek article sums up the mood in the Obama camp.

An excerpt:

There are no screamers on Team Obama; one senior Obama aide says he's heard him yell only twice in four years. Obama was explicit from the beginning: there was to be "no drama," he told his aides. "I don't want elbowing or finger-pointing. We're going to rise or fall together." Obama wanted steady, calm, focused leadership; he wanted to keep out the grandstanders and make sure the quiet dissenters spoke up. A good formula for running a campaign—or a presidency.

It worked against Hillary Clinton, whose own campaign has been rent by squabbling aides and turf battles. While Clinton veered between playing Queen Elizabeth I and Norma Rae, Obama and his team chugged along with a superior 50-state campaign strategy, racking up the delegates. If the candidate seemed weary and peevish or a little slow to respond at times, he never lost his cool. But the real test is yet to come. The Republican Party has been successfully scaring voters since 1968, when Richard Nixon built a Silent Majority out of lower- and middle-class folks frightened or disturbed by hippies and student radicals and blacks rioting in the inner cities. The 2008 race may turn on which party will win the lower- and middle-class whites in industrial and border states—the Democrats' base from the New Deal to the 1960s, but "Reagan Democrats" in most presidential elections since then. It is a sure bet that the GOP will try to paint Obama as "the other"—as a haughty black intellectual who has Muslim roots (Obama is a Christian) and hangs around with America-haters.

Obama says he's ready for the onslaught. "Yes, we know what's coming," he told a cheering crowd as he won the North Carolina primary last week. "We've seen it already … the attempts to play on our fears and exploit our differences to turn us against each other for pure political gain—to slice and dice this country into Red States and Blue States; blue-collar and white-collar; white, black, brown."

it bears repeating

The history of the MI and FL delegate flap...conveniently summed up by Tim Russert:

a major milestone

The mainstream media seems to have finally lifted its embargo on talking about Sen. Clinton's brothers and their seedy role in Bill Clinton's administration (pictured: Hugh Rodham with Bill C. in 1999).

Bob Herbert, the New York Times Op/Ed writer, discusses the Rodham brothers, Bill C.'s "blizzard of pardons" in his last hours in office, and Sen. Clinton's revival of the Republican "Southern Strategy" in his May 10th column.

fun superdelegate trend chart...

Find a full-sized chart here.

The newspaper which knows him best...

...debunks McCain's carefully cultivated "maverick" label.

Read the Arizona Republic article here.

Excerpt:

A Washington Post analysis notes McCain voted with the GOP this term 88.3 percent of the time, the same as Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., whose conservative credentials are seldom questioned. McCain ranked ahead of 29 other Republicans, including Arizona's Jon Kyl, who holds the No. 2 spot in party leadership.

Congressional Quarterly gave McCain a 90 percent score for "party unity" voting last year and said he supported the president's position on legislation 95 percent of the time. During the Bush years, McCain's poorest totals from CQ were 67 percent party-unity voting in 2001 and 77 percent support for the Bush agenda in 2005.

Obama takes Superdelegate lead

...which wipes out the only area where Sen. Clinton held a numerical advantage.

Play the Bush/McCain Challenge!

This fun quiz delineates some issues where Bush and McCain have differences, and others where they...don't.

West Virginia contact information

Obama has all but conceded West Virginia to Sen. Clinton. But there's still plenty of effort that can be made to help close the margin.

WV media contact list

Information about WV

roll credits

From Taegan Goddard's Political Wire:

With Sen. Barack Obama now leading in the support of both pledged delegates and superdelegates -- adding at least seven more supers to his tally today -- ABC News reports that Bill Clinton is making the case that Sen. Hillary Clinton can still win the popular vote if she gets 80% support in West Virginia next week.

Unfortunately, "many in the crowd seemed to lose interest as he began his speech -- even during his appeal for a high voter turnout."

Bill...Bill....HEY, BILL!!!

Bill, 80% is a larger amount than Sen. Clinton was able to garner in even the Arkansas primary. We in the reality-based community are "losing interest" as well!

An NPR commentator made the analogy that the show is over; the credits are rolling; patrons are leaving the theatre. But Sen. Clinton isn't moving from her seat.

Perhaps the custodian could get her to leave the building before he has to turn out the lights?

New York Times, former Clinton endorser...

...essentially retracted its endorsement today.

Excerpt:

There is a lot of talk that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is now fated to lose the Democratic nomination and should pull out of the race. We believe it is her right to stay in the fight and challenge Senator Barack Obama as long as she has the desire and the means to do so. That is the essence of the democratic process.

But we believe just as strongly that Mrs. Clinton will be making a terrible mistake — for herself, her party and for the nation — if she continues to press her candidacy through negative campaigning with disturbing racial undertones. We believe it would also be a terrible mistake if she launches a fight over the disqualified delegations from Florida and Michigan.

Interesting delegate/superdelegate calculator

VERY illustrative...from the NY Times.

Real Clear Politics has this to say about the calculator:

Determining the degree to which Clinton can close the pledged delegate gap in the remaining primaries might lead the average Clinton supporter to be fairly skeptical of her chances at the nomination. The new New York Times Delegate Calculator (rereleased Monday) puts this in even greater perspective. It factors in the percentage of remaining super delegates Clinton would need to win assuming she receives a certain percentage of the remaining pledged delegates.

What does it reveal?

If Clinton were to win a generous 57 percent of the pledged delegates in the remaining states, she would still need 63 percent of the undecided super delegates remaining to win the nomination. Clinton won 53.7% of the pledged delegates from her Pennsylvania victory and 52.4% of the pledged delegates from her Ohio victory.

A more revealing way to put it would be that Obama could manage only 43% of the pledged delegates in the remaining primaries and still need only 38% of the undecided super delegates to back him.

Based on recent super delegate trends even after Obama’s most recent struggles, such a wave of Clinton support among super delegates appears to be quite a daunting task.

FoxNews quick vote

"Should Clinton drop out?"

Scroll down, towards the bottom of the page. Please vote!

Barack on iTunes

Some of Obama's most important speeches and prominent policy positions are now available for free download on iTunes --- either video, or just audio.

Next, I want to see his playlists...8^)

what counts on Planet Clinton

From a fellow member of the Obama Rapid Response group:

Today Sen. Clinton stated that Obama has a problem with hard-working white Americans who had not completed college (implying he'd therefore have a tough time winning the general election).

So to sum up...Here's who/what doesn't count, according to Sen. Clinton:

White Americans who have completed college;
Wall Street (they're money grubbers);
Economists (they're "elitists");
3.5 million party "activists" that provide a "gusher of money" and major voter mobilization capabilities;
African-American voters;
Young voters;
Educated voters;
Women who support Obama;
Over 1.5 million individual Obama donors;
Former Clinton superdelegates;
Former Clinton cabinet members;
Small states, red states, caucus states, total states won;
Popular vote;
Pledged delegates.

Here's a link to video of the Clinton campaign's Wolfson spinning on Hardball...more of the same.

The Hillary Deathwatch

Slate Magazine is running a Sen. Clinton Deathwatch.

An excerpt:

A high-profile change of heart, a multimillion-dollar loan, and more Obama superdelegates drag Clinton down 1.7 points to 2.5 percent.

George McGovern, the Democratic nominee for president in 1972, says he's done supporting Hillary Clinton. He told Fox that she waged a valiant campaign but that it's time for her to drop out because the math is too daunting. McGovern had already flirted with Obama a few weeks ago—he told the Huffington Post that Obama had the better chance of winning in November—but today's announcement is a hiccup that Clinton can't afford.

CNN quick vote

Should Sen. Clinton withdraw from the race now?

(scroll down, on right hand side of page)

MediaBistro poll

Which network did you turn to last night for the returns?

(unfortunately, "NPR" and/or "the web" aren't a choice).

Pundits reflect on last night

from Taegan Goddard's Political Wire:

Marc Ambinder: "Barack Obama is, by almost every measure and by almost every unmeasurable impression, on the precipice of being able to declare victory and have his declaration be accepted by the media and his party."

George Stephanopoulos: "More superdelegates will come out today for Barack Obama -- they will come three, four, five at a time, and this nomination will be locked up."

Rick Klein: "The question that is now astoundingly close to being the most urgent one in the presidential race: Does Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton see a distinction between the good of the Clintons, the good of the Democratic Party, and the good of the country?"

Ben Smith: "The campaign goes on, but the chatter today has already begun on the truce Obama appeared to offer Clinton last night with his conciliatory, forward-looking speech, and whether Clinton will more or less embrace it. There's no imperative that she actually drop out, but it now becomes hard for her to sustain a full-out, combative campaign -- to stay on offense, and to raise the money it takes to do so."

Walter Shapiro: "Tuesday night was likely Clinton's last major window of opportunity in this race -- and despite her game face and spirited spin, she undoubtedly knows that it all but slammed on her fingers."

Thomas Edsall: "In the universe of political clichés, she is on life support, her oxygen choked off, her knees buckling, unable to stanch the bleeding, down for an eight count, on the ropes, praying for the bell to ring, desperate to get her wind back."

Looks like...

...it's probably over.

12:15 am: Indiana hanging by a thread in Clinton's favor, with numbers from some his most favorable territory still unreported; NC solidly in Obama's column; Sen. Clinton's Florida/Michigan gambits now irrelevant, due to total numbers.

Olbermann on perpetually shifting Clinton strategies

Daily Show: Panderer's Box

As usual from the Daily Show, some much-needed comic relief!

last-second Indianapolis TV station poll

WISH in Indianapolis has a poll up: who will win the IN primary?

Barack's slightly ahead. Please vote! They're likely to hype the result on their newscast tomorrow at noon!

Scroll down slightly; close to the center of the page.

final salvo for Indiana and North Carolina

Olbermann on McClinton's pandering "Hail Mary pass" gas tax holiday plan

Here's a Newsweek article explaining why the gas tax "holiday" simply will not work...

UPDATE, 5/3/08:

Calitics.com estimates job losses of 20,000 or more in California alone if a gas tax holiday is implemented. Road workers are on payrolls, Sen. Clinton...and they can't just go out and make a few college speeches to make up the difference, like your hubby can.

Meanwhile, 200 economists have stood up against Sen. Clinton's gas plan. Not that she's listening.

UPDATE, 5/5/08:

Here's a new ad Obama is running on the gas tax issue:



FLIP the SCRIPT: The Bill Clinton Library is the beneficiary of a $10 million donation from the Saudis. Does that boost Sen. Clinton's credibility on energy policy?

Of course not. Which is why she's going on the attack against Obama instead. Here's her latest ad from Indiana:



Here's video of Barack on yesterday's Meet the Press. The differences between his policy and Sen. Clinton's couldn't be much clearer.



PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!

United Steelworkers assoc. member & superdelegate endorses Obama

CHICAGO, IL — Kalyn Free, an at-large member of the Democratic National Committee, today announced that she supports Illinois Senator Barack Obama for the party’s presidential nomination. As a DNC member, Free will serve as a superdelegate to the Democratic National Convention. Free is also founder and President of INDN’s List, an organization dedicated to recruiting and training American Indian candidates.

Read the full article from The Page here.

California Superdelegates are watching...

California superdelegates' wavering bodes ill for Hillary Clinton

Some who have supported her say they'll switch to Barack Obama if she doesn't make big gains in the remaining Democratic primaries.

By Scott Martelle, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

May 5, 2008

FRESNO -- Hillary Rodham Clinton, stung last week by the defection of a prominent superdelegate, could lose the backing of more of these Democratic Party leaders and elected officials if she fails to make significant gains in the remaining month of presidential nominating contests, several California superdelegates said this weekend.

Read the full article here.

FOX news reports...

...that a clear majority of voters approve of how Obama has handled Rev. Wright.

Now...would somebody please tell the people at MSNC and CNN, who keep looping their Rev. Wright "specials" every day? (See the "media contacts" section in "Links" section in the right-hand margin).

Even when she's trying to pander to gun owners...

...trying to be WorkingClassWoman(TM), Sen. Clinton shows she's nothing more than a poser.

In her most recent ad against Obama's gun policy, it seems that she utilized an imported German rifle that costs $2200.00 --- hardly the gun you'd find in most duck-hunters' hands.

Friday's NC Jefferson/Jackson Dinner speech

In four parts:

patriot

Sen. Clinton is against the closing of an Indiana factory...

...which her husband's actions helped to close.

Gosh, it's complicated being Sen. Clinton!

ABC news goes into a little more detail here, and also in this video (below) from a recent episode of World News Tonight.



Please read and Digg this article! Please write letters to the editor on this topic, particularly in Indiana!

last-minute North Carolina ad

NC gets out the vote!

Barack makes a basket at the buzzer

From his visit to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Indiana last month:

PC vs. Mac

contact CNN

CNN Headline News's Glen Beck Show is planning yet another one-hour special on Rev. Wright tonight.

The Rev. Wright story been wrung like an old dish rag. Everything that could possibly said has been said. The rest is just echo-chamber. Further, many less "ratings-driven" news organizations, such as NPR, have a policy of not airing programs about a given candidate 24 hours before a major election. Such a policy would be a welcome change across the board.

Please contact CNN to complain about Glenn Beck's and CNN's lack of journalistic integrity.

Obama's Top 10 on the David Letterman Show