30.5

MSNBC is reporting that Senator barack Obama is only 30.5 delegates away from winning the Democratic nomination for the Presidency of the United States.

Edwards Endorses Obama

It's about time! And I must admit that I thought the Clinton camp would say that at this point, his endorsement doesn't amount to much because it's long after the North Carolina primary, what's the big deal, yadda, yadda, yadda.... but I'd be wrong.

...A source close to the Clinton campaign said the Edwards camp gave the Clinton folks a head's up. "Clearly it's upsetting" the source tells ABC. "He brings the workers" to Obama.

And perhaps in hindsight, those who wanted an earlier endorsement from Edwards (myself included) are now realizing that instead of being one of many during the heat of the primaries where the Clinton campaign could have blown off Edwards' endorsement as not very meaningful are now realizing that the current timing of it could be the final nail in the coffin for Hillary. I'm venturing to guess that the superdelegate trickle these past few weeks will soon become a bursting dam.

Superdelegates Swamped with Coordinated Pro Clinton E-mails

In an attempt to persuade superdelegates, an e-mail campaign to flood the uncommitted remainder of the superdels and fill their inboxes began and in my opinion, is having negative results for the Clinton camp.

Speculation is that the e-mail inundation was the brainchild of either Taylor Marsh, a pro-Clinton blogger, or Hillaryis44.org, two websites I refuse to acknowledge with a mouse click, hence no link.

You gotta love Donna Brazille for e-mailing back.

In one exchange, Donna Brazille, Al Gore's campaign manager and a stalwart of the Democratic Party, responded with frustration to a writer's threats of defection. "Honestly, this is the 9th email today," she wrote before 8:00 pm. "So I believe you're ready to not only destroy Roe versus Wade, voting rights, civil liberties and civil rights. Perhaps adding trillions more to the deficits through non-stop tax cuts to the wealthy and 100 more years in Iraq. Yes, please join Rush and McCain asap. The train has left. Catch it."

...At least two other party insiders wrote the Huffington Post expressing concern over the scope ("I've received emails like this for weeks but tonight it started in mass) and negativity of some of the Obama attacks, including one red-state Democrat:

"I spent my entire life in the two reddest states in the entire U.S. so please excuse me if I fail to discern the nuances of the arguments sent my way this evening in what appears to be an orchestrated campaign to intimidate the remaining unpledged delegates by threatening to leave the party and vote for a third Bush term if I and others like me don't vote for Sen. Clinton," wrote the exasperated superdelegate. "I have been uncommitted throughout this campaign because I wanted to see how the candidates performed in a variety of settings. I am proud of them both. But I am horrified by this effort to threaten votes for McCain if super delegates don't vote for Sen. Clinton. I have received hundreds of emails from both sides - but I can say without exception that I have not received a single email from an Obama supporter that threatened a vote for McCain if I didn't support Sen. Obama. You really ought to be ashamed."

UPDATE: Phil Singer, a spokesman for Clinton, emails to say that the campaign knows nothing about the emails. Meanwhile, two readers write in to say they saw the campaign being coordinated at the friendly Clinton website Hillaryis44.org, as well as the blog page on Clinton's own website.

May 20th.... May 20th... May 20th.... May 20th...

Deny, Deny, Deny...

...the inevitable.

Superdelegate Joe Andrew Flips To Obama!

Here comes the avalanche! Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Joe Andrew of Indiana has flipped his endorsement of Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama.

"This has got to come to an end," former Democratic National Committee Chairman Joe Andrew told reporters in his hometown of Indianapolis just days before Tuesday's crucial state primary. He said he planned to call all the other superdelegates he knows and encourage them to back Obama.

...In a lengthy letter explaining his decision, Andrew said he is switching his support because "a vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote to continue this process, and a vote to continue this process is a vote that assists (Republican) John McCain."

"The ship is taking on water right now," Andrew said at the news conference. "We need to patch those holes, heal the rift and go forward to beat John McCain."

...Andrew said the Obama campaign never asked him to switch his support, but he decided to do so after watching Obama's handling of two issues in recent days. He said Obama took the principled stand in opposing a summer gas tax holiday that both Clinton and McCain supported, even though it would have been easier politically to back it. And he said he was impressed with Obama's handling of the controversy surrounding his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

..."He has shown such mettle under fire," Andrew said in the interview. "The Jeremiah Wright controversy just reconfirmed for me, just as the gas tax controversy confirmed for me, that he is the right candidate for our party."

That's what I'm talking about! A Democrat with... how shall I put it... "testicular fortitude."

How Hillary Can Win

It's not far-fetched.



... It could happen...

Clinton: Obama Can't Win

Interesting that although Clinton is losing to Obama in pledged delegates and the popular vote, she is now stirring with pot with the latest in a string of her campaign's arguments: Barack Obama cannot win the general election against John McCain. It would be very sad indeed if she actually believed that.

Sources with direct knowledge of the conversation between Sen. Clinton and Governor Bill Richardson, D-N.M., prior to the Governor's endorsement of Obama say she told him flatly, "He cannot win, Bill. He cannot win."

This news come on the heels of an incident that took place during a superdelegate meeting with Bill Clinton (in which he was trying to garner support for Hillary) where he exploded when Rachel Binah - a former Richardson delegate who now supports Hillary Clinton - told Bill how "sorry" she was to have heard former Clinton campaign manager James Carville call Richardson a "Judas" for backing Obama.

I expect that the exchange went something like this:




Hillary Clinton may be comparing herself to Rocky Balboa, but saying Obama can't win sounds more like Adrian to me.

Oh, and one more thing - I believe that Sylvester Stallone is a McCain supporter which fits right in with the Clinton rhetoric.
















(H/T TRex for the pic)

Completely Laughable

When asked if Senator Hillary Clinton should drop out of the race for the good of the party as Senator Patrick Leahy had suggested, Senator Barack Obama said:

"My attitude is that Sen. Clinton can run as long as she wants. Her name is on the ballot ... she should be able to compete and her supporters should be able to support her for as long as they are willing or able."

..."Some time in early June that at that point there are no more contests and I think it is important to pivot as quickly as possible, for the super delegates or others to make a decision as quickly as possible so that we can settle on a nominee and give that nominee some time before the convention to select a vice president or presidential nominee to start thinking about how the convention should be conducted," he said.

..."We will have had contests in all 50 states plus several territories," he said. "We will have tallied up the pledge delegate vote. We will have tallied up the popular vote, we will have tallied up how many states that were won by who. And then at that point I think people should have more than enough information to make a decision."

Classy, right? I thought so too. So what was Clinton's response today?

"My take on it is a lot of Senator Obama's supporters want to end this race because they don't want people to keep voting," she told CBS affiliate KTVQ in Billings, Mont. "That's just the opposite of what I believe. We want people to vote. I want the people of Montana to vote, don't you?"

Obama's campaign called that assertion "completely laughable."

Responding to Clinton, Obama spokesman Bill Burton said: "That is completely laughable from a campaign that thought the race would be over on February 5. We have encouraged our supporters to do no such thing and Senator Obama was very clear he supports her carrying on in this race."

That pretty much says it all right there. Clinton's campaign has been one of shooting from the hip, the "kitchen sink" of horrible desperation and prompting a Democratic leader to characterize her attacks as the "Tonya Harding option" ever since the February 5th Super Tuesday contests, when they though it would be over and the Queen would be anointed the Democratic nominee. And that is what sickens me.

It has nothing to do with gender and everything to do with the Clinton sense of entitlement and trying to change the rules of the game after the contest begins. Why else would she say she would follow Democratic Party rules and remove her name from the ballot in Michigan, as did Obama and Edwards, and then leave her name on? Why have a celebration for her "victory" in Florida when there was no contest in Florida? And then to cast blame on Obama as if he was the sole reason that Florida (with a Republican led state party) and Michigan aren't having revotes is just ridiculous. Those states voted not to have revotes. Contrary to Clinton, Obama has been vocal about following the rules set forth by the DNC, and not trying to change them during the game.

Obama has been picking up superdelegates at a rapid clip while Clinton's success with that group has slowed considerably.

"I don't even keep track of it, I can't even tell you that figure," Clinton said when asked by Pittsburgh CBS affiliate KDKA how many superdelegates had endorsed her in recent weeks.

As she spoke, her husband, former President Clinton, was in Oregon, lobbying uncommitted superdelegates.

Aren't you tired of the bold-face lying that continues to come from the Clinton campaign?

Holy Joe Stripped

And then there were 795.

Holy Joe LIEberman has been stripped of his Democratic superdelegate status.

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), who endorsed Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) for president, will be disqualified as a superdelegate at the Democratic convention "under what is informally known as the Zell Miller rule." In 2004, Miller -- then a Democratic senator from Georgia -- attacked Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) in a speech at the Republican National Convention. The DNC "responded with a rule disqualifying any Democrat who crosses the aisle from being a super delegate."

Democratic State Chairwoman Nancy DiNardo said Lieberman will not be replaced. Now if they'll only strip him of every Democratic Committee chair he holds...

Shuster Apologizes But Clinton Threatens MSNBC

Last night, David Shuster made an inappropriate comment while interviewing a couple of analysts regarding Chelsea Clinton's role in her mother's campaign and calling the hosts of The View as well as superdelegates trying to garner support for Hillary Clinton.

SHUSTER: ...there's just something a little bit unseemly to me that Chelsea is out there calling up celebrities saying, "Support my mom." And, apparently, she's also calling these super delegates... doesn't it seem like Chelsea's sort of being pimped out in some weird sort of way?

Now we all know what he meant by that comment and it was a definitely a slip of the tongue and inappropriate for Shuster to use that particular slang phrase. Had Shuster said Chelsea was "being used" instead of being "pimped out," there would be absolutely no story here. But apparently the public flipped out to the extent that MSNBC has suspended Shuster from all NBC broadcasting except to apologize for the remark, which he has done.

Story over, right? WRONG.

Now the Clinton campaign has threatened not to participate in any MSNBC sponsored debates.

In a conference call with reporters, Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson on Friday excoriated MSNBC's David Shuster for suggesting the Clinton campaign had "pimped out" 27-year old Chelsea by having her place phone calls to celebrities and Democratic Party "superdelegates" on her mother's behalf.

Wolfson called Shuster's comment "beneath contempt" and disgusting.

"I, at this point, can't envision a scenario where we would continue to engage in debates on that network," he added.

I now call "BULLSHIT" on Wolfson. Who the fuck does he think he's kidding? If Hillary Clinton doesn't want to participate in the debates, then fine. We're done with it. They won't participate on MSNBC, but they're ready to debate on Fox News? Are they fucking insane?

Just last week, Clinton was begging for a chance at weekly debates as her funds were running low and the contests would provide free exposure, but now that she's gotten an influx of internet cash after revealing that she has signed a $5 million personal check to keep her campaign going, NOW the campaign is threatening MSNBC? Really?!

You know what, Hil? Go ahead. Shoot yourself in the foot, because that is exactly what you're going to do if you decide to renege on MSNBC. Obama will say no to Fox, and you'll be back at square one, with maybe one debate on CNN. All this after MSNBC has suspended Shuster from any NBC broadcast due to the comments for which he's already apologized.

You've had 18 fucking debates already! I'm sick of hearing "ready to lead on day one," and "35 years of experience," so unless you have a new talking point, I think I've heard your entire schtick multiple times. I don't need to hear it another five times before March 4th. Debate exposure at this point is only going to benefit you, so if you really want to pull the trigger before removing your gun for its holster, be my guest.