Barack Obama Elected President!

[Roman]

A superdelegate flood coming? Posted: Monday, June 02, 2008 4:04 PM by Mark Murray

Filed Under: 2008, Obama, Delegates

From NBC's Chuck Todd

Buzz on the Capitol Hill suggests that has many as 34 of the undeclared superdelegates residing in the House will endorse Obama by Wednesday. As many as 18 of these 34 -- many of them elected to Congress in the last four years -- will come out for Obama tomorrow so he can edge closer to his magic number before the vote counting ends in South Dakota and Montana. The biggest Obama get in the House to date will come tomorrow when House Dem Caucus Chairman Jim Clyburn officially declares.

No other member of the Dem leadership is expected to endorse Obama while Clinton is still running.

[Southofnowhere]

If Clinton was in Obama's place would the Dems be as nice or would they have already all jumped to Hillary?

[Roman]

Well, right now a number of SDs have called a special meeting.

I don't know what they are meeting about.......but it's the same number Obama needs to put him over the top.

And yes.......if Obama was in Clinton's shoes, he would have been picked up and thrown out the window.

[Wales2004]

If he were running behind her they would not have let it get this far. They most definitely would have "eased him out" already but maybe they would have offered him some sort of consolation prize. I don't know if all this treading lightly is solely because she's a Clinton or whether it's because she's a woman or both but they're really not doing themselves any favors by constantly saying she's earned the right to make a graceful exit. The time passed on the graceful already.

Letting one candidate beat down the other candidate who is most likely to get the nomination isn't a smart move. If Harry Reid is going to wait until HC drops out to back a candidate then he's basically useless if she decides to hang around until August so he has already shown his weakness.

The most interesting twist to come out of the repetitious rumors and guessing games is the idea that HC might need Obama to mend fences. The perspective given most often is that he needs her to win whatever states she's won peppered in with the not necessarily so and questioning of her baggage, so maybe because the VP spot is no longer dominating the discussion about her possible exit, the reality that she's got a rift with which to deal is getting a little play.

[Roman]

So now it is being said that she needs him to heal some rifts?

Wow.

That should slow down that "He needs her" stuff that keeps being said by some.

[Southofnowhere]

They need eachother.

Obama needs Hillary with Women but it looks like his VP very well could be a woman should bring them around?

Hillary needs Obama to help her with Blacks , the Clintons have ruined themselfs with Blacks and she has also hurt her standing with the party.

I still hope Gov. Bill Richardson will be the VP!

[DevotedToAMC]

I think they need each other

If his VP is a woman, it should be Hillary Clinton. He even said today that he and Hillary will work together for the election in November. Something tells me he is signaling to adding her on the ticket to make it the dream ticket that millions want to see.

There is no question that Hillary will bring in the women vote on the ticket...but she also attracts more groups than other women candidates do. I don't believe there are any other women out there who attract Asians, Hispanics/Latinos, seniors, working class people, Independents and young people, and moderates the way Hillary does.

[Roman]

BR is the man I want, and he can pick any other woman but her.

She is just political poison to him, as fas as I'm concerned.

It's also amazing how BO got to this position without women, asians, hispanics, seniors, latinos, working class people, independents and young voters voting for him.

So......who were the 17.5 million people in the 34 states that he won?

Hmmmmmm.............

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The House majority whip and the top ranking African-American in Congress is expected to endorse Sen. Barack Obama in the Democratic presidential race on Tuesday, several sources told CNN.

Sources say Rep. James Clyburn will announce Tuesday that he is endorsing Sen. Barack Obama for president.

Rep. James Clyburn has so far been neutral in the race between the front-running Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton, the former first lady.

But sources close to the South Carolina congressman and high-level Democratic operatives said Clyburn will throw his support to Obama on Tuesday -- the day of the last Democratic primaries, in South Dakota and Montana.

Meanwhile, four of the 17 uncommitted Democratic senators gathered at the party's Senate campaign committee headquarters to discuss their course of action after those primaries. All are party superdelegates whose support will tip the balance of the Clinton-Obama race.

"It was just a dialogue about moving to peace -- how are we going to create unity in the Democratic Party," said Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colorado, one of the participants.

Another participant, Maryland's Sen. Ben Cardin, said he expected to make a decision in the next few days.

"I think most people realize this process is coming to an end, and it's important to bring this matter to a conclusion," Cardin said. "As I've said all along, I've said my support would be for the person who had the most support, without any specific formula, in the primaries and caucuses and had the momentum going into the general election and has our best chance of winning in November. I think most of the information is known. Just two more states to go."

Most of the 17 will endorse Obama later this week, two sources familiar with the senators' discussions said. But Montana Sen. Jon Tester, who did not attend Monday's meeting, said he was willing to wait until Tuesday's results before making a decision.

"I want to wait until it all plays out in Montana," Tester said. "I think that what's happened over the last couple weeks in Montana and South Dakota has been nothing short of amazing, with Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton crisscrossing both of those states and giving us the kind of exposure to national candidates like we've literally never had before."

Tester and Cardin were among the Democrats whose 2006 wins gave the party control of the Senate.

Clinton told reporters Sunday after winning the Democratic primary in Puerto Rico that she was taking the presidential race "a day at a time" and is reviewing the "options available" as she moves ahead with her campaign.

Her campaign got a boost from the Saturday ruling by the party's Rules and Bylaws Committee that gives the disputed delegations from Florida and Michigan half their votes.

"People have been trying to get me out of this race since Iowa and my political obituary has yet to be written and we're going forward," she said.

Obama is 46 delegates short of the 2,118 needed to clinch the Democratic nomination, while Clinton needs 202. There are 31 pledged delegates up for grabs in the Tuesday contests, and 202 superdelegates have yet to commit to either candidate.

Obama has the support of 331 superdelegates -- unpledged Democratic elected officials and party leaders. Clinton has 292.

[DevotedToAMC]

Oh bullshit. If she really was political poison, he would not even entertain the thought of adding her on as VP. She has done very little to him compared to what I have seen in other political campaigns. She attracts all the necessary groups to win and can get them to turn out in mass numbers to vote for a Hillarack ticket. Do you see Richardson attracting Asians, as many women, young people, Independents, working class, and seniors the way she does? Nope

[Roman]

Now.......back to BO's presidential run.....

Obama nears win amid signs Clinton may admit loss

By DAVID ESPO – 46 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Barack Obama pushed close to victory in the marathon Democratic presidential race Monday on the eve of a final pair of primaries amid signs that Hillary Rodham Clinton was preparing to acknowledge defeat.

Said a confident-sounding Obama: "I told her that once the dust settled I'm looking forward to meeting with her at a time and place of her choosing." That was from a conversation the two rivals had on Sunday night. He did not describe her response.

He also said he would begin thinking about a vice presidential running mate "the day after I have gotten that last delegate needed to officially claim the nomination."

The former first lady gave no public hint of quitting the race, and she has said repeatedly she might continue her candidacy even beyond the end of the primaries.

But her husband, former President Clinton, strongly suggested otherwise. "This may be the last day I'm ever involved in a campaign of this kind," he said as he worked for his wife in South Dakota.

Obama, bidding to become the first black major party nominee in history, was 41.5 delegates shy of the 2,118, needed to clinch the nomination at the party's convention in Denver, according to The Associated Press count. He gained 5.5 delegates during the day Monday, including Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, a member of the House leadership who scheduled a formal announcement for Tuesday.

Obama's aides prodded uncommitted lawmakers and other "superdelegates" to climb on board quickly — as Clinton struggled to hold back the tide.

Rep. Jason Altmire of Pennsylvania, who is uncommitted, said Obama's goal was to be in position to seal the nomination Tuesday night, once the votes are tallied and delegates awarded from primaries in Montana and South Dakota. The first-term congressman, whose district voted for Clinton in the state's April primary, said he would not be immediately joining the endorsers. "I'm not going to do anything before the results tomorrow night," he said.

Clinton, the long-ago front-runner, was not far behind Obama in delegates. She had 1917.5 after adding two during the day.

But there was no doubt that the historic nominating campaign, pitting a black man against a woman, was nearing an end.

If nothing else, the candidates' itineraries said as much.

The former first lady campaigned into the night in South Dakota, scratching for a primary triumph that could somehow persuade uncommitted superdelegates to back her, before heading home to New York for a post-primary appearance Tuesday night.

"I'm just very grateful we kept this campaign going until South Dakota would have the last word," she said at a restaurant in Rapid City.

Obama looked ahead to the general election by campaigning in Michigan, a likely battleground state in the fall campaign.

He said that when he called Clinton on Sunday to congratulate her on her Puerto Rico primary victory, he broached the topic of a meeting.

"The sooner we can bring the party together, the sooner we can focus on John McCain and taking back the White House," he said.

Obama stopped short of a flat prediction that he would be able to claim victory Tuesday night when the delegates were allocated after the day's primaries. But he said, "It is my sense that between Tuesday and Wednesday we have a good chance of getting that number of delegates" needed for victory.

Obama arranged a Tuesday night speech in Minnesota, at the site of the Republican National Convention that will nominate Arizona Sen. McCain in September.

Democratic Party leaders watched impatiently from the sidelines, eager for a quick end to a race that drew record millions to voting booths but also exposed racial and other divisions.

Officials said that if Obama failed to gain 2,118 delegates by Tuesday night, one possibility under discussion was for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, who is head of the Democratic Governors' Association, to issue a statement on Wednesday urging superdelegates — members of Congress and other party leaders — to state their preferences as soon as possible.

Clyburn, the senior black member of Congress, has long been presumed to support Obama. Confirming plans for a formal announcement, he said was lobbying other uncommitted lawmakers to endorse the Illinois senator.

Two Democrats also said Rep. John Spratt of South Carolina would join Clyburn in making an endorsement.

Additionally, a handful of uncommitted senators conferred to plan their next move in the nominating campaign. "A lot of us just feel that the sooner this is sort of put to bed, the sooner we have a nominee, the better off everyone's going to be," said Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, one of the participants.

Clinton has had a strong run through the late primaries, including a lopsided victory on Sunday in the Puerto Rico primary, and she has repeatedly declined to say she would concede defeat if her rival appeared to gain the delegates he needs.

A top aide, Harold Ickes, stressed over the weekend that the campaign reserved the right to challenge a ruling by the convention rules and bylaws committee that he said improperly gave a handful of Michigan delegates to Obama.

But in a conference call during the day with top donors, Ickes said that would probably not happen, according to one participant who described the conversation on condition of anonymity.

Even some of her strongest supporters counseled against it.

"If one candidate has the requisite number of delegates, both pledged and super, it makes it far more difficult to make the credible argument that she stay on in the chance that some superdelegates might change their mind and endorse her later," said Hassan Nemazee, a national co-chairman of Clinton's finance committee.

Ickes also conceded that Obama was likely to reach the delegate threshold by Wednesday, and that Clinton would need some time to consider her next step.

He said there was no political significance to a decision to invite staff aides who have worked for Clinton in primary states to either attend her rally on Tuesday night or return home for further instructions. But officials said the aides had been told they would no longer be paid.

"There are no more primaries so there is nowhere to send them," Ickes said.

The former first lady arranged a private meeting with her donors on Tuesday, and was scheduled to address the national conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington on Wednesday.

Associated Press writers Kim Hefling, Beth Fouhy, Nedra Pickler, Laurie Kellman, Jim Kuhnhenn, Stephen Ohlemacher and Jim Davenport contributed to this story

Oh, and BTW........there are many who, after the campaign she ran, wouldn't elect her dog catcher. I would actually consider her for the spot, Devoted, if you didn't run in here trying to shove who she can get to vote for her down my throat.

What about the people she can't get?! Have you ever considered that?!

[Soapsuds]

Obama already gets the Independents and young voters Jason. He needs the Latino/Hispanics and women voters. CNN already says he needs to win the states he lost to Hillary to become President.

[Roman]

Well, there are many who put alot more stock in what she can get for him, either like there is no possible way he can get any of these people to vote for him, or the fact that you never hear all the people she can't get.

Question. If she can get all these different types of people......why did she lose?

[Roman]

Hate to see how they treat their enemies.

And I have heard DDM defend her and Bill.

Sheldon Alberts: Bill Clinton on "scumbag" reporter and the vast left-wing conspiracy against Hillary

Posted: June 02, 2008, 9:52 PM by sheldon alberts

U.S. Politics, Sheldon Alberts

If you believe Hillary Clinton's campaign talking points (today, at least), everyone in the Democratic party is soon going to be joining hands and singing 'kumbaya' once the Democratic race finally ends.

Except someone forgot to tell Bill Clinton. The former president came unhinged (a subjective assessment, admittedly) when asked Monday about a new Vanity Fair article by former New York Times journalist Todd Purdum. In short, the article says a bunch of nasty stuff about Bill, his friends, and his impact on Hillary's campaign.

Clinton starts off by calling Purdum, who is married to former Clinton press secretary Dee Dee Myers, "sleazy" and a "scumbag" who dished dirt to Ken Starr on the Whitewater controversy years back.

But then Bill veers onto a familiar theme of late, the great left-wing media conspiracy to destroy his wife's campaign for the greater glory of Barack Obama.

Asked by a Huffington Post reporter about Purdum's article, Bill Clinton ended up denouncing the entire media and accused Obama himself of acquiescing to, even encouraging, smear jobs on Hillary:

"You know (Purdum) didn't use a single name, cite a single source in all those things he said. It's just slimy. It's part of the national media's attempt to nail Hillary for Obama. It's the most biased press coverage in history. It's another way of helping Obama. They had all these people standing up in this church cheering, calling Hillary a white racist, and he (Obama) didn't do anything about it. The first day he said 'Ah, ah, ah well.' Because that's what they do - he gets other people to slime her. So then they saw the movie they thought this is a great ad for John McCain - maybe I better quit the church. It's all politics. It's all about the bias of the media for Obama. Don't think anything about it.

"But I'm telling ya, all it's doing is driving her supporters further and further away-- because they know exactly what it is - this has been the most rigged coverage in modern history - and the guy ought to be ashamed of himself. But he has no shame. It isn't the first dishonest piece he's written about me or her."

Somewhere in that discourse - in which Bill refused to release the reporter's hand - is buried a sharp attack on Obama as complicit in the recent attack on her by a visiting preacher at his former Chicago church.

Not sure that helps the cause of Democratic party unity. Also, not sure Bill has done much to dispel the basic thrust of Purdum's story:

"To know Clinton is, sooner or later, to be exasperated by his indiscipline and disappointed by his shortcomings," Purdum writes.

"This winter, as Clinton moved with seeming abandon to stain his wife’s presidential campaign in the name of saving it, as disclosures about his dubious associates piled up, as his refusal to disclose the names of donors to his presidential library and foundation and his and his wife’s reluctance to release their income-tax returns created crippling and completely avoidable distractions for Hillary Clinton’s own long-suffering ambition, I found myself asking again and again, What’s the matter with him?"

One wonders whether the basic question - what do we do with Bill? - will come up when Obama and Hillary finally sit down together for a chit chat about the upcoming general election campaign.

[DevotedToAMC]

Between the two of them, they would get many Independents....he does need Hispanics, women, working class people, and seniors. She can provide it

[Roman]

Racism vs. Sexism

The fascinating political article today is Shankar Vedantam's Department of Human Behavior column, in which he notes that the "bitter Democratic presidential primary battle has caused many supporters of Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton to feel that the campaign has pitted race against gender."

It's not the first time in American history. Vedantam writes that "In order to gain passage of the 19th Amendment, which in 1920 gave women the right to vote, leading feminists jettisoned issues important to African Americans to win support from women and politicians who would have nothing to do with people of color." And although the amendment passed, the argument is made that "abandoning solidarity with people of color weakened the women's movement."

This report comes the day after Clinton won the Puerto Rico primary yesterday but is regarded as certain to lose the Democratic nomination to Obama, who is biracial.

Some of our readers who comment are analytical, others are angry -- but not necessarily for the same reasons. There is the usual cheerleading for one candidate or the other, but also some intelligent commentary on this fascinating issue.

We'll start with scheduler, who wrote, "Thank you Shankar Vedantam...You are telling history as it needs to be told... As far as women go, Affirmative Action has created a ceiling for blacks, who are laid-off, arrested, accused at higher rates than whites, be they male or female..."

jey2 suggested hopefully that "Most voters think of these two candidates as two extraordinarily gifted people. That is why the race is so close...Whoever becomes the nominee should plead with the other person to become his or her Vice Presidential candidate. Imagine what the history books can say a hundred years from now!"

Simon23p offered that "The Woman's Suffrage also played to anti-immigrant sentiment, by asking why educated native-born women couldn't vote, while illiterate Irishmen and Italians could."

PMclaritygraph said, "This is what happens when a sexist and racist society has made it almost impossible for people of color and women to be elected, honored, paid, heared... We must support each other, and build a new society... There is room for all of us."

AsperGirl wrote, "I seriously question whether the Democratic Party is a great place for women anymore. My old assumptions about its priorities are clearly no longer really valid... I just don't see the Democratic Party as a woman's issue party anymore. Especially since the Republican men tend to be so much more respectful and treat their women with more class and decency than the behavior that has been leveled at Clinton..."

But tiredofstupidity said, "Republican men treat THEIR women... you mean like property? They used women for political gain period... We are still a society of racists and male chauvenists..."

dj333 said, "...the one think this piece fails to point out is that most of the people who have said they could never vote for a black man in November and the ones who have said they couldn't vote for a woman *are the same people*!...As a result, honest people on both sides end up looking a lot worse than they should."

TX4Obama wrote, "Hillary's Nixonian tactics won't work. Once upon a time in American, a politician could get away with base racial appeal. Thank God we live in better times. Obama has his shortcomings..who'd have thought that the Obama's problems would be about the Church he attends? Democrats who like to pay a lot for gas and keep the war going can vote for McCain."

celested9 said, "This is a straw man argument. We supporters of Hillary are not just upset because the media at large has favored Obama. What angers us is the obvious superiority of Hillary by almost every metric vs. Obama's lack of same... It is WE will be damned if an unqualified Sambo gets in before me. Understand now?"

RMGopal wrote, "...Along with escalations of the current wars, new and improved wars elsewhere, more and permanent tax cuts for the super rich, oil lobbyists authoring energy legislation and a couple more Scalia clones on the Supreme Court...If you prefer these assured outcomes to either an Obama presidency or a Clinton presidency, I very much doubt you would have voted for any Democrat in the first place."

jhbyer said, "...If Hillary wins on her negative campaigning it will be in part, because the Obama campaign refused to get down and dirty with her. Fortunately it appears sometimes good guys do win."

But Shannon6 wrote, "... If the nomination is handed to Obama by the Democratic Rules Committee's blatant hijacking of votes away from Hillary, mixed with unchallenged misogyny, it will be seen as a perverse travesty of affirmative action. Nobama, Not THIS Way."

marian60 said, "An excellent, thought-provoking article. The historic fight over a piece of the pie. No, make the pie bigger! [Kansas Gov.] Kathleen Sebelius for veep..."

mamacheryl wrote, "I have a simple question. Why is it ok for women to vote for Senator Clinton because she is a woman, but it is not ok for blacks to vote for Senator Obama because he is black?... If it can't be Barack Obama, I will wholeheartedly support Hillary Clinton. Can you Clinton supporters say the same?"

dunnhaupt said, "By deliberately pitting a black male against a white female the Democrats deliberately pitted race against gender...They invited the worst elements of racist, feministic and mysogynistic extremists to emerge. But apparently they have no idea how to get the genie back into the bottle..."

We'll close with jmbarrie, who wrote, "I am astonished that if you vote Sen. Obama because of his gender you are sexist (and with very good reason!!!), but voting Sen. Clinton because of her gender (as several people stated) is perfectly legitime and almost a reason of pride. Both cases are reason of shame!"