Barack Obama Elected President!

[DevotedToAMC]

Pelosi is not a U.S. Senator...she is a U.S. Congresswoman representing San Francisco County. She is up for re election this November and is facing Cindy Sheehan on the Independent ticket. I cannot see Pelosi losing if she had given in to anything because she has won the district in many elections by 80% or more. She is very popular in the CA 8th district

[Southofnowhere]

THe candidates the team Obama seems to be high on are:

Gov.Bill Richardson(Can bring in Latinos and is very very strong on FP)

Downside: some say the reason he wasn't the runningmate in 2004 is because he has some dirt in his past.

Gov of Arizona (Put's McCain's home state into play and could keep Hillary's Female base from staying home or voting for McCaon)

Downside: No FP or HLS cred

NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg(Brings in Repups and Indys)

Downside :alot of Dems think that putting a black man and a Jewish man would be just too much for some voters to handle plus he's even more Liberal than Obama.

There another guy but i can't think of his name (I think his last name is Webb or something like that) he's a fromer repub worked for RR and is a ex Milltary hates the war (Has a son fighting it) and is very strong on HLS.

Downside: He wrote books calling Women all kinds of foul names and u never know what's going to come out of his Mouth.

Gen.Colin Powel(War hero would bring in Repubs and Indy voters very very very strong on HLS)

HUGE downside: He was one of the masterminds of Irag mess and still supports it to some degree.

[Southofnowhere]

At this point Obama does not want to have Hillary as VP but if it means ending thing and not breaking up the party it seems like he's willing to talk about it. However Hillary is going to have to make the first move. He can't because of fear the Clintons will then say soemthing like "Look Obama can't win without me."

[Roman]

She pretty much said that two days ago, when she said he can't get the whte vote withut her. That's what is so angering about her, because hasn't he won double the states she has.........and I'm sure alot of white voters voted for him. He would go down in flames having her on the ticket.

[Roman]

Sorry, My bad. I was wrong.

I can admit that.

But, I'm still glad she didn't fall for this bullshit. That campaign trying to strongarm her is just the lastest attempt to steal something they feel they are entitled to. Which really makes me sick.

[Roman]

And where are you getting this number about 30 percent of her voters won't vote for him? If these are the same numbers that have come from some of the polls yuou are following, forgive me if I don't believe them. They sure got it wrong about NC and IND.

And, I kinda was asking everyone. Not just you. He doesn't need her. When I hear that the Congress treated him like a rock star yesterday..........including her supporters.........that says that, after the horrible, destructive campaing she has ran, why would he saddle her around his neck? That would be really stupid to have her on the ticket.

And, so sorry, but he's winning the younger vote, the Asian vote, and they split on the Latino vote. How can she be a better candidate against McCain when she: 1. Did not win the nomination (OBAMA WON IT) and 2. She can't even manage her own campaign finanaces well? I surely don't want a president who is 11 million dollars in debt handling the econmy for this country, especially when that gas holiday tax idea crashed and burned.

And, for once, tell me why he should pcik a candidate with a 54% negative approval rating? You still have not answered that question.

[Roman]

From the WSJ:

A majority of voters now say they want Democrats to re-capture the White House again, a finding that makes Sen. McCain's position remarkable: He's in a statistical dead-heat against either Democrat in the poll. Sen. Obama, the Democratic front-runner, leads Sen. McCain 46% to 43%, and Sen. Clinton has a 45% to 44% edge over the Republican. A big reason for the closeness: More voters said they could identify with Sen. McCain's "background" and "values" than with those of either of the Democratic contenders.

So we can now end that BS about Clinton doing better against McCain against Obama. OK?

[Wales2004]

I can't respond to where he's getting his numbers but I did hear numerous times yesterday that exit polls indicated that a high number of her female supporters wouldn't support him. But I don't buy that it will be a high number at all because people have enough time between now and November to look at him vs McCain.

The issues her supporters have with Obama are mainly the type of issues voters end up compromising on for the most part. Maybe there are some people that want to hold tight to the bitter remark even after the apology but I can't see how that equates with the racially divisive tone that her campaign struck. You can dissect what she says any number of ways and come up with numerous insults. She's lucky that the media, for the most part, is not really jumping on this but I'm guessing it will spread to certain radio stations.

[Wales2004]

There are different opinions on who would have to make the first move but she should not even be on the table period. If they want to strike a save face deal giving the impression that she was being considered and wasn't interested that's on them.

She's a political liability to him. I'm just going to get a kick out of how the righteously indignant people who made his "bitter" remarks seem like the most heinous thing he could ever say and were content with Clinton and McCain calling him elitist, are hush hush about her racially divisive remarks which should not only be insulting to uneducated white people and all the groups of people that she feels are exclusive to her, but to everyone who rejects discrimination.

I am certain that party leaders can find, in this great nation, another viable candidate for vp who can attract voters of all backgrounds who do not possess that cut throat supreme being mentality.

[Roman]

I was listening to local radio here in St. Louis, and people of all colors have hit the roof over these comments. That sounded racist to me........she's saying "Nobody will vote for him because he's black."

So, in essense, she agrees with GF and the bullshit she said. But, of course, her supporters will once again tell us "Oh. She didn't mean it like that. She was just telling the truth. Besides, overlook that. You'll vote for her anyway."

You know......that dumb [!@#$%^&*].

And, this interview has gained traction. That's all they are talking about on MSNBC.

[Roman]

So, I would like to hear from you.

BESIDES HILLARY..........who would make a good VP for Obama?

[Roman]

Wow.

From MSNBC's First Read:

The New York Post: “Clinton played the race card yesterday as she dismissed Barack Obama as a candidate who will have a hard time winning support from ‘white Americans.’ It was the most starkly racial comment Clinton has made in the campaign, and drew quick condemnation from some Democrats.

“ ‘I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on,’ she told USA Today in an interview published yesterday. She referred to an Associated Press story on Indiana and North Carolina exit polls ‘that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hardworking Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.’ She added, ‘There's a pattern emerging here.’”

Here’s what some said in response: “Muriel Offerman, a North Carolina superdelegate who has not disclosed her choice, said, ‘That should not have been said. I think it drives a wedge, a racial wedge, and that's not what the Democratic Party's about.’ Asked about Clinton's comments, Massachusetts superdelegate Debra Kozikowsi said, ‘That's distressing. I'm not even sure how to respond to that.’”

The New York Daily News: “Hillary Clinton misplays race card while Barack Obama is treated like rock star.” “ome of her supporters -- including Rep. Charles Rangel (D-Manhattan) -- slammed the comments. ‘I can't believe Sen. Clinton would say anything that dumb,’ Rangel told The News as he headed to the House floor, where earlier he had embraced Obama. The bitter words came as both candidates looked ahead to West Virginia's primary Tuesday and pressed their talking points -- Clinton insisting she was in the race to win, while Obama argued he could have the nomination wrapped up when Oregon and Kentucky vote on May 20.”

Peggy Noonan also believes Clinton played the race card in her USA Today interview. "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.”’

John Edwards said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe that he disagrees with Clinton’s “white Americans” comment and that she's got to ask herself, "Where are the lines?" He added, “I think it’s fine for Hillary to keep making the case for her. But when that shifts to everything that is wrong with him, then we’re doing damage instead of being helpful.”

And did Edwards tip his hand on who he’s backing? He called Obama the "likely nominee.” And we’ll chalk this one up to his Southern accent, but he said he "voted for 'em on Tuesday.” (Sounded an awful lot like "him.")

Also… “I think Barack Obama’s doing pretty well without my help.” Edwards also said, “He is clearly the likely nominee at this point.”

Edwards said he may choose to publicly declare for one of the candidates, but he’s keeping it to himself “just for now.” He added, though, that he doesn’t think his endorsement matters except to “people like you all” [the media]. He wouldn’t answer if he and his wife, Elizabeth, voted for different people.

Here’s the New York Post’s headline to Charles Hurt’s column: “Desperate Hillbillies threaten to break up party.” “Well, now these racial politics have spilled out into the public and are splintering longtime, devoted Democrats into separate camps. It's become the ‘working-class whites’ versus the ‘eggheads and African-Americans.’

More: “With no one left to cry to, Sen. Clinton has gone nuclear and she's getting kookier by the minute. Yesterday she was toast. Today, she's looking more like scrambled eggs.”

Politico's Smith on Clinton's blunt talk about her white support: "Now, the press has talked about the race in these terms constantly, so I won't feign shock. But it's a bit strange to hear it so bluntly from the candidate's mouth, and probably not a great way to endear herself to African-American voters. And it's also noteworthy that the blunt talk on appealing to whites surfaces the day after the last round of primaries in which there's a substantial number of black voters."

The New York Times reports it's possible Clinton will give herself more money. "Clinton advisers said Mrs. Clinton was committed to spending more of her own cash on the campaign if necessary, although they spoke optimistically about a rise in fund-raising if she prevails in Tuesday’s primary in West Virginia." More: "Clinton had been increasingly relying on Internet donations this spring from new and small-amount contributors; the day after she won the April 22 Pennsylvania primary, the campaign brought in a record $10 million online. But Hassan Nemazee, one of Mrs. Clinton’s national finance chairmen, put the amount she collected online in the 24 hours after the Indiana and North Carolina primaries at only “$1 million-plus.”

Interestingly, the Times makes the point that Obama's big spending in PA for his nine-point loss actually may have dealt a devastating financial blow to Clinton. "Obama spent $9 million on television advertisements in North Carolina and Indiana, including a last minute $170,000 purchase in the expensive Chicago market, which extends into northern Indiana. By contrast, Mrs. Clinton spent about $4.7 million in those states, according to CMAG. Even more, said Evan Tracey, spokesman for CMAG, the fact that Mr. Obama was able to pump $10 million into media purchases in Pennsylvania in April, even though he did not win that state, forced Mrs. Clinton to spend $5 million, cash she could have used in Indiana and North Carolina.”

Yesterday, Terry McAuliffe said "seven figures." That doesn't quite confirm the million dollar Internet haul but...

During a three-state whirlwind tour yesterday of half of the remaining primaries, Clinton has altered her stump speeches on energy slightly to address the specific needs of those states, NBC’s Lauren Appelbaum notes. While Clinton emphasized coal technology in West Virginia (a topic normally included in a list but rarely specified on), she discussed wind power at more length in South Dakota. "When we get 52% of electricity from coal in the United States, coal is not going anywhere," Clinton said to applause in Charleston, WV. The New York Senator did emphasize the necessity for clean coal technology but assured the audience, which was sure to have included a good percentage of coal miners, that coal mining would not be eliminated.

None of the coal talk was anywhere to be seen in an expanded rally in Sioux Falls, SD four hours later. Instead, the focus was on wind energy production. "It's been said that America from the Dakotas down to West Texas is the Saudi Arabia of wind," Clinton said. "And, you know, that's not just Washington political hot air talking; that's actually a fact, that if we harness the wind coming off of these plains and we had an electric grid system with the distribution system to transmit it from right here in South Dakota across our country, we would be moving toward clean renewable energy."

Why go on? The New York Daily News: “Whatever happens, it's a profile in true grit. But why is she still in a race that with each passing hour appears more doomed? Admirers say she's genuinely driven to make America a better place. Critics attribute her doggedness to the consuming ambition, thirst for power and streak of narcissism she shares with her husband.”

“Movie mogul and Hillary Rodham Clinton backer Harvey Weinstein told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi he would stop fund-raising for Democrats if she refused to support new primary elections in Florida and Michigan, it was reported yesterday.”

[Roman]

And now........

From ABC News:

The endorsements further narrow the superdelegate margin -- and by one count give Obama the edge -- as he and Clinton head west to campaign in Oregon.

By Scott Martelle and Peter Nicholas, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

9:18 AM PDT, May 9, 2008

The flow of Democratic superdelegates to Sen. Barack Obama continued this morning -- including another defection by a Clinton supporter -- as both candidates turned westward to Oregon's May 20 mail-in primary, already underway.

Four new endorsements bring Obama to within a half-dozen of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's lead among superdelegates, and to within about 170 delegates of sealing the nomination, where he holds a commanding overall lead according to tallies kept by the Associated Press. By ABC News' count, Obama has already edged ahead among superdelegates.

Rep. Donald M. Payne (D-N.J.), an early African American supporter of Clinton, jumped ship this morning, telling the Newark Star-Ledger that he backed Clinton when he thought Obama's campaign was "just a trial balloon."

Among the previously uncommitteds now behind Obama: Ed Espinoza, a Democratic National Committee member from Long Beach, who also urged uncommitted superdelegates to make their declaration by May 26.

"This needs to be over and done with by Memorial Day," Espinoza said.

Evidencing the kind of behind-the-scenes lobbying underway, Espinoza said he backed Obama in part at the urging of New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, for whose presidential campaign he had worked before Richardson dropped out.

Rep. Peter A. DeFazio (D-Ore.) announced his support for Obama and was scheduled to campaign with the Illinois senator this morning. The fourth new superdelegate was John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees.

New York Sen. Clinton picked up one superdelegate today: Rep. Christopher Carney, a Democrat who represents a district in northeast Pennsylvania that gave Clinton a 2-1 margin when she won the April 22 primary there.

Meanwhile, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, who ended his presidential bid earlier and has yet to endorse, joined the pundits and said today he thought Obama would be the nominee.

"It's very difficult to make the math work" for Clinton, Edwards said on NBC's "Today" show, but deflected a question about whom he supports. "I voted and I'm going to keep that between me and the polling booth right now."

The Clinton campaign sought to shore up her candidacy by releasing a statement by 16 congressional superdelegates from swing states urging fellow Democrats in the House to support her -- and taking her win in Pennsylvania as a cue.

"Pennsylvania was not just a victory for Hillary Clinton. It was also a wake- up call for superdelegates, forcing us to ask ourselves two essential questions," the letter said, defining those points as who can win in the fall and who "is most likely to help our fellow Democrats in down-ballot races?"

Clinton and Obama were starting the day in Portland, Ore. Clinton planned a 9:30 a.m. round-table discussion on healthcare before flying to Louisville to address the Kentucky Democratic Party Dinner ahead of the May 20 primary there.

Obama planned three Oregon events today, beginning with a 9:45 a.m. session on the economy, and a fourth Saturday morning before flying back to Chicago.

As most political eyes were focused on the Democrats, presumptive Republican nominee John McCain scheduled a midday appearance in Jersey City, N.J., continuing his campaign efforts in likely swing states.

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[Southofnowhere]

Gov.Bill Richardson!

[Ryan]

Had the media not pushed Hilary as the automatic nominee, half of this nonsense in the media wouldn't have even happened. As I said before, the media basically told us that Hilary Clinton and Rudy Guliani were our nominees and we should prepare to vote for one of them. The others had no chance in hell. Obama was ALWAYS a presence. I remember watching his speech the day he announced he was running for president.