“OBAMA SUPPORTERS” DAILY NEWS Thursday May 8, 2008

WELCOME TO “OBAMA SUPPORTERS” DAILY NEWS

Thursday May 8, 2008


Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., talks on the phone
as he gets on his campaign charter at Midway International Airport in
Chicago,Wednesday, May 7, 2008. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dear Friend,

Before yesterday, some were saying the results from North Carolina would be a game changer in this election.

But with your votes and with your voices, you said that the only game that needs changing is the one in Washington, D.C.

Not just yesterday but every day for more than a year, you came out, spoke up, and made it clear that at this moment, in this election, there is something happening in America.

There is something happening when Americans who have never participated in politics get involved and knock on doors, make phone calls, and talk to each other about their vision for our country.

There is something happening when people vote not just for the party they belong to but for the hopes they hold in common.

Change is what's happening in America.

The momentum you created won't stop now. Together we're building a campaign that will compete in the general election -- and a united Democratic Party that can lead this country for the next generation.

You can keep it going by taking a trip to West Virginia. Supporters like you are needed to help get voters out to the polls for their May 13th primary.

Sign up now to help Get Out The Vote in West Virginia:

http://wv.barackobama.com/cometoWV

We are going to take this country in a fundamentally new direction.

Together, we can lead this nation out of a long political darkness. We can overcome the division and distraction that have clouded Washington.

Because when we challenge ourselves to reach for something better, there's no problem we can't solve, no destiny we cannot fulfill.

Thank you for everything you've done,

Barack

Guests. Jonathan Alter was one guests, I didn't catch
the names of the rest. One guest (I think Lawrence O’Donnel but not sure) INSISTED that based on Clinton's conference call today and her campaign message in Kentucky today that Hillary was going to run a positive campaign and not attack Obama any more. Says she's only running to help wean her supporters towards the winner.

I find it unbelievable that Hillary Clinton was conduct a positive campaign, and for the heck of it flipped the channel over to Hannity and Colmes.

While MSNBC is promoting the idea that Clinton is going to change its ways and run
a positive campaign from here on out, the opposite is what I see on Fox Noise.

Hannity asks Lanny about Hillary's plan to launch a scorched earth tactic.
Hannity also reads Hillary's signed letter about the DNC rules as to which states go
in the primary first.

Clinton surrogate Lanny Davis is the guest, and excuses Hillary for ignoring her agreement by
accusing Obama of breaking DNC rules. Davis claims that Obama advertised the in Florida before the primary. (remember he ran a national ad, he didn't have control of it being viewed in local area).

Lanny is claiming that Obama does not win white working class people...

trying to say Obama couldn't win GE

NBC's First Read:

Clinton has asked several uncommitteds to come meet with her this evening at around 8 or 8:30, after votes on the housing bill now being considered on the House floor. Location TBD. I talked to three such members, who said that they are going to take a pass, simply because they have heard several times from both candidates personally over the course of the past week, and there is nothing more to be said. Another uncommitted said he was going to go out of a sense of courtesy.

Remember, uncommitted really isn't the right word. Undeclared is.
Does anybody think that Jimmy Carter or Donna Brazile or Jim Clyburn are really uncommitted?
Of course they support Obama. They just haven't declared themselves as such.

http://bp0.blogger.com/_Wq2vQz2vQko/SCInGMeUyaI/AAAAAAAAADk/RJ8rFhMKRO0/s400/Delegate+Tracker+May+6+2008.jpg

THE CLINTON MATRIX: RESULTS OF MAY 6, 2008

As a result of the primary results yesterday (although 7 delegates unallocated still) and the superdelegate movement today, there has been a seismic shift in the possibilities in play for Senator Clinton to still reach 2025 and win the nomination.

The center squares have indicated a range of options that are most probable for Senator Clinton to achieve, given the unlikelihood of the add-on delegates or pledged delegates breaking hard for either candidate, unless that candidate was Barack Obama. The outer rings were possible, but unlikely, given the reality of proportional allocation of pledged delegates and state-by-state insulated decisions for add-ons.

Currently, no option exists for Senator Clinton if she only wins half of the 224 pledged delegates remaining, as there will be fewer superdelegates remaining than the number she needs to reach 2025.

...The reality is that Clinton will need 90% or better in even a highly charitable scenario.

As I've explained earlier, the add-on delegate situation is extremely important to consider, and entirely separate, from the undeclared superdelegates on the Hill or in the DNC. This block of unpledged delegate votes represents 1/5th of the remaining total unpledged votes.

...more at the link

I am seriously hoping this is true. It's time a Clinton did the right thing for the whole Democratic party and not just waht was good for them for a change.

And if it is true and Obama does become the presumptive nominee, then I've got to hand it to D Cup and Mathman's son because he was an Obama backer long before many of us came on board. He was pushing Obama on his on his blog, which I'm not even sure he writes any more, back when I was still dreaming of a Kucinich Presidency.

Posted by Dr. Monkey Von Monkerstein

It's been over since February, really. But after last night's Carolina trouncing and the squeaker in Indiana, even Hillary Clinton stalwarts such as Karl Rove and Pat Buchanan threw in the towel. Joe Scarborough was visibly depressed about his "girlfriend's" (his word) defeat in NC and relatively poor showing in Indiana. The pundits seem ready to move on to Obama vs. McCain.

It's clear now that the only path to the nomination is a superdelegate coup without even the figleaf of a popular vote "victory" that entails counting a state where Obama wasn't even on the ballot. That's never gonna happen. So now what?

It was fascinating to watch the talking heads on the various channels trying to read the tea leaves and predict Clinton's next move. The consensus seemed to be that she would soldier on for the next few contests (in which she is heavily favored) and bow out gracefully when Obama wins Oregon so they can both go out on a winning note.

But Rachel Maddow invoked the Nuclear Cockroach scenario. She thinks Clinton will take this all the way to the convention no matter what happens.
I don't know what to think. What say you?

Posted by Betty Cracker at 5/07/2008 10:03:00 AM

MMmm. Clinton Kool-aid. Num num num num:

Clinton backers appeared on early morning television programs to stress that she was still in the race and to urge party leaders and elected officials known as superdelegates not to flee to Obama.

“This candidacy and this campaign continues on,” Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson said on CNN.

This race now is no longer a race, but a hostage crisis. Hillary is surrounded, and she can see the super-delegates through the windows of the bank lobby and she knows they are armed to the teeth, wearing their kevlar vests, weapons sighted, aimed, and with the safeties off. In her heart of hearts she knows it is over, but still she keeps the pistol cocked at the head of the party.

Maybe, just maybe, something will happen and she can make it to the fueled plane she demanded be taken to the airport and then she can go away to her big payday. She has come this far, she can’t quit now. Miracles happen.

But it won’t happen. It never does. Not even in the movies, at least not the good ones.

The only thing left to be resolved is how many hostages she kills.

Via Instaputz, I see that Wesley Clark, who I supported in ‘04, may have made a difficult phone call last night:

We’ve just been told that General Wesley Clark, a strong Clinton supporter and fellow Arkansan, called Hillary tonight to tell her it’s over.

In addition to our source, the king of the pundits, Mark Halperin, drops a tantalizing hint that something might be up with Clark:

“The biggest question: Will any of her supporters (including Wes Clark) say publicly or privately she should quit?”

Hillary Clinton, always ambitious, an over-achiever, tough, smart and resilient. And now on the edge of writing a truly ugly chapter for all to see.

Sitting there on the set, listening to the endless wrap-ups and explanation of the exit polls, I was on the verge of faking my own death on national TV in order to go talk to myself about the obvious, unspoken equation in the little there is left to this fight between Obama and Clinton. The beast that is nearly always there in American life, the danger that rustles the shrubs at the edge of our daily existence -- race -- was routinely ignored in the recitation of numbers pouring out of North Carolina and Indiana.

Now, faced with a mathematical mountain climb that even Stephen Hawking could not ascend, the Clintons -- and it is indeed both of them -- are just about to paste a bumper sticker on the rear of the collapsing vehicle that carries her campaign. It reads: VOTE WHITE.

That's the underlying message propping up a failed candidate. Check it out, you superdelegates: the buttoned down black guy is having trouble with blue collar white guys so cast your vote with the white chick who has transformed herself into an arm-wrestling, shot and a beer, kitchen table advocate for the working class and now it's on to West Virginia and Kentucky where she'll prove it.

So, after all the years they have been with us, after all the triumph and tastelessness, the accomplishments and embarrassments, we're about to watch them act out an updated, mixed gender re-make of Thelma and Louise with Bill behind the wheel, the two of them sharing a knowing look, a wink, in the front seat as they take the Democrat party right off the cliff, the whole thing crashing and burning in a racial divide both he and she sought to heal all those years ago in Little Rock and then Washington.

...more at the link

Plea from the bleach-whitest state in the union: Give us the inspirational black president!by steina Wed May 07, 2008 at 06:23:51 PM PDT

We here in Utah cannot understand this bizarre argument that Obama doesn't capture a "white vote." There are as many black people in my state as there are Clinton voters: nearly none. These facts were on display in our primary results and in the crowd shots from every Jazz home playoff game this year. Besides the fact that the "white vote" argument is offensive and beside the point, it is just plain wrong.

It may be true that Hillary Clinton is the only acceptable candidate to some narrow income group of Caucasians that reside between the Mississipi river and the states bordering the East coast. But, MY GOD, who cares? It is Hillary Clinton's utter lack of ability to be competitive among white voters in Western states that resulted in Obama breaking the proportional allocation system, and making narrow Clinton wins in states that satisfy the Penn/Wolfsson criteria insignificant.

Let me use Utah's example to show you why it is so particulary important to us, most of whom are white, that Obama become our candidate immediately...more at the link

Hillaryland is the land of pander and scare, of lies and innuendo, of a poison pen and the telephone call at 3 AM, and hustling, stunts, and sharp elbows - of backlash, bailouts and shifting goalpost grabs - the land of fabulist knife fights, nuclear options, and anything to win.

sounds familiar:

"Nixonland is a land of slander and scare, of lay innuendo, of a poison pen and the anonymous telephone call, and hustling, pushing, and shoving - the land of smash and grab and anything to win." ~ Adlai E. Stevenson, 1952

Speaking for me only

Following in the footsteps of other bloggers like Jeralyn Merritt and Armando, I must urge the superdelegates, the media and other creative class left blogs to be aware of something before it is too late. I’ve crunched the numbers, looked them over again and again, then again with a sprinkling of eye of newt and found the weakness in Barack Obama’s candidacy:

He’s getting too many votes.

In 32 out of the 47 contests more people have voted and caucused for Sen. Obama than for Sen. Clinton. Why is the media not reporting on this? They spend so much time on the slicing and dicing of the electorate highlighting ad nauseam which blocs are voting for and against a candidate when the writing is on the wall.

More people are voting for Sen. Obama and that’s a huge problem in the fall. If we extrapolate this trend, it’s possible that he could, in the general election, have more votes than any other presidential candidate in history! The nomination process will be a mockery of the highest order if Howard Dean and the DNC sit back and allow the person with the most votes and most supporters to walk away with the nomination. This isn’t what we all signed up for.

...more at the link

(Updated below)

This is an excerpt from an email Obama’s campaign just sent out. It’s a rather effective way to illustrate who may, and may not, be elitists.

News broke this morning that Senator Clinton made three separate loans to her campaign in the past 30 days — including one as recently as Monday.

These loans total more than $6.4 million, which combined with her previous personal loans, add up to at least $11.4 million she’s loaned her campaign since February.

A spokesman said she may continue to “loan the campaign additional money out of her jointly-held assets” — which include more than $100 million in income since her husband left the White House. . . .

We need to show that the voices of more than 1.5 million ordinary people donating whatever they can afford are more powerful than one person giving more than $11 million to their own campaign.

Update 4:39 PM: I failed to include the most important point. It also illustrates a campaign falling apart.

A reader writes:

My dad's been a hardcore Republican for decades. I grew up in a Mississippi household that worshipped Reagan in the 80's and despised Clinton in the 90's. I strayed from that pretty early on, but maybe not as far as I thought. I got this email from my dad last night:

"I have to say, Obama is a great speaker. He is extremely charismatic and likeable, and I like him so much I can almost forget he had the most liberal voting record in the Senate, is weak on national security, wants universal healthcare, will raise taxes and is pro choice. Other than that, I could vote for him. All kidding aside, I like him and won't be upset if he beats McCain. Disappointed but not upset."

SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s greatest gift may be her ability to remain upright and smiling as chaos and chagrin surround her.

On what was probably one of the toughest days of her campaign so far, with pundits and analysts of all stripes declaring her presidential candidacy finished, Mrs. Clinton put on her battle face Wednesday and confronted what was at times a hostile crowd at a hastily arranged speech here at Shepherd University.

Shepherdstown, a quaint and hippieish town on the Potomac River in the West Virginia Panhandle, is where Robert E. Lee led his Confederate Army in retreat after the battle of Antietam, the single bloodiest day of the Civil War.

Mrs. Clinton endured boos when she mentioned her proposal for a gasoline tax holiday, catcalls when she spoke of ending the Iraq war and, most difficult of all, the heckling of her daughter, Chelsea, who introduced her.

“End the dynasty!” a young man holding an Obama poster shouted when Chelsea Clinton stepped to the microphone.
...the modestly sized audience applauded at the appropriate times and, except for an unusually large and at times vocal contingent of Obama supporters in the crowd, the appearance went off without incident.

.... more at the link

She has ruled it out, but a prompt withdrawal from the contest for the
Democratic nomination offers Sen. Hillary Clinton the prospect of major rewards.
One of the most inviting is the near certainty that the Obama campaign would agree
to pay back the $11.4 million she has loaned her own bid, along with an estimated
$10 million to $15 million in unpaid campaign expenses. In addition, Democrats,
both those who are loyal and those who are opposed to her campaign,
say the odds of her winning a top leadership spot in the Senate would improve dramatically
if she gracefully conceded now. The icing on the cake includes an improved political climate,
giving Hillary and Bill Clinton the opportunity to heal the rift with the black political community.

Lower right hand side of the page.

TO: Superdelegates
FROM: David Plouffe, Campaign Manager
RE: An Update on the Race for Delegates
DA: May 7, 2008

There are only six contests remaining in the Democratic primary calendar and only 217 pledged delegates left to be awarded. Only 7 percent of the pledged delegates remain on the table. There are 260 remaining undeclared superdelegates, for a total of 477 delegates left to be awarded.

With North Carolina and Indiana complete, Barack Obama only needs 172 total delegates to capture the Democratic nomination. This is only 36% of the total remaining delegates.
Conversely, Senator Clinton needs 326 delegates to reach the Democratic nomination, which represents a startling 68% of the remaining delegates.

With the Clinton path to the nomination getting even narrower, we expect new and wildly creative scenarios to emerge in the coming days. While those scenarios may be entertaining, they are not legitimate and will not be considered legitimate by this campaign or its millions of supporters, volunteers, and donors.

We believe it is exceedingly unlikely Senator Clinton will overtake our lead in the popular vote and in fact lost ground on that measure last night. However, the popular vote is a deeply flawed and illegitimate metric for deciding the nominee - since each campaign based their strategy on the acquisition of delegates. More importantly, the rules of the nomination are predicated on delegates, not popular vote.

Just as the Presidential election in November will be decided by the electoral college, not popular vote, the Democratic nomination is decided by delegates.

If we believed the popular vote was somehow the key measurement, we would have campaigned much more intensively in our home state of Illinois and in all the other populous states, in the pursuit of larger raw vote totals. But it is not the key measurement. We played by the rules, set by you, the DNC members, and campaigned as hard as we could, in as many places as we could, to acquire delegates. Essentially, the popular vote is not much better as a metric than basing the nominee on which candidate raised more money, has more volunteers, contacted more voters, or is taller.

The Clinton campaign was very clear about their own strategy until the numbers become too ominous for them. They were like a broken record , repeating ad nauseum that this nomination race is about delegates. Now, the word delegate has disappeared from their vocabulary, in an attempt to change the rules and create an alternative reality.

We want to be clear - we believe that the winner of a majority of pledged delegates will and should be the nominee of our party. And we estimate that after the Oregon and Kentucky primaries on May 20, we will have won a majority of the overall pledged delegates According to a recent news report, by even their most optimistic estimates the Clinton Campaign expects to trail by more than 100 pledged delegates and will then ask the superdelegates to overturn the will of the voters.

But of course superdelegates are free to and have been utilizing their own criteria for deciding who our nominee should be. Many are deciding on the basis of electability, a favorite Clinton refrain. And if you look at the numbers, during a period where the Clinton campaign has been making an increasingly strident pitch on electability, it is clear their argument is failing miserably with superdelegates.

Since February 5, the Obama campaign has netted 107 superdelegates, and the Clinton campaign only 21. Since the Pennsylvania primary, much of it during the challenging Rev. Wright period, we have netted 24
and the Clinton campaign 17.

At some point - we would argue that time is now - this ceases to be a theoretical exercise about how superdelegates view electability. The reality of the preferences in the last several weeks offer a clear guide of how strongly superdelegates feel Senator Obama will perform in November, both in building a winning campaign for the presidency as well as providing the best electoral climate across the country for all Democratic candidates.

It is important to note that Senator Obama leads Senator Clinton in superdelegate endorsements among Governors, United States Senators and members of the House of Representatives. These elected officials all have a keen sense for who our strongest nominee will be in November.

It is only among DNC members where Senator Clinton holds a lead, which has been rapidly dwindling.
As we head into the final days of the campaign, we just wanted to be clear with you as a party leader, who will be instrumental in making the final decision of who our nominee will be, how we view the race at this point.

Senator Obama, our campaign and our supporters believe pledged delegates is the most legitimate metric for determining how this race has unfolded. It is simply the ratification of the DNC rules - your rules - which we built this campaign and our strategy around.


TALKING POINTS ON NC AND IN RACES


Key message point

� Clinton needed big wins in both states to cut into Obama's overall lead, and she didn't get them. Obama won a commanding victory in North Carolina, and only lost in Indiana because of large numbers of Republicans wanting to face Clinton in the general election. That's not enough to convince superdelegates to overturn Obama's pledged delegate lead.

A huge night for Barack Obama

The tight finish in Indiana and Barack Obama's huge win in North Carolina have fundamentally changed this race. Barack Obama was expected to lose Indiana by a sizeable margin--yet after the toughest weeks of his campaign, he beat every poll and every expectation. And if it hadn't been for Republicans taking Democratic ballots to vote against him, he likely would have on in Indiana, too.

In North Carolina, Obama won a commanding 14-point victory. North Carolina--which Senator Clint hoped would be a "game-changer for her--is the 10th-largest state in country. It's bigger than New Jersey, for example, and this win puts to rest the idea that Obama can't win the big states

Clinton needed big wins in both states to cut into Obama's overall lead, and she didn't get them. She missed her last chance to catch up in the delegate count--the measure that will determine the Democratic nominee.

She now needs huge delegate yields in every remaining state, and needs to win new superdelegates every day. She fell stunningly short of her goals tonight, and I don't think she's in good shape to win over the superdelegates she would need.

Shattering the myths

The chattering class said Barack Obama would get crushed in Indiana because of an alleged problem with working class voters. But the reality is that Barack Obama erased Clinton's big lead in Indiana precisely by connecting with working people.

In fact, over the course of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Indiana, Senator Obama has steadily improved among white voters, voters without a college degree, and voters making less than $50,000.

The North Carolina results also helped to erase many of the myths that the Clinton campaign has been pushing. In North Carolina, Obama won voters who make under $50,000, and won voters without a college degree.

Voters in both states said Obama shares their values more than Clinton, and saw him as much more honest and trustworthy than Clinton. Voters in both states also said that Clinton attacked unfairly over the course of the campaign.

Delegate race slipping away from Clinton

There were187 pledged delegates at stake today, leaving only 217 pledged delegates on the tablefor the remaining contests--which truly made tonight Clinton's last, best chance to make any sizeable dent in our delegate lead

The math after tonight is simple: counting pledged and unpledged delegates, Senator Obama will need only about 38 percent of the remaining delegates in order to win the nomination, while Clinton will need more than 60 percent of all delegates in order to do so.

At the end of tonight, we will be less than 200 delegates away from securing the nomination.

Clinton couldn't land a key blow even in heavily favorable media environment

As the news media has mostly taken a pass on Clinton, she's been shooting free throws while we have gotten a heavy dose of scrutiny. And the Clinton family made more than 100 campaign stops across the state.

If she can't make up ground in times like these, when the atmospherics are about as good as they are ever going to get for her, after our campaign has spent a week enmeshed in Rev. Wright controversy, there is no reason to believe she is going to be able to make up ground at any other point.

Limbaugh Crossovers

Limbaugh has been urging right-wingers to vote against Obama

There really has never been any question that Senator Clinton would win Indiana, where she has the support of Senator Evan Bayh's political operation and the demographics heavily favor her. But we saw today that perhaps her strongest asset was that Republicans believe she'll be an easier opponent to beat in November.

Right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh has been urging his listeners to cross over and vote in the Democratic primary in Indiana to help Clinton's chances at becoming the nominee.

Exit polling showed that up to 7 percent of the primary vote came from Limbaugh voters--well above the final spread between the two candidates. Reports from Indiana polling places confirmed that record numbers of Republicans were taking Democratic ballots to vote against Obama. And Limbaugh himself bragged about the success of his effort on his radio show today.

Republicans are desperate to face Clinton, because they know Obama will be harder to beat

Let's be very clear: the Republicans want to face Senator Clinton in November, because they know that Senator Obama will be a stronger nominee for the Democrats, and will help Democratic candidates down the ballot. Republicans are so scared of Obama that they're actually skipping their own primary to vote against him.

That's a stunning testament to the threat that Obama will pose to Republicans come fall.

If I were the Clinton campaign, I don't think I'd be celebrating too hard tonight. Winning a state on the strength of voters who want to see you defeated isn't exactly the kind of win you want--or the message you want to send to superdelegates.

Clinton Campaign Trying to Change the Math--Agai

Having lost their last chance to catch up to Barack Obama in pledged delegates

We will abide by the rules that every candidate agreed to at the beginning of this campaign, no matter how desperate the Clinton campaign is to change them. When he is the nominee, Barack Obama will seat both the Florida and Michigan delegates and build a campaign in both states that can win in November.

Ickes Comments

Comments are beyond the pale--and a distortion

This afternoon, top Clinton advisor Harold Ickes said that if Barack Obama were the nominee, there might be a so-called "October surprise" that would hand the election the Republicans. Using this kind of fear tactic is simply beyond the pale--and a total distortion.

Time after time, we've seen that the Republicans are desperate to face Clinton in the fall because they know that Obama would be a stronger candidate. That's what brought Limbaugh listeners out in droves today to vote for Clinton.

To suggest that Clinton would somehow offer less risk of an October surprise--at the same time as Republicans are actively working to see her nominated--is certainly curious.