We have our nominee! via TPM-- ABC: Obama Overtakes Hillary Among Super-Delegates While each news organization's super-delegate count varies, Barack Obama has reached a new milestone: According to ABC News, the first news outlet to declare this, he has overtaken Hillary Clinton in support among super-delegates by a score of 267-265. In a further sign of political decline for Hillary Clinton, African-American Congressman Donald Payne of New Jersey has now switched his allegiance from Clinton over to Barack Obama. "It's time now for us to pull our party together," Payne told the Newark Star-Ledger. Obama has also picked up Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), while Hillary has gotten freshman Rep. Chris Carney (D-PA). The score so far for today: Obama +2, Hillary net +0. Late Update: Obama has just been endorsed by Maryland DNC member John Gage, bringing Obama to +3 so far today. Late Update: Just to clarify a certain point, Payne's switch does beg the question of whether Hillary's statement about winning more white voters has alienated her in any way from black supporters. http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/05/obama-now-takes.html
The following is an Open Letter to Senator Obama from Hillary Clinton. When I was reading it and noticed the odd word choice / spelling anomalies, I couldn't believe it was real. So I went straight to the Hillary Clinton campaign website. and sure enough, there it was. Here is the link to HER website and the letter. If this wasn't written by someone else and just approved by another crony in her campaign, if she actually wrote this, it is an embarrassment. http://www.hillaryclinton.com/news/release/view/?id=7595 5/8/2008 Letter from Sen. Clinton to Sen. Obama Senator Barack Obama Obama for America P.O. Box 8102 Chicago, IL 60680 Dear Senator Obama, This has been an historic and exciting campaign. Millions of new voters have been brought into the process and their enthusiasm for the Democratic Party and the principles for which you and I have fought and continue to fight is unprecedented. One of the foremost principles of our party is that citizens be allowed to vote and that those votes be counted. That principle is not currently being applied to the nearly 2.5 million people who voted in primaries in Florida and Michigan. Whoever emerges as the Democratic nominee will be hamstrung in the general election if a fair and quick resolution is not reached that ensures that the voices of these voters are heard. Our commitment now to this goal could be the difference between winning and losing in November. I have consistently said that the votes cast in Florida and Michigan in January should be counted. We cannot ignore the fact that the people in those states took the time to be a part of this process and to make their preferences known. When efforts were untaken by leaders in those states to hold revotes to ensure that they had a voice in selecting our nominee, I supported those efforts. In Michigan, I supported a legislative effort to hold a revote that the Democratic National Committee said was in complete compliance with the party's rules. You did not support those efforts and your supporters in Michigan publically opposed them. In Florida a number of revote options were proposed. I am not aware of any that you supported. In 2000, the Republicans won an election by successfully opposing a fair counting of votes in Florida. As Democrats, we must reject any proposals that would do the same. Your commitment to the voters of these states must be clearly stated and your support for a fair and quick resolution must be clearly demonstrated. I am asking you to join me in working with representatives from Florida and Michigan and the Democratic National Committee to arrive at a solution that honors the votes of the millions of people who went to the polls in Florida and Michigan. It is not enough to simply seat their representatives at the convention in Denver. The people of these great states, like the people who have voted and are to vote in other states, must have a voice in selecting our party's nominee. Sincerely, Hillary Rodham Clinton Publically? Untaken? Is this 1855? When the hell was that last acceptable? According to the Dictionary "publically" is not standard for edited English. Untaken appears in the King James bible but is an odd word choice, particularly since it is repeated. How about "NOT taken"? Didn't you graduate from Wellesley College and then Yale Law School? More importantly, don't you have a computer with spell check on it? On to the arguments for seating the delegates from Florida... YOU CHEATED! You agreed that you wouldn't campaign in Florida and you did it anyway. As for Michigan, you were the only person on the Michigan ballot! Of course you are going to win you moron! If my chosen candidate is running but he is not even on the ballot, why would I even vote?! You suck so bad that a full 40+% made a special trip to the ballot to cast the equivalent of NONE OF THE ABOVE!!! The Michigan Democratic Party came up with a solution that gave you more delegates than Obama and you rejected it! Give me a break lady. You crowed about how you were the chosen one because although Obama may have had a voted delegate lead, you were winning the popular vote. Whoops, that is no longer true. Then your argument was that the SuperDelegates were backing you and that was a clear sign that you should lead the party. Not anymore. So Barack Obama now leads the voted delegate count, the popular vote, AND the SuperDelegate count. IT IS OVER. If this was Little League the mercy rule would kick in so the kids didn't start crying.
The woman has a point. Democrats could have extreme buyers' remorse come November, given who makes up Obama's coalition. The improving economy and an improved situation in Iraq could spell the end (again) for the liberals
Your second sentence is absurd. As to your first, let me put it this way... The Democratic Party has had one superstar political team since the early 1960's... 40+ years. Republicans threw everything at Bill and Hillary Clinton. He was accused of drug dealing and murder and rape. She was accused of murder, covering-up a murder, fraud, and of course, being a lesbian. They had a rabidly political special prosecutor digging up every bit of their lives, threatening acquaintances, and even throwing people in jail to try to build a case against them. Repubs even attempted to impeach Bill. Yet they won twice, the first over an incumbent. Bill's approval ratings stayed at a level roughly twice that of our current president, even throughout the impeachment process... and Hillary won a Senate seat in a state that gave them a great base, in terms of votes and money, to mount another run at the Presidency. Think about that for a bit. For a President to go through everything Bill did and still remain as popular as he was and for his wife to go from First Lady to Senator is a dual accomplishment never seen before and not likely to be seen again anytime soon. Bill Clinton is the best politician in my lifetime. Hillary is no slouch herself. Obama just beat them.
Like I said, her losing to Obama and the decline of Clinton Inc. is like a violent exorcism for the Dem party.
Rasmussen has decided that it is a done deal and they will stop polling for the Democratic Nomination very soon. link Daily Presidential Tracking Poll Friday, May 09, 2008 Rasmussen Reports has been tracking the race for the Democratic Presidential nomination daily for nineteen months… since November 2006. For the last few months, the most remarkable feature of the race has been its consistency and stability. Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are both running historic campaigns and both have captured the votes and hearts of distinct and important constituencies within the Democratic Party. Obama has won Primaries in states where the demographics favor his campaign and Clinton has won in the states that favor her campaign. However, while Senator Clinton has remained close and competitive in every meaningful measure, she is a close second and the race is over. It has become clear that Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee. At the moment, Senator Clinton’s team is busily trying to convince Superdelegates and pundits that she is more electable than Barack Obama. For reasons discussed in a separate article, it doesn’t matter. Even if every single Superdelegate was convinced that the former First Lady is somewhat more electable than Obama, that is not enough of a reason to deny him the nomination. With this in mind, Rasmussen Reports will soon end our daily tracking of the Democratic race and focus exclusively on the general election competition between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama. Barring something totally unforeseen, that is the choice American voters will have before them in November. While we have not firmly decided upon a final day for tracking the Democratic race, it is coming soon. The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows Barack Obama attracting 47% of the vote while John McCain earns 44%. This is the fourth straight day that Obama has had at least a one-point advantage over McCain. While it is not a statistically significant lead, it is the first time Obama has led McCain on consecutive days in two months. The last time Obama outpolled McCain for four straight days was in mid-February (see recent daily results). One key to this changing dynamic is that Obama now leads McCain among unaffiliated voters by nine percentage points. As we look to November, the Obama-McCain match-up will feature a clear generational component. Obama leads by twenty-three percentage points among voters under 40 while McCain leads by eleven among those over 50. In today’s tracking, Hillary Clinton has a five-point lead over McCain, 48% to 43%. Tracking results are updated daily by 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time. Rasmussen Markets data gives Democrats a 62.4 % chance of winning in November. Rasmussen Reports recently released general election polling data for Wisconsin, Missouri, and Georgia. Additional state polls will be released later today and throughout the weekend (see summary of recent state-by-state results). Among all voters nationwide, McCain is viewed favorably by 49% and unfavorably by 48%. (see recent daily favorable ratings). Obama’s numbers are now a bit better than McCain’s—51% favorable and 47% unfavorable. That’s the third straight day that Obama’s favorable ratings have been higher than McCain’s. Prior to these past three days, that hadn’t happened since March 10. For Clinton, the reviews are a bit less flattering--45% favorable and 53% unfavorable. In the race for the Democratic Presidential Nomination, Obama holds a 50% to 42% advantage over Clinton nationally. That’s the first time Obama has reached the 50% level of support since April 15 (see recent Democratic Nomination results). Tracking poll results are based upon nightly telephone interviews and reported on a four-day rolling average basis. Two nights of interviews for today’s update were completed after the Indiana and North Carolina Primaries. For those two nights on a stand-alone basis, Obama leads Clinton by eleven percentage points. Obama leads Clinton by twenty-one points among those who use the Internet daily or nearly every day. Clinton leads among those who are less likely to be online. There are, of course, still a few remaining Primaries to play out in the long-running process for the Democratic Nomination. Next week’s contest is in West Virginia where Clinton has a huge lead. The week after, Obama leads in Oregon while Clinton has a huge advantage in Kentucky. Expectations that Obama will be the Democratic nominee have risen sharply in the past couple of days. Just before Tuesday’s Primaries, Rasmussen Markets data gave Obama a 73% chance of winning the Democratic nomination. The most recent results give Obama a 90.0 % chance of emerging victorious (these results are updated on a 24/7 basis by market participants). As Obama appears to be wrapping up the Democratic Nomination, Rasmussen Reports notes that the VP slot belongs to Hillary Clinton if she wants it. A separate commentary by Rutgers University Professor Gerald Pomper makes the case for Virginia Senator James Webb as Obama’s running mate. On the Republican side, Kathryn Jean Lopez from the National Review makes her case that Mitt Romney should be named as John McCain’s Vice Presidential running mate. An earlier Rasmussen Reports commentary said that Romney is one of the three candidates McCain should never consider. The other two are Mike Huckabee, and Condoleeza Rice. Other commentaries today include one by Robert Novak who notes that Obama may turn out to be either a flawed or a fantastic candidate. In a “Perfect Calm for John McCain,” Froma Harrop asserts that “The core problem for Democrats is that Obama's backers are reliable Democrats, whereas Hillary Clinton's are unreliable Democrats.” Joe Conason writes “Hillary Plays the Crazy Card.” The Rasmussen Reports Balance of Power Calculator shows Democrats leading in states with 200 Electoral Votes. The GOP has the advantage in states with 189. When “leaners” are added, the Democrats lead 260 to 240 (see summary of recent state-by-state results). The ongoing competition between Obama and Clinton may be causing angst for party leaders, but the competition has been good for the Party label. In fact, the Democrats now have the largest partisan advantage over the Republicans since Rasmussen Reports began tracking this data on a monthly basis nearly six years ago. Daily tracking results are collected via nightly telephone surveys and reported on a four-day rolling average basis. The general election sample is currently based upon interviews with 1,600 Likely Voters. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Results are also compiled on a full-week basis and crosstabs for the full-week results are available for Premium Members. See crosstabs for general election match-ups, favorable ratings and Democratic primary. Rasmussen Reports is an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information. The Rasmussen Reports ElectionEdge™ Premium Service for Election 2008 offers the most comprehensive public opinion coverage ever provided for a Presidential election. Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports, has been an independent pollster for more than a decade. Daily tracking results are collected via nightly telephone surveys and reported on a four-day rolling average basis. Each update includes approximately 900 Likely Democratic Primary Voters and 800 Likely Republican Primary Voters. Margin of sampling error for each is +/- 4 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.
