After this weeks R&B DNC meeting and HRC's win in
Puerto Rico this weekend it is now time to lock these SuperDelegates into a vote as well. Hillary has claimed that "it ain't over till its over" and that SuperDelegates are not bound and can change their minds at will ... thus a Primary amoung superdelegates is now necessary to shut down her campaign.
She will never ever concede, bow out, suspend her campaign or truly support Barack Obama in obtaining the presidency because she is in effect a sore ass loser. It is clear now that Obama will be the nominee she is just hanging around waiting for something to happen to him so she can slither back in and compete against John Sidney McSame.
I consider myself very lucky to live where my senators and congressman are Democrats. All three are Super Delegates that endorsed Hillary Clinton early in the primary calendar. I understand these endorsements. In fact, I didn’t decide on who I would support until I was driving to the caucus. Today I faxed each a letter asking them to change their endorsement. Here is that letter.
Most super delegates have a very difficult choice to make. Some will base it on issues, others on charisma, yet others on deep and complex considerations involving constituents, politics and electability.
But not California lawyer and Democratic Party super delegate Steven Ybarra. No, his deep contemplation begins and ends with one thing: cash.
My news organization, the New Mexico Independent, was the first to break the story that Laura Weahkee, the add-on delegate from New Mexico, is backing Barack Obama.
Managing Editor David Alire Garcia got the story.
"After the primary elections in Indiana and North Carolina, it is now absolutely clear that Barack Obama will be our nominee," Weahkee, lead organizer for the Native American Voters Alliance, writes in a statement e-mailed to the Independent. She adds, "Obama has proven that he can campaign in a difficult environment and still inspire thousands of new voices to take part in the democratic process."
After Barack Obama's larger-than-expected victory in North Carolina and narrow loss in Indiana Tuesday, many observers believe the Democratic race is nearing an end. But nearly all agree it won't come without help from unpledged super delegates and add-on delegates.
New Mexico's add-on delegate, Laurie Weahkee, today questioned the viability of Hillary Clinton following Tuesday in an Associated Press article.
Clinton supporters were not happy with the selection of Weahkee as the add-on delegate on April 27 (previous version had the wrong date). They wanted one of their own as the add-on delegate.
Tonight on Larry King Live, Christine Pelosi, a Democratic super delegate, indicated that she would endorse the winner of the pledged delegates. For all intents and purposes that is another super delegate vote for Barack Obama.
If Doug Denneny wins his primary for Virginia's 11th Congressional District-
He has endorsed Sen. Obama and is the only candidate in the race to endorse a Presidential candidate.
On this week's Meet the Press Dr. Dean said that the race was "essentially a tie". He then added that the Super Delegates should vote for the candidate that can best beat McCain in the Fall.
I believe that these observations and instructions are a departure from his previous statements which were simply to regurgitate the rules: Super Delegates should vote the conscience.
On Thursday night, DC elected 2 add on unpledged delegates. Almost all of the speakers made reference to the candidate they were supporting, except the two Clinton supporters, and one of them won.
Clinton’s name never came up in Thomas’ brief remarks before the vote; he instead chose to talk up his own qualifications and big-picture issues. "The issue is what are we going to do when we get to Denver that best represents the District of Columbia," he said. (Rumors had swirled that Thomas planned to switch to Obama, but Thomas knocked those down after the vote: "I haven’t changed," he says. "I’m consistent.")
Speaking to Nigerian reporters Wednesday in the town of Abuja, Carter responded to a question about the prolonged race for the Democratic nomination.
"We are very interested in the primaries," Carter said, according to the Nigerian newspaper This Day. "Don't forget that Obama won in my state of Georgia. My town, which is home to 625 people, is for Obama. My children and their spouses are pro-Obama. My grandchildren are also pro-Obama. As a superdelegate, I would not disclose who I am rooting for, but I leave you to make that guess."
Carter spokeswoman Deanna Congileo confirmed the former president's remarks to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday.
Obama has won 17 Elections with 60% or more of the vote, has had more Governors endorsements, more Senator endorsements, and soon to have more Representative endorsements. Details below.
I think the idea of a superdelegate convention sends the wrong idea, the truth maybe, but the wrong picture to the rest of the world. It says, you can have all the primaries you want, but the party bigwigs are going to get together afterwards, and decide who the nominee is. I believe individual endoresements now, over the next few weeks, is a much better solution.
The idea of superdelegates gathering anywhere,even at the convention, is a bad idea. This year, of all years, it is imperative we look united and get behind our candidate, and that the candidate is the people's choice.
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OK, I tried this earlier, but messed up the poll. So I'll try again to sum up what each Democratic needs to clinch the nomination give a current status report, no poll this time.
This was all brought on by seeing Obama pass the 1,600 delegate mark (by my calculations). This both hit home, as in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and made the math really easy: 2,025-1,600 = 425. It also helped that (before MS) there were 599 pledged delegates left. A 50/50 split was easy to figure (300).
After reading the awesome diary by PocketNines, I decided to differentiate between add-on and free super delegates.
Bottom line, Obama's magic number is 402. Assuming a 50/50 split in the remaining pledged delegates (283 each), he needs 119 more supers, 328 total. Clinton's # is 527 (ironic?). At a 50/50 split, she needs 244 more supers, 488 total. If one projects the add-on delegates, Obama's magic # is 359, at 50/50 he only needs 76 more Supers (328 total). Hence the #'s 359/283/76/328 depending on how you count. Clinton's magic # is 496, needing 213 more supers (457 total). Her #'s w/ add-ons are 496/283/213/457.
More grizzly details below the fold.....Oh, and by the way, I concede that 3 is the magic number for most situations. Feel free to point out any math errors/typos.
The Dog thinks that he can say without too much contradiction that there is pretty broad agreement that our system of nominating our Presidential candidate is... broken. The Dog is a process improvement project manager (6 Sigma Black Belt, for the process nerds out there) and when I say that a system is broken I mean something very specific. This system is not fulfilling the needs of the Party and it is creating its own problems and unexpected results.
We could live with it, but it has become clear to the Dog that all the members of our Party expect our process to be democratic, and it is clear that we have rules in place that allow us to do some things that are not democratic. This needs to change, if we are to be able to make the case that we are the party that represents the will of the people. So I thought that I would lay out what changes I think might be more helpful. Just one caveat though, this diary is not about how things should be done this time. If, gentle reader, you’re interested in arguing that, there are plenty of diaries that are discussing it. Here I’m trying to get us to hash out the changes we want for next cycle.
