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Obama wins Democratic presidential nomination
Barack Obama clinched the Democratic nomination Tuesday, writing himself into history books as the first black candidate to lead a major-party bid for president.
Obama's fierce nominating fight with Hillary Rodham Clinton ended on the final day of the primary season, as a slew of superdelegates flocked to his side even before the polls closed in Montana and South Dakota. In fitting fashion, the two split the last contests, Obama winning Montana and Clinton taking South Dakota.
The Illinois senator laid claim to the nomination in a speech Tuesday night in Minnesota -- delivered, not coincidentally, in the St. Paul sports arena where Republicans plan to install John McCain as their nominee in September. Barack Obama clinched the Democratic nomination Tuesday, writing himself into history books as the first black candidate to lead a maj... more -
Clinton concession rumors are FALSE
hmm...let's see...
"Hillary Clinton's campaign is denying a report that the senator from New York is ready to concede the presidential nomination to Barack Obama tonight.
Clinton will concede that Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, has the delegates needed to secure the Democratic Party's 2008 presidential nomination, two campaign officials are telling the Associated Press anonymously.
The Clinton campaign, publicly, is denying the report.
'The former first lady will stop short of formally suspending or ending her race in her speech in New York City' tonight, the AP's Beth Fouhy reports. 'She will pledge to continue to speak out on issues like health care. But for all intents and purposes, two senior officials said, the campaign is over.'
Most campaign staff will be let go and will be paid through June 15, according to the officials who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
The Clinton campaign is disputing the report about her intentions.
Terry McAuliffe, the Clinton campaign chairman, interviewed on CNN today, called the report '100 percent incorrect.'
But he did say publicly on NBC's Today show this morning that once Obama has the number of delegates needed for the nomination Clinton will indeed congratulate him and 'call him the nominee.'
So perhaps the operative term here is tonight -- or manana?" hmm...let's see... ... more -
Obama Wins It!
This is a great night to be a Democrat.
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Obama declares nomination victory
"Barack Obama has declared himself 'the Democratic nominee for President of the United States'.
The claim came on the last day of primary season, as projections showed he had earned enough delegates to clinch the nomination." "Barack Obama has declared himself 'the Democratic nominee for President of the United States'. ... more -
Obama says Clinton "stirring up" Florida controversy
Democrat Barack Obama accused rival Hillary Clinton on Saturday of "stirring up" a controversy over the disqualified Florida primary election because it was her last hope of winning their party's presidential nomination.
Obama, an Illinois senator, is leading Clinton, a New York senator, in delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination to face Republican John McCain in the November election. The delegates are awarded in state nominating contests that kicked off in January.
Florida's and Michigan's delegates were stripped of their rights to be seated at the party's August convention -- when the nominee is formally chosen -- because their contests were held too early in the year, in breach of party rules.
Clinton, who won both contests, has long argued the delegates should be seated and awarded based on the popular vote. She made a trip to Florida this week to press her case.
"The Clinton campaign has been stirring this up for fairly transparent reasons," Obama told reporters on the plane from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Chicago, adding she had not done so earlier in the race when she did not need the delegates to win.
"Let's not ... pretend that we don't know what's going on. I mean this is, from their perspective, their last slender hope to make arguments about how they can win, and I understand that," Obama said.
[Credit: Jeff Mason, Reuters] Democrat Barack Obama accused rival Hillary Clinton on Saturday of "stirring up" a controversy over the disqualified Florida... more -
The Little Rally That Grew
The voting is over in Oregon, where Senator Barack Obama decisively won the primary on Tuesday. But people there and elsewhere are still buzzing about Mr. Obama’s Sunday rally in Portland, which drew 75,000 people — the largest crowd not just of Mr. Obama’s campaign but probably, according to local politicos, in Oregon campaign history.
The event‘s elated organizers say, however, that they did not deliberately set out to shatter records. It was only on Wednesday night, less than 100 hours before the start of the rally, that they decided to risk holding it outdoors, and after that choice was made, they had trust that word would spread quick enough, through media traditional and new, to justify their decision to eschew a smaller indoor arena.
“People in Portland are very wired, in both the Internet sense and otherwise,” Nick Shapiro, the Oregon communications director for the Obama campaign, said in an interview after the rally. “On Thursday, we sent e-mails to key supporters who we knew would spread the news, but we also relied on television and the newspapers and radio to get word out.” Flyers were also posted at restaurants and stores around town.
Mr. Obama was making his fourth appearance in the state, but his first at a large venue in Portland since a rally in March at the local coliseum, where Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico endorsed him. His campaign had announced Saturday that he would watch the primary results come in Tuesday night in Iowa, not Oregon, so for both the faithful and the merely curious, it was their last opportunity to see and hear the candidate before the vote.
Interviews with people at the rally made it clear that many of them were energized by a political climate rarely seen in Oregon. Usually the presidential nominations have been sewn up by the time the state holds its primary in late May, but not this year: voter after voter expressed satisfaction at being able to participate in an election in which the vote of Oregonians would mean something.
Some older voters even referred nostalgically back to what they called “the last primary here that mattered”: 1968, in which Senator Eugene McCarthy defeated Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated a week later in California. And while the vast majority of those attending were already committed Obama supporters, some said they were still trying to decide between Mr. Obama and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and wanted to hear him speak.
Even the weather cooperated: in a state whose residents complain that it is almost always raining, the afternoon was sunny and clear, with temperatures that were positively steamy by Oregon standards. So what better place to spend a Sunday afternoon than with like-minded friends on the grassy banks of the Willamette River?
Portland has had big turnouts for political rallies before, of course: in 2004, John Kerry drew an estimated 50,000 people to the same site. But the presence of a couple of big show business names, Leonardo diCaprio and Jon Bongiovi, probably helped swell the attendance at that event.
In contrast, opening for Mr. Obama on Sunday were The Decemberists, a rising but hardly arena-drawing Portland-based indie-pop band, and Congressman Earl Blumenauer. Late word that Mr. Obama’s wife, Michelle, and their two daughters would be in attendance may also have helped bring people out, but the main attraction was clearly Mr. Obama himself.
[Credit: Larry Rohter, New York Times] The voting is over in Oregon, where Senator Barack Obama decisively won the primary on Tuesday. But people there and elsewhere are sti... more -
Obama begins search for vice president
With the Democratic National Convention only three months away, Senator Barack Obama has asked a tight circle of advisers to begin conducting a confidential search for prospective running mates.
Mr. Obama, who intends to wait until the final primaries end on June 3 before declaring victory in the presidential nominating fight with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, has sworn his advisers to secrecy. The search is in its earliest phases, officials said, and Mr. Obama has asked Jim Johnson, a longtime Democratic hand, to lead the process.
Mr. Johnson, who is a vice chairman of the Obama campaign, led the vice presidential search for Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, in 2004 and Walter Mondale in 1984. In recent weeks, officials said, he started to compile information – largely biographical – for a long list of potential running mates.
Democratic officials discussed Mr. Johnson’s role on condition of anonymity because Mr. Obama has demanded that the process be kept secret, and they did not want him to know they were talking about it. Advisers to Mr. Obama declined to discuss the search or any elements of the process.
[Credit: Jeff Zeleny, New York Times; Photo by Yuri Gripas, Reuters] With the Democratic National Convention only three months away, Senator Barack Obama has asked a tight circle of advisers to begin con... more -
Too little, too late from Hillary?
With a bit of momentum from her landslide Kentucky victory and less lopsided Oregon loss, Hillary Clinton is turning her attention to two states that have already voted, Florida and Michigan, over two states and a territory that have yet to, South Dakota, Montana and Puerto Rico.
It’s part of a last-gasp strategy aimed at prolonging her campaign by convincing the party to alter the nomination math. By seating the penalized Florida and Michigan delegations, she would not only gain a significant number of delegates but also bolster her popular vote argument with the superdelegates.
Clinton campaign officials acknowledge the target audience for the offensive is not only voters but the superdelegates who will ultimately decide the nomination as voters and the party officials who will meet May 31 to effectively rule on the fate of the Florida and Michigan delegations.
Clinton, who won both states’ primaries (Obama wasn’t on the ballot in Michigan), has repeatedly called for the panel to seat the delegations at this summer’s Democratic National Convention, an outcome that would cut into Obama’s lead in pledged delegates.
David McDonald, an uncommitted Washington state superdelegate who sits on the rules committee, said he wouldn’t be swayed by “mere publicity and a claim to be able to win the states.”
Still, Obama doesn’t appear inclined to let Clinton have the Florida and Michigan stages to herself.
He also arrived today in Florida and will be spending three days campaigning here, seeking to win over voters who sided with Clinton by a margin of 50 percent to 33 percent in the unsanctioned Jan. 29 primary. Last week, he paid his first visit this year to Michigan, touring a Chrysler plant, holding a town hall in Macomb County and a rally in Grand Rapids.
It’s unlikely that the rules committee will back a solution that significantly boosts Clinton’s pledged delegate tally.
[Credit: Kenneth Vogel, Politico] With a bit of momentum from her landslide Kentucky victory and less lopsided Oregon loss, Hillary Clinton is turning her attention to ... more -
Can Clinton Muscle VP Nod?
It is possible to muscle your way into a vice presidential nod: You have something the nominee wants, and he has to give it to you.
The question is: Does Hillary Clinton have that kind of muscle?
Her victories in states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia and her strength with women and white working-class voters have fueled the argument that Barack Obama must put her on the ticket if he wins the nomination and wants those states and those votes in the fall.
And, as a senior Obama adviser told me Wednesday, some Clinton supporters are “pushing real, real hard to get her on the ticket.”
But it won’t be easy.
“You don’t want your vice president taking away anything from the ticket, and she does,” said the adviser, who asked not to be named because he was expressing his personal views and not the official view of the campaign.
The adviser cited two things against Clinton: the number of voters who consider Clinton “dishonest” and the “baggage” Clinton brings with her.
Last month, a Washington Post-ABC News poll found that nearly six in 10 Americans believe Clinton is not “honest and trustworthy.”
“That’s not a real positive,” the Obama adviser said, adding: “Her baggage in a general election is real. Does she bring women? No question. But Barack Obama is not a turnoff for women.”
[Credit: Roger Simon, Politico; AP Photo] It is possible to muscle your way into a vice presidential nod: You have something the nominee wants, and he has to give it to you. ... more -
Presidential Race 2008: More Money, Less Problems?
As they steer toward November's presidential election, Democrats and Republicans are assessing the financial challenges ahead.
The Republican problem: Even while losing primaries and fending off bad press over his former pastor, Democrat Barack Obama was able to raise $1 million a day last month. John McCain, unrivaled and secure in his eventual nomination, had his best fundraising month and raised only $18 million.
The Democratic problem: The Republican National Committee, with McCain operatives in place, raised nearly $16 million and had more than $40 million in the bank at the start of May. The Democratic National Committee had $4.4 million.
"This gap is going to be one of the immediate challenges that the Obama campaign has to deal with during the summer," said Bill Carrick, a California-based Democratic consultant who has worked on various presidential campaigns.
Obama entered May sitting comfortably atop more than $37. McCain had nearly $22 million in hand. Hillary Rodham Clinton, once the Democrats' presidential front-runner, was in the red.
Obama, moving closer to his party's nomination, let his fundraising slow only slightly last month and collected $31 million. Clinton raised more than $21 million, but was saddled with debt. And McCain, in his best monthly performance yet, hauled in $18 million.
All three candidates filed their April fundraising reports Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission.
Together, the reports reinforce what is increasingly evident: Obama and McCain are equipping themselves to confront each other, while Clinton risks a personal financial hit by quixotically hanging on to the end. As they steer toward November's presidential election, Democrats and Republicans are assessing the financial challenges ahead. ... more -
Florida & Michigan moot, can't save Hillary
Michigan and Florida alone can't save Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign.
Interviews with those considering how to handle the two states' banished convention delegates found little interest in the former first lady's best-case scenario. Her position, part of a formidable comeback challenge, is that all the delegates be seated in accordance with their disputed primaries.
Even if they were, it wouldn't erase Barack Obama's growing lead in delegates.
If their elections had been held according to party rules, Michigan and Florida would have allocated a total of 313 pledged delegates based on the outcome of the vote.
Using the results of the January elections with no votes for Obama from Michigan, Clinton would get 178 to Obama's 67, with the remainder in Michigan who voted "uncommitted" and giving her a 111-vote advantage. The remainder of the 368 delegates includes those representing the "uncommitted" vote in Michigan and John Edwards in Florida, along with superdelegates.
As of Friday, she was behind 185 delegates, so that would not catch her up even under that unlikely scenario.
The plans before the committee will be more generous to Obama. The Michigan Democratic Party has proposed giving 69 of its 128 delegates to Clinton and 59 to Obama, an advantage of 10 delegates for Clinton. Michigan and Florida alone can't save Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign. ... more -
Hillary finally calling it quits
After month's of stalling and false hopes, Andrea Mitchell reports that Hillary Clinton realizes that her campaign is "going through the motions" and that she "is not going to win this." Maybe now we can begin the so-called healing process and begin the march to the White house.
[Image from The Liberal Journal] After month's of stalling and false hopes, Andrea Mitchell reports that Hillary Clinton realizes that her campaign is "going... more -
With North Carolina Gone, Hillary Soon To Follow
Hillary Rodham Clinton's defeat in North Carolina Tuesday took away her last best chance at the White House.
The results dented if not doomed her hopes of convincing superdelegates to disregard Obama's lead in delegates, states won and popular vote to nominate her.
"Senator Clinton did not get out of the night what she needed," said North Carolina Rep. Brad Miller, an undecided superdelegate. "To use a basketball analogy, she traded baskets. And she needed to do much better than that this late in the contest with her down 150 or 160 pledged delegates."
A clearly buoyed Obama told supporters in Raleigh that his victory came in "a big state, in a swing state, in a state where we will compete to win if I am the Democratic nominee."
Message: I can win here, and Clinton can't.
It was a thrust at Clinton's electability argument, her chief argument to superdelegates. It hasn't been working.
Since the Pennsylvania primary two weeks ago, Clinton has picked up 11.5 superdelegate endorsements to Obama's 22, according to an Associated Press count.
"Even during the period post-Pennsylvania, during Reverend Wright, we decisively won superdelegates in that period," said Obama campaign manager David Plouffe. "And if they're not going to make up significant ground during that period, it's hard to see how things are going to change."
Plouffe was feeling so confident in Obama's lead that he allowed that he would be willing to give Clinton the lion's share of the delegates from Michigan and Florida. She won both states, even though their primaries violated party rules and both candidates agreed to boycott them and have been arguing about the fairest way to seat the delegates ever since.
A win for Clinton in Indiana, the other state that voted Tuesday, wouldn't turn the race around for her like a surprise victory in North Carolina would have. It appears that Obama's victory in North Carolina will give him the most delegates in Tuesday's contests.
While Obama appeared more upbeat than he has in weeks, Clinton's energized demeanor in the closing days of the campaign changed noticeably as she spoke to supporters late Tuesday while an Indiana victory had yet to be determined. While vowing to press on to upcoming contests in West Virginia, Kentucky and Oregon, the former first lady appeared stiff and cautious, her husband and daughter subdued.
Obama's win in North Carolina helps stop a slide that began two months ago when Clinton won primaries in Ohio and Texas. He got victories in the Texas and Wyoming caucuses and the Mississippi primary, but soon found himself the target of unflattering media coverage spurred by video of Wright's divisive sermons.
Offerman said she hopes the candidates will follow through on their promises to support the eventual nominee. She said they will need each other to bring the party together after the racially divisive primary. Hillary Rodham Clinton's defeat in North Carolina Tuesday took away her last best chance at the White House. ... more -
Nancy Pelosi Is A Rubber Chicken
Shirley Golub is seriously challenging Nancy Pelosi for the Democratic party congressional nomination. This is her political ad that compares Nancy Pelosi to a rubber chicken. Shirley Golub is seriously challenging Nancy Pelosi for the Democratic party congressional nomination. This is her political ad that c... more
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Clinton's strategy: Make Obama unelectable
Author and anti-war activist Tom Hayden tells The Real News Network that the “Nixon-like tactics” of Sen. Hillary Clinton have attempted to make Sen. Barack Obama seem unelectable, but her tactics have also hurt her own campaign, creating a “downward death spiral” for the Democratic Party heading into the November election. Author and anti-war activist Tom Hayden tells The Real News Network that the “Nixon-like tactics” of Sen. Hillary Clinton have attempt... more
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McCain Says Obama Insensitive to the Poor; Also, Pigs Fly.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Sunday called Democratic rival Barack Obama insensitive to poor people and out of touch on economic issues.
The GOP nominee-in-waiting rapped his Democratic rival for opposing his idea to suspend the tax on fuel during the summer, a proposal that McCain believes will particularly help low-income people who usually have older cars that guzzle more gas.
"I noticed again today that Sen. Obama repeated his opposition to giving low-income Americans a tax break, a little bit of relief so they can travel a little further and a little longer, and maybe have a little bit of money left over to enjoy some other things in their lives," McCain said. "Obviously Sen. Obama does not understand that this would be a nice thing for Americans, and the special interests should not be dictating this policy."
The Arizona senator deflected questions about his record on the Bush administration's tax cuts — he initially opposed them but now supports extending them — by again criticizing Obama.
"Sen. Obama wants to raise the capital gains tax, which would have a direct effect on 100 million Americans," McCain said. "That means he has no understanding of the economy and that he is totally insensitive to the hopes and dreams and ambitions of 100 million Americans who will be affected by his almost doubling of the capital gains tax."
In an interview with "Fox News Sunday," Obama said McCain "not only wants to continue some of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and corporations, he actually wants to extend them, and he hasn't told us really how he's going to pay for them. It is irresponsible. And the irony is he said it was irresponsible."
Obama also said he would not raise the capital gains tax higher than it was under President Reagan and added, "I'm mindful that we've got to keep our capital gains tax to a point where we can actually get more revenue."
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John McCain, a Republican, is saying that Barack Obama, a Democrat, is insensitive to the plight of poor people. Hmmm...didn't see that one coming.
In a related story, Hillary Clinton protests saying "Hey! Stop ignoring me! I'm still here dammit!" Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Sunday called Democratic rival Barack Obama insensitive to poor people and out of tou... more -
Dem's Civil War Drags On; Obama Refuses to Go Negative
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
The ever-fiercer struggle for the Democratic nomination moved to battlefields new in North Carolina and Indiana yesterday – with a resurgent Hillary Clinton vowing she had a better chance of defeating the Republican John McCain, and Barack Obama insisting he was still on track for eventual victory.
As expected – and widely feared by the Democratic Party establishment – Tuesday's Pennsylvania primary only muddied further the increasingly nasty contest for the nomination. The prime beneficiary of the protracted struggle is now Mr McCain, able to focus statesman-like on the general election while his two potential competitors rip into each other.
With more than 99 per cent of the vote in, Mrs Clinton had won by 54.6 per cent to 45.4 per cent. But the 9 per cent margin was neither the squeaker win that would have allowed Mr Obama to claim a moral victory and generate new demands for her to throw in the towel, nor the sweeping double-digit triumph that might have turned the race on its head.
In fact, Pennsylvania merely underlined the split in the party's core constituencies that has been exposed by the protracted nomination battle. As elsewhere, older, poorer and white voters trended heavily towards Mrs Clinton, while Mr Obama enjoyed the overwhelming support of blacks, as well as of younger, more affluent and better-educated voters.
The fear of party elders is that, with scant policy difference between the pair on most issues, the battle will degenerate into a poisonous and personal slanging match, providing ammunition for Mr McCain in the autumn.
Mr Obama yesterday again promised that he would not go negative, saying that would only "erode my support". He also signalled his opposition to another debate with Mrs Clinton, after 21 candidates' debates thus far. His rival, however, is urging two more debates in the fortnight before Indiana and North Carolina go to the polls.
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I'd like to see an Obama/Clinton ticket in the fall since I believe it would be unbeatable and they basically share the same political beliefs but, with all the negativity Hillary keeps pushing, is she creating a divide too large to be sewn? By Rupert Cornwell in Washington ... more
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Democratic Nomination
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Democratic Nomination
