Eric, Salinas, CA:

[[I also don't call people racist just because they criticize Obama, I do if they criticize his race because that is racist.  Otherwise I just call dolts like you Ignorant Fools for being too ignorant to see how brilliant this fine man is.  ]]

What makes you thing Barack Obama is brilliant? What has he ever done to have that consideration?

[[I'm a 56 year old white guy with a college education thanks to my service to our country during that dirty little war in VietNam and I approve of what Barack Obama stands for.  Did you serve our country, hmmm? ]]

What does Obama stand for? Only thing I can see is that he is a far left extreme liberal. We have lots of those, and we know what they preach dosen't work.

Now, be careful about calling someone an "Ignorant Fool" again. I'll match my phd against yours at any time.

Don't anyon kid yourself Blanchard,Ferguson,Granholm,Dingel,and our two senator's are willing to take this to the convention.They have stacked the deck in Michigan and WILL go down fighting. PLEASE,PLEASE, other supers put an end to this on behalf of all the MICHIGAN voters who were denied their RIGHT to vote for the canidate of their choice.

It's poker...somebody is going to blink..

Oh man,

I was just SURE they were going to send in the duo of McAuliffe and Wolfson, the Mighty Spin Machine.

Those two have done SUCH a good job of managing HRC's campaign, I'm just sure that they would be able to hypnotize the committee with their tireless spin and convince everyone to just hand it over to Hillary.

To Eric in CA, Church going people are not losers in fact according to the Bible those who don't believe in Jesus, well they are the losers.  Sure hope you change your mind and get on the winning team.

I don't think this committee meeting is going to be the big news story that everyone is making out to be.

They are going to rule farily, according to the rules, regardless of what the Clinton supporters want. But, if they don't, it really won't matter, as Obama's lead is such that Clinton will still not gain any major majority in any of the 320 different metrics that she has set forth.

http://www.politivine.com

What happened to Lucca Brazzi ?

I thought he and Michael Corleone were representing 'the Hill'

No honor among thieves...


From Huff Post:

'...Ickes At The Alamo: Clinton's Delegate Counter Warns Of Defections At DNC Meeting

Thomas B. Edsall
The Huffington Post


The major dispute over the Florida and Michigan delegations to the Democratic convention in Denver has now boiled down to Hillary Clinton's demand for full seating with no sanctions, and an alternative proposal, likely to be backed by Obama, to seat the delegations with either half a vote granted to each delegate, or to cut each delegation in half.

The Clinton proposal -- which now faces tough, if not insurmountable, odds at the Saturday, May 31 meeting of the Rules and Bylaws Committee (RBC) - would give the New York Senator 55 more delegates than would go to Obama.

The alternative of either halved votes or halved delegations would net Clinton only 20 or so delegates, depending on the details. Obama could afford to concede a 20-plus delegate gain to Clinton without endangering his overall delegate advantage.

Harold Ickes, Clinton's chief delegate hunter, warned that there may be some defections among the 13 RBC members who have endorsed Hillary. If Ickes and his allies cannot hold all their troops in line, a motion before the RBC to seat all 210 Florida and 156 Michigan delegates with a full vote each would face certain defeat.

If defeated at the RBC on Saturday, the Clinton forces are expected to file an appeal to the Democratic convention credentials committee and possibly, failing that, to the full convention.

One of the publicly unstated reasons that Clinton is remaining in the race is to be positioned to step in immediately in the increasingly unlikely event that damaging new material emerges about Obama. In such an event, retaining the right to force pre-nomination fights over credentials becomes crucial to a delaying strategy to allow any conceivable controversy to gain momentum.

Clinton won the January primaries in Florida and Michigan, but the national party has stripped the two states of all delegates in punishment for holding primaries before February 5 in violation of party rules.

On the RBC, there are a total of 28 voting members, along with two co-chairs who can vote only in the event of a tie. To win, then, Clinton needs at least 15 votes, or, if both co-chairs cast ballots, 16 votes.

Those numbers appear increasingly hard to reach, especially after Democratic National Committee lawyers issued a ruling earlier this week that the RBC does not have the power to fully reinstate the two disputed delegations. The Clinton forces contend that the DNC ruling is wrong.

Ickes argued that all is not lost as the RBC session fast approaches. One of the recognized experts in party rules, Ickes said a number of the RBC members have been misinformed about the rules governing the powers of the committee, and he intends to correct the situation before the votes are taken starting on Saturday afternoon.

Clinton's argument = only those voters who voted for me should be counted.

It is Unbelievable that anyone would fall for Clinton's rhetoric ...er... argument here - First, she did not "win" in Michigan - in order to win - you actually need to be competing against your opponent - Obama was not even on the ballot - so Clinton "won" Michigan like Castro has "won" in Cuba for all these years.  

Second, in Florida, no one campaigned - and Hillary was the leader - she was the default.

Hillary has argued for results that would more accurately reflect what the results would be under "normal circumstances" - which we don't know because FL and MI did not vote under normal circumstances -- In Fact, judging from how Obama performed in the early races - under "normal circumstances" he may have won MI and gotten close in FL -- He would likely have substantially more votes AND delegates than any comprimise will give him now....I certainly wouldn't want to try to argue Hillary's case.

Just wondering.,

Can Florida and Michigan move it's general election day to next month sinced they like breaking the rules?
Iamagine they can, hoping to havea meetign witheh election commissioners on Nove 15 or so.

me thinks that the gutless supers  are just waiting, because one of them wants to be that historic figure to put him over the top. Now the only question is, Who will that one be???????????

On the positive side....

Hillary's maneuvering is making it less likely that she'll be on the ticket as VP

The more she uses ridiculous tactics and statements the further she moves away from the VP

Obama will have MUCH LESS pressure to select her as VP

Keep it up Billary, you're cutting your own throat

I have heard the arguement that Hillary should
be the nominee because she is more electable.
The only problem with that is,why bother to conduct
primaries when the DNC can corronate the nominee
so why bother with RBC?
Come to think of it, what promises have been made
to donors by the Clintons...and that's if Hillary
can not win the nomination the party should implode
BEWARE OF POLITICAL HUSTLERS!!!

Hillary is a mathematical genius that has dicovered a break-thru in mathematical calculations that most humans simply DO NOT UNDERSTAND!... We shouldn't get mad at HER, just because WE haven't developed the capacity to understand it.
The formula is simple: HxI-r=2026
(HillaryxIckes-reality=2026) Bingo!

No surprise about Blanchard; he's the closest thing to a Republican that the Mich Dems have got.

Dave, CA (Sent Friday, May 30, 2008 12:26 PM)

Dave:

I'm sure the Obama representatives will be prepared to quote as well as play a tape of Hillary stating the Michigan and Florida votes will not count at the beginning of this primary race. The people on the Committee are not stupid and know that Hillary's current claims that she has a heartfelt concern to have all votes counted is all spin and BS. If the tables were turned I can assure you Hillary would have a team of attorney's there to make sure that the Michigan and Florida delegates were not seated and that the votes did not count. Unlike Obama who is willing to compromise, if the tables were turned Hillary would be screaming that that Dem party must follow the original ruling that these votes would not count.    

The Committee's only concerns will be not to   ostracize and panalize the Michigan and Florida voters too much so Obama and the Dem party will have a fighting chance to win at least Michigan in the GE. They could care less about Hillary.  

This has me feeling sick to my stomach!  Aren't more SD coming over to Obama's side?  I think I know:  they want to eat their cake and have it too.  Jellyfishes!  They don't want to anger the Clintons (who have far reaching connections)but at the same time want to be considered in an Obama Cabinet.  They want to be able to say whatever happens "He(Reid) or She(Pelosi) made me vote in this way.  So don't be mad with me ok?  Ahm could you put in a few words for me in 2010 for my re-election . . .? Mu-yea!(Chinese for 'no problem')

They'd be able to say that no matter who wins.  Typical Spineless Democrats!  Take a stand already!  The man played by the rules and hardly besmirched his opponent!  He beat her fair and square!  Come out NOW!!

ZZZZZzz What exciting news!  What a waste of time! Make the rules, agree to them, then whine and get the rules changed and STILL LOSE!

Obama '08

To Eric, Salinas, CA

I did voluntarily serve this country in uniform and you are dead wrong.

The problem for you and your empty suit Golden Boy is that 49% of all of the people that have voted so far in the all of the Democratic primaries and caucuses do not approve of what Obama stands for.

So I would say that come November, you and the rest of the so-called highly intelligent followers will have a conundrum on your hands.

Hillary has good points to make so it's useless to make her out as the bad guy here.  She's worked her heart out during this campaign, and while she definitely miscalculated the importance of the early caucuses, she's done an amazing job of building support in important states since then.

It might interest readers to know that in the caucuses, one delegate is awarded for every 2,000 votes, while it takes 12,000 vote for one delegate in a primary.   That imbalance (including the craziness of the Texas system) is what's given Obama such a large edge.

If anyone worked as hard as Clinton has toward reaching a goal (and were as close as she is in the numbers) they'd be hard-pressed to give it up until the bitter end.  She feels strongly that she will fare better against McCain in the fall (and I agree with her).  

It's not a bad vs. good scenario, so it strikes me as ridiculous to dream up these analogies to Star Wars. Hillary represents almost half of the Democratic voters out there throughout the country, so she believes she has an obligation to represent their trust until the nomination is decided.

I'm happy with either candidate and proud that we have two people who are such a contrast to John GW McCain.

It is of no consequence what Clinton does this weekend or next weekend.  The great thing about math is that it does not bow to the whims of people's emotions.  The nomination is won by achieving the required number of delegates (popular vote or what kind of delegates they are does not matter).  Obama will achieve the required number in the next week and thus will be the nominee.  If Clinton wishes to whine about how that isn't fair she has that right, but it will not change the math.  The truth of 1+1=2 will not be changed no matter how much Clinton huffs and puffs and tries to blow apart the Democratic party for her own desires.  Why Clinton supporters seem to think the rules of math should be changed to help their candidate is beyond me.    

Take another shot of bourbon, Hillary. Steady your legs, stagger into the meeting, and start spouting your alcoholic delusions like the angry, racist, drunk that you are. I won't bother calling at 3AM, you'll be passed out in a spinning room of cocktail induced delerium.

Obama '08

Independent in TN (Sent Friday, May 30, 2008 12:26 PM)

Independent: I agree with you to a degree. I agree that the Dems and their leaders have shown that they remain the same weak-kneed, spinelss group that they are and have been by not settling this earlier by getting off the fence and endorsing one or the other candidate (in this case Obama whose delegate lead is insurmountable). But take heart. It will be settled, Obama will be the nominee and will clean the floor with McCain, and then perhaps this younster from the streets of Chicago can teach the Dems how to get some balls.  

Count on her to take this all the way to the Convention.... and to have to be forcibly removed from it!

If one does the math, it is clear Clinton will have an extreme difficult time winning the nomination even if all the delegates were added from Michigan and Florida - read more here: http://airitoutwithgeorge.blogspot.com/2008/05/dnc-rules-bylaws-committee-meets.html

You have to remember that what the Clintons said, did, signed or agreed to yesterday doesn't apply to today or tomorrow. They have demonstrated that they have no character, integrity, honor, morality or honesty. Why then should we expect them to honor any agreement they made or live up to their word?

Your vote only counts if it benefits them. And forget about them being concerned about the Democratic Party. Hillary just said on 5/21/2008, that if your in Florida or Michigan and you feel disenfranchised, you might want to consider voting for McCain. Combine that with her invoking the "assassination" possibility, and you would be hard pressed to find a more effective agent for the Republicans.

Why is no one angry at these superdelegates.  We've known for some time who the nominee would be, Sen. Obama.  And yet the race goes on destroying the party that in all honesty should have a cake walk through the general election.  

The superdelegates are the only ones who have kept Hillary's chances alive period because if they'd declared back with North Carolina and Indiana at the least, we'd be much better off right now.

So I for one dont blame HRC, though I despise her selfishness, I blame the Democratic superdelegates for watching their party slash itself apart in what should have been a welcome back party to the White House.

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