Michigan
News on the Michigan primary
The Boston Globe: “Florida state Democratic Party spokesman Mark Bubriski told The Associated Press [yesterday] that Florida officials have been talking with campaign representatives of Obama and Hillary Clinton about recognizing all or some of Florida's 211 delegates.
“In Michigan, Democratic leaders have settled on a plan to give Clinton 69 delegates and Obama 59 as a way to get the state's delegates seated at the national convention. Clinton won the Jan. 15 Michigan primary and was to get 73 pledged delegates under state party rules, while Obama was to get 55.”
From NBC's Mark Murray
The Clinton campaign has just released a letter than Hillary Clinton penned to Obama, asking him to join her to find a solution to resolve the controversy over the Florida and Michigan delegations.
"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," she says. "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."
Below is the letter...
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The Wall Street Journal: "One possible outcome that rules-committee members were talking about Wednesday is to seat the states' unpledged superdelegates and half of their pledged delegates. But even that proposal could generate fireworks. The Clinton campaign wants the primary results to be used to determine how the pledged delegates are allocated, a move that could cut Sen. Obama's lead by 40 or 50 votes, by some calculations.”
“Sen. Obama has argued that the delegates be divided evenly, which would preserve his lead. Committee members predicted that Sen. Obama could drop that demand if superdelegates begin drifting to his side after the latest primaries. But the senator's campaign, in a statement Wednesday, said it stands by its position ‘the most equitable resolution is an equal split of the delegates.’”
The Los Angeles Times: "Harold M. Ickes, a Clinton strategist who sits on the DNC's rules committee, said he would argue that Florida and Michigan had been punished enough by the rules that prevented the candidates from campaigning there, and that the party needs to curry favor with voters in these two general-election battlegrounds. Ickes said that seating Florida and Michigan -- and assigning delegates according to the January voting -- was part of a broader strategy to bring Clinton within 100 delegates of Obama. Then she would continue to press her case with superdelegates -- party insiders whose votes will decide the nomination -- that they should give her the nomination because she could pose a stiffer challenge to presumptive GOP nominee John McCain.”
“The rules committee offers the Clinton campaign some built-in advantages. Thirteen members have endorsed her, and just eight are declared Obama backers. One of the committee chairs is Alexis M. Herman, Labor secretary under President Clinton. The committee has wide latitude concerning Florida and Michigan. It could uphold the rules and punishment, seat the entire delegation from each state, split the delegations in half, or even seat all of the superdelegates but only some of the elected delegates."
From NBC’s Domenico MontanaroThe daily
Gallup tracking poll shows
McCain continuing to open up a lead over
Obama (48%-42%) and holding steady with
Clinton (46%-45%) as he has for at least two weeks. The Democratic match up remains essentially unchanged with Clinton maintaining a 48%-46% lead over Obama. Clinton led yesterday 49%-45% and 47%-46% the two days prior. Obama had held a 10-point lead a week and a half ago.
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Check out the following excerpts from this Detroit News editorial on the Clinton camp's push for those Michigan delegates:
There is no deal yet to seat the delegation. But the Clinton camp is working overtime to ensure the elected slate is sent. Keep in mind that Clinton won 55 percent to uncommitted's 40 percent since Obama wasn't on the ballot. He has pushed for a 50-50 percent delegate split, but that proposal hasn't gained traction.
It's becoming apparent that Obama should have consented to a revote here. He certainly wouldn't have lost by 15 percentage points or more; polls have pegged the pair in a dead heat. But Obama seemed spooked that Clintonites put forth the plan and the money, so he quashed the do-over last month.
Now Obama is paying the price in delegates, starting with the Michigan Democratic Party's 15 district conventions on Saturday. The Clinton battle plan was flawlessly executed with an eye toward a contested convention. Their delegate roster is crammed with big names like former Gov. Jim Blanchard and Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero. 'We wanted to pick people who would be loyal to Hillary, who would commit to her through multiple ballots,' Blanchard says.
Michiganders for Obama, a ragtag group of new volunteers, triumphed in turnout Saturday but were steamrolled by the Clinton machine. Obama has proved to be a master of organization, but he made a tactical error not to plump up his skeletal apparatus in Michigan.
More: Given her narrow path to the nomination, Clinton and her aides have argued that pledged delegates are fair game to flip. Although they've since backed away from such statements, the Michigan delegate conventions show the Clinton delegate strategy is being set into motion. What this could mean is four very interesting days in Denver. Although the odds still favor Obama -- who leads in delegates, the popular vote and states won -- he has to be a bit rattled over two losses in one week. If Clinton comes out on top in a floor war, we might well look back at the Michigan mêlée as the turning point.
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
A re-vote in Michigan is likely dead on arrival after Michigan Democratic Party leaders conceded "it is not practical to conduct" a primary or caucus re-vote. The Obama campaign has now called for a 50-50 split of the Michigan delegates. The Clinton campaign, however, says Michigan "votes cannot be ignored" and is circulating a petition to still count votes and delegates from Michigan and Florida.
Clinton trails in pledged delegates, popular vote and states won and was hoping for a re-vote in Michigan and Florida, states which had their delegates to the national convention stripped for violating party rules by moving up their primary dates.
Here are the statements out on the topic today:
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From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy
ANNAPOLIS, MD -- With 35,000 empty seats behind him, McCain fought strong winds and unseasonably cold temperatures to address a small crowd on the concourse of the Navy football stadium this morning, emphasizing the importance of service and acknowledging that his decades of service could be used against him.
"As one of my potential opponents often observes, I've spent 50 years in the service of this country and its ideals," McCain said, referencing a line Barack Obama has used to subtly emphasize McCain's advanced age.
And then -- reprising a line he used in his victory speech after the Potomac Primaries to show the dangers of Obama's youth -- McCain said, "When I was a young man, I thought glory was the highest attainment, and all glory was self-glory. My parents had tried to teach me otherwise, as did the Naval Academy. But I didn't understand the lesson until later in life, when I confronted challenges I never expected to face."
McCain's speech here was the third leg of his "Service to America" tour, highlighting his biography, like at the US Naval Academy, his alma mater.
McCain seemed to have a hard time reading the speech off of the large flat-screen monitor that stood directly opposite him, whether because of technical problems or the bright sun. But the wind made it difficult to turn the pages of his prepared text on the podium, and at one point he skipped a large chuck of his address, according to prepared remarks distributed to reporters beforehand.
The omitted section pertained to the cynicism of many Americans who have, "through no fault of their own, been left behind as others profit as they never have before."
"I'm a conservative, and I believe it is a very healthy thing for Americans to be skeptical about the purposes and practices of public officials," McCain was to say, per his prepared remarks. "But when healthy skepticism sours into corrosive cynicism our expectations of our government become reduced to the delivery of services."
McCain went on to say that what is lost in such cases is the definition of citizenship -- which for McCain means service to America.
The audience at this morning's speech also included McCain's sister Sandy Morgan, fellow POW Bud Day, Sen. John Warner, former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, former Secretaries of the Navy John Lehman and Bill Ball, and former National Security Advisor Bud McFarlane. CONTINUED >>
It's official: Florida and Michigan re-vote proposals are dead.
Politico's Smith notes that without the re-votes, the Clinton campaign's hope of catching Obama in the popular vote is diminishing. "In Pennsylvania, for instance, more than 1.2 million Democrats turned out for the last contested Democratic primary, the 2002 governor’s race. Given the higher interest, Democratic operatives there — who declined to be quoted speculating — said they could imagine the vote getting as high as 2 million. Under that, highly optimistic scenario, an unprecedented blowout for Clinton — a margin of 20 percent, for instance — would give her 400,000 more votes in the state, and still leave her with more than 300,000 to make up.”
“And few Pennsylvania Democrats actually expect such a result, despite Clinton’s lead in many state polls. Clinton’s convincing victory in Ohio, for instance — a whiter, more conservative state — was by a margin of 10 percent." More: For Clinton to pick up her lead in the popular vote with 6 million ballots cast, she’d need a 12 percent margin across the states — that’s a 56 percent to 44 percent average win. With 5 million ballots, she would need a 14 percent margin — that’s a 57 percent to 43 percent overall victory, including expected defeats in states counting for well over 1 million votes.”
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From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones and NBC's Lauren Appelbaum
DETROIT -- Clinton today stepped up the pressure on Obama to back a re-vote in Michigan, calling it a crucial test of whether he means what he says or not.
"Sen. Obama speaks passionately on the campaign trail about empowering the American people. Today, I'm asking him to match those words with actions to make sure the people of Michigan and Florida have a voice and a vote in this election," she told local members of the AFSCME union, which has endorsed her. "I have accepted the plan for a new vote in Michigan, proposed in draft legislation and approved by the Democratic National Committee. In fact the DNC put out a statement earlier this morning making clear that the proposal fits within the DNC rules. It is fully within the party's rules. I call on Sen. Obama to do the same."
Clinton said 600,000 voters in Michigan and 1.7 million Florida voters were at risk of being shut out of the Democratic process. "I think that's wrong and frankly it is un-American and we cannot let that continue," she said. "This goes way beyond this election and it goes way beyond who's running, because no matter where you were born or how much money you were born into, no matter where you worship or the color of your skin, it is a bedrock American principle that we are all equal in the voting booth."
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From NBC's Mark Murray
DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee co-chairs Alexis Herman and James Roosevelt issued the following memo to members of the committee:
"We have recently been asked whether the legislation as proposed by Michigan would fit within the framework of the National Party’s Delegate Selection Rules. Our review of this legislation indicates that it would, in fact, fit within the framework of the Rules if, it were, passed by the state legislature and used by the Michigan State Democratic Party as the basis of drafting a formal Delegate Selection Plan. If a formal Delegate Selection Plan is received we will convene a meeting of the RBC to consider such a Plan."
