Few people would be happier for HRC to triumph over Obama in this primary than me. But there remains a high likelihood that when the dust settles he will not only have more of all kinds of delegates, but a higher popular vote total as well. Obviously no one knows yet how that will shake out.

My point to you is that raising a hue and cry over the popular vote issue, while important, should not be the sole rallying cry, simply because that path to the nomination is so easily eliminated should she in fact not prevail in the popular vote.

In the big picture, only two things are apparent to me as self-evident:

1. HRC's campaigns made some serious strategic blunders early on which Axelrod pounced on most effectively. Obama should not be penalized for this, that's how the game is played.

2. A unity ticket is the only way out of this mess, as it has always been.

When I read well-spoken diarists like Kid Oakland and TINS calling Hillary the Queen of All Evil for engaging in the exact same conduct that they excuse away when their own candidate does it, it makes me realize how much of it is just words, and it makes me think back to all the times I read their impassioned anti-Bush diaries and agreed with them.

Obama, in pandering to Iowa, chose not to let me vote for him.

Then Obama chose not to do a re-vote so that I could not vote for him in a re-vote.

Then Obama went to North Carolina and shot me the bird.

Why should I choose to vote for Obama in the fall?

Still my favorite quote, and pretty much the feeling I get from the Obama campaign and it's supporters. And it fits the attitude made clear by Obama in San Francisco about how blue collar worker types are bitter and cling to their guns and religion.

So the feeling your getting BTD of counting the votes being vile, etc., I think is in keeping with that attitude.

If we're not careful, the drug war could start a conventional one.  Assuming our excuse is correct, that we were conducting some kind of anti-drug mission and drifted into Venezuelan airspace...for all I know we were testing their defenses or spying.

I never liked bullies in school...and I don't like the fact that my country, the country that I love, is a big fat international bully.  

Here is just a taste of what was said in the memo. Yikes. Brutal.

"Perhaps, if Senator Obama would take the time and trouble to understand this issue he would learn to debate an honest disagreement respectfully. But, as he always does, he prefers impugning the motives of his opponent, and exploiting a thoughtful difference of opinion to advance his own ambitions. If that is how he would behave as President, the country would regret his election." -- John McCain

That's soooooooooo much better.

What I find amusing is that the OFB would whine that Clinton is playing politics and FAIL to recognize that Obama's solution is jut as much about plaing politics. Somehow Clinton is TEH EVIL for suggesting that she get the votes for her she earned. While the Obama is TEH FAIREST EVAH after suggesting that he not only get his votes but the votes of others, including some of Clinton. Talk about intellectual dishonesty.

We've had 8 years of a political do-nothing, uniter run the country into a ditch, what's another 4?  The Democrats are hell-bent in shoving their version of Dubya down our throats.  I am SO glad that there are enough Clinton supporters to where Obama won't get the votes he will need to win.

There are a lot of supporters on both sides that are more than willing to define the rules in a way that favors their candidate.

Heck it has become accepted truth here at TL that Obama campaigned in Florida and that he shouldn't get ANY delegates from Florida.

In a bout of severe pretzel logic supporters here claim that we MUST sit MI and FL as is because the will of the people must be heard! but Obama should get nothing out of MI because he screwed up in MI.  Apparently the Obama voters can go pound sand, they don't count.

Obviously not all the people here believe this.  There are rational people that discard this sort of silliness.

But in this passage, Judis explains the conduct of the press corps in this Democratic campaign--and, by inference, in so much of the startling campaign coverage they've authored, to our ruin, in the past.

Just try to believe that he said it:

According to Judis, the Clinton campaign failed to "appreciate" something that journalists did understand. They failed to see that Obama "was history" (in a good sense)--that he was in a different category from all the regular pols. It was one thing to go negative on McCain/Romney/Clinton--and it was a "different" thing to do this to Obama! And according to Judis, "members of the media" understood this. "As Clinton began treating Obama as just another politician, they recoiled and threw their support to him."

Good God! That's just a stunning statement. And yes, that is what he said. According to Judis, "members of the media" knew that Obama was a special case--a more important historical figure than Clinton. "And as Clinton began treating Obama as just another politician, they...threw their support to him."

Once again, go ahead. Just try to believe that he said it.

GIVE me a freaking break.  I love how Cokie Roberts even said that the Obama beating his chest on theIraq position is old and tired. Especially since Mr Present Voter wasn't even in office.

Dumb argument dead on arrival.

The latest round of calls was a tacit admission that while the battles aren't over, the war has been lost.

It's what the votes MEAN in the case of awarding delegates, what is fair, that is the question.

One plan for Michigan will be to seat 59/40, I believe.  One plan for Florida is to half the delegates seating.

Big Tent has even called for a NEW primary in each state, so we know there were problems.

 At this point, since Hillary supporters have hardened against Obama, and since it is clear that Obama cannot win a significant portion of the Democratic Big Tent Coalition necessary, but Hillary can, I think the party and the Super Delegates should count Florida and Michigan as is.

Let Obama and his supporters walk away--they won't go far because there is no place for them to go.

However, I don't see any joy in this whole argument and I cannot see how either side or the middle looks good here. The original primaries were deficient and this election has shown that Democrats will always turn and destroy their own.

Basically, we can't trust the Republican-backed electronic voting apparatus, and we will continue to get sidetracked in future elections by Republican-led state legislatures who are hellbent on disrupting the Democratic primaries by changing the dates in spite of the DNC rules.  

This is the DNC's chance to pull the rug out from under the Repub's manipulations, and to establish a new direction to defeat election fraud in America.  We need to demand a re-vote in MI & FL, and pay for the cost of a mail-in election that utilizes equipment we already have based on Oregon's successful 100% mail-in process that undermines electronic fraud by establishing an audit trail even in states that used HAVA to undermine that concept.  We've already got the infrastructure and policies in place, based on the Oregon model.  We've got the voter rolls in both MI and FL, and it's cheaper to do the mail-in than try to repeat the vote.  Plus, a re-vote now puts both states back in good standing with respect to the DNC timing of elections rules.

This solution is expensive, but it puts to rest the issues of disenfranchisement, establishes a new standard for reducing election fraud, and creates a route for Hillary to establish that she really is more electable.

Barack Obama is now floating a compromise on the Florida situation, telling the St. Petersburg Times that one idea would be to cut the delegations' sizes in half -- a step back from his previous stance of splitting the delegates 50-50 between himself and Clinton, but a far cry from the Hillary camp's insistence upon seating them in full."

http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/state/article518651.ece

Around these parts (Chicago)Rahm Emanuel is infamous among some circles for saying of Hispanics/Latinos "Forget about them, they don't vote." Or something to that effect. Is this true or urban legend? I've Googled and searched and the only confirmation I can find has been comment on Chicago blogs but no "legit" sources.

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.

Here's another $64 question: Do Clinton and her supporters think that counting MI & FL will really change the fact that Barack will be the nominee? And do they really think SDs see Obama as getting zero support in Michigan, which is what Camp Clinton essentially claims?