Television commentator Lawrence O'Donnell, former producer of The West Wing and a contributor to the Huffington Post, said Friday that a senior Clinton campaign official told him the New York senator will be leaving the race by June 15 with a clear exit strategy.
Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign opposes Michigan's plan to give fewer delegates to her and more to rival Barack Obama. A Clinton campaign spokesman said Thursday that the campaign won't support any proposal that gives Clinton less than the delegates she earned winning the primary.
Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday rejected a compromise plan to seat Michigan's delegates to the national convention that would give 69 delegates to Clinton and 59 to Barack Obama.
In this tight battle for the democratic nomination we've heard a lot about the candidates courting super-delegates. But, one superdelegate is courting the candidates. He says he'll sell his vote for a price. A very high price: $20 million. Sacramento superdelegate Steven Ybarra says that eight-figure price is peanuts for the presidency.
read moreWASHINGTON (CNN) -- Hillary Clinton supporter Harvey Weinstein threatened to cut off contributions to congressional Democrats unless House Speaker Nancy Pelosi embraced his plan to finance revotes in Florida and Michigan, three officials familiar with their conversation said.
Hillary Rodham Clinton says she will remain in the presidential race "until there's a nominee." The former first lady declined to say whether that meant through the roll call of the states at the Democratic National Convention this summer.
According to MSNBC, he picked up 7 delegates to Clinton's 0.
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
The Obama campaign announced two more superdelegate endorsements -- Laurie Weahkee, a New Mexico add-on, and Rep. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii. This is Obama's fifth pick up today. (The campaign also announced CA DNC Member Vernon Watkins, but we did not add him into our count, because he was already on our list.)
So far today, it's a net of Obama 7-0.
OBAMA (7): Weahkee, Hirono, Wilmer Lee Jeffcoat, Edward Espinoza, NC DNC Member John Gage, Reps. Donald Payne of NJ and Peter DeFazio of Oregon (+7).
Clinton (0): Rep. Chris Carney of PA (+1), but she lost lost Payne (-1).
The NBC delegate counts:
PLEDGED: Obama 1,590, Clinton 1,426
SUPERS: Clinton 273.5, Obama 269
TOTAL: Obama 1,859, Clinton 1,699.5.
firstread.msnbc.msn.com
Tim Russert: I talked to a lot of active Clinton supporters and I asked them what they thought. Based on my reporting, what I learned was I could not find an objective Democrat who did not think the race was over that Barack Obama would be the Democratic nominee.
www.msnbc.msn.com
Clinton advisers said they were looking for opportunities to save money on campaign events in the coming primary states of West Virginia, Kentucky and Oregon. The advisers said events would be more frill-free, but they also said that the campaign was likely to go deeper into debt to vendors who design and produce her events.
www.msnbc.msn.com
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I hope she never plans on running again if the way she runs her campaign is any indication of how she would run the country.
Ironically, this story just came out too.
WASHINGTON - Depression, teens and marijuana are a dangerous mix that can lead to dependency, mental illness or suicidal thoughts, according to a White House report being released Friday.
news.yahoo.com
I would say that using a corpse' head as a bong is pretty clear indication of mental illness.
A Clinton campaign spokesman said Thursday that the campaign won't support any proposal that gives Clinton less than the delegates she earned winning the primary.
www.cbsnews.com
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Alex,
I totally agree. She doesn't give a rip about the voters. Caring about these voters is pure BS. It's all about trying to gain the most delegates she can to try to catch up to Obama.
She rejected this plan today so it looks like this ain't happening.
Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday rejected a compromise plan to seat Michigan's delegates to the national convention that would give 69 delegates to Clinton and 59 to Barack Obama.
news.yahoo.com
Perhaps the most disturbing indicator for Clinton was the fact that 15% of those who voted for her on Tuesday said they would not back her in November (7% of Obama voters said they would not support him in the general election).
www.time.com
According to NBC, Obama gained 4 while Clinton gained 1. Clinton gained 2 but lost 1 to Obama so only netted 1. The two gains that Clinton had were because they backed whomever won their district.
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Obama won a superdelegate switch, the campaign confirms. AP first reported that Virginia's Jennifer McClellan had switched her support from Clinton to Obama.
The day in delegates: Obama 4, Clinton 1
This is the fourth superdelegate endorsement Obama has won today. Clinton has netted one: She lost McClellan, but won the endorsements of Rep. Heath Shuler (NC-11), who said he'd back who won his district. NBC's Mike Viqueira reports Rep. Brad Ellsworth (IN-8) is also backing Clinton, since she won his district last night as well.
The Delegate Counts:
PLEDGED: Obama 1,588-1,422
SUPERDELEGATES: Clinton 273.5-260
OVERALL: 1,848-1.695.5
firstread.msnbc.msn.com
But Singer acknowledged that neither of the two challenges the RBC will take up calls for delegates from Michigan and Florida to be seated in the way the campaign would most like -- with a net of 58 delegates. (Currently, by the NBC count, Obama leads by 166 pledged delegates. So even with the 58 delegates, Clinton would not get under 100. Potentially with blowouts in West Virginia, Kentucky and Puerto Rico, it's possible.)
firstread.msnbc.msn.com
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Even if the delegates from MI and FL were seated in the way the Clinton campaign wants, she would still be losing.
CECIL: Well, our goal at the end of last night was to be ahead in super delegates and overall delegates. And, in fact, this morning, Hillary Clinton leads Barack Obama in delegates to the Democratic National Convention.
...So, as we move forward, again, we believe that the campaign that takes a long-term approach to delegates, focusing on the next months and developing a strategy to not only win district-level and at-large delegates, but super delegates is going to be the nominee. And we think we have a plan to get us to 2,025.
...[WOLFSON] We think that we are in the poll position because we have a lead, overall, in delegates. We think it is going to be very difficult for Senator Obama to make up that lead because of the way in which the party allocates its delegates proportionately.
So we feel very good about that. But this is going to be a neck-and-neck contest for the foreseeable future.
Senator Obama does enjoy some advantages in the contests in the rest of February, but not in a way that should permit him to overcome our lead in delegates.
...CECIL: I would make two additions to what Mark is saying.
Certainly, we are not writing off any state. I think one of the things that we have all seen in this process is that it's not only about winning or losing states, it's about delegates. And we think that over the course of the Chesapeake primary that the delegate margin overall would be within 15 delegates.
...WOLFSON: And overall, we have a significant lead among delegates, overall, which, obviously, at the end of the day is what is going to positively determine which Democrat is our party's nominee.
www.politicalbase.com
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Oh, how losing makes you change.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - Former Sen. George McGovern, who backed Hillary Rodham Clinton, is urging her to drop out of the Democratic presidential race.
McGovern said Wednesday he has decided to endorse Barack Obama.
www.breitbart.com
Communications director Howard Wolfson confirmed that she has made a total of about $11 million on her books and Senate salary, acknowledging that her loans now exceed everything she has earned as an individual.
Wolfson also wouldn't rule out her loaning the campaign additional resources.
firstread.msnbc.msn.com
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If she were to win the Presidency, we're in trouble.
The $11.4 million she has lent her campaign this year is about the same as the amount she earned from book sales and her Senate salary, Wolfson said.
On a conference call with reporters, Wolfson said the loan proves Clinton is committed to staying in the presidential race.
"The loans are a sign of her commitment to continuing the race, her commitment to continuing the process and her commitment to staying competitive with Senator Obama on television and other areas," he said.
politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com
Obama had a 30 point lead in NC a one point.
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25% was the highest according to Real Clear Politics.
www.realclearpolitics.com
CNN) How big of an impact did Rush Limbaugh's Operation Chaos' have in Indiana? Did GOP voters really cross over to create havoc in the Democratic primary by voting for Hillary Clinton, as he'd asked his listeners to do?
Roughly one in ten of the state's Democratic primary voters were Republican -- and that group did vote for Hillary Clinton, 53 to 47 percent over Barack Obama. But hold on: registered Democrats, who made up two-thirds of Tuesday's primary voters, gave roughly the same edge to Clinton, 53 to 45 percent. Only Independents -- who made up about a quarter of the electorate -- voted for Obama, 53 to 47 percent.
For whatever reason, self-identified conservative voters did overwhelmingly support Clinton two out of three cast their votes for the New York senator.
politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com
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Considering her slim margin of victory, makes you wonder.
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
That gives Obama 27 (superdelegates) in the past week.
*** UPDATE 3 *** NBC News has allocated the final remaining pledged delegate in North Carolina to Obama. The count is updated below.
*** UPDATE 4 *** We have also reduced Clinton's total by one after a superdelegate tells NBC News they are not, in fact, committed to either candidate.
The NBC NEWS delegate counts:
PLEDGED: Obama 1,591-1,426
SUPERS: Obama 283-275.5
TOTAL: Obama 1,874-1,701.5
firstread.msnbc.msn.com
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A good number of SDs have endorsed Obama in the past week. Don't think WV is going to change that. Hillary is done...not many are buying her electability argument.