Obama Set To Reach Delegate Milestone

WASHINGTON — Barack Obama will reach a significant milestone Tuesday as he marches toward the Democratic nomination for president _ a majority of pledged delegates at stake in all the primaries and caucuses.

Obama will still be short of the overall number of delegates needed to clinch the nomination, unless he were to suddenly receive an avalanche of endorsements from the party and elected officials known as superdelegates. But the Illinois senator's campaign is touting the delegate milestone as a big step in defeating his rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

"A clear majority of elected delegates will send an unmistakable message _ the people have spoken, and they are ready for change," Obama campaign manager David Plouffe wrote in a memo to supporters Monday.

"As we near victory in one contest, the next challenge is already heating up," Plouffe wrote. "President Bush and Senator McCain have begun coordinating their attacks on Barack Obama in an effort to extend their failed policies for a third term."

Obama picked up the endorsement of Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia Monday, less than a week after Clinton overwhelmingly won the state's primary. Byrd is the longest serving member of the U.S. Senate.

Obama has led in pledged delegates since he won the first caucuses in Iowa on Jan. 3. The two candidates stayed close through Super Tuesday, when Democrats voted in 22 states and American Samoa. Obama won 13 more delegates than Clinton that day _ out of nearly 1,700 at stake.

Obama built an imposing lead the following two weeks, winning 11 straight contests in states such as Louisiana, Maryland, Washington and Virginia. He led by 161 pledged delegates on Feb. 19, after victories in Wisconsin and Hawaii. The lead has been relatively unchanged ever since as the candidates spent the past three months trading victories.

Obama goes into Tuesday's contests with 1,610.5 pledged delegates won in primaries and caucuses. He needs 17 more to reach a majority of the 3,253 pledged delegates available. Clinton has 1,443.5 pledged delegates, according to the latest tally by The Associated Press.

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Clinton's campaign played down the significance of the milestone, accusing Obama of declaring victory without reaching the required number of overall delegates.

"Premature victory laps and false declarations of victory are unwarranted. Declaring 'mission accomplished' does not make it so," Howard Wolfson, Clinton's communications director, said in a memo to supporters.

Obama has a total of 1,915 delegates overall, including endorsements from superdelegates. Clinton has 1,721, according to the latest AP count.

Obama is a little more than 100 delegates short of the 2,026 needed to clinch the nomination. He cannot make up that ground in the Kentucky and Oregon primaries because of the proportional way in which Democrats award delegates. The two states have a total of 103 delegates at stake Tuesday.

But winning a majority of pledged delegates could help his case with undecided superdelegates, who are free to support whomever they choose at the party's national convention in August. Obama argues that superdelegates should support the candidate who wins the most delegates in the primaries and caucuses. Otherwise, he says, they would be overturning the will of the voters.

Obama, who overtook Clinton in superdelegate endorsements a little more than a week ago, picked up six more Monday. Clinton added none.

Clinton argues that superdelegates should exercise independent judgment.

Her campaign is also trying to change the math by getting the delegates seated from the Michigan and Florida primaries. Clinton won both primaries, but the states had been stripped of their delegates for violating party rules by holding their primaries before Feb. 5.

The Democratic National Committee's rules panel is scheduled to address the issue May 31. If any of the delegates are reinstated, it would increase the number needed to clinch the nomination.

Comments

[Frits]

Most probably the MSM will again start the discussion about Obama loosing Kentucky and the "white blue collar" vote. Seems that nobody understands why (in my opinion) Obama is not activily campaigning in KY. Can it not simply be because he does not want to fight Hillary at this point of the race and give her full space to win unchallenged. In that way he does not polarize the voters more then is required and he can come back in November requesting their votes without having them antagonized earlier in the year. If he has a running mate at that time that is acceptable to the CLinton camp it might even be easier. In my opinion this is a very good and sane strategy.

[AMJordan]

I never once thought of that. You could be right. He knows how this is playing out. There's an old Chinese proverb that says something like "You can let a defeated enemy retreat with all th face they can."

[thetiger1974]

I see it just as you do Frits

[Tinkeraw]

I whole heartedly agree. Thought of this a day or so ago after listening to the MSM go on and on about the "white working class". OB is giving WVa and KY to Hillary, he and his team are light years ahead of the MSM in campaign stradegy. That is one of the many reasons this race is so exciting, to see how it plays out and realize it was planned all along ... better than Survivor (outwit, outlast, outplay).

[CocteausTwin]

God and I was about to I was the only one with this thought. I am sure Obama will do some touring in these states once everything is sewn up. The man is just simply a gentleman. He will not wear such kid gloves when it is just him versus McCain.

(McCain is on speaking to a crowd of Cubans. Talking about political freedoms, legalized unions, etc. This man is really going to be brought down with his own words. I hope someone has plenty of mint jelly for this sacrificial lamb.)

[Danny]

Obama will win Kentucky, too. Just you wait.

[HumeSkeptic]

Bush apologizes to Iraqi PM over Koran shooting
57 minutes ago

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - President George W. Bush has apologized to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and promised prosecution of a U.S. soldier accused of using a copy of the Koran for target practice, Iraq said on Tuesday.

Bush apologized in a telephone call on Monday with Maliki, who told him the incident had humiliated and angered Iraq's largely Muslim population, the cabinet said in a statement.
...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080520/ts_nm/iraq_bush_apology_dc
--------------

An apology was demanded and offered for using a book for target practice. No apology offered for causing hundreds of thousand dead, injured, arrested and tortured, and millions driven from their homes.

[kellygrrrl]

I think the White House yanked Boy George offstage for reprogramming

[CocteausTwin]

Shows the value dubya places on human life.

[cowboydem]

HRC reminds me of the knight in the Monty Python movie.

[buckygreen]

LOL tis only a flesh wound!

You may enjoy this:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/19/AR2008051902369.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

[Peteyman]

One of the comments said they'd write Hillary in... Not unless I have anything to say about it:

You write in Hillary, you will pay the consequences.

You write in Hillary, you might as well vote McCain.

You write in Hillary, say goodbye to your right to choose.

You write in Hillary, say goodbye to your sons as they move into Iran.

You write in Hillary, history will judge you as selfish fools who cannot take defeat with class.

[billrott]

It is clear that Hillary Clinton will not accept facts that she lost. While I respect the gentleman approach Obama is taking, he should declare victory tonight and state it is key for us to move on towards the general election campaign.

Hillary is either going to get on the bus or not. I think it is clear she does not care for the party and is attempting to split it in an effort to run again in 2012. It is a sad calculated move if my suspicions are proven to be true. Because if Hillary thinks she had a tough time with the war vote during this cycle, I pray tell her what do you think the reaction would be to her causing the Democrats to lose in 2008 during a 2012 presidential run?

[dentuso]

He can't claim victory. Period.

If he were to do so, it would piss off the Clinton faction to no end, resulting in a "They stole the nomination from her!" storyline.

Is it true? Of course not. But that doesn't matter. The Hillary camp has been running on false illusion since the run of 12 straight Obama wins. At that point, it was mathematically impossible for Hillary to win.

Her supporters keep hearing claims "We can still win this", but what they haven't heard is the truth. The truth is that Hillary cannot win the nomination without superdelegates overturning the will of the people. I really, honestly wish that Clinton had candor and integrity enough to tell her supporters the absolute facts, ie; "Oh, you should know that I need your votes... you should also be aware that I can't mathematically win, and I'm counting on superdelegates to overturn the pledged delegate count - and therefore your votes... Just thought you should know the truth".

My believe is that if she and her campaign were being more forthright and honest about the situation, her supporters would be a wee bit miffed by her continuation.

[billrott]

I understand your rationale against declaring victory; however I feel that the spiket on Hillary's campaign needs to be turned off. Obama should openly stated he has the majority of the pledge delegates after tonight. Obama's campaign should also fight back against Hillary's latest absurd claims that she holds the popular vote total and that caucus states should be discounted.

As for the reality situation, perhaps it will come down to someone such as Gore going out and presenting the sad sad math that Hillary lost. The simple fact is Hillary is not going to give up on the nomination battle period. She will probably still be fighting it in the fall after the convention.

She is a poor loser and at a certain time you can not give her deference or fear the backlash of her supporters. You just need to say enough is enough. It is either me or McSame. Hillary is getting a pass because she is a Clinton. That pass should be revoked after tonight.

[bygollymissmolly]

I don't think that Obama needs to declare victory tonight. The MSM is going to do it for him. They are already pretty much ignoring Hillary. How else can the MSM play it. Obama will go over the delegate count he needs for the nomination. That's how it will be reported.

Hillary and her supporters can spin it any way they like, it's not going to work. The only way Hillary can win is if the super delegates overturn the will of the people. If that were to happen, there would be riots in the street. I don't think that the people in this country are going to tolerate another stolen election. And if the stealing comes from another Democrat, that will pretty much destroy the Democratic party.

[dentuso]

Many understand that this is an option that the Clinton camp has been considering for some time now.

Two things that aren't discussed, however:

A) Clinton's stock could not grow any more than it's value 18 months ago. Transversely, after this ridiculous effort and apparent intent to sabotage, Clinton will not be able to gain the support to run for a potato sack race in 2012.

B) If Hillary and Bill try to finance a 2012 run on their own, they'll be running against a man by the name of Barack Obama.

[1question]

A MUST READ:

A Woman of Independent Thought -- [NanceGreggs] Mon 05.19.08 11:56 PM

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=6034239&mesg_id=6034239

Over the course of the primary process, we have been “treated to” the outcries of a number of women (alleged Democrats) who see the inevitable recognition of Barack Obama as our party’s nominee as being unfair, illegitimate, and unconscionable simply because he is not Hillary; i.e. not a female.

And now a number of them are promising to make good on their threat to vote for McCain, or not vote at all (same dif) because their candidate-of-choice will not be the nominee.

The irony of such action cannot be missed. While touting themselves as forward-looking, liberated females, they fail to notice that they are acting the part of the “stereotypical woman” as portrayed in every 50’s sitcom, the sniveling female who packs her bags and “goes home to mother” when it becomes apparent she is not going to get her own way.

... [continues brilliantly] ... [multiple paragraphs] ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=6034239&mesg_id=6034239

[dentuso]

How can you say they don't make sense?

Their mandate?

"In honor of a woman's right to continue... In honor of a woman's right to choose... We need to ensure that we do not support the nominee who also believes in a woman's rights, and instead vote for a man who will overturn a woman's right to choose - in the name of women's rights."

This is akin to watching a thousand sheep vote for their sheep leader. Since one didn't win, half of them decide that it would be in their best interest to elect a wolf for the sake of standing up for sheep's rights.

Again, my sincere hope for the people who started this initiative is that they were drunk when they came up with it.

[JackND]

Does that make McCain "mother"?

[Softnsweet]

This is the reason why I hate being associated with these type of selfish, ignorant women. Hillary is not God and neither is Obama. One has to lose. If Obama lost and men were to promise to vote for the opposition then all hell would break loose.

Personally, I don't care if they vote for McCain, atleast they will be suffering right along with everyone else. The are just like Hillary and I hope all their old stupid butt brains suffer hard!

[JackND]

HuffPost circa 2010.

McCain has made his first SCOTUS appointee. An agenda is set in motion.

Women everywhere are outraged.

So...did you vote for McCain, or not at all?

[Peteyman]

But the democratic majority in congress will stop it, hopefully

[carlgt1]

at this point I'll laugh my butt off if these harpies help get Roe v. Wade overturned!

[RobertaInCT]

The article stated "alleged Democrats" ..... enough said.

[iPolitics]

Hillary advisor urges her to drop out (Roger Altman). Washington Post quotes another Team Hillary insider: "“The campaign has broken down to those who drink the Kool-Aid that Hillary can still win, and those who don’t, and are considering their options,” one operative said."

Notice the term: Kool-Aid! Oh, the irony.

[LaFeminazi]

Well it's back to the usual state of affairs.

Obama must win PA, OH and FL.

However in the House and Senate the repugs will be in deep trouble it looks like annihilation awaits.

Next stop after the GOP the eradication of the corrupt and spineless whining Democratic Party.

Thats a change I can hope for.

[HumeSkeptic]

One party at a time. We don't want to get too drunk.
(Missed you!)

[RobertaInCT]

Not to worry, we will have another 1994 revolt in eight years.......

[robodweeb]

Republicans are revolting?

[Softnsweet]

Obama as revamp the electorial map. There are states that Hillary has won that Obama does not have to win. Obama will do fine! The map is awesome and most of the people that are hell bent in voting for McCain are in the states that he does not have to win.. Thank God!!

[MIKEBC]

BARACK OFFERS FRESH NEW IDEAS ON FIXING AND PAYING OFF THIS CONSERVATIVE MESS WE NOW HAVE IN THIS COUNTRY.

[ccmd]

Video photoshow of Barack Obama's amazing Portland rally...
http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/Barack_Obama_Portland_Oregon_City_of_Blinding_Lights

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

More hype than hope.
I fear a new mourning in America.

Obama / Hillary 08
or
Obama 48 / McSame 08

It's truly up to the Obama camp.

As someone once said, "We must hang together or surely they will hang us all separately."

[McPander]

Good Idea if she can't hijack the election she can hijack his run for president...

But then again what about her base "Hard Working Americans, White Americans"

[Rotcod]

Studies clearly show that Obama supporters are thinking, educated people. (I don't judge people on their level of school completion, though.) People can support whomever they want. But OBAMABOTS?? REALLY?? C'mon, robots are unthinking. Just because we rally around a candidate who we think is intelligent, capable, inspiring and great for this country, doesn't mean we worship him or blindly follow. It is with eyes wide open that I have picked my candidate of choice. If you have not been inspired by any candidate, or yours is not winning or viable, sorry, but that is what a contest is all about.
GO DEMOCRATIC PARTY!!

[Jess27]

They choose "Obamabots" because it's absurd. It is similar psychology to bullies who call others names to boost their ego.

[RButler]

Read their comments. Read their comments.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

(Part 2 of 2)

The long primary campaign is over -- our voices have been heard -- but the real campaign, though brief, starts today. And we welcome it with hope, with energy, with new ideas, with the kind of optimism and hunger for change that this country hasn't seen since the LAST time we had to clean up after a Bush.

So please join me; please join Barack; please join us BOTH in demonstrating that unifying the COUNTRY begins with unifying the PARTY. Indeed, it's not only time to move on, it's time to move on TOGETHER -- it's time to move FORWARD.

God Bless You, and God Bless the United States of America. Thank-you."

(Photo op of both Hillary and Barack together in the classic arms raised together pose, before Obama gives the most anticipated speech in recent memory.)

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

I happen to have an advance copy of Hillary's concession / endorsement / a-c-c-e-p-t-a-n-c-e speech right here:

"My fellow Americans, my fellow Democrats... For the sake of our children, our party, and our nation, I do hereby release my pledged delegates from their obligation to me, so we can vote together, unanimously, to send a strong statement to the party and the nation that the Democratic Party's nominee will be my colleague in the Senate, my worthy competitor on the campaign trail, and OUR next President of these UNITED States: our host state's adopted favorite son, the man from the Land of Lincoln: Barack O-b-a-a-a-m-a !!!

To those of you watching from home -- regardless of your candidate preference in the primary -- and regardless of your party affiliation... I thank you for your suport. But if you are tired of the war in Iraq, if you are tired of being told what's good for Wall Street is good for Main Street, if you are tired of George Bush in the White House -- and make no mistake, a vote for McCain is a vote for a third term of Bush's follies -- and if you truly want to correct our nation's course and chart a course for peace, a course for prosperity, a course for the future -- I ask you to focus on the future and vote for our JOINT TICKET in November.

(Part 1 of 2)

[Wiredwilly]

If I see another word about Obama or Hillary I'll puke. Where are stories about the OTHER Candidates, the Libertarians, the Greens, the Socialists, Individuals who are not affiliated with any Party. This is not an election, this is American Idol. The WAR is still going on, the National Debt is close to $ 10,000,000,000,000. dollars, Gas is $ 4.00 a gallon and everyone is putting their chips on the two Democrats acceptable to the Council on Foreign Relations, MSNBC, and the millionaire sponsors that brought you Nancy Pelosi. Dennis Kucinich and Tammy Baldwin put in a resolution to Impeach Cheney. Where's the support ? Where's Dick Cheney ? Where's the rest of the World ? Where's a call to re open the 9/ 11 Investigation based on new evidence ? Where's ANYTHING except Hillary or Obama grinning and saying we need " Change". Yeah, we need Change. State the obvious for months on end. Big deal. People still die every day from lack of Health Care. If Clinton , Obama & McCain were in Washington , in the SENATE doing their job, we might end the War and get Health Care NOW, not promises that after the election, after the inauguration, after, after, after. I'm tired of after. Meanwhile the Central Bankers who run things go on as usual with no one challenging the REAL power except Ron Paul. Before the last Congressional election everyone was thrilled the Democrats took Congress. Yeah, the Democrats won Congress. So, what's changed

[alaintex]

Troof or consequences, eh.

[AMJordan]

I really am sorry, but none of the alternative parties have a real national presence. The Libertarians are the closest because the Repulsives have hijacked a lot of their platform and then corporatized it. The Greens are only a threat to the Democrats or themselves. The other parties just aren't there.

Remember Ross Perot's Reform Party? It turned into a Ross Perot ego trip, putting itself in th grave when they stabbed Dick Lamm in the back.

It is rare for a third party to be anything other than marginal OR to garner enough support to become one of the two main parties. This is kind of what happened in the run-up to the Civil War. The Whigs were the Second Party but the Know Nothings had some serious policies too. The Republicans came along and took the best of all three parties, aimed heavily at the abolitionist movement and picked up a lot of disaffected Democrats.

[oneeyedodin]

Gawd! Imagine Byrd endorsing a black man.
He must feel the draft of angel wings!

[TonyKnuckles]

I'm still quite shocked.

[alaintex]

Only half black. Heh.

[messy]

Which half might that be?

[robodweeb]

You'd expect someone from West Virginia to be supportive of the KKK so I give Byrd credit for coming to his senses when he grew up.