Democratic Primary

There is a big debate going on if John Edwards said "I voted for him" or "I voted for 'em" on MSNBC this morning. Here's the video and the entire interview is damn good.

More at the HuffPo

If their numbers hold true, then what excuse does Hillary have now? He has won the most states, the most popular vote, the most pledged delegates and now the most super delegates. Perhaps she should have looked at getting rid of Mark Penn earlier, like when he thought Democratic primaries were "winner take all".

George McGovern has switched to endorsing Obama and is urging Clinton to drop out. Even though the Clinton campaign is vowing to "fight on", things are looking very bad for them. As I said earlier, I think her fighting on is just in order to raise money in order to help bail her out of debt.

It sounds more like Clinton is facing the fact she can't win, without screwing over the process. Even if Michigan and Florida get seated as is, Obama wins the popular vote, and she has no way to catch up with pledged delegates.

A lot of speculation has gone on that Clinton has been holding on, waiting for some big controversy to emerge about Obama. Well following Rev. Wright, Obama has shown he can muster through the controversies.

What happened last night was the exact opposite of what Clinton needed. For it to have been a good night for her, Indiana needed to be called early with a decisive lead and North Carolina needed to go on into the wee hours of the morning, and end up being a nail bitter. That didn't happen. All her arguments for winning are now moot.

It also looks like some of her supporters are starting to think the same way. I kind of expect to see more super delegates declare for Obama in the next couple of days. They may wait a couple of days, to see what Clinton does, but the party wants this thing over with so we can focus on John McCain. The DNC doesn't want to dump all it's money into ads against McCain, and having the Obama money machine will be of great benefit.

Finally, speaking of money, Clinton may not actually drop out. Instead she will probably do a suspension of her campaign so she can continue to try and raise money. She is in major debt, and this would give her a path to nibble away at that.

If Obama wins North Carolina and Indiana, do you think Clinton will do the proper thing and concede to Obama? I highly doubt she will. She seems determined to cheat and steal her way into being the nominee, even if that means John McCain becoming the next President.

It's not shock that she is willing to go against the rules:

With at least 50 percent of the Democratic Party's 30-member Rules and Bylaws Committee committed to Clinton, her backers could -- when the committee meets at the end of this month -- try to ram through a decision to seat the disputed 210-member Florida and 156-member Michigan delegations. Such a decision would give Clinton an estimated 55 or more delegates than Obama, according to Clinton campaign operatives. The Obama campaign has declined to give an estimate.

Using the Rules and Bylaws Committee to force the seating of two pro-Hillary delegations would provoke a massive outcry from Obama forces. Such a strategy would, additionally, face at least two other major hurdles, and could only be attempted, according to sources in the Clinton camp, under specific circumstances:

Without the Obama supporters, Hillary has no way to win the general. That's the same as without Clinton supporters, Obama can't win. This is the exact reason why any decisions on Florida and Michigan must be done in such a way to cause minimal damage to the party.

UPDATE 8:50 - MSNBC calls it for Clinton

UPDATE 9:00 - ABC calls it for Clinton.

April Fool's:

Senator Hillary Clinton's lead in the Pennsylvania Primary is shrinking.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in Pennsylvania shows Clinton leading Barack Obama by just five percentage points, 47% to 42%. For Clinton, that five-point edge is down from a ten-point lead a week ago, a thirteen-point lead in mid-March and a fifteen-point advantage in early March.

Her lead is down to only 5 points now. This has been typical this entire cycle. Clinton leads in a state for months and then once their primary date gets closer, and Obama gets out there and starts campaigning he ends up eating away at that lead, or even beating her. I want to hear the pundits talk it away if Obama ends up winning Pa.

There has been a lot of confusion since the Ohio Primary. Some people have labeled it as an "open primary". As a former precinct captain, I can tell you that is not necessarily the case.

While you are allowed to change parties when voting in the primary, you are required to sign a form stating that you are doing so because you uphold the political beliefs of that party.

Ohio's primary system is semi-closed in the sense that voters are required to declare their party affiliation on primary day. Independent voters may ask for a Democratic or Republican Party ballot with no questions asked. But the law requires poll workers to challenge voters who have declared themselves Democrats or Republicans during the last two years.

Crossover voters must sign a form stating they intend to uphold the principles of their new party. If they refuse to sign, they may still vote, but the ballot will be counted as "provisional," giving the board of elections 10 days to investigate its veracity. In an even more bizarre twist under Ohio law, if a majority of poll workers doubt the loyalty of a crossover voter, they may classify the ballot cast as provisional, whether the voter signs the form or not.

During this year's primary there were numerous voters who crossed over from Republican to Democrat in order to vote for Hillary. This followed Rush Limbaughs urging for Republicans to do just that. People even went as far as to appear on TV saying they did this because Rush urged them to. So the question must be answered if Limbaugh invoked a criminal act.

Now we have an investigation into people switching parties in order to answer Rush's wish:

The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections has launched an investigation that could lead to criminal charges against voters who maliciously switched parties for the March 4 presidential primary.

Elections workers will look for evidence that voters lied when they signed affidavits pledging allegiance to their new party. And at least one board member, Sandy McNair, a Democrat, wants the county prosecutor to review the findings.

But it remained unclear Wednesday whether the four-member board will agree to pursue prosecution. A 2-2 vote would mean that Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, would have to break the tie.

During this investigation, Rush Limbaugh must be looked at. He used public airwaves to encourage people to engage in an illegal activity. At the minimum we should see a FCC investigation into this.

Will Bunch explains how Ferraro's comments are just part of Hillary's larger "Archie Bunker" strategy in Pa.

Florida's congressional delegation released this statement:

"We are committed to working with the DNC, the Florida State Democratic party, our Democratic leaders in Florida, and our two candidates to reach an expedited solution that ensures our 210 delegates are seated.

"Our House delegation is opposed to a mail-in campaign or any redo of any kind."

The DNC has said their delegates could be seated, if only they submit a new delegate selection plan. That would be a redo, so you can forget Florida counting.

Last night on Real Time, Terry McAuliffe refused to answer Bill's question of Bill Clinton's foreign policy experience when he took office. Instead he resorted to a right wing talking point; "it's a changed world since 9/11".

The real interesting part is at the end when Bill made a joke about Bill Clinton. Suddenly Terry's satellite feed is gone. Things that stop and make you say hmmmmm.

But only if they count the way she wants them to:

I would not accept a caucus. I think that would be a great disservice to the 2 million people who turned out and voted. I think that they want their votes counted. And you know a lot of people would be disenfranchised because of the timing and whatever the particular rules were. This is really going to be a serious challenge for the Democratic Party because the voters in Michigan and Florida are the ones being hurt, and certainly with respect to Florida the Democrats were dragged into doing what they did by a Republican governor and a Republican Legislature. They didn't have any choice whatsoever. And I don't think that there should be any do-over or any kind of a second run in Florida. I think Florida should be seated.

On other words, she wants the delegates based upon the vote that already happened. Thankfully Howard Dean is the chairman and not a Clinton.

I hate to say it, but, she is sounding more like Bush everyday. The rules are good and should be followed, if only they benefit you.

That is how much Barack Obama raised in February. With Hillary's $35 million, that makes a one month total of $90 million.