anyway, congrats to Obama, good indication if he can win there for him in the GE

But it was from people agreeing with him, including the Hillary Clinton supporter in the Valley district.

What we did today was vote on our delegates to the state convention. The primary wraps up May 13. Then we have the state convention a month later. Those delegates will vote for delegates to the national convention. The delegates to the national convention will be in proportion to the primary vote results in the three congressional districts. See my update for further details. It's very confusing and as Clem noted the rules look like they didn't expect WV's primary to matter when the rules were adapted. The convention in the past has usually been treated as a reward for party support, etc., with the delegates just voting whoever the nominee is.

In this case, I have to wonder if the Obama delegates overwhelmingly outnumber the Clinton delegates but Clinton wins the popular vote in WV whether the Obama delegates will change rules at the convention? Clinton has said pledged delegates really aren't pledged. That could work against her in this case.

That's what I heard from several people and that was my take on it at West Virginia Blue.

Right, because the only Democrat that could possibly beat an old nut job like McCain is Hillary.

The only way that is going to be true is if die hard Hillary supporters try and make it true. If you are looking for a group that is more interested in feeling good about themselves than winning that is who you should look towards.

[BTW I am not talking about the rank and file Hillary supporter. I am talking about the doomsayers here at MYDD and in other places who choose to spout the idea that Obama can't win and/or say they would rather see a McCain Presidency than an Obama one.]

Hahahaha. Good one. Because the activists at the Berkeley County Democratic convention are all elitists and not in touch with the "people."

We were dropped off by our chauffers  at the marbled wall headquarters on North Queen Street - it looks more like the Savoy than a party hq- and then after the convention we went off to drink champagne and eat caviar.

If you were not snarking, your comment shows the up-is-down world some Clinton supporters are living in. These county conventions were open to every independent and registered Democrat in the state. They were advertised by the state party and numerous notices put up about them. Clinton's campaign had every opportunity to rally her supporters to attend. The people who attended were those who are the same people most likely to be out canvassing for whoever the Democratic nominee. These were the PEOPLE, Democrats and independents, actually enthused enough by a candidate to give up a beautiful spring afternoon. Yet you refer to the PEOPLE who attend as "elites." Without us - the volunteers you dismiss as the "party appartus," you know, the people who actually show up and do phonebanking and canvassing, sign waves and voter registration booths, election after election. I wonder how you think you'd win if Senator Clinton should become the nominee without those you are eager to dismiss with your asinine comment. Good luck with that.

Good question. It depends on many factors, but best case scenario I've read for Clinton is she comes out of WV +4 although most likely scenario is she wins and comes out +2 in number of delegates. If I could go hypothetical, let's say Clinton crushes in WV-02, but Obama wins by 1 vote each in WV-01 and WV-03. Under that possibility, Clinton could win a landslide in the statewide popular vote, but Obama would win more delegates. That's purely hypothetical but not impossible. Please don't make me do the math. I've been drinking.

I've been pointing out on West Virginia Blue for months how active the volunteers for Obama have been in the state while the volunteers for Clinton have not been. I do think, however, that the contested primary has actually been good for Obama despite the negative aspects. For one thing, the Obama campaign has paid staff already working in the state coordinating with grassroots volunteers who have been at it for months. Compared to 2004, that's a big advantage when we didn't see a paid person in the state until August or September and there was not as much of a volunteer effort - though some - until June or July because our primary occurred after Kerry had the nomination.

The Clinton campaign hired a media person for the state last week or so, but we've not seen anyone out here.

At a recent Berkeley County Democratic Association meeting, after local candidates made their pitches, Bill Yearout asked if anyone wanted to speak on behalf of either presidential candidate. One Obama volunteer stood up and made a presentation. Bill then asked if any Clinton representative wanted to make a statement. There was silence. He made the call a couple more times, but no one stepped forward.

I'm not sure I follow you. The primary voters will still decide how delegates are awarded. Please see Clem's diary or the West Virginia Democrats site for further details.

Listen left coaster.  Don't bag on MN.  We have a still breathing former VP and former democratic nominee for president.  We had until his untimely death the ONLY Senator to vote against the war and by almost all measures MN is a bastion of progressive reasoned thought.

I realize your state hasn't fallen into the ocean yet but just cause we didn't vote for your candidate doesn't give you the right to bag on us.

Don't get me started on the GOP caucus, which Mitt Romney won, but the McCain supporters engineered a Huckabee win on the second round.

As I understand it, and please follow the WV Dem link or Clem's diary for more details, what we did was pick delegates to our state convention. When the primary votes are counted, each Congressional district will have X number of delegates to divide among the candidates depending on the primary votes. At the state convention, county delegates will vote on who those state delegates will be to go to the national convention.

As Clem noted in his diary, the rules appear to have been written without thought that the WV primary would still matter. It hasn't in a long time and getting picked to go to the national convention has been based more on party loyalty than candidate loyalty in the past.

In my view, the contested primary will help Obama here because an organization is being built now instead of August for the general election. What I've heard over and over is that personal appearances mean a great deal to West Virginians. The latest "controversy" is actually a message that many West Virginians will identify with. They know they've turned to guns and so-called values issues because they're not being heard on economic issues. But if he wants to win this state in the general election, he's got to make personal appearances because retail politics plays big here.