Michigan. Florida.  I'm exhausted from hearing about them. Our primary system stinks, and I think most of us recognize that fact. Florida and Michigan both moved their primary dates in violation of DNC rules.  But they weren't alone, except in their punishment. We need to take a serious look at how we nominate our candidate for the next cycle, although I doubt it will happen.

To my longstanding friends in the feminist community who have called out the media as being culturally sexist and misogynistic, it is time to help educate the American public about the corrosive impact of sexism in politics and elsewhere. But we can have this dialogue without using divisive language and political tactics that further threaten to divide our country and party. If another woman comes up to me in an airport and suggests Obama should wait his turn, I might scream, "Stop it!" This is not about who should be first, it's about who has the most delegates and who might make the best president of the United States.

The most tragic thing I have heard is this need to link the Obama camp to pundits inside the media who have used the "math" historically used to call an election with attempts to push Hillary out of the race. After all, when the senator held a lead in every national poll in 2007, the media described her groundbreaking campaign as being inevitable. No one called that sexist.

Obama will have earned the right to become the declared Democratic nominee once he has reached the 2,026 delegates he needs. If the party decides to amend the just and known penalty it swore to impose on states and those officials that put its voters in jeopardy of not having a voice at the convention by violating the rules, the adjusted number should not alter
the race. Instead, the amendment should allow the presumptive nominee to help bring the party together.

http://www.donnabrazile.com/viewNews.cfm ?id=277

Since we are approaching May 31, when the DNC rules committee decides on Michigan and Florida, I thought it would be useful to explore the words of Barack Obama and Donna Brazile on the process for selecting the nominee.

From Obama in an interview with CNN:

Obama this week warned Super-delegates to vote the way their states have voted, "if this contest comes down to super-delegates, we are going to be able to say we have more pledged delegates, which means the Democratic voters have spoken. Those super-delegates, those party insiders would have to think long and hard how they would approach the nomination."

I wanted to quickly share with you an amazing video. It was created by IndyRobin and GeekLove.

As Captain Barbossa played by Geoffrey Rush said in 'Pirates of the Caribbean' (regarding the pirate's code), "They're not so much rules as guidelines".

It bears repeating because it's mostly ignored in MSM news reporting.  When DNC officials and their delusion enablers repeatedly tell us that "rules are rules" with regard to Florida and Michigan, they're obscuring the truth, which is that they're not so much rules as DNC leadership failure.

The DNC told all states that there was a firm earliest date for primaries, then said there would be "special" early dates for IA, NH and SC.  The result was that there were not TWO states with early primaries, but FIVE, as IA, NH and SC went even earlier than their "special" early dates.  Since early states were all supposed to lose half their delegates as a consequence, how is it then reasonable that FL and MI got DOUBLE consequences, and IA, NH and SC got ZERO?  To quote another movie line, from 'Roger Rabbit', "The whole thing stinks like yesterday's diapers".

It just dawned on me this morning as I was switching channels to get away from these talking heads on these Morning Shows. You do realize, they don't call them Morning News, because then they might acutally be expected to report NEWS as opposed to gracing us with their opinions and entertainment (if that's what you call it), however biased they may be.  Even they have come to realize the truth, that Hillary can become the Democratic nominee.

The talking heads went with the Obama theme that we were hearing for so many weeks by the Obama surrogates, asking Hillary to drop out of the Presidential campaign to turn it over to Obama, instead of him having to campaign and fight for the nomination, the night Hillary won Indiana.  A funny thing to do when someone wins a primary election and there are still so many more states yet to vote.

Senator Hillary Clinton had a point when she declared that the "tide is turning" after her impressive victory in Pennsylvania last week.

Since then, senior Party leaders have been speaking up, and changing their tune.  

Not too long ago, Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean was urging unpledged "super delegates" to decide "now!" and warning them not to overturn the "will of the people." But in the past week Dean's message has changed significantly.  A few  days ago he told the Financial Times that "The Democratic party's "superdelegates" have every right to...choose the candidate they believe would be best equipped to defeat John McCain in a general election."  And today ABC News reported that Dean wants the super delegates to make a decision by the end of June, after all the voters have "had their say."

Donna Brazile, a super delegate who has previously expressed a preference for Obama may be having second thoughts. Yesterday on ABC's This Week Roundtable Brazille said:

I talked to the same super delegates you talked to...They want to win.  They want a candidate who can beat John McCain.  At the end of the day they're going to look at the (electoral college) math...and say.."okay, who is the best candidate to take on John McCain?"  They'll look at the weaknesses of both candidates and... we will determine who will be the best President. (emphasis added)

Ms. Brazile's remarks are timely.   Perhaps she received a heads-up about the new AP General Election poll released today:

Clinton 50:  McCain 41
Obama 46:  McCain 44

Of special note to super delegates is the AP's accompanying analysis explaining the upward trends for Clinton:

Helped by independents, young people and seniors, Clinton gained ground.

"I don't think there's any question that over the last three weeks her stature has improved," said Harrison Hickman, a Democratic pollster unaligned in the primary. He attributed Clinton's gains to people moving from the "infatuation stage" of choosing the candidate they like the most to a "decision-making stage" where they determine who would make the best president.

Added Steve Lombardo, a GOP pollster: "This just reinforces the sentiment that a lot of Republican strategists are having right now -- that Clinton might actually be the more formidable fall candidate for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that Obama can't seem to get his footing back." (emphasis added)

Is Donna Brazile acknowledging that Clinton is the more formidable candidate against John McCain?

Other polls demonstrate similar strength for Clinton.  According to Real Clear Politics averages, for example: Clinton and McCain are tied in Florida, while Obama trails McCain by 12 points; Clinton leads McCain in Pennsylvania and Ohio by more than 5 points, while Obama trails McCain in both states.

At this moment, the MyDD 2008 Poll Watcher at the top corners of your screen also predicts an electoral victory for Clinton but a loss for Obama:  Clinton 286 to McCain 252 and McCain 278 to Obama 243.

Clinton's wins in California, Pennsylvania, Texas, Ohio, New Jersey, Florida, and New York, despite Obama's historic advertising expenditures, reinforce her campaign's claim to a winning coalition of core Democrats.  I have previously written about that here and here.

As the AP noted in its analysis, Clinton has even gained strength among young people.

And Politico commented yesterday:

Barack Obama's difficulty attracting older voters now far exceeds Hillary Rodham Clinton's own weaknesses with youth.

Repeatedly during the tight race for the Democratic presidential nomination, Obama, who's been defined in part by his popularity among young voters, has seen that strength undercut by his failings with seniors.

In the Pennsylvania and Ohio primaries, Obama lost older whites by 30 percentage points, while Clinton split white voters under age 30 in both critical contests. Obama's senior problem is even greater among Hispanics. The Illinois senator lost older Latinos by 40 to 60 percentage points in Texas, New Mexico and California.

For all the excitement generated by Obama's campaign, and despite his laudable success in caucus states, Obama has failed to draw critical blocs of Democrats into his coalition, a problem which has been exacerbated by off-the-record remarks belittling small-town Americans and ongoing coverage of his fiery pastor.  These are not just "gaffes" that Sen. Obama can cleverly manage; rather they contribute to core perceptions.  It's not difficult to comprehend why 32% of Clinton supporters in Pennsylvania recently told a pollster that they would never vote for Barack Obama.

Donna Brazile and the other super delegates clearly are paying attention.

Cross posted at No Quarter and texasdarlin.wordpress.com

Cross posted at No Quarter

It seems that Donna someone should commit me Brazile is starting to have a meltdown. Not since her vainglorious days as Al Gore's failed campaign manager has she been getting so much attention. And these days she uses that attention to weigh in on everything Democratic. Or so she thinks. The trouble is, that by weighing in on everything she is starting to let her biases show and giving everyone a glimpse at the ugly side of the person we all once had great respect for.

A few days ago someone at Hillary is 44 decided to publish the emails received back from Brazile to questions about her seeming Obama bias. To put it mildly, Brazile's comments were hardly what one would expect from a "party leader." In fact, some of the things she said were downright mean. Ben Smith over at Politico picked up on the story and further revealed the dark side of Donna Brazile.

Inside Donna Brazile's BlackBerry

Do you know how many undeclared supers are now just turned off by people like you? Do you understand you're hurting her and not promoting Hillary? Perhaps that explains why a candidate like Obama has raised $40 million in one month. You don't have to e-mail me again.