Having staked his claim to the Democratic nomination, Senator Obama is now transitioning to the general election phase of the campaign while his surrogates continue to pressure the superdelegates to make up their minds by the end of the week. Even though Senator Clinton has not yet conceeded the race for the nomination, Senator Obama is confident enough of his victory that he is already talking of "unity" and "party loyalty". However, his status for the past several weeks as the presumptive nominee apparently was not enough for him to win in West Virginia, Kentucky, Puerto Rico, or South Dakota. Furthermore, he has seemingly overlooked the fact that many of Senator Clinton's supporters harbor hard feelings, to say the least, of his brusque dismissal of Clinton ever since his large February winning streak. ("I would have dropped out if I were her") Comments like "You are likeable enough" and insuations of racism are never sound methodologies to use in reuniting a fractured party base. Many here and at DKOS claim that it is only a matter of time before the "chickens come home to roost," to put it in the language of Reverand Wright. While I think this is highly improbable at the present time, I do find an analysis of Obama's primary victory and large lead in delegates to be quite illuminating. I have separated Senator Obama's victories into five distinct categories, with an interpretation of their importance to his win. While it is clear that Senator Obama was much more prepared for a post Feb. 5th contest, it remains to be seen whether his coalition will be enough to win the general election come November. Please comment.

We must and we should count every vote. Even those from space. This primary isn't over till every vote in the universe is cast! Count all the votes now!

Aren't children cute! Even a Young Hillary Clinton is cute!

Count our Votes! Count Our votes! Count our Votes! Count our Votes!

You must count our votes

This is the absolute lowest.  Senator Obama is resorting to lies, false claims and negative politics for wanting to COUNT PEOPLES VOTES.  

Obama is showing his desperation again, to take this low road again, in saying anything in an effort to try to demonize Senator Clinton for wanting to count peoples votes, and him, Senator Obama OBVIOUSLY NOT wanting to and blocking every effort to count Michigan and Florida-even their willingness to revote if he wanted to block their existing votes from counting.

Note to folks who I invited back to chat this weekend. Will be back in either tonight or tomorrow night. Looking forward to "reading" you! 12 dogs.

__________

Now the diary entry for today.
__________

I know that this is a website for folks who are very much into politics. You may wonder, "What the heck?!?!" When you read this diary entry. The voters of this world come from all different views. Some come from politics from the "cafe society" of a university town. Some come from the kitchens of middle of nowhere in Alabama. There is a real opportunity to learn from both places. We all dine at the table of life. Some with haute cuisine some with paper bag lunches. We are all Americans.

Everyone welcome.

This diary is different. It comes from the perspective of what I know. Where I grew up. I keep talking about the South here. I do it because of my own personal experiences. I'll speak in my southern voice. The voice I have heard and the voice I know.

Not pretenting to be someone else. LOL. Kind of the opposite.

Welcome.

--------------------------------------

Hey. I would like to thank everyone who has commented on my blog. Thank you for the discussion. Ya'll were having such a good one just thought it best to leave you to it. I learn more that way. When I listen and ask questions. Thank you again. 12 dogs.

Hello. We have a question at my house. It's about the poll watchers map on either side of the MyDD webpage. You've seen them. They are on the upper right and left hand corners of this webpage. We've just started watching these little maps and well-

according to them the matchup between Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain and Sen. Clinton and Sen. McCain is listed. These numbers are for the electorial college.

Uhmm. We were just wondering where these numbers came from and how accurate they are.

Because right now. They show the following:

In a  Sen. Obama v. Sen. McCain matchup it shows:

McCain wins by 3 electorial votes.
Sen. Obama:  265   and  Sen. McCain:  273

In a  Sen. Clinton v. Sen. McCain matchup it shows:

Clinton wins by 6 electorial votes.
Sen. Clinton:  276  and  Sen. McCain:  262

Total number electorial votes needed to win:  270

I read this stuff and I just wondered, the Obama and Clinton camps each say they will be the nominee and winner of the general election. Then I just started looking at these little maps on MyDD and wondering how this figures in.

Isn't it still the electorial college that determines who wins the presidency?

I assume these are accurate numbers otherwise MyDD wouldn't run them on this site.

What do you think about what these numbers are showing?

Michigan Democrats have submitted the plan they would like the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee to approve at their May 31st Meeting. While Senator Clinton has asked that the delegates be seated according to January's primary results (73-55), Senator Obama has proposed allocating them evenly (64-64) since he wasn't on the ballot. This plan would essentially split the difference.

Michigan Democratic leaders on Wednesday settled on a plan to give presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton 69 delegates and Barack Obama 59 as a way to get the state's delegates seated at the national convention. [...]

The state party's executive committee voted Wednesday to ask the national party's Rules and Bylaws Committee to approve the 69-59 delegate split when it meets May 31. The plan would allow the state's 157 delegates and superdelegates to be seated at the convention.

While the plan would give Hillary Clinton just a 10-pledged delegate advantage, the real key to Clinton's approval of the plan could be the superdelegates, of which Michigan has 29. As of now, among those that have declared, Clinton has a lead, although Obama may have some of those undeclared supers in his pocket, especially after Tuesday. Which could be why ultimately Obama would approve the plan as well. Of course, a couple other reasons Clinton should like the plan are that it officially raises the delegate threshold the candidates need to win AND it arguably legitimizes Michigan's popular vote. But if the Obama campaign does approve this plan, it would be a sure sign of their confidence that even with Michigan (and Florida) Hillary Clinton would not be able to catch up.

Update [2008-5-8 15:39:55 by Todd Beeton]:Yes, Hillary Clinton has rejected the Michigan compromise but I agree with Bowers that it essentially represents the best result she can hope for. Which in itself isn't all that good.

[I]t is extremely unlikely that Clinton will get a better deal than this on Michigan. When it or something similar does pass, Florida will become irrelevant... Even with Florida seated as is, Clinton trails by 95 delegates when the Michigan Party's plan is enacted. Further, since Edwards has declined to make an endorsement, his 32 delegates are now effectively uncommitted superdelegates. So, this means that the best case-scenario for Clinton right now is that she trails by 95 delegates with 550.5 delegates remaining. So, even in Clitnon's best case scenario, Obama only needs 228 of the remaining 550.5 delegates, or 41.4%, to win the nomination.

In a craven political pander today Senator Hillary Clinton pledged voting rights to Guam. As reported by Jack Tapper:

I am done with the delegate count stuff.

Neither Hillary nor Barack will likely gain enough votes to win the nomination outright. We know this ad nauseum by now. So stop talking about it.

This will be a contested Democratic Convention, as it should be!

And on Tuesday the rules of the game will be changed by the will of the voters! The direction of the nomination will be changed on Tuesday. The tone of the Convention will shift on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, the game will change!