Part of every presidential campaign is the post-primary shuffle. That's when the Republican nominee tries to show centrist voters that he isn't really as conservative as he made himself out to be to win his party's base, and the presumptive Democratic nominee similarly tries to pull himself in from the left.
The Swamp notes this morning that the perception among some progressives that Barack Obama is leaving the left for the center has given rise to an unusual way of tethering the candidate to their issues. They're putting their money on the table, hoping to raise $1 million in an "escrow" fund that Obama can't tap until he displays "progressive leadership" on issues.
The issue that sparked the mini-revolt was Obama's support for giving wiretapping immunity to the phone companies under the recent FISA vote, something he had earlier said he would oppose. In a memo to fellow progressives, Bob Fertik, president of Democrats.com, said he still backs Obama but thinks the candidate could use a little wake-up call from the folks who played a significant role in securing him the nomination.
We're asking you to put some of the money you plan to give Obama "in escrow" until he demonstrates progressive leadership on the issues we care about, like warrantless wiretapping.
We are absolutely not trying to hurt Obama -- we'll give him our money at some point. We're just asking for a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T like Aretha Franklin sang about.
We can get Obama's respect because needs our money -- he turned down $85 million in taxpayer dollars because he believes small donors like us will contribute $300 million. And now is the best time to use our modest leverage, before the campaign goes all-out after the convention.
So, you want to know where John McCain and Barack Obama have been on the campaign trail? Where they've been in their lives? Google has a new toy tool that lets political junkies get cartographic.
Our colleagues over on the Technology blog have the details and a deeper explanation of Google's intent to have people adapt the tool for their own uses.
But there already are a lot of different ways to play with it. This, for instance, shows you the McCain and Obama campaign trails. This is a "bio map" of McCain, and this is of Obama. The Twitterati have got one going. So far, nada for tracking delivery of late-night pizza to various campaign headquarters, or kitchens where couples are arguing Obama versus McCain. But you just know that's coming sometime.
A personal favorite: Huffington Post's fundraising map. See if you can spot yourselves in there.
On this, the first anniversary of our Top of the Ticket blog, we are reminded of the mercurial, unpredictable nature of U.S. politics -- part of what makes what we do so fascinating.
Our goal -- one of us on the East Coast and the other on the far more important or at least less humid West Coast -- was to write about Campaign '08 virtually around the clock.
Our second-ever posting, 12 months ago today, previewed an upcoming L.A. Times/Bloomberg Poll; later in the day, we detailed the results of the nationwide survey. The findings were in line with other polls of the time.
In the Republican presidential race, which then seemed the most likely to last deep into the primary season, Rudy Giuliani was perched in first place. His lead wasn't overwhelming, but it was strong enough that he appeared certain to remain a major contender.
His liberal record on social issues loomed as an obvious liability within his party, but his tough-on-terrorism message was attracting substantial support from moderates and GOP-leaning independents.
His major headache among rivals last June was an as-yet-undeclared candidate who was riding a wave as the great conservative hope -- Fred Thompson. He ran a strong second in the poll.
Lagging far behind were John McCain and Mitt Romney, each barely with double-digit support. In our preview posting, we were especially scornful of McCain, noting sarcastically (and foolishly, as it turned out) that in the poll, he found himself "in heated competition with the 'Don't Know' category."
Meriting no mention from us was Mike Huckabee, one of several back-of-the-pack candidates barely earning any support across the country.
The Democratic race, at that point, seemed so much more cut-and-dried.
For the first time since he was elected to the Senate 24 years ago, John Kerry, who voted for the use of military force in Iraq before he opposed the conflict, will face a primary challenger for his Massachusetts seat.
Attorney and former Gloucester City Councilman Ed O'Reilly, a onetime commercial lobsterman, won 22.5% of the delegates Saturday at the Democratic state convention in Lowell, Mass., to secure a place on the state primary ballot in September.
O'Reilly has been endorsed by Progressive Democrats of America, the antiwar group that helped activist Donna Edwards unseat eight-term incumbent Democratic Rep. Albert R. Wynn in Maryland earlier this year.
Just four years ago Kerry was the losing Democratic nominee for president. He won the state party's endorsement today by capturing a majority of the convention delegates. He's expected to turn back the challenge.
"I'm here with humility to ask for your support," Kerry said.. "We have literally so much unfinished business ... My friends, I have more energy, I feel more focused, I'm more ready for the fight than ever before."
The last serious challenge Kerry faced for the Senate seat was in 1996, when he beat Republican Massachusetts Gov. William Weld in what was seen as a contest between potential presidential contenders. He's not faced a Democratic challenger since winning a three-way primary in 1984 to succeed Sen. Paul Tsongas.
The winner of the Sept. 16 primary will face Republican candidate Jeff Beatty in the general election. Matthew Hay Brown has the full story here.
With all the sudden emergence of unity talk and who should be president at today's long-awaited endorsement of Barack Obama by Hillary Clinton, it's easy perhaps to forget that it wasn't so long ago that these two -- plus others involved in this historic Democratic nomination contest -- had some contrary, not-so-nice things to say about the party's new presumptive nominee.
Now here, like clockwork in the two-party political system, comes the Republican National Committee, which has cleverly assembled a series of film clips of both Clintons, John Edwards and Joe Biden talking about Obama in unflattering ways from the not-so-distant past. It has also created a lengthy web display of transcripts and videos here of Clinton's many criticisms of the man she now heartily endorses.
As these tit-for-tat political ploys go, this one packs a bit of a punch. Here's a little piece of timing to ponder. You remember how long it feels since that cold caucus night in Iowa when Obama took first and Clinton's third-place finish foretold fundamental troubles that ended with today's euthanasia of her flailing campaign?
Well, we're not quite halfway from that night until election day Nov. 4.
And in the remaining 21 weeks until then, we're pretty sure to see this video or pieces of it many more times.
Ah, we must be thankful today to politics for exposing us to what is to many a new English word: "boo." Not as in scary gremlins at Halloween. But as in "She's my boo" (girlfriend) or "He's my boo" (boyfriend).
Thanks to a tip from loyal Ticket reader Brady and a tip of the hat to this site, we saw that word quickly became one of Wednesday's most-searched items on Google News. And why do you suppose that was?
Because CNN's Anderson Cooper didn't know what it was either and walked right into an embarrassing expression in a back-and-forth during Tuesday night's election coverage with Donna Brazile, a network commentator and a Democratic superdelegate, allegedly uncommitted.
She had said that Barack Obama, who had just clinched his party's presidential nomination, had called her not to seek her support but to discuss his proposed ways of ensuring party unity for the fall election after the sometimes-bitter primary campaigns against Sen. Hillary Clinton.
Cooper was pressing Brazile on what Obama actually said. "He's told everyone," she replied, "that he plans to sit down with Sen. Clinton at the right time."
Cooper replied: "I'm looking for something he hasn't told anyone else -- just you."
"Anderson," Brazile replied with cocked head, "you're not my boo."
The panel laughed. And Cooper walked right into it. "I wanna be your boo," he said, pausing as the panel broke out laughing. "I don't really even know what that means."
At that, Brazile, who was Al Gore's presidential campaign manager in 2000, looked at her watch and asked, "Anderson, are we still on TV?"
"Yes, we are, Donna Brazile."
"Well, I think I better watch my words."
"Someone can explain it to me later," said Cooper.
Since it's pretty clear this morning that Illinois Sen. Barack Obama is not going to withdraw from the race for the Democratic presidential nomination in the face of Sen. Hillary Clinton's admirably annoying tenacity, it falls to the New York senator to adjust to a harsh political reality that a year ago today was absolutely unthinkable: She lost.
Whatever your personal feelings are toward Clinton -- and the Ticket's Comment boards reveal a rude intensity on both sides -- or toward any of the other losers in either party who gave up the electoral marathon weeks or months ago, running for office like this requires a profound commitment by the candidate, his/her family and those around them who invest up to 20-hour days for very little pay over what now spans nearly two years.
This nation's chief executive weeding-out process is brutal, as it should be to force only the most qualified, savvy, lucky, smart to the top.
But we don't have to bring out the violins for any of the....
There's loyalty in politics, and then there's loyalty. Terry McAuliffe, Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, appeared on Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show" Tuesday night a few hours before Clinton's non-concession speech. She's going to The White House in January, he says. As president.
-- Scott Martelle
(McAuliffe shows up at about the two-minute mark.)
Chances are, Barack Obama, the newly minted nominee of the Democratic Party's presidential ticket, and Hillary Clinton, its latest loser, are sound asleep as we write this. But The Ticket never sleeps.
So here to officially mark the end of the primary season is a new feature, The Ticket Video: Five things to think about as the rhetorical dust settles from a historic primary race that saw the original Republican front-runner, John McCain, fall into oblivion and then recover to win the GOP nomination while the original Democratic front-runner, Clinton, simply fell into oblivion and the victor, Obama, rose from the same place to clinch his win a few hours ago.
This video is about an hour-and-a-half long. Just kidding. It's 88 seconds.
With the final primary concluded barely hours before, top Democratic Party leaders in Washington early this morning ratcheted up the pressure to force all remaining uncommitted superdelegates to make their choice of candidate known by Friday -- and thus end the now hopeless, onetime front-running campaign of New York Sen. Hillary Clinton.
The joint statement was obviously pre-planned and timed for issue shortly after Clinton refused to concede the presidential nomination victory to Barack Obama, who's gained sufficient delegates to clinch the party's nomination.
Howard Dean, right, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, chairman of the Democratic Governors Assn., issued the brief statement for unity just minutes ago:
"The voters have spoken," they said, adding later, "Democrats must now turn our full attention to the general election. To that end, we are urging all remaining uncommitted superdelegates to make their decisions known by Friday of this week, so that our party can stand united."
The carefully worded statement, which does not urge the superdelegates to go one way or the other, is a clear step to force an end to the effort by Clinton, who said Tuesday she would take a few days to consider her options and protect the voices of the nearly 18 million voters who cast ballots for her in recent months. Her hand is now being forced by the Friday deadline.
The move is also a sly one politically, since it leaves Obama free of any appearance of forcing Clinton to quit and thus alienating her millions of supporters, whom the Illinois senator will badly need in the general election come Nov. 4.
In exit polls throughout the just-concluded primary season, an unusually high number of Clinton voters indicated they were likely to reject Obama and vote for the Republican Party's presumptive nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
A complete text of the Democratic Party leaders' joint statement is available by clicking the "read more" line below.
--Andrew Malcolm
Photo Credit: Associated Press / Manuel Bolce Ceneta
We learned a lot from the three candidates' speeches Tuesday night. They're all senators so there's ample yada-yada, of course. Barack Obama's speech was high-flying and low on details. Hillary Clinton's was resolute, close to defiance and defined by what it didn't contain: a concession.
John McCain's was hardly eloquent, pretty pedestrian in setting out his differences with both Obama and that Texas guy in the White House and rather surprising in its lengthy tribute to the losing Democrat. McCain's remarks were also cut off by all the networks, except Fox News, in their rush to disseminate more dramatic Democratic words and crowds.
Good luck to McCain's advance teams this fall in rousing audiences as their opponent does.
We also learned there's already no love lost between the two men who will face each other to become president next Jan. 20. Here below, in their own words, are what each of them said about the other. Ticket readers can make their own judgments and, hopefully, share them in the Comments section below.
Clinton on Obama:
"I want to start tonight by congratulating Sen. Obama and his supporters on the extraordinary race that they have run. Sen. Obama has inspired so many Americans to care about politics and empowered so many more to get involved, and our party and our democracy is stronger and more vibrant as a result.
"So, we are grateful, and it has been an honor to contest these primaries with him, just as it is an honor to call him my friend. And tonight, I would like all of us to take a moment to recognize him and his supporters for all they have accomplished."
Obama on Clinton:
"Sen. Hillary Clinton has made history in this campaign not just because she’s a woman who has done what no woman has done before, but because she’s a leader who inspires millions of ...
The long-anticipated close to the Democratic presidential race seemingly has arrived, with only the theatrics of the final act yet to be scripted. Still, a mini-drama well worth watching will be played out in South Dakota tonight.
Barack Obama is expected to win in Montana, but as South Dakotans vote today in the other contest that brings the curtain down on the primary season, the result there are seen as up in the air. And although Obama will be focusing tonight, Wednesday and the rest of this week on officially clinching his party's nomination, he and his brain trust undoubtedly would like to do so with two final wins, rather than a split decision.
Symbolism is at work; the difference between a final sprint through the finish line, rather than jogging across it.
Taking even a longer view, recall that Obama pulled ahead in his race with Hillary Clinton -- to stay, as it turned out -- thanks to an impressive string of primary and caucus wins in the four weeks after Super Tuesday on Feb. 5. But Clinton rebounded at that point.
On March 4, her wins in the Ohio and Texas primaries enabled her to stave off calls that she end her candidacy. And since then, she's showed impressive strengths -- especially in her landslide wins in West Virginia, Kentucky and Puerto Rico.
Tallying all the contests from March 4 through today -- and counting the Texas primary/caucus "two-step" as distinct results -- finds that Clinton has won 8, Obama 6, and one was a virtual tie; Obama's margin in the Guam caucuses was 7 votes and the two candidates split the 4 delegates at stake.
It's purely academic, but the Obama forces would prefer to look back on this final segment of the nomination battle and see a scorecard that, with victories in Montana and South Dakota, reads 8-8-1.
That is especially so for one senior advisor to Obama -- the former senator from South Dakota, Tom Daschle.
It was bad enough that his constituents ousted him from office, and his perch as the Democratic Senate leader, in 2004. It would be another embarrassment for him if he can't bring his home state into the Obama column. Nor would it help his prospects, which have been discussed, as an Obama running mate.
Yada, yada, yada, the talking TV heads will be, well, talking and spewing talking points now about what the primary voting results mean in the last two remaining Democratic contests -- Montana and South Dakota.
And what it means for now and the fall and infinity and beyond. Right after these important commercial messages.
Why wait? And endure all that?
Let's hear what you think right now. When should she give it up?
You know, today is the last day of primaries. (Yes, we know AP says Barack Obama has clinched the Democratic nomination by delegates, but there are still real votes to be voted.)
Just like spring, election day comes kinda late to Montana and South Dakota. And they really are the final ones. No, really.
And then almost immediately -- well, five months from tomorrow -- comes the general election on Nov. 4. So you better hurry and sign up for instant results via Ticket Twitter for tonight and beyond.
Had you already signed up for Twitter, you would have known about Obama clinching through a special news tweet.
And, of course, by signing up you also get automatic notification of every new Ticket item as it's posted.
Look how excited someone's new grandson named Charlie is about the prospect of automatically getting election results Twittered to his Fisher play cellphone.
And he could have received news of Hillary Clinton's walloping of Barack Obama in Kentucky a whole lot quicker had he been a Ticket Twitter subscriber -- and born then. But he was otherwise occupied elsewhere. (Yes, that's his personal halo hanging nearby.)
Also, Charlie doesn't want to miss one moment of Rep. Ron Paul's surge now that he's within almost 1,300 delegates of catching Sen. John McCain for the Republican nomination in St. Paul. (Honest, that's where the GOP meets come September.)
Click Follow. Enroll there for alerts on every new Ticket item AND our instant, breaking-news election results whenever and wherever anyone is voting on the U.S. presidency. And it's all free, of course.
For about-to-be Twitter folks, think of it as text message headlines to any mobile device. Go here to enroll (also free). Click on Join, not surprisingly.
And join.
Once again, on this final primary election day and all the ordinary campaign days in between until the Bitter End when everyone has made their Thanksgiving airline reservations and winced at the new prices, we're going to have all the political news and election result updates for our Twitter subscribers. (Actually, to be honest, we'll be here well beyond Nov. 4 chronicling formation of a new presidential administration and the political fallout in the losing party.)
On the final day with the last two Democratic primaries in Montana and South Dakota, the Associated Press is reporting that Illinois Sen. Barack Obama has accumulated sufficient delegates to clinch the Democratic nomination for president at the party's National Convention in Denver come August.
Now, the next question is when will New York Sen. Hillary Clinton concede?
When do you think she should give up? Now? Tonight after all voting? Tomorrow? Never, fight on? See Comments below.
Well, talk about going out with class. Ex-President Bill Clinton just went off again during a campaign appearance in South Dakota. The shock waves should be rippling through Chicago and Kansas City any minute.
He was asked about that, shall we say, unflattering Todd Purdum Vanity Fair article again. Talk about smoking near a propane tank. KA-BOOM! went the former leader of the free world about Purdum, which would be expected.
"Sleazy." "Dishonest." "Slimy." "Scumbag."
And those were the nice words, as Clinton firmly gripped and refused to release the hand of the inquiring reporter, who was none other than Huffington Post's Mayhill Fowler.
The Vanity Fair article quotes former Clinton aides criticizing the ex-president for surrounding himself with questionable friends and behaving/speaking in a way that hurt Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.
For political junkies, part of the fun of watching politics is reading the tea leaves. Admit it. Most of you probably saw friends over the weekend -- a little barbecue, maybe, or a kids' sports match.
And if you talked about politics, chances are good the conversation included a little chatter about how and where the Democrats are going to finish up after Tuesday's final votes in Montana and South Dakota.
Well, three fresh factoids have caught our eye. First, Hillary Clinton announced this morning that she'll spend Tuesday evening in New York, the city that never sleeps and that she represents in the U.S. Senate. Not in Montana or South Dakota, where people are voting, but New York City.
Second, Bill Clinton told folks in South Dakota this morning that "this may be the last day I'm ever involved in a campaign of this kind. I thought I was out of politics, till Hillary decided to run. But it has been one of the greatest honors of my life to go around and campaign for her for president."
Third, the folks at Politico report that Mo Elleithee, a Clinton spokesman, tells them that "we just haven't figured out our schedule past Tuesday," so many members of the advance team are being sent home.
(UPDATE: A fourth factoid -- Tom Edsall reports over on Huffington Post that Clinton has taken the "unusual move" of summoning "top donors and backers to attend her speech" Tuesday night in New York.)
Barack Obama has scheduled his own election-night event in St. Paul, site of the September Republican National Convention, and his event can be read as a salvo across the bow for the fall election. What can be inferred from Clinton's picking New York City? Well, it is close to home, and it would be a symbolic place to announce that she is ending her historic run for the White House and devoting her full attentions to the Senate job.
Of course, it could be she just wants to repack a suitcase to start visiting superdelegates in person. But after the Democratic rules committee decision Saturday, the steady seepage of superdelegates Obama's way, and the campaign telling its advance people to take some time off, you gotta wonder.
(UPDATE II: Our colleague Noam Levey reports from South Dakota that Elleithee told reporters aboard the campaign plane this afternoon that "we do not expect a nominee will be clear tomorrow night," signaling that the campaign probably would not end Tuesday. But the Associated Press reports that Clinton advisor Harold Ickes and fundraising director Jonathan Mantz told donors Monday that Clinton probably wouldn't appeal the DNC rules committee decision, and that the campaign expected Obama to secure enough delegates by Wednesday to claim victory.)
You'll recall that those two states broke party rules by moving their primaries ahead of the dates on the Democrats' schedule. Primary voters in Michigan and Florida were told that their votes would not count, and Democratic candidates did not campaign in either state. In Michigan, Clinton's was the only name on the ballot; the other choice was "uncommitted."
Top adviser Harold Ickes, a member of the rules committee, appeared on CNN's "Late Edition" Sunday and reiterated his threat to take the matter to the party's credentials committee at the convention in August. He and other Clinton backers are upset that the committee allocated 69 of the Michigan votes to their candidate and 59 to Barack Obama, who was not on the ballot. (By their count, Clinton should have gotten 73 delegates and "uncommitted" 55.)
He did acknowledge that after the final three primaries -- today's in Puerto Rico and Tuesday's in South Dakota and Montana -- Obama could be in a position ...
Hillary Clinton's campaign just sent this e-mail to supporters, spinning off the results from the Puerto Rico primary. It is missing the sense of urgency that such e-mails had after earlier primary wins -- and losses -- in which the campaign used the fresh results to spur on supporters.
"Another big win! Today in Puerto Rico, the voters spoke with a powerful voice to say that this race is not over yet. And thanks to your support, we're celebrating another great victory.
"When all the votes in Puerto Rico are counted, our popular vote lead will be even bigger. More than 17 million people have cast their ballots for our campaign, more votes than any candidate has received in the history of the Democratic Party. Now there can be no doubt: The people have spoken and you have chosen your candidate. We are winning the popular vote.
"Every time the pundits count us out -- every time they declare the race over -- you, the voters, send a clear message that you have another idea. And you and I just keep winning races together.
"Now there are just two contests left, the final primaries in South Dakota and Montana. I know I can rely on your support for these last two races, just as I have throughout the campaign.
"Thank you so much for everything."
Then it was hand-signed "Hillary" over "Hillary Rodham Clinton," with a button to click for contributions. Click past the jump to see the letter she sent out after winning Kentucky.
Barack Obama has cautiously avoided saying anything that might give someone the idea that he wishes Hillary Clinton would just pack it up and go back to the Senate. But he came close in Thornton, Colo., the other day at the Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts, just north of Denver.
At the end of a town hall meeting on education issues, Obama told the cheering crowd: "All right, everybody, thank you very much. I'll see back in August!" That can be interpreted different ways -- a candidate waxing hopefully, a reference to him being a superdelegate and thus in a chair at the Democratic National Convention, or just meaningless pablum from the stump (now that would be a first for a political candidate).
But the plans he's making for Tuesday night are hard to interpret in any way other than as an act of confidence, with a dollop of provocation. Obama plans to celebrate the end of the five-month Democratic presidential nominating calendar not in Denver, or his home city of Chicago, or straddling the Montana-South Dakota border.
As secretary of the Democratic National Committee, Alice Travis Germond will call the roll of states later this year when the party nominates its presidential ticket at its convention in Denver. She took note of that today as a member of the party rules committee that met in Washington to try to figure out if -- and to what degree -- the Michigan and Florida delegations would be part of that confab.
Germond noted early during the panel's deliberations that in her secretary's role, she looked forward to including the two states as she works her way through the roll call. But she was very careful with her language in discussing the dispute over the nomination contests that Michigan and Florida conducted in violation of DNC rules.
Germond -- for many years a key behind-the-scenes player in California's Democratic Party before she moved East -- seemed loath to use the term "primary."
Her favored term for the votes: "events" (which drew a chuckle from the committee's audience the first time she used it).
No doubt such attention to detail is crucial to her job, which includes certifying all convention delegates and vote counts.
As participants in today's Democratic rules committee meeting blew through a normal lunch hour -- and avoided venturing outside into a nasty thunderstorm that swept through Washington -- it became evident that the difficulties posed by the unsanctioned Florida and Michigan primaries were not equal.
A consensus seemed likely on how to apportion delegates from Florida, based on a proposal offered by the Barack Obama campaign. But how to deal with Michigan -- where only Hillary Clinton, among the major Democratic presidential contenders, was even on the ballot -- emerged as a much stickier proposition.
Several top Michigan Democrats, including Sen. Carl Levin (at left), repeatedly referred to the contest in their state as a "flawed primary" in comments to the committee.
But Levin, passionately, also sought to return the debate to first principles -- whether Iowa and New Hampshire should continue to enjoy special status in picking presidential nominees.
Levin noted that for him, not only was that the root of Michigan's decision to conduct its primary on Jan. 15, earlier than national party rules allowed, but it remained the most flawed aspect of the nomination process.
His voice rising as he made this point, Levin told his party colleagues: "No state should have the right to go first" every campaign. "No state."
A few moments later, he decried what he termed the "God-given right to go first" that Iowa and New Hampshire insist upon every four years.
Regardless of how the immediate dispute plays out, Levin can be counted on to keep pushing -- perhaps at this year's convention, certainly beyond -- for a dramatic reshaping of the primary calendar. And that will remain worth watching.
What had been a fairly uneventful debate before the Democratic National Committee's rules committee on the Michigan/Florida primary imbroglio finally was enlivened when fiery Rep. Robert Wexler of Boca Raton appeared on behalf of Barack Obama.
His appearance also produced the proceeding's most laughably arcane exchange (and believe us, much of the discussion during the morning session only could be appreciated by lawyers).
Wexler, in his typically high-decibel fashion, made the case for allowing the Florida delegation to be seated at half-strength at the party's August convention in Denver. He presented that as a "major concession" by Obama because that would mean a delegate pickup for Hillary Clinton, who won a primary that the party had ruled would not count for anything.
Of course, what Wexler pushed for falls 50% short of what the Clinton forces want -- the seating of a FULL Florida delegation, which would give her even more delegates.
Two of the Clinton stalwarts on the rules panel, Harold Ickes and Tina Flournoy, sought in questions to puncture Wexler's "major concession" stance, and the result was a clear demonstration of the tensions between the two camps that is unlikely to dissipate anytime soon.
And then there was that moment of arcana.
Ickes, with a sly smile of his face indicating that he believed he was about to ensnare Wexler, asked the congressman his position on "the concept of fair reflection."
Wexler, no doubt speaking the thoughts of many, replied with his own smile that Ickes would have to "educate me" on that concept.
Even as Democratic leaders sat down in a Washington hotel this morning to try to resolve their dispute over primaries in Michigan and Florida, the head of the party took a swipe at the resolution of another fight over counting votes -- the one that decided the 2000 general election.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, in remarks opening the much-anticipated rules committee meeting, invoked the name of Al Gore, the party's nominee eight years ago. And in doing so, he asserted that the presidency had been "snatched from" Gore by "five intellectually bankrupt justices."
So much for the recent recommendation from Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia -- one of those who was part of the 5-4 ruling that led to George W. Bush becoming president -- that folks "get over" what happened and that the debate about it is "so old now."
Dean brought up Gore's name in telling an anecdote about his own disillusionment, as a presidential candidate in 2004, with the party he now hopes will unite after dealing with the Florida/Michigan mess and, at some point, settling on a nominee for this year.
Dean told of angrily pacing in a hotel room one night in Wisconsin -- where an impending primary loss would extinguish what had once been his front-running candidacy -- and talking with Gore on the telephone. For undisclosed reasons, he was venting, wondering why he should stay a Democrat and asking what the party had done for him.
Gore, according to Dean, finally cooled him down by saying, "This is not about you, it's about your country."
Who knows, more stories like this one -- and continued squabbling ...
The crucial unanswered question at this stage of the Democratic primary fight is what Hillary Clinton plans to do next week, once contests in South Dakota and Montana wrap up the primary season.
The Clinton campaign is offering no clues.
In a conference call with reporters Friday, her aides were repeatedly asked how far they would carry their fight to seat all delegates from the disputed primaries in Michigan and Florida. Those delegates are crucial to Clinton's increasingly improbable plan for victory. If Clinton doesn’t get everything she wants Saturday when a party committee adjudicates the issue, will she take her protest to the nominating convention in August?
"We think it is not useful to cross streams before we come to them,’’ replied Harold Ickes, a campaign strategist.
The nightmare scenario for most party leaders is that Clinton keeps fighting through the summer. Party officials hope to rally behind a presumptive nominee by the end of June, at the latest.
In public, Clinton is taking a tough negotiating stance. A campaign attorney sent a letter to the Rules & Bylaws Committee today, arguing that it would be wrong to strip delegates from Michigan and Florida as punishment for moving up their primaries.
The two states suffered enough by virtue of the fact that neither Clinton nor Obama campaigned in either place, letter says.
But, alternatively, one person with ties to the Clinton campaign told The Times in a recent interview that among the staff, "There is no expectation at all that we would get 100%. That’s totally off the table at this point.’’
Hillary Clinton's campaign is in full damage-control mode after her remarks on Friday that referenced the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in a way that some perceived as offensive to Barack Obama.
Sunday's New York Daily News has a two-page "exclusive" from the candidate herself "to set the record straight" about her comments, which she said were taken "entirely out of context and interpreted ... to mean something completely different -- and completely unthinkable."
And her communications director, Howard Wolfson, and campaign chairman, Terry McAuliffe, used their appearances on the Sunday talk shows to blame Obama's campaign (along with the media) for the resulting firestorm.
On the same morning Hillary Clinton's campaign e-mailed around to the press corps a link to a column that argues she may be leading in the total popular vote, Barack Obama scored four more superdelegates -- two from California (currently the land of fire and rain), one of them yet another Clinton defector.
The vote-count argument goes down the well-traveled trail of who do you count, and where, pointing out that if all the ballots cast in all the primaries -- including Michigan and Florida -- are counted, then she ekes out 71,000-vote lead with Puerto Rico, Montana and South Dakota still to vote. The general sense is Clinton will carry Puerto Rico, with Montana and South Dakota harder to read.
But the only way Clinton gets the votes-cast lead is to include those in Michigan and Florida (as well as estimates from the caucus states). Of course, the count that matters under the Democratic Party rules is the delegates. And Obama inched ever closer today with two California SuperDs -- Reps. Jim Costa of Fresno and Dennis Cardoza of Atwater -- and two former John Edwards superdelegates from New Hampshire.
Cardoza had been in the Clinton camp, and his flip seems to have more to do with wanting to jump on a stronger horse (or leave a sinking ship) than based on policy and vision. "While I continue to greatly respect and admire Sen. Clinton and feel she has made history with her campaign, I believe that Sen. Obama will inevitably be our party’s nominee for President," Cardoza in a statement released by the campaign.
He adds that he's doing it in the name of unity: "I am deeply concerned about the contentious primary campaign and controversy surrounding the seating of delegates from Florida and Michigan -– two states Democrats need to win in November... I believe we need to avoid this potentially divisive situation by uniting behind one nominee and bringing the party together immediately. Therefore, I have made the decision to support Senator Obama at the Democratic Convention in my role as a super delegate.”
Ted Kennedy's very public and dire illness will keep him being the speaker at the 176th Commencement Ceremony at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., on Sunday. His stand-in: Barack Obama.
"Ted and I talked about me filling in for him at Wesleyan University earlier this week," Obama said in a statement released today. "Considering what he's done for me and for our country, there's nothing I wouldn't do for him. So I'm looking forward to standing in his place on Sunday even though I know I won't be able to fill his shoes."
Kennedy released his own statement through the Obama campaign, saying, essentially, he was taking Obama up on his offer to help as he battles brain cancer, "including stepping in to deliver the commencement address at Wesleyan University."
It's not just any commencement. Among the gowned-and-tasseled will be Kennedy's daughter, Caroline Raclin, and son Ted Jr. will be in the audience. The statement, attributed to Kennedy's office, said the Massachusetts senator accepted Obama's offer to step in "knowing it would be an historic opportunity for the school and all those attending."
It should make for an interesting weekend of campaign coverage. Hillary Clinton is planning to be in Puerto Rico, whose June 1 Democratic primary votes will count in the Democratic National Convention, but the territory will have no voice in the general election. So expect coverage of Clinton to be light.
Obama, meanwhile, will be symbolically stepping into the shoes of Democratic liberalism in what will likely be a highly dramatic -- and widely covered -- appearance. Once again, advantage: Obama.
Until very recently -- like suddenly this afternoon -- Karl Rove was to most Democrats the Great Satan, the political mastermind of two outrageously stunning Republican presidential victories by a Texas goofball governor and, before that, the unfortunate upset ousting of a popular Democratic governor named Ann Richards, as well as the overall rejuvenation of the Lone Star state GOP in statewide offices.
In fact, there are few things politically evil that Rove has not been blamed for by Democrats, even nine months after he exited the White House to write a book, consult and opine in Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal and as an analyst for Fox News.
In recent months one of the worst things Sen. Hillary Clinton could say about her chief opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, was that he was taking moves out of the "Karl Rove playbook." Can you imagine?! "Shame on you, Barack Obama!" she said. Which, if you stop to think about it, means Obama was being successful.
So successful, in fact, that the Illinois freshman senator, ahead in delegates and popular votes, is on the brink of snatching the party's nomination and even acting like the presumptive nominee, ignoring Clinton and taking on who's-its from Arizona.
For his part, a year ago Rove was saying Clinton was the prohibitive favorite for the Democratic presidential nomination and then, later, he said she was a tremendously flawed candidate with extremely high negatives for a national candidate. Both true at the time.
How quickly things change in this season's presidential politics.
Today, Clinton began citing Rove as the ultimate expert on who was the strongest Democratic candidate in the Nov. 4 general. And we've got the exclusive maps below to prove it, all four confidential pages.
The folks over at Politico have an interesting piece this morning reminding us of California political history as they try to figure out why political polling in this cycle has been so off. One answer is something the pros refer to it as the "Bradley effect," the phenomenon of white poll respondents telling pollsters they'll vote for a black candidate -- but not doing so once they get into the privacy of the polling booth. Some think that was behind the gap between polls and results in former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley's loss in the 1982 governor's race (and thus the name of the phenomenon).
Pollsters are trying to sort some of this out during their annual convention in New Orleans this week -- three out of five said they wouldn't get an answer (sorry, couldn't resist). And a study is underway to try to figure out what's gone wrong, looking at such arcana as whether pollsters' samples are not reflective.
Our guess? People have been genuinely undecided, and small events pushed them one way or the other. New Hampshire was the first notable poll flop, and a close look at the numbers could hold a key to the explanation.
All the polls showed Barack Obama with a healthy margin, but Hillary Clinton won by a 2.6% margin. But dig into the polls. The Suffolk/WGBH poll, for instance, found Obama leading but with 8% undecided; 6% of those who had decided were "very likely" to change their minds, and another 18% said they might change their minds. With that much volatility, it's hard to measure the impact of even something so small as a tear.
By the time the Indiana primary rolled around -- polls there gave Clinton an aggregate 5-point lead; she won with a 1.4% margin -- the pollsters had largely stopped asking about the depth of voter commitment. Maybe they ought to add that question back in.
Hillary Clinton'sfinal margin in the West Virginia primary will be overwhelming, but it will fall short of the biggest routs she and Barack Obama have scored over each other in their ongoing battle.
To refresh our memory, we checked the Primary Tracker on the politics page at latimes.com. We also set aside caucuses, where attendance is limited, and focused solely on primaries.
For Clinton, the state where she racked up her most lopsided victory was where she served as first lady for so many years: Arkansas. On Super Tuesday -- remember, Feb. 5, the day that was going to determine the Democratic nominee? -- she carried it by 44 percentage points.
West Virginia, though, came through hugely for her -- it will surpass Oklahoma as the site of her second best showing. She won the Sooner State, another Super Tuesday contest, by 24 percentage points. (Also on that date, she carried her current home state, New York, by 17 percentage points.)
Obama's largest margin came in the Feb. 12 District of Columbia primary -- he won the predominantly African American city by 49 percentage points. Also on that day, he carried Virginia by 29 percentage points -- his fourth best showing (and an outcome that stands in stark contrast to West Virginia).
Obama's second most impressive triumph (in terms of margin) occurred on Super Tuesday when he won Georgia by 35 percentage points. And his home state of Illinois, also voting then, gave him his third best margin, 32 percentage points.
Some people have been looking for signs of a graceful exit from the Democratic presidential race by New York Sen. Hillary Clinton. They probably should not be holding their breath.
Terry McAuliffe, her campaign chairman and himself a former head of the Democratic National Committee, made it clear Sunday that isn't happening anytime soon.
And Clinton's chief spokesman, Howard Wolfson, went on "Fox News Sunday" to state and re-state a firm belief that his boss would win and she was in the race until somebody got 2,209 delegates, which would mean counting Florida and Michigan.
McAuliffe was in there swinging too on both "Face the Nation" and "Meet the Press," arguing that Clinton still has a chance to win the party nomination.
It's a good time for her campaign to make that argument because, if you believe some state polls, Clinton is poised to crush Barack Obama in West Virginia in Tuesday's primary voting there, some suggest by as much as a two-to-one margin. Once a solidly Democratic state, it's gone to the GOP two straight times now.
And if the superdelegates are smart, McAuliffe suggested, they'll resist the Obama bandwagon effect, hold out and not do anything that might turn off the many....
"The Democratic race now moves to West Virginia," Jay Leno noted during his monologue Thursday night on "The Tonight Show." "Today, Hillary Clinton claimed she always wanted to be a coal miner. But those dreams were da
self in from the left.
