Without the votes and delegates from enough of Tuesdays primaries, PLUS the votes of enough Supers who cannot vote until the convention there is no way Obama can secure anything.

I mean, no more primaries to look forward to, and speculate endlessly about?  

The silver lining to this is that he'll lose the GE. Of course, I won't like it the day after he loses due to the old man and what that'll mean, but for that one day in November, I will be the happiest I've been all year--the day Obama's bubble bursts

And all the annoying Obama supporters and especially that self-righteous gas bag, Olbermann will have helped make this happen. And after election day is over, I won't want to just say "I told you so". No. I'll give them the same message Bush supporters told me when Gore lost in 2000--Get over it!

I saw the clip of him saying this on Anderson Cooper and my jaw dropped. I don't know how he's come to this conclusion other than everyone telling him he's won, perhaps. Then again, they've been doing that since Iowa. I guess no one else needed to bother to vote or waste their time/money on any other candidate because The Chosen One Has Spoken.

I don't think he is discounting the voters this Saturday and Tuesday.  Otherwise, he would say it is over today.  He is going to win a couple of races on Tuesday, and if he gets a bunch of SDs committed that night or Wednesday, then he is the presumptive nominee until Hillary demonstrates otherwise, and he needs to start focusing on the GE.  

If there is any arrangement on Saturday at all; the number
is definitely not 2025.  

(with FL & MI  it is 2210 )

He knows Hillary is gonna blow him out in Puerto Rico big huge margins! This means she will have the popular vote- even without Michigan and Florida.

They will listen. The popular vote can be dismissed by all the "authorities" you want, but the people have their own point of view on the matter.

This is a good thing. It's an historic campaign season with two historic candidacies. This is a good thing. Many new voters (or new Democratic primary voters) are energized to vote this year, for both candidates for a variety of reasons. This is a good thing.

We've had a vigorous, exciting, energizing campaign. Sometimes it's been ugly and adding race and gender to the mix adds to the volatility. Some of this is self-inflicted by the campaigns and emotionally-invested supporters, some is based on Media negligence or complicity, but race and gender is part of the "conversation" we're going to have to have at some point anyway if our party leadership is ever to really progress beyond the usual (mostly old, white, male) paradigm. I even think this is a good thing - long term, even if it doesn't seem like it right now.

What's NOT a good thing, in my opinion, is when a campaign is perceived to be trying to suppress voter turnout and an entire state's primary results for the benefit of a particular candidate. Also not a good thing - is dismissing the value of those primaries that are yet to come by declaring them irrelevant to the outcome. Besides the fact that the Democratic party should encourage the democratic process, it risks alienating voters going into the general election.  

I do not understand why "taking it to the convention" is such a terrible prospect for some Democrats and the Media hand-wringers.

Why do we even bother having a convention if the nominee is a foregone conclusion in February? Why waste the time and money for all the pomp and celebration when (a) one candidate declares himself the nominee beforehand, and (b) a simple no-frills counting of the delegates is all that's needed to formalize the inevitable conclusion?  

I think the answer is that it is not concluded yet. Both candidates have good arguments to claim they represent the best interests of the Democratic party and the best chance to defeat McCain in November. The DNC rules say it's all about the delegates, but the people say it's about the votes.  

Which argument is likely to be more persuasive to voters in the general election? I think whatever looks most "democratic" wins (even despite the fact that we have to contend with the un-democratic institution called the Electoral College).  

I personally believe that Hillary is the most electable candidate but, if Obama wins by every measure, securing enough delegates (including counting all the delegates of Florida and Michigan) and after the primary season has concluded, then he will be able to unquestionably claim he is the nominee. However, if he wins because voters in two swing states are effectively disenfranchised, and there is a perception that he is presumptious and dismissive of certain kinds of voters (Appalachian, older women, etc.), then his victory will be questionable going into the GE. That's not good.

1. Senator Clinton agreed before Iowa that Florida and Michigan should not count. It is ON TAPE.  This begs two questions: 1) Should the DNC really have allowed an onrush of state primaries before Super Tuesday? If so, WHY? (2) How can anyone with any objective sense attempt to count Michigan?

2. Why do you guys continue to view Hillary as a liberal/left folk hero?  She is a Clinton--smart, competent, better than any Republican--but by no means a liberal Democrat in the Humphrey/ McGovern/Ted Kennedy/Gore/Kerry/Pelosi sense of the term (think death penalty, school uniforms, and um, oh yeah--her vote on the the war...) Now maybe I have waded into a posse of moderate Dems--dat's cool--but I thought the name of this site is Talk Left!

3. Her vote on the war.  Please explain--I will listen--why her vote is so forgivable, and why you give Obama no credit for superior judgment?

4. And why risk potentially alienating so many African American and young voters in the name of
   

My supposition is this: deep down, you guys think the junior senator from Illinois a lightweight. Well, some of us are not nineteen, and we really think he is more intellectually honest than she, he is wiser than she, and we do not need more dynastic families.

Peace,

Tuesday is my birthday, and something bad always seems to happen on my birthday.  Both of my grandmothers died on my birthday, I've cut my hand on numerous occasions on my birthday, sprained ankles, car accidents -- you name it, something bad always happens.  

Ergo: Obama wins the nomination on Tuesday, after some stupendous, unforeseen thing (a hurricane in PR?).  If it happens, blame me.