Buns of Steel, Feet of Clay, Head of Solid Stone.

Lo, the Messiah:

"For most Democrats, the desire to recapture the White House is the imperative," said Rendell. "There's very little difficulty in persuading people to come help Sen. Obama."

But in a sign of the urgency to raise campaign cash, Rendell said Obama didn't want to reschedule tonight's fundraiser, even though the governor warned him that many Philadelphia donors were headed to the New Jersey shore for the weekend. Rendell said Obama told him: "We don't need the people. We just need the checks."

Kenneth Gross, a campaign-finance expert, said the length and intensity of the grueling nomination battle means that "Obama has his work cut out for him." [...]

Tim Bellisario, a court reporter in Federal Way, Wash., who contributed more than $1,000 to Clinton in $100 and $150 increments over the Internet, said he's not likely to give to Obama. Clinton "was the best candidate," he said. "Now that she's gone, I don't like McCain and I don't like Obama either."

In addition, Obama "doesn't need my money," Bellisario said. "He has raised millions and millions."

(Clinton fundraisers ready to aid Obama, party By Fredreka Schouten, USA TODAY)

I had to look up the larger quote for context cause the part [MO Blue] put up was so unbelievable, at first I thought it was a small piece of gossipy blogsnark.

I'm seriously looking at McKinney and the Green Party this year and every time I start to think I step back in the Democratic camp, something like this happens. Ugh.

Honestly, I'm one of those undecided people - someone who wants a reason to vote for the Democratic nominee because he is presumably better on policy than the alternative with a real chance of being elected, but I agree with Tim Bellisario: "...Clinton "was the best candidate," he said. "Now that she's gone, I don't like McCain and I don't like Obama either..."

It would be funny if it weren't do delusional and sad.

good luck on bleeding the little peeps for mo'money.

Seriously, I'm getting tired of the GD arrogance.

That's just how I see it now and I think that's the smartest path for Obama's chances in the fall.

Likewise, Georgia has many unregistered black voters who could turn out in record numbers to support the first major-party nominee who is black, he argued. Plouffe said the campaign also will keep an eye on Mississippi and Louisiana as the race moves into the fall to see if new black voters could put them within reach. "

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jun/16/obama-camp-win-without-ohio-fla/?page=2

"FLINT, Mich. (AP) -- Barack Obama's campaign envisions a path to the presidency that could include Virginia, Georgia and several Rocky Mountain states, but not necessarily the pair of battlegrounds that decided the last two elections -- Florida and Ohio."

1. The VP will not be Hillary Clinton and;

2. Pay no attention to the VP, s/he will have no policy relevance. Instead, we have a slot for "brownie" Solis Doyle.

Solis-Doyle was demoted by Hillary Clinton's campaign (or Hillary herself.) It happens. Mark Penn was demoted.

What is the big deal about Solis-Doyle taking a job that's offered to her?

Believe me, they could have given her any other job they wanted to, it was the job - not that Solis Doyle is getting A job.

Do they have even the slightest concept of how easy it would be for Hillary to send a clear message to her supporters that they should not support Obama, even while going through the motions of declaring her official support of him herself?

Truly stupendously stupid.

1.  Obama has a tin ear
or
2.  Obama wants to insult Clinton

But Clinton's closest allies, including presumably fundraisers, will get it immediately.  One more way to tell them there's a new boss in town.  The danger, of course, is that they decide they don't want to work for him.  Oh, they'll say the right things and probably vote for him, but will they volunteer, donate, work their butts off?  I guess they might decide they'd rather be with the new boss, but I can't believe they would count on this happening.  

Nothing.

Anyway, why is everything that happens to Hillary a "slap in the face"?

The point is that there is no other way to interpret the decision to give her THIS job - the job of chief of staff to a not-yet-selected VP nominee.

If you need to coordinate with a VP candidate, why pick someone to do the coordinating who was fired by one of the leading VP candidates?

Oh.

I guess maybe she's not a leading VP candidate.

Hillary sent out an email with a campaign photo album to all the supporters in her address book that ended:

Thank you so much -- I'll be in touch soon.

Sincerely,
Hillary

It's nothing more than that.

[When Mr. Dean reached out to Cynthia Ruccia, who started an organization of female Clinton swing-state voters threatening to vote for Mr. McCain, Ms. Ruccia asked that the Democratic convention include a symbolic first ballot for Mrs. Clinton's delegates. Mr. Dean discouraged the idea on the grounds of unity]

Followed up by:

[Being unable to find a definitive answer to this question I called the DNC this morning and spoke with a woman in the Chairman's office. HERE is what I learned in that phone call today:

I explained to DNC employee in the Chairman's office that I was confused by what I had read and asked her if what the New York Times article said was true. Was Dr. Dean discouraging placing Hillary's name onto the first ballot because of party unity?

Her answer shocked me. She told me it was true. She said that Hillary Clinton had decided to support Barack Obama, therefore her name would not be placed on the ballot.

So I then asked her if Hillary Clinton had decided that she did not want her name placed into nomination on the first ballot. Her answer was that she couldn't speak for Hillary Clinton.]

/yeah, in my dreams.

But seriously, would someone please send the Obama campaign the memo that the primary is over?

In 2004, there were close to 200 million eligible to vote, 140 million registered to vote and about 120 million who actually voted for President.  Bush won by 2.5 million votes, I think.

Suppose they think they will pick up nearly all of Kerry's voters, say 95%, and the other 5% go to McCain. (A five percent defection seems pretty big to me, but others may have a different opinion.)  Then they need about 8.5 million voters to replace the defectors and make up the Bush-Kerry gap. I bet they think they can register that many voters and get them to the polls.

And, of course, they're doing the calculations on a state-by-state basis, so they can target their efforts and win without making up the whole popular vote gap.