After the Clinton’s meaningless PA win and a difficult week for Obama, all eyes have focused on the uncommitted super-delegates. Open the gates, we have evidence they want this race to end. As BooMan reminds us the math is the math.
From IHT:
Clinton may be hopeful but Obama rolls on
INDIANAPOLIS: Have Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s chances of winning the Democratic presidential nomination improved as Senator Barack Obama has struggled through his toughest month of this campaign?
After weeks in which her candidacy was seen by many party leaders as a long shot at best, Clinton’s advisers argued strenuously on Thursday that the answer was most assuredly yes, that the outlook was turning in her favor in a way that gave her a real chance.
Still, despite a series of trials that have put Obama on the defensive and illustrated the burdens he might carry in a fall campaign, the Obama campaign is rolling along, leaving Clinton with dwindling options.
Obama continues to pick up the support of superdelegates — elected Democrats and party leaders — at a quicker pace than Clinton.
On Thursday, he got a boost from a high-profile defection: Joe Andrew, a former Democratic national chairman appointed by former President Bill Clinton, said he had changed his mind and would back Obama. Even after Clinton’s victory in Pennsylvania, Obama has held on to a solid lead in pledged delegates, those selected by the voting in primaries and caucuses.
So yesterday we had Joe Andrew and today Mr. Paul Kirk, ex DNC Chair, (1985-1989) joins in:
ABCNews The Note Split Screams
Clinton Tries Party’s Patience, As Race Reaches Crossroads
[.]Speaking of math — the Obama campaign rolls out another former DNC chairman’s endorsement on Friday: Paul Kirk, a superdelegate who led the party from 1985-1989, is coming out for Obama — a day after Andrew’s switch, an Obama campaign official tells The Note. (And don’t count on that being it for the day, as the dribble continues.)
“Despite a series of trials that have put Mr. Obama on the defensive and illustrated the burdens he might carry in a fall campaign, the Obama campaign is rolling along, leaving Mrs. Clinton with dwindling options,” Adam Nagourney and Carl Hulse write in The New York Times. “By and large, the group that matters most at this point — the uncommitted superdelegates, who are likely to hold the balance of power — still seem to view their decision the way the Obama campaign would like them to see it.”
Obama is clearly still leading — but Clinton has a bounce in her step to match her bounce in the polls.
“The Democratic nomination race is murkier than ever,” USA Today’s Jill Lawrence writes. “Hillary Rodham Clinton is rising in the polls while Barack Obama is gaining ground among superdelegates who will decide the winner.”
Says Charlie Cook: “The delegate math couldn’t look much worse for Clinton, but the current political dynamics are just horrific for Obama.”
The AP’s take:”Despite the momentum building behind Clinton after her win in Pennsylvania, it still appeared mathematically impossible for her to overcome Obama’s delegate lead for the party nomination. . . . Regardless, Clinton appeared to be gaining strength among voters, especially the white working-class which has reacted negatively Obama’s association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright.”
Clinton brought a defiant tone to her answers Thursday, her rejection by Andrew and slippage among supers notwithstanding. “I think this has been good for the Democratic Party,” Clinton told Cynthia McFadden on ABC’s “Nightline” (offering what may be becoming a minority opinion). “I think that this is such a close election, why would any of us think that it shouldn’t go to the end?”
She also said that her husband won’t have a West Wing office in her administration, and flatly rejected any comparison between Obama ’08 and Clinton ’92. “No. No, not at all,” she said.
For those who missed it, here’s the link to full text of
Joe Andrew’s letter to super-delegates:
Excerpts
May 1, 2008
Dear Friends:
I have been inspired.
Today I am announcing my support for Senator Barack Obama for President of the United States of America. I am changing my support from Senator Clinton to Senator Obama, and calling for my fellow Democrats across my home State of Indiana, and my fellow super delegates across the nation, to heal the rift in our Party and unite behind Barack Obama.
The hardest decisions in life are not between good and bad or right and wrong, but between two goods or two rights. That is the decision Democrats face today. We have an embarrassment of riches, but as much as we may love our candidates and revel in the political process that has brought Presidential politics to places that have not seen it in a generation, we cannot let our family affair hurt America by helping John McCain.
[.]
Let’s put things right.
Time to Act
Many will ask, why now? Why, with several primaries still remaining, with Senator Clinton just winning Pennsylvania, with my friend Evan Bayh working hard to make sure Senator Clinton wins Indiana, why switch now? Why call for super delegates to come together now to constructively pick a president?
The simple answer is that while the timing is hard for me personally, it is best for America. We simply cannot wait any longer, nor can we let this race fall any lower and still hope to win in November. June or July may be too late. The time to act is now.
I write this letter from my mom’s dining room table in Indianapolis, Indiana. Four generations of my family have argued and laughed around this table. But what I humbly believe today is that we, as Democrats and as Americans, face what Dr. King characterized and what Senator Obama reminds us is the fierce urgency of now. As a nation, we are at a critical moment and we need leaders with the character and vision to see us through the challenges at hand and those to come. I can’t guess what will happen tomorrow, so I can’t tell you what kind of experience our next President will need to have to deal with those challenges. But I can tell you what kind of character and vision they will need to have — and that is what inspires me about Barack Obama.
As Democrats, however, we risk letting this moment slip through our fingers. We risk ceding the field to the Republicans and allowing the morally bankrupt Bush Agenda to continue unabated if we do not unite behind a single candidate. Should this race continue after Indiana and North Carolina, it will inevitably become more negative. The polls already show the supporters for both candidates becoming more strident in their positions and more locked into their support. Continuing on this path would be a catastrophe, as we would inadvertently end up doing Republicans work for them. Already, instead of the audacity of hope, we suffer the audacity of one Democrat comparing John McCain favorably to another Democrat. When that happens, you know it is time for all of us to stop, take a deep breath and unite to change America.
We must act and we must act now.
[.]
Read the whole thing
Joe Andrew nails it. Nothing more to add. Andrew’s endorsement has received wide MSM coverage and that can only be to the good for Obama.
And wouldn’t you know it, Clintons’ supporters have been throwing hand grenades at Joe. The campaign’s response: – Joe Andrew is not from Indiana.
Is Hillary from New York?
