Obama expands delegate lead over Clinton

[Ron Burgundy]

AP - Democrat Barack Obama expanded his fragile lead in delegates over rival Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday, picking up at least seven delegates as Iowa activists took the next step in picking delegates to the national convention.

Half the 14 delegates allocated to John Edwards on the basis of caucus night projections switched Saturday and Obama got most, if not all, of them.

Iowa Democratic Party officials said that with more than 86 percent of the delegates picked, Obama claimed 52 percent of the delegates elected at county conventions on Saturday, compared to 32 percent for Clinton. About 16 percent of the delegates picked at Saturday's conventions were sticking with Edwards, even though he's dropped from the race since Iowa held its caucuses in January.

Democratic Party projections said the results mean Obama increased by seven the number of delegates he collects from the state, getting a total of 23 compared to 14 for Clinton and seven for Edwards, with one to be decided.

Twelve automatic delegates bring the state's total to 57. Obama has been endorsed by four of those and Clinton three, with the remainder uncommitted.

Counting Iowa's results Saturday, an Associated Press delegate tally showed Obama with 1,610 delegates and Clinton with 1,496.

Obama won the state's precinct caucuses in January with 39 percent of the vote, with Edwards narrowly edging Clinton to finish second. Projections on caucus night showed Obama getting 16 delegates, compared to 15 for Clinton and 14 for Edwards.

"It means the Obama people are very organized," said Iowa Democratic Chairman Scott Brennan. "They have been working very hard for these conventions."

Brennan said turnout was heavy, with more than 13,000 activists showing up at conventions in the state's 99 counties.

"Today, Iowa Democrats again turned out in large numbers to reject the failed Bush-McCain campaign and its policies," said Brennan.

Edwards finished second in the state's leadoff precinct caucuses on Jan. 3, but those caucuses are only the first step in a complicated process of picking the state's 45 pledged delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August.

The next step in that process was Saturday with selection of delegates to congressional district and state conventions. Party officials said the results Saturday marked the election of 2,173 of the 2,500 delegates who will go to those convention.

The epic presidential race between Clinton and Obama has been reshaped since Iowa's caucuses, but is no less intense with every delegate carrying weight.

"Every single one counts and that's why we've been here organizing," said Teresa Vilmain, a field organizer for Clinton.

"We've filled all of our slots," said Gordon Fischer, a former Iowa Democratic chairman who is organizing for Obama.

Rob Tully, a Des Moines lawyer and prominent Edwards backer, sent an e-mail to supporters urging them to remain neutral, but there was clear movement to Obama when the results were tallied.

"Barack Obama stands for a lot of the same things that John Edwards stood for," said Ro Foege, a state legislator from Mount Vernon who switched to the Obama camp.

The county conventions are traditionally sleepy gatherings where party leaders have trouble gathering a quorum to conduct business, largely because the party usually has a nominee by this point. With the race still up for grabs, activists jammed school gymnasiums, auditoriums and meeting halls across the state.

Former Gov. Tom Vilsack, a Clinton backer, spoke to more than 1,200 delegates jammed into a suburban high school gym.

"The reality is we are united on one thing today, we are Democrats, we are proud Democrats and we are going to elect a Democratic president," said Vilsack, who dropped his own bid for the nomination even before the voting began. "Let us pledge that we will unite behind our nominee — be it he or she."

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080315/ap_on_el_pr/democrats_iowa [link]

[JaJae]

Democrat Barack Obama expanded his fragile lead in delegates over rival Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday

Fragile? How is it fragile? He essentially can't lose it. Hillary Clinton is in a make-believe world right now and the media is all but too comfortable with allowing her to keep her delusions for their personal profit. This is a delegate race. Hillary is essentially statistically out of the delegate race at this point. Obama's lead is in no way fragile by any stretch of the imagination. I'm getting tired of this horrible reporting. Anyone who has spent 10 seconds looking at the numbers and has an IQ above a squirrel realizes that Hillary's chances of overtaking the delegate lead is about as good as her chances of acquiring an ounce of integrity.

[avsp]

But she has hope.

IIUC neither candidate can win on delegates alone & thus the super-delegates are going to decide it

If he has more delegates but less of the popular vote isnt it going to be very difficult for super-delegates not to vote for Clinton? Especially given the various fusses in Florida in the last presidential elections & the assorted do-over issues this time.


On the whole its hard to believe that the whole US electorial system wasnt invented by a person hell-bent of confusing everybody.


My bias is such that I agree with your view that the media has a bias to portray the news in a fashion to increase their profit

[jimeigh]

Originally Posted by JaJae

as good as her chances of acquiring an ounce of integrity.

[WickedLou9]

Originally Posted by avsp

But she has hope.

IIUC neither candidate can win on delegates alone & thus the super-delegates are going to decide it

If he has more delegates but less of the popular vote isnt it going to be very difficult for super-delegates not to vote for Clinton? Especially given the various fusses in Florida in the last presidential elections & the assorted do-over issues this time.


On the whole its hard to believe that the whole US electorial system wasnt invented by a person hell-bent of confusing everybody.


My bias is such that I agree with your view that the media has a bias to portray the news in a fashion to increase their profit

This process is actually better than it used to be. The democratic party used to select it's candidate behind closed doors. A group of powerful members would get together and decide to nominate someone to run for president. The public largely had no say other than to vote on election day for one party or the other.

[northhunter]

The funny thing is, what WickedLou9 described as the way things used to be is exactly what will have to happen if Hillary Clinton is going to get the nomination.

[avsp]

Even tho he seems to do a good job at distancing himself from them when they arrive the rate at which bad news is coming down on him (land deals & donations, pastors & racism), may, by June, greatly influence the 'super-delegates'.


As for the possibly arcane & occult nature of the process

The report that did me in was on the democratic caucus after the primary in Texas. The BBC reporter was trying to explain it & to demonstrate his point asked a long queue of caucus goers if they understood it, ..., not one said 'yes' & most said they'd never heard of it before & had only been persuded to attend by activists when they'd voted in the primary.

Its so unlike the carefully written US constitution etc & much more like some slowly accreted endlessly compromised historical black-hole which really only exists coz the political nerds, geeks & grogs need to guard their power, ..., like the UK 'constitution'. But doubtless I'm being unfair to the tradition of a federated state or summat

[goldenponderbob]

Is the democratic party headed toward a perfect catch 22 from which there is no place to hide?

Denying O the nod at this point would require, in the eyes of his supporters, such bald-faced racist behavior by off-stage "king-makers", as to make the 68' convention riots pale by the comparisons that are sure to be made with this year's nomination-fest.

At the same time there are powerful political forces at work right now that have been assuring world leaders in explosive areas that a way more safe and controllable Hillary was a shoo-in.

If you don't think the prospect of O scares the middle east power brokers you just haven't been paying attention.

That pastor business, case in point, is based on stuff that has been well known for quite a while. None of it the file footage of that nut thats been running on those silly cable-news shows is of recent vintage. The fact that it surfaced just as Hill's prospects are going down in flames tells me there is more than a smidgeon of desperation to keep her candidacy afloat.

I'm betting that even the most sensitive issue imaginable, the three billion we ship to "you-know-who" each year, is on the table under an O administration.

That alone would be enough to make President Obama unthinkable to many who are actually powerful enough to stop it. But, the fallout would send shock waves through the inner-cities the likes of which we haven't seen since the sixty's.

One of my favorite Bob Dylan songs, "Ninety Miles An Hour Down A Dead-End Street" keeps coming to mind as I follow this unfolding exhibition of insanity.

goldenponderbob

[RMNIXON]

Originally Posted by avsp

But she has hope.

IIUC neither candidate can win on delegates alone & thus the super-delegates are going to decide it

If he has more delegates but less of the popular vote isnt it going to be very difficult for super-delegates not to vote for Clinton? Especially given the various fusses in Florida in the last presidential elections & the assorted do-over issues this time.


On the whole its hard to believe that the whole US electorial system wasnt invented by a person hell-bent of confusing everybody.


My bias is such that I agree with your view that the media has a bias to portray the news in a fashion to increase their profit

What will happen is that Clinton will win Pennsylvania, probably with some decent numbers. Then Hillary will start saying I won Ohio and Pennsylvania and you need these States to beat McCain, who cares about primary delegates and popular vote. So if she can strong arm enough Super Delegates she can get the nomination within the party rules. That is clear enough. Super Delegates have no obligation other than to vote for who they think is best in the general election period. That is why they exist.

And then watch what happens!

Ridin Dirty!

[avsp]

GPB: I'm afraid I've not been paying attention & dont see why BO scares ME power brokers, (apart from possibility of premature pull-out), overly. Indeed I'd been assuming that his ability to out-raise HC was coz he'd literally been selling his good looks, charisma etc to the highest bidders.

I can very much see your 'catch-22' point tho.

40th anniversary riots?, ..., do you suppose the MC5 will be playing again?

As for super-delegates their existance is so obviously anti-democratic that the prospect of them being ham-strung by their own perversion does bring me great delight

[edit to add]
I've read this
Obama tries to allay Jewish concerns
on BO & relations with Jews/Isreal. What else do I need to know?
ibeverythingespecialyspelliny&grammaretcyouso&so

[northhunter]

I was watching a program on C-Span with George Stephanopolois hosting a panel of talk radio hosts both liberal and conservative. One of the liberals said that he felt if Hillary was to get the nomination without the popular vote through a decision of the super delegates, there would be rioting in the streets on a scale we've never seen.
Hillary supporterts seem to thing the worst that would happen is Obama supportes will say "hey you cheated!"
I'm thinking there would be a stronger response than that.

[goldenponderbob]

The geo-thermal rule of politics goes something like, "the more a thing is suppressed, the greater the bang upon eruption"'.

As this race gathers steam, O's middle-of-the-road backers will begin to learn stuff about their hero's family and childhood that will make this pastor business seem like nothing. Denials and accusatons of misinformation will make it difficult to discern where the standard political season slander ends and the reality begins.

Buried beneath the mess, though, will be enough doubts about just who he really is and what administration's middle east policies will be, to make very wealthy, clever and committed ME leaders extremely nervous about the prospect of President Obama.

Believe me there is plenty about O; some true-some not, that is being suppressed from mainstream media. Incidentally, the non-true stuff is just as telling for what it isn't as the true stuff is for what it is, and equally worth learning. For instance, whether he was or was not educated in a radical indonesian islamic facility isn't nearly as interesting as the mean spirited rhetoric surrounding the denials and where the denials are coming from.

By next fall, you won't even remember that pastor amidst all the new stuff that has yet to surface.

goldenponderbob

[RMNIXON]

If Obama keeps slipping in general election numbers against McCain then Hillary can make a better case to Super Delegates. This is getting worse, not better.


I almost have sympathy!