[unity07]

There are only six contests remaining in the democratic primary calendar and only 217 pledged delegates left to be awarded. Only 7 percent of the pledged delegates remain on the table. With north carolina and indiana complete, barack obama only needs 172 total delegates to capture the democratic nomination. This is only 36% of the total remaining delegates. Conversely, senator clinton needs 326 delegates to reach the democratic nomination, which represents a startling 68% of the remaining delegates.

With the clinton path to the nomination getting even narrower, we expect new and wildly creative scenarios to emerge in the coming days. While those scenarios may be entertaining, they are not legitimate and will not be considered legitimate by this campaign or its millions of supporters, volunteers, and donors. We believe it is exceedingly unlikely senator clinton will overtake our lead in the popular vote and in fact lost ground on that measure last night.

However, the popular vote is a deeply flawed and illegitimate metric for deciding the nominee – since each campaign based their strategy on the acquisition of delegates. More importantly, the rules of the nomination are predicated on delegates, not popular vote. Just as the presidential election in november will be decided by the electoral college, not popular vote, the democratic nomination is decided by delegates. If we believed the popular vote was somehow the key measurement, we would have campaigned much more intensively in our home state of illinois and in all the other populous states, in the pursuit of larger raw vote totals.

But it is not the key measurement. We played by the rules, set by you, the dnc members, and campaigned as hard as we could, in as many places as we could, to acquire delegates. Essentially, the popular vote is not much better as a metric than basing the nominee on which candidate raised more money, has more volunteers, contacted more voters, or is taller. The clinton campaign was very clear about their own strategy until the numbers become too ominous for them.

They were like a broken record , repeating ad nauseum that this nomination race is about delegates. Now, the word delegate has disappeared from their vocabulary, in an attempt to change the rules and create an alternative reality. We want to be clear – we believe that the winner of a majority of pledged delegates will and should be the nominee of our party. And we estimate that after the oregon and kentucky primaries on may 20, we will have won a majority of the overall pledged delegates according to a recent news report, by even their most optimistic estimates the clinton campaign expects to trail by more than 100 pledged delegates and will then ask the superdelegates to overturn the will of the voters. But of course superdelegates are free to and have been utilizing their own criteria for deciding who our nominee should be.

Many are deciding on the basis of electability, a favorite clinton refrain. And if you look at the numbers, during a period where the clinton campaign has been making an increasingly strident pitch on electability, it is clear their argument is failing miserably with superdelegates. Since february 5, the obama campaign has netted 107 superdelegates, and the clinton campaign only 21. Since the pennsylvania primary, much of it during the challenging rev. Wright period, we have netted 24 and the clinton campaign 17. At some point – we would argue that time is now – this ceases to be a theoretical exercise about how superdelegates view electability.

The reality of the preferences in the last several weeks offer a clear guide of how strongly superdelegates feel senator obama will perform in november, both in building a winning campaign for the presidency as well as providing the best electoral climate across the country for all democratic candidates. It is important to note that senator obama leads senator clinton in superdelegate endorsements among governors, united states senators and members of the house of representatives.

These elected officials all have a keen sense for who our strongest nominee will be in november. It is only among dnc members where senator clinton holds a lead, which has been rapidly dwindling. As we head into the final days of the campaign, we just wanted to be clear with you as a party leader, who will be instrumental in making the final decision of who our nominee will be, how we view the race at this point. Senator obama, our campaign and our supporters believe pledged delegates is the most legitimate metric for determining how this race has unfolded. It is simply the ratification of the dnc rules – your rules – which we built this campaign and our strategy around.

[goigoi]

I just got this in my in box news broke this morning that senator clinton made three separate loans to her campaign in the past 30 days -- including one as recently as monday. These loans total more than $6.4 million, which combined with her previous personal loans, add up to at least $11.4 million she's loaned her campaign since february.

A spokesman said she may continue to "loan the campaign additional money out of her jointly-held assets" -- which include more than $100 million in income since her husband left the white house. Meanwhile, by winning a double-digit victory in north carolina and closing the gap in indiana, barack won another 100 delegates. Barack obama is now just 169 delegates away from winning the democratic nomination. It's within sight.

This is a decisive moment in this race. Barack has already won more votes, more delegates, and more than twice as many states as senator clinton, whose path to the nomination has grown extremely narrow. But these loans show that her campaign will continue to contest the remaining primaries vigorously. We need to show that the voices of more than 1.5 million ordinary people donating whatever they can afford are more powerful than one person giving more than $11 million to their own campaign. Now is the time add your voice to our historic movement.

Make a donation of $25 to match senator clinton's loan: https://donate.barackobama.com/results here's the math of where we stand ... There are only six contests remaining on the democratic primary calendar and only 217 pledged delegates left to be awarded. Only 7% of the pledged delegates remain on the table. There are 253 remaining undeclared superdelegates, for a total of 470 delegates left to be awarded. With north carolina and indiana complete, barack obama only needs 169 total delegates to capture the democratic nomination.

This is only 36% of the total remaining delegates. Conversely, senator clinton needs 326 delegates to reach the democratic nomination, which represents a startling 69% of the remaining delegates. With the clinton path to the nomination getting even narrower, we expect new and wildly creative scenarios to emerge in the coming days. While those scenarios may be entertaining, they are not legitimate and will not be considered legitimate by this campaign or its millions of supporters, volunteers, and donors.

You can help make sure barack obama is the nominee. Please make a donation of $25 now: https://donate.barackobama.com/results we want to be clear -- we believe that the winner of a majority of pledged delegates will be and should be the nominee of our party. And we estimate that after the oregon and kentucky primaries on may 20th, we will have won a majority of the overall pledged delegates.

Evidently, the clinton campaign agrees. According to a recent news report, by even their most optimistic estimates the clinton campaign expects to trail by more than 100 pledged delegates and will then ask the superdelegates to overturn the will of the voters. But we have our own case to make: that millions of americans volunteering their time and donating in small amounts have built a campaign that has won the most delegates, the most states, and the most votes.

And this campaign -- your campaign -- will be the one that wins the presidency in november and delivers a wave of support for democrats at every level of office. Now is the time to step up and make it happen by owning a piece of this campaign. Make a donation of $25 today: https://donate.barackobama.com/results we'll be in touch as the situation evolves.

Thank you,

david david plouffe
campaign manager
obama for america

[omin]

Originally Posted by goigoi

I just got this in my in box news broke this morning that senator clinton made three separate loans to her campaign in the past 30 days -- including one as recently as monday. These loans total more than $6.4 million, which combined with her previous personal loans, add up to at least $11.4 million she's loaned her campaign since february.

A spokesman said she may continue to "loan the campaign additional money out of her jointly-held assets" -- which include more than $100 million in income since her husband left the white house. Meanwhile, by winning a double-digit victory in north carolina and closing the gap in indiana, barack won another 100 delegates. Barack obama is now just 169 delegates away from winning the democratic nomination. It's within sight.

This is a decisive moment in this race. Barack has already won more votes, more delegates, and more than twice as many states as senator clinton, whose path to the nomination has grown extremely narrow. But these loans show that her campaign will continue to contest the remaining primaries vigorously. We need to show that the voices of more than 1.5 million ordinary people donating whatever they can afford are more powerful than one person giving more than $11 million to their own campaign. Now is the time add your voice to our historic movement.

Make a donation of $25 to match senator clinton's loan: https://donate.barackobama.com/results here's the math of where we stand ... There are only six contests remaining on the democratic primary calendar and only 217 pledged delegates left to be awarded. Only 7% of the pledged delegates remain on the table. There are 253 remaining undeclared superdelegates, for a total of 470 delegates left to be awarded. With north carolina and indiana complete, barack obama only needs 169 total delegates to capture the democratic nomination.

This is only 36% of the total remaining delegates. Conversely, senator clinton needs 326 delegates to reach the democratic nomination, which represents a startling 69% of the remaining delegates. With the clinton path to the nomination getting even narrower, we expect new and wildly creative scenarios to emerge in the coming days. While those scenarios may be entertaining, they are not legitimate and will not be considered legitimate by this campaign or its millions of supporters, volunteers, and donors.

You can help make sure barack obama is the nominee. Please make a donation of $25 now: https://donate.barackobama.com/results we want to be clear -- we believe that the winner of a majority of pledged delegates will be and should be the nominee of our party. And we estimate that after the oregon and kentucky primaries on may 20th, we will have won a majority of the overall pledged delegates.

Evidently, the clinton campaign agrees. According to a recent news report, by even their most optimistic estimates the clinton campaign expects to trail by more than 100 pledged delegates and will then ask the superdelegates to overturn the will of the voters. But we have our own case to make: that millions of americans volunteering their time and donating in small amounts have built a campaign that has won the most delegates, the most states, and the most votes.

And this campaign -- your campaign -- will be the one that wins the presidency in november and delivers a wave of support for democrats at every level of office. Now is the time to step up and make it happen by owning a piece of this campaign. Make a donation of $25 today: https://donate.barackobama.com/results we'll be in touch as the situation evolves.

Thank you,

david david plouffe
campaign manager
obama for america

The obama team are great schemers! They knew that the Clintons would cling on even when the writing is on the wall (like now) so they decided to run them broke especially in Penyslivania by spending heavily on Tv ads ($20m).This forced Clinton to spend money that she didn't have ($11m) thus running broke. As it looks today, the only reason clinton is still on the race is 'cause she wants to recover the $6m she lent her campaign.

[lyricalpoet]

maybe billary clinton needs anan to explain to her why it will be important for her to drop from the race so as not to jeopardize the chances of obama and the democratic party in general in clinching the presidency,

[mtaveta]

yes she needs to resign sooner than later, also the other reason she is still in the rest is the denial that a "black man" for the first time is gonna be the president of the USA by default i may say coz mccain is a non starter nway, so she cant fathom the fact this is the only "golden" chance of her becoming president unopposed! shame on you grandma wacha hata wengine wale, you ate enough your time was up!tulia sasa and take care of your man or another brand of lewinsky is in the offing!

[sammilla]

Its africans time to represent america

saw that in my dreams...

[reggie_woic]

you mean african americans?