Obama should be supporting Hillary's bid to seat Florida at the convention. There are two reasons for this. First, he's going to need goodwill in Florida to win the general election. Two, it will speed up his nomination.

Here's the math:

Pledged Delegates - Hillary 1415 - Obama 1584. Total delegates (est.) - Hillary 1681 - Obama 1836. And there are 217 pledged delegates left to assign.

If Florida were seated, Clinton would pick up about 38 delegates more than Obama. Pledged delegates would break down to about 96 and 58, and it would look like this:
Pledged - Hillary 1509 - Obama 1642. Total - Hillary 1777 - Obama 1894 (131 shy of the nomination). Obama could still lock up the nomination without any more superdelegates with only 60% victories in the remaining states. While Hillary still could not seal the nomination without a lot more superdelegates even if she won by 100% in every additional race.

For Obama, it is a win-win. He gives the impression of falling on his sword in order to play fair, while at the same time offering the voters of Florida a voice even though only Hillary campaigned there. And he actually improves his position even though he is giving away 38 delegates.

Both Michigan and Florida will get seated.

I heard that the Obama people are trying to work it out that FLA and Michigan will both be seated, but not until Hillary agrees to drop out and accept her defeat. They may also be willing to take on her campaign debt in exchange for her concession. They're trying hard to make this easy on her. There is word that she'll hold on until the Kentucky/Oregon primary, so that both of them can end this on a win, and she can save face. The Obama people don't want to make this tough on her. They know that they need the Clintons to help them win in the fall. I'm just not so sure that the Clintons can be trusted to reciprocate. That's an odd group of people in that inner circle.

I heard that the Obama people are trying to work it out that FLA and Michigan will both be seated, but not until Hillary agrees to drop out and accept her defeat. They may also be willing to take on her campaign debt in exchange for her concession. They're trying hard to make this easy on her. There is word that she'll hold on until the Kentucky/Oregon primary, so that both of them can end this on a win, and she can save face. The Obama people don't want to make this tough on her. They know that they need the Clintons to help them win in the fall. I'm just not so sure that the Clintons can be trusted to reciprocate. That's an odd group of people in that inner circle.

I think it would actually be really bad for her to drop out right now, because she's still going to clobber him in West Virginia on Tuesday and Kentucky May 20, and it would look bad for that to happen to the presumptive nominee. She should stay in til at least May 21, now.

I thought I heard that Obama was favored in WV?

I thought I heard that Obama was favored in WV?

Not even close. Most polls have her at 60%+ and him in the 20s.

WV and Kentucky are like all the parts of Indiana and Ohio minus the big, black cities.

Oh.

Okay then.

Nevermind. :p

Also, I didn't mean to sound bitchy in that post. :|

I didn't take it that way.

Damn. Well take this one that way. Oh snap.

Oh, you bitch! It's on!

...:|

You know, something crossed my mind the other day. I wonder if Hillary is staying in to steal McCain's thunder. Voters tend to get exhausted after a while of hearing the same things about a candidate. Eventually they stop weighing those things as heavily and move on to something else to think about. This was largely Kerry's problem. We all knew King George sucked as President, but we knew it so inherently that it stopped being part of what some voters were using on the balance scale. Kind of the "other than being inept and a crook, if we compared the rest of him to Kerry...."
In that regard, I wonder if Hillary isn't helping by getting the voters exhausted of the silly arguments McCain will be pushing. At the moment, it is almost impossible to tell the difference between McCain's campaign and Hillary's. There could be a stroke of genius at work.

grimrebuke: assigning anything other than selfish motivations to the actions of Hillary Clinton is a bad idea.

I mean, look at what she's done in the last two months:

Unless you're a college student, listen to Air America, or read the Daily Kos/Huffington Post, you no longer view Obama as some sort of a messiah. Sure, he might seem like the best candidate, but he's just a politician now. The special is gone, and this is mostly her work.

Hillary's already done most of the GOP's dirty work for them -- and McCain has been able to smile and act like he's taking the high road the whole time. McCain just has to sit back now as the media starts focusing more sharply on things like Obama's connection to Rezko and Ayers. And he can sit back as pundits play videos of "GAWD DAM AMERICA!" and Obama not saluting the flag thousands of times in September and October. And McCain can just sit back as Obama's wife is simply unable to keep her damn fool mouth shut yet again.

And worst of all -- over the course of this campaign, Hillary (ironically, one of the biggest elitists to ever live in the White House!) managed to paint him as your typical effete Democratic pussy. Suddenly, this "uniter" is the political lovechild of Michael Dukakis and Teddy Kennedy. Pretty masterful slash and burn on Clinton's part. Even if you hate her, you have to shake your head in awe

Hurting McCain? **** no, she wants to help him. Her campaign didn't bring up those issues to help vet Obama or steal McCain's thunder. She doesn't want Obama to win. It simply would not bode well for her career. For the last several weeks, she's been running for 2008, or, if that fails, 2012... She is in this completely for herself.

If that bitch thinks she will have any chance in 2012 after giving Bush a third term she's got a big surprise in store for her, the hatred of the Clintons from the far right will be nothing compared to what the rest of the nation thinks of her as McCain finishes Bush's job of turning us into a third world country.:nonono:

I think you're right about that, CA.

If Obama loses (I think he will), and it's because people think of him as the kind of "out of touch, empty suit, ultra-leftist" that Hillary's painted him as, the American left will be absolutely done with her (much like the far-left already is).