Organizing for America

Obama Picks Tim Kaine to Head DNC

Well, at least the Democratic National Committee has a leader. The RNC, where everyone is mad, has to contend with potential leadership like Chip Saltsman.

Politico: Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine has been chosen by President-elect Barack Obama to head the Democratic National Committee, a Democratic official said.

The pick is a bet that an energetic younger leader will help the party capitalize on the historic enthusiasm that swept Obama to his landslide win.

Kaine, like Obama a graduate of Harvard Law School, was among the earliest statewide officials to endorse Obama, and was among finalists to be the vice presidential candidate on his ticket.

Kaine has long one of the party's rising younger stars, even delivering his party's nationally televised response to one of President George W. Bush's State of the Union addresses.

The governor won handily in a traditionally Republican state in part with frank conversation about his Roman Catholic faith. His victory in the state's exurbs is viewed as a model for other Democrats.

DNC Saturday Meetup

these are the peeps that will decide how many florida and michigan delegates will be seated. and it is a question of how many not if. obama doesn't have to agree to seat any, but he has ALWAYS contended that they would be seated in a FAIR manner. FAIRNESS, however, isn't something hillary's crowd understands. here's an update. clinton's lawyer is demanding all delegates be seated and not award obama ANY delegates in michigan, so perhaps hillary should get fewer than obama is willing to give. all the drama will be live streamed at cnn.com.

cnn: In a letter addressed to the co-chairs of the committee, Clinton lawyer Lyn Utrecht said both states have already been sufficiently punished because of lack of campaign activity.
Florida Democrats voted 50 percent for Clinton and 33 percent for Obama.
"It is a bedrock principle of our Party that every vote must be counted, and thereby every elected delegate should be seated," Utrecht wrote.
"The States have already been punished because no campaign activity
was conducted in Florida or Michigan. There is no requirement or need to punish
their duly elected delegates who represent the 2.3 million voters in Michigan
and Florida who participated in the nominating process." Read the full letter (pdf)

here's a q&a of how tomorrow's throw down will work.

talking points for obama supporters attending.

Wildly Creative Scenarios From You Know Who

from obama's campaign adviser david pfouffe to democratic national committee:

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. There are 260 remaining undeclared superdelegates, for a total of 477 delegates left to be awarded.

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.

Iowa Superdelegate Endorses Obama

that's 7 for obama, 3 for clinton since pennsylvania. more coming today possibly.

des moine register: Winthrop farmer Richard Machacek, an Iowa superdelegate, said today he is pledging to support Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

Machacek, a member of the Democratic National Committee, had been uncommitted. He said he saw little difference between Obama and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton on policy positions or ability.

Machacek, a Buchanan County Democrat also on the party's state central committee, said Obama's performance at Saturday's Democratic district conventions in Iowa tipped the balance in his favor.

Obama netted 16 of the 29 national convention delegates at stake in the state's five congressional districts, while Clinton received nine. Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards received four delegates, having retained sufficient support in some districts despite leaving the race in January.

"I think it needs to be over, and in good conscience, I can't fly in the face of my precinct, county and district," Machacek told The Des Moines Register in a telephone interview. "The raw numbers coming out of the district conventions really sat me down hard."

Obama won Iowa's leadoff caucuses on Jan. 3, but has expanded his share of Iowa's pledged national national delegates through the county and district conventions.

Machacek is one of Iowa's 12 Democratic superdelegates. These delegates, who are party and elected officials, have special authority to back whom they prefer at the national convention, regardless of the outcome of their state's nominating contest results.

Obama Fundraising With the Democratic National Committee

obama is readying for the general election. the tide is turning hillary.

the page: After a series of discussions, the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee have decided to file papers with the Federal Election Commission establishing a “joint fundraising agreement.” Under the law, such a committee can accept up to $28,500 from individuals, most of which would go to the DNC.

Presumptive Republican nominee John McCain has already formed such an alliance with the Republican National Committee. Their group — called Victory — was created in March after McCain clinched the GOP nomination and is headed by McCain adviser Carly Fiorina.

Sources say the DNC has also held talks with Hillary Clinton’s campaign about forming a separate vehicle with her, but that no deal has been struck.

The fact that the Obama campaign is moving forward and Clinton is not at this time reflects certain important realities: Obama’s team is more confident that he will win the nomination than is Clinton’s — and Obama’s campaign has the necessity and luxury of thinking about and planning for the general election to come.

As part of that preparation, the campaign is thinking about how to divide up roles and responsibilities between the campaign’s Chicago headquarters and the DNC in Washington.

Obama: Clinton Disingenuous

clinton has tried to get michigan and florida delegate to count as is. obama calls her out for caring only when it matters to her.
CNN

In the wide-ranging interview, Obama also hit back at rival Clinton's recent claims that he is standing in the way of revotes in Florida and Michigan.

"Sen. Clinton, I have to say on this, has been completely disingenuous. She said when she was still trying to compete with the votes in Iowa and New Hampshire that Michigan and Florida wouldn't count," he said.

"Then, as soon as she got into trouble politically and it looked like she would have no prospects of winning the nomination without having them count, suddenly she's extraordinarily concerned with the voters there."

"I understand the politics of it, but let's be clear that it's politics," he added. "I want the Michigan delegation and the Florida delegation to be seated. And however the Democratic National Committee determines we can get that done, I'm happy to abide by those rules."

Those comments come hours after Clinton made a trip to Michigan and directly urged Obama to join her call to count the Michigan and Florida votes or hold new elections in those states. more

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