Hillary: 7.24 million
Obama: 7.16 million
Mccain: 3.54 million
Romney: 2.9 million
Huckabee: 1.7 million
Edwards: 405K
Paul: 387K
Guliani: 198K
Thompson: 38K
Uncomitted Dem: 25K
Uncommitted Rep: 11K
Biden: 2900
Richardson: 1100
Kucinich, Hunter, Gravel, Dodd: 0

According to Plouffe's tally, Obama won 847 pledged delegates yesterday to Clinton's 834, bringing his pledged delegate total to 910. Clinton's overall total, Plouffe said, is 882. But there's a long way to go: It takes more than 2,000 delegates to win the nomination.

To whom will the Super-delegates go as we get closer to the convention and it remains unresolved?

I don't know how committed Super-delegates are.

What will happen with the Florida and Michigan delegates?

Neither race was contested (so it is disengenuous to say Obama lost two big states where there was no battle - was his name even on the ballot in Michigan?) so will they schedule another primary day, seat them for Hillary or not seat them at all?

Joike

WASHINGTON ? While pledging to turn down donations from lobbyists themselves, Sen. Barack Obama raised more than $1 million in the first three months of his presidential campaign from law firms and companies that have major lobbying operations in the nation's capital. Portraying himself as a new-style politician determined to reform Washington, Obama makes his policy clear in fundraising invitations, stating that he takes no donations from "federal lobbyists." His aides announced last week he was returning $43,000 to lobbyists who donated to his campaign. But the Illinois Democrat's policy of shunning money from lobbyists registered to do business on Capitol Hill does not extend to lawyers whose partners lobby there. Nor does the ban apply to corporations that have major lobbying operations in Washington. And the prohibition does not extend to lobbyists who ply their trade in such state capitals as Springfield, Ill.; Tallahassee, Fla.; and Sacramento, though some deal with national clients and issues.

Hillary scores solid (AZ,MA,OK) when Primary having < 10 AA
Exception goes to Obama with UT;  NM virtually tied

Hillary scores solid (AR,NJ,NY,TN) when Primary and 10 - 20% AA
Exceptions go to Obama with IL and CT; MO virtually tied.

So what about OH, PA, and TX? They all fall into the 10 - 20% AA, which is solidly Hillary's with exceptions.

PA is a closed Primary; Gov Rendall endoresed Hillary. So it will go to Hillary (but Obama will win the Philly area).

The bigger story is the role of superdelegates. Although I support Obama, I'd rather one or the other just take clear control of the nomination. AmericaBlog makes a great point of alienating African-American voters if Obama wins pledged delegates, and the overwhelmingly white superdelegates put Hillary over the top in spite of this. Same scenario of alienating women if Hillary wins pledged delegates and the mostly male superdelegates vote Obama.

When Democrats Attack

The Jan. 30-Feb. 2 poll asked Democrats (including Democratic-leaning independents) for their views on the way the leading candidates have conducted their campaigns. Democrats are more likely to perceive that Hillary Clinton has been unfairly attacking Obama (35% say this) than to say the reverse (23% believe Obama has attacked Clinton unfairly). But Democrats are most likely to believe Bill Clinton has attacked Obama unfairly -- 41% of Democrats believe this.

The closeness of the race brings two questions to mind.

1. To whom will the Superdelegates go?  I think Hillary has more committments now, but do these Superdelegates have to remain committed or can they vote in the end as they please?  Without knowing, I'd guess they can change their mind on a whim.

2.  What will happen to the delegates of Florida and Michigan?  I think it is wrong to say that Obama lost those primaries when both were uncontested.  Was his name even on the ballot in Michigan?  Will each state try to hold a second primary?  Will the party allow the delegates to participate as is (a huge boost to Hillary) or would the party completely exclude the delegates from voting at the convention?

Curious,

Joike

Near the top, there was a story about Obama commenting on the superdelegates, and basically threatening the party that there will be hell to pay if the superdelegates decide the election.  I wonder, though, in a scenario where Hillary gets the popular vote, yet Obama gets more delegates, how folks will feel about that.  And then you throw in Florida, which is a very real concern, and what do you have?  An absolute mess.  She beats him in superdelegates hands down.  Is he going to push us to a point where we are forced to choose between alienating black people or alienating women, latinos and Asians?  Because if that is true, I can take a guess as to who is going to get screwed--the same ones who always get screwed over: the women.

This is why I said earlier that Dean needs to step in and push Obama by telling him the superdelegates won't go his way.  Now that I have read Obama's comments on this matter, it seems to me that Obama will not accept anything but his own way.  And I guarantee that early on, Clinton folks approached him about being VP-we're talking last year-and he said no.  No way they did not do this.  They are too politically savvy not to have.

Which leads me to another thing I read about, this one at Taylor Marsh, because of course HuffPo would not say anything bad about Obama--that Obama sent out a mailer today attacking the Clinton years, and his new strategy seems to be to argue that Bill Clinton single-handedly lost control of the house and the senate for the democratic party.

And then I got sick and had to go lie down and eat a cookie.

Obama is not going to play fair.  He is going to ruin this election if it means getting what he wants.  I said a while back he concentrates on winning battles but not the war.