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There was a strange mixture of stalwart support and utter abandonment at U.S. Rep. William Jefferson's election party Saturday night as the indicted congressman claimed a primary victory in his 10th election campaign for the 2nd District seat. The party was at Flavorz by Mattie, a little-known restaurant in an eastern New Orleans neighborhood ravaged by the post-Katrina jack-o'-lantern effect. The room was half empty, with only about 35 supporters and family cheering on Jefferson and eating a late dinner of jambalaya and croissant sandwiches. There were no big political names in the crowd. Supporters appeared to be outnumbered by...

More relevant are the baroque delegate rules and strong-arm tactics that helped him to victory. A recent Associated Press story glibly proclaimed that “deep-seated racial misgivings could cost Barack Obama the White House.” The story relied on an AP-Yahoo poll that posed questions regarding race to white Democrats. One is left to wonder why questions regarding race were not posed to black Democrats ... It’s quite troubling, really, that mainstream media outlets are focusing upon “racial misgivings” factors, while all but ignoring the major divides among voting constituencies that occurred during the nominating contest between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama....

NASHVILLE - The Tennessee Democratic Party Executive Committee has voted to declare state Sen. Rosalind Kurita's thin primary victory invalid. The panel voted 33-11 on Saturday to declare Kurita's 19-vote August victory "incurably uncertain" after her opponent, Clarksville attorney Tim Barnes, alleged heavy Republican interference in the Democratic nominating contest. A joint convention of the Democratic executive committees in Cheatham, Houston and Montgomery counties will now determine who the nominee will be. There is no Republican running in the general election. Barnes' candidacy was boosted by Democrats who were upset that Kurita helped unseat John Wilder, a Mason Democrat, from...

Just before the big summer hiatus, I wrote this column for National Review, which we never got around to posting on line. Its observations about the weakness of the Obama candidacy still seem relevant: The conventional wisdom on the Clintons was promulgated by my then senator, Bob Smith of New Hampshire, back at the end of the impeachment trial. “He’s won,”' said Senator Smith, after dutifully if vainly casting his vote to nail Slick Willie’s puffy butt. “He always wins. Let’s move on.” They won through the Nineties. The Clintons’ Democratic Party was great for the Clintons, lousy for the...

"We believe that the The Democratic National Committee (DNC) made a grave error by depriving American voters of their choice of Hillary Clinton as Democratic nominee. Senator Clinton, by all accounts, except caucuses, won the Primary Election and, therefore, should be the 2008 Democratic Nominee. That didn't happen, due largely to illegitimate and illegal acts. . . . This documentary is about the disenfranchising of American citizens by the Democratic Party and the Obama Campaign. . . . We want to be heard and let the country know how our party has sanctioned the actions of what we feel are...

Posted on Sat, Sep. 6, 2008 Biden gets mixed welcome in Northeast Local Dem leaders say race is issue for many voters By DAVE DAVIES Philadelphia Daily News daviesd@phillynews.com 215-854-2595 DEMOCRATIC vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden went stumping for votes yesterday in Northeast Philadelphia, where Democrats need to earn the love of Democrats who voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama in the April primary. He worked a diner, gave a rousing speech on bread-and-butter issues at a union hall, and reeled off a memorable line tying the Republican candidate to the unpopular team in the White House. "My friend...

All eyes will be on former presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton when she speaks tonight at the Democratic National Convention. Clinton's every word, inflection and facial expression will be dissected. The world will also be looking at what she's wearing. Specifically, what color pantsuit will the New York senator pull out of her closet for this crucial speech?

A Look Back at Hillary's Year in Pantsuits Glamour Magazine Salutes Hillary Clinton's Rainbow Coalition of Pantsuits By JONANN BRADY Aug. 26, 2008 — All eyes will be on former presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton when she speaks tonight at the Democratic National Convention. Clinton's every word, inflection and facial expression will be dissected. The world will also be looking at what she's wearing. Specifically, what color pantsuit will the New York senator pull out of her closet for this crucial speech?

Excerpt - In May 2006, Clinton herself had interviewed another experienced campaign consultant, Steve Hildebrand, but had turned him down. The time was not right. And she had plenty of time. But it would prove to be a costly mistake. A few months later, Steve Hildebrand would play a key role in persuading Barack Obama to run for president. Hillary still was not worried. She would put together a great campaign team, a Dream Team. It did not turn out that way. “Happy families are alike,” Leo Tolstoy famously wrote. “Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” The...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Party leaders want to regain control of the primary calendar and reduce the number of superdelegates through a new commission announced Wednesday. They also want to review the caucus system, which presumed nominee Barack Obama used so successfully this year. The commission would work over the next year and make recommendations by January 2010

Deal: Clinton's Name Will Be Placed in Nomination at Dems Convention August 14, 2008 11:09 AM ABC News' Kate Snow reports: A deal has been brokered between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton that will allow Clinton's name to be placed in nomination at next week's Democratic nominating convention, sources close to the Clinton camp told ABC News. "Both sides agree that it is in the best interest of party unity and making sure that everyone's voice and vote is honored to make sure her name is put into nomination," a person close the negotiations said. "It's to honor everyone...

The result demonstrates that paranoid dysfunction breeds the impulse to hoard. Everything from major strategic plans to bitchy staff e-mail feuds was handed over.

While Obama was spending three hours watching “The Dark Knight” five time zones away, and going to a fund-raiser featuring “Aloha attire” and Hawaiian pupus, Hillary was busy planning her convention. You can almost hear her mind whirring: She’s amazed at how easy it was to snatch Denver away from the Obama saps. Like taking candy from a baby, except Beanpole Guy doesn’t eat candy. In just a couple of weeks, Bill and Hill were able to drag No Drama Obama into a swamp of Clinton drama. Now they’ve made Barry’s convention all about them — their dissatisfaction and revisionism...

Hillary Clinton's former chief political strategist said in a memo during the U.S. presidential primaries she should challenge Barack Obama's American roots. Strategist Mark Penn was the New York senator's chief political adviser until April. In a 2007 memo, Penn said of Obama: All of these articles about his boyhood in Indonesia and his life in Hawaii are geared toward showing his background is diverse, multicultural and putting that in a new light. Save it for 2050, CNN reported. Penn wrote that Obama's past exposes a very strong weakness for him, noting that the Illinois senator's roots in America are...

Sen. Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic presidential nominee if John Edwards had been caught in his lie about an extramarital affair and forced out of the race last year, insists a top Clinton campaign aide, making a charge that could exacerbate previously existing tensions between the camps of Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama.

Clinton supporters at Democratic meeting fail in bid to end caucus system The party's platform committee sets aside the caucus amendment, saying the rules committee will deal with it. The new draft party platform is a mixed bag. By Peter Nicholas, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer August 10, 2008 PITTSBURGH -- Hillary Rodham Clinton loyalists tried Saturday to kill off the caucus system that proved so damaging to her presidential bid, but were beaten back by a Democratic Party leadership firmly under the command of her former rival, Barack Obama. Democrats who supported the New York senator's candidacy pushed to...

A racially charged Democratic primary campaign ended Thursday with an incumbent congressman trouncing the opponent who ran an ad linking him to the Ku Klux Klan. Early, unofficial results showed Democrat Steve Cohen with 79 percent of the vote to 19 percent for Nikki Tinker, a black corporate lawyer who was his chief opponent in the district that covers Memphis.

Will Hillary outsmart Obama and take the nomination at the last minute? Many of us familiar with Hillary Clinton's approach to achieving her goals refused to believe that she ever gave up all hope of winning the nomination and the presidency. Her words and actions on the subject of the convention itself always left the door open for a return, should Obama falter or suffer some calamity.  Her artful evasions were enough to lull journalists and (more importantly) Obama and his supporters into the presumption of inevitability. No further rumblings of a mass protest in Denver should the first black candidate be denied his...

Senator Hillary Clinton asked the question herself on the night of the last primaries in early June: “What does Hillary want?” That’s still a bit of a mystery, particularly as she and Senator Barack Obama negotiate over her role, and possibly that of her husband, at the Democratic convention in Denver and beyond. Mr. Obama has given Mrs. Clinton a speaking role on the Tuesday night of the convention. But she made it clear in a recent chat with supporters — which is now on YouTube — that she is steeped in negotiations over how to salve the wounds...

Will she? Won't she? And what if she does? That poll Matier and Ross published in The Chronicle showing Sen. Dianne Feinstein beating out all the other Democrats hands down in the governor's primary for 2010 is driving all the other wannabe candidates crazy, especially Attorney General Jerry Brown. I know Dianne has talked to at least one person about the governor's race. But she will never say so publicly, because if it got out that she was even "looking" at a possible run for governor, it would be the same as saying that she's in. But trust me, Dianne...

Imagine if a bunch of disgruntled Mitt Romney supporters were currently stalking John McCain or Republican events loudly demanding that their candidate be nominated. Think the national press would be featuring it bigtime as an example of Republican party disunity? Well, the same thing is happening except the people are disgruntled Democrats expressing their opposition of Barack Obama while loudly continuing to support Hillary Clinton. They are known as PUMA ("People United Means Action" or "Party Unity My Ass").  PUMA was formed last month in the aftermath of Hillary Clinton conceding the Democrat nomination to Obama. However, contrary to being just...

Of the 311 fundraisers who bundled more than $100,000 in donations for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, only eight are on the list of contributors to Barack Obama’s campaign in June. Their total for the month: just $19,250. “The fact that fewer than 3 percent of Clinton’s donors have donated any money directly to Obama in his first month as presumptive nominee is likely to raise the eyebrows of some leaders in the Democratic Party who are hoping to see signs of unity,” the Huffington Post observed.

Andy Martin's worldwide bestseller goes to press as Obama campaign trembles. ANDY MARTIN Executive Editor ContrarianCommentary.com 'Factually Correct, Not Politically Correct' AMERICA'S #1 POLITICAL BLOG OF THE 2008 CAMPAIGN FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: ATTENTION DAYBOOK/ASSIGNMENT EDITORS ANNOUNCEMENT OF CHICAGO NEWS CONFERENCE JULY 10, 2008 OBAMA BOOK GOES ON THE PRESSES CHICAGO COLUMNIST ANDY MARTIN ANNOUNCES HIS NEW BOOK, OBAMA: THE MAN BEHIND THE MASK, HAS STARTED PRINTING (CHICAGO)(July 11, 2008) Legendary Chicago Internet columnist and muckraker Andy Martin will hold a news conference Thursday, July 10th to announce that his new book on Senator Barack Obama is on the presses. Based...

This Friday the Howard Dean version of the Obama Love Fest Tour headed out to New Hampshire to help campaign for Obama in a State whose 4 electoral votes are up for grabs in November. Among Dean's stops was a semi-private meeting held at the home of New Hampshire Democrat Terie Norelli in Portsmouth on Friday. Speaking to a groups of 60 prominent local Dem. leaders and activists, Dean weighed in the unification efforts following the primaries. Howard Dean has some interesting comments concerning the primaries and especially...

When prime-time cable news ratings for the second quarter of 2008 are officially released next week, they will show that Fox News reclaimed the top spot among viewers in their mid-20s through mid-50s, those of greatest interest to news advertisers, according to estimates from Nielsen Media Research. During the first three months of the year, by contrast, CNN drew so many viewers on big Democratic primary nights and for several presidential debates that it vaulted over Fox News for the first time in six years.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) is taking a month off from Congress to recuperate after her marathon run for the presidency. She is not expected to return to the Senate until July 7 or July 8 after the Independence Day recess, according to two Democratic sources. Clinton’s Democratic colleagues in the Senate are taking a sympathetic attitude toward her extended absence, which comes after a grueling 18-month formal bid for the White House and, according to some calculations, a decade or more of planning and positioning since the days when her husband was president. “People understand this is a transition...

(THE WORLD) Where’s Hillary Clinton? Chappaqua? Washington? Has she returned to Iowa? Has anyone seen Hillary since she endorsed Barack Obama before an adoring crowd of her most ardent supporters? Philippe Reines, a campaign adviser, says that “she’s enjoying some well-deserved R&R,” but only Hillary knows for sure. Her sudden and mysterious disappearance has prompted New York publisher Little Brown to announce plans to publish a picture book, Where’s Hillary, modeled after the Where’s Waldo series published in the late 80’s and reissued in the 90’s. A spokesman for Little Brown says that they hope that the new Where’s Hillary...

Eighteen million votes: $212 million. Some 1,926 delegates: $109,823 a pop. Blowing the biggest head start in presidential history: priceless. From anointed to also-ran, Hillary Clinton spent more money to lose a primary election than any candidate in Democratic Party history. "The Clinton campaign found itself without adequate money at the beginning of 2008," chief strategist Mark Penn wrote in a published Op-Ed yesterday - but it was enough of a cash stash to fund the causes she championed. The money raised could have been better spent. Instead of throwing it at a failed political bid, Clinton could have achieved...

Johnny Telvor was not happy about Barack Obama becoming the Democratic presidential nominee. Not happy at all. Standing outside the sturdy courthouse in the sweltering heat of a West Virginia afternoon in the small town of Williamson, Telvor smoked a cigarette and bluntly gave his opinion of Obama's historic mission to be America's first black president. 'We'll end up slaves. We'll be made slaves just like they was once slaves,' he said. Telvor, a white Democrat who supported Hillary Clinton in West Virginia's primary, said he planned to vote for Republican John McCain in November. 'At least he's an American,'...

LOWELL – Gloucester attorney Ed O’Reilly got enough support from party officials today to ensure that he will give US Senator John F. Kerry his first Democratic primary challenge in 24 years. At the state Democratic Party convention at the Paul E. Tsongas Arena, O’Reilly got 22.5 percent of the 2,574 ballots cast, more than the 15 percent he needed to secure a spot on the primary ballot. Kerry got the majority of votes, which means he'll get the party's endorsement. "Party officials said this campaign is a nuisance. And it is. It’s a total nuisance," O’Reilly said to the...

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton will endorse Senator Barack Obama on Friday, bringing a close to her 17-month campaign for the White House, aides said. Her decision came after Democrats urged her on Wednesday to leave the race and allow the party to coalesce around Mr. Obama. Mrs. Clinton’s aides said she would “express her support for Senator Obama and party unity” at an event in Washington that day. One adviser said that Mrs. Clinton would concede defeat, congratulate Mr. Obama and proclaim him the party’s nominee, while pledging to do what was needed to assure his victory. Her decision came...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New York Sen. Hillary Clinton will drop out of the presidential race on Friday and cede the Democratic nomination to Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, ABC News reported on Wednesday, without citing any sources. Obama secured the Democratic Party's presidential nomination on Tuesday night after a long and hard-fought primary battle with Clinton for the right to face Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona in the November 4 general election. (Writing by JoAnne Allen; Editing by Eric Walsh)

In a moment bearing history's weight and the future's promise, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois claimed the Democratic nomination for president Tuesday night to cap a long, daunting but ultimately successful quest to be the first African-American candidate ever to lead a major party bid for the White House. The trajectory of the career of the man who only four years ago was serving in the state legislature in Springfield has been as rapid as any in American politics, featuring a blend of celebrity, youthful appeal and gift for rhetoric that could attract crowds by the tens of thousands across...

20 minutes ago WASHINGTON — Barack Obama became the first black presidential nominee in U.S. history on Tuesday, declaring victory over Hillary Clinton and lifting the curtain on an epic struggle for the White House against Republican John McCain. Clinton, credited by Obama as an inspiration to millions, refused to concede defeat and sparked a buzz early in the day about the possibility of a dream team by saying she's open to joining the ticket as his running mate. "Tonight, we mark the end of one historic journey with the beginning of another," Obama told nearly 20,000 cheering supporters in...

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama -- Final Primary Night Tues., June 3, 2008 19:02:11 ET Tonight, after fifty-four hard-fought contests, our primary season has finally come to an end. Sixteen months have passed since we first stood together on the steps of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois. Thousands of miles have been traveled. Millions of voices have been heard. And because of what you said -- because you decided that change must come to Washington; because you believed that this year must be different than all the rest; because you chose to listen not to your doubts or...

U.S. Sen. John Kerry - wary of a potential political embarrassment - has been calling in favors to top Bay State Democrats in a bid to block a Gloucester lawyer from getting on the ballot to challenge him, the Herald has learned. Several high-ranking Democrats said the senator has reached out in recent days seeking support and asking for help in preventing attorney Ed O’Reilly from getting the convention votes he needs to force a September primary race against Kerry. O’Reilly, a former firefighter, needs 15 percent support from the Democratic State Committee at the party’s convention Saturday in Lowell...

On the precipice of winning the Democratic nomination, Barack Obama today shared a phone conversation he had with rival Hillary Clinton about uniting the party.... If Obama indeed clinches the nomination after the Montana and South Dakota primaries Tuesday, that meeting could conceivably come as soon as Wednesday in Washington, where both are scheduled to address the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference.

Senior advisers to Senator Hillary Clinton have prepared the ground for her to abandon her presidential ambitions within days rather than disputing the Democratic nomination all the way to the party convention in August. Senator Barack Obama is expected to be able to declare himself the party's candidate against Senator John McCain as early as tomorrow, when South Dakota and Montana become the final states to hold their primaries. Howard Dean, the Democratic National Committee chairman, said the nomination would be decided this week: "We don't want to go to the convention, have a big fight at the convention, and...

Maybe it will prove an idle threat. But as the Democratic rules committee ended its lengthy meeting today in Washington today with a decision on the Michigan primary that left Hillary Clinton's campaign irate, the words from one of her chief strategists have to haunt party leaders striving for elusive unity. "Mrs. Clinton has instructed me to reserve her rights to take this to the credentials committee," Harold Ickes said. The rules panel, which Ickes serves on, achieved its goal of resolving one of the party's two disputed primaries -- the Florida contest -- in a way that Ickes and...

Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday she expects uncommitted superdelegates to begin making the choice that will decide her marathon Democratic primary race against Barack Obama soon after the Tuesday's primaries. In a conference call with Montana reporters, Clinton was asked about the effort by top Democratic leaders to push for a quick end to the fight for the presidential nomination after primaries in South Dakota and Montana next week. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said that he, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and party chairman Howard Dean will urge uncommitted delegates to choose sides. Clinton said: "I think that...

As a conservative, I must admit that I am truly enjoying the current freakshow that is the Democratic nomination process. Between Hillary’s shrill rallying cries and Obama’s vague talk of change, it’s great to see the two candidates tear each other apart to the overall detriment of the party. I think there is a recurring problem with the Democratic party, and this race has really brought it to the forefront. Many Obama and Hillary supporters that I meet don’t really know much about either party’s stances on various issues outside of extremely broad strokes. The biggest problem the average Democrat...

WASHINGTON (AP) - There's been a Clinton running for the White House or living in it for approximately forever. Bill, it could be said, was born to run. Running became Hillary's destiny, too. One quarter of Americans have never known life without a Clinton trying for or having the presidency. Millions have gone from diapers to diplomas in the time of the Clintons. When Hillary Rodham Clinton finally exits the 2008 Democratic presidential race, she will end a decades-long, power-couple streak of unique political energy, savvy ideas, colossal policy flops and raw ambition dressed in pants suits and briefs, not...

PART ONE: ALL VOTERS, GENDER, AND RACE Ever since the media declared that Barack Obama was “inevitable” after February 19th, based on a two week period when the an unprepared Hillary Clinton campaign suffered “10 straight losses”, rank and file Democratic voters have been sending a message. Rather than rally ‘round the “inevitable nominee” that message has been a consistent, loud, and clear message to the Democratic Party – DO NOT WANT. In nearly every demographic category since February 19, Clinton percentage of the vote has risen, while Obama’s has fallen. This includes Obama’s supposed “strong” demographic categories such as...

Friday might have been one of the worst days of Senator Hillary Clinton’s political career. Her campaign, as everyone knows, was already struggling. But on Friday, she made a reference to Bobby Kennedy’s assassination _ a terrible choice of phrase in a presidential campaign that features an African-American candidate. Opponents seized on it, and even if they misconstrued it, she may have reduced further her seemingly slim chances of capturing the nomination. We had a front-row seat to this very strange day, and we want to describe the whole thing for you because it says a lot about the state...

IT TOOK a woman, ex-prime minister Margaret Thatcher, to beat back the British miners’ unions and put the boots to Argentina in the Falklands war. Thatcher often gets named in defence of the truism that women need to be tougher than men to succeed in public life. Hillary Clinton’s example can now be used to argue the opposite: The tougher woman — or candidate — doesn’t always win. As any market researcher will tell you, some homegrown truths underlie the old cliche about women and warmth. Simply put, we trust women to be more compassionate, and men to be more...

A new NEWSWEEK Poll underscores Obama's racial challenge. Even as he closes in on the Democratic nomination for the presidency, Sen. Barack Obama is facing lingering problems winning the support of white voters--including some in his own party.

A year and a half ago, a senior Clinton ally, speaking privately to reporters, made the following prediction: "She's the favorite, but Obama's so good. Hillary only needs to make one or two mistakes and he'll be the nominee." To attribute the state of the race to Clinton's mistakes alone is to discount the quality of Obama's campaign and the depth of sentiment for change that exists in the Democratic party. But Clinton insiders and analysts say the former first lady's missteps have contributed mightily to Obama's nearly insurmountable lead in overall delegates. Here are 10 reasons the once-prohibitive front-runner...

Barack Obama's campaign hopes it will. They're putting out the word that they hope to announce on the night of May 20, after the results come in from the Kentucky and Oregon primaries, that their candidate has the 2,025 votes needed for the Democratic nomination. That would mean that the nomination would be settled before the May 31 rules committee meeting on the status of the disqualified Michigan and Florida delegations; this would deprive Clinton of a grievance but would not deprive Obama of the nomination. The June 1 primary in Puerto Rico, in which it seems possible Clinton could...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - Hillary Rodham Clinton coasted to a large, but largely symbolic victory in working-class West Virginia on Tuesday, handing Barack Obama one of his worst defeats of the campaign but scarcely slowing his march toward the Democratic presidential nomination. The Associated Press made its call based on surveys of voters as they left the polls. Obama looked ahead to the Oregon primary later in the month and the general election campaign against Republican John McCain, but the defeat underscored his weakness among blue collar voters who will be pivotal in the fall. "This is our chance to...

There are 50 ways to leave your lover, 13 ways of looking at a blackbird, and at least six ways to drop out of a presidential race. With Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign running on empty with little hope of victory, the New York senator's allies and independent observers alike have begun to consider which one she’ll choose. Clinton is balancing a range of considerations: her bank account; her political future and the party’s; her need to win back Obama’s supporters, particularly African-Americans; and her need to keep faith with voters in her own (nearly) half of the party, many of...