A Kos commenter notices that Ted Kennedy, among other leading Democrats, is denounced in strong terms in this post from a Clinton supporter on Hillary Clinton’s campaign web site.

The notice, posted earlier in the month for a demonstration at D.N.C. headquarters when the Rules and Bylaws Committee meets over the fate of the Florida and Michigan delegates, includes this line:  read more »

John Edwards’ endorsement of Barack Obama matters because the media is treating it like it does. Twenty-four hours after Hillary Clinton celebrated a 41-point landslide victory in West Virginia, the press now has fresh reason to speculate about a final death blow to her campaign, creating a narrative that could unleash the decisive superdelegate flood the Obama campaign has been waiting for.

But, really, is this huge—or even surprising—news? Obama was going to win the nomination with or without Edwards’ backing.  read more »

Barack Obama's campaign just released the remarks he's prepared for tonight's primary night rally in Raleigh, N.C., in which he said his campaign stands "less than two hundred delegates away from securing the Democratic nomination ...."

He called Hillary Clinton a "formidable opponent," and congratulated her for her victory in Indiana, and expressed confidence that the party would be united come November.

The full speech follows:  read more »

Barack Obama is winning. North Carolina is his, comfortably, and his delegate-count continues to climb ever closer to a requisite primary-ending majority.

So why has his campaign felt like a long march over broken glass?

“It is painful to watch,” said an influential Obama supporter and delegate in an interview the day before the North Carolina and Indiana primaries. “It’s exhausting for everyone involved. It’s exhausting for Barack and Michelle. It’s exhausting for all the campaign staff, and I know it’s exhausting for the supporters.”  read more »

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the pandering Presidential politics of Clinton, McCain and Obama. McCain pandered on the gas tax and Hillary and Barack pandered on trade.  read more »

Superdelegates are generally seen as seasoned elected officials or as the kind of party apparatchiks whose natural habitat is the figurative smoke-filled room.

Not everyone fits the stereotype. Among those who will help decide the Democratic contest is a 51-year-old office administrator and piano teacher in Dublin, Ireland, who has not lived in the U.S. for more than two decades and follows the race in large part through coverage in the Irish and British media.
Liv Gibbons, a native of Los Angeles, will cast her vote at her party’s convention in Denver for Barack Obama.  read more »

The Massachusetts Democratic primary, along with nearly two dozen other primaries and caucuses, was held on Feb. 5. Hillary Clinton won it by 15 points, one of her best showings anywhere this year, and Michael Dukakis voted in it—but he won’t say for whom.

“I voted for a candidate, yeah,” is about all Mr. Dukakis, the state’s former governor and a lifelong resident of Brookline, will say.

Mr. Dukakis has maintained an adamantly neutral public stance throughout the campaign, hoping instead to sell both candidates and their campaigns on the need for assembling a massive grassroots organizing effort—a captain and six block leaders in all 200,000 precincts in the country—for the fall. But he also said that Barack Obama will probably be the nominee and the race decided by early June, and possibly much sooner, with primaries in Indiana and North Carolina on tap next week.  read more »

Not only will David Shuster, the MSNBC talent who got into trouble over claiming the Clinton campaign had "pimped out" former first daughter Chelsea on the hustings, be returning to the network; his suspension will have lasted two weeks, and he'll be back in time for the NBC-sponsored debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama Feb. 26. Broadcasting & Cable reports:  read more »

Legendary novelist and editor Toni Morrison's endorsement of Barack Obama is obviously not significant for her ability to move voters at the polls, which is not proven and probably not likely to be proven. But given her perceived attachment to the Clintons—Bill, she famously once called America's first black president; and Hillary she has been close to in the past—we thought it worth printing in full the letter of endorsement she sent to the Illinois senator, as released by the Obama campaign. Follow the jump to read it.  read more »

COLUMBIA, S.C.—John Edwards arrived on the small stage here at Jillian's eatery at 9:30 on the dot with his family. (I think he got a haircut! When did he have time for that?) "The three of us move on to February 5th," he said. Okay then! On the TV, which is playing him with a delay (what, is he going to suddenly start swearing?), it looks like he's in a big hall just like Barack Obama! But he's not!  read more »