Counting Delegates: Hillary Wants Michigan and Florida Counted

"I don't need to go back and live in the White House. I've done that."-Hillary

The Clinton's are sure working hard to get the keysto the White House. More and more it looks like Obama is doing some major damage to the Clinton's campaign. The DNC's rules state that Michigan and Florida delegates will not be seated due to changing the primary date. All the Democratic candidates agreed, but Hillary now thinks otherwise. Lets see how the DCN plays with the Clinton's.




Hillary Clinton and Race and Youth: A Snapshot from South Carolina
Posted by Karen Tumuily, TIMES Swampland

One thing that has struck me in the day and a half I have spent with the Hillary Clinton campaign here in South Carolina is how white her audiences have been. This, as we have noted, is a state where half the Democratic electorate is African-American, and the Clintons' bond with that community is legendary. But at a stop yesterday at Anderson County Civic Center, I counted no more than 20 black faces in a crowd of around 800. And even Bill is not proving to be the draw you might imagine among African-Americans. My colleague Jay Newton-Small estimated there were about 25 African-Americans among the 200 people who attended a Bill Clinton appearance in Burnwell last night.

So I was particularly interested to see how she was received this morning at historically black Benedict College in Columbia. Barack Obama's name was never mentioned. However, the tone of the event was set by Stacey Jones, dean of science, who implored the students to "focus on our future, rather than acting on pure emotion." Clinton was also accompanied by former New York Mayor David Dinkins and New York Congressman Charlie Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Rangel's is the most powerful chairmanship in Congress, Clinton told the audience of several hundred. "He didn't get there by leapfrogging. He got there by lots of hard work." Dinkins admonished: "Lofty rhetoric is nice, but ultimately, you have to govern."

This message of experience over excitement went over about as well as you might have expected it to with any college crowd, regardless of race. The applause was subdued, and came mostly from the older people who were there. ("Walking on eggshells," the man next to me whispered.) What may have been most telling of all, however, was the double edge of the line in her speech that drew the biggest applause:

"I don't need to go back and live in the White House. I've done that."

Those Pesky Delegates

Clinton Now Looking Beyond S.C.
Focus on 4 Delegate-Rich States Is Considered Risky

By Anne E. Kornblut and Shailagh Murray

Washington Post Staff Writers

SALINAS, Calif., Jan. 22 -- The next Democratic presidential nominating contest will take place in South Carolina on Saturday, but Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has already turned her full attention to places such as this: delegate-rich pockets of states that will vote in a tidal wave of primaries two weeks from now.

Clinton has been focused on California, New York, New Jersey and Arkansas since her defeat in the Iowa caucuses earlier this month, betting that she can sweep states where her name recognition and popularity are strong.

The logic seems simple: She represents New York in the Senate, and New Jersey is next door; she was the first lady of Arkansas for a decade; and California will be the biggest prize when 22 states vote on Feb. 5. But in a system that awards delegates by congressional district, with some worth more than others, the calculation is far from straightforward, and Clinton backers fear that the setup could boost Sen. Barack Obama if he fares well in populous corners of key states......

.....The Obama campaign's heavy emphasis on grass-roots organizing, which served it so well in Iowa, has led it to target the six states that will hold caucuses rather than primaries on Feb. 5. These are typically lightly attended affairs, but they could deliver big returns if Obama can follow his Iowa model of identifying a pool of supporters, including nontraditional participants such as college students and independents, and methodically turning them out.

The big three in that category are Colorado, Kansas and Minnesota. But the campaign also is active in North Dakota, where Obama has three offices; Alaska, where he has two; and Idaho, where he has one. To help balance out Clinton's edge with Democratic Party faithful, Obama is seeking endorsements in all six of the caucus states and may be close to securing the nod of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, sources close to the campaign said. (The Clinton team counters that the Feb. 5 caucus states are relatively unimportant, accounting for just 12 percent of the delegates who will be awarded that day.)....

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