Stories related to: Democratic National Convention

The long-tern effect of John Edwards’ early exit is that Barack Obama will wrap up the nomination by early June, a grateful Steve Kornacki writes in the New York Observer . A  slower withdrawal would have spelled trouble for the Democrats, who are having enough trouble making up their minds. "Imagine the comparative mess Democrats might be in if Edwards had opted to stick around," says Kornacki, who dissects the numbers. More »

The Michigan Democratic Party agreed yesterday to a plan to split its delegates to the August convention: The state wants to award 69 to Hillary Clinton and 59 to Barack Obama, who did not appear on the ballot in the primary, which was voided because it broke party rules. Michigan would also seat 29 superdelegates, reports the Detroit News . More »

Al Gore dropped his silence on the Democratic race today, saying he may yet endorse a candidate and predicting that the race would end soon after primaries ended on June 3. “There will be a nominee before the convention,” he asserted. Gore laughed off a scenario that had him emerging as a compromise candidate in a split decision between Clinton and Obama, the Boston Globe reports. More »

Act I was his grand entrance, and Act III will be his acceptance speech at the party convention, but now Barack Obama needs an Act II, Peggy Noonan writes in the Wall Street Journal —and the subject of the act should be America. John McCain carries love of country “in his bones,” but Obama hasn’t closed the deal because ordinary voters don’t yet get the “content” and “fullness” of his patriotism. More »

Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Howard Dean plan to coordinate demands that uncommitted Democratic superdelegates endorse a candidate—and well before August's convention. Senate Majority Leader Reid said yesterday that “this matter will be over no later than July 1,” Congressional Quarterly reports. House Speaker Pelosi added that the party's nominee needs to start the general-election battle before August. More »

No matter how much young political journalists thirst for it, there will be no brokered Democratic Convention this year, argues Jeff Greenfield in Slate: There simply aren’t any brokers left to make a deal. You can forget about your Al Gore and your John Edwards: no Democratic leader is strong enough—and uncommitted superdelegates will be most interested in pleasing scattered constituencies. More »

The Obama and Clinton campaigns and the DNC are discussing a plan to seat Florida’s 185-delegate slate according to the outlaw primary’s results—but to give the delegates only half a vote each, Politico reports. Separately, Dean met with Florida Democratic leaders today and declared, "We will absolutely seat the delegation at the convention.” More »

Hillary Clinton insisted today that she will not drop out of the race early, and Barack Obama thinks that's just fine. Clinton told the Washington Post that she will compete in every primary, then take her fight to the convention in August if necessary. Could any scenario change her mind? "No," she said. In Pennsylvania, Obama said Clinton "can run as long as she wants,” AFP reports. More »

Democrats continue to clash over the effects of a long and bitter primary race, the New York Times reports. "If we have an ugly, divided convention, we will lose" the November election, said Howard Dean, who has called on superdelegates to decide by July. But Hillary-backer Gov. Tom Vilsack of Iowa said, "We’ve become a bit too squeamish. I, for one, want my nominee to be battle tested.” More »

Continued sniping with Hillary Clinton is hurting Barack Obama's chances of winning the White House, and "she ought to withdraw and she ought to be backing Senator Obama," Sen. Pat Leahy told Vermont Public Radio in an interview aired today. The harsh assessment coincided with a suggestion from another influential Vermonter, DNC chairman Howard Dean, that the superdelegates make their plans public by July 1. More »

If the Democratic nomination isn’t wrapped up before August's convention, the party might have a third choice: the one they crowned in 2000. If Barack Obama is too bloodied and Hillary Clinton too divisive, Joe Klein writes in Time , a superdelegate coup could yield an Al Gore-Obama ticket on the spot. Of course, the party would have to be “monumentally desperate.” More »

The top Senate Democrat says his party's presidential nomination will be wrapped up before the Aug. 25-28 convention. “It will be done,” majority leader Harry Reid declared of the race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama—adding mysteriously, Politico reports, that he’d spoken to party chairman Howard Dean and that “things are being done.” More »

Florida Democrats reacted to weeks of political wrangling today by ditching plans for a mail-in revote, the Miami Herald reports. "Thousands of people responded," Florida Democratic Party chair Karen Thurman wrote. "The consensus is clear: Florida doesn’t want to vote again. So we won’t." But she said the Sunshine State still isn't calling it quits. More »

Barack Obama netted seven more delegates in Iowa tonight, two months after the state held its caucuses, the AP reports. How so? Some of the delegates who originally backed John Edwards shifted to Obama during the state's county conventions, the second part of Iowa's election process. These are generally of no great consequence because the nominee is usually secured by now.  Not so this year. More »

Barack Obama is far more likely to be the Democratic nominee than Hillary Clinton is, says Joe Trippi, the veteran strategist who advised Howard Dean and John Edwards. In an IM interview with New York, he puts Obama’s odds at 70%, predicts a race that lasts until the convention, and foresees "a remote chance of a third candidate if this gets really ugly and Clinton takes a meat ax to Obama." More »

Hillary Clinton lost Wyoming yesterday, but today the Washington Post has some welcome news for the Democratic underdog: Many superdelegates say they’ll wait until the end of the primaries to chose a candidate. “You’re going to see a lot of delegates remaining uncommitted,” said one neutral Democratic congressman. “There’s a sense that this is going to Denver not resolved.” More »

Do-over Democratic primary votes in Michigan and Florida are looking likelier with the support of key political players, the AP reports. The governors of both states—a Clinton-backing Democrat in Michigan and a Republican in Florida—have issued a joint statement calling for their states' delegates to be seated at the national convention.  Campaigns for both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama seem open to the idea. Clinton won both primaries, but neither candidate campaigned and Obama wasn't even on the Michigan ballot. More »

Despite big wins yesterday, Hillary Clinton still needs a secret weapon to make up her delegate deficit and, Walter Shapiro writes in Salon , her strategy might have been presaged in Ohio by Gov. Ted Strickland urging, “Let’s go to Michigan and Florida." Do-over votes in those states, whose primaries weren't recognized by the Democratic Party for violating scheduling rules, could be her next push. More »

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist wants to redo his state’s Democratic primary, and DNC chair Howard Dean is “very willing to listen to the people of Florida.” Crist, a Republican, isn't committing any funding, however, and officials have said the state won’t pay for a $4 million caucus or a more expensive primary, the Orlando Sentinel reports. More »

House Democrats who support Hillary Clinton appear to be rejecting calls to switch their support to Barack Obama if circumstances give the super delegates the deciding votes, the Hill reports. Despite charges that it would be anti-democratic to defy voters in their home states, many who talked to the Hill say they won't budge—with one member adding that the only way he wouldn’t vote for Clinton is if she died. More »