As we’ve seen over the past two years, primaries can be highly divisive. However, through it all, Terry McAuliffe has been a pleasure to watch - frustrating at times, but always entertaining. Whatever the Clinton’s are paying him (I suspect nothing), it’s definitely not enough! Nice work TPM!

I have to say that I have been proven wrong. It now looks like Hillary can definitely pull out a victory for the nomination.

It is certainly a minor point, but the media continues to be tremendously lazy with the actual results of yesterday’s Pennsylvania primary. As of 11 am the day after the race, with 99.44% reporting (still missing 52 districts out of 9,264) Clinton is on top of Obama by 9.2%, not the 10% that is widely reported. Yes, this is a small number, but there is a tremendous psychological difference between a double-digit and single-digit win.

Where we stand today (according to the AP Delegate Tracker):
Obama: 1,481 pledged + 233 super = 1,714 delegates
Clinton: 1,331 pledged + 258 super = 1,589 delegates

I’m not sure if this includes this morning’s superdelegate endorsement of Obama by Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry. As Chuck Todd noted on NBC last night, Clinton now needs to win 70% of the delegates on May 6 in NC and IN and 80% after that date if she can’t meet that number.

UPDATE: Video of Chuck Todd after the jump.
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I came across this while surfing on the web. Special shot-out to Lower Merion, PA!

Bitter. That was the word of the weekend. The press, pundits and talking heads are running away with this story, trying to turn it into a full-blown scandal and as expected, the Clinton campaign is pushing Obama’s quote to just about anyone who will listen. This doesn’t surprise me - at this point, they need to find any opening to try and knock down Obama, especially as he picks up a little headwind in Pennsylvania. In fact, Obama’s comments have now taken on a life of their own. He’s being accused of being a snob, out of touch and elitist, even though he said something that Bill Clinton has echoed many times in the recent past.

In fact, many Democrats have made the argument that voters have been acting against their economic interest by simply voting on wedge issues like guns, gays and god and ignoring what policy makers are actually saying about the issues that touch them most - the economy, health care, war and peace, etc. It’s also pretty clear that some Americans are bitter at the way the government have been treating them over the past couple decades. If I didn’t have adequate health care for my family and I had a sick kid, or needed care myself, I too might be a little bitter.

Rest assured for all you worrier’s out there - this story will go away in the next couple days. There is a debate at the Constitution Center in Philadelphia on Wednesday, and assuming that this issue is still swirling, Obama should be able to pacify the situation by giving a more artful explanation of what he meant in his comments and to clarify the pieces of the statement that have seemed to take on a life of their own.

The Obama campaign has wisely decided to put up Bob Casey on television to defend Obama. Here’s the ad.

Please enjoy this guest post by a FOD (Friend of DoubleSpeak):

The National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournaments require a team to win six games over several weeks. The Democratic National Committee requires a candidate to win 2,025 delegates over a period of many months. In basketball, there is no set number of points a team must score, they simply must score more than their opponent. In the Democratic nominating contest, however, until a candidate gets to the magic number, the game must go on. This is the current situation: barring an unforeseen political gaffe of epic proportions, a scandal, or a tremendous moment of political brilliance, neither Senator Obama nor Senator Clinton is likely to secure the requisite number of delegates through the remaining nominating contests, creating a March Madness just for the Democrats.

Unlike the basketball March Madness, the political March Madness has no controlling body, like the NCAA, that sets clear rules and enforces them to run an efficient tournament. The Democratic National Committee’s Rules Committee effectively assured that Republican legislatures in states like Florida could wreak havoc on the legitimacy of the Democratic process. So instead of having selected a nominee with a finite number of contests left to decide the race, the Democrats are now embroiled in an intra-party squabble over which of a half a dozen metrics should be used to decide when the game is over. And instead of the DNC deciding, each team is putting forth their best argument for why the game should end or continue.

Keep reading for more. (more…)

Okay, this is a bit odd. Rep. Tim Mahoney, who replaced Mark Foley in the 2006 election has an interesting prognosis if this convention really does come down to the convention in Denver.

U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney, whose district includes much of Martin and St. Lucie counties, is hoping he won’t have to attend the Democratic Party national convention in Denver in August.

If he does go, that will mean the Democrats still haven’t decided a nominee for the presidential election. And if neither Sen. Hillary Clinton nor Sen. Barack Obama has clinched the nomination by August, Mahoney says we may see a brokered convention, meaning the nominee could emerge from a negotiated settlement.

“If it (the nomination process) goes into the convention, don’t be surprised if someone different is at the top of the ticket,” Mahoney said.

A compromise candidate could be someone such as former vice president Al Gore, Mahoney said last week during a meeting with this news organization’s editorial board.

This is just wishful thinking. However, I do believe that ultimately Al Gore will have a role to play in this nomination fight. If the spats continue through the spring and both Clinton and Obama are weakening in head-to-head match-ups against Johnny McCain, I’d imagine Gore, Edwards and Carter will step in to help ease tensions and likely convince Clinton (unless there is a major sea change between now and then) that it’s time to step aside and allow for the general election campaign to begin.

If you haven’t been following the “minor blip” over Hillary Clinton’s trip to Bosnia in 1996, you certainly are missing an epic tale.

Sen. Clinton, in a effort to shine the spotlight on her commander-in chief-credentials told the gripping story last week of her dangerous mission to visit American troops in the war-torn Balkans. The only problem; nearly the entire story was both wildly exaggerated and, well false. Ooopppsss. She must have been having one of those “commander-in-chief” moments.

Talking Points Memo has more on the story here.

Check out this YouTube clip - if you are going to see one movie this year, this should probably be it!

Iraq is the defining issue between Sens. Clinton and Obama in this race.

Hillary Clinton, along with many of her Senate colleagues (on both sides of the aisle) voted to authorize force, while some, like Barack Obama stood up strongly against it. Yes, it is in the past, but that is the choice that we have in this election. It’s about judgement.

Some (namely the Clinton campaign) point to the fact that Sen. Obama wasn’t in the Senate at the time, so his opposition was somehow not real and it should be brushed off and discounted.

I believe that Sen. Obama’s judgment was sound and his reasoning was correct when he spoke out against the war in 2002. Listen to the speech that he made back then.

Today, Clinton is bashing Obama because he didn’t do enough after entering Congress to end the war. This is just a silly argument. Watch this video that the Obama campaign put out today - it tells the story of Clinton’s bad judgment when it comes to Iraq.