She’s personally written a letter to all the remaining uncommitted superdelegates.

Read it in full after the jump.

Dear ___________,

The stakes in this election are so high: with two wars abroad, our economy in crisis here at home, and so many families struggling across America, the need for new leadership has never been greater.

At this point, we do not yet have a nominee – and when the last votes are cast on June 3, neither Senator Obama nor I will have secured the nomination. It will be up to automatic delegates like you to help choose our party’s nominee, and I would like to tell you why I believe I am the stronger candidate against Senator McCain and would be the best President and Commander in Chief.

Voters in every state have made it clear that they want to be heard and counted as part of this historic race. And as we reach the end of the primary season, more than 17 million people have supported me in my effort to become the Democratic nominee – more people than have ever voted for a potential nominee in the history of our party. In the past two weeks alone, record numbers of voters participated in the West Virginia and Kentucky primaries. And with 40 and 35 point margins of victory, it is clear that even when voters are repeatedly told this race is over, they’re not giving up on me – and I am not giving up on them either.

After seven years of feeling invisible to the Bush administration, Americans are seeking a President who is strong, experienced, and ready to take on our toughest challenges, from serving as Commander in Chief and ending the war in Iraq to turning our economy around. They want a President who shares their core beliefs about our country and its future and “gets” what they go through every day to care for their families, pay the bills and try to put something away for the future.

We simply cannot afford another four – or eight – years in the wilderness. That is why, everywhere I go, people come up to me, grip my hand or arm, and urge me to keep on running. That is why I continue in this race: because I believe I am best prepared to lead this country as President – and best prepared to put together a broad coalition of voters to break the lock Republicans have had on the electoral map and beat Senator McCain in November.

Recent polls and election results show a clear trend: I am ahead in states that have been critical to victory in the past two elections. From Ohio, to Pennsylvania, to West Virginia and beyond, the results of recent primaries in battleground states show that I have strong support from the regions and demographics Democrats need to take back the White House. I am also currently ahead of Senator McCain in Gallup national tracking polls, while Senator Obama is behind him. And nearly all independent analyses show that I am in a stronger position to win the Electoral College, primarily because I lead Senator McCain in Florida and Ohio. I’ve enclosed a detailed analysis of recent electoral and polling information, and I hope you will take some time to review it carefully.

In addition, when the primaries are finished, I expect to lead in the popular vote and in delegates earned through primaries. Ultimately, the point of our primary process is to pick our strongest nominee – the one who would be the best President and Commander in Chief, who has the greatest support from members of our party, and who is most likely to win in November. So I hope you will consider not just the strength of the coalition backing me, but also that more people will have cast their votes for me.

I am in this race for them — for all the men and women I meet who wake up every day and work hard to make a difference for their families. People who deserve a shot at the American dream – the chance to save for college, a home and retirement; to afford quality health care for their families; to fill the gas tank and buy the groceries with a little left over each month.

I am in this race for all the women in their nineties who’ve told me they were born before women could vote, and they want to live to see a woman in the White House. For all the women who are energized for the first time, and voting for the first time. For the little girls – and little boys – whose parents lift them onto their shoulders at our rallies, and whisper in their ears, “See, you can be anything you want to be.” As the first woman ever to be in this position, I believe I have a responsibility to them.

Finally, I am in this race because I believe staying in this race will help unite the Democratic Party. I believe that if Senator Obama and I both make our case – and all Democrats have the chance to make their voices heard – everyone will be more likely to rally around the nominee.

In the end, I am committed to unifying this party. What Senator Obama and I share is so much greater than our differences; and no matter who wins this nomination, I will do everything I can to bring us together and move us forward.

But at this point, neither of us has crossed the finish line. I hope that in the time remaining, you will think hard about which candidate has the best chance to lead our party to victory in November. I hope you will consider the results of the recent primaries and what they tell us about the mindset of voters in the key battleground states. I hope you will think about the broad and winning coalition of voters I have built. And most important, I hope you will think about who is ready to stand on that stage with Senator McCain, fight for the deepest principles of our party, and lead our country forward into this new century.

For the first time in the primary campaign, Barack Obama took the lead in committed superdelegates today.

But many right-wingers (correctly) point out: wasn’t Obama supposed to get a ‘flood’ of supers once it became clear he was the inevitable nominee?

What do you think?

Former Vols quarterback & current western North Carolina Congressman [not to mention superdelegate] Heath Shuler announced today he’s endorsing Hillary Clinton.

This makes sense, because his district swung overwhelmingly to Clinton - by a 3 to 1 margin in most spots.

WASHINGTON (AP) - A prominent Democratic superdelegate is leaving Hillary Rodham Clinton’s camp and throwing his support behind Barack Obama.
Joe Andrew served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee under former President Clinton. He says he’s switching sides because the ongoing battle is damaging the party.
Andrew says, “A vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote to continue this process.”
He’s also writing a letter to other superdelegtes urging them to heal the Democratic rift and unite behind Obama. In his letter, Andrew says the party battle is doing John McCain’s work for him and has become a distraction from the issues that really matter to Americans.

Andrew explained his switch in a letter posted on the Huffington Post. Feel free to read for yourself. We were struck by six sentences in that letter that pretty much encapsulates how we feel about how you, the voter, should approach this election regardless of whom you support, & supports our arguments against those who pander & push cheap easy solutions instead of looking down the road, past this election:

“Innuendo is easy. The truth is hard.

Sound bites are easy. Solutions are hard.

Spin is simple and easy. Struggling with facts is complicated and hard.”

Amen.
Demand more from your leaders, & more importantly, demand more from yourself.

…I know, I know - quite a stretch, right?

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen says the Memphis Tigers’ loss to Kansas in the national championship gives some insight to the Democratic presidential race. The Tigers were ahead in regulation before missing several free throws and giving up a late 3-pointer to Kansas for the tie and overtime. The Jayhawks won 75-68.
Bredesen tells The Associated Press, “I was thinking at the game last night that the last 90 seconds were so extraordinary, you think it’s the kind of thing that keeps Hillary Clinton in the race.” He says any team is just a couple of mistakes or lucky breaks from winning or losing. Bredesen, who is a superdelegate, has yet to say whether he will support Clinton or Barack Obama for the nomination. He is pushing for a gathering of superdelegates to vote after the last state primary.

disagrees with the Gov’s analogy. basketball is probably not the right analogy. If this were a b-ball game, it would be early in the second half & Obama would be up by about 12-16 points.

Football or more likely baseball line up much better in comparison here. Just saying.

[p.s. Love the pic of Hillary up there for this post, as it looks like she's trying for a basket from 3-point range.]

WASHINGTON (AP) - He hasn’t formally endorsed a candidate, but former President Jimmy Carter leaves little doubt who he’d like to see in the White House next year.
Speaking with reporters during a trip to Nigeria, Carter notes that his children, their spouses and his grandchildren are “pro-Obama.” But he adds that as a superdelegate he won’t disclose who he’s rooting for. He said he’s leaving it up to reporters to guess.
How does Hillary Clinton’s camp feel about Carter’s comments? Spokesman Howard Wolfson notes that both Senator and President Clinton respect and have enjoyed their relationship with the former president.
Carter was in Nigeria for a ceremony celebrating a reduction in Guinea worm disease in West Africa.

Two weeks ago, we told you about Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen’s idea to hold a Superdelegate primary to decide the Democratic Presidential nomination.

This morning comes news that DNC chairman Howard Dean has put the kibosh on the idea:

We can’t have a convention of super delegates because it would look like 330 delegates are overriding the wishes of 30 million voters,” Dean said in an interview with USA TODAY. He said Bredesen deserved credit for advancing the plan.

Oh, well.. thanks anyway, Gov.

Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen (D) argued in today’s New York Times that superdelegates should hold a primary in June to determine the Democratic nominee once & for all. Full text of the column after you click “read the rest of this entry.”

“We Democrats have a problem, but it’s one we can fix.

We are blessed with two fine candidates, but it’s entirely possible that when primary season ends on June 3, we will still lack a clear nominee. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton could each still believe that the nomination could be his or hers at the national convention in Denver in August.

In that situation, we would then face a long summer of brutal and unnecessary warfare. We would face a summer of growing polarization. And we would face a summer of lost opportunities - lost opportunities to heal the wounds of the primaries, to fill the party’s coffers, to offer unified Democratic ideas for America’s challenges.

If we do nothing, we’ll of course still have a nominee by Labor Day. But if he or she is the nominee of a party that is emotionally exhausted and divided with only two months to go before Election Day, it could be a Pyrrhic victory.

Here’s what our party should do: schedule a superdelegate primary. In early June, after the final primaries, the Democratic National Committee should call together our superdelegates in a public caucus.

Of the 795 superdelegates, over 40 percent have not announced which candidate they are supporting; I’m one of them. While it would be comfortable for me to delay making a decision until the convention, the reality is that I’ll have all the information I reasonably need in June, and so will my colleagues across the country.

There will have been more than 20 debates, and more than 28 million Americans will have made their choices and voted. Any remaining uncertainty in our nominee will then lie with the superdelegates, and it will be time for us to make our choices and get on with the business of electing a president.

This is not a proposal for a mini-convention with all the attendant hoopla and sideshows. It is a call for a tight, two-day business-like gathering, whose rules would be devised by the national committee, of the leaders of our party from all over America to resolve a serious problem. There would be a final opportunity for the candidates to make their arguments to these delegates, and then one transparent vote.

This is our electoral process at work in a way the founders would be proud of.

The formal nomination itself obviously awaits the Denver convention. However, if most of the superdelegates were to come to the table in June, there could be a clear conclusion, and enormous moral pressure on the candidates to accept the result and move on.

Some might raise reasonable concerns about the cost and logistics of assembling these superdelegates. But those would be manageable; this is a business meeting of a few hundred people almost three months from now, not an extended, cast-of-thousands convention.

Possibly the nominee will become clear by June and such a gathering will no longer be needed. That’s fine: it can be canceled or turned into more of a formality. The chance to have our nominee clearly identified in June as opposed to late August far outweighs any logistical or financial concerns.

In addition to the practical political benefits, such a plan is also a chance to show America that we are a modern political party focused on results. It’s a chance to show that when confronted with an unexpected problem, we have the common sense to come together, roll up our sleeves and direct events to a successful conclusion.

And I believe that in the end, American voters might just be inclined to reward that kind of unexpected common sense.”

By the way, Bredesen is a superdelegate but officially he remains undecided.

What do you think of the Governor’s idea? Post a comment!

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is a superdelegate, but as of now, she’s officially “uncommitted.”

This is of course smart for her, as she’s the highest ranking Democratic party member in the U.S. Government.

But a brief interview on a supposed “Obama/Clinton” or “Clinton/Obama” dream ticket showed her possibly revealing which way she’ll swing.

Watch it after the jump.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It’s clear that Pelosi is disappointed (as are many Democrats) in Clinton’s below-the-belt remarks last week saying both she & John McCain have better security credentials than Obama. (More on that in this Vote08 post)

That also could mean that Pelosi may currently be a secret superdelegate for Obama. Stay tuned, will keep you posted.

What do you think? Post a comment!

New York Governor Elliot Spitzer announced today he’s “spending more time with his family” after being (apparently) caught on a federal wiretap tape purchasing the services of a high-class prostitute. (Vote08 commentary: What an idiot.) You can read more about that story here.

We’re not going to focus on the ins & outs of the Spitzer case, though. No, much like this classic Saul Steinberg New Yorker cover demonstrates the myopic tendencies of New Yorkers when thinking about the rest of the country…

…we’re going to zero in on how this news story affects the presidential campaign — after the jump!

First, up, Spitzer’s a superdelegate, & has supported Hillary Clinton. Clinton actually drew flak in October for an inadequate response to a question about Spitzer’s wildly unpopular proposal to give illegal immigrants drivers licenses. Here’s the clip:

Click here to view the embedded video.

She had trouble answering, & you could practically see her weigh the pros & cons of each answer in her head as she gives it.

Now. Let’s assume for the sake of argument that Spitzer resigns (he hasn’t yet, but many are predicting a resignation within the next 24 hours).

Who steps in in a situation like that?

The Lieutenant Governor of New York.

Who’s the Lieutenant Governor of New York? This guy:

David Paterson. Who is also currently a superdelegate.

& before you think, “oh, he’s a black guy - it must mean he’s for Obama, right?” - think again!

Take it away, New York Times political blog from February 19th!

Lt. Gov. David A. Paterson, who has been a close ally of Mrs. Clinton, said that he is tugged by both his race and his respect for women and their plight for equality. “As an African-American man I have often wondered if I would ever live long enough see a black president in this country,” Mr. Paterson said moments after addressing the caucus crowd at the gala. “So with Barack Obama doing as well, I would be playing games if I didn’t say I don’t feel some anxiety from it.” But, with all the disparities women face in the workplace, the violence they often face in their own homes and the fact that they “didn’t get the right to vote until the last century,” Mr. Paterson said, “I’ll be just as happy if a woman is elected president, and Hillary Clinton is someone who I think will make us all proud when she is elected at the end of the year.”

So advantage Clinton, right? She keeps the same amount of Superdelis, right?

Wrong!!!!

The American Prospect brings up an interesting point:

“Both Spitzer and his successor if he were to resign, Lieutenant Governor David Paterson, are superdelegates and Clinton supporters. If Spitzer resigns any time soon he ceases to be a superdelegate and is not replaced because Paterson is already a superdelegte (the total number of superdelegates is not fixed).”

So if Spitzer resigns soon, that means Hillary Clinton will in fact lose one superdelegate.

As of 5pm Monday, the Clinton campaign has not commented on the story, but she has scrubbed his name from her website’s endorsement page.

Confused? Don’t worry - we are too! But Depend on to keep you posted as this story develops!

Tennessee 4th District Congressman talked to NewsChannel9’s Amanda Shropshire today about his status as a superdelegate.

Davis remains uncommitted between Obama & Clinton, despite the fact that his district voted 79% in favor of her in the February 5th primary.

Find out how he’s been courted .. & how he might make his decision after the jump!

Here’s Amanda’s story (here’s the video link):

Several top dogs in the Democratic party are faced with what could be a momentous choice: who will the presidential nominee be, Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama?

These so-called *superdelegates* don’t have to listen to anyone but their own conscience in making their choice. One local superdelegate is Fourth district congressman Lincoln Davis.

Lincoln Davis is one of many politicians like governors, senators, representatives and local politicians who have this “superdelegate” status and Tennessee has 17 of them.

So far Davis says he’s not committed to throwing his support to either candidate but he’s getting pressure to make that decision soon.

Like many Democratic voters he’s officially on the fence between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Congressman Davis says, “I lean both ways i look at one of the candidates and say maybe that’s the best choice and i look at the other and say that’s the choice for us.”

One thing making the case for Hillary… the fact that his district voted overwhelmingly for her.

“In the district i represent, Hillary Clinton carried the vote by 79 percent that has to have some impact on my decision,” says Congressman Davis.

Technically, Davis isn’t bound to make his choice based on that reason. Davis says he thinks voters will make a clear choice long before the August convention in Denver getting him off the hook, but if not.

“What im gonna do is look at both of them, listen to folks in my district and then, make the decision of who should be elected and better serve,” says Congressman Davis.

Davis says right now he isn’t sure who is the best fit, but has good things to say about both of the the candidates.

For Hillary Clinton, Lincoln Davis talks about her experience and Barack his energy.

“Her (Clinton) experience as first lady of Ark, her experience as First lady of the US. Her eight years in the US Senate, and having served beside or been in the white house where a lot of decisions were made…now let’s talk about Obama. As for him, for the first time democrats have been activated and motivated…it is encouraging to see this amount of new voters coming to the democratic party,” says Congressman Davis.

Both sides are actively courting Davis’ support, but so far he hasn’t gotten a personal call from either candidate and as for Democrats fretting about what this long fight will do to the party.. Davis says he knows it’ll all work out in the end.

Congressman Davis says, “When it comes down to it in August we will make the right decision and this party will come down to it armored with faith, armored with a vision that will help us win the election.”

……

One interesting (Vote08-only) note: It’s interesting that the man has the names of the leaders of the two sides in the Civil War. Lincoln/Davis. Ironic that he’s now straddling the fence for either side in this intra-party fight.

Davis told Amanda that Bill Clinton has called him to try to swing his vote, but so far, neither Hillary or Barack has given him a call.

& by the way, Superdelegate & Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen also remains neutral.

Depend on to keep you posted!