The Old Eighteen

One for the road

Amy LaVere: "Pointless Drinking"

A programming note

As you might have noticed, I've been spending some time working on the blog's layout this weekend.  Because of that and other pressing issues, my posting has been pretty light yesterday and today, and will probably be light tomorrow as well.  I have a few other things I'd like to do with the blog, and I've had a personal issue come up as well that has kept me partially preoccupied.  My posting should be back to its normal quantity and quality on Monday.

Obama delegate watch - UPDATED

The DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee meeting is finally over, and we now have resolution on the Florida and Michigan delegations.  Per the committee, all pledged delegates and superdelegates will be seated for both delegations, but they will be penalized a half a vote each.  In Florida, the delegation will be seated in accordance with the January vote.  In MIchigan, the committee approved a compromise that awards 69 delegates (34 1/2 votes) to Hillary Clinton, and 59 delegates (29 1/2 votes) to Barack Obama.  Hillary Clinton also got the endorsement of a superdelegate earlier today.

The big question now is whether Hillary will press on to the convention and challenge the Michigan compromise.  At the meeting today, Harold Ickes threw a temper tantrum over the allocation of Michigan delegates and made a cryptic remark that Hillary "reserves the right" to continue crying all the way to Denver.  It won't matter much - Obama now needs only 64 delegates, and he'll get about 40 of those in the remaining primaries.  Plus, he's supposedly got about three dozen superdelegates waiting in the wings to endorse after the primaries are over.  Even if he doesn't, this ruling and the end of the primaries will open the flood gates.  By Thursday at the latest, Barack Obama's status as the presumptive nominee will be beyond doubt.

With Florida and Michigan now resolved, here's a look at where the race now stands:

64 delegates needed to secure nomination
303.5 delegates remaining (86 pledged delegates, 205 superdelegates, 12.5 Edwards delegates)
Barack Obama needs to take 21.1% of the remaining delegates to secure the nomination

Kissing cousins

Here's a new ad from Moveon.org showing how much alike George Bush and John McCain are.  It's part of their Bush-McCain Challenge:

Obama delegate watch

No change in the numbers from yesterday, but today is the big day that everyone's been waiting for - the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee Meeting takes place today at 8:30 Dallas time.  The next few days will be momentous, as the RBC meeting today is followed up by the Puerto Rico primary tomorrow, then Montana and South Dakota vote on Tuesday.  And between now and the end of next week, there's probably going to be a stampede of the remaining superdelegates making their preferences known.  At least about 40 of them are said to be Obama supporters who will endorse on the two days following the 6/3 primaries.  It's not much of a stretch to think that there are probably at least 50 or so others out of the remaining superdelegates who will also endorse Obama, and they really won't have a legitimate excuse to wait around anymore.  By next Saturday, this whole thing should be all over but the crying, and Hillary will look really stupid and petty if she continues talking at that point about taking her fight all the way to the convention.

Per Democratic Convention Watch, here's a look at where the race now stands:

Without Michigan and Florida:
41 delegates needed to secure nomination
284 delegates remaining (86 pledged, 191 superdelegates, 7 Edwards delegates)
Barack Obama needs to take 14.4% of the remaining delegates to secure the nomination

With Michigan and Florida (FL & MI penalized 1/2 of delegates):
82.5 delegates needed to secure nomination
321 delegates remaining (86 pledged, 206 superdelegates, 12.5 Edwards delegates, 16.5 uncommitted)
Barack Obama needs to take 25.7% of the remaining delegates to secure the nomination

With Michigan and Florida (FL & MI seated in full):
124 delegates needed to secure nomination
358 delegates remaining (86 pledged, 221 superdelegates, 18 Edwards delegates, 33 uncommitted)
Barack Obama needs to take 34.6% of the remaining delegates to secure the nomination

Quote of the day

Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself.

-- Jimmy Carter

One for the road

Dwight Yoakam: "Honky Tonk Man"

"Mensaje a Puerto Rico"

Here's a campaign ad, in Spanish, that the Obama campaign is airing in Puerto Rico.  That loud sound you heard is Tom Tancredo's head popping:

Today's Featured Blog: Capitol Annex

My featured blog for Friday is Capitol Annex, a progressive blog with a laser-sharp focus on Texas politics.  The blog is authored by Vince Leibowitz, a former editor of the Van Zandt News and Canton Herald, who was awarded the inaugural 2002 Nancy Monson Award by the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas and the Texas Press Association for his reporting on open government issues.  Vince has covered Texas politics since 2000 and is also an active member of the Democratic party, having served as the party's county chairman in Van Zandt County an as a board member of the Texas Democratic County Chairs’ Association.  Capitol Annex is an excellent source of information about Texas politics, which is often a depressing topic for those of us who are progressives here in the Lone Star state but which looks to be less so as our fortunes have begun to improve.  Keep yourself informed by checking out this blog regularly.

Dallas South among 2nd round of bloggers credentialed for Democratic National Convention

Congratulations to Shawn Williams, who publishes Dallas South, for being named as a credentialed blogger for the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver.  In all, the DNC has added about 70 or so blogs to its list of credentialed blogs for the convention, for a total of 124 credentialed blogs.  The DNC appears to have made at least some effort to address the criticism of its previously released list of 55 state blogs, which did a poor job representing minority bloggers and especially African-American bloggers.  Whether or not that effort is sufficient to blunt the criticism remains to be seen, but skimming the list, in addition to Dallas South I recognized at least a few other African-American bloggers on the list, as well as Hispanic and Asian-American bloggers.

One concern for me, however, is that Texas bloggers appear to be underrepresented on the list - aside from Dallas South, the only Texas blog I saw that I recognized was Burnt Orange Report.  I may have missed one or more that I'm not personally familiar with, but I don't think that's the case.  Texas is the second-largest state in the country, and while we're not a blue state (yet), we do have a significant presence in the progressive blogosphere that I believe is being overlooked.  Beyond that, we're in the process of emerging as a battleground state, and Texas is going to be a significant part of the Democratic party's national strategy in the years to come.  If we really only have two Texas bloggers on the list, that's a disappointing oversight on the DNC's part.