Nancy 'Impeachment off the table' Pelosi has thrown the msm a big curve. Friday she endorsed Edwards for V-P.  If she had endorsed John Edwards, my personal pick, I would have had to take another look at him.

Instead endorsing the candidate who would stand up to the Republican attack machine, Nancy Pelosi endorsed a virtual unknown,  outside of Texas, longtime Congressman Chet Edwards.  I will leave it to others to vet Chet Edwards.

I have been so disappointed in our first female speaker of the house. But John Edwards? My respect for him grows daily.  He is the type of VP candidate needed to get out and fight daily to overcome the Republican hate machine.  He is optimistic, realistic, and has changed into a candidate one can depend on.  

Obama/Edwards 08

I've been thinking about this on and off for a while, because my biggest concern about Dailykos under a President Obama has always been that it will become either a talk-radio-esque cheering section or an endless collection of venting about how he sold us out.  

I know this will disappoint some of you, but John Edwards isn't going to be Attorney General.  It's tempting to think of him in this position, since he's well-respected and was once a practicing lawyer, but it really isn't a good match.  John Edwards' number one interest is lifting the unluckiest of us out of poverty.  That's what he asked Obama for in exchange for the endorsement:  A poverty tour.   The next AG isn't going to get to do very much about poverty, because she or he will be too busy cleaning out the Augean stable that Bush has made of the Justice Department.  The next AG is going to have to be universally trusted, a brilliant manager, and a scholar of law.  Think Edward Levi.

So please, stop putting putting forward Edwards for Attorney General.  It's not a good match.

In fact, stop making up fantasy cabinets all together.  

I'm sure he's waiting with bated breath for these pearls of wisdom...

1. hang out with lots of working class white people (duh!)

2. explain how helping ordinary Americans economically is consistent with fiscal responsibility

3. emphasize that the Iraqi people want us out and explain how genocide will be avoided

4. signal that health care mandate could be phased in if his current plan doesn't work as well as envisioned (too many young, healthy people opting out, relying on emergency room, and driving up costs for those paying premiums.)

[two more below the fold...]

This diary is going to be quite short. I am still baffled by the reaction of some Clinton people to the resolution reached yesterday with regard to the Florida and Michigan situation. The reality that was clear in the run up to the committee meeting was that the members of the committee would have been indescribably crazy to have made any decision that would or could be seen as unduly advantaging one candidate over the other. Indeed, any decision they were going to take could not materially impact the outcome of the nomination as it would be viewed as transparently unfair. So this was always going to be how it would be resolved. This was readily apparent. Hence my surprise at the hullaballoo coming from the Clintononian side of the aisle that McCain is their new man.

This is an open letter to Hillary Clinton supporters that may be lurking out there, or to those that may be in contact with them.

I thought this was worth a look, as I haven't seen much VP polling yet.

Obviously, some of these names are not familiar to people, and that affects how the polling
numbers reflect. But it is a bitt telling to look at the results for the more familiar names.

These were done in NM 5/16 through 5/18.

The generic ballot results came out dead even at 44% each for Obama and McCain.
Which is convenient, for this experiment. Though I have seen better polls out of Rasmussen
for Obama recently.

Here are the results: Survey USA NM VP Polling

This is largely a rehash of a post W.VA. diary, made in anticipation of team Clinton moving the goalposts (again) to 2,209 from 2,025.

We've had two significant developments since: 1) Edwards endorses Obama; and 2) Team Clinton has decided to change their tone. The Edwards endorsement reduces the number of super delegates Obama needs to clear each hurdle as Edwards delegates declare for Obama.  

In short, there are four more hurdles Obama has to clear before he is officially the nominee. And we all know what they are.

  1. MAJ of Pledged Delegates (no MI/FL) = 1,627 (3,253 Tot) (5/20)

  2. MAJ of Pledged Delegates (w/ MI/FL) = 1,783.5 (3,566 Tot) (5/20 or 6/1)

  3. MAJ of all Delegates (no MI/FL) = 2,025 (4,049 Tot) (5/31 or 6/1)

  4. MAJ of all Delegates (w/ MI/FL)
     a. Counting full = 2,209 (4,417 Tot) (6/3)
     b. Counting half = 2,116.5 (4,233 Tot) (6/1)

# of Supers Obama needs to clear the last two hurdles =  328.5 (clinch w/out MI/FL) and 382.5 (clinch w/ MI/FL counting full).

More details on each hurdle below the jump and the magic SD # that gets him there.

I was there and it was beautiful.  Follow the jump for some more.

Look, kids! Its the brand new tongue twister game! Say it three times fast and join in the loads of fun!

Now that John Edwards has endorsed the candidacy of Barack Obama for President of the United States, I started thinking about his remaining delegates, super and pledged...

[NOTE: I've now added known pledged delegates and contact information, when I could find it for those still committed to Edwards or have public announced uncommitted status]

Bear with me through this and you'll see that Obama has won the nomination.

Consider how good the timing is for the John Edwards endorsement. Not
just for Obama, which is obvious (stealing Hillary's media day,
appearing to lock it up, etc.), but for Edwards. Had he endorsed
before North Carolina, which many thought he would, he might have been
seen as one small factor in a state Obama was already going to win,
but then Obama would still have lost in West Virginia and the media
would be asking if Edwards' blue collar influence was a myth outside
of his own state. By declaring now, the day after Hillary's fluke
blowout in a state that was almost designed to vote against Obama in
record numbers, and by declaring a week before Kentucky (a state which
has been coupled with West Virginia by the media, but that is almost
guaranteed to vote for him in higher numbers because of its colleges,
larger cities, and slightly friendlier demographics), Edwards has set
himself up to be remembered as Mr. Blue Collar.

We aren't privy to all testing data the Obama campaign will have with the various veep choices. But, lots of Kos regulars have an excellent sense of how to win and how to manage an election. It's not too early to start thinking about who would be good and what they'd bring.  Let's start talking Veep!

OK, now that I have your attention :-)

The Edwards endorsement is fantastic.  It creates momentum heading into the final stretch.  It switches the subject from a week of "Obama can't win white, blue collar, lower income, older voters."  It effectively adds 18 delegates to Obama's total even if the mechanics are such that the various counting services might not be able to add them in.  With the 18 plus 4-5 supers a day plus at least half of the OR/KY total Obama may just pass 2025 next Tuesday night.  But there is one new meme that will come out of this, one new talking point the Clinton team will use for a week.

Obama has 1889 total delegates.

If the remaining primaries break in the following way,

State	Obama/Clinton	Winner	Obama Delegates
KY	40%/60%	Clinton	20
OR	60%/40%	Obama	31
MT	56%/44%	Obama	8
SD	54%/46%	Obama	8
PR	44%/56%	Clinton	24

then 92 pledged delegates will be awarded to Obama from the remaining primaries.

John Edwards, the former Democratic Vice Presidential nominee and senator from North Carolina, has just endorsed two important campaigns.

Yesterday, in Philadelphia, Edwards inaugurated Half in Ten, a powerful new coalition that will cut the poverty rate in half by 2018.

Today, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Edwards endorses Senator Barack Obama's grassroots-led campaign to take back the White House.

Edwards -- your Important Blog's favorite candidate for President -- continues to lead the way forward with both of these endorsements.