It may happen exactly as Senator Clinton has predicted. Party leaders and Super-Delegates, not the pledged kind selected by the voters, rearing up and taking command of the Democratic party, determining that one potential presidential nominee can succeed and the other cannot; that one can lead them to the White House, and the other can lead them only to friction and even fracture, and saying to one of them, "in the name of God, go." Only, they may not do it to Senator Obama. They may do it to her. CONTINUED >>
A reminder to tune in to NBC tonight live at 7pm et for a special anniversary edition of Countdown with Keith Olbermann!
Amy Robach in for Keith tonight...
Get Out the Vote Some Democrats believe that the party's nominating process has picked up steam only recently... While others feel it has long since passed its sell-by date... But not until today did a leading Democrat actually call on one of the candidates to drop out of the race. Our fifth story on the Countdown: Senator Patrick Leahy says its time for Senator Clinton to pick up her marbles and go home. CONTINUED >>
McCain Enable : It has been the danger at the heart of the Clinton election strategy from the very beginning. Taring down your Democratic opponent, in part by praising the presumptive Republican nominee... And have you not just made the case for four more years of G-O-P rule in the White House? Our fifth story on the Countdown: With no end in sight for the bloody Democratic nomination battle... new evidence tonight of a potential Democratic defection in the general election... the notion of McCain Democrats beginning to take hold. CONTINUED >>
Just Words Though polling tonight suggests that the Jeremiah Wright controversy has been less damaging to Barack Obama over the last two weeks... than the Hillary Clinton campaign has been damaging... to Hillary Clinton... The candidacy of implication tonight continues, unabated. Our fifth story on the Countdown: Senator Clinton today... again ruling in the possibility of a pledged delegate switch -- whether by mutiny or epiphany. And Senator Obama, back on the trail, responding to yesterday's implications about his former pastor. CONTINUED >>
The "Tonya Harding Option"?: John McCain has defended Barack Obama against criticism related to Reverend Jeremiah Wright..Mike Huckabee has defended Barack Obama against Wright-related criticism. Hillary Clinton's Pastor has defended not just Obama... but Reverend Wright himself. Today, in our fifth story on the Countdown, Senator Clinton, for the first time, pounced on an opportunity... to attack Obama about Reverend Wright. This, as one unnamed Democratic Party official described what he called Senator Clinton's "Tonya Harding option" -- that the only way to get the nomination is for her to, quote, "knee-cap" un-quote, Senator Obama.CONTINUED >>
A Grim Milestone Which will decide, just how much larger this nightmarish number, will become: 4,000. 4,000 American men and women in uniform, who went to Iraq ,and never came home. All of them -- in the vernacular of the White House -- seemingly sacrificed not by the Bush Administration for its conflict... but instead somehow having managed to sacrifice...themselves. Our fifth story on the Countdown: A grim milestone is reached... with little accountability... and a galling, repeated, drumbeat today... that they were all volunteers. CONTINUED >>
The Richardson Endorsement Forget the 3 A-M phone call. The biggest early morning development of this campaign season might well turn out to be the 3 AM bulletin. Our fifth story on the Countdown: The office in Santa Fe sending out the urgent at three seconds after 3 AM Eastern this morning: "The Associated Press has learned that New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is endorsing Senator Barack Obama for president." Within eleven hours... veteran reporters Jim Vandehei and Mike Allen wondering if the media might be a little more "urgent" about the Democratic race... writing on Politico dot com, quote: "Hillary Rodham Clinton has virtually no chance of winning " the nomination. Governor Bill Richardson joins us in a moment...Briefly, the details... CONTINUED >>
BREAKING....
So...by now you're in on the story at the State Department. NBC News is reporting that Senator Barack Obama's passport file was breached on three different occasions by three different people who did not have access to do so. The first was January 9th, the second February 21st and the third was last week...March 14th.
The State Department says there was no political motivation for the breaches. They call it "imprudent curiosity" Two of the people were fired, the third case is pending. We don't have names of the people involved yet, but they are said to be low level employees.
The Obama Campaign's statement is as follows:
CONTINUED >>
Trail Mix For Senator Clinton... there is the vote to authorize the use of force in Iraq that she probably wishes never happened...And the Michigan re-vote... that likely never will happen... no matter how hard she might wish. Our fifth story on the Countdown: Five years to the day after the Iraq war began... Senator Clinton preferring to spend her day in Detroit, talking about a primary do-over in that state that instead looks... over and out. Her opponent, Senator Obama... using the anniversary of the conflict to address military families near Fort Bragg... and to attempt to cast himself as the only true anti-war candidate. CONTINUED >>
The Wright Stuff : What began as the most important day of Barack Obama's candidacy for president... might well end up being remembered as the most important week of his campaign. Our fifth story on the Countdown: Having today broached the sensitive topic of race in a speech that even many of his critics saw as sweeping and moving... The Obama campaign announcing that tomorrow he will move on to address Iraq and national security... and then Thursday: Iraq and the economy. CONTINUED >>
It's a Big Speech It may not have merited the description of a network newscast tonight: "Firestorm." It has received but not earned -- as you will hear later -- a comparison to the saga of Willie Horton in the 1988 election, and a hysterical fabrication that found its way into the New York Times. But in our fifth story on the Countdown: there is no doubt that the issue of Pastor Jeremiah Wright -- specifically his references to quote "God Damn America" and his claim of some American culpability for 9/11 -- is a critical moment for the presidential aspirations for Senator Barack Obama. And in news breaking at this hour: he will address them -- and the larger issues of race and religion -- in a speech tomorrow in Philadelphia...A speech which -- as this day wore on -- became more and more obvious, as perhaps the most important speech by any candidate in any party, yet given in this longest of campaigns. CONTINUED >>
Obama on the Record This week in the presidential race started with debate over race and religion, and it will end with it. Now, our fifth story on the Countdown: Senator Obama, finding himself under fire tonight... for the controversial sermons of one of his now former spiritual advisers. Breaking news that Obama campaign has just announced that the spiritual adviser in question -- the Reverend Jeremiah Wright -- is no longer associated with the Obama campaign. The Illinois Democrat -- having already condemned and rejected the statements in question today: outright, vehemently and categorially -- joining us presently so he can address them further.
****Senator Obama Joined the show live, Keith gives way to the great Alison Stewart****CONTINUED >>
You may have caught his latest blog over at Huffington Post , tonight catch him live on Countdown. Please join us tonight at 8p et for an interview with Senator Barack Obama.
States of Confusion The lyric was sung with gusto by Howard DaSilva as Ben Franklin in the movie "1776." It was about a struggle by the Founding Fathers, each of whom wanted to avoid writing the declaration of Independence... But tonight it has unexpected relevance to the 2008 Democratic Primary. "I won't put politics on paper -- it's a mania... "So I refuse, to use the pen, in Pennsylvania ." Our fifth story on the Countdown: the Clinton Campaign is using its pen, Strategist Mark Penn, in Pennsylvania, but may wish it hadn't. First, Penn declared Barock Obama incapable of winning the general election if he couldn't beat Clinton in the Keystone State... Then, the campaign tried to backtrack and insist he hadn't and had only said it raised "serious questions." Indeed. CONTINUED >>
Resign of the Times : She still believes it...She is not sorry she said it... She said the same thing about another African-American in the race for president twenty years ago... And if that were not enough... she blames Senator Obama for what has happened... to her. Our fifth story on the Countdown: Former Congresswoman and Vice Presidential Candidate Geraldine Ferraro might have left the Clinton campaign today... because of the controversial comments she made about Senator Obama's candidacy... but there is little doubt that the controversy has not left her. Later: My Special Comment on Senator Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro... and the opportunity the candidate missed to say "In this I believe." CONTINUED >>
Finally, as promised, a Special Comment on the presidential campaign of the Junior Senator from New York.CONTINUED >>
It's been all over the place at this point, but Keith will have a Special Comment tonight on the Senator Clinton Geraldine Ferraro story. Stay tuned for a transcript/text.
Excerpt here.
In The Line of Ferraro The harbinger of election calls Chuck Todd leads to another call, this time it's Barack Obama's victory in Mississippi. All this as an extraordinary controversy erupts around Senator Clinton -- her fundraiser, former Democratic Vice Presidential Nominee Geraldine Ferraro, first declared that if Senator Obama quote "was a white man, he would not be in this position" in the presidential race... And has now followed that up by accusing those who disagree with her, of reverse racism. That -- and Mississippi -- the last vote until Pennsylvania -- tonight. CONTINUED >>
States of Confusion In a span of 48 hours, Senator Clinton has gone from trying to poach some of Senator Obama's support by hinting he might be her choice for the Vice Presidency, and a vote for her now might be a vote for both of them later..To having her chief strategist say that right now, anyway, Obama has not passed whatever qualification test for Vice President the Clinton campaign has -- but maybe he can later. Perhaps he has to take the SAT's. In the same time span, Senator Clinton has gone from referencing the two kinds of delegates -- pledged and super -- to inventing a third category all her own... "Caucus Delegates." Even though her victory in Nevada was in a caucus, and her victory in New Mexico was in a caucus hybrid. Our fifth story on the Countdown: Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote it in 1841: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." Whatever else you think of her: Hillary Clinton's... is not a little mind. CONTINUED >>
Fresh off a week in which she pulled slightly closer to Barack Obama in the pledge delegate count, Senator Clinton has unveiled a new way of identifying those delegates and told Newsweek that according to DNC rules that all the delegates are in play and can switch candidates at will.
We'll explore the Veep talk that happened this weekend. Bill Clinton says Clinton/Obama would be unstoppable...and Senator Obama halts any chatter and floats his own opinion as to why the Clintons may be floating the dream ticket .
Also, we'll have more on the breaking Eliot Spitzer news ...awaiting a news conference from the New York Governor now.
Power Play : "Battle not with monsters," warned the dark philosopher Nietzsche, "lest you become one." A quote that might be floating around the Obama campaign tonight. Amid its whiplash and its outrage after a week of verbal assaults from the Clinton campaign, a collective comparison suggesting Senator Obama is not as good as John McCain, and just as bad as George Bush, Karl Rove, and Kenneth Starr... Obama's Senior Foreign Policy advisor might have topped them all. Our fifth story on the Countdown: Samantha Power, Pulitzer Prize-Winner, and Harvard Professor, told a Scottish newspaper that Hillary Clinton was quote "a monster" who will "do anything to win." She immediately apologized to Senator Clinton... and nearly as immediately, resigned.
CONTINUED >>
Praising McCain : Having -- last Saturday in Austin -- suggested that she and John McCain will each be able to campaign on their "lifetime of experience" but Barack Obama will only be able to "put forth a speech in 2002..." Having -- last Monday in Toledo -- stated she and Senator McCain will each bring that "lifetime of experience" to the White House but Senator Obama would only have that speech... Having -- today in Washington -- announced that she and Senator McCain have each crossed "the commander in chief threshold" but "you'll have to ask Senator Obama with respect to his candidacy"... Our fifth story on the Countdown begins with a rhetorical question. Hyperbole for sure. But maybe not that much hyperbole. Would Senator Clinton really prefer to see McCain become president than Obama? And if so, wouldn't that make her, a Leiberman Republican... or maybe a McCain Democrat?CONTINUED >>
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One of the funnier things we've seen recently on the internets...behold "Parking Garage: Beyond the Limit".
About Last Night Hillary Clinton snatches victory in Ohio and Texas from the jaws of defeat after almost snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. And what did she win exactly? The Democratic voter saw his shadow last night -- so she -- and we -- all get seven weeks in Pennsylvania. Our fifth story on the Countdown: and after negative campaigning earned her that reprieve, a sub-set of the twelve weeks until the caucus in Puerto Rico -- how many of the dozen, will be dirty? CONTINUED >>
VOTR Night : The eve of Votr night. V-O-T-R... Vermont, Ohio, Texas, and Rhode Island. And yet in our fifth story on the Countdown: the key dateline of what could be the night before the Democratic primaries end... Ottawa, Canada. After days of denials from the Obama campaign and the Canadian Embassy in Chicago that they ever discussed Senator Obama's position -- or positions -- on NAFTA... A memorandum, confirming the meeting, suddenly surfaced. What was said at that meeting... almost irrelevant to the Clinton campaign... which seems to feel the memo itself is all the ammunition it needs... to win over any reluctant blue collar workers in the state of Ohio.CONTINUED >>
