There is no 'closing the deal'. It's already closed.

[Avalux]

I just want to make that clear. There is no possible way Mrs. Clinton can surpass Obama in pledged delegates and popular vote. She needed a blowout in PA and didn't get it; any pickup she got will be erased in NC. She can't win enough in the remaining states. It's over.

UNLESS of course, Mrs. Clinton somehow manages to convince superdelegates to take the nomination from Obama and give it to her.

If that happens, the Democratic party will not survive this election and Mrs. Clinton will lose in the GE, forever having an asterisk next to her name.

[Taxmyth]

1. The Democratic Party will survive

It's base remains intact and Senator Clinton can pull the Electoral College votes needed to win the G/E. Whether or not Senator Obama can is a HUGE doubt.

[Vinca]

2. Keeping in mind nothing will unify the Republicans like Hillary. nt

[polpilot]

9. Hillary will give the Repubs UNLIMITED financial resources. UNLIMITED.

[Vinca]

11. Exactly. That's why McCain has told his campaign "hands off"

in taking on Hillary right now.

[Taxmyth]

16. Senator Clinton will draw Republican Women

a demographic Senator Obama will not have much success in drawing across to vote for him.

[Tresalisa]

26. Well, I guess Clinton could get a few Repub women.

I live in a small-town Bible belt area in a very red section of a blue state (WA) and I know a lot of Republican women, and not a one of 'em would vote for Hillary. Two of them are my current roommates. (I know, I know, and as soon as I get a job and get some money, I'm moving out on my own!) It's not that they'd have a problem voting for a woman, they just have a problem with Hillary.

[Taxmyth]

28. There's no impolitic way to say this

but I'm going to assume the GOP female faithful you know are part of a younger demographic than the ones that Senator Clinton would draw from.

And for what it's worth, I hope you get that job and it pays a decent salary.

[Tresalisa]

29. Actually, they are anywhere from 40-60ish, mostly to the older side.

They are not all white, however, but otherwise they seem to fit her demographic.

I don't say Hillary can't get Republican women to vote for her, just none of them whom I know here in Bible-land.

[tekisui]

5. Obama puts more states, and more electoral college votes in play

than Hillary.

[crispini]

6. Youth and African Americans stay home

the base would fragment.

[Taxmyth]

18. Didn't Exit Polling show the youth stayed home in PA?

not sure how trustworthy exit polling really is.

[Avalux]

8. A great majority of Democrats will not support her if it's illegitimate.

Don't assume they will come together for Hillary.

[Shae]

14. The Democratic parrty would probably not survive

if the will of the people is overturned by the superdelegates.

African Americans -- who are an extremely important part of our base -- will leave the party in droves, and they will NEVER come back.

[earthside]

30. Nope. It's Suicide.

The Clinton(s)s are embarking on a suicide campaign at this stage.

Obama has closed the deal, but there is some warped psychology in the upper echelons of the Clinton(s) campaign that will not accept fact-based reality. Billary should have accepted defeat after she lost Texas (it's about delegates), but their arrogance, ego, conceit, whatever it is, just won't let them.

If Clinton(s) somehow manages to wrest away the nomination from Obama, the most loyal part of the base -- African-Americans -- will justifiably believe they have been robbed, they will stay home, thereby costing the Democrats the presidency and probably the House and Senate as well. A Billary nomination means the base will not remain intact.

If this goes on much longer, this can only be described as the 'Clinton suicide campaign' because Billary is making the nomination worthless and is dooming down ticket Dems.

Old Hill's negatives are now so high that she cannot win the general election -- even with a 'plus one' electoral college states strategy "Monica" will be wrung around her neck making it a blowout for McSame.

If Billary pursues this to Denver and then loses, that will give Obama about six weeks to repair the damage before early voting starts and the campaign is effectively over.

Let's hope for an avalanche of super delegates to declare for Barack -- or this is going to turn out to be one of the biggest reversals in U.S. political history -- from a sure historic Democratic win to a radical Republican landslide.

And why? Because of Bill's and Hill's faith-based narcissism.

[crispini]

3. KICK KICK KICK

[Tyler Durden]

4. Not if you keep MI and FL out.

Then you're banking on a bad mortgage.

[tekisui]

7. That dog don't hunt.

And no amount of spin can change it.

[Tyler Durden]

10. Suit yourself, but this isn't "spin."

Michigan has gone Republican more than it's gone Democratic in the last 100 years. Disregard that at your peril: We have been righteously screwed, and it won't matter what the "Screw-er" says if he's still perceived to have our pants around our ankles.

But you folks say what you want.

Michigan Will Remember Her Friends and Her Foes. Best be on our "good" side: likely won't change the primary anyway one way or the other. VERY cheap publicity if you ask me.

[tekisui]

12. Your State leaders screwed you.

It has nothing to do with Obama or Clinton. Sorry you got screwed, I think its really messed up what happened.

But, come November if the Democrats in MI are still bitter and stubborn to the point of sitting out or voting for McSame, you do so at your peril. I don't think the Democratic voters of MI want a Pres. McSame out of spite.

At any rate, the state leaders screwed you, and we can't count on MI going Dem. We will have to work hard to try and bring those disenfranchised voters back. Just as we will have to work hard in every state.

[Tyler Durden]

17. Keep it up. Let that bridge smolder.

AND we know who blocked the redo.

But all that's moot. "Bitter?" if I were an Obama Supporter, I would use that word VERY CAREFULLY. There's nothing "bitter" about having our vote taken away.

[tekisui]

20. The redo could not have been done in a fair manner.

Campaign for McCain this Fall, if that's what you want.

[Tyler Durden]

22. Don't be stupid.

And as far as FAIR, I suppose you teach your children that LYING and GAMING THE SYSTEM is a GOOD THING?

I have NEVER raised my hand and said I was a Republican to game THEIR primary. That's a page out of their play book, and my ethics won't let me do that.

Nobody told him to take his name off the ballot. He didn't have to tell supporters to game the system. Bad advice from a political newcomer.

[tekisui]

27. Good points.

I think we agree on most of this. It was a mess, voters were disenfranchised, I wanted a re-vote, and still do.

It's not over, yet, but it is getting close. Whatever the outcome, we can't take any state for granted. In reality there is very little that we can do, at this point for MI. It is in the hands of the Credentials Committee.

[Tyler Durden]

31. Scares the fucking CREAM CHEESE out of me....you too?

This cluster fuck they call a primary is making me have 1972 nightmares every night.

Last Night I dreamed I was at the "One Last Chance" rally for McGovern on the "DIAG" in Ann Arbor, University of Michigan. Night before the election, 1972.

I woke up in a cold sweat.

[Tyler Durden]

19. By the way...we LIKE Levin.

And suggesting we lose an important Democrat in the Senate because the DNC/DLC wanted to play "Judge Roy Bean" is a little stupid in my book.

[Windy]

13. I live in Michigan. Recent polls here suggest that Obama would beat HRC in a re-vote.

Hillary only won the red counties of PA last night. Those will go for McCain in the General. She is not the right nominee.

[Tyler Durden]

15. Then REVOTE IT.

It seems to escape everyone that I simply do not wish to see a Republican Michigan in the fall.

Obama does not impress me, but he doesn't terrify me like McCain does. Neither Clinton nor Obama EVER made my short list.

[Tyler Durden]

23. LOVE to see those polls.

The ones I see barely get us a Democrat in the fall, and they get worse all the time.

[Windy]

32. Here you go!!!

http://www.mlive.com/elections/index.ssf/2008/04/obama_does_better_against_mcca.html

[Windy]

33. Here you are...link

http://www.mlive.com/elections/index.ssf/2008/04/obama_does_better_against_mcca.html

[Window]

21. K/R.

:kick:

[high density]

24. I wonder if Clinton will be pronounced a massive loser on May 6

as Barack has been over the past 12 hours or so. The media is acting like PA happened in a vacuum. I know it was six weeks since the last contest, so I guess that is far outside their cozy day or two news cycle.

[Major Hogwash]

25. She failed to get the necessary 28% differential. Now she needs to win the rest by 42% to make up

for it.

No way in hell she can do that now.

She needed a 28% win in PA to GET EVEN with Obama.
She only got 10%.
That means in the next 9 primaries she has to make up for the 34 delegates that she didn't get in PA.

By staying close in PA, Obama is the winner, even though he lost.

The campaign is like the Tour de France - Obama is so far ahead now, he can coast home.

[azmouse]

34. K&R