Hatred is a very strong emotion. Its negative, its heavy and a real burden to bear. Its like walking around with a ball and chain. Its always there. You can't shake it and you can stop thinking about it.

An honest confession on my part - I hate Hillary Clinton. I can even remember the specific moment when I started hating her. It was after the Iowa primary when she made her remark that she was shocked that Iowa was so much like Mississippi - neither had ever voted for a woman in a high office. As the days and weeks went on, my hatred grew more intense.

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Personally disappointing.

But, the good news is that "Drip.. Drip... Drip..." is turning into more of a steady flow of superdelegate endorsements and Obama is still getting his fair share.

Skelton has been one of Missouri’s seven neutral superdelegates. He told the Associated Press that he’s supporting Clinton, D-N.Y.,  "because of her support in rural America, her commitment to national security and her dedication to U.S. troops."
Among Missouri’s superdelegates, Skelton’s decision makes it 5-5 between Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., with 6 superdelegates still uncommitted.

The AP notes that Skelton’s decision means a 2-2 split among Missouri’s Democratic members of the U.S. House. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Kansas City, earlier endorsed Clinton. Meanwhile, on this side of the state, Reps. William Lacy Clay and Russ Carnahan, D-St. Louis,  have endorsed Obama.

http://www.stltoday.com/...

The Constitution Party Convention is being held in Kansas City today and they selected their presidential nominee. Unfortunately, it was not Alan Keyes. Alan Keyes, with obvious national name recognition, would have drawn a significant number of votes from John McCain.

Rather, the party nominated Chuck Baldwin who was the party's 2004 vice presidential nominee.

More after the fold...

Just a reminder that amongst all the bitterness over "Bittergate", real voting was going on this weekend across the country. County Conventions were held in West Virginia today as well as the Clark County Nevada convention "re-do" and legislative district caucuses in Washington State.

Results follow....

This isn't a GBCW Diary. Its more of a wake up call to some Kossacks here and perhaps even one to myself as I write this.

In my five years here, I've always taken pride in the quality of the membership here in terms of its intellect, broad interests, and most importantly, the self-moderating nature of the blog and how well its worked.

But...

At The Page, Mark Halperin has a very short article on a solution "being discussed" for Florida and Michigan.  I found it intriguing because he doesn't provide any detail or information as to who is discussing it or who is the source of the plan.

The solution is basically a quick and dirty negotiated split of delegates.

More over the fold...

Its been a long night. So, this isn't going to be a really long diary. But, I'm posting it for the benefit of those who may be up early looking for some real results in what happened Tuesday night.

Net delegate results estimates below.

Disregard all the spin, all the hype, all the predictions and prognostications. At this point in the primary and caucus process, math is king. Its the final firewall.

more after the fold..

Obama just finished his rally at Rhode Island College.  Clinton was at the same exact location about a week ago where she attracted about 3000 people.

Details below the fold...

Four more supers for Obama

The campaign releases four low-profile superdelegate endorsements today:

Minnesota DFL Chair Brian Melendez
Minnesota DFL Associate Chair Donna Cassutt
DNC Member Renee Pfenning (North Dakota)
Texas State Rep. Yvonne Davis

http://www.politico.com/...

Great news for Obama!!

These endorsements were announced by the Obama campaign, but there is some independent confirmation:

In a news conference at an Ohio State University hospital, Obama was asked whether he thought he would be facing more pressure from senior Democrats to concede the race than Clinton now is, had he lost 11 straight contests, as she has. "Yes," he said bluntly. "But look, I'm the challenger, I'm the upstart, I'm the insurgent. She's the champ, she's part of the Democratic network in Washington, and if you're the title holder then you don't lose it on points. You've got to be knocked out."

There is no doubt that Obama was been very successful at setting expectations and meeting them. Here, he tells us that he has plans to get the knockout blow he needs to seal the deal and to leave Hillary Clinton with no choice but to withdraw from the race on Wednesday, March 5.

Follow me after the fold through the 9 round bout for the nomination.

This primary season has taught us that winning is defined by how many delegates a candidate gets in each state's primary or caucus.  The popular vote has almost no bearing on who actually wins. Nevada is probably the paramount example.

We've also learned that superdelegates owe no allegiance to how their states voted one way or another.

Despite the high likelihood that Obama will capture 70% to 80% of the vote in DC tomorrow, it is also likely that Clinton will get more delegates.  See why below the fold...

There has already been a precedent for the problem we are faced with relative to the Florida and Michigan delegates problem.

In 1996 and 2000, the state of Delaware defied party rules and scheduled its primary 4 days after the New Hampshire primary.  All candidates signed pledges not to campaign in the state and pulled their names off the ballot. Delaware then passed a law forcing the candidates names back onto the ballot. Despite that, the candidates with the exception of Steve Forbes, did not campaign there for fear of retribution from voters in New Hampshire.

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First, I'm an Obama supporter and I live in Virginia. While I'm confident that Obama will will the remainder of February's caucuses and primaries with the exception of possibly Maine, I'm afraid Obama's "Hope and Change" message is getting stale.

Since Super Tuesday, I've watched Obama give the same exact stump speech in Omaha Nebraska as he did in Boston on the eve of Super Tuesday.  In Virginia, he is running the same exact ads he ran in the Super Tuesday states.  For voters who are now just looking at the candidates, that same ole stump speech and same ole ads will resound with the same types of voters that voted for Obama up to now.

If Obama's goal is to end up in a draw with Clinton, then this strategy will work for him. If he wants to break loose and win this thing, he needs to do something different.

This is why I think the whole Superdelegate idea is dead wrong. This site lists the superdelegates and those who have already pledged their support to one candidate or another:

http://demconwatch.blogspot.com/...

In perusing the list, we see some aggregious examples of superdelegates from states that Obama won and who are ignoring the will of the voters in their home states, and supporting Hillary Clinton.

Examples after the fold: