Jason Horowitz

Charlie Rangel said the proof that Hillary Clinton can still win the Democratic nomination is that she is still pursuing the Democratic nomination. Either she has a chance, he said, or she’s nuts.

"If mathematically she couldn't get the nomination it would mean that Obama has won and so she wouldn't be in the race," said Rangel. "And so obviously mathematically she can."

When asked how she could win the nomination, Rangel replied. "I don't know, but if mathematically she cannot win then why aren't we declaring Obama the winner? I mean it doesn't make sense. It is not my job to explain how, if she put $6 million of her money, the team is still together, the campaign is still going on, why do I have to explain mathematically why she can't win? If mathematically she can't win then they are crazy. They ought to go to an insane asylum."

He added, "Anybody who really knows that they can't win and they won't quit, there is really something wrong with them."

Clinton is still in the race. So by that logic she must see some way of winning. What is it?

"I have no clue" said Rangel, explaining it wasn't his job as Chairman of the House's Ways and Means committee to chart or analyze Clinton's path to the nomination.  read more »

Representative Charlie Rangel has a very meta take on Vito Fossella's predicament, seeing it as another example of an ongoing Republican implosion.

"They are self-destructing," Rangel told me, referencing the president's vetoes of what he said was bi-partisan legislation and ethics lapses by Republican elected officials.  read more »

Hillary Clinton just sent a formal public letter to Barack Obama calling on him to work to find a resolution to the Florida and Michigan question that reflects the votes in those states and seats their delegations at the convention. She also attempts to shame him for what she calls his failure to "support those efforts" in Michigan, and for the Obama campaign's opposition to revotes in Florida. "In Florida a number of revote options were proposed. I am not aware of any that you supported," she writes.

As pointed out in a conference call yesterday, it is not clear that the Clinton campaign picks up enough support to change their dire position even if both states are counted. But as long as the Obama campaign doesn't budge, it's a talking point for the Clinton campaign.

Here's the letter:  read more »

I just asked Hillary Clinton's finance chair Hassan Nemazee about accounts from other Clinton donors of Obama bundlers contacting them about the possibility of coming over to the campaign.

"There is only one instance that I know of in which a Clinton donor went over to the Obama campaign," said Nemazee. "I remain convinced, until shown otherwise, that donors, be they in New York or elsewhere, are sticking with Hillary and the campaign."

He added, "I would like, in my role, to hopefully be welcoming the Obama people over to Hillary Clinton's campaign. But obviously, we're at a point in the campaign where both common sense and the political reality is indicating that that's not one of my priorities at the moment. What I can say is, if I were the national finance chair of the presumed nominee, I would do everything in my power to welcome supporters of the opposing side into the campaign as much as possible."

He said that he had in fact done as much when he was in a similar position.  read more »

Hillary Clinton has begun to ask her influential backers to be in Washington on May 14 for a meeting at her home, according to a major fund-raiser. Separately, the fund-raiser said, Bill Clinton will be speaking with top donors this afternoon on a conference call.

John Olsen, a Connecticut superdelegate who announced his support for Hillary Clinton just a few days before the Indiana primary, says he is not switching his allegiance. It's not because he's an optimist, though.

"She'd need to get 69 percent of all the pledged delegates that are left," said Olsen, a veteran union leader. "The people who are going to vote from here on in can end it. If I were a woman in Kentucky I might say, 'I love Hillary, but we have seen enough; we need to end it and so I'm going to vote from Obama.' Those people need to speak.  read more »

The Obama campaign has started reaching out to Hillary Clinton's top fund-raisers, said one major donor to Clinton, who also said that despite the courtship, none of the most prominent donors were likely to move over as long as she kept running.

"People in my circle are not going to publicly knife Hillary," said the fund-raiser. "We are all going to let her go through this, we are going to stand by her proudly, let the process work forward and no one is going to flinch. And there will be time if the Obama people want to reach out."  read more »

John McCain is having a major fund-raiser at New York's Sheraton hotel tonight with Rudy Giuliani that is expected to raise around $7 million or the candidate, a figure one of tonight's attendees and a major fund-raiser to the candidate admitted amounted to peanuts compared to what Barack Obama is capable of raising.

"How do you deal with that?" said the nationally influential fund-raiser.  read more »

It's all but over, according to the Obama campaign.

"We can see the finish line," said Obama campaign manager David Plouffe on a conference call just now. Plouffe said the net of last night's primaries was 13 delegates in the candidate's favor, making Obama's advantage "the biggest it has been in the entire race." Plouffe said that the campaign had also been "making great progress in the superdelegate world."

He then introduced the campaign's top supporters, each carrying a nail to hammer into Clinton's coffin.

John Kerry said, "In my judgment, last night, Barack Obama took a giant and decisive step towards the nomination." He added, "He clearly did more than he had to and she did not achieve what she had to."

He argued that Obama scored impressive results "despite the toughest weeks of his campaign and the most thorough testing that could be imagined," and said, "If it hadn't been for Republicans taking Democratic ballots," at the bidding of Rush Limbaugh he would have won Indiana too. "There is no masquerade now."  read more »

Asked point-blank by the Post's Anne Kornblut if there had been any discussions about Hillary Clinton dropping out of the race, Howard Wolfson said, "No -- no discussions."

He then did his best to put yesterday's results in a positive light.

"These were two states that Senator Obama predicted victory in," he said, and, "These were two states we were supposed to lose. We won one of them."

"It was Senator Clinton making up ground and Senator Obama losing ground," he said.

Difficult.  read more »

Howard Wolfson is arguing that Hillary Clinton "would be the stronger nominee against John McCain" because she had proven an ability to attract blue-collar Democrats and win swing states. "Senator Obama, on the other hand, has not yet proven that he can win key swing states, has not proven that he can win blue-collar voters," Wolfson said. He called that "the crux of the argument" the campaign would make going forward.

When asked in a question-and-answer period whether media declarations of Clinton's electoral demise would hurt their effort to court superdelegates, Wolfson said, "Obviously superdelegates watch TV and read the newspapers," but they are more influenced by electoral results.

He confirmed that the campaign gave more than $6 million in loans to the campaign in April and May, which he described as a demonstration of the candidate's commitment.

In contrast to the boasting about online fund-raising that followed her Pennsylvania victory, Wolfson said he did not know how much money had come in since last night's results became clear.

He also confirmed a meeting with uncommitted superdelegates on the Hill this afternoon.  read more »

The Clinton campaign is not giving an inch, at least not yet.

Howard Wolfson just said at the top of this morning's conference call that the campaign would discuss how it would go forward to the "nomination and victory in November."

Clinton pollster and strategist Geoff Garin said "Indiana was obviously a close outcome but it was an outcome about which we feel very very good."

He said that Clinton came from behind and overcame Obama's spending advantage, and that it "represents significant progress."  read more »

Barack Obama's campaign just released the remarks he's prepared for tonight's primary night rally in Raleigh, N.C., in which he said his campaign stands "less than two hundred delegates away from securing the Democratic nomination ...."

He called Hillary Clinton a "formidable opponent," and congratulated her for her victory in Indiana, and expressed confidence that the party would be united come November.

The full speech follows:  read more »

Barack Obama is winning. North Carolina is his, comfortably, and his delegate-count continues to climb ever closer to a requisite primary-ending majority.

So why has his campaign felt like a long march over broken glass?

“It is painful to watch,” said an influential Obama supporter and delegate in an interview the day before the North Carolina and Indiana primaries. “It’s exhausting for everyone involved. It’s exhausting for Barack and Michelle. It’s exhausting for all the campaign staff, and I know it’s exhausting for the supporters.”  read more »

The Obama campaign couldn't have been thrilled with Drudge's expectation-warping headline this morning: "DANGER DAY: HILLARY FACES '15-POINT DEFEAT' IN NC."

I asked Obama spokesperson Jen Psaki about the report, which was attributed to a top Clinton campaign staffer. She wouldn't respond directly, but offered this admirable effort at counter-spin:  read more »

Ed Turlington, a former national chair for the John Edwards campaign who endorsed Obama last month, said that he always expected the contest in his home state of North Carolina to be close.

"The Clintons have basically thrown the kitchen sink at North Carolina and Bill Clinton has basically lived here," he said.

Plus, he said, people really only started paying attention after Pennsylvania, and it hasn't been a particularly flattering time for the Obama campaign since then.  read more »

Most polls have been showing Indiana tipping in Hillary Clinton's favor and Obama's lead narrowing in North Carolina. But North Carolina-based Congressman and Obama surrogate G.K. Butterfield isn't having any of it.

"He is going to win North Carolina and possibly Indiana. He won Guam the other day."

Also: "If he wins Indiana and North Carolina then we will have more momentum and I think we can make a better case that it needs to conclude by July 1."

As a rule, the Clinton campaign tries to keep expectations down, but at least one of Hillary Clinton's top supporters is dispensing with the exercise as it applies to tomorrow's primary contests in North Carolina and Indiana.

"I think the momentum is very much in our direction and we are going to exceed expectations," said Hassan Nemazee, one of the campaign's finance chairs.

When asked if Tuesday would be the game-changer, Nemazee said, "You bet."

The economists are out of touch too.

That was the argument Clinton campaign pollster and strategist Geoff Garin made on a conference call this morning when he addressed a question about whether a gas tax holiday would prompt more gasoline use.  read more »

INDIANAPOLIS—Barack Obama has become a family values candidate.

Wracked by questions over his beliefs, patriotism and values following the most tumultuous passage of his campaign, Mr. Obama has sought solace – and a new story line – in family.

Over the past few days, Mr. Obama steeped his speeches in talk about his grandparents and parents and physically evoked the imagery of idyllic Americana by campaigning with his wife and two daughters around picnic tables and playgrounds.  read more »

INDIANAPOLIS—Barack Obama continued his assault on John McCain and Hillary Clinton over their proposed gas tax holiday today during a speech his campaign billed as his plan to fight for working families and against special interests. Responding to a new advertisement from Clinton about the gas tax, Obama, speaking in a high school here, said,“Keep in mind that this is an idea that will save you all together, half a tank of gas.”

He argued that no experts or editorials had supported Clinton’s plan.  read more »

INDIANAPOLIS—Indiana’s Republican Party has its headquarters across the street from the office building where Obama held his press conference this morning, and where Obama supporters and campaign staff are still meeting and looking at charts of poll data.

   read more »

INDIANAPOLIS—In a question-and-answer session following his remarks about the gas tax holiday supported by Hillary Clinton and John McCain, Barack Obama acknowledged that the last week has been a bad one for his campaign, filled with what he said was “an awful lot of noise.”

When asked how upset he’d be if he lost in Indiana because of the controversy created by his former reverend, Jeremiah Wright, who he said he has not spoken with since the pastor’s poorly received media tour, he smiled and said, “I’m always mad when I lose.”

He seemed resigned to the damage done by the Wright story.

“We’ve had a rough couple of weeks, I won’t deny that,” Obama said when asked about how the controversy had hurt his chances in Indiana. He added, “I don’t think what happened with Reverend Wright was helpful,” that voters in the two states were “legitimately upset by it,” and that he didn’t doubt the controversy would be “factoring into the mix” of concerns weighed by voters.

“I have no doubt that these are going to be tight races—they have been tight throughout,” he added.  read more »

INDIANAPOLIS--Barack Obama just held a conference here in Indianapolis to talk about the struggling economy and the failure of his opponents to responsibly address problems like rising gas prices. Before taking questions, he gave a brief opening statement.

“Senator Clinton demanded that everyone go on the record on this issue," referring to her push for a gas-tax holiday.  read more »

SOUTH BEND -- Barack Obama could probably use some levity, apparently.

Here's a Daily Show correspondent taping segments with some more traditional correspondents at an event here.

Also, tonight the candidate will read a top 10 list on David Letterman (a native Hoosier!).

Here it is, as released by the campaign:  read more »

SOUTH BEND, Ind.—Barack Obama is doing his own listening tour in Indiana.

“What I want to do is spend more time listening than talking,” said Obama at a small event at the fairgrounds here, where he discussed farming policies, subsidies and crop-dumping with a few dozen voters sitting around on bales of hay. Obama reminded them that he could also draw a crowd, listing his major events over the last few days, before saying, “It’s wonderful to see these big crowds but the problem is you don’t really learn a lot when you are listening to yourself talk. “  read more »

SOUTH BEND -- Here's the scene in a barn at a fairgrounds where Barack Obama will be speaking this afternoon--another example of his more intimate approach to campaigning he has favored of late.

A few dozen voters are sitting in a ring around bales of hay, in the middle of which is a small white stool for the candidate. Behind a medal guard rail a few feet back there are seats reserved for at least twice as many reporters as there are Indiana voters.

Today, Barack Obama decided to meet with an Amtrak worker and talk about expanding and improving rail service. The timing is not an accident.

He is alone among the presidential candidates in not advocating a cut in gas taxes over the summer, a stance for which he received an extremely rare bit of (conditional) praise from Paul Krugman, but for which he was attacked by his opponents.  read more »

If Iraq rarely comes up in the Democratic primary, it’s because, for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, there is nothing left to discuss.

The differences between them on extricating troops are miniscule, and the greatest point of contention is aboutn the past: who did or didn’t support the war, nearly seven years ago.  read more »

New York State Senator and Obama supporter Bill Perkins, who is partial to sports metaphors, likened Barack Obama's remarks distancing himself from Reverend Jeremiah Wright today to a marathon runner overcoming a bad cramp.

"Do you want that cramp? No." said Perkins, "Are you ready to deal with the cramp? Yes."  

Obama, he said, was not the only candidate in the race suffering from sudden and painful spasms.  read more »

Representative Gregory Meeks of New York, a Hillary Clinton supporter, thinks that Barack Obama's disavowal of his former pastor Jeremiah Wright this afternoon was mostly about politics.  read more »

Edwards spokesman Matthew Nelson just sent over this response to a question I asked about the assertion in today's Times story suggesting that Elizabeth Edwards was pressuring John Edwards to endorse Hillary Clinton:

"Unless you're hearing from John or Elizabeth themselves, and not unnamed sources, I wouldn't put much stock in it. Information is currency in politics, and there is a lot of fake currency floating around out there.  read more »

Barack Obama had a Sister Souljah moment of sorts today.

Obama's renunciation of Wright today in Winston-Salem had an almost solemn tone to it.

"The person that I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago," he said. "His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate, and I believe that they do not portray accurately the perspective of the black church."  read more »

Back in June 2007, Rudy Giuliani addressed the question of whether he, as a pro-choice Catholic politician, was fit to receive communion by saying, "Issues like that for me are between me and my confessor. I'm a Catholic and that's the way I resolve those issues, personally and privately."

Today, Cardinal Edward Egan of New York, Giuliani's own bishop, essentially said that the former mayor, with his "well-known support" for abortion rights, forfeited his right to call the matter private by publicly accepting Holy Communion during a papal Mass this month.

Cardinal Egan’s scolding, in which he said he "deeply regrets" Giuliani's decision, is a result of what the prelate suggested was a violation of "an understanding" with the former candidate for the Republican nomination and the church, which Egan said teaches "that abortion is a grave offense against the will of God."  read more »

Somewhere, Barack Obama's aides are having a nervous morning.

Speaking at the National Press Club (but in front of what sounded on the CNN feed very much like an audience of non-journalist supporters), Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, just offered his thoughts on the black church and his role in the Democratic nominating process.

At one point he took a question asking whether he stood by his comments comparing the United States to the Romans who oppressed Jesus Christ.

"Yes, I can compare them," he said. "We have troops stationed all over the world."  read more »

The old adage that goes "never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel" could probably be updated to "never pick a fight with Rupert Murdoch." And Barack Obama might have violated that one.

On April 21, Obama held what was supposed to be a conversation about economic policy with concerned Pennsylvania voters, seated around him on benches under a low hanging tree blooming with yellow flowers.

The first question was off message. It was about media consolidation, by Murdoch and others. "What can be done to ensure that our press is really giving a free, all-point-of-view [perspective] to the population," asked the questioner.

Obama called it a good question and then, referring to the television cameras, national and local media reporters ringing his quaint afternoon conversation, said, "I think the press would argue that there are a multiplicity of voices out there, but you're absolutely right that there has been a lot of media consolidation and that's happened partly because it's so expensive to set up big TV networks."  read more »

It's become almost a ritual now: Hillary Clinton wins a primary that her campaign characterizes as a game-changer, and the Obama campaign follows up with endorsements from superdelegates, the only constituency that really matters now.

That trend continued today with the endorsement of David Wu, a representative from Oregon.  read more »

In a press conference this afternoon, the transcript of which was just provided by the Obama campaign, Barack Obama argues that the lengthy nominating process for the Democratic Party has not been positive for the party's chances in November, and that the sooner the nomination is wrapped up the better.

"There is no doubt that if we have additional time to bring the Democratic Party together and the focus on the Republican nominee then we’ll be stronger for it in the fall, and that is why we would like to wrap up this campaign as quickly as possible. So, yes, there has been some time lost," said Obama.

He immediately outlined the positive side of the protracted campaign season.  read more »

Hillary Clinton used her victory in Pennsylvania as a battle cry and opportunity to raise more money for her campaign for the presidency tonight, arguing with a new campaign motto of "Yes, we will" that she would stay in the race and ultimately win the White House.

According to campaign spokesman Mo Elleithee, the campaign raised about $500,000 in less than an hour after the polls closed.  read more »

In the Philadelphia Hyatt where Hillary Clinton will soon celebrate her Pennsylvania primary victory by speaking to supporters, volunteers and television cameras, the crowd is ecstatic.

On a stage draped with a gold curtain, dozens of supporters are waving signs and chanting “Yes She Can” and “Madame President.” One young man is pumping a red boxing glove above his head, volunteers are sipping beer from plastic glasses and two men in suits are arguing on the ballroom's floor over who would end up having a more accurate prediction regarding Clinton's margin of victory. (“I had seven,” said one. “I had nine” said the other.)

“She’s going to the White House,” said Harriet Helfenbein, a supporter and speech pathologist from Chappaqua. "She can win the big states and carry the country.”

Terry McAuliffe, the Clinton campaign’s chairman, is on television saying, “Literally hundreds of thousands of people are going to hillaryclinton.com,” and of Barack Obama’s campaign, “They couldn’t put her away.”

Clinton is expected to speak soon.

PITTSBURGH—Regardless of the final result, Barack Obama has emerged from Pennsylvania with something of real value: an answer to the question of just how much nastiness the market can bear from a candidate of hope.

“When you are in a campaign, you are always testing arguments and getting a sense of how they sound, and I think there has been some of that here,” said Senator Bob Casey, who has been Mr.  read more »

Here's what's happening at the corner of Walnut and 18th street in Philadelphia, where Obama and Clinton supporters are shouting their candidates names at each other.

In the middle of Rittenhouse Square Park a representative of "Cowboys for Obama" is giving an interview while twirling a lasso and talking about Will Rogers and Cherokees.

A Hillary supporter just walked by and said, "Brokeback Mountain!"

The Obama campaign looks to lower expectation in Pennsylvania one last time. Here's the latest memo from Bill Burton:  read more »

The Obama campaign is not exactly acting like a campaign on the verge of a possible double-digit loss.

On a plane ride from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, Obama sat cross-legged, tossing peanuts in his mouth and leafing through a magazine as he chatted with senior adviser David Axelrod across the aisle. A photographer was allowed up from the press section in the back to shoot some photos of Obama and his wife Michelle. Behind the candidate, communications director Robert Gibbs contemplated a crossword puzzle.  read more »

Barack Obama said today that voters had a right to be concerned about media consolidation and when “Rupert Murdoch has his eyes on a lot of different media outlets.”

The comment, made at an outdoor talk with a few dozen voters in Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, was in response to a question from a voter concerned about how media consolidation impacts the freedom of the press.  read more »

PHILADELPHIA—Barack Obama’s final push through Pennsylvania has shown the combative, angry side of a candidate and campaign that had once been defined by its good cheer and condemnation of negative tactics.  read more »

READING, Penn.—One of Mr. Obama’s most popular and oft-repeated applause lines is “I love you back.”

That he gets a chance to say this so often illustrates the fervor Obama has grown used to as he has campaigned across the country. But even by the usually adoring standards, the diverse crowd filling a high school gym here this afternoon was especially emphatic.  read more »

PAOLI, Penn.—Barack Obama offered an especially sharp criticism of Hillary Clinton’s campaign in Paoli this afternoon as part of his train tour through Pennsylvania:

“Senator Clinton’s essential argument in this campaign is that you can’t change how the game is played in Washington. Her basic argument is that the slash-and-burn, say-anything, do-anything, special-interest-driven politics is how it works. And so she has taken more money than any other candidate, Democrat or Republican combined.  read more »

It looks like all the “whining” taunts have finally gotten to the Obama campaign.

It’s not so much that they’re denying that Obama has attempted to profit from a sense that he was victimized during Wednesday night's debate as much as it is an attempt to note that the tactic has been standard operating procedure for both Bill and Hillary Clinton since the beginning of this year’s contest.  read more »

John McCain has just released his tax returns from 2006 and 2007, years in which he declared considerably less income than his two Democratic opponents. A combination of senate salary, royalties from his books, social security and pension payments gave him $215,304 in 2006 and $258,800 in 2007. All of the royalties from McCain's books have gone to charity, totaling more than $1,800,000 since 1998.

Here's the release and links to his returns from the McCain campaign:  read more »