Hillary Clinton's speech at the 2008 Democratic Convention urged the delegates on the floor to support, and vote for, Obama.

"Barack Obama is my candidate. And he must be our president...That is our mission, Democrats. Let's elect Barack Obama and Joe Biden for that future worthy of our great country."

While many state delegates at the convention are taking her word to heart, what is happening with those superdelegate holdouts who will vote for Clinton unless she tells them, specifically, to do otherwise?

This is my first diary, so input would be greatly appreciated.

Should Delegates be censored or at the very least be held accountable for some of the divisive comments that they make?

Please check out this link:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

Isn't it great to be in Denver for this fab-o party? Just look at all that food! Drinks are on us! Hell, you don't even have to roll out of bed early! You just have to be conscious by evening, when the prime time coverage starts!  

It's been a great year, hasn't it? You've rubbed elbows with your Senator, Governor, Hell--they've been to your house, or at least a house near yours.  You've been associating with a lot of well-heeled folks, and they're all anxious to talk to You You You! Why? 'Cause you're a Delegate, that's why!  You get all the cool invites, your inbox is overflowing, you get calls from the candidate!   You're on a first-name basis with his/her chief of staff?  Why? 'Cause you're a Delegate, you cutie! That's why you got that hotel room!  That's why you got room service!   That's why you got that weekend away from the wife and kids!

And the champagne is flowing tonight, ain't it?  Mountains of peel and eat shrimp, caviar, every drink imaginable, and just look at those ladies! Whoa Baby!  Where do these women come from?  What? She'll meet you where?  When? At which party?  Did you write that down?  Damn, where's a cocktail napkin?  Bartender, you got a pen?

Want to know what the Democratic convention delegates say about party unity?

More than half of the delegates that Mrs. Clinton won in the primaries now say they are enthusiastic supporters of Mr. Obama, and they also believe he will win the presidential election in November, the poll found. Three in 10 say they support Mr. Obama but have reservations about him or they support him only because he is the party’s nominee. Five percent say they do not support him yet.

Yet. From a month before to the day before. Still,

And who will you vote for on the floor of the convention?

2008 DEM Del
Clinton Obama Edwards DK/NA
18       74    -      7

Not much drama there, and no one is trying to embarrass anyone. Bottom line:

Still, more than 80 percent of the delegates surveyed said they enthusiastically supported Mr. Obama, and about as many (including more than two-thirds of Mrs. Clinton’s pledged delegates) were confident he would win the election. Majorities across all regions except the South said Mr. Obama held an edge in their state.

Eventually, we'll have to find another topic.

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^{The poll of 970 Democratic delegates selected at random of the 4,439 total delegates was conducted July 16-Aug. 17 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points}

I saw this ad on CNN this morning, and it made me sick.  It's Debra Bartoshevich, a Wisconsin "Democrat" and pledged delegate for Hillary, who was stripped of her status in July.  Now, she's shilling for McCain.  Deciding to change your vote is one thing... but for a Democratic delegate to go so far as to appear in a campaign ad for McCain... that's stunning in its vindictiveness.

See her ad here

More...

To all who still hold out "hope" for Hillary Clinton to be nominated as Prez or VP or are just so pissed off that you will do anything to harm Barack Obama and Joe Biden and in doing so, also hurt this country.... PLEASE stop!

Hillary Clinton wants all of us to back Barack Obama and Joe Biden. The longer this puma nonsense goes on, the more it will damage Hillary Clinton personally, politically and professionally.

Hillary Clinton to urge release of delegates

BY KENNETH R. BAZINET
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

Sunday, August 24th 2008, 5:15 PM

WASHINGTON - Hillary Clinton is expected to release her delegates and urge them to vote for Barack Obama...
...

"She is going to strongly encourage everyone to support Obama," said a party official made aware of Clinton's plans.

more below...

I haven't seen a diary about this, even though I read about it online hours ago. Both Michigan and Florida delegates will be receiving full voting privileges at the convention.

I am not saying that there is going to be upheaval or that we need to be upset.
I am pointing out in this diary that some troubling signs are popping up and  we need to be aware and vigilant.

Last night I read an article on the strong arm tactics by some former Clinton supporters towards the delegates going to the convention next week.
Today, on Political wire I read about Hillary's brother and some former backers meeting with McCain's aide, Fiorina.

http://politicalwire.com/...

http://www.commercialappeal.com/...

Crossposted from DemConWatch

Some Clinton supporters are making unrealistic claims about the level of support they will get at the convention:

Rep. Loretta Sanchez says she’s happy for the chance to vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton at the Democratic National Convention — and she predicts that as many as half of the Democrats in the House could join her. - Politico

Not likely. It's time to look once again at the superdelegate counts. As of June 6th, when we froze the counts, Obama had the public, announced support of 157 Representatives, Clinton had 52.5, and 22 had not announced. (MI and FL still counted at 1/2 votes). For Clinton to get 1/2 the total votes, she needs all 22 Representatives who did not endorse anybody, plus another 40 or so to change their vote from the winner of the nomination to the loser. That's just not going to happen.

I don't know about you, but this worries me...

Mark Ambinder of the Atlantic.com is reporting that Clinton's Name Likely To Be Placed In Nomination at the Democratic National Convention!

More after the jump...

Cross posted from Future Majority.

The DNC Youth Council just put out a press release announcing that young people will make up 16% of convention participants in Denver:

Washington, DC – Growing on the strong performance of young voters during the primaries, young people are set to make up just over 16% of all convention delegates, alternates, standing committee members and pages, at the end of the month in Denver, beating all previous records.

Based on information from the Office of the Secretary of the Democratic National Committee, there are scheduled to be 631 delegates aged 36 and under helping to select the Democratic Party presidential nominee. This record performance tops the 11% of youth delegates in 2004 and the 9% in 2000.

Bear in mind that youth is being defined here as 18 - 36, not the usual 18 - 30 we talk about.  The DNC (and YDA) both use that metric as the definition of "youth" for the purposes of internal matters.  

Crossposted on Texas Campaign 2008
By Faith Chatham - DFWRCC - Aug. 10, 2008
"Overwhelmed", "chaotic", and "not complying with the election code or Texas Democratic Party Rules" is how many Texas Democratic Precinct and Senatorial Convention attendees describe the Texas Two-Step.  Texas is the only state to apportion part (2/3) of their national presidential pledged delegates by the results of the Democratic Primary and the rest (1/3) by sign-ins at precinct convention caucuses.

This year 2.8 Texans voted in the Democratic Primary (2,874,986) for every registered voter who attended a Democratic Precinct Convention/Caucus. Only 1,000,000 Texans signed-in at Precinct Conventions to select the remaining 1/3 of the delegates.  

That's right.  Misha(Ma’Heo)Houser, a good friend, an amazing democrat and a brilliant artist put forth a breathtaking piece of digital art for Orange County's Artists for Obama.  This was a fundraiser meant to raise money to send local delegates to the convention in Denver.  Both Charlotte and I attended this event Saturday night and the print is even more gorgeous in person.

Fair warning - I like to cuss.

The current block of News headlines at Yahoo's homepage sums up everything for me. Right below the hurricane watch headline sits this one:

Poll: McCain's attack strategy paying dividends

And then right below that one sit this one:

Obama wants Fla. and Mich. delegates to have full voting rights

Oh. My. Fucking. God.

That's the breaking news in the NY Times--Senator Barack Obama wants Michigan and Florida delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

Rudy Giuliani is some special kind of stupid. Apparently not tired of having Joe Biden hand him his ass just about every time he speaks, he is now apparently trying to restart his campaign.

The following is a preview of Oregon's delegates who were recently selected to attend the National Convention (excluding state-level delegates whose results are not posted yet).  More information is available by going to: http://restricted.dpo.org/....  Delegates are listed below by District and Candidate whom they support.

Debra Bartoshevich is being removed from the Wisconsin Delegation for DNC Rules Violations by a savvy and quick acting Wisconsin Democratic Party.

The Wisconsin Democratic Party moved Friday to strip a woman of her position as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention after she told a newspaper she would vote for Republican Sen. John McCain for president in November.

State party members voted at their convention Friday night to challenge Debra Bartoshevich's status as a delegate to the Denver convention in late August

There are rules at play here, considering her admission that she will vote for McCain in November.

Those comments prompted Democrats to support a complaint asking the national party's credentials committee to refuse to seat her at the convention. The resolution said Bartoshevich violated a Democratic National Committee rule requiring delegates to support the party's nominee and not any other candidate.