Rep. Brad Ellsworth (D-IN) goes to Hillary. HRC won his district last night. Daily tally finishes 4-1 in favor of Obama (at least so far). UPDATE: Even her little glimmer of good news gets dinged today. Ellsworth’s staff hastily calls media this evening to clarify that at Convention, he will vote the will of his district “unless there is a compelling reason to do otherwise.” Ahem, like support the Party nominee, perhaps?
AP says Obama won 97 delegates and Hillary won 86 last night, with 4 still to be awarded.
Daily Tracking Polls. Gallup has Obama’s lead narrowing to 47-46%, although that was before last night’s victory. In Rasmussen, Obama holds same 47-43% advantage as yesterday.
New Hillary Loan Controversy. Ben Smith of Politico uncovers a new controversial element to the loan news. Total value of Hillary’s loans ($11.4M) seemingly exhausts value of her personal assets, meaning she likely drew from Bill Clinton’s assets to make the loan. Her campaign tried to discount this issue when pressed today. But it raises a troubling point: the campaign still refuses to be fully transparent about Bill’s donors to his presidential library and his business relationships. Recall also that Bill Clinton was paid by a pro-Colombia Free Trade Agreement organization to give a speech, which Hillary tried to deflect as simply Bill’s business and not relevant to her campaign. But if she is drawing from his earnings to fund her campaign, she can’t treat his business dealings and income sources as irrelevant. Recall when she was asked this directly, she reacted with her tell, the hysterical laughing non-answer.
George McGovern, for whom the Clintons worked as young aspiring political wonks during the 1972 election, switches from Hillary to Obama and calls for Hillary to drop out.
David Plouffe, Obama’s campaign chief, sent out a memo last night to superdelegates reminding them of the delegate math. In the memo (link to full copy here), he noted Hillary would need to win 68% of the remaining delegates. The reality is Obama is likely to win the majority of the remaining contests (Oregon, Montana and South Dakota, while Hillary is projected to win West Virginia and Kentucky (Puerto Rico’s delegates are ceremonial)). Plouffe said: “With the Clinton path to the nomination getting even narrower, we expect new and wildly creative scenarios to emerge in the coming days. While those scenarios may be entertaining, the are not legitimate and will not be considered legitimate by this campaign or millions of supporters, volunteers and donors.” He also noted, “With North Carolina and Indiana complete, Barack Obama only needs 172 total delegates to capture the Democratic nomination. This is only 36% of the total remaining delegates.”
Andrew Sullivan: In a form of sweet justice, African Americans brought down the House of Clinton. NBC’s Ron Allen adds a point about the Clintons’ seemingly worsening relations with African American voters, and how they seem to be “taking for granted” (ahem) that such voters will return to the fold if she is the nominee.
NY Times: Delegate math seals deal for Obama nomination.
WaPo gets inside story on Obama’s adjustments to campaign after loss in PA.
WaPo gets inside story on Clinton aides sense of doom. One aide says “We lost this thing in February.”
MSNBC’s First Read offers an excellent summary of the MSM print coverage of the primary election results.
Politico looks at the demographics of NC and IN contests.
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