SUMMARY: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who also happens to be chairman of the Democratic National Convention in August, has put the Clinton Campaign on notice that taking the delegate fight to the convention "must not" happen.
And to make sure it doesn't? IF this weekend's DNC meeting fails to broker a deal on seating the Florida and Michigan delegates, and IF the DNC credentials committee likewise fails in late June...she will "intervene".
Sounds like a signal to fellow senior Democrats, especially the money folks, to step forward firmly when Obama reaches the "magic number" early next week (currently the AP says he needs just 45 delegates...but this could triple, depending on Saturday's negotiations).
The primary wars officially end next Tuesday...June 3. But maybe not.
So the "Clinton Rorschach test" continues...will "Billary" do the right thing? Who decides what that is? Or...will the Clinton's destroy the Democrat's chances in November? That's what seems to be at stake right now.
PELOSI/CLINTON...House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with the editorial board of her home town paper yesterday, and told the San Francisco Chronicle that if she has to, she will "intervene" to prevent the Clinton Campaign from taking its fight to the Democratic National Convention, in late August.
Since Pelosi also chairs the Convention, and has been very careful not to weigh-in in public on the Clinton/Obama duel to the death, her words seem certain to focus the attention of Democratic Party leaders, and the remaining uncommitted Super Delegates, on the crisis now at hand.
Whether her warning of possibly irreparable harm to the Party's chances in November are accepted by "Billary"...or seem sufficiently fraught with risk to warrant a final rush to Obama by the Super Delegates...that's one big question today.
The AP reports that pending the outcome of Saturday's showdown on how to seat the Florida and Michigan delegations (which could add 200 or so additional delegates to the required majority for the nomination) Obama is now just 45 delegates away from clinching.
No question that the weekend voting in Puerto Rico, and the June 3 primaries, will give him that number regardless of what Clinton manages...that's the expert's prediction, and has been for weeks.
So the Clinton's have been mounting an increasingly strident campaign to change the entire structure of the decision-making process on "winning"...first, by claiming they have more popular votes( if you don't count the nearly impossible to count Obama caucus victories);
Second, changing the math on the agreed-upon measure of winning...the delegate count...including such means as organizing what may prove to be a mass demonstration outside the DNC meeting this weekend.
Gender politics in its most destructive form, one must fear. Whether cynically manipulated by Hillary is, at this point, irrelevant.
That spectacle is likely in the forefront of Pelosi's mind, as she contemplates how failure to resolve the fight could lead to a bloodbath at the Convention, one which would obviously risk pounding a nail in the Dem's coffin.
Not just Obama supporters now ask, is this what the Clinton's want? You just can't tell from the Clinton's words and actions to date whether they are prepared to even consider Pelosi's concerns, much less act on them.
In any event, Clinton's goal for now is to force seating all of the Michigan and Florida delegations, despite the inconvenient fact that they were selected in violation of rules the Clintons originally accepted.
The initial DNC staff recommendation is to follow the rules and only seat half...but Obama has signaled willingness to give Hillary more of what she's asking, despite the rules, if she will finally concede his victory.
So that leads to the existential questions, basically under the rubric "is Hillary the monster some Obamaites say?" (if she can't win, she will bring down the temple), or will she define her future in the Democratic Party, and her role in history, in a way which allows her to finally step aside.
Clearly Pelosi's remarks in the Chronicle indicate that the Speaker prefers the latter, and that she thinks it's time to say so in public.
That in turn tells you Pelosi and her advisors fear that in fact, the Clintons will NOT "do the right thing"...and that a debacle is about to occur unless the party's leadership, money people, et al get on the phone.
As we wrote last night, thinking about the mindset of the Clintons is a political and psychological Rorschach Test for all concerned...and the only folks enjoying the spectacle are Republicans (and of course, newsmedia types who love a good story).