This is via Big Tent Democrat over at Talk Left:
In today's conference call, the Clinton campaign conceded any rules-based or fairness-based argument for the full seating of the Florida and Michigan delegations. The Clinton campaign declared that, unlike Iowa, NH and South Carolina, Florida and Michigan did indeed break the DNC rules and without justification. The Clinton campaign expressly disagreed with the Michigan Democratic Party's contention that the DNC had selectively enforced its rules by allowing New Hampshire and South Carolina to break the sanctioned primary schedule, that Florida was not entitled to a safe harbor or waiver, and that the DNC had acted properly and within the rules when it stripped Florida and Michigan of its delegates.
This concession means that the Clinton campaign accepts that since rules were broken by Michigan and Florida, there is likely to be a sanction or other consequence. Therefore, as BTD points out, the only remaining argument the Clinton campaign has is that we must ignore the rule breaking by Florida and Michigan because 1) these states are important in the general election and thus their delegates must be seated in full and 2) these states are important to me winning the nomination, and thus their delegations must be seated in full.
The outcome of tomorrow's meeting is now clear. The Rules and Bylaws Committee, armed with both the legal memorandum prepared by Party counsel, and this new concession, will divide the delegations by half in some fashion (either by halving the number of delegates or halving the affect of the delegate's vote). The Clinton campaign cannot protest this, since they admit that rules were broken. And the Obama campaign will do well not to object, since this result gets Hillary no closer to the nomination.
Therefore, Ladies and Gentlemen, the race is officially over.
Barack Obama is the nominee.
UPDATE Alright, I changed the title since it appears I gave one too many Kossacks a minor heart attack. Hehehe.
UPDATE 2 Commenters have pointed out that the Clinton campaign is still demanding a full seating of the delegations. Indeed, they are. But if you read closely, their argument has changed. Their general counsel has issued a letter stating:
...[the RBC] "has broad powers to fully reinstate the Florida and Michigan delegations. Rule 20(C)(7) allows the RBC to forgive violations when a state party and other relevant Democratic party leaders and elected officials have taken provable, positive steps and acted in good faith to bring the state into compliance with the DNC’s Delegate Selection Rules." (Emphasis added)
Prior to today, the Clinton campaign was trying to argue that FL and MI broke no rules since IA, NH, and SC all moved their primary dates up. Now, they are conceding a violation.