This is largely a rehash of a post W.VA. diary, made in anticipation of team Clinton moving the goalposts (again) to 2,209 from 2,025.

We've had two significant developments since: 1) Edwards endorses Obama; and 2) Team Clinton has decided to change their tone. The Edwards endorsement reduces the number of super delegates Obama needs to clear each hurdle as Edwards delegates declare for Obama.  

In short, there are four more hurdles Obama has to clear before he is officially the nominee. And we all know what they are.

  1. MAJ of Pledged Delegates (no MI/FL) = 1,627 (3,253 Tot) (5/20)

  2. MAJ of Pledged Delegates (w/ MI/FL) = 1,783.5 (3,566 Tot) (5/20 or 6/1)

  3. MAJ of all Delegates (no MI/FL) = 2,025 (4,049 Tot) (5/31 or 6/1)

  4. MAJ of all Delegates (w/ MI/FL)
     a. Counting full = 2,209 (4,417 Tot) (6/3)
     b. Counting half = 2,116.5 (4,233 Tot) (6/1)

# of Supers Obama needs to clear the last two hurdles =  328.5 (clinch w/out MI/FL) and 382.5 (clinch w/ MI/FL counting full).

More details on each hurdle below the jump and the magic SD # that gets him there.

I was there and it was beautiful.  Follow the jump for some more.

Look, kids! Its the brand new tongue twister game! Say it three times fast and join in the loads of fun!

Now that John Edwards has endorsed the candidacy of Barack Obama for President of the United States, I started thinking about his remaining delegates, super and pledged...

[NOTE: I've now added known pledged delegates and contact information, when I could find it for those still committed to Edwards or have public announced uncommitted status]

Bear with me through this and you'll see that Obama has won the nomination.

Consider how good the timing is for the John Edwards endorsement. Not
just for Obama, which is obvious (stealing Hillary's media day,
appearing to lock it up, etc.), but for Edwards. Had he endorsed
before North Carolina, which many thought he would, he might have been
seen as one small factor in a state Obama was already going to win,
but then Obama would still have lost in West Virginia and the media
would be asking if Edwards' blue collar influence was a myth outside
of his own state. By declaring now, the day after Hillary's fluke
blowout in a state that was almost designed to vote against Obama in
record numbers, and by declaring a week before Kentucky (a state which
has been coupled with West Virginia by the media, but that is almost
guaranteed to vote for him in higher numbers because of its colleges,
larger cities, and slightly friendlier demographics), Edwards has set
himself up to be remembered as Mr. Blue Collar.

We aren't privy to all testing data the Obama campaign will have with the various veep choices. But, lots of Kos regulars have an excellent sense of how to win and how to manage an election. It's not too early to start thinking about who would be good and what they'd bring.  Let's start talking Veep!

OK, now that I have your attention :-)

The Edwards endorsement is fantastic.  It creates momentum heading into the final stretch.  It switches the subject from a week of "Obama can't win white, blue collar, lower income, older voters."  It effectively adds 18 delegates to Obama's total even if the mechanics are such that the various counting services might not be able to add them in.  With the 18 plus 4-5 supers a day plus at least half of the OR/KY total Obama may just pass 2025 next Tuesday night.  But there is one new meme that will come out of this, one new talking point the Clinton team will use for a week.

Obama has 1889 total delegates.

If the remaining primaries break in the following way,

State	Obama/Clinton	Winner	Obama Delegates
KY	40%/60%	Clinton	20
OR	60%/40%	Obama	31
MT	56%/44%	Obama	8
SD	54%/46%	Obama	8
PR	44%/56%	Clinton	24

then 92 pledged delegates will be awarded to Obama from the remaining primaries.

John Edwards, the former Democratic Vice Presidential nominee and senator from North Carolina, has just endorsed two important campaigns.

Yesterday, in Philadelphia, Edwards inaugurated Half in Ten, a powerful new coalition that will cut the poverty rate in half by 2018.

Today, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Edwards endorses Senator Barack Obama's grassroots-led campaign to take back the White House.

Edwards -- your Important Blog's favorite candidate for President -- continues to lead the way forward with both of these endorsements.

I got an email from John Edwards just a few minutes ago. It's asking for donations to support his College for Everyone initiative in North Carolina.

Mildly opportunistic timing, knowing that we Obama supporters would be feeling really good about him right now? Probably. But you know, I can't really hold that against the man, as the money is going to help kids go to college.

So check out the email after the cut, and if you want to thank John, go here:
https://www.networkforgood.org/...

Note: if you make a donation, add the customary .01 so he knows it's from the netroots. if you like this diary, why not donate $25.01? :)

I just saw the ticker on MSNBC.

It's now official, and being reported everywhere.
Here's the link from the NY Times.

Daschle is confirming with Wolf on CNN.

I know they're several diaries on this.

But who cares! Now we don't have to talk/mope/explain W.Virginia anymore (remember that). Lol.

Both Obama and Edwards, are currently in hardworking, blue collar Michigan. The endorsement will be announced at an Obama rally.

I know people range from loving Edwards to hating Edwards (says his voting didn't match his rhetoric), but he's finally on board. God bless them.

Please note the endorsement time has been moved up to 6:30 and not 7pm.

Congrats Kossacks/Obama.

 Ok I put Griffith in there for a reason, in the state of NC there are two men that could send someone over the top in this state, one is Billy Graham, and seeing he doesn't endorse anyone, the other one is Andy Griffith. Think I am batty? Then you don't live in this state. My point is the "elders" know what is up. They know what games are being played. They know the card that is being played. The pain needs to STOP!, and like 3 weeks ago stop!
  While the GOP of NC is getting some major heat because of their Ad, doesn't mean all the free Press they get off it, is helping their cause. That is if their Cause was to have Clinton run against McWar.
I know they want play the elders and they want to make sure that it plays to the end, but it has ended. Nothing matter in the Votes anymore. I live in NC I wanted my State to count. I didn't think it would because of Super Duper Tuesday back in February, I didn't know it wasn't going to count because the Dems are shooting themselves in the foot. I am sorry to say this but those that are backing the Loser (and she had lost a while back) is shooting this party in the foot and the slow bleeding from that, causing this party break apart.

I became an Edwards supporter early in the campaign because he took strong (and in my view correct) stands on crucial issues.  While others hedged and compromised, Edwards told us that "silence is betrayal."  Now, when the most important issue facing the Democratic Party is how to stop this drawn out destructive campaign, Edwards is silent.  During the primaries Edwards won me over by challenging Clinton and Obama over their failure to cut off funding for Bush's fiasco in Iraq, over Clinton's embracing of special interests, and Obama's embracing of anti-gay clergy in the South.  But now, when the party needs him, Edwards is silent.

For more than a year, Obama has been labeled in and on the networks and press and media, the Black Candidate, the Afro-Americans Candidate, I've never heard any of these ECHO CHAMBERS, call Hillary the Caucasian-American Candidate, or the White Woman Candidate, think, Google, Nexis-Lexis search it and see the overwhelming results.

Before the 1968 Democratic convention, Eugene McCarthy famously told Ted Kennedy that he would step aside and allow him to pursue the Democratic nomination, adding that he wouldn't have done it for Bobby but would for Ted ("85 Days: The Last Campaign of Robert Kennedy," Witcover, Jules).  McCarthy could not forgive Bobby Kennedy.  Before the New Hampshire primary, McCarthy had a plan to secure the nomination as an anti-war candidate, a plan that was in large part co-opted by Kennedy's entrance into the race.  

Of course, Kennedy claimed that he didn't want to divide the Democratic party in two over the war if he wasn't sure that he could secure the nomination against President Johnson.  In Kennedy's mind, McCarthy's win in New Hampshire effectively divided the party anyways, taking away the main barrier to Kennedy's entrance in the campaign.  

Drip Drip. Look, I do think that we should give credit where it is due.  Clinton won last night...so congratulations to her and her supporters.  

But now I think we need to report reality as well.  Her gains last night were about +12 delegates at best I believe (it may go up to 15, however her margin of victory was less then 10.  So nope...regardless of the MSM, it was not double digits.

Today however, we have an endorsement from an Oklahoma Governor and now this: (Please let me know if any of these are superdelegates.  I am at work right now and don't have time to do the research.)

Now I know why it was so hard to convice my two sisters that Obama was the best candidate. I finally conviced them, here in MO, because of my passion for Obama and the arguments I made.

I am the only one of my sisters with a graduate degree and only one other sister has a college degree. I was the first sister to become a feminist, however, both sisters are long-time, union-supporting, John Edwards-leaning democrats. My income was always higher than both my sisters.

I fit the demographic of a female Obama supporter, my sisters fit the profile of Clinton supporters.

So how did I convince them to vote for Obama in the MO primary?