When we spend every waking hour calculating delegate scenarios and pondering exactly when Obama will get the majority of pledged delegates, we--as well as every single other media apparatus out there--is using 2025 as the number of delegates needed to clinch the "presumptive nominee" status.

You can see this at the top of the DailyKos frontpage, at CNN, at Fox (just...ignore the headlines and go to the delegate counter so you don't throw up), and MSNBC.

The Clinton campaign, however, is sending a very clear signal that they are intending on taking this all the way to the convention and staging a credentials fight.  Hillary Clinton's "fact site" about Democratic delegates said you need 2208!  That, of course, is the total number of delegates that would have been required if Michigan and Florida were being seated.

More below.

After all, it's where Hillary Clinton has been most lacking in recent weeks.

I was going to write something different today, but I discovered that my thoughts were crystallized succinctly by my friend kid oakland in his diary of yesterday.

k/o does an excellent job of summarizing the ways in which the Clintons have tarnished their legacy among Democratic circles in an overreaching,  ad hoc effort to maintain a sense of credibility among the media and the populace that they still have a reasonable shot at re-entering the White House in 2009.

In addition to the previous offenses Hillary has committed against the Democratic Party, we can now add, as k/o writes above, overt pandering on gas taxes, guns, NAFTA, and--last but not least--hawkish threats on Iran.

Now, most Democratic voters aren't the type of political junkies who spend their free time analyzing the consequences of Hillary's betrayal of Democratic values.  This diary isn't for them.  But if you are a Democratic political junkie and still support Hillary, you are abetting the decimation of our Party.

I'm sure you've seen the news: the North Carolina GOP is running a racist ad in North Carolina calling Barack Obama too "extreme" (i.e., black) for the state.  This, despite the fact that John McCain has denounced the ad.

Well, it seems that John McCain just can't get rid of this ad.  Maybe he likes it that way, since he can play good cop-bad cop with the electorate.  But there's one person who can: Senator Elizabeth Dole.  And it's time to tell her to do so.

More below.

Seriously here--let's assess the final results of what Hillary's (expected) win in Pennsylvania accomplished in terms of her campaign.  Despite a three-pronged assault on Barack Obama by Hillary Clinton, John McCain and corporate media, Barack Obama closed the gap in Pennsylvania to under 10 percentage points, despite the fact that Pennsylvania's demographics favored Hillary Clinton even more than Ohio did.

Compared to Ohio, Barack Obama gained ground among key demographic groups, including seniors, white voters and working-class voters.

But the biggest factor: in her biggest chance to improve things among the people who actually get to decide this race--the delegates--Clinton ate into Obama's lead by only 5.8%.

More below.

I have a great deal of respect for Clinton's new chief strategist, Geoff Garin.  I've met him in person several times and think he's ridiculously well-versed in political history and strategy, and sharp as a tack, in addition to being very polite and respectful for someone with such national political prominence.  Makes a lot of sense--you don't get to be the head of one of the nation's premiere political strategy firms for no reason.

That said, I must express my disagreement with Mr. Garin's assessment about the current state of the race in Pennsylvania.

With all due respect to Geoff, the idea that a failure on Obama's part to win Pennsylvania outright signals trouble for his campaign is a serious case of spinning.  But out of respect to Geoff, rather than simply dismiss it out of hand, I will provide a series of rationales.

I have seen quite a few reactions of shock and dismay concerning Clinton's closed-door trashing of MoveOn and activists in general.  I don't get it.  Why is anyone surprised?

Hillary Clinton has already marginalized and dismissed activists, and she did so back in February, right after the Maine Caucuses on February 10:

Solis Doyle's departure capped a rough weekend for Clinton after she lost the Louisiana primary and caucuses in Nebraska, Washington state, Maine and the Virgin Islands to Obama.

She said she never expected to do well in any of those contests, even though she had been favored to win Maine. Clinton repeated her criticism that the caucus system is undemocratic and caters mostly to party activists.

More below.

If you're anything like me, you're appalled by last night's debacle--I mean, debate--on ABC that featured such all-important issues as William Ayers' actions when Barack Obama was 8 years old, how much he loves flag pins, and all other sorts of sensationalistic drama for close to a full hour before actually touching on any issue of substance.

And if, you're like me, you'd like to show ABC just how much you disapprove of their shoddy yellow-journalism tabloid-style coverage of our Presidential race.

Well, you have a chance to do something about it: We're going to stage a protest at ABC's headquarters in Burbank this Friday starting at 4:00pm.

More information below.

And the truth we hold to be self-evident is that poor economic conditions are the perfect breeding ground for xenophobic or radicalized political ideologies.

It doesn't take a genius to do a simple google search or read any book about the causes of a wide variety of radical phenomena and see that poor economic conditions and lack of job prospects have been contributing factors to the rise of everything from the excesses of the French Revolution, to Nazism, to Islamism.

A lack of opportunity is what allows unscrupulous demagogues to gain power through the use of the scapegoating of the "other" about whom we are told that, should we only at last be able to rid ourselves of them, all our problems would go away.  Doesn't matter what group it is: Catholics, Jews, blacks, gays--anyone.

This is a phenomenon we recognize.  But it's apparently only something we can say about other nations, other societies, who lived at a time and place different from our own.  Everybody except ourselves.  And if any politician dares to state that we are no exception from the notion that economic depression often creates a frustration that often leads to xenophobic radicalism, that politician is pilloried.

More below.

Over a year ago, the efforts of the DailyKos community helped elect me as a delegate to the California Democratic Party.  Shortly thereafter, I was appointed by Chairman Art Torres to serve on the Platform Committee.

Like I said in those earlier diaries--since you helped elect me by reading and recommending my diaries, which in turn got local readers and diarists to come vote for me, I view you as my constituents in a way--and I'd like you to know that your efforts have paid off.

The California Democratic Party now has a new plank on its platform called "Internet, Free Speech, and Communications".  This new plank was co-authored by me and my friend and fellow committeemember Brad Parker.  The new plank, as you can see below, supports net neutrality and bloggers' rights as an official position of the California Democratic Party!

The text is below.

As we here at DailyKos push for contributions to our Blue Majority Candidates to beef up their Q1, numbers, I wanted to let you know about an opportunity to see one of them in person at a low-dollar netroots-oriented fundraiser!

Darcy Burner, candidate in WA-08--whom I'm sure most of you know and love--will be in Los Angeles on April 9th, and would love to see as many bloggers and lurkers as she can while she's in town.

For details, and to RSVP, go here!  Details are below the fold as well.

I interrupt this presidential race to bring attention to the type of thing that we can all agree is what we're fighting to prevent: yet another abuse of our troops by Dick Cheney's homeboys at KBR.

As if covering up the gang-rape of its female employees and bilking taxpayers out of millions of dollars wasn't enough--not that the government seems to mind--now comes word that our loyal, dedicated, patriotic fellows at KBR are sickening US troops serving overseas in combat zones!

More below.

We might see Clinton grilled the same way Obama was this past week.  Questions such as:

"Given the fact that it has now been proven that the Obama campaign did in fact not contact the Canadian embassy about NAFTA, are you willing to apologize for running ads based on the allegation?"

"How do you respond to new allegations that it was in fact your campaign that told the Canadians to take your NAFTA rhetoric with a grain of salt?"

"Given the fact that NAFTA is an important issue to Ohio voters, do you feel that your victory in Ohio is tarnished by the false allegations against Obama that you helped promulgate?"

I've got some more where those came from, and they're below the fold.

I'm sitting in the Austin Bergstrom airport using the (expensive, though fast) wifi as I await my boarding, wich should take place in 70 minutes as of this typing.  I arrived in Austin to volunteer with the Obama campaign Saturday afternoon.

I spent some time in Austin during my tour of the country for Crashing the States, and got a good vibe from Austin.  I like it even better now.

Follow below the fold for a brief narrative that documents my not only my campaign activities, but touches on the Democratic resurgence in Texas--as well as the logistical nightmares that accompany it!

More below.

This diary will be brief--I'm working my butt off for Obama in Austin, and I don't have a lot of time to blog.

Many of us have expressed the opinion that Hillary would be willing to destroy the Democratic Party to secure the nomination.  But I don't think any of us ever expected her to even stoop this low--explicitly saying that McCain would be a better President than Obama.

Apparently, Hillary told reporters in Fort Worth that both she and McCain have the experience to be President, but that Obama brings nothing but speeches to the table.

Full quote below the fold.

While Hunter and I are working on a new comment rendering system to handle huge comment threads like this, it isn't ready yet. Thus, comments disabled for now. -ct

As Elise diaried today, I am down in the heart of Texas--canvassing and making phone calls for Barack Obama.  I've already traveled--riding in the bed of a pickup truck on the interstate, no less--to a wide variety of areas here in Travis County to get out the vote (and caucus!) for Barack Obama this Tuesday.

I'm sure you've all seen the early voting numbers coming out of Texas--theyre impressive for sure.  Constable Bruce Elfant just told me today that in Travis County, 85% of the early vote cast in the primary is for the Democratic Primary.  Fantastic numbers, no doubt.  But the Democratic resurgence may not be the only reason.

The Pollster average shows Obama leading on average, but even though he leads in most polls and generally outperforms them, I'm still not convinced Obama will win the primary.  And I'm even more convinced that the Caucus is the truer test in Texas.

More below.

A couple of days ago, I posted an action diary urging readers to go to an online tool enabling people to send letters to the editors of local and national papers fighting back against the smear tactics of AP "reporter" Nedra Pickler concerning Barack Obama's patriotism.

I'm writing now to report on the results, and to ask you to follow up.

First, the statistics: Collectively, more than 12,000 letters were sent to newspapers all across the nation.  That's nothing to sneeze at.  We're already starting to see some of those in online editions of papers across the country.

Follow below for more!

I'm sure by now you've all seen the odious article by Nedra Pickler of the AP concerning Barack Obama's supposed lack of patriotism, as defined by flag lapel pins.  As Shane Hensinger pointed out, this is the same Nedra Pickler who has consistently repeated right-wing talking points and inserted them into the AP wire.

Shane's diary included an action tool to contact the AP and MSNBC about their Cavuto Mark question about Obama's patriotism, but that is not enough.

What does matter is writing letters to the editor to your local paper telling them what you think about the smears against Obama--and below the fold is a tool you can use to make it easier.

I just wanted everyone to know about a Rasmussen poll I just came across that perfectly demonstrate why any superdelegates who are concerned about the strength of the Democratic nominee in the general election out to overwhelmingly go for Obama.

According to the Rasmussen poll linked to above, Obama beats McCain 50-38 in Nevada--one of the states that matter, according to Mark Penn!  At the same time, however, the same poll shows Hillary losing to McCain 49-40.

More information below.