Obama nets 3 more delegates in California

In addition to the net gain of 10 delegates from the Iowa Caucus, the Associated Press reported late Saturday that final counts show Barack Obama netting an additional three delegates in California.

Hillary Clinton picked up two additional California delegates compared to five for Obama. Thus, Obama netted an additional 13 delegates on Saturday.

Barack should have an overall lead in pledged delegates of 164.

HELP CALL PENNSYLVANIA NOW.

North Carolina also a big state

A lot of media attention has been focused on Pennsylvania with its 158 pledged delegates. However, North Carolina with 115 delegates also looms large on the horizon.

If the delegate count mirrors the popular vote, then a candidate winning North Carolina by 10 percentage points with the opponent taking Pennsylvania by five points will still likely net more pledged delegates.

Obama already has three NC superdelegates -- Rep. G.K. Butterfield, DNC Everett Ward and DNC Dannie Montgomery -- compared to Hillary Clinton's single nod (DNC Susan Burgess).

The Illinois senator also has the support of State Treasurer Richard H. Moore, State Sen. Malcolm Graham (D-Charlotte) and Durham Mayor Bill Bell.

North Carolina holds its contest on the same day as Indiana, another important state with the third most pledged delegates of the remaining states. Obama has strong support among Indiana's state legislators, while Hoosier Sen. Evan Bayh supports Clinton.

David Plouffe: Doing the Math

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe sent out this email today.

Paul --

Our projections show the most likely outcome of yesterday's elections will be that Hillary Clinton gained 187 delegates, and we gained 183.

That's a net gain of 4 delegates out of more than 370 delegates available from all the states that voted.

For comparison, that's less than half our net gain of 9 delegates from the District of Columbia alone. It's also less than our net gain of 8 from Nebraska, or 12 from Washington State. And it's considerably less than our net gain of 33 delegates from Georgia.

The task for the Clinton campaign yesterday was clear. In order to have a plausible path to the nomination, they needed to score huge delegate victories and cut into our lead.

They failed.

It's clear, though, that Senator Clinton wants to continue an increasingly desperate, increasingly negative -- and increasingly expensive -- campaign to tear us down.

That's her decision. But it's not stopping John McCain, who clinched the Republican nomination last night, from going on the offensive. He's already made news attacking Barack, and that will only become more frequent in the coming days.

Right now, it's essential for every single supporter of Barack Obama to step up and help fight this two-front battle. In the face of attacks from Hillary Clinton and John McCain, we need to be ready to take them on.

Will you make an online donation of $25 right now?

https://donate.barackobama.com/math

The chatter among pundits may have gotten better for the Clinton campaign after last night, but by failing to cut into our lead, the math -- and their chances of winning -- got considerably worse.

Today, we still have a lead of more than 150 delegates, and there are only 611 pledged delegates left to win in the upcoming contests.

By a week from today, we will have competed in Wyoming and Mississippi. Two more states and 45 more delegates will be off the table.

But if Senator Clinton wants to continue this, let's show that we're ready.

Make an online donation of $25 now to show you're willing to fight for this:

https://donate.barackobama.com/math

This nomination process is an opportunity to decide what our party needs to stand for in this election.

We can either take on John McCain with a candidate who's already united Republicans and Independents against us, or we can do it with a campaign that's united Americans from all parties around a common purpose.

We can debate John McCain about who can clean up Washington by nominating a candidate who's taken more money from lobbyists than he has, or we can do it with a campaign that hasn't taken a dime of their money because we've been funded by you.

We can present the American people with a candidate who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with McCain on the worst foreign policy disaster of our generation, and agrees with him that George Bush deserves the benefit of the doubt on Iran, or we can nominate someone who opposed the war in Iraq from the beginning and will not support a march to war with Iran.

John McCain may have a long history of straight talk and independent thinking, but he has made the decision in this campaign to offer four more years of the very same policies that have failed us for the last eight.

We need a Democratic candidate who will present the starkest contrast to those failed policies of the past.

And that candidate is Barack Obama.

Please make a donation of $25 now:

https://donate.barackobama.com/math

Thank you,

David

David Plouffe
Campaign Manager
Obama for America

Thinking about Campaign Strategy

After last night's results, I know strongly agree with those pundits who say that Obama will have a hard time winning in state's with strong Democratic establishments, especially those with deep ties to Bill Clinton's administration. After all, the former president helped a lot of people get elected and appointed in those states.

Barack Obama does well in red states and states with strong independent and swing votes. He can also do well in very "liberal" areas that buck the Democratic establishment like the state of Vermont or Barbara Lee's district in Oakland.

Now, Barack still leads in both pledged delegates and overall delegates. He leads by about 132 in pledged delegates depending on which estimate you read and he could increase that if he maintains his lead in the Texas Caucus. A win in that caucus would also put his overall lead in delegates to about 100. Barack also still leads the national popular vote although the Texas Caucus sort of muddles up how to tally that count.

However, the results last night bring to question what strategy should be employed in the upcoming states. Pennsylvania is the biggest prize among those states but it also has a very old school system among the Democratic establishment that is hard to break through. So far they seem to be more supportive to Hillary who has been leading also in the local polls.

Of course, you have to fight in Pennsylvania because you don't want Hillary to run away with such a big state. But how much in terms of resources and time do you commit to that state as opposed to the others?

A lot will depend on an analysis of each of the upcoming states. For example, how many people are still undecided in each state? Are there a lot weak supporters that could be persuaded?

The Obama campaign will have to figure how whether independent and swing voters will be a factor in each state, and how easy it will be to get out the vote. Big states require big resources to turn out voters.

Also, it's all about the pledged delegate count followed in importance of the national popular vote. Winning these pledged delegates and votes means going beyond state strategy to focus on specific districts or counties.

Overall, Obama's team will have to decide on which strategy will reap the most benefits, or return on investment as they say in the corporate world.

Hold the presses: Obama wins delegate vote in Nevada

Well, it looks like despite losing the popular vote, Barack Obama has won the delegate vote in Nevada with 13 to Clinton's 12.

Delegates are of course the votes that count at the Democratic Convention.

Campaign manager David Plouffe also reports some anomalies in the caucus process.

Statement from Obama campaign manager David Plouffe...

We currently have reports of over 200 separate incidents of trouble at caucus sites, including doors being closed up to thirty minutes early, registration forms running out so people were turned away, and ID being requested and checked in a non-uniform fashion. This is in addition to the Clinton campaign’s efforts to confuse voters and call into question the at-large caucus sites which clearly had an affect on turnout at these locations. These kinds of Clinton campaign tactics were part of an entire week’s worth of false, divisive, attacks designed to mislead caucus-goers and discredit the caucus itself.

We will investigate all of these thoroughly and would encourage anyone who had concern about actions at the caucus sites to call (866) 675-2008.