Free Republic

WASHINGTON — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday challenged Sen. Barack Obama to meet in four separate Democratic debates before the March 4 primaries in Texas and Ohio — including an event scheduled for Feb. 28 in Houston. But Obama, of Illinois, did not immediately commit to travel to Houston to take on Clinton just five days before what could be a crucial Texas primary. As voters in 22 states went to polls in the primary avalanche known as Super Tuesday, Clinton, of New York, called on her Democratic rival to agree to several debates. "Senator Clinton has enjoyed the...

In 1982, party leaders allocated for themselves a heaping portion of the delegates, creating positions called super delegates. Every Democratic member of Congress, every Democratic governor and all of the elected members of the Democratic National Committee (the majority of the super delegates) were each granted a vote at the convention. Party leaders assumed this would help them retain a measure of control over the process -- and of course continue to be granted the bounty of political favors that historically flowed from backing the right horse at the convention. In 2008, the 796 super delegates will make up about...

To appreciate Hillary Clinton's fundamental political problem, consider the 11 Democrats from Philadelphia who gathered last week to discuss the U.S. presidential race, almost all of whom would vote for her in a general election. The focus group was moderated by an expert on such forums, the Democratic pollster Peter Hart. The participants were informed and enthusiastic about their party's prospects, had no interest in the Republicans or third-party candidates and were about equally balanced between the front-runners, Clinton and Senator Barack Obama of Illinois. When Hart pushed the group during a two-hour conversation about the strengths and weaknesses of...

(AP) WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama and John Edwards joined three other Democrats in vowing to skip states that break party rules by holding early primaries, a move that leaves only a few candidates planning to compete in person in Florida and Michigan. The decision by Obama and Edwards is a major boost to the primacy of the four early voting states - Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina - and a welcome development to the Democratic National Committee, which has tried to impose discipline on a handful of unruly states determined to vote before Feb. 5. "As I have...

The Democratic Party has taken a swipe at the nation's fourth biggest state, stripping Florida of all of its '08 delegates as punishment for jumping the gun with its primary, which is forcing other states to crowd Christmas in the quest to be first. Under a vote taken moments ago by a powerful committee of the Democratic National Committee, if things don’t change, Florida’s primary on Jan. 29 will be a "beauty contest" — the delegates won’t count toward the party’s presidential nomination. Florida officials complained they were being "disenfranchised," but the DNC strongly pushes back against that contention, since...