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WASHINGTON — Nancy Larson's most difficult conversation was, by far, the one with Chelsea Clinton. "It was just heartbreaking," said Larson, a Democratic National Committee member from Minnesota and more to the point, a superdelegate who initially had pledged herself to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. This was April 12, after the former first daughter learned Larson would be shifting her allegiance to Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. "She is a delightful young woman who loves her mother very much," Larson said. "She was really pushing me. She kept asking me why I was doing this. She just kept asking, 'Why? Why?'...

If, as Hillary Rodham Clinton has suggested, her campaign takes the fight to seat the Florida and Michigan delegations all the way to the Democratic National Convention this summer, the fate of her challenge is all but certain to hinge on 25 individuals appointed to the Credentials Committee by party Chairman Howard Dean. The Credentials Committee, which also includes 161 members selected from the states based on primary and caucus results, is the 186-member body that will help determine whether to seat the two rogue delegations. Since it appears virtually impossible for Clinton to win enough of the 161 members...

After issuing a warning to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama that negative campaigning threatens to tear their party apart, Democratic Party chair Howard Dean said the candidates need to keep their tone focused on winning the White House in November. In a Friday interview on "Good Morning America," Dean cited record turnout but noted "some personal criticism" between the candidates. "We have to keep our mind focused on the idea that at the end of the day we really need change in these country," Dean told ABC's Diane Sawyer. "One of these two candidates needs to win. We're going to...

Last Thursday, about a year too late, I read the "2008 Delegate Selection Rules for the Democratic National Convention." Not a fun read, I must add, which may be the reason Sen. Hillary Clinton, or her people, and most of the press, did not read or understand its 25 dense pages. Sen. Obama, or his people, obviously studied the thing, and that is the reason he will probably be his party's nominee for president of the United States. The document, adopted by the Democratic National Committee on Aug. 19, 2006, is filled with the kind of fairness rhetoric the party...

Throughout their contentious debate on Wednesday, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton tried again and again to put Senator Barack Obama on the defensive in a pointed effort, her advisers say, to raise doubts about his electability among a small but powerful audience: the uncommitted superdelegates who will most likely determine the nomination. But although Clinton gave it her best shot in what might have been their final debate, interviews on Thursday with a cross-section of these superdelegates — members of Congress, elected officials and party leaders — showed that none had been persuaded much by her attacks on Obama's strength as...

Howard Dean was on Wolf Blitzer's show yesterday, and Drudge picked up his admonition to the superdelegates with the splashy headline: "Dean To Delegates: Decide Now." In the interview, Dean says that he wants the superdelegates to begin "voting" now. "We cannot give up two or three months of active campaigning and healing time," he said. "We've got to know who our nominee is." Unfortunately for the party, Dean is in no position to tell the superdelegates when to decide. The reason? The chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee carries with it very little political power - certainly not enough...

Top Hillary Fundraisers Rip Into Howard Dean For Saying Super-Dels Should Announce Support "Starting Now" By Greg Sargent - April 18, 2008, 2:27PM Two of Hillary Clinton's most prominent fundraisers tore into Howard Dean in interviews with me today, sharply criticizing the DNC chair for saying yesterday that super-delegates should say which Dem candidate they support "starting now." "Governor Dean should do what he has said he will do -- refrain from injecting himself into the primary process, as millions of Democrats have yet to cast their votes," Hillary national finance chair Hassan Nemazee, one of the most influential fundraisers...

Some superdelegates say they are being bombarded by requests to back one of the Democratic U.S. presidential hopefuls before the party's convention in August. As a superdelegate, Debra Kozikowski, the vice chairwoman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, is among nearly 800 Democratic Party leaders and elected officials likely to decide whether Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton will be at the top of the party's ticket, USA Today reported Friday. "Until America has (its) say, I'm going to wait to have mine," she said. "I don't want voters ... to feel as though superdelegates are sweeping down and making the decision...

WASHINGTON - Time is running out on Hillary Rodham Clinton, the long-ago front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination who now trails Barack Obama in delegates, states won and popular votes. Compounding Clinton's woes, Obama appears on track to finish the primary campaign fewer than 100 delegates shy of the 2,025 needed to win. Clinton argues to Democratic officialdom that other factors should count, an unprovable assertion that she's more electable chief among them. But she undercut her own claim in Wednesday night's debate, answering "yes, yes, yes" when asked whether her rival could win the White House. There's little if...

WASHINGTON - Some female superdelegates backing Sen. Barack Obama are having their "sisterhood" questioned, just as some black Democrats have been challenged for their endorsement of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. No one has actually accused Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., of betraying her gender in supporting Obama over Clinton in the race for the party's nomination, but they've let her know they're disappointed. The reason some give: If Clinton does not win the White House this year, no woman will reach that goal in their lifetimes. Klobuchar gets it; her mother, 80, is one of these women. The senator's 12-year-old daughter,...

(CNN)— An increasingly firm Howard Dean told CNN again Thursday that he needs superdelegates to say who they’re for – and “I need them to say who they’re for starting now.” “We cannot give up two or three months of active campaigning and healing time,” the Democratic National Committee Chairman told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “We’ve got to know who our nominee is.” After facing criticism for a mostly hands-off leadership style during much of the primary season, Dean has been steadily raising the rhetorical pressure on superdelegates. He said Thursday that roughly 65 percent of them have made their preference...

An increasingly firm Howard Dean told CNN again Thursday that he needs superdelegates to say who they’re for – and “I need them to say who they’re for starting now.” “We cannot give up two or three months of active campaigning and healing time,” the Democratic National Committee Chairman told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “We’ve got to know who our nominee is.”

There are only two ways she can win the nomination now. Either she must overcome Obama’s lead in pledged delegates to overturn the verdict of the party rank-and-file. For her to do that, she will have to persuade a majority of the superdelegates (or a majority of them must reach the conclusion on their own) that Obama cannot win in the general election against John McCain. For one thing, she demonstrated again that she can’t attack Obama on any front without opening herself up to similar charges. When she tried to exploit Obama’s connection to William Ayers, a former leader...

LOS ANGELES—Facing a backlash from supporters, Barack Obama's campaign reversed course Thursday and reinstated hundreds of people to lists of prospective California delegates for the Democratic National Convention. The campaign's decision this week to block approximately 900 people from trying win seats to the convention as Obama delegates set off a deluge of criticism that reached Web sites, newspaper headlines and party offices, shaking a campaign known for galvanizing the party's grass roots. Campaign manager David Plouffe said in a letter to potential delegates that all names would be restored to ballots that will be used Sunday to elect delegates,...

Hillary Clinton has added three superdelegates... One... is Sophie Masloff, the former mayor of Pittsburgh. The other two, are Rep. Jackie Speier of California...Bill Burga of Ohio, an AFL-CIO poobah.

Organizers for the Democratic National Convention say they now expect some 50,000 people to come to Denver for the event this August. That number is more than 40% higher than the original estimates.A spokeswoman for the Democratic Nationals Convention Committee says overwhelming interest in the potentially historic event has driven up the expected participation.City officials say they are relying on convention organizers for the estimated number of participants, but they hope the increase will mean a larger economic boon for Denver and Colorado than they first anticipated. Estimates for the region's financial gain exceed $150 million.Katherine Archuleta, the mayor's convention...

The campaigns for Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton are purging potential California delegates in a bid to ensure that only their loyalists travel to the national convention in August. Locked in a race with an uncertain outcome, representatives for both camps directed the California Democratic Party this week to knock dozens of names off lists of potential delegates who will be elected Sunday in party caucuses.

Transcript: HH: It’s Thursday, that means we begin as we do most Thursdays when we are lucky with Columnist to the World, Mark Steyn. You can read all of Mark’s work at www.steynonline.com. Mark, when does America Alone come out in paperback? MS: It comes out on Monday, in fact, Hugh, so you catch me right on the eve of getting ready for the big paperback launch. HH: Do they make you go flog it on a second book tour? MS: Yeah, well, they’re having a kind of, I would say a kind of modified mini-relaunch of it. I’m going...

WASHINGTON - Some of those presidential superdelegates Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton are pursuing are more super than others. One delegate, one vote doesn't apply to them. These prominent Democrats can name additional superdelegates, giving them control over multiple convention votes, and that could be the difference in a race that may not be decided until the August convention. The clout of the nearly 800 superdelegates is unprecedented in this year's race because neither Obama nor Clinton can clinch the nomination with only the delegates won in state primaries and caucuses. Largely overlooked in the arcane process, though,...

WASHINGTON -- Nearly three weeks remain before the next Democratic primary, but the results are rolling in from another part of the presidential contest -- and they signify trouble for Hillary Rodham Clinton. Democratic Party officials and insiders known as superdelegates are jumping to Barack Obama's camp or signaling that's where they are headed, including such prominent figures as former President Jimmy Carter. Some superdelegates who back Clinton have begun laying out scenarios under which they would abandon her for Obama. "My children and their spouses are pro-Obama. My grandchildren are also pro-Obama," Carter told a Nigerian newspaper during a...