Destination: White House

Ben Smith at Politico reports that on Tuesday night, that Clinton’s advance staff are being asked to arrive in NYC on Tuesday and will reportedly be told they no longer have jobs. Also, according to the report, Clinton will hold her Tuesday night campaign event in NYC.

Two things:

Clinton is going to batten down the hatches, for a fight all the way to the convention. She’ll only need essential staff and this move will save her money.

or

Clinton is ready to wave the white flag.

Not that anyone is surprised, but Hillary Clinton won big today in Puerto Rico. With 86% of the precincts reporting, Hillary had 68% of the vote to Obama’s 32%.

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/state/#PR

This morning I made my way to the Marriott Park Wardman Hotel, where the DNC Rules and Bylaws meeting was held. I went to observe the protestors outside the hotel and in the park. It was basically the Clinton campaign, wearing "Count Every Vote" t-shirts. I even spotted Clinton field staffers, though they were wearing Hillary t-shirts. While the protestors touted the message, in no way were the protests about democracy or guaranteeing "every vote counts", they were about what’s best for Hillary Clinton and her campaign. Simple as that.

The Rules and Bylaws committee decided to fully seat the Florida and Michigan delegates, giving each one-half of a vote. From this, Barack Obama will receive 59 pledged delegates from Michigan and 67 from Florida, totaling 63 votes. Hillary Clinton will receive 69 pledged delegates from Michigan and 105 from Florida, giving her 87 votes. This means the meeting essentially turned out to be draw, Obama still has a commanding lead in the delegate count. However as the meeting was concluding, Harold Ickes (a member of the committed and Clinton supporter) uttered these ominous words:

 

"Mrs. Clinton has asked me to reserve her rights to take this to the credentials committee"

Maybe it is just an empty threat, but it seems that Clinton has every intention of keeping her campaign going all the way to Denver where the Democrats could find themselves in the midst of an ugly battle on the convention floor.

Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post offers up some Obama vs. McCain battleground matchups

Not political but still cool. An uncontacted tribe in the Amazon was recently photographed.

One thing is for certain, John McCain is the GOP’s nominee for November. What is slightly less obvious is who the Democrats will field. Hillary or Barack? Conventional wisdom would lead us to believe that Barack will keep truckin’ along, however what happens at this weekend’s DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting could change the game. This is doubtful, as the DNC must show it is willing to stand by its rules designed to prevent states from jumping ahead in the primary calendar. With that said, I also doubt the DNC will completely ignore the results from Michigan and Florida. My guess is the campaigns agree to split the delegates 50-50. IF that happens, we can be sure Hillary will drag the race to the August convention.

Also, on Saturday, I’ll be checking out the protests planned by supporters of Hillary Clinton.

Hello this is my first post here at the re-designed DestinationWhiteHouse.com. Now, as the Democratic primary race finally comes to an end and we begin the general election season, I will be providing coverage and commentary on all the latest happenings.

You ask, what sort of perspective will we offer? Both, right and left. Admittedly, I lean to the left, however I’ll do my best to present both sides of the story.

Thank you,
Matt - Founder, DestinationWhiteHouse.com