Eli's Blog

The Sprig Institute openly supports and endorses Barack Obama.
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As you've probably heard, there could be a wildcard in the race for the Democratic nomination.

Barack firmly believes that the candidate who has won the most pledged delegates -- the result of having more voters in more places supporting his campaign -- will be the Democratic nominee.

But to be safe, Barack is working to attract the support of "superdelegates" -- party officials and Democratic officeholders from across the country -- who also have a vote at the Democratic National Convention.

Barack may already know some superdelegates -- they include senators, governors, and even former presidents and vice presidents. But many others are ordinary people who hold positions in the state and local party operations.

These nearly 800 superdelegates will vote alongside the more than 3,000 pledged delegates who are chosen in the various state primaries and caucuses. The candidate that gets a majority of all delegates (superdelegates and pledged delegates combined) will be the Democratic nominee for president.  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.

Right now, Barack is ahead in the contest for pledged delegates.  While he intends to continue winning states and expanding our lead among the pledged delegates, and believe that will likely ensure that Barack is the Democratic nominee, he's also doing the work of reaching out to superdelegates and making sure as many as possible support Barack Obama. But the race for the Democratic nomination is still extremely close. 

Senator Clinton is running an immoral mud-slinging flip-flopping "wet sponge" of a malefic campaign.  Voting for Hillary really shows how some Americans take us back socially to the pre-reconstruction days:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23519392

Each vote for Hillary tells our children that manipulation, exploitation, and deception is acceptable.  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.  Truly, I've got nothing but love for the sistah; but it's clear, though, that Senator Clinton wants to continue an increasingly desperate, increasingly negative -- and increasingly expensive -- campaign to tear us down.  "It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye".  Unfortunately, 9-1-1 gave America a black-eye.  This goes out to you, Mrs. Clinton..."It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye".

The time has come to get beyond the same old tactics that divide and distract us, and Barack gives people -- young and old, rich and poor, black, white, Latino, and Asian -- a reason to believe again.  Barack's campaign has always relied on grassroots supporters to build our movement and spread the word about Barack Obama.  Barack can keep it going by reaching out to supporters all states.  Barack has set an amazing standard and provided a huge boost as Barack gear up for the next round of contests.

It's the same message Barack took from Iowa to South Carolina and across the nation on February 5th -- the same message Barack had when he was up and when he was down.

And if Barack is met with cynicism and doubt and folks who tell us that he can't, he will respond with those three simple words that sum up the spirit of this nation: Yes, We Can!
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.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you,

Eli El
The Sprig Institute
SprigInstitute@yahoogroups.com