And Now The End Is Near

Via FireDogLake, watch Hillary Clinton supporter Harriet Christian completely meltdown after being thrown out of the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee meeting on Florida and Michigan. As Dan Savage notes, “with Democrats like this, who needs Republicans?” Ms. Christian is an embarrassment to New Yorkers.

Talking Points Memo reports on the meeting’s outcome:

In a huge blow to Hillary’s hopes, such as they are, the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee has now voted in favor of a compromise measure for Michigan, giving 69 pledged delegates to Hillary Clinton and 59 to Barack Obama at a half-vote each. This effectively ends Hillary’s bid to seat the Michigan and Florida delegations in full — which she was hoping for in a last-ditch effort to close the delegate count and, more importantly for her campaign’s moral arguments, to try to narrow Obama’s unofficial popular vote lead. Still, Hillary’s chief delegate counter, Harold Ickes, seemed to signal that there’s still a possibility that she might fight on. In a harsh tone of voice, Ickes told the committee that Hillary personally informed him that she reserves the right to take the dispute over Michigan to the Credentials Committee in Denver, on the grounds that the committee had no right to transfer ‘Uncommitted’ votes over to Obama.

The 69-59 measure was put forth by the state party’s leadership, with Sen. Carl Levin arguing for full voting rights for each delegate. It remains to be seen whether he will fight on over the question of half-votes, or whether the matter is now effectively over. The vote was 19 in favor to eight opposed, less than the unanimity received by the Florida half-vote compromise. Hillary’s total advantage in pledged delegates for Michigan and Florida is now set at +24 — well short of the advantage of more than +100 that she once hypothetically enjoyed.

Obama is now 47 delegates short of securing the nomination, with tomorrow’s Montana and South Dakota primaries, the last two of the season, offering a total of 31 possible delegates.

There are a total of 31 delegates at stake in Tuesday’s contests in Montana and South Dakota. If Clinton and Obama split them, Obama would need to pick up about 30 superdelegates to secure the nomination. There are about 200 superdelegates left to be claimed. Clinton would need more than 180 of them. Superdelegates are the party and elected officials who automatically attend the party’s national convention and can support whomever they choose, regardless of what happens in the primaries.