by Robert in Monterey [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

San Francisco's CBS affiliate, KPIX, commissioned a rather meaningless poll last week about the primary election gone by. (Full poll info (PDF)). The results now show Obama leading Clinton 49-43. I guess there's always more room on the bandwagon. I'm not sure this poll has any real meaning at all, but perhaps it does kind of put a dent in the "Obama can't win the big states" logic.  Not that anybody could have credibly said that Obama was going to lose CA before, but this might pull one more arrow from Senator Clinton's quiver.

What's kind of fun here, is that the "presumptive nominees" do substantially better in the "who did you vote for" than the actual vote.  In the real vote, the result was an approximate 10 point win for Clinton. In the poll, it was only a 2 point win.  On the GOP side, it seems there was a 22 point victory for McCain instead of the 8 point actual margin.  Funny how everybody wants to back a winner, huh?

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Let the tidal wave begin! Fresh this morning, former Senator Hillary Clinton backer George McGovern, who was the Democratic nominee for president in 1972, has now endorsed Senator Barack Obama.

Said McGovern, "Hillary, of course, will make the decision as to if and when she ends her campaign. But I hope that she reaches that decision soon so that we can concentrate on a unified party capable of winning the White House next November."

by DFA Staff [courtesy of Blog for America]

From Talking Points Memo --

Posted without comment:

PA Gov. Ed Rendell on Fox News coverage of the Democratic primary campaign ...

I think during this entire primary coverage, starting in Iowa and up to the present -- FOX has done the fairest job, and remained the most objective of all the cable networks. You hate both of our candidates. No, I’m only kidding. But you actually have done a very balanced job of reporting the news, and some of the other stations are just caught up with Senator Obama, who is a great guy, but Senator Obama can do no wrong, and Senator Clinton can do no right.

Danny
Communications Director

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Here's the Obama camp's morning after take to supporters: 

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.

It's clear, though, that Senator Clinton wants to continue an increasingly desperate, increasingly negative -- and increasingly expensive -- campaign to tear us down.

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.

There's more...

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Not so fast, says California's senior senator, after hearing calls from supporters of Sen. Barack Obama that Sen. Hillary Clinton should drop out of the race unless she scores big wins in Ohio and Texas.

According to the New York Times, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California said on "Fox News Sunday" that Mrs. Clinton should ignore the pressure to bow out and decide for herself what is best. "Hillary Clinton is a major candidate," Ms. Feinstein said. "She has every right to stay in the race if she chooses to do so."

Feinstein also weighed on the press coverage ("I read a lot of columns. I'm amazed at the number that are spent on really picayune things about Senator Clinton -- her hair, her suits. And I think some of this just drives toward the insecurity of having a woman running for this office. If anyone is qualified to run for this office, Chris, Senator Clinton is -- eight years in the White House.")

Read the entire transcript here.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

With the defeat of Prop 93, it's open season for candidates for legislative seats up and down the state. It's critical to field Democrats in all the legislative districts, particularly in what's expected to be a banner year when Senator Obama or Senator Clinton tops the Presidential ticket. The deadline for paperwork to be received by the Secretary of State is March 12th.

All 80 seats are open in the Assembly. To file for State Assembly, read this.

Half of the State Senate is up for grabs. To file for State Senate, read this.