Come Together. Right Now.

Over Obama.

The time is finally here for Party unity -- and for Clinton to admit defeat and urge her supporters to rally around the winner. It's also time for Obama to reach out to Clinton supporters and convince them to accept him as the Party's standard bearer. To win in November, we need every Dem on board.

Barack plans to declare victory on Tuesday night after the Montana and South Dakota primaries. His campaign will host a pull-out-all-the-stops rally that evening at the huge arena in Minneapolis where the GOP will hold their convention this summer. It's expected that Obama will win both of the states, the last primaries in a very long, very exciting and very combative season, and that a gush of superdelegate endorsements will follow over the next couple of days to put him over the top. According to his campaign, as of today Obama needs 63.5 more delegates to get to the magic number.

Rollicking Rules Committee
The DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee sealed the deal yesterday at a frequenlty rowdy, day-long meeting in DC. At the end of a long haul, the committee voted to seat the delegates from Florida and Michigan, but to give each delegate only a half vote each, as the penalty for illegally moving up their primaries.

Essentally, the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee approved the compromises worked out in each of the states by their respective state parties, local reps from the campaigns, elected officials and DNC members. Clinton netted a total of 24 additional votes from the seating of delegates from Florida and Michigan. The small gain won't help her in any meaningful way in what has become a magical quest to topple Obama, although the number of delegates needed to officially capture the nomination was raised to 2,118. She can't catch him. End of story.

The deal on the seating of Florida's delegation was approved unanimously by the 30-member committee, and only eight of the thirteen Clinton supporters voted to oppose the Michigan settlement. The only committee member who seemed strongly put out was the dour and sour Harold Ickes, who angrily stated at the end of the meeting that Clinton would retain her right to appeal the decisions to the Credentials Committee at the Denver Convention. Ironically, Ickes was one of the strongest advocates for punishing Michigan and Florida months ago, when the Rules and Bylaws Committee initially dealt with those states jumping ahead in the primary queue.

In Florida, the award of delegates tracked the primary results. The Michigan settlement was more complicated because Obama wasn't on the ballot. Many voters reportedly crossed over to vote in the GOP primary, stayed home or voted for the "Uncommitted" category of delegates. Clinton's campaign pushed for a delegate award equal to the 55-40% primary split between Hillary and "Uncommitted" -- with Obama's campaign having no veto power over those selected to serve as "Uncommitted" delegates. What they got was a 69-59 split in Clinton's favor, yielding only 5 votes given the half-vote penalty.

In a test vote taken during the three-hour, closed-door lunch break during the meeting, the committee actually approved a 50-50 split of Michigan's delegates by a margin of 14-13, with the committee's two co-chairs and Michigan's state party chair not allowed to vote according to the rules. However, denying a compromise more favorable to Clinton that had been worked out by Michigan Dems was ultimately deemed to be bad politics given the close vote, and the committee finally decided to go with the ten-delegate-five vote net for Clinton in Michigan.

The crowd in attendance at the meeting was often loud and rowdy, and the co-chairs had to gavel energetically for order at several points. Obama supporters mostly cheered the committee, but boos and nasty remarks were often heard coming from Clinton backers when things didn't go her way. Several hundred pro-Clinton protestors demonstrated all day outside the meeting venue in DC, many holding "count every vote" signs. Not unexpectedly, anger erupted among many of the demonstrators when the committee's decisions were revealed. The committee's actions will definitely help bring some much-needed unity to the Party, but there is much work still to be done.

What Next?
It will be up to Hillary Clinton to face reality, convince her supporters to give up the quest and throw their support to Obama now. This challege will serve as a test of the Clinton's Party loyalty and their ability to put the needs of the Dems and the nation over their personal ambitions. We can only hope they do the right thing as quickly as possible.

As DNC Chair Howard Dean said in his opening remarks at the meeting, he knows something about dashed presidential hopes and feeling maligned by forces within the Democratic Party. He told a story about his anger after his defeat in Iowa during his 2004 presidential run, and how he ranted and raved to Al Gore during a late-night phone call. Dean said he was questioning why he should ever again do anything to support the Party after so much perceived mistreatment. Gore stopped him in his tracks by telling Dean, "It's not about you, Howard. It's about the nation." Gore should know. The question now is, do the Clintons get it?

As Dean said:

"We are strong enough to struggle, and disagree, be angry, disappointed and still come together at the end of the day and be united. The reason we are able to do this is because all of us, together in our passion and our emotion, realize that this race is not about me, it's not about Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, the RBC or the reporters who are here to cover the event. It's about restoring our great country.

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