memeorandum: The End of the Clinton Strategy (Steve Kornacki/New York Observer)

8:40 AM ET, May 7, 2008

Top Items:

Alec MacGillis / The Trail:

Gary Mayor Predicts Possible Indiana Shocker — As the fate of a nailbiter Indiana primary — and possibly the course of the Democratic race — hung on his city, Gary Mayor Rudy Clay said just now that it might take a while yet to finish counting the vote in Lake County, which includes Gary …

Discussion: protein wisdom, The Page, TalkLeft, The Primary Source, AMERICAblog, Wizbang, Corrente, CCPSBlog, The Moderate Voice, Commentary, Daily Kos, Ben Smith's Blogs and Spin Cycle

Marc Ambinder:

First Glance At The Exits: Democratic Party Cracking Up? — Here's what jumps out at me from the first wave of exit polls that have been released to the Edison-Mitsofky consortium: — Forget the horse race numbers for a moment: if the surveys are accurate, the polarization within the Democratic Party has reached critical levels.

Adam Nagourney / New York Times:

Options Dwindling for Clinton — In this case, a split was not a draw. — Despite narrowly winning Indiana, while losing North Carolina, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton did not fundamentally improve her chances of securing the Democratic presidential nomination.

Discussion: MoJoBlog, Washington Post, The Moderate Voice, The Page, Fox News, The Politico, Betsy's Page, Outside The Beltway, Shadow of the Hegemon, Connecting.the.Dots, American Power, AMERICAblog and The Daily Dish

CBS News:

Clinton, Obama In Battle For Indiana, N.C. — Heavy Turnout In Crucial Primaries That Could Bring Clarity To Democratic Presidential Race — (CBS/AP) Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama battled in the Indiana and North Carolina primaries on Tuesday, the last big-delegate prizes left …

Discussion: Associated Press, TPM Election Central, FishBowlDC, CNN, Pollster.com, CQ Politics, Hot Air, Firedoglake, Political Machine, Fox News, The Reaction, Corrente, Marc Ambinder, FiveThirtyEight.com, The Moderate Voice, Political Insider and The Raw Story

Live Indiana Primary election blog:

Could Gary flip it? — With Hillary Clinton's statewide lead under 40,000, the pending results from Lake County loom large. — While Clinton reportedly led voting in cities like Hammond, Whiting and East Chicago, Gary Mayor Rudy Clay is indicating a huge margin in favor of Obama in his city.

Discussion: The Daily Dish, Talking Points Memo and Daily Kos

Mike Allen / The Politico:

Clinton pushes new math — The campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) has begun urging party officials and news organizations to include the disputed Florida and Michigan delegations when figuring the number of delegates needed to win the nomination. — That unorthodox approach could put …

Discussion: Political Punch and Hotline On Call

Jennifer Parker / ABCNEWS:

Obama Solidly Routs Clinton in N.C. — Democratic Senators Battle for Potentially Decisive Victory in Indiana — As expected, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has solidly won the North Carolina primary, ABC News projects, while he and Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, remain locked in a tight race in Indiana.

Discussion: The Swamp, Political Radar, American Spectator, American Street, Washington Times, Liberal Values, The Field, AMERICAblog and TPM Election Central

Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:

Exit Polls: Limbaugh Effect Seems To Rear Its Head — Did Rush Limbaugh actually impact the Democratic primary? — The loud-mouthed radio talk show host has been encouraging Republicans to vote for Sen. Hillary Clinton to continue the “chaos” in the Democratic race.

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, Lynn Sweet, SFGate, The Radio Equalizer, The Trail, Too Sense, The Raw Story and Political Machine

Rick Moran / Pajamas Media:
Hillary: Should She Stay or Should She Go?

Discussion: Fausta's blog and The Belmont Club

Dylan Loewe / The Huffington Post:
Obama's Coming. Clear the Way.

Discussion: Boston Globe, Comments from Left Field and Taylor Marsh

Jeralyn / TalkLeft:
Brazile vs. Begala on CNN: Brazile's Blowout

Discussion: Corrente

Will Bunch / Philly.com: Team Hillary warns of Obama “October surprise”

Steve Kornacki / New York Observer: The End of the Clinton Strategy

David Paul Kuhn / The Politico:
What happened in Ind. and N.C.

Discussion: Betsy's Page

The New Republic:
Measuring the Limbaugh Effect

Discussion: Fox News, Trailhead, Salon, The Jed Report, The Moderate Voice, LiberalOasis, Ben Smith's Blogs, American Spectator and The Opinionator

Christopher Beam / Trailhead:
The Popular-Vote Death Knell [Updated]

Discussion: Hot Air and The Campaign Spot

Jeff Zeleny / New York Times:
Obama Wins North Carolina Decisively; Clinton Takes Indiana by Slim Margin

Discussion: Firedoglake, Washington Post, Scared Monkeys, The Carpetbagger Report, Los Angeles Times, Prairie Weather, marbury, On Deadline, AMERICAblog and PoliGazette

Krooney / The Page:
Ickes Throws Down the Gauntlet on What Constitutes a Majority of the Delegates

Discussion: Trailhead and TPM Election Central

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

HMMM — NBC just reported that Hillary Clinton is holding no public events tomorrow. We'd earlier reported that she'd cancelled her morning show appearances. But that's not that surprising. There's not a lot good to talk about. But canceling all public appearances, if that's what they're saying, is a different story.

Discussion: Blog of the Moderate Left

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:

Russert: Clinton cancels morning show appearances — Tim Russert, a colleague reports, just said that Hillary Clinton canceled her scheduled appearances on the morning shows tomorrow. — It's a sign of weakness she can ill afford at a moment when questions about whether she can continue are mounting.

Discussion: michellemalkin.com

John Bresnahan / The Politico:

GOP leaders warn of election disaster — Shellshocked House Republicans got warnings from leaders past and present Tuesday: Your party's message isn't good enough to prevent disaster in November, and neither is the NRCC's money. — The double shot of bad news had one veteran Republican …

Discussion: Balloon Juice and The Page

David Neiwert / Firedoglake:

Primary Late Night: Did We Hear Hillary Concede Tonight? — Indiana (88% reporting): — North Carolina (97% reporting): — I know, I know. Hillary's victory speech in Indiana tonight was not a concession speech. She vowed to keep fighting on. Florida and Michigan and all that.

Discussion: The Agonist and Needlenose

David Neiwert / Firedoglake:
Primary Late Night II: Indiana By A Sliver

Discussion: Comments from Left Field, AMERICAblog and The Page

Michael Crowley / The New Republic:

Does Hillary Know It's Over? — Hillary began her (somewhat premature) Indiana “victory” speech on an up note, throwing an old Obama quote about how Indiana would be a PA/NC/IN tiebreaker back in his face. But since then she's sounded a little dispirited to me.

Discussion: American Spectator

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs: Hillary, muted

Sam Graham-Felsen / my.barackobama.com:

Obama's Remarks in Raleigh, North Carolina — Barack Obama delivered the following remarks (as prepared) in Raleigh, North Carolina, tonight... You know, some were saying that North Carolina would be a game-changer in this election. But today, what North Carolina decided is that the only game …

Discussion: DownWithTyranny!, Open Left, Gristmill and Democrats.com

Washington Wire:
Obama's North Carolina Victory Speech

Discussion: protein wisdom, JustOneMinute, Gateway Pundit and Flopping Aces

Todd Beeton / MyDD:

The Tie Has Been Broken — Yep, I'm still up. Sorry it's taken me so long to weigh in with a sort of post-mortem on tonight, this has taken me longer to compose than I had expected and I now realize I should have put an overnight thread up. I look forward to hearing everyone's thoughts - Todd

Discussion: FiveThirtyEight.com, Comments from Left Field, TPM Election Central, Election Inspection and GINA COBB

Mary Katharine Ham / TownHall Blog:

The Obama Rally, from Two Angles — Reynolds Coliseum on N.C. State's campus seats 12,400 people. It did not seat that many tonight. Behold, the power of political staging: — The Obama rally, as seen on TV: — The Obama rally as seen from the other end of Reynolds:

Discussion: Redstate and Daily Pundit

Michael Gerson / Washington Post:

A Phony ‘War on Science’ — There are few things in American politics more irrationally ideological, more fanatically faith-based, than the accusation that Republicans are conducting a “war on science.” — According to Hillary Clinton, the Bush administration has declared “open season on open inquiry.”

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Crooked Timber and Too Sense