Flint’s mayor, Donald Williamson, faces a recall on February 24. However, he will not have to worry about that election now. On Monday, Williamson announced his resignation.
Chased from office by the recall?
Not according to Williamson. He is quitting for health reasons. His doctor said he needs six to eight months of rest to recuperate from [...]

Christopher Beam of Slate talks about the recent seismic shift in the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Out: Rep. John Dingell of Michigan, the tough, cantankerous eminence grise of the House Democratic caucus (he’s 82), who was so deferential to Detroit as chairman of the House energy and commerce committee that Lee Iacocca once said he [...]

The following video shows you something you may not have seen before…pages upon pages of tax foreclosure listings published in the Detroit Free Press.
To be specific…137 pages of tax foreclosure listings.
Basically, these are people who are delinquent on paying their taxes and could have their homes foreclosed on in 2009 if they don’t [...]

79 electoral votes here for the Illinois senator.
Moving on…

And he’ll pour more into his efforts in Ohio, Florida and…Wisconsin?
From Politico:
McCain will go off TV in Michigan, stop dropping mail there and send most of his staff to more competitive states, including Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida. Wisconsin went for Kerry in 2004, Ohio and Florida for Bush. [...]
Republicans had been bullish on Michigan, hopeful [...]

All’s well that ends well…
The actions, taken during a meeting at the host city’s Colorado Convention Center, put a final touch to a long-running and bruising dispute over the decisions by officials in both states to hold their presidential primaries in January, in violation of Democratic National Committee (DNC) scheduling rules. The DNC initially barred [...]

Obama – 46
McCain – 42
Last month it was Obama 48 to 42, so this race has tightened a bit, but is still outside of the margin of error.
Some demo info…

Women back Obama 50 – 38 percent.
Men back McCain 47 – 42 percent.
Whites back McCain 48 – 40 percent.
Blacks support Obama 90 – 4 percent.
Obama [...]

Obama – 48%
McCain – 42%
The details…
Michigan women voters back Obama 52 – 38 percent, while men split with 46 percent for McCain and 45 percent for Obama.
White voters back McCain 48 – 42 percent, as black voters support Obama 89 – 6 percent.
The Democrat leads 57 – 36 percent among voters 18 to [...]

The totals are obviously dependent on different counts, but Obama now has about 2,052 and Clinton has about 1,877.
Here’s more…
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 [...]

That’s in favor of Hillary, so she could come out of today with a net of 29 delegates if Florida is seated according to the compromise offered by Jon Ausman.
They determined this based on the actual vote, exit polls of who cast votes for “uncommitted” and voters who wrote in Obama’s name (those votes didn’t [...]

If you’re not watching it live, Robert Wexler just spoke on behalf of the Obama campaign and he said they’d accept the Ausman petition
More from TPM:
“Senator Obama should be commended for his willingness to offer this extraordinary concession,” Wexler said, adding that he’s offering this concession “in order to promote reconciliation with Florida voters.”
Though Hillary’s [...]

That’s apparently what he said a couple days ago…

I think this will be the likely outcome today. And frankly, I don’t see any other way it can happen without tearing the party apart.

On C-Span.org…
On MSNBC!

(by the way, I wish C-SPAN allowed embedding and then replaced whatever live feed they had with the recording of that feed. That would be great for us political bloggers…hint hint…)
I’m watching Robert Wexler make the case for Obama right now. He’s doing a very good job…because he’s talking about the actual, you [...]

I wonder what it’ll be after Saturday’s Michigan/Florida decision?

The details…
Since just after the North Carolina and Indiana primaries, Obama has led Clinton nearly every day, including a stretch of double-digit leads in the May 18-22 Gallup Poll Daily tracking releases. Since then, his advantage had been slightly less, at five to eight percentage points, but [...]

The numbers are starting to get a lot closer when you look at the different sources…
NY Times:
Obama – Pledged (1,656), Super (319.5), Total (1,975.5)
Clinton – Pledged (1,502), Super (274), Total (1,776)
50.5 for Obama to win, 250 for Clinton to win
CNN:
Obama – Pledged (1661), Super (317), Total (1,978)
Clinton – Pledged (1499), Super (281), Total (1,780)
48 for [...]

The last nail in Hillary’s coffin?
From TPM:
In what could potentially be a blow to Hillary’s electoral hopes, such as they are right now, the Democratic National Committee’s lawyers have declared that the Rules and Bylaws committee lacks the legal authority to seat the full Florida and Michigan delegations.
The DNC’s lawyers sent a memo late yesterday [...]

Even though he’s a pretty staunch Clinton supporter, Paterson gave an interview today and put it pretty bluntly…

It doesn’t get much plainer than that.
(h/t: TPM)

They want the 55 uncommitted delegates from Michigan to stay “uncommitted. ”
Umm…what was that about the will of the people again?
From Politico:
In a conference call with reporters, Clinton Senior Adviser Harold Ickes clarified their position on Michigan — they don’t want the 55 “uncommitted” delegates to go to Obama (his name did not appear on [...]

She didn’t, did she?
From Politico:
“In Florida, you learned the hard way what happens when your votes aren’t counted and the candidate with fewer votes is declared the winner,” she said. “The lesson of 2000 here in Florida is crystal clear: if any votes aren’t count, the will of the people isn’t realized and our democracy [...]