So an interesting story about Bill's analysis of his wife's loss.

“She will win the general election if you nominate her. They're just trying to make sure you don't," Bill Clinton said at the Fort Thompson event. "It is just frantic the way they are trying to push and pressure and bully all these superdelegates to come out.” He then began impersonating an intimidated superdelegate: “Oh, this is so terrible: The people, they want her. Oh, this is so terrible: She is winning the general election, and he is not. Oh my goodness, we have to cover this up."

Who's they? MoveOn.org apparently.

Does anyone have input on who I should vote for State Treasurer and State Representative District 186, and why? From http://seventy.org/hot-topics/election-information/on-the-ballot, the races are as follows:

Treasurer
Jennifer L. Mann (D)
Robert McCord (D)
John Cordisco (D)
Dennis Morrison-Wesley (D)

District 186
Harold James (D) (Incumbent)
Kenyatta Johnson (D)

Thanks. Go Obama!

Updates:
Daily News endorses Kenyatta Johnson in 186th.

Philly Inquirer endorses McCord for Treasurer.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette endorses Cordisco for Treasurer.

The LA Times has a story about the Obama campaign's refusal to hand out street money to Philadelphia ward leaders to work the upcoming primary:

"We've heard directly from the Obama organizer who organizes our ward, and he told us it's an entirely volunteer organization and that I should not expect to see anything from the Obama campaign other than ads on TV and the support that volunteers are giving us," said Greg Paulmier, a ward leader in the northwest part of the city.

Neither the Clinton nor the Obama campaign would say publicly whether it would comply with Philadelphia's street money customs. But an Obama aide said Thursday that it had never been the campaign's practice to make such payments. Rather, the campaign's focus is to recruit new people drawn to Obama's message, the aide said.

The article also includes quotes from Carol Campbell, Dwight Evans, and ward leaders Peter Wilson and Garry Williams. It also includes this great anecdote about Bob Brady:

Brady was sitting in his campaign office with two of his political lieutenants. He reached into a desk drawer at one point and pulled out a $50 bill -- street money. Brady tore it in two and gave each man a half. Then the men made a bet: Whoever pulled in the most Democratic votes that day from his precincts would get both halves.

Local color aside, this is a hard issue. On the one hand, it's problematic that political loyalties seem to be for sale to whichever campaign can pony up the cash (several people say that if ward leaders don't get money from Obama, they'll take it from Clinton). On the other hand, if Obama's going to cut into Clinton's lead in Pennsylvania, he's going to need a strong showing in Philadelphia. Obama's campaign is rich as Croesus, and coming from Chicago, he knows how this process works.

It's also unclear exactly what Obama gets by standing on principle. Maybe the Clinton campaign could try to play Philadelphia off against the rest of the state if they could claim that Obama had "bought" city support. But in a big campaign like this, obscure issues like street money only have so much traction. Another alternative is that the combination of volunteers, an alternative GOTV operation, and the support of political leaders who have already endorsed Obama will be able to get the deed done.

It's possible that intentionally or not, the Obama campaign is testing a theory: is it possible to win in Philadelphia with a combination of big ad buys and all-volunteer support?

One thing is clear: the fact that the Obama campaign has chosen to forego the traditional methods of getting out the vote in the city creates both a need and an opportunity. The need is for supporters of the Obama campaign to get out and volunteer. The opportunity is for alternative organizations who support Obama, including progressive ones, to show what they can do on the national stage.

I don't think very much of people who say the fight between Obama and Clinton undermines progressives generally in the upcoming general election. When you see that most average voters like both, that most are excited by the race and that people refer to a shared ticket as a "dream team," it just doesn't seem plausible. In other words, I'm with The Daily News on this question. My explanation? In a 24-hour news cycle with their race in the constant loop as the top story, it's just something for talking heads to say.

And keep saying.

Ad nauseum.

One way or another, we have to end this Bush'ly era, and I think we will. One way or another. The GOP, it turns out, isn't that great for the economy. You might have seen that jobless claims have hit a two year high and that it has been three years since so many people were drawing Unemployment.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that new applications filed for unemployment insurance jumped by a seasonally adjusted 38,000 to 407,000 for the week ending March 29. The increase left claims at their highest point since Sept. 17, 2005, following the blows of the devastating Gulf Coast hurricanes.

Turns out that this is just a paragraph in a larger story of GOP mismanagement of the economy. Under the Republicans watch, inequality tends to rise.

Neighborhood Networks Conference "Getting Out the Progressive Vote in 2008 and Beyond" is tomorrow at Drexel's Disque Hall. Go here to register: http://www.phillynn.org/conference/conf.html or, if you're an impulse person, just come on down when that impulse strikes you tomorrow morning.

Why should you come? There are many reasons. But here I'll concentrate on our all-star lineup of speakers, to wit:

Mayor Nutter
Seth Williams
Anne Dicker
Tony Payton
Jesse Brown
Arshad Hasan, National Director, Democracy for America
Rodnie Jamison
Daniel Hunter, Founder, Casino-Free Philadelphia

There is a fee for attendance, but no one will be turned away. Oh, and btw, if you come, you'll learn a lot about how to organize your neighborhood as well. Don't you want to do that? I bet you do.

On Tuesday, Liberty City LGBT Democratic club launched a petition addressed to Rep. Bill Keller of South Philadelphia. At that point, he was the only Philadelphia Democrat who had not agreed to co-sponsor House Bill 1400 (which will protect LGBT Pennsylvanians from discrimination in employment and housing).

Within 24 hours of the petition going out, Keller's office emailed us to let us know he would sign on as a co-sponsor of the bill. Here's what a staffer from his office had to say:

It has been brought to our attention that a petition will be circulating regarding HB 1400. Please know that the Representative has every intention of supporting the bill. Unfortunately, due to his hectic schedule he has been unable to go through all of the proposed bills. The Representative has gladly added his name to the bill and is now a co-sponsor of HB 1400.

Wow. This was a major victory for our all-volunteer group.

Right now, it is perfectly legal for an employer to decide not to hire you, or to fire you for being lesbian, gay, bi, or trans. Even though cities like Philadelphia have laws on the book that prevent employment and housing discrimination, there is no state-wide law. That means that 79% of Pennsylvanians do not have any protection against this kind of discrimination.

House Bill 1400 would protect LGBT people against discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations. And, it is worth noting, that there are no states in the country that have legalized same-sex marriage or civil unions, without first passing a basic non-discrimination bill like HB 1400.

Before Tuesday, every member of the Philadelphia Democratic delegation to the state House had signed on as a co-sponsor of this bill--months ago--except Representative Bill Keller. We figured if we couldn't convince all of the Democrats from Philadelphia to support this bill, it'd be tough to pass in Harrisburg.

So we decided to target Keller, and get him to co-sponsor the bill too. And, apparently, it worked.

The bill has strong momentum statewide with over 77 co-sponsors (78 including Keller), and it will hopefully be voted on, and passed into law this session. However, as great as it will be when passed, the road to full legal rights for LGBT Pennsylvanians is still quite long even with HB 1400 as law.

That's why we've invited Representative Keller to attend our candidate's night next week. There are many other issues that matter to the LGBT community--like improving the options for LGBT foster kids, creating better healthcare options for our community, providing services to queer seniors, securing same-sex marriage, and more. Keller is facing a primary opponent in his South Philadelphia district, and we'd like to know where he--and his opponent--stand on these issues.

In fact, we have invited all of the candidates running in contested state house races to speak before Liberty City, to tell us what they plan to do for the LGBT community in Philadelphia if elected. If you'd like to join us at our State House Candidate night, click here to RSVP.

In the meantime, I am proud that our Liberty City petition had an impact largely because I think it is really important that every single one of us be able to effect meaningful change. Our democracy is supposed to be owned by all of us. But it does not always feel like our individual voices matter. It may be on a small scale, but this petition is some proof that the collective voices of the grassroots can be powerful.