Matt Ortega

In a few short days since clinching the nomination, the Democratic Party is quickly rallying around Senator Barack Obama (D-Illinois).

On Saturday afternoon, Senator Hillary Clinton (D-New York) endorsed her former primary opponent in a beautifully-written and masterfully-delivered speech at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.

It was a speech for the ages as Senator Clinton touched upon the many themes of her campaign and that, although she did not capture the nomination, the glass ceiling has “18 million cracks in it” — a reference to the number of primary votes the junior senator from New York received.

Democrats are uniting behind Senator Obama while Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) struggles to solidify the Republican base and keep his distance from an unpopular president, a Party unfit to govern that Americans are fleeing from in droves and whose platform he will run on in November — simultaneously.

Senator Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee announced that the national Democratic Party will adopt the self-imposed fundraising restrictions set by the Obama for America campaign: no money from Washington lobbyists or federal political action committees.

In response, thousands of Americans heard the call and joined the campaign.

Speaking in Bristol, Virginia, Senator Obama received a standing ovation from the thousands on hand to listen to him speak when he announced the agreement. On the subject of special interests, Senator Obama says:

They do not fund my campaign and they will not fund our party.

In the special election run-off for Senator Roger Wicker’s (R-Mississippi) former House seat, Democrat Travis Childers was declared the victor. This makes three seats in deeply Republican districts flipping to Democrats and we are not even into the summer yet.

President Bush carried the First Congressional District of Mississippi with 62 percent of the vote. Childers won the seat by eight points, 54-46.

It is important to note that the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) dropped roughly $1.3 million of their $7 million cash on hand in an eight point drubbing in an R+10 district. NRCC Chair Rep. Tom Cole (R-Moore, Okla.) did not even try to spin the crushing defeat. It is simply stunning and goes to show the Everest that Republican candidates face in November.

The defeat leaves Republicans with less than 200 seats in the House — 199.

Swing State Project asked readers to draft the NRCC press release and outlined just how big of a victory the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and Rep.-elect Childers secured for Democrats.

A number of conservative bloggers are avoiding the Mississippi special election run-off altogether but a few chimed in with their takes.

Read more »

The Republican loss in the special election for Louisiana’s Sixth Congressional District last Saturday should be a sharp wake up call for Republicans: Either Congressional Republicans are going to chart a bold course of real change or they are going to suffer decisive losses this November.

–Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-Georgia)
Gingrich Newsletter, 05/06/08

Marc Ambinder posted a graphic that shows a steady decline of Republican youth support in the last three presidential cycles, and a steady increase in Democratic affiliation, according to surveys conducted by Pew Research Center. These numbers show Democrats leading Republicans in party identification of 18 to 29 year olds by a staggering 25 point margin. Republicans dropped seven points in four years.

Notes Ambinder:

Consider: Voters under 30 in the Midwest are twice as likely to call themselves Democrats as they are to identify as Republicans. 63% of women under age 30 identify as Democrats versus just 28% who call themselves Republicans. Democrats even have the affiliation of a majority of young men.

And the widely held belief that the young are more liberal and grow more conservative with age is just unfounded.

A potential objection: that old canard, that young people are liberal and become more conservative? The historical data doesn’t support it. When Bill Clinton was elected, a plurality of people under 30 identified themselves as Republicans. Same thing when Ronald Reagan was elected. Politically, today’s cohort of 18-to-29 year olds came of age during the Bush presidency. It has turned them into Democrats.

The future does not look bright for Republicans if this trend continues. George W. Bush may have delivered a generation of voters to the Democrats, and sewed the seeds of destruction for the Republican Party.

Read the full report from Pew Research Center for People and the Press.