Barack and Michelle Obama withdrew as members of Trinity United Church of Christ – the church that has drawn criticism for controversial remarks made by its former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright and more recently, guest lecturer, Father Michael Pfleger. The Obamas sent a letter to Pastor Otis Moss III yesterday, saying the decision was made with sadness, but their relations with the church were strained by Wright’s comments. “Our larger concern is that because of my candidacy and membership at Trinity, these controversies have served as an uncomfortable distraction for other Trinity members who seek to worship in peace, and have placed you in an intenable position as you establish your own ministry under very difficult circumstances,” the letter read.

At a press conference in Aberdeen, South Dakota, Obama made it clear that he was not denouncing the church because “it’s not a church worthy of denouncing.” Rather, Obama explained, “We don’t want to have to answer for everything that is stated in a church. On the other hand, we also don’t want a church that is subjected to the scrutiny that a presidential campaign legitimately undergoes. That is, you know, I don’t want don’t want Reverend Moss to look over his shoulder to see if the sermon vets. Or if it is potentially problematic for my campaign or will attack attract the furry of a cable program. And so, you know, I have no idea how it will impact my presidential campaign, but I know that it is the right think to do for the church and for our family.”

In fact, Obama said he was surprised of the attention his faith has received. “You know I did not anticipate my fairly conventional Christian faith being subject to such challenge and such scrutiny.” When he does look for a new church, however, he noted, “I’m not going to approach this as a political exercise.”

So what is he looking for in a new church? “What I want to do in church is I want to be able to take Michelle and my girls, sit in a pew quietly, hopefully get some nice music, some good reflection, praise God, thank him for the blessings he has given our family, put some money in the collection plate, maybe afterwards go out and grab some brunch, have my girls go to Sunday school. That’s what I’m looking for.”

Due to Obama’s grueling campaign schedule, the candidate guessed he wouldn’t find a new house of worship until January.

Watch Obama’s press avail here:

done

The DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee made a decision this evening to seat Michigan and Florida delegations, but only with half-votes.

Florida was decided first and the committee ruled that the entire delegation would be seated, both pledged delegates and super delegates. This was not a surprise as FNC reported earlier today that this is the decision the committee would come to. This decision awards Senator Clinton 105 delegates and Obama 67 delegates from Florida. After an original motion to seat the entire delegation with full voting power was rejected the committee voted unanimously to approve the proposal backed by the Florida State Democratic Party.

Michigan was a much more contested decision with the discussions between the members becoming very tense. After the deliberations, the committee voted to also seat all Michigan delegates, both pledged and super delegates but they will also only cast half a vote. This is the 69/59 plan that the Michigan State party supported, but the Clinton campaign has vigorously rejected, even saying tonight that they “reserve the right to challenge this decision before the Credentials Committee.”

During the Michigan deliberations, Harold Ickes who is a committee member and also a senior adviser to Hillary Clinton got so angry that he accused the committee of “hijacking” four delegates from Clinton that would have originally be awarded to her if the committee gave delegates according to the primary day voting, but now would be awarded to Obama.  He added that he was stunned that the committee has the “gall and chutzpah” to substitute the committee’s judgment for 600,000 votes. He continued saying “you bet your ass” that the process was flawed and that the decision does not reflect party unity.

The crowd went wild cheering, clapping, and whistling for Ickes. The crowd’s reaction got even more intense when the committee announced their decision with some protesters even being escorted out after chanting, “Denver, Denver, Denver!” urging Clinton backers to bring their fight to the convention floor. One colorful protester even screamed, “What are you smoking?” as the committee continued deliberating.

The new magic number for either candidate to secure the nomination is now 2,118.

The Clinton campaign is perfectly happy with the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee’s decision to seat all of Florida’s delegates as allocated by the January 29th primary, but to only give each delegate half a vote. Not so the committee’s ruling on Michigan

Harold Ickes and Tina Flournoy made the following statement this evening:

“Today’s results are a victory for the people of Florida who will have a voice in selecting our Party’s nominee and will see its delegates seated at our party’s convention.  The decision by the Rules and Bylaws Committee honors the votes that were cast by the people of Florida and allocates the delegates accordingly.

We strongly object to the Committee’s decision to undercut its own rules in seating Michigan’s delegates without reflecting the votes of the people of Michigan.

The Committee awarded to Senator Obama not only the delegates won by Uncommitted, but four of the delegates won by Senator Clinton. This decision violates the bedrock principles of our democracy and our Party.

We reserve the right to challenge this decision before the Credentials Committee and appeal for a fair allocation of Michigan’s delegates that actually reflect the votes as they were cast.”

Obama Communications Director Robert Gibbs confirms that the Democratic frontrunner has resigned from Trinity United Church of Christ. This comes well after the candidate weathered the Reverend Wright storm, and just days after news broke that Father Michael Pfleger, standing at Trinity’s pulpit, accused Senator Hillary Clinton of acting entitled to the presidency because of her race.

On April 29, when Obama cut ties with Reverend Wright, he was asked if he would continue to go to Trinity. His response - “I still very much value the Trinity community. I’ll be honest, this obviously has put strains on that relation, not because of the members or because of Reverend Moss, but because this has become such a spectacle.”

The candidate will hold a media avail following his town hall in Aberdeen, South Dakota.

The DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee is still not back and speculation among the press says they are hashing it out in private. Earlier today, FNC reported that a decision has already been made with regards to Florida. During a deliberation dinner that lasted until 2AM the committee members decided to go with Jon Ausman’s compromise and seat all of Florida’s delegates and give them half a vote each.

According to Major Garrett’s reporting, the Clinton campaign grudgingly accepted the compromise, which has the backing of the Florida Democratic party.

Michigan, on the other hand, is going to be much trickier with the state party arguing for a 69/59 split which combines election results, but takes into account that Obama was not on the ballot and that many of his supporters cast their vote for Uncommitted. The Clinton campaign believes the delegates should be split according to Election Day results with Clinton receiving the delegates corresponding to the votes she received and Obama receiving the delegates of the votes cast for Uncommitted. The Obama camp wants the delegates split down the middle.

What does all of this mean? That it could be a very late night for everyone with many people saying deliberations could go past midnight.

UPDATE 5:58pm: The committee members returned to the room to cheers from the crowd. Donna Brazile received the warmest welcome with a group of women giving her a standing ovation.

The DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee ran 2 ½ hours past schedule not breaking for lunch until 2:55pm. The meeting will decide the fate of Florida and Michigan’s delegates and possibly the fate of Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

The committee members started at 9:45 this morning to try to figure out a way to reinstate the two states’ delegates which were stripped when the primaries in the two states jumped the line and scheduled them before the DNC regulations.

The meeting began with DNC chairman Howard Dean telling the 28 members (two are not here) and the public, “We are ready to win. The American people are ready for change and we will have that change.” Before turning the meeting over to the co-chairs of the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws committee he stressed that these deliberations are not about Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, but “restoring the greatness” of the country. He went on to say that the committee needs to respect the voters of Michigan and Florida and that the moving up of the primaries was not the fault of the voters.

The committee stripped the two states of all of their delegates, but by their own rules they only had to penalize 50 percent of the delegates. The committee’s co-chair Alexis Herman said they enacted the harsher penalty to send a strong message to other states that wanted to break the DNC’s calender.

The first to speak was Jon Ausman who is challenging the committee to reinstate Florida’s delegates. His compromise would send all of Florida’s superdelegates to the convention and all of the unpledged delegates with half a vote each or only half of the delegation. Next to speak was Senator Bill Nelson representing the Florida Democratic Party, but he has endorsed Hillary Clinton. He wants the entire delegation seated according to the votes cast during the Florida primary. That is something the Obama campaign says is unfair because both candidates pledged not to campaign in the state. He told the members, to huge cheers from the crowd, that voters do not deserve punishment, they deserve to be heard.

Next up was Florida state senator Arthenia Joyner representing Hillary Clinton. She told the committee that Florida has “suffered enough” and passionately urged members to “leave this room hand in hand” and “focus on victory in November.”

Joyner admitted to committee member and campaign manager for Al Gore’s 2000 run, Donna Brazile that she wants the delegates seated according to vote counts acknowledging that it is likely she may only get Ausman’s compromise, but passionately added, “I want it all!”

(more…)

done

The DNC’s Rules and Bylaws committee is meeting in Washington to decide the fate of Michigan and Florida — which will have a profound impact on what the Clinton campaign does next, if it’s able to survive at all. But Hillary Clinton seemed as far removed as she could be from the proceedings in DC, touring the barrios of Puerto Rico on top of a pickup truck as Clinton-themed Latin music blared in front of her.

It’s a Puerto Rican political tradition known as “La Caravana.” Clinton, who said she’d dressed for caravanning with a satiny purple top and khaki pants, led a growing parade of cars — totaling 200 at one point, though that could just be the traffic that was backed up behind her (which included at least four on-duty ambulances). She waved at supporters and bystanders as the trucks rolled slowly forward, an announcer blasting the news of her arrival through 20 foot high speakers on the back of a tractor trailer.

Clinton started off dancing to the music and clapping atop her perch, though she seemed less animated as the caravan entered hour number three. She left the top of the truck only to rest in an SUV, and for a bathroom break near Bayamon.

Groups of cheering crowds waving Hillary flags greet the caravan every so often, but the streets were generally fairly quiet. Most of Clinton’s constituency here consists of people hanging out of cars and shops that honk, wave, or even give the occasional thumbs down. Overall, Clinton’s received a positive response as she hopes to drive up turnout to score a big victory here on Sunday.

Check out the 1:07 Hillary Clinton tune by Latin star Willy Colon that we listened to at least 500 times after the jump.

(more…)

At a rally in Great Falls, Montana, last night, Barack Obama turned the tables on John McCain and questioned the Arizona senator’s knowledge of the situation on the ground in Iraq.

“In his continued effort to put the best possible light on a failed policy he stood up in Wisconsin and said we have drawn down to pre-surge levels,” Obama said. “That’s what he said - ‘We have drawn down to pre-surge levels.’ This is the guy who says I need more knowledge. He’s wrong. It’s not true. And anyone running for Commander-in-Chief should know better. As the saying goes, you’re entitled to your own opinions but you’re not entitled to your own facts,” Obama he continued.

Yesterday the Obama campaign decided to make an issue of what they called a misstatement, saying there are still 20,000 more troops in Iraq than what we had before the surge. “Senator McCain refused to acknowledge that he had made a mistake. We all make mistakes once in a while, but he claims he didn’t make it, just like George Bush, when he’s presented with the truth, he just dug in, refused to admit it. His campaign said that anybody who was asking about it was nitpicking. Well I don’t think ten’s of thousands of American troops amount to nitpicking,” Obama said.

Banking on the fact that most Americans want to bring our troops home, Obama added, “It’s time to cut through the tough talk so we can have some straight talk with the american people about a war that’s cost us so dearly. It’s time to end the political game playing so we can finally end this war and that’s what I’ve been talking about in this campaign and that’s what I’ll do when I’m President of the United States of America.”

Watch his remarks here:

done

According to staffers, when Senator Obama heard his traveling press corps was making a late night drive to view Mount Rushmore, he said, “Me too.”

The gaggle of reporters left from its Rapid City hotel to drive the 30 minutes to Keystone, SD, with a cooler of beer (yes, paid for by press and at 9:30pm). Shortly after we departed, staffers informed us the Senator was going to meet us there. As press took photos, Obama strolled up with a park ranger and stood with his backs to the cameras, noting it was his first trip to the monument. “There’s something about seeing it at night that’s spectacular,” he said.

When asked if he’d like to see his face on the side of the mountain. He grinned and joked, “I don’t think my ears would fit. There’s only so much rock up there.”

Just a few minutes after the senator left, the lights illuminating the side of the mountain shut off - but staff insists they did not stay open late just for Barack Obama.

Obama chatting with Park Ranger Wesley Jensen

Surrounded by reporters

The foxnews.com moderators have suspended comments on the embed blog. We were getting a lot of offensive posts here that didn’t have much to do with politics, and the powers that be decided to shut it down. They’ve asked us to approve comments individually if we want them posted, which a few of us have tried to do sporadically — but unfortunately, we probably won’t be able to post many of them. Apologies to those of you who used the forum as a place for healthy debate. Dotcom may bring comments back at some point, we’ll keep you in the loop if that happens.