CHICAGO, Ill — Yes, you read that correctly. No, it’s not May.

The early-summer battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton — and some of their more vocal supporters — over how to deal with convention delegates from Michigan and Florida took a step towards resolution in Hillary Clinton’s favor today, as Obama’s campaign called on the DNC’s credentials committee to give every delegate a full vote.

Of course, it’s too late to do any good for Clinton, but it could go a long way towards ending any lingering bitterness in those two all-important swing states. If Obama gets his way, it will also prove that the DNC and its rules are, in the end, subject to the whims of the party’s nominee.

In a letter to the chairs of the committee, Obama writes “I believe Party unity calls for the delegates from Florida and Michigan to be able to participate fully alongside the delegates from the other states and territories.  Accordingly, I ask that the Credentials Committee, when it meets on August 24 to approve the delegates for the National Convention, pass a resolution that would entitle each delegate from Florida and Michigan to cast a full vote.”

Michigan and Florida were initially stripped of all their delegates by the DNC for holding presidential primaries before February 5th. At a contentious meeting on May 31st, The Party’s rules committee voted to seat all of Florida’s delegates but give them each half a vote, while altering Michigan’s delegate total and halving those delegates’ votes as well.

At the time, Obama argued that states that break DNC rules should be held accountable, while Clinton and her supporters cried disenfranchisement. But Obama’s new stance doesn’t mean that he’s reversed his position that states should abide by DNC rules.

“As a candidate for the nomination, I supported the DNC’s efforts to establish and enforce a schedule for primaries and caucuses that would broaden the opportunity for Democrats from all regions of the country and all backgrounds and walks of life to have a meaningful voice,” he said

“As we prepare to come together in Denver, however, we must be – and will be – united in our determination to change the course of our nation.  To that end, Democrats in Florida and Michigan must know that they are full partners and colleagues in our historic mission to reshape Washington and lead our country in a new direction.”

The DNC indicated that they’re taking Obama’s suggestion seriously. “We deeply appreciate and value Senator Obama’s perspective on this important issue. This matter will be the top priority for the Credentials Committee when we meet on August 24th,” the credentials committee co-chairs wrote in a statement. “As always our goal is to ensure a fair process and a unified Democratic Party so that we can win in November.”

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Clinton spoke with reporters in San Juan after her Puerto Rico victory before taking off on a 6 hour flight to South Dakota — telling them “my political obituary has yet to be written.”

“I think I have a stronger case than a lot of people who press their case much further,” she said. “Its not over ’til its over.”

Clinton said she expected to add 133,000 votes onto her popular vote lead coming out of Puerto Rico, and hoped it would signal her relative strength in November. “Senator Obama a few months ago said that this will come down to whoever has the popular vote and the delegates, because they’ve never been separated before. And I think it’s only now that we are finishing these contests that people are going to actually reflect who’s our stronger candidate,” she said. “I believe I am, and I’m going to make that case. And at some point, it will either be accepted or it wont. But I feel very strongly about making it.”

Her audience is the ever-shrinking group of uncommitted superdelegates, of which she’ll need nearly 90% to win the nomination. But Clinton pointed out that even committed superdelegates can change their minds. “With us in the front of the cabin is a superdelegate that went from me to Senator Obama and now is back with me in the course of a matter of weeks,” she said — referring to Virgin Islands superdelegate Kevin Rodriquez. “This has been such an intense process I don’t think that has been a lot of time for reflection of the sort that I’m advocating.

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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.”

On a conference call yesterday, DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee Committee Member and Clinton supporter Tina Fluornoy told reporters that the Clinton campaign has four goals for today’s committee meeting to decide what to do about seating the delegates from Florida and Michigan.

First, the campaign wants the popular vote from the two states to count in the official tally. Then, they’d like those results to be the basis for any delegate formulation - meaning no splitting the delegates 50-50. They’d also like the full delegations from both states seated at the convention, and for every delegate to be given a full vote.

But privately, several aides concede that the campaign may be willing to compromise on the last of those goals in exchange for fully meeting the first one. They would, for instance, accept giving each pledged delegate a 2/3 or 1/2 vote if it comes down to that — so long as Clinton’s advantage in the popular vote in Michigan and Florida would be officially added to her vote count, giving her an undisputed lead there.

The thinking is that Clinton can’t catch up in pledged delegates no matter how favorably the committee views her arguments today. But she can force Democrats to acknowledge her as the popular vote leader — a status she already claims unofficially on the campaign trail. She’s already begun to call that measure more democratic than the delegate system, and Democrats have a sensitive spot for popular vote leaders after Al Gore won more in 2000 but still lost to George Bush’s superior electoral performance.

The Clinton camp believes a significant popular vote lead is something superdelegates will have to pay attention to; but even if they don’t, it allows Clinton to claim a certain kind of victory and save face at the end of this long primary season.

Clinton delegate master Harold Ickes says now that the Obama campaign has declared its willingness to seat delegations from Michigan and Florida at the Party Convention in August, the number of delegates once thought to be required to win the nomination is no longer operable.

“There’s an unwritten assumption that 2026 is the number to get the nomination. That could not at this point be further from the truth,” Ickes told reporters on a conference call. “Obama seems to have crossed the Rubicon, and is in favor of some resolution of Michigan and Florida. Until they are fully resolved, there is no fixed number for the nomination.”

“2210 is the high mark,” he said — referring to the number of delegates needed if the Michigan and Florida delegations are seated fully — “and it appears 2026 is the low mark. But that low mark is no longer in my view a reasonable number to even talk about.”

The DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee meets on May 31st to decide what to do about the two states. But Communications Director Howard Wolfson acknowledged that even if the Clinton campaign gets everything it wants from the committee, her path to the nomination still relies on convincing uncommitted superdelegates that she’s the stronger general election candidate.

“Senator Clinton is ahead in the popular vote. Senator Clinton has won the key swing states a Democrat has to win, she’s ahead in the key swing states in polling,” he said — pointing to new Quinnipiac polls showing her beating John McCain in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania while Obama wins only Pennsylvania and by a lesser margin. “She runs better against John McCain than Senator Obama in rural areas, and all of this adds up to the stronger candidate. And that’s a case we’re going to have to make.”

Wolfson also called Obama’s initial steps to being the Vice Presidential search “premature in the sense there’s no nominee yet,” and said he was unaware of any similar effort in the Clinton campaign.

Check out my notes on the rest of the conference call below.

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BOCA RATON, Fla – Hillary Clinton returned to Florida for the first time since she declared victory there after the primary in January to argue that the results of that election should count – and the state’s delegates should be seated.

“The Democratic Party must count these votes,” she said to applause at the Century Village retirement community. “They should count them exactly as they were cast. Democracy demands no less.”

Her argument centered on three basic points –Democrats’ commitment to counting every vote, the injustice of punishing voters who did nothing themselves to deserve it, and the political implications of snubbing two key swing states – and she repeatedly raised the specter of the 2000 recount to drive her point home.

Recalling a few of her party’s historic fights to ensure the right to vote for women and minorities, Clinton said “both Senator Obama and myself have an obligation as potential Democratic nominees, in fact we all have an obligation as Democrats, to carry on this legacy and ensure that in our nominating process, that every voice is heard and every vote is counted.”

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Barack Obama took the stage this evening in Grand Rapids, MI, in front of more than 12,000 supporters and said, “I know that we didn’t have the chance to campaign here during the primary – and I felt bad about it. I didn’t have a chance to talk to you guys about the issues. I felt guilty about not campaigning and so as a consequence I decided that I would try to give you something special,” he said to applause. “I decided that on my first full day of campaigning in Michigan, that I wouldn’t be fooling around, that I wasn’t just going to do the same old thing. But I decided that I was going to bring out one of the greatest leaders we have in the Democratic Party – please give it up for my friend John Edwards!”

John Edwards entered the arena to thunderous applause as Bruce Springsteen’s “The Rising” blared over speakers (a Kerry/Edwards ‘04 favorite). Before he praised Obama, Edwards was sure to mention the other Democrat still in the race - even as the Obama supporters booed at the sound of her name.

“I want to tell you, I know this is hard to understand sometime, but it is very, very hard to get up every day and do what she’s done. It is hard to go out there to fight and to speak up when the odds turn against you. And what she has shown is strength and character, and what drives her is something that every single one of us can and should appreciate,” he said, noting she is a woman “made of steel.”

“She’s a leader in this country not, not because of her husband, but because what she has done, because of speaking out, because of standing up. And we, when this nomination battle is over, and it will be over soon – brothers and sisters, we must come together as Democrats and in the fall stand up for what matters to the future of America, to make America what it needs to be. And we are a stronger party because hillary Clinton is a democrat. We are a stronger country because of her years of public service, and we’re gonna have a stronger nominee in the fall because of her work,” he said.

And then the news all the Obama fans were there to hear:

“The reason that I am here tonight is because the Democratic voters of america have made their choice and so have I,” he said as the arena erupted. “There is one man who knows and understands that this is a time for bold leadership. There is one man that knows how to create the change, the lasting change that you have to build from the ground up. There is one man who knows in his heart that it is time to create one America, not two, and that man is Barack Obama.”

Barack Obama had equally glowing things to say about his one-time rival and promised to join in Edwards’ fight to end poverty. “The fight that John is waging right now will be a fight I carry into the White House for the next four years,” he said. “I want to make sure that everybody knows that he will have a partner in that effort, because that is a goal that I will set as President of the United States of America.”

Soon after, a man in the crowd yelled out, “Does that mean Obama-Edwards?”

Obama laughed, Edwards smiled, but no one commented on the question. The message, rather, was unity. Obama said, “John Edwards and I believe in a different America. Hillary Clinton believes in a different America. The Democratic Party believes in a different America. One America, where we rise and fall together as one people and that’s why we are gonna take Washington by storm this November.”

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At a town hall meeting in Warren, Michigan - the candidates first trip to the state since last summer - Barack Obama was asked how he’d do in Michigan since he sat out the state’s January 15th primary. With the Michigan delegation still up in the air, Obama noted, “Obviously because of the whole hoopla around when Michigan held its primary, my name was not on the ballot and we did not do campaigning here and I just want to remind everybody that wasn’t my choosing. that was, we were just, what we do is just - tell us what the rules are and then we play by the rules,” he said, eager to woo voters in a state that will be important this fall.

As for how the Democrats would fare, Obama mentioned yesterday’s Mississippi special election, in which Democrat Travis Childers pulled out a surprising victory. “Look, [the Republicans] just lost an election yesterday in the heart of Mississippi,” he said, describing the region as “hard core Republican.”

This is the same campaign during which Childers’ Republican opponent aired ads tying Childers to Obama during the height of his Jeremiah Wright woes. Obama observed, “I mean they were trying to do every trick in the book to try to scare folks in Mississippi and it didn’t work. And the reason it didn’t work is because the American people know we need a new direction in Washington. That’s why we’re gonna win Michigan, that’s why we’re gonna beat John McCain here in Michigan.”

The Obama campaign did not campaign in any of the five states yet to cast votes for the Democratic nominee today (a morning event in Kentucky was cancelled due to Senate votes), opting to visit Missouri and Michigan, states that will be key for a Democratic victory in November. “I’ll be back because we’re gonna be competing in Missouri,” Obama promised voters in Cape Girardeau, MO, while taking aim at John McCain on issues ranging from the economy to Iraq to the environment. Surely signs of a campaign confident of a victory, despite getting creamed by Senator Clinton in West Virginia today.

But when asked by a voter at his Missouri town hall if Hillary Clinton might be his running mate, a more emure Obama replied, “It’s too early. Senator Clinton is still competing; we haven’t resolved this nomination - I haven’t won the nomination yet.” He added, “It would be presumptuous of me to pretend like I’ve already won and start talking about who my vice president’s going to be. I’ve still got more work to do.”

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Obama phoned Senator Clinton before taking off for Michigan (the first time the candidate has been there since speaking at an NAACP dinner there last June) to congratulate her on her WV victory. The frontrunner didn’t get through to tonight’s victor, however, and left her a voice mail.

The Obama campaign today announced Barack Obama would head to Michigan tomorrow - a move that only a frontrunner could make on the night of the West Virginia primary. While Hillary Clinton will likely celebrate her victory in the Mountaineer State, Barack Obama is traveling to Missouri and Michigan, states that held their primaries on February 5th and January 15th respectively. Obama will spend Wednesday on the stump in Michigan.

Of course Obama won Missouri and did not contend in Michigan as no delegates were at stake due to a punishment handed down by the DNC. Hillary Clinton carried the illegitimate primary, whose results have not factored into the heated race, and remains one of the reasons why she has yet to concede.

After Tuesday there will be five contests remaining in the Democratic nomination. The Obama campaign vows to campaign in each of the remaining states, but noted in a statement today, “Our schedule reflects the fact that we are still fighting for votes and delegates in the remaining contests but also that we are going to places that are going to be competitive in the fall. John McCain has gone unchallenged for far too long and we’re going to make sure that voters in competitive states know the choice in this election between changing Washington and the third term of George Bush’s failed policies that McCain is offering.”

And while Barack Obama himself has said this nomination is not over, his campaign is beginning to morph into general election mode. “Obviously we also don’t want to wake up on the morning of June 4th or June 10th or whenever this is going to end and not be prepared, so we’re going to do the things we can in our off hours,” Campaign Manager David Plouffe told reporters on a conference call last week. At the time it wasn’t clear “off hours” would mean prior to the campaign sealing the Democratic deal.

One of the “silver linings” to this long, drawn out campaign, Plouffe says, is that they have an organization in most states which will better ready Democrats to take McCain on in the general election. But Obama did not campaign in Florida or Michigan. “I think Florida is one state where we’ve probably suffered the most from lack of campaign activity compared to the rest of the country,” Plouffe observed on last week’s conference call. Which may be why Obama is scheduled to campaign in the Sunshine State on May 21st and 22nd – just one day after the candidate is expected to have accumulated the majority of delegates at stake in the nomination.

On Obama’s travel plans, a spokesman for the RNC responded today by noting, “Barack Obama can travel wherever he wants, but it won’t make his calls for higher taxes, restricted gun rights, and proposed meetings with state sponsors of terrorism any more appealing. Wherever Obama takes his flawed message, voters will learn more about the weak leadership he has demonstrated on important issues confronting the nation.”