Watch Sen. Obama's entire meeting with Marilyn Pace and her financial aid counselor.

(CNN) – Things got emotional during Sen. Barack Obama’s visit to a Michigan community college Tuesday.

Obama met individually with student Marilyn Pace, who is studying dental hygiene, and her financial aid counselor, Marcus McGrew, before speaking with a group of students at Wayne Community College in Taylor, Michigan.

Pace broke down in front of Obama and began crying after explaining the financial stresses she is facing while trying to get her education, help take care of her disabled father, and cope with the costs of commuting to school with the high price of gasoline.

WATCH Obama comforts crying student

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Obama campaigns in Flint, Michigan on Monday.

(CNN) — As Barack Obama took to the trail in Michigan on Monday, the state's Republican party released a web ad needling him over his decision not to campaign in Michigan during the Democratic primary season — a line of attack Hillary Clinton warned of throughout her own presidential bid.

"Why did you boycott Michigan for so long?," the web ad asks. "You stiffed our voters."

The nearly two-minute long video proceeds to highlight Obama's "bitter" comments from a San Francisco fundraiser earlier this year.

"You insulted our way of life," the ad says, displaying assorted images of hunters and churchgoers.

A blog post on the Michigan GOP's Web site said the ad was created "to remind Michigan voters that when they wanted to hear from Barack Obama, he took every opportunity to thumb his nose at them."

In her push to have the disputed Michigan and Florida delegations seated in full, Clinton regularly argued that in a general election, Republicans would hammer Obama for his reluctance to do the same.

"If the Democrats send a message that we don't care about your votes, I'm sure John McCain and the Republicans would be happy to have them," Clinton said at a campaign stop in Detroit in March. "In fact, the Republicans will argue that Michigan and Florida voters shouldn't trust the Democrats to look out for them when we wont even listen to you."

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WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Democratic National Committee's Rules and Bylaws
Committee on Saturday voted to seat all Michigan delegates to its convention, giving each a half-vote and dividing them to give Hillary Clinton a slight edge over Barack Obama.

The 19-8 vote gives 69 pledged delegates to Clinton and 59 to frontrunner Obama — each with half a vote because Michigan was penalized, like Florida, for moving its primary ahead in the campaign season.

Clinton adviser and RBC member Harold Ickes said, "Mrs. Clinton has instructed me to reserve her rights to take this to the Credentials Committee."

The DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting was heated at times.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Representatives for the Clinton and Obama campaigns squared off over the Michigan delegate dilemma Saturday in front of an increasingly rowdy crowd on hand for the Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting.

David Bonior laid out the Obama campaign's view: Michigan delegates should be counted — but only in a way that doesn't count. The Illinois senator's campaign has called for delegates to be divided evenly with half going to him and half to Hillary Clinton, who won the unsanctioned January 15 contest.

"Due to all these circumstances, the unfortunate reality is that this primary that happened on January 15 was not anything that came close to a normal primary election, and cannot allocate delegates in a normal fashion as a result," the former Michigan congressman said.

"This does not mean that Michigan should be not represented at the national convention — it does mean that the delegates should be split evenly between the two remaining candidates, out of simple fairness," said Bonior, who pointed to Clinton's statement in a fall 2007 interview that the vote in Michigan would not count.

Both candidates might be nearly in agreement on a Florida compromise but remain far apart on the Michigan contest. Former Michigan Gov. James Blanchard presented the Clinton campaign's view: the RBC may have treated the Michigan primary as if it would not count but nobody else had, including the media and the state's voters.

Delegates, Blanchard said, should be divided based on the result of that vote.

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Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Michigan Senator Carl Levin used his time in front of the Rules and Bylaws Committee to attack New Hampshire's "privileged position" as the traditional first-in-the-nation presidential primary.

He also attacked the committee for ultimately granting New Hampshire a waiver that allowed it to maintain that status, despite a party plan designed to address complaints from other areas of the country.

Levin argued that Michigan had accepted the ruling that it would not be one of the four states allowed to hold its primary in January — objecting only when New Hampshire, which was not included in that group, was granted a waiver.

"[The committee] put us in the position of taking on the perpetual privilege [that] no state should have," Levin said.

"…We decided, we're not going to sit by and do nothing for another decade or two."

Levin is a longtime critic of the special status granted New Hampshire and Iowa, whose caucuses are the first presidential preference votes in the nation.

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The DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee meets in Washington, Saturday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The chairman of Michigan's Democratic Party called on the national committee's Rules and Bylaws Committee to seat Michigan's full delegation with full voting rights, and divide the pledged delegates between Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, 69-59.

RBC member Elaine Kamarck, a Clinton supporter, told Michigan party chair Mark Brewer the proposal was flawed.

"My problem is willy-nilly, arbitrary assignment of delegates when we actually had a legitimate vote," she said.

Brewer responded that the party had not followed any set guidelines in determining the split — but had reached this compromise because "we have to do something in this situation; we can't do nothing. I wish there were more, I wish it were better, but it's all we have."

The dispute over the seating of Michigan's delegates is a thornier dispute than the dilemma over Florida's delegation. Clinton was the only major candidate who did not remove her name from Michigan's primary ballot following the RBC's decision last summer.

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Democratic National Committee member Alexis Herman.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Alexis Herman, co-chair of the DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee, made clear on Saturday that the 50 percent compromise –- which would reduce the delegate strength of both Michigan and Florida by half, and allow those that remain to be seated at the Democratic convention -– was on the table.

The national party stripped both states of all their delegates last year -– but the automatic penalty only required that these delegations be reduced by half.

The former Clinton cabinet official stressed that a full reinstatement wasn’t up for debate by the RBC, saying both states knew before they moved up their primary dates that there would be severe consequences for violating party rules -– and that the penalty had worked as intended, since no other contests were scheduled for January beyond the two unauthorized votes and the four sanctioned by the party.

"We had many states that wanted to violate the timing. We needed to send a very strong signal in order to prevent additional states from moving forward,” Herman said in her opening remarks.

Protesters voice their concerns outside the DNC headquarters on Capitol Hill in April.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Bleary-eyed Democrats failed to reach consensus early Saturday morning on a plan to seat the Michigan and Florida delegations — setting up a potentially explosive hearing later in the day between supporters of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on how to address this politically sensitive situation.

Members of the Democratic National Committee's Rules and Bylaws panel convened for more than five hours behind closed doors Friday evening. The meeting ended at 1:30 a.m. ET Saturday — eight hours before the committee is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the matter.

Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton disagree over how best to address the situation of Michigan and Florida, which were penalized for holding their primaries early. The DNC sanctioned Michigan and Florida by excluding them from representation when the party nominates a candidate at the August convention.

"It was a full discussion," said Harold Ickes, a DNC Rules member from the District of Columbia who supports Clinton. "I think there was some agreement on some issues and still some disagreements on others."

The Democratic presidential hopefuls have both said they want the Florida and Michigan delegates to attend the convention, but Clinton's campaign is calling for the results of the primaries to be honored and the delegates awarded based on the results. This approach would help her chip away at Obama's lead in pledged delegates because handily won both states and would be awarded a greater share of the delegates.

Obama's campaign disagrees, saying that this is not reasonable because he followed the rules, took his name off of the Michigan ballot, and did not campaign in either state.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) — After weeks of planning by unions, women’s rights groups and others supporting Hillary Clinton's push to seat Florida and Michigan delegates at the Democratic convention this summer, supporters of the New York senator's presidential bid arrived in the nation’s capital by the busload Friday in advance of rallies outside Saturday's Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting.

“I’m hoping we restore 100 percent of the delegates from both Michigan and Florida and the popular vote will also be restored,” said Karen Feldman, an organizer of the “Count Every Vote” rally. “…I firmly believe that in Florida that was the purest election we’ve ever had, and I think that those votes should stand where they are and should be counted the way they are.”

Florida Demands Representation, another sponsoring group pushing for the January 29 vote to be recognized by the national party, said Friday it was expecting 400 to 500 supporters to arrive by Saturday. “The Democratic party is in danger in Florida,” said organizer James Hannagan.

The seating of the Florida and Michigan delegations is a priority for Clinton, who won both unsanctioned contests and is currently trailing frontrunner Barack Obama by 202 delegates in the latest CNN count.

Hannagan said that if Clinton is not the Democratic nominee, some members of his forum will vote for McCain, write in Hillary’s name or not vote at all.

The Clinton campaign has tacitly encouraged pressure on RBC members meeting to resolve the controversy, but has denied any role in protests planned for Saturday.

Both Clinton and Obama supporters are planning to protest outside Saturday's RBC meeting in Washington.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Supporters of Barack Obama’s presidential bid are planning to demonstrate outside the Saturday meeting in Washington where Democratic officials are slated to debate the seating of the Florida and Michigan delegations at the party’s summer convention.

The move comes days after backers of Hillary Clinton’s White House run announced plans to converge on the Washington, D.C. hotel where members of the Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee are meeting.

“Hillary Clinton's supporters are going to be bussing in protestors for the Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting, so it's critical that we show up for the counter-protest,” wrote on organizer in a post on the Daily Kos Web site Tuesday morning.

Last week, the pro-Clinton Committee to Count Every Vote said it was organizing a day-long May 31 rally outside the RBC meeting.

“Our purpose is not to divide the party or attack the DNC or Senator Obama. Michigan and Florida, however, in addition to Hillary's strong support nationwide, cannot and must not be dismissed in DNC efforts to unify the party.”

The group said it was organizing buses to carry protestors to the meeting site, and could offer some overnight housing for those who could not afford to pay for accommodations.

Earlier this month, Clinton told a group of bloggers who support her candidacy that she encouraged efforts to lobby the committee.

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(CNN) — Senior Clinton adviser Harold Ickes said again today that his vote last summer to strip Florida and Michigan of their delegates was not at odds with his current push to have full slates from both states seated at the Democratic convention.

On a conference call with reporters Thursday, Ickes said his 2007 vote had been intended to send a message to other states not to follow Florida and Michigan’s lead in scheduling their primaries before February – and by that measure, the decision had been a success.

"We started to invoke a full stripping of the delegates from those two states to send a very strong signal to other states that if they broke the window there would be very severe consequences," said Ickes, who added that both states had already been penalized because neither had benefited from the attention or campaign advertising revenue that would have accompanied a legitimate contested primary.

"Lessons were learned and now it is time for us to turn our attention to the general election and to make sure that these states — that we do everything to try to assure that these states are in the Democratic column," he said.

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(CNN) — Obama senior adviser David Axelrod says the Illinois senator’s campaign is “open to compromise” and willing to cede Hillary Clinton the advantage in talks over the seating of the Florida and Michigan delegations at the Democratic National Convention this summer.

"We are willing to go more than half way. We're willing to work to make sure that we can achieve a compromise," Axelrod tells National Public Radio’s Michele Norris in a Wednesday evening interview. "And I guess the question is: is Senator Clinton's campaign willing to do the same?"

Clinton spent Wednesday in Florida highlighting her push for full delegations from both states to be seated in accordance with their January votes, which were not sanctioned by the Democratic National Committee because of the early primary dates. Her campaign has charged the Obama team with blocking a compromise on the issue – a claim that campaign has denied.

"Well obviously, any compromise is going to involve some give, and that means if there's something on the table, we're willing to consider it," Axelrod told NPR in the interview set to air Wednesday evening. “That may include us yielding more delegates than perhaps we would have, simply on the basis of the rules."

Obama now appears likely to finish the primary season with a delegate lead, including superdelegates, that would not disappear if both states’ delegations are seated based on the results of January’s contests, in which his name did not appear on the ballot in Michigan. Clinton won both primaries.

Clinton is making three campaign stops in Florida Wednesday.

BOCA RATON, Florida (CNN) – Making a last-gasp campaign swing through Florida on Wednesday — just ten days before the Democratic National Committee will decide the fates of the disputed Michigan and Florida delegations — Hillary Clinton forcefully pressed for the primary votes in those states to be counted "exactly as they were cast."

"It is well within the Democratic party rules to take this stand," she said, defending her position in front of a sizeable audience at a Boca Raton retirement community. "The rules clearly state that we can count all of these votes and seat all of delegates, pledged and unpledged if we so choose, and the rules laid out make clear the process for doing so."

It was Clinton’s first campaign stop in Florida since the night of the state’s primary on Jan. 29, and Clinton picked a suitable venue to make her case for counting every vote: Palm Beach County, ground zero of the politically-charged 2000 Florida recount.

"We believe the popular vote is the truest expression of your will," she said. "We believe it today just as we believed it back in 2000, when right here in Florida, you learned the hard way what happened when the votes aren’t counted and a candidate with fewer votes is declared the winner."

The New York senator made repeated allusions to the 2000 recount and proclaimed that the Democratic party, the party of civil rights, has a duty to count every vote to determine the true intent of the electorate. Moreover, she argued, counting the votes is a simple matter of American democracy.

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Sen. Hillary Clinton

WASHINGTON (AP) – Michigan and Florida alone can't save Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign.

Interviews with those considering how to handle the two states' banished convention delegates found little interest in the former first lady's best-case scenario. Her position, part of a formidable comeback challenge, is that all the delegates be seated in accordance with their disputed primaries.

Even if they were, it wouldn't erase Barack Obama's growing lead in delegates.

The Democratic Party's Rules and Bylaws Committee, a 30-member panel charged with interpreting and enforcing party rules, is to meet May 31 to consider how to handle Michigan and Florida's 368 delegates.

Last year, the panel imposed the harshest punishment it could render against the two states after they scheduled primaries in January, even though they were instructed not to vote until Feb. 5
or later. Michigan and Florida lost all their delegates to the national convention, and all the Democratic candidates agreed not to campaign in the two states, stripping them of all the influence
they were trying to build by voting early.

But now there is agreement on all sides that at least some of the delegates should be restored in a gesture of party unity and respect to voters in two general election battlegrounds.

Clinton has been arguing for full reinstatement, which would boost her standing. She won both states, even though they didn't count toward the nomination and neither candidate campaigned in
them. Obama even had his name pulled from Michigan's ballot.

The Associated Press interviewed a third of the panel members and several other Democrats involved in the negotiations and found widespread agreement that the states must be punished for stepping out of line. If not, many members say, other states will do the same thing in four years.

"We certainly want to be fair to both candidates, and we want to be sure that we are fair to the 48 states who abided by the rules," said Democratic National Committee Secretary Alice
Germond, a panel member unaligned with either candidate. "We don't want absolute chaos for 2012.

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Michigan Democrats have accepted a new compromise.

(CNN) – Michigan’s Democrats have accepted a compromise proposal in their latest attempt to ensure their state will be represented at this summer’s Democratic National Convention, CNN has confirmed.

The state party has voted to sign on to a plan devised a week-and-a-half ago by the working group seeking ways to end the impasse, including Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, Sen. Carl Levin, Democratic National Committee Member Debbie Dingell and United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger.

The group urged the Democratic National Committee to seat the Michigan delegation under a formula that would give a 10-delegate edge to Hillary Clinton, and allow all 157 delegates and superdelegates to be seated this summer.

Clinton was the only major candidate to appear on the ballot in the state’s January contest, which she won with 55 percent of the vote. No delegates were awarded because of national party penalties on Michigan Democrats for moving up their primary date. Forty percent of January’s primary voters chose the “uncommitted” option on the ballot; a majority of those “uncommitted” delegates are backing Barack Obama.

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Watch Dean's interview with CNN's Don Lemon.

(CNN) – Howard Dean, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, set forth three principles that he thinks should govern any effort to reach a compromise regarding seating the Michigan and Florida delegations to his party’s nominating convention.

First, “we want to respect the voters who went to the polls,” Dean said. “It was politicians that made a mess of this — not the voters,” he told CNN’s Don Lemon Tuesday.
“Secondly, you have got to respect these two candidates,” Dean said of Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. “You cannot change the rules at the end of the game and change the outcome.”

“Thirdly, you’ve got to respect the 48 states that followed the rules they way they were supposed to,” the former presidential candidate said.

“So there will be some sort of compromise in the Rules Committee on the 31 of May, I hope,” the DNC chair said. “But we don’t know what that compromise is going to look like right now.”

While Clinton and Obama have continued to battle for the Democratic nod, the DNC has run ads targeting Sen. John McCain, the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee, and Dean took the opportunity to take a shot or two at McCain Tuesday.

“He’s wrong on the courts. He’s wrong on Iraq. He’s wrong on the economy. He’s wrong on healthcare,” said Dean.

CNN=Politics Daily is The Best Political Podcast from the Best Political Team.

(CNN) — With less than a week to go until the critical primaries in Indiana and North Carolina, it's getting close to crunch time for Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

In the latest episode of CNN=Politics Daily, Jessica Yellin reports on how Clinton and Obama are courting blue collar voters in Indiana and courting their party's superdelegates.

In an effort to dissuade the so-called "Reagan Democrats" from choosing Sen. John McCain in the general election, unions in several key states have already begun to target the Republican Party's presumptive nominee. Chief National Correspondent John King is out on the campaign trail with McCain. King explains what the unions are up to and what McCain intends to do to court a key group which both he and the Democrats will likely need to win the White House.

As Clinton and Obama continue to battle it out in the remaining primaries, their party has yet to resolve how to handle the delegations of Florida and Michigan — two states who held their primaries in violation of the Democratic National Committee's rules and were punished by being stripped of all their delegates to the nominating convention. Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider reports on a new proposal by Michigan's congressional delegation to apportion the state's delegates between Clinton and Obama and allow the state's delegation to participate in the convention.

Clinton, Obama, and McCain have been trading barbs lately over who has the best plan to tackle rising gas prices. Dan Lothian reports on the proposals of the three candidates.

Finally, a union leader in Indiana gave Sen. Clinton an unusual introduction Wednesday. Watch Clinton be complimented for her "fortitude."

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(CNN) — Michigan’s Democrats have released another new proposal yesterday in their quest to ensure their state will be represented at this summer’s Democratic National Convention.

Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, Sen. Carl Levin, Democratic National Committee Member Debbie Dingell and United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger – the working group that has been meeting to try to end the impasse — sent a letter to state party chair Mark Brewer Tuesday in which they urged the Democratic National Committee to seat the Michigan delegation under a formula that would give a 10-delegate edge to Hillary Clinton.

Clinton was the only major candidate to appear on the ballot in the state’s January contest, which she won with 55 percent of the vote. No delegates were awarded because of national party penalties on Michigan Democrats for moving up their primary date. Forty percent of January’s primary voters chose the “uncommitted” option on the ballot; a majority of those “uncommitted” delegates are backing Barack Obama.

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(CNN) — The Democratic National Committee's Rules and Bylaws Committee — which is tasked with ruling how to seat Florida and Michigan delegates at the party's summer convention — will meet next month to discuss the situation in Washington, D.C.

"The main item of business on the Committee’s agenda will be the consideration of two pending challenges," write committee co-chairs Alexis Herman and Jim Roosevelt Jr. in a memo sent to members Friday. "We hope you are able to attend this very important RBC meeting."

(CNN) – A Democratic National Committee spokeswoman confirms to CNN that the party has returned $45,000 to three Florida donors unhappy with the continuing uncertainty over the seating of that state's delegation at the party's presidential nominating convention this summer.

The move follows reports that some major Democratic donors from Florida and Michigan — the two states penalized by the party for moving their presidential primary votes to January — would look to have their donations returned if full delegations were not seated at the convention in Denver, or new votes held that would abide by DNC rules.

This week, Howard Dean met with Florida's Democratic congressional delegation and party leaders, and released joint statements with that group and with the Michigan committee looking to craft a resolution of the controversy in that state. Democratic state party leaders in both Florida and Michigan have announced that new votes are not logistically possible.