"Step up" Obama campaign mgr tells donors

The latest fund-raising hook from Barack Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe: Give money now and get this over with faster. In a letter out today, Plouffe tells donors that Obama has now surpassed Hillary Clinton in the super delegate count, as well as in pledged delegates and the popular vote, and that no matter how much Clinton wins by tomorrow in West Virginia, Obama will keep "an insurmountable lead" in the Democrats' nominating fight. According to the Obama campaign's calculations, the freshman Illinois senator needed 150 more delegates to secure the 2,025 needed for the nomination. "We need to act quickly to encourage the remaining superdelegates to join us and close out this race," Plouffe's letter said. "And we need to start building now to beat Senator McCain this November."