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The Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee want to change the way the Democratic Party chooses its presidential nominee.

The campaign and DNC today "announced a proposal to establish a special commission to recommend changes to the Democratic Party's rules for delegate selection and presidential primary timing for future presidential cycles," according to an Obama press release.

The proposed “Democratic Change Commission” would focus on three areas: "changes to the opening of the window and pre-window"; lowering the total number of superdelegates, the party insiders and elected officials who have the power to swing who becomes the nominee; and changing the caucus system.

In a separate email to CBSNews.com, Obama spokesman Nick Shapiro elaborated on the proposed "changes to the opening of the window and pre-window":

"First, the primaries and caucuses began too early, causing instability in the election calendar and resulting in elections that were too close to the Christmas and New Year holidays," Shapiro wrote. "So, we are recommending that our nominating rules be amended so that no primary or caucus can be held prior to the first Tuesday in March, except for the four pre-window states."

"Obama continues to believe in the important role that Iowa and New Hampshire have historically played in the process of choosing our party’s Presidential Nominee and the important early role Nevada and South Carolina had in 2008," Shapiro added.

He also wrote that in this election cycle, "too many states piled up on the first day of the calendar window, with 22 primaries and caucuses being held on Feb 5."

"We are asking the Democratic Party to review this frontloading and look for a workable solution to reduce it," Shapiro wrote.

The proposal to establish the commission will be presented Saturday in Denver to the Convention Rules Committee.

(UNITY, N.H.) Laughter rippled through the crowd of over 2,000 at the elementary school field in Unity, New Hampshire, when Hillary Clinton said of her long primary battle with Barack Obama, “I was proud we had a spirited dialogue.”

Recovering quickly, Clinton smiled and said that it was the nicest way she could think of phrasing their fight for the nomination.

Hillary Clinton came here to pledge her support to Obama, and the crowd gave each Democrat a warm reception. But not all of Clinton’s supporters are on board with her vocal support of her former rival.

Malka Yaacobi, a musician from Cambridge, Massachusetts, said that she voted for Clinton in the primaries, and Obama still did not sit right with her.

“I will not say I’ll vote for him,” she said. “ …I don’t trust him and he doesn’t have experience.”

Chris Baimbridge from Northwood, New Hampshire, also voted for Clinton in her state’s primary. Baimbridge said she grew so frustrated with a cable news channel’s coverage of Clinton that she could no longer watch it.

“I really believe the press treated her unfairly,” she said.

Baimbridge wasn’t as dismissive of the idea of voting for Obama in November as Yaacobi was, and she cited John McCain’s visit to Liberty University as the reason why she won’t consider voting for the Republican.

But Baimbridge said she may just stay home in November. And it wouldn’t be much help, in her eyes, if Obama asked Clinton to be his running mate.

“I just don’t think Hillary could take second place and be told by somebody else what to do,” she said.

Click Below To Watch These Voters' Reactions To Obama:

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More Coverage From Unity, N.H.:
Clinton Backers Try To Look Past Concerns
A Unified Front For Obama, Clinton

Video: Clinton, Obama Head To Unity

Unity Prepares For Obama And Clinton

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The conventional wisdom is that today's primary in West Virginia – which Hillary Clinton is likely to easily win – will do little to help Clinton amplify her now-slim hopes of securing the Democratic presidential nomination.

The Clinton campaign, however, is understandably displeased with that perception – and has sent a memo out making the case for "Why West Virginia Matters."

The key line: "Given the attempts by our opponent and some in the media to declare this race over, any significant increase in voter turnout, coupled with a decisive Clinton victory, would send a strong message that Democrats remain excited and energized by Hillary’s candidacy."

The memo notes that "[e]very nominee has carried the state’s primary since 1976, and no Democrat has won the White House without winning West Virginia since 1916." It also says that a Clinton victory would come despite the fact "that Sen. Obama has outspent us on advertising, has more staff in the state, and more than double the number of offices."

Full memo below:

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Incumbents all came out on top in congressional primaries held in Indiana and North Carolina yesterday, though there were a few close races and some interesting match-ups were set up for the fall.

The closest primary race was in the state's central 5th district where Republican Rep. Dan Burton defeated emergency room physician John McGoff, 52 percent to 45 percent. Burton, the state's longest-serving congressman, had come under fire during the campaign for missing House votes during a trip to a charity golf tournament. He will be heavily favored in the Republican leaning district in the fall.

Also in Indiana, Democratic Rep. Andre Carson defeated seven primary challengers with 46 percent of the vote in Indianapolis' 7th district. Carson won the seat in a special election held in March to replace his grandmother, former Rep. Rep. Julia Carson, who died in December. He will now have a rematch of that special election with Republican state Rep. Jon Elrod.

The most competitive House race this fall in Indiana may come in the 9th district in the southeastern part of the state. Democratic Rep. Baron Hill will face former Republican Rep. Mike Sodrel for a fourth consecutive time. Hill defeated Sodrel in 2002 and 2006, with Sodrel winning by 1,500 votes in 2004.

In North Carolina, the most closely watched House primary involved Republican Rep. Walter Jones in the third district, home to the Marine Corps' Camp Lejeune and other bases. Jones came to prominence for touting "Freedom Fries" in the run-up to the Iraq War, but has since has come to oppose the war and was among the few Republican House members to vote for timetables to withdraw U.S. troops. Jones defeated Joe McLaughlin, a former Army officer, by a comfortable 20-point margin, and he is heavily favored in the general election.

The closest House race in North Carolina this November could come in the 11th district in the Western part of the state, where freshmen Democratic Rep. Heath Shuler, the former NFL quarterback, won in 2006 with 54 percent of the vote. Asheville City Councilman Carl Mumpower won the Republican primary over two others with 48 percent of the vote.

North Carolina Democrats also held a primary for the chance to take on Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole in the fall. Democratic state Sen. Kay Hagan beat Chapel Hill entrepreneur Jim Neal by a big margin. Dole is favored, but Democrats in the state believe they have a chance.

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While the Clinton campaign has launched an ad in Indiana attacking Obama's record, the Illinois senator is staying positive with his two TV ads in the state.

The first spot, "Next Door" shows Obama walking down a street in Jeffersonville, Indiana, and highlights the Illinois senator's regional ties. It also returns to the simple theme of his candidacy.

"All across Indiana and my home state next door, folks know we desperately need change," he says.

Watch it:



Obama's other Indiana TV ad, "Inspiring," which previously ran on national cable networks, has a biographical focus. "After college and law school, Barack Obama could have cashed in," the announcer says. "Instead he fought for change."

Watch it:

As polls continue to show Barack Obama maintaining a double-digit lead over Hillary Clinton in the May 6 North Carolina primary, The Associated Press reports that voter registration among blacks is soaring in the Tar Heel State.

Blacks have traditionally accounting for about a third of all voters in past North Carolina Democratic primaries, but Clyde Frazier, a professor of political science at Meredith College in Raleigh, told the AP, "I think everybody's expecting it to be higher than that this year."

The AP reports that over 45,000 blacks registered to vote in the first three months of this year, while about 106,000 whites signed up to vote during the same period. Those numbers are both way up from 2004, when just over 11,000 blacks and 47,000 whites registered during the first quarter of that year, but the percentage increase of new black registrants was much higher than new whites.

If Obama continues to generate the kind of enthusiasm among black voters he has garnered in other southern primaries, North Carolina looks to be his state to lose.

A federal judge today ruled that the Michigan law establishing the state's Jan. 15 presidential primary is unconstitutional. The reason? The law unfairly prevents minor parties from access to voter lists.

Because Michigan held its primary before Democratic National Committee rules permitted, the DNC stripped the state of its delegates to the party convention. The candidates boycotted the state, and Obama's name did not appear on the primary ballot.

The Hillary Clinton campaign seized on the decision to urge the Barack Obama campaign to support a new, party-run primary, the results of which would ostensibly replace the Jan. 15 primary results.

"Michigan voters must not be disenfranchised and the Obama campaign must not continue to block Michigan’s efforts to hold a new vote," Clinton campaign manager Maggie Williams said in the statement. "Rather it should move quickly to announce its support for a party run primary."

As CBS News chief political consultant Marc Ambinder notes, the ruling does not mean that a new primary must be held – the judge left that question up to the parties themselves.

"...the ruling today means nothing more than a chance for her to make the case again for a re-vote," Ambinder writes.

The Clinton campaign has been pressing for a revote in the hope that delegates from Michigan (as well as Florida, a state similarly penalized) would help her close the delegate gap on Obama. In the latest CBS News delegate count, Obama leads Clinton 1618 to 1491.

On the heels of Barack Obama's trifecta of new TV ads in Pennsylvania, Hillary Clinton has countered with her first spot in the state.

Clinton's ad "Level" focuses on the issue that voters have said is the most pressing issue of the campaign, the economy, and says its time to "level the playing field against the special interest."

The ad is aimed at blue-collar and middle class voters that Clinton and Obama are both courting heavily.

"Standing up for people who weren't getting a fair shake, that's been the purpose of my life," Clinton says in the ad. "And it will be the purpose of my presidency."

Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen has an answer for the quandary that has been keeping Democrats up at nights. The race is close enough that it's highly unlikely either candidate will be able to reach the magic number needed to claim the nomination without the support of a significant number of superdelegates – the nearly 800 party leaders and activists who can operate as free agents until the convention.

Leaving the contest open until all the way until Labor Day, however, would result in a lot of frayed nerves without much time to soothe them before the November election. In a New York Times op-ed, Bredesen lays out his thoughts on a "super" primary to settle the matter by the end of June:

Here’s what our party should do: schedule a superdelegate primary. In early June, after the final primaries, the Democratic National Committee should call together our superdelegates in a public caucus.

Of the 795 superdelegates, over 40 percent have not announced which candidate they are supporting; I’m one of them. While it would be comfortable for me to delay making a decision until the convention, the reality is that I’ll have all the information I reasonably need in June, and so will my colleagues across the country.

There will have been more than 20 debates, and more than 28 million Americans will have made their choices and voted. Any remaining uncertainty in our nominee will then lie with the superdelegates, and it will be time for us to make our choices and get on with the business of electing a president.

This is not a proposal for a mini-convention with all the attendant hoopla and sideshows. It is a call for a tight, two-day business-like gathering, whose rules would be devised by the national committee, of the leaders of our party from all over America to resolve a serious problem. There would be a final opportunity for the candidates to make their arguments to these delegates, and then one transparent vote.

Puerto Rico's Democratic Party has changed plans for its nominating contest, switching from a caucus to a primary in order to take advantage of all the excitement, the AP reports. "If Puerto Rico is going to play such a significant role, we should give the world a showcase of democracy," said the territory's Democratic chairman Roberto Prats said. "We
know how to vote, we vote in masses and I think it's Puerto Rico's show time."

The territory's 55 pledged delegates will certainly draw attention from the candidates as they head to the final stretch of the primary season. But Prats says their contest has always been scheduled for June 1st, not the 7th as primary calendars have reported. He says the confusion resulted from a typo in the official document originally sent to the national party. That makes South Dakota and Montana the last states to weigh in on the fight on June 3rd – at least until we hear what Florida and Michigan will do.