Hillary Clinton delivered a show of force at DNC summer Meeting

Hillary Clinton delivered a show of force on Friday meant to make one thing abundantly clear to Democratic leaders, Bernie Sanders, and Joe Biden: She is the boss.

Coming off two weeks of breathless speculation about the vice president’s ambitions, Clinton now looks like she’s nearly locked up the support of party elites, something she critically failed to accomplish in 2008.

Clinton’s top aides — including campaign manager Robby Mook, political director Amanda Renteria, and top organizing official Marlon Marshall — worked party influencers at the Democrats’ candidate cattle-call here and at a private happy hour at the W Hotel bar on Thursday night, while trying to calm those with questions about the email controversy. Clinton too met with supporters privately on Thursday night.

And party officials gathered in the hotel’s hallways, conference rooms, and suites responded, delivering a level of enthusiasm for their wounded front-runner that demonstrated to would-be challengers how little space they have to pursue the Democratic establishment.

“This is really about how you put the numbers together to secure the nomination,” Clinton said Friday. “In 2008 I got a lot of votes, but I didn’t get enough delegates. So I think it’s understandable that my focus is going to be on delegates as well as votes this time.”

In a leak coinciding neatly with Clinton’s appearance in Minneapolis, Brooklyn told Bloomberg it has already secured commitments from more than 60 percent of the party’s superdelegates -- those officials and leaders whose support is not tied to primary or caucus tallies. The campaign also says it is briefing the unpledged delegates to firm up support.

It’s not a field-clearing advantage; superdelegates can change allegiances and Clinton was ahead in the delegate count early in the 2008 race too. But it’s significant if it holds.

Underscoring Clinton’s commanding position — and perhaps highlighting the disconnect between party officials and disaffected voters — the Sanders campaign appeared nearly an afterthought through the first two days of the DNC meeting, his supporters’ handwritten signs heavily outnumbered by Clinton t-shirts and bumper stickers until the candidate took the stage to loud cheers on Friday afternoon. Even the senator himself was received coolly at a reception of DNC members the previous night, according to people in the room.

“The DNC meeting in Minneapolis is Clinton country at the moment,” said Kate Gallego, a committee member from Arizona who said even her flight to Minnesota was overrun with Clinton buttons.

Evidence of her support was clear as her standard stump speech was treated by the fired-up audience as if it were a swing-state, general-election rally, interrupted by extended standing ovations.