March 2008 - Posts
From NBC's Mark Murray The Tonight Show with Jay Leno has just announced that
Clinton will appear on the show Thursday. Per the press release, it will be the third time she has been on Leno.
From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan Does McCain really want troops in iraq for one hundred years? According to Obama the answer is yes.
"I don’t think it’s unfair at all," Obama said. "John McCain, I mean, we can run the YouTube spot, has said that we will stay there as long as it takes. And if it takes another 100 years, he’s up for that commitment and that implies that there is some criteria by which we would understand how long it takes.
Obama was told that McCain had said the presence would be similar to what the United States had done with Germany and Japan in World War II. Obama seemed to agree with that notion but pointed to the costs of the war as a reason to avoid that type of engagement.
Here's McCain's response on this to Tim Russert on Meet the Press.
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From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones Clinton said today.
The proposal announced by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson would streamline regulations and give the Federal Reserve new powers to set rules for lending to and regulating a greater list of financial institutions.
The New York senator also continued to bash presumptive Republican nominee John McCain , accusing him of not having a plan for dealing with the economy. "Today, the Administration, through the Secretary of the Treasury, has announced that finally the Bush Administration is going to take some action to better regulate the financial markets," she said during a roundtable at a diner here Monday. "Well, after years of a wait-and-don't-see approach to the regulatory failures that led to the housing and the credit crisis, they've announced a plan that comes late and falls short. No amount of rearranging the deck chairs can hide the fact that our housing and credit markets are in crisis, and they're sinking deeper every day. Every day we fail to take aggressive action is a day lost. You know, Sen. McCain recently gave speech on the economy, and best I could determine his plan was not to have a plan. If he got the 3:00 am call on the economy, he would just let the phone ring and ring and ring."
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From NBC's Domenico Montanaro Senate superdelegates endorsements earlier today . We've broken out the House backers as well, and Clinton leads 73-69. That means there are 92 House members who are undecided. Also of note among these House endorsers, 23 of Clinton's 72 are reps from New York (32%). By contrast, nine of Obama's House backers are from Illinois (13%).
Here's how Clinton's and Obama's superdelegate support breaks down:Obama 14-12TOTAL: Clinton 255, Obama 222
[EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this post did not include Murtha for Clinton or Eddie Bernice Johnson for Obama. Also, we do not include Eleanor Holmes Norton, who has endorsed Obama. Though she sits on and votes in committee, her title is delegate, not Congresswoman. It's the old DC license plate joke: Taxation without representation.]
Here's the list of the House backers:
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From NBC/NJ's Matthew E. Berger PHILADELPHIA -- While a final number may not be available for a few weeks, the Pennsylvania Department of State has released an update on the number of people registered to vote in the April 22 Democratic primary here. And it shows a massive registration effort on the final day of eligibility.
The state now has 4,119,213 registered Democrats. Since March 24, the last day of eligibility for the primary election, the state has received 33,281 new Democratic registrations and 45,977 party changes to the Democratic Party. The secretary of state’s office is still accepting new registrations and party switches that were postmarked by the deadline.
State officials said the activity on the final day was intense, and these new numbers likely include large swaths of registrations that were collected by both the Obama and Clinton campaigns and submitted just before the deadline.
Since the first of the year, the state has received 101,499 new Democratic applications and 132,688 switches to the Democratic Party.
By contrast, the Republican Party in Pennsylvania now stands at 3,197,586 people. Only 32,191 citizens have joined the Republican roles and 13,937 have switched to the GOP since January 1.
From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy MERIDIAN, Miss. -- With a 20-minute long familial history here this morning, John McCain kicked off what his campaign is formally calling the “Service to America” tour meant to reintroduce McCain to voters. But if today was any indication, the tour could accurately be renamed "Faith of my Fathers on Stage."
This morning’s speech was a Cliffs Notes version of the McCain Family story found in the senator’s best-selling autobiography -- written with assistance from senior advisor Mark Salter. The message of the speech focused on how the military service of his ancestors inspired him to serve his country as well.
“The family I was born to, and the family I am blessed with now, made me the man I am, and instilled in me a deep and abiding respect for the social institution that wields the greatest influence in the formation of our individual character and the character of our society,” McCain said. “Government must be attentive to the impact of its policies on families so that it does not through inattention or arrogance make it harder for parents to have the resources to succeed in the greatest work of their lives -- raising their children.”
The several hundred people seated in the audience sat quietly for the first 15 minutes of McCain’s talk before applauding loudly when the candidate called for the federal government to be mindful of its effects on the American family.
Going forward, McCain visits his high school and college in the coming days when he is expected to outline how his education shaped his character and prepared him for the presidency.
*** UPDATE ***
From NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann Several Democratic sources familiar with North Carolina politics expressed surprise at today's
Wall Street Journal story , saying that -- although several members of the delegation are likely
Obama backers -- an en masse endorsement would include nods from several Dems who most expected to stay on the sidelines in the
Clinton -Obama race.
A staff member close to one of the superdelegates in question confirms there is no truth to the story.
Per Dan Leistikow, a spokesman for the Obama campaign in North Carolina, "Despite the Wall Street Journal’s optimism, none of them has said told our campaign that they are ready to announce their endorsement of Senator Obama -- so we’ll keep working on it."
One Democrat who supports Obama did say that some elected officials and candidates for office in the state have expressed concern about a prolonged nomination, saying that many believe that a popular election result overturned by superdelegates "would destroy the party.." A mass endorsement by the delegation would send a clear message of party unity, he said.
But as of today, added another source familiar with the story, the idea might have simply been born of one Obama supporter's wishful thinking.
From NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann and NBC's Mark Murray Obama is heavily favored in the May 6 North Carolina primary. And not surprisingly, the Clinton campaign has downplayed expectations there (just like Team Obama has downplayed expectations in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Kentucky).
But -- in a nod to the power of surrogates -- it's worth noting that the Clinton clan has visited the Tar Heel State more often than the Obama clan has since March 4.
Barack Obama -- 2 days, 3 total stops
Hillary Clinton -- 1 day, 3 total stops
From NBC's Pete Williams
A federal appeals court ruled that the FBI wrongly used its own agents look through the material seized to determine what might be covered by congressional privilege. This is a considerable victory for Jefferson, largely validating his objections to the search and giving him certain bragging rights. But prosecutors claim they have sufficient evidence independent of the search. The cash in his freezer, for example, was found well before Jefferson's offices were searched.
The court today handed down just one decision, a victory for Delaware. The state hoped to stop construction of a proposed British Petroleum liquified natural gas port on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River. The court, acting in its special role as the sole decider of disputes between the states, ruled Delaware has a say in what's built on the New Jersey side of the river involving projects that would extend into the river, where both states have joint authority.
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro Klobuchar (D-Minn.) for Obama , we decided to take a look at who each Democratic senator is backing. Obama, it turns out, leads Clinton , 14-12. Twenty senators are uncommitted. A couple of notes... excluded from the list is the Florida-Michigan contingent of senators: Debbie Stabenow , of Michigan, who is backing Clinton; Carl Levin , of Michigan, who is uncommitted; and Bill Nelson , of Florida, who has endorsed Clinton. Also excluded are senators, who caucus with Democrats, but do not have a vote at convention: Bernie Sanders (I-VT-Uncommitted) and Joe Lieberman (I/D-CT-McCain ). Lieberman was stripped of his superdelegate status when he endorsed McCain.
Here's the full list of the Senate superdelegate endorsements:
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From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro Stay or go? To paraphrase that old Clash song, “Should she stay or should she go?” (“If I go there will be trouble; and if I stay it will be double…”) That was the question that continued to dominate the Beltway chatter over the weekend. The problem for Clinton is that she's busier trying to prove her relevance in the process rather than debating Obama about the economy, health care, or Iraq. Indeed, Clinton told the Washington Post that she’s in until the end. But it's simply not good for any campaign to have call up major national reporters to tell them that. A few questions we have about this interview: Did the need to do this come from financial duress, superdelegate duress, or both? Have more folks contacted the Clintons privately that the press hasn't heard about that's giving this pushback from the campaign more of a sense of urgency? Could some Clinton supporters (or even active campaigners, paid or unpaid) be ready to bolt? We in the media have been accused of creating this sense of urgency over whether she should stay in the race or not. But did Clinton herself need to add to the storyline with this interview? Apparently, she did. Nevertheless, more superdelegates are flocking to Obama. According to the Wall Street Journal, and confirmed by NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D) will endorse Obama today. And the Journal also reports that Obama will get the support of North Carolina’s entire Democratic congressional delegation before that state’s primary on May 6.
VIDEO: NBC Political Director Chuck Todd offers his first read on the big superdelegate add for Barack Obama while Hillary Clinton continues to fight calls to drop out of the race. ***
“I’m reporting for duty,” part II : The comparisons between McCain's '08 bid and Kerry's in '04 have been unmistakable: Both men, early on, were their party's overwhelming favorites to win the nomination; then they encountered trouble and got overshadowed by other candidates; and then -- almost out of nowhere -- they locked up the nomination. Now, as McCain today embarks on his "Service to America" tour across the country, there's another comparison between the two men: the emphasis of their military experience. Today, McCain stumps in Meridian, MS, where he served as a flight instructor and where an airfield is named after his grandfather. Per excerpts of his speech, McCain will discuss his family’s lifetime of service, as well as his thoughts on how the government can support parents’ ability to raise their children. On Tuesday, he’s at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, VA, where he graduated from high school. On Wednesday, it’s to Annapolis, MD, where he attended the US Naval Academy. On Thursday, he heads to Pensacola and Jacksonville, FL, where he served stateside. And on Saturday, he gives a speech in Arizona, which he now calls home.
*** But biography isn’t everything : McCain's military service -- including his five years as a POW in Vietnam -- is without a doubt one of the central narratives of his life and his political career. It is also something that clearly distinguishes him from both Obama and Clinton. But as Bill Kristol writes in today’s New York Times , you can’t win presidential on biography alone. “If voters had simply looked at the biographies of the major-party candidates, they would have chosen George H. W. Bush in 1992, Bob Dole in 1996, Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004. Instead, they rejected four veterans who served in wartime (and who also had considerable experience in public life) for Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, who had lesser résumés, both civilian and military.” Kristol adds, “Campaign consultants like to say elections are about the present and the future more than the past.” Also, keep this in mind: If McCain fails to win the presidency, it will likely mean that no Vietnam War veteran will ever be president. That should keep historical psychologists busy for years.
*** The Texas three-step : Over the weekend, we finally got an idea of the complete Texas caucus results. But we still don't have final results. As for the change in the delegate count, NBC had already allocated all but nine of the 67 caucus delegates up for grabs. The Obama campaign is claiming they've secured seven of those nine; the Clinton campaign is not projecting their caucus delegate count but believes Obama may only net five of those nine, not seven. Still, the best case for Obama, based on our totals, is a net of five additional delegates -- so not a massive change in the numbers. He may be getting more superdelegate endorsements today than he'll net out of what's remaining in Texas.
*** The Goreacle speaketh : One person who doesn’t seem eager to step in and resolve the Clinton-Obama fight is Al Gore. "I'm not applying for the job of broker,” he said on 60 Minutes last night. But what Gore is doing is launching is “a three-year, $300 million campaign Wednesday aimed at mobilizing Americans to push for aggressive reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, a move that ranks as one of the most ambitious and costly public advocacy campaigns in U.S. history," the Washington Post writes. Climate change advocates have been frustrated that the issue is not yet a voting issue; Gore et al have succeeded in creating awareness, but they have yet to create a sense of urgency on the issue. That's what this campaign is designed to create.
*** Opening Day : Today is Opening Day, and after last night's amazing Nationals ending (thank you, Ryan Zimmerman!), it's a reminder that the beauty of Opening Day is that fans of EVERY team have high hopes and can think, "Maybe this is the year..." Well, today is a new Opening Day for McCain as he tries to jumpstart his general election campaign. And then there's Clinton, who desperately needs an Opening Day; the campaign needs that hope again. And as for Obama, he's like the baseball team who has a seven-game lead going into the final month of the season but hasn't yet clinched. The pennant appears to be his for the taking, but for some reason the veteran team chasing him keeps hanging around and hanging around…
*** On the trail : Elsewhere today, both Clinton and Obama are in Pennsylvania: Clinton hosts a roundtable discussion in Harrisburg and an economic rally in Fairless Hills, while Obama has a town hall in Lancaster and a rally in (cue Billy Joel) Allentown. Also, Bill Clinton stumps in Oregon. Click here to sign up for First Read emails .
On Sunday, the Washington Post ran this front-page story, “In her most definitive comments to date on the subject, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton sought … to put to rest any notion that she will drop out of the presidential race, pledging in an interview to not only compete in all the remaining primaries but also continue until there is a resolution of the disqualified results in Florida and Michigan… ‘I know there are some people who want to shut this down and I think they are wrong,’ Clinton said in an interview during a campaign stop here Saturday. ‘I have no intention of stopping until we finish what we started and until we see what happens in the next 10 contests and until we resolve Florida and Michigan. And if we don't resolve it, we'll resolve it at the convention -- that's what credentials committees are for.’”
“‘We cannot go forward until Florida and Michigan are taken care of, otherwise the eventual nominee will not have the legitimacy that I think will haunt us,’ said the senator from New York. ‘I can imagine the ads the Republican Party and John McCain will run if we don't figure out how we can count the votes in Michigan and Florida.’’
“As the smoke cleared from this weekend's regional Democratic conventions, Barack Obama emerged with a majority of the state's at-large presidential nominating delegates and possibly a majority of all Texas delegates,” the Houston Chronicle reports. “But Hillary Rodham Clinton's supporters vowed Sunday to continue the fight for Texas delegates all the way to this summer's state party convention, promising to cut his lead in delegates.” More: "Clinton won the popular vote in the March 4 primaries and a majority of the primary-allotted delegates, giving her a 65-61 lead. Obama's campaign claimed he came out of this weekend's conventions with a 38-29 at-large delegate lead, giving him a five-pledged-delegate lead over Clinton... "Clinton state Chairman Garry Mauro conceded that Obama is likely to have a 37-30 advantage in the at-large delegates, which would give Obama a total lead of three pledged delegates over Clinton."
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The Washington Post goes back and examines the attempt Obama and McCain made to work together on ethics reform. "[W]hat began as a promising collaboration between two men bent on burnishing their reformist credentials collapsed after barely a week. The McCain-Obama relationship came undone amid charges and countercharges, all aired publicly two years ago in an exchange of stark and angry letters. Obama questioned whether McCain sided with GOP leaders rather than searching for a bipartisan solution; McCain accused Obama of ‘typical rhetorical gloss’ and ‘self interested partisan posturing’ by a newcomer seeking to ingratiate himself with party leaders.”
More: “More than two years later, with McCain and Obama potentially poised to go head to head in a presidential campaign with stakes far greater than regulating who picks up steakhouse tabs, the reform fight has emerged as a looking-glass moment of what a fall campaign could resemble. McCain's backers view it as emblematic of Obama's ability to talk grand ideas and aspirations, but also of his ultimate failure to produce substantive results. Obama's supporters contend that the moment was vintage Obama, with the newcomer defusing the feud with a cool demeanor that allowed him to claim the high ground while rolling up his sleeves to eventually help pass a broader ethics overhaul bill in August 2007."
PENNSYLVANIA : The Boston Globe front-pages how the Democrats have moved from talking about NAFTA to “expanding beyond their past populist appeals and using a broader language that can address different experiences of economic change. In Pennsylvania, which on April 22 will host the largest of the remaining contests, Clinton and Obama have turned their emphasis from industrial policy to household economics, such as subprime mortgages, the rising price of gas, supermarket costs, and the interest rates charged on student loans.
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So does Clinton have a money problem? Apparently, the campaign is slow at paying bills, particularly for events. And some of these local vendors are actually warning colleagues about getting Clinton money up front. Per the Politico , “Hillary Rodham Clinton’s cash-strapped presidential campaign has been putting off paying hundreds of bills for months — freeing up cash for critical media buys but also earning the campaign a reputation as something of a deadbeat in some small-business circles.”
Moving the goalposts ... again? In Saturday’s New York Times , anonymous Clinton aides said if Clinton didn't win the Indiana primary, they'd urge her to get out. But if she narrowly wins Indiana but loses North Carolina, she'll have a hard time making up ground in the delegate count or the popular vote. There was one other quote that jumped out at us in this NYT piece: Rendell's bizarre claim on if rolls were reversed. “‘Just flip it for a second,’ Mr. Rendell said. ‘Let’s say Senator Clinton was ahead by about 110 delegates and ahead by less than 1 percent of the vote cast, and she and her supporters started to call on Senator Obama to get out. Just picture what the media would be saying. They’d be saying you’re being racist, you’re being everything in the world. It’s nuts! It’s nuts!’”
Really, governor? Really? There wouldn't be TWICE the pressure on Obama to get out than there is right now on Clinton? Rendell has been throwing around the race card easier than most folks of late.
The Los Angeles Times' Finnegan and Z. Barabak point out a fact that has gotten lost with many folks in the media who seem to have amnesia about the Clintons' role leading the Democratic Party in the '90s. "A complication for Clinton, as she courts superdelegates, is the rocky history that she and Bill Clinton have with many in the Democratic establishment. Obama portrays her as a Washington fixture, and after 15 years inside the Beltway -- eight of them as first lady -- the New York senator is very much steeped in the capital and its culture. So, too, are Clinton's campaign team and many of her political allies.”
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Per excerpts of the speech he will give today in Meridian, MS, McCain will say: “As you might know, I was once a flight instructor here at the air field named for my grandfather during my long past and misspent youth. And it’s always good to be in Mississippi, which you could call my ancestral home. Generations of McCains were born and raised in Carroll County, on land that had been in our family since 1848… By all accounts, the McCains of Carroll County were devoted to one another and their traditions; a lively, proud and happy family on the Mississippi Delta. Yet, many McCains left here as young men to pursue careers in what has long been our family’s chosen profession -- the United States Armed Forces.”
More: “The family I was born to, and the family I am blessed with now, made me the man I am, and instilled in me a deep and abiding respect for the social institution that wields the greatest influence in the formation of our individual character and the character of our society.” Web video highlighting his family’s military service.
The New York Times curtain-raises McCain's general election kickoff week with a fact that many folks have whispered about for some time. "With attention focused on the Democrats’ infighting for the presidential nomination, Senator John McCain is pressing ahead to the general election but has yet to sign up one critical constituency: the big-money people who powered the Bush fund-raising machine."
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Obama drew 20,000 to Penn State . Check out the photo of him with the Penn State football jersey. Wasn’t he doing that in Austin, too?picks up the endorsement of Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar today, giving him another superdelegate supporter. The endorsement will occur in a conference call at 10:30 am ET. “In a statement provided to The Associated Press, Klobuchar said Obama ‘has inspired an enthusiasm and idealism that we have not seen in this country in a long time.’” Also: "North Carolina's seven Democratic House members are poised to endorse Sen. Obama as a group -- just one has so far -- before that state's May 6 primary, several Democrats say." But Obama spokesman Bill Burton tells First Read that there will be no endorsements from North Carolina congressmen coming today. "That did not come from our campaign, we have not confirmed that," Burton adds.
The Washington Post caught Obama in an exaggeration about the Kennedy family role in getting his father to America. It turns out the Kennedys were not involved in any Kenyan airlifts until after Obama's father was safely in Hawaii. What is it about politicians trying too hard to be a part of history? Sometimes, there isn't a destiny; that's ok too.
The Los Angeles Times does something many Obama supporters have been asking the media to do for weeks: put Rev. Wright in some context. "Examining the full content of Wright's sermons and delivery style yields a far more complex message, though one that some will still find objectionable. For more than 30 years, Wright walked churchgoers every Sunday along a winding road from rage to reconciliation, employing a style that validated both. ‘He's voicing a reality that those people experience six days a week,’ said the Rev. Dwight Hopkins, a professor at the University of Chicago Divinity School and a Trinity member. ‘In that sense, he's saying they're not insane. That helps them to function the other six days of the week.’”
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Last week, we alerted you to the possibility that Ebay CEO Meg Whitman was pondering a gov run in 2010 in California. Well, her opponent could very well be ... Jerry Brown . "Brown spoke at the state Democratic Party convention Saturday, and boy, did he sound an awful lot like a candidate for Golden State governor -- again. Eerie.”
“Brown, who served two terms as governor from 1975 to 1983 before term limits took effect, reminded his Democratic audience assembled in San Jose of some of his ‘highlights,’ like getting rid of former Gov. Ronald Reagan's bulletproof limousine and using a blue Plymouth from the state motor pool. Brown said he kept the Plymouth for eight years and put 240,000 miles on it, adding: ‘Now that's sustainability.’”
From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan STATE COLLEGE, PA -- Obama has launched a charm offensive in Pennsylvania, forgoing days packed with town halls and cheering crowds at rallies to make small unannounced stops that take the locals by surprise.
Case in point, trying not to strike out in Pennsylvania to Clinton, Obama went bowling Saturday night at Pleasant Valley Lanes in Altoona, five minutes from a hot dog shop that he had visited earlier in the day.
When Obama walked in with Sen. Bob Casey , who recently endorsed him, locals stopped munching mid-fry to stare. The presidential hopeful shook hands, posed for pictures and then joined local Roxanne Hart to bowl a few frames.
"I haven't bowled in 30 years," Obama declared before putting on size 13 1/2 shoes. Casey joined in, and the two rolled. Casey's ball went into the left gutter; Obama's rolled into the right. And so it went, though the locals didn't seem to mind the poor performance. Little kids offered advice and joined in the game. Casey managed to improved steadily, though the last time he bowled was in high school. Obama's balls on the on the other hand meandered their way into the gutter time and time again.
"My economic plan is better than my bowling!" Obama declared at one point to the crowd that had gathered around the lane, growing with each frame as patrons texted and called friends and family to see the political spectacle.
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From NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann Chelsea Clinton said that the trade deal is one area of disagreement between her parents.
"Well, we don't agree on everything as a family," she told the questioner at a Q&A session of North Carolina's Young Democrats in Durham yesterday. "My mother and father agree on most things, not everything," she added. "And what you're talking about is one example of that."
NAFTA is likely to be a major issue in the state for the presidential primary, as many residents blame the loss of textile and manufacturing jobs on the trade deal spearheaded by Bill Clinton's Administration.
Chelsea Clinton also delivered an impassioned defense of her mother's candidacy when a friendly questioner asked if she thought her mother has been mischaracterized by the press and the public during the prolonged nomination fight.
"I didn't really get how much sexism there was in this country," she said, citing examples of voters who had approached her with concerns about a woman's capacity to be commander in chief. She singled out gag gift figurines of her mother as a "nutcracker" ("not in anything that I'd consider a respectful posture," said Chelsea) as particularly offensive.
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From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli WILLIAMSPORT, PA -- Calling Hillary Clinton “the most unconventional person I have ever seen to be running for president,” Bill Clinton yesterday highlighted his wife’s advocacy for children as a young woman as an example of her work as a change-maker.
Bill Clinton, still wearing a greenish suit after his visit to a St. Patrick’s Day parade earlier, told a crowd of several hundred about Hillary’s work after law school for the Children’s Defense Fund, saying that part of her efforts led to legislation guaranteeing all children the right to a public school education without regard for disabilities.
“It changed lives for millions and millions of families. And she was doing that when she was a young woman, making changes in other people’s lives,” he said.
He then referred to the three remaining candidates, saying all were “admirable people,” but that if one compared their records as an agent of change “it is not close.” But, he added, the coverage of the race hasn’t borne it out.
“She’s the most unconventional person I have ever seen to be running for president, because she did most of this before she had an elected office,” he said. “[But] you never read about any of stuff in the press, do you? Because the intermediaries of the campaign, these kinds of things don’t matter to them, because they don’t need a president, they need a story. They want a feeling. You gotta decide whether you need a president or not.”
From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan Obama yesterday said that Sen. Patrick Leahy's call for Clinton to leave the race was premature, declaring that Clinton had a right to stay in the race as long as she wanted.
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From NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann and NBC's Chuck Todd Check out this line from today's Bill Clinton-signed fundraising email for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign: "We're facing a big deadline on Monday. Our opponents and the media will scrutinize our fundraising reports and look for any sign of weakness. By making a contribution today, you can help make sure we show nothing but strength."
Of course, the campaign could be playing an expectations game.
From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan GREENBURG, PA -- Barack Obama promised that his foreign policy would be a return to what he says was the realist approach practiced by George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan.
"My foreign policy is actually a return to the traditional realistic policy of George Bush's father, of John F. Kennedy, of in some ways Ronald Reagan," he said Friday. A voter at the town hall in Greenburg had asked Obama to respond to charges that his foreign policy was naïve.
"It is George Bush who has been naïve and it's people like John McCain and unfortunately some democrats that have facilitated him acting in these naïve ways that have caused us so much damage in our reputation in the world," Obama said.
Drawing on the example of the first Gulf War, Obama said that the first President Bush had "conducted a Gulf War with allies that ended up costing twenty billion dollars and left us stronger because they were realistic."
"Remember, people were saying why didn't you go into Baghdad and overthrow Saddam Hussein? The realists understood that that would be a nightmare. And it wasn't worth our national interests," Obama added.
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From NBC/NJ’s Aswini Anburajan GREENBURG, Pa. -- The Clinton campaign today accused the Obama campaign of "false advertising," claiming that a recent ad Obama released in Pennsylvania was disngenous because Obama has been the recipient of more than $200,000 from the oil and gas industry.
In the ad, Obama says, "I'm Barack Obama, and I don't take money from oil companies or lobbyists, and I won't let them block change any more."
Obama has taken $213,884 from the oil and gas industry as of Feb. 29th, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Sen. Hillary Clinton has taken $306,813 in that same period.
Two of Obama's campaign bundlers are also CEOs for oil and gas companies, per a list released on his campaign Web site.
Robert Cavnar, listed as a bundler who has raised between $50,000 to $100,000 for the campaign, is the chairman and CEO of Mission Resources Corp., a Houston-based firm. George Kaiser, also listed in the same $50,000 to $100,000 category, is the CEO of Tulsa-based Kaiser-Francis Oil Company.
"It's unfortunate that Senator Obama is using false advertising to explain why he can be trusted to do something about energy prices," Clinton spokesman Phil Singer said. "Senator Obama says he doesn't take campaign contributions from oil companies but the reality is that Exxon, Shell, and others are among his donors."
Obama routinely criticizes companies like Exxon-Mobil on the stump, but over the course of his presidential campaign he has taken more than $30,000 from individuals working for Exxon-Mobil. Clinton has taken more than $20,000 from Exxon-Mobil in the same period.
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From NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann Hillary Clinton's No. 1 fan thinks of recent calls for her to drop out of the race for the Democratic nomination, Bill Clinton has three words for you: "Bunch of Bull."
"All these people tell you, 'Aw, we oughta shut this thing down now; the Democrats are so divided,'" Clinton said at a campaign event here. "That’s a bunch of bull."
The former president went on to note that he did not earn enough delegates to clinch the 1992 nomination until June of that year, around the same time that the final primary votes will be cast this year.
He also argued, as he often does, against the "disenfranchisement" of voters in Michigan and Florida. "She wants you to have your say," he added.
Notably, Clinton described the remaining primaries as contests for the popular vote (not for delegates.) "Now we’re going to have to go all the way through to the end to see who has the most popular votes," he said. "And that’s good."
From NBC's Mike Viqueira Pelosi , wherein the speaker expresses concern about the tone of the Democratic presidential contest spilling over and harming House races.
Dear , I will do whatever it takes to protect our candidates and make sure their campaigns to drive change forward don't skip a beat. I need you to do the same. Please support our candidates now with a donation to the DCCC before the critical March 31st deadline hits by going to www.dccc.org/deadline .
She or he will lead our energized and united Democratic Party in the larger fight against John McCain, and his plan for 100 more years of war in Iraq. Now is the time to capitalize on the excitement that is sweeping the nation to ensure that our next President has a strong Democratic majority in the House to work with as we undo the damage from President Bush's failed economic policies.
Nancy Pelosi
From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan Paul Tewes, Obama's state director in Iowa, will head to the Keystone State tomorrow to take over the campaign's GOTV operation.
From NBC/NJ’s Athena Jones
As Hillary Clinton kicked off a long day of campaigning in the Hoosier State Friday, her campaign painted the fight here as an uphill struggle.
State director Robby Mook cited a statewide Howey-Gauge poll, showing Clinton running behind Obama and said that was partly due to his being from a neighboring state. The most recent Howey-Gauge poll found , taken in mid-February, showed Obama leading by 15 points.
Still, Mook said the campaign was active in every congressional district and would be announcing new office openings in the coming days. Clinton is set to hold a press conference in Hammond, Ind., this afternoon to announce the endorsement of seven mayors from cities in the Western part of the state, bordering the Chicago media market, an area seen as favorable to Obama. None of the mayors are superdelegates.
Clinton, who trails Obama in pledged delegates, the popular vote and the number of states won, needs to do well in the remaining contests to bolster her argument that having won several of the biggest states and most recent states, she will be more electable. For at least the third time this week, the New York senator referred this morning to calls from some for her to drop out of the race, this time citing a poll by
Rasmussen , an organization that does not use the preferred telephone interview survey method.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ’s Aswini Anburajan
"You know, I did not press him on this endorsement, you know there were some people that I was nagging all the time," Obama said of reaching out to Casey. "Bob I thought to myself, there's great reason for me to press him; I told him I'd love to have his support, but I understood that you know we're behind in the Pennsylvania polls. I just want to say it would have been easy for Bob just to stay out of it, just to stay neutral. I think everybody would have accepted that.
"But when he called me and said, ‘I think this is the right thing to do,’ it meant as much to me as any endorsement that I've received on the campaign trail," Obama added.
Casey introduced Obama and spoke to the potential of his leadership.
VIDEO: Watch Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey’s remarks while endorsing Barack Obama . CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Matthew Berger Chelsea Clinton was asked whether her mother would be a better president than her father, and she said yes.
Speaking at Lehigh Valley Hospital Friday, she laughed when a man in the front row asked her to choose between her parents.
“His question is, ‘Do I think my mother will be a better president than my father,’” she said. “Well, again, I don’t take anything for granted, but hopefully with Pennsylvania’s help, she will be our next president, and yes, I do think she’ll be a better president.”
Clinton spoke for more than an hour at the hospital, taking mostly questions about healthcare issues.
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Clinton supporter Joe Sestak was on with NBC's Andrea Mitchell during the 1 pm MSNBC hour, and slipped in one response. Mitchell asked him if he was concerned that if this fight goes to convention that it could tear apart the party.
Sestak replied that he's not, that he's confident that if Obama were to lose the nomination, he'd turn around and say, "Support her." And if Clinton were to lose the nomination, she would turn around and say, "Support me."
Whoops.
Shaking his head, Sestak quickly corrected: "Support him."
We know what he meant, but still funny.
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro Here's Obama's latest aworking-class appeal...
Here's the script: OBAMA [with backdrop of factory]: I moved to chicago to help workers, whose lives were torn apart when steel plants like this one left town. For decades, politicians have talked about protecting jobs, but the power of Washington lobbyists stops anything from changing. I'm Barack Obama. I'm the only candidate who doesn't take their money, and they won't run my White HOuse.
We'll fix our trade laws [on screen: "Register to vote by April 7th], end tax breaks for companies who ship jobs overseas and give them to those who create jobs here in America [on screen: IN.BarackObama.com 866-675-2008]. That's why I approve this message.
*** UPDATE *** first ad in North Carolina . *** UPDATE 2 ***
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro Clinton has a fundraising message: Don't count me out. And she sets the bar for the upcoming primaries, that this isn't just about Pennsylvania.
Here's the email:
Have you noticed the pattern?
Every time our campaign demonstrates its strength and resilience, people start to suggest we should end our pursuit of the Democratic nomination.
Those anxious to force us to the sidelines aren't doing it because they think we're going to lose the upcoming primaries. The fact is, they're reading the same polls we are, and they know we are in a position to win.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro High profile Obama backer, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), told Vermont Public Radio that he thinks Clinton should drop out and back Obama.
"There is no way that Senator Clinton is going to win enough
VIDEO: Sen. Patrick Leahy explains his view that the ongoing political tussling between Obama and Clinton may be helping McCain’s candidacy. Here's the full transcript:<
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro Clinton leads Obama 36-12 among the Jewish superdelegates, according to a survey by the Forward , a Jewish newspaper. Twenty-six Jewish supers are undecided.
Here's the Forward's list of who's fallen behind whom and who's undecided:
CONTINUED >>
From MSNBC.com’s Andy Merten MSNBC.com in an interview this week . “There’s two ways to succeed: One way is to beat them by getting more votes, and we could turn this into a three-way race,” he insisted, adding, “And the second is to have them take our issues and run with them.”Meet the Press last month, isn’t holding his breath for McCain, Clinton or Obama to become mouth pieces for his pro-consumer, high corporate oversight presidential platform any time soon. Asked if Obama’s message of change quelled his frustration with two-party domination, he said he doesn’t see any real differences between the Illinois senator and his presidential opponents.
“I think he’s a corporate Democrat,” he said of Obama, likening him to Clinton and McCain. “As a senator, he has not championed the cause of consumers and workers against corporations.
VIDEO: Ralph Nader speaks with MSNBC.com about his platform of consumer advocacy. But Nader doesn’t seem delusional about his likelihood of winning the presidency later this year. After all, he garnered just 0.38% of the vote in 2004 after receiving 2.74% in 2000. (He is still seen by many Democrats as
having cost Al Gore the election , particularly in Florida.) Instead, Nader likens his candidacy to political movements of the past that have spurred larger social change.&.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Here's the statement:
From Chuck Todd and Domenico Montanaro *** Obama's Step Forward? Taking the week cumulatively, is there any other way to look at it other than a big step forward for Obama? Every piece of initial evidence from last week showing potential trouble for Obama faded, particularly on the polling front, whether nationally or in key states. Toss in the frustration the Clinton campaign is showing (why are they letting us see them sweat so much, particularly over Pelosi and Florida/Michigan?). And end it with serious flirtation with a potential running mate that could solve many of Obama's problems in fell swoop when it comes to Jewish voters and voters worried about his lack of executive experience (Michael Bloomberg), and it's been a very good week for Obama. That said, did Obama miss an opportunity this week? The media, once again, seems ready to write Clinton's campaign obit and had Obama unveiled, say, 20 to 25 superdelegate endorsements in a 24-to-48-hour period, that would have fed a Clinton obit wildfire. The fact that the Obama campaign hasn't done this means they either are being overly cautious or they just don't have as many superdelegate endorsements in their back pocket.
VIDEO: NBC Political Director Chuck Todd discusses Obama's endorsement by Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey. ***
Being John McCain: One of the toughest things for a presidential candidate that is supposedly so well-known is having the discipline to re-introduce yourself to voters. McCain is doing that next week and begins, in fact, today with the unveiling of a new TV ad which emphasizes what folks probably know a little bit about, his heroism in Vietnam. The tag line in the ad -- "John McCain The American president Americans have been waiting for" -- makes it clear that the campaign plans to use the hero card a lot. And it's also a subtle reminder that if McCain is elected, he too could be a historic figure, which is something the campaign might be worried is getting lost in the Obama-Clinton euphoria in the media and the electorate. Elevating McCain on a pedestal and creating this sense of destiny appears to be part of what the campaign is hoping to create next week. More importantly, what the campaign needs to have happen following next week is a mini-surge in the polls. There's something about his small lead nationally that doesn't seem to be big enough right now. Once Democrats settle on a nominee, that candidate will see a poll surge of sorts, and McCain isn't going to want that surge to move his numbers from dead heat to 10 points down. Better that the surge goes from 10 points up to dead heat. So measure the success of next week by what kind of lead McCain starts building (if any) in the national polls.
***
Veepstakes: Who knew Mitt Romney was going to work so hard to get on the ticket. It's one thing to endorse McCain, he HAD to do that. But helping him raise money in multiple states and doing a mini-fly around is clearly above and beyond. While on paper it seems unlikely that McCain-Romney is a winning ticket, think about where the battleground will be in a match up with Obama: it'll be in the Midwest and West, two places where Romney could help. Obama's electoral map is much more heavy on western states and will be much more precarious in the rust belt, particularly Michigan (a Romney home state). In addition, a surge in Mormon support in places like Colorado and Nevada could help a McCain-Romney ticket hold off a surprisingly popular Obama in those states. Many a state poll has shown that Obama, more so than Clinton, has a better shot at putting three of the four corner states in play (Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico). Toss in Montana, and it's clear that McCain may indeed need to find someone who can help him in his home region.
***
Back to MI/FL: Need more evidence this Democratic fight could be headed to Denver? Clinton yesterday was asked on FOX how she could get the Michigan/Florida delegates seated. "We can always go to the convention -- that's what credentials fights are for," she said, assertively. And check this, a new online petition urging Howard Dean to count the votes from Florida and Michigan, which was, per Hotline, “launched by HRC bundlers." Once again, this could be Clinton supporters who think they are helping but in fact are hurting. But because there is such a level of strategic distrust between the Clinton money folks and the team running the campaign, there's a lot of freelancing going on and as much as we may know it's not something the actual Clinton campaign is pushing, that isn't the perception being left to those undecided superdelegates.
***
The delegate count: With Sen. Bob Casey’s (D-PA) endorsement of Obama (and joining of his bus tour), Obama has now picked up three superdelegates since Wednesday (Don Williams of CT and Dan Lipinski of IL are the other two). By the way, Rahm “I’m staying neutral” Emanuel is now the ONLY remaining elected superdelegate from Illinois NOT to endorse. Here’s the count: Obama leads among pledged delegates 1408-1251; Clinton leads now among superdelegates, 255-221. Added together, Obama's overall delegate lead is 123: 1629-1506. BTW, on the Casey front, it actually shouldn't be that surprising. Casey and Rendell are usually on opposite sides. What's ironic about the endorsement is that Casey actually needs to emulate the electoral victory of Rendell in that contentious Rendell-Casey '02 Dem GOV race more so than Casey, whose voters are probably leaning more Clinton.
***
On the trail: Clinton makes four stops in Indiana with three town halls and one roundtable, all focused on the economy; McCain raises money in Las Vegas, then spends the weekend down in Phoenix; Obama appears on The View and campaigns in Pittsburgh and holds a town hall in Greensburg; and Bill Clinton is in North Carolina.
Greensburg; and Bill Clinton is in North Carolina.
Countdown to Pennsylvania: 25 days
Countdown to North Carolina, Indiana: 39 days
Countdown to Election Day 2008: 221 days
Countdown to Inauguration Day 2009: 298 days
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PENNSYLVANIA: 4/22 (158 delegates) Obama has some
catching up to do to match the Clinton campaign’s advantage in organization and support in Pennsylvania.
The Clinton office was confused by a
volunteer’s behavior and after an Internet search determined he was an Obama volunteer. “‘I was just there to check things out,’ said Sam Glenzer, who oddly used his real name when signing in at the Clinton campaign office. Glenzer said he had nothing nefarious in mind.”
NORTH CAROLINA: 5/6 (115 delegates) NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann notes an incredibly busy schedule for Bill Clinton. Today, he does a whopping seven-stop campaign blitz through western North Carolina, starting in Greensboro and working his way to liberal enclave Asheville. Along the way he'll stop in a series of towns of 40,000 or less, including Hickory. ("There are Democrats in Hickory?" jokes a local operative.) The schedule looks a lot like Clinton's daily event roster in Texas -- rapid-fire stops geared less at media markets than at the sheer volume of potential hands for the former president to shake. Any surprise that the campaign here is masterminded by Ace Smith, the engineer of Clinton's Texas win?
Asheville area superdelegate Carol Peterson will be
in attendance at tomorrow's appearance by Bill Clinton. Peterson, a DNC member, has said she'll remain uncommitted through the primary.
Hillary Clinton's visit to the state gets local coverage
here ,
here , and
here .
Does Hillary Clinton know the difference between Eastern and Western Carolina BBQ? Enough that she knows it's one of the issues too controversial in the state to risk taking a side on. "I know a question not to answer," she laughed yesterday in response to the inquiry of which style she prefers. In the same interview with the
Winston-Salem Journal , she denied that her husband's "other stuff" remark in Charlotte last week was "a negative comment about anyone." She also said that no one other than a president can claim experience with the kind of emergency invoked by her "3AM" ad, but that she's "been there for a lot of 3am phone calls with my husband."
PUERTO RICO: 6/1 (55 delegates) Since the island's primary could become important, it's worth noting that Obama's chief supporter in the territory, Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila, was
indicted “of soliciting thousands of dollars in improper contributions in exchange for favors and government contracts on the U.S. commonwealth island." Interestingly, Vila's chief lobbyist in DC is McCain strategist Charlie Black. Nothing like the small world of Washington.
In an extensive interview with the NYT , Clinton talks health care. She "said she would like to cap health insurance premiums at 5 percent to 10 percent of income. The average cost of a family policy bought by an individual in 2006 and 2007 was $5,799, or 10 percent of the median family income of $58,526, according to America’s Health Insurance Plans, a trade group. Some policies cost up to $9,201, or 16 percent of median income."AP has a fact-check of sort that doesn't look good for Clinton when it comes to her role in the Northern Ireland peace process. "Clinton's longtime claims to have played a difference-making role in Northern Ireland attracted no criticism until the buildup to St. Patrick's Day this year. To some ears, her most recent comments have raised a false impression that she helped produce the landmark Good Friday peace accord of 1998. Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern came to Clinton's defense, meeting with the senator in Washington -- and making his first phone call to Obama.
CONTINUED >>
The campaign unveiled its first TV ad of the general election, which will run, for now, only in New Mexico (5 EVs). This is a state that was carried by Gore in '00 but flipped to Bush in '04. This appears to be a preview of what next week's biography tour will be focused on; getting to know McCain.Politico’s Ben Smith points out, “The narrator is Powers Boothe, best known for his work in ‘Deadwood’ and ‘Red Dawn.’”USA Today previews the bio tour McCain is embarking on. He will be "visiting schools and military installations "that have played a significant role in shaping who I am today," as McCain put it in a fundraising letter. Senior campaign adviser Charles Black said, "We do not take it for granted that people know his background." The goal is to fix McCain's image in the voters' minds before the Democrats do it for him -- provided he has the money." Stops include Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Va.; the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.; military bases in Florida and Mississippi; and his political base in Arizona. The son and grandson of admirals, McCain is also expected to discuss his service during the Vietnam War.
CONTINUED >>
A big superdelegate get for Obama, Bob Casey Jr., the frosh senator (and one-time RIVAL of Clinton's chief Pa. supporter, Ed Rendell). Casey who hails from the ultimate working class Dem stronghold of Scranton will campaign extensively for Obama during the candidate's bus tour of the state. Interestingly, Obama, while getting the support of Casey, needs to borrow from the Rendell '02 Dem GOV primary playbook, in order to win the primary, a race that Casey lost. Philly Inq : "The endorsement comes as something of a surprise. Casey, a deliberative and cautious politician, had been adamant about remaining neutral until after the April 22 primary.Washington Post takes a closer look at the Obama online fundraising machine. "Obama's unprecedented online fundraising success is often depicted as a spontaneous reaction to a charismatic candidate, particularly by young, Internet-savvy supporters. But it is the result of an elaborate marketing effort that has left Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, his rival for the Democratic nomination, and Sen. John McCain, the presumed Republican nominee, struggling to catch up.
CONTINUED >>
BLOOMBERG: Don't believe the NYC mayor and ex-CEO is interested in being Obama's second banana? Then take a look at THIS newsy NYT lead. "It was only hours after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg finally made it clear that he was not running for president that his chief political guru, Kevin Sheekey, suggested that he would be the perfect running mate for Senator Barack Obama.ROMNEY: It is remarkable how much Mitt Romney is helping McCain . If you didn't believe it before, then believe it now, this guy wants the second slot... badly.
CONTINUED >>
So Iraq will trump the economy in congressional races? "More than three dozen Democratic congressional candidates banded together yesterday to promise that, if elected, they will push for legislation calling for an immediate drawdown of troops in Iraq that would leave only a security force in place to guard the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad," the Washington Post writes.
Here's First Read's writeup.
Former NBC News Political Director Elizabeth Wilner becomes the
second senior hire for the new Peter G. Peterson Foundation, whose mission is to focus public attention on, and promote solutions to the key sustainability challenges that threaten America's future: entitlement, health care, and deficit spending. Wilner will serve as Director of Public Affairs. The new Foundation's CEO is former US Comptroller General David Walker, whom David Broder recently called "perhaps the most outspoken official in Washington warning of the fiscal train wreck that awaits this country unless it mends its ways." Broder wrote, "No task is more important to our future."
From NBC’s Kristin Wilson To a crowd of enthusiastic college students at Dickenson College in Carlisle, Pa., including more than a handful of Obama supporters in T-shirts and waving signs, Bill Clinton told the crowd why his wife would make the best president.
And, in a move that's becoming more and more common, he favorably aligned his wife with the presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain.
"We now have a bipartisan majority in the U.S. Senate, bipartisan, to do something about global warming and do more buildings like this,” Clinton said, “because she and John McCain took reluctant Republicans all over the world and showed them how the planet was changing. She will work with anybody, go anywhere, do anything to move America forward.”
More Bill: "I'm always a little apprehensive when I get up to speak," he said. "I think, you know, people are gonna be kinda looking at me saying, 'I better discount about half of what he says. I mean, they're married, he's gotta say that or he can't go home tonight.'
From NBC's Chuck Todd The Obama campaign's hopes of winning the 6/1 Puerto Rico primary might have been dealt a serious blow with
this news , as reported by the
New York Times : "Aníbal S. Acevedo Vilá, the governor of
Puerto Rico ,
has been charged with 19 criminal counts related to the financing of
three political campaigns from 1999 to 2004, including conspiracy to
violate federal campaign laws, wire fraud and illegally using campaign
funds for his personal use, according to a federal indictment unsealed
on Thursday."
Obama was endorsed by Acevedo Vila
last month .
From NBC/NJ’s Adam Aigner-Treworgy and Romney talked to reporters on the plane en route Denver, where McCain will be attending a fundraiser tonight. They took questions on their relationship, the Democrats' protracted fight and, of course, the veepstakes.
On the GOP nomination process
Romney: The process was very good to you. I don't think I'd be terribly critical of it. And actually I feel that it was pretty good to me to too. I made a lot of progress and was pretty pleased I made the progress I did, but I'm sure that -- you're absolutely right senator, we all question a process that begins so early and I think in some respects detracts from the work of the president as he's carrying out his elected duties when you have a campaign going two full years before the election.
Romney: I think you'll find that the Republican Party -- like any great family -- comes together, will be strongly united behind our nominee, and I think that kind of unity is going to be one of the reasons he'll be successful in November.
Q: Does the Dems protracted primary benefit McCain? Romney: I personally feel that in the final analysis, all of the to and fro of a campaign is brushed aside in the mind of the voters as they think about what is going to be best for their future, how will their families be raised, will there be peace on the planet, will we have a clean environment. These are the issues that will be the deciding factors in people's minds, and in the interim there's all the give and take of the politics of the day, but that really, I think, increasingly vanishes as people look at the differences in perspectives and policies of those running for president.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Libby Leist Rice spoke in a closed session to Grover Norquist's Amercians for Tax Reform yesterday morning in Washington, the blogosphere began to speculate that Rice must be floating the idea of running on a ticket with John McCain
But, Rice's spokesman laughed it off today insisting that her talk to Norquist's group was all about U.S. foreign policy and Rice herself dismissed the idea last month when asked at a press conference if she would consider running as Vice President (see below)
All signs out of the State Department are that Rice's immediate plan is to head back to California, teach at Stanford and write a book.
Feb. 22, 2008:
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Matthew Berger Chelsea Clinton mistakenly said President Bush had not toured the Middle East as president before arriving there earlier this year.
Speaking at a retirement community outside of Philadelphia, the former first daughter suggested Bush had not been as engaged in the Middle East as previous Commanders-In-Chief, comparing his work to President Clinton’s in Northern Ireland.
“President Bush was in the Middle East last month, and its great that he was there, but that was his first trip there as president,” she said at the Wood River Village Assisted Living Center. “He’d visited our men in northern Iraq before but he’d never been to Israel; he’d never been to Jordan, he’d never been to Saudi Arabia or Egypt; he just hadn’t been.”
Bush in fact traveled to Egypt, Jordan and Qatar in 2003, and was in Jordan again in 2006. His trip in January 2008 was his first to Israel.
She spoke for more than an hour at the retirement home, addressing a wide range of issues, including healthcare, immigration and stem cell research.
Chelsea Clinton is making her first independent appearances since being asked earlier this week about the Monica Lewinsky scandal at a college town hall meeting. She will attend several events in the Philadelphia area Thursday and will speak in Allentown and Bethlehem on Friday.
*** UPDATE ***
From NBC's Lauren Appelbaum Obama campaign as an emerging successful business model. McGirt both investigates how Obama’s campaign approach challenges both conventional political assumptions and conventional business assumptions and also challenges “any forward-looking business” to examine the campaign’s successes “from marketing strategies and leadership styles to the future of the American workplace.”
McGirt writes that Obama’s ability to connect with and mobilize the 18 to 29 age group through new media and online social networks acts as a base for his success. On a personal level, the presidential hopeful uses a Web cam to keep in touch with his wife and daughters while on the road. And on the campaign level, he capitalizes both on his own Web site, which allows supporters to create their own content and interact with one another, and in external content including viral videos created by supporters such as Obama Girl (though she hasn’t said she’s voting for him necessarily) and the Black Eyed Peas' Will.i.am.
While several people McGirt interviewed pointed out the difficulty in controlling the message from so many external sources, McGirt also writes the Obama campaign oversees the content posted on its Web site and responds to posts on other sites. The overwhelming success of Obama's online strategies, with credit due to outside aid, shows in his ability to convert Web hits into donations.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Mike Viqueira A Democratic source in Washington provides the following letter from a major Democratic donor as evidence that yesterday's "shakedown" letter to Speaker Pelosi is having an effect antithetical to its intention.
Leslie Walker Burlock of San Francisco writes yesterday to Nancy Pelosi pledging the max $28,000 to the DCCC. The Dem source says Ms. Burlock wrote after learning of the letter from the group of heavy hitters, a move that Burlock disagreed with.
I spoke with Ms. Burlock by phone. She says that yes, she agrees with Nancy Pelosi's stance on superdelegates, and that yes, she is an Obama supporter. But she demurred when asked several different ways whether or not her pledge comes as a rebuttal to the letter from the others. She didn't deny it, however.
P.S. - Ms. Burlock says she hasn't yet sent the dough.
The letter is below:
*** UPDATE *** MoveOn.org has also joined in with a letter to supporters
CONTINUED >>
From NBC’s Lindsey Pritzlaff One criticism of Democrats in past elections is that they have railed against President Bush on Iraq without having a plan of their own. But 38 Democratic House challengers along with four Senate contenders have decided to run on a common platform outlining a strategy of withdrawal from Iraq.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Libby Leist The State Department confirms that two U.S. citizens have died in Iraq this week from indirect fire by rocket and mortar attacks in the Green Zone.
*** UPDATE ***
From NBC/NJ’s Athena Jones Clinton hit Republican rival John McCain on the economy again today with a return to her "3 am" phone call analogy. The senator said it was time to "level the playing field for the middle class" and argued McCain would ignore the ringing phone in an economic crisis.
"Sometimes the phone rings at 3 am in the White House, and it's an economic crisis,” she said. “And we need president who is ready and willing and able to answer that call. I read the speech that Sen. McCain gave the other day, which set forth his plan which does virtually nothing to ease the credit crisis or the housing crisis. It seems like if the phone were ringing he would just let it ring and ring and ring.”
Clinton called the Arizona senator “a friend,” but noted he had admitted that he did not know much about economics. She said he would rather ignore the credit and mortgage crises facing Americans instead of solving them.
"I think we've had enough of a president who didn't know enough about economics," she said. "I don't think we can afford four more years of that kind of inaction."
Earlier this week, Clinton compared McCain to Depression-era President Herbert Hoover for saying the government should not bail out or reward banks or small borrowers who "act irresponsibly."
*** UPDATE *** The RNC sends this along:
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ’s Aswini Anburajan
"Pain trickled up," Obama said of how the increased rate of home foreclosures among individual homeowners had caused a downturn in the market as a whole.
Providing a historical rationale for increased government oversight of financial markets, Obama argued that the American economy had prospered and sustained itself because government had "guided the market's invisible hand with a higher principle."
VIDEO: Obama delivers an economic speech in New York, proposing an additional economic stimulus package and relief for homeowners. He called for six principles for greater regulation and modernization of the nation's economic institutions, including:
(1) Government oversight for any entity that borrows from the federal government;
(2) An overall reform of the regulations governing financial institutions;
(3) Streamlining the nation's regulatory institutions;
(4) Regulations should be applied to what an organization does rather than what it is (e.g. financial regulations regarding sub-prime loans only applied to banks, allowing mortgage brokers to issue these loans without oversight);
(5) The SEC actively investigating market manipulation;
(6) And the creation of a financial oversight commission that identifies risks to the nation's financial system.
In calling for the oversight, Obama made a populist appeal.
"If we can extend a hand to banks on Wall Street, we can extend a hand to Americans who are struggling," he said, referring to the Fed's recent bailout of Bear Stearns. He also said that ordinary Americans had experienced the effects of a recession for the past several years and said that this was the only period in American history where incomes had not grown along with corporate profits.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
TO: NBC News And The Wall Street Journal
As you know, the sample for the March 24-25 poll on race included an “oversample” of 100 African American voters. There has been some confusion as to exactly how these extra interviews were integrated into the survey; we hope this memorandum will clear up any misconceptions.
The main sample for the survey was a cross section of 700 registered voters nationally. As is the case with all of our usual polls, this sample is statistically representative of voters across the country, accurately reflecting the gender, age, educational, geographical, and racial makeup of the electorate. The column in the topline document labeled “All Voters”, as well as nearly all of the subgroups listed in the survey crosstabs, are among these cross section of 700. Eleven percent (11%) of these interviews -- or 77 interviews -- were with African Americans, which accurately reflects African Americans’ proportion of the electorate. Thus, African Americans are NOT over-represented in our national sample.
In addition to this national cross section, we interviewed an extra 100 African Americans to analyze the opinions of this group with a greater degree of statistical reliability. We combined these 100 only with the 77 African Americans that naturally fell into our national sample, for a total of 177 interviews with African Americans; these extra interviews were not combined with the full national sample of 700. The column in the topline document labeled “African Americans” shows the responses of these 177 respondents, as do the subgroups in the crosstabs for African Americans, African-American men, and African-American women.
The table below shows the margins of error for the three groups whose responses are shown in the topline document:
National cross section of voters: 700 interviews, +/- 3.7%White voters: 520 interviews, +/- 4.3%African-American voters: 177 interviews, +/- 7.4%
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro Obama and Clinton both delivered major addresses on the economy today. After Obama's speech, the Clinton campaign criticized it in an e-mail to the media:
“Presidents have to do more than announce principles," writes Clinton policy director Neera Tanden in the statement. "They have to solve problems. At a time of crisis in our financial markets, Senator Obama announced a series of broad, vague principles, while offering no new concrete solutions to provide Americans with greater confidence in the market or keep them in their homes. The contrast could not be clearer -- on Monday, Senator Clinton announced a detailed, specific plan to address the housing and credit crisis. On Tuesday, Senator McCain announced that he had no plan. And today, Senator Obama offered just words.”
Obama spokesman Bill Burton responded this way: “We’ve all seen that the Clinton campaign never lets the facts get in the way of a good story, but they know full well that Barack Obama has offered thoughtful, detailed proposals to solve the housing crisis, one of which the New York Times just called the best idea from any candidate in the race. Senator Clinton’s new proposal this week amounted to calling for a meeting, so it’s pretty obvious that her latest kitchen sink attack is nothing more than just politics."
From NBC's Pete Williams NBC's Chris Donovan points out that Puerto Rico's governor, Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, who was indicted today and charged with election law violations, is a Democratic party superdelegate who has endorsed Obama .
Gov. Acevedo Vilá and 12 of his supporters are accused of getting Puerto Rico businessmen to make illegal, unreported contributions to pay off debts from previous campaigns -- debts he never reported, another potential violation.
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro We'll have more on Obama's and Clinton's economic speeches later today, but below is McCain's preemptive attack, sent out earlier. Notice, the campaign includes both Obama AND Clinton this time.
By the way, intriguing stuff when Obama took the podium after NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg introduced him. Obama was effusive in his praise for Bloomberg, but said the reason he bought breakfast that morning is because he expects "payback." "I'm no dummy," Obama said, adding, "There are a lot of good steakhouses in New York." METAPHOR ALERT? By payback does he just mean a steak?
Also, anyone else notice Obama used the "R" word. "As most experts know, our economy is in a recession," Obama said.
That's been the subject of debate. The definition of a recession, as CNBC's Maria Bartiromo pointed out on Meet the Press this past Sunday, is two consecutive quarters of negative growth. That hasn't happened yet, and whatever it's labeled, everyone agrees the economy is at least in a slowdown or downturn.
Here's McCain's criticism/pre-emptive reaction to Clinton and Obama's speeches:
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From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones Here are excerpts from Hillary Clinton's speech in North Carolina today where she'll hit McCain and talk about job training.
Of course, the speech as given could include slightly different language, but this gives us at least some indication of where she's heading with her criticism:
Sometimes the phone rings at 3am in the White House and it’s an economic crisis. And we need a president who is ready and willing to answer that call. But I read Senator McCain's plan which does virtually nothing to ease the credit crisis or the housing crisis. The phone is ringing and he would just let it ring and ring.
Senator McCain is a friend of mine but he said himself, “The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should.” He’d rather ignore the credit crisis and mortgage crisis -- or blame middle class families instead of offering solutions on their behalf.
We've had enough of a president who didn’t know enough about economics, and didn’t do enough for the middle class. I don't think we can afford four more years. I believe we have to answer the call and act aggressively to deal with the housing and credit crises. That’s the kind of president we need after eight years of George Bush.
While we are fighting to create jobs, and keep them here in America, today I’m announcing that I will commit $2.5 billion each year to help workers train for new jobs and improve their skills for their existing jobs as well.
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From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy McCain will host a $1,000 a plate fundraiser in Salt Lake City today with Mitt Romney , the Salt Lake Tribune reports. Romney will then travel with the McCain campaign to Denver.
"Romney, who dropped out of the race after poor showings in the primaries, received nearly 90 percent of the Utah GOP vote on Feb. 5, while McCain had just 5 percent," the Tribune writes. "Romney is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as are more than 60 percent of the state's residents.
From Chuck Todd and Domenico Montanaro *** Myth buster: Pollster Peter Hart calls the NBC/WSJ poll a “myth buster” survey; it really breaks down a lot of the myths we've been hearing over the last week like: (1) that the Wright controversy was the beginning of the end for the Obama campaign -- certainly not the case, but there’s no telling how much more Wright stuff comes out; (2) It was surprising how few people knew who Wright was (about half). People who followed story, though, were really disturbed (55%); (3) The premise that the Clinton campaign would turn out to be a stronger campaign or stronger among independents. (4) That the bar facing a black candidate would be higher than for a woman or a person over 70; There's a bar, but not higher; (5) That somehow this Wright story is over. If you look at it overall numbers, you can be misled. Among 29% of ALL voters, they need more answers from Obama. They have hesitations and uncertainties; they want to know, “Is he safe?” -- both in the sense of credentials/experience but also in terms of life story. The Wright controversy, the poll indicates, has taken a bit of the shine off Obama, brought him out of the stratosphere, notes pollster Bill McInturff. Clinton also faces a similar amount of uncertainties, but among a different group of people. Not the one you’d think: But the poll didn’t indicate the past couple of weeks’ news hurt Obama the most; it was Clinton (sniper fire?). She’s sporting the lowest personal ratings of the campaign. Her 37% positive rating is the lowest the NBC/WSJ poll has recorded since March 2001, two months after she was elected to the U.S. Senate from New York. As for the damage this controversy did or didn't do to Obama, it's a mixed bag. Yes, Obama saw some of his numbers go down slightly among certain voting groups, most notably Republicans. But he's still much more competitive with independent voters when matched up against John McCain than Hillary Clinton is. And he still sports a net-positive personal rating of 49-32, which is down only slightly from two weeks ago, when it was 51-28. Again, the biggest shift in those negative numbers was among Republicans.
VIDEO: NBC Political Director Chuck Todd explains the new NBC News/WSJ poll, saying Obama maintained a good perception among voters, despite the Wright controversy. ***
McCain-ocrats? For the second poll in a row, more than 20% of Clinton and Obama supporters say they would support McCain when he's matched up against the other Democrat. There is clearly some hardening of feelings among some of the most core supporters of both Democrats, though it may be Obama voters, who are bitterer in the long run.
***
Carolina on my mind: By the way, Clinton also talks economy again today, and does it in North Carolina. With her foray into NC and Bill’s all-out campaigning in a bunch of other post-PA states, all signs are pointing to this going on at least through the last contests in June. But keep a particular eye on Clinton in Carolina. This is becoming more and more of a must-win state; A combination of a 15-20 point win in Pennsylvania and an upset in the Tar Heel state would shake up this race in the same way Obama's 11-contest win streak in February did.
***
Shakedown: Why didn't the Clinton campaign get superdelegates to sign on to that letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi rather than donors? Doesn't this letter coming only from major donors make it look like a threat or a shakedown? Wouldn't this letter coming from fellow superdelegates have had more impact? One Dem operative who doesn't have a horse in this fight reminds us: "Members of Congress -- who are superdelegates -- make up the DCCC. Threatening the DCCC is essentially threatening the very superdelegates HRC's trying to court. The HRC donor letter will just push undeclared superdelegates in Congress leaning toward Obama to endorse him sooner. It also reinforces the notion that the Clintons will destroy the party to win the WH. I just don't get it."
***
Supers turned off: A handful of undecided and pledged superdelegates come forward to tell NBC/NJ’s Matthew Berger that her campaign's tactics in recent weeks are
doing more harm than good .
***
A fall preview: Those who love the Veepstakes will enjoy today's Obama speech, not for the substance but for the person who will introduce him: Michael Bloomberg. While the mayor says he's not endorsing anyone (yet?), this is the second time Bloomberg has given Obama a high profile photo-op (remember the meeting at that diner a few months back?). As for Obama's economic speech, per the campaign, "Obama takes on special interests for housing/economic crisis; lays out principles for new regulatory framework." Obama, himself, previewed the speech on the plane yesterday. "I will be giving some, I will be outlining, my thoughts on the current state of the economy. How we got there and some very specific prescriptions, what helped trigger the financial crisis and the financial problems." But it will be the potential of Obama-Bloomberg that could be the most important take-away. In fact, considering that anti-Israel sentiments being expressed by the Rev. Wright in these newly circulating church bulletins (see Andrea Mitchell’s reporting on TODAY below in the Obama section). A fortunate thing for Obama is at least these church bulletins aren’t video. The idea of a Jewish running mate might end up making more and more sense for Obama as the summer wears on.
***
Hooked? Also, did McCain take the bait? Back from his vacation, Obama made a point of trying to shift the focus to him vs. McCain again. (No talk of Hillary, by the way.) Then the McCain camp releases a statement bashing Obama this morning before his speech, calling this election a “clear choice.” (Again, no mention of Hillary.)
***
Swing-state campaigning: McCain campaigns today in Colorado, a state particularly the Obama campaign has been selling as a potential Dem Red State pick up. We’ve already seen McCain in Michigan. How many Dems are thinking that the longer this Clinton-Obama contest goes on, the harder it is becoming for Democrats to campaign and make in-roads in those potential pick up states? The DNC tries to do its part, attacking McCain’s viability out West, including Colorado and even his home state, in a conference call today with state Democratic Party leaders from those two states and Utah and Nevada.
***
On the trail: Clinton makes three stops in North Carolina, including the economic address; McCain raises money in Salt Lake City and Denver, where he also will take questions from reporters; Obama speaks on the economy at Cooper Union in New York City; Bill Clinton hits the trail hard in Pennsylvania with five stops; and so does Chelsea with three of her own in PA.
Countdown to Pennsylvania: 26 days
Countdown to North Carolina, Indiana: 40 days
Countdown to Election Day 2008: 222 days
Countdown to Inauguration Day 2009: 299 days
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"As reassuring as the poll is for Sen. Obama, Mr. Hart and Mr. McInturff agreed that it did indicate that a substantial number of voters question whether the first-term senator would be a safe choice, or whether more needs to be known about him. Mr. McInturff said some voters are wondering, 'Do we know enough about this guy?' the Wall Street Journal writes.
For more, click here.
PENNSYLVANIA: 4/22 (158 delegates) It looks like the Philly Dem Committee may stay out of the Dem primary and not endorse either candidate; that's good news for Obama as most of the Dem establishment in the state has been siding with Clinton. Of course, "For Clinton and Obama, a City Committee endorsement would probably carry little weight because swaying voters in a presidential race is difficult. The only practical advantage, political consultant Larry Ceisler said, might be logistical, in that the Democratic machinery might ‘help get people to the polls, make sure there is no trouble at the polls, and be the eyes and ears on the ground.’hold off on visiting Pittsburgh until they had garnered the endorsements of both Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato. His heavy campaigning for Clinton has angered some Republicans who say he isn’t spending enough time on state issues and Democrats who say he isn’t doing enough to elect Democrats to the state legislature. planning small roundtable meetings with Catholic voters to focus on economy, jobs and healthcare issues, as well as play down the Rev. Jeremiah Wright issue. “Clinton backers Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last week wrote a letter to Pennsylvania Catholics emphasizing her plans on health care, mortgage foreclosures and fuel costs.” NORTH CAROLINA: 5/6 (115 delegates) Some notes from NBC/NJ’s Carrie Dann: Today kicks off a three-day Clinton blitz that will see all three members of the former First Family in the Tar Heel State between now and Saturday. Today, Hillary Clinton hits Raleigh, Winston-Salem, and Fayetteville; tomorrow, Bill Clinton visits Greensboro and points west in a marathon five-stop day; and Saturday, Chelsea Clinton joins former senator John Edwards in addressing the state's Young Democrats organization. Gone are the days of local speculation that Hillary would be writing off North Carolina; reporters now are too busy Mapquesting the trip between Kannapolis and Salisbury and praying that they still have time to profile their third Republican gubernatorial candidate this week.
CONTINUED >>
Clinton makes her first stop in NC today, a state that is becoming more and more of a must-win if she is to complete a comeback. NBC/NJ’s Athena Jones reports she will announce a new proposal to support job training, during a stop at a technical college in Raleigh, NC Thursday morning. The new plan would cost $12.5 billion over five years. The stop will be the first of a six-day tour through North Carolina, Indiana and Pennsylvania, where she'll focus on the economy, according to a briefing by her campaign staff. sent a letter to House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday asking her to retract her comments on superdelegates and stay out of the Democratic fight over their role in the presidential race. The 20 prominent Clinton supporters told Pelosi she should "clarify" recent statements to make it clear superdelegates -- nearly 800 party insiders and elected officials who are free to back any candidate -- could support the candidate they think would be the best nominee."
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The Washington Post on McCain's major foreign policy speech: "In his first extensive policy speech since securing the delegates needed to win the Republican presidential nomination, McCain delivered an impassioned argument that achieving democracy in Iraq is necessary for a peaceful world. ‘Those who argue that our goals in Iraq are unachievable are wrong, just as they were wrong a year ago when they declared the war already lost in Iraq,’ he said, without naming Democratic candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama. ‘Those who claim we should withdraw from Iraq in order to fight al-Qaeda more effectively elsewhere are making a dangerous mistake.’ L.A. Times lead: "McCain, carefully distancing himself from President Bush and seeking to sound a moderate tone, called Wednesday for stronger ties with allies and cautioned that American power "does not mean we can do whatever we want, whenever we want."Time has an extensive profile of McCain the reformer and his relationship with lobbyists. From Michael Scherer's piece: "For most other senators, especially those lacking presidential ambitions, such untoward appearances would not raise much of an eyebrow. On any given day, thousands of lobbyists work their connections on Capitol Hill, hoping to obtain letters on their behalf or legislation in their favor. But for McCain, such questions become an issue of integrity. He is the one, after all, who regularly breaks the Senate's code of silence by alleging corruption by his peers. ‘Elected officials do act in particular ways in order to assist large soft-money donors,’ McCain wrote in a sworn statement from the 2002 Supreme Court case over his campaign-finance bill. ‘This skews and shapes the legislative process.’
CONTINUED >>
NBC's Andrea Mitchell reported on TODAY, "And now -- even more controversy involving Reverend Wright. An Internet search reveals church bulletins over the past year with controversial 'pastor pages' from Wright. Some reprint anti-Israel writings from a range of people -- from Archbishop Desmond Tutu to an advisor to Elijah Muhammed and Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam to Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook. Dem ticket preview ? NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg is introducing Obama today for his speech on the economy.
CONTINUED >>
After a week of taking a beating over the fact that a poll showed Clinton out-performing Obama against McCain in Mass., the Obama campaign now has its own blue-state electability argument. In a new Quinnipiac Univ. poll in Conn., Obama has a double-digit lead over McCain while Clinton only leads him by 3 points.
From NBC's Chuck Todd
The poll was conducted Monday and Tuesday this week by Hart-McInturff and surveyed 700 registered voters, which gives the poll a margin of error of +/- 3.7%. In addition, we oversampled African-Americans in order to get a more reliable cross-tab on many of the questions we asked in this poll regarding Sen. Barack Obama's speech on race and overall response to last week's Rev. Jeremiah Wright dustup.
On that issue specifically, 32% of folks said he "sufficiently addressed the issue," while 26% of those folks believe he needs to address the Wright controversy further; 31% of voters surveyed did not see the speech or had no opinion. Interestingly, of those voters who said they saw the speech, 47% said Obama sufficiently addressed the Wright issue while 37% said he needs to address it further. Among whites, 45% were satisfied with Obama's explanation, 38% were not; Among blacks, 67% said the speech was sufficient while 25% want him to address it further.
Overall, 55% of voters told us that they were "disturbed" by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright videos that circulated so widely on cable TV and the Internet.
As for the damage this controversy did or didn't do to Obama, it's a mixed bag. Yes, Obama saw some of his numbers go down slightly among certain voting groups, most notably Republicans. But he's still much more competitive with independent voters when matched up against John McCain than Hillary Clinton. And he still sports a net-positive personal rating of 49-32, which is down only slightly from two weeks ago when it was 51-28. Again, the biggest shift in those negative numbers were among Republicans.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Matthew E. Berger At a time when Sen. Hillary Clinton is increasingly relying on superdelegates to vault her to the Democratic Party's nomination, a handful of undecided and pledged superdelegates are coming forward to say her campaign's tactics in recent weeks are doing more harm than good.Obama in recent days are hurting the party and its chances in November, and also say it is showing a calculated, desperate-to-win side of Clinton that they dislike.
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From NBC/NJ’s Adam Aigner-Treworgy McCain’s first major policy address since locking up the GOP nomination this morning, his campaign did its best to make its candidate look presidential. Using two teleprompters on the wings of the podium, McCain delivered a 30-minute speech that showed how a potential McCain presidency would try to change the shape of U.S. foreign policy.
But during the question-and-answer portion of the event following his speech, McCain expanded on his “League of Democracies” proposal.
VIDEO: John McCain calls for the United States to work more respectfully with democratic allies and live up to its duties as a world leader. “It’s not just [a commitment of] mine. President Sarkozy of France is talking about the same thing; Prime Minister Brown of England, Chancellor Merkel is another talking about the same thing,” McCain said in response to a question about containing an Iranian nuclear program, arguing that a coalition of democratic countries could be more effective in pressuring the Iranians to abandon their nuclear ambitions.
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From NBC/NJ’s Aswini Anburajan Obama defended his controversial former pastor the Rev. Jeremiah Wright today, on the heels of statements by Hillary Clinton that she would have left Wright's church had she been in Obama's place.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Bill Clinton's comments that Democrats “let New Hampshire go out of turn,” and that they have a Democratic Secretary of State, is causing a mini stir in the Granite State.
The New Hampshire Union Leader : "Former New Hampshire Democratic Chairman Kathy Sullivan, a state Clinton campaign co-chair, said she believed that Bill Clinton was criticizing the DNC in his remarks, not New Hampshire.
"But the former president also appeared to imply in his statement that the DNC allowed the New Hampshire primary to be held earlier than scheduled in the DNC rules because Secretary of State Bill Gardner, who set the date of the New Hampshire primary as set out by state law, is a Democrat.
"Sullivan said Bill Clinton was mistaken to suggest that Gardner's party affiliation was in any way related to New Hampshire receiving a waiver from the DNC.
"Clinton campaign spokesman Kathleen Strand said, 'Hillary and Bill Clinton have been staunch and ardent supporters' of the first-in-the-nation primary in New Hampshire. 'That's indisputable.'
"She said the former president was not criticizing New Hampshire, but instead saying that 'just as New Hampshire voters had a voice, Michigan and Florida votes should have a voice' and that 'Obama should know better than anyone in this campaign that the campaign is not over until the last vote is counted. New Hampshire made that point to him pretty clearly.'"
This article from Salon is an interesting read. It lays out what the Republican strategy would be for a Nominee Clinton:
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From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan GREENSBORO, NC -- Playing off Bush's ownership society theme from 2004, Obama said McCain, like Bush, was offering an "on your own" prescription for dealing with a rapidly sinking economy.
"According to John McCain, he said the best for us to address the fact that millions of Americans are losing their homes is to just sit back and watch it happen," Obama said. "In his entire speech yesterday, he offered not one policy, not one idea, not one bit of relief for the nearly 35,000 North Carolinians who were forced to foreclose on their dream in the last few months. Not one, not one single idea or a single policy prescription."
VIDEO: Barack Obama criticizes John McCain's speech on the economy, likening his policy to that of President Bush. Pointing a finger at the president, Obama said that Bush had led the country down this road in a similar manner for the past eight years.
"It's the idea that the government has no rule at all in solving the challenges facing working families," Obama said. "That all we can do is hand out tax breaks to the wealthiest people and let the chips fall where they may. George Bush called this the ownership society, but he really meant is, 'You’re On Your Own Society.'"
"If you lose your job, you're on your own," Obama chanted. "If you're a child in poverty, pull yourself up by your bootstraps; you're on your own. If you were lured in by deceptive mortgage practices you're on your own."
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ’s Mike Memoli Bill Clinton kicked off a day of campaigning here by making a personal appeal to voters, saying Hillary's success depends on "real" people like those who came to see him. And as the rhetoric heats up between the Democratic campaigns, Bill Clinton offered this message: "Saddle up."
"If a politician doesn't wanna get beat up, he shouldn't run for office," he said. "If a politician doesn't wanna get beat up, he shouldn't run for office. If a football player doesn't want to get tackled or want the risk of an a occasional clip he shouldn't put the pads on."
Clinton then alluded to the resignations and calls for resignations that have been traded back and forth between the campaigns.
"I don't think any of these people oughta be asked to resign," he said. "All these guys that say bad things about any other campaign, they say, 'Should they resign?' My answer is no; they're repeating party line. They oughta stay right where they are. Let's just saddle up and have an argument. What's the matter with that? That's what America's about, right?"
And while some are "moaning and groaning," he said there are larger issues to gripe about. "None of these politicians are gonna have anything like the tough time half the people in this audience have already had for the last seven years," he said to applause. "This is about you. Don't you let anybody take this election away from you."
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro Samantha Power was at the Columbia University School of Law where she was plugging her book. Here's part of Huffington Post's write up:
"Power labeled herself 'amazed' that Clinton had tried to get so much 'political mileage' from comments Power made, in which she suggested that the next commander-in-chief would consider conditions on the ground when implementing his or her Iraq withdrawal plan.
" 'What I was saying is that you have to take into account what the generals on the ground are telling you,' Power told the room of several hundred undergraduate and graduate students. 'Take for example that 3 am phone call [from Clinton's campaign commercial]... She is not going to answer the phone and play a voicemail she recorded in 2007. That is crazy. She is going to judge the situation in 2009. Of course she is going to take into account what the generals have to say about the Iraq situation and what they are saying on the ground.'"
Here are some other interesting nuggets toward the end of the piece:
"She emphasized that, unlike President Bush, Obama would put greater focus on the general welfare of the Iraqi people (looking at population displacements, health conditions, economic insecurities), when considering U.S. policy in that country. She also drew a picture of an Obama administration that was filled with different viewpoints and congenial debate.
"And, to the delight of many in the crowd, she even hinted that she could be part of that hypothetical cabinet. 'Because of the kind of campaign that Senator Obama has run,' Power said, 'it seemed appropriate for someone of my Irish temper to step aside, at least for a while. We will see what happens there.'"
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro Clinton team's explanation of the candidate's decision to weigh in on the Wright controversy...To: Interested Parties
Yesterday, a Pennsylvania editorial board asked Sen. Clinton how she would have "responded if [her] pastor had said some of the things that Rev. Wright said?" In response, she said Rev. Wright would not have been her pastor, an honest view shared by many Americans.
The Obama campaign's response? Attack Sen. Clinton and accuse her of trying to divert attention from the Bosnia trip story and her record of foreign policy experience.
Sen. Clinton’s response was sincere. The Obama attack was disingenuous. CONTINUED >>
From Chuck Todd and Domenico Montanaro *** Wright here, right now: There's nothing that bothers some inside the Clinton campaign more than the constant reading in between the lines of the senator's motivations when she chooses to answer a specific question. But this has been a constant issue for Clinton ever since she decided to follow in her husband's footsteps. For the first time, Clinton decided to weigh in on the Wright controversy, saying he would not have been her pastor. But for more than a week, Clinton had declined to address it and was even complimentary of Obama’s speech on race last week. She certainly had ample opportunity to be critical on this issue, so why now? In the shadow of the Bosnia sniper “misstatement,” (her newest iteration is that she was “sleep deprived”) this certainly seems like an attempt to change the subject and take the spotlight off her. After all, whenever there has been a heavy focus on one of these candidates, the other has benefited. This week, so far, the spotlight has been on Clinton. If you missed all three evening newscasts, it's clear Clinton had one of the worst earned media days in a few months. By the way, why did the campaign decide to sit down with Richard Mellon Scaife's newspaper ed board? We know that Bill Clinton and Scaife broke bread and apparently called a truce, but wow. Nothing's changed; no one's voted and yet...: What's with all this, it's time for Clinton to drop out talk? Clinton, for the first time herself, acknowledged the chatter in a very newsy press avail yesterday. The campaign is in full pushback mode on this very issue as they seem to worry that the whispers of party elders and undecided SuperDelegates is actually getting loud. The campaign released a "myth-fact" white paper addressing what they claim is the false idea that they have no mathematical chance. And Bill Clinton made the focus of his Kentucky stumping pushing back on this idea HRC is done. As we noted yesterday, she does have a mathematical chance, but her chances rest largely on the shoulders of these undecided SuperDelegates, some of whom are talking to the press about their own handwringing. But for those calling for Clinton to get out, ask yourself, why? She does have a chance. Sure it's somewhat of a longshot, but it's not so improbable that the Obama campaign is ignoring her in the same way McCain ignored Huckabee. And remember their own personal experience. Bill Clinton, for instance, knows firsthand had one of the major Democratic candidates in '92 (say Tsongas or Kerrey) decided to stay in for the long haul, that candidate just might have stolen the nomination away from Clinton when he was limping to the nomination in April and May struggling to dispatch semi-gadfly Jerry Brown. As the Maryland (or is it Virginia lottery) ad campaign used to say, "you can't win if you don't play."
VIDEO: NBC Political Director Chuck Todd talks about Hillary Clinton's decision to weigh in on the Wright controversy and continued calls for her to get out of the race for the sake of the Democratic Party. ‘Hell to Pay’: There seems to be a want by the Democratic Party to establish a critical mass and get this over with. See Maria Cantwell, Phil Bredesen and Harry Reid. Cantwell yesterday implied the winner of the pledged delegates would have the strongest claim to the nomination when the primaries are finished. Meanwhile, check out Bredesen’s “hell to pay” comment and Reid tersely saying the nomination WILL be wrapped up before convention.While you were gone: Obama’s back on the trail (in 5/6 North Carolina), but how will he choose to get back in the game? It looks like by picking a fight with McCain. Per the campaign, Obama in his speech today on the economy “will focus on Senator McCain's speech on the housing crisis that offered no new ideas and no relief for Americans facing foreclosure,” Obama’s campaign spokesman Bill Burton writes. “Senator Obama will make clear that Americans can't afford four more years of Bush economics that lets Wall Street thrive as Main Street struggles.” Obviously, this is a renewed attempt by the campaign to jump-start the inevitability memo of a McCain-Obama general. Let's see if the McCain campaign bites on this one. The tax man cometh: After two days of the Clinton campaign criticizing Obama in conference calls for not releasing tax returns prior to 2006 (even though his campaign had been criticizing Clinton on transparency, for not releasing even her 2007 tax returns -- something Obama had done), the Obama campaign released all of Obama’s back to 2000. And made them available on the Web. Camp Clinton has said the Clintons would release theirs very soon, perhaps in a week or so. Among the things the press grabbed on to with Obama's tax returns: the jump in charitable contributions (including money he gave to Rev. Wright's church) and the sharp rise in income for Michelle Obama as Barack rose through the ranks. Beyond that, though, no major landmines appear to be in these returns. Though we do wonder why the campaign didn't release tax returns going back to his first year in elective office ('96). It's a small opening the Obama folks have given to the Clinton campaign to harp on. The real Dream Ticket? Reports NBC/NJ’s Carrie Dann, Mike Gravel said in a statement, "Today, I am announcing my plan to join the Libertarian Party, because the Democratic Party no longer represents my vision for our great country." Is the real ’08 Dream Ticket some version of Paul-Gravel? Coming later today: A special NBC/WSJ poll on race and the fallout in the pres. race following the Rev. Wright controversy and Obama's historic speech on race relations.Click here to sign up for First Read emails.
Phil Bredesen, the two-term governor of Tennessee who is uncommitted to either Clinton or Obama, “joined House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in warning that superdelegates should not overturn the outcome from primaries and caucuses,” Politico reports. “If Obama were denied the nomination by Democratic insiders after winning the party’s popular vote, Bredesen said, ‘There would be hell to pay in the party for a long time to come.’” Las Vegas Journal-Review: “Reid said he remains convinced the nominee will be decided well before the August national convention. He wore a serene and mysterious smile….PENNSYLVANIA: 4/22 (158 delegates) Some PA notes, per NBC/NJ’s Matthew Berger:first 30-second ads in Pennsylvania. It is believed her ad buy is significantly less than Obama’s and focuses primarily in the Philadelphia media market. She spent about $600,000, Obama spent close to $1.6 million.
CONTINUED >>
Bill Clinton, campaigning in Kentucky, compared the Dem primary to an episode of the '80s prime-time soap opera, Dallas. "This is the darnedest election I ever saw, isn't it? It seems like a long-running episode of Dallas or something, it's like a saga, you know?"NYT's MoDowd believes HRC has now set her sights on the VP slot. "One Hillary pal said she wouldn’t want to go back to a Senate full of lawmakers who’d abandoned her for Obama. And even if she could get to be majority leader, would it be much fun working with Nancy Pelosi, whose distaste for the Clintons has led her to subtly maneuver for Obama?
CONTINUED >>
The New York Times covers McCain's speech on the mortgage/housing issue and notes he drew a "sharp distinction" from his Dem foes. He "warned Tuesday against vigorous government action to solve the deepening mortgage crisis and the market turmoil it has caused, saying that ‘it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers.’” More: "McCain has often addressed the mortgage crisis in general terms on the campaign trail, but in Tuesday’s remarks he offered a more comprehensive look at the challenge facing the nation -- and the roots of the problem. He blamed a profusion of complicated and recently devised financial instruments ‘that weren’t particularly well understood by even the most sophisticated banks, lenders and hedge funds.’endorsement of former First Lady Nancy Reagan. McCain also attended a fundraiser hosted by former Univision Chairman A. Jerrold Perenchio and his wife, Margaret.Boston Globe notes, "McCain's longtime effort to crack down on tobacco is being put to a new test. Within weeks, the Senate is expected to vote on legislation to allow the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco. McCain agreed months ago to cosponsor the current bill with Senator Edward M. Kennedy, but McCain's policy adviser said the senator won't commit to voting for it until he sees the final legislation.
CONTINUED >>
The
Washington Post follows the NYT on doing a story about Obama's liberalism. "As Obama heads into the final presidential primaries, Sen. John McCain and other Republicans have already started to brand him a standard-order left-winger, ‘a down-the-line liberal,’ as McCain strategist Charles R. Black Jr. put it, in a long line of Democratic White House hopefuls.
“Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign has also started slapping the L-word on Obama, warning that his appeal among moderate voters will diminish as they become more aware of liberal positions he took in the past, such as calling for single-payer health care and an end to the U.S. embargo against Cuba. ‘The evidence is that the more [voters] have been learning about him, the more his coalition has been shrinking,’ Clinton strategist Mark Penn said.
“The double-barreled attack has presented Democratic voters with some persistent questions about Obama: Just how liberal is he? And even if he truly is a new kind of candidate, can he avoid being pigeonholed with an old label under sustained assault?"
Tomorrow, Obama is giving what the campaign is billing as a major economic speech at Cooper Union in NYC.
The
NYT covers the release of Obama's tax returns going back to 2000 and decides to lead with the couple's increased charitable donations: "Some of the largest donations went to the Trinity United Church of Christ, whose pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., has been in the news for inflammatory messages in his sermons, causing Mr. Obama to distance himself from Mr. Wright, his former spiritual mentor. All told, the couple gave $27,500 to the church in 2005 and 2006.
“Although the campaign has not released the couple’s 2007 return, it has said the Obamas gave $240,000 to charity in 2007. This compares with charitable donations as low as $1,050 a few years ago.
“As for the other tax returns, ‘A spokesman for that campaign, Howard Wolfson, said that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton would release her returns dating from 2000 in the next week and that the Clintons had released 20 years of returns, until 2000, when Bill Clinton left the White House. Although there is no legal requirement that candidates release their tax returns, it has been common practice since the ’70s. A release typically occurs after a candidate becomes a party nominee, not in the primaries. Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, has not released his returns."
Here's a set of issues that will no doubt come up in the fall.
"The Bush administration issued a
grim report on Tuesday on the financial outlook for Medicare and Social Security, but said the condition of the programs had not significantly deteriorated since last spring. The new report, like the one issued last April, said Medicare’s hospital insurance trust fund would be exhausted in 2019, while Social Security’s reserves would be depleted in 2041."
The
L.A. Times notes the pres. campaigns greeted the new report with almost "deafening" silence. "As a result, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the presumed Republican presidential nominee, had little to say when the latest numbers were released projecting Medicare going into the red by 2019 and Social Security following in 2041. The Democratic contenders, Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, also sidestepped the issue."
USA Today compares the health care plans of the three candidates and LARGELY lumps Clinton and Obama together and compares them to McCain's philosophy on the issue.
McClatchy notes how both Clinton and Obama are ducking the gun issue and considering the primary states that are upcoming, every one of them has their share of Democratic voting gun advocates: PA, NC, KY, WV, IN, MT, SD and OR.
The
unintended consequence of the long primary campaign? Huge turnout and voter registration numbers for the Dems.
Here’s some fodder… check out Howard Dean’s assailing of the GOP, as quoted in the
University of Wisconsin student paper . He said there is “no future” for youth in the Republican Party. “When you look at the candidates on our side who stood up and debated, people under 30 … looked at that lineup of our candidates and said, ‘That looks like us in 20 years,’” Dean said. He added when those young people looked at the Republican candidates, they saw “1950s television.”
And then, “They can’t become more diverse,” Dean said. “Who in their right mind, if they were African American or Hispanic or Asian American, if they were gay or lesbian, would join the Republican Party?”
But he was the LIFE of the party! As NBC/NJ’s Carrie Dann writes, One-time Democratic candidate Mike Gravel is leaving the Democratic Party, accusing it of "work[ing] in tandem with the corporate interests that control what we read and hear in the media." Greener pastures await, he says, with his joining today of the Libertarian Party, where he hopes to continue his presidential bid.
From NBC's Lauren Appelbaum
VIDEO: Chelsea Clinton had a speedy retort when asked about the Monica Lewinsky scandal during a visit to Butler University in Indianapolis. The students gathered to see Clinton quickly erupted into applause. Clinton took one more question, on global warming, and then wrapped up the event.
*** UPDATE ***
"Evan Strange, a Butler University student who works on the school's newspaper, The Butler Collegian, said he had asked Chelsea Clinton her opinion "on the criticism of her mother that how she handled the Lewinsky scandal might be a sign of weakness and she might not be a strong enough candidate to be president."
"I'm a supporter of Hillary. I love Hillary," Strange said Wednesday on CBS' "The Early Show." "He said he asked the question because his friends 'always bring up that scandal. It's not something I asked to cause trouble but to show those people what makes Hillary so strong.' He said that by brushing him off, Chelsea Clinton missed an opportunity to show her mother's strength.
" 'I was very surprised' at the rebuke, Strange said. 'I can see where she'd get a little defensive because of the question and hearing Lewinsky over and over again, but I would like to hear her say something about Hillary rather than dismissing the question.'"
From NBC/NJ’s Athena Jones Clinton compared her Republican rival McCain to Depression-era President Herbert Hoover in response to his criticism of her proposal to help homeowners facing foreclosures.
She also told reporters Tuesday that had the Rev. Jeremiah Wright been her pastor, she would have left the church and reiterated her explanation for misspeaking about dodging sniper fire in Bosnia.
VIDEO: Hillary Clinton takes questions from reporters during a campaign stop in Pennsylvania. Clinton has proposed the government help people who are struggling to keep their homes by freezing foreclosures, guaranteeing new loans and possibly acting as a temporary purchaser of mortgages. McCain today warned against this kind of action saying, "I have always been committed to the principle that it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers."
Clinton bashed him for those remarks, which were read to her by a reporter.
"It sounds remarkably like Herbert Hoover ,” she said, “and I don't think that's good economic policy. You know, we have a framework of regulation. It needs to be updated and modernized. The government has a number of tools at its disposal that are well-suited for just this situation, and I think that inaction has contributed to the problems we face today, and I believe further inaction would exacerbate those problems."
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy SANTA ANA, Calif. -- In what were his most extensive remarks on the current housing crisis to date, McCain spoke to nearly 20 cameras and a small crowd of local business owners here this morning and expressed his confidence in the foundations of the U.S. economy.
After what amounted to a brief primer on the creation of the subprime housing bubble, McCain tried to demonstrate his economic knowledge by explaining in some detail the "series of complex, inter-connected financial bets that were not transparent or fully understood," which contributed to the broader economic crisis now facing the country.
VIDEO: John McCain says that the government is not in the business of saving and rewarding banks or small borrowers who behave irresponsibly. "I have always been committed to the principle that it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers," McCain said, beginning his proposed solutions. "Government assistance to the banking system should be based solely on preventing systemic risk that would endanger the entire financial system and the economy."
McCain did not specifically address the Fed's recent alleged "bail out" of Bear Stearns, but he seemed to imply support for such moves geared toward protecting the "entire financial system."
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro Obama's campaign responded to Clinton's comments on the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
“After originally refusing to play politics with this issue, it’s disappointing to see Hillary Clinton’s campaign sink to this low in a transparent effort to distract attention away from the story she made up about dodging sniper fire in Bosnia," Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton writes. "The truth is, Barack Obama has already spoken out against his pastor’s offensive comments and addressed the issue of race in America with a deeply personal and uncommonly honest speech. The American people deserve better than tired political games that do nothing to solve the larger challenges facing this country.”
Clinton told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review editorial board, "He would not have been my pastor. You don't choose your family, but you choose what church you want to attend." She continued, "You know, I spoke out against Don Imus (who was fired from his radio and television shows after making racially insensitive remarks), saying that hate speech was unacceptable in any setting, and I believe that. I just think you have to speak out against that. You certainly have to do that, if not explicitly, then implicitly by getting up and moving."
She repeated similar comments at an on-camera press conference later in the day.
From NBC’s Domenico Montanaro Vancouver Columbian [hat tip to our friends at Hotline] paraphrases Sen. Maria Cantwell as saying, “…[T]he candidate with the most pledged delegates at the end of the primary season in late June will have the strongest claim to the party’s presidential nomination.”
The paper adds, “Cantwell said she wouldn’t object to a primary contest that went into the summer if it focused on the issues facing the nation, but added, ‘We wouldn’t want to tear apart the party.’
“ ‘I think it’s important that we let it play out in June,’ she said. At that point, she said, ‘I’d be urging my party to make a decision.’”
From NBC's Chris Donovan Nancy Reagan’s endorsement of McCain -- the two will appear together this afternoon, the campaign said -- McCain has credited Nancy Reagan, in part, for his change in position on federal funding for stem cell research. He explained her impact on Meet the Press in 2005, and reiterated his support at the MSNBC presidential debate (with Nancy Reagan present) in May 2007.
Here's what was said:
FROM MEET THE PRESS (June 19, 2005): TIM RUSSERT: Let me turn to another ethical, moral, political issue, stem cell research. In 2000, John McCain and 19 other senators wrote a letter which said "Since 1996 Congress has banned federal funding for `research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed.' ...we support [this law]."
You've changed your mind.
McCAIN: Yes, I have.
RUSSERT: Why?
McCAIN: For a large number of reasons, ranging from getting briefed by very smart people on this issue and including discussing this with Nancy Reagan who, as you know, is a very strong advocate for stem cell research. I want to make it clear that those of us who support this do not believe that it has anything to do with human cloning and all of us are against human cloning. I look forward to the debate. It's a very complex scientific issue. But for us to throw away opportunities to cure diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's and many others I think would be a mistake. I look forward to the debate. It's interesting that more than two-thirds of the American people support stem cell research.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC’s Jim Popkin Sen. Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, offer insights into the power couple's rising fortunes as Obama became a U.S. Senator and then a potential presidential candidate.
Obama today released his tax returns from 2000 to 2006. They show a steep increase in income. In 2000, for example, the Obamas' combined income was $240,505. That includes Sen. Obama's salary as a young state senator in Illinois, his fees ($16,500) as a "foundation director/educational speaker" and Michelle Obama's salary as a hospital administrator.
In 2006, by contrast, the Obamas' combined income was $983,826. Obama had become a U.S. Senator by then, making about $165,000 a year, and his wife's income at the University of Chicago hospitals had climbed sharply to about $265,000 a year. Sen. Obama's book-writing career also had become profitable, earning him $551,240 in author fees in tax year 2006 alone. Mrs. Obama also made $51,200 that year, as director of TreeHouse Foods, "a food manufacturer servicing primarily the retail grocery and foodservice chains," according to the company's website.
The Obamas' best financial year came in 2005, when their total combined income was $1.6 million. That included $1.2 million in author fees for Sen. Obama's best-selling books. Michelle Obama's salary that year was $316,962 plus another $45,000 for her role as director of TreeHouse Foods.
The Obamas became more charitable as their incomes grew. In 2000, the couple gave $2,350 to charity, or about 1 percent of their gross income. In 2006, they donated $60,307 to charities, or about 6 percent of their gross income. In 2005, the Obamas list a $5,000 donation to their church, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, where the controversial Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., was Sen. Obama's pastor. If Sen. Obama tithed more regularly to the church, there's no record of it in these tax returns.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ’s Mike Memoli Bill Clinton said the primary contest should focus on issues, not "ya-ya-ing," referring in passing to an Obama supporter's claim that he engaged in McCarthyism last week.
Clinton was talking to the crowd at the Frankfort Convention Center about energy independence, when he stopped mid-thought.
That line drew some applause, prompting the former president to reflect a moment. He then decided then to share one of his "Clinton's law of politics." "The level of sanctimony in the rhetoric is inversely related to the public benefit of the policy," he said, chuckling before adding: "I need to quit this. Somebody will probably figure out how to ... accuse me of being Joe McCarthy again on that."
VIDEO: Bill Clinton jokes about a comparison of him to Joe McCarthy, made by an Obama supporter over the weekend. It was a passing reference, really. He then continued on to describe how cars could run on lithium batteries to get 100 miles per gallon. But it was the first public acknowledgement of the flap over his remarks in North Carolina last week that some viewed as an unspoken swipe at
Obama's patriotism.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann Obama getting Carolina backer Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-1) on the horn to slam Hillary Clinton over her reported exaggerations of the perils of a trip to Bosnia in 1996. Butterfield, the only member of North Carolina's Democratic congressional delegation to have endorsed a candidate, said he is "appalled" on behalf of his constituents over the claim. Calling the misstatement "a strike against" the New York senator, he added that she owes the citizens of his state -- and America -- an apology for it.
Butterfield also expressed doubt that Clinton's tenure as First Lady has uniquely readied her for a position at the helm of America's foreign policy. "And now that she has missrepresented and exaggerated her trip to Bosnia," he argued, "[that] really leads me to the conclusion that she not only lacks the qualifications but that she doesn't see the importance of being accurate in making statements regarding her qualifications."
The call assures that Clinton's "minor blip," as she has called the incident, will be on the news media's radar in the Tar Heel State. New polling shows Obama bouncing back from deflated numbers last week to regain a substantial lead after his recent visit to the state. (Note: this from a new PPP poll)
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan Obama campaign released six years of tax returns today, trying to underscore their argument that they operate with transparency and pressure the Clinton campaign to do the same. You can see the tax returns here.
From NBC/NJ’s Mike Memoli Bill Clinton yesterday morning upped the ante on seating delegates from Florida and Michigan, criticizing his party’s “strategy of denying and disempowering and disenfranchising the voters” there. His argument to seat Florida’s delegates in particular came as he continued to claim that his wife would be the most electable general election candidate. Townsend campaigning in what locals dubbed the “Dyngus Day Capital of the World.” Though Dyngus Days elsewhere have reportedly included drenching women with water, the event locally featured just brats, beers and Polish music. The event here is closely associated with politics, as well, which is what drew Townsend’s father, Robert F. Kennedy , to South Bend 40 years ago.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro Pittsburgh Tribune-Review , "He would not have been my pastor," Clinton said. "You don't choose your family, but you choose what church you want to attend."
She continued later, "You know, I spoke out against Don Imus (who was fired from his radio and television shows after making racially insensitive remarks), saying that hate speech was unacceptable in any setting, and I believe that. I just think you have to speak out against that. You certainly have to do that, if not explicitly, then implicitly by getting up and moving."
On her sniper gaffe, "I was sleep-deprived, and I misspoke."
On earmarks: "I am proud of my earmarks. Part of the reason that I won New York by 67 percent are my earmarks."
From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy
The hope is that by surrounding him with teleprompters McCain will be able to look more natural speaking to nearly 20 cameras in what will be his most extensive remarks on the housing crisis to date.
From NBC/NJ’s Adam Aigner-Treworgy PALM SPRINGS, Calif. -- Usually the political response to a new message from Osama bin Laden is one of universal condemnation, but at a VFW hall in Chula Vista here yesterday, John McCain announced his support of bin Laden's most recent message.
"General Petraeus is correct when he says that the central battleground in the struggle against Al Qaeda is Iraq, and Osama bin Laden just confirmed that again with his comments last week," McCain said before quoting a line from a recent audio recording of bin Laden calling for support of the Mujahadeen in Iraq.
VIDEO: McCain tells an audience that he agrees with Osama bin Laden's statement that Iraq is a primary battleground in the U.S. struggle against Al Qaeda. McCain told reporters after his town hall, "General Petraeus and I and Osama bin Laden are in agreement. It is hard to understand why Senator Clinton and Senator Obama do not understand that [Iraq is the central battleground]. I don't know if it is naiveté or what the problem is but it's obvious that they're dead wrong, and they're wrong when they say that we should leave Iraq immediately… and it's time that they acknowledge that the surge is succeeding and the benefits of success in Iraq will spread throughout the entire Middle East."
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli FRANKFORT, Kent. -- Former Kentucky Governor Julian Carroll announced he's backing Clinton in the Democratic primary for president. Carroll announced his choice in the state capital before an event featuring Bill Clinton, who makes his first visit to the Bluegrass State today.
Carroll said he has known the Clintons since 1974, when he ascended to the governorship of Kentucky. "Look at me, I'm still goin! Look at that!" said Carroll, 76, kicking his heels at the podium.
"We need for our delegates to be cast in the lot of Hillary Clinton at the convention," he added. "That's what this is all about. ... I came today to put my personal endorsement, not only on my friend Bill Clinton ... but on Hillary Clinton, to be the next Democratic President of the United States."
Carroll was elected to a full term as governor in 1975; he now serves as a state senator representing a district that includes Frankfort.
The visit to Kentucky is the first by either Clinton, and comes two months before the state's primary. Hillary Clinton is expected to visit the state later this week.
From NBC’s Domenico Montanaro Clinton’s path to the nomination is with the current mathematical configuration, top Clinton aide and DNC rules guru Harold Ickes assailed the Obama campaign, rather than lay out Clinton's arithmetic.
“I hope they don’t get their hands on the federal budget, because they can’t count,” he said of the Obama campaign.
He stressed that neither campaign can win the nomination without the now 794 superdelegates. “Either candidate needs a substantial number of superdelegates to win,” Ickes said.
“The math argument has been turned on its head,” he said. He went on to hint that one of the ways the math is changing or might change is because “new information” is coming out or might come out about Obama, Ickes said.
For reference, here’s our superdelegate math today from First Thoughts :
If the remaining contests split up "as expected" meaning Clinton wins her base states (PA, KY, WV, etc.) and Obama wins his base states (NC, OR, MT, etc.) and the two split Indiana down the middle, the two campaigns will likely split those 566 delegates right down the middle 283-283 (margin of error +/- 5 delegates). This means Obama would need 34% of the uncommitted superdelegates to hit the magic 2024 number, while Clinton would need 72% of the uncommitted Supers to hit 2024.
From NBC’s Ron Allen
After citing numerous articles from the time, referring to the danger, and how unusual it was for a first lady to travel to such a war-torn place, Team Clinton conceded she "misspoke" about the sniper fire. And running with, "our heads down," from the airport.
Clinton herself told the editorial boards of the Philadelphia Daily News and Inquirer that she “misspoke.” Further clarifying her comments, she said the pilot aboard her aircraft had warned there was sniper fire in the area at the time when she was arriving in Tuzla.
VIDEO: NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports on Hillary Clinton misspeaking about being under fire during a 1996 trip to Bosnia. “[W]hat I was told was that we had to land a certain way and move quickly because of the threat of sniper fire,” she said. “So I misspoke -- I didn't say that in my book or other times, but if I said something that made it seem as though there was actual fire -- that's not what I was told. I was told we had to land a certain way, we had to have our bulletproof stuff on because of the threat of sniper fire."
She added later, "I gave contemporaneous accounts, I wrote about a lot of this in my book. you know, I think that, a minor blip, you know, if I said something that, you know, I say a lot of things -- millions of words a day -- so if I misspoke, that was just a mistatement."
So why does this matter? Because Clinton has been accused of inflating her national security credentials to prove she has "passed the Commander-In-Chief test. That's the "test" that exists somewhere in the minds of her campaign staff, a test Sen. Barack Obama has not passed, according to Team Clinton, even though by every measure, except electoral votes won, he's winning the race.
CONTINUED >>
From Chuck Todd and Domenico Montanaro War of words: Democrats who don't have a horse in the presidential race, but do have to worry about House and Senate races are starting to wonder aloud if this protracted primary fight has hit a tipping point. Every day this goes on, they say, is bad for the party as a whole. Every day this goes on, they say, is bad for the party as a whole. Remember, there's a reason that the party that gets its nominee first has won 9 of the last 10 presidential elections . Think about the most recent and memorable primary fights for presidential nominations: Ford-Reagan; Kennedy-Carter; Mondale-Hart, not a single ultimate general-election winner. And all three, to this day, have bitter partisans who still bicker about that fight. The same thing is happening with Obama-Clinton. There's a real bitterness developing that rivals these other three examples. Check out how James Carville didn't back down from his "Judas" remark on Richardson at all. In a conference call with reporters Clinton Communications Director Howard Wolfson said, "If I had said it, I would apologize, because I am representing the campaign. I did not say it, and if I had I would." Meanwhile, the Clinton campaign is using Gen. McPeak's "McCarthy" attack on President Clinton and trying to raise money off of it.
VIDEO: NBC Political Director Chuck Todd talks about potential fatigue within the Democratic Party as a result of the prolonged nominating contest. ***
“Misspoke?”: The Clinton campaign in a conference call yesterday said Hillary Clinton “misspoke” when she said, “I remember landing under sniper fire” during her trip to Bosnia. OK. But there are two problems. What she said was with certitude (the remarks you can find on her
Web site ; those remarks on the web site, by the way, are "as delivered" not "prepared for delivery" as was mistakenly reported by one of us on TODAY). But beside that, as NBC’s Ron Allen writes, “Believe me, if you've ever been in a place where there is real sniper fire, it’s unforgettable…. As her team points out, Obama probably doesn't have very many, if any, similar experiences to talk about. But, apparently embellishing a story, or ‘misspeaking’ about it, will only lead to more questions about what Clinton really did when she was in places like Bosnia.” Or her role in the Irish peace talks or in children's health care, etc. This brings a focus back on her at a time when she'd rather see the press continue its focus on Obama. For instance, were it not for the Bosnia story, today's NYT piece on Obama's liberal record in the Senate might be the cable talker of choice.
***
Women back in Focus: The last two weeks were dominated by race and yesterday, in addition to her
speech on housing , Hillary Clinton held a “
Women for Hillary” rally -- “the first such event in weeks,” notes NBC/NJ’s Athena Jones. This was something that was routine in Iowa and New Hampshire, but has faded of late. Is gender politics making a comeback? Women, particularly older women, have been the backbone of Clinton's support both at the ballot box and apparently in her bank account. Pushing the issue of gender is also a way to create a movement that is similar to what has propelled Obama. The one demographic subgroup among women that has eluded Clinton to an extent has been educated younger white women. If she can crack this code, she'll have the chance to really make up ground fast in places like North Carolina and Indiana, let alone over-perform in the Philly suburbs and potentially keep Obama's vote total lower than expected in Pennsylvania.
***
Bluegrass primary? Bill Clinton campaigns hard in Kentucky today. Yes, Kentucky, which holds its primary on May 20th. Is this a sign this will go on and on and on -- even if Clinton loses Indiana or North Carolina? Clearly Kentucky is one Clinton's base states of the contests that remain and considering that the campaign still doesn't have the money to start paid advertising in Pennsylvania, let alone the May primaries, the campaign has now decided it's important to start showing up some of these places early so that Obama doesn't get the head start he's gotten in so many of these places. Bill Clinton's been used more and more as the campaign guinea pig, sending him first in some of these places to see what the response will be. He was in Indiana before his wife; he's hit North Carolina before his wife and now he'll hit Kentucky first as well.
*** Another sign of things to come? By the way, check out the added stop Hillary Clinton has made for Montana on 4/5 and 4/6. Montana is a JUNE primary state; the last day of the primary season. No doubt Clinton is sending the subtle message that she's in this race to the end. But why else would she set a Montana campaign stop two months before the primary? Is there an endorsement she's bagged that she'll unveil that day? Look for reporters to start making calls to Montana's Democratic hierarchy, all of whom would be good gets for Clinton: Gov. Schweitzer or Sens. Baucus and Tester.
*** More fun with delegate math: It's been a while since we've done the percentage game on the delegate count. Here's where things stand right now. Obama leads among pledged delegates 1408-1251; Clinton leads among superdelegates, 255-218. Added together, Obama's overall delegate lead is 120, 1626-1506. Now, what's left? There are still 10 pledged delegates NBC News hasn’t allocated from contests already held. In addition, there are 566 delegates at stake in the remaining contests. On the supers front, there are 321 folks who haven't picked sides (76 of whom have yet to be named; they'll get named at state convention meetings held between now and the end of June). OK, now, let's play the math game. If the remaining contests split up "as expected" meaning Clinton wins her base states (PA, KY, WV etc.) and Obama wins his base states (NC, OR, MT etc.) and the two split Indiana down the middle, the two campaigns will likely split those 566 delegates right down the middle 283-283 (margin of error +/- 5 delegates). This means Obama would need 34% of the uncommitted superdelegates to hit the magic 2024 number, while Clinton would need 72% of the uncommitted Supers to hit 2024.
*** Messages of the day: While Obama finishes up his vacation, both Clinton and McCain have major speeches today on two different topics. Clinton will focus on Social Security, timed for the release of the government's report on the long-term viability of the government trust fund. Word is Clinton will pop McCain on the issue; Meanwhile, McCain, fresh from Iraq, will talk about the housing/mortgage issue in a speech in California. The speech is more of a lesson in how this happened and a promise that he'll be open to some government solutions but he wants to make sure we're not bailing out speculators. Like Clinton and Obama, he calls for a summit of sorts, McCain's summit would be with the largest mortgage lenders.On the trail: Clinton makes two stops in Pennsylvania, including a town hall and a meeting at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review; McCain again raises money in California; Bill Clinton makes four stops in Kentucky; and Obama is still on vacation with his family and will be back Wednesday.Click here to sign up for First Read emails.
The New York Post calls the latest Clinton spin, that she leads Obama in electoral votes, “fuzzy math.” “She's behind Barack Obama in popular votes, delegates and overall wins, but Hillary Rodham Clinton's backers have found a new way to claim their candidate is on top…”
PENNSYLVANIA: 4/22 (158 delegates) surged past the 4 million mark Monday, setting a state record on the last day Pennsylvanians had to register to vote in next month's presidential primary. The figures, which showed modest declines in the ranks of Republicans and independents, reflected intense interest in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination and recruitment efforts by both candidates.”
Some notes from NBC/NJ’s Matthew Berger:which cities the candidate will visit in a six-day bus tour across the state, which starts Friday in western Pennsylvania and conclude in the southeast. press release with the dateline “Pennsylvania, Pa.”
*SEIU leaders said they are planning on focusing on “member-to-member ” contacts throughout Pennsylvania, choosing not to air advertisements for Obama at this time. “We think in Pennsylvania, the more workers can talk to workers, the more influential we can be,” said Anna Burger, SEIU Secretary-Treasurer, in a conference call with reporters Monday.
At 4:30 p.m. Monday, as the doors to Chester County Voter Services automatically clicked shut, several people pleaded for entry , to register to vote for the primary. Election officials across the state said they had never seen a rush like what occurred over the weekend. Obama campaign aides were at the Voter Services door, ready to give those shut out alternative suggestions to register in time.
CONTINUED >>
Clinton's '96 Bosnia trip is getting renewed scrutiny as the campaign -- and the candidate -- now admits Clinton “misspoke” when she talked about her remembrances of that trip. The archive video footage seems to contradict Clinton's memory. "Video footage of that trip shows a smiling Clinton and her then-teenage daughter, Chelsea, casually walking -- without helmets -- from the helicopter to an outdoor welcoming ceremony,” the LA Times writes. "‘On one occasion, she misspoke,’ Clinton campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson said Monday in reference to her Washington speech.
“In fact, Clinton also referred to having to move the Bosnia welcoming ceremony inside at least one other time, on Feb. 29. But, Wolfson insisted, Clinton was potentially in danger. ‘There were reports of snipers in the hills and they were forced to cut short an event on the tarmac. That is what she wrote in her book,’ he said of Clinton's memoirs.
“The Obama camp jumped on the discrepancies. ‘When you make a false claim that's in your prepared remarks, it's not misspeaking, it's misleading, and it's part of a troubling pattern of Sen. Clinton inflating her foreign policy experience," Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said.’
In a meeting with the joint editorial boards of the Philadelphia Daily News and Inquirer , Clinton acknowledged that she “misspoke,” made a “misstatement” in her remarks on her 1996 Bosnia trip. Here’s what she said, in part: "Now let me tell you what I can remember, OK -- because what I was told was that we had to land a certain way and move quickly because of the threat of sniper fire. So I misspoke -- I didn't say that in my book or other times but if I said something that made it seem as though there was actual fire -- that's not what I was told. I was told we had to land a certain way, we had to have our bulletproof stuff on because of the threat of sniper fire."
More: "I gave contemporaneous accounts, I wrote about a lot of this in my book. you know, I think that, a minor blip, you know, if I said something that, you know, I say a lot of things -- millions of words a day -- so if I misspoke, that was just a mistatement."
The Boston Globe : “Clinton's recall of Bosnia faulted.” mini-feeding frenzy that developed over the Bosnia trip seemed to step on things.
CONTINUED >>
Returning from his eighth trip to Iraq, McCain didn't back down on his promise to see the war through despite yesterday's tragic milestone of 4,000 deaths. “We're succeeding. I don't care what anybody says. I've seen the facts on the ground," the Arizona senator insisted a day after a roadside bomb in Baghdad killed four U.S. soldiers and rockets pounded the U.S.-protected Green Zone there, and a wave of attacks left at least 61 Iraqis dead nationwide. The events transpired as bin Laden called on the people of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to ‘help in support of their mujahedeen brothers in Iraq, which is the greatest opportunity and the biggest task.’”
Did McCain really say he agrees with Osama bin Laden? On the day the 4,000th American troop was killed in Iraq, McCain said, per NBC/NJ’s Adam Aigner-Treworgy, "General Petraeus is correct when he says that the central battleground in the struggle against Al Qaeda is Iraq, and Osama bin Laden just confirmed that again with his comments last week," referring to a recent audio recording of bin Laden calling for support of the Mujahadeen in Iraq.
McCain told reporters after his town hall, "Gen. Petraeus and I and Osama bin Laden are in agreement. It is hard to understand why Senator Clinton and Senator Obama do not understand that [Iraq is the central battleground]. I don't know if it is naiveté or what the problem is but it's obvious that they're dead wrong, and they're wrong when they say that we should leave Iraq immediately… and it's time that they acknowledge that the surge is succeeding and the benefits of success in Iraq will spread throughout the entire Middle East."
The al Qaeda-Iraq argument is a tack the RNC is also taking up against Clinton and Obama, as they wrote in one recent document e-mailed to media, entitled: “While Bin Laden Urges Followers To Fight In Iraq, Clinton And Obama Deny That It Is A Key Terrorist Battleground.”
The DNC has been going after McCain on Iraq and his offhanded “100 years” comment, which is almost assuredly going to end up in ads.
CONTINUED >>
The NYT looks at the National Journal rating of Obama as the most liberal member of the Senate and the fallout it could cause. "In many ways, the Obama campaign is challenging the fundamental political premise that has prevailed in Washington for more than a generation: that any majority coalition must be carefully centrist, if not center-right. Bill Clinton ran in 1992 as a candidate willing to break with liberal orthodoxy on many issues, including crime and welfare, and eager to move the party -- which had lost five of the six previous presidential elections -- to the middle. Mr. Clinton’s New Democrats assumed a certain level of conservatism among voters.McClatchy does a fact-check of sorts on Obama's senate record vs. his presidential rhetoric. "Obama says if he were president, he'd take politically courageous stands while forging the consensus needed to enact universal healthcare, immigration revisions, global warming legislation and a withdrawal from Iraq. His three-year record in the Senate, however, offers little evidence that he can do what he's promising. His party was in the minority for his first two years, and in the third he began campaigning for president and missed lots of time on Capitol Hill. He was absent from or only partly involved in some key bipartisan efforts to head off stalemates on judicial nominations, immigration and Iraq war policy."Iowa Independent , ex-Iowa Dem Chair/Obama Iowa co-chair Gordon Fischer says his hit on Pres. Clinton on the blue dress comment was wrong. "It was stupid, idiotic," Fischer said. "I deserve all the venom."
CONTINUED >>
Eliot Spitzer steps down after he’s found linked to a high-priced prostitution ring. His successor -- a history making blind African American -- is widely hailed as a uniter not a divider by both sides. Then, we find out he and his wife have both had extramarital affairs and last night, in an interview with local TV station NY1 , David Paterson admits to youthful marijuana and cocaine use. (The New York Post today dubs him Doobie Dave for it.)
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Dear Friend,
Do you think Bill Clinton is like Joe McCarthy?
Of course you don't. Neither do I. But Barack Obama must because this past weekend, his campaign compared President Clinton to Joe McCarthy. Joe McCarthy!
Ever since we won in Ohio and Texas we have been seeing these kinds of personal attacks from the Obama campaign. It's hard to believe that a campaign that talks so much about changing the tenor of our politics would employ these kinds of tactics, but its the kind of thing we are seeing every day from Senator Obama and his campaign.
Here is just a small sample of the words they have used to describe Hillary and her campaign: "disingenuous," "divisive," "untruthful," "dishonest," and much more.
Well I'm not going to stand for it, and neither should you. There's no better way to fight back than to show your support for our campaign in the face of these attacks.
Click here to make a contribution and help us fight the negative attacks.
I appreciate everything you're doing to help Hillary win, and I know she does too. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Terry McAuliffe
From NBC/NJ’s Mike Memoli Bill Clinton events in South Bend, Ind., this morning. The first is from a Dyngus Day celebration at the West Side Democratic Club:
"She can win this race, and we have got to win. And she will win in Florida. And I must say that this new strategy of denying and disempowering and disenfranchising the voters in Florida and Michigan is I believe a terrible mistake. Hillary believes their votes should be counted. And I don't know how we're gonna go to those people in the general election and say you gotta vote for us even though we dumped all over you in the primary. We let New Hampshire go out of turn. They had a Democratic Secretary of State. The Florida voters are totally innocent. They asked to vote on time. So for all those reasons I think she's the most electable.”
VIDEO: Bill Clinton touts his wife's general election chances against McCain during a campaign stop in South Bend, Ind. The second quote is from a Solidarity Day event at an Elks club:
"I think she can win the election. And I believe that she will win Ohio, Florida, West Virginia, and Arkansas -- four states that we have lost the last two times. If we win Ohio and Florida, it's inconceivable that we could lose the election. And I think that we are running the risk of throwing both Florida and Michigan away if she doesn't get nominated because of the events of the last few days where there has been a deliberate attempt to disenfranchise those voters. And don't you think there has not been a message there. Don't you think that they didn't get it?
“And Sen. McCain is not going to be easy to beat; he has always run well in Michigan. He will run pretty well in Florida. She can win. Look, if we win these four states we will win the White House; there is no point in doing this if we are not going to win."
From NBC/NJ’s Athena Jones Clinton revved up the crowd at a "Women for Hillary" rally outside Philadelphia Monday.
It was of no surprise to find the gym at Montgomery County Community College populated overwhelmingly by women. They made up about 90 percent of the crowd.
It's been a while since the New York senator hoping to become the first woman president has focused on issues of specific concern to women or held a woman-specific event.
She spent some time talking about the changing attitudes in the country and the erosion of barriers holding back women and others. She said the changes had allowed her and Obama to run for the Democratic nomination.
"I think that says a lot,” she said. It says a lot about who we are as a party and who we are as a country.”
Clinton brought back lines we haven't heard in a long time, like mentioning the women who come up to her and tell her they were born before women could vote but would live long enough to see a woman president. Variations on that phrase were common in the Iowa days.
Clinton said issues like the economy and health care were of special concern to women.
"Women make most of the healthcare decisions in America," she said. "For women, healthcare is a constant worry. You never can have it far from your mind, can you? Because you think about it all the time, 'What happens if--?' You know, I'm the designated worrier in my family and most women I know assume that role and the piece of mind that is never there because, can you let your son or your daughter play sports if you don't have health insurance? What if something happens?"
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Matthew Berger Obama at this time.
“We think in Pennsylvania, the more workers can talk to workers, the more influential we can be,” said Anna Burger, SEIU Secretary-Treasurer, in a conference call with reporters Monday.
There are more than 75,000 SEIU members in the Keystone State, and the union is setting up eight sites across Pennsylvania. The focus has been on registration through Monday, the deadline for residents to register to vote or change their party affiliation. The next step will be educating members.
While SEIU aired ads for Obama, shortly after announcing their national endorsement, before the Ohio primary, they are not planning to go on television or radio in Pennsylvania at this time. “But that could change,” Burger said.
“We think the candidates are spending so much on the air, it's more important for us to be on the door and on the ground,” she said.
After a compressed primary schedule earlier this year, union officials said the extra time has allowed them to ensure their membership rolls are up to date and to better organize themselves in the field, which lessened the need for media buys. Burger said members have been spontaneously reaching out to union officials, interested in the race and getting involved.
When asked if Obama could win the union vote in Pennsylvania, with polls showing Clinton at a 15-point advantage, Burger said she thought “we can narrow the gap.”
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro On the heels of the news that the U.S. death toll in Iraq has risen to 4,000, the Clinton and Obama campaigns issued statements. Here they are:
CLINTON: "Five years after the start of the war in Iraq, there have now been 4,000 U.S. military deaths in Iraq. On this solemn day, we remember the sacrifice of our brave men and women in uniform. We honor the tens of thousands more who have suffered wounds both visible and invisible, wounds that scar bodies and minds, and hearts as well. We honor the sacrifices of their families, a price paid in empty places at the dinner table, in the struggle to raise children alone, in the wrenching reversal of parents burying children.
"In the last five years, our soldiers have done everything we asked of them and more. They were asked to remove Saddam Hussein from power and bring him to justice and they did. They were asked to give the Iraqi people the opportunity for free and fair elections and they did. They were asked to give the Iraqi government the space and time for political reconciliation, and they did. So for every American soldier who has made the ultimate sacrifice for this mission, we should imagine carved in stone: 'They gave their life for the greatest gift one can give to a fellow human being, the gift of freedom.'
"I recall the great honor of meeting many of our brave men and women who have served our country. In meeting them, I am always struck by how, no matter how great their suffering, no matter how grave their own injuries, they always say the same thing to me: "Promise that you'll take care of my buddies. They're still over there. Promise you'll keep them safe."
OBAMA: "It is with great sadness that we have reached another grim milestone in Iraq, with at least 4,000 of our finest Americans having been killed. Each death is a tragedy, and we honor every fallen American and send our thoughts and prayers to their families. It is past time to end this war that should never have been waged by bringing our troops home, and finally pushing Iraq's leaders to take responsibility for their future. As we do, we must serve the memory of all who have died as well as they served our country, by providing support for their families, caring for our troops and veterans, and upholding the American values which our fallen heroes exemplified through their service."
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
He has since apologized for the comment.
"B. Clinton questions Obama's patriotism. In repsonse, an Obama aide compared B. Clinton to Joe McCarthy. This is patently unfair. To McCarthy,"
He later wrote ABC News , part of which he posted on his blog : "On my individual blog, I made a stupid comment. I sincerely apologize for a tasteless and gratituous comment I made here about President Clinton. It was unnecessary and wrong. I have since deleted the comment, and again apologize for making it. It will not happen again. I hope my readers will accept my apology and we can move on to the very important issues facing our state and country. Thank you."
"A sincere apology is always a good thing," Clinton Communication Director Howard Wolfson said in a conference call with reporters. "But I don’t know why he would apologize; it seems consistent with the kind of campaign the Obama campaign is trying to run."
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones Clinton called for a non-partisan federal emergency working group on home foreclosures that would meet to figure out how best to deal with the mortgage crisis.
The senator catalogued the problems facing the economy, including high gas prices, job losses and the credit crunch that has stemmed from problems in the mortgage market and said "confidence" was the currency of the American economy that the federal government should take stronger steps to shore it up.
"How do we keep today's turmoil from spiraling into a long and painful recession?" Clinton asked in her opening remarks.
She said more than 10 percent of all homeowners were struggling with mortgages underwater, a figure she said was the highest percentage since the Great Depression.
VIDEO: Clinton lays out her policy for combating the home foreclosure crisis during a speech in Philadelphia, Pa. Clinton went on to repeat her call for a moratorium on home foreclosures and said she supported the legislation introduced by Sen. Chris
Dodd (D-Conn.) and Rep. Barney
Frank (D-Mass.) that would expand the government's capacity to guarantee new loans from banks that help families facing foreclosure. She also said a government entity like the Federal Housing Authority may have to act as a temporary purchaser of mortgages.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan
Campaign manager David Plouffe claimed that Clinton couldn't change the system, when she was "wallowing" in special interest influence and money. He cited issue break-out sessions lobbyists had paid to attend with Clinton as well as ties to the financial industry, which he claimed would make it difficult for her to provide real reform.
Looking more broadly at the state of the race and the delegate count, Plouffe claimed that the Clinton campaign tried to create a new rationale every day for how the nominee should be selected. "Next, it will be that only states starting with 'N' should count" toward picking the nominee, Plouffe said.
He also acknowledged, after prodding, that Gen. McPeak's comments, which compared Bill Clinton to Joe McCarthy, didn't have a place in the race, but adamantly insisted that the Clinton campaign had a habit of making inappropriate comments and then saying their meaning was misinterpreted.
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro Fred Thompson . The as-seen-on-TV candidate, who dropped out after his once-vaunted presidential run faded, has been signed by a high-powered Hollywood agency.
The "William Morris Agency announced this week that it has signed the actor/politician, signaling a return to the screen for the former senator from Tennessee," the AP reports.
Maybe he can become president in 2008 after all -- even if it is just pretend.
From Chuck Todd and Domenico Montanaro Clinton’s day: The candidates have been taking a breather. Clinton was down all weekend, and Obama has left the continental U.S. for some quality time with the family and won’t check back in until Wednesday. (BTW, since he's reportedly so close, will Obama stop off in Puerto Rico on his way home? But we digress). It should be a slow week but noting that we’ve said THAT before. As for today, it is Clinton’s day. She could dominate the news cycle with a major speech on the housing crisis in Pennsylvania. On this issue, Clinton has devoted more campaign time to the issue than either Obama or McCain. It's potentially in Clinton's wheelhouse for a number of reasons: (1) She's seen as the candidate of policy positions; she's bread and butter not inspiration and that could play well with Pennsylvania's blue-collar housing-nervous electorate and (2) Her last name is a solid credential on the economy. While Clinton's tried to (sometimes clumsily; see Bosnia) claim foreign policy experience in her days as First Lady, the real benefit she should be figuring out how to get out of the Clinton presidential years is credit on the economy; those were the real successes of the Clinton year; if anything foreign policy was, at best, a mixed bag and only now being seen in a more positive light by some because of the current president. "All this other stuff..." Bill Clinton's Friday afternoon comments about why he thinks a Clinton-McCain contest will be better for the country has been viewed by Obama supporters has an attack on the candidate's patriotism. But be sure to focus on this phrase, "all this other stuff" intruding on the campaign and less on the "loves America" line. Wasn't Clinton sending another message to the crowd of older, white male voters? (Remember, he was at a VFW and there was barely a member of the audience under 60, according to our reporter in the field)? The message: That if you don't want to talk about race, then Clinton's the candidate; if you do want race intruding into the campaign, then support Obama. There are many older, white voters, while sympathetic to Obama's message on race, don't want to be reminded to take their medicine and the subtle message Clinton may actually have been sending was just that, support Clinton and avoid taking your race medicine.
VIDEO: NBC Political Director Chuck Todd discusses the Clinton campaign's reaction to Gov. Bill Richardson's endorsement of Obama last week. ***
The latest spin: So yesterday on the Sunday shows, two Clinton surrogates made their latest case to the superdelegates, which is, add up the electoral votes of the states won by Clinton vs. the states won by Obama. Why this metric? Because it is the only metric the Clinton campaign has come up with yet has her ahead: she's behind in popular vote, behind in delegates earned JUST through primaries and behind in pledged delegates. Of course, keep in mind, two of Kerry's final primary victories in '04 which essentially drove everyone out of the race (though the candidates did fight through Wisconsin) was Virginia and Tennessee; Kerry didn't carry either state. The motivation to use this Electoral College talking point is yet another attempt by the Clinton camp to discount some of Obama's small-state victories because Obama's won nearly twice the number of states. If you recall, in '00, during the recount dispute, the Bush campaign made sure the country saw that county-by-county map from around the country which showed the country in a sea of red. Obama's victory map, right now, looks more impressive than Clinton's visually. By the way, one other point, there's a reason Clinton's done well in bigger states, and that's time. Obama starts off behind some 15-20 points in most of these big states; when he campaigns in the state, he always closes the gap to a point. But is the de facto lever pull for less informed Dems Clinton until Obama spends an enormous amount of money? Just asking...
***
Hello, my name is…: The NYT’s/CNBC’s John Harwood curtain raises the planned re-introduction of McCain to the American populace. Campaign Manager Rick “Davis’s plan involves laying a sturdier foundation for Mr. McCain’s positive, but relatively shallow, public image,” Harwood writes. “It starts in earnest on March 31 with a ‘Service for America’ tour, intended to link the senator’s biography with his values and policy stances. Along the way, it will underscore life events that occurred in battleground states -- like Virginia, where Mr. McCain attended high school, and Florida, where he trained as a Navy pilot. He will address the dominant domestic issue with events in April promoting his economic agenda.” In addition, McCain will also continue to try and put together a campaign infrastructure; He still doesn't have a pollster and he may need a new media consultant since Mark McKinnnon has said he won't work against Obama. By the way, will conservative talk radio take a break from Rev. Wright to discuss the NYT piece about McCain's two flirtations with leaving the GOP? Our guess: no. What's done is done; had the GOP primary still been active when this story hit, then maybe this would have become a hot topic.
***
California going e-Bay? Speaking of the McCain team, get to know e-Bay CEO Meg Whitman, who may be using her role as National co-chair of McCain's campaign to size up a California governor’s run in 2010. The L.A. Times has the scoop
(Addendum: Actually, our friends at the Cailfornia Target Book broke the news of Whitman's interest in running for governor back in December) on the pro-choice businesswoman who wasn't a registered Republican for much of her time in California. The state GOP is always looking for a non-conforming party person to run for statewide office and it looks like Whitman is the current dream candidate for 2010.
***
Dyngus Day: Sometimes we wish we worked for Stewart or Conan or Jay or Dave or even Jimmy. Why? Because of days like this. Bill Clinton is in Indiana (with Chelsea), celebrating Dyngus Day, which according to one Google search, is a Polish holiday where guys get to
drench gals in water . (Seriously, we’re not making this up!); Apparently tomorrow, gals get to throw dishes at the guys. Just what part of Dyngus Day will Bill Clinton take part in? Ok, sorry, couldn't help ourselves, but seriously...
*** The Delegate Count: Obama leads Clinton 1,626-1,506 overall. This includes the pledged count of Obama 1,408, Clinton 1,251 and the superdelegate count of Clinton 255, Obama 218. in the popular vote, Obama is ahead 13,405,271-12,706,194. On the trail: Today is the last day voters in Pennsylvania voters can register to vote as Dems to participate in the 4/22 Dem primary. Clinton makes three stops in Pennsylvania, including her housing speech; McCain has two California fundraisers and holds a town hall there; Bill Clinton makes five stops in Indiana (including Dyngus Day celebrations); and Obama is on family vacation. Click here to sign up for First Read emails.
The Washington Post does some resume busting on both Obama and Clinton, writing about instances where both Clinton and Obama embellished their roles in various policy fights. AP : “Clinton and Barack Obama took a much-needed rest from their presidential campaigns on Easter Sunday as their tight race for the Democratic nomination looked set to drag on for months. Republican John McCain, who has locked up his party's nomination, returned from an overseas trip where he tried to polish his foreign policy credentials and prepared for a fundraising swing through Western states this week.” More: “Clinton took Friday through Sunday off from active campaigning and was scheduled to resume events in Pennsylvania on Monday. Obama, who campaigned in Oregon on Saturday, was taking a vacation with his family and would not return to active campaigning until Wednesday in North Carolina.”urged Attorney General Michael Mukasey to investigate the passport breaches of all three presidential candidates, “saying the breach could be a violation of several federal criminal statutes. Specter also indicated that the Judiciary Committee might take a look as well. ‘Privacy is a very fundamental matter. And if you can't have privacy for Senator McCain and Senator Clinton and Senator Obama, so what's the average person facing?’ he said.” Boston Globe profiles James Roosevelt, co-chairman of the Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee. He was called “unflappable” and “perfect” for the job by supporters of both Clinton and Obama. When it’s formed in June, Roosevelt will also co-chair the convention credentials committee, which is where the Florida-Michigan fight goes if it’s not settled beforehand. Roosevelt "is going to have to be Jesus and Moses all at the same time, and maybe Solomon, too,” said Don Fowler, the 1995 party chairman, who appointed Roosevelt to the RBC co-chairmanship. Salon's Walter Shapiro laments the Dem primary calendar. "With more than five months to the Denver Convention, the problem for the Democrats remains the crazy-quilt schedule that caused far too many to vote too soon. That is the real buyer's remorse -- a front-loaded political calendar that has turned most partisan Democrats into now-irrelevant bystanders just when a real decision is needed."
CONTINUED >>
Clinton hits the trail today in Philly to give what the campaign is billing as a major speech. She'll unveil a four-part plan to address underwater mortgages, the broader housing crisis and credit crisis. She'll call for a broader government role in buying out underwater mortgages and protecting homeowners. Clinton has consistently talked more about this issue more than either of her two foes, Obama or McCain. (See excerpts below.)newest Clinton campaign talking point to justify how superdelegates can vote for Clinton over Obama: the number of electoral votes Clinton has won in her primary/caucus wins vs. Obama. Both Evan Bayh and Ed Rendell tested out this talking point on Sunday shows.
CONTINUED >>
The Washington Post looks at the "tightrope" McCain is walking in regards to Pres. Bush. "Throughout a week-long trip that took him to more than a dozen meetings with leaders in five countries, McCain walked a fine line on Iraq and other issues as the all-but-certain Republican nominee confronted perhaps the central dilemma of his presidential campaign -- the question of what role Bush and the legacy of the past seven years will play in his campaign for the White House."NYT's Harwood has some details of what McCain's spring is going to look like. "The visible part of Mr. Davis’s plan involves laying a sturdier foundation for Mr. McCain’s positive, but relatively shallow, public image. It starts in earnest on March 31 with a “Service for America” tour, intended to link the senator’s biography with his values and policy stances. Along the way, it will underscore life events that occurred in battleground states -- like Virginia, where Mr. McCain attended high school, and Florida, where he trained as a Navy pilot. He will address the dominant domestic issue with events in April promoting his economic agenda.
CONTINUED >>
The Washington Times looks at a fact that has been largely overlooked the last six weeks: the amount of outside special interest money that has benefited Obama, particularly unions like SEIU.
CONTINUED >>
Meet Roger Stone. A long time attack dog of Eliot Spitzer’s, “who boasts of being the sleaziest man in American politics” and who predicted Spitzer "wouldn't serve his full term."
“The comments didn't draw much attention at the time since Stone was a well-known enemy of Spitzer who worked for the governor's nemesis, Majority Leader Joe Bruno,” the
New York Daily News reports. “Nobody knew that Stone had already tipped off the feds to Spitzer's high-priced hooker habit in a Nov. 19 letter to the FBI. It also cattily mentioned the governor's fetish for having sex with socks on. It's unclear whether the prosecutors knew anything about Spitzer's involvement in the Emperors Club VIP call girl ring when Stone wrote the letter.”
From NBC's Abigail Williams and Frank Thorp After telling the American public for the last month that he is stepping out of the mess of political life, Sen. Chuck
Hagel spent the morning telling those left in office how to clean up after he's gone.
Invoking the recent Gallup poll showing that 81% of the American public did not like the direction America was headed, Hagel called for a new consensus within the next administration and emphasized the need for a bi-partisan coalition no matter who takes the White House.
Referring to Sen. John
McCain as a "good friend," Hagel continued to criticize the Republican presidential candidate's foreign policy platform, pointing to a financial toll of $12 billion to $15 billion a month for the Iraq war and a high casualty rate.
"We have lost 900 Americans since the surge began," Hagel said. "We are in a mess in Iraq. And the reality is we are going to have to deal with it."
Hagel was blunt but could offer no specifics on the troop levels needed in the present or future. He was however, quick to absolve himself from finding any solution.
"I don't intend to be in the government next year," he said. "I don't anticipate it, and I don't look forward to it."
From NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann RALEIGH, NC -- The back-and-forth continues between Teams
Obama and
Clinton over the former president's comments in Charlotte yesterday, which some have interpreted as a swipe at Obama's patriotism.
Yesterday, Obama surrogate Gen. Tony McPeak decried Bill Clinton's remarks as echoes of Joe McCarthy's anti-Communist fear-mongering during the Red Scare.
That, said Clinton spokesman Phil Singer, is "an outrage that doesn't pass the laugh test."
In a statement issued this afternoon, Singer went on to say that McPeak was "willfully and deliberately distorting Bill Clinton's remarks" and accused the rival campaign of using the incident as a distraction from Obama's "recent political troubles."
Bill Clinton said in Charlotte yesterday that a general-election matchup between his wife and John McCain would represent "an election year where you had two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country, and people could actually ask themselves who is right on these issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics."
From NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann CARY, NC -- Call it "courting the 'old coot' vote."
After an afternoon of controversy sparked by comments made in Charlotte, NC, Bill Clinton stuck to lighter fare at a senior center in Cary, a well-to-do suburb of Raleigh.
"I've become a nut with these crazy Sudoku puzzles!" he exclaimed to knowing chuckles from a crowded audience of not a few octogenarians. Clinton went on to clarify that his affection for the addictive numerical mind-benders is derived from an article in the Journal of American Medicine claiming that "after 50, if you do one crossword puzzle, one set of math problems or a sudoku puzzle a day you cut your chances of Alzheimers in half!"
"Interesting, huh?" he added brightly.
The mature humor came at the same time the Clinton campaign issued a statement to clarify the former president's earlier remark that a matchup between McCain and Clinton would be one "between two people who love this country" without "all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics." A campaign spokesman says that the comment was meant to lament, not launch, attacks on rival candidates' patriotism.
Clinton also said in Cary that today's swing through the Tar Heel State marks "the beginning of what I hope will be many trips to North Carolina between now and your primary day." He mentioned that his wife will be in the state "next week, and I think every week" until May 6th.
"This whole thing could come down to what you all decide to do in North Carolina," he said, prompting applause from Democrats who have had the chance to cast precious few decisive votes in a presidential primary during their long lifetimes.
From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan EUGENE, Ore. -- The crowd at the University of Oregon let Barack Obama off the hook Friday night, even though he bet against their team in the NCAA tournament.
"I'm glad I'm not an opposing team. This is what they call the pit," Obama said as he looked out over the crowd of 9000 "quacking" fans in Mac Court stadium.
"Alright ducks I know this is a tough night for you. But I tell you what, Illinois didn't even make the NCAA this year," Obama said.
Oregon lost to Mississippi State last night, and Obama's bracket had chosen the Bulldogs to win over over the Ducks.
But there was no need for Obama to win over this crowd. Obama fans started lining up at 6am this morning. Garrett and Heather Bridgens, school teachers from nearby Cottage Grove, OR said their high school students had taken turns waiting in line all day.
Around 6000 people who couldn't get into the event waited in an overflow to see Obama and others thronged the sidewalks of the school in a long procession waving cheerfully at the motorcade as it passed by.
It was a good end to a difficult week. Obama bounded on stage to "The City of Blinding Light," a campaign staple that has been missing from the road lately as the campaign has tried to move away from rallies towards more sober town halls and message events.
Obama addressed the comments made by Reverend Jeremiah Wright by rwferencing the speech he gave in Philadelphia. He called the focus on it a "distraction" and promised the crowd thar "this time we will not be distracted. This time we will not be waylaid.'
Obama will wrap up his Oregon tour Saturday with a town hall in Medford.
From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan SALEM, Ore. -- General Tony McPeak, a co-chair of the Obama campaign, and a former Chief of Staff of the United States Airforce in the Clinton Administration, President Clinton's
comments on patriotic Americans Friday to Joe McCarthy.
"I think it's horrible. I'm really disappointed because I worked for President Clinton, you know?" McPeak said when asked by reporters.
"We know Barack Obama don't we? Do we think Barack Obama loves America? Is this stupid or what?" he demanded of the press surrounding him.
"It sounds more like McCarthy. I grew up, I was going to college when Joe
McCarthy was accusing good Americans of being traitors, so I've had enough of it," he added.
Told that the Clinton campaign had tried to distance itself from Bill Clinton's comment, McPeak implied that the campaign had been down this road before with the former president.
"It's a use of language as a disguised insult. We've seen this before, this
little clever spin that's put on stuff," he said.
"I have no idea what his intentions are but I'm disappointed in the statement. I think Bill Clinton is, or ought to be, better than that," McPeak concluded.
From NBC's Lee Cowan PORTLAND -- Bill Richardson described the conversation he had with Hillary Clinton on his decision to endorse Barack Obama as "heated" in an exclusive with NBC Nightly News today.
Both Richardson and Obama shared the spotlight this afternoon at a press conference and later in a sit down interview with NBC's Lee Cowan. (Please insert link to NN spot)
Richardson described the conversation that he had with Clinton last night "tough."
"It was tough to make the call, but I did. It got a little heated. It got a little tense. But it was understood, and I'm proud of my decision."
He stressed that his decision to endorse Obama came a week before, but it was reinforced by the speech Obama gave on race last Tuesday. He cited his own racial background as a Hispanic to underscore why the speech was so significant.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Jim Popkin and Libby Leist Two of the government contractors who allegedly took a peek at Sen. Barack Obama's passport records worked for a Virginia-based firm called Stanley, Inc., according to U.S. government officials with knowledge of the State Department passport controversy.
NBC News contacted a Stanley, Inc. spokeswoman this afternoon, and informed her that two sources had confirmed that employees at her firm were involved with the scandal. The spokeswoman would only comment: "We've been directed by the State Department to direct all media calls to them."
The government officials tell NBC News that Stanley Inc. fired the two workers. A worker at a second contracting company, not related to Stanley, Inc., also allegedly took a look at the Obama files and those belonging to Sen. John McCain. That person has been disciplined but not yet been fired, State Department officials say.
Stanley, Inc., is headquartered in Arlington, Va. and is employee-owned. The State Department awarded it a contract for $164 million in 2006. The contract calls for Stanley to print and mail millions of new U.S. passports.
One Stanley, Inc., contractor allegedly looked at Obama's passport records on January 9, and then a second Stanley employee allegedly took a peek at similar Obama records on February 21, the officials said. Stanley, Inc., fired both workers after the alleged security breaches were discovered.
According to its website: "Stanley has approximately 3,500 employees at more than 100 locations in the U.S. and worldwide. Stanley offers a full-spectrum systems integration portfolio of services, providing comprehensive solutions for all phases of a program, product, or business lifecycle to meet each customer's mission-critical requirements."
From NBC's Bethany Thomas PARIS -- John McCain wrapped up his five-country swing to the Middle East and Europe by meeting with two familiar faces- one old and one new. In London this morning, former Prime Minister Tony Blair and McCain had breakfast together at the swanky Mandarin Oriental hotel. A quick photo-op for reporters before the official visit quickly became a reflection of McCain's recent travels. On the friendship with Britain, McCain said, "What I've learned from our trip is that our alliance and our relationship is still strong. There are areas such as climate change, transparency of international financial institutions, Israeli-Palestinian peace process and others that we need to work with more closely together."
Throughout the entire week, McCain has been careful to distinguish this trip as a Congressional fact-finding mission that he's leading as the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee. Nevertheless, questions on the election and McCain's candidacy have followed him and various world leaders at every country's stop. This morning Mr. Blair tried to deflect the question, but when asked if he was interested in the race, he said, "I think there's great interest in the election everywhere."
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann (see update)
"I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country," said the former president. "And people could actually ask themselves who is right on these issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics."
In the wake of controversy over comments made by Barack Obama's former minister, Clinton's comments could be seen as an effort to draw attention to the issue of patriotism in a state with a high population of veterans.
The former president made the comments to less than 80 audience members at an invite-only event focused on veterans issues. The audience was subdued as Clinton gravely outlined a message of patriotism and honor for military service, The small sea of navy-blue VFW caps nodded along in agreement.
Take away ten of the cameras and fifty degrees Farenheit, and this could have been a John McCain event in Waterloo, Iowa, in November 2007.
The message was different, but the mood was much the same.
Update : Bill Clinton spokesperson Matt McKenna clarifies the former president's comment: "Actually, as is indicated by the quote itself, President Clinton was talking about the need to talk about issues, rather than falsely questioning any candidate's patriotism.
He was lamenting that these kind of distractions 'always seems to intrude' on political campaigns. This consistent with his criticism of the 'politics of personal destruction,' which dates back 16 years."
From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan Richardson endorsed Obama this morning, hailing him as a "once in a lifetime leader," Obama gave one of the fieriest speeches he has delivered in weeks.
"It's not just a change in parties. It's not just putting forward a bunch of ten point plans. It's restoring a sense that this government is working for you and fighting for you and is of and by the United States of America," he said.
From NBC's Mark Murray Bill Richardson specifically cited Obama's speech on race Tuesday as a reason for his endorsement.
"Earlier this week, an extraordinary American gave a historic speech. Senator Barack Obama addressed the issue of race with the eloquence and sincerity and decency and optimism we have come to expect of him," he said, according to his prepared remarks. "He did not seek to evade tough issues or to soothe us with comforting half-truths. Rather, he inspired us by reminding us of the awesome potential residing in our own responsibility."
VIDEO: New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson endorses Barack Obama for president before an enthusiastic crowd in Portland, Ore. Richardson continued, "Senator Obama could have given a safer speech. He is, after all, well ahead in the delegate count for our party's nomination. He could have just waited for the controversy over the deplorable remarks of Reverend Wright to subside, as it surely would have. Instead, Senator Obama showed us once again what kind of leader he is. He spoke to us as adults... He appealed to the best in us."
"As a Hispanic, I was particularly touched by his words. I have been troubled by the demonization of immigrants--specifically Hispanics-- by too many in this country... Senator Obama has started a discussion in this country long overdue and rejects the politics of pitting race against race."
Click below for Richardson's full remarks....
CONTINUED >>
From MSNBC's David Shuster Here's what we know so far:
(1) Fall 2007. A training exercise last fall involved somebody typing in
Hillary Clinton's name... The person involved was not fired.
(2-a) January 9, 2008. A contractor looked at the passport file of
Barack Obama . The supervisor felt it was a firing offense. The contractor was fired. But the immediate supervisor didn't notify officials outside office of consular affairs.
(2-b) February 21, 2008. Another contractor looked at Obama's passport file. Supervisor felt it was a firing offense. The contractor was fired. The immediate supervisor didn't notify officials outside office of consular affairs.
(3) March 14, 2008. A third contractor accessed Obama's passport file and
McCain's passport file. Supervisor felt it was not a firing offense. The contractor suspended. The immediate supervisor didn't notify officials outside office of consular affairs.
Key questions: What made the Jan. 9 and Feb. 21 breaches of Obama more serious than the fall '07 breach of Clinton and the March 14 breaches of Obama/McCain?
From NBC's Andrea Mitchell McCain's passport file was also apparantly breached, and Clinton's was as well.
Secretary of State Rice called Clinton today to notify her that her passport file was breached in 2007.
Clinton's Senate office released this statement: "This morning, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice contacted Senator Clinton in order to inform her that the Senator's passport file was breached in 2007. The State Department will be briefing Senator Clinton's staff this afternoon to provide details about the recent unauthorized breaches of passport records. Senator Clinton will closely monitor the State Department's investigation into this and the other breaches of private passport information."
From NBC's Andrea Mitchell Bill Clinton as ambassador to Paraguay.
Harty actually started out in the Reagan Administration and rose to become a special assistant to former Secretary of State George Shultz.
In addition, Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy started in 1973 during the Nixon Adminstration - when Henry Kissinger was Secretary of State.
They both rose through the ranks under both Republican and Democratic presidents.
I'd caution against assuming any particular connection to the Clintons unless we can establish that. They are not known to be particularly political. They will surely have to answer questions about management and competence, however.
From NBC's Libby Leist Condoleezza Rice said this morning she has spoken to Obama today to express her regret over the unauthorized passport breaches. She did not know about it until yesterday and could not comment whether any laws were broken
"I told him that I was sorry, and I told him that I myself would be very disturbed if I learned somebody had looked into my passport," she said. "We are very concerned about this."
"We are going to do an investigation through the inspector general, who will get to the bottom of it to make certain nothing ... was going on"
VIDEO: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says she will launch a full investigation into the unauthorized inquiry into Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's passport file. The State Department is in contact with Obama's office and will provide briefings. "None of us wants to have a circumstance in which any Americans passport file is looked at in an unauthorized way," Rice added.
From NBC's Mark Murray presidential contenders -- the analogy is perhaps more apt than ever: After a week of tough press scrutiny, the Obama campaign is trying to work the refs to even out the coverage.
With the fresh speculation whether the Rev. Wright episode will hurt Obama's chances in the general election, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe held a conference call with reporters arguing that voters' concerns about Clinton's honesty and trustworthiness are damaging to her claims of electability.
"It will be next to impossible to win a general election if more than half the electorate doesn’t see you as trustworthy," Plouffe said, citing a Gallup poll showing that just 44% of Americans rate Clinton as honest and trustworthy, compared with 67% for McCain and 63% for Obama. "The American people will simply not elect someone they don’t see as honest and trustworthy."
He went on to cite examples in which he said Clinton was being dishonest: telling voters in Ohio that she was against NAFTA (when she attended White House-organized meetings on the trade accord), pushing for re-votes in Florida and Michigan (when she said earlier that those contests didn't count), and even saying Obama wasn't a Muslim "as far as I know" (when she knows well Obama is a Christian).
Also on the call, Obama adviser Greg Craig implored the press to scrutinize why Clinton's White House schedules didn't confirm her claims to foreign policy experience (on Rwanda, Yugoslavia, and Northern Ireland). "I think her claims, with respect to foreign policy, achievements are inflated."
On its own conference call following the Obama one, the Clinton campaign charged that the Obama camp was "desperate to change the subject" after its tough week -- by disenfranchising voters in Michigan and Florida, peddling photos of Bill Clinton with Rev. Wright, and now attacking Clinton's character. "It is not a pretty sight," Clinton spokesman Phil Singer said.
From Chuck Todd and Mark Murray A bad week for everyone : While it may be hard to compare weeks during this campaign, we imagine there haven’t been many that have been this bad for all three campaigns. It was an odd war of attrition, a contest of who had the LESS bad week. For McCain, it was his Shiite-Sunni gaffe, which allowed Democrats to have a field day criticizing his understanding of Iraq, as well as his commander-in-chief credentials. For Clinton, it was the failure to have re-votes in Florida and Michigan, which makes her path toward winning the Democratic much, much more difficult. But hands down, no one had a tougher week than Obama. Just look at the post-Rev. Wright/pre-race speech poll numbers that are still circulating; it's what makes the Clinton and McCain folks think their week went better than Obama’s did. That said, two developments that occurred last night -- the news that Bill Richardson is endorsing Obama and the breach of his passport records -- have changed the subject, at least in the short term. But we do have this question for the Obama campaign: Why did it leak that photo of Wright with Bill Clinton? Doesn’t that just give cable networks another excuse to run the video of Wright? How does that turn the page? It was an odd decision to say the least.
*** Richardson’s endorsement : When John Edwards made an appearance on Leno last night, we were bracing ourselves for a possible endorsement. We just didn’t know it would be coming from Bill Richardson, who will formally throw his support behind Obama at a campaign event today in Portland, OR. The endorsement isn’t too much of a surprise -- Richardson had been hinting his support for Obama for a while. Still, it’s significant for two reasons: 1) Richardson becomes the second Dem presidential contender to endorse Obama, while none has backed Clinton (Biden and Edwards are still neutral); and 2) Richardson specifically cited Obama’s speech on race as a reason for getting off the fence. “He asked us to rise above our racially divided past, and to seize the opportunity to carry forward the work of many patriots of all races, who struggled and died to bring us together,” he said in a letter to his supporters. “As a Hispanic, I was particularly touched by his words.” The Obama camp, though, has to be a bit disappointed the endorsement didn’t come before Texas. In fact, of the remaining contests, Puerto Rico is the only one left with a significant Hispanic population. Expect some bitterness from Clinton land on this one, in particular because many of them believe that without Bill Clinton appointing Richardson to two Cabinet posts, he wouldn't have had the experience that makes him a viable veep candidate. Of course, Richardson’s endorsement means another superdelegate for Obama, raising his overall delegate total (pledged and supers) to 1,626 vs. 1,506 for Clinton.
VIDEO: NBC's Political Director Chuck Todd offers his first read on Bill Richardson's endorsement of Barack Obama, and continuing talk of race in the presidential campaign. ***
Breach : While the Richardson endorsement is certainly good news for the Obama campaign, it might actually get more of a political payoff from the news that three contract workers at the State Department had accessed his passport records. The reason? It allows the Obama camp to bash the Bush Administration and galvanize Democratic voters, who might think -- even if it’s not true -- that the Administration is engaged in dirty tricks. “Our government's duty is to protect the private information of the American people, not use it for political purposes,” Obama spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement last night. “This is a serious matter that merits a complete investigation, and we demand to know who looked at Senator Obama's passport file, for what purpose, and why it took so long for them to reveal this security breach.” Déjà vu '92. It's likely a few idiotic rogue wannabe political consultants, but who knows what an investigation will turn up.
*** The downballot omission : Yesterday, Clinton chief strategist Mark Penn released a memo seizing on recent poll numbers showing Clinton’s improved standing versus Obama. He wrote, “Ultimately, this Democratic nominating process is meant to select the candidate who will: a) be the best president – the best commander-in-chief, steward of the economy, and exercise leadership; b) defeat John McCain; and c) promote and defend core Democratic principles such as universal health care. On all three fronts, Hillary is the best choice for the Democratic Party." But he left out this consideration: Who would be the best leader for the party when considering downballot races? As we’ve pointed out before, what has been good for the Clintons (winning two presidential elections), hasn’t always been good for the party (which lost control of Congress, state legislatures, and governorships while Clinton was president). Can Clinton’s campaign make the pitch to superdelegates that the party would benefit as a whole from a Clinton restoration? Remember, these superdelegates aren't going to worry about who will be the best president. Many of them will be thinking: Who will be the best nominee to keep me in power?
*** McCain's money woes? FEC reports are in for all three presidential candidates, and there are a few headlines. First, the presidential field combined has raised just short of $800 million since last year. That's a stunning figure; the remaining three candidates will pass a $1 billion BEFORE the conventions. Two, McCain raise slightly less money in February than he did in January. That's not a good sign. He can't afford to be raising $11-15 million a month; he needs to get that monthly average above $20 million, at a minimum. No doubt, the McCain folks expect to be outspent by their eventual Dem opponent, as both Obama and Clinton are raising money at an amazing clip. But McCain needs to keep the ratio to less than 2-to-1, and $11-15 million a month doesn't cut it.
*** Typical clumsiness? Obama's defense of his grandmother racial issues by calling her a "typical white person" has many folks up in arms, who rightly claim that if either Clinton or McCain had said the phrase "typical black person" in a similar, there would be a full-fledged media firestorm. Of course, had Obama said this pre-Rev. Wright, would anyone have cared? It shows where this campaign is right now and why Obama's walking a tightrope. Every word he says on race is being scrutinized. This was an odd thing to say and offensive to a number of folks. No doubt we'll hear an apology from Obama. He obviously didn't mean for how it came across but, well, words matter.
*** On the trail : Clinton is down in New York; McCain remains in England and then heads to France; and Obama campaigns all day in Oregon, visiting Portland, Corvallis, and Eugene. Also, Bill Clinton stumps in North Carolina.
Countdown to Pennsylvania: 32 days
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It's official: Florida and Michigan re-vote proposals are dead .
Politico's Smith notes that without the re-votes, the Clinton campaign's hope of catching Obama in the popular vote is diminishing. "In Pennsylvania, for instance, more than 1.2 million Democrats turned out for the last contested Democratic primary, the 2002 governor’s race. Given the higher interest, Democratic operatives there — who declined to be quoted speculating — said they could imagine the vote getting as high as 2 million. Under that, highly optimistic scenario, an unprecedented blowout for Clinton — a margin of 20 percent, for instance — would give her 400,000 more votes in the state, and still leave her with more than 300,000 to make up.”
“And few Pennsylvania Democrats actually expect such a result, despite Clinton’s lead in many state polls. Clinton’s convincing victory in Ohio, for instance — a whiter, more conservative state — was by a margin of 10 percent." More: For Clinton to pick up her lead in the popular vote with 6 million ballots cast, she’d need a 12 percent margin across the states — that’s a 56 percent to 44 percent average win. With 5 million ballots, she would need a 14 percent margin — that’s a 57 percent to 43 percent overall victory, including expected defeats in states counting for well over 1 million votes.”
CONTINUED >>
This little passport imbroglio is just the type of distraction the Obama campaign was looking for, no? Here's the original Washington Times story on the incident: "Two State Department employees were fired recently and a third disciplined for improperly accessing electronic personal data on Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, Bush administration officials said today. The officials, all contract workers, used their authorized computer network access to look up files within the department's consular affairs section, which processes and stores passport information, and read Mr. Obama's passport application and other records, in violation of department privacy rules, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said."
Obama spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement: "This is an outrageous breach of security and privacy, even from an Administration that has shown little regard for either over the last eight years. Our government's duty is to protect the private information of the American people, not use it for political purposes. This is a serious matter that merits a complete investigation, and we demand to know who looked at Senator Obama's passport file, for what purpose, and why it took so long for them to reveal this security breach.”
Clinton spokesman Jay Carson added, "It is outrageous and the Bush Administration should get to the bottom of it."
Per NBC’s Libby Leist, A senior State Department official insisted there was "no political motivation" to these incidents. He says they were low-level contract employees doing administrative work and they accessed the Obama records out of "curiosity." This official doesn't believe any of this information was sent anywhere. The records were accessed on three different occasions by three separate individuals -- on January 9, February 21, and March 14.
On conference call last night, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell adds, Patrick Kennedy of the State Department said there is no reason to think that the contract employees will not cooperate with the inspector general, even though they acknowledge that fired employees have no obligation to do so. The IG would have no legal authority over these fired contract employees. At this stage, Kennedy and spokesman Sean McCormick say they are not forwarding this to the Justice Department. Moreover, McCormick said he first learned about the incidents from a reporter's call yesterday -- not from an official internal report.
The Washington Post uses the release of Clinton's White House schedules to look at her experience claims. "On March 22, 1999, Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived at the Itihadiya Palace in Egypt for what her schedule said was a ‘courtesy call with President Mubarak.’ Aides blocked out 9 a.m. to 9:15 a.m. Then she embarked on visits to a mosque, museum, clinic, bazaar, youth center, groundwater project, university and the Temple of Luxor. Almost exactly nine years later to the day, Clinton's trip to Egypt offers a case study of her foreign policy role during her husband's presidency. While traveling across North Africa, she devoted little time to heads of state and negotiated no agreements, but instead met community leaders, explored local issues and culture, hit major tourist sites and gave speeches on women's rights and other topics important to her.”
“Whether that has made her ‘tested and ready’ to be president from the first day, as she now claims, is a burning issue on the campaign trail." More: "While Clinton's advertisements have boasted that she is best prepared for a 3 a.m. crisis phone call, the schedules contain no evidence that Clinton was at the table during major national security decisions. They do not list her as attending National Security Council meetings or joining briefings in the Situation Room. She did not have a national security clearance. And the documents make clear that at moments of major crisis, Clinton was often busy with her own agenda."
The Obama camp seized on the NAFTA campaigning Clinton did during her husband's push for the trade pact's passage in '93. The news was revealed in her White House schedules released on Wednesday.
The New York Times reports, "[T]his week, Mrs. Clinton’s electability argument has taken on a new dimension that for her and her advisers is both discomfiting and unpredictable, but also potentially helpful. Some Democrats are now looking at the racially incendiary and anti-American remarks of Mr. Obama’s longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., and wondering if that association could weaken Mr. Obama as a nominee. Clinton advisers have asked their allies not to talk openly about the issue, for fear it could create a voter backlash and alienate black Democrats. They also say Mr. Obama, of Illinois, is in enough trouble over Mr. Wright that they do not need to foment more — and, besides, cable television is keeping the issue alive."
CONTINUED >>
National Journal's Kirk Victor looks at the decision-making process behind McCain's veep search. "[F]airly or not, the decision assumes more importance than usual in McCain's case because he will be 72 on Inauguration Day ... and because he has had cancer... Folks on and off Capitol Hill also say that McCain, perhaps more than other recent nominees, has more competing considerations to weigh in selecting a running mate. They cite his famous maverick ways ... and his acknowledgement that economics is not his strong suit."
Karl Rove weighs in on the national security question for the campaign: "Elections are rarely decided over just one issue; to win, candidates don't need to have a majority of Americans agreeing with them on every big issue. But when it comes to choosing a president, Americans take seriously the candidates' views and experience on national security. Voters instinctively understand a president's principal constitutional responsibility is protecting the country.
The Democrats have two candidates with less national security experience and fewer credentials than the presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain. And they are compounding these difficulties with positions on Iraq and terrorist surveillance that are shared by a shrinking minority of Americans."
With McCain in France today, the liberal Campaign for America’s Future has released a video hitting McCain on the Airbus tanker deal.
Richardson sent an email to supporters to explain his reasons for picking Obama. "Earlier this week, Senator Barack Obama gave an historic speech that addressed the issue of race with the eloquence, sincerity, and optimism we have come to expect of him. He inspired us by reminding us of the awesome potential residing in our own responsibility. He asked us to rise above our racially divided past, and to seize the opportunity to carry forward the work of many patriots of all races, who struggled and died to bring us together.”
“As a Hispanic, I was particularly touched by his words. I have been troubled by the demonization of immigrants--specifically Hispanics-- by too many in this country. Hate crimes against Hispanics are rising as a direct result and now, in tough economic times, people look for scapegoats and I fear that people will continue to exploit our racial differences--and place blame on others not like them. We all know the real culprit -- the disastrous economic policies of the Bush Administration!
“Senator Obama has started a discussion in this country long overdue and rejects the politics of pitting race against race. He understands clearly that only by bringing people together, only by bridging our differences can we all succeed together as Americans. His words are those of a courageous, thoughtful and inspiring leader, who understands that a house divided against itself cannot stand. And, after nearly eight years of George W. Bush, we desperately need such a leader.”
Per NBC/NJ’s Aswini Anburajan, Obama often has been billed as the wine-drinking candidate, who’s unable to attract the working-class, beer-track voters that are the staple of the Democratic Party. It's no exaggeration to say that in a sports bar in Beckley, West Virginia yesterday Obama found the answer to winning over those regular Joes. Plopping down at a table with a group of men, he sat, talked, ate two chicken wings, and dissected the NCAA tournament. Why didn't Mississippi State make his final four pick? "They don't have good free throws," he explained. "Pittsburgh is hot," he declared, insisting that it had nothing to do with politics. He told the assembled crowd that he watched ESPN’s Sports Center to unwind. By the end of the visit, the bar patrons -- who had appeared more interested in the games playing on the multiple TV screens when he walked in -- applauded when he walked out.
CONTINUED >>
Wow! The entire Dem and GOP presidential fields, since this campaign began, have collectively raised just under $800 million . This means, the remaining candidates will easily push that number over a $1 billion. Think about that: $1 billion dollars. Granted, the dollar isn't worth as much as it was four years ago, but wow. "Obama, the freshman Democratic senator from Illinois, reported raising $192.7 million and spending $154.7 million on his campaign through the end of February. He spent $42.7 million in February while competing in more than 30 nominating contests.”
“Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) was second in fundraising. She collected $34.6 million in February, pushing her total to $173.8 million. That includes $10 million from her Senate campaign account and a $5-million personal loan. Clinton owes consultants and other vendors an additional $3.7 million. The presumptive GOP nominee, John McCain, raised $11 million in February, his best month. Overall, the Arizona senator had raised $60.2 million, and spent $49 million through the end of February. McCain paid off much of his debt to consultants and other vendors. An aide to McCain said Thursday that McCain had raised more in the month of March than he did in any three-month period previously."
The New York Times notes McCain actually raised less in February than he did in January when he WASN'T yet the presumptive nominee.
McCain's $11 million haul has to become his fundraising floor. If he simply averages $11-15 million a month between now and November, he'll have a SERIOUS resource deficit compared to his eventual Dem foe. Can McCain start raising $20-25 million a month? We'll find out on April 20, when his March fundraising is released. March is the first OFFICIAL month he was raising cash as the presumptive nominee.
The Los Angeles Times notes, "Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, who are running for president as economic populists, are benefiting handsomely from Wall Street donations, easily surpassing Republican John McCain in campaign contributions from the troubled financial services sector. It is part of a broader fundraising shift toward Democrats, compared to past campaigns when Republicans were the favorites of Wall Street.”
“Some Democrats worry that the influx of money will make their candidates less willing to call for increased regulation of financial markets, which have been in turmoil after a wave of foreclosures on sub-prime mortgages. These concerned Democrats argue that their candidates, and presumptive Republican nominee McCain, should be willing to push for financial institutions to accept more government regulation -- in exchange for likely future bailouts, such as the recent deal the Federal Reserve orchestrated for JPMorgan Chase & Co. to take over Bear Stearns Cos."
There are some folks who wonder if the Democrats in the '90s got talked into being "yes people" for Wall Street so that they didn't create an enemy in Wall Street that they had in the '70s and '80s. And that led to bipartisan lack of regulation of the money markets.
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones Clinton kept the pressure on Obama for another day, urging him to sign on to a re-vote in Michigan and saying not re-doing primaries there and in Florida would call into question the legitimacy of the ultimate nominee.
She said she would support finding a way to seat the two states' delegates regardless of the outcome. "I would be in favor of fixing this problem no matter what my position," she said. "I have been consistently in favor of it. Remember, I'm the one who kept my name on the ballot. I had no idea what the outcome would be. I did not run advertising in Florida. I abided by the rules and did not campaign in Florida. I didn't know what the outcome would be."
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Lauren Appelbaum McCain , Lieberman , and Graham stopped in London today. At a press conference following a meeting with Prime Minister Gordon Brown , McCain said they discussed climate change, the world's economy, Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Obama's comments yesterday that maybe this is why McCain voted to go to war with a country with no ties to Al Qaeda, McCain dismissed the notion.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan and NBC's Mark Murray Obama -- it's March Madness, which begins in the next hour or two.
Obama has his money on the University of North Carolina to win the NCAA tournament this year beating out UCLA in the final.
His top bracket picks include: UNC in the East, Kansas in the Midwest, Pittsburgh in the South, and UCLA in the West. Some of those picks don't seem to be by accident, at least according to our political eyes: UNC is the flagship university in North Carolina (which has its primary on May 6), Pittsburgh is in Pennsylvania (which goes on April 22); and Kansas is where his mother's family hailed from.
Obama is a huge basketball fan, and was even caught pondering over his bracket when sitting in an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper. He joked that he was focusing on what was "important."
Obama was the last person to submit his bracket to the friendly staff-only betting pool. (Entry was $10.) Hotline reported this morning that Obama spokesmen "Bill Burton and Dan Pfeiffer both have Georgetown in the championship, but UCLA winning. Speechwriter Jon Favreau and Ben Finkenbinder have Kansas. Strategist David Axelrod and policy dir Heather Higginbottom picked UNC."
Asked why he was taking so long filling out his own bracket, Obama said: "I'm taking this very seriously. It's a science."
Obama has been playing basketball since he was in high school. He regularly finds a way to sneak some court time in on the campaign trail, shooting hoops with secret service, staff and just yesterday the troops from Fort Bragg.
From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan Obama declared that McCain would carry out a "third Bush term" in a speech that stressed that detrimental effects the Iraq war has had on the American economy.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Mark Murray and NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan White House schedule showing Clinton at a 1993 NAFTA meeting, as well as a report suggesting that she praised the trade accord while there, the Obama campaign held a conference call arguing that Clinton hadn't been honest with voters.
Obama communications director Robert Gibbs noted that when campaigning in Ohio, Clinton told voters that she had been a critic of NAFTA. “How is that even possible, Sen. Clinton?” Gibbs added that the voters are owed not only an apology but an explanation for what the truth is.
Strategist David Axelrod chimed in, reminding reporters when Clinton wagged her finger in Ohio -- “Shame on you, Sen. Obama” -- over an Obama flier tying Clinton to NAFTA. Axelrod said she did that knowing she had been the featured speaker of White House-organized events talking up NAFTA. "This is a question of political character," Axelrod said
NAFTA was a defining issue in the race in Ohio, and despite wide opposition to the trade deal, Clinton managed to win handily in the state by presenting herself as a staunch advocate against it and for calling on a moratorium on all trade deals if she becomes president. Her campaign also seized on news that an Obama economic adviser had told Canadians that Obama's opposition to the trade accord was political positioning -- which the Clinton campaign once again pointed to when responding to the conference call.
From MSNBC's Adam Verdugo McCain has also released his NCAA brackets. His Final Four picks: UNC, Kansas, Memphis, and UConn.
His championship game is UNC vs. UConn, and -- like Obama did -- he has UNC winning the game.
Also worth noting: McCain picked 10-seed Arizona over 7-seed West Virginia in the first round. But he has his home state Wildcats losing to Duke in the second round.
From NBC's Pete Williams Scooter Libby , Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff.
In a brief order, the court said the local bar association had investigated Libby's conviction and determined the crimes of which he was found guilty, including obstruction of justice and perjury, are crimes of "moral turpitude."
"When a member of the Bar is convicted of an offense involving moral turpitude,
From NBC's Mark Murray Clinton chief strategist Mark Penn...
To: Interested Parties
There are some pretty big changes happening out there with the voters. Barack Obama recently declared himself the frontrunner in the race, although there are 10 contests remaining and MI and FL have not yet been decided. But a look at the polls shows that Sen. Obama’s lead nationally with Democrats has been evaporating. The Gallup daily tracking poll shows Hillary leading Sen. Obama among Democrats by 7 points, and the latest Zogby/Reuters poll has Sen. Obama’s lead down from 14 points last month to just 3 points now. This suggests a strong swing in momentum in the race to Hillary since the Texas and Ohio primaries earlier this month.
The more that the voters learn about Barack Obama, the more his ability to beat John McCain is declining compared to Hillary. For a long time we have explained that poll numbers for a candidate who has not yet been vetted or tested are not firm numbers, and we are beginning to see that clearly. Just a month ago, the Obama campaign claimed that the polls showed Barack Obama doing better than Hillary against Sen. McCain. Now such numbers are a lot harder to find.
CONTINUED >>
From Chuck Todd and Mark Murray The new math : With Florida and Michigan re-dos all but dead, the Obama folks have successfully kept the delegate path very narrow for Clinton. As the New York Times’ Nagourney front-pages, “Without new votes in Florida and Michigan, it will be that much more difficult for Mrs. Clinton to achieve a majority in the total popular vote in the primary season, narrow Mr. Obama’s lead among pledged delegates or build a new wave of momentum.” By the way, did the Clinton campaign err in sending the candidate to Michigan yesterday? Some supporters of the re-do in that state believe that her visit to the state -- combined with the public release of the Clinton sugar daddies who promised to pony up $12 million -- spooked some undecided lawmakers who were queasy about the prospect of the re-do looking like a totally Clinton-funded event. And as it turned out, Clinton was in Michigan pushing process, while Obama was having a debate with McCain about Iraq. It's a rare day that Team Clinton took their eye off the message ball. But doesn't that underscore the need they have for this Michigan re-vote -- that they were willing to cede the Iraq anniversary to Obama and McCain? One other question: Does anyone think that one of the many reasons Obama has shown hesitancy to endorse a full revote in Michigan has to do with the controversy surrounding Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick? Does Obama really want to have to find ways to avoid being seen with Kilpatrick during a campaign in the state? The last thing Obama needs is to be drawn into some controversy that may appear divisive on the race front.
VIDEO: NBC Political Director Chuck Todd offers his first read on Barack Obama's pastor problem and latest polls showing him losing ground to Hillary Clinton. ***
Is it safe? It's been a week since Rev. Wright became a household name and his sermons became discussion at the water cooler. Should the Obama campaign take heart in the fact that no new controversial sermons have become public? One would assume a slew of journalists have been scouring his sermons for more crazy statements and simply haven't found any ... yet? On the flip side, who else besides the
Los Angeles Times yesterday and
Nicholas Kristof today has attempted to look at Wright in a positive light (who he is, what he stands for, why he had thousands of parishioners including Obama, etc)? Of course, Wright's words are going to live, the "Is Obama Wright" YouTube continues to make the rounds and it's a taste of how the patriotism card could be used against Obama in a general. and
*** Redacted! So how scrubbed were those Hillary Clinton schedules? Scrubbed enough that the names of David "redacted" Kendall and Bob "redacted" Bennett apparently never appeared on them. As expected, the schedules didn’t reveal that much. If anything, they only served as a tool to distract a lot of media to comb through them to find, well, nothing other than to attempt to recreate salacious days during some of the more dramatic moments of the Clinton years. The collective press corps now eagerly awaits those tax returns. When they’re released, will Yucaipa become a household name? Of course, the release of these schedules gives the appearance of transparency, even though there was a lot that was redacted. This could turn out to be a helpful talking point for the Clinton campaign as they fight this message meme that they aren't being transparent about their post-presidency income and the Clinton library donations.
*** A Clinton-McCain alliance? Yesterday, while campaigning in Allentown, Bill Clinton praised McCain, NBC/NJ’s Mike Memoli reports. "He paid as high a price as you can pay to serve this country without getting killed, and we have to honor that," Clinton said. "[And] he has some redeeming qualities for a Republican: he doesn't believe in torture, he supported campaign finance reform and he doesn't think global warming is a myth… So it is not gonna be all that easy to beat him." Of course, Obama has also praised McCain and his service. But Clinton’s praise came on the very day -- the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war -- in which the Obama and McCain camps were trading barbs over the Iraq war. So in that context, it was fascinating that Clinton would be so effusive in his praise. Meanwhile, McCain's been similarly deferential to Clinton, but not so much to Obama. In fact, the tone of the Mark Salter’s attack release yesterday is a reminder to some that there really is no love lost between Team McCain and Team Obama. There is a lot more contempt for Obama with McCain folks than there is for Clinton.
*** Another GOP retirement : First Read has learned that New York Rep. Tom Reynolds (R) -- who chaired the National Republican Congressional Committee in the ’04 and ’06 cycles, and who was once thought of as a possible successor to then-Speaker Denny Hastert -- is retiring. Reynolds narrowly held onto his seat in 2006, after he got caught up in the controversy over Mark Foley. Democrats are optimistic about their chances in his New York district, but it’s still fairly Republican; Bush got 55% of the vote there in 2004. But it’s yet another GOP retirement. By the way, what kind of message is being sent to the House Republicans that the last TWO NRCC chairs (Reynolds and Virginia's Tom Davis) have both decided to get out?
*** London calling : McCain’s taxpayer-financed overseas trip has taken him to Iraq, Jordan, and Israel. And today it takes him to London, where -- among other things -- he holds a fundraiser for his campaign. (His campaign is covering the costs for the fundraiser, which only US citizens can attend.) It's another sign, by the way, of the growing importance of overseas donors, since globalization has moved a lot of US citizens around the world, especially London. Also, don't miss another Lieberman-save for McCain on a potential Jewish holiday faux pas over Purim. Lieberman is turning into McCain's overseas MVP.
*** Here’s … an endorsement? Edwards is on Leno tonight. Will he hint at his endorsement? Unlikely. We're just shocked he'd schedule anything on the first day of the NCAA tourney. Come on, John, we thought you were more of a hoops fan than THAT! Jay can wait -- it's the most important hoops day of the year! In fairness, however, Edwards’ Tar Heels don’t play until tomorrow night… And speaking of, a memo to the campaigns: Please don’t hold any conference calls, etc. past noon, except perhaps during the 5:00 pm-to-7:00 pm window. We can all take a slight break these next two days, right?
*** On the trail : Clinton stumps in Indiana, making stops in Terre Haute, Anderson, and Evansville. Obama, meanwhile, gives his third big speech in three days -- this one from Charleston, WV on Iraq and its impact on the US economy. Afterwards, he campaigns in Beckley, WV before heading to Oregon.
Countdown to Pennsylvania: 33 days
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The New York Times’ Nagourney has CW-setting expectations for Clinton and her fight for the nomination now that FL and MI are essentially dead:
More: "Clinton’s advisers had hoped that the uproar over inflammatory remarks made by Mr. Obama’s longtime pastor that has rocked his campaign for a week might lead voters and superdelegates to question whether they really know enough about Mr. Obama to back him. Although it is still early to judge his success, the speech Mr. Obama delivered on race in Philadelphia to address the controversy was well received and praised even by some Clinton supporters."
And: "Clinton’s advisers said they had spent recent days making the case to wavering superdelegates that Mr. Obama’s association with Mr. Wright would doom their party in the general election. That argument could be Mrs. Clinton’s last hope for winning this contest."
So will the Clinton campaign be walking a fine line using Wright to make the case to superdelegates? Or does it make some of these undecided supers uncomfortable that the Clinton campaign is using it?
CONTINUED >>
Clinton’s lead keeps growing. A new
Philadelphia Daily News/Franklin & Marshall poll has Clinton leading by 16 points, 51% to 35% among likely voters. The new poll results come from Hillary “aggressively courting votes” in the state, says poll director G. Terry Madonna. "She's been in every region of the state, speaking to large and enthusiastic crowds, and Obama has really not put on a full-court press here," Madonna said.
Notes NBC/NJ's Matthew Berger: The poll was taken at a low point for Obama, amid the Wright controversy and before his well-received speech. But it shows Obama losing supporters he had a month ago, and finds that about one in five of each candidate’s backers said they would vote for McCain if the other person won the Democratic nomination.
Sen. Bob Casey
is staying out of the Democratic race. Two theories have emerged as to why.
The Washington Post's Libby Copeland on the release of the Clinton schedules: "As a matter of fact, there's a difference between being transparent and being scrutinized. Clinton is one of the most studied figures in public life, but she's also one of the most opaque. This is why the release of these documents seems like much more of the same. Just paper. We know what she did on any particular day -- we might even know where she stood -- but not what she felt. Not what she said to her husband, the president. Not what she thought about it all.”
“All mechanics. On Dec. 19, 1998, the day Bill Clinton was impeached by the House, Hillary Clinton's schedule made no mention of the fact that she and her husband would take to the South Lawn to criticize the vote and to vow to stay in office. It noted that she visited the House Democratic Caucus in the morning but not that she told members there that she loved her husband."
The Los Angeles Times’ coverage of the schedules is headlined: "Hillary Clinton's schedules shed little light on work as first lady." The article notes this phenomenon: "Over time, Clinton's schedules offer less and less information. In 1993, her first year as first lady, the records include the names of people she met with. But federal archivists blotted out those names, citing privacy issues. In spring 1994, Clinton's schedulers appear to have stopped including names -- so her days are filled with one ‘private meeting’ after another, with no mention of whom she met with or why.”
CONTINUED >>
When McCain made a foreign policy gaffe in Jordan on Tuesday, it was Sen. Joe Lieberman who quietly pointed out the mistake, giving McCain an opportunity to correct himself in front of the international press corps. In Israel yesterday, NBC’s Lauren Appelbaum reports, Lieberman once again intervened when McCain made an incorrect reference about the Jewish holiday Purim -- by calling the holiday "their version of Halloween here."
McCain made the incorrect statement during a press conference with Defense Minister Ehud Barak after touring the Israeli city of Sderot to view buildings damaged by Hamas rocket fire. McCain was discussing the numerous rock attacks on the city. "Nine hundred rocket attacks in less than three months, an average of one every one to two hours. Obviously this puts an enormous and hard to understand strain on the people here, especially the children. As they celebrate their version of Halloween here, they are somewhere close to a 15-second warning, which is the amount of time they have from the time the rocket is launched to get to safety. That's not a way for people to live obviously."
Purim is not the equivalent of an Israeli Halloween, Appelbaum notes. The holiday -- although a joyous one -- commemorates a time when the Jewish people living in Persia were saved from mass execution. When Sen. Lieberman had a chance to speak at the press conference, he placed the blame of the mistake on himself. "I had a brief exchange with one of the mothers whose children was in there in a costume for Purim," Lieberman, who is Jewish and celebrates the holiday, said. "And it's my fault that I said to Senator McCain that this is the Israeli version of Halloween. It is in the sense because the kids dress up and it's a very happy holiday and actually it is in the sense that the sweets are very important of both holidays."
"Could I just say that I understand this is the holiday of Hadassah, otherwise known as Esther," McCain later said. Those in attendance quickly made light of the mistake.
McCain’s mistake wasn’t a big deal. But what is interesting, Appelbaum points out, is Lieberman's role during this trip. In two days, Lieberman has intervened twice in front of the press -- once helping McCain with a correction on Sunnis/Shiites and once putting the blame on himself regarding the description of Purim.
The Washington Post's Dan Balz points out an important fact about this campaign in his lead: "The pattern in Campaign 2008 is that nothing lasts; nothing has a shelf life of more than half a day. Cable and the Internet simply churn information too quickly. In this age of the continuous news cycle, the new pushes out the old regardless of significance or importance."
Also in his piece is this important point: “Democratic strategists see the dangers ahead for Obama. While not lethal to his hopes of winning the Democratic nomination or the presidency, they say, the damage could be lasting. ‘This has tarnished Obama's image, though certainly not in a fatal way, and we will see it used by the GOP repeatedly if he is the nominee,’ one strategist said in an e-mail on Wednesday. ‘At the end of the day, I believe whoever the Democratic nominee is will win, but those who think that, if Obama is the nominee, he won't have Clinton-like negatives by Election Day are naive. This whole episode underlines that point.’”
Bottom line: Obama can't make the case anymore that he expands the map in the fall; he just has a different path to 270 than Clinton -- but it's just as narrow. Trade Ohio (20 EVs) with the combination of Colorado/Virginia (21 EVs).
CONTINUED >>
Obama and McCain exchanged words yesterday on Iraq while Clinton was in Michigan pushing for a revote.
The Chicago Tribune : “Sen. Barack Obama mocked rivals Sen. John McCain and Sen. Hillary Clinton as he delivered a speech here today highlighting his early opposition to the Iraq war on the fifth anniversary of the conflict’s start.” Washington Post , “President Bush sought yesterday to convince a skeptical public that the United States is on the cusp of winning the war in Iraq, arguing in a speech at the Pentagon that the recent buildup of U.S. forces has stabilized that country and ‘opened the door to a major strategic victory in the war on terror.’ Vice President Cheney said separately that it does not matter whether the public supports a continued U.S. presence in Iraq, and he likened Bush's leadership to that of Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War.”
“After a reporter cited polls showing that two-thirds of Americans oppose the Iraq war, Cheney responded: ‘So?’”
From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli Bill Clinton , who earlier today criticized McCain over the US presence in Iraq, praised the likely Republican nominee at a local college, saying he's a "very fine man" who'll be tough to beat.
"He paid as high a price as you can pay to serve this country without getting killed, and we have to honor that," Clinton said. "[And] he has some redeeming qualities for a Republican: he doesn't believe in toture, he supported campaign finance reform and he doesn't think global warming is a myth... So it is not gonna be all that easy to beat him."
He made the case that it's Hillary who would best match up against the Arizona senator, specifically mentioning her support in the military community.
Clinton also mentioned the endorsement yesterday of Pennsylvania Rep. Jack Murtha , whom he said was "one of the most prominent opponents of the Iraq war." "He said she would be the best commander-in-chief, the best person to bring our troops home from Iraq," Clinton said.
The former president, who has frequented high school gyms of late, drew one of the largest crowds in recent weeks at the Muhlenberg College basketball arena. And before the largely student crowd, he highlighted his wife's plan to forgive some student loan debt in return for public service.
From NBC's Jim Popkin Hillary Clinton's calendar entries
Take Jan. 21, 1998. That's the day when most Americans first learned, courtesy of the Washington Post, that President Clinton had had a relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Mrs. Clinton's calendar entry shows that she left the White House at 7:25 pm that evening and returned 25 minutes later. The National Archives, which released the 17,484 calendar pages today, has excised the reason for the brief trip and the names of any of the people whom Mrs. Clinton may have met. The Archives, working in consultation with President Clinton's representatives, cite privacy concerns in blacking out all details of the trip.
Dec. 22, 2000 also remains a bit of a mystery. That's the day when Mrs. Clinton and the President met in the White House with a New York rabbi who successfully lobbied President Clinton to commute the sentences of four Hassidic men who had been convicted of massive fraud and conspiracy. The commutations were extremely controversial at the time, and photos of the meeting exist. And yet, there's no mention of it in Mrs. Clinton's daily log. The calendar simply lists four separate "private meetings" in the Map Room that day, with no names attached.
On Jan. 4, 1996, the calendars also record four "private" meetings that the First Lady held with her chief of staff, Maggie Williams, and undisclosed others. That's the same day that one of the First Lady's aides discovered a stack of Mrs. Clinton's law-firm billing records in the private quarters of the White House. Whitewater investigators had been searching for the subpoenaed documents for months.
From NBC's Chuck Todd Clinton or Obama from the right, but here's early evidence of some GOP money starting to flow into indie groups to help prop up key Senate and House Republicans.
This ad praises Minnesota's Norm Coleman (R) who faces a VERY expensive fight with Al Franken (D).
From NBC's Mark Murray Politico's Ben Smith , will this end up being the biggest news from the release of Clinton's White House schedules? The AP writes: "She was also involved in helping her husband win congressional approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement, a deal she now criticizes and says she would try to change."
Here's the entry from the schedule on November 10, 1993 :
From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli Bill Clinton told voters in Northeastern Pennsylvania today that his wife is the only Democratic candidate "who can stack up against Sen. McCain on the national security issues," and that a victory in this state could pave the way to her winning the nomination.
Also, on the anniversary of the start of the Iraq war, he also faced off with a heckler who claimed he had "gutted" the military as president.
Clinton was actually talking about an area where he said his wife is more conservative than President Bush -- the budget -- and he cited his own policies in his Administration. “It is true that when I was president we had four surpluses in a row for the first time in 70 years,” he said.
At that point, a man in the back of the room began shouting out at the former president, saying he “gutted the military” in office, and “showed disgust for the military. The crowd quickly drowned him out with boos, as Clinton offered a tongue-in-cheek rejoinder.
“Yeah, I gutted the military,” he said. “That’s why two former chairmen of the joint chiefs of staff are for Hillary . That’s why 34 generals and admirals are for Hillary.” Turning serious, he continued: “In every respect, military readiness was greater when I left office than it is today. The Republicans gutted the military.”
And before returning to fiscal issues, he offered a clue that he’s seen this kind of feedback before from a crowd. “You know, whenever you find somebody screaming it’s normally because they don’t have the facts on their side,” he said.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Mark Murray McCain senior adviser Mark Salter just released this statement regarding the Iraq speech Obama gave earlier in the day. If this biting statement by Salter -- often viewed as McCain's alter ego -- is any indication, an Obama-McCain general election might be as contentious as the Obama-Clinton primary has been.
"Senator Obama says that ending the war will not be easy, that 'there will be dangers involved.' Yet, in that patented way of his, he declines to name those dangers. Let me enumerate a few: al Qaeda, which is now on the run, will survive, claim victory and continue to provoke sectarian tensions that, while they have been subdued by the 'tactics' of the surge, still exist and are ripe for provocation by al Qaeda, which would almost certainly ignite again civil war in Iraq, a civil war that could easily descend into genocide. To say that invading Iraq was used as a recruiting tool for al Qaeda is one thing. To pretend that our defeat there won't provide an even bigger one is foolish supposition. Iran, which trains Shia extremists and is known to arm and equip Sunni extremists, a fact Senator Obama is apparently unaware of, will also view our premature withdrawal as a victory, as will other countries in the region, and the biggest state supporter of terrorists, a country with nuclear ambitions and a stated desire to destroy the State of Israel, will see its influence in the Middle East grow significantly. These are some of 'dangers,' that our premature withdrawal from Iraq will engender, and they all have the potential to destabilize the entire region. A realistic plan to prevent them from occurring is what people with experience in statecraft call 'strategy,' something Senator Obama has not offered yet.
"Senator Obama, as has also become a habit of his 'new politics,' mischaracterizes John McCain's position by saying McCain did not want to reduce troops because the violence in Iraq was too high, and now do not wish to do so because the violence in down. The reason violence is down is because General Petraeus' counterinsurgency is, which even Senator Obama recognizes, succeeding. Those 'tactics,' are advancing our 'strategy.' Deprive General Petraeus of the resources and manpower to employ those tactics, or worse, leave Iraq altogether, and our strategy will collapse. That is national security 101. John McCain wants American forces to come home when our clear and serious interests at stake in Iraq, which nearly 4,000 Americans have given their lives to secure, are truly safe, when al Qaeda is defeated; Iran's influence is contained, and the potential for a truly cataclysmic civil war in Iraq is remote. That, I think, is what is called 'making us safer.' Senator Obama's plan, if it can be charitably described as one, would do the reverse."*** UPDATE ***
More: “This fall, John McCain will support George Bush Foreign Policy 101: endless war in Iraq; a policy of not talking to adversaries that has not worked; and a disturbing tendency to conflate very different threats. Barack Obama will offer a clean break from the failed policies of the past. He will end the war in Iraq, finish the job in Afghanistan, and focus on the threats of the 21st century.”
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones and NBC's Lauren Appelbaum Clinton today stepped up the pressure on Obama to back a re-vote in Michigan, calling it a crucial test of whether he means what he says or not.
"Sen. Obama speaks passionately on the campaign trail about empowering the American people. Today, I'm asking him to match those words with actions to make sure the people of Michigan and Florida have a voice and a vote in this election," she told local members of the AFSCME union, which has endorsed her. "I have accepted the plan for a new vote in Michigan, proposed in draft legislation and approved by the Democratic National Committee. In fact the DNC put out a statement earlier this morning making clear that the proposal fits within the DNC rules. It is fully within the party's rules. I call on Sen. Obama to do the same."
Clinton said 600,000 voters in Michigan and 1.7 million Florida voters were at risk of being shut out of the Democratic process. "I think that's wrong and frankly it is un-American and we cannot let that continue," she said. "This goes way beyond this election and it goes way beyond who's running, because no matter where you were born or how much money you were born into, no matter where you worship or the color of your skin, it is a bedrock American principle that we are all equal in the voting booth."
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan Obama renewed his argument that those with long-term experience in Washington lacked the wisdom to properly bring the war to an end and claimed that Democrats could not win in November if they ran on claims of experience against McCain .
Pointing to Clinton's argument that both she and McCain had passed the "commander-in-chief test," Obama argued that the argument was more focused on years spent in Washington than it was on the judgments made in those years.
"There is a security gap in this country -- a gap between the rhetoric of those who claim to be tough on national security, and the reality of growing insecurity caused by their decisions. A gap between Washington experience, and the wisdom of Washington's judgments. A gap between the rhetoric of those who tout their support for our troops, and the overburdened state of our military," he said.
Obama targeted as many of his remarks against McCain as he did Clinton, a tacit acknowledgment that an overriding concern for Democrats is who is best able to beat the Republican nominee in November. Obama openly said that Clinton's emphasis on experience as an overriding factor in choosing a president would lead Democrats to failure.
"It is time to have a debate with John McCain about the future of our national security. And the way to win that debate is not to compete with John McCain over who has more experience in Washington, because that's a contest that he'll win," he said.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Mark Murray
"We have recently been asked whether the legislation as proposed by Michigan would fit within the framework of the National Party’s Delegate Selection Rules. Our review of this legislation indicates that it would, in fact, fit within the framework of the Rules if, it were, passed by the state legislature and used by the Michigan State Democratic Party as the basis of drafting a formal Delegate Selection Plan. If a formal Delegate Selection Plan is received we will convene a meeting of the RBC to consider such a Plan."
From NBC's Mark Murray Clinton campaign's memo arguing that Obama is holding up a re-vote in Michigan: "On February 8, 2008, Barack Obama stood in the aisle of his airplane and told reporters that he would be 'fine' with a new primary in Michigan if it could be done in a way that gave him and Senator Clinton time to make their respective cases and the DNC signed off. Since then, such a plan has garnered broad support from top Michigan lawmakers and the DNC has given its blessing.
"So Barack Obama is on board, right? Guess again. It turns out that his comments about being fine with a re-vote if the above conditions were met were just words."
Below is the entire memo...
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Mark Murray Obama campaign just released a memo from top lawyer Bob Bauer, which contains concerns about the re-vote plan in Michigan -- the chief one being that Republicans, independents, and even Democrats who voted in the January 15 GOP primary would be disqualified from participating in the do-over.
Bauer writes, "Since any Republican or independent who did not vote in January in the Republican primary is fully free to participate in the June primary, the effect of the proposal is to enfranchise a class of Republicans while disenfranchising a class of Democrats—the ones who chose to vote in the Republican primary when they correctly understood that the Democratic contest was meaningless."
Below is the entire memo...
CONTINUED >>
From Chuck Todd and Mark Murray Running out the clock? It appears the Michigan re-vote legislation is hanging by a thread. Clinton is traveling to the state today to try and bring more attention to the fact that it isn't her campaign that is standing in the way of re-vote. Her desire to make this case is obvious: Clinton needs these do-over contests in Florida and Michigan -- and needs to win them by big margins -- to convince superdelegates that she should be the nominee. The question is: Will primary voters in other states care about this issue? (Or will they see this as pure politics, given the fact that Clinton never spoke up about Michigan and Florida until right before the South Carolina primary?) The Obama campaign appears to be gambling that they won't. After all, no matter how long you’ve served in the Senate, you know this one truism about American politics: It’s always easier to do nothing. This is good politics for Clinton if there is a re-vote or if she's the nominee, because while Florida is a battleground in the general, Dems have a path to 270 electoral votes without it. Michigan, on the other hand, is an absolute electoral vote necessisity for the Dems. This is TRULY the big Obama gamble; killing the Michigan revote may expedite his path to the Dem nomination, but he's got real work to do if he’s the nominee. By the way, by going to Michigan today, isn't Clinton sending the message that without a re-vote, her chances at the nomination are much more remote?
*** The known and unknown about Obama’s speech : The speech on race that Obama gave yesterday has drawn rave reviews. It was a bold and daring speech. Could anyone else have discussed both the injustice of slavery and white fears of busing? As we predicted, he hit a homerun with the media elite; in fact it was batting practice -- with the political world watching. It's hard to find an editorial board in the country that didn't praise him for this speech. But as others including NBC’s Tim Russert and MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough have pointed out, its political impact is unknown. Will it play as well in Scranton and Asheville as it played in DC? What was interesting was the reaction on the right. The thought leaders on the right seemed to praise the speech, while its political leaders clearly see gain in keeping the Wright story alive (see Newt Gingrich's comments). While McCain may not be comfortable using the race card in the general against Obama, plenty of others may see the electoral map pragmatism in it. In fact, one thing may have become clear yesterday, regardless of how well received Obama's speech was: His electoral map has probably shrunk. His path to 270 will be different than Clinton's, but it will be just as much of a tightrope. Obama may trade Ohio for Virginia and Colorado, he won't be simply adding to the 2000/2004 Dem map.
VIDEO: NBC Political Director Chuck Todd offers his first read on Barack Obama's racial divide speech and takes a look at Hillary Clinton's search for a Michigan revote.
*** A few other race thoughts : Yesterday presented an opportunity for Obama to audition in front of millions of Americans responding to one of the nation’s trickiest topics. And here’s a question these voters may be asking themselves: After the last eight years, which person -- Clinton, McCain, Obama -- do they want to see on their TV sets for the next four to eight years? On that test, Obama probably scored very high marks. Neither Clinton nor McCain appear to have an ability to give that great speech; it's never been their strong suit. But it's not as if the current occupant got to the White House by being a great orator. One other unintended consequence of Obama’s speech: If he’s elected president, does this mean Democrats can no longer accuse the religious right of being too political? One thing the American public is learning is that the black churches are just as political as the Christian conservatives.
*** Beyond Pennsylvania : On this fifth anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq war, Obama gives yet another big speech today -- this one in Fayetteville, NC on the topic of Iraq. Indeed, Obama's schedule this week includes travel in three states, none of which are Pennsylvania. He's in North Carolina today (May 6 primary), West Virginia tomorrow (May 13 primary) and Oregon on Friday (May 20 mail-in primary, with ballots mailed to voters as early as May 2). Of course, this is central to his path to the nomination: While Clinton is expected to do well in Pennsylvania (and Kentucky and West Virginia, too), Obama has the opportunity to offset those losses in other contests, allowing him to hold on to his 100-plus lead in pledged delegates. Clinton's schedule is also now showing diversity from Pennsylvania with West Virginia and Indiana on the docket. Bottom line: Both campaigns are sending the message that Pennsylvania, while important, is not the new Iowa. If anything, the next Iowa may very well be Indiana.
*** McCain’s misstep : For those who have focused on every word of the Jeremiah Wright controversy or who have paid attention to every nuance in the back-and-forth over re-dos for Florida and Michigan, you might have forgotten that McCain has been overseas in the Middle East on a CODEL with two of his closest friends in the Senate. And yesterday, the presumptive GOP nominee -- who has staked much of his candidacy on his support for and knowledge of the Iraq war -- made a pretty significant misstep: He stated several times that Iran (a Shiite country) was helping Al Qaeda (a Sunni organization), which obviously is incorrect. After friend Joe Lieberman, who is accompanying the Arizona senator, whispered into his ear, McCain corrected himself. As we asked earlier, what would have been the reaction if Obama or Clinton had made this mistake? (Or what would have been the reaction if either of them, after clinching the Dem nomination, had taken a taxpayer-funded trip to the Middle East that seems more political than senatorial?) One of the ironies of this presidential contest is that despite his high profile, McCain’s words, actions, and past haven’t received the scrutiny that a presumptive nominee usually gets.
*** Is the worm turning? Earlier this week, we noted that the Clinton campaign hadn’t publicly announced the support of a new superdelegate since February 7 -- and that since Super Tuesday, Clinton had lost seven supers (including Eliot Spitzer) while Obama had gained 47. But that now has changed. Per NBC/NJ’s Athena Jones, Iraq war critic Rep. Jack Murtha of Pennsylvania is now backing Clinton. It’s a BIG pick up. "Her experience and careful consideration of these issues convinced me that she is best qualified to lead our nation and to bring credibility back to the White House," he said in a statement. In addition, we learned through the Charleston Gazette that DNC Committeeman Pat Maroney is supporting Clinton, and Maroney previously wasn’t on our list. So Clinton picks up two new superdelegates, which changes our superdelegate count to Clinton 255, Obama 217 and our overall count to Obama 1,625, Clinton 1,506.
*** A significant hire : Speaking of the Clinton camp, here is some news we reported last night , but which bears repeating: The campaign has hired Democratic pollster Geoff Garin. The question becomes, of course: How does this impact pollster and chief strategist Mark Penn? Some in the campaign have been arguing for months that the chief strategist shouldn't be polling his own message ideas. Garin, one of the most respected Dem pollsters in the country, is someone who will have instant credibility inside the campaign and -- more importantly -- with worried anti-Penn donors. Above all, Garin brings an expertise in many of the key states where Clinton needs big victories, including Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Indiana. In fact, there are very few Democrats who win in Indiana without the help of Garin. By the way, news of Garin's hire has warmed the hearts of quite a few Clinton supporters, at least the ones we've heard from.
*** Confronting the big issue : So President Bush -- like Obama today and Clinton on Monday -- is giving a major speech marking the Iraq war anniversary. Of course, such a speech is totally appropriate. But Bush still hasn't addressed the nation on the current economic angst that is gripping the country.
*** On the trail : Elsewhere today, Clinton is in West Virginia, where she has a discussion with veterans in Huntington and then holds a town hall in Charleston; McCain remains overseas; Obama holds a town hall in Charlotte, NC after his Iraq speech; and Bill Clinton spends his day in Pennsylvania.
Countdown to Pennsylvania: 34 days
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The Washington Post : "The speech drew praise for its forthright expression of black-white divisions and for its call to all Americans to begin to reconcile those differences. Whether it will solve the potentially serious political problems that Wright's long-standing relationship with Obama has created is a far different question, and one upon which political strategists disagreed on Tuesday after the address."
The New York Times : “In a speech whose frankness about race many historians said could be likened only to speeches by Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln, Senator Barack Obama, speaking across the street from where the Constitution was written, traced the country’s race problem back to not simply the country’s ‘original sin of slavery’ but the protections for it embedded in the Constitution. Yet the speech was also hopeful, patriotic, quintessentially American — delivered against a blue backdrop and a phalanx of stars and stripes.”
The Los Angeles Times adds, “It was a speech that seemed unlikely to come from a politician viewed as simply white or black. Obama rejected the most controversial of Wright's comments, while saying he could never renounce the man who had helped introduce the senator to Christianity, officiated at his wedding and baptized his children.”
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Here's a round up of editorials and local feedback from around the country. As expected, it is hard to find a negative editorial about Obama's speech. The New York Times’ editorial : "We can’t know how effective Mr. Obama’s words will be with those who will not draw the distinctions between faith and politics that he drew, or who will reject his frank talk about race. What is evident, though, is that he not only cleared the air over a particular controversy — he raised the discussion to a higher plane."
The Washington Post : "We don't agree with the way Mr. Obama described some of those problems yesterday or with some of his solutions for them. But he was right to condemn the Rev. Wright's words, was eloquent in describing the persistent challenge of race and racism in American society -- and was right in proposing that this year's campaign rise above ‘a politics that breeds division and conflict and cynicism.’”
The Arizona Republic’s editorial page : "This was the biggest speech of Obama's political life, the most majestic and sweeping any candidate has given thus far in the presidential campaign. It was also the riskiest, a gamble that Americans have the fortitude and willingness to face this searing issue."
The Baltimore Sun : "win or lose, Mr. Obama's thoughtful exposition of race in America was an important contribution to this presidential campaign."
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Is Clinton looking too desperate in her need for more contests? "In a sign of how badly she thinks she needs the Michigan delegates to catch the Democratic front-runner, Senator Barack Obama, Mrs. Clinton made a last-minute schedule change and planned to fly to Detroit on Wednesday to plead with Michigan lawmakers to approve a new primary election in June to replace the January contest that awarded no delegates."
More: "Obama’s campaign has resisted a new contest, saying that Michigan Democrats are divided, that a revote would not make much difference in the overall delegate count and that the Clinton camp was trying to change the rules to suit itself. The Michigan Legislature, which would vote on approving a new election, is deeply torn on it because of cost, legal questions and logistical difficulties." The Clinton campaign is accusing Obama's campaign of standing in the way of a re-vote. But "John Conyers Jr., a Michigan Democrat who supports Mr. Obama, said the Obama campaign supported a new election to resolve the impasse — in theory. But it would be expensive and possibly illegal.”
“‘While a redo would be an excellent way to solve it, there’s a little problem of about $12 million,’ Mr. Conyers said. ‘I also question the legality of someone raising private money to conduct a public election.’ Interestingly, Clinton supporters Ed Rendell and Jon Corzine, who ‘are trying to line up money to pay for a Michigan revote,’ contacted the financier George Soros, a Democratic donor, on Monday and asked him to help pay for a revote.”
“Mr. Soros, who has contributed to Mr. Obama but has no formal campaign role, refused, a spokesman, Michael Vachon said, adding, ‘George Soros does not support holding another primary in Michigan, because he believes doing so will further delay the selection of a Democratic candidate for November.’”
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PENNSYLVANIA : Obama launches two radio ads in the state, focusing on Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Harrisburg. One is aimed at students and focuses on the war and student loans; the other targets independents, noting he does not take money from lobbyists.
INDIANA : Here's Bill Clinton campaigning in Indiana yesterday, per NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli: "We need your help," he said at the end of his remarks. "I believe she will win a big victory in Pennsylvania. I believe she will win in West Virginia and Kentucky. Nobody believes she can win in Indiana because it borders Illinois. If you show them they're wrong, she'll be the nominee, and she'll be the president."
NORTH CAROLINA : Carly Lindauer, who served as Clinton's New Hampshire deputy communications director, will be press wrangling for Hillary in North Carolina. She also recently worked for the campaign in Wisconsin, Vermont, and Missouri.
What will reporters seize on today regarding the release of Hillary Clinton's schedules from her White House years? Will this spark stories about what's in the schedules or what hasn't been released? Will reporters focus on specific periods of times that coincide with the experience argument she's been making? For instance, during the Irish peace process negotiations, what was her day-to-day schedule? During the health-care fight, whom did she meet with? During the year of Monica, with whom did she consult? How much did she use the White House to launch her New York Senate campaign?
The New York Times: "The records to be released Tuesday amount to virtually all of her schedules of meetings, speeches and the like as first lady. They are being released in response to a suit brought under the Freedom of Information Act by the conservative group, Judicial Watch. The National Archives has explained the delay in making them public by arguing that the vetting process takes time. The Archives said in a statement Tuesday that the records, to be released both in Washington and in Little Rock, Ark., the site of the Archives-administered Clinton Presidential Library, were from the staff files of Patti Solis Doyle, Mrs. Clinton’s former campaign manager, who was her chief White House scheduler."
The coverage of Murtha’s endorsement stresses his challenge to the Iraq war in 2005.
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File this story in the "if Clinton or Obama had done this it would have been front-page news" file. The Washington Post reports, "John McCain, in the midst of a trip to the Middle East that he hoped would help burnish his foreign policy expertise, incorrectly asserted Tuesday that Iran is training and supplying al-Qaeda in Iraq, confusing the Sunni insurgent group with the Shiite extremists who U.S. officials believe are supported by their religious brethren in the neighboring country. The mistake, which he quickly corrected after a brief whisper from a colleague, was an unwelcome stumble as McCain."
“Democrats pointed out that McCain made the same assertion in a radio interview with talk show host Hugh Hewitt on Monday night, saying that ‘there are al-Qaeda operatives that are taken back into Iran, given training as leaders, and they're moving back into Iraq.’ In a statement, Democratic Party spokeswoman Karen Finney seized on the mistakes. ‘After eight years of the Bush Administration's incompetence in Iraq, McCain's comments don't give the American people a reason to believe that he can be trusted to offer a clear way forward,’ she said. ‘Not only is Senator McCain wrong on Iraq once again, but he showed he either doesn't understand the challenges facing Iraq and the region or is willing to ignore the facts on the ground.’”
“A spokesman for McCain's campaign accused the Democrats of launching unwarranted political attacks. ‘In a press conference today, John McCain misspoke and immediately corrected himself by stating that Iran is in fact supporting radical Islamic extremists in Iraq, not al Qaeda -- as the transcript shows,’ Brian Rogers said from McCain's Virginia headquarters. ‘Democrats have launched political attacks today because they know the American people have deep concerns about their candidates' judgment and readiness to lead as commander in chief.’”
Russ Feingold came closer to endorsing Obama during an editorial board meeting with the La Cross Tribune . "Feingold said he voted for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., in the Wisconsin presidential primary, and is ‘highly inclined’ to cast his superdelegate vote for Obama at the Democratic National Convention because Obama won Wisconsin. The past few weeks have been bad news for Democrats, Feingold said, mentioning problems between the campaigns of Obama and U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.”
“Obama’s speech Tuesday about racial issues raised by his Chicago pastor was ‘very convincing,’ Feingold said. ‘He pushed it away pretty good today, but it’s going to keep coming back.’”
From NBC's Chuck Todd
The question becomes, of course: How does this impact pollster and chief strategist Mark Penn? Some in the campaign have been arguing for months that the chief strategist shouldn't be polling his own message ideas.
Garin, one of the most respected Dem pollsters in the country, is someone who will have instant credibility inside the campaign and -- more importantly -- with worried anti-Penn donors.
From NBC's Bethany Thomas McCain toured the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum earlier this afternoon. He arrived to a cheering and enthusiastic crowd outside the somber facility. One man even chanted, "Mac is back!"
The senator was visibly moved as he walked through the entire facility and laid a wreath in remembrance. Most of the tour was spent with the guide explaining display after display and McCain solemnly shaking his head in understanding and disbelief of the horror. Sens. Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman trailed slightly behind. McCain rarely spoke except when he learned that the late astronaut Ilan Ramon (who died in the Columbia shuttle crash) was the eighth fighter pilot in the 1981 operation to blow up the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq. McCain exclaimed, "He must have been young! In that seat you're the last one out."
McCain also visited the Children's Memorial, which pays tribute to the 1.5 million kids who died. He came out of the site looking choked up.
The three senators signed a guest book on their way out. McCain wrote: "I am deeply moved. Never again."
Speaking to reporters after the museum tour, McCain praised the founders for creating a "remembrance of the courage and bravery and sustainability of the human spirit." He also cited Viktor Frankl's book "Man's Search for Meaning". One couldn't help but think that McCain reflected back to his time in captivity in Vietnam when he spoke about the book's concept that "they could take everything from us but our right to choose and we have chosen now as a nation and a world to make sure that never again is a reality."
From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli Bill Clinton devoted nearly half of his time this morning to the state of the economy, calling recent moves by the Federal Reserve “commendable” but saying that it is Hillary who has the best solutions for the country.
“She is way the best prepared to take the reins of this economy and turn it around,” he told about 200 people gathered at the Dearborn Adult Center here. “She understands all these financial problems, and she understands what we have to do over the long run to create more jobs and raise incomes.”
Lamenting the growing inequality of incomes today, Clinton said his wife would pursue a “middle-class economic strategy,” one of “strategy of shared benefits, shared opportunities, and shared responsibilities.” “We gave billions of dollars to the big oil companies and the nuclear industry when they were making money hand over fist,” he said. “Hillary says we ought to invest it in America, in creating energy independence for America.”
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From NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann Obama will walk into tomorrow when he visits North Carolina.
He will speak less than 24 hours before state legislators come together for a special session to vote on the expulsion of a black congressman suspected of fraud; the accused lawmaker alleges that the charges are racially motivated. Obama also will walk into a local news cycle spinning around the death of a beloved UNC student at the hands of a troubled black juvenile, who is widely believed to represent the failures of the state's probationary system.
When he lands in Fayetteville, where he will talk about Iraq, he'll be 100 miles south of Durham, the site of the explosive racial confrontation kindled by the Duke lacrosse case. He'll be 100 miles northwest of the North Carolina house district that will be examined by the U.S. Supreme Court this fall to determine the constitutionality of racially gerrymandered "influence" districts. Just southwest of that is Wilmington, which saw a formal apology from the state's Democratic Party last year for the violent race riots perpetrated there by white supremacist Democrats in 1898.
And he'll be less than 200 miles northeast of the South Carolina capitol, the spot just referenced in his Philadelphia speech where the Confederate flag still flies.
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones Clinton told reporters she looked forward to reading the much-anticipated speech on race and religion rival Barack Obama delivered today and said it was important to talk about issues of race and gender.
She also expressed disappointment at reports that a proposal for a re-vote in Michigan was in danger of dying and talked about the upcoming release of some of her records.
"I did not have a chance to see or to read yet Sen. Obama's speech but I'm very glad that he gave it. It's an important topic. Issues of race and gender in America have been complicated throughout history and they are complicated in this primary campaign. There have been detours and pitfalls along the way, but we should remember that this is a historic moment for the Democratic Party and for our country. We will be nominating either the first African-American or woman for the presidency of the United States and that is something that all Americans can and should celebrate."
More: "I think it's important to address these issues of race and gender and I am looking forward to reading it, which I haven't had the chance to do. Bu I think that, you know, these are difficult issues and we have seen that in this campaign. Race and gender are difficult issues and therefore we need to have more discussion about them. So obviously, the more that Sen. Obama and I talk try to about it or try to put it in some context, the more people will feel free to do so as well and I think that's helpful for the country."
Her reaction to news that the prospects of Michigan's re-vote were on life support: "I think that would be real shame. I think that, you know, my campaign has been very public in its support of a re-vote. We have said we would support the people and government of Michigan in trying to do that, which I think is exactly the right thing to do, so I would hope that some last minute compromise would be worked out so that there can be a re-vote and I think there should be a re-vote."
On the release of her first lady schedules: "I think I'm probably the most transparent person in public life," she said, citing the many books that had been written about her. "I understand that the National Archives is finally going to release 11,000 pages of my schedules tomorrow, which, as you know has been totally their prerogative, as their process under law, which they have followed very painstakingly, and I am told that tomorrow they're gong to do it, although I'm told that, I don't know that for a fact. Stay tuned. There will be a lot more. The book and writing and words about me will continue to fill many archives and warehouses across the world."
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From NBC's Mark Murray Clinton or Obama had made this mistake?
The Washington Post : "Sen. John McCain , traveling in the Middle East to promote his foreign policy expertise, misidentified in remarks Tuesday which broad category of Iraqi extremists are allegedly receiving support from Iran. He said several times that Iran, a predominately Shiite country, was supplying the mostly Sunni militant group, al-Qaeda. In fact, officials have said they believe Iran is helping Shiite extremists in Iraq."
More: "Pressed to elaborate, McCain said it was 'common knowledge and has been reported in the media that al-Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran, that's well known. And it's unfortunate.' A few moments later, Sen. Joseph Lieberman , standing just behind McCain, stepped forward and whispered in the presidential candidate's ear. McCain then said: 'I'm sorry, the Iranians are training extremists, not al-Qaeda.'" *** UPDATE ***
*** UPDATE II *** Hugh Hewitt . McCain told Hewitt, 'As you know, there are al Qaeda operatives that are taken back into Iran, given training as leaders, and they’re moving back into Iraq.'"
From NBC's Jeannie Ohm and Mark Murray Hillary Clinton's schedules as First Lady.
Below is the press release from the National Archives...
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From NBC's Chuck Todd Michigan Information and Research Service (MIRS)
Subject: MIRS BREAKING NEWS: June 3 Primary All But Dead-- 11:50 AM
Senate Democrats emerged from a closed-door caucus this morning and proclaimed that a fledging idea floated by top Michigan Democrats to create a special June 3 primary election is all but dead.
"The votes aren't there to do it," said Sen. Buzz THOMAS (D-Detroit), the co-chair of the Barack OBAMA campaign in Michigan
Sen. Gretchen WHITMER, a supporter of Hillary CLINTON, also conceded the chances of a June 3 redo of the Democratic presidential primary were slim. She stopped short of declaring it dead, saying instead that it was "on life support" and in need of CPR.
The Legislature would need to approve a bill by a two-third vote to put in place a June 3 special primary that would replace the results of the Jan. 15 presidential primary, which the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is not recognizing because the early date violated national party rules.
Support for the primary is weak for numerous reasons, the biggest reason being Obama's reluctance to sign off. Republicans, local clerks and state officials, however, also have raised concerns about rushing to create a special primary for logistical and legal reasons.
Without the redo, Michigan Democrats and independents risk not having a substantive voice in the Clinton-Obama horserace before a DNC deadline for states to report their delegate count expires on June 10.
From NBC's Mark Murray
The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder : "I do think that Obama's speech was a marvel of contemporary political rhetoric. Politically, analytically and emotively, it hit many high notes. His acknowledgment of white working class resentments (busing) and about the perception that there's been no racial progress, his willingness to stick by his friends, his grasp of history, his sense that our views of race are cramped and caricatured... all of that is something that even those who disagree with the substance of his speech, can, I think, appreciate."
The Politico's Ben Smith : A smart colleague notes that this speech is the polar opposite of this year's other big speech on faith, in which Mitt Romney went to Texas to talk about Mormonism, but made just one reference to his Mormon faith. Obama mentions Wright by name 14 times.
TPM's David Kurtz : "It is remarkable for its nuance, for its long view of history, and for its decency. I am not sure, on first take, how effective it is politically. Your thoughts? Late Update: The text is one thing. Delivery is another. And Obama doesn't seem to have his A game today."
TPM's Josh Marshall: "I think I have to dissent from David's view that Obama didn't bring his A-game to the speech this morning. I was only able to listen/watch out of the corner of my eye because I was on deadline for something else. But my sense was that the tempo and tenor was suited to the occasion. The kind of stirring delivery he's made a trademark of in his victory celebrations would not have been appropriate for the moment."
The pro-Obama Andrew Sullivan: "Alas, I cannot give a more considered response right now as I have to get on the road. But I do want to say that this searing, nuanced, gut-wrenching, loyal, and deeply, deeply Christian speech is the most honest speech on race in America in my adult lifetime. It is a speech we have all been waiting for for a generation. Its ability to embrace both the legitimate fears and resentments of whites and the understandable anger and dashed hopes of many blacks was, in my view, unique in recent American history... I have never felt more convinced that this man's candidacy - not this man, his candidacy - and what he can bring us to achieve - is an historic opportunity."
The pro-Clinton Taylor Marsh : "Senator Obama gave a speech today that is larger than politics, but it in no way ends his political challenges. The national wound of race Barack didn't want to touch is now reopened nationally and in the spotlight again. While his campaign wants to move on, the country will not, because everyone will be talking about race, through the invitation of Obama's speech today." Scout Finch from DailyKos (which is mostly pro-Obama): "This speech is amazingly honest and will hopefully spark a long overdue discussion on race in America. We'll see if it is enough to blunt to criticism of his relationship with Reverend Wright. I think he's done a spectacular job thus far of denouncing specific remarks by Reverend Wright, while still standing steadfastly by him and his community."
*** UPDATE *** CBN's David Brody : "We won't know for awhile how voters view Barack Obama's speech today on race relations but The Brody File saw it as a HUGE positive for Obama and a successful turning point for the future of his campaign."
*** UDPATE II *** Hotline On Call's Jennifer Skalka : "Obama gave an eloquent speech today that will do much to quiet the increasingly polarizing debate about race in the Democratic contest. But more importantly, and more tellingly, he gave a deeply personal talk about his race, about his experience as a biracial American. And voters needed to hear it. Not because his biography is, in and of itself, the answer for these confusing times, but because, perhaps, only a person of his experience can dare all of us to be our better selves."
“A More Perfect Union”
“We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.”
Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America’s improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.
The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation’s original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.
Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution – a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.
And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part – through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.
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From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan Barack Obama gave a sweeping address on race in this country today, using the statements made by his pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, to reflect broadly on the racial stereotypes and conditions that have polarized the country.
Obama's speech comes after a week of negative news stories and cable news chatter over Wright's comments. Obama tried to staunch the flow of criticisms through a series of interviews on Friday evening, but the story didn't go away.
In today's speech, Obama did not shy away from addressing the controversy that Wright's comments sparked. "Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork," he said. "We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias."
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From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan PHILADELPHIA -- The auditorium is tiny with about 187 seats by my count. The number of press inside the venue have been limited, with a large overflow for more press members in a separate room. So many media applied to be at the event that the campaign actually had to remove some names. When
Michelle Obama entered and sat ath the corner right in the front row, photographers flocked over to snap her picture. he eventually got up and left. People from the community, all dressed in suits, are walking in clutching their tickets. Seats are assigned and tickets are hard to come by.
Aides are testing the podium, the teleprompter and the microphone repeatedly. Reporters are staying put afraid that their front row seat to one of the most compelling moments for the
Obama campaign might be stolen.
From Chuck Todd and Mark Murray Obama’s big speech : The last time a top presidential candidate gave an important speech on a sensitive topic was last December, when Mitt Romney talked about American faith. His speech drew favorable reviews, but he didn’t talk much about his own Mormon faith, an issue that ultimately hurt his campaign (evidenced by polls and even the rise of Mike Huckabee). After a week dominated by race -- whether Geraldine Ferraro’s remarks or those by Rev. Jeremiah Wright -- Obama will give a speech on the subject in Philadelphia at 10:15 am ET. Unlike what Romney did, Obama will address the controversy facing him head on. “He'll discuss the controversy surrounding the offensive remarks made by Reverend Wright, but also why they were so contrary to the purpose of his candidacy, which is based on the recognition that there is far more that unites us than divides us," an Obama aide emails First Read. If Obama can't hit a homerun on this speech today, then he won’t be president. This is in his wheelhouse; it's what has motivated him for the beginning. As he told PBS’ Gwen Ifill yesterday, noting he comes from a white mother and a black father: “It’s in my DNA to believe that all of us have something fundamental in common.”
VIDEO: NBC Political Director Chuck Todd offers his first read on Democratic hopeful Barack Obama's speech addressing race in America. ***
The damage report : Yet it also seems that the controversy surrounding Wright and his remarks has hurt Obama -- so far. A new USA Today/Gallup poll shows Clinton outperforming Obama when matched up against McCain -- something that hasn’t happened often in the past several weeks. In the poll, Clinton is ahead of McCain by five points nationally (51%-46%), while Obama leads him by two (49%-47%). That said, a new CNN poll conducted as Wright’s comments saturated the TV networks shows Obama up by seven points over Clinton nationally (52%-45%). Obama’s speech today has the potential to bookend this Wright controversy, at least in the short term.
*** Let’s talk about race, baby… Let’s talk about you and me : Speaking of race, did anybody else catch Bill Clinton calling the interpretation of his comparison of Obama to Jesse Jackson a “total myth and a mugging”? Should he really have used the term "mugging"? Clearly, the former president believes he was wronged in how he was criticized, even as members of Clinton's campaign have all but admitted he stepped over the line in his remarks about Obama. Just askin’: If Obama is being compelled to give a speech about his race, and Romney felt forced to give one about his faith, will Hillary Clinton ever have to give a speech about her husband? Has this campaign shown that it is better to address the elephant in the room, or leave it alone? If Clinton becomes the Democratic nominee, the GOP and the press will likely force her to give one about his role at some point. Months ago, many Clinton partisans said she wouldn't need to until the general. That's probably still the case.
*** Hoosier daddy : Today, Bill Clinton campaigns in Indiana, a sign that the Clinton campaign has picked its next "do or die" state after Pennsylvania. It won't be North Carolina, but Indiana -- a state Obama plans to campaign in vigorously, too. In fact, an argument can be made that PA and NC will cancel each other out, and the real test will be the Hoosier State. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton also has Indiana on her schedule this week, as well as West Virginia, a state that comes later in the May calendar. How soon before Obama heads to Oregon? The ballots will go out relatively soon, no?
*** Just askin’ II : If Edwards were to endorse Clinton wouldn’t this be the week to do it -- when Obama’s support among whites is taking a hit?
*** The Florida and Michigan soap operas : Ok, so now with a Florida re-vote dead, all eyes are on Michigan. The legislation is written, but lawmakers in Michigan apparently want sign-off from the campaigns and there's clearly a hesitance from Team Obama. The Clinton folks believe they have Obama in a box on this one, and it's possible Obama's current tenuous political situation re: Wright makes it even harder for him to find a reason to come out against the new plan. Some Obama partisans are apparently unhappy that independents who might have voted in the original Dem primary -- but decided to vote in the GOP primary in Michigan -- won't have a chance to vote in this new primary (and because it also violates DNC rules to have folks vote in a GOP primary AND a Dem primary). Is that an argument that will hold up? Whatever happens, it has to happen this week in Michigan because the state legislature leaves for a two-week recess beginning Friday.
*** The buck stops where? Why hasn't Bush addressed the country on the economy? Sure, there are a bunch of elected Republican members of Congress and a certain GOP presidential nominee who would fear Bush doing that and putting a GOP brand on this economic downturn, but isn't this one of those leadership moments when the country wants to understand better what he thinks government can do about the economy? Even when it seems the country doesn't really listen to Bush anymore during these speeches (notice the lack of poll bumps he gets after national addresses), this does seem like one of those times he should at least try.
*** On the trail : Elsewhere today, Clinton campaigns in Pennsylvania and McCain remains overseas. Also, the liberal Take Back America conference in DC continues, with (among other things) a discussion on MLK and the civil-rights movement.
Countdown to Pennsylvania: 35 days
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Here is how the Obama campaign is previewing Obama’s speech, per an aide: “As the events of the last few weeks have pushed the issue of race to the forefront of this campaign, Senator Obama will deliver an address that seeks to understand the divisions that still exist in our society and begin an honest, open conversation about how our generation can begin to move beyond the battles and tensions of previous generations. He’ll discuss the controversy surrounding the offensive remarks made by Reverend Wright, but also why they were so contrary to the purpose of his candidacy, which is based on the recognition that there is far more that unites us than divides us.”
The New York Times : "Obama, in a speech Tuesday in Philadelphia, will repeat his earlier denunciations of the minister’s words, aides said. But they said he would also use the opportunity to open a broader discussion of race, which his campaign has said throughout the contest that it wants to transcend. He will bluntly address racial divisions, one aide said, talking about the way they play out in church, in the campaign, and beyond. Mr. Obama continued to write the speech on Monday evening, which he believes could be one of the most important of his presidential candidacy, aides said. His wife, Michelle, had not been scheduled to travel with him this week, but hastily made plans to be in Philadelphia."
More: "Obama concluded over the weekend that he had not sufficiently explained his association with the pastor. He told several aides he was worried that if voters did not hear directly from him — in the setting of a major speech — doubts and questions about him might grow.”
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"A majority of Democratic voters say it would be unfair for Hillary Rodham Clinton to win the presidential nomination through the support of ‘super delegates’ if she lags among the convention delegates elected in primaries and caucuses, according to a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll. If that happens, one in five say they wouldn't vote for the New York senator in the general election." Politico's Roger Simon gets Obama strategist David Axelrod to say some tough things about the Clinton campaign. "Is it possible to win the Democratic nomination in such a way as to make winning not worth it? The Barack Obama campaign thinks so. It thinks Hillary Clinton’s campaign is willing to take any road to the White House, including the low road. ‘They would do anything to win, and that means anything,’ David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist, told me Monday. ‘There is a frenetic energy around them to commandeer this election in any way they can.’”
“Axelrod went on: ‘She is the ultimate Washington inside player. She is always asking, “How do we wire the vote? How do we wire the system to get the results we want?”’” More: "Another Obama senior aide told me he believed Clinton was willing to ‘destroy the party’ just as long as she ends up with the nomination.”
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PENNSYLVANIA : From a new Quinnipiac Univ. poll: “The momentum in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary battle has shifted back to New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, who now leads Illinois Sen. Barack Obama 53 – 41 percent among likely primary voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. This compares to a 49 – 43 percent Sen. Clinton lead in a February 27 poll by the independent Quinnipiac University. In that survey, the momentum was with Sen. Obama who had narrowed a 52 – 36 percent gap from a February 14 poll.”
INDIANA : The Indianapolis Star notices all the attention the Clintons are lavishing on Indiana this week. "Obama was the first to appeal directly to Hoosiers for their votes this year, with a rally and town hall meeting Saturday in Plainfield. But if Clinton lost anything by arriving second, she’s making up for it in the attention she and her husband are paying the state this week. Her visits will include meeting with a small group of people at an as-yet-unidentified diner in Terre Haute, followed by a town hall meeting at the Anderson High School Wigwam gymnasium and a rally in Evansville. Complete details were not available Monday."
Bill Clinton, in an interview, said the criticism he received over remarks about Obama in South Carolina was a "mugging." More Clinton: “‘They made up a race story out of that,’ Mr. Clinton said. ‘There was no disrespect to Senator Obama in that. So I think that our side got a bum rap about what was said about South Carolina. But the point is, that’s political tactics. They thought they could hurt me with that, and so they put a bizarre spin on it, and it worked for a while.’”
“The campaign did not play ‘a race card,’ Mr. Clinton told CNN. ‘We had some played against us,’ he said, ‘but we didn’t play any.’ Mr. Clinton has been campaigning for months, sometimes conducting three or more events a day and speaking to large town halls and rallies. (Mrs. Clinton usually campaigns separately.)
Everyone's Irish on St. Patrick’s Day, even Barack Obama who -- with a Kenyan father and a mother from Kansas and an upbringing in Hawaii -- doesn't immediately appear to fit the bill for the quintessential Irish American, NBC/NJ’s Aswini Anburajan reports. But Obama boasted of his Irish roots at a short speech yesterday honoring Irish Americans at the Society for Irish Women's St. Patrick's Day dinner in Scranton. His only green accoutrement was a borrowed green tie.
Obama told the crowd that one of his earliest American relatives emigrated from Ireland and since then the small town where that ancestor hailed from, Moneygall, has adopted Obama. The senator also began the day with a talk with the Irish prime minister and promised the crowd that if he were to become president, "Ireland would have a friend in the White House."
Playing with the pronunciation of his name, he joked that "Bar - achk!" pronounced with a throaty emphasis on the "achk" was an old Celtic name.
Here's an interesting fact, courtesy of Bloomberg News : "Less than one-third of the 191 black members of the boards of the largest 250 U.S. companies have contributed to the Illinois senator's campaign, according to Federal Election Commission records. The list of board members was compiled by Black Enterprise magazine. Former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, who is backing Obama, said the relative lack of support reflects a systemic problem: black corporate leaders haven't yet developed the habit of opening their wallets for candidates. Kirk said he encountered a similar reticence in his failed bid as the Democratic nominee for a Texas U.S. Senate seat in 2002."
The New York Times writes, "Though they could have allowed the milestone to be overshadowed by the crisis on Wall Street, Senators John McCain, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama aggressively seized on Iraq. That they did so, in the face of risks for each of them in the handling of the issue, was evidence of the large role all sides believe the war will continue to play in months ahead, even as the weakening economy takes center stage. Of the three, Mrs. Clinton, Democrat of New York, moved the most aggressively, and perhaps most unexpectedly, given the extent to which her vote in 2002 to authorize the war has caused her problems with Democratic primary voters."
More: "While Iraq may have faded from public consciousness a bit, in reflection of a drop in the number of casualties and rising concern about the economy, it remains a politically defining issue for both parties, one sure to shape the arguments about national security this fall. The day’s back-and-forth amounted to a preview of that debate."
The DNC is up with a new Web video tying Bush to McCain on the issue of Iraq. “Bush and McCain: Wrong then, wrong now,” the video concludes.
The Los Angeles Times leads: "For months, the top presidential candidates have focused on showing a war-weary public that they have what it takes to be the next commander in chief. But on Monday, as the Iraq war entered its sixth year, they faced a test with far more relevance to the everyday lives of Americans: whether they could serve as economist in chief."
"Though McCain, Clinton and Obama have talked often about taxes and spending cuts, discussing the tools available to the Federal Reserve to stem financial crises did not appear to be natural terrain for any of them. On Monday, the three applauded the Fed's weekend move that paved the way for the buyout of Wall Street brokerage Bear Stearns. But none of the candidates offered specific economic policy proposals beyond their past statements addressing the months-old housing mortgage crunch."
More: "The upheaval in the financial markets has provided a pointed lesson in how little control candidates have at times over their campaigns' agendas and atmospherics. As much as they wanted, or expected, the 2008 race to hinge on the war or the demand for expanded healthcare coverage, the economy is now the No. 1 issue -- and it is forcing the candidates to formulate responses to problems without obvious solutions."
CONTINUED >>
Oy, here we go again? The new governor, David Paterson, and his wife admitted to extramarital affairs, hours after to being sworn in. For what they’re worth, these are rumors we heard about hours after it was clear he was going to be governor. The New York Daily News : "In a stunning revelation, both Paterson, 53, and his wife, Michelle, 46, acknowledged in a joint interview they each had intimate relationships with others during a rocky period in their marriage several years ago.”
“In the course of several interviews in the past few days, Paterson said he maintained a relationship for two or three years with ‘a woman other than my wife,’ beginning in 1999. As part of that relationship, Paterson said, he and the other woman sometimes stayed at an upper West Side hotel — the Days Inn at Broadway and W. 94th St. He said members of his Albany legislative staff often used the same hotel when they visit the city."
From the Obama campaign: "“We hope that all parties can agree on a fair seating of the Florida delegates so that Florida can participate in the Democratic Convention, and
we look forward to working with the Florida Democratic Party and competing
vigorously in the state so that Barack Obama can put Florida back into the
Democratic column in November.”
From the Clinton campaign:
“Today’s announcement brings us no closer to counting
the votes of the nearly 1.7 million people who voted in January. We hope the
Obama campaign shares our belief that Florida’s voters must be counted and cannot be
disenfranchised.”
From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan The Obama campaign has put out an official statement on the Michigan re-vote proposal that is now circulating among state Democratic leaders and the two campaigns.
“Considering the fact that Senator Clinton is currently trying to prevent and delay votes in Texas from being counted because she didn't like the outcome, it's pretty apparent that the Clinton campaign’s views on voting are dependent on their own political interest. Hillary Clinton herself said in January that the Michigan primary “didn’t count for anything.” Now, she is cynically trying to change the rules at the eleventh hour for her own benefit. We received a very complex proposal for Michigan re-vote legislation today and are reviewing it to make sure that any solution for Michigan is fair and practical. We continue to believe a fair seating of the delegation deserves strong consideration.”
From NBC's Mark Murray
"Thousands of people responded. We spent the weekend reviewing your messages, and while your reasons vary widely, the consensus is clear: Florida doesn't want to vote again," Thurman writes. "So we won't."
"A party-run primary or caucus has been ruled out, and it's simply not possible for the state to hold another election, even if the Party were to pay for it. Republican Speaker of the Florida House Marco Rubio refuses to even consider that option. Florida is finally moving to paper ballots, which is a good thing, but it means that at least 15 counties do not have the capacity to handle a major election before the June 10th DNC primary deadline. This doesn't mean that Democrats are giving up on Florida voters. It means that a solution will have to come from the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee, which is scheduled to meet again in April."
Here's the full letter...
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Mark Murray, Andrea Mitchell, and Chuck Todd Obama . A couple of choice exchanges, according to a transcript of the interview...
On Clinton's criticism of Obama on Iraq: "I mean, this is somebody who authorized the war, who continues not to want to claim that vote that sent us into war. If we had – if I had had my way, we would not be in this war. And so, I think Senator Clinton has a lot of chutzpah, as they say, to in some way to suggest that I’m the person who has not been clear about my positions on Iraq. I have been opposed to this war from the start."
"What I do believe is that we’ve got to be as careful getting out as we were careless getting in. And that means, I believe, a phased redeployment, with a timetable, with a pace of about one to two brigades per month pulling our combat troops out; but also, redoubling our diplomatic strategy inside Iraq as well as with the regional players including Iran and Syria. It means dealing with the humanitarian issues involved. And by the way, I’m the only person who has issued a detailed plan to deal with the potential fallout as we are withdrawing."
From NBC's Mark Murray Clinton campaign is stepping up the pressure for Obama to agree to a re-vote in Michigan. Of course, trailing Obama in the delegate count, they have a greater interest in having a do-over there and in Florida.
Said Clinton adviser Harold Ickes, who as a member of the DNC voted to strip both states of all their delegates: “The right to vote is the foundation of our democracy. If Barack Obama's campaign stands in the way of a new vote, he will be putting his own political interests ahead of the people of Michigan. They deserve to have a voice and a vote in the Democratic Party’s nominating process. A re-vote is the only way Michigan can be assured its delegation will be seated, and vote in Denver. If the Obama campaign thwarts a fair election process for the people of Michigan, it will jeopardize the Democratic nominee’s ability to carry the state in the general election.”
*** UPDATE ***
From NBC's Mark Murray and Chuck Todd Obama actually lost a pledged delegate in California, so that brings the NBC hard count to Obama 1,408, Clinton 1,251.
The Obama campaign announced the support from a new superdelegate, Margie Gavin Woods of Illinois. However, Woods was already on NBC's superdelegate list for Obama, so the super split remains Clinton 253, Obama 217.
That brings us to a total of Obama 1,625, Clinton 1,504.
From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan Obama claimed that the economy was "teetering on a potential crisis" at a news conference here today and pointed a finger at President Bush , accusing him of poor fiscal management.
"History will not judge President bush kindly," Obama said of the economic downturn over the weekend, arguing that Bush appeared nonchalant over the potential crisis in remarks last week.
"When I saw the president in his press conference, almost lighthearted and joking about some of these issues, I think it did not instill the kind of confidence in the American people and certainly it didn't instill any confidence in me that the Administration is taking the situation seriously," Obama said.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Mark Murray After a week dominated by race -- whether it was Geraldine Ferraro’s remarks or those by Rev. Jeremiah Wright that popped up on YouTube and the network news --
Obama will give a speech on the subject tomorrow morning from Philadelphia.
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones and NBC's Mark Murray speaking on the economy , Hillary Clinton delivered what her campaign billed as a major speech on Iraq -- in which she sharpened her attacks on rivals Barack Obama and John McCain for their policies on dealing with the country, and offered more specifics on her previously announced proposals for withdrawing troops and helping to increase stability there.
In remarks timed to highlight Iraq ahead of the five-year anniversary of the start of the war, Clinton sought to portray herself as best-prepared to deal with Iraq and as the only candidate with a concrete plan for getting troops out.
"The American people don't have to guess whether I'm ready to lead or whether I understand the realities on the ground in Iraq or whether I'd be too dependent on advisers to help me determine the right way forward," she told a small crowd at George Washington University today.
As part of a continued effort to paint Obama as a man of words and not action, Clinton this morning repeated her argument that Obama had done little to end the war in Iraq and noted that a (now former) foreign policy adviser told the BBC that he would not necessarily act on his plan to withdraw troops within 16 months if he becomes president.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones WASHINGTON, DC -- In remarks after her speech on Iraq here this morning, Hillary Clinton said she was watching the developments in US financial markets closely after efforts by the Federal Reserve over the weekend to try to head off a crisis.
The Fed has lowered the discount rate to increase liquidity in the market and helped JP Morgan buy troubled firm Bear Stearns.
Clinton said she had spoken this morning with the Treasury secretary and the president of the New York Federal Reserve about the steps taken yesterday to restore confidence in the market and said that as a senator from New York, she was concerned about the impact these developments could have on workers and families -- both on Wall Street and on Main Street -- and on the city's economy as a whole.
CONTINUED >>
From Chuck Todd and Mark Murray Iraq is back : Overshadowed in the last few weeks by the economy, the horserace, and even the recent back-and-forths over Geraldine Ferraro and Rev. Wright, the issue of Iraq returns to the campaign trail today. Just before the war’s five-year anniversary, John McCain is in the country, as is Vice President Cheney. Meanwhile, at George Washington University in DC, Clinton gives a speech this morning on Iraq. Per the New York Times, Clinton will discuss “her plan to begin withdrawing American troops within 60 days of coming into office… She was also expected to attack Mr. Obama over a recent statement by a former foreign policy adviser, Samantha Power, in which she said the Iraq withdrawal plan Mr. Obama had outlined while campaigning was a ‘best-case scenario’ that he would revisit once in office.” But is that the pot calling the kettle black? Earlier this month, the New York Sun reported that retired Gen. Jack Keane, who had briefed Clinton on Iraq and who had been asked to be a campaign adviser on military issues, said he had “no doubts whatsoever that if [Clinton] were president in January '09 she would not act irresponsibly and issue orders to conduct an immediate withdrawal from Iraq.” This should be a week the Obama campaign was looking forward to but it's not obvious he's going to get the advantage on Iraq that, perhaps, his campaign expected a few months ago.
VIDEO: NBC Political Director Chuck Todd offers his first read on the presidential candidates' focus on the Iraq anniversary and not the economy situation. ***
Obama’s Iowa sweep : So the trashing of the caucus process was not good for Clinton's campaign, which got killed at the Iowa county convention re-caucus. Obama picked up an additional nine delegates, mostly from Edwards’ January 3 haul. The overall delegate take for each candidate: 25 for Obama (that's up from 16 ); 14 for Clinton (that's down one from her 15); and six hung with Edwards (down from 14). That takes Obama’s pledged lead over Clinton to 1,409 to 1,250. With the superdelegates thrown in (253 for Clinton, 217 for Obama), the delegate count stands at Obama 1,626, Clinton 1,503. This is more evidence that the outsider candidate (Obama) continues to beat the insider candidate (Clinton) at the ultimate insider game: the battle for delegates in odd county convention processes.
*** Full disclosure : After releasing all of Obama’s Rezko records and sitting with Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times reporters on Friday, the Obama campaign has upped the ante for Team Clinton. Yesterday, the Obama camp asked Clinton to release all of her tax records, disclose all of her earmarks, and make the donations to the Clinton presidential library and foundation public. The Clinton camp, in response, says Obama should release his tax returns for every year he's been in public office and every earmark he requested as a state senator. The pushback is obvious: try to cloud the lack of disclosure in the Clinton campaign with questions of lack of disclosure on the Obama front. This is the road the Obama campaign clearly wants to go down. The question is whether bareknuckles politics ultimately hurts Obama's image or whether a fight for disclosure brings back the bad news of the Clinton years Democratic voters -- and superdelegates -- might be tired of.
*** Clinton’s super problem : By our count, the Clinton campaign hasn’t publicly announced the support of a new superdelegate since just after February 5. Indeed, since Super Tuesday, Obama has gained 47 new superdelegates, while Clinton has lost seven (including Eliot Spitzer). Does Clinton have a bigger problem on the superdelegate front than folks realize? Why do we think party leaders -- who saw the Democrats lose governorships, state legislatures, and the control of Congress during the Clinton years -- suddenly jump on board the Clinton campaign? Isn't this the reason the Clinton campaign has only been able to keep uncommitted supers from climbing board Obama's bandwagon but they haven't been able to woo a new super to their side in a month? ? Isn't this also an explanation for why the Clinton campaign has done so poorly in the caucuses? The caucuses are made up of the activists who follow this stuff closer and think about things like electability and who can help the party keep Congress, etc. If Clinton's not winning over caucus activists, why should we believe she'll win over a large enough chunk of superdelegates to overcome Obama's pledged delegate lead? Ultimately, her best chance is to convince supers that Obama is completely unelectable on par with McGovern, an argument that might have been helped a tad by Rev. Wright.
*** Just askin’ : Just how lucky is McCain that the political media world’s focus is on Clinton vs. Obama? Otherwise, wouldn’t his Iraq trip -- with Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman -- be getting a lot more scrutiny, as would the fact that he’s using taxpayer dollars to pay for a campaign trip? If there were two nominees right now, would McCain have even tried this? Probably not, since everything he was doing would be under more scrutiny.
*** I am liberal, hear me roar : While Clinton will be talking withdrawal from Iraq at George Washington University, across town in DC, the liberal Take Back America conference -- which famously booed Clinton over her Iraq views in 2006 and 2007 -- begins today. The confab, sponsored by the Campaign for America’s Future, today features a speech by Donna Edwards, who beat incumbent Rep. Al Wynn (D) in a primary last month and hears from Sen. Jim Webb later tonight. The theme of the conference, organizers told First Read last week, is that 2008 has an opportunity to be a sea-change election for the Democrats.
*** It’s the economy… : Today should be a major Iraq day, and instead it appears Washington (and New York) and the media will be consumed with the economy. The campaigns are all prepared for an Iraq week, but don't seem to be prepared for a week dominated by the economy. None of the three candidates has been aggressive about reacting to what's actually going on with the economy. All have plans about housing and taxes, etc. But none seem to be tempted into talking about why there's a credit crunch or what's going to pull the country out of this economic funk. And surprisingly, the media isn't demanding answers from the candidate on their prescriptions for the economy.
*** On the trail : Elsewhere today, Clinton heads to Albany after her Iraq speech to attend David Paterson’s swearing-in ceremony; McCain remains overseas; and Obama is in Pennsylvania, where he stumps in Monaca and Scranton.
Countdown to Pennsylvania: 36 days
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Remember the World War I trench warfare that never moved the lines? The Politico uses that analogy to discuss the next two and a half months, after which it’s unlikely that Obama’s pledged delegate lead changes much. “There are 10 scheduled contests left, but thanks to proportional allocation, not enough pledged delegates to be had for either Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton to clinch the nomination. And, because of increasingly firm demographic voting trends, it appears to be a foregone conclusion who will capture most of the remaining states. So on June 3, when South Dakota and Montana end the current voting calendar, the contours of the race aren't likely to be much different from what they are today. That means 2 1/2 months of conference calls, attacks, counterattacks and millions of dollars spent, all to move the political needle just a few inches.”
The Politico adds, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) reiterated her position Sunday that superdelegates should reflect the will of voters in the Democratic nominating process — a nod to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), whose campaign is making the same case.”
Reading in between the lines of the quotes from various superdelegates in this Sunday New York Times story , Clinton has a lot more work to do to convince these folks about her viability than she does the media.
John Harwood of CNBC and the New York Times looks at the backroom potential for a deal on Florida and Michigan delegates, and he quotes delegate veteran/consultant Tad Devine on what seems to be the biggest hurdle to a re-do: the cost. Is it worth $15-50 million in implementation and cost of new campaigns in these two states when, maybe, 20 delegates will get split at best?
CONTINUED >>
If yesterday's back-and-forth conference calls were any indication, the Clinton v. Obama race is going to nastier and more personal. "Obama communications director Robert Gibbs called on Clinton to release full post-White House tax returns; disclose all ‘earmarks,’ or pet projects, the New York senator had inserted into spending bills; and release all documents on the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Presidential Library, including a list of donors."
“‘This is a tried and true technique of the Obama campaign that has repeatedly shifted negative when they find the momentum working against them,’ said senior Clinton strategist Mark Penn. He suggested the Obama campaign was trying to ‘deflect public opinion from their losses in Ohio and Texas’ and from Clinton's strength in Pennsylvania."
Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson made a great point during his campaign’s response call: If the Obama campaign was so sure this race was wrapped up on the delegate front, then why were they preparing a full-frontal assault? While many of us can't find a delegate path for Obama, Wolfson claims the Obama campaign must have found one. Also of note from yesterday's conf. calls, NBC/NJ's Athena Jones notes: For at least the third time in the last two days, when given an opportunity to comment on Obama's handling of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the campaign declined.
Indeed, NBC’s Abby Livingston reports that while campaigning on Saturday, Clinton was asked about Wright. She said, “I think those are questions for Senator Obama and for the Obama campaign.”
CONTINUED >>
PENNSYLVANIA : Some notes from NBC/NJ’s Matthew E. Berger… The Clinton campaign opens its Allentown office Monday. It’s one of six in the state. No Clinton family members or key surrogates are expected in the state, making it the first in 10 days without a Clinton in Pennsylvania.Larry Eichel of the Philadelphia Inquirer suggests the Pennsylvania primary isn’t as all-important as many might think, especially if Florida and Michigan get to vote afterwards. “Analysts also have noticed that there will be more delegates at stake on May 6 when North Carolina and Indiana vote, 187, than the 158 available in Pennsylvania. Florida and Michigan account for 313.” The only way the state would matter is if Obama wins. “Such an outcome would undercut Clinton's oft-made argument that she is the preferred choice of the big states that dominate the Electoral College. For that reason, an Obama win would have a huge impact on the undeclared superdelegates, who hold the nomination in their hands.”
CONTINUED >>
Here’s an interesting fact-check type of story from the Washington Post , which looks at how many presidents ever had to make snap decisions at 3:00 am. Apparently, the only calls that come at that time are heads-up calls, not decision-making calls.
On Saturday, the New York Times reported that “influential” fundraisers for Clinton “have stepped up their behind-the-scenes pressure on national party leaders to resolve the matter” of Florida and Michigan, “with some even threatening to withhold their donations to the Democratic National Committee unless it seats the delegates from the two states or holds new primaries there.” DailyKos are willing to make up for any donations that are lost.
The AP : “Explosions rocked Iraq's capital on Monday as Vice President Dick Cheney and Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain visited ahead of the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion… McCain, the Republican party's likely presidential nominee who has linked his political future to U.S. military success in Iraq, met Monday with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki shortly before the Iraqi leader began talks with Cheney. The Arizona senator stressed the importance of a U.S. commitment to Iraq and warned a U.S.-Iraqi military operation to clear al-Qaeda from its last urban stronghold of Mosul will be ‘very difficult and very important.’”
How is it McCain is getting away with a CODEL with two of his closest senate friends, Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman? The New York Times : "The three senators are also visiting Israel, London and Paris. Mr. McCain has said the trip is not primarily political. He told reporters last Friday: ‘I do want to emphasize again that the three of us are going as members of the Armed Services Committee.’ On Thursday, however, Mr. McCain will attend a $1,000-a-plate fund-raising lunch at a home in London. His campaign has said Congress will be reimbursed for the political parts of the trip, including the fund-raiser.”
“Mr. McCain’s advisers have been cautious about the perception that he is exploiting his overseas trip for political gain. None of his top political advisers are traveling with him, and his campaign has been careful to route questions about it to his Senate office. But they say they believe that the trip is clearly beneficial to Mr. McCain, enabling him to showcase his national security credentials while his Democratic counterparts continue to battle for the nomination."
CONTINUED >>
This was easily Obama's toughest weekend as a candidate . This is a test for him as a candidate. Does he wilt or does he get back up off the map and fight on without losing who he is?
The AP's Fournier writes, "Arrogance is a common vice in presidential politics. A person must be more than a little self-important to wake up one day and say, ‘I belong in the Oval Office.’ But there's a line smart politicians don't cross — somewhere between ‘I'm qualified to be president’ and ‘I'm born to be president.’ Wherever it lies, Barack Obama better watch his step."
More: "Obama's cool self-confidence got him into trouble in New Hampshire when he said Clinton was ‘likable enough,’ faint praise that grated on female votes who didn't appreciate him condescending to the former first lady. Privately, aides and associates of Obama tell stories about a boss who can be aloof and ungracious. He holds firmly to views and doesn't like to be challenged, traits that President Bush packaged and sold under the ‘resolute’ brand in the 2004 election. For Bush, those qualities proved to be dangerous in a time of war and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.”
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones Hillary Clinton spent Saturday celebrating the luck of the Irish at two massive St. Patrick's Day parades on opposites ends of the Keystone State.
As the senator walked, waved and held babies, including her niece Fiona in Scranton, her campaign held two conference calls to highlight her commitment to Northern Ireland and to hit Obama on issues from Tony Rezko to tax documents.
At the tail end of the roughly mile-long sea of green that was the Pittsburgh parade route, an emcee called Clinton a friend of the Pittsburgh Irish, and the senator briefly took the mic, telling the crowd, "May the luck of the Irish be with you," before heading on to Scranton, in the eastern part of the state.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Chuck Todd Last night, when I reported the net gain of 7 delegates for Obama out of yesterday's 99 county Democratic conventions, it was based on 96% of conventions reporting. But there were two Cong. districts where Edwards was teetering on the edge of viability, the 1st and the 4th. Well, Edwards teetered the wrong way and Obama netted the delegates. So, here are the final results:
Statewide: Obama won 52%, Clinton 32% and Edwards 16%. There are 16 delegates split up proportionately with Obama nabbing 8 delegates to Clinton's 5 and Edwards' 3.
Cong. District 1 (6 delegates): Obama won 54% to Clinton's 31% and Edwards' 14% (no viability). Obama won these delegates 4-2.
Cong. District 2 (7 delegates): Obama won 51% to Clinton's 30% to Edwards' 19%. Obama won these delegates 4-2-1
Cong. District 3: (6 delegates): Obama won 51% to Clinton's 31% to Edwards 18%. Obama won these delegates 3-2-1.
Cong. District 4: (6 delegates): Obama won 55% to Clinton's 34% to Edwards' 11% (no viability). Obama won these delegates 4-2.
Cong. District 5 (4 delegates): Obama won 47% to Clinton's 37% and Edwards' 15%. Obama won these delegates 2-1-1.
So the overall delegate take for each candidate: 25 for Obama (that's up from 16 during the Jan. 3 caucuses). 14 for Clinton (that's down one from her 15 during Jan. 3). And 6 hung with Edwards, that's down from 14 on Jan. 3.
So here's the new delegate total
Pledged Count: Obama leads 1,409-1,250
Superdelegates : Clinton leads 253-217
OVERALL TOTAL: Obama leads 1,626-1,503 Obama netted 10 delegates from this new Iowa exercise; that's more delegates than Clinton netted out of Ohio on March 4. Wonder if the Clintons want those negative comments about caucuses back? Will this negative caucus talk cost Clinton more delegates when other caucus states meet for state conventions?
From NBC's Chuck Todd We have final delegate allocation estimates directly from the Iowa Democratic Party based on today's 99 county conventions. The results, Obama indeed did gain 7 delegates to up his total from 16 (earned on Jan. 3) to 23 now. Clinton upped her total by 1, from 15 to 16 and Edwards dropped 8 delegates to 6. Those six will be up for grabs, perhaps, at the Iowa Democratic Party state convention in June.
Here's the updated delegate total, counting these new Iowa allocations:
Count: Obama leads 1,407-1,252
Superdelegates : Clinton leads 253-217
OVERALL TOTAL: Obama leads 1,624-1,505
From NBC's Chuck Todd The Clinton and Obama campaigns just got done fighting over Iowa... again! The state's 99 county Democratic parties held conventions today and the two campaigns were actively fighting to gain even more pledged delegates. At stake: the 14 pledged delegates John Edwards earned during the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses.
Tonight, the Obama campaign claimed a gain of 7 pledged delegates, added to the 16 they earned on Jan. 3. Obama's manager, David Plouffe, also said their math had Clinton actually losing one of her 15 delegates that she garnered on Jan. 3. BTW, if the 7 number is accurate, it would be two short of what Clinton netted out of Ohio.
Meanwhile, the Clinton campaign acknowledges Obama gained, but only three delegates and they say they didn't lose any. We're still trying to gather the results ourselves but it appears both campaigns are admitting Obama gained some delegates tonight.
This won't be the only time the campaigns will fight over delegates supposedly already allocated. Many of the caucus states will be holding conventions between now and June and both campaigns will try and win an extra delegate or two. One wonders if the Clinton campaign's trashing of the caucuses will end up hurting her when these caucus states meet to finalize and re-allocate their caucuses during their respective convention processes.
From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy McCain campaign was between $4 and $5 million. The most lucrative fundraiser was at the Plaza Hotel in New York City, where the campaign raised more than $2 million. But the presumptive GOP nominee finished strong with a final finance event in Chicago, which netted nearly $1 million.
McCain lingered a little longer than usual in the Windy City, presumably due to the knowledge that he was done looking for handouts for at least a week while he travels overseas as the leader of a congressional delegation of members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
From NBC's Chuck Todd The Obama campaign has clearly decided that this Friday afternoon and evening is a bad news dump day. Not only will Obama be making the rounds explaining his denunciation of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright on MSNBC and other outlets tonight, the campaign also announced Wright would no longer be a member of the campaign's African American Religious Leadership Committee.
In addition to trying to put an end to the Wright controvery, Obama also spent time with the ed boards of the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times where he detailed his relationship with Tony Rezko.
In an interview with the
Tribune , Obama admitted that "Rezko was a more significant fundraiser" in Obama's earlier campaigns than previously known. "Rezko raised as much as $250,000 for the first three offices Obama sought," the senator admitted. More from the Tribune piece: "In an extensive interview that he hoped would quell the lingering controversy over his relationship with Rezko, Obama said that voters concerned about his judgment should view it as 'a mistake in not seeing the potential conflicts of interest.' But he added that voters should also 'see somebody who is not engaged in any wrongdoing . . . and who they can trust.'"
A classic Friday evening bad news dump by the Obama campaign; frankly, as far as timing is concerned, it was probably smart, tactically, to attempt to bury this Rezko admission under the Wright controversy. We'll see if it works. Clearly the campaign realizes they need to be as transparent as possible if they hope the transparency argument against Clinton regarding her tax returns, earmarks and presidential library records stays valid.
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro Ben Smith at Politico , we direct your attention to a Playboy article written in 2002 by Paterson's Chief of Staff Charles O'Byrne .
O'Byrne, a former Jesuit priest, who presided at John F. Kennedy Jr.'s wedding, wrote, "Indeed, the celibacy requirement made me postpone my decision to enter religious life (as did the number of obese, alcoholic and generally depressed middle-aged priests I encountered). Although I regarded celibacy as unnatural and probably unhealthy, the church demanded it, so I eventually decided I was ready to make the sacrifice. To test myself, I abstained from sex for a year before I said goodbye to civilian life.
"Once in the seminary, I quickly learned some harsh truths. Many of my classmates in the New York archdiocesan system were exceptionally narrow-minded, and some were out-and-out bigots who made offensive remarks about Jews and Hispanics, among others, all the while offering pious phrases about Jesus. I protested, but nothing happened. I protested some more, and then told a friend what was going on. My friend wrote to John Cardinal O'Connor and urged him to investigate what sounded like officially approved hate crimes. With reason to fear a media scandal, the archdiocese pretended to discipline the seminary superior who had coddled the bigots, but in reality it merely shuffled him off to a cushy job. I was expelled from the seminary.
He later joined the Jesuits, but adds, "As time went on, however, I became aware that there was sex all around me -- including relationships between Jesuits. One of my best friends, a virgin at 30, was surprised when his superior encouraged him to respond to the sexual overtures of an older Jesuit. When another friend fell in love with a woman, the seminary superiors supported his relationship. In theology classes, certain priest-professors even shared information about their sex lives."
More: "The reality of religious life was often masked from the rest of the world. Seminary life, I realized, could produce some weird characters. There was the clerical professor who ate a quart of ice cream each night before going to bed and kept pictures of his Irish setter and his mother on his desk. There was the drunk who poured vodka into his soda can to hide his constant boozing. And there was the 250-pound assistant rector (who was to judge our worthiness to be priests) who walked around the bedroom floor of our residence in various states of undress, sometimes naked. I also worried about the men we referred to as ‘boyologists' --priests who were too much into their students or into the seminarians with whom they were living."
He concluded, "For me, the contradictions proved too much, and I decided to leave the active ministry. It wasn’t an easy decision to make. I believe in the supremacy of one’s conscience -- that forum where God alone speaks to the individual as a counselor and guide. I could not serve two masters -- the official church and my conscience."
And there's more where that came from...
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro Huffington Post , Obama responded to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's comments. Here's some of what he writes:
The pastor of my church, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who recently preached his last sermon and is in the process of retiring, has touched off a firestorm over the last few days. He's drawn attention as the result of some inflammatory and appalling remarks he made about our country, our politics, and my political opponents.
Let me say at the outset that I vehemently disagree and strongly condemn the statements that have been the subject of this controversy. I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies. I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it's on the campaign stump or in the pulpit. In sum, I reject outright the statements by Rev. Wright that are at issue. ...
The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation. When these statements first came to my attention, it was at the beginning of my presidential campaign. I made it clear at the time that I strongly condemned his comments. But because Rev. Wright was on the verge of retirement, and because of my strong links to the Trinity faith community, where I married my wife and where my daughters were baptized, I did not think it appropriate to leave the church. ...
With Rev. Wright's retirement and the ascension of my new pastor, Rev. Otis Moss, III, Michelle and I look forward to continuing a relationship with a church that has done so much good. And while Rev. Wright's statements have pained and angered me, I believe that Americans will judge me not on the basis of what someone else said, but on the basis of who I am and what I believe in; on my values, judgment and experience to be President of the United States.
From NBC's Mark Hudspeth Obama campaign says they have no plans to ask the Rev. Jeremiah Wright to step down from a campaign spiritual advisory committee. They're stressing that this committee -- the African American Religious Leadership Committee -- was a laundry list of people associated with the campaign and didn't really do anything. The group never actually met.
They say Wright has no formal role on the campaign (unlike some others on this committe who do have a formal role in faith-based outreach). They say he was included mostly out of respect to his long relationship with Obama.
Aides say he was not present during the Christmas 2007 sermon or the post-Sept. 11 sermon. They weren't sure about some of the others in question, are not sure when the last time the two spoke, and they stressed they don't speak frequently.
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro Obama picked up another superdelegate -- his sixth since March 4th -- Wisconsin's Melissa Schroeder.
BY THE NUMBERS: Pledged Count: Obama leads 1,400-1,251Superdelegates : Clinton leads 253-217 OVERALL TOTAL: Obama leads 1,617-1,504
NOTE: With the victory earlier this week by Andre Carson in a special election to replace his grandmother, the late Rep. Julia Carson, in IN-7, the superdelegate total moved back up to 795. ... Carson is Congress' second Muslim representative. Minnesota's Keith Ellison is the other.
*** UPDATE ***
From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy McCain said this at his town hall in Springfield, PA this morning:
"After 9/11 I think that we made a mistake by telling Americans they ought to go on a trip, or shop. I think we should've told Americans to join the military, the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, volunteer organizations -- all of the organizations that allow people to serve this nation. There's wonderful programs out there some of them government and some of them volunteer... I think Americans are ready, they're ready to make many of the sacrifices if it's clearly explained to them how important it is and the crisis and the challenges we face."
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro Remember that caught on C-SPAN Clinton -Obama conversation in the seats of the Senate yesterday? AP reports that they spoke about trying to change the tone -- at least of their surrogates.
"They approached one another and spoke about how supporters for both campaigns have said things they reject," said Clinton spokesman Phil Singer, per AP. "They agreed that the contrasts between their respective records, qualifications and issues should be what drives this campaign, and nothing else."
"An Obama adviser, speaking on a condition of anonymity about the private conversation, gave a similar account, while stressing that it was Obama who approached Clinton on the subject. They committed to making sure that their supporters don't get overheated in the future, the adviser said."
From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy While speaking to more than 500 people at the Springfield Country Club in Springfield, PA,
McCain criticized the senate's late night last night as unproductive and meaningless. While going into his usual rant about the need to reign in earmarks in Washington, McCain said that the fact that only 29 senators voted for a one-year moratorium on earmarks proposed by Sen.
DeMint showed that "the senate is disconnected from the American people."
"I again want to emphasize the vote last night, 29 votes in favor of a moratorium on earmarks and pork barrel spending, which shows the last place in America where they don’t get it is Washington, DC," McCain told reporters after his town hall. "Americans want this process stopped; they want waste and mismanagement of their tax dollars stopped, and it indicates the absolute requirement for the next President of the Unites States [to stop it]."
In his speech, he didn't mention that his two Democratic opponents supported the bill, but in his town hall, he gave both Clinton and Obama credit while criticizing the Democratic delegation in the senate as a whole for only mustering six votes in favor of the moratorium. But McCain also challenged his Democratic opponents to go further, as he had yesterday while speaking to reporters on his plane.
"Well, the first thing they can do if they’re against the earmarks is ask that the money that they’ve gotten, hundreds of millions that they’ve gotten in pork barrel projects, not be spent," McCain said, calling on both Obama and Clinton to take retroactive steps to stop earmarks. "A lot of that money’s not spent. So ask for it; if you’re against it, say it shouldn’t be spent, and I’m sure we could get it through that they wouldn’t have -- that that money wouldn’t have to be spent."
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro 'So You're Tellin' Me There's A Chance…' : While the idea of a Florida re-vote seems to be fading after yesterday, there’s a lot of momentum in Michigan for a June 3 re-vote, according to informed sources in the state. There are a couple of hurdles, including who pays for the primary. The state would pass a law that would appropriate the money to run this special primary election; not a mail-in, but a full bore in-person 100% open primary. The state, in turn, would be reimbursed by the Democratic Party or potentially other entities or even seeing if it's possible for donors to contribute to the state directly. Everyone seems to be on board in the state Democratic world of Michigan, including the governor, the Dingells, Carl Levin, the Kilpatricks and the UAW. For those that follow Michigan Democratic politics closely, you'll know getting all those folks in agreement isn't easy. The only thing that could stop this primary logistically is if the state party is told -- legally -- they can't raise the large soft money contributions they would need to raise in order to come up with the $10-12 million.
*** Terms for a settlement? The momentum for a revote in Michigan might actually expedite the negotiations between Clinton and Obama on what to do with Florida and Michigan delegates. There are some competing proposals out there. Obama's camp isn't interested in extending the campaign primary schedule, and Clinton's camp isn't interested in losing its argument that it already won Michigan and Florida. So some seating of a, say, 52-48 split on delegates with supers voting how they want, could be more possible as this revote stuff makes its way through the Michigan legislature. So the most interesting thing to could come out of this Michigan re-vote momentum is that negotiations for seating these delegates gets more serious.
*** The speaker speaks: For the second time in the past week, Nancy Pelosi yesterday shot down the idea of a Clinton-Obama or Obama-Clinton “dream ticket.” "Take it from me, that won't be the ticket," she said, per NBC's Mike Viqueira. If this isn’t yet another sign that Pelosi is pretty much in Obama’s corner -- knocking down the idea that you can still get Obama if you vote Clinton -- we don’t know what is. Most of her House kitchen cabinet is behind Obama, and this just seems like another signal. No doubt the Clinton folks know this, which means it could make Pelosi's hope of playing elder stateswoman who can settle this at the end a bit harder.
*** Mother's Day: As disciples of presidential historian James David Barber will tell you, some of the greatest influences on modern American presidents have been their mothers. After reading today’s front-page New York Times profile of Obama’s late mother, we are pretty sure of this: If Obama goes on to win the White House, Ann Dunham Soetoro -- who was born in Kansas, moved to Hawaii, married a man from African, then married a man from Indonesia, and became an anthropologist -- could very well be the most fascinating presidential mother in this country’s history.
*** Just when you thought you were out…:
*** Clinton's TOO strong in Pennsylvania? If Clinton scores the endorsements that are rumored in Pittsburgh today, it will underscore the strength she has in this state. The establishment in Pennsylvania is not split at all. It's 95% behind Clinton, making a victory in the state all but assured this far out. And yet, is it good for Clinton to be this strong in the state this early? Will it spook Obama out of the state? Will it spook the media where they won't value a Clinton victory as much as they did in Ohio? Clinton is locking down this state early; Obama's headed to Indiana this weekend. The Pennsylvania race will inevitably close, but it does seem Clinton has a distinct advantage. She just doesn't want to get too far ahead, devaluing a potential victory.
*** On the trail: Clinton stumps in Pittsburgh (where she may lock up more key endorsements); McCain holds a media avail and town hall in Springfield, PA before heading to Chicago to raise money; and Obama is down in Chicago.
Countdown to Pennsylvania: 39 days
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Obama released every request he's made since coming to the Senate. "Philippe Reines, a senior adviser to Clinton, said in an e-mail that she ‘will make public the requests she submits this year,’ though he did not say when that will happen. He noted that Clinton has announced the earmarks she has won, but he did not say whether she will match Obama's disclosure and reveal all of her requests. Obama has pledged to make Washington more transparent if he is elected president, and his campaign cast the disclosure as part of his call for more openness.”
“But Obama's list raised questions because it includes $8 million for a defense contractor that has ties to one of his most prodigious campaign fundraisers. According to the earmark disclosure, the money was for a project overseen by General Dynamics. Obama's Illinois finance chairman, James S. Crown, serves on the company's board of directors, and his family holds a sizable stake in the firm. Crown and his wife, Paula Crown, are members of Obama's national finance committee and have raised more than $200,000 for the campaign, according to Obama's campaign Web site."
The AP’s Calvin Woodward writes, “In kindergarten, you're not allowed to call anyone a monster or make fun of someone's middle name. But this is politics, in a land where freedom of speech is carved into the rock of the republic. And these are grown-ups with thick skins stretched over awesome amounts of self-esteem.” More: “A cycle of insult and puffy indignation has taken hold in the contest between Democratic Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, with supporters of Republican Sen. John McCain gleefully pitching in. It's been a time to denounce, dissociate, distance and regret, to nurse tender sensitivities, and to see the occasional offender cut from a campaign.”
The New York Daily News previews Iowa’s county conventions: “Remember Iowa? Suddenly, the state that started the 2008 race will matter again Saturday, and it could be the second time it kicks Hillary Clinton. The delegates chosen in the state's January caucuses to back Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards must show up at county conventions Saturday -- and they don't have to stick with their candidates. That means not only are the 14 delegates won by since-departed John Edwards up for grabs -- more than in all of Wyoming - so are Clinton and Obama backers.”agreed to… ANOTHER debate . Debate 21 (!) will take place in Philadelphia next month -- date to be determined. Obama also agreed to a debate in North Carolina April 19.
After lots of fanfare yesterday morning, the Florida Democratic Party’s mail-in plan looks like it may be DOA.
Meanwhile, “Michigan Democrats are close to an agreement with presidential candidates Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama to hold a do-over primary,” the AP reports. “The Clinton campaign made it clear that it strongly prefers a state-run primary to mail-in voting during the meeting, according to a campaign official speaking anonymously about the private talks.”
Clinton hosted uncommitted superdelegates (a.k.a. members of Congress) at her DC home on Wednesday night. "After the Clinton reception, Chris Haylor, a campaign official, sent out a memo listing the undecided lawmakers who had attended and asking for help with lobbying them. ‘We encourage you all to seek them out today and thank them for attending and to get their feedback,’ he wrote. ‘We want to make sure we strike while the iron is hot.’”
“Among those on Haylor's list were several Southerners (Rep. Robert E. ‘Bud’ Cramer of Alabama; Reps. Lincoln Davis and Bart Gordon of Tennessee; and Rep. Heath Shuler of North Carolina), as well as a handful of Californians (Reps. Susan A. Davis, Sam Farr and Bob Filner) an Oklahoman (Rep. Dan Boren) and an Arizonan (Rep. Gabrielle Giffords)."
The Boston Globe front-pages Clinton’s role in SCHIP: “Clinton, who has frequently described herself on the campaign trail as playing a pivotal role in forging a children's health insurance plan, had little to do with crafting the landmark legislation or ushering it through Congress, according to several lawmakers, staffers, and healthcare advocates involved in the issue.”
More: "In campaign speeches, Clinton describes the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, as an initiative ‘I helped to start.’ Addressing Iowa voters in November, Clinton said, ‘in 1997, I joined forces with members of Congress and we passed the State Children's Health Insurance Program.’ Clinton regularly cites the number of children in each state who are covered by the program, and mothers of sick children have appeared at Clinton campaign rallies to thank her.”
“But the Clinton White House, while supportive of the idea of expanding children's health, fought the first SCHIP effort, spearheaded by Senators Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, because of fears that it would derail a bigger budget bill. And several current and former lawmakers and staff said Hillary Clinton had no role in helping to write the congressional legislation, which grew out of a similar program approved in Massachusetts in 1996."
Politico’s Martin writes how McCain’s campaign will try to turn some blue states red. “Though still very early in the planning stages, McCain aides have begun eyeing between 20 and 25 states that could be competitive, a list that includes some places that are anything but rock-ribbed conservative. Next month, they’ll make this case symbolically by sending the candidate on a different-kind-of-Republican tour into places where party members typically don’t tread.”
McCain's earmark moratorium bill didn't pass , despite the support of both his potential Dem foes. What does it say that all three presidential candidates supported something that couldn't pass? That's future leadership ability, no? Then again, Congress loves its earmarks…
Per NBC/NJ’s Adam Aigner-Treworgy, McCain spoke to reporters on his plane yesterday evening while on his way to Philadelphia for a fundraiser, telling about his day at the Senate, including a brief exchange of pleasantries with Sen. Clinton. He also weighed in on comments made by Obama about McCain’s shifting position on President Bush’s tax cuts. ”Well, it’s very clear that I voted to make those tax cuts permanent on several times,” McCain said. “Sen. Obama has stated very clearly his desire to increase America’s taxes… He wants to raise American’s taxes and put more of their money into the hands of the government. I want to keep it in the wallets and purses of the American people.”
CONTINUED >>
Here is the Times’ front-page profile of Obama’s mother. It’s a fascinating read. “Though it is impossible to pinpoint the imprint of a parent on the life of a grown child, people who knew Ms. Soetoro well say they see her influence unmistakably in Mr. Obama.”
Obama didn't appreciate the Wayne Allard stunt that called for appropriating every Obama presidential proposal. Apparently Schumer called Allard an a**, though Allard said the amendment wasn't his idea. Obama apparently asked Allard, "You working this hard," Allard shot back: "Vote yes." Allard, by the way, didn't vote for his own amendment.
Obama continues to make efforts to allay Jewish concerns . "Barack Obama has a solid Senate record in support of Israel… Yet there is unease among some Jewish voters about the Illinois senator and Democratic presidential contender. Why? Part of it is a division between blacks and Jews that's been growing for years, a split that Obama has challenged fellow blacks to confront. Another element is the praise Obama has received from Black Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan, whose disparaging comments about Judaism are toxic to many voters. Obama's own pastor has a history of supporting Palestinian causes."
“Finally, there are rumors and outright lies about the candidate that have gained an audience through repetition in e-mails and on Web sites. Obama is working hard to win over this vocal, powerful and reliably Democratic voting bloc. Jews have accounted for about 4 percent of Democratic primary voters so far this year, and Clinton has held a 52-46 percent edge over Obama among them, according to exit polls.”
“On the day of the Mississippi primary this week, Obama took time to call Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to express condolences over the deadly terrorist attack on a rabbinical seminary in Jerusalem. He also reaffirmed his support for Israel's right to defend itself and for its commitment to negotiations with Palestinians and underscored the need to stop Iran from supporting terrorism or getting nuclear weapons. The effort by the candidate and his advisers to calm disquiet among Jewish voters began more than a year ago."
Where do Jews go if Obama is the nominee? How big of a problem is this for him? Does it put Florida in jeopardy if enough older Jewish voters end up going for McCain?
The New York Post looks at the comments made by Obama’s former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, “who stepped down from his post after 36 years, preaches a form of black liberation theology, stressing ties to Africa and ways to empower Chicago's struggling black community.”
From NBC's Lauren Appelbaum Geraldine Ferraro is hoping to put the controversy over her comments about Obama to bed, but puts the blame over the flare up squarely on the Obama campaign. Hillary . I just think that's bad. I think it's bad business, and I think it's bad politics. I was accused of being divisive. I think those tactics are divisive."
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Chuck Todd While the idea of Florica re-vote seems to be fading, there is a lot of momentum among Michigan Democrats for a June 3 re-vote, according to informed sources in the state. There are a couple of hurdles, including who would pay for the primary (100% Clinton donors or 50-50 split between Clinton and Obama donors; the preference of state Democrats). The state would pass a law that would appropriate the money to run this special primary election; not a mail-in, but a full bore in-person 100% open primary. The state, in turn, would be reimbursed by the Democratic Party or potentially other entities or even seeing if it's possible for donors to contribute to the state directly. Everyone seems to be on board in the state Democratic world of Michigan, including the governor, the Dingells, Carl Levin, the Kilpatricks and the U.A.W. For those that follow Michigan Democratic politics closely, you'll know getting all those folks in agreement isn't easy.
Also, there appears to be very little GOP resistance in the state legis. (or even the McCain campaign) from allowing this to happen. So, barring some major objection by the Obama folks (who are being briefed on this plan later today), the possibility of a Michigan re-vote on June 3 is very high. The only thing that could stop this primary logistically is if the state party is told, legally, they can't raise the large soft money contributions they would need to raise in order to come up with the $10-12 million.
All of this needs to be agreed to (including by the state legislature) in the next 10-14 days.
Ok, Florida, is the ball now in your court?
From NBC’s Domenico Montanaro Pennsylvania counts -- a lot, the Clinton campaign stressed on a conference call with reporters.
“If Barack Obama can’t win there, how can he win the general election?” Chief Strategist Mark Penn asked, re-iterating the thesis of a memo the Clinton camp sent out yesterday. That memo was ridiculed by the Obama campaign in a response e-mail to the media, which line-by-line commented on and edited the Clinton memo.
“If someone on my staff wrote that I’d fire them,” said Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter , a Clinton supporter who was also on the call.
All this comes on the heels of an Obama conference call yesterday when Obama Campaign Manager David Plouffe stressed, “This is not just about Pennsylvania. They [the Clinton campaign] are the prohibitive favorite in Pennsylvania. We will not be defined by Pennsylvania. We will try to get the most votes and delegates, but we won’t cherry-pick states.”
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell , a Clinton surrogate also on the call, took humbrage. “Diminishing Pennsylvania is offensive,” he said.
Plouffe added in yesterday's call a famliar refrain for the Obama campaign: “This is a race for delegates.” He also stressed Obama will focus on, in addition to Pennsylvania, the other nine contests, including Indiana and North Carolina, which combined have more delegates at stake (187) than Pennsylvania (158).
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Matthew E. Berger
CAMP HILL, PA -- With
McCain called back to Washington to vote in the Senate,
Rudy Giuliani pitched in and headlined a $1,000-a-plate luncheon for the Arizona senator, and said he believed the Republicans can win Pennsylvania.
VIDEO: While campaigning for his former opponent, John McCain, Rudy Giuliani talks to reporters about the differences between the Arizona senator and his Democratic competitors. “I would consider this for John a very doable state, a state he could win” Giuliani told reporters after the luncheon. “Someone like John McCain that has outreach to independent and to Democratic voters, this is a perfect state for him.” (Indeed, a
recent Pennsylvania poll shows McCain leading both Clinton and Obama in the Keystone State.)
Asked about the potential of a McCain-Giuliani ticket, or even a McCain-Romney ticket, Giuliani demurred. “The choice of vice president is up to John McCain,” he said. “I’m sure he’ll make a very good choice. I’m not going to comment on that at all.”
No stranger to New York controversies, Giuliani said his thoughts were with the Spitzer family. “I feel great sadness for the governor and for his family and for his children,” he said. “He made a decision he believed was the right one, and I just pray for them.”
Although he didn't rule it out, Giuliani said he wasn’t thinking about running for governor himself in 2010. “I’m not considering running for anything right now,” he said. “I’m just back in my law firm, back in business, getting used to my private life, and it’s quote enjoyable. So I’m not thinking about running for anything right now.”
From NBC's Mike Viqueira Nancy Pelosi said today that "a lifetime of political gut" tells her that an Obama -Clinton or Clinton-Obama ticket is not in the offing.
"Take it from me, that won't be the ticket."
She added that while she has no doubt that there will be a "dream team," it will not include both of the two principals currently battling it out. "I just don't think it's going to happen," she said.
She was asked to clarify remarks she made earlier in the week to school children in Boston, where she was quoted as calling the prospect "impossible."
She also expressed a bit of anxiety about the tone of the Democratic campaign.
From NBC/NJ's Matthew E. Berger
Rudy Giuliani and
Tom Ridge will be joining
McCain at his Philadelphia fundraiser tonight, per the McCain campaign.
From NBC's Mark Murray Clinton with a significant general election advantage in a state where she spent much of her adult life. According to the poll, Clinton leads McCain in Arkansas, 51%-36%.
Meanwhile, Obama trails McCain in the state, 27%-43%.
Not surprisingly, Arkansas went for Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996. But Bush carried the state in 2000 and 2004.
From NBC's Chuck Todd Last week, during an appearance on MSNBC's "Tim Russert," I made a declaration that Florida's Democratic Party was one of the worst in the country; a comment that raised the ire of many Democrats in the state of Florida.
I've been deluged with facts about the state of the party from 2004 forward. Admittedly, I based my declaration on the history of the party which thru 2004 was disastrous. When you compare the number of Democrats in the state with the number of elections the party won, it really was no contest, Florida's Democratic Party was clearly one of under-performers compared to other state parties. The party has struggled to regain its footing since the exits of Lawton Chiles and Bob Graham who dominated the Democratic scene for three decades.
Well, after pouring through the stats, the facts are not there right now to back up my claim that Florida is currently one of the worst state parties in the country. Now, the party still has a lot of work to do before the state party can be called one of the best but it appears since 2004, there's been improvement. There was a massive staff turnover in 2005 after the double-gut punches of losing the state for Kerry by a greater margin than Gore lost it and then Betty Castor losing an election in a campaign she won. (Many a candidate wins a campaign and loses the election; happens more often than you realize but the Republican ground game was just better than the Democrats and that was difference between winning and losing for Castor in that contest with Mel Martinez.)
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Mark Hudspeth and Mark Murray Obama answered questions on a host of issues, including Spitzer's resignation, race, re-votes in Florida and Michigan, and the upcoming campaign in Pennsylvania.
On Spitzer: "Obviously, it’s a tragedy. It’s heartbreaking for the family, but I suspect that it would not have been possible to function as governor, that what he said is right, that he needs to spend time healing himself and his family." Asked in a follow-up question whether Spitzer should be prosecuted, he replied: "You know, I won't offer an opinion on that."
On race becoming an issue in the Clinton -Obama contest: "As I said yesterday, I do think it's unfortunate. It's not entirely unexpected. You know, as I've said before, race and gender issues are very powerful in our society. They've been an organizing principle of our politics since the earliest days of our country. And so it would be naïve for me to think that we could just brush them aside. And I know that sometimes Sen. Clinton and others accuse me of being naïve, but I'm not naïve enough to think that we're going to solve the country's racial problems, and some of these other divisions in the span of six months or a year. What I do think is that our campaign has pointed towards the future, an era where these distinctions are less prominent in our politics."
CONTINUED >>
From NBC’s Domenico Montanaro picked up a net of five delegates of the remaining unallocated nine delegates in Colorado. Obama now wins a 35-20 split there.
The pledged delegate count has Obama leading: 1,400-1,251.superdelegate count has Clinton leading: 253-216.The GRAND TOTAL stands at Obama leading: 1,616-1,504.
There are still 10 delegates unallocated from previously completed contests, including nine from the Texas caucuses (Texas is currently a 92-92 tie) and one from Democrats Abroad.
*** UPDATE *** (Thanks "Nevin Nolte, Cedar Rapids, Iowa" for pointing out the typo of the 254 for Clinton. It should be and now is 253 because of the Spitzer fallout.)
*** UPDATE 2 *** NBC News already has a 203-167 split for Clinton. California's statewide results page had indicated a 207-163 split, but its county results page reflected the 203-167 total.
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro The great ‘08 paradox: Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the latest NBC/WSJ poll is the poor shape the GOP finds itself in today: The party’s fav/unfav has increased (34%-49%); Bush’s approval rating remains in the 30s; a whopping 76% say they want a president who takes a different approach from Bush; and Democrats lead by double digits in generic presidential and congressional contests. On top of it all, for the first time since 1992, a plurality of registered voters (43%) believe they’re worse off than they were four years ago -- hardly a good sign for a party trying to hold onto the presidency. And yet … McCain seems like he’ll be more than competitive come November. He trails Obama by just three points (44%-47%) and Clinton two points (45%-47%). Also, while a surprising 52% of Republicans say they would have preferred a different GOP nominee, the crosstabs show Republican voters siding with him in general election match ups. And get this: Just 44% of Democrats have a negative view of him.
*** Style vs. substance : Clinton leads Obama on almost every individual issue the poll measured, but she trails him on electability (48% think Obama would have the better chance of beating McCain, versus 38% who think this of Clinton), favorability, and who is seen as the more “acceptable” candidate. Why the disconnect? Because style is often more important than substance in presidential politics. Kerry and Gore both led Bush on the issues, but how far did that get them? Indeed, this latest NBC/WSJ poll shows that more voters think a candidate’s leadership style and trustworthiness (48%) is more important than ideas and policies (32%) when asked to pick between the two. But that is hardly the only thing going on here. Obama has improved on eight of 10 attributes, including the commander-in-chief question (he trails Clinton here by just five points among Democrats). Clinton, on the other hand, has stagnated on nine out of 10 attributes and has dropped in the other: being likeable. Overall, Clinton leads Obama in the Dem horserace, 47%-43%, the closest it has ever been in the poll.
*** Compare and contrast : It’s also noteworthy that, according to the poll, Clinton’s and McCain’s top attributes among all voters are similar: being knowledgeable of the presidency, having strong leadership qualities, and being a good commander-in-chief. Yet McCain has higher scores on these attributes than Clinton does. On the flip side, McCain’s strengths are Obama’s weaknesses and vice versa. McCain’s worst attributes -- being likeable, being inspirational and exciting, and bringing real change -- are among Obama’s top categories. His worst categories: commander-in-chief, positions on the issues, and knowledge of the presidency. Do Democrats go for a nominee that covers a flank against McCain? Or capitalizes on one?
*** Legacy watch: Bill Clinton’s legacy has taken a real hit in the last year. In March 2007, his fav/unfav was 49%-35%. Now it’s a net negative: 42%-45%. His numbers have gradually gotten worse as the campaign has gone on. In November, it was 47%-40%; in January, it was 44%-41%, and now it’s 42%-45%. The reason? His support among African Americans and Obama voters has greatly eroded. Similarly, the poll shows that Obama voters have a more negative impression of Clinton than Clinton voters do of Obama.
*** Uniting the Dems : Nearly four in 10 Democrats believe the protracted primary is bad for the party, and just one in four think the long process is good. So this begs the question: Which of the two Democrats will have an easier time uniting the party? Well, according to the NBC/WSJ survey, Obama voters have a lower opinion of Clinton than Clinton voters have of Obama. Clinton's fav/unfav among Obama voters was 69%-17%; now it has decreased to 45%-33%. Meanwhile, Obama’s fav/unfav among Clinton voters was 55%-20%; now it’s pretty much the same at 53%-24%. Does this mean Obama voters have taken this campaign a lot more personally than Clinton's supporters? Or does this mean Obama's voters are more intensely loyal to their candidate than Clinton's? These are questions the superdelegates may end up debating amongst themselves at some point.
*** Other interesting numbers in the poll : The percentage of respondents who correctly identified Obama as a Christian increased from 18% to 37%. But those identifying him as a Muslim also increased five points (from 8% to 13%). Fifty-eight percent said globalization has been bad for the country; just 25% said it has been good. Congress’ approval rating is at 19%. And just 14% view Nader in a positive light; 37% have a negative impression of him. The poll was conducted March 7-10 among 1,012 registered voters, and it has a 3.1% margin of error.
*** Getting closer to a re-vote? According to the Washington Post, the Florida Democratic Party has set June 3 as the date for a possible mail-in do-over election. The party confirms the date to First Read, but cautions that nothing is set in stone, due to the fact that Florida Democrats are disagreeing about the particulars. But there are a lot of unanswered questions about how the election will be conducted, including if it passes muster with the Justice Department since Florida is a state that has to get pre-clearance for their elections, even party-run ones. South Carolina Democrats and Republicans have faced this issue in the past. By the way, Michigan also appears closer to coming up with some sort of re-vote compromise.
*** The Limbaugh effect : Want more proof that the liberal blogosphere has turned into a big-time ally for the Obama campaign? It has really begun to push the “Limbaugh Effect” story to explain why Republicans, per exit polls, have begun to break for Clinton in Ohio, Texas, and Mississippi. But let's not get carried away on this issue since all three states have Southern tendencies (yes, you Southern Ohio), meaning identity politics is more likely to trump everything else. Until there's an actual swing of Republicans voting for Clinton in a state without culturally Southern tendencies, then assume this so-called "Limbaugh effect" is nothing more than an urban myth.
*** The delegate count : Obama leads, 1,614-1,497. The NBC pledged number has Obama leading, 1,398-1,244. Clinton leads in superdelegates, 253-216.
*** On the trail : Clinton, McCain, and Obama are all in DC for Senate business today, although McCain later travels to Philly for a fundraiser there. Also, Bill Clinton holds fundraisers in New York and Michelle Obama campaigns in Pennsylvania.
Countdown to Pennsylvania: 40 days
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The Boston Globe covers Ferraro’s resignation yesterday from Clinton’s finance committee. “‘I am stepping down from your finance committee so I can speak for myself and you can continue to speak for yourself about what is at stake in this campaign. The Obama campaign is attacking me to hurt you. I won't let that happen.’”New York Times uses the resignation as a peg to write how race has once again become an issue in the Clinton-Obama contest. “[R]ace, as well as sex, have been unavoidable subtexts of the Democratic campaign since the two candidates began seeking to be the first African-American or the first woman to lead a party’s presidential ticket. In the primaries and caucuses this winter, too, Mrs. Clinton has enjoyed substantial support from women, while Mr. Obama has increasingly drawn overwhelming votes from blacks."
CONTINUED >>
The Florida Democratic Party’s mail-in primary plan could be unveiled as early as today. According to one memo obtained by the Washington Post , Election Day would officially be June 3. "In a document obtained by The Washington Post, dated yesterday, Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Karen L. Thurman urged Florida's Democratic members of Congress, along with Clinton and Obama, to consider the vote-by-mail proposal carefully. ‘Because of the unprecedented nature of the national race, a situation that previously was a relatively minor, party-insider issue now has the potential to result in irreparable damage for years to come,’ she wrote, before detailing at length a mail-in-primary process.”
“Under her timetable, fundraising and a public comment period would begin today and end April 12, about when ballots go to production. Overseas and military ballots would be sent out April 19. Fifty temporary election offices would be set up May 1 in poor areas to ensure access to voters with mail difficulties. On May 9, the bulk of the ballots would be shipped out, and the election would officially be on June 3, a day shared with Montana and South Dakota."
The AP adds, however: Florida's nine Democratic congressmen voted Tuesday night to oppose a mail-in vote. Thurman urged them to reconsider.” Clinton's Florida surrogates and the Obama campaign also oppose the idea.
CONTINUED >>
So apparently Clinton is truly back in the game for the Dem nod. How do we know? The RNC sent out a fundraising email focused solely on Clinton, something the GOP committee hasn't done in over a month.
In her interview with NPR this morning, Clinton defended her role in the Northern Ireland peace process. She acknowledged that she was neither a principal negotiator nor at the negotiating table. But she described role as "instrumental."
Bad news for Clinton? Both the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times did stories about the speculation SNL is in the tank for Clinton. The show's writers and producers deny the charge and now the likelihood they over compensate is very likely. Per the New York Times : "The show did ask Mr. Obama to appear this week, and Mr. Downey wrote an editorial response for him to deliver, but the senator declined. ‘I hope it was scheduling and not because he hates us,’ Mr. Downey said."
CONTINUED >>
The AFL-CIO unveiled its $53 million anti-McCain campaign yesterday. "The campaign will encompass 23 states, but the union, which has not endorsed a candidate in the Democratic primaries and caucuses, listed Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, all key battleground states, as its top priorities."
The RNC’s Alex Conant responded to the labor group’s efforts this way: “Voters looking for something new will find it in John McCain’s campaign to help working families – not the AFL-CIO’s partisan attacks. The AFL-CIO’s campaign against John McCain clearly demonstrates their priorities lie in attack politics as opposed to focusing on American families. Considering Senators Obama and Clinton’s frequent denunciations of special interests, they must reject the unions’ campaign against Senator McCain.”
NBC's Kelly O'Donnell reports on McCain's extended comments yesterday on his veep search. McCain was asked if he will weigh friendship or a personal bond as a factor in his selection of a running mate. He said, "I don't think a personal bond is important. I think what's important is that you can work with the person." He said many people he sees are offering their own suggestions and deadpanned that "most of them are wrong."
CONTINUED >>
Check out how the town of
Obama, Japan is embracing the Illinois senator’s presidential bid.
Clinton, Obama, and McCain all support it: a one-year ban on congressional earmarks. But most of their colleagues -- including their leaderships and some of their closest supporters -- do not, NBC’s Ken Strickland reports. And when the measure comes up for a vote today on the Senate floor, the threesome will like find themselves on the losing side.
The measure, however, will meet stiff resistance on the Senate floor. Yesterday, Majority Leader Harry Reid called the effort "a publicity stunt." Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat and Obama's No. 1 supporter, is also against it. As for McCain's pull among his GOP colleagues, fewer than ten publicly back the measure. Why? Strickland notes that most feel the Senate passed legislation last year that brought substantial reform to earmark process, making it more open and transparent. Others simply say the Constitution gives Congress the right to control spending -- all spending.
From NBC/NJ’s Athena Jones Clinton campaign sought to make it clear Wednesday that it did not agree with comments Geraldine Ferraro , a supporter and a former vice presidential candidate, has made to the effect that Obama would not be where he is today if he were not a black man.
"Let me make clear that we were completely unaware of Mrs. Ferraro's remarks, prior to their being made.” Communications Director Howard Wolfson said on a conference call with reporters in response to a question about whether this sort of thing might be a campaign tactic. “We did nothing in any way to encourage them. When Sen. Clinton spoke to them, she made clear that she disagreed with them and that she, in fact, rejected them and, look, as she said, there are supporters in both campaigns who have said things that the candidates disagreed with, that the candidates have rejected.
“It's important when that happens to make clear the disagreement, which we did immediately, and I think it is incumbent upon all of us to focus on the issues that matter most to the American people.”
When questioned about why the campaign hadn't taken a more aggressive approach to dealing with Ferraro, who is on the campaign's finance committee, but is not a paid staffer, Wolfson said different situations led to different responses and used the opportunity to instead talk about instances in which Obama supporters had said controversial things.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Lauren Appelbaum Clinton leading by 18 points, both Obama and her lose to McCain in head-to-head match ups. According to the Strategic Vision (R) poll, which will be released tomorrow, Obama fares better in a contest with McCain.
But in hypothetical match ups for the general election, McCain is ahead of Obama, 47%-44%, with 9% undecided. Against Clinton, the Arizona Republican leads 48%-42%, with 10% undecided.
From NBC’s Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro Clinton campaign put out a memo today asserting that “if Barack Obama can’t win [in Pennsylvania], how will he win the general election?”
The memo continues, ”Pennsylvania is of particular importance, along with Ohio, Florida and Michigan, because it is dominated by the swing voters who are critical to a Democratic victory in November. No Democrat has won the presidency without winning Pennsylvania since 1948. And no candidate has won the Democratic nomination without winning Pennsylvania since 1972.”
But, as one of us writes, there is a fallacy to this kind of argument that hasn’t received much attention: “Recent history shows that winning a state in the primary season -- no matter its importance on the map -- doesn’t guarantee success in the general election.
“In 2004, for example, John Kerry won early Democratic contests in Iowa, Arizona, and Missouri, but he fell short in all three states when pitted against George W. Bush. In 1992, Bill Clinton captured primaries in Florida and Texas, but lost those states in the general election.
"And in 1984 -- in a primary that has drawn parallels to the current Democratic race -- Walter Mondale secured the Democratic nomination over Gary Hart in part by winning large industrial states like Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania. But in the end, he wound up winning just one state against Ronald Reagan: his home state of Minnesota.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli ERIE, Pa. -- Bill Clinton has gotten used to this by now.
Early on in an event in Northwest Pennsylvania, Clinton was beginning a regular line in his speech comparing the state of the nation now to when he was president in the 1990s. A young man then started shouting at the former president, repeating "1991 Bilderberg." After a moment or two, Clinton stopped trying to speak over him and acknowledged the heckler.
"Look, this is the deal, folks," he said. "All these people that are paranoid about the world come and scream at me everywhere."
The man said that if Clinton heard him out, he'd leave, so Clinton did so. But as he shouted about Bilderberg, NAFTA and the Trans-Texas Corridor, the crowd drowned him out with boos.
Eventually, Clinton rather calmly addressed the remarks of the heckler. "You said you would go if I answered the question," Clinton said. "All right, here's the answer."
He said he did attend the 1991 conference of global players at the invitation of Vernon Jordan. "To the best of my knowledge, NAFTA was not discussed by anybody in my presence," he said. "I was talking to people who happen to be from Europe who did not give a rip about NAFTA."
Clinton then gave a general defense of his role in NAFTA, saying he tried to get labor and environmental standards into that agreement, "but I couldn't because it was already negotiated when I got there." He also said that as president, he enforced trade laws more than the current Bush administration has.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's John Yang
VIDEO: March 11: After being portrayed in Esquire magazine as "brazenly challenging" President Bush over a potential war with Iran, Adm. William Fallon said those words had become a distraction, forcing him to step aside as leader of Central Command. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports. On the other hand, she noted that Fallon participated in a weekly secure videoteleconference with the president and had "ample opportunity" to express himself privately.
Perino also clearly indicated that Bush wanted Fallon gone, repeatedly saying that he had asked Gates to handle "this matter" within the Pentagon. "He asked Secretary Gates to handle this in the Pentagon and it was," she said.
Timeline: Defense Secretary Gates called National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley Tuesday morning to tell him that Fallon was going and Hadley informed Bush before the president left for Tennessee.
From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy and NBC's Kelly O'Donnell
On his campaign charter plane,
McCain spoke to reporters about
Romney’s comments in a television interview that aired last night where he said he would be “honored” to serve as McCain’s running mate.
When a reporter said that it sounded like Romney would be open to sharing the ticket with him, a smiling McCain said he understood that Romney had mentioned his interest in serving as running mate.
“I got that impression,” he said.
He went on to say that his campaign is “just starting the process.”
“We’ve had at least a hundred volunteers to lead the search effort for the VP candidate,” McCain said, smiling again, of supporters volunteering their advice. “Incredible acts of generosity and willingness to serve the country.”
In describing the campaign’s steps so far towards defining their VP selection process McCain predicted that they should have a process nailed down with the next “few days or a week.”
From NBC’s Domenico Montanaro This is albeit gratuitously political, but as we noted in First Thoughts yesterday, Clinton loses a superdelegate with the Spitzer resignation. Here’s why:
Lt. Gov. David Paterson, who will take over the governorship, is already a Clinton superdelegate. State Sen. Joseph Bruno (R) will fill Paterson’s role as lieutenant governor, but since Bruno is a Republican, and there’s no provision in NYS to replace a lieutenant governor until the next election, Paterson will not be replaced as a superdelegate.
This brings Clinton’s superdelegate lead to 253-216.pledged number has Obama leading, 1,398-1,244.That brings the GRAND TOTAL to Obama ahead, 1,614-1,497.
VIDEO: March 12: Sen. Hillary Clinton tells supporters in Washington, D.C. that Florida and Michigan's Democratic delegates should be counted, either by honoring January's election results or by holding new contests. *** UPDATE *** Pledged total has been corrected to reflect 1,398 for Obama. 1,394 was the total before the full Mississippi totals were factored in.
(Thanks First Read commenter "Angel")
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro Obama leads Clinton 1,614-1,498 .
That includes the NBC News pledged delegate total of Obama 1,398, Clinton 1,244 and the NBC superdelegate total of Clinton 254, Obama 216.
Obama won a 19-14 delegate split in Mississippi.
There are also 19 other delegates which have not yet been allocated from previously completed contests, including nine from the Texas caucuses, nine from Colorado and one from Dems Abroad.
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro Eliot Spitzer resigned his post, effective Monday, March 17th.
VIDEO: March 12: New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer announces his resignation. Spitzer has said he's "begun to atone" for his personal indiscretions with his wife and family and that he's deeply sorry for not living up to his own expections.
"For those who are given much, much is expected," Spitzer said, adding that he did not want his personal turmoil to get in the way of the state's governance.
In referring to his own administration, he said he now thinks of it as "what might have been."
The March 17th date, Spitzer said, was at the request of Lt. Gov. David Paterson .
From NBC's Mark Murray Breaking News
CNBC is reporting that Spitzer will announce his resignation at 11:00 am ET.
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro *** Back to square one? It took just two victories in one week -- including last night’s 61%-37% win in Mississippi -- for Obama to erase the net delegate gains Clinton picked up on March 4. Will the pattern repeat itself in the next two months? Clinton goes on to win Pennsylvania, but Obama negates that after victories two weeks later in North Carolina and Indiana. If so, how does Clinton change the dynamics and math of the race? Going back to Mississippi, Obama’s formula to success was the same as in other Deep South states he’s won. He beat her among African Americans, 92%-8%, while Clinton beat him among whites, 70%-26%. One other thing: The turnout was huge. More than 400,000 participated in the primary -- near the 460,000 Mississippians who voted for Kerry and Edwards 2004 in the GENERAL ELECTION! Is there a hidden vote here than Obama can tap into if he’s the nominee? Perhaps, but it will have to be greater than the nearly 700,000 who voted for Bush in 2004…
VIDEO: March 12: NBC's Political Director Chuck Todd offers his first read on indentity politics in the Mississippi primary results and the media's focus on Geraldine Ferraro's comments about presidential candidate Barak Obama. ***
The delegate count: Obama leads Clinton 1,610-1,496. That includes the NBC News pledged delegate total of Obama 1,394, Clinton 1,242 and the NBC superdelegate total of Clinton 254, Obama 216. Obama, so far, has a 15-12 delegate lead in Mississippi, with six delegates yet to be allocated (most of which will go to Obama). There are also 19 other delegates that have not yet been allocated from previously completed contests, including nine from the Texas caucuses, nine from Colorado and one from Dems Abroad. There are now 566 pledged delegates left, and Clinton needs 64% to overcome Obama's pledged delegate lead. Obama needs 46% of all remaining delegates (including undecided superdelegates) to get to 2025.
*** The popular vote: By winning by almost 100,000 votes in Mississippi yesterday, Obama increased his popular vote lead over Clinton to approximately 700,000. It’s Obama 13,402,903, Clinton 12,705,360. And now even if you include Florida and Michigan, Obama leads the popular vote. That total is Obama 13,979,117, Clinton 13,904,497. This is fitting a pattern for Obama: When he wins a state, he wins it by a large margin and pads his lead in delegates and votes; hen Clinton wins, she usually does so narrowly.
*** "
I will stand my ground … and I won’t back down": This Ferraro controversy isn’t going away anytime soon. On ABC this morning, Ferraro once again stood by her earlier remark that the only reason why Obama is in the position he’s in is because he’s black. “Every time somebody opens their mouth [in the Clinton campaign], Bill Clinton-racist, Ed Rendell-racist,” Ferraro said this morning. “My concern is how I’ve been treated. I am absolutely offended… And to take it out on Hillary, because they can’t talk about the issues.” This will dominate the political news today (unless Eliot Spitzer chooses this day to resign as New York governor), and will force the Clinton campaign to once again respond to it. In pure political terms, however, does this controversy help Clinton with white voters in Pennsylvania? Of course, short-term gains for Clinton could be major long-term pains. Obama's campaign has taken pains to be a candidate for president who happens to be black rather than the black candidate for president. But these controversies sometimes force him to be the black candidate rather than just the candidate with a unique racial background.
VIDEO: March 11: Hillary Clinton says she does not agree with Geraldine Ferraro who said that if Barack Obama "was a white man he wouldn't be in this position." MSNBC's Contessa Brewer talks with NBC's Chuck Todd. ***
Florida, Florida, Florida: Fresh off the email this morning is a letter from Clinton manager Maggie Williams to Obama manager David Plouffe calling for the Obama campaign to do one of two things: 1) accept the Florida and Michigan results or 2) join them in calling for a re-vote. The Florida Democrats appear to be on the verge of submitting a new plan to the DNC for approval that would result in a mail-in primary election, something the Obama camp has already raised doubts about and something the Florida House Dems unanimously opposed last night. So what does Obama do? The campaign has been VERY cautious on this issue. Surprisingly, they haven't called for a re-vote, mostly because the last thing the campaign wants to do is give Clinton more contests to compete and therefore extend the race. But shouldn't Obama, who is made a lot of hay about the fact he's campaigned in every state and taken every contest so seriously, be on the side of a re-vote? Sure, at this point, winning Florida seems remote and who knows if Michigan Democrats can agree on anything. But there's a difference between playing not to lose and playing like you have nothing to lose. Clinton has nothing to lose because she's behind, so it's easy for her to be for a re-vote. Obama obviously has more to lose but how often does a prevent defense work in football or politics?
*** Ain’t too proud to beg: Romney told FOX yesterday: "I think any Republican leader in this country would be honored to be asked to serve as the vice presidential nominee, myself included.” He did something most veep wannabes don't do -- he admitted he want the job. Doesn't this guarantee he won't get the job now?
***
On the trail: Clinton is in DC, where she speaks to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in the morning and then to the National Newspaper Publishers Association in the evening; McCain stumps in yet another battleground state, this one that began his 2008 comeback -- New Hampshire; and Obama has a media availability in Chicago. Also, Bill and Chelsea Clinton campaign in Pennsylvania.
Countdown to Pennsylvania: 41 days
Countdown to North Carolina, Indiana: 55 days
Countdown to Election Day 2008: 237 days
Countdown to Inauguration Day 2009: 314 days
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OBAMA’S WIN IN MISSISSIPPI.
With 99% of precincts reporting, Obama defeated Clinton, 61%-37% (253,441 to 154,842).
The
Clarion-Ledger : "Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama carried a majority of Mississippi in Tuesday's primary, with significant wins in counties in southwestern and central Mississippi and in the Delta."
The Boston Globe : “Clinton and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, campaigned vigorously in Mississippi, but Obama's win was widely expected. Tellingly, neither candidate was anywhere near Mississippi yesterday while voters went to the polls. Both were campaigning in Pennsylvania, whose April 22 primary is the next big prize and where recent polls have shown Clinton leading by between 4 to 19 percentage points.” AP : “A quarter of whites said race was important to their votes, and they voted overwhelmingly for Clinton. Thirty-seven percent of blacks said race was important to their votes and nearly all voted for Obama.”
The New York Times : "Reached at her home in Manhattan on Tuesday evening, she said that, in her original remarks, she was asked why there had been so much excitement about Mr. Obama’s candidacy. ‘And I said, “I think part of it is because he’s black,”’ she said. ‘People are excited about this historic candidacy. I am, too.’”
“But the Obama campaign ‘twisted’ her remarks, she said. ‘I am livid at this thing,’ she said. ‘Any time you say anything to anybody about the Obama campaign, it immediately becomes a racist attack.’ The Clinton campaign did not contact her on Tuesday, Ms. Ferraro said. ‘I don’t want them to reach out to me,’ she said. ‘I’m exercising my First Amendment rights. If they don’t like it, tough. I don’t intend ever to have anybody tell me that I can’t say what I want to say.’”
VIDEO: March 12: TODAY’s Matt Lauer talks with Barack Obama about comments by Geraldine Ferraro suggesting race as a factor in his campaign. Obama also weighs in on the Spitzer scandal. More: "The Ferraro comments overshadowed an increasingly bitter dispute between the campaigns about the candidates’ qualifications to serve as commander in chief. On Tuesday, Greg Craig, a former official in the administration of President Bill Clinton, and now a vocal supporter of Mr. Obama, issued a blistering rebuttal to Mrs. Clinton’s assertions that she had been deeply involved in her husband’s foreign policy successes."
The Boston Globe recaps the spat yesterday over Ferraro’s words. New York Post : "Fresh racial slap at Obama."
The Washington Post looks at the potential superdelegate battle. "A core group of superdelegates and party leaders -- he mentioned former vice president Al Gore, former senator John Edwards and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson -- could come to the candidates and try to establish ground rules of decorum for the remaining contests. There would have to be a lot of advance work before any visible meeting, Ross says, because once there is a visible meeting an outcome is expected by the public. And if none is produced, that only reinforces the idea of chaos and intractability."
The New York Times’ Healy notes both campaigns are fighting over the definition of "winner" regarding their victories -- with Clinton's campaign making an Electoral College argument (because of their victories in some key big states) and Obama making a 50-state, new map argument (because of some of their victories).
Despite not having the support of the state's House Democrats, Bill Nelson and the Florida Democratic Party apparently are close to submitting a new mail-in primary plan to the DNC, the New York Times writes. "The state party would most likely submit the proposal to Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, by week’s end, said the spokesman, Dan McLaughlin. Mr. Nelson is a supporter of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.”
VIDEO: March 11: Sen. Bill Nelson, D-FL, joins the Morning Joe team to argue for a re-vote in the Democratic primaries of Florida and Michigan. “‘Unless Howard Dean changes his mind and seats the Florida delegation as apportioned by the January primary,’ Mr. McLaughlin said, ‘this is the most fair and inclusive way to allow Floridians to have their voices heard.’”
CONTINUED >>
The
Wall Street Journal examines Clinton's plan for Pennsylvania. "What it will not do is mimic the tactics it used in Iowa -- flying the candidate around on a ‘Hill-A-Copter’ that costs several thousand dollars a day to charter; spending more than $95,000 on sandwich platters for caucus-night parties; or paying an estimated $3,000 for 600 snow shovels and thousands of pounds of rock salt to clear sidewalks for caucus goers when the forecast didn't call for snow. Such expenses left the Clinton campaign hobbling into New Hampshire and led to Sen. Hillary Clinton's $5 million loan to her campaign in January.”
More: “Sen. Clinton is expected to host more interactive roundtable events to talk to voters about the economy -- an approach that paid off in Ohio, where people have similar economic concerns. In Iowa the campaign flooded the airwaves with statewide television ads. Given the size and diversity of Pennsylvania, the campaign could mostly rely on targeted ads in cheaper, local markets, particularly in smaller rural areas where Sen. Clinton is popular, aides say. Television ads may be used less in Philadelphia, for example, where the large black population gives Sen. Obama an edge and air time is costly. In places like Allentown and Harrisburg, which have large Latino populations, ads may emphasize Sen. Clinton's appeal to Latinos."
The Philadelphia Inquirer : "With a full six weeks to go before the Pennsylvania primary, Sen. Hillary Clinton drew nearly 4,000 standing, shouting, chanting supporters to a rally on the Temple University campus last night. A clearly energized Clinton gave a rousing populist speech that hammered President Bush and didn't include some pointed attacks she'd leveled earlier in the day at her rival, Sen. Barack Obama." AP fact-checks Clinton’s claims on Obama and energy. She routinely says that he voted for the “Dick Cheney” energy bill. “Both sides refer to votes on an energy bill Congress passed in 2005. In the Senate, Clinton voted against the bill and Obama voted for it. It is a stretch to call it ‘Dick Cheney's energy bill,’ a hot-button reference for many Democrats. Although the House bill was framed according to the vice president's energy priorities, by the time it passed the Senate many of those measures, such as drilling in an Arctic wildlife refuge, had been stripped away. Its broad new benefits for nuclear power and the coal industry mirrored Cheney's priorities, however.
Mitt Romney
told FOX , "I think any Republican leader in this country would be honored to be asked to serve as the vice presidential nominee, myself included.” He also “called Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama ‘
Chihuahuas’ and McCain the ‘big dog’ on national security.
The
Washington Post : "[A] $35 billion contract has been awarded to Europe's Airbus consortium to build the latest generation of tanker planes. The decision has sparked anger from Boeing's congressional supporters and critics of outsourcing. It has also focused attention on McCain's reliance on lobbyists in his campaign for president because his finance chairman and several other top advisers lobbied for Airbus last year when it was in fierce competition with Boeing for the Air Force contract.”
“McCain has spoken out for years against the influence of special interests in Washington, but his campaign includes a number of prominent Washington lobbyists, including campaign manager Rick Davis, who founded a lobbying firm, and top political adviser, Charles R. Black Jr., chief executive of a well-known Washington firm. Neither of them lobbied for Airbus."
"McCain finance chairman Thomas G. Loeffler and Susan E. Nelson, who left Loeffler's lobbying firm to be McCain's finance director, both began lobbying for Airbus's parent company in 2007, Senate records show. William L. Ball III, a former secretary of the Navy and frequent McCain surrogate on the trail, also lobbied for Airbus, as did John Green, who recently took a leave from Ogilvy Public Relations to serve as McCain's legislative liaison."
CONTINUED >>
OBAMA: Downplaying PA expectations
More: "With 42 days left before the April 22 Pennsylvania primary, Obama has time to conduct such saturation campaigning. Clinton must win Pennsylvania to make her case to superdelegates. Rather than go for the knockout punch, however, the Obama campaign is playing down expectations, emphasizing the need to keep campaigning in other states, and portraying Pennsylvania as clearly favorable to Clinton. ‘It's an uphill fight for us,’ David Axelrod, Obama's chief media strategist, said in an interview. ‘It's a mistake to reduce the contest to one state.’”
VIDEO:
March 11: Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., talks to Hardball’s Chris Matthews about his Mississippi primary win and his plans to topple Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., in the 2008 race. The only thing about this strategy along with the hesitance by Obama to embrace the re-votes in Michigan and Florida is that there is a cautious, playing not to lose, rather than playing to win. Do cautious presidential candidates win elections? Or should Obama be more aggressive about Pennsylvania or more aggressive about embracing the re-vote in Michigan and Florida, even if there is a risk of giving Clinton a few more lifelines?
The New York Times’ lead: “State government remained paralyzed on Tuesday as Gov. Eliot Spitzer, reeling from revelations that he had been a client of a prostitution ring, was engaged in an intense legal and family debate about whether to resign or, as aides said his wife was urging, to stay on. Mr. Spitzer did not emerge from his apartment at Fifth Avenue and 79th Street in Manhattan as Albany remained roiled and riveted by the deepening crisis.”
The Times’ editorial page says Spitzer “has now twice violated his obligations to the people of New York. He violated their trust when, according to law enforcement officials, he patronized a prostitution ring. He compounded that violation Tuesday by hiding in his Fifth Avenue apartment and refusing to explain his actions or his future plans. To put it bluntly, Mr. Spitzer must either resign immediately or explain why he deserves to continue in office. It is almost impossible for us to imagine how he can survive this scandal and provide the credible leadership that his state needs.”
VIDEO: When will New York’s governor, Eliot Spitzer -- caught up in a prostitution scandal -- resign? TODAY’s Natalie Morales reports. The
Washington Post's Baker wonders if Spitzer's troubles will hurt Clinton. "Now, his apparent involvement with a prostitution ring has not only distracted attention from her efforts to take down the front-runner, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), it has also brought back unhelpful memories of her own husband's dalliances in office. There on cable television again were pictures of Bill Clinton hugging Monica S. Lewinsky. And the image of Spitzer's wife standing painfully by his side while he acknowledged unspecified wrongdoing could not help but remind some of Hillary Clinton's own stand-by-her-man moment."
The Boston Globe : “As New York Governor Eliot Spitzer weighs his political future after being accused of patronizing a high-priced prostitute, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton is faced with an awkward choice: Call for the resignation of a fellow Empire State Democrat and raise comparisons with her own husband's behavior as president, or keep quiet and risk the appearance of condoning Spitzer's alleged offense.” The New York Daily News : “It was a double whammy of a day for Hillary Clinton, who got pounded at the polls in Mississippi as Gov. Spitzer's mushrooming sex scandal brought ugly headlines reminiscent of her husband's philandering.”
From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy ST. LOUIS, MO -- McCain kicked off a heavy week of fundraising with a dinner last night and a town hall this morning at Savvis, Inc. where he faced several questions about the Pentagon's recent decision to pass over Boeing for a major defense contract.
Speaking within just a few miles of the city's Boeing factory, McCain defended his role in the process, but said that if deemed necessary he would be open to a thorough review of the Pentagon's selection.
"I think my record is very clear on this issue, including a paper trail of letters that we wrote to the Department of Defense during this process saying clearly and unequivocally we just want a fair process and we don't want a repeat of the previous process," McCain said about his involvement.
McCain added, "I'm more than willing to go through a review process--of what the process that was pursued by the United States Air Force in making that decision."
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ’s Mike Memoli CANONSBURG, Pa. -- After a rare two-day hiatus, Bill Clinton returned to the campaign trail today in Pennsylvania, a state he promised that his family expects to cover “like a wet blanket between now and April 22.” The former president again set the bar for his wife’s campaign, saying, “She’s got to win a big victory” in the Keystone State.
CONTINUED >>
NBC News declares
Barack Obama as the projected winner in Mississippi's Democratic primary.
NBC News will declare the Mississippi Democratic primary as "too early to call." But
Barack Obama is leading.
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro Daily Breeze , where Ferraro's original comments appeared. This time SHE claimed to be the victim of racism and said, "Sexism is a bigger problem." ...
"But far from backing off from her initial remark, Ferraro defended it and elaborated on it.
" 'Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let's address reality and the problems we're facing in this world, you're accused of being racist, so you have to shut up,' Ferraro said. 'Racism works in two different directions. I really think they're attacking me because I'm white. How's that?'...
"Ferraro said she was simply stating an obvious truth, as seen in exit polls that show Obama taking as much as 80 percent of the black vote in the Democratic primaries.
" 'In all honesty, do you think that if he were a white male, there would be a reason for the black community to get excited for a historic first?' Ferraro said. 'Am I pointing out something that doesn't exist?' ...
"She also said she is familiar with [Obama adviser David] Axelrod from his work for minority candidates in New York.
" 'He knows damn well that the best thing to do in a situation like this is to come back and hit with race,' Ferraro said, adding that the response is a sign that the Obama campaign is 'worried' about the first-term senator's lack of experience.
"But she also echoed remarks of feminist leaders like Gloria Steinem, who argued in the New York Times that Obama would not have succeeded if he were a woman because gender is 'the most restricting force in American life.'
" 'Sexism is a bigger problem,' Ferraro argued. 'It's OK to be sexist in some people's minds. It's not OK to be racist.'"
(Hat tip to First Read commenter Phyllis, Mystic, CT for finding the article.)
(And thanks to Pat, Davis, CA for this YouTube link of Ferraro defending the comments on Fox News.)
From NBC's David Gelles I just spoke to reporter Jim Farber, who wrote the Ferraro story for the "Daily Breeze" of Torrance, Calif. He told me the Ferraro interview took place on Feb. 28th, five days before the Ohio and Texas primaries. The article ran in the paper on March 7th.
But it's important to remember that Ferraro made her comments at the time when many thought the Clinton campaign was about to go under.
The article ran with the headline, "Geraldine Ferraro lets her emotions do the talking."
This is the quote the campaigns are fighting over:
"If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position," she continued. "And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept." Ferraro does not buy the notion of Obama as the great reconciler.
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro Geraldine Ferraro back and forth continues, here's a chronology of some of the comments and statements from both sides:
Geraldine Ferraro, Torrance Daily Breeze , March 7:
The Clinton campaign's Howard Wolfson this morning to Politico : "We disagree with her."
Obama adviser David Axelrod, in a conference call with reporters today: “Ferraro should be denounced and censured by the campaign. Samantha [Power] resigned, because it was not consistent with the kind of campaign we want to run. We want a candidate and president who will live by their words.”
Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania today : "I do not agree with that. It is regrettable that any of our supporters on both sides, because we’ve both had that experience, say things that kind of veer off into the personal. We ought to keep this on the issues. There are differences between us. There are differences between our approaches on health care, on energy, on our experience, on our results that we’ve produced for people. That’s what this campaign should be about."
Obama spokesman Bill Burton this afternoon after Clinton's statement: "With Senator Clinton's refusal to denounce or reject Ms. Ferraro, she has once again proven that her campaign gets to live by its own rules and its own double standard, and will only decry offensive comments when it's politically advantageous to Senator Clinton. Her refusal to take responsibility for her own supporter's remarks is exactly the kind of tactic that feeds the American people's cynicism about politics today and it's why Barack Obama's message of change has resonated so strongly in every corner of the country."
CONTINUED >>
From NBC’s Domenico Montanaro NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski reported this morning on the NBC News blog Field Notes , “The Pentagon sharks [were] circling ... Fallon for a magazine interview in which he appears to openly criticize President Bush on the administration's Iran policy. The very public comments raised speculation Fallon would either volunteer or be forced to resign."
Per AP, "Gates said Fallon had asked him Tuesday morning for permission to retire and Gates agreed. Gates said the decision was entirely Fallon's and that Gates believed it was 'the right thing to do.'" Gates also denied that Fallon's position on Iran policy was any different than that of the president's, despite the current issue of Esquire Magazine , which "portrays Fallon as the one person in the military or Pentagon standing between the White House and war with Iran," Miklaszewski writes. "The article credits Fallon with 'brazenly challenging his commander in chief' over a possible war with Iran, which Fallon called an 'ill-advised action,' and implies Fallon would resign rather than go to war against Iran.
“Asked on Monday whether Defense Secretary Robert Gates still has full confidence in Fallon, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell would only say that Fallon 'still enjoys a working -- a good working relationship with the Secretary of Defense.'
“Although reporters did not specifically ask about a possible Fallon resignation, Morrell freely offered, 'Admiral Fallon serves at the pleasure of the president.' That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement, but far from a political death knell.
“Still, the gruff, outspoken CENTCOM commander has his detractors. 'How many times can [Fallon] get away with these kinds of remarks,' before he's forced out the door, asked one senior Pentagon official. The reason may be that on Iran, Gates and many senior military officials happen to agree with Fallon.
From NBC’s Domenico Montanaro Obama campaign called for Geraldine Ferraro to step down as a member of the Clinton campaign’s finance committee for comments she made suggesting Obama’s race is why he’s a leading presidential candidate.
"If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position," Ferraro told Torrance CA’s Daily Breeze Friday as we and others reported this morning. "And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept."
The Clinton campaign had this response: "We disagree with her," Spokesman Howard Wolfson told Politico .
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), called Ferraro a “good friend” and credits her with “clearing a path” for women, but added that “In the heat of the campaign though things get said that shouldn’t. It’s disappointing that Clinton supporters have tried to diminish” Obama. “To suggest that he’s getting preferential treatment” because of his race, she sad, “is out of line. I urge Sen. Clinton to call on advisers and supporters to change the tone of their campaign.”
Axelrod said the Clinton campaign’s response was not enough and that “she ought to be removed” from any responsibilities she has on the campaign’s finance committee or in any other way related to the campaign.
“Ferraro should be denounced and censured by the campaign,” Axelrod said. “Samantha [Power] resigned, because it was not consistent with the kind of campaign we want to run. We want a candidate and president who will live by their words.”
*** UPDATE *** Clinton responded to Ferraro's comments
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones HARRISBURG, Pa. -- After kicking off her Pennsylvania campaign with a positive speech to an energetic crowd in the northeastern part of the state yesterday, Hillary
Clinton brought the fight against
Obama here to the capital on Tuesday, hitting her rival on energy policy, NAFTA and Iraq and reprising her campaign's latest attack theme that paints him as a man of talk and not action.
Moments before the event was scheduled to begin in a packed auditorium here, the theme to "Rocky" blasted through the speakers, that classic movie about a fighter that was set in the Keystone State. The New York senator portrays herself as a leader who is ready to fight to get things done.
Today, she began by linking the wisdom of the nation's founders to her campaign.
"Right out of Pennsylvania came so much of the genius that created our government," she said, "and it was a unique combination of the lofty goals and values that kept us looking toward a better tomorrow and an understanding of what it would take. I think we're at a turning point moment in American history right now where we are called upon to look toward the future with confidence and optimism, but to understand what it will take, the hard work to translate all of those hopes and dreams into the reality of people's lives right here in Harrisburg. That is what my campaign is about."
And she continued the hope versus hard work theme she's been highlighting for months now, as she spoke about making a better future for America's children.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Chris Donovan David Paterson taking office:
IF David Paterson, who is also legally blind, is sworn in, he would become the first African-American governor of New York, but also only the FOURTH African-American governor of a U.S. state in history. Of the previous three, two of the governors were elected (Deval Patrick and Douglas Wilder ) and one ascended from his position as lieutenant governor because of scandal (P.B.S. Pinchback ).
- Gov. Deval Patrick (Massachusetts) became governor in January 2007 after being elected in November 2006; he is currently the only African American to serve as governor of a U.S. state.Henry Clay Warmoth was impeached and suspended; Pinchback served for five weeks between December 1872 and January 1873, at which time Warmoth's term expired
Here is Paterson's official bio :
CONTINUED >>
From NBC’s Robert Windrem The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and the Albany Times Union are reporting that New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) will resign after being linked to a prostitution ring.
NYT : “Top aides to Gov. Elliot Spitzer said Tuesday morning that they expect the governor to resign his office, although the timing of the resignation remains uncertain.”
Video: NBC's Mike Taibbi reports on New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer facing calls to resign amid a sex scandal. WSJ : “Eliot Spitzer, the onetime nemesis of Wall Street now engulfed in a sex scandal, is likely to resign, perhaps as early as today, according to a person close to him. The resignation would effectively end Mr. Spitzer's political career just 16 months after he was elected New York's governor by a wide margin. ‘But first he's dealing with this personal tragedy at home,’ this person said.”
The Albany Times-Union : “Spitzer publicly apologized to his wife and family Monday and began planning to exit his office in shame as both his life and political career were unraveling over his role as a patron of an international sex ring, according to government sources. Aides close to Spitzer, 48, expect Lt. Gov. David Paterson, 53, a Harlem Democrat, will succeed him as governor before the week's end to fill out the remaining 33 months of his term.”
From NBC’s Wendy Jones WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Flanked by an ironworker and green-energy company official, several members of Congress talked this morning about Democratic budget priorities.
As Sen. Debbie Stabenow put it, last year the focus was on college education, children's health insurance and veterans' health care: this year it's "jobs, jobs, jobs." Especially green-collar jobs. "If we want to have the vehicle of the future...to meet CAFE standards...we need battery storage...China, Korea and Japan are funding these advanced battery initiatives at hundreds of times the rate we are...."
Coming from Michigan, Stabenow noted: "Ford created the first hybrid, the Ford Escape...but they had to go to Japan for the battery. We don't want to change from dependence on foreign oil to dependence on foreign batteries."
Sen. Ted Kennedy warned that "In all the time I've been in the Senate, I've never seen the kind of anxiety I am seeing now among American workers...they've worked hard, they've played by the rules...they've volunteered to go to Iraq and Afghanistan, and now they face the perfect storm and wonder who is going to do something about it."
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Mark Murray speculation earlier this morning that Mississippi could be in play in the general election if Obama becomes the Dem nominee.
Demographically, Obama might have some advantages in the state, RNC spokesman Alex Conant tells First Read. But ideologically, Conant adds, Obama will have a tough time in Mississippi. "It hasn't gone Democrat in over 30 years," he said.
From NBC's Andrea Mitchell Obama hit Clinton hard in Mississippi, she is going to return the favor in Pennsylvania. Clinton is going to hammer Obama this afternoon in Harrisburg, Pa., according to prepared speech excerpts released by her campaign.
She will go after him on issues that started to work for her in Ohio, and the campaign thinks could have similar impact on voters in Pennsylvania -- NAFTA, Iraq, Energy and being true to his promises.
Examples show she's following up on the Goolsbee-Canadian government issue and on Samantha Power. See below:
"The true test comes when it's time to match rhetoric with results,” Clinton will say. “And unfortunately, we've seen that Senator Obama's promises and speeches are often just words." …
"On the campaign trail, Sen. Obama talks about clean energy. But in the Senate, he voted for Dick Cheney's energy bill loaded with new tax breaks for oil companies. When he faced a tough choice, his support for a clean energy future turned out to be just words." …
*** UPDATE *** The Obama campaign responds
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Mark Murray In one of its sharpest rebukes of Clinton's foreign policy experience, the Obama campaign has released a memo arguing that Clinton herself hasn't passed the commander-in-chief test. "When your entire campaign is based upon a claim of experience, it is important that you have evidence to support that claim. Hillary Clinton’s argument that she has passed “the commander-in-chief test” is simply not supported by her record," Obama adviser Greg Craig says in the memo.
"There is no doubt that Hillary Clinton played an important domestic policy role when she was first lady," Craig continues. "It is well known, for example, that she led the failed effort to pass universal health insurance. There is no reason to believe, however, that she was a key player in foreign policy at any time during the Clinton Administration. he did not sit in on National Security Council meetings. She did not have a security clearance. She did not attend meetings in the Situation Room. She did not manage any part of the national security bureaucracy, nor did she have her own national security staff. She did not do any heavy-lifting with foreign governments, whether they were friendly or not. She never managed a foreign policy crisis, and there is no evidence to suggest that she participated in the decision-making that occurred in connection with any such crisis. As far as the record shows, Senator Clinton never answered the phone either to make a decision on any pressing national security issue -- not at 3 AM or at any other time of day."
Below is the full memo...
CONTINUED >>
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro Albany Shocker : The Spitzer story is something that is simply shocking. But like the other recent sex scandals -- Vitter’s and Craig’s -- this one is likely to have very little national effect, unless Spitzer decides to stay in office. Assuming a fairly quick resignation, this will fade into being only a fascinating New York City/Albany story with a new star being born, Lt. Gov. David Paterson, who would become governor. The trouble only starts if Spitzer won't go, then he risks having prominent New Yorkers like Hillary Clinton being forced to call for his resignation and putting him in an even more precarious position. By the way, for those wondering, Spitzer is a superdelegate, as is Paterson. Both have endorsed Clinton. Should Spitzer resign, the number of superdelegates will simply be subtracted by one, since there's no provision in New York for a lieutenant governor to be replaced until the next election.
Video: NBC's Political Director Chuck Todd offers his first read on the likelihood N.Y. Gov. Eliot Spitzer will resign; plus Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton battle. ***
The Magnolia match up : Can Obama win yet another state and pick up some more momentum heading into Pennsylvania? Could he win by such a margin that he erases the net delegates Clinton gained from her victories last week? Or can Clinton pull off the upset in a state Obama is favored to win? We’ll find out the answers to these questions in today’s Mississippi primary, where 33 pledged delegates are at stake. Polls open at 8:00 am ET and close at 8:00 pm ET.
*** Turning Mississippi blue? Take a look at Alabama (Obama won it by 14 points), Georgia (by 35 points), Louisiana (by 21 points) and South Carolina (by 28 points), and you'll get an idea about Obama's likely margin of victory. Frankly, if Clinton keeps Obama under 15 points, she may have a moral victory. That said, it wouldn't be surprising if Obama won by 20-plus points considering the makeup of Mississippi's electorate. In fact, Mississippi is one of those rare Southern states that might be in play in the general election if Obama becomes the nominee. One Dem statistician tells First Read that there are three red states that could swing if African-American turnout was ever maximized (both in registration and in actual turnout): Georgia, Louisiana and, yes, Mississippi. So don't assume this is just one of those untouchable red states for the Dems when watching returns roll in tonight.
Video: NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports on the Democratic battle today in Mississippi's primary. ***
Veep chatter : The big Clinton-Obama story yesterday was Obama pushing back against the idea that he would be Clinton’s vice president. Interestingly, Clinton supporter Ed Rendell seemed to backtrack a bit more than anyone else in the Clinton campaign when he admitted that he thinks Clinton would make a good veep for Obama. "It would be great and either way,” he said, per NBC/NJ’s Athena Jones. He added: "Whether it was Sen. Obama for the president and Sen. Clinton for vice president or vice versa. I think it would be great." While many analysts have picked up on this Clinton storyline as proof Clinton is trying to diminish Obama, don't assume this isn't ALSO an attempt by the Clintons to remind Obama that she should be considered for the veep slot if he's the nominee. It appears more likely every day that Clinton's Plan B is the VP slot, not Senate majority leader as so many others have speculated.
*** When surrogates attack : As Samantha Power’s “monster” comment to the Scotsman taught us, sometimes a remark by an adviser/surrogate to a fairly untraditional media outlet can produce a political firestorm. Will this statement by Clinton supporter Geraldine Ferraro spark a similar controversy? "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position," Ferraro told Torrance CA’s Daily Breeze . "And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept." The Clinton campaign quickly distanced itself from this comment, because this is a slippery slope argument that could be demeaning to both Clinton and Obama.
*** Obama playing offense : Yesterday, Obama resurrected the Somali garb story, accusing the Clinton campaign of leaking the photo that made its way to Drudge, NBC/NJ’s Aswini Anburajan notes. Obama said, "… when in the midst of a campaign you decide to throw the kitchen sink at your opponent because you're behind and your campaign starts leaking photos of me when I'm traveling overseas, wearing, in native clothes of those folks to make people afraid." Obama was very matter of fact about this -- the first time he's been this way on a story that hasn’t proven to be true.
*** The Rezko headache : Obama’s name came up tangentially at the Rezko trial yesterday -- regarding nominations to an Illinois health planning board. At a minimum, Obama's name is being mentioned just enough that the trial is going to provide a blueprint for some reporters to write some negative stories about Obama. On the trail : Clinton, in Pennsylvania, stumps in Harrisburg and Philadelphia before returning to DC later in the evening; McCain is in the potential battleground state of Missouri, campaigning in St. Louis; and Obama holds a town hall in Fairless Hills, PA.
Countdown to Pennsylvania: 42 days
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The New York Times reports, “Gov. Eliot Spitzer continued to weigh whether to resign Tuesday, a day after law enforcement officials said he was a client of a high-end prostitution ring broken up last week by federal authorities. Mr. Spitzer was receiving counsel from his advisers late Monday at his Fifth Avenue apartment, and had not emerged as of early Tuesday morning.”
The New York Times editorial page stopped just short of calling for his resignation. “He did not just betray his family in a private matter. He betrayed the public, and it is hard to see how he will recover from this mess and go on to lead the reformist agenda on which he was elected to office.”
Per WNBC's Jay Dedapper, multiple New York Democratic Senate and Assembly sources say Eliot Spitzer WILL resign soon, certainly by the end of the week. They say a transition team is already in the process of being assembled, and several judges have been approached about presiding over a swearing-in ceremony. The sources say Spitzer has been urged to step down "for the good of the party.”
CONTINUED >>
Obama yesterday pushed back on the veep chatter. "Calling Clinton's tactics an attempt ‘to bamboozle you, to hoodwink you,’ Obama said voters had to make a choice. ‘I want everybody to be absolutely clear,’ he said. ‘I don't want anybody here thinking that somehow, “Well, you know, maybe I can get both.” Don't think that way. You have to make a choice in this election.’”
The Boston Globe adds, “Obama yesterday ridiculed recent suggestions by Hillary Clinton and her top supporters that he might make a good running mate as part of a so-called Democratic dream team for the general election. For starters, Obama said, he has won twice as many states as Clinton, secured the most delegates, and captured a larger share of the overall popular vote to date.”
The Washington Post : "The vice presidency came up repeatedly Monday at a news conference called by Obama's campaign to showcase former military leaders backing him. Clifford Alexander Jr., a former secretary of the Army, said that ‘people of all backgrounds -- white, black, Latino -- all see this is more surrealistic than any other sense.’ ‘There's something of an implied compliment, as well,’ said Richard Danzig, secretary of the Navy during the Clinton administration. ‘It's nice to think Senator Clinton thinks Senator Obama's clearly qualified to sit a heartbeat away from the presidency.’”
CONTINUED >>
The Clarion Ledger : "[V]oter turnout is still expected to be light to moderate in an election that also includes two open congressional seats and a U.S. Senate contest. Between 125,000 to 150,000 voters will cast ballots, Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann predicted. He said 100,000 headed to the polls in the 2004 presidential primary that featured eight contenders for the Democratic nomination, including ultimate nominee Sen. John Kerry. Mississippi has 1.78 million registered voters."
More: "Mississippi does not require voters to declare party affiliation when they register to vote. Therefore, residents who usually vote Republican can cast a ballot today for Obama or Clinton. But those voters would have to forgo voting in the Republican congressional primaries."
The Boston Globe’s primer on the race: “Blacks are expected to constitute more than half of Democratic voters, and Barack Obama has swept states with large African-American electorates so far. Hillary Clinton was first lady of neighboring Arkansas for 16 years. Obama led by between 6 and 24 percentage points in polls last week. Both candidates have campaigned in the state, though Obama stumped there yesterday, while Clinton spent the day in Pennsylvania, site of the next big showdown on April 22.”
PENNSYLVANIA : Clinton kicked off the next big primary race yesterday in Scranton, PA, a town where she has deep roots, NBC/NJ’s Athena Jones reports. Clinton was greeted by a big, enthusiastic crowd and long lines and was accompanied by supporter Gov. Ed Rendell, Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll, and two local mayors.
The senator's great-grandparents settled in Scranton in the 1880s; her father and grandfather grew up in the town; and she spent time in this part of the state as a child. She delivered her usual speech, heavy on warm memories of time she spent here and ended by asking the mostly white audience of more than 2,500 for their help. Several hundred waited in overflow to greet the senator after the main event.
CONTINUED >>
Clinton supporter/ex-VP nominee Geraldine Ferraro had some tough things to say about Obama in an interview with the Torrance Daily Breeze . "When the subject turned to Obama, Clinton's rival for the Democratic Party nomination, Ferraro's comments took on a decidedly bitter edge. ‘I think what America feels about a woman becoming president takes a very secondary place to Obama's campaign - to a kind of campaign that it would be hard for anyone to run against,’ she said. ‘For one thing, you have the press, which has been uniquely hard on her. It's been a very sexist media. Some just don't like her. The others have gotten caught up in the Obama campaign.’”
“‘If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position,’ she continued. ‘And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.’ Ferraro does not buy the notion of Obama as the great reconciler.”
“‘I was reading an article that said young Republicans are out there campaigning for Obama because they believe he's going to be able to put an end to partisanship,’ Ferraro said, clearly annoyed. ‘Dear God! Anyone that has worked in the Congress knows that for over 200 years this country has had partisanship - that's the way our country is.’”
Politico asked Howard Wolfson for reaction to Ferraro's skin color remark. “‘We disagree with her,’ said spokesman Howard Wolfson.”
CONTINUED >>
Here come the McCain campaign lobbyist stories… The AP : “Top current advisers to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign last year lobbied for a European plane maker that beat Boeing to a $35 billion Air Force tanker contract, taking sides in a bidding fight that McCain has tried to referee for more than five years. Two of the advisers gave up their lobbying work when they joined McCain's campaign. A third, former Texas Rep. Tom Loeffler, lobbied for the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. while serving as McCain's national finance chairman.” Washington Post tracks down a native Cuban, who interviewed McCain while he was a POW. "The Granma clipping in Barral's restaurant, dated Jan. 24, 1970, recalls one of the defining periods of McCain's life, his 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war after his Navy jet was shot down over North Vietnam. The tale of that photo and how an obscure Cuban psychologist came to interview McCain -- now a 71-year-old U.S. senator from Arizona and the presumptive Republican presidential nominee -- rouses the echoes, curiosities and suspicions of another era."
The first round of health articles hit today, with McCain promising a full release of his medical records in the next two months.
A big fundraising week for McCain… "Six days after clinching the Republican nomination, McCain headed Monday to a fundraiser in St. Louis. He planned to continue today in New York, Wednesday in Boston, Thursday in Pennsylvania and Friday in Chicago to counter an explosion in giving to the Democratic contenders who each set personal bests in February."
CONTINUED >>
The Chicago Sun-Times says that “Obama's name again surfaced in the [Rezko] trial as Obama was mentioned in a memo about legislation that downsized the planning board in 2003. Rezko's lawyers sought to show that others besides Rezko were recommending candidates for the planning board, but the memo's reference to Obama focused solely on Obama's role in crafting the legislation.”
The New York Times : “Mr. Obama has not been accused of any wrongdoing, and his name is expected to come up only tangentially during the trial. But given his tight race against Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, each mention of Mr. Obama’s name is being closely watched.”
Rep. Steve King (R-IA) “on Monday defended his prediction that terrorists would celebrate if Democrat Barack Obama were elected president, despite a rebuke from aides to John McCain, the GOP's apparent presidential nominee. ‘(Obama will) certainly be viewed as a savior for them,’ Rep. Steve King told The Associated Press. ‘That's why you will see them supporting him, encouraging him.’”
Al Franken is now the de facto Minnesota Senate nominee because his chief primary rival, Mike Ciresi, dropped out. Get ready for the highest profile Senate match-up of 2008: Franken v. Norm Coleman.
The AP : Franken has raised millions more in campaign funds and lined up most of the important union endorsements, but Ciresi's impressive resume as a trial attorney and personal wealth positioned him as a potential spoiler to Franken's ambition.”
From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan Obama has accused Hillary Clinton of doing in recent weeks. But in Mississippi Monday, Obama found himself re-weaving the tale of his own recent past in connection with the unpopular trade deal.
After telling the crowd that Clinton was confronted by Tim Russert with making numerous statements in support of NAFTA at a recent MSNBC debate, Obama then attempted to pass off the meeting between a senior economic advisor, Austan Gooslbee, and members of the Canadian Embassy as nothing more than a goodwill mission that underscored Obama's commitment to renegotiating NAFTA.
"We've got one of my economic advisors, he goes and visits a Canadian Embassy and they're asking him questions and he says, 'Well Senator Obama isn't planning to repeal NAFTA, but he wants to amend it to make it stronger for U.S. workers.'"
Obama went on to say that Canadian Embassy put an inaccurate spin on the meeting and the Clintons took advantage of it.
"The Canadian Embassy writes it up as, 'Well, maybe Obama is not as tough on NAFTA as you might think,' and the Clintons start waving this and saying, 'See. Actually he's the one.’" Well no, this was not my policy. This was theirs," Obama said of the Clintons.
That's not quite how the story goes. Goolsbee, a professor at the University of Chicago in addition to being an adviser, didn't exactly go and visit a Canadian Embassy like he was on a tour of his own. He was invited by Canadian diplomats to the consulate in Chicago Feb. 8 to discuss trade with Canadian diplomats.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones Clinton spoke to the press about reports linking New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer to a prostitution ring after she was mobbed by fans here at Revello's Pizzeria in northeast Pennsylvania, where she has deep roots.
From NBC's Victoria Riess and Lauren Gall
The advisers, took of whom served under Bill Clinton, lauded Obama’s judgment and leadership qualities, touted his ability to unify the country.
From NBC/NJ’s Aswini Anburajan and NBC’s Ben Weltman and Domenico Montanaro COLUMBUS, Miss. -- In a fiery speech, Obama pushed back hard against charges by Hillary Clinton and her campaign that he is not suited to be Commander-In-Chief, and expressed disbelief at the Clintons’ suggestions that he be vice president.
“Now first of all, with all due respect, with all due respect,” Obama began, “I have won twice as many states as Sen. Clinton. I have won more of the popular vote than Senator Clinton. I have more delegates than Senator Clinton. So I don't know how somebody who is in second place, is offering the vice presidency to the person who is in first place.
“I mean, I am just wondering, because if I was in second place I could understand it. But I am in first place right now. So that's point number one.”
He went on to point out how Clinton could consider him as his VP when she and the campaign have been saying that he is not ready to be Commander-In-Chief.
“But there's a second point,” he said. “This is an interesting point. I want you guys to follow me on this. President Bill Clinton, back in 1992 when he was being asked about his selection for Vice President, he said that the only criteria, the most important criteria for a Vice President, is that that person is ready, if I fell out, in the first week, that he or she will be ready to be the Commander-In-Chief.
“That was his criteria. Now they have been spending the last two, three weeks, you remember with that advertisement with the phone call, getting all the Generals to say, ‘Well, he is not ready. I am ready on Day One; he may not be ready yet.’ But I don't understand, if I am not ready, how is it that you think I should be such a great Vice President.”
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
The
New York Times is reporting that New York "Gov. Eliot
Spitzer has informed his most senior administration officials that he had been involved in a prostitution ring, an administration official said this morning."
The Times continues, "Mr. Spitzer, a first-term Democrat who pledged to bring ethics reform and end the often seamy ways of Albany, is married with three children. Just last week, federal prosecutors arrested four people in connection with an expensive prostitution operation. Administration officials would not say that this was the ring with which the governor had become involved."
Spitzer, per the Times, was set to make an announcement at about 2:15 p.m. ET. We are awaiting that news conference.
*** UPDATE ***
"But I disappointed and failed to live up the the standard I expected of myself. I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family. I will not be taking questions. Thank you very much. I will report back in short order."
*** UPDATE 2 *** The AP reports: A law enforcement official tells The Associated Press that Gov. Eliot Spitzer's involvement in a prostitution ring was caught on a federal wiretap.
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Obama leads
Clinton :
1,595-1,484 (overall with pledged and superdelegates).
Obama picked up another superdelegate today -- Joyce Brayboy, a DNC member from North Carolina -- bringing the
superdelegate total to
Clinton 254, Obama 216. (The Obama campaign sent out a release that Everett Sanders, a DNC member from Mississippi has also endorsed Obama, but Sanders does not factor into our count because he was already on a list previously provided to NBC News by the campaign.)
NBC News has also officially allocated Wyoming as a 7-5 split for Obama. In addition, NBC News has given one more delegate to Obama based on the Texas caucus results, bringing NBC News' total to a 92-92 tie so far with nine Texas caucus delegates still unallocated. There are also 10 other delegates still unallocated from previously completed contests, including nine in Colorado and one abroad.
The updated NBC News pledged delegate count stands at Obama leading Clinton: 1,379-1,230 .
From NBC's Andrea Mitchell Hillary Clinton could consider Barack Obama to be her vice president if she does not think he's qualified to be commander in chief, Clinton Communications Director Howard Wolfson said on a conference call today that she does NOT think he has passed the commander in chief test yet, but there is a long way between now and the convention, and that she has not ruled out selecting him as a vice president.
(So far, he has not taken follow questions about the obvious fact that Obama is ahead in both popular vote and delegates.)
VIDEO: Mar. 10: Rejecting the idea of being Hillary Clinton’s running mate, Barack Obama says, "I don't know how somebody in second place is offering the vice presidency to the person who is in first place." Wolfson and Clinton foreign policy advisors scheduled the call to emphasize points made by the New York Times on Sunday about Obama's lack of a long legislative record in the senate and to again underscore Samantha Power's comments to the BBC last week indicating Obama might not withdraw from Iraq on the timetable he's laid out as a candidate and senator.
Specifically, Wolfson was asked: "Can you explain how the senator would consider having Barack Obama as a running mate if she does not think he's qualified to be Commander-in-Chief? Wouldn't that be the first qualification for anyone that she would consider to be on the ticket? Since she and the president over the weekend -- she Friday, again and the president on Saturday did suggest that that was certainly in their thinking?"
CONTINUED >>
From NBC’s Domenico Montanaro Obama’s not really that against the Iraq war, and he’s a something of a hypocrite, was the message once again from the Clinton campaign. The Clinton campaign has hammered this issue over and over for months -- most famously, there was Bill Clinton calling his position on Iraq a “fairy tale.”
“Candidates should not tell voters one thing and have advisers tell BBC others,” said Communications Director Howard Wolfson said. “You should not hit another candidate for a position you hold. …This is something voters should be particularly concerned about.”
Clinton herself has not set a date for withdrawal and has said she would take into consideration the advice of military personnel on the ground to assess the situation in Jan. 2009. But it’s not about that, the campaign said; it’s that Obama is being inconsistent.
'Resolve' and 'conviction' Talking points alert: Clark, Sestak and Ballard each used the words “resolve” and “conviction” to describe Clinton and called into question Obama’s.
“What I heard from the Obama campaign raises concern,” Clark said. “It comes down to resolve and conviction ….That’s why I’m for Clinton -- she has the resolve and conviction.”
From NBC's Mike Viqueira
Recall that the full House recently voted to hold the pair in contempt over their refusal to comply with subpoenas for testimony and documents surrounding the firing of federal prosecutors.
The attorney general has declined to take up the case. House Dems insist that the US Attorney for DC is compelled to present evidence to a grand jury.Here is a statement from House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers: CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Al Sharpton is in Florida and said he is prepared to sue if Florida and Michigan’s delegates are seated as is. He said there are people who didn’t vote because they knew their vote wouldn’t count and “there must be a formula to factor” them in.
“There were many people that did not vote, because the DNC said their vote did not count,” Sharpton said on MSNBC. “Whatever way this is resolved, they must be factored in.”
Sharpton instead called for a re-do of the voting in both states. “There must be a way that people can exercise their right to vote who did not vote.”
Called it “absurd” that Michigan where uncommitted was on the ballot, would get their delegates seated as is.
”If they try to seat as is,” Sharpton said, he and the National Action Network are prepared to file suit.
As we noted in First Read this morning , Sharpton is in Florida to meet with local National Action Network chapters in Orlando, Port St. Lucie and Miami where they will plan to sign up people who will say they didn’t vote because they were “told their vote wouldn’t count. And we’ll do it in Michigan too.”
From NBC's Chuck Todd A few weeks ago on one of those "set the tone for the media" conference calls by the Clinton campaign, Harold Ickes took pains to try and blur the distinction between pledged delegates (those earned in the primary/caucus process) and Superdelegates (Ickes' preferred term is "automatic delegates" though even slips and calls them "Supers"). They wanted delegates to be counted without prejudice as to how they were earned.
Well, that was the pre-March 4 Clinton spin. The new Clinton spin? Create THREE categories of delegates: pledged, caucus and supers.
Here's Hillary Clinton in an interview with
Newsweek .
Asked how she can win the nomination despite the math, Clinton: "It doesn't look bleak at all. I have a very close race with Senator Obama. There are elected delegates, caucus delegates and superdelegates, all for different reasons, and they're all equal in their ability to cast their vote for whomever they choose. Even elected and caucus delegates are not required to stay with whomever they are pledged to. This is a very carefully constructed process that goes back years, and we're going to follow the process."
And here's Pa. Gov. Ed Rendell, serving as a Clinton surrogate, on "
Meet the Press " Sunday, when asked about a revote in Florida and Michigan: "Caucuses are undemocratic. That's another thing. We talk about the superdelegates being undemocratic. If you're a caucus, older people can't vote, older people who vote by absentee ballot. There's no absentee ballots in a caucus. Tim, if you're a shift worker and a lot of our workers, because they're low-income workers, are shift workers, you can't vote in a caucus. So we want primaries. That's the way we elect presidents. We don't have caucuses to elect presidents in the fall. Let's have a primary. Let's decide this. Let's hear from the Obama campaign about a revote in Florida and Michigan."
So clearly there's a new push to somehow distinguish between delegates earned in caucuses and delegates earned in primaries. Why do I smell a new chart being developed in the Clinton delegate war room if it shows Clinton ahead somehow if just primary pledged delegates counted.
*** UPDATE *** I did the quick math, Obama's gotten more delegates via primaries than Clinton (1086 or 1088 depending on the certified California results) to Clinton's (1074 or 1076). So clearly, the caucuses are what's helped put Obama's delegate lead nearly out of reach but even when just measuring primaries, Obama's ahead.
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro Clinton supporter, writes the following letter to superdelegates, urging them to make an independent decision. Here are some choice selects:
"Some commentators, observing the current deadlock between Senators Clinton and Obama as they vie for the Democratic presidential nomination, have suggested that as super delegates, our function is to be mindless tabulators of primaries and caucuses won, or popular votes amassed. Despite the super delegates' lifetimes spent working on state, national and international issues, and thinking seriously about the grave challenges, and the dangerous adversaries, facing our country, these commentators demand that we suspend our independent judgments and jettison our profound responsibilities--to the party and, frankly, to the country itself. Even though the very party rules that provide for super delegates contemplated that we would exercise those independent judgments and fulfill those responsibilities, there are those who believe that we should confine ourselves to adding up numbers.
"But super delegates were not selected by the national party to be either potted plants or rubber stamps. We were selected because under party rules that have been in place for a generation, our party concluded that we had demonstrated the ability to act as stewards of the national party--and of the national interest. By dint of our experience in the community and our public service, we were adjudged fit to fulfill a moral responsibility to act in the best interest of the country as we saw it--and to be strong enough to withstand the criticisms of those who might object to the political impact of the independent conclusions we reached."
More: "But being a super delegate is not the same as being a numbers cruncher. It is about consulting one’s conscience about what is best for the United States, and about the party that we hope will assume the leadership of the United States."
Here's the full letter: CONTINUED >>
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Victoria Riess *** Who's the front-runner? So, the weekend campaign between Clinton and Obama has been a discussion about a Clinton-Obama ticket, how to pay for a Florida-Michigan re-do, and the commander-in-chief question. So who's the frontrunner? Obama, at least this past week, has lost control of the campaign's narrative. The Clinton campaign is now fighting the campaign out on its turf, despite being behind a nearly an insurmountable margin on the pledged delegate front, 1373-1232. Just look at how little coverage Wyoming and Mississippi are getting and how much focus is being put on Pennsylvania, even over other big states like North Carolina. And nevermind the incredible lift the Clinton campaign continues to get from the folks at "SNL." This last opening skit might actually have been written by the Clinton campaign; it was striking in how on-message the skit was for Clinton. It was the third week in a row the comedy show has delivered for Clinton. Bottom line: the Clinton campaign appears to have wrested control of the campaign narrative, while Obama's camp continues to be in reactive mode. The Obama folks will say it's the media's fault, but as we've said to others who blame the media for these perception swings -- the media can only cover what the campaigns deliver.
VIDEO: NBC Political Director Chuck Todd offers his first read on the possibility of primary re-do's for Florida and Michigan and whether Sen. Hillary Clinton's image is hurt by campaign bickering. ***
Size matters? Similarly, when did all the states Clinton won (save Oklahoma) matter, while just about half of them (including Saturday’s contest in Wyoming) matter for Obama? For one thing, isn’t counting California and New York a bit dubious? All things considered, we bet that every Democratic presidential candidate this cycle except for Gravel and Kucinich would probably carry those two Dem-tilting states. Also, if primary performance guarantees general election performance -- and history isn’t so sure it does -- then Clinton would have advantages in a battleground state like Ohio, especially among women and low-income Democrats. But what about asking the opposite question: Why is the biggest name in Democratic politics, Clinton, failing to win caucuses and primaries in smaller states dominated by longtime Dem activists, many of which hold important Senate contests in November (like Alaska, Colorado, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, and Virginia)? As Harold Ickes told NBC News in late January, after Clinton won New Hampshire and Nevada, the Clinton-Obama contest is a race for delegates. Not just delegates of big states or medium-sized states or small states -- but all of them.
*** Do unto others...? Another example of how the Clinton campaign is dominating the campaign narrative: What would be the Clintons’ reaction if Obama -- trailing in pledged delegates and number of states won -- floated the idea of Clinton being his vice president? Just asking…
***
Florida and Michigan: It looks like it's not a matter of "IF" there will be some sort of re-vote in Florida and Michigan, but when. Clinton surrogates were all over the place this weekend promising to raise whatever money was needed to hold re-votes; the Obama campaign hasn't exactly jumped at the chance to sign on to this idea because they know a re-vote is a potential chance for Clinton to legitimize her big-state resume argument (even if her victories are very narrow), as well as extend the nomination fight. And this is the most important piece of this push for a revote. It freezes superdelegates for even LONGER and keeps the Obama camp from being able to push too hard to end this and rally superdelegates to his side.
*** Watching that popular vote: Also, a revote in Florida and Michigan gives Clinton the opportunity to catch up in the popular vote count, an important talking point to undecided superdelegates. Without Florida and Michigan, Obama's popular vote lead is approx. 600,000 votes. By comparison, with Florida and Michigan, Clinton leads. And with re-votes, she could cut Obama's popular vote lead to approximately 100,000 or even less -- which out of 40,000,000 votes cast would be considered a virtual tie. By the way, one of the reasons the Clinton campaign needs those two states to count so badly is the 53 combined superdelegates in them. Clinton will win a LARGE chunk of those supers, because she stuck by the two states in their feud with the DNC. In fact, Clinton could net more superdelegates out of Florida and Michigan than she nets pledged delegates if she wins both states.
*** What about July or August? As for timing of the re-votes, why aren't the states looking to the end of July or early August, when the two states hold their congressional primaries? Sure, it's outside the June 10 DNC deadline for holding delegate contests, but won't the DNC provide an exemption? Seriously, Michigan has a scheduled congressional primary for early August, meaning taxpayers wouldn't be paying any more money to add a presidential primary line. And Florida has their congressional primary scheduled for late August (which could be moved to late July by the state legislature), so the contests there could easily be moved up at the cost of nothing to the taxpayers.
*** A big Dem win: The most significant political development of the weekend was not in the presidential race but in an Illinois GOP-held district. The Dem victory here (Bush won it by 55% in 2004) is a HUGE psychological blow to the House Republicans, who are already struggling on the perception front on the idea they can win back control of Congress. This is really going to hurt on the fundraising front for the NRCC.
Meanwhile, do note that Obama cut an ad for the Dem, Bill Foster, while McCain did the same for the Republican, Jim Oberweis. Does this signal, at a minimum, how long Obama's coattails could be -- at least in Illinois? By the way, will this Dem victory start getting more folks talking louder about what we suggested above: that Dems who worry more about House and Senate races are much more interested in running with Obama than Clinton because of his ability to potentially swing more House seats (increased black vote in the South) and even tip a few Senate seats. We've heard from GOP strategists who can't believe Obama isn't benefiting more from insiders on this fact, because they certainly fear that Obama could cost them more House and Senate seats than Clinton.
***
On the trail: Scrantonicity! Clinton holds a rally in Scranton, PA; McCain has media avails in Phoenix and St. Louis; and Obama, in Mississippi one day before the primary there, stumps in Jackson. Bill and Chelsea Clinton also campaign in Mississippi. And Obama’s military advisers hold a press conference in DC to argue that he has the experience and judgment to be commander-in-chief.
Countdown to Mississippi: 1 day
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Per the
AP , “Sen. Barack Obama captured the Wyoming Democratic caucuses Saturday, seizing a bit of momentum in the close, hard-fought race with rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for the party's presidential nomination… Obama had 61 percent, or 5,378 votes, to Clinton's 38 percent, or 3,312 votes, with all 23 Wyoming counties reporting. Obama won seven delegates and Clinton won five.”
In a front-page piece in Sunday’s Washington Post , Dan Balz writes that Clinton’s wins over Obama last week in Ohio, Rhode Island, and Texas appear “to have convinced a sizable number of uncommitted Democratic superdelegates to wait until the end of the primaries and caucuses before picking a candidate, according to a survey by The Washington Post Many of the 80 uncommitted superdelegates who were contacted over the past several days said they are reluctant to override the clear will of voters. But if Clinton (N.Y.) and Obama (Ill.) are still seen as relatively close in the pledged, or elected, delegate count in June, many said, they will feel free to decide for themselves which of the candidates would make a stronger nominee to run against Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the fall.”
The remaining superdelegates will likely be swayed by electability more than anything else.
On the Florida and Michigan front, Al Sharpton is heading to the Sunshine State today "to compile lists of residents who skipped the January contest because they thought their votes would not count. He plans to have those residents sign affidavits saying they would be disenfranchised by the seating of the Florida delegation, in the event the Democratic Party allowed that to happen."
Will Florida wind up being a mail-in primary ?
MISSISSIPPI: The Los Angeles Times looks at Clinton's attempts to get aggressive with Obama, and how that could hurt her with blacks. "Clinton's newfound pugnacity may have helped her win primary contests last week in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island, but as a long-term strategy it carries an inherent risk: By aggressively attacking Obama, who is so widely embraced by the black electorate, Clinton could deplete her own deep reservoir of popularity among African American voters -- a key source of her strength as a national political figure."
More: "A number of voters here said they strongly favored seeing Clinton and Obama team up on the Democratic ticket in November, regardless of who gets the nomination for the top spot. State Rep. Earle S. Banks, an African American who supports Obama, said the Illinois senator's presence on the ticket could spur dramatic increases in black turnout. And that, he said, potentially could put Mississippi in the Democratic column for the first time since 1976, when it went to Jimmy Carter."
The Jackson Clarion-Ledger wonders if Mississippi goes blue this year. "What did these three things have in common in 1976: gasoline prices, recession fears and the Mississippi Democratic Party? Answer: They all were soaring. And 2008 is beginning to look a little like '76 -- especially when it comes to Mississippians' passion in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination."
PENNSYLVANIA: The Philadelphia Inquirer : “But Obama's campaign saw the limits of that [black] support in last week's losses in Ohio and Texas, which kept Clinton's campaign alive. And the role black voters will play in the next big contest, Pennsylvania's April 22 primary, is unclear. Some analysts think it's possible Obama's heavy black support is nudging some working-class whites into Clinton's camp. If true, it could be an important factor in a contest that remains tight after a year of campaigning.”
Is it fair to judge Clinton's internal campaign strife as a potential example of what a Clinton White House could look like? Or what do superdelegates think about this, given all the stories about campaign strife the Kerry campaign generated in 2004? The New York Times is the latest big paper to look at Clinton’s management style. "Even as Mrs. Clinton revived her fortunes last week with victories in Ohio, Rhode Island and Texas, the questions lingered about how she managed her campaign, with the internal sniping and second-guessing undermining her well-cultivated image as a steady-at-the-wheel chief executive surrounded by a phalanx of loyal and efficient aides."
More: "Interviews with campaign aides, associates and friends suggest that Mrs. Clinton, at least until February, was a detached manager. Juggling the demands of being a candidate, she paid little attention to detail, delegated decisions large and small and deferred to advisers on critical questions. Mrs. Clinton accepted or seemed unaware of the intense factionalism and feuding that often paralyzed her campaign and that prevented her aides from reaching consensus on basic questions like what states to fight in and how to go after Mr. Obama, of Illinois.”
And: “Mrs. Clinton showed a tendency toward an insular management style, relying on a coterie of aides who have worked for her for years, her aides and associates said. Her choice of lieutenants, and her insistence on staying with them even when friends urged her to shake things up, was blamed by some associates for the campaign’s woes. Again and again, the senator was portrayed as a manager who valued loyalty and familiarity over experience and expertise.”
What is that foreign policy experience? The
AP : “To hear Hillary Rodham Clinton tell it now, she had a lot more going on as first lady than she let on at the time… She takes credit for helping bring peace to Northern Ireland, negotiating open borders for refugees fleeing Kosovo, standing up to the Chinese government over women's rights, and flying into Bosnia when it was too dangerous to send the president.
“There is little doubt that Clinton was an exceptionally activist first lady. She was the first to set up shop in a West Wing office alongside other White House policymakers, and immediately was in the thick of domestic policy deliberations, most notably her long and unsuccessful fight for health care reform… But Clinton is taking credit for accomplishing more than some of those who were active in foreign policy during the Clinton years recall.”
CONTINUED >>
The
Times looks at how McCain's using the next few months to get his financial house in order? "The McCain campaign will also try to give incentives to its fund-raisers by bestowing them with honorary titles, each coming with new perks and levels of status, in much the same way the Bush campaign did by naming its biggest fund-raisers Rangers and Pioneers. One proposal that has not been officially announced calls for dubbing fund-raisers who bring in $100,000 Trailblazers, those who bring in $250,000 Innovators, and those who bring in half a million dollars co-chairmen of the campaign."
Similarly, the New Yorker’s Hertzberg says, “Despite the manifold signs of a perfect Democratic storm this year, McCain is in an enviable position. He can get some sleep. He can raise some money. He can watch with interest as Hillary Clinton spends her millions trying to dismember Barack Obama and Obama spends his trying to keep his limbs attached. Meanwhile, he can continue to tack between the two ideological and stylistic identities that have got him where he is today -- the rebel and the regular, the Rooseveltian (Theodore) and the Reaganite, the ‘maverick’ and the ‘conservative’ -- without veering so far to one side that he forfeits the advantages of the other.
Speaking of, how does McCain stay relevant in this election with much of the focus on Obama and Clinton? He “is heading to Europe and the Middle East later this month as part of a congressional delegation. The 10-day trip, which could include Iraq, would fit nicely into McCain's national security-focused-campaign.”
The Washington Post asks if McCain's criticism of pork-barrel politics gone too far?
The Boston Globe : McCain's "wife, Cindy, is chairwoman of the board [of Anheiser-Busch]. His son from his first marriage, Andrew, is chief financial officer. McCain himself once served as the company's chief publicist... [I]f McCain were to become president, he would be obliged to either sign or veto bills related to the alcohol industry. And while some public-interest groups have applauded McCain for trying to avoid a conflict in Congress, some industry watchdogs are concerned that if McCain is elected president, he may have to pass judgment on a new series of alcohol-related measures."
Over the weekend, the DNC released a Web video linking McCain to a third Bush term.
The New York Times examines Obama’s three-plus years in the Senate. “Determined to be viewed as substantive, Mr. Obama kept his head down, declining Sunday talk show invitations for his first year, and consulted Senate elders for advice. He was cautious -- even on the Iraq war, which he had opposed as a Senate candidate. He voted against the withdrawal of troops and proposed legislation calling for a drawdown only after he was running for president and polls showed voters favoring it.”
“And while he rightly takes credit for steering through an ethics overhaul that reformers called a ‘gold standard,’ like most freshmen he did not play a significant role in passing much other legislation and disappointed some Democrats for not becoming a more prominent voice in other important debates.”
Turns out one of the girls in that Clinton “3 a.m.” ad is 18 now and supporting… Obama . She appeared on TODAY this morning.
The Dem victory in the special to replace ex-Speaker Denny Hastert is garnering big-time headlines and dealing the psychological blow to the House Republicans that many in the GOP feared.
Bill Kristol uses the Dem victory to write about the GOP's daunting task in November.
DCCC chairman Chris Van Hollen released this statement Saturday night: “Congratulations to Bill Foster (D) on his victory tonight. Bill Foster’s victory in the seat that was held by Speaker Hastert sends a political shock wave across America this election year. It is a stunning rejection of the Bush Administration, its Republican allies, and presidential nominee John McCain. Republican candidates learned tonight that Senator McCain, who campaigned with the Republican nominee, cannot save them from defeat this November against strong Democratic challengers, even in districts that voted overwhelmingly for President Bush.”
The NRCC countered with this: “The one thing 2008 has shown is that one election in one state does not prove a trend. In fact, there has been no national trend this entire election season. The presidential election is evidence of that. The Democratic candidates are trading election victories from week to week and the nomination could hinge on a few news cycles. The one message coming out of 2008 so far is that what happens today is not a bellwether of what happens this fall.”
From NBC's David Gelles his blog that there's one less HillRaiser out there...
A Turkish-American Hill-Raiser who 'who financed a film that depicted an American Jew trading in Iraqi body parts' has been cast out of the Clinton circle of trust, according to a report by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Clinton adviser Ann Lewis told the JTA that the campaign was 'unaware' of Mehmet Celebi's involvement with the film. But wait -- a Google search suggests that the campaign was contacted by the New York Post on 2/11 and declined comment...
FULL STORIES BELOW
CONTINUED >>
From WNBC's Brian Thompson NBC News has learned that New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine is willing to raise money to pay for a "redo" of both the Florida and Michigan primaries. Clinton , Corzine, along with neighboring Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell -- both strong Clinton supporters -- agreed on Friday to make the offer. Obama are locked in a tight and increasingly bitter contest for the party's presidential nomination and the right to oppose Republican presumtive nominee John McCain in November.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
It's a place where Obama ran advertising endorsing Foster, and McCain campaigned for Oberweis. Whether this will have national implications is unclear, but the Democratic National Committee seized on it with this exuberant e-mail late last night:
“Good evening, The AP just called the special election to fill Dennis Hastert's seat in Illinois' 14th Congressional District for Democrat Bill Foster. Foster defeated Republican Jim Oberweis despite the fact that McCain campaigned and raised money for Oberweis in late February. So much for those coattails…”
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen said, per AP, "The message to Republican candidates is that John McCain's not going to be able to save you in this election.”
The National Republican Congressional Committee, meanwhile, downplayed the result.
"The one thing 2008 has shown is that one election in one state does not prove a trend," spokeswoman Karen Hanretty said in a statement per the AP.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli Bill Clinton told voters on the Gulf Coast yesterday that a Clinton -Obama ticket would be an "unstoppable force" in the general election, and that his wife is certainly considering it.
All three remaining White House hopefuls were off the trail yesterday, so the former president couldn't help but be back in the spotlight. On top of that, Clinton decided to take questions for the first time in more than a month, and perhaps not surprisingly, a voter asked this question -- would the two Democratic candidates join forces as a ticket.
"I never talk to her about this, because I think if you ever look past the next election you might not get past it," Clinton cautioned. But he pointed to his wife's recent comments on the matter, saying he believed she "was very open" to the idea. "I think she answered explicitly yes yesterday," he said. "I heard he also said no, but I think she said yes."
Clinton said that Hillary believes that if there was a way to "unite the energy and the new people" that Barack Obama has attracted with the appeal he said his wife has shown in "small town and rural America, they'd "be hard to beat."
"You look at most of these places -- he would win the urban areas and the upscale voters, and she wins the traditional rural areas that we lost when President Reagan was president," he said. "If you put those two things together, you'd have an almost unstoppable force."
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro NBC News declared Obama the winner of the Wyoming caucuses.
But the spin is already on. Obama was expected to win today, and he appears to have won the popular vote by a significant spread. But because of how delegates are allocated, by proportional representation, the delegate spread will likely not be very high. Obama has in other small-state caucuses run up the score by getting above 60% of the vote. In even-numbered delegate districts, getting above 60% is key, because then instead of say a 3-3 split in a six-delegate district, it becomes a 4-2 split.
It appears, by statewide vote, Obama just missed 60%. With 96% of precincts reporting, Obama led 59%-40% with uncommitted getting 1%. It's something the Clinton campaign has claimed as something of a moral victory.
The Clinton campaign, for one, estimates a 7-5 split. "We are thrilled with this near split in delegates and are grateful to the people of Wyoming for their support," Clinton Campaign Manager Maggie Williams writes in a statement released by the campaign. "Although the Obama campaign predicted victory in Wyoming weeks ago, we worked hard to present Senator Clinton’s vision to the caucus-goers and we thank them for turning out today."
*** UPDATE *** With 100% of the precincts reporting, Obama has won Wyoming by a 61%-38% margin. No telling yet how that may or may not affect the delegate split.
From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli TUPELO, Miss. -- This was not your typical Tupelo night.
Despite a rare snow event in the deep South, the Furniture Market just
kept filling up Friday night. When asked if there really were this
many Democrats in the area, one woman said there are, it's just that
they aren't usually all in one place.
In the end, more than a thousand people -- most proud sticker-wearing
Democrats -- came for a fish fry hosted by the Clinton campaign. The
catfish, hush puppies and French fries were good and all, but it was
Bill Clinton that was the main attraction.
"I'm glad to be here folks," he said when he took the stage.
He acknowledged some of the elected Democrats, as well as Mississippi
Democratic Party vice chair Carnelia Fondren, whom he asked to join
him on stage.
"She's a superdelegate, she's got more votes than the rest of us," he said.
Clinton was about an hour late despite flying into what is said to be
one of the nation's most punctual airports, the wintry weather a
likely culprit. "I hope you got some fish," he said. "More important I
hope I get some before I have to leave."
CONTINUED >>
CASPER, WY, March 7 -- Remember that "Caucusing is Easy" how-to video the Clinton campaign rolled out in the days leading up to the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses? It explained the caucus process with hamburgers and dancing and singing and a bunch of short comments from old and young about what a breeze it was.
"Dancing is hard. Caucusing is easy," went one line.
It's been a little over two months since the senator lost the Iowa caucuses and almost every other caucus since, save the contentious Nevada vote, and while she stumped in Wyoming on Friday, her campaign has consistently downplayed her chances.
The candidate herself acknowledged the high odds at events here today, calling this race an uphill climb, while exclaiming to supporters that their votes were "worth fighting for".
Despite aides insisting on a conference call Tuesday night, held to call attention to alleged irregularities in the Texas caucuses, that they embraced the caucus process, the senator has made it clear she's not too keen on a system she believes leaves too many people out -- like nurses, members of the military, people who work the night shift or who can't get off their day shift and the very old. (And it is important to note she is not the only one who shares that view.)
So as she campaigned in hopes of holding her own and winning as many delegates as she can in Saturday's caucus, which Obama is expected to win, Clinton riffed on the difficulties the process presents.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan LARAMIE, WY -- Pistol Pete's pistols were put in peril by Barack Obama's appearance at at the Arena Auditorium at the University of Wyoming Friday night.
As the chords of U2's "City of Blinding Lights" swelled to announce Barack Obama's entrance, the larger than life cowboy ran through the arena, waving a large yellow flag with a bucking cowboy emblazoned on it.
But it turned out that poor Pete was parading with a handicap.
"And I want to give a big round of applause for Pistol Pete," Obama told the crowd after taking the stage.
"Although I have to tell you that the Secret Service confiscated Pistol Pete's pistols. So he's only Pete tonight. It's just Pete! Just plain Pete!" Obama said and burst into laughter.
Your faithful reporter dutifully inquired about the reason for Pete's disarming and was provided the following statement by Obama's spokeswoman, Jen Psaki.
"It turns out Pistol Pete and his fake guns posed an immediate threat to hope in Wyoming, thus making it essential we confiscate his weapons," Psaki wrote.
From MSNBC's Adam Verdugo
According to Peev, the interview with Samantha Power was initially arranged to publicize a recent book authored by the Obama advisor. During the interview, Power received a phone call from another "special advisor" to the campaign.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Chris Donovan
Off the top of our heads, we've seen this presidential cycle:Biden's "clean" and "articulate" remark about Obama -- Richardson clarifying an earlier comment that being gay was a choice McCain apologizing for Bill Cunningham calling Obama "Barack Hussein Obama"Bob Kerrey's apology for referring to Obama attending a secular madrassaHillary Clinton a "monster" Bill Clinton's "fairytale" remark.Romney apologizing for equating his sons serving on his campaign to military serviceHuckabee's apology to Romney on Mormon/devil quote to the New York Times magazineMichelle Obama clarifying her remark on being "proud" of her country for the first time
From NBC’s Domenico Montanaro Obama campaign responded on Samantha Power’s resignation and said there “seems to be a different standard in the Clinton campaign” on personal attacks.
“She made the right decision,” Obama Campaign Manager David Plouffe said of Power, a Pulitzer-prize winning author and Harvard professor who helped shape Obama’s foreign policy, before describing her as “a brilliant person.” But “we cannot condone those types of comments.”
He continued though to say that there “seems to be a different standard in the Clinton campaign.” He cited supporter Bob Johnson, who alluded to Obama’s drug use in South Carolina; Tom Buffenbarger, president of the machinists' union, who vitriolically trashed Obama in Ohio; and Tom Vilsack, who attacked Rudy Giuliani on the number of his marriages and the relationship with his children.
“It took them days to admit they were offensive comments,” Plouffe said of Johnson’s comments. And on Vilsack’s comments on Giuliani, there was “no action there,” Plouffe said. Clinton, Plouffe points out, never apologized for Buffenbarger’s remarks -- calling Obama “Janus, the two-faced Roman god of ancient times” and attacking his supporters as “latte-drinking, Prius-driving, Birkenstock-wearing, trust fund babies” -- at an event she was at and later followed him on stage.
“Apparently there are different standards here as it relates to people outside the campaign,” he added.
On Obama's 16-month Iraq withdrawal plan, Power told BBC that it was a “best-case scenario,” that nothing firm could be decided in March 2008 without seeing the situation on the ground in Jan. 2009 and that "He will, of course, not rely on some plan that he’s crafted as a presidential candidate or a U.S. Senator." When asked about it, Plouffe defended Obama's plan and deflected by pointing to retired Gen. Jack Keane's comments on Clinton’s own intentions on withdrawing troops from Iraq.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Bethany Thomas McCain . The senator was questioned on the details of a conversation with former presidential nominee John Kerry in 2004 about being his potential running mate.
The topic came up earlier this morning during a town hall at the headquarters of Chic-Fil-A, where an employee asked if McCain would consider John Kerry as a running mate for this election cycle.
McCain answered in Atlanta that his and Kerry’s political views are too different. “I just totally disagree with them,” McCain said. “He is a liberal Democrat... I am a conservative Republican. When we had that conversation in 2004, that’s why I never even considered such a thing.”
Pressed further aboard the plane by a reporter as to whether he did in fact have a conversation with Kerry, McCain showed his infamous temper.
Elisabeth Bumiller of the New York Times asked, “Senator, can I ask you about Senator Kerry. I just went back and looked at our story, the Times story, and you told Sheryl Stolberg that you had never had a conversation with Kerry about being about vice president...”
McCain testily replied, “Everybody knows that I had a private conversation. Everybody knows that. That I had a conversation. There’s no living American in Washington -- that knows that, there’s no one.”
Bumiller: “Okay.”
McCain: “And you know it, too. You know it. So, I don’t even know why you ask.”
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro Obama's momentum since February 5 has been all the superdelegates he's picked since then. According to our count, Obama has added 43 to his superdelegate total after Super Tuesday, while Clinton has lost six. In fact, even after Clinton's wins in Ohio and Texas, it's worth noting that the Clinton campaign hasn't publicly announced a new superdelegate since February 7 (that person was Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas).
Overall, per NBC's count, Clinton has a 254-215 superdelegate lead over Obama.
Yet in the discussion about holding do-overs in Florida and Michigan, this fact has largely been ignored: If those states' delegations are in play, Clinton will be able to add to her superdelegate lead. According to our list, Clinton has the support of 13 superdelegates from Florida and Michigan (including Florida Sen. Bill Nelson and Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm ), while Obama has the support of six from those two states.
If they get seated, Florida and Michigan have 25 and 29 superdelegates, respectively.
Of course, when talking about superdelegates, it's important to keep this in mind: A superdelegate's support isn't set in stone; it can change anytime between now and the convention.
From NBC's Mark Murray Clinton campaign -- through their congressional supporters -- called for Obama to dismiss Samantha Power from his campaign, a reporter asked this question: What about how the Clinton campaign handled Bob Johnson's controversial remarks about Obama?
Remember, in January, Johnson -- the founder of BET and a Clinton backer -- made a comment about Obama and his youthful drug use before introducing Clinton at an event in South Carolina. Referring to the controversy about whether Bill and Hillary Clinton were injecting race into the Dem contest, Johnson said, "As an African American, I am frankly insulted that the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Hillary and Bill Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues, when Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood that I won't say what he was doing but he said it in his book." Johnson also compared Obama to Sidney Poitier's character in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner."
On the very day that Johnson made that comment, the Clinton campaign issued a statement from Johnson. “My comments today were referring to Barack Obama's time spent as a community organizer, and nothing else," he said. "Any other suggestion is simply irresponsible and incorrect."
At an MSNBC debate two days later, Clinton stood by Johnson's words, despite the uproar they produced. "Well, Bob has put out a statement saying what he was trying to say and what he thought he had said. We accept him on his word on that."
It wasn't until four days after his initial remarks that Johnson apologized to Obama -- reversing his earlier explanation that he was talking about Obama's work as a community organizer. "I'm writing to apologize to you and your family personally for the un-called-for comments I made at a recent Clinton event," he said in a statement. "In my zeal to support Senator Clinton, I made some very inappropriate remarks for which I am truly sorry. I hope that you will accept this apology. Good luck on the campaign trail."
On the conference call today, Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson said there was a difference between Johnson and Power. "Bob Johnson is a supporter of ours," he said, "but he is not someone who advises [the campaign] on a daily basis." Wolfson added, "There is a difference."
There is also a difference of the speed in which the two campaigns responded to the two controversial comments.
From NBC/NJ’s Aswini Anburajan and NBC’s Mark Hudspeth Obama’s top foreign policy adviser Samantha Power has resigned from the Obama campaign, after a Scottish newspaper reported she called Hillary Clinton a “monster.” Power, who was unpaid, initiated the move, according to the Obama campaign.
“With deep regret, I am resigning from my role as an advisor the Obama campaign effective today,” Power said in a statement released by the campaign. “Last Monday, I made inexcusable remarks that are at marked variance from my oft-stated admiration for Senator Clinton and from the spirit, tenor, and purpose of the Obama campaign. And I extend my deepest apologies to Senator Clinton, Senator Obama, and the remarkable team I have worked with over these long 14 months.”
Clinton campaign backers had earlier this morning called for Power, the Pulitzer-prize winning author, Harvard professor, to step down for her comments.
Obama campaign aides had little to say.
"Its very clear where she stood on this issue,” spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. “And we made clear through her statement about it.”
"She notified the campaign sometime this morning," Psaki added.
When asked for more details, Psaki added, "We are not going to get into the internal dynamics of the campaign."
Communications Director Robert Gibbs stressed Power was an unpaid advisor and not part of the campaign staff.
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones Clinton backers in Congress called on Obama to fire his top foreign policy advisor for calling Clinton a "monster" in an interview with a Scottish newspaper.
"Personal attacks are not the way to convince voters you're capable of being the president of the United States," said Nita Lowey (D-NY), adding this should be a civil contest, and that they were calling on Sen. Obama to make it very clear Samantha Power should not be part of this campaign. She called this a test for Obama.
"Sen. Obama needs to stand up and take some action," said Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY).
Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) said Obama had set a tone for this campaign and had talked about the politics of hope throughout, so it should not degenerate into "name calling," which she said was the result of frustration and anger from his losses Tuesday. She called it "below the belt" and "out of bounds."
The team on the call, including spokesmen Howard Wolfson and Phil Singer, were challenged on similar negative comments and suggestions made by Clinton backers and surrogates like Bob Johnson, Billy Shaheen and others, noting it took the campaign several days to respond in the case of Johnson.
From NBC’s Domenico Montanaro this six-column banner headline on its cover: “Bill Clinton's $700,000 stock windfall”; and Bill Bradley, an Obama supporter, called Hillary Clinton “deeply flawed” and questioned if there are favors attached to contributions to the Clinton library.
USA Today : “Federal archivists at the Clinton Presidential Library are blocking the release of hundreds of pages of White House papers on pardons that the former president approved, including clemency for fugitive commodities trader Marc Rich. That archivists' decision, based on guidance provided by Bill Clinton that restricts the disclosure of advice he received from aides, prevents public scrutiny of documents that would shed light on how he decided which pardons to approve from among hundreds of requests.
“The decision to withhold much of the requested material could provide fodder for critics who say that the former president and his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, now seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, have been unwilling to fully release documents to public scrutiny.”
The Washington Times has this blockbuster lead: “The spring before his wife began her White House campaign, former President Bill Clinton earned $700,000 for his foundation by selling stock that he had been given from an Internet search company that was co-founded by a convicted felon and backed by the Chinese government, public records show.”
Bill Bradley said on PBS , "I think Barack Obama has a much stronger chance of beating John McCain in the general election. I think Hillary is flawed in many ways, and particularly if you look at her husband's unwillingness to release the names of the people who contributed to his presidential library. And the reason that is important -- you know, are there favors attached to $500,000 or $1 million contributions? And what do I mean by favors? I mean, pardons that are granted; investigations that are squelched; contracts that are awarded; regulations that are delayed.
“These are important questions. The people deserve to know. And we deserve, as Democrats, to know before a nominee is selected, because we don't want things to explode in a general election against John McCain."
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro How ugly can it get? Doesn't the Clinton campaign want a knife fight? Just as David Brooks notes today, if it drags Obama down to trench warfare, then he loses his place on the nice-guy pedestal. So perhaps it wasn’t surprising that the Clinton camp accused Obama’s team yesterday of acting like Ken Starr, as it began raising legitimate questions about Clinton’s tax records and her actual national security experience. But the Obama folks returned the fire when key adviser Samantha Power called Hillary Clinton a “monster” in an interview with The Scotsman, which was then amplified by Drudge. Power immediately apologized. No doubt that these two campaigns don’t like each other, and as the Clinton-Obama race has gone on for 13-plus months, the campaigns and their candidates are bound to let their frustrations out (remember that Myrtle Beach debate?). But as Brooks points out, Obama -- with both his delegate lead and his politics of hope -- does have more to lose as things get ugly.
*** The cowboy way : With Saturday’s Wyoming caucuses and then Mississippi’s primary three days later, Obama has the opportunity to cut into -- or erase -- the delegates that Clinton gained on Junior Super Tuesday. At stake in Wyoming are 12 pledged delegates, and the majority of caucus sites open at either 11:00 am ET or noon ET; the latest sites open at 6:00 pm ET (Teton County). Presidential preference votes will be held about 12 minutes into the caucuses, right after Clinton and Obama are “nominated,” “seconded” and two- to- three-minute appeals arguments are made for each candidate. The way the caucuses work, though, varies. Some counties do divisions like in Iowa but without realignments or thresholds. Others use ballots.
*** PA vs. NC : Speaking of upcoming contests, the press has completely bought into Pennsylvania as the next big contest. But there's another very large delegate prize two weeks later -- North Carolina. What's interesting about the two states is that one is a Clinton stronghold (PA) and one is an Obama stronghold (NC). Both campaigns are trying to downplay the other state, but shouldn’t we be judging the two together? Who performs better on the other's turf? The two states represent two different theories of the general election the two campaigns are pushing forward. Clinton's campaign is basically saying they'll use the Gore-Kerry map and get to 270 (win OH or FL). Obama's saying he'll create a new map with states like North Carolina being put in play. This will be the ultimate decision of the superdelegates -- which path do they want the party to go on? Eugene Robinson also makes this good point today: "But it's an odd kind of momentum that we're being asked to appreciate. Apparently, the contests in Wyoming and Mississippi won't count if Obama wins them, because that's what everyone expects. The April 22 primary in Pennsylvania will definitely count if Clinton wins, however, even though that's what everyone expects. To paraphrase Orwell, some states are more equal than others."
*** A compromise for Michigan ? The big papers today are flush with stories about what to do with Florida and Michigan. A top Democrat in Michigan tells NBC’s Andrea Mitchell that both campaigns are communicating through Michigan party leaders and zeroing in on a plan for so-called "firehouse caucuses" or caucus-primaries in May or June to redo the Michigan voting. Democrats in Michigan say they have a tradition of voting this way in the past. And since people come to firehouses, vote and leave in a closed way, it would not violate Hillary Clinton's opposition to traditional caucuses where people have only a set time to show up and openly discuss their preferences. But how does the state get around Gov. Granholm's objection that Michigan taxpayers foot the bill? Per Mitchell, sources say the candidates would be asked to raise the money, and there is no legal obstacle to them finding private funds for the redo. If Michigan does agree to a redo -- and because Obama's name wasn't on the ballot before, it's probably a given it will -- what kind of pressure will Florida feel to follow suit?
*** The DNC’s money woes : One reason why we shouldn’t expect the DNC to foot the bill for do-overs in Florida and Michigan? It doesn’t have that much money. As the New York Times writes, the DNC “ended 2007 nearly flat broke, with cash of $2.9 million and debts of $2.2 million. Since then it has raised some money, paid down debt and managed to put $3.7 million in its piggy bank. This compares, however, with $25 million that the Republican National Committee has in cash on hand, after having raised $97 million since the beginning of 2007.” With the Clinton-Obama race perhaps going on until the convention, the DNC will have to be the principle vehicle to take on McCain, and so it will need every cent it has. The lack of money for the DNC is a real head-scratcher. Check out how flush the DSCC and the DCCC are, as well as the two presidential candidates. Why can't the DNC raise any money? It's mind-boggling, frankly, and the only thing keeping the GOP in the game financially. Meanwhile, McCain's putting his imprint on the RNC by naming three finance operatives and one political operative.
*** On the trail: Clinton campaigns in Mississippi before heading to Wyoming, where she visits Cheyenne and Casper; McCain stumps in Georgia and then raises money in New Orleans and Phoenix; and Obama, in Wyoming holds a town hall in Casper and an evening rally in Laramie. Also, Bill Clinton lays the groundwork in Pennsylvania with two stops there before going to Mississippi.
Countdown to Wyoming: 1 day
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"I'll leave it up to the Democratic National Committee to make a decision about how to resolve it," Obama told ABC News last night. "But I certainly want to make sure that we've got Michigan and Florida delegates at the convention in some fashion." What say you, Howard Dean ? “‘All they have to do is come before us with rules that fit into what they agreed to a year and a half ago, and then they'll be seated,’ the DNC chairman said, during a round of interviews Thursday on network and cable TV news programs. The two state parties will have to find the funds to pay for new contests without help from the national party, Dean said. ‘We can't afford to do that. That's not our problem. We need our money to win the presidential race,’ he said. The DNC offered to pay for an alternative contest in Florida last summer but was turned down, officials at the party say.”
Per the New York Times , "Granholm, a Clinton supporter, said Thursday that there would be a noisy protest at the Democratic convention if the Michigan delegation was not seated. But she left open the possibility of a new Democratic primary, as long as the taxpayers or the state party do not have to foot the bill. ‘If there is a redo, it has to be inclusive,’ she said. ‘Whatever it is would have to be a primary-like election.’”
CONTINUED >>
WYOMING : The New York Times previews Saturday’s caucuses.
The Casper Star-Tribune : In Laramie, Wyo., Bill Clinton spoke on behalf of his wife to a crowd of about 2,000 about how “the Iraq war has nearly broken the American military.” The event took place at a small University of Wyoming gymnasium next to the 15,000-seat Arena-Auditorium where Sen. Barack Obama will speak at 7:15 p.m. today. Hundreds of people who had stood in line for hours in the 20-degree afternoon air were turned away because of a lack of space in the UniWyo Sports Complex, where the volleyball and wrestling teams compete. Clinton spoke for 58 minutes and then shook hands for another half hour before his motorcade left for the airport. are sold out to today’s Obama town hall, but there are still some available to the 15,000-seater.
MISSISSIPPI : “Clinton sought to set low expectations for Tuesday's primary in Mississippi by telling Democrats that even if they support her opponent the moment is historic. Her appearance at a state Democratic dinner here, and at a scheduled town hall Friday morning in Hattiesburg, could be her only stops in the state where her campaign has said Sen. Barack Obama, her rival for the party's presidential nomination, will likely do well.”
CONTINUED >>
The cover of the New York Daily News : “Monster Bash.” The sub-headlines note, “Obama aide calls Clinton a ‘monster,’ then apologizes. And, “Hil’s camp: Barack acts like Lewinsky prosecutor.” New York Post : “Hil launches Starr wars: Aides whine: Obama acts like Bill’s 90s nemesis.”Post’s Charles Hurt’s take on the Starr comments: “[I]t didn't take the Clinton campaign long to run wildly off track, by returning yesterday to the sort of sloppy and absurd criticisms that have only backfired on it thus far.”
Politico's Martin reports John McCain is putting his imprint on the RNC. Frank Donatelli will serve as the new deputy chair of the RNC and will serve as the chief liaison between the committee and the campaign. Leading the so-called Victory organization will be Carly Fiorina. "The former CEO of Hewlett-Packard got behind McCain early on and has been a frequent surrogate. She also traveled with him in Michigan and helped carry his economic message there."
Leading the fundraising effort for the Victory operation will be Lew Eisenberg, a former partner at Goldman Sachs and longtime Republican donor. And helping the RNC and Victory effort will be former Giuliani campaign manager Mike DuHaime. He may not be rolled out tomorrow, but DuHaime will play a key role in working on the political side, advising on voter contact and GOTV strategy. Los Angeles Times does the history of the McCain comeback, and notes how the team of Rick Davis, Charlie Black, Mark Salter, Steve Schmidt and Mark McKinnon, have become really tight.
CONTINUED >>
The New York Times’ Brooks : "Now, the Obama campaign is facing another test. There are a few ways to interpret the losses in Texas and Ohio. One is demographic. He didn’t carry the groups he often has trouble with — white women, Latinos, the less educated. The other is tactical. Clinton attacked him, and the attacks worked. The consultants, needless to say, gravitate toward the tactical interpretation. And once again the cry has gone up for Obama to get tough. This advice gets wrapped in metaphors. Obama has to start ‘throwing punches’ or ‘taking the gloves off.’”
“Beneath the euphemisms, what the advice really means is that Obama has to start accusing Clinton of things.” Brooks goes on to write that Obama is making a big mistake: "[T]he Clinton people will draw them every step of the way. Clinton can’t compete on personality, but a knife fight is her only real hope of victory. She has nothing to lose because she never promised to purify America. Her campaign doesn’t depend on the enthusiasm of upper-middle-class goo-goos. On Thursday, a Clinton aide likened Obama to Ken Starr just to badger them on.”
“As the trench warfare stretches on through the spring, the excitement of Obama-mania will seem like a distant, childish mirage. People will wonder if Obama ever believed any of that stuff himself. And even if he goes on to win the nomination, he won’t represent anything new. He’ll just be a one-term senator running for president. In short, a candidate should never betray the core theory of his campaign, or head down a road that leads to that betrayal. Barack Obama doesn’t have an impressive record of experience or a unique policy profile. New politics is all he’s got. He loses that, and he loses everything. Every day that he looks conventional is a bad day for him."
CONTINUED >>
While most of the political world has been focused on the presidential race, there are other battles in races for the House and Senate. In fact, there are enough Senate GOP retirements and enough other seats in play where Dems are actually talking about the possibility of a 60-seat filibuster proof advantage. The New York Times : "From the Northeast to the Southwest, the Democrats have such a strong hand in this year’s Senate contests that they sense the possibility of victories in unlikely states like Oklahoma and Mississippi, and now even Alaska, which last elected a Democratic senator in 1974."
More: "Numbers help tell the story. Republicans have 23 seats to defend, including five left vacant by retiring incumbents, while the Democrats have just 12, with a competitive race expected only in Louisiana. Even there, the incumbent, Mary L. Landrieu, is still a heavy favorite."
"Four Republican incumbents are potentially vulnerable because voters in their states increasingly identify with Democrats. They are John E. Sununu of New Hampshire, Norm Coleman of Minnesota, Gordon H. Smith of Oregon and Susan Collins of Maine. To get to 60, the Democrats would need to win the three open seats and these four, protect their incumbents and still pick up two seats in traditionally Republican states like Mississippi and Oklahoma."
The NRCC is having a hard enough time trying to win back House seats. And the last thing the GOP committee needs is lost money , which is exactly what apparently happened.
From MSNBC’s Brooke Brower Growing up, every night somewhere between the news and Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy, I'd hear some guy say something like "the Pennsylvania lottery benefits Pennsylvania's seniors," to which my grandmother would sometimes respond, "I've never seen it benefit me."
That attitude in mind, and in search of more prisms through which to view Pennsylvania, I just looked at the website of the
North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries. Of the 41 states (and D.C.) that are listed, more than half are used entirely or mostly to fund education projects ("for the kids!"). Others support state general funds, environmental/park projects, and property tax relief.
Pennsylvania is the only state lottery in the country whose beneficiaries are exclusively... seniors.
From that site:
The Pennsylvania Lottery designates all its proceeds to programs that benefit older residents. Since its inception in 1971, the Pennsylvania Lottery has contributed more than $16.5 billion to programs that include property tax and rent rebates; free and reduced-fare transit; the low-cost prescription drug programs PACE and PACENET; and the 52 Area Agencies on Aging, including 650 full- and part-time senior centers throughout the Commonwealth.” The lottery is just one measuring stick, but it shows, compared to most other states, Pennsylvania's priorities and concerns, at least with the billion-dollar lottery, are more with the old than with the young.
Good marker for Clinton? Who knows?
From NBC's Lauren Appelbaum Crist (R-FL) and Jennifer Granholm (D-MI) are calling for the DNC to seat their respective state delegates. They stressed they don't want their voters to be "disenfranchised."
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones and Aswini Anburajan Hillary Clinton today suggested Barack Obama had not met the commander-in-chief test.
She said that proving he was ready would be important with John McCain as the Republican nominee and with national security as a key issue in the election.
The New York senator began the meeting by talking about the support she had received from military officers. "As president, I will draw on the experience of leaders such as those you see before you to confront our challenges and to seize our opportunities to build a safer and more just world," she said, adding that she was grateful to have her own experience to draw on having lived at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue and having traveled to more than 80 countries representing the country.
She mentioned having had a conversation today with King Abdullah of Jordan to discuss challenges facing the region. "Some may believe that experience doesn't matter or that even in today's world it is a liability. But as generals and admirals, ambassadors, and other senior leaders charged with protecting our security know, experience doesn't just count for something. Often when lives are on the line and a decision must be made, experience counts for everything. In this election, we need a nominee who can pass the commander-in-chief test," she said.
But in a conference call with reporters today, Obama foreign affairs adviser Susan Rice questioned Clinton's own experience. "You don't get that experience from being married to a commander in chief," she said.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC’s Domenico Montanaro Obama gained two more superdelegates today -- NV State Party Vice Chairwoman Teresa Benitez-Thompson and Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV).
This brings the delegate total to: Obama 1,581-Clinton 1,481
Superdelegates: Clinton 254-Obama 215
NBC Hard Count: Obama 1,366-Clinton 1,227
There are 21 delegates unallocated, including 10 in Texas, 9 in Colorado, 1 in Hawaii and 1 Abroad.
Here's the March 4th breakdown:
This gives Clinton a +12 net delegate gain out of March 4th and could be trimmed slightly because of those TX caucuses delegates still to be allocated.
*** UPDATE ***
From NBC’s Ken Strickland wrote a letter asking DNC Chairman Howard Dean to either seat their delegates in accordance with our primary results, or pay for the state to hold a new primary. Without a resolution, Nelson said, "We're coming on the biggest train wreck you've ever seen."
"If they go to the Democratic convention and stiff arm the Florida delegation,” Nelson said, “how in the world do you think Floridians are going to support the Democratic nominee ... only two months after the Democratic convention?”
Nelson also told reporters outside the Senate Chamber, "The DNC has a responsibility because they took it out on Florida, not what Florida Democrats did, but what the Republican legislature -- signed into law by the Republican Governor -- did in changing the date."
He says the measure that authorized moving the primary to January, in violation of DNC rules, was part of a broader election machine reform bill. Nelson, a Clinton supporter, adds that the Florida state legislature's Democratic leader offered an amendment to move back to Feb. 5th, but was defeated.
"So the Florida Democrats come into this with clean hands," he pleaded. "But I couldn't get Howard Dean and the DNC last summer to understand this."
This is something the state party argued in August of 2007 before the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee. The committee, though, rejected the argument, saying there was not a “good faith effort” made by Florida Democrats to defeat the measure.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC’s Domenico Montanaro Toronto Globe and Mail , in a story that was the lead on the paper’s front page today, that call to the Canadian embassy was actually from the Clinton campaign, not Obama’s :
“Mr. [Ian] Brodie, [PM Harper’s chief of staff], during the media lockup for the Feb. 26 budget, stopped to chat with several journalists, and was surrounded by a group from CTV. The conversation turned to the pledges to renegotiate the North American free-trade agreement made by the two Democratic contenders, Mr. Obama and New York Senator Hillary Clinton.
“Mr. Brodie, apparently seeking to play down the potential impact on Canada, told the reporters the threat was not serious, and that someone from Ms. Clinton's campaign had even contacted Canadian diplomats to tell them not to worry because the NAFTA threats were mostly political posturing. The Canadian Press cited an unnamed source last night as saying that several people overheard the remark.
“The news agency quoted that source as saying that Mr. Brodie said that someone from Ms. Clinton's campaign called and was ‘telling the embassy to take it with a grain of salt .’
“The story was followed by CTV's Washington bureau chief, Tom Clark, who reported that the Obama campaign, not the Clinton's, had reassured Canadian diplomats.
“Mr. Clark cited unnamed Canadian sources in his initial report. There was no explanation last night for why Mr. Brodie was said to have referred to the Clinton campaign but the news report was about the Obama campaign.”
*** UPDATE ***
From NBC’s Domenico Montanaro Clinton campaign announced that it raised $4 million since polls closed on March 4th (and $6 million since March 1st). And then we got the number many have been waiting for -- Obama’s February total: a record breaking $55 million. Speculation had been that the Illinois senator had raised between $50 million and $60 million.
Clinton announced last week she had raised $35 million in February.
From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy McCain visited with Gov. Charlie Crist (R) this morning, and after a brief retail stop the two politicians spoke to reporters about the explosion today in Times Square.
"The attack or the attempted attack on the recruiting station in Times Square today, it was obviously an act that is unacceptable in America," McCain said. "I know that Mayor Bloomberg as well as other law enforcement agencies are actively working, but we can't allow this kind of thing to happen in America -- a place where trying to attract young men and women to serve in the military -- is an unacceptable situation.
"I've been assured that a full investigation is taking place and I hope they bring the individuals to justice as quickly as possible."
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones Clinton camp held a conference call Thursday to criticize Obama for attacking the New York senator -- using what they called "Republican talking points" and to challenge him to address the issues they've raised about his readiness to handle national security and economic issues.
Communications Director Howard Wolfson accused Obama of "imitating Ken Starr" in his attacks on Hillary, and senior adviser Ann Lewis began the call with a statement that raised questions about Obama's claim he would offer a new kind of politics.
"One day after losing elections in Ohio and Texas, where the debate centered on issues of the economy and national security, the Obama campaign has apparently decided that instead of addressing these issues, they're going to focus on attacking Hillary Clinton. I did not realize that their version of new politics is to recycle some of the same old Republican attacks on Hillary that have failed for years. This new strategy, I've gotta say, suggests a campaign that is unable to make the positive case," she said.
Lewis asked why Obama would not address his failure to hold hearings as chair of a Senate subcommittee on European affairs and to offer solutions on the economy, both issues the Obama campaign has addressed through statements and policy papers.
She said Clinton's rival had been using negative mailers against Hillary on health care and NAFTA for weeks and called his criticisms on trade agreement misleading and "particularly ironic given what we now know" about his economic adviser meeting with Canadian representatives.
In response to this conference call, Obama spokesman Bill Burton replied with this statement: “It is absurd that after weeks of badgering the media to ‘vet’ Senator Obama, the Clinton campaign believes that they should be held to an entirely different standard. We don’t believe that expecting candidates for the presidency to disclose their tax returns somehow constitutes Ken Starr-tactics... And if Senator Clinton doesn’t think that the Republicans will ask these very same questions, then she’s not as ready to go toe-to-toe with John McCain as she claims.”
CONTINUED >>
From First Read guest contributor Carly Zakin
The informal Q&A session seemed to be geared towards connecting her mother with the youth vote and educating them on the candidate's issues and stances. Chelsea assured the audience that she believed in her mother "not only as her daughter, but as a young woman and as a voter." Clarifying her mother's stances on gay rights, health care, education, women's rights, and Iraq, Chelsea portrayed her mother as a lifelong advocate of equal rights and political change who only "hopes to fulfill those commitments that she's made throughout her life."
Students' questions showed concern about whether or not Clinton could be a the force of change and how she would handle diplomatic hurdles, as well as the impact of a Bush-Clinton dynasty, to which Chelsea responded: "One, I wish we hadn't had a second Bush. And two, you shouldn't vote for or against my mom because of my dad." Asked whether or not there were any issues she and her mother disagreed on, Chelsea responded "Yes, but that's for my kitchen table."
As each issue was raised, Chelsea carefully pointed out her mother's history of leadership and initiative for change. Stressing her mother's ability to make compromises across party lines, even with former adversaries like Newt Gingrich or Lindsey Graham, she emphasized how her mother continually "keeps trying" on health care, support for Darfur, a GI Bill of Rights, and an Iraqi refugee program, among other pieces of legislation.
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro A more aggressive Obama: Yesterday, we asked how Obama would respond to his losses in Ohio and Texas. Well, he and his campaign came out swinging. Obama demanded to know what kind of commander-in-chief credentials Clinton actually has -- a question that might come up today when Clinton holds a press conference in DC with military officers. He also asked if Clinton is so fully vetted, why she hasn’t released her tax returns so voters know how the Clintons have made their money since Bill left the White House. And with Clinton arriving in Mississippi later tonight, the Obama campaign held a press conference to draw attention to some unflattering comments Clinton made about the state last fall while campaigning in Iowa. The Obama camp is showing some fight it didn’t always exhibit leading up to Junior Super Tuesday. The tightrope they have to walk is proving their mettle and drawing contrasts, but not doing so to the point where it makes Obama seem like every other politician. It isn’t an easy task. But there does seem to be a pattern in this primary season: When the negative spotlight is on one candidate, that candidate loses. The question is, when will a candidate WIN when the spotlight's on them?
*** Do-overs? So is Howard Dean deciding NOT to take a leadership role in this Michigan-Florida issue? It sure sounded like it this morning as he made the TV rounds. He punted the issue back to the states by not endorsing new contests. He chose not to use his bully pulpit and position to make any public suggestions. The DNC has said it is open to new contests, but that the ball is in Florida’s and Michigan’s court. Does this mean a Super-Duper-delegate may now have to step in since Dean won't? How about Al Gore calling for a new Florida election? Imagine what sway Gore would have on the Florida issue? Both the Michigan and Florida Dem leadership teams huddled last night to try and figure out their next step. FWIW, it appears Michigan seems a lot closer to agreeing to some sort of re-vote than Florida, which seems more content on going to the credentials committee. Perhaps Florida feels like it is better positioned since Obama's name was on the ballot there (unlike in Michigan). In Michigan, there's probably a lot of pressure being put on key Clinton-supporting Dems in the state by African-American leaders who aren't happy about having Michigan seated without Obama getting a chance to earn votes.
VIDEO: NBC Deputy Political Director Mark Murray offers his first read on the tight Democratic presidential race and talk of Michigan and Florida re-doing their primary contests. ***
Turmoil in Arlington: Despite what happened on Tuesday, don't forget that the Clinton inner circle hasn't been getting along. What does victory do to those disputes? The Washington Post runs yet another account of how Mark Penn isn’t making everyone happy inside the Arlington headquarters. We particularly enjoyed this line from the piece: "Clinton's advisers turned to their other goal: denying Mark Penn credit" for Ohio and Texas. Apparently, Penn still has the support of two very important people -- Bill and Hillary -- but outside of those two is there ANYONE else in Clinton land who even wants to tolerate Penn? This Post piece was some read; we're guessing getting the hating Mark Penn stuff back in the toothpaste tube is too late.
*** Previewing Pennsylvania: The big papers are out with their previews of Pennsylvania, a contest that is still a whopping seven weeks away. The state, as everyone points out, looks a lot like Ohio. Of course, we also though Ohio looked a lot like Wisconsin. One thing is for sure: Seven weeks is a long, long time away. In fact, the New York Daily News has dubbed the contest the “Seven-Week War.” The quick analysis from the analysis this morning: Obama's stronghold will be the Philly media market; Clinton's stronghold will be the "T" and possibly Pittsburgh. The question will be: Can Obama make some inroads in Pittsburgh? And can Hillary make some inroads in the Philly suburbs?
*** The delegate count: Obama leads Clinton 1,568-1,467. This includes the NBC News Hard Count of Obama 1,355, Clinton 1,213 in pledged delegates. The superdelegate count stands at Clinton 254, Obama 213. One thing to keep in mind is that 76 of the 795 superdelegates are still not known; they will be appointed at various state conventions beginning in April. Also, when we finally get the Texas caucus results, it likely that Clinton’s net delegate haul from the Junior Super Tuesday contests will be less than 10. There are still 46 overall unallocated pledged delegates, 33 of which are from Texas.
*** On the trail: Clinton attends a press conference in DC with military officers and then travels to Canton, MS to speak at the Jefferson-Jackson dinner there; McCain campaigns in Florida before heading to a finance event in Atlanta, GA; and Obama is down in Chicago. Also today, Bill Clinton stumps on his wife’s behalf in Wyoming.
Countdown to Wyoming: 2 days
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The New York Times front-pages, “Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s victories in the primaries on Tuesday barely dented Senator Barack Obama’s lead in delegates, but they seemed to slow the Democratic Party establishment’s move in his direction while giving her campaign time to try to turn the race in her favor.” More: "Clinton and Mr. Obama are embracing sharply different approaches as they try to capture the nomination and rally superdelegates behind them. For Mr. Obama, it is a matter of delegate math as he argues that superdelegates should support whoever has won the most elected delegates after the primary season ends in June. For Mrs. Clinton, it is trying to build momentum -- and making a case that she is more electable -- to persuade superdelegates to support her."
VIDEO: What's next for Democratic candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton after Tuesday’s primaries? NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports. Polls will also certainly influence superdelegates, and a new
Washington Post/ABC poll shows both Clinton and Obama matching up favorably against McCain -- although Obama leads him by 12 points and Clinton 6 points. But how will these numbers look after the two Dems beat each other up for the next seven weeks in Pennsylvania?
Do-over? The AP : “The Michigan governor, along with top officials in Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign and Florida's state party chair, are now saying they would consider holding a sort of do-over contest by June. That's a change from their previous insistence that the primaries their states held in January should determine how the their delegates are allocated.”
The Miami Herald : “Clinton's position reflected a retreat from her hard line stance that the Florida and Michigan primaries should count toward her delegate total, even though the candidates ceased campaigning in the states and Obama wasn't on the Michigan ballot. Two of Clinton's top surrogates -- former Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell -- floated the prospect of revotes before the results came in Tuesday.”
The Detroit Free Press : “If a second vote is going to happen, a decision may need to come quickly: Though the DNC considers Michigan without delegates to the national convention, the state party is set to select them at the end of this month. From a national standpoint, the next big state primary is April 22 in Pennsylvania, where Clinton holds a lead in the polls.”
We're still waiting for 60% of the vote, but Obama is leading 56%-44% in Texas’ caucuses, which would give him seven to nine net delegates and give Obama the most delegates from Texas when you include the primary.
Texas and Ohio set turnout records March 4. In Texas, more than 4.1 million voted and about 3.3 million in Ohio went out to the polls. “Results showed that the Clinton-Obama race drew the most voters in both states, with many unaffiliated and Republican voters choosing to vote on the Democratic side. In Ohio, Democratic candidates received more than twice the number of votes that Republicans did, with 2.2 million votes to Republicans' roughly 1.05 million. In Texas, about 2.8 million voters took part in the Democratic primary, compared with about 1.3 million in the GOP contest.” Boston Globe’s Vennochi : “Uneasy is the Democrat who wears the mantle of inevitability. Barack Obama has delegates and math on his side. But a resilient rival still tugs at his cape, searching for the kryptonite that will derail Superman. Tuesday was a good night for voters who aren't Hillary haters or Obama worshipers. Primary victories in Rhode Island, Ohio, and Texas restored Clinton's dignity and should also remind Obama that even a messiah benefits from humility.”
"Obama blamed his losses Tuesday in part on tougher media coverage that he said had resulted from Clinton's complaints of unfair treatment."
USA Today previews the next big contest -- Pennsylvania. "Clinton needs a Pennsylvania victory to make her case to the party that she could win big swing states in the general election. Obama, who is favored to win the Wyoming caucuses Saturday and the Mississippi primary Tuesday, will argue that he has won more nominating contests (27 out of 42 so far), more total votes (about 13 million to Clinton's 12.4 million, not including Florida and Michigan where primaries did not award delegates), and more pledged delegates."
Here’s another preview courtesy of the Washington Post : The Ohio outcome "leaves Obama looking for another way to connect with working-class voters in Pennsylvania, which has demographics similar to Ohio's, although with slightly higher levels of education. He will have help: Big unions that endorsed him last month, such as the Teamsters and Service Employees International, will have more time to work for him than they did in Ohio, where they narrowed his gap among union voters to 10 percent behind Clinton."
The New York Times : "At this stage, various polls and analysts suggest that the state could break down this way: Philadelphia, where more than half the voters are African-American, is likely to favor Mr. Obama. The Philadelphia media market reaches 40 percent of the state’s voters. Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania, with its depressed steel industry, are generally similar to Ohio, with blue-collar workers and a struggling economy. That region could favor Mrs. Clinton. Mrs. Clinton is also likely to do well in the northeast, which is largely Catholic, conservative and blue collar, and is where her father was buried in 1993.”
“The upscale Philadelphia suburbs are almost always a crucial part of any winning coalition in the state. They are home to affluent, well-educated voters for whom the war in Iraq remains the most important issue, and Mr. Madonna said he expected they would favor Mr. Obama. But Gov. Edward G. Rendell, Mrs. Clinton’s chief champion in the state, said he intended to work the suburbs and would spend his considerable political capital there on her behalf."
The Daily News dubs the period of time between now and Pennsylvania, “Seven-Week War.”
After Pennsylvania come the May 6 primaries of Indiana and North Carolina. Call it the "INC" primary day, no? Ok, we'll keep trying on the naming front….
North Carolina is realizing it's going to be a battleground ; it's the second biggest delegate prize left. "The downside for N.C. Democrats is that the presidential hoopla could shove the race for the parties' nominations for governor and other statewide offices into the background. They'll be competing for voters' attention against a national story."
Most telling line in any clip this morning come from the Washington Post . "Clinton's advisers turned to their other goal: denying Mark Penn credit." More: "With a flurry of phone calls and e-mail messages that began before polls closed, campaign officials made clear to friends, colleagues and reporters that they did not view the wins as validation for the candidate's chief strategist. ‘A lot of people would still like to see him go,’ a senior adviser said.”
“The depth of hostility toward Penn even in a time of triumph illustrates the combustible environment within the Clinton campaign, an operation where internal strife and warring camps have undercut a candidate once seemingly destined for the Democratic nomination. Clinton now faces the challenge of exploiting this moment of opportunity while at the same time deciding whether the squabbling at her Arlington headquarters has become a distraction that requires her intervention.”
“Many of her advisers are waging a two-front war, one against Sen. Barack Obama and the second against one another, but their most pressing challenge is figuring out why Clinton won in Ohio and Texas and trying to duplicate it. While Penn sees his strategy as a reason for the victories that have kept her candidacy alive, other advisers attribute the wins to her perseverance, favorable demographics and a new campaign manager. Clinton won ‘despite us, not because of us,’ one said.”
The New York Post catches Bill and Hillary out on a stroll, walking hand in hand, and it’s on the cover of the paper. She’s all in black with sunglasses; he’s wearing a grey arguyle sweater. The headline: “Walk in the Park!” Subheadline: “Silent Bill savors Hill of victory.”
Speaking of the couple, this point probably hasn’t been made enough: “Has Hil chilled Bill? Has she muzzled the Big Dog? Has Bubba been banished? Yes, yes and yes. And the result was win, win, win.”
How will McCain use Bush ? "McCain aides plan to use Mr. Bush for fund-raising and at events in heavily Republican parts of the country. But they do not foresee many joint campaign appearances. Much of Sen. McCain's popularity, in fact, stems from his willingness to separate himself from the president at times, although he has had nothing but kind words for him lately."
VIDEO: President Bush announces his endorsement of GOP presidential candidate John McCain. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell reports. The
Boston Globe headline out of yesterday’s Bush endorsement of McCain: “Bush says McCain will stay the course in Iraq.”
“A Democratic-leaning group financed by a major labor union and wealthy liberal activists is
running ads against Sen. John McCain in Ohio and Pennsylvania, the beginning of a media campaign against the GOP nominee-in-waiting.” The
ad called McSame is from the group Campaign to Defend America and is running currently in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Huckabee, shockingly, wouldn't rule out the veep slot. "And though Huckabee has said that he doubts McCain would offer him the vice presidential slot on the Republican ticket, he has not denied interest in the job. The head of his campaign's faith-and-values coalition, conservative radio talk show host Janet Folger, said she is broadcasting the phone number of McCain's campaign office so callers can demand that Huckabee be placed on the ticket. Folger said McCain ‘needs’ to pick Huckabee to ensure that conservative Christians will turn out in November."
The New York Times says that "after appearing nearly invincible just last week, [Obama] faces questions about his toughness and vulnerabilities -- never mind seven weeks of tramping across Pennsylvania, the site of the next big primary showdown. His goal is to prove he can win states vital to a Democratic victory in November." Obama's "challenge now is about more than demographics. He must reassure supporters, and party leaders who had started to rally to his side, that he can absorb the lessons of Tuesday’s defeats. And he faces a challenge of rebounding as quickly as he did from his loss in New Hampshire."
More: "Obama seems likely to take a tougher stance toward Mrs. Clinton, if only because he saw how well such tactics worked against him. When the Clinton campaign attacked on multiple fronts last week, he sometimes sounded defensive, occasionally talking at his audiences rather than with them."
The AP writes, “One day after his worst showing in a month, Obama blamed negative attacks by the former first lady for his defeats and quickly made good on a promise to sharpen his criticism of her. But there was no disputing he had missed a chance to drive her from the race. Or that in contrast to the Republicans, who have settled on Arizona Sen. John McCain as their nominee, the Democrats face the prospect of a potentially divisive campaign lasting deep into spring.”
From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan and Domenico Montanaro The Obama campaign is stepping up the rhetoric. Campaign Manager David Plouffe went so far as to call Hillary Clinton the "most secretive politician in America today."
The tough talk underscored not only the negative shift in tone of the Obama campaign in the past 24 hours, but just how contentious this fight for the nomination is becoming.
Part of what the Obama campaign would like the focus to be on is ethics -- something adviser David Axelrod said they would be glad to have a debate over. But the Obama campaign may be a victim of time, since an argument on ethics could be tough to steer with the ongoing Rezko trial.
"I think that you know Sen. Clinton has talked a lot about disclosure in the last few days,” Plouffe told reporters. “Sen. Clinton is the most secretive politician in America today. This has been a pattern throughout her career of the lack of disclosure.”
Echoing Axelrod, Plouffe said the campaign would be more than willing to tangle with the Clintons, appearing to suggest that if needed they would raise issues like Whitewater that plagued the Clintons in the 90s.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan Obama campaign says it will win the delegate battle in Texas when the primary and caucus results are combined.
Plouffe repeatedly said Clinton has lost her opportunity to erase Obama's lead in pledged delegates, which he said should be the definitive factor in deciding who is the party's nominee. Per the campaign's math, there are 611 delegates left to win in the Democratic race, and Clinton needs to win 60% of them to erase Obama's lead. And that's delegates not vote total.
"Last night was a big window that closed for them, particularly because they probably needed to net somewhere between 85 to 70 delegates to retake the pledged delegate lead," Plouffe added.
Plouffe also said that after last night's delegate totals are added in all four states, including the Texas caucuses, Clinton would have yielded a net gain that was less than what Obama took out of the state of Idaho on Feb. 5th.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Mike Viqueira The Florida and Michigan Democratic congressional delegations will meet together behind closed doors this evening to discuss their respective convention delegate situations.
Rep. Alcee Hastings has organized the confab. He says that it is not the first such gathering, but that the situation "became more complicated after yesterday," and this meeting has been called in reaction to the fact that the race continues. There were those who had hoped that things would be decided so that this issue could be glossed over, he says, but the results from Ohio and Texas "muddied the water."
Hastings, a Clinton supporter, says that the meeting is not expected to result in a definitive decision, but is needed to make sure everyone understands the state of play, both politically and procedurally.
He dismissed the notion that the GOP-controlled Florida legislation would allow Dems a "do-over," and regards the comments attributed today to Gov. Crist with skepticism. Hastings says the cost of such a re-do would be between $18 million and 20 million.
He says that senators from the two states are invited. There will be no reps from the Obama or Clinton campaigns, nor will Howard Dean be there.
The meeting is to take place in the Capitol later tonight after votes, perhaps 8ish.
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones Clinton campaign held a conference call today to talk celebrate the New York senator's three wins last night, to talk about the importance of allowing the race for the nomination to continue and re-state their belief that Clinton has the best chance of holding up under Republican attacks without getting pushed off course.
Chief Strategist Mark Penn said he would put Wyoming and Mississippi, the next two states to vote, “in what I call the challenging category for us,” because Obama has “some very significant leads,” but he downplayed Mississippi in pushing the campaign's argument that Clinton does best in the states that matter, the blue states and noting that he couldn't remember the last time Mississippi went Democratic in a presidential race.
Top aide Harold Ickes predicted she would do well in Pennsylvania. “I think that we had what might be characterized as a dry spell for the last, prior to last night,” he said. “We think that we have turned the corner in the campaign. We think that the solid results of last night augur well for the future.”
He also noted he would leave the predictions to Penn, before going on to make predictions. “I think that she is going to do very, very well in Pennsylvania, for example,” Ickes said, “and she is going to continue to hold her own in a number of other states, to win some, to hold her own in others. Overall, she'll be adding to her count on delegates, and we expect that by the end of this, she and Sen. Obama will be very close to one another.”
Ickes argued Clinton could put together wins in states like Arkansas, New Mexico, Nevada, Iowa, Ohio and Florida to win enough electoral votes in a general election to clinch the presidency, and Penn said Clinton's strength among women and Latinos would help push her to victory as the nominee in November.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy McCain's meeting at RNC headquarters, the traveling press rushed back onto the bus to find a boxed lunch and no staff. So with no direction, the press waited at the bus assuming McCain was still inside meeting with RNC staff.
An hour and a half later, press secretary Brooke Buchanan called wondering where the press bus was. The campaign staff had traveled back to the airport without telling the press. At that point, McCain was more than half an hour late for a 6 pm fundraiser in Florida.
As one writer joked, "I told you McCain would forget about the press after he won the nomination."
From NBC's Lauren Appelbaum and NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy McCain is sitting pretty while the fight on the Democratic side gets uglier and uglier. Bush became the first modern president to endorse his party's successor in person at the White House.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Mark Murray
Clinton campaign communications director Howard Wolfson released this statement on the
Obama campaign's
criticism of Clinton not releasing her tax returns.
His answer in short, it appears: Tony Rezko.
"Faced with many legitimate questions about Senator Obama's long-time relationship with indicted political fixer Tony Rezko, the Obama campaign has chosen to lash out at Senator Clinton. Here are the facts:
"Over 20 years of the Clintons' tax returns are in the public domain. Their tax returns since they left the White House will be made available on or around April 15. This information will be in addition to 15 years of uninterrupted public financial disclosure reports."
"Instead of making false attacks, we urge Senator Obama to release all relevant financial and other information related to indicted political fixer Tony Rezko."
From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan and NBC's Mark Murray Obama campaign to seek to start pushing hard against the substance of Clinton's claim that she has more experience than Obama does.
Pointing to Clinton's foreign policy experience, he questioned how tangible it really was.
"I know she talks about visiting 80 countries. It's not clear, ya know, was she negotiating treaties or agreements or was she handling crises during this period of time? My sense is the answer is no," he said.
He also raised questions regarding transparency, saying that it was doubtful that Clinton could make a better argument on ethics and disclosure than him, saying "that's an issue that should be tested." Indeed, Obama's campaign issued a memo criticizing Clinton for waiting to release her tax returns; her campaign has said she will do so by April 15.
CONTINUED >>
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro
***
We move on : Democrats can forget about looking ahead to the general election, at least for now. Weary political reporters and campaign aides might want to think about canceling those spring vacation plans. And voters in Wyoming, Mississippi, and Pennsylvania will want to brace themselves for the political circus that’s about to arrive in their states. By winning Ohio, Texas, and Rhode Island, as well as having a very good night on the delegate front (more on that below), Clinton stopped Obama’s 11-contest winning streak and keeps the race going. No doubt these were impressive wins for her -- her candidacy was on the line, and she came through in the clutch. In short, she did what she had to do, and more. But that also doesn’t change the delegate math or the fact that Ohio and Texas always favored her. Remember that the Clinton campaign has even agreed that this is a race for delegates. And remember that polls showed her with significant leads in both states as of three weeks ago (in Ohio, she led by 21 points as of mid-February). But wins are wins -- especially decisive ones -- and we move on…
VIDEO: NBC's Political Director Chuck Todd offers his firstread on Tuesday night's primary results and weighs the chances for each democratic candidate. ***
Over to you, Sen. Obama: And we move on to Wyoming and Mississippi, where Obama probably holds the edge and will add to his delegate lead. But between then and Pennsylvania’s primary on April 22 -- which is a seven weeks away -- how does Obama respond? Heading into last night’s contests, he played the front-runner strategy, largely staying positive (although he did jab her in fliers and radio ads). But does he now start making more forceful contrasts? And in which direction does he go? Iraq? Clinton’s actual experience? Her electability? Her tax returns (which she says she won’t release until Tax Day)? And does he try to start working the refs the way Clinton’s team did? After the tough press Obama received in the past few days, as well as all the comeback stories Clinton is getting today after losing 11 in a row, is it more difficult for Clinton to play the media-is-taking-it-easy-on-Obama card? The burden's now on Obama to prove that he's tough enough to take on Clinton. Can he figure out how to go negative on her without making himself look like just another politician? In fact, isn't that exactly what the NAFTA story did to Obama -- it made him look like just another politician, who will say one thing to one audience and whisper something else to another?
***
McCain’s good news : Last night’s biggest winner, however, wasn’t Clinton. It was McCain. Not only did he hit the magic number to wrap up the GOP nomination (he crossed 1,191 and now stands at 1,230), but he now gets to watch Clinton and Obama spend their millions battling one another -- and not him -- over the next several weeks. McCain now has the time to begin raising money, reaching out to conservatives, and building a national campaign staff. As we’ve said before, a Dem race that lasts into April and perhaps beyond is the best news the Republican Party has received in quite some time. Just askin’: Would McCain's photo-op with Bush have happened today had Obama emerged last night as the de facto Dem nominee? Now, McCain can get a lot of the party stuff out of the way now, while the media is focused on the Clinton-Obama showdown.
*** The delegate count : Based on preliminary results of last night's contests (the Texas caucuses are not yet factored in), here's where the Democratic delegate count stands: Obama 1,518, Clinton 1,429. The NBC News Hard Count has Obama at 1,307 to 1,175 for Clinton after last night's voting. The superdelegate count stands at Clinton 254, Obama 211. Here's how the states broke down: VT: Obama 9-6; OH: Clinton 73-62 (six unallocated); RI: Clinton, 13-8; TX: Clinton 46-34 (113 unallocated). That’s a net gain of 23 pledged delegates for Clinton. But before figuring out the Texas mess, Clinton had a net of approximately 13 delegates. If Obama wins the delegate battle in Texas (which the allocation formulas seem to indicate), he'll cut that 13 net by as many as 6. However, one estimate in Texas has Obama netting no more than one after the caucus, giving Clinton the possibility that she'll net more than 10 delegates when March 4 is all said and done. While not MAJOR progress on the pledged delegate front, it's impressive nonetheless since so many folks predicted her not even netting 10 delegates last night.
***
The popular vote : On this front, Clinton also made huge inroads here. In the states that have awarded delegates, Obama's popular vote lead dropped two points to 49%-47%: He's won 12,920,961 votes to Clinton's 12,322,695 votes out of more than 26 million cast. Toss in Florida and Obama's nearly 600,000 vote lead is cut to 300,000: 13,497,175 to Clinton's 13,193,681. Finally, if you count Clinton's vote haul from Michigan -- where she was the only major Dem on the ballot -- she actually overtakes Obama by a slim 30,000 votes, 13,521,832 to Obama's 13,491,175.
*** When candidates attack : In the build-up to Wisconsin, the Clinton campaign began to hammer Obama (on those Deval Patrick lines, refusing to debate, and even on Social Security), but those attacks didn’t work. Obama ended up with a 17-point victory there. But heading into last night’s contests, the Clinton camp turned up the volume -- not quite to 11, to borrow a line from Spinal Tap, but still pretty high. They jumped all over the NAFTA/Goolsbee story, as well as Tony Rezko’s trial They unveiled that 3:00 am TV ad, followed by one blasting Obama for not conducting any hearings on the subcommittee he started chairing last year. And Clinton began deriding Obama as someone who only gave a speech in 2002. Want proof that the negative campaigning and bad press made a difference? In Texas, among those who decided within the last three days (21% of all voters), Clinton defeated Obama, 61%-38%. In Ohio, she won by similar margins among the group (9% of all voters), 63%-38%. She also won in Ohio with the 12% that made up their minds the day of the primary, 54%-43%, and those that decided last week by the identical margin. The question is whether the Clinton campaign can sustain the attacks over the long haul without it damaging her. Remember that in the past, voters haven’t been all that receptive to Clinton being on the attack.
*** “If I could turn back time…”: It’s also worth noting that the way in which the Obama campaign handled the NAFTA/Goolsbee story obviously didn’t work out that well. Would the Obama campaign have been better served if they had been upfront about Austan Goolsbee’s meeting with the Canadian consulate on that Friday, when the Clinton campaign first seized on the story? And should they have had Goolsbee hold a press conference to answer reporters’ questions? One thing is pretty clear: The approach they decided on didn’t fare that well. How Obama found himself on the defensive on NAFTA -- which Bill Clinton signed! -- turned out to be one of the more interesting developments leading into yesterday’s contests.
***
The race factor . One thing that should give the Obama camp some concern heading into Pennsylvania is how race ended up playing last night, especially in Ohio. Per NBC’s AnaMaria Arumi, 18% of white Ohio voters in the exit polls said race was important to their vote, and 75% of those people voted for Clinton. Those numbers are comparable to what we saw in southern states. But they’re higher than in neighboring Missouri, where a comparable number (17%) said that the race of the candidate was important to their vote and the vote split was 10 points less -- 65% to Clinton. In Texas, 10% of whites said that race was a factor, and they went 65% for Clinton as well.
*** Just asking : After last night’s contests, and with the race moving on into Pennsylvania, doesn’t the DNC have to do something about Florida and Michigan? What say you, Howard Dean? The DNC chairman can't sit and hope this Florida-Michigan debacle goes away. While no one believes Dean will be the ultimate powerbroker to decide the nominee, he can play powerbroker on this issue. If he doesn't, it will be the ultimate black mark on his tenure.
*** On the trail : Clinton is in DC; Huckabee is in Arkansas; McCain meets with President Bush at the White House, heads to an event at the RNC, and then goes to West Palm Beach, FL for a fundraiser there; and Obama flies to Chicago.
Countdown to Wyoming: 3 days
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With 99% of precincts reporting, Clinton won Ohio, 54%-44%.
USA Today’s Page writes that Clinton “rejuvenated her flagging campaign and broke rival Barack Obama's long winning streak Tuesday with victories in the Ohio and Texas primaries. The results mean that their nomination battle will continue at least to the next big primary in Pennsylvania next month - and perhaps longer.”
AP's Fouhy : "A primary season notable for its prediction-defying twists and turns lurched into new territory yet again, with Ohio and Texas testing Obama's momentum and organizational muscle against Clinton's gamble that Democrats were not yet ready to dismiss her pioneering candidacy."
The Boston Globe : "Clinton breathed new life into her presidential bid last night with key victories in the Ohio and Texas primaries, ending Barack Obama's month-long run of momentum and adding yet another twist to the historic contest for the Democratic nomination."
The New York Times’ Nagourney writes, “[Clinton’s] victory in Texas was razor thin and came early Wednesday morning after most Americans had gone to bed. But by winning decisively in Ohio earlier in the night, Mrs. Clinton was able to deliver a televised victory speech in time for the late-night news. And the result there allowed her to cast Tuesday as the beginning of a comeback even though she stood a good chance of gaining no ground against Mr. Obama in the hunt for delegates.”
CONTINUED >>
It's John McCain Day at the White House, NBC’s John Yang notes.
President Bush will welcome him and wife Cindy will at the North Portico -- the spot where foreign leaders arrive for State Dinners -- at noon in front of live television cameras. After lunch in the President's private dining room, Bush and the presumptive nominee will appear together in the Rose Garden for the official embrace--the President's endorsement.
VIDEO: NBC's David Gregory talks to MSNBC's Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann about what Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., needs to do to benefit from President Bush's support. The president has already said that McCain is a true conservative and pledged to campaign for him. White House political officials acknowledge that Bush's unpopularity with moderates and independents -- the swing voters McCain would need to win in November -- makes the embrace tricky. Better to do it early and get it over with. And Bush remains popular with the Republican base, so the president can help with party unity and raise money.
With 100% of precincts reporting, McCain beat Huckabee in Texas, 51%-38% (Paul got 5%).
McCain clinched the nomination, passing the magic 1,191 number, and Huckabee dropped out. The
New York Daily News : "As the nominee, McCain can now bolster his own operation by tapping into the computers and fund-raising lists of the Republican National Committee and the White House political shop. McCain has pledged to rewrite the GOP playbook by fielding efforts in the Democratic strongholds of New York, New Jersey and California, where polls show him in tight contests with either Clinton or Obama.” More: "McCain's political resurrection saw him go from GOP front-runner to single-digit also-ran last June as his campaign operation unraveled and his fund-raising flatlined."
The Politico’s Martin says McCain wrapping up the GOP nomination “capped one of the most remarkable political comebacks in American history.”
USA Today : “‘Now we begin the most important part of our campaign,’ McCain told supporters after sweeping Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island… McCain devoted his speech to general election themes, defending the Iraq war and blasting Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama for promising to rework trade treaties.”
CONTINUED >>
Kucinich and Paul both held on for wins in contested primaries last night.
"With 36 percent of precincts reporting, Kucinich was ahead with 52 percent of the vote, compared with 31 percent for Cimperman, according to unofficial returns compiled by
The Associated Press ."
On Paul, the
New York Times writes, "Though his Internet groundswell did not translate into a nomination for the presidency, he easily held back a challenger for his Congressional seat in Texas's 14th Congressional District. With 56 percent of precincts reporting so far, Mr. Paul has 69.4 percent of the vote, while Chris Peden has 30.6 percent."
From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan Could the burst of negative campaigning in the last three days before yesterday's primaries have made a difference to voters in Ohio or Texas?
David Axelrod, Obama's chief media strategist, thronged by reporters minutes before Obama took the stage, dodged that question.
"We have not hesitated to draw distinctions between the candidates," he said, "and we'll continue to do that. If Sen. Clinton wants to take the debate to various places, we'll join that debate. We'll do it on our terms and in our own way, but if she wants to make issues like ethics and disclosure and lawfirms and real estate deals and all that stuff issues, as I've said before I don't know why they'd want to go there, but I guess that's where they'll take the race."
But is Obama willing to go there?
"We're willing to draw distinctions that are honest and legitimate," Axelrod said before raising the issue of Clinton's tax returns and the records from the Clinton library.
It's going to be a long seven weeks to Pennsylvania….
From NBC/NJ’s Aswini Anburajan SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- It was a defiant speech despite Obama’s larger-than-expected losses in Ohio and Rhode Island tonight and a then-undetermined outcome in Texas. Obama eventually seemed to have narrowly lost Lone Star State primary. Voting at the caucuses is still being counted.
The candidate told a crowd huddled outside in San Antonio tonight: "And we know this -- no matter what happens tonight, we have nearly the same delegate lead as we did this morning, and we are our on our way to winning this nomination."
And to underscore that point, after congratulating Clinton on victories in Rhode Island and Ohio at that point, he turned his speech away from Clinton's victories to draw a contrast with John McCain.
"In the coming weeks, we will begin a great debate about the future of this country with a man who has served it bravely and loves it dearly," Obama told the crowd, adding that he had called McCain to congratulate him tonight. But the praise was short-lived. "In this campaign, he's fallen in line behind the very same policies that have ill-served America," Obama added.
And continuing a line of attack that he's used in the past two weeks, he tied Clinton to McCain as resistant to the change he's promised. "John McCain and Sen. Clinton echo each other in dismissing this call for change. They say it is eloquent but empty; speeches not solutions," he said before providing the anecdotes of hard luck stories he's encountered on the campaign trail.
Obama spoke against the stone backdrop of the San Antonio Municipal auditorium with three helicopters circling the outdoor rally as he spoke. The crowd appeared calm rather than frenzied, cheering and occasionally chanting, "Yes We Can!" but their voices were distant, carried away by the chilly wind that swept through.
Interesting to note that undecided voters in Ohio and Texas, who made up their minds in the last three days, chose Clinton over Obama, perhaps influenced by the onslaught of negative ads and stories that plagued the campaign. The campaign though soldiers on with a delegate lead. Staff is already headed to Wyoming and offices have been open in Mississippi for a week. After two down days in Chicago, Obama will head back out on the trail on Friday.
From NBC/NJ’s Matthew Berger LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Huckabee celebrated the end of his presidential campaign by bowling water bottles down the aisle of his campaign plane.
Continuing a game that had been started the night before, Huckabee autographed a miniature water bottle and then bowled it down the aisle, trying to hit a full-sized bottle placed at the rear. He missed the first shot, but made the next two. Other staffers and media took turns as well as the plane took off from Dallas back to the former Arkansas governor’s home.
Speaking to reporters during the flight, Huckabee said the handwriting was indeed on the wall.
“Clearly, things didn't go our way tonight as we had hoped they would, but when the inevitable is staring you in the face, you accept it, and that's why I feel like it's time to realize we've made the best effort we can,” he said. “Did a heck of a run and done it I think on an amazing amount of resources. It will be a story that is talked about for a long time. Basically a dime to a dollar of what everybody else has had. And to have gone this far and outlasted so many others is a pretty remarkable story. Wish it had ended differently but, you know, it is what it is.”
He said he determined it was time to exit the race once he saw the exit polls from Texas and Ohio Tuesday.
“They weren’t close; Ohio and the other states weren’t close,” Huckabee said. “So it wasn’t like we thought, maybe this could go ’til one or two in the morning. It was pretty obvious; I’d been through a lot of elections before. I know when one’s on it’s way to being close and when one isn’t. This one wasn’t. So there wasn’t any point in sitting there, doing my fingernails all night, hoping something would change. It wasn’t going to.”
CONTINUED >>
From MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell and Adam Verdugo Hillary Clinton's win in Ohio was shouldered on the strength of her core constituencies: women, whites, labor, seniors, and she narrowed the gap in groups that had been strong for Barack Obama.
Let's take a closer look at the white vote. Overall, she won a solid victory among whites. Clinton took 65% of the vote to Obama's 33%.
As in other contests Obama won the black vote by a wide margin (86%-14%). But remember, blacks make up only 19% of the Democratic electorate, so the white vote was key for Clinton.
The generation gap among whites starts at a younger point than we've seen elsewhere. Only the under-30 groups broke for Obama (49%-46%). And as you can see, it was a far narrower gap than we have seen in other contests. All of the other age groups among whites went for Clinton (ages 30-44, 62%-38%; ages 45-64, 68%-29%; ages 65+, 74%-23%).
There was more of a split among whites by education. Those without college educations going overwhelmingly for Clinton with 71% of the vote. The numbers were closer for those with a college education -- where Clinton won by 54% to Obama's 43%.
Clinton regained her lead among the "white working class" -- those who make less than $50,000 (69%-28%). She also won among whites, who make more than $50,000 (61%-37%).
Clinton also showed her strength in other areas: She won the late deciders; she won among union households; she was seen as best qualified to be Commander-In-Chief, and she was seen as the candidate with the best chance of winning in the fall.
NBC News declares Hillary Clinton as the projected winner in Texas
*** UPDATE *** From NBC's Andrea Mitchell
Clinton was joined on her plane by daughter Chelsea, Congressman Gregory Meeks (D-NY), Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH), who campaigned vigorously for the senator in Ohio, and campaign finance chairman Terry Mcauliffe.
Clinton will spend tomorrow in DC and will begin campaigning in Pennsylvania on
From NBC's Mark Murray Clinton campaign has announced that Chelsea will stump in Philadelphia tomorrow -- at the University of Pennsylvania.
Folks, the Pennsylvania contest is seven -- yes seven -- weeks from now.
From NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann
If Hillary Clinton wins the popular vote in Texas, and especially if she doesn't hemorrhage caucus delegates to the extent that many expected her to, her husband can fairly be credited with much of that victory.
By a quick rough count, the former president did at least 50 public events in Texas since Obama's sweep of the Potomac Primary states on Feb. 12th made the Lone Star State a must-win contest for the New York Senator.
Those events ranged from neighborhood pickup truck rallies that reached 100 voters to high school auditoriums packed with a thousand.
At every event, Bill Clinton explained the complex caucus/primary hybrid, encouraging supporters not to let "her opponent steal delegates in the nighttime that she won in the daytime."
Many of Clinton's recent stops have been in counties -- like Taylor, El Paso, Midland, and Maverick-- where she is currently leading in the count.
From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan Obama campaign tonight is that the results will be "a wash" per Axelrod.
He argued that the campaign was behind by 20 points three weeks before and they'd closed a sizable gap.
On losing Ohio, he said it doesn't matter if the campaign didn't win since a Democrat will win Ohio regardless -- due to the economic situation there.
But the heart of the message is that the campaign soldiers on. Wyoming and Mississippi are next and the Obama campaign will head there and then on to Pennsylvania.
From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan Obama's outdoor rally tonight, and the song matches the muted tone of the crowd. Perhaps it's the chilly night, or the fact that only caucus attendees are allowed to attend the rally but the large space has yet to be filled. Crowds are waiting quietly, a giant projection screen is playing CNN in one area of the parking lot.
No word yet on when Obama will take the stage, but if they are waiting for people to come out from the caucuses it may take a while. I overheard one staffer to say to another that the caucuses were a "hot mess."
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones
H-I-L-L-A-R-Y, she's much better than the guy!
Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones and John Glenn are on stage now revving up the already revved up crowd.
From MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell and Adam Verdugo
As for voters by age, Obama is getting two-thirds of young voters (ages 18-29), as well as the majority (54%) of those ages 30 to 44. Hillary Clinton is getting the over-45 group and taking an overwhelming number of the seniors (ages 65+ she gets 7-out-of-10). That is one of the largest margins for Clinton we have seen this entire primary season.
It's also interesting to note that in Ohio, 1-in-5 Democratic voters said race was an important factor in making their decision. In that group, 8-in-10 voted for Hillary Clinton.
NBC News declares Hillary
Clinton as the projected winner in Ohio
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro Clinton 254, Obama 208.
After an in-depth conversation with the Obama campaign after new lists were provided to NBC News, we've adjusted and revised our number.
The superdelegate count now stands at Clinton 254, Obama 211. (Since Super Tuesday, Obama has picked up 40 supers, Clinton has lost a net of six.)
This means, Obama is leading Clinton 1,413-1,296 overall by our count, adding in the NBC News hard count of Obama 1,202, Clinton 1,042.
From NBC's Mark Murray Per an Obama spokesman, Obama called McCain to congratulate him for wrapping up the GOP nomination.
"At 8:30 pm central from his hotel room in San Antonio," the spokesman said, "Senator Obama called McCain. He congratulated him on the campaign he's run and said he looked forward to running against him in the fall."
*** UPDATE *** NBC's Kelly O'DonnellClinton called McCain as well.
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro McCain has received a sufficient amount of delegate support to claim the nomination.
A source familiar with RNC planning said there will be an RNC event with McCain some time after the White House Rose Garden event with President Bush. No further details were provided on specific time or place.
From NBC's Mark Murray Clinton conference call -- in which the campaign alleged irregularities in the Texas caucuses -- the top lawyer for the Obama campaign (Bob Bauer) jumped on the call during the Q&A session to rebut the Clinton camp's charges.
The Clinton campaign alleged (among other things) that Obama supporters were confiscating precinct chairman manuals at the caucuses, as well as locking out Clinton supporters from the precincts.
"What is happening tonight is an outrage," said Clinton Texas state director Ace Smith. "It's really disturbing and it's really undemocratic what is going on."
To drive this point home, Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson reminded reporters that it had not held such a call in previous contests. "What is happening in Texas is not typical," he said. "It is quite extraordinary."
But during the Q&A session -- on the second question -- Bauer jumped into the fray. He charged that the Clinton campaign in the past had in fact filed a lawsuit raising questions about the Nevada caucuses. (In truth, however, it wasn't the Clinton campaign that filed the lawsuit; it was a state teacher's organization with ties to the Clinton campaign that did.) Bauer also noted that the Clinton campaign has complained about previous caucus contests.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's David Gregory, Kelly O'Donnell and John Yang President
Bush and John
McCain will have lunch tomorrow at 1 pm and will make a statement afterward in the Rose Garden, per a White House source.
NBC News declares Hillary Clinton as the projected winner in Rhode Island
From NBC's Kelly O'Donnell
NBC News declares John McCain the presumptive Republican nominee for president of the United States. The Arizona senator currently has 1,205 delegates, including delegates allocated to him by NBC News and other delegates who have told the AP that they will vote for him. He now has more than the 1,191 delegates required for the Republican nomination.
Included in these delegate figures are delegates from his projected win in Texas and Rhode Island. He will add at least 89 delegates from Texas and at least 9 delegates from Rhode Island.
From NBC's David Gregory
President Bush is not expected to speak to McCain tonight.
Bush is said to consider McCain an attractive candidate on national security and taxes
A source close to Bush says McCain has to be careful with a Bush embrace.
From NBC/NJ's Matthew E. Berger Huckabee tonight will congratulate McCain and will be in touch with the McCain campaign tomorrow from Little Rock to coordinate a concession.
"The handwriting is on the wall," the aide said, indicating that was the plan whether or not McCain officially reaches 1,191 delegates tonight.
The aide said that Huckabee wants to have contact with McCain tomorrow in Little Rock before deciding what next to do.
From NBC's Mark Murray Obama source emails First Read that the campaign is expecting turnout between 3.6 to 3.8 million in the Texas Democratic primary.
Consider that John Kerry received 2.8 million votes in the Lone Star State in the 2004 general election.
"That's a lot of 'new' Democratic voters," the Obama source says. "Will be great for Texas Dem Party that's working to rebuild and only needs to pick up four seats to take back the state house."
From MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell and Adam Verdugo Obama campaign believes it can net more delegates out of Vermont, than if Hillary Clinton wins both Ohio and Texas, because of potential margin of victory. So this win for Obama is significant. We’ll see later how those delegates are allocated.
In Vermont, as in the other states today, the economy was the No. 1 issue. Also interesting to note here: the war in Iraq -- it ranks higher (second with 38%) here than we've seen in any other primary state. Healthcare came in third with 19%.
Why? According to the Deptartment of Defense, Vermont has suffered the highest per capita rate of causalities in Iraq. And for those voters who considered Iraq the most important issue, Obama took those voters 3-to-1.
Another area where Obama scored well: Voters thought he is best suited to fill the position of Commander-In-Chief: Obama 51%, Clinton 42%.
NBC News declares John McCain the projected winner in Ohio's GOP primary. McCain will add at least 58 delegates.
The Democratic race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is too close to call.
Here is a delegate update...
NBC News Hard Count Obama 1,202
Note: There are still nine unallocated in Colorado; one Abroad; two in Maryland; one in Hawaii
On the Republican side, McCain has won all 17 delegates in winner-take-all Vermont and at least 58 of 85 in Ohio as of now. This brings McCain even closer to the nomination with 1,107 -- 1,191 is needed.
NBC News Hard Count
From NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann
Bill Clinton's ability for spontaneous crowd-building was on stunning display today in Texas, where the former president popped up at stops along the I-35 corridor to drum up support for his wife on primary day. He was mobbed by supporters in San Antonio, San Marcos and Austin, as he tried to get out the word about Texas's complicated primary-caucus hybrid.
But that complicated process, he says, has gotten even trickier as "disturbing" reports of voting irregularities are rearing their ugly heads. Clinton says he's heard reports of "canceled" caucuses and illegal signatures collected too early for tonight's precinct conventions. (Sign-in sheets are only valid if signatures are collected after the caucus begins.)
"Some people have been told apparently that there is going to be an effort to sign up in advance and slip the sheets in," he told reporters today after he greeted voters at Ann Richards Elementary School in Austin.
"We gotta get everybody to play by the rules," he said. "It's a little bit complicated, but we can do it. And it's going to be a great night."
CONTINUED >>
NBC News declares Barack Obama the projected winner in Vermont's Democratic primary.
NBC also declares John McCain the projected winner of the state's GOP contest. McCain will add 17 delegates to his total.
From MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell and Adam Verdugo
Both candidates have said they would use the threat of opting out of NAFTA if they become president and based on these numbers you can see why.
First in Ohio, a whopping eight in 10 Democratic primary voters feel international trade agreements take more jobs away than they create. Buckeye state Democrats are even more negative about NAFTA than they were four years ago when seven in 10 thought this. Also in Ohio, union voters, non-union voters, the young and the old are all down on NAFTA. An identical 81% of Clinton voters and Obama voters see trade agreements taking away jobs.
What about in Texas? One would expect voters to be much more positive about NAFTA compared to Ohio; however, even in Texas, those critical of trade agreements significantly outnumber those who see the pacts providing a net job gain. Six out of 10 say it hurts jobs, while only a quarter see job creation as the bigger net effect.
Per NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy If there was any doubt the McCain campaign is planning on clinching the nomination tonight, the setup of their "victory" party confirmed their confidence. As the traveling press arrived at the Fairmont in Dallas to start setting up laptops and cameras, members of the event staff were raising nets of balloons onto the ceiling and fixing a giant "1191" banner to he side of the stage. Near the press risers are two large confetti cannons, the likes of which haven't been seen on the McCain campaign since Super Tuesday.
The ballroom is easily twice the size of the room that McCain's Super Tuesday party was held in, and on the plane ride to Dallas from Houston this afternoon McCain's senior advisor Charlie Black told reporters that he fully expects someone from the RNC to affirm tommorow that McCain indeed has passed the 1,191 delegate plateau.
From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli Clinton’s campaign has thrown a few caution flags over what it says are reports of inappropriate behavior by Obama poll watchers.
In a statement, Clinton’s state director Robby Mook said the campaign has “heard troubling reports of irregularities and inappropriate behavior by Sen. Obama’s campaign across the state.” Specifically, Mook pointed to a certified Obama poll watcher being removed by a presiding judge in Akron for “aggressively challenging voters.” And in Cincinnati, Mook alleged hearing “numerous reports that Obama poll watchers have been reprimanded after wearing campaign paraphernalia” at the polling cites.
Gov. Ted Strickland , speaking with reporters at Clinton’s state headquarters, said the campaign has “gotten some reports that concern us” in parts of the state. “But I know Ohio well, and I know the people of Ohio well, and I think the people will insist that those who come to the polling places be treated respectfully, and that they be allowed to register their choice,” he said.
Without referring to any of the Clinton camp’s specific claims, the Obama camp released a statement from state director Paul Tewes, who said the campaign’s goal “is to ensure that any registered voter in the state of Ohio can go to the polls and cast their ballot for their candidate of choice without interference. We understand that the Clinton campaign may want to depress turnout because Barack Obama has closed a 20-point gap over the course of this month as voters across the state got to know him.”
The statement went on to say that the campaign has heard reports that Republican and independent voters who asked for a Democratic ballot received Republican or issue-only ballots “instead of the Democratic ballot they were entitled to,” and also that some voter ID requirements were “misstated” at certain locations, causing voters to be turned away.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan Obama says he's confident that he will have the lead in pledged delegates heading into August's Democratic convention in Denver.
Coming to the back of the plane with his wife Michelle by his side, Obama joked that reporters had said he didn't take enough questions yesterday so here was their chance.
On what tonight's outcome might mean for his candidacy and for Clinton's , Obama reminded the group that he "started 20 points behind in Texas and Ohio."
"We closed the gap, but you know whether it's going to be enough to actually win is going to depend on turnout," Obama said of today's contests. "We know there's not going to be a huge shift in delegates one way or another -- just given the math. Which means that either way we will go to Mississippi or Wyoming next week."
But he said that no matter what the outcome, it would be difficult for Clinton, who currently trails him by more than one hundred pledged delegates, to make up his lead.
"You know what my head tells me is that we've got a very sizeable delegate lead that is going to be hard to overcome," he said. "I am, you know, confident that we can maintain a pledged delegate lead going into the convention."
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy SAN ANTONIO -- After attacking Obama on Iraq early last week and both Obama and Clinton later in the week over relations with Canada, McCain continued his foreign-policy-all-the-time campaign strategy in a brief appearance here this morning.
Speaking to a few hundred supporters at the Mi Terra bakery, McCain took his audience on a sprawling tour of the world's problems, repeatedly reminding them "we are in a dangerous world."
"I'm running for president of the United States because I believe we face a transcendent challenge of radical Islamic extremism, and we face a very dangerous world," he said, using a common line from his stump speech to begin his survey of world affairs.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones HOUSTON -- As yet another round of crucial primaries in four states got underway Tuesday, Hillary Clinton said she was optimistic about the race and called this one of the most civil primary contests she could remember.
"I feel really good about today. We have a great campaign going on across Texas," she told reporters after greeting voters outside a polling site at a school here. "The voters of Texas are really focused on the two most important issues, national security and the economy, and I think there's going to be a tremendous turnout across Texas today. And I'm thrilled at what's happening in this campaign, what's happening in Ohio. It just feels really good,"
Clinton would not comment on whether she would compete in upcoming contests in Wyoming or Mississippi, saying instead she would focus on today. "This is a very close race and we're just taking it day by day. It's a long road to the nomination, and I feel good about where we are," she said, reminding reporters that her husband did not clench the party's nod until June. (Of course, her husband didn't begin his battle for the nomination nearly 12 months before the first contest like she did.)
When asked about the concerns of some Democrats that an increasingly negative race could damage the party's prospects in November, Clinton disagreed. "Maybe it's just because I've been involved in a lot of elections going back a long time. This is one of the most civil and positive campaigns that I can remember. There are contrasts, and it is imperative that those contrasts be drawn because voters in Democratic primaries have to decide who they think will be both the best president and the best nominee and you can't do that unless you put out your record and what the differences are," she said, before going on to reiterate her belief that the party would be unified and would win in the fall.
CONTINUED >>
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro Judgment Day : In what has become the craziest -- yet most entertaining -- presidential primary cycle in memory, one thing has been pretty reliable: Almost every time a candidate’s back has been against the wall, that person pulled out an important victory. We saw it in New Hampshire, where Clinton and McCain badly needed wins to keep their campaigns alive. We saw it in Michigan, where Romney had to triumph in his native state after finishing second in both Iowa and New Hampshire. And we saw it in South Carolina, where Obama needed a big win after earlier losses in New Hampshire and Nevada. With Obama rattling off 11-straight wins since Super Tuesday and widening his delegate lead, Clinton’s back is yet again against the wall as we head into today’s contests Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Does she follow the pattern and pull out impressive wins in these states? Or does she meet the same fate Romney did on Super Tuesday after losing in Florida the week before: winning in some states, but not by enough to keep the candidacy alive? Fasten your seatbelts, folks. This should be a fun ride tonight.
*** The spin : So how do we measure success or failure tonight? There is no doubt that Clinton has more riding on tonight’s contests than Obama does; both Ohio and Texas are must-wins for her. She can continue her campaign by winning just Ohio, but for her to have a legitimate chance to close Obama’s delegate lead, she needs to win three out of the four (Ohio, Texas, and Rhode Island) -- and win decisively in at least one of the big states. But the Clinton campaign doesn’t seem to be in agreement. “We are very optimistic about our chances of success in Ohio and Texas,” communications director Howard Wolfson said yesterday. “If the outcome is otherwise, we can discuss it then.” However, this is also an opportunity for Obama to knock Clinton out. If he doesn’t do it tonight, when does he do it? Then again, even if Clinton narrowly wins both Ohio and Texas, Obama’s team believes the math has already knocked her out. “There’s the cold, hard reality of the [delegate] math,” campaign manager David Plouffe said on a conference call yesterday. “They keep trying to move the goal posts but at some point you run out of field."
*** Other things to watch : Here are a few very plausible scenarios: Obama could net more delegates out of Vermont than Clinton does out of Ohio. Clinton can win both Ohio and Texas, 52%-48%, and lose the overall delegate battle tonight, thanks to how both Texas and Ohio award more delegates in African-American heavy areas as well as those crazy Texas caucuses. Speaking of Texas, Obama likely has a five-point cushion on the delegate front, meaning he could lose the state by five points and still net delegates. How will the media handle Clinton winning two states but Obama winning the most delegates tonight? Who wins the night? Bonus question: Who do we reward the state of Texas to if Clinton wins the popular vote in the primary but Obama nets the most delegates? And finally, for all the talk of bias against Clinton's campaign in the media, does anyone believe any other candidate could have lost 11-straight contests, be this far behind in delegates, and be simply two victories away from being back in the game? One thing the media has done is they've given Clinton every chance she wants to write her own comeback story. She gets another shot today.
*** The basics : At stake tonight are a total of 370 delegates. Texas is the biggest prize with 193 of them (126 proportional by senatorial district in the primary, 67 determined by the caucuses afterwards). In most parts of the Lone Star State, polls open at 8:00 am ET and close at 8:00 pm ET, but in El Paso and the surrounding area, they close at 9:00 pm ET. The caucuses take place immediately after polls close. In Ohio, 141 delegates are up for grabs (92 proportional by congressional district, 49 proportional by statewide vote). Polls in the Buckeye State open at 6:30 am ET and close at 7:30 pm ET. There are 21 delegates at stake in Rhode Island, where polls close at 9:00 pm ET. And there are 15 delegates up for grabs in Vermont, where polls close at 7:00 pm ET.
*** The absentee factor : Yesterday, NBC/NJ’s Mike Memoli reported that there are signs Obama might have the early-voting edge in Ohio. Indeed, these contests could very well be the first ones in which early/absentee voting actually benefits Obama, because that voting will have started after Obama went on his post-Feb. 5 run. Factor in some bad weather -- lots of rain -- expected in Ohio, and does that cut into Clinton’s lead there?
*** McCain’s dream scenario : There are at least two people hoping Sen. Hillary Clinton does well tonight -- Clinton, of course, but also McCain. (Perhaps we should include the Canadian government, but that’s another story…) The last thing McCain needs right now is to face a de facto Democratic nominee by the name of Sen. Barack Obama. For now, McCain's has an incredible challenge in front of him: He has to build a national campaign. He does not need a presumptive Democratic opponent on March 5. But if Obama comes roaring out of Tuesday’s contests as the de facto nominee, it’s going to be a tough few months for the GOP. But not so much if the Dem contests move into Pennsylvania and beyond. Why? Think back to 1996. Obama's $75 million fundraising months will be money that's used to define McCain between now and the conventions. If McCain gets more time to get his campaign structure together, he can minimize the time he's vulnerable to being dramatically outspent. Hitting the magic number : Speaking of McCain, the Arizona senator does have an opportunity to hit the 1,191 magic number to lock up the GOP nomination -- if you factor in the delegates he picked up from Romney, as the AP has. Including some of Romney’s delegates, McCain has garnered 1,032 delegates. So that means he needs to win 159 out of the 256 delegates at stake in tonight’s contests to hit the 1,191 number. Look for many a network to declare McCain the presumptive GOP nominee assuming he does win Texas.
*** Florida watch : We should have mentioned this yesterday, but Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) has suggested that his state could have a do-over Democratic primary race. That idea set of speculation that Crist’s offer is pure politics intended to keep the Dem contest alive to benefit McCain, whom the governor has endorsed. Just asking: Will the GOP-controlled legislature be willing to use taxpayer dollars to fund a Democratic do-over? Also, as clever as this may be to Republicans who would love the Dem primary to go on and on and on, is it really a good idea to encourage the two Dems to spend a bunch of time in Florida and erase McCain's current advantage in the state?
*** Remember these guys? Down the ballot tonight, it will be interesting to see how both Kucinich and Paul -- who face primary opposition for their congressional seats -- fare tonight in Ohio and Texas, respectively. Does Kucinich, in particular, face any backlash for his back-to-back quixotic White House bids? And by the way, Paul still hasn’t withdrawn from the presidential race… We've already seen quite a few incumbent House members lose when turnout goes unexpectedly up (see Maryland).
*** On the trail : Clinton is in Columbus, OH for her Election Night party; Huckabee has his in Dallas, TX, as does McCain; and Obama hold his Election Night party in San Antonio, TX.
Countdown to Election Day 2008: 245 days
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John Harwood of CNBC and the New York Times offers of a primer of what to watch for tonight. “Should Mr. Obama sweep all four contests, her hopes will plainly be extinguished. Should she carry Ohio and Texas — as her husband, former President Bill Clinton, said she must to retain a shot at the nomination — she will no doubt fight on to the next big battle, on April 22 in Pennsylvania, and, perhaps, all the way to the convention in Denver. Trickier to handicap would be a split decision, in which Mrs. Clinton won Ohio, for example, but lost Texas. For people who want to think about possible permutations, keep this one in mind. Because of the way Texas allocates delegates, it is entirely possible that Mrs. Clinton could win the popular vote there but lose to Mr. Obama on delegates.”
The Politico’s Roger Simon : “The stage has been set for a Hillary Clinton comeback on Tuesday. Nobody knows if she has the votes to do it, but the opportunity is ripe. She not only is vigorously attacking Barack Obama but simultaneously portraying herself as a victim. It is a nifty political two-step.” He adds: “Nor do I think, as some do, that Bill Clinton’s statement that she needs to win both Texas and Ohio to gain the nomination was (yet another) grievous tactical error. The Clinton campaign had to serve notice that Tuesday is it. The campaign is facing elimination after 11 Obama victories in a row and with superdelegates swinging his way. Both Clintons had to motivate voters in Texas and Ohio by serving final notice. They had to tell them: Get up off the couch and vote now, or it’s all over.”
NBC political analyst Charlie Cook writes in his CongressDaily column, “[W]inning by slight percentages in Texas and Ohio aren’t real wins for Clinton. A ‘win’ would be anything that significantly closes the gap in delegates. Symbolic victories mean nothing at this point, other than encouraging her to plow ahead in this campaign, amassing a greater campaign debt than already exists and delaying her ability to get on with the next phase of her life.”
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The Cincinnati Enquirer already has a dispatch on today’s voting. “Voters ignored blustery winds and rain this morning to be among the first to cast Ohio primary ballots. Judy Hawks was one of the voters who arrived at the West Chester Library off Cox Road shortly after polls opened at 6:30 a.m. She was buoyed by what she described as youthful energy feeding interest in this election. ‘It's exciting,’ Hawks, 59, said. ‘Just the diversity. The fact that my grandchildren are into it and young people are starting to vote.’”
The Cleveland Plain Dealer is warning readers to expect long lines. “If lines at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections the last few days are any indication, expect a wait to vote at the polls today. More than 1,200 people came to the board office on Monday to vote early by absentee ballot. At times there were long lines. There were 715 early voters on Friday and 645 more on Saturday. Nearly all took out Democratic Party ballots.” More: Nearly 80,000 people have voted absentee so far, out of about 100,000 absentee ballots requested. Fewer than 25,000 Cuyahoga voters requested absentee ballots in each of the past two presidential primaries.” little anecdotes of Obama's camp working early voting.
The Dallas Morning News : “Their race stubbornly tight, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama blitzed Texas on Monday in a final surge of campaigning for Tuesday's primary. And while some have seen today's contests in Texas and Ohio as potentially decisive in their historic battle for the Democratic presidential nomination, Mrs. Clinton raised the notion that it could go on for months more and ultimately be decided in a fight at the party's summer convention.” Houston Chronicle reports, “The monthlong political fight in Texas and Ohio concludes in today's primaries, but the campaigns of U.S. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama signaled Monday that neither expects a knockout punch for the Democratic presidential nomination. The expectations were lowered because the polls in Texas and Ohio showed the race was too close to call.”
For the journalists following Obama, NBC/NJ’s Aswini Anburajan muses, last night's rally in Houston could have been swapped for any other late night rally he has held between his win in South Carolina and now. Just another enthusiastic crowd, just another soaring speech. Except, Monday night marked the second time that Obama has appeared on the verge of winning the Democratic nomination, and his speech to the crowd of 6,000 people had an uncanny resemblance to the speech he gave to another packed room, another cheering crowd in Concord, NH the night before the primary.
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CLINTON : The New York Daily News on her appearance on The Daily Show. “Host Jon Stewart wondered about her judgment. ‘[Today] is perhaps one of the most important days of your life and yet you've chosen to spend the night before [it] talking to me. Senator, as a host, I'm delighted. As a citizen, frightened.’ ‘It is pretty pathetic,’ she agreed with a smile. Clinton, appearing via satellite from Austin, Tex., sounded tired after a long day that began with predawn handshaking, but said she was ‘very optimistic and confident’ about her chances today.”
OBAMA : The New York Times’ David Brooks preps for a possible Obama nomination tonight by pinpointing the moment where Obama took control of the campaign: he picks Nov. 10, 2007 -- the night of the Iowa J-J dinner.
The New York Daily News : “An exasperated Barack Obama scurried away Monday from the toughest news conference of his campaign, telling reporters who kept shouting questions that he'd spent enough time on the grill. ‘Come on! I just answered, like, eight questions,’ Obama, looking surprised, told shouting reporters as he fled the room. ‘We're running late.’ The Clinton campaign has long complained that Obama gets soft treatment from the press corps. But Monday's exchange was no pillow fight.”
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MCCAIN: Playing off the 3:00 a. ad that set Clinton-Obama on a back and forth over judgment, McCain weighed in . "I would believe that my knowledge and experience and background clearly indicates that if the phone rang at 3 a.m. in the White House, and I was the one to answer it,” McCain said. “I would be the one most qualified to exercise the kind of judgment necessary to address a national security crisis."
"I mean it's all obvious: What are the most important issues, what are the challenges, how do we motivate our base, what are the states we need to spend the time in most?" McCain said, giving a rundown of the questions him and his staff need to consider. "I don't think there's anything magic about any of it, I really don't. It's pretty much what you expect to do, except as I've said before, one thing we really will insist on is to campaign everywhere."
From NBC/NJ’s Aswini Anburajan
Questions centered on why his campaign had denied that a meeting occurred between his chief economic advisor and Canadian officials as well as questions on his relationship with Tony Rezko, a Chicago land developer and fast food magnate, now on trial for corruption charges.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro in an earlier post and included the embassy's statement. Here's part of what aired on MSNBC (passed on by the Obama campaign) when both sides of the Canadian Parliament weighed in...
From NBC's Lauren Appelbaum, Victoria Riess, and Lauren Gall McCain picked up six more endorsements from current GOP governors this morning, bringing his total to 16 -- more than half of all of the Republican governors. Huckabee , who is a former governor himself, has the support of one governor.
Govs. Barbour (MS) and Perdue (GA) announced their support during a press conference in Washington. They also announced four other governors also threw their support behind the Arizona senator. Barbour's state of Mississippi still has yet to vote (March 11).
Both governors thanked Huckabee and showed their respect but urged Republicans who still have primaries ahead to throw their support for McCain. “I respect Mike Huckabee, and I respect Mitt Romney and the others who were in our nomination. We’ve done what primaries are supposed to do," Perdue said. "We’ve winnowed this down to a person who I believe is eminently qualified to lead the United States of America, and I’m happy today to endorse his candidacy along with these five other governors."
Barbour stressed that McCain will be able to unite the conservative base. “When John McCain is running against Fred Thompson or Mike Huckabee or Mitt Romney or Rudy Giuliani -- that’s one thing. But when John McCain is running against Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton , there’s absolutely no question who the conservative candidate is.”
Despite pressure, both governors dodged questions about becoming McCain’s running mate. Barbour said, “I’m on Hurricane duty” and Purdue responded that “only the media” is mentioning him as a possibility “and they're just trying to get rid of me in Georgia.”
The other endorsements came from Gov. John Hoeven of North Dakota, Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Gov. Linda Lingle of Hawaii, and Gov. Bob Riley of Alabama, all of whom were not in attendance.
From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli
Across the state, Ohioans are in fact voting today. And hundreds of thousands have cast ballots in the past few weeks, as voters take advantage of the state’s new early voting option. Local elections officials are reporting record numbers of early votes cast in tomorrow’s primary. And though both Democratic campaigns have encouraged their supporters to vote early, there is some evidence that Obama may have an upper hand.
“Without question I think both campaigns on a national level, since they hit Ohio have encouraged early voting,” said Steve Harsman, director of elections in Montgomery County. “We’re at well over three times the number we had in the primary in 2004, and we’re anticipating a huge turnout tomorrow.”
Since 2006, Ohio voters have had the option to request absentee ballots 25 days before primary elections, and without giving a reason. Through the so-called “no-fault” absentee balloting, a person can also come in person to a county board of election office, request an absentee ballot, and immediately return it.
“We’re doing 4, 5, 600 ballots a day out of our office,” said Brian Williams, director of elections in Summit County, which includes the campaign hot spot of Akron. “That’s just unprecedented as far as over-the-counter votes, and a reflection of how the campaigns are recommending people vote in person.”
CONTINUED >>
From NBC’s Domenico Montanaro Obama campaign manager David Plouffe dismissed the Canada-NAFTA story today, calling it “way overblown” and part of the Clinton campaign's "kitchen sink" strategy
Plouffe said Austan Goolsbee, a senior adviser and professor at the University of Chicago, met with Canadian officials unofficially during a walking tour he gave them at his university.
“This is being reported as an official meeting of an Obama representative,” Plouffe said. “They were having a casual conversation, and the report on that conversation is just not accurate.”
The report he was referring to was a memo by the Canadian government, released to the AP , which characterizes the meeting this way, “Noting anxiety among many U.S. domestic audiences about the U.S. economic outlook, Goolsbee candidly acknowledged the protectionist sentiment that has emerged, particularly in the Midwest, during the primary campaign. He cautioned that this messaging should not be taken out of context and should be viewed as more about political positioning than a clear articulation of policy plans."
But Plouffe had told reporters days earlier in another conference call that Goolsbee did not meet with Canadian officials. When asked about it today, he said it was “not a formal conversation. This is something that was done in context of his university. So, again this is being way overblown. This is part of the kitchen sink campaign.”*** UPDATE *** Obama weighs in as details continue to emerge.
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From NBC's Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro Clinton and Obama campaigns sought to frame Wednesday's story lines.
The Clinton camp said it was confident of success in tomorrow's pivotal contests in Ohio and Texas. "I think it will be very clear Wednesday morning which campaign had the better day and which campaign had the worst of it," declared communications director Howard Wolfson. "I think there will be no question that we will be the successful campaign on Tuesday."
Wolfson added that with the advantages Obama has going into tomorrow -- in TV ad spending and momentum from previous contests -- that Obama losing would suggest a "serious case of buyer's remorse" among Democratic voters. (That said, Clinton had substantial leads in Ohio and Texas as of the middle of February.)
In the Q&A, a reporter asked Wolfson what happens if Clinton doesn't win both Ohio and Texas. He replied, "We are very optimistic about our chances of success" in those two states. "If the outcome is otherwise, we can discuss it then."
What about Obama's large lead in pledged delegates and whether Clinton can make that up? "We believe this race will continue, and we will be the nominee... There are a lot of states yet to weigh in here." He added, "We wake up on Wednesday; Clinton wins Ohio and Texas; we have a whole new ball game here."
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones Clinton staffer commented several months ago -- before the senator lost her much-vaunted "aura of inevitability" and placed third in the Iowa caucuses -- that she, and in fact the Clintons as a rule, did not make a practice of negative campaigning. Sure, she would defend herself vigorously if attacked, the staffer added, but she would not attack first.
In November, at the Iowa Democratic Party pep rally that was the Jefferson-Jackson dinner, Clinton said she and her fellow contenders for the nomination shouldn't be bashing each other, they should instead "turn up the heat" on the Republicans.
But that is so last year.
Fast-forward to 2008. In the weeks since the Super Tuesday contests on February 5, Clinton has lost 11 contests in a row, a reality that would likely have already killed the candidacy of any other politician. Her campaign has responded by going increasingly negative, criticizing Obama for his eloquent use of words -- including those of his friend, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick -- for his apparent decision to back away from a pledge to accept public financing in the general election; for his ties to indicted real estate developer Tony Rezko whose trial begins today; for news that his economic adviser met with Canadian officials and allegedly downplayed the campaign's criticism of NAFTA; and for Obama's failure to hold "substantive" hearings on the issue of NATO in Afghanistan as chair of a Senate subcommittee.
Indeed, the Clinton campaign has just released a negative TV ad that blasts Obama on that last point.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Here's the text of the ad: OBAMA: I’m Barack Obama and I approve this message. For years, we’ve watched politicians divide us, seen lobbyists put their interests ahead of ours, and heard our leaders tell us what we want to hear, instead of what we need to hear.
The question you have to ask yourself is this: Who can take can take us in a fundamentally new direction? I'm running to finally solve problems we talk about year after year after year. To end the division, the obscene influence of lobbyists and the politics that value scoring points over making progress. We can't afford more of that -- not this year, not now.
I've spent my life working for change that's made a real difference in the lives of real people. That's why I passed up a job on Wall Street -- to fight joblessness and poverty on the streets of Chicago when the local steel plant closed. That's why I turned down the corporate law firms to work as a civil right lawyer -- to fight for those who have been denied opportunity. That's why I fought for tough new ethics law in Illinois and Washington -- to cut the power of lobbyists -- and I won.
That's why I brought Democrats and Republicans together to provide health care and tax relief to working families. And that's why I opposed this war in Iraq from the start. It wasn't popular, but it was right. This country is ready for a leader who will bring us together. That's the only way we're going to win this election. And that's actually how we'll fix health care and make college affordable, become energy independent and end this war. I'm reminded every day that I'm not a perfect man. And I won't be a perfect President. But I can promise you this: I will always tell you where I stand and what I think. I will listen to you when we disagree. I will carry your voices to the White House and I will fight for you every day I'm there.
On Tuesday, help change Washington; let’s bring Democrats, Republicans and Independents together, not just to win an election, but to transform a nation.
From NBC/NJ's Matthew Berger Huckabee criticized McCain Monday for serving barbecue to reporters on the day Huckabee had asked him to debate.
"I think his time would have been better spent at a debate and I think the people of Texas should take that into consideration when they vote either today or tomorrow," he said at a press conference. "They ought to think about, you know, what would be a better use of his time, being in Texas having a debate on issues that affect Texans or serving BBQ to the media?"
Not only did he think he is a better candidate, he said he's a better cook.
"Actually I would put my ribs to the test of anybody's, they're pretty darn good," he said. "But you know, we've been campaigning non stop and working hard because we feel like the people of Texas deserve this discussion, this debate, and I'm disappointed we never had that debate that we should have had. I think Sen. McCain should have come to Texas, we should have had the debate on television, and let the people hear the differences. If they they then decided differently, the would have made an informed and intelligent decision."
And he took a final jab at McCain's lack of executive experience.
"Let me tell you, running a government is much different than making speeches about a government," he said.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's John Yang and NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann Late last week, Texas newspapers suggested that the Clinton campaign was threatening legal action against the Texas "Two-Step" prima-caucus, the state's combo primary-caucus contest on Tuesday. The Clinton campaign strenuously denied the reports. But one thing is for certain: Bill Clinton doesn't care for the system.
Here's a quote from him campaigning in Odessa late last month: "Now look, this system was set up years ago when Texas was late, late in the primary process. No one ever thought that the votes would determine the nominee of the party. And frankly, the party leaders set this up, so they could go in. They knew nobody else would go to these conventions, and they could make sure they had a fair share of the folks that went to the national convention. It was never intended to basically reverse the results of a popular election in the daytime, but it could happen."
Yet given that criticism, it's worth noting that, according to Texas Democratic Party attorneys NBC spoke with in the last few days, Bill Clinton's campaign helped write those rules for 1992, and Bill Clinton twice won the Texas primary using those rules.
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones TOLEDO, Ohio --
Hillary Clinton said Monday she felt good about the state of the race in Ohio and that she was "just warming up."
The comment came in response to a question at then end of a press conference about what happens if Tuesday's results are tight.
"I'm just getting warmed up," Clinton said, before adding "onward and upward" as she left the podium. Earlier, when asked how she would measure success in Tuesday's contests, she simply said "winning" without elaborating.
She said she was prepared to head on to Pennsylvania and was asked about a report over the weekend quoting former candidate Bill Richardson calling Tuesday D-Day and suggesting she should bow out if she doesn't have clear victories tomorrow.
"Well, we're going to see what happens tomorrow, and I feel good about tomorrow," she said. "Obviously, this is a very close race. We're within the margin of error both with the popular vote and the delegate count, and I feel very good about what's going to happen tomorrow. Let's wait and let people actually vote before we start commenting on something that hasn't happened yet."
The senator asked the press to substitute her name for Obama's regarding controversy over whether an adviser of his met with Canadian officials to downplay his criticism of NAFTA, suggesting reporters would treat her differently under the same circumstances.
"I would ask you to look at this story, substitute my name for Sen. Obama's name and see what you would do with this story. That's what I would ask you to do," she said. "If some of my economic advisers had been having private meetings with foreign governments basically saying ignore what I'm saying because it's only political rhetoric, I think it raises serious questions."
From NBC's Christina Jamison and Mark Murray The Clinton campaign announced it's going up with two new ads -- one in Texas, which hammers Obama for not holding hearings on the subcommittee he chairs, and another in Ohio, which says she will fight for middle-class families.
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro It’s close in Ohio and Texas: The Clinton-Obama race has been exciting and fascinating, and according to two new polls released yesterday, it looks like excitement will continue into tomorrow’s pivotal contests. An MSNBC/McClatchy/Mason-Dixon survey has Obama up by one point in Texas, 46%-45%, and a Cleveland Plain Dealer/Mason-Dixon poll has Clinton leading by four points in Ohio, 47%-43%. Tuesday is going to be a fun night, folks… Nobody likes to be in a state that they think they might lose, so it is telling that Clinton is spending election night in Columbus, while Obama will be in San Antonio. Inside the polls, the subgroup breakdown is pretty predictable: Obama leads among men, those under 50, African Americans, and independents and Republicans; Clinton, meanwhile, leads among women, those over 50, whites, Hispanics, and Democrats.
VIDEO: NBC Political Director Chuck Todd offers his first read on just how close the Democratic races in Ohio and Texas really are and what the outcomes could really mean. ***
Iraq returns to the trail? Also in those polls, the economy ranked as the most important issue in both Ohio and Texas -- followed by health care and then Iraq. But is that about to change? With its “3:00 am” ad, Clinton's camp successfully turned the final days of this campaign from NAFTA and domestic issues to national security. The question is whether this will turn out to be a good strategy. Sure, the Clinton folks are controlling the final hours of the message, but Obama's camp seems just as charged up about talking about Iraq.
*** Oh, Canada: In what feels like a Perry Mason moment, the Obama campaign is going to have a hard time somehow claiming their chief domestic policy adviser was meeting with the Canadians as a University of Chicago professor and not as an Obama emissary. The only thing the Obama campaign can be happy about is that this memo of the meeting leaked today and not three days ago when the Clinton campaign could have spent days harping on this. This really does hit the Obama campaign on credibility when it comes to the press corps and may hurt them on another story down the road. The press corps gave the Obama camp the benefit of the doubt on this story; it won't next time. Of course, we have another question: Why is the conservative Canadian government leaking this memo and getting involved in a Democratic primary race?
*** Reputation saving? In what almost reads like a campaign obit, the Los Angeles Times attempts to delve into just how the Clinton campaign found itself in this position. The most remarkable part of the story -- chief strategist's Mark Penn's attempt to basically make sure he has almost no allies left inside the campaign. "Penn said in an e-mail over the weekend that he had 'no direct authority in the campaign,' describing himself as merely 'an outside message advisor with no campaign staff reporting to me.'" More Penn: "I have had no say or involvement in four key areas -- the financial budget and resource allocation, political or organizational sides. Those were the responsibility of Patti Solis Doyle, Harold Ickes and Mike Henry, and they met separately on all matters relating to those areas." So in case it wasn't clear, Penn wants to make sure the world knows he had nothing to do with the campaign outside a few message ideas. This goes to some of the chief criticism of Penn we've heard is that he won't take a leadership role; he won't take responsibility. There are a lot of folks on the campaign that would want to "report" to him, but he did everything he could to shield himself from responsibility as this CYA response to the L.A. Times exemplifies. If Clinton wins Ohio and Texas tomorrow, just how much will Penn be trusted by the rest of the Clinton brain trust?
*** Richardson hearts Obama? Still sporting his post-election beard, Richardson stated on CBS yesterday that, "Whoever has the most delegates after Tuesday should be the nominee." Well, even if Clinton wins Ohio and Texas decisively tomorrow, Obama will have the most delegates after Tuesday. Is a Richardson endorsement of Obama coming soon? Say Wednesday…? If either candidate nets more than 10 delegates in tomorrow's contest, that would be considered a major upset. The most likely result is a five-delegate swing in one direction or the other.
*** “As far as I know”? Speaking of CBS, we imagine a qualifier Clinton gave on 60 Minutes last night is going to generate plenty of discussion today. In response to a bizarre question by Steve Kroft -- “You don’t believe that Sen. Obama is a Muslim,” following a discussion about that photo of Obama in Somali garb -- Clinton gave a bizarre answer: “Of course not. I mean, that, you know, there is no basis for that. I take him on the basis of what he says. And, you know, there isn't any reason to doubt that.” Kroft followed: “You said you'd take Senator Obama at his word that he's not…a Muslim. You don't believe that he's…” Clinton interjected: “No. No, there is nothing to base that on. As far as I know.” As far as she knows? For a lawyer who has demanded precise language (example: the Farrakhan discussion at last week’s debate), Clinton’s dangling qualifier was a very odd statement. No doubt if she had that question to do over again, she would have said things clearer because this is how conspiracy theories start.
*** Body language: One thing about Clinton is that she seems re-fired up again -- for some reason, there does seem to be a lot more life left in the Clinton campaign than there seemed a week ago. “Things are breaking our way,” communications Howard Wolfson just said on Morning Joe. Is that wishful thinking? Or is there something here? Of course, is it right to say that contests -- in which Clinton led by some 20 points a while back, but are now essentially deadlocked -- are breaking the Clinton camp’s way? Or are they holding on for dear life? If anything, the one thing the Clinton campaign has succeeded at is moving the burden of expectations on Obama. A month ago, he trailed in three of the four March 4 states by double-digits, now, if he loses three of the four by a combined total of, say, six points, it will be considered devastating for Obama and not Clinton. That's the price Obama's paying for his financial lead and for winning 11 contests in a row. Of course, even Obama has remarked that the challenger needs to knock out the champ and not win on points…
*** On the trail: Clinton stumps in Toledo, OH before heading to Texas, where she stumps in Beaumont and then Austin; Huckabee travels across the Lone Star State, hitting Dallas, Abilene, Midland, San Antonio, and Houston; McCain begins his day in Phoenix, AZ before jetting to Texas; and Obama campaigns in San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston. Also, Bill Clinton spends his day in South Texas and El Paso.
Countdown to Ohio and Texas: 1 day
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The Washington Post : "Betting the future of her campaign on victories in Ohio and Texas on Tuesday, Clinton is closing out her effort with the argument that she would be best prepared to handle an international crisis, even running a provocative ad on the topic. She made that case again on Sunday, blending the argument with a description of herself as a ‘fighter, a doer and a champion’ for low-income workers in this economically stressed region that has seen massive job losses. ‘You know, for some people, this election is about how you feel. It's about speeches,’ Clinton said at a high school near where Obama spoke. ‘Well, that's not what it's about for me. It's about solutions.’”
Clinton added, per the Boston Globe : “‘My opponent gets a little unhappy when I talk about national security. He says that talkin' about the realities of the job of being commander in chief, like these 3 a.m. phone calls that come out of the blue, is somehow fear-mongering,’ Clinton said, often dropping her g's as she addressed boisterous rallies in Fort Worth and Dallas. ‘I gotta tell you, I don't think people in Texas scare all that easily.’” More: “ ‘If Senator Obama doesn't want to debate me about national security, how is he going to debate Senator McCain?’ Clinton asked.”
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times say, Obama "told a raucous rally" in Ohio "that he has ‘tried as much as possible to spend my campaign talking not about the flaws of the other candidates, but [about] why I'm running.’ But he took jabs at Clinton, deriding her for voting to authorize the war in Iraq and for her argument that "she has supposedly all this massive foreign policy experience."
“‘When it came time to make the most important foreign policy decision of our generation -- the decision to invade Iraq -- Sen. Clinton got it wrong,’ Obama said. ‘She didn't read the National Intelligence Estimates. I don't know what all that experience got her. Because I have the experience to know that when you have a National Intelligence Estimate and the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee says, “You should read this, this is why I voted against the war,” then you should probably read it.’”
Obama was referring to then-Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), who was head of the committee in 2002 when the Senate voted to authorize military action against Iraq. Graham encouraged his colleagues to read the intelligence report. Few did."
OHIO: A new Quinnipiac poll has Clinton leading Obama by four points in Ohio, 49%-45%. A mid-February Q-poll had Clinton leading by 21 points (55%-34%) and one about two weeks later had her up by 11 points (51%-40%). So the race appears to be narrowing. But not according to a new Suffolk poll, which has Clinton up by 12 points, 52%-40%.
CONTINUED >>
CLINTON: The New York Times notes that Clinton seems to be in a better campaign mood -- that she's campaigning as if she's got some momentum on her side. "If many of her advisers are worried and even gloomy about her prospects on Tuesday, Mrs. Clinton appears charged up (to the point where her voice is increasingly hoarse). She is talking to reporters and joking around more, not less, and she has been taking time to show good cheer on ‘Saturday Night Live’ over the weekend and on ‘The Daily Show’ on Monday." More: "For better or for worse, Mrs. Clinton has come full circle on her message, again embracing the strategic assumptions with which she began the campaign in January 2007: That she is the most able and experienced Democrat to be commander in chief, to manage the economy, and to win what she calls a ‘wartime election’ in November.
“It is a sobering message, not the kind that rouses people to their feet to cheer. But it is the sort of competency-based rationale that was so much a part of her years as first lady and her campaigns for the United States Senate in 2000 and 2006."
The Los Angeles Times takes a look at how Clinton's campaign got to this point. “Hillary Clinton may be one of the most disciplined figures in national politics, but she has presided over a campaign operation riven by feuding, rival fiefdoms and second-guessing of top staff members." More: "Already, some in Clinton's senior staff are pointing fingers over what went wrong, with some of the blame aimed at Clinton herself. As the race unfolded, neither Clinton nor anyone else resolved the internal power struggles that played out with destructive effect and continue to this day.”
“Chief strategist and pollster Mark Penn clashed with senior advisor Harold Ickes, former deputy campaign manager Mike Henry and others. Field organizers battled with Clinton's headquarters in northern Virginia. Campaign themes were rolled out and discarded, reflecting tensions among a staff bitterly divided over what Clinton's basic message should be. The dispute over Bill Clinton's schedule shows how easily plans can unravel. Some campaign staffers didn't expect to win South Carolina overall, but ‘our strategy was to go after specific districts in South Carolina’ to add to the delegate total while freeing Bill Clinton to spend time in other Southern states, said a Clinton campaign aide. But Bill Clinton said ‘I need to be in South Carolina,'" the aide said. ‘It was a one-man mission out there.’”
Meanwhile, here's how Penn keeps winning the argument inside the campaign. "The dispute flared anew after Clinton's defeat in South Carolina. At a meeting in the Arlington, Va., headquarters, Penn and others gave a PowerPoint presentation on what was billed as a new message: Clinton would be championing ‘Solutions for America.’ Henry, then the deputy campaign manager, objected, according to people at the meeting. He said it sounded like a repackaging of the old message that Clinton was a strong leader rather than a warm person. Indeed, a top item in the PowerPoint was ‘strength and experience’ -- a theme Clinton had been stressing for months.”
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HUCKABEE: Per NBC/NJ’s Matthew E. Berger, Huckabee asked “what’s the hurry?” and questioned why Republicans and political insiders are rushing him to drop out of the presidential race. “I’m not understanding why some people are in such a rush to get this settled when I don’t know that there’s a bomb sitting under anybody’s chair that’s gonna go off if we don’t have the nominee all settled,” Huckabee said at a press conference yesterday.
MCCAIN: McCain's "campaign is busy fielding questions over his decision to pull out of the public financing system, his support of the Iraq war, lobbyists working in his campaign, an endorsement from a controversial evangelical, and even his place of birth. It's not defense, McCain press secretary Brooke Buchanan said. Instead, the campaign is moving ahead in the face of ‘mischaracterizations’ of ‘issues that are so in the weeds.’”
The New York Times does a story about how McCain hasn't been as principled in some of his positions as he claims. "McCain, who derided his onetime Republican competitor Mitt Romney for his political mutability, has himself meandered over the years from position to position on some topics, particularly as he has tried to court the conservatives who have long distrusted him. His most striking turnaround has been on the Bush tax cuts, which he voted against twice but now wants to make permanent. Mr. McCain has also expressed varying positions on immigration, torture, abortion and Donald H. Rumsfeld, the former defense secretary."
The AP notes over the weekend, as we have previously, that McCain has been taken out of context on the “100 years” in Iraq comment. “When McCain was asked about Bush's theory that U.S. troops could be in Iraq for 50 years, the senator said: ‘Maybe 100. As long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed, it's fine with me, and I hope it would be fine with you, if we maintain a presence in a very volatile part of the world where al-Qaida is training, recruiting, equipping and motivating people every single day.’”
"While Obama's candidacy has often united blacks and whites at the ballot box,” the Washington Post reports, “it has driven a wedge through the black political establishment, exposing a rift between a new generation, whose members see their political horizons as limitless, and their predecessors, who have struggled to establish a following outside of heavily African American areas.”
“Ohio Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones is pushing back hard against the kind of pressure that has come down on Rep. John Lewis (Ga.) and other black Democratic superdelegates who are being pressed to back Obama's candidacy. ‘I say shame on anyone who's engaged in that conduct, to put that kind of pressure on John Lewis,’ Tubbs Jones said. ‘I'm not trying to be a martyr. I think Senator Clinton is the best candidate. And the beauty of the United States of America is you have the right to have your opinion, and I have the right to my opinion."
“City Councilman Joe Cimperman, once a Kucinich admirer, has raised nearly $500,000 and landed high-profile endorsements from the mayor and the city's daily newspaper in a feisty campaign heading into Tuesday's Democratic primary. ‘Mr. Kucinich is
not a congressman, he's a showman ,’ said Cimperman, 37, who has belittled Kucinich's Hollywood ties and criticized congressional votes Kucinich missed during his presidential campaigns.
“Kucinich, 61, a liberal with a political resume stretching over four decades, sensed early that the Cimperman challenge was real. He abandoned his presidential campaign on Jan. 25, months earlier in the race than he did in 2004 when he also was polling in low one-digit numbers.”
From NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann HOUSTON, TX -- In the span of 12 hours, he was hobnobbing with Shakira, being blessed by a celebrity pastor, and being hailed by a Hallejulah-crying choir for his days as the "first black president."
Welcome to Bill Clinton's day.
A visibly tired former president, fresh off of a high-profile fundraiser in Toronto last night, still managed to muster a few "Amens" during three church appearances in the Houston area this morning.
Clinton first appeared at the massive Lakewood Church in Houston, one of the nation's largest mega-churches and the home to famed preacher and charisma machine Joel Osteen. The ex-president, accompanied by daughter Chelsea and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, looked impressed at the colossal congregation, which is housed in a former NBA basketball arena. Clinton did not speak, but bobbed his head in time to the soaring chords of the church's 100-person choir. When acknowledged by the superstar pastor, Clinton was received warmly by the eye-popping crowd, over eight thousand strong. "Love ya, Bill!" cried one audience member, moved by a different kind of spirit.
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From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan Jay Rockefeller (D) of West Virginia introduced Obama at a small gathering of local business leaders here at Hocking College this morning, testifying to his strength on national security and his ability to inspire.
"I've been around a while. I grew up in the '60s; there was a ton of hope. Times were a lot better then. Now the economy is sinking into a very bad situation. You see this everywhere. How come then that I feel more hope and more optimistic and more confident in our future than I ever have before? Because of Barack Obama," Rockefeller, who recently endorsed the Illinois senator, said.
Lending weight to Obama's candidacy from his perch as the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Rockefeller claimed that no other candidate running for president had better judgment than Obama on national security.
"Not to be obnoxious about it," Rockefeller said, "I know what's going on in every part of the world all the time. It's grim… That's why another reason I have confidence, of all the candidates running, primary or general, there's only one person who really has the capacity as strong and as necessary to make the judgments, nuanced judgments to create a foreign policy that tells you when you are to be strong, military if that comes, but also how to take a situation to break it down and look at it," he said.
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From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones Clinton , who is stumping across Ohio two days before a must-win primary here, continued to drive home her argument that she is better prepared than her rival to deal with crises as president.
"When the cameras are gone and the lights are out, the president of the United States, as I know very well, is in that White House," she today told a group of supporters gathered in a high school gym here. "And, yes, there are advisers. There's all kinds of people who are saying do this and do that. But the president has to decide."
She continued, "When those calls come at 3:00 am, it might be a national security crisis. You know, it could be an economic crisis. You know, the economy's facing some really troubled waters. Think about what could happen if there were unrest in Nigeria, a terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia, oil would shoot to $150 a barrel."
Clinton needs to win in Ohio to stay in the race, according to many political observers, and she spoke today about the importance of the state, a place where the economy is tops on voters' minds.
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From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan Obama revealed that one of his top volunteers in Iowa was gunned down in the Omaha Mall shooting several months ago.
Obama revealed the information when answering a question about violent crime and gun control.
"This past Sunday, I had the heartbreaking experience to be at the memorial service of the NIU students, prior to that I had one of my top volunteers in Iowa, was one of the people that was killed in the mall in Nebraska," Obama said.
Obama added, "He was about to get on the elevator with his wife when the young deranged man shot in the head, and he was killed."
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From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones NEW YORK -- A week after a "Saturday Night Live" skit poked fun at a perceived media bias in favor a certain senator from Illinois, Hillary Clinton appeared on the popular NBC comedy show.
The show began with a sketch on the recent MSNBC debate in Cleveland, in which the actors poked fun at Clinton's focus on health care, and the New York senator's character, played by Amy Poehler, took issue with questions to Barack Obama that she felt were softballs, while she was subjected to the third degree.
Clinton then came on afterwards to give an "Editorial Response."
"The scene you just saw was a reenactment, sort of, of last Tuesday's debate and not an endorsement of one candidate over another. I can say this confidently, because when I asked if I could take it as an endorsement, I was told 'Absolutely not.' But I still enjoyed that sketch a great deal, because I simply adore Amy's impression of me," she said, before being interrupted by Poehler, who was dressed in an identical brown suit and mocked her laugh.
Poehler asked the former first lady how the campaign was going. "Oh, the campaign is going very well, very, very well. Why? What have you heard?" Clinton said. "Nevermind, I am just so happy to be back in New York, even for a few hours. Tonight, I just want to relax, have fun, not worry about the campaign."
Poehler then asked, "So no politics?"
"No politics," the senator responded. "But I would like to take this opportunity to say to all Americans, be they from the great state of Ohio or Texas, from Rhode Island or Vermont, Pennsylvania or any of the other states, live from New York it is Saturday night!"
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From NBC's Mark Murray Clinton -Obama contests in Ohio and Texas are essentially deadlocked, with Obama leading in the Lone Star State by a fingernail and Clinton leading in the Buckeye State by two fingernails.
According to an MSNBC/McClatchy/Mason-Dixon survey in Texas, Obama is ahead of Clinton, 46%-45%, although that lead is within the poll's 4% margin of error. The subgroups break out in predictable ways: Obama leads among men (54%-37%), those under 50 (56%-36%), African Americans (86%-6%), and independents and Republicans (55%-34%); Clinton leads among women (51%-40%), those over 50 (54%-38%), whites (53%-38%), Hispanics (62%-30%), and Democrats (50%-42%).
Obama wins decisively among those most wanting change (76%-18%), while Clinton wins even more decisively among those who most want experience (93%-3%). Yet they split evenly among those who care most about the issues.
Both polls were conducted Feb. 27-29 among 625 likely Texas Democratic primary voters and 625 likely Ohio primary voters.
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones, NBC's Domenico Montanaro and Mark Murray Clinton continued the same lines of attack she's been using since yesterday, hitting Obama on national security issues. She had a sharper-sounding line as she sought to define the premise of her opponent's candidacy. She gave two reasons she says he uses to show he's qualified to be president.
“My opponent, he basically says there are two reasons why he is qualified to be commander in chief,” Clinton told a crowd ousesf about 2,500 to 3,000, which appeared to be the largest gathered since the 12,000-person rally in El Paso the night of the Chesapeake Primaries. “He gave a speech against the Iraq war in 2002, and I give him credit for that. He gave a speech at an anti-war rally. Well, then within two years he had decided that maybe he wasn't sure which way he would have actually voted if he had been a senator and that maybe George Bush wasn't doing such a bad job in Iraq after all.
“And then he often cites on his resume the fact that he is the chairman of the subcommittee on European Affairs, which has jurisdiction over NATO, which as you know is our ally in Afghanistan. But he didn't tell you until the debate the other night that he never even held a single substantive hearing to figure out what he could do better."
While the 2002 speech certainly has been a centerpiece of Obama's campaign as part of an argument on "judgment," Obama never said George Bush “wasn't doing such a bad job in Iraq.” He also doesn't tout his chairmanship on the European Affairs subcommittee. He does say, though that he is a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In addition, at the debate, Clinton brought up the chairmanship -- not Obama -- and used it to deliver an effective line against him. Obama did attempt to justify his lack of holding hearings after Clinton pointed it out, however, saying that he had only been given the chairmanship 13-months ago -- when he started running for president.
From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan Obama introduced a new slogan on the stump: “real change.”
Variations on the theme change has been Obama's message and on his banners since Iowa, including: “Stand for change,” “Change you can believe in,” and “Are you ready for change?”
He continued with a series of attacks on Clinton's record, including NAFTA, the bankruptcy bill, the vote to go to war in Iraq and the power of lobbyists and special interests. Obama also tried to paint Clinton as a flip flopper, repeatedly telling the crowd she had changed her positions since she started running for president.
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From NBC/NJ’s Mike Memoli Bill Clinton holds there is the occasional restrained gathering. Bill Clinton faced one such crowd this morning as he rounded out a three-day trip to the Buckeye State. But he used the silence to illustrate a point.
"See how quiet you are?" Clinton asked voters at the Kirtland High School gym this morning. "Now think about this -- why are you quiet? Cause you know this is a big election, and you really care don't you? You care."
He continued on to say that it is the seriousness with which voters are taking this primary contest that has made the candidates better. "Every four years the American people sing a different song, with their hopes and their dreams and their fears and their anxieties, and all the terrible things and all the wonderful things that they want," he said. "You can hear it all, and it is the most beautiful, awesome thing."
And he said his wife's backers, in particular, have responded strongly. "When Hillary supporters realized that Senator Obama was going to outspend her three or four to one we had this amazing thing, I never thought I would see it. She got $10 million on the Internet in three days, from little-bitty supporters, people didn't have any money."
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From NBC/NJ's Matthew Berger
Huckabee -- joined by Rep. Duncan Hunter, Jim Gilchrist, founder and president of the Minutemen Project and Chuck Norris – first was briefed at the Laredo office of Customs and Border Protection. He viewed the command center, where operators scan mounted video cameras, looking for Mexicans seeking to cross the border. He also saw a wide array of weapons and equipment the patrolmen use, including hovercraft.
He then toured a potential border crossing, walking through the woods to the edge of the Rio Grande. Speaking after the tour, Huckabee demurred when asked if McCain was soft on immigration.
“I’m not going to characterize his position because I think that’s not really a healthy thing for me to get into,” he said. “I still had rather have Sen. McCain than I had Sen. Obama or Sen. Clinton as president.”
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From NBC/NJ’s Athena Jones
"We feel really good about it. We are training people," she told reporters on her campaign plane Saturday afternoon. "We are recruiting precinct captains. We feel good about it."
"I feel good about our campaigns and about what people are focusing on now. The kind of questions that are being asked, but obviously people have to be given a chance to vote and that hasn't happened yet.”
The New York senator said she had been focusing on Texas since last spring as part of a strategy of winning the big states. This was an interesting comment because a few weeks ago, she told reporters that grown men were crying over trying to figure out the Texas process. When reminded about those comments, she said they had known about the process, but that the primary is what most people paid attention to. (Note: In a Feb. 18 press conference on the plane before taking off from Madison, Wis., Clinton was asked to explain to the press how Texas' delegate allocation worked. Her response: "I have no idea. I mean, I've got people trying to understand it as we speak...Grown men are crying over trying to understand it," she joked. "I had no idea how bizarre it was until, you know, we had to start figuring it out.")
Polls show the race is tight in Texas and Ohio. Clinton would not comment on the "buyer's remorse" argument her camp put forward in a conference call Friday. Top aides said any loss by Obama on Tuesday would be a sign of voter dissatisfaction with the candidate, despite his having won 11 contests in a row.
*** UPDATE *** sending this video around . Question: Might the RNC use this if Obama becomes the nominee?
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From NBC's Domenico Montanaro Actresses Melanie Griffith and Eva Longoria Parker endorsed Hillary
Clinton , the campaign touted in an e-mail to the press. They will appear with the candidate during her televised town hall on a Texas sports channel, which will also be livestreamed on Clinton's Web site. Longoria was born in Corpus Christi, Texas, and is married to San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker.
Neither Griffith nor Longoria is a superdelegate -- in case anyone was wondering...
*** UPDATE *** On a more serious note, the campaign just announced El Paso Mayor John Cook has endorsed Clinton. (Cook is also not a superdelegate.)
"I'm endorsing Hillary Clinton because only she has the experience we need to bring real change in this country," Cook said in a statement released by the campaign. "Hillary Clinton has a long history in our state: Hillary knows Texas and understands the challenges border communities like ours face. I know she will make an outstanding President. Since Hillary, President Clinton, and Chelsea Clinton have each visited El Paso and have really taken the time to listen to us, I am thrilled to give Hillary a key to our city."
From NBC/NJ’s Mike Memoli NEW PHILADELPHIA, OH -- There is one career politician in this race. And according to Bill Clinton, it's Barack Obama.
From NBC/NJ’s Athena Jones SAN ANTONIO, TX, March 1 -- Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary and San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros headed a meeting with Hillary Clinton supporters here Saturday morning to talk about the caucus process. He said believed Clinton would win the popular vote and wanted to make sure she also performed well in the caucuses, which he called an intricate system and said were not the ideal way to select delegates.
"I believe Texas is going for Hillary Clinton on election day," Cisneros told an audience of about 200 gathered in a high school auditorium. "But the bottom line is we cannot throw away our hard work and our win by not being there at the caucuses."
Clinton revved up the enthusiastic crowd with a short speech.
From NBC/NJ’s Aswini Anburajan BROWNSVILLE, Texas -- Obama took a detour from the standard rally or economic roundtable Friday afternoon, to hold a meeting with Latino religious leaders and making a spur of the moment stop at the U.S.-Mexico border.
At a small, invitation-only event at the University of Texas-Brownsville with about 150 evangelical and Catholic ministers, Obama spoke of his own conversion to Christianity as a young man working with churches on the South Side of Chicago in his 20s. As a child, Obama grew up in a secular household, as the New York Times noted in April 2007: “The grandparents who helped raise Mr. Obama were nonpracticing Baptists and Methodists. His mother was an anthropologist who collected religious texts the way others picked up tribal masks, teaching her children the inspirational power of the common narratives and heroes.” Obama did not grow up with his Kenyan father, whose family was Muslim.
Obama tied the message of his campaign to a religious message, telling the story of Jeremiah 29 from the bible. "God has a plan for his people,” Obama said. “That was the truth Jeremiah grasped -- the creed that brought comfort to the exiles -- that faith is not just a pathway to personal redemption, but a force that can bind us together and lift us up as a community.”
The event began and ended with a prayer and the majority of questions focused on how Obama would handle immigration. Obama said the issue of immigration, like the one of poverty, was a matter of "conscience" and should be handled as such. He also discussed the importance of foreign investment and said that the U.S. should do more to help the poor in Mexico as a way to deter immigration.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
From NBC/NJ’s Athena Jones SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- Clinton responded to Obama’s response ad to Clinton’s 3 a.m. ad.
"Now my opponent has just put up an ad touting his policy about Afghanistan," Clinton said, "but I have just one question. He was given an important responsibility in the Senate to chair the committee that had responsibility for NATO, which is our ally in Afghanistan. But as you heard him in the last debate, he didn't hold one substantive meeting to try to figure out what else we needed to be doing to win in Afghanistan, to get NATO more involved, because as he said, he was too busy running for president."
