Thursday’s campaign round-up

May 22, 2008

Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:

* It’s been fairly quiet on the superdelegate front, with both Clinton and Obama picking up one each over the last 24 hours. Mississippi Democratic Party Chairman Wayne Dowdy endorsed Obama, while Guam Democratic Party Chair Pilar Lujan now supports Clinton.

* CNN: “Obama senior adviser David Axelrod says the Illinois senator’s campaign is ‘open to compromise’ and willing to cede Hillary Clinton the advantage in talks over the seating of the Florida and Michigan delegations at the Democratic National Convention this summer. ‘We are willing to go more than half way. We’re willing to work to make sure that we can achieve a compromise,’ Axelrod tells National Public Radio’s Michele Norris in a Wednesday evening interview. ‘And I guess the question is: is Senator Clinton’s campaign willing to do the same?'”

* Bill Clinton is rumored to be “pushing real hard” for the party to rally behind Hillary Clinton as Obama’s running mate.

* Obama had a little fun with McCain yesterday, mocking the Republican for supporting legislation 10 years ago that would make his own campaign structure illegal now. “And when he was called on it, his top lobbyists actually had the nerve to say, ‘The American people won’t care about this.’ Well, I think the American people do care about it and I know they have a clear choice in this election,” Obama said.

* The United Mine Workers, which had supported John Edwards, threw its support to Obama yesterday.

* New poll numbers from Quinnipiac show Clinton doing better than Obama against McCain in Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, though in Pennsylvania, both lead McCain.

* After Joe Lieberman’s breathtaking op-ed in the WSJ yesterday, Obama Communications Director Robert Gibbs responded: “I have to admit, I haven’t read the whole piece because what dawned on me about two paragraphs into the piece is that Joe Lieberman would be a fabulous secretary of state for John McCain for one reason and one reason only. What Joe Lieberman proposes and what John McCain proposes is another four years of George Bush’s foreign policy.”

* TPMM: “The fundraising figures for April show that the Democratic Party committees continue to dominate in total cash-on-hand, despite a surge of support for the Republicans as they settled on John McCain as their nominee.”

* In a general-election match-up, Obama leads McCain in Colorado by six, 48% to 42%.

* Mitt Romney has a new political action committee.

* NRCC Chairman Tom Cole (Okla.) isn’t being replaced, but he is being placed on a short leash.

* In the open Senate race in Colorado, a new Rasmussen poll shows Mark Udall (D) leading Bob Schaffer (R) by six, 47% to 41%.

* In Missouri’s gubernatorial race, SurveyUSA has Democratic Attorney General Jay Nixon currently enjoying huge leads over all of her possible Republican opponents.

Bill Clinton is rumored to be “pushing real hard” for the party to rally behind Hillary Clinton as Obama’s running mate.

No shit.

and NO WAY.

Obama’s campaign is all about getting the Clintons and all their friends off the necks of the American people. Bringing the Clinton circus on board would undercut everything Obama has said up til now. And how could Hillary support someone who she’s done everything to ter down, someone who she said was worse than McCain?

  • I can’t believe that Hillary would rather be VP for the next EIGHT years than the Senator from New York.

    And I can’t believe that Obama would want her. And Bill.

    I’m hoping for Gen. Wes Clark for VP. He has the perfect resume to offset Obama’s alleged inexperience.

  • If Obama made the mistake of choosing Hillary Clinton as his running mate the Bill and Hillary Freak Show would begin immediately. He would spend the entire campaign responding to and excusing their anitcs. He has plenty of quality choices, she’s not one of them.

  • And what was this nonsense about “we don’t even know if she would accept.” It was her campaign advisors and staff that were constantly bringing up the idea in the first place.

  • The Time/CNN article CB linked to in his third bullet point said:

    “Though [Senator Clinton] is unlikely to catch Obama in delegates, her lopsided victories in Kentucky and West Virginia have helped her narrow his lead in the popular-vote count to a virtual tie. She may even finish the primary season with more votes, if you count those from the disputed primaries in Michigan and Florida. That gives her bragging rights for the No. 2 spot…”

    I just wanted to point out that the first sentence is factually incorrect, the second sentence is factually incorrect and the third sentence is a non sequitur.

    In addition, in a race for delegates, the popular vote is entirely irrelevent since campaigning for delegates requires a different strategy than campaigning for popular votes (i.e. a popular vote campaign would ignore small states, caucus states and rural states while a campaign for delegate would take the candidate to every nook and cranny of the country). Therefore, it’s dishonest to agree to rules that say it’s a race for delegates and then make a claim for some sort of reward, such as the nomination or the VP spot, for winning the popular vote– especially when such claim requires very fuzzy math.

    Just more evidence that we should take anything the traditional media reports with a grain of salt. When it comes to facts, do not trust and always verify. When it comes to opinion, traditional media nonsense is still exactly that.

  • If Obama chooses Hagel or Bloomberg, as has been suggested here, this life-long Democrat will not vote for the ticket. We need someone on the ticket who has social justice interests

  • Impartial, I suggest you look again at Bloomberg’s “social justice” positions. On gay marriage and probably abortion, he’s well to the left of Obama.

    But he’s not going to be the pick.

  • If Obama chooses Hagel or Bloomberg… Stop, ain’t going to happen. Hagel is a social con, and bloomberg is republican-lite. We need to keep the VP a dem, so that rules clinton out too.

  • New poll numbers from Quinnipiac show Clinton doing better than Obama against McCain in Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, though in Pennsylvania, both lead McCain.

    So DAMN What! Oh, I forgot that the General Election is next Tuesday.

  • New poll numbers from Quinnipiac show Clinton doing better than Obama against McCain in Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, though in Pennsylvania, both lead McCain.

    No surprise that the candidate who did better in the primaries of those states will also do better in the general election. Likewise, Obama polls better against McCain than Clinton does in states that Obama won during the nomination fight.

    I guess if you believe that Clinton won all the important states during the primaries, she’s got an argument for being a better general election candidate.

  • “Just more evidence that we should take anything the traditional media reports with a grain of salt.”

    Hillary Clinton’s circus has proved ratings gold for the media. They’re not about to let go of it anytime soon. They’ll greedily smile and nod and repeat all of her hallucinatory “facts” over and over to keep this thing alive and kicking. The media and the Clintons is really a very unholy alliance.

  • Rick @ #10.

    My point exactly, though this has been mentioned here often. See # 9 for Obama’s position also. On health care and Social Security, he is actually to the right of Clinton.
    I do not want to see this traditional concern of the party thrown out with the bath water.
    Anti-War is fine, but let’s not forget a core element of the party’s concerns.

  • People Emergency on Democracy now!

    Ickes: We want the Michigan uncommitted to stay uncommitted

    In a conference call with reporters, Clinton Senior Adviser Harold Ickes clarified their position on Michigan — they don’t want the 55 “uncommitted” delegates to go to Obama (his name did not appear on the ballot in Michigan).

    There have been reports that some of the uncommitted delegates in Michigan already selected are union supporters of Clinton. This solution, unsurprisingly, would make it much harder for Obama to clinch a pledged delegate majority.

    Last week, the Clinton campaign was agnostic on the issue — but they seem to ratcheting up the noise, or at least their negotiating position.

    Ickes also mentions that the co-chairs of the Rules and Bylaws Committee — which will rule on Florida and Michigan on May 31 — have been holding “informal meetings” with leaders of both of the campaigns.

    That means Obama gets nothing! How much of a fair vote is that!
    Scorched Earth in progress people!

  • Bill Clinton is rumored to be “pushing real hard” for the party to rally behind Hillary Clinton as Obama’s running mate.

    After what is going on this week, Bill Clinton had best be looking at property overseas in a country that doesn’t have an extradition treaty with the US, because that’s the only place that worthless goddamned traitor is going to be safe in 2009 if those two succeed in their mission to destroy the party. That Obama would let these two self-obsessed delusional scum into the administration is up there with the sun rising in the west tomorrow. Putting Hillary on any ticket is a recipe for electoral disaster that only professional Dimocrats could be capable of considering.

    It’s time to kick both Clintons out.

  • Prediction: Barack Obama isn’t going to pick a VP who “balances” the ticket, he isn’t going to pick anyone who was part of the DC establishment for the last 30 years and certainly won’t pick anyone who’ll be seen as more “seasoned” on foreign policy. He’s going to pick someone with the same views on the war, on social issues, on economic issues and who reinforces his message of change.

    That means forget about Clinton or Biden or Dodd.

  • * New poll numbers from Quinnipiac show Clinton doing better than Obama against McCain in Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, though in Pennsylvania, both lead McCain.

    Polls like this are especially unreliable right now because if Hiillary gets this nomination there will be such a firestorm that the political landscape will be unrecognizable.

  • Tom Cleaver, let me ask you something.

    Who do you hate more, Bill/Hillary Clinton OR George Bush?

    You seem to hold all three in equal contempt.

  • From that Tumulty/Time article:
    […] quiet calls have started going out to key supporters of Hillary Clinton who are showing signs of wanting to jump ship. Clinton’s emissaries point out that she is no longer attacking Barack Obama, and they promise she won’t start again.

    As of yesterday, that’s no longer true. Her keeping the lid down on her frustration proved to be just the eye of the storm, not a return to sunny skies. So, hopefully, all the bets will be off for the supers. Hopefully, not only will the uncommitted get off the fence before they get impaled but some more of Clinton’s supers will become exes.

  • Ickes: “We want the Michigan uncommitted to stay uncommitted…”

    Of course. As I said, they’re going out of their way to dispute any ruling that does not seat each and every MI/FL delegate with full voting rights plus zero uncommitted delegates to Obama. No compromise on their nonsensical claims. Anything less, and she’ll take it to the Credentials Committee in June, and after that, she’ll fight it out on the floor of the convention.

    Clinton wants to benefit from violating the Four State Pledge and punish Obama for honoring it…and she wants to put the legitimacy of his nomination in doubt. Then Obama loses, McCain wins, she says “I told you so” and runs again in 2012,…

    Is it just me, or does it feel as though the nightmare will never end?

  • As someone over at TPM pointed out, B. Clinton fluffing for his wive’s VP ambitions makes the melodrama down in Florida all that much more hypocritical – but I’m not putting too much belief in it because so far the story consists of rumors passed on by Friends of Bill…

  • Vice President? If Hillary ever finds her moral compass again, I’d be cool with her being on the Supreme Court. This way, she’ll have influence and power for as long as she wants or as long as she lives, whichever ends first. Vice President certainly has more cache than it used to, but if she’s the tireless civil servant she claims to be, being a member of what used to be, and could be again, the most prestigious court in the world must carry some degree of weight.

  • Whoa…

    Now there are reports that Hillary supporters are planning on “swarming” the Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting on May 31st to, I suppose, pound on the doors ala Karl Rove and RNC during the Florida recount meetings of 2000.

    Holy shit.

  • Just wanted to let you know re: your last item, that Jay Nixon, the current Attorney General for Missouri, is indeed a guy.

  • From the Hillary Rapid Responder page:

    Dear Fellow Hillary Supporters,

    If you believe that the DNC must honor our core democratic principles and enfranchise the people of MI and FL and their respective delegations,

    If you believe that Hillary Clinton is best for our party, most likely to win in November and best for our country,

    If you believe the contest for the democratic nomination must not end before all of the votes from each State and US Territory have been cast and counted and that nominating conventions, not candidates (or the media), declare the nominee,

    If you believe that the media and DNC have underestimated the passion, strength, intensity and determination of Hillary supporters and the power of the women’s vote,

    Then Join a group of Hillary supporters who are planning to visit Washington, D.C. on Saturday, May 31st to attend the meeting of the DNC Rules Committee. The Rules Committee will meet at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel -2660 Woodley Road NW, Washington, DC

    ——–

    Time for a mock funeral.

  • I feel like this is a nightmare. On the one hand, not seating delegates from Michigan and Florida disenfrachises those who did vote. On the other hand, Obama and Hillary both signed pledges not to campaign or listen to the votes from either. Hillary, now that she is losing, decides they should be honored, but Obama wasn’t even on the ballot in Michigan, and did not campaign in either state. That’s definitely not fair! And what about all the voters in both Michigan and Florida that did NOT vote? They knew it wouldn’t count.

    Well, there is no answer that will appease everyone. But it all doesn’t matter. Play by the rules. The DNC could have done better in dealing with Florida and Michigan, but like an umpire at a baseball game, the DNC made a call and it should stand. Get over it Hillary, stop changing your spin and convictions every time you lose a vote and show people that honesty and integrity stand for something.

    Start by accepting the rules you agreed to in writing. Tell those in Kentucky and West Virginia that voted for you because you are not black that you don’t want their vote. Take the high ground — help the democratic party win by beginning to support rather than beat down the obvious winner (who already won a majority of pledged delegates) . When Obama wins enough delegates(63 more from now), write the best “we tried, but…” speech of you life and make it OK for your supporters to get behind Obama.

    Being a woman is no excuse for bad behaviour. Make us believe it’s not all about you, but the country….

  • Let’s see…Hillary Clinton goes down into Florida and stirs up a virtual hornet’s nest over voting rights issues. So Clinton psychodrama cycles into Florida melodrama. Why does all this sound so nauseatingly familiar?
    Please Save Us From This!

  • No surprise that the candidate who did better in the primaries of those states will also do better in the general election. Likewise, Obama polls better against McCain than Clinton does in states that Obama won during the nomination fight.

    Generally, speaking, yes, but there are some interesting exceptions. Obama polls better than Clinton in CA and NJ, for example, and virtually even with her in TX and her “home” state, NY.

  • These new state-by-state polls showing the brilliant and gifted Senator Clinton beating McCain is no surprise to me, and exactly makes the point she has been publicly speaking to, namely she defeats McCain in November 2008, but McCain defeats Obama in November 2008. “Why ?” you ask. It is simple: the Reagan Democrats strongly back Clinton, but will not vote for Obama against anybody!! “Why?” you ask. It is simple: Obama’s naive Exit Strategy from Iraq, which will result in total and unconditional withdrawal of all U. S. troops from Iraq by May 2010, will then allow Iran to infiltrate powerfully armed militias into Basra in June 2010 in order to deny all those oil revenues from Iraq, and thereby undo all the good that has been done. Whereas, Senator Clinton will only begin withdrawal U. S. troops from iraq in March 2009, and then carefully calibrate and measure continuation with feedback information from Iraq as time progress, with the advice from her brilliant military prople such as General Clark (former NATO Supreme Allied Commander).

  • Not sure how I managed to post to two columns at once but whoops there it is

    My bad

    =B^)

  • Um, on that last point… Jay Nixon is not a women, so maybe you could fix the “currently enjoying huge leads over all of her possible Republican opponents” statement?

  • # 2 – Yes to Wesley Clark. He was first in his class at West Point – perfect counter to McCain who was fifth from the BOTTOM at the naval academy.

    NO TO EVA PERON

  • What’s significant about “rumors” that Wild Bill wants Hillary to be VP is that, if true, it means he knows she’s lost. He is the only one who can tell her. In its way, this is progress. (And no, I wouldn’t like it, and yes, I am a woman over the age of 50.)

  • The Obama campaign is manipulating the public with photos, etc. I was amazed at seeing 60,000 folks in Oregon. They were not there to see Obama, he was the follow up act. The most famous band in the Northwest was having a concert and Obama took advantage of it.
    Obama’s campaign is like American Idol.
    Most of the people come to see “celebrities/rock stars/princess caroline/ and Obama sneaks in a performance and the cameras roll. Most folks are not there to see Obama. It is a visual illusion, his campaign is trying to make the public believe. Half truths….

  • Joanie–

    You’re completely and totally clueless. Seriously. Put down the Hillary kool-aid and slowly back away.

    The so-called most famous band in the northwest is which band exactly? Do you even know? Do you also know that this so-called most popular band in the northwest are so HUGE that the gig they had before the Obama rally was as the 2nd opening act for Deathcab for Cutie? In a place that holds 8,000 people?

    Generally speaking, he doesn’t have “opening acts.” I saw Obama in Pittsburgh– 10,000 FULL and over a mile of people waiting outside that couldn’t get in. There was no opening act– unless you think that many people were there to see Senator Bob Casey.

    Although you’re right that Obama is sort of like “American Idol”– people vote and the person with the most votes WINS.

  • As a huge fan of The Decemberists, let me assure you that they could never draw a crow of 70,000.

    I wish they could, but it’s just not happening.

    I love them, but calling the “the most famous band in the Northwest” indicate you probably have no idea who they are and are more or less disconnected from reality.

  • Yet another thread of fairweathers that only want Obama to win – so that Clinton loses.

    I really wish we were in a Progressive, Liberal groundswell, instead of just awash in troll droppings.

  • Any of these mathmetician pundits want to talk about the electoral college and how exaclty Obama wins in Nov? We’re about to nominate a sure loser. This is a business decision – do we want to win or lose? Do we want McCain or a Dem in the White House? Let’s not get too wrapped up in purism to be pragmatic and wise enough to do what we need to do to win. It’s like Ralph Nader costing Dems the election in 2000. It’s foolish. They party should get control of this and put up a winner, Hillary. The race is a tie to be decided by superdels. I now regret voting for Obama. He can’t win Ohio, PA, FL!!!!!! Red alert!!!!! That’s 70 electorals, folks. Add in MI and NJ and that’s 30+ more. Obama’s made his case to these voters repeatedly and with 3, 4 and even 8 times the media Hillary had. They know what he’s selling and they didn’t buy it. And, his “swing states of IA, WI and CO total about 27 electorals!!!! Not enough!!!!! And VA?? No, sorry not counting on that one. That’s one of the most reliably Republican States. The only reason Webb won is because Allen shot himself in the foot everytime he opened his mouth!!!!!

  • Crissa says: I really wish we were in a Progressive, Liberal groundswell, instead of just awash in troll droppings.

    You could start fulfilling your “wish” by doing at least one substantive and progressive post yourself. All we ever see from you is mini-hissies complaining about everyone else. As drive-by foot-stampings go, they’re not even particularly well crafted.

  • This is a democracy … ALL the votes should count. The voters, and the country shouldn’t be disenfranchised just because a handful of party hacks moved the dates. Again, as I read the blogs, the Obama supporters express their sarcastic condescending comments about Mrs. Clinton, never acknowledging that she has over 17 million Americans who have chosen her over Obama so far. Before the Obama supporters continue to use such vile language towards Hillary, and her supporters, they should remember that they can’t get their lord and master elected without us! The arrogant, lock-step Obama supporters are like a cult that shares one brain.

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