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:
* The post-Super Tuesday fundraising push is more intense than I even imagined: “[T]he Hillary campaign has raised roughly $4 million since the polls closed, the Clinton campaign tells us. The Hillary camp is also claiming 35,000 new donors in the past 48 hours.” At the same time, however, the Obama campaign, using the $5 million Clinton loan as a rallying cry, has raised $7.6 million over the same time period.
* Some Obama campaign staffers got a little sloppy yesterday and inadvertently leaked a memo with expectations for the next couple of months: “By the time the last primary is held June 7, Obama’s advisers project he will have 1,806 delegates to 1,789 for New York Senator Hillary Clinton, according to a document outlining the scenario that was inadvertently attached to a release on delegate counts from yesterday’s Super Tuesday primaries.” As the campaign sees it, Obama will win all of the remaining states, except for Texas, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
* In case there were any concerns, Joe Lieberman will not be a Democratic superdelegate: “Lieberman’s endorsement of Republican John McCain disqualifies him as a super-delegate to the Democratic National Convention under what is informally known as the Zell Miller rule, according to Democratic State Chairwoman Nancy DiNardo. Miller, then a Democratic senator from Georgia, not only endorsed Republican George Bush four years ago, but he delivered a vitriolic attack on Democrat John Kerry at the Republican National Convention. The Democrats responded with a rule disqualifying any Democrat who crosses the aisle from being a super delegate. Lieberman will not be replaced, DiNardo said.”
* Yesterday morning, Obama said he’d be ready for the Republicans after enduring attacks from the Clinton campaign, should he win the nomination. A few hours later, the Republican National Committee told reporters that it would hit even harder: “With all due respect to the Clinton ‘machine’, should Barack Obama win the nomination, I’m sure Republicans will have plenty of arguments to level against the Senate’s ‘most liberal’ member.” (I assume you know, but the “most liberal” line is bogus.)
* A Yale medical student named Liza Goldman reportedly asked Hillary Clinton this week whether she would support a single-payer healthcare policy if Congress passed one. “She said yes, and shook my hand,” Goldman said.
* Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), a superdelegate, announced yesterday that he would support Obama because his constituents did: “Last night at the Democratic caucuses, the voters of southern Minnesota overwhelmingly supported Senator Barack Obama and his hopeful vision for positive change. As a superdelegate to the Democratic National Convention, I will honor their decision and support Senator Obama.”
* The back and forth on Mississippi Republican Governor Haley Barbour’s decision to delay a special election to fill Trent Lott’s seat went to the state Supreme Court yesterday. Unfortunately, the court majority ruled in Barbour’s favor. (The dissent was a gem: “Much of what has been written by the majority in the instant case would be dismissed as mere gobbledygook but for the fact that it is being promulgated by a venerable institution in our democracy, the Mississippi Supreme Court. This majority decision erodes that veneration.”)
* Ron Paul thinks he has 24 delegates. Party officials aren’t so sure.
* Pollster John Zogby predicted a double-digit victory for Obama in California this week. Given that Clinton won by double digits, Zogby felt compelled to respond to the criticism: “Some of you may have noticed our pre-election polling differed from the actual results. It appears that we underestimated Hispanic turnout and overestimated the importance of younger Hispanic voters. We also overestimated turnout among African-American voters. Those of you who have been following our work know that we have gotten 13 out of 17 races right this year, and so many others over the years. This does happen.”