April 2008

(Via Politico.com.)

When I spoke briefly with George Stephanopoulos yesterday afternoon, I had also reached out to Charlie Gibson, who did not return an e-mail (or comment in any publication throughout the day).

But on “World News,” Gibson mentioned public criticism of Wednesday’s ABC’s Democratic debate.

Charlie Gibson: Next we turn to presidential politics, a day after last night’s contentious Democratic debate. Both candidates were back campaigning today. Both showed last night they could take a political punch. But many of the blows today were being aimed at the debate itself and the questions asked.

Gibson later said that the “debate over the debate has been heated” and that it “continues at our website ABCNEWS.com.”

(Via The Huffington Post.)

Throughout their contentious debate on Wednesday, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton tried again and again to put Senator Barack Obama on the defensive in a pointed attempt, her advisers say, to raise doubts about his electability among a small but powerful audience: the uncommitted superdelegates who will most likely determine the nomination.

Yet despite giving it her best shot in what might have been their final debate, interviews on Thursday with a cross-section of these superdelegates — members of Congress, elected officials and party leaders — showed that none had been persuaded much by her attacks on Mr. Obama’s strength as a potential Democratic nominee, his recent gaffes and his relationships with his former pastor and with a onetime member of the Weather Underground.

(Via ABC News.)

Barack Obama has knocked down one of the three tent poles of Hillary Clinton’s campaign for president, surging ahead of her as the candidate Democrats see as most likely to win in November. He’s challenging her on leadership as well, leaving only experience as a clear Clinton advantage in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll.

On the eve of their debate before the Pennsylvania primary next week, Democrats by a 2-1 margin, 62-31 percent, now see Obama as better able to win in November — a dramatic turn from February, when Clinton held a scant 5-point edge on this measure, and more so from last fall, when she crushed her opponents on electability.

Full story here.

(Via New York Magazine.)

If the Democratic presidential race were a poker game, by now you’d have to suspect that Barack Obama’s campaign is dealing from the bottom of the deck: Rarely a day goes by when it doesn’t slap another ace down on the table. The aces in this (possibly strained) metaphor are endorsements, and it often seems as if the Obama operation has an inexhaustible supply at its disposal. In the past week alone, it has announced the support of congressmen from North Carolina and Indiana; the Utah state party chair; the Oklahoma state party’s chief fundraiser; 25 South Dakota state legislators; the owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers; and, not least, The Boss. Some of these endorsers are super-delegates, and thus of no small consequence to the outcome of the race. Others are simply window-dressing, deployed to create a sense of ineluctable momentum in Obama’s direction. But none have the particular resonance of the endorsement that’s coming — unbeknownst to the campaign — a little later today.

Full story here.

(Via MyDD.)

What both Obama and Clinton have been doing for the Democratic Party this nomination battle has been historical and will have long-term benefits. They are defining the new Democratic majority. Obama is bringing in masses of the millennial youth. He’ll need to show leadership over the coming years to keep them with us. Read that book I’ve been talking about, Millennial Makeover, to realize how this becomes a powerful political force. Clinton, I told all my Texas friends, would be the long hoped for candidate that rallies the Latino voters, as she’s done throughout the country, to vote Democratic in higher numbers than ever before. Consider the amount of people-powered donors that Obama has now. He literally has the power to send a million dollars to any Democratic candidate through his supporter list. Consider the gender gap that Clinton has created with women voting in higher numbers than men, and how powerful that will be for Democrats.

Full story here.

(Via Political Wire.)

A Zogby tracking poll in Pennsylvania shows Sen. Hillary Clinton “had a good day” following a contentious debate on Wednesday night and now holds a 47% to 43% advantage over Sen. Barack Obama — just inside the poll’s 4.1 point margin of error.

Key finding: “There was a shift in the genders. Among men, Clinton made up seven points in the last 24 hours against Obama, who still holds a 49% to 41% edge. But Obama also made up a little ground among women, where Clinton now leads by 13 points, down from 15% in yesterday’s tracking poll.”

(Via RealClearPolitics.)

For 40 of his 65 years, ever since he first registered, Martin Greenblatt has been voting Republican in this Philadelphia suburb. Through much of the past winter, the retired teacher considered himself a supporter of Rudy Giuliani. But when the former New York mayor quit the race without a single primary victory, Greenblatt made a radical decision.

He reregistered as a Democrat so he could vote for Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama in next Tuesday’s primary. His vote will be counted along with thousands of others to be cast in the Philadelphia suburbs, traditionally the votes that anoint the winner in Pennsylvania contests.

In a day of interviewing outside the library in this Montgomery County community just before Wednesday’s Democratic TV debate in Philadelphia, Greenblatt’s story was just one of many describing the strange journeys they have taken to their current positions — and the disquiet some of them feel about the votes they are about to cast.

While Clinton had more supporters in these interviews than Obama (or Republican John McCain), it is obvious that all the campaign time the candidates have lavished on Pennsylvania since Ohio and Texas voted for Clinton and McCain on March 4 has fueled more doubts than enthusiasm.

Greenblatt is typical. Asked about McCain, this longtime Republican said, “I don’t like his (Iraq) war policy. I supported the war at the beginning, but I’m increasingly disillusioned with it. McCain just seems to want to keep it going.”

Obama has little appeal to Greenblatt. “He hasn’t had the experience,” Greenblatt said, in a comment I heard many times from other voters. “Two years in the Senate, and one of them he spent running for president. And I’m not happy with Rev. (Jeremiah) Wright,” Obama’s controversial pastor.

Full story here.

(Via Yahoo! News.)

Republicans are no longer underdogs in the race for the White House. To pull that off, John McCain has attracted disgruntled GOP voters, independents and even some moderate Democrats who shunned his party last fall.

Partly thanks to an increasingly likable image, the Republican presidential candidate has pulled even with the two Democrats still brawling for their party’s nomination, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo news poll released Thursday. Just five months ago — before either party had winnowed its field — the survey showed people preferred sending an unnamed Democrat over a Republican to the White House by 13 percentage points.

Also helping the Arizona senator close the gap: Peoples’ opinions of Hillary Rodham Clinton have soured slightly, while their views of Barack Obama have improved though less impressively than McCain’s.

The survey suggests that those switching to McCain are largely attuned to his personal qualities and McCain may be benefiting as the two Democrats snipe at each other during their prolonged nomination fight.

David Mason of Richmond, Va., is typical of the voters McCain has gained since last November, when the 46-year-old personal trainer was undecided. Mason calls himself an independent and voted in 2004 for President Bush, whom he considers a strong leader but a disappointment due to the “no-win situation” in Iraq.

“It’s not that I’m that much in favor of McCain, it’s the other two are turning me off,” Mason said of Clinton and Obama, the senators from New York and Illinois, in explaining his move toward McCain. As for the Republican’s experiences as a Vietnam War prisoner and in the Senate, Mason said, “All he’s been through is an asset.”

Full story here.

(Via Yahoo! News.)

Remember the cookies?

Barack Obama wants to make sure that voters do, even if it was 16 years ago that Hillary Rodham Clinton created an uproar when she sniffed that she could have given up her career and “stayed home, baked cookies and had teas.”

While Clinton brought up the problems Obama could face in a general election if he’s nominated, Obama used a two-hour debate Wednesday night to remind Americans what they don’t like about his opponent and her husband, Bill, the former president. Both candidates argued they were tough enough to withstand whatever Republicans try to use against them.

Obama raised President Clinton’s controversial pardons on his last day in office. And he wanted Americans to know that Hillary Clinton repeatedly called him names in the past few days.

The point was to tie Clinton to the divisive politics of the past at a time when a new poll shows that a majority of voters view her as dishonest. The loss of voters’ trust comes as Clinton has been attacking Obama for comments he made recently about Pennsylvania voters who “cling to guns or religion” because they are “bitter” about the economy — statements that he maintains he mangled.

“During the course of the last few days, you know, she’s said I’m elitist, out of touch, condescending,” Obama said.

“You take one person’s statement, if it’s not properly phrased, and you just beat it to death,” he added. “And that’s what Senator Clinton’s been doing over the last four days.”

Full story here.