Obama Campaign Focused On Delegate Race
Whether the subject is Florida or Super Tuesday, Barack Obama's campaign appears to be shifting its focus from winning contests to winning delegates, as illustrated by campaign manager David Plouffe's conference call on Tuesday.
The call started out with a special guest appearance from 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry, who endorsed the Illinois senator in early January.
Kerry was there to urge the reporters on the call to not treat today's Democratic primary in Florida as a significant contest. Both Obama and Hillary Clinton are on the ballot, but because the state's primary date is too early according to Democratic National Committee rules, the committee has stripped the state of all its delegates.
"Speaking as someone who's been through this process and recently won the Democratic nomination, I can tell you that what this race is about right now is delegates," Kerry said. "The bottom line is Florida does not offer any delegates. It is not a legitimate race. It should not become a spin race. It should not become a fabricated race."
Fresh off her stinging loss to Obama in South Carolina, Clinton has been playing up the Florida contest lately. Though she hasn't campaigned there, she is holding an event there set to kick off once the first polls in the state close. She is expected to win by a convincing margin with more votes than have been seen in any contest so far – turnout among Democrats is still expected to be high because of a controversial property tax measure on today's ballot.
Clinton has expressed support for seating delegates from Florida and Michigan at this summer's Democratic National Convention, though her campaign canceled a conference call scheduled for today on the topic.
Plouffe, who took over the rest of the call after Kerry got his word in, wouldn't make such a commitment – if the fight for the nomination went to the convention and delegates from both states were seated, it's possible the DNC could use the results of the primaries to determine how many delegates each candidate gets. That approach could hand the nomination to Clinton.
"That's a long way down the road," Plouffe said. "Obviously, this could end up being a very close delegate race where we're fighting for each and every delegate. If one candidate ends up amassing a huge delegate lead and becomes the de facto nominee, that's something the nominee and the DNC can work on."
The remainder of the call was focused on the campaign's strategy for Feb. 5 and beyond. Polls in many of those states, particularly the largest ones, show Clinton with significant leads. Yet Plouffe said those margins are shrinking and, given Obama's tendency to overperform in relation to polls, the campaign remains confident of scoring some significant wins -- and picking up a big chunk of the available delegates.
"In Iowa, in Nevada, in South Carolina, Sen. Obama dramatically outperformed the polls in those states," he said. "We think this is very important as you look ahead to the Feb. 5 states. When you look at the undecided voters, when you look at the soft supporters of the other candidates, we like what we see. As we look at how the rest of those voters are going to get allocated, we feel very good about their final direction."
Plouffe's argument has some evidence to back it up. Aside from New Hampshire, Obama has scored significantly higher than most polls predict. In the most recent example, South Carolina, Obama was averaging 38.4 percent in the polls, according to RealClearPolitics.com. He ended up winning 55.4 percent of the vote – a 17 percent difference.
Of course, some of those same polls have also either correctly guessed Clinton's support or underestimated it. So Obama isn't the only one who's shown an ability to exceed expectations so far.
The Obama campaign is also carefully setting expectations for the biggest prize of Super Tuesday and, in fact, the entire primary season: California.
"There's no doubt that she has the lead right now in the polls," Plouffe said of Clinton. "We think that's going to be very close from a delegate perspective."
The focus on delegates continued when Plouffe turned to the subject of rural voters. Democratic contests tend to give disproportionate influence to rural voters, and it was Obama's dominance of that demographic in Nevada that allowed him to leave the state with more delegates than Clinton, despite trailing her by 6 percent in the overall vote.
"As we look at Feb. 5, another look back would be our strength in small town and rural areas," he said. "We think that sets up very well for Feb. 5, not just in terms of states but in terms of delegates."
The call started out with a special guest appearance from 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry, who endorsed the Illinois senator in early January.
Kerry was there to urge the reporters on the call to not treat today's Democratic primary in Florida as a significant contest. Both Obama and Hillary Clinton are on the ballot, but because the state's primary date is too early according to Democratic National Committee rules, the committee has stripped the state of all its delegates.
"Speaking as someone who's been through this process and recently won the Democratic nomination, I can tell you that what this race is about right now is delegates," Kerry said. "The bottom line is Florida does not offer any delegates. It is not a legitimate race. It should not become a spin race. It should not become a fabricated race."
Fresh off her stinging loss to Obama in South Carolina, Clinton has been playing up the Florida contest lately. Though she hasn't campaigned there, she is holding an event there set to kick off once the first polls in the state close. She is expected to win by a convincing margin with more votes than have been seen in any contest so far – turnout among Democrats is still expected to be high because of a controversial property tax measure on today's ballot.
Clinton has expressed support for seating delegates from Florida and Michigan at this summer's Democratic National Convention, though her campaign canceled a conference call scheduled for today on the topic.
Plouffe, who took over the rest of the call after Kerry got his word in, wouldn't make such a commitment – if the fight for the nomination went to the convention and delegates from both states were seated, it's possible the DNC could use the results of the primaries to determine how many delegates each candidate gets. That approach could hand the nomination to Clinton.
"That's a long way down the road," Plouffe said. "Obviously, this could end up being a very close delegate race where we're fighting for each and every delegate. If one candidate ends up amassing a huge delegate lead and becomes the de facto nominee, that's something the nominee and the DNC can work on."
The remainder of the call was focused on the campaign's strategy for Feb. 5 and beyond. Polls in many of those states, particularly the largest ones, show Clinton with significant leads. Yet Plouffe said those margins are shrinking and, given Obama's tendency to overperform in relation to polls, the campaign remains confident of scoring some significant wins -- and picking up a big chunk of the available delegates.
"In Iowa, in Nevada, in South Carolina, Sen. Obama dramatically outperformed the polls in those states," he said. "We think this is very important as you look ahead to the Feb. 5 states. When you look at the undecided voters, when you look at the soft supporters of the other candidates, we like what we see. As we look at how the rest of those voters are going to get allocated, we feel very good about their final direction."
Plouffe's argument has some evidence to back it up. Aside from New Hampshire, Obama has scored significantly higher than most polls predict. In the most recent example, South Carolina, Obama was averaging 38.4 percent in the polls, according to RealClearPolitics.com. He ended up winning 55.4 percent of the vote – a 17 percent difference.
Of course, some of those same polls have also either correctly guessed Clinton's support or underestimated it. So Obama isn't the only one who's shown an ability to exceed expectations so far.
The Obama campaign is also carefully setting expectations for the biggest prize of Super Tuesday and, in fact, the entire primary season: California.
"There's no doubt that she has the lead right now in the polls," Plouffe said of Clinton. "We think that's going to be very close from a delegate perspective."
The focus on delegates continued when Plouffe turned to the subject of rural voters. Democratic contests tend to give disproportionate influence to rural voters, and it was Obama's dominance of that demographic in Nevada that allowed him to leave the state with more delegates than Clinton, despite trailing her by 6 percent in the overall vote.
"As we look at Feb. 5, another look back would be our strength in small town and rural areas," he said. "We think that sets up very well for Feb. 5, not just in terms of states but in terms of delegates."
The use of the Internet to spread false information about a political candidate--- and thus to affect the outcome of an election--- is particularly abhorrent to me.
We cannot regress to old-style dirty tricks. In the public interest, we need to get behind these emails---and identify who originated them.
If you have received such an email, please forward it to me.
negemail53@gmail.com
Hillary''s campaign played racial politics against Obama. The reverse is more
accurate.
Obama''s South Carolina campaign chair, Jesse Jackson Jr., crassly declared
that Hillary never shed tears about Katrina victims in response to her
famous "welling-up" incident in New Hampshire. Isn''t that playing the race
card?
Soon after, Obama''s staffers released a memo implying that Hillary''s
campaign was "racially insensitive." For proof, the memo referenced
Hillary''s MLK-LBJ gaffe and Bill''s "fairly tale" speech. Hillary''s
comparison was clunky and ill-advised but hardly racist. The "fairy tale"
Bill referred to was Obama''s Iraq war vacillation, not to race. Yet rather
than criticize this dirty trick, pundits bought into the lie that the
Clintons are bigots.
It''s disappointing that reporters are too politically correct to confront
Obama about his campaign''s abuse of racial politics.
The use of the Internet to spread false information about a political candidate--- and thus to affect the outcome of an election--- is particularly abhorrent to me.
We cannot regress to old-style dirty tricks. In the public interest, we need to get behind these emails---and identify who originated them.
If you have received such an email, please forward it to me.
negemail53@gmail.com
The use of the Internet to spread false information about a political candidate--- and thus to affect the outcome of an election--- is particularly abhorrent to me.
We cannot regress to old-style dirty tricks. In the public interest, we need to get behind these emails---and identify who originated them.
If you have received such an email, please forward it to me.
negemail53@gmail.com
http://savagepolitics.com/?p=59
WOW- all I have to say!
In a way this article also explain the voter distribution in FL.
it is awesome!
Keep up the good fight, Hillary!
He gives us hope and inspires us to get involved and to believe that the United States is better and can be greater than we have shown recently. He has mobilized and empowered the sleeping giant of apathetic Americans.Obama will be successful by gaining widespread support by the diversity of races,gender,orientation, and faith.I look forward to Edwards endorsement and Obama picking up more vital momentum. We need Barack Obama. A uniter and a visionary.
I personally will vote for McCain before I vote for a far left liberal. I hate the far left just as much as the far right and if something really crazy happens and the far left gets the nomination, they better snap up their purse and brace theirself because the republicans will talk about race and anything else.
We cannot regress to old-style dirty tricks. In the public interest, we need to get behind these emails---and identify who originated them.
If you have received such an email, please forward it to me.
It''s probally not far from the truth. You got to remember, he belongs to the most racist church in this country, that church praises Farrakhan who is a black muslim leader. The Farrakhan clan in a 1991 videotape of the celebration of saviors day, stated that Farrakhan wanted to know if people were willing to kill for Islam, not just die for Islam. Farrakhan also had gotten money from the Libyan dictator Khadafy, who supports terrorism in the world, and both supported Saddam Hussein during the gulf war. This information not only comes from reliable sourses from the internet, but also from a informative book by Robert Morey called "The Islamic Invasion.1992.If you want to vote for this man, thats your business, but I believe that many people worry about his ties with the muslims, and yes he does have ties. His dad was a muslim, that makes him a muslim, muslims take this seriously. I know, I''ve been studying these people for a long time, and have spoken with many of them.you need to do your homework.
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by chitown639
January 30, 2008 1:04 PM EST
- It''''s probally not far from the truth. You got to remember, he belongs to the most racist church in this country, that church praises Farrakhan who is a black muslim leader. The Farrakhan clan in a 1991 videotape of the celebration of saviors day, stated that Farrakhan wanted to know if people were willing to kill for Islam, not just die for Islam. Farrakhan also had gotten money from the Libyan dictator Khadafy, who supports terrorism in the world, and both supported Saddam Hussein during the gulf war. This information not only comes from reliable sourses from the internet, but also from a informative book by Robert Morey called "The Islamic Invasion.1992.If you want to vote for this man, thats your business, but I believe that many people worry about his ties with the muslims, and yes he does have ties. His dad was a muslim, that makes him a muslim, muslims take this seriously. I know, I''''ve been studying these people for a long time, and have spoken with many of them.you need to do your homework.
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See all 13 CommentsPosted by croft777
Yeah right, do your homework on those misinforming hate website. You are such a fear mongerer and hate mongerer. Everything you posted was untrue and misleading.