Obama Plans Another Major Address, This Time on Iraq

From CBS News' John Bentley


PINEHURST, N.C. – A day after his speech on race, Barack Obama will deliver an address on another hot-button topic – the war in Iraq. Giving the speech in Fayetteville, North Carolina, serves two purposes for Obama: the first is that Fayetteville is home to Ft. Bragg, the largest Army base in the world, and since Obama has been assailed by Hillary Clinton recently for a lack of foreign policy and military expertise, this could give him a chance to establish some foreign policy bona fides.

The second part of the two-for-one deal is that North Carolina holds its primary on May 6th, and in a tight race, the state’s 134 delegates could be crucial for the nomination. He’s also holding a town hall meeting in Charlotte this afternoon.

Obama will also have to deal with the Clinton campaign’s accusation that his camp is engaging in a “passive aggressive effort to disenfranchise the voters of Florida and Michigan,” according to Clinton adviser Harold Ickes. Clinton won both of those state’s primaries, but the results won’t count because they violated party rules. Obama took his name off the ballot in Michigan and didn’t campaign in Florida, and has questioned the viability of a primary re-run. “We understand that when it comes to counting votes, the Clinton campaign favors whatever they think will benefit them,” said Tommy Vietor, an Obama spokesman. “But on a day when Michigan legislators themselves have indicated that there isn’t enough legislative support for a re-vote—and when Senator Clinton’s own Michigan co-chair said that a re-vote ‘wouldn’t make much difference’—it doesn’t make any sense for them to point fingers at our campaign.”

Right now, the chances of either Florida or Michigan having their delegates seated or getting to re-vote look extremely slim.