RAPID CITY, S.D., June 2, 2008
Clinton Seeks To Turn Obama Superdelegates
New York Senator Mounting Last Ditch Campaign To Overtake Obama's Advantage
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The former first lady enters this week with an insurgent strategy not only to win over undecided superdelegates but to peel away Obama's support from those party leaders and elected officials who already have committed to back him for the nomination.
"One thing about superdelegates is that they can change their minds," she told reporters aboard her campaign plane Sunday night.
Obama displays no signs of worry, pivoting toward his new contest with Republican John McCain and responding to Clinton with a shrug. And some of Clinton's own backers are saying the time is near for her to fall in behind him.
Obama, campaigning in Mitchell, S.D., confidently predicted Clinton "is going to be a great asset when we go into November."
"Whatever differences Senator Clinton and I may have, those differences pale in comparison to the other side," he said.
South Dakota and Montana, which hold primaries on Tuesday, are the last Democratic nominating contests. Obama is favored in both states and he goes into them with 2,071 delegates, 47 away from the number now needed to secure the nomination. Clinton has 1,913 delegates. (See the latest CBS News state-by-state delegate tally)
Obama has made up most of the ground he lost Saturday when the national party's rules committee agreed to
With 31 delegates at stake Tuesday, Obama could close the gap further and cue undecided superdelegates to come to his side. He picked up two more on Monday, Nancy DiNardo, chairwoman of the Connecticut Democratic Party, and Virginia's Jerome Wiley Segovia, a Democratic National Committee member.
But Clinton argues she now leads in the popular vote — a debatable point given that she relies on Michigan and Florida outcomes. None of the candidates campaigned in either state and Obama received no votes in Michigan because he removed his name from the ballot. Clinton also continues to present herself as better able to confront McCain in the fall.
Clinton also won a lopsided victory over Obama on Sunday in Puerto Rico. With almost all percent of precincts reporting, Clinton was leading Obama 68 percent to 32 percent.
She and her campaign's national chairman, Terry McAuliffe, made it clear that Obama's supporters were now fair to pluck with those arguments.
Clinton invited Virgin Islands superdelegate Kevin Rodriguez, a recent convert, to travel with her to South Dakota where she planned to campaign Monday. Rodriguez had initially supported Clinton, switched to Obama, and recently returned to her camp.
"This has been such an intense process," she said, "I don't think there has been a lot of time for reflection. It's only now that we're finishing these contests that people are going to actually reflect on who is our stronger candidate."
Asked Monday on CBS News' The Early Show if Clinton would take her campaign to the convention, McAuliffe said again they "would keep all of their options open."
Cinton's decision, if prolonged, is not likely to sit well with party leaders and some of her own supporters. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., have both called on the contest to end shortly after the final primaries.
Tom Vilsack, the former Iowa governor and a national co-chairman of Clinton's campaign, said Sunday: "It does appear to be pretty clear that Senator Obama is going to be the nominee. After Tuesday's contests, she needs to acknowledge that he's going to be the nominee and quickly get behind him."
Eager to make amends for avoiding Michigan's primary and build general election support, Obama on Monday planned to hold a town hall meeting on the economy in Troy, Mich.
Clinton, meanwhile, said she was still contemplating whether to challenge the decision by the Democratic Party's rules committee to split the Michigan delegates 69-59 in her favor. Each delegate would have a half vote. The agreement granted Obama 55 uncommitted Michigan delegates and four who would have been assigned to Clinton based on the state's results.
McAuliffe Sunday night called the panel's judgment "outrageous."
"People are angry," he said. "This does not unify our party, this crazy, cockamamie thing they came up with in Michigan."
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- It''s Florida...If O''Bama is the Democratic nominee it will be Florida that will lose the general election for him. Even knowing that it was the Florida Republican legislature that changed the primary date, he did not support full seating of that states delegates.
- Reply to this comment
- It is amazing what people can talk themselves into believing. A Puerto Rican man said we needed Obama because it was time for an intellectual approach..duh, both Clintons are decidedly intellectual...probably MENSA members...they just aren''t snobs.
Obama as POTUS is a like a train wreck with all the cars filled with radioactive material.
God help us. - Reply to this comment
- Are the clouds of racism to thick for you to see? Then say NO to Obama%u2019s ideology of racist hatred. Let%u2019s say NO to racism!
Let%u2019s say NO to Obama Hussein!
Posted by DarkSkyAbove at 09:26 PM : Jun 02, 2008
Unless you are in SD or Montana, you already had your say. - Reply to this comment
- Speaking on his feet on May 26, 2008 Obama did not know the difference between Stalin''s army that liberated Auschwitz in Poland and the allied forces who liberated the camp in Buchenwald. Obama was trying to steal the shine from his great Uncle''s glory and it backfired on him big time. You have to know history so that you do not repeat the same mistakes over and over and over.
Maybe that comes from Obama''s admitted practice of only looking at a piece of paper 2 minutes before he needs it. Maybe Obama should think more for himself. After all, he is a lawyer who graduated from Harvard Law School in 1991 although not with highest honors. (Magna _ not Summa...) Obama appears to be the kind of guy who can cram for a test, get an A and then not remember it a week later. That is not what we need in a President.
Obama also said he''d been to all 57 states. Did he lose his bearings? Was it 3:00am? - Reply to this comment
- I am a black man ready to vote for John McCain as
opposed to Barack Obama. If Obama wins the nomination, John McCain will be our next president.
Posted by bookout2 at 12:17 AM : Jun 03, 2008
I wouldn''t care if you were polka dot and voting for your mammy. - Reply to this comment
- I am a black man ready to vote for John McCain as
opposed to Barack Obama. If Obama wins the nomination, John McCain will be our next president.
Posted by bookout2 at 12:17 AM : Jun 03, 2008
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Nobody would care if you were pink and voting for Santa Claus ******. - Reply to this comment
- I am a black man ready to vote for John McCain as
opposed to Barack Obama. If Obama wins the nomination, John McCain will be our next president.
Posted by bookout2 at 12:17 AM : Jun 03, 2008
____________________________
Who gives a dam what color you are. - Reply to this comment
- rufisgufis,
thank goodness a voice of reason. this site is wrought with halfwits. let me know if you want a good conversation. - Reply to this comment
- good for all you dems who are so emotionally involved that you will vote for mccain this fall. so what. go do it. you''re so bloody narcissistic you assume we will all gasp and beg you not to. i don''t care what race, religion, gender, orientation or creed you are. it doesn''t matter. making a mockery of this important fall decision makes you mud. this is about our civil rights! you notice no one screams and rants like clinton supporters do. no one acts as unethically either. sheesh find yourselves some education already!
- Reply to this comment
- I am a black man ready to vote for John McCain as
opposed to Barack Obama. If Obama wins the nomination, John McCain will be our next president. - Reply to this comment
