Obama Focuses On Turning Red States Blue

(AP)  It will be a red-state Fourth of July for Barack Obama, who hopes to find votes as well as fireworks in places that blue-state Democrats often bypass in presidential elections.

During the long holiday weekend, Obama is making an All-American swing from picnics to parades in reliably Republican corners of the country, states such as North Dakota and Montana. Both have voted Republican for the White House by hefty margins for almost four decades. Neither state offers many electoral votes — three apiece — but appearances there give Obama the opportunity to argue that he can appeal to voters of all stripes.

"It may have been Woody Allen who said 90 percent of success is showing up," Obama told a small but enthusiastic crowd of donors at a fundraiser Wednesday in Colorado Springs, the conservative heart of conservative Colorado. "If I didn't show up, I wouldn't get many votes around here. If I did show up, I might get something going."

Upon arrival here in North Dakota on Thursday, he repeated the theme of the importance of showing up to play. "I believe the American people across ideological spectrum ... are hungry for something new," he said on the airport tarmac.

Colorado has unexpectedly tipped from a GOP stronghold into the battleground column this year. Ohio and Missouri, which also went Republican in 2004 but are considered swing states, got Obama attention this week. A second trip to Missouri is scheduled for Saturday.

But Montana and North Dakota are about as red as they get.

One reason they landed on the campaign's radar is the gains Democrats have made in both states in recent gubernatorial and congressional races. Montana's governor and two U.S. senators are Democrats. North Dakota's governor is a Republican but the state's two senators are Democrats.

Obama noted this evolution to his supporters Wednesday night, saying that it had been a chief topic of his phone conversation with former President Clinton earlier this week. Clinton told him that he doubted he would have won Colorado in 1992 had independent candidate H. Ross Perot not been in the race and drawn a sizable percentage of voters, mostly away from Republican President George H.W. Bush.

"You've seen a seismic shift in attitudes here," Obama said.

Obama's first two ads of the general election race are running in 18 states — seven of which have gone Republican in the last several elections, including Montana and North Dakota. His visits this week aren't his first to either state, either. Obama has been to North Dakota once and Montana three times, with more expected.

In Fargo, on the grass outside a barn-like and flag-draped children's museum, Obama held a town-hall meeting with veterans to focus on patriotism, service to country and his plan for caring for veterans.

Recalling his grandfather's enlistment after the Pearl Harbor attack, Obama said, "When our troops go into battle, they serve no faction or party; they represent no race or region. They are simply Americans. They serve and fight and bleed together out of loyalty not just to a place on a map or a certain kind of people, but to a set of ideals that we have been striving for since the first shots rang out at Lexington and Concord."

For Friday's Independence Day holiday, a important symbol for Americans and politicians, the campaign chose Butte, Mont.

Obama is attending a Fourth of July parade and and then a picnic there with his wife, Michelle, and their two daughters. Friday is his older daughter Malia's 10th birthday, so a private family celebration also is planned in the town.

While Obama was tromping around on GOP turf, his Republican rival John McCain was nowhere near his base of support. McCain spent part of the week overseas, in Colombia and Mexico. He had no plans to campaign on the Fourth of July or all weekend, spending time at his home in Arizona instead.

The Obama camp sees Obama's huge-margin primary wins over former Democratic rival Hilllary Rodham Clinton in Montana and North Dakota — he drew more than 100,000 votes in Montana — as a starting advantage. For one thing, he built up ground operations that can be used now in the general election.

And if nothing else, forcing McCain to compete in the states could be enough to alter the outcome this fall. Obama is able to spend as much as the record-shattering fundraiser can raise, while McCain is limited by public campaign financing to $85 million.

But Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs denied the campaign is anything but serious about winning the states. "There's no time for head fakes," he said. "It's very real."

Still, for all the happy talk about turning these and other red states blue, it will be a very difficult battle for Obama.

Montana voted for President Bush over Al Gore by a 25 percentage-point margin in 2000 and 21 percentage points in 2004. North Dakota is even tougher, having gone for Bush by more than 27 points in both 2000 and 2004.

In Montana, the three top Democrats waited until after the state's primary on June 3 to endorse Obama, a sign they didn't want to be his most aggressive and out-front supporters. Gov. Brian Schweitzer has said Obama could be a tough sell for pro-gun Westerners in the state with the highest concentration of gun owners.

He did have one bit of good news for the Obama team: the perception that McCain is soft on the issue.

In North Dakota, the last Democratic candidate to carry the state was Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. Only two other Democrats, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, have won the state since 1900.

"Barack Obama is wrong for North Dakota. His values are wrong," Robert M. "Mike" Duncan, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said in a conference call with reporters. "He's turned out to be an old-fashioned politician."

Even Obama alluded to his difficulties.

"I'm going to have to be a better candidate," he said. "You are going to have to make sure that over the next four months that outside of your family and your work, this is your project."

[jack3213]

Barack Obama worshiped in an anti-Semitic, anti-Caucasian, racist church for twenty years. No CREDIBLE Christian would ever vote for this fool, period.

[frootloop47]

S_temper,
You are biggoted, racist slime.
Say something intelligent or don''t say anything.

[jedi080808]

IS THIS THE PLAN FOR AMERICA THAT IS BEST FOR AMERICA?
Consider these CHANGES/DIRECTIONS and think again, please."




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Posted by JTait2

I know 7 of the things you listed above to be total lies. If you want people to take you seriously. Try telling the truth instead of your BS Obama is a muslim lies!!!

[wardoglrs]

GoJam it wont matter who is in charge there all the same. There all loser''s cant you see that?

These people dont give a Dam about you or anyone. There there for themselves.

If the dems are so wonderfull then why do they give Bush more Tax payer''s money than he wants for war.

Pathetic fool''s vote these morons in power then blame them. I blame uninformed morons. Yea you the voter cant see through there BS talk. And hear we go again with the Same SH** different day ***.

Fire congress replace them all now. Never give then a chance to get hold of power.

[dnsallday]

Obama is asking us ALL to pay attention and get involved, he is asking us to listen to what he has to say, and to take some initiative to look up all of the specifics he has laid out in his "blueprint for America" (available on his website)for how he would like to implement change. In other words Obama is trying to help educate low information voters so they don''t have to keep repeating hate speech that they get from talk radio.
He is asking us to step up to the plate and take some responsibility for moving this country forward in a way that benefits us all (not just the top 1%, like McCain%u2019s plans would do).

Continuing his week-long focus on patriotism and national service, Sen. Barack Obama will lay out a plan Wednesday to create new volunteer and service opportunities to address some of the nation''s most pressing challenges.
"We will ask Americans to serve. We will create new opportunities for Americans to serve. And we will direct that service to our most pressing national challenges.
"When you choose to serve %u2014 whether it''s your nation, your community, or simply your neighbor, You are connected to that fundamental American ideal that we want Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness not just for ourselves, but for all Americans. That is why this is a great nation,"

[callistemon-2009]

ask your polling place *before* you go vote in november if your state accepts write-ins. some states do, and those votes are counted.

SOME STATES require you to be registered WELL IN ADVANCE as an independent to write-in a name...LIKE HILLARY!
just check it out first, because you want to make sure who you vote for really gets the vote.

[callistemon-2009]

ask your polling place when you go vote in november if you state accepts write-ins, before you just do it and not ask. some states do, and those votes are counted. SOME STATES require you to be registered WELL IN ADVANCE as an independent to write-in a name...LIKE HILLARY! just check it out first, because you want to make sure who you vote for really gets the vote, as we''ve already witnessed with michigan.

[eroosevelt08]

Political news is just not interesting without Senator Clinton.

[gojames5]

JOHN MCSAME I HAVE NO COMMENT.

[gojames5]

DEAR FELLOW DEMOCRATS;
THE BAD REPUBLICANS ARE FLOATING AROUND TO DIVIDE AND CONKER....... DON''T FALL FOR THERE TRICKS....... THEY TRICKED US INTO A WAR THAT HAS CAUSED US THOUSANDS OF OUR BEST AMERICAN MEN AND WOMEN........ LETS PUT AN END TO THIS BS AND UNITE NOW........ IN ANY RACE WE HAVE A WINNER AND A LOSER. BUT DEMOCRATS ARE ON THE SAME TEAM.......HELLO.....JUST THINK OF THE OLYMPICS RACE WHERE TWO OR MORE OF THE US RUNNERS ARE IN THE SAME RACE, WE DONT CARE WHICH ONE WINS AS LONG AS IT IS AMERICA THAT WINS.

they are really after the hillary supporters because john mcsame needs help. Just look at the mess the republ. have put us in. economy,housing,markets,poorly handled wars. want more of the same vote for mccain.