Obama Downplays Notion of Frontrunner Status
MADISON, WISC. -- After sweeping the Potomac primaries, political pundits say that Barack Obama has momentum but he is trying to reject that notion. At a rally at the University of Wisconsin on Tuesday night, Obama was cautious not to portray himself as the frontrunner.
"We know how much farther we have to go," Obama told a crowd of thousands, "We know it takes more than one night, or even one election, to overcome decades of money and the influence; bitter partisanship and petty bickering that's shut you out, let you down and told you to settle."
Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod said the worst thing that the campaign could do is take anything for granted.
"We learned our lesson early not to be over confident," Axelrod said.
"She's tough and she's running in some markets very heavily and we're going to fight it out here and hope that we can do well next week."
Obama will be campaigning in Wisconsin Iowa-style, with a bus tour throughout the state and three to four events a day. His first stop today will be in Janesville at the General Motors Assembly Plant, where he'll deliver a "major" economic policy speech. He is making a real effort to appeal to blue collar workers, a demographic that he generally does not perform well with.
The campaign has been quick to note that Obama's wins over the weekend and last night demonstrate that his demographic of voters is expanding.
They reject the idea that Obama has performed well solely because of the African-American vote or the "latte-liberals" vote. For instance, CBS News exit polls show that Obama received 60 percent of the female vote and won 54 percent of the Latino vote yesterday in Virginia.