Starting Gate: Obama Leaps In
4029898It's taken about 15 months but Hillary Clinton has succeeded in at least one thing – getting Barack Obama and his campaign to start taking the gloves off.
It wasn't that long ago that the Clinton campaign operatives were quick to jump on any utterance from the Obama campaign that even tilted into the negative as an example of dirty play from a candidate who had pledged to stay above the fray. Those were specious claims at best about someone who has, at least on the surface, remained remarkably positive. Those days are behind us.
After a very tough week that featured controversy over his remarks about small town Americans made to wealthy donors in San Francisco and a debate focusing almost exclusively on questions about his past associations, Obama has begun to fight fire with fire. In ads, campaign mailings and rhetoric, Obama is getting much tougher as this campaign (perhaps) nears some sort of finish line.
"Senator Clinton is a tenacious opponent and a committed public servant," Obama said last Friday. "But her message comes down to this -- we can't really change the say-anything, do-anything, special-interest-driven game in Washington , so we might as well choose a candidate who really knows how to play it." On Saturday, he accused Clinton of pandering. "She seems to have a habit of saying whatever it is that folks want to hear. … I try to talk honestly about how we're going to solve problems." And he accused her of negative campaigning. "The fact of the matter is, Senator Clinton essentially buys into the kind of politics that we've become accustomed to in Washington. . . . She's got the kitchen sink flying, the china flying, the buffet is coming at me."
In spite of the poor reviews and the volume of complaints about the questioning of Obama at last week's debate, the increased focus on him appears to have blunted any momentum he's gotten from winning more primary contests, delegates and popular votes over the past four months. The national daily tracking poll from Gallup saw Obama go from a 10-point lead to a dead heat in just one week.
It's not the ground on which the Obama campaign wants to fight but it was only a matter of time before they were forced to. Having watched as Clinton continued to win just enough to keep chugging along and facing a potential defeat in Pennsylvania's primary tomorrow, it's very likely the race continues at least for two more weeks – maybe two more months or perhaps through the end of August. It was just a matter of time before Obama began showing some teeth – this is a political campaign after all. He probably just figured it would happen in the general election, not during the closing rounds of an increasingly frustrating primary contest.
The Juggernaut Rolls On: Obama continues to post astronomically high fundraising figures. For the month of March, the Democratic candidate pulled in nearly $43 million and maintains over $42 million in the bank to spend on the primary campaign. Clinton raised over $20 million for the month (no small feat in ordinary campaign years) but reported a debt of over $10 million and had just $8 million available for the primary, according to figures gathered by CBS News. Together, the two Democrats have raised over $435 million overall. John McCain raised over $15 million in the month of March and reported about $11.5 million in the bank. McCain has also reduced his debt, reporting a relatively small $700,000 in that area.
Back On The Road: A couple of weeks ago, McCain traveled to some of the locations important to his life in order to try and reintroduce himself to voters with a biography tour. This week, McCain is back out on the road, this time scheduled to go places where Republican presidential candidates are not ordinary visitors. He kicks off the week today in Selma, Alabama to highlight what's being billed as the "it's time for action tour" focusing on disadvantaged areas like Alabama's "black belt," the Appalachia region of Kentucky, industrial Youngstown, Ohio and New Orleans.
"This week, I will be traveling to places in America that aren't enjoying the prosperity many other parts of America enjoy," McCain will say in a speech today, according to prepared remarks, "but where people are walking a long, hard road to make sure that their children will know the opportunities that other American children possess. They are places that for too long suffered too many disadvantages, but where people of good character and stout hearts believe in the possibility of making the future better than the past, the essence of the American Dream. I want to discuss with them how they are working hard to make a better future for their communities and their country. I am going to listen to and learn from them about what government is doing to help their efforts and what it does to hinder them."
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