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Of how insults and apologies turned Obama into a phenomenon ...
02.28.08 -- 10:41 AM
Politico's Ben Smith has a new theory on what fuelled Barack Obama's stunning ascent in the Democratic presidential nomination. It's ... insults ... and apologies ...
AUSTIN —They are so sorry.
In the course of the primary campaign, and perhaps in a preview of the fall election drama, Senator Barack Obama has accepted the apologies of three United States senators, a former senator, CNN and various lower-level supporters of Senator Hillary Clinton.
Most of them have apologized for saying something insensitive about Obama’s race, his name, or his heritage. And the dynamic of outrage and offense this campaign has proved race to be a much touchier subject than gender. At times, Obama’s campaign has sought to downplay burgeoning outrage. At others, he’s stoked it for political advantage.
But most of the flaps ended the same way: With Obama forgiving the alleged offender. Sometimes he’s accepted the apologies graciously, sometimes sternly, but always in line with his message. And that message of reconciliation – often explicitly racial reconciliation – is a central part of his campaign’s appeal. With a general election that appears likely to open him to more Republican attacks, and more line-crossing, the campaign ritual of offense and forgiveness appears likely to be repeated often this year.
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Cohen to Clinton: Time to give it up ...
02.26.08 -- 7:24 AM
Richard Cohen has some advice for Hillary Clinton. It's time to give it , pack up, go home, have some rest. Will Clinton listen? ...
There is dissension in the Hillary Clinton camp. Top aides have been in arguments, shouting back and forth about differences in strategy. Should Clinton come on strong? Should she go negative? Should she be upbeat and positive? Here's my answer: Stop campaigning.
The evidence is overwhelming that since Super Tuesday, the minute Clinton steps foot in a state, her numbers start to plummet. Of course, Barack Obama has something to do with it. He's a phenomenon, a political version of Roy Hobbs, "The Natural" of Bernard Malamud's wonderful novel, whose physical repose is TV perfect and who will, when the time comes, provide a jarring visual contrast to the much older John McCain. Obama is nearly as good as he thinks he is ...
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They fought him, now they're defending him ...
02.24.08 -- 7:40 AM
The Politico's Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei throw in their two cents on why conservatives rallied behind McCain in his fire fight with the New York Times over the Iseman affair ...
Conservative leaders often portray their political mission in moralistic terms: right vs. wrong. But their reaction to a news report that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) might have had an inappropriate relationship with a female lobbyist shows the activist right is often animated by a different impulse: us against them.
The right-wing response to the New York Times article was in some ways as stunning, and as revealing, as the salacious story itself.
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McCain to New York Times: Bring it on ...
02.21.08 -- 5:47 AM
If this is not an irony then we don't know what one is. A couple of weeks ago the New York Times endorsed GOP presidential candidate Senator John McCain. But just after the Arizona senator all but clinched the Republican nomination, the Times has now unleashed what McCain describes as a "smear" campaign against him. And the maverick politician who is also at odds with the conservative base of his party, apparently has vowed to go mano-a-mano with New York Times.
And it all has to do with a bimbo ... sorry we meant to say, a female lobbyist who ....
John McCain’s campaign promised to “go to war” against the New York Times Wednesday night after the newspaper posted its long-awaited story on McCain's alleged relationship with a telecom lobbyist. Both McCain and the woman in question denied having a romantic relationship.
The story, word of which first leaked to the Drudge Report in December, relies on anonymous sources tied to McCain who said the lobbyist was warned to keep her distance to the senator in the run-up to his first presidential bid.
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And White men jumped ...
02.20.08 -- 2:43 AM
Obama appears to be solidifying his support among White men. Slate's John Dickerson has the goods ...
Hillary Clinton has been calling Barack Obama a plagiarist. Now she can call him a thief. Obama won the Wisconsin primary by stealing support from blue-collar workers, previously a key Clinton bloc.
If Clinton was to survive the string of February losses, it was going to be by holding on to what her chief strategist, Mark Penn, has called her "durable coalition." White women, Latinos, and older voters would be unmoved by Obama's flash. No group was more crucial to the Penn argument than blue-collar voters. Clinton aides argued that not only were bedrock Democratic voters for Clinton, but they had an aversion to Obama. "How can the Democratic nominee win without working people?" asked a top Clinton adviser recently.
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Can Clinton still swing it? ...
02.19.08 -- 7:35 AM
For many in the media, Hillary Clinton's all but finished in her quest for the Democratic presidential nomination. But politico's Ben Smith writes that she still has a plausible path to victory ...
Sometime in the early hours of Feb. 6, as the meaning of the Super Tuesday results became clear, Hillary Rodham Clinton morphed from front-runner into underdog. And her prospects — in the eyes of the delegate counters, pundits and electronic futures markets — have gone downhill from that moment.
But some Democratic insiders, despite the favorable light the current campaign narrative shines on Barack Obama, do not rule out that a Democratic race that has held nothing but surprises thus far might provide one more. With the primary calendar stretching out for months, the media focusing more intensely than ever on Obama and the Democratic Party’s rules under assault, some Democratic strategists say Clinton retains a path to victory — but little margin for error.
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Clinton Adviser: It isn't over till it's over ...
02.17.08 -- 7:37 AM
Harold Ickes, one of Hillary Clinton's top advisers says isn't over till it's over ... in June ...
One of Hillary Clinton’s senior advisers said Saturday on a conference call with reporters that the New York senator would have the nomination “nail(ed) down” after primary season voting ends in June, when Puerto Rico weighs in.
“At or about, certainly shortly after, the seventh of June, Hillary’s going to nail down this nomination. She’s going to have a majority of the delegates,” Harold Ickes said, thanks to a combination of pledged delegates awarded through primary and caucus votes, and superdelegates – Democratic elected officials and party leaders who are free to choose any candidate they wish. Ickes is himself a superdelegate.
Obama campaign manager David Plouffe immediately responded to Ickes, saying in a statement the Clinton campaign was “attempting to have superdelegates overturn the will of the Democratic voters, or change the rules they agreed to at the 11th hour in order to seat non-existent delegates from Florida and Michigan.
Grab a front-row seat. This will be fun ...
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A GOP civil war?...
02.15.08 -- 7:53 AM
Per Politico's Jonathan Martin, Mike Huckabee is now raising the specter of a ... convention ...
It may be all bluster to motivate donors and raise coin — like most fundraising pitches — but in an e-mail solicitation tonight Huck is now openly pushing the notion of taking his race to the convention.
He can't mathematically get 1,191 delegates before then, so it's pretty much the only card — aside from talking up "miracles" — he has to play.
And, in yet another reminder of just how unpredictable this race has been, who would have guessed a year ago that the race would come down to Hillary Clinton and Mike Huckabee hanging on to the March 4 Texas primary as their last, best chance?
The e-mail, titled "Please Take Two Minutes to Read this:"
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Hillary Clinton, sore loser? ...
02.12.08 -- 7:28 PM
Is Hillary Clinton a sore loser? You can't help but believe she might be if you read this CNN report ...
For the second election night in a row, Hillary Clinton failed to acknowledge or congratulate Barack Obama after he won the day in dominating fashion.
On Tuesday in El Paso, hours after Virginia had been called for Obama, she stuck to her “Texas campaign kickoff” message and did not stray from an energetic, Lone Star-themed stump speech. She did mention Obama by name, only to chide his health care plan.
On Saturday night in Richmond, Virginia, Clinton spoke to a crowd of thousands at the state’s annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner, but she ignored Obama’s quartet of blowout primary and caucus wins that day as well (Obama also won the Maine caucuses the next day).
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Getting to 270 ...
02.10.08 -- 10:25 PM
Wall Street Journal's John Fund asks: Can McCain Win in November?...
The conventional wisdom is that Republicans start at a serious disadvantage in trying to hold the White House. A still-unpopular war and a softening economy certainly represent challenges. So far, most of the enthusiasm in the primaries has been on the Democratic side, with some 13 million voters casting Democratic ballots and fewer than 9 million picking a GOP one.
But despite these obstacles, John McCain will now begin to assemble his fall election team with surprisingly good poll results. The average of all the recent national polls summarized by RealClearPolitics.com show the Arizona senator leading Hillary Clinton by 47% to 45% and trailing Barack Obama by only 44% to 47%. Both results are within the statistical margin of error for national polls, so it's fair to say Mr. McCain starts out with an even chance of winning.
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