Oh-eight (D): Elizabeth v. Hillary, again
Posted: Thursday, September 20, 2007 8:53 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
Democrats
Strategists and advisers from the Clinton, Obama, and Edwards campaigns will meet with leaders of the SEIU this Monday in Chicago to discuss their strategies for winning in next November. That will guide, in part, whom the 1.9-million member union will endorse. “We think these three candidates clearly stand on the issues that are important to us,” said SEIU president Andy Stern on a conference call with reporters yesterday. “And now our leaders are interested in who is going to win.”
Stern gave a preview of what he will want the candidates to explain: for Clinton, how she will overcome her negatives; for Edwards, to flesh out how coming from the South will translate into electoral votes; and for Obama, why he believes he can compete in many different states.
Clinton: Newsday writes about Clinton’s guest appearance on Al Sharpton’s radio show yesterday. Earlier in the day, The State newspaper (Columbia, SC) reported that Rev. Jesse Jackson had criticized her rival Sen. Barack Obama, saying he had not responded strongly enough on behalf of six teenagers facing serious charges for a racial incident at a high school. “As word of Jackson's remarks spread Wednesday morning, Sen. Hillary Clinton appeared on … Sharpton's radio show, saying she was ‘very worried about what has happened.’ But she also said she couldn't condone the beating of a white student by six black classmates, even if the black students believed they had been wronged. The black students were charged with attempted murder, although some of the charges were reduced after the negative publicity,” the paper reported.
Some Obama-supporting Congressional Black Caucus members are upset that Clinton’s CBC supporters are rigging things in her favor.
The Boston Globe’s editorial board became the latest to praise Clinton’s health-care plan: “The health plan she unveiled this week contained the best of her 1993 initiative -- health insurance for all -- while avoiding the government expansion that doomed the earlier plan.” The editorial also criticizes Romney’s response to Clinton’s plan, saying, “With so much of Massachusetts in Clinton's plan, one would think former governor Mitt Romney would offer a kind word … he wasn’t so antigovernment at the State House.”
Here's an interesting comment from Clinton regarding why she's trying to work health insurance industry types: “They are incredibly powerful. You can’t just try to wish them away." While her reality-based comments might play well to general election voters, it might not play well with activists. Look for both Edwards and Obama to use a quote like the above one and her defense of lobbyists in various negative ways.
Another bundler problem for Clinton? The Wall Street Journal potentially finds one: "William Danielczyk, founder of a Washington-area private-equity firm and a major fund-raising ‘bundler’ for Mrs. Clinton.” Some of the donors Danielczyk was responsible for raised money for Clinton from folks with a GOP giving background. The WSJ even got one of the donors to claim they were reimbursed for the donation. The bundler denies the accusation. When confronted with the news of the potential a donor was reimbursed, the Clinton campaign decided to return the donations in question ($9,200).
“Howard Wolfson, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton, said: ‘These allegations are troubling and we will again ask each of the individuals solicited by Mr. Danielczyk to affirm that their contributions were given with their own funds.’ Mr. Wolfson said the campaign will return any contributions that didn't come from the donor's own money.
EDWARDS: The Washington Post does another examination of some controversial bundlers for Clinton, Edwards, and Romney -- with the lengthiest look at a controversial Edwards bundler.
Elizabeth Edwards accused Clinton of copying her husband’s plan: "Does Mrs. Clinton's plan seem very familiar to you?" she told the AP. "Mrs. Clinton has -- seven and a half months after John unveiled his health care plan -- unveiled a health care plan that is in every material respect just like John's." She then called it, "John Edwards' health care plan as delivered by Hillary Clinton." More: “[I]t's almost as if she hasn't been willing to have the courage independently to be a leader on these things."
OBAMA: Thanks to Drudge hype, yesterday was a whirlwind regarding Obama and his response to the Jena, La. incident. Jesse Jackson's original comments in the Columbia State were, according to Jackson, taken out of context. So just when it looked like there was going to be a mini-feeding frenzy over whether Obama is black enough, Jackson calmed things down. “On Wednesday, the civil rights activist said in a statement that he was ‘taken out of context.’ It said he commended Obama ‘for speaking out and demanding fairness on this defining issue. Any attempt to dilute my support for Sen. Obama will not succeed.’”
The State is standing by its story. And Jackson says he doesn't remember saying Obama was "acting like he's white."
Tom Edsall, writing on Huffington Post, looks at the opportunities squandered by senators who used up most of their time talking, rather than questioning, Petraeus and Crocker. “Perhaps the most discomfiting was Obama who, after talking for 1,181 words and using up all his time, asked a question that had already been raised more than once.”
