Oh-eight (D): Off and on the MI ballot
Posted: Wednesday, October 10, 2007 9:05 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
Democrats
Five candidates -- Kucinich, Obama, Edwards, Biden, and Richardson -- withdrew their names from the Michigan primary ballot yesterday. That strokes the egos of advocates for the primacy of New Hampshire and Iowa, which were the primary targets of the states that bucked DNC rules to schedule early nominating contests. Clinton and Dodd, however, remain on the ballots there in what some are calling a "beauty contest" after Democrats pledged not to campaign there at the urging of national party leaders.
"We're very disappointed," said Jason Moon, spokesman for Michigan's Democratic Party. "Those two states [Iowa and New Hampshire] basically blackmailed the candidates. They forced them to sign the pledge, not to come."
So how much does Iowa and New Hampshire care about whose name appears on what ballot? If they care more than we think, then maybe this does cost Clinton a bit, but something tells us this won't have the reverb that some think. But banding together, Obama and Edwards guaranteed that Clinton would get ZERO lift out of a beauty contest win on Jan. 15 (which will likely be AFTER Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, but before South Carolina).
BIDEN: The Boston Globe's Scott Lehigh writes that Biden is "baffled" by the lack of attention for his Iraq plan. The Bush Administration, he says, took it as a "rebuke," and "the US embassy in Iraq issued a patently disingenuous warning that 'attempts to partition or divide Iraq by intimidation, force, or others means' would lead to 'extraordinary suffering and bloodshed.' "But Biden's isn't a partition plan. Further, the Iraq constitution permits just such a federalized system. Nor is the idea to impose such an arrangement, but rather to work with the UN, Iraq, and its neighbors to promote decentralization."
CLINTON: The Boston Globe covers the unveiling of her universal 401(k) plan yesterday.
It looks like the campaign is -- once again -- pushing back on this electability issue. The Washington Post front-pages, "Clinton pushed back against criticism from fellow Democrats that she is too polarizing to unite the country as president, arguing that the political battles she has been through make her uniquely equipped to bring the nation together and build a centrist governing coalition. In an interview aboard her campaign bus, Clinton (N.Y.) acknowledged that she has contributed to the divisive politics of the past decade but said she has learned from those experiences. She said that if she becomes president, she will attempt to assemble a broad, centrist coalition on such key issues as health care, energy independence and national security."
More Clinton: “‘I actually think that in a way, the fact that I've been through so much incoming fire all these years is an advantage,’ she said, adding: ‘It's been my observation that when you're attacked continually in American politics, you either give up or get disoriented or you either lose or leave -- or you persevere and show your resilience.’”
Maureen Dowd hits Clinton on her exchange over the weekend with the professional Iowa voter who challenged her on Iran. "Hillary’s hawkish Iran vote was an ill-advised move, especially given her private view that Cheney is untrustworthy and given Sy Hersh’s New Yorker report claiming that Cheney had pushed to devise a plan to attack the Revolutionary Guard facilities in Iran.”
Dowd isn't the only opinion leader hitting Clinton this morning. The Washington Post editorial board goes after Clinton for now showing pause about NAFTA. The editorial subhead strikes as a likely phrase that will be used in an attack direct mail piece: "Convenience bests principle as the candidate stumps in Iowa." From the editorial: "We suppose Ms. Clinton's remarks represent a perverse kind of good news: There's little chance that her position reflects any deeply held principle. On the other hand, such opportunism under pressure would not serve the country well if she becomes president."
The New York Observer's Lizzy Ratner reports that Democratic supporters of candidates other than Clinton are starting to surrender: "As the bloom has faded from the Obama rose, and as Mrs. Clinton has solidified her image as the ‘inevitable’ nominee, a segment of New York liberals are yielding. This movement stems in part from a tentative warming among some Hillary critics. But it also comes from a sense of stolid resignation among others—a kind of self-vaccination against an unwelcome reality.
NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli reports that Iris Estabrook on Tuesday became the seventh New Hampshire state senator to endorse Hillary Clinton, giving her a majority of the Democratic delegation.
OBAMA: Yesterday afternoon, a van carrying Michelle Obama, wife of the presidential candidate, was hit by a motorcyclist on a two-lane road near Hampton, Iowa. Michelle and four campaign staffers in the van were unhurt in the accident, which occurred when motorcyclist Timothy Emerson of Iowa Falls attempted to pass the van on the left as it took a left turn into the driveway of a campaign event site. Emerson, 41 was airlifted from the scene to Mercy Medical Center in Mason City, Iowa; he was treated and released Tuesday night. Per the Washington Post's Peter Slevin, Obama cut her campaign day short, appearing briefly at the campaign event in Hampton to tell supporters there that she would reschedule the visit. Michelle Obama returns to the trail in Iowa today.
How many other campaigns live in fear of something like this happening? Given all the fast traveling all the campaigns do, it's probably surprising that this doesn't happen more often.
Yesterday, the Obama campaign was the first to release a statement decrying the role lobbyists had played to derail the legislation to tax firms like Blackstone, which had disclosed earlier this year that CEO Stephen Schwarzman made $400 million in 2006, nearly double the combined compensation of the CEOs of Wall Street’s five biggest investment banks. “If there was ever a doubt that Washington lobbyists don't actually represent real Americans, it's the fact that they stopped leaders of both parties from requiring elite investment firms to pay their fair share of taxes, even as middle-class families struggle to pay theirs,” Obama said in the press release.
But a rival campaign pounced on a perceived weakness in Obama’s message, pointing out that a senior advisor to the campaign had links to a lobbying firm that had advocated against legislative efforts to raise taxes on private equity firms, NBC/NJ’s Aswini Anburajan reports.
