Oh-eight (D): Read my lips, no new scandals
Posted: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 9:02 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
Democrats
Anyone else confused by the fact that the Gallup daily tracking has Clinton up, while the USA Today/Gallup has Obama up? In that USA Today version, Obama performs slightly better against McCain than Clinton does.
A new AP-Ipsos poll shows Obama leading McCain 48%-42% percent; Clinton had 46% to McCain's 45%.
CLINTON: An interesting pledge from Clinton last night at the WJLA/Politico.com forum: "The senator was asked a question from a Politico.com reader in Santa Monica, Calif., who was seeking assurance that ‘no new business or personal scandal involving Bill Clinton’ could erupt if she were in the White House and give fodder to Republicans. ‘You know, I can assure this reader that that is not going to happen,’ she said. ‘You know, none of us can predict the future, no matter who we are and what we are running for, but I am very confident that that will not happen.’”
Also in last night’s discussion, NBC/NJ’s Athena Jones reports, Clinton insisted things in her campaign "have gone well," despite her recent string of losses. When asked why she has declined to release her tax returns, Clinton said Barack Obama should answer questions about his relationship to Exelon Corp., a company with nuclear energy interests that has donated to Obama's political campaigns. "I've said that I'm going to release my tax returns when I'm the nominee," she said, adding that she had liquidated all of her holdings to avoid any appearance of conflict. "Transparency is an important issue and it doesn't only go to your personal finances, but Sen. Obama has some questions to answer about his dealings with one of his largest contributors, Exelon, a big nuclear power company. Apparently he cut some deals behind closed doors to protect them from full disclosure in the nuclear industry. So I just think that we need to get more information out so people are not driven by campaigns or partisan advantage."
She also said there were a lot of unanswered questions regarding Obama and Tony Rezko, and suggested that while she had been "examined one side up and the other side down", not enough scrutiny was being directed toward her opponent.
The New York Daily News: “Yet in a year where many Democratic elders salivate over winning back the White House and plumping up their congressional majorities, a growing sense of doom and dread surrounds the Hillary campaign. … Clinton spin notwithstanding, there's no disputing Obama is surging and Hillary is struggling. If you believe in the momentum theory of politics, that bodes ill for Clinton.”
“[T]raders wagering on the outcome of the dramatic contest were overwhelmingly betting that Obama would defeat Clinton,” the New York Post writes. “Obama was trading at about 70 on the Dublin, Ireland-based Intrade predictions market, meaning traders gave him a 70 percent chance of being the Democratic nominee. Clinton was selling at about 30. Traders on the Iowa Electronic Markets, a nonprofit exchange run by researchers at the University of Iowa, had similar expectations, giving Obama a 70 percent chance of winning the nomination and Clinton about a 27 percent chance. As recently as Jan. 1 traders were giving Clinton about a 70 percent chance.”
One Latino superdelegate in California is not happy with Clinton removing Patti Solis Doyle as manager.
OBAMA: The New York Times examines the struggle Obama has had navigating race issues. "Glimpses inside the Obama campaign show, though, that while the senator had hoped his colorblind style of politics would lift the country above historic racial tensions, from Day 1 his bid for the presidency has been pulled into the thick of them. While his speeches focus on unifying voters, his campaign has learned the hard way that courting a divided electorate requires reaching out group by group. Instead of following a plotted course, Mr. Obama’s campaign has zigged and zagged, reacting to outside forces and internal differences between the predominantly white team of top advisers and the mostly black tier of aides.
“The dynamic began the first day of Mr. Obama’s presidential bid, when white advisers encouraged him to withdraw an invitation to his pastor, whose Afro-centric sermons have been construed as antiwhite, to deliver the invocation at the official campaign kickoff. Then, when his candidacy was met by a wave of African-American suspicion, the senator’s black aides pulled in prominent black scholars, business leaders and elected officials as advisers."
The Wall Street Journal looks at the fact that Obama has yet to be able to overwhelm Clinton. "In another year, against another candidate, Illinois's Sen. Obama might be on the verge of nabbing the Democratic nomination. A few Democratic strategists, and some Republicans, think he is almost there now. But Sen. Clinton is no average candidate, and party rules give the New York senator enough convention delegates to weather February's squalls until contests in March."
More: “‘The Obama wave is unlike anything I have seen during my career. It would have totally swamped any traditional candidate,’ said Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who conducts The Wall Street Journal/NBC News polls with Democratic pollster Peter Hart. ‘The fact that Clinton is still standing and breaking even is actually a remarkable statement about how unique a candidate she is and what an exceptionally strong candidate.’”
The New York Sun reports that one of Obama's chief foreign policy advisers, Zbigniew Brzezinski, is leading a RAND delegation to Syria. "Mr. Brzezinski's visit to Syria, a country President Bush has accused of arming terrorists and ordering political assassinations in Lebanon, is in many ways in keeping with a theme of the Obama campaign. The Illinois senator in August said during a Democratic debate that he would be willing to meet with foreign adversaries, earning a rebuke from Senator Clinton, a Democrat of New York, who said such an approach would be ‘naïve.’”
