Obama camp cries foul
Posted: Tuesday, February 19, 2008 10:20 AM by Mark Murray
From NBC's Mark Murray
The Obama campaign is jumping all over today's article by the Politico's Roger Simon, who writes that Team Clinton is considering targeting the pledged delegates Obama has won. Says Obama manager David Plouffe in statement: “As it becomes increasingly clear that Senator Clinton may not be able to secure the nomination by winning the support of actual voters, the Clinton campaign has once again floated a strategy that would essentially say that the preference of Democratic voters is a mere obstacle to their win-at-all-costs strategy."
He continues, “Voters are already rejecting the Clinton campaign’s say-or-do-anything-to-win tactics, and this is the latest example that it’s time to turn the page on this type of politics that could severely harm our party’s chances to win the general election."
Of course, as Simon wrote, pledged delegates aren't required to cast their vote at the convention for the candidate who won them. But here -- as with the debate over superdelegates and over Florida and Michigan -- the Obama campaign is trying to claim the PR high ground.
*** UPDATE *** NBC’s Domenico Montanaro adds, The Obama campaign held a conference call to continue to pound the issue raised in the Politico article, that the Clinton campaign may decide to go after and try to sway pledged delegates, who are technically not bound to a candidate (the DNC, in fact, refers to "pledged" delegates as a "myth.") Obama Campaign Manager David Plouffe and surrogate David Wilhelm, who headed Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign, had some choice words for the other side. They called this a “disturbing pattern” and “grasping at straws;” that this is another example of a “say-or-do-anything-to-win tactic;” that the Clinton campaign is hoping this is a “rabbit they can pull out of the hat to win;” that the latest tactic “suggests there’s trickery that can be engaged in” to win. They said they “think that will be rejected” by voters and party leaders.
Plouffe acknowledged that, “Technically, it is true that delegates could switch. Our point here is this is part of a pattern. Rather than try to focus on pledged delegates and winning, they’re focused on these alternative routes,” which “could cause huge dissention in the party.”
They added that, “Sometimes nominations are not worth having….One of those times would be at the cost of ripping the party apart.”
They also combated the Clinton electability argument to superdelegates that she’s best to beat McCain. They cited leads in polls against McCain and that because Clinton "denigrates Red states,” candidates down ballot “would be in real harm.”
