Obama camp claims TX delegate victory
Posted: Wednesday, March 05, 2008 5:46 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan
CHICAGO -- The Obama campaign says it will win the delegate battle in Texas when the primary and caucus results are combined.
"Her primary delegate yield will be zero or it will be tied or it will be two. Our yield out of the caucuses should be seven or it could be more than that," campaign manager David Plouffe told reporters at an off-camera briefing.
Plouffe repeatedly said Clinton has lost her opportunity to erase Obama's lead in pledged delegates, which he said should be the definitive factor in deciding who is the party's nominee. Per the campaign's math, there are 611 delegates left to win in the Democratic race, and Clinton needs to win 60% of them to erase Obama's lead. And that's delegates not vote total.
"Last night was a big window that closed for them, particularly because they probably needed to net somewhere between 85 to 70 delegates to retake the pledged delegate lead," Plouffe added.
Plouffe also said that after last night's delegate totals are added in all four states, including the Texas caucuses, Clinton would have yielded a net gain that was less than what Obama took out of the state of Idaho on Feb. 5th.
Saying the math was irrefutable, he added that superdelegates would be reluctant to overturn the will of the voters. And he attempted to paint the Clinton campaign's strategy moving forward as Machiavellian.
"So the Clinton campaign strategy is going to try and run a scorched earth campaign in some way to convince the superdelegates, the party insiders and leaders to overturn the voters, which will be catastrophic for the party," he said.
Plouffe's language on Clinton, mirrored the language of Obama's other advisors today, in that it was far harsher than has been used in the past. Plouffe called Clinton "a deeply flawed candidate," who could not win the independent voters that "provide a pathway to the presidency."
Obama's campaign is expected to win handily in Wyoming and Mississippi on the 8th and the 11th, and Plouffe emphasized those states as well as the contests following Pennsylvania, rather than the primary there on April 22nd. He reiterated that it was delegates that mattered not wins in states, but he also admitted that Obama's campaign has less support in Pennsylvania than Clinton and more ground to make up.
