Delegate count: Good news, bad news
Posted: Friday, April 04, 2008 9:04 AM by Domenico Montanaro
The latest New York Times/CBS poll is a half full/half empty kind of survey. On the face of it, the Obama folks should feel good that they still hold a narrow lead in the primary and lead McCain narrowly in the general. He also sports a high favorable rating. BUT... "Obama’s support among Democrats nationally has softened over the last month, particularly among men and upper-income voters, as voters have taken a slightly less positive view of him than they did after his burst of victories in February… Obama’s favorability rating among Democratic primary voters has dropped seven percentage points, to 62 percent, since the last Times/CBS News survey, in late February. While that figure is by any measure high, the decline came in a month during which he endured withering attacks from Mrs. Clinton and responded to reports that his former pastor had made politically inflammatory statements from his church’s pulpit in Chicago.”
“Still, the events of the last month do not appear to have fundamentally altered the race for the party’s nomination or provided what Mrs. Clinton’s campaign has been seeking: evidence of a collapse in Mr. Obama’s standing or an overwhelming preference voiced for Mrs. Clinton by Democratic voters in polls, developments that could be used to persuade uncommitted superdelegates to sign on with her."
The Clinton campaign is probably somewhat surprised to get a "Stay in it" op-ed from Dem strategist Bob Shrum. "She has very little chance of winning, but Hillary Clinton has no reason to get out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination -- for now. A long shot isn’t the same as no chance at all. And an extended campaign doesn’t have to wound the nominee, assuming a measure of self-restraint on both sides. ... If instead she insists on protracting the race, calls in June for her to quit would be right in principle and right for the party. But we are not at that stage yet. Calls for her to concede now, before the race is lost, are premature."
Meet the super supers. “Some of those presidential superdelegates Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton are pursuing are more super than others,” the AP writes. “One delegate, one vote doesn't apply to them. These prominent Democrats can name additional superdelegates, giving them control over multiple convention votes, and that could be the difference in a race that may not be decided until the August convention.
“76 percent of respondents said America is ready for a black president -- and that number has grown from 62 percent in December as Barack Obama's candidacy has surged,” a survey by Opinion Research for CNN and Essence Magazine. “Whites were even more confident on the point, with 78 percent saying the country is ready, compared to 69 percent of African-Americans. Only 63 percent said America is ready for a woman as president, virtually unchanged from December.”
Director Rob Reiner, at Hillary Clinton’s Los Angeles fundraiser last night, told the crowd of 1,500 that when all the votes are counted, that Clinton will have more votes, NBC’s John Boxley says. Giving the audience a primer on the Electoral Map, Reiner said that the key will not be the big states or the little states, but the swing states like Ohio, Michigan, Florida, etc -- states that the Dems must win in November. Clinton then told the enthusiastic crowd, "I believe that this country is worth fighting for and we need a fighter in the White House again." Other celebrities at the fundraisers included Ted Danson, his wife Mary Steenburgen, Fran Drescher, and former California Gov. Gray Davis. In all, the Clinton campaign says it raised almost $1 million at four events in Northern and Southern California.
