Obama in Missouri as W.V. decided
Posted: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 8:27 PM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
2008, Obama
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. -- As the West Virginia primary race came to a close Tuesday, Obama held a town hall with garment workers here, another sign he was shifting his focus to key general election battlegrounds.
Clinton was expected to win the West Virginia primary handily, and it appears she has.
Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, an Obama supporter, introduced the Illinois senator at Thorngate Ltd., a men’s suit manufacturing plant with about 500 employees. The roughly 100 guests in attendance were invited by the campaign and the company.
"This is no traditional, ordinary candidate, 'cause you know, if you were a traditional, ordinary candidate you might think, 'Well, don't go campaign in Cape Girardeau. It's too many Republicans," she said. "But this isn't somebody who's playing the game the way it's always been played. In fact, he's running so we no longer play the game that's always been played."
The Illinois senator leads Hillary Clinton in the popular vote, the number of states, pledged delegates and now the number of superdelegates won and many political observers believe the race for the Democratic Party’s nomination is all but over. His campaign expects Clinton to wrack up big wins in West Virginia and in Kentucky, which votes next week and they put out a memo this afternoon saying just that. It included a reminder that Obama won neighboring Virginia by 29 points, highlighting his gains among superdelegates and arguing he is well positioned in national polls.
“For perspective, while 28 pledged delegates are up for grabs this evening, Obama has won the support of 27 superdelegates in the course of just the last week putting him less than 150 total delegates away from clinching the Democratic nomination,” Spokesman Bill Burton wrote in the memo. “Nationally, Obama is running stronger among Independent voters than any winning presidential candidate since 1988 and is significantly outperforming Sen. Clinton among these voters as well in general-election polling.”
The memo sought to debunk what it called “myths” about Obama’s weakness with women, whites, working class voters and that idea the primary has left Democrats divided and hurt the senator with swing voters and Republicans. It was yet more proof the candidate is already looking to states he hopes to win in the fall, if he is the nominee, campaigning in the Show Me State this evening and in Michigan tomorrow.
Today’s event was intended begin to position Obama for the general election and lay out his differences with McCain. He did not mention Clinton in his opening remarks.
"There's a reason that record numbers of Americans think that the U.S. is on the wrong track. The number has never been higher: 82% of the American people think we are going on the wrong direction," Obama said, before going on to link McCain to Bush on the economy and Iraq and say lobbyists were running McCain's campaign.
Obama also criticized the Arizona senator on his environmental record: "John McCain, he just went out to Oregon was making a big speech about how he was in favor of dealing with global warming and he wants to develop these new energies and new technologies, except you know what -- there’s something called the investment tax credit that he has not voted to renew, that you have to renew if you want to have these new wind factories opening up."
McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds sent a response: "Barack Obama debuted his 2008 attack playbook showing more of the same negative, partisan politics that have paralyzed Washington for too long. Barack Obama talks about change and bipartisanship, but he has never showed the leadership needed to bridge party divides. Senator Obama says he stood up to the special interests, but he voted to give billions in taxpayers' money to the same big oil companies he so often decries. Senator Obama offers nothing more than the soaring rhetoric of an old-style, partisan politician, and his lack of experience suggests that's all he'll be able to deliver.”
