Obama: I dare you
Posted: Friday, May 16, 2008 9:09 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
2008, Obama
Obama “told reporters this week that he can overcome the falsehoods if he has enough time to campaign in battleground states and let voters get to know him better. Meanwhile, Obama practically dared Republican congressional candidates to keep linking their Democratic opponents to him. ‘The same kinds of tactics that the Republican Party has been employing over the last several election cycles just aren't going to work this time,’ he told reporters on his charter plane after receiving former rival John Edwards' endorsement Wednesday. ‘I mean, they did everything they could, right? They ran Wright. They ran Obama. In Louisiana, they ran Pelosi. The same way that in previous election cycles they had run Hillary or other folks they thought would scare off voters. It didn't work.’”
John Edwards was on TODAY this morning, telling NBC's Matt Lauer that he decided to endorse Obama 24 hours before the endorsement; that he voted for Obama in North Carolina; and that it's "not true" that the endorsement was planned way in advance to blunt Clinton's certain victory in West Virginia. Edwards also repeated that he' s not interested in becoming Obama's veep. "It's not something I'm interested in."
The AP looks at Obama’s advantages in Oregon. “Oregon's 2 million-plus voters began receiving ballots more than two weeks ago, and 22 percent have returned them, according to the secretary of state's office. The ballots will be tallied May 20 in the Democratic primary between Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Election officials said turnout appears to be strong in Portland, its populous suburbs, and Eugene, home to the University of Oregon. That bodes well for Obama, who has drawn large crowds in stops in those places and who has outperformed Clinton among urban and young voters throughout the primary.”
Politico looks at Obama camp’s superdelegate strategy: “It is unclear whether the timing of the show-stopping endorsements is the product of luck or design. Both the candidates and the superdelegates are on virgin turf, feeling their way through a primary phase that has never been tested since the nominating rules were written in the late 1980s. Obama’s campaign won’t elaborate on its superdelegate strategy. ‘As people tell us they support us, we release it,’ said Bill Burton, a campaign spokesman.”
But: “Such a hands-off approach, of course, doesn’t fully explain the made-for-television moments that surrounded the Edwards and Richardson endorsements. And people close to the campaign say that some superdelegate announcements have been delayed a day or two to ensure full impact.”
“The Tennessee Republican Party ‘welcomed’ Michelle Obama's visit for a fundraiser Thursday night with an online video that takes the Democratic presidential front-runner's wife to task for a comment some considered unpatriotic,” the AP reports. More: “The four-minute video posted on YouTube is built around the ["proud"] remark, replaying it six times and interspersing it with commentary by Tennesseans, identified mostly by their first names, on why they are proud of America.”
“Obama collected the support of four of John Edwards' Democratic National Convention delegates on Thursday, then gained the backing of a West Coast congressman and a large labor union as he marched steadily toward the party's presidential nomination.” The AP has adjusted its numbers.
