Obama: '300'
Posted: Friday, July 18, 2008 9:15 AM by Domenico Montanaro
This is a bit different from the movie about those Spartan warriors… The New York Times writes about the 300 folks advising Obama on foreign affairs. (What does it say about Obama's experience that he has 300 advisers in this area?) “‘It is unwieldy, no question,’ said Denis McDonough, 38, Mr. Obama’s top foreign policy aide, speaking of an infrastructure that has been divided into 20 teams based on regions and issues, and that has recently absorbed, with some tensions, the top foreign policy advisers from Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign. ‘But an administration is unwieldy, too. We also know that it’s messier when you don’t get as much information as you can.’”
VIDEO: NBC's Andrea Mitchell talks with Barack Obama's senior foreign policy advisor Greg Craig about the Democratic presidential candidate's stance on Iraq.
“The group is on the spot this week as Mr. Obama is planning to make his first overseas foray as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, with voters at home and leaders abroad watching closely to see how he handles himself on the global stage."
There’s plenty of coverage of Obama’s $52 million haul for June. The New York Times: “Although the $52 million came close to reaching the record that Mr. Obama set in February by raising $55 million, the figure is on pace with, or slightly below, projections that campaign aides have set for party fund-raisers. Democrats said they hope to raise about $300 million for the campaign, in addition to about $180 million for the national committee.”
The Washington Post: “Obama's campaign would not say how much of his total was raised from small donors who gave online, and official reports are not due to be filed until Sunday. But an examination of his campaign schedule -- which has been packed with high-dollar fundraising events -- would suggest that he relied less on Internet donors than he did in February, when he took in $55.4 million.”
The Los Angeles Times adds, “The June report suggests Obama and his party will be able to raise the hundreds of millions that they plan to spend on the general election campaign. ‘The sky is the limit,’ said political scientist Bruce Cain, head of the University of California Washington Center. ‘Whatever the other guy raises, you want to raise more. It's an arms race. It will be a record amount.’”
The Boston Globe: "DNC rides Obama coattails"
Speaking of the DNC… “The Democratic National Committee plans to target Republican John McCain and help Democrat Barack Obama with an independent ad campaign run by veteran Democratic strategist Jonathan Prince, Democrats familiar with the decision said Thursday. By law, the effort would be prohibited from coordinating with either Obama's presidential campaign or with the DNC. The ads would be financed with party money, however.”
More: “Meanwhile, Obama and the DNC also announced that they will have joint fundraising agreements with 18 state Democratic parties, expanding the reach of donors to battlegrounds and to states Obama is trying to make competitive. The agreements will allow the parties to finance field operations that could help Obama and Democratic candidates in other races. The state parties are in Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.”
