Clintons push Obama as a running mate

Joint ticket 'premature,' Ill. senator says

By Thomas Ferraro
Reuters / March 10, 2008

WASHINGTON - Hillary and Bill Clinton have been talking up the idea that Barack Obama, whom they have called too inexperienced to be president, would make a strong running mate on a ticket headed by the New York senator.

Campaigning in Mississippi over the weekend, the former president was quoted as saying his wife and Obama could form "an almost unstoppable force."

After winning the Democratic primaries in Ohio, Texas, and Rhode Island last week, Senator Clinton suggested that she and Obama might end up on the same ticket, with her at the top of it.

Obama won the Wyoming caucuses Saturday, and the latest polls show him leading in tomorrow's primary in Mississippi. He is ahead of Clinton in pledged delegates, but neither candidate is expected to obtain the 2,025 needed for the nomination in the remaining state contests.

As of last night, Obama had 1,578 delegates and Clinton had 1,468. Democratic leaders worry about the damage that could be done if neither Clinton nor Obama has a clear lead by the August nominating convention....(Click here for remainder of article).

Read more...

2 Clinton Backers Offer a Way to Stage New Primaries

By JOHN M. BRODER and DAVID W. CHEN
Published: March 10, 2008

Two of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s biggest supporters, who are also two of the Democratic Party’s most successful fund-raisers, have offered to help raise millions of dollars to stage new primaries in Florida and Michigan.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine of New Jersey and Gov. Edward G. Rendell of Pennsylvania said Sunday that they would be willing to raise half the $30 million it would take to run new contests in those two states. Mr. Corzine and Mr. Rendell submitted their proposal to The Washington Post.

The two governors argue that the Democratic National Committee, and not taxpayers in Florida and Michigan, should pay for a re-election in those states....(Click here for remainder of article).

Read more...

Obama Accuses Clinton of Deception

Campaigns Step Up Squabbles on Tactics

By Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 10, 2008; Page A09

Eager to shift the narrative after a difficult week, Sen. Barack Obama's campaign sharply criticized the tactics of his rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, charging her campaign with attempting "to deceive the American people just so that they can win this election."

Obama (Ill.) easily won caucuses in Wyoming on Saturday, but the two candidates had one of their quietest weekends of the campaign. Obama is to travel today to Mississippi, where he is leading in polls ahead of tomorrow's primary. Clinton (N.Y.) will campaign in Pennsylvania, which will vote on April 22.

Still reeling from Clinton's wins in Ohio and Texas, Obama's camp sent out a memo to supporters titled "Doing Whatever It Takes to Win." It characterized Clinton's strategy for victory as "tearing Barack Obama down" and said her campaign "should stop telling the American people things that they know aren't true."...(Click here for remainder of article).

Read more...

A plan for Barack Obama

Caille Millner
Sunday, March 9, 2008

It's been a rough week for Sen. Barack Obama, and an even rougher week for his supporters. He took his eye off the ball for a minute to attack Sen. John McCain - and Sen. Hillary Clinton pounced, throwing the kitchen sink at him. Meanwhile, the thin-skinned media, falling prey to her campaign's whining about how much "tougher" they've been on her than on him, allowed her to set the tone for the entire news cycle during the last week before the elections in Ohio and Texas. (You can fill my in-box all you want, Clinton fans, but the media has been sweeter to Clinton than you know. There's been scant mention of Monica, Whitewater, Marc Rich, cattle futures ... oh, did I just say all that?)

Those of us who admire the senator, meanwhile, are feeling wrung out and exhausted. Obama's got to bounce back. I think that he will - but he'll have to do it smartly, because for him, the race has entered its most precarious phase. If he attacks the Clintons using gutter politics, he'll lose - those are the tactics that they excel at, and he can't beat them at their own game. More importantly, he risks losing his message and his base by stooping to their level. Here's my advice for him and his supporters.

-- Ignore John McCain for now. The split results in Ohio and Texas offered Obama one advantage - it confused his eventual opponent, John McCain. McCain had started to attack Obama, but now he's got to sit tight and watch how this plays out. Putting the Republican nominee on the sidelines right now probably isn't the best thing for the Democrats in the fall - the Republican National Committee has taken advantage of the calm to outraise the Democratic National Committee by tens of millions of dollars so far - but we'll have to deal with that later. For now, Obama can - and must - focus on the battle in front of him. If he wants to mention how much stronger a president he'll be than McCain, that's cool, but only after he's reminded voters how much stronger he'll be than Clinton....(Click here for remainder of article).

Read more...

Hillary embraces fear tactics of the GOP

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Editor - The most dangerous turn in the Democratic primary campaign is the Sen. Hillary Clinton camp's decision to couple her with Sen. John McCain as having "passed the commander in chief threshold."

How did McCain earn that trust? By being the strongest supporter of the Iraq war, by pledging unending occupation of Iraq and loyalty to President Bush's pre-emptive war doctrine?

If the primary outcome were to turn on a Democrat's embrace of reckless GOP fear tactics and posturing on "national security," it would be a prelude to the unthinkable: another election campaign in which the Democrats surrender the initiative and abet the revival of dismal GOP fortunes....(Click here for remainder of article).

Read more...

Girl in Clinton Ad Supports Obama

BONNEY LAKE, Wash. (AP) — Casey Knowles didn't much like a recent campaign commercial for Hillary Clinton — even though she's in it as a sleeping 8-year-old.

After all, she about to turn 18 now and is a big supporter of Barack Obama.

"What I don't like about the ad is its fear-mongering," Knowles told ABC's "Good Morning America Weekend Edition" on Sunday. "I think it's a cheap hit to take. I really prefer Obama's message of looking forward to a bright future."

The well-known Clinton ad aired in Texas before last week's vote and implied a lack of experience on Obama's part. It showed an exterior of a Colonial-style home and old stock footage of Knowles sleeping in bed. A narrator describes a phone ringing in the White House: "It's 3 a.m. and your children are safely asleep. Who do you want answering the phone?"

Clinton won the Texas primary by a 51-47 percent margin.

Knowles said she didn't see the ad until Jon Stewart lampooned it Thursday on "The Daily Show." Her brother noticed it was her, and the family replayed the commercial on their digital recorder to be sure....(Click here for remainder of article).

Read more...

Political "Earthquake" in Hastert's Illinois CD Boosts Case for Obama

by Robert Creamer
Posted March 9, 2008 | 11:12 PM (EST)

Last Saturday a political "earthquake" struck in the ex-urban Republican leaning 14th Congressional District of Illinois. Democrat Bill Foster won the special election to replace retired former House Speaker Dennis Hastert who had represented the district for two decades. The district voted heavily for George Bush both in 2000 and 2004. Hastert was never reelected by less than 64%. Senator John McCain campaigned aggressively for the Republican candidate Jim Oberweis.

Yet Democrat Foster won a convincing 53% to 47% victory.

How is that relevant to Barack Obama? Because Foster choose to link his candidacy directly to Obama. His literature was full of Obama. And the closing TV ad of the campaign was Barack Obama asking the people of the Republican 14th District to support Democrat Foster and his agenda for change in Washington. That message attracted independents and many Republicans. And the spirit of Obama's own campaign helped energize Democrats to volunteer and turnout to vote for Foster....(Click here for remainder of article).

Read more...

Possibility of brokered convention looms

DENVER, March 9 (UPI) -- The specter of a contested Democratic presidential nominating convention is raising concerns among some party insiders, a published report said Sunday.

The Denver Post reported that if neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama has the necessary 2,025 delegates to clinch the nomination, a fight is almost inevitable at the convention in Denver this summer.

Former Colorado Sen. Gary Hart, who backs Obama, said he is almost certain the battle won't end until the convention. Hart said there are just a few ways to avoid a nominating battle.

"One is a massive swing of voters one way or the other, which I think is improbable. Second, a massive swing of superdelegates, which I think is equally improbable. Or a resolution of Michigan and Florida, which is improbable," Hart said. "So if you throw out those possibilities, you see that it is coming to the floor."...(Click here for remainder of article).

Read more...