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Title: Obama Camp Leaves Pennsylvania to Clinton, Downplays Keystone Importance
Source:
FOXNews.com
URL Source: http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/0 ... downplays-keystone-importance/
Published: Mar 12, 2008
Author: FOXNews.com
Post Date: 2008-03-12 22:14:21 by robin
Keywords: None
Views: 448
Comments: 38
Tuesday: Hillary Clinton speaks at a rally at Temple University in Philadelphia. Clinton is making a big push in Pennsylvania while Barack Obama is focusing on other remaining Democratic primary states. (AP Photo) Barack Obama’s campaign is playing down expectations for the Pennsylvania primary on April 22, claiming Wednesday that the Illinois senator’s back-to-back wins in Mississippi and Wyoming put him in safe enough territory to look beyond the Keystone State in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Pennsylvania offers 156 delegates, and is the biggest prize left on the primary calendar. Early polls show Hillary Clinton well ahead — but where Obama has been able to make up such deficits in other Clinton-leaning states, his campaign is practically writing off Pennsylvania. The idea is to play it safe. Campaign manager David Plouffe said on a conference call Wednesday that the campaign’s pledged delegate lead is greater than it was before Clinton won the Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island primaries March 4. That breathing room gives the campaign space to focus on the nine upcoming contests that aren’t the uphill Pennsylvania battle. “They should win [Pennsylvania] by a healthy margin, given where they start,” he said. “We will campaign hard there, we will try to get as many votes and delegates as we can, but our campaign will not be defined by Pennsylvania. We will be campaigning in all the rest of the states.” North Carolina, which offers 115 delegates, follows Pennsylvania on May 6 , and polls show Obama leading in the state. Both candidates campaigned in Pennsylvania Tuesday, before Mississippi voters handed Obama victory by a more than 20-point margin. The Clinton campaign will continue to push hard in the state, but Obama, who was in Chicago on Wednesday, will spend this weekend to Indiana, and plans to focus his time and energy in North Carolina as well the other upcoming states over the coming weeks. Clinton’s campaign mocked Obama’s Keystone State outlook Wednesday, reprising the argument that Clinton has shown an ability to win big states that will be important to the Democrats in November. “The path to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue goes through Pennsylvania so if Barack Obama can’t win there, how will he win the general election?” spokesman Phil Singer said in a statement. “Pennsylvania is the last state with more than 15 electoral votes on the primary calendar and Barack Obama has lost six of the seven other largest states so far - every state except his home state of Illinois. Pennsylvania is of particular importance, along with Ohio, Florida and Michigan, because it is dominated by the swing voters who are critical to a Democratic victory in November. No Democrat has won the presidency without winning Pennsylvania since 1948. And no candidate has won the Democratic nomination without winning Pennsylvania since 1972,” Singer said. Clinton has clear advantages in Pennsylvania. The former first lady visited Scranton, where her father was raised and is buried, many times as a child and still has relatives in Pennsylvania. Her campaign plans to have 250 staffers and at least 23 offices in the state. Pennsylvania bears many demographic similarities to Ohio, which Clinton won by 10 percentage points. It is home to many older voters and white, blue-collar workers with little or no college, two staples of her base. Clinton also has the support of Ed Rendell, the state’s popular, garrulous Democratic governor, and he appears ready to campaign hard for her, as Gov. Ted Strickland did in Ohio. When Obama toured a wind turbine production plant north of Philadelphia on Tuesday, he acknowledged it was first visit to the state in “a long time.” But in the coming weeks, he said, “I’ll be talking with folks all across this state from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg, from Philadelphia to Wilkes-Barre.” A quintet of governors from Washington, Iowa, Virginia, Wisconsin and Missouri released a memo later Wednesday “debunking” Clinton’s “big state spin.” “Senator Obama has scored important victories in each of our states – states that will play a decisive role in deciding whether or not John McCain will be given the chance to enter the White House and extend George Bush’s failed policies for another four years,” they wrote. The latest delegate tallies show Obama with 1,598 and Clinton with 1,487. It takes 2,025 to win, and neither can do so with pledged delegates alone. As the campaigns continue to spar over issues of race, readiness, experience and electability, all sides are dragging out a disagreement over how to deal with the discounted Florida and Michigan contests. The Democratic National Committee stripped the state’s of their 313 convention delegates for holding early primaries in violation of party rules. Clinton again made the call Wednesday to either honor the results or hold do-over primaries. The Obama campaign has said it will not accept the results based on the January contests, as Obama’s name was not on the ballot in Michigan, and neither candidate campaigned in the Sunshine State. Plouffe said caucuses, however, were an option, as were new primaries, but cautioned the latter method would be expensive. He had “deep concerns” with a mail-in re-vote, which Florida’s Democratic House delegation also opposes. “It seems that the easiest solution here would be some kind of fair seating of the delegations that is not reflective of this contest in January, that allows these states to participate in Denver, but does not advantage Senator Clinton unfairly,” Plouffe said. It’s unclear how this seating would be decided. But Plouffe said Clinton’s push for the states is rooted in self interest, not a desire to fight disenfranchisement. “We do not think the Clinton campaign’s approach here is based on benevolence towards Florida and Michigan - it’s based on increasingly desperate, self-serving stretching for whatever they think might help them secure the nomination,” he said FOX News’ Bonney Kapp and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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#2. To: robin, Jethro Tull (#0)
Gov. Rendell also made it quite emphatic that people in Pa will NOT vote for a black president. Obama seems to have understood. He most likely will carry Filthydelphia for apparent reasons.
If she wins the support of 238, or 70 percent of the superdelegates, she gets to 2,025. Unlikely? Yes. PA isn't all that important.
I wonder then why are they campaigning here???
#6. To: Cynicom (#5)
The bigger the delegate lead, the fewer problems at the convention.
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#3. To: Cynicom (#2)
Clinton trails Obama by more than 100 delegates as of this morning. If she wins 60% of the Pennsylvania delegates, holds Obama to 50% in North Carolina, and edges him with 52-48 victories in all the remaining contests, she will still be 80 delegates behind (1,788 Clinton to 1,867 Obama). It takes 2,025 delegates to be nominated. There are about 340 unpledged superdelegates. (Take away one with the resignation of Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York. He will be replaced by his lieutenant governor, also a superdelegate, and there is no provision to replace the lieutenant governor in New York.)
Very unlikely.
#5. To: robin (#3)
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