Deprecated: mb_convert_encoding(): Handling HTML entities via mbstring is deprecated; use htmlspecialchars, htmlentities, or mb_encode_numericentity/mb_decode_numericentity instead in /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/super-cool-ad-inserter/inc/scaip-shortcode-inserter.php on line 37
Much as I hate to burst anyone’s bubble, including my own, I’m starting to wonder if the world cares about Pennsylvania’s presidential primary contest after all.
Earlier today, Barack Obama campaign manager David Plouffe did a conference call with reporters. As you might expect, part of it was a victory lap after Obama’s big win in Mississippi yesterday. By most reckonings this victory, along with some other smaller-state wins, essentially wipes out Hillary Clinton’s much-touted gains in Ohio and Texas on Mar. 4.
But although Pennsylvania is the only game in town for the next several weeks, our state barely came up during the nearly half-hour long phone conversation. As he did last week, Plouffe downplayed expectations for the race. Clinton was a “prohibitive favorite” in Pennsylvania, he said, and “should win by a healthy margin.” While promising to campaign hard — “we don’t cherrypick states,” he said, in one of several swipes at Clinton tactics — Plouffe noted a recent KDKA poll that showed Clinton up by 19 points.
(Click here to listen to Plouffe talking about the prospects for Obama in Pennsylvania.)
It seems pretty clear that Obama will be playing defense in this race — trying to avoid a blowout by the Clinton campaign, and writing off the significance of any other result.
What’s worse — if you were hoping to be a person-on-the-street interviewee, sharing your homespun wisdom with a national TV audience — is that reporters don’t seem very interested in Pennsylvania either. The press call was dominated by questions over how to seat delegates in Florida and Michigan, which held states their primaries earlier this year … so much earlier, in fact, that the Democratic Party has threatened not to include their delegates at the national convention.
The party’s move was supposed to punish those states by depriving them of the influence they tried to usurp. But somehow, Florida and Michigan are dominating the political discussion anyway.
Doesn’t seem fair, does it?
This article appears in Mar 6-12, 2008.
1. Isn’t this kind of talk very discouraging to the Obama volunteers who rally in Highland Park, you know, like Chris Schultz and Pittsburgh City Council? Seriously.
2. If it’s any consolation, that Obama Conference Call was billed as “Obama Campaign to Host Conference Call on Key General Election States”, and included the governors of those key general election states. So maybe it was more of an issue-specific tirade.
1) I’m sure Mr. Schultz and the other volunteers will soldier on in the face of my online commentary. I’m just reporting what the campaign itself is saying, and not for the first time. Plouffe has been pretty consistent in saying that the campaign will fight hard, but that Clinton has a substantial edge here. Some of that is no doubt the old game of managing expectations; if Obama loses by a narrow enough margin, it can become a kind of victory. But some of it reflects the fact that Obama can afford to lose the popular vote because delegates are carved up proportionally. and because he leads in the delegate count. If you listen to that clip, you’ll hear him say that for them PA is just one of several states they are thinking about. Obama could do what he just did: lose in Pennsylvania like he did in Ohio, but make up the delegates in the races that follow.
2) Actually, the notice about this particular conference call was “OBAMA CAMPAIGN MANAGER TO DISCUSS THE STATE OF THE RACE.” There were no governors on hand during the dicussion.
It’s worth noting I just got an e-mail from the Clinton campaign crowing, “[N]o candidate has won the Democratic nomination without winning Pennsylvania since 1972. But the Obama campaign has just announced that it is turning its attention away from Pennsylvania. This is not a strategy that can beat John McCain in November.”
The e-mail contends that Obama is on a “downward spiral” — a somewhat baffling claim, given that he just trounced Clinton in Mississippi, thereby erasing her Mar. 4 gains. But the Clinton campaign doggedly insists his support among various demographic groups is flagging, and that only a “big win” in Pennsylvania can turn his fortunes around. I assume they wouldn’t be saying that if they thought a big win was likely.
I’m no great shakes as a pundit, but still: Clinton obviously needs a win in Pennsylvania a LOT more than Obama does, and it seems both sides expect her to get it. What’s happening today, at least, is that both sides are trying to shape the meaning that victory will have. In the end, the positioning not that important, and things could change tomorrow. In which case, I’ll write another blog post then.
Without a doubt, IF CLINTON has a big win, not a small percentage, it definately speaks to the DNC. I think Obama has some issues in Chicago that they are downplaying in regards to the Rezko trial which is underway. His talk in Fairless Hills was very subdued.
“But somehow, Florida and Michigan are dominating the political discussion anyway. Doesn’t seem fair, does it?”
It does seem fair to me. I’m not from either state, but disenfranchising those states wasn’t the right solution when the rule was made and that’s why we are where we are now.
Regardless, I’m focused on what’s happening in Pennsylvania!
You misapprehend me. In my point #1, “Isn’t this talk kind of discouraging…?”, I was talking about talk by the Obama campaignsters. You are right to bring their spin to our attention in a balanced and skeptical manner.
Granted that I have been out here in the ‘sphere lately confronting malpractice as I see it. Tell you what — if I ever have any criticism for you personally, I’ll call you some kind of name so you can be sure.
Obama will not win the nomination. After the last two days, the media is finally reporting FIRST, HE will be testifying in Rezko trial.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2008/03/rezko-trial-oba.html
SECOND, his pastor spewed the most hateful comments against America. Now, to belong to a church since you relocated to Chicago means you follow their teachings so he can’t shrug these off.
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/03/12/obamas-controversial-pastor-puts-church-in-hot-water/
Reviewing Hillary’s methodical playing of the “Race card”, and “The Perpetual Victim” against Obama; her inability to control her own campaign finances; and, her recent commentary on: Iraq; Pakistan; Energy Policy; her stated intention to confiscate the profits of American energy companies; the need for her to control the 14 Trillion $ American Economy from her White House Politburo, since she has declared the free-market to be a failure (this from a woman who hasn’t managed so much as a corner vegetable stand, or for that matter her own marriage; but, of course you could count Whitewater, and her tenure as “Madam” and Bimbo Containment Chief for Bill’s White House Brothel); her Marxist statement in San Francisco: “We’re going to have to take more from you, and give it to others for the common good.”; Illegal Immigration; Taxes; Infanticide; Massive new Government spending; Multi million $ Senate earmarks for supporters of Hillary’s Presidential campaign; Garnishing of your wages to fund her coveted Socialized medicine program; and, the Clinton’s history of emasculating the military, verifies that this grievously flawed woman would be the female version of the Jimmy Carter debacle that gave us the Ayatollah Khomeini who ushered in rampant Islamic radicalism; block-long lines at our gasoline stations; a severely hollow military; and, a record Misery Index. Only much worse. Considering all of Hillary’s recent gaffes, e.g. “I voted FOR IT (referring to the Bankruptcy Bill); but, I was glad to see that it didn’t pass.”; and, her increasingly frequent crying jags, one has to wonder if excessive use of Botox has affected her mental stability. It’s no wonder that her campaign staff is shielding her from reporter and audience unscripted questions. The prospect of Madam Hillary as President; in a word: TERRIFYING. Greg Neubeck
Pennsylvania is DEFINITELY NOT a battleground. Almost the entire Pennsylvania has sided with Hillary Clinton. There’s no contest here. Even people in Latvia know she’s going to win Pennsylvania.
The question is whether the state goes down as the most racist state so far in this election primaries.