Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., wipes her eye as she listens to a disabled U.S. veteran in the audience tell his story during a campaign stop at The City of Lewiston Memorial Armory in Lewiston, Maine., Saturday, Feb. 9, 2008.
(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
A Seattle Caucus Watcher:
Yes We Can!Update at 1:55 AM EST
Louisiana
Obama 57%
Clinton 36%
66 delegates
23Obama
15 Hillary
18 still unassigned
Nebraska
Obama 68%
Clinton 32%
24 delegates
16 Obama
8 Hillary
2 still unassigned
Washington
Obama 68%
Clinton 31%
78 delegates
52 Obama
26 Hillary
US Virgin Islands
Obama 100%
Clinton 0%
3 delegates
3 Obama
0 Hillary
0 still unassigned
WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. Barack Obama won caucuses in Nebraska and Washington state and moved ahead in the Louisiana primary Saturday night, slicing into Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's slender delegate lead in their historic race for the Democratic presidential nomination. The Illinois senator was winning two-thirds support in both caucus states.
Returns from the first handful of Louisiana precincts showed him leading, a black man hoping to extend a string of Southern primary triumphs that already included Alabama, South Carolina and Georgia.
Barack Obama won 76 percent support today from caucusgoers in Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District.
In the edition of Sunday, Feb. 10, Ohio's Largest Newspaper, The Plain Dealer makes its choices for the Ohio presidential primaries: Barack Obama and John McCainBARRING SOME UNFORESEEABLE EVENT, the Democratic Party is about to make history. Its presidential nominee this November will be either the first woman or the first African-American to carry the standard of a major political party. With the contest between Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois a virtual deadlock, Ohio Democrats on March 4 can play a critical role in this historic decision.
As usual with intraparty battles, the policy and ideological differences between Clinton and Obama are slight. Both share the party's liberal traditions on social and domestic issues. Both are committed to expanding health coverage and to closing the gap between rich and poor. Both oppose the Bush administration's strategy in Iraq. Both promise to break America's addiction to carbon-based fuels.
Given these similarities, Ohio Democrats have to ask themselves which candidate is more likely, first, to win the White House, and, then, to persuade a closely divided country to embrace his or her vision of change. Put even more pointedly: Who is more likely to change the world of a child born in 2008?
The answer, we think, is Barack Obama.
Although Obama stands on the precipice of a historic breakthrough, his personal story is a classic only-in-America saga: A white mother from Kansas. A black father from Kenya. A childhood in multi-ethnic Hawaii. Scholarships to Ivy League schools. Work as a community organizer and later a law professor in Chicago. Two terms in the Illinois Senate, then a landslide election to the U.S. Senate. An electrifying keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
That speech laid out the template for this campaign. He has challenged America to move beyond rigid racial, religious or partisan divides to focus instead on shared, national goals. It's a message that appeals to young voters and independents, to disillusioned Democrats eager to regain a sense of possibility and, yes, hope.
Obama's frequent talk of hope strikes some people as naive. It leads others to question his toughness. But Obama understands something his critics do not: Change requires vision and optimism, shared sacrifice and mutual trust. Hope can sustain those elements; a presidency defined by political tactics cannot.
Hillary Clinton is an exceptionally bright and accomplished woman. Only a fool could dispute that. It would be nice if Obama's policy proposals were as meaty as those she has put forward. It's no wonder she wants Democrats to see this race as a choice between resumes.
But in a campaign where history matters, she carries an inordinate amount of baggage. Who wants to relive the soap operas of the 1990s?
Bill Clinton says his wife excelled at "making positive changes in other people's lives." Consider that construction. Then listen as Obama talks of bringing people together to change their own lives.
America needs a fresh start. Barack Obama is the Democrat to provide it.
Adam RadwanskiNow, maybe there's some other explanation for it. But personally, if I'd been vigorously denying a role in Hillary Clinton's campaign (beyond financial contributions), I'd probably be especially protective of that itinerary if its front page referred to participating in an "HRC strategy call."
Obviously, Carville isn't front-and-centre in the campaign if he was north of the border the day after Super Tuesday. But even if he's not being paid, it might be open to interpretation how well his claim to not be doing any "domestic political consulting" holds up.
Joseph Brean, National Post
Ben Smith, Politico
Rush Limbaugh, one of many conservative talkers deeply hostile toward John McCain, has begun talking about bailing out Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign for president, suggesting repeatedly on the air yesterday and today that he'd raise money for her — though not exactly because he likes her.
"It is rumored that the Clintons are digging into their own personal wealth to fund Hillary's campaign. I'm thinking of maybe doing a fundraiser," Limbaugh said yesterday.
He's been talking about it all day today, and offered a slogan:
"Keep her in it so we can win it."
I've got only a rough transcript of most of the rest of today's show, on which he asked his listeners repeatedly if he should hold the fundraiser. He's casting his offer in part, at least, as a parody of GOP "strategery," mocking the notion that — in place of a conservative candidate — Republican strategists see Clinton as their savior.
by Glenn Thrush, The Swam
A year ago, when the Clinton campaign was still the Gold Standard of American politics, Joe Trippi, the architect of Howard Dean’s much-replicated 2004 online fundraising insurgency, sat down with the former first lady’s top advisers for a job interview.
Trippi, who would later go on to run John Edwards’ campaign, reportedly presented the brain trust, including communications chief Howard Wolfson, with two ideas:
1) Clinton should ban all donations from PACs and lobbyists.
2) She should create, as the centerpiece of her fundraising and public relations campaigns, a Web-based program to collect $100 each from one million women around the country.
Doing so, he argued, would cement her relationship with the two groups who would ultimately propel her into the White House, women and the working class.
The plan was bandied but never seriously considered, sources say. And why should it have been? At that point, Clinton had most of the top money in the party already locked up.
It’s now clear Trippi was on to something. All those big East and West Coast donors whom Clinton monopolized early in the campaign are now either tapped out or have long since defected to Barack Obama, who has cornered the market on rich, white, angry liberals.
Even though “Washington” money was always a relatively small proportion of her total take, Clinton defended the practice of accepting lobbyist donations on principle at the YearlyKos convention in Chicago last August, allowing Barack Obama and Edwards to inflict deep damage over the ensuing months by painting her, fairly or unfairly, as a bought-and-sold Beltway hack.
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YOUR WORLD IN CHARTS: "OBAMA'S RICH, BIATCH!" EDITION.
By PEGGY NOONANIs it possible she could be so normal? Politicians lose battles, it's part of what they do, win and lose. But she does not know how to lose. Can she lose with grace? But she does grace the way George W. Bush does nuance.
She often talks about how tough she is. She has fought "the Republican attack machine" that has tried to "stop" her, "end" her, and she knows "how to fight them." She is preoccupied to an unusual degree with toughness. A man so preoccupied would seem weak. But a woman obsessed with how tough she is just may be lethal.
CBS) Sen. Barack Obama could withstand any last-minute "swift-boat" attacks from Republicans on his race or past drug use because winning the grueling contest for the Democratic nomination will make him the "toughest, baddest candidate on the block," he tells 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft.
****** Preventing a brokered convention: So what's Howard Dean up to? “I think we will have a nominee sometime in the middle of March or April,” Dean told the NY1 cable news channel on Wednesday, per the New York Times. “But if we don’t, then we’re going to have to get the candidates together and make some kind of an arrangement. Because I don’t think we can afford to have a brokered convention; that would not be good news for either party.”****** 
Lets see if I got it.
The Courant—Capitol WatchLieberman's endorsement of Republican John McCain disqualifies him as a super-delegate to the Democratic National Convention under what is informally known as the Zell Miller rule, according to Democratic State Chairwoman Nancy DiNardo.
Miller, then a Democratic senator from Georgia, not only endorsed Republican George Bush four years ago, but he delivered a vitriolic attack on Democrat John Kerry at the Republican National Convention.
The Democrats responded with a rule disqualifying any Democrat who crosses the aisle from being a super delegate. Lieberman will not be replaced, DiNardo said.
By Paul Kane, Washington Post(D-Calif.), a prominent Clinton backer.
Kennedy cut in and made jokes at his own expense, prompting Obama to join in on the fun. Kennedy noted before a group of senators that Clinton's New York Giants had just stunned his New England Patriots in the Super Bowl, as well. "It's not been a good month for Ted in terms of contests," said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), an Obama supporter.
What a difference nine days makes.
Marc Ambinder, The AtlanticAs first floated by The Page, I can confirm that, according to advisers to the campaign, Sen. Hillary Clinton is weighing a self-loan in order to finance a competitive race against Barack Obama over the next few weeks.
Clinton raised less than $20M in January and has spent most of its store of money on ads leading up to Tuesday's multi-state primary.
Campaign advisers would not say how much money she has left. Officials did not respond to e-mails seek comment.
Upon leaving the White House, both Clintons secured large advances for their memoirs, and Bill Clinton's post-presidential speaking and consulting has left the couple comfortably wealthy, although not Mitt Romney-wealthy.
If Clinton decides to loan herself money, I envision that it would produce at least two countervailing forces. There would be a spate of stories on the End of the Clinton Machine -- that her donor base is tapped out and hasn't been able to expand like Obama's. This force is likely to be very strong, and it is not unfair or inaccurate.
In December, according to the Politico, Bill Clinton strongly implied that the couple had no plans to part with its money.
"They say you couldn’t stop me from spending all the money I’ve saved over the last five years on Hillary’s campaign if I wanted to, even though it would clearly violate the spirit of campaign finance reform," the former president said.
But perceptually, it could turn her into an underdog, and it could prove Obama's statement today that Clinton is "the frontrunner" to be vacuous. How can the frontrunner be tied for delegates and be nearly broke? The move could help with her grassroots fundraising. She'd be able to show potential donors than she will sacrifice as she's asking them to sacrifice. One can imagine a fundraising appeal along the lines of: "Help Us Match HIllary!"
Truth be told, Clinton cannot afford to allow Obama to rack up delegates by blowing her away in the next set of caucuses and primaries. Clinton needs to find a way to take 42% of the vote of or so in these states in order to limit Obama's delegate acquisition.
States Obama won with (so far) more than 60% of the vote:
Alaska (over 70%)
Colorado
Georgia
Idaho (over 70%)
Illinois
Kansas (over 70%)
Minnesota
North Dakota
States Clinton won with (so far) more than 60% of the vote:
Arkansas
The media is abuzz with today’s admission by Senator Clinton that “in late January” she lent her campaign $5 million dollars, saying, “The results last night proved the wisdom of my investment.” (Quick math: Clinton won 8 states last night, Obama 13, so that’s a million bucks for a net loss of five. Good thing she didn’t lend $10 million instead!)
Considering that Clinton began the month of January, according to Federal Elections Commission filings, with exactly $5 million in unpaid debts (including $1.9 million to pollster Mark Penn’s consulting firm), and the acknowledgement in Clinton’s statement today that the money was used to campaign (and presumably purchase television ads) in Tsunami Tuesday states, guess what? That bundle of five million smackers is already gone.
Clinton campaign co-chairman Terry McAuliffe told reporters last week that the campaign had raised “$13.5 million” in the month of January (compared to $32 million for Obama). I had presumed that that money, the stuff raised in January, was what paid for the 11th hour ad blitz in California, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Arkansas. Those had been considered “safe” victories for her until Obama’s moves forced her to launch an expensive rescue effort, pinning Clinton down to defending her base while he picked up 13 other states.
Now we learn more of the story: that to stem the bleeding, she had to loan her own campaign seven figures times five.
In all the speculation this morning about a possible forthcoming personal loan to her own campaign, the presumption was that the money would be for the fight ahead. Not so. It was for the fight already waged. And what this story tells us is that the Clinton campaign is broke even after it lent itself this money, which means it is now $10 million in debt plus whatever other unpaid bills have amassed since the New Year.
That sort of raises an eyebrow at her position paper issued last October when she said: “After six and a half year of President Bush’s fiscal irresponsibility, Hillary wants America to regain control of its destiny. She will move back toward a balanced budget and surpluses.”
It’s no great mystery why the Clinton campaign didn’t announce the $5 million loan before voters went to the polls yesterday. But the fact that it all went down last week means that the
money has already been spent, and the Clinton campaign is back in the red all over again.
Hat Tip: Field
Clinton won the largest slice of the Jewish vote, 65%, in her home state of New York. In several other states, including New Jersey, California and Arizona, the Jewish vote mirrored the leanings of Democratic voters as a whole, with Clinton edging out Obama by smaller margins.
Obama, however, outshone the New York senator among Jewish voters in both Massachusetts and Connecticut, two states where the endorsement of Senator Edward Kennedy may have proved pivotal. Jews “responded to the 11th commandment, ‘Thou Shalt Be a Liberal Democrat,’” said Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf. “He probably impacted a significant number of Jews whose religion is secular liberalism, who would follow Kennedy into a burning forest.”
Obama won 52% of the Jewish vote in the Bay State, despite coming in roughly 15 points behind the New York senator overall. In Connecticut, Obama won the state narrowly — edging out Clinton by only several percentage points — but enjoyed a disproportionately wide margin of victory in the Jewish community. Sixty-one percent of Jews in Connecticut voted for the Illinois senator, versus 38% for Clinton.....
, Huffington Post
With 183 of 184 of precincts reporting, Hillary Rodham Clinton held a lead of 1,092 votes _ 67,921 votes compared to 66,829 for Barack Obama, according to preliminary results.
New Mexico is the only one of 22 states that held Democratic primaries and caucuses on Super Tuesday yet to report a winner.
The examination of the provisional ballots, expected to begin Thursday, will be closed to the news media but will be attended by representatives from both the Obama and Clinton campaigns, party officials said.
Provisional ballots are given to voters who show up to the wrong site, whose names are not on registered voter lists provided by the state or who requested an absentee ballot but signed an affidavit saying they did not return it.
1. She lost the delegate derby. Pure and simple, this is a war to win delegates, one that might not be decided until this summer’s Democratic convention.
JAKARTA (AFP) — Amid balloons and bunting, US presidential hopeful Barack Obama won an early "Super Tuesday" victory over Hillary Clinton in the Indonesian capital where he spent part of his childhood. It may have been small -- fewer than 100 registered Democrats took part -- but it was a first chance for Americans abroad to cast their vote in the race for the party's White House candidate. The midnight (1700 GMT Monday) ballot at a five-star hotel saw red-eyed US expatriates stay up late to choose between Obama and Clinton. Continue reading
By Fareed Zakaria Clinton immediately disagreed, firmly supporting the current policy. This places her in the strange position of arguing, in effect, that her husband's Cuba policy was not hard-line enough. But this is really not the best way to understand Clinton's position. In all probability, she actually agrees with Obama's stand. She is just calculating that it would anger Cuban-Americans in Florida and New Jersey.
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By Jonathan D. SalantFeb. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Democrat Hillary Clinton has raised more money from lobbyists than any other presidential candidate while Republican John McCain has more of them assisting his campaign.
Clinton took in $823,087 from registered lobbyists and members of their firms in 2007 and the second-biggest recipient was McCain, who took in $416,321, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based group which tracks political giving. Barack Obama, Clinton's rival for the Democratic nomination, doesn't take money from registered lobbyists, although he received $86,282 from employees of firms that lobby, according to the center.
By Matt Stearns | McClatchy NewspapersClinton worked at the Children's Defense Fund for less than a year, and that's the only full-time job in the nonprofit sector she's ever had. She also worked briefly as a law professor.
Clinton spent the bulk of her career — 15 of those 35 years — at one of Arkansas' most prestigious corporate law firms, where she represented big companies and served on corporate boards.
Neither she nor her surrogates, however, ever mention that on the campaign trail. Her campaign Web site biography devotes six paragraphs to her pro bono legal work for the poor but sums up the bulk of her experience in one sentence: "She also continued her legal career as a partner in a law firm."
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by Todd Purdum,Vanity Fair
MarcAmbinder
Senator Obama on TV SundayFox Pre-Super Bowl
He will also be interviewed by Major Garrett tomorrow morning for Fox’s Super Bowl/Super Tuesday Special that airs between 10:00 AM and 12:00 PM ET tomorrow.
——————————Good Sunday Read———————————————
Obama—And Kennedy-—Raise The Stakes
Dick Morris
Barack Obama used his victory in South Carolina to change the dialogue with the Clintons in the presidential race. He has taken Hillary’s and Bill’s attempt to use the race issue and replied with a clever move. He has basically called their bluff.
And Ted Kennedy’s endorsement of Obama has ratified the Illinois Senator’s strategy and candidacy.
So far, to summarize: Move One was when Obama arrived as a new candidate. Move two was Hillary’s comeback that she is more experienced. Move three was when Obama pivoted off her experience message and said he was the voice of change. Move four was the Clintons’ attempt to inject race into the election. They counted on a racial split in South Carolina to make Super Tuesday about a black/white division.
Now Obama has come back saying, in effect, “Yes, I know that you have made this election about race. But I am betting on the decency, fairness, tolerance, and objectivity of the American electorate. We all share the same hopes and dreams.”
In effect, he said I match you and raise you.
To date, Obama has avoided the race issue. But after his smashing win in South Carolina, he embraced the issue and turned it around to his advantage. He did not go down the path of Jesse Jackson and base his candidacy on a rainbow coalition. Rather, he decided to rise above the Clintons and appeal to America’s ecumenical diversity.
So now Super Tuesday is a contest between those who are mired in racial division and those who are willing to transcend it.
The massive outpouring of criticism of the Clintons for their tactics in South Carolina is withering fire which may take a serious toll among Hillary’s voters. Caroline Kennedy’s invocation of her father in endorsing Obama seems right on the money. Ted Kennedy’s support for him legitimizes white backing for the Illinois Senator and could have a big impact.
The Clintons were banking on a silent invocation of racial division stemming from a massive Obama win in South Carolina among black voters and a last place finish among whites. Their hopes were that whites would note the racial split in South Carolina and react by voting for Clinton.
But this racial divisiveness can only take place in the dark, out of sight. With the glare of Obama’s idealism shining on the dialogue, conscience comes into play and the American electorate may overcome the divisiveness of the Clintons.
Will Obama’s move trump the Clinton strategy? A lot hangs in the balance. Ultimately, the choice will say more about our soul as a nation than about the candidates in this election.
The boldness of Obama in accepting the Clintons’ injection of race as an issue and his insistence on an enlightened answer challenges us all. Even as one’s head warns that the strategy will fail, one’s heart hopes that it will succeed.
Either way, Obama has made the Super Tuesday vote more about who we are than who the candidates running for president are.
