Tag: Hillary Clinton (page 16)

Howard Wolfson, Hillary Clinton's Communications Director, has a blog post up on Hillary's site called "Primary Eve." It's chock full of links to good reading refuting all the latest attacks on Hillary.

It ends with a link to my post on electability:

In Case You Missed It: “Electability: Why Hillary Is More Likely to Beat McCain” Read more.

Thanks, Howard! And yes, I hope everyone reads it. Hillary Clinton is the better candidate to beat John McCain this fall.

Hillary Clinton will be on Larry King Live tonight. It begins in 30 minutes here, and I'll try to live-blog. She was also on Keith Olbermann -- that live thread is here.

Watching a clip now. She says Obama's campaign has gone negative in the past days but overall it's been a positive campaign. She would like nothing better than to keep the discussion on issues like the differences in their health care plans. She'll put a Republican or two in her cabinet and will make good use of Sen. McCain.

Show is about to start. I'll live blog it below.

Hillary Clinton is on Countdown with Keith Olbermann tonight. I'll try to live-blog. Hope you'll add in in comments.

Keith does an intro with the MSNBC/McClatchy poll showing Hillary up by 5. He then has a tape of Obama saying he's showed great restraint in attacking Clinton. Then he shows Hillary at a rally saying "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen." He plays the Osama image in her PA ad and a bit more of it.

Here's Hillary in Harrisburg. Is the election going to be decided by the price of the gallon of gas? Can a President do anything about the price of gas?

She answers the economy is going to be a big issue. There are things the President can do. She'd launch an investigation to make sure the prices aren't being manipulated. She'd release some oil from the petroleum reserve. She gives more specifics. (So yes, Keith, there are things the President can do.) She then talks about how the President needs to develop a new energy policy. She links it right to gas. She's sounding very smart and ready. [More...]

You'll see a lot of articles touting Barack Obama's raising of $42 million in March. While a huge number, it's still $13 million less than he raised in February.

His expenditures in March: $30.5 million. He spent $9 million on media advertising and $5 million in telemarketing. And, notwithstanding the massive expenditures, he lost the popular vote in both the Ohio and Texas primaries.

Hillary Clinton is behind in fundraising but still in the game. She raised $20 million in March. All but $5 million came from online donors.

At the beginning of April, Hillary had $8 million to spend on the primaries to Obama's $41 million.

More...

Obama is airing an ad attacking Hillary's health care plan. Hillary now fires back. Here's the support for the statements in her ad.

I do think the ad takes it one negative too far. Rather than say:

He couldn't answer tough questions in the debate. So Barack Obama is making false charges against Hillary's health care plan.

I think she should have just opened with:

Barack Obama is making false charges against Hillary's health care plan.

More...

Earlier I wrote why I think Hillary Clinton is more electable. Here's what Hillary said today in Pennsylvania:

Clinton also said there was no "contradiction" from her previous position when she told last week's ABC News debate audience that she thought Obama was electable after weeks in which her main case to the superdelegates who could decide the nomination was that Obama could not win a general election fight against presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

"Yes, yes, yes," Clinton said during the debate last week at the National Constitution Center on Independence Mall.

Today, she said, "He can be elected. I WILL be elected." "There is a difference," the New York senator said. "Look at the electoral map: I've carried states that a Democrat must have to win. Anything is possible, but I am more likely" to gain the White House against McCain.

McCain's strategy now is to go after the toss-up states, particularly in the west and southwest. [More...]

Bump and Update: The AP reports superdelegates are not feeling bound by primary results, but more concerned about electability. And the International Herald Tribune says McCain's new strategy is to go after the toss-up states.

***

There's no question that superdelegates will consider electability as a factor in deciding whether to vote for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. Based on this analysis by long-time Democratic party activist William Arnone, which I return to again and again for the numbers, here's what I think they need to look at:

• Who can best hold on to the 20 states the Dems won in 2004? Which candidate is more likely to put these states at risk in a battle with John McCain?

• Which candidate has the better chance of winning states that voted Republican in 2004 but are now seen as vulnerable for McCain?

• Which candidate has a better chance of getting the votes of four key constituencies that could carry the election for McCain?

Answers below: [More...]

Update: John Dickerson at Slate on the hypocrisy between what Obama says and what his aides do.

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As for Obama's positive message of hope and change on the campaign trail and how he won't be a typical politician but one who brings a breath of fresh air to Washington, here's what he said today:

Barack Obama cast his Democratic presidential rival Saturday as a game-player who uses "slash and burn" tactics and will say whatever people want to hear, a sharp jab at her character in the final chapter of the pivotal Pennsylvania primary campaign.

...."Senator Clinton has internalized a lot of the strategies, the tactics, that have made Washington such a miserable place."

...."She's got the kitchen sink flying and the china flying, the buffet is coming at me ... constant distractions, these petty, trivial, slash and burn, back and forth, tit for tat, politics."

Mirror, mirror on the wall? It's politics as usual from the candidate for change. [More...]

Barack Obama is hoping that a massive expenditure of cash on advertising will buy him the vote in PA and end Hillary Clinton's campaign:

Barack Obama is to mount the biggest advertising blitz of the presidential campaign this weekend ahead of Tuesday's Pennsylvania primary to try to force Hillary Clinton out of the race.

....Obama hopes to deliver a knock-out blow by outspending her in advertising. With tens of millions from fundraising at his disposal, he plans to spend well over $2m (£1m) on ads in the run-up to the primary, at least twice as much as the cash-strapped Clinton campaign.

Obama has earmarked $465,000 for Philly alone in the final days to Hillary's $91,000.

Obama's strategy, which he has deployed time and again during his political career, is that the more money spent on advertising, the higher the odds of winning an election.

If you want to help Hillary out, go here.

The new Gallup poll, taken after Wednesday's Philadelphia debate, has Hillary Clinton tightening Obama's lead. She moves to within 3 points of him.

These results are based on interviewing conducted April 15-17, with Thursday night's interviewing the first conducted following the April 16 debate in Philadelphia. The initial indications are that Obama may have been hurt by the debate, which was noted for its negative tone and focus on the candidates' recent "gaffes" and Obama's associations with the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers (a former member of the radical Weather Underground group).

In Thursday night's interviewing, Clinton received a greater share of national Democratic support than Obama, the first time she has done so in an individual night's interviewing since April 3. That stronger showing for Clinton helped to snap Obama's streak of statistically significant leads in the three-day rolling averages Gallup reports each day. Until today, he had led Clinton by a statistically significant margin in each of the prior 11 Gallup releases.

As to McCain and the Democrats: [More...]

CBS has a new poll on Pennsylvania college students. The predictable results: they favor Obama. (full results here, pdf.)

Oh but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now

Looking at Pennsylvania's demographics and current voter registration statistics (available here in Excel), 10% of PA's voters are in the 18 to 24 age group. 38% are over 55.

I'm not sure how many of those are college students. I suspect there are plenty of registered young voters who are not attending college.

Hillary Clinton will be on the Stephen Colbert show tonight. Michelle Obama was on earlier this week.

If you watch it, let us know what you think.

Update: I just got an e-mail from the Colbert Report. John Edwards and Barack Obama will also make appearances on the show. Edwards will be in person and Obama will appear by satellite.