Tag: Barack Obama (page 37)

Update: More from CNN on Obama refusing pressers for ten days or more and how the campaign teased them about it.

Barack Obama got cranky with a reporter today when asked a question at a diner about Jimmy Carter meeting with Hamas.

As Sen. Hillary Clinton was preparing to campaign here today, Sen. Barack Obama was meeting with voters at a diner and apparently pretty hungry. "Why can't I just eat my waffle?" he said, when asked a foreign policy question by a reporter at the Glider Diner.

What's the big deal? Why is this news? Because, as Jay Newton-Small at Time's Swampland explains, Obama hasn't given a press conference in 10 days and the reporters had no other opportunity to ask him.

Journalists in general don’t relish asking politicians questions in awkward situations, like on a golf course or over a waffle. But sometimes our hands are forced: Obama hasn’t given a press conference in 10 days and the questions, some of them -- like Hamas -- rather important, are starting to build up. If he wins the nomination he'll be running again John McCain, whose philosophy is to give the press total access to the point of saturation; Obama might consider holding avails with a little more regularity. Then, maybe, reporters would let him to eat in peace.

Like Kevin Drum says, this is baffling.

Obama just doesn't give the press much access, sometimes shutting them down for weeks at a time. Why? Does this make sense to anyone else as a campaign strategy? I'm baffled by it.

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.

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Bump and Update: Hillary responds to Obama (audio here with audience joining in):

"Sen. Obama said today that John McCain would be better for the country than George Bush. Now, Sen. McCain is a real American patriot who has served our country with distinction, but Sen. McCain would follow the same failed policies that have been so wrong for our country the last seven years.

"Sen. McCain thinks it is okay to keep our troops in Iraq for the next 100 years. Is that better than George Bush?

"Sen. McCain will continue the failed economic policies of George Bush that have brought us deficit and increasing debt. Is that better than George Bush?

"Sen. McCain does not have a health care plan that will cover every American. In fact, we will have more and more uninsured Americans. Is that better than George Bush?

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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.

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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.

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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...]

Sen. John McCain appeared this morning on ABC's This Week With George Stephanopoulos. You can watch the video here. Some quotes (received by e-mail from ABC News):

On Sen. Obama’s approach to the economy:

“..He obviously doesn't understand the economy, because history shows every time you have cut capital gains taxes, revenues have increased, going back to Jack Kennedy. So out of touch? Yes, they are out of touch when they want to raise taxes at the worst possible time, when we're in a recession.”

On William Ayers:

“…his relationship with Mr. Ayers is open to question. …Because if you're going to associate and have as a friend and serve on a board and have a guy kick off your campaign that says he's unrepentant, that he wished bombed more -- and then, the worst thing of all, that, I think, really indicates Senator Obama's attitude, is he had the incredible statement that he compared Mr.Ayers, an unrepentant terrorist, with Senator Tom Coburn, Senator Coburn, a physician who goes to Oklahoma on the weekends and brings babies into life -- comparing those two -- I mean, that's not -- that's an attitude, frankly, that certainly isn't in keeping with the overall attitude.”

Bill Clinton on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania today succinctly explains why Obama's ad attacking Hillary's health care plan is not only wrong, but shows that Obama is clueless. Elizabeth Edwards made the same points about the need for everyone to be covered and how it will result in lower costs.

Shorter version: Obama: Not everyone can afford it. The truth: Yes they can.

"Hillary's being subject to a television ad that has been roundly criticized in the form of mass mailings all across this country saying she's trying to make you buy insurance you can't afford and you're gonna be fined and all that. It isn't true. It is not true," he said. "Every expert who has looked at this says if you provide the subsidies and you cap somebody's income, everybody'll be able to afford it, it'll be cheaper than anything you're buying now if you buying it. But I'm just telling you, we won't get control of cost unless we cover everybody. Doing the morally right thing is the economically essential thing. If you agree with that, if you agree with that, you have only one choice left with the three candidates for president. You got to vote for Hillary for president, she'll fix this problem."

Obama is digging himself into a hole here, just like he did with his Bitter-Gate statements. He really doensn't get it. Like he doesn't get social security and has bought into the crisis meme. He should have corrected his health care plan months ago. Better yet, he should work on it for another eight years and then come back and try again.

On the job training is not what most of us have in mind for the Presidency -- at least not while there's a better Democratic choice.

Update: The AP has a new article on Obama's many efforts at gun control.

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At Wednesday's debate, Barack Obama wouldn't say what his position is on the DC law banning handguns. He dodged, saying he wasn't familiar with the facts of the case.

Of course, in November, his campaign told the Chicago Tribune he supporteed the ban. (Chicago Tribune November 20, 2007.)

But the campaign of Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said that he "...believes that we can recognize and respect the rights of law-abiding gun owners and the right of local communities to enact common sense laws to combat violence and save lives. Obama believes the D.C. handgun law is constitutional."

Tonight, Obama surrogate Bob Casey was on Lou Dobbs. Dobbs asked Casey whether Obama would support or oppose the DC handgun ban. (No link, I typed from his answer.)

Bob Casey: He would probably be a supporter, as he has been in the U.S. Senate and the Illinois legislature, for various restrictions on gun ownership. I happen to disagree with him on that, we have our disagreements.

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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...]

However unlikely, it's still possible Obama could lose PA and the nomination. If nominated, he could lose the election. Here's how, by a senior editor at The New Republic. It begins:

Some liberal commentators have downplayed the effect of Barack Obama's recent fundraising speech in San Francisco. But that's wishful thinking. Along with the revelations about Obama's pastor Jeremiah Wright, his remarks in San Francisco will haunt him not only in the upcoming primaries in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Kentucky and West Virginia, but also in the general election against John McCain, assuming he gets the Democratic nomination.

Go read the rest, and let us know what you think.

(Comments now Closed)

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.