With the final primaries of the election season being held today in South Dakota and Montana, Sen. Barack Obama is poised to take the Democratic nomination tonight. The New York Times reports in a front page story that Obama's campaign "began a concerted effort on Monday to rally undecided superdelegates around him so he can claim the Democratic presidential nomination after the primaries end" this evening. McClatchy reports this morning that Obama is about 47 delegates shy of securing the nomination, but it is not clear if that includes all the late-breaking endorsements that came over yesterday.
There were some signs yesterday that large numbers of undecided superdelegates were in fact making their move. The State reports that Rep. James Clyburn, a top Democratic House official, backed Obama yesterday. The AP reports a pair of superdelegates backed Obama during his Michigan trip yesterday, while the Palm Beach Post reports that a Florida superdelegate also jumped to Obama's camp. The AP reports that a DNC member from Virginia also jumped to Obama, while a state legislator from Missouri entered his camp, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. WTNH-TV Hartford reported last night that Connecticut's Democratic Party chair has backed Obama, while the AP says that a DNC member from Washington state is also doing so.
However, not all superdelegate movement favored Obama. The AP reports that the head of Louisiana's Democratic Party is backing Clinton, saying she is a stronger general election candidate, while a separate AP story says that a New York State delegate has also made a last-minute decision to go for Clinton.
Even if he does not hit the delegate mark tonight, the end of the primaries are likely to trigger movement by many of the undecided superdelegates. The Politico reports, "Key senators said the results of Tuesday's South Dakota and Montana primaries will have a domino effect on uncommitted superdelegates quite possibly clinching the nomination for Barack Obama." CBS Evening News reports, "Sources tell CBS News most of the seventeen still uncommitted superdelegates from the US Senate are expected to endorse him shortly along with at least a dozen House members."
Obama is also continuing to reach out to Clinton and her backers as he campaigns in general election states, looking to heal some of the damage caused by the lengthy contest. NBC Nightly News reported, "With an almost insurmountable lead in delegates," Obama "was in Michigan, reaching out to the Clinton supporters he will need in the fall." The CBS Evening News reported, "Speaking in the battleground state of Michigan today, Obama offered the kind of generosity they only the victor can offer the vanquished." Obama said, "Senator Clinton has run an outstanding race. She is an outstanding public servant and she and I will be working together in November." The AP adds Obama "said Monday he has asked Democratic presidential rival Hillary Rodham Clinton for a meeting on her terms 'once the dust settles' from their race." USA Today reports for the "second day in a row, Obama tossed verbal bouquets at Clinton before a crowd of his supporters. He assured them that the Democratic rift will be repaired."
Hillary Clinton will return to New York on Tuesday night to rally supporters and contributors to mark the conclusion of the Democratic primaries. Media reports generally agree that Clinton will not concede tonight, but will likely suspend her active campaign and visit key general election states in the weeks to come. The move comes as former President Bill Clinton told a South Dakota rally he expected it to be his final appearance in a presidential campaign, perhaps an indication of his wife's thinking.
The Washington Post reports in a front page story that Clinton "sent mixed signals about her plans throughout the day Monday. As her campaign recalled field staffers to New York, one adviser indicated that she would suspend, but not end, her campaign within days. But the candidate herself said she will continue to argue to the group of party insiders who will hold sway over the final outcome that her strong showing in recent contests demonstrates that she would be the more electable candidate in November." The New York Times reports aides "said Mrs. Clinton was not likely to withdraw from the race on Tuesday night, probably waiting until later in the week, once Mr. Obama's victory appeared clear."
The Los Angeles Times reports Clinton's campaign "has scheduled no events beyond a speech Wednesday morning in Washington. Clinton aides considered and rejected a plan to have her campaign later this week in states that will be important in the general election." The CBS Evening News reported, "There's word that the Clinton advance staff, which plans events, has been called to New York for a meeting tomorrow night, while others were offered the option of simply going home. No such rest in the offing for the Obama campaign."
NBC Nightly News reported advisers "say while she is a fighter, she is a realist. Today Bill Clinton signaled the marathon primary battle is all but over." Bill Clinton: "This may be the last day I'm ever involved in a campaign of this kind."
Sign up here to get the US News Political Bulletin emailed to you each morning at 8 a.m.
While most media reports focus on the coming end of the Democratic nomination, a new poll out from American Research Group shows Sen. Barack Obama facing another potential big loss. In South Dakota, a new ARG poll of 600 likely Democratic primary voters taken May 31-June 1 shows Sen. Hillary Clinton leading Obama 60%-34%, the Sioux Falls Argus Leader reports. In today's other contest, an American Research Group survey of 600 likely Montana Democratic primary voters taken May 31-June 1 shows Obama leading Clinton 48%-44%.
Fox News' Special Report reported Sen. John McCain "continues to raise doubts" about Sen. Barack Obama's judgment "when it comes to foreign policy. Today's point of emphasis is that Obama's stance on Iran and Iraq could spell trouble for Israel. ... At the annual meeting of the influential American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, John McCain warned Jewish and pro Israel voters that Barack Obama would put the Jewish state at greater risk with weak policy towards Iran and an accelerated withdrawal date from Iraq." The AP adds that McCain "is making a play for Jewish voters while Obama...is working to reassure members of this constituency who have expressed some unease about his candidacy." Sen. McCain "chastised Obama anew for his expressed willingness to meet with leaders of U.S. enemy nations, including Iran. 'Rather than sitting down unconditionally with the Iranian president or supreme leader in the hope that we can talk sense into them, we must create the real-world pressures that will peacefully but decisively change the path they are on,' McCain said."
The New York Times says McCain's "voice seemed to drip with sarcasm at times, as when he spoke of Mr. Obama's call for more diplomacy with Iran. 'We hear talk of a meeting with the Iranian leadership offered up as if it were some sudden inspiration, a bold new idea that somehow nobody has ever thought of before,' Mr. McCain said. 'Yet it's hard to see what such a summit with President Ahmadinejad would actually gain, except an earful of anti-Semitic rants and a worldwide audience for a man who denies one Holocaust and talks before frenzied crowds about starting another.'"
The Hill reported that the Obama camp "quickly hit back, arguing that McCain is embracing President Bush's foreign policy, and that he 'stubbornly insists on continuing a dangerous and failed foreign policy that has clearly made the United States and Israel less secure.'"
USA Today, in front-page article titled, "Voter Pessimism Over Pocketbook Likely To Influence Picks At Polls," reports, "Americans are more downbeat about their personal financial situations now than they've been in decades, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, an attitude likely to dominate this year's presidential and congressional elections. A 55% majority of those surveyed say their families are worse off financially than they were a year ago - the highest number since Gallup first asked the question in 1976 and a jump of 11 percentage points since February. Just 26% say they are better off." USA Today adds that Sen. Barack Obama tops Sen. John McCain 47%-44% among registered voters, reversing a 47%-45% lead held by McCain a month ago. Sen. Hillary Clinton tops McCain by a larger margin, leading him 49%-43%. The poll was taken May 30-June 1.
USA Today reports that the presidential contenders have spent $201 million on TV ads, "easily a record" during this primary season, which ends today. USA Today adds, "Equally impressive: Campaigns in both parties put ads on the air nearly 330,000 times, according to the Wisconsin Advertising Project and TNS Media Intelligence/CMAG. That averages about 2,100 times a day since the first of the year. In 2004, when only the Democrats had a contested race, about $51 million was spent on TV ads during the primary season." In a story headlined, "Ad Edge in 11-Day span Boosted Obama, Study Says," the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports, "How has Obama weathered such a lackluster sprint to the finish line? For some analysts, the answer lies in the political cushion he built over an 11-day stretch more than three months ago, when" Obama "won 10 consecutive mid-February contests and netted roughly 120 more delegates than" Clinton. During that period, Obama "outspent Clinton almost 4 to 1 on TV...making it the most lopsided period in the 2008 Democratic ad wars."
The New York Times reports after a weekend "in which his aides sought to discredit an article in Vanity Fair that, relying primarily on anonymous sources, raised questions about his judgment, the company he keeps and whether he was spending time with other women," former President Bill Clinton "unleashed a tirade" against author Todd Purdum yesterday during a campaign stop in South Dakota. The Washington Post reports in a front page story that Clinton "called Purdum 'sleazy' and a 'scumbag' in comments to a reporter for the Huffington Post, a liberal Web site, leading a spokesman for" his wife "to issue an apology." The New York Post adds that Clinton "first said Purdum's piece was all a conspiracy against his wife, Hillary. 'It's part of the national media's attempt to nail Hillary for Obama,' Clinton said. 'It's the most biased press coverage in history.' Then it was Obama's fault. 'He gets other people to slime her,' he said, referring to a priest's anti-Hillary rants at Obama's former church in Chicago. Then he went back to targeting Purdum," saying, "He wrote the story in his head in advance, and he just goes around and tries to find some coward to say whatever they want to say."
Sign up here to get the US News Political Bulletin emailed to you each morning at 8 a.m.
Top
Last night, former White House spokesman Scott McClellan continued his book tour of the cable news outlets. McClellan's receptions ranged from deferential (MSNBC's Chris Matthews) to combative (Fox News' Bill O'Reilly) to jocular Bush-bashing (Comedy Central's The Daily Show). Asked by Bill O'Reilly on Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, "What's your beef on Rove, specifically because he works for us," McClellan replied, "I spoke with Rove...and he told me unequivocally that he was not involved in the leaking of Valerie Plame's identity. ... Did he reveal Plame's identity to anyone? Yes, Matt Cooper. ... Cooper wrote, 'He was the first one to tell me. That was the first time I learned she worked at the CIA.' ... He revealed her identity. He talked to Novak and talked to Cooper and revealed her identity." On Fox News' Hannity and Colmes, Rove responded to McClellan's allegations. Rove noted, "The person who revealed of Valerie Wilson Plame's identity is Richard Armitage. I think it is revealing in the book that Scott devotes 34 pages to me on this incident with Wilson and Plame and devotes one and a half sentences to the guy we now know leaked Valerie Plame's identity, not only to Robert Novak, but two weeks before that, also to Bob Woodward. I did not. ... When everybody thought I had leaked...Plame's name, everybody was all excited about it, but when it turned out that it was Rich Armitage, nobody had much interest in it."
On MSNBC's Hardball, McClellan was asked, "Who sold the president on" the Iraq War as a means to democratize the Muslim world. McClellan responded that Paul Wolfowitz "was certainly one of the influential ones, as was the Vice President and the Secretary of Defense." Host Chris Matthews followed by asking, "Do you think, if he had not been surrounded by...Dick Cheney and by Wolfowitz and the others...he had been surrounded by pragmatists, like James A Baker, like Colin Powell, people like that, do you think we still would have gone to war." McClellan said, "I think there probably needed to be more diversity within those top ranks of the foreign policy team. That may have made a difference. Certainly people like Brent Scowcroft and Colin Powell, as you mentioned." McClellan, on Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, was asked about statements he made in favor of the Iraq war as recently as April 2007. McClellan answered, "I still believe that I say in the book I think we need to succeed there now that we are there. That doesn't change my views about the build up to the war and that the war was absolutely unnecessary in retrospect. I think that's very clear."
Discussing the reaction to his book from the White House on Comedy Central's The Daily Show, McClellan said, "I think the White House has probably been a little more personal than I expected. It was surprising how personal some of it got." Later McClellan added, "It is this permanent campaign culture I talk about and how destructive it can become, particularly when it is used in matters of leading the nation to war, where you should be talking about the actual truth of the situation on the ground." The Wall Street Journal's William McGurn contends that the press "has largely skipped over what is at once Scott's central claim, and his silliest argument: that the president's big mistake was to embrace the 'permanent campaign' and that this led to a strategy that meant 'never reflecting, never reconsidering, never compromising. Especially not where Iraq was concerned.' ... What Scott apparently still has not recognized is that his own heave-ho was the prelude to exactly the kind of reconsideration he says was impossible in the Bush White House."
The AP reports, "Vice President Dick Cheney threw a verbal insult at West Virginians on Monday, but quickly apologized." Discussing his "his family roots and how he's distantly related to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, the vice president noted that he had Cheneys on both sides of his family." Added Cheney, "And we don't even live in West Virginia. ... You can say those things when you're not running for re-election." Cheney's comment "was denounced by both Democrats and Republicans." The Washington Post notes Cheney's "quip drew groans from the audience at the National Press Club." Largely overshadowed by the flap over Cheney's joke were his comments criticizing "a proposal to suspend the federal gasoline tax."
Fox News' Special Report showed Sen. Robert Byrd saying, "That a man who has ascended to the seat of vice president of the United States would show contempt and astounding ignorance towards his own countrymen is an assault towards all Americans. Now that the Administration no longer needs their vote, Mr. Cheney feels he is free to mock and belittle the people of West Virginia."
Sign up here to get the US News Political Bulletin emailed to you each morning at 8 a.m.
NBC Nightly News reported, "A powerful car bomb exploded outside the Danish Embassy in Pakistan today, killing at least six people, injuring at least twenty." ABC World News reported the explosion "occurred just weeks after al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri called for attacks against Danish interests" and after "newspapers in that country have recently republished cartoon depictions of the Prophet Muhammad." The Washington Post notes "most of the embassy's foreign workers had moved out of the building following a decision by Danish newspapers in February to republish a controversial cartoon showing the Islamic prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb as a turban."
The New York Times reports the blast "was certain to increase unease in the foreign community, and many embassies immediately took new precautions to tighten security." The Financial Times also notes the government's decision "to negotiate peace deals with militants in the border region," while AFP reports that "Pakistani Taliban militants likely carried out" the attack "in revenge for controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, officials said Tuesday." The Wall Street Journal reports, "Pakistani security officials said the attack carried the hallmark of al Qaeda-affiliated militants who have been operating from the lawless tribal region along the country's northwest border with Afghanistan."
USA Today reports the Institute for Supply Management's purchasing managers index "that tracks manufacturing rose a point in May to 49.6." However, the number remains "below 50, indicating a contracting manufacturing sector." Also, the ISM said that "rising commodity prices could leave manufacturers caught between rising costs and weakening demand." Still, the report was "slightly better...than economists predicted," so "few seem to think that" the Fed will lower short-term interest rates.
The Wall Street Journal reports that "the report bolstered other recent data suggesting the economy is stagnant but not collapsing," while the Financial Times reports that "the manufacturing sector is still struggling with enfeebled domestic demand."
The AP reports, "Dark clouds continue to hang over the economy" and a "few bright spots, such as strong exports, may be the only things between us and a protracted recession, analysts said."
Sign up here to get the US News Political Bulletin emailed to you each morning at 8 a.m.
Top
Jay Leno: "Over the weekend, a man named Usain Bolt of Jamaica set a new world record in the 100 meter dash -- 9.72 seconds. ... That broke the old world record of 9.73 seconds set by superdelegates running away from Hillary Clinton."
David Letterman: "Hillary now says that she is winning the popular vote. ... And Al Gore said, 'Yeah, well, a lot of good that does.'"
Conan O'Brien: "In his new book, President Bush's former press secretary said that Bush has 'a lack of inquisitiveness.' Yeah. When he heard this, Bush said, 'I don't know what he's saying, and I don't care.'"
Conan O'Brien: "Speaking of President Bush, yesterday -- this is true -- during a speech, President Bush said that his economic stimulus package is working, because when people use extra money to buy a machine, that creates jobs at 'the machine making place.' ... Yeah. Then Bush introduced his new speech writer, a 6-year-old boy named Timmy."
Sign up here to get the US News Political Bulletin emailed to you each morning at 8 a.m.
Top
Click image for larger view.
Smart analysis, insightful reporting, in-depth perspective—in a new, digital format.
Log in | Buy Now | See sample
View sample page 2View sample page 3View sample page 4View sample page 5advertisement
Get your POLITICALBULLETIN
Click image for larger view.
Smart analysis, insightful reporting, in-depth perspective—in a new, digital format.
Log in | Buy Now | See sample
View sample page 2View sample page 3View sample page 4View sample page 5Embed exclusive U.S. News headlines, rankings, columns, and blog postings to your Web site, blog, or social network.
advertisement
Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of our Terms and Conditions of Use and Privacy Policy.
