Obama surges ahead in fundraising stakes as Clinton's funds 'dry up'
By Toby Harnden
By Toby Harnden
The Telegraph Group LimitedPublished:
February 09, 2008, 01:04
New Orleans: Barack Obama has been raising more than $50 (Dh184) per second since Super Tuesday, hauling in $7.5 million in less than 48 hours amid reports his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton's funds are drying up.
Meanwhile, a document from his campaign shows the Illinois senator expects to sweep six of the seven states that vote over the next four days.
Obama visited New Orleans yesterday and held up the city - ravaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 at a moment when "America's government failed its citizens" - as a symbol of the hope that he espouses.
"It's a city where races and religions and languages all mixed together to form something new, something different and something special," he told a crowd of 4,000 at Tulane University. "An imperfect place made more perfect through its promise of forgiveness."
He also took a shot at Clinton's tactics, stating that "when you actually challenge the status quo then suddenly the claws come out".
In a frantic campaign dash, Obama was due to go from Louisiana to Nebraska, Washington state and then Maine - which all vote at the weekend - before ending up in Virginia tomorrow just under two days before polls open there.
The former First Lady had earlier revealed that she had given $5 million of her own money to her campaign and would not rule out putting in more of her own cash after raising less then half the $32 million her rival netted in January.
Seeking to capitalise on their opponent's woes, the Obama campaign posted a ticking total on its website. In response, the Clinton campaign sent out an e-mail claiming that it had raised $4 million online in 24 hours after Super Tuesday.
Some 40 hours after east-coast voting stopped on Tuesday, the Obama website said: "Hillary and Bill Clinton just gave their campaign $5 million. Since the polls closed on February 5 our supporters have given $7,596,326. Thank You!"
Following Super Tuesday, when he won 13 states, Obama's campaign team has projected in a spreadsheet that he would end up in June with 1,806 delegates against 1,789 for Clinton.
Although this scenario would put him short of the 2,025 needed for outright victory, he would be in a powerful position to secure the Democratic nomination - though the narrow margin might prompt a contested party convention in August.
Obama currently holds a narrow edge in "pledged delegates" - those chosen by voters - while Clinton leads him by a slim margin overall because of her support from many of the 796 party officials who are "superdelegates".
I thought this was an interesting article. Here's a link to it: http://www.gulfnews.com/world/U.S.A/10188314.html
1 comment:
I found another interesting article that ties a lot of issues that we talked about in class:
McCain and Obama Turn Fire on Each Other
Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times
Senator Barack Obama spoke at a General Motors assembly plant in Janesville, Wis., on Wednesday.
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By JEFF ZELENY and JOHN SULLIVAN
Published: February 13, 2008
A day after his overwhelming victories in three eastern primaries, Senator Barack Obama hammered his economic message in Wisconsin on Wednesday, while Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton sidestepped the next round of Democratic primaries to concentrate on the delegate-rich Texas race.
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Candidate Topic PagesMore Politics NewsBoth Mr. Obama and Senator John McCain swept their parties’ primary contests on Tuesday in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia. Mr. Obama handily won all three races and, while the margin between Mr. McCain and Mike Huckabee was not as great as that between Democratic candidates, Mr. McCain also scored clear victories across the board.
In early appearances on Wednesday, Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama both turned their fire on the opposition party, perhaps signaling a new dynamic in the presidential race.
Responding to a question about Mr. Obama’s campaign so far, Mr. McCain said that the Illinois Democrat’s speeches have been “singularly lacking in specifics” and noted that Mr. Obama was recently rated the most liberal Senator by National Journal.
“I respect him and the campaign that he has run,” Mr. McCain said of Mr. Obama, after a question about his decision to focus on Mr. Obama and his message of hope in his victory speech on Tuesday night. “But there is going to come a time when we have to get into specifics, and I’ve not observed every speech that he’s given, obviously, but they are singularly lacking in specifics.”
“It’s not an accident that he has, I think, according to National Journal, the most liberal voting record in the United States Senate,” he said. “I have one of the most conservative.”
Speaking before a crowd at a Wisconsin auto plant, Senator Obama delivered a blistering critique of his Democratic and Republican rivals on Wednesday, blaming Washington for the economic crisis that has gripped the nation.
“We are not standing on the brink of recession due to forces beyond our control,” Mr. Obama said. “The fallout from the housing crisis that’s cost jobs and wiped out savings was not an inevitable part of the business cycle, it was a failure of leadership and imagination in Washington.”
Mr. Obama opened his campaign for next week’s Wisconsin primary inside a General Motors plant in Janesville, one day after General Motors Corp. posted a $38 billion loss, the largest ever for a U.S. auto company. He criticized the North American Free Trade Agreement, which was signed during the Clinton administration, and offered a series of plans to inject more jobs into the economy.
“You know, in the years after her husband signed Nafta, Senator Clinton would go around talking about how great it was and how many benefits it would bring,” Mr. Obama said. “Now that she’s running for president, she says we need a time-out on trade. No one knows when this time-out will end. Maybe after the election.”
Mr. Obama, who has won 21 states in the Democratic presidential nominating fight, is working to add Wisconsin to his string of victories by tapping into an anti-war sentiment. As he pointed out his opposition to the war, he linked Mrs. Clinton with Senator McCain as he pointed out the failures of Washington.
“It’s a Washington where politicians like John McCain and Hillary Clinton voted for a war in Iraq that should’ve never been authorized and never been waged — a war that is costing us thousands of precious lives and billions of dollars a week,” Mr. Obama said.
In his speech in Janesville, Mr. Obama proposed creating a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank to invest $60 billion over 10 years and create nearly 2 million new jobs in the construction field. He said the program would be paid for by ending the Iraq war. He also renewed his call to create an energy plan to invest $150 billion over 10 years to establish a “green energy sector” to add up to 5 million jobs in the next two decades.
“It’s time to stop spending billions of dollars a week trying to put Iraq back together and start spending the money on putting America back together instead,” Mr. Obama said. He added, “We’ll also provide funding to help manufacturers convert to green technology and help workers learn the skills they need for these jobs.”
Mrs. Clinton, speaking before an enthusiastic crowd on Wednesday morning in McAllen, Texas, also struck economic themes, saying she offered solutions for voters’ financial struggles while Mr. Obama offered “rhetoric.”
The New York Democrat blasted her Democratic rival for the nomination for having “a plan that fails to provide universal health care, fails to address the housing crisis, and fails to immediately start creating good-paying jobs.”
She also underscored the critical importance of the Texas primary on March 4, which her advisers describe as a must-win target after a series of Clinton losses to Mr. Obama over the last week.
“March 4 is a turning point date,” Mrs. Clinton told the cheering crowd of more than 2,000 people at a convention center in McAllen. “We can send that message across America. Will you stand for me on March 4? If you will stand and fight for me, I will fight for you all the way to victory in November.”
Mrs. Clinton headlined a rally with about 12,000 people in El Paso on Tuesday night; as at that event, the McAllen audience was predominantly Hispanic and female — her chief voter bases — and the audiences were two of the most raucous that Mrs. Clinton has seen during this campaign. In El Paso, even her most boilerplate remarks were rewarded with wild hooting from the audience.
In McAllen, Mrs. Clinton stood on stage with more than 100 elected officials from the region who had endorsed her, as the audience repeatedly interrupted remarks with chants of “Hillary! Hillary!”
“Oh, it is so good to be back in South Texas,” Mrs. Clinton said. “I first came here nearly 36 years ago. I went door to door in the border communities, including McAllen, looking to register voters and to make it clear then as I do now, we must seize the future and everybody has to participate.”
Mrs. Clinton hailed two of her “heroines” from Texas, former Rep. Barbara Jordan and former Gov. Ann Richards, and sought to tap their legendary gusto as she looked ahead to the Texas primary and her fight for the nomination against Mr. Obama.
“They taught me about courage and determination,” she said. “I can hear their voices saying, ‘you keep going, you give the people a real choice about the future that awaits.’”
Mrs. Clinton is counting on huge turnout by Hispanics and women to propel her to victory in Texas. She is holding events in Corpus Christi and San Antonio on Wednesday before heading to Ohio, which also votes on March 4, and plans to return to Texas next Wednesday for campaigning and a debate on Feb. 21.
On the Republican side, Senator McCain met with House Republicans on Wednesday morning at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington. The group has not always embraced Mr. McCain, particularly last spring when he championed an immigration bill many of them hated. But as the Arizona Republican seeks to rally the party around him, they proclaimed a unified front.
Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri said, “I believe this contest is over, and I believe it’s produced the best possible nominee for us to take back the house.” And Rep. John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican Leader, said, “I’ve watched John McCain be a strong advocate for the principles that I believe in.”
Mr. McCain continued to note his desire that Mr. Huckabee bow out of the Republican race, saying that the former Arkansas governor needs more delegates than remain up for grabs to win the nomination.
“Of course I would like for him to withdraw today — it would be much easier,” Mr. McCain said. “But I respect, and I have repeatedly said I respect, his right to continue in this race for just as long as he wants to.
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