CosmicRocker

Downside of Obama Strategy
Losses in Big States Party Must Win Spur Concern


By Jonathan Weisman and Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, March 8, 2008; Page A01

Democrats in Wyoming will hold caucuses today and -- following what is now a familiar pattern -- are expected to give Sen. Barack Obama the majority of their 12 pledged delegates.

The Illinois Democrat's strength in a Republican state that has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964 is the latest example of an ingenious strategy that neatly addresses the advantage Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) enjoys in Democratic strongholds where she and her husband have long-standing ties.

But Obama's losses Tuesday in Texas and Ohio -- coupled with his Feb. 5 defeats in California, New York and New Jersey -- have not only shown the strategy's downside.
They have also given supporters of Clinton an opening for an argument that winning over affluent, educated white voters in small Democratic enclaves, such as Boise, Idaho, and Salt Lake City and running up the score with African Americans in the Republican South exaggerate his strengths in states that will never vote Democratic in the fall.

If Obama becomes the Democratic nominee but cannot win support from working-class whites and Hispanics, they argue, then Democrats will not retake the White House in November.
"If you can't win in the Southwest, if you don't win Ohio, if you don't win Pennsylvania, you've got problems in November," said Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), a Clinton supporter. Even some Obama advisers see a real problem. "Ultimately, all that matters is how the nominee stacks up against John McCain," said one adviser who spoke on the condition of anonymity, referring to the senator from Arizona and presumptive GOP nominee.
"Right now, Barack is not connecting with the children of the Reagan Democrats. That's a real concern."

"It's now a battle between the base and the new young Democrats and Democrats who are more energized than they've been in the past," agreed Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), an Obama supporter.
"I don't know how that's going to play out."

With the campaign moving next week to Mississippi, another Republican state where Obama is expected to do well, these questions will only grow louder as the Clinton camp tries to minimize the importance of those states while raising the stakes for Pennsylvania on April 22.

Obama and his allies counter that California and New York are firmly in the Democratic column and that, as the party's nominee, he could just as easily carry them as Clinton.

David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager, said he is not going to be goaded into shifting from the current strategy, which is to get as many delegates from wherever he can.
And he rejects what he says is the Clinton campaign's attempt to give greater legitimacy to certain states -- especially Pennsylvania, where Clinton is expected to have an advantage because of her support from the Democratic establishment there and because its demographics are similar to Ohio's.

But many Democratic elected officials are still worried. "No one's jumping up and down in Okeechobee, Florida, saying we've got a perfect ticket," agreed Rep. Tim Mahoney (Fla.), a moderate, unaffiliated Democrat in a swing district.
"If you're a Barack Obama, you're going to have to figure out how to reach out to white, middle-aged men."

Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.), who like Mahoney has not endorsed either Obama or Clinton, is concerned about Obama's poor performance among Latino voters in California and Texas.
"It's unfortunate," he said, "because Barack Obama has done very well with Latino voters in Illinois, and I know his heart, and it's for an inclusive agenda."

Obama rejects the charge that he has failed to reach important segments of the party, noting that he has already shown he could crack Clinton's coalition of working-class voters, women and Latinos with his wins in the bellwether state of Missouri, the swing state of Virginia and the Rust Belt redoubt of Wisconsin.
He also showed that he could expand the battleground into the coveted Mountain West, with his convincing win in Colorado.

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Traveling Wilburys (l to r)

Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, George Harrison, Roy Orbison

CosmicRocker

I don't buy into this demographic argument," Obama said. "Missouri, Wisconsin, Virginia -- in many of these states we've won the white vote and the blue-collar vote and so forth.
I think it is very important not to somehow focus on a handful of states because the Clintons say those states are important and that the other states are unimportant."

To be sure, Team Obama's small-state strategy may have been the candidate's only option against a far-better-known opponent, and it has worked.
In the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday primaries that Obama's campaign staff had hoped to merely survive, Obama and Clinton just about broke even.
Obama won more delegates in Kansas and Idaho than Clinton won in New Jersey. Her big win in California -- with its net gain of 41 delegates -- was negated by his wins in Georgia and Nebraska.

"Senator Obama went where he had to go," said former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack (D), a Clinton backer. "They had a well-thought-out strategic plan, and they carried it out with real discipline."

In the ensuing weeks, Obama appeared to consolidate his support among the rest of the Democratic coalition.
He prevailed in the diverse state of Missouri,* won over rural and working-class whites in his Virginia and Maryland routs, and then prevailed easily in Wisconsin. *by 1/10 of 1%

David Axelrod, Obama's chief campaign strategist, said the strategy had an upside beyond the compiling of delegates.
Obama was building a case with superdelegates that his appeal to nontraditional voters would have a ripple effect down the ballot in swing states such as Colorado and Iowa, where some of those superdelegates will be running for reelection.
And by building organizations in all 50 states, Obama can make the case that he has an infrastructure primed and ready for the general election.

Then came Ohio and Texas, and all the old fears of Obama's narrow appeal came flooding back.

"A lot of the states he's winning are states that we're not going to win in November," said Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), a Clinton supporter. "It's not a strategy that bodes well, in my opinion."

A Clinton campaign memo on Wednesday noted that of the 11 core Republican states that have held primaries or caucuses, Obama has won 10: Utah, Idaho, Nebraska, North Dakota, Alabama, Alaska, Kansas, South Carolina, Georgia and Louisiana.
In 2004, Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), the Democratic nominee, lost each of these states by 15 points or more.

Obama aides insist that it is a strategy that will still work. Even after Tuesday, when he lost three out of four contests, Obama maintained his delegate lead.
Indeed, his strength in the parallel caucuses in Texas may have actually given him more delegates than Clinton, even though she won the popular vote by 51 percent to 47 percent.
But his campaign faces a legitimacy test that is beginning to resonate throughout the Democratic establishment: Can Obama actually win the big prizes?
With Pennsylvania looming, Obama has few good options. Some advisers say he should stick to a plan hatched before Tuesday's defeats, to spend some time in the next weeks traveling to Europe, Israel and Asia to bolster his credentials for the general election. But if he cedes the state completely, he destroys his strategy of winning big in the small states and staying close in the big ones.

Axelrod and other Obama aides said they have learned their lesson from Tuesday.
Rather than accept Pennsylvania as a tiebreaker, they will play down their chances there and keep the focus on states such as North Carolina and Indiana, where they think their chances are better.

Pennsylvania will be followed by contests in West Virginia, Indiana and Kentucky, all of which have similar, lunch-pail demographics.
If Clinton enters the summer on a roll, especially in the big states, the superdelegates may no longer feel that backing Clinton would be opposing the will of the voters, an Obama supporter said.

"Superdelegates are politicians. They will not buck the will of the voters," said a superdelegate supporting Obama.
"The danger point comes if the superdelegates don't see a vote for Clinton as bucking anyone."

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Traveling Wilburys (l to r)

Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, George Harrison, Roy Orbison

CosmicRocker

There you go. Winning delegates to be the nominee in red and small states is NOT the strongest candidate for the general election.

It may win the nomination, and lose the election

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Traveling Wilburys (l to r)

Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, George Harrison, Roy Orbison

Environment Man

It is a numbers game and the one with the most delegates going into the convention should get the nod. Period. Superdelegates should do their duty.

cheapseats

I say again, if Super Delegates would unfailingly follow the will of the people i.e. the popular vote, there would be no need for them in the first place.

If Super Delegates would unfailingly follow the will of the people i.e. the popular vote, their existence would be redundant-read-that-another-foolish-expense.

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CosmicRocker

ur missing the point.

it's not abou the nomination -it's about Obama's inability to carry big/swing states in the General

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Traveling Wilburys (l to r)

Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, George Harrison, Roy Orbison

CosmicRocker

Superdelegates are NOT bound by the popular vote!!
they were created as party "elders" or for the good of the party, to ensure the strongest candidate wins the general, if neither goes to the Convention without a majority to win the nomination

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Traveling Wilburys (l to r)

Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, George Harrison, Roy Orbison

cheapseats

Certainly not I.

I have been saying from jump-street that turning this election into a First Woman/First Black accomplishment is almost to ask, please, to leave the White House in Republican control.

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Environment Man

'Elders.' A nice little oligarchy eh? To thwart the will of the people. That sound very democratic. If one candidate has the most delegates and the most popular votes, these 'elders' should line up behind that person. And if this person just happens to be black, as much as those people have been FUCKED WITH LIKE THIS, then it is even more important that the 'elders' do the right thing.

CosmicRocker

so they should line up for Obama cause he's black?
women have been fucked with too - so vote for hillary?

neither - they vote their consciousness.

I agree Super delegated is an awful idea - but that is the role they have been assigned.
( make the best choice for the party)
They are not there for affirmative action, Eman.

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Traveling Wilburys (l to r)

Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, George Harrison, Roy Orbison