Morning Update: Obama’s Maine Victory
Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) won the Maine Democratic caucuses Sunday with nearly 60 percent of the vote, closing out a weekend of victories over Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY). Clinton yesterday replaced her campaign manager Patty Solis Doyle as she and Obama moved into an effective tie in the number of delegates needed to win their party’s presidential nomination. Ahead of the caucuses, Clinton attempted to cast herself as the candidate best suited to face off against McCain in the general election. “I can go toe-to-toe with Sen. McCain on national security,” Clinton told reporters Saturday in Maine.
On Fox News Sunday, President Bush said Obama’s foreign policy views are unclear. But, he said, “the only foreign policy thing I remember he said was he’s going to attack Pakistan and embrace [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad.”
Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton responded: “Barack Obama doesn’t need any foreign policy advice from the architect of the worst foreign policy decision in a generation.”
February 11th, 2008 at 11:56 am
I think Obama’s accelerated success has to do with two things:
* Our elections will continue to have strong “third party” voices at this point in our history since both parties are perceived to be too vested in an existing system, and Obama can be projected onto as someone who is fresh and outside but certainly not a frightening force to be reckoned with such as Nader or Paul (outside/inside examples).
* People have the gut instincts to know that Hillary would have a hard time beating McCain with a large margin and no one wants to take that chance.
There are only two issues: health care and the war. If both are addressed the economy will be addressed by default (health care is what? 23% of GDP or something, and illegal immigration is the new gay marriage for this election). Hillary carries the stink of failure on that first one, and it’s hard to shake. Obama’s already got a partial plan which may allow him to actually beat back big pharma and the insurance companies.