I keep hearing that it's the delegate math that matters.
I am also hearing that Super Delegates will decide who gets the Democratic nomination. In this election, both statements are right - and wrong.
Obviously delegates will be the means by which Democrats ultimately record support for one candidate over the other at their convention. But a crucial factor in the decision will be an even larger issue. Money.
So while the media focused primarily on the sports analogue of racking up points,
the most important story after the Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont contests was fund raising.
Last week, the Clnton Campaign announced a $3 million dollar bump in fund raising after her wins on Tuesday.
The Obama campaign promptly answered that it had raised $55 million dollars in February alone and qualified itself further by announcing that the majority of it's total donations were in small bills from over a million contributors.
Fund raising and spending ratios will not escape the notice of the Party.
So let's look ahead.
A general election with races for the White House, Senate, Congress and Governor seats across the country will require a prodigious effort to raise big money.
The candidate who proves they can raise the cash will be a crucial asset to the wider agenda of the party. The Super Delegates are going to pay attention to whoever can help get them re-elected or gain a major win for the party.
This is exactly how Bill Clinton got elected and how he consolidated power.
Right now, Barack Obama has the money. Unless the flood of cash dries up, he is the life of the Party and it's hopes in November.
See the Wall Street Journal for more and check out the NY Times from March 31, '07.
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2 comments:
good points, about stopping clinton's momentum, but i think that with the anti-obama venom coming from the clinton team, obama needs more than money.
check out bob herbert's column about obama need ing to inject "vision" into his rhetoric -- sorry i can't cite it.
i expect, too, that obama will take mississippi, another red state.
where, where, are the Dem party elders? al gore? when is richardson going to endorse? presumably obama?
below is a list of obama's advisors for diplomatic and military affairs, as creditable as any advisors that clinton or mccain can muster. why haven't the press turned to interviewing them about their opinions on obama's fitness on defense?
i can't understand why obama isn't calling press conferences, with them in tow, to counter clinton's uncreditable claims about his inadequacy as a military president.
Obama's Foreign Policy & National Security Advisors
Former Amb. Jeffrey Bader, President Clinton’s National Security Council Asia specialist and now head of Brookings’s China center, national security adviser
Mark Brzezinski, President Clinton’s National Security Council Southeast Europe specialist and now a partner at law firm McGuireWoods, national security adviser
Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter’s national security adviser and now a Center for Strategic and International Studies counselor and trustee and frequent guest on PBS’s NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, foreign policy adviser
Richard A. Clarke, President Clinton and President George W. Bush’s counterterrorism czar and now head of Good Harbor Consulting and an ABC News contributor, sometimes Obama adviser
Gregory B. Craig, State Department director of policy planning under President Clinton and now a partner at law firm Williams & Connolly, foreign policy adviser
Roger W. Cressey, former National Security Council counterterrorism staffer and now Good Harbor Consulting president and NBC News consultant, has advised Obama but says not exclusive
Ivo H. Daalder, National Security Council director for European affairs during President Clinton’s administration and now a Brookings senior fellow, foreign policy adviser
Richard Danzig, President Clinton’s Navy secretary and now a Center for Strategic and International Analysis fellow, national security adviser
Philip H. Gordon, President Clinton’s National Security Council staffer for Europe and now a Brookings senior fellow, national security adviser
Maj. Gen. J. (Jonathan) Scott Gration, a 32-year Air Force veteran and now CEO of Africa anti-poverty effort Millennium Villages, national security adviser and surrogate
Lawrence J. Korb, assistant secretary of defense from 1981-1985 and now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, informal foreign policy adviser
W. Anthony Lake, President Clinton’s national security adviser and now a professor at Georgetown’s school of foreign service, foreign policy adviser
James M. Ludes, former defense and foreign policy adviser to Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and now executive director of the American Security Project, national security adviser
Robert Malley, President Clinton’s Middle East envoy and now International Crisis Group’s Middle East and North Africa program director, national security adviser
Gen. Merrill A. ("Tony") McPeak, former Air Force chief of staff and now a business consultant, national security adviser
Denis McDonough, Center for American Progress senior fellow and former policy adviser to then-Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle, foreign policy coordinator
Samantha Power, Harvard-based human rights scholar and Pulitzer Prize winning writer, foreign policy adviser
Susan E. Rice, President Clinton’s Africa specialist at the State Department and National Security Council and now a Brookings senior fellow, foreign policy adviser
Bruce O. Riedel, former CIA officer and National Security Council staffer for Near East and Asian affairs and now a Brookings senior fellow, national security adviser
Dennis B. Ross, President Clinton’s Middle East negotiator and now a Washington Institute for Near East Policy fellow, Middle East adviser
Sarah Sewall, deputy assistant secretary of defense for peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance during President Clinton’s administration and now director of Harvard’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, national security adviser
Daniel B. Shapiro, National Security Council director for legislative affairs during President Clinton’s administration and now a lobbyist with Timmons & Company, Middle East adviser
Mona Sutphen, former aide to President Clinton’s National Security adviser Samuel R. Berger and to United Nations ambassador Bill Richardson and now managing director of business consultancy Stonebridge, national security adviser
Raymond,
Thanks for your detailed comment. The list of names you cited is very helpful.
Also, I read Bob Herbert's NY Times Opinion column which you mentioned and I couldn't agree more. Thanks for the tip.
The column is here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/08/opinion/08herbert.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Look how many of the people you mention on your list of Obama advisers were highly placed in the Clinton Administration. The suggestion has been made that Hillary Clinton has been extremely loyal to their partisans. I'm not informed enough to suggest that she and Bill aren't.
But what do you think it should indicate to us that so many have defected from the Clinton camp?
And why isn't that a legitimate question for the media to ask?
More on my next blog post...
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