Never Mind the Pundits; Hillary’s Still In It to Win It

Although the conclusion of the Indiana race remained in doubt until after midnight here in the midwest, CBS had broken with the other networks to project Hillary Clinton’s win when Chelsea and Bill accompanied her as she took the stage to give her victory speech.

A boisterous, enthusiastic crowd repeatedly interrupted Hillary’s talk by chanting her name and shouting “Yes, she can!”

I stayed up until well after midnight to make sure Hillary had indeed secured the win. Results from the city of Gary in Lake County, known to favor Obama, only began to come in after 11:30 p.m. and the county was still reporting after 1 a.m. today. I couldn’t help noticing that Gary’s Mayor Clay, an Obama supporter, kept making excuses for holding up the count until the CNN crew turned up the heat by reminding viewers of old Chicago-style political tricks. Suddenly, the Gary results started arriving in chunks of 28%.

The day after her win in the critical primary state of Indiana, Clinton added a campaign appearance in West Virginia to her schedule today, and supporters took to the airwaves to emphasize that she remains in the race and to urge unpledged "superdelegates" to stick with her.

The New York senator also planned to continue campaigning tomorrow in West Virginia before flying to South Dakota and Oregon. West Virginia holds its Democratic primary May 13.

Obama Sweeps North Carolina; Clinton Takes Indiana

We didn’t know the final results until after midnight, and it was a squeaker, but with 99% of the votes in, CNN finally projected Hillary Clinton the winner of Indiana by two percentage points. The holdup was the tally from Lake County, which is near Chicago. As the mayor of Hammond noted, he is only about 15 minutes from Obama’s house, and Hillary Clinton more or less campaigned in his backyard and won.

Obama was projected the winner of North Carolina shortly after the polls closed and when the votes were counted, he won by 14 percentage points.

May 5 polls: Clinton Leads in IN; Obama Ahead in NC

INDIANA PRIMARY

SurveyUSA:
Hillary Clinton: 54%
Barack Obama: 42%
Undecided: 1%


American Research Group:
Hillary Clinton: 53%
Barack Obama: 45%

Suffolk University:
Hillary Clinton: 49%
Barack Obama: 43%
Undecided: 6%

Zogby:
Barack Obama: 44%
Hillary Clinton: 42%
Undecideds: 15%

NORTH CAROLINA

Insider Advantage
Hillary Clinton 45%
Barack Obama 48%

Zogby Tracking
Hillary Clinton 40%
Barack Obama 48%

PPD
Hillary Clinton 43%
Barack Obama 53%

DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION

Gallup Tracking
Hillary Clinton 45%
Barack Obama 50%

USA Today/Gallup
Hillary Clinton 51%
Barack Obama 44%

CBS News/NY Times
Hillary Clinton 38%
Barack Obama 50%

Rasmussen Tracking
Hillary Clinton 45%
Barack Obama 46%

Despite Pro-Obama Media Bias, Polls Show Clinton Surge

Photo credits: AP

As I mentioned in my coverage of the Pennsylvania primary, no one should have been surprised that most of the state’s newspapers endorsed Obama; we’ve all been well aware of the media’s pro-Obama bias for months. Fortunately for Sen. Clinton, working class people in the Keystone state outnumbered the press, helping her trounce Obama.

Evidently, not much has changed the weekend before the Indiana and North Carolina primaries: the headline for campaign news at PoliticalBulletin (U.S.News.com) reads: “Obama Wins The Media While Clinton Moves Up In The Polls.”

Here’s the PoliticalBulletin’s take on current trends in campaign coverage:

“There is an odd dichotomy emerging in the media coverage of the Democratic presidential race emerging this morning. On one hand, the media is seeing former Democratic National Committee Chairman Joe Andrew's defection to Barack Obama's camp as a sign that superdelegates are beginning to move towards his candidacy, and give the move extensive coverage. On the other, there are a number of items of good news for Hillary Clinton polls showing her in a dead heat in Indiana and one showing her competitive in North Carolina, which was expected to be an Obama stronghold. In addition, she picked up the endorsement of the Indianapolis Star, and a group of swing state polls show her far stronger in the general election in key states than Obama.”

Pennsylvania Win Propels Clinton in Latest Polls

Posting at Political Intelligence (Boston Globe), Foon Rhee suggests the latest polls hint at a Clinton surge:

“A bevy of new national polls, plus surveys in Indiana and North Carolina -- which hold key primaries on Tuesday -- suggest that Hillary Clinton is closing the gap since her campaign-saving victory in Pennsylvania last week, and that the controversies dogging Barack Obama are having an impact.”

After analyzing results from Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll, NBC/Wall Street Journal survey, New York Times/CBS poll, and Quinnipiac University poll, Rhee comments:

“The polls were being conducted as Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., was making a series of highly publicized speeches and as Obama repudiated him."



Rhee adds:

“In North Carolina, a new WRAL-TV poll says that Obama's lead has narrowed to 49 percent to 42 percent, down from double digits in most prior polling.

“In Indiana, where the race had been a toss-up in surveys last week, Clinton now leads in the three most recent polls. She is ahead 46 percent to 41 percent in a Rasmussen survey, 50 percent to 42 percent in Public Polling Policy survey, and 52 percent to 43 percent in a SurveyUSA poll.”

Clinton: “My Campaign is about Jobs, Jobs, Jobs and Jobs”

Jodi Kantor writes in today’s NY Times that every speech Hillary Clinton gave in Indiana on Friday and Saturday had the same topic sentence. “My campaign is about jobs, jobs, jobs and jobs,” she said, always to thunderous applause.

In Bloomington, Kantor said Clinton promised to bring nothing less than economic revolution to the decaying Rust Belt. But in Fort Wayne, linking the economy to environmental concerns, she told her listeners, “We’re going to create green-collar jobs.”

Kantor noted, “Mrs. Clinton has a reputation as an effective listener, and she is finally putting that skill to full use in her appearances, showing her audiences how closely she tracks their concerns.”

On outsourcing in Gary, Kantor said Clinton made her case with an updated version of Martin Niemöller’s poem about the victims of the Nazis; Clinton told her listeners:

“They came for the steel companies and nobody said anything. They came for the auto companies and nobody said anything. They came for the office companies, people who did white-collar service jobs, and no one said anything. And they came for the professional jobs that could be outsourced and nobody said anything. So this is not just about steel,” she finished.

Kantor reported that nearly all of Clinton’s crowds in Indiana were large and “noisily appreciative.”

Clinton stayed to greet ardent supporters after the event in Fort Wayne, and fans snapped her picture with camera phones or the disposable variety, Kantor said, adding that “One fan locked eyes with the candidate and mouthed a message: You’re going to win.”

Shades of Alice Palmer: Old Politics Haunts Obama in Indiana

Barack Obama has positioned himself in the Democratic race as the harbinger of the new politics who will single-handedly clean up Washington and rid government of the influence of lobbyists, etc., etc.

In spite of the fact that he’s been exposed several times for having been repeatedly on the take from lobbyists and for pandering to the oil industry, Obama continues to boast of a spotless record. He also conveniently forgets some of the roughshod tactics he’s used for his political advancement.

Christi Parsons at the Swamp (Chicago Tribune) reminds potential voters of an unsavory incident in Obama’s history involving another Illinois state senator that has recently come back to haunt the messiah on the campaign trail in Indiana.

Parsons writes:

“Joining Chelsea Clinton and other women leaders to campaign for Hillary Clinton today is Alice Palmer, the former state senator who picked Obama to be her successor back in the mid-90s. When she tried to reclaim her spot, though, Obama got her booted from the ballot.”

Parsons continues;

“The day of campaigning culminates tonight with a ‘Women for Hillary’ rally in New Albany. The women plan to talk about Clinton's plans for the economy, job creation and the middle class.

“Palmer's story is more familiar in our town {than} it is in Indiana, even in the northwest section of Hoosierland that consumes so much of the Chicago news media. Still, the national press has shown an interest in the early account of Obama playing hardball, and Palmer's presence may remind some of them of the story.”

As demonstrated in Pennsylvania the other day, a majority of Americans don’t need the reminder at this point; we had our eyes opened a while back to the Obama campaign strategy that says one thing and does another.

Clinton Responds to Obama’s “Demeaning” Take on the Working Class

Photo credits: Getty

A key component of Barack Obama’s base is the extreme left, composed of elite, upscale liberals who not so long ago flocked to Ralph Nader. It’s therefore understandable that Obama is a little awkward in his efforts to appeal to working class voters.

The always impeccably dressed Obama went bowling in Pennsylvania in a suit and tie and scored a stunning 37. He also visited a chocolate factory where he showed concern for his waistline by refusing to sample the factory’s main product and flirted with the female workers instead of treating them with respect.

Most recently, Obama demonstrated how out of touch he is with working-class America in a talk he gave at a fundraiser in San Francisco. Referring to voters in Pennsylvania and Indiana, Obama said:

“So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

Sen. Hillary Clinton has been quick to respond:

At Drexel University in Philadelphia, Clinton said: "Well, that's not my experience. As I travel around Pennsylvania, I meet people who are resilient, who are optimistic, who are positive. . . . They're working hard every day for a better future for themselves and their children. Pennsylvanians don't need a president who looks down on them. They need a president who stands up for them, who fights for them."

Later on while campaigning in Indianapolis, she remarked: "Senator Obama's remarks were elitist and out of touch. They are not reflective of the values and beliefs of Americans." Watch video of Clinton's speech.

As noted in an article in the Associated Press, “The flap threatened to highlight an Obama Achilles heel — the image that the Harvard-trained lawyer is arrogant and carries himself with an air of superiority.”

The AP article quoted additional comments by Clinton:

"I was raised with Midwestern values and an unshakable faith in America and its policies," she said. "Now, Americans who believe in the Second Amendment believe it's a matter of constitutional right. Americans who believe in God believe it's a matter of personal faith.

"I grew up in a church-going family, a family that believed in the importance of living out and expressing our faith. The people of faith I know don't 'cling' to religion because they're bitter. People embrace faith not because they are materially poor, but because they are spiritually rich.

"Our faith is the faith of our parents and our grandparents. It is a fundamental expression of who we are and what we believe."

For more on the firestorm created by Obama’s take on the working class, visit these articles in the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Associated Press.

Hillary Clinton’s “Spine of Steel”

Photo credits: AP

Senator Evan Bayh speaks up for Hillary in her first advertisement in Indiana and tells his fellow Hoosiers that his long-time friend has a “spine of steel.”

Here’s the script for the ad:

America faces challenging times.

We need a leader who’ll fight for good jobs, change trade deals like Nafta, cut taxes for middle-class families.

Someone who’s ready to be commander-in-chief from day one. That leader? Hillary Clinton.

I’ve known Hillary for 20 years. She’s got a spine of steel.

She’ll fight for our jobs, our troops, and the America we love.
Strong. Seasoned. She’ll always stand up for us.

To see the ad, go here: