Still Trailing, Clinton Challenges Obama Over Ability to Beat McCain
Wednesday: Hillary Rodham Clinton waves to media members on her campaign plane during a flight to a rally in Indianapolis. (AP Photo)
Hillary Clinton’s big win in the Pennsylvania primary yielded only slight gains in the pledged delegate count, putting pressure on the New York senator to pull off a streak of similar victories in the nine contests ahead.
But Clinton is using the victory to build her case that she’s the better Democrat to face presumptive GOP nominee John McCain in November. Her campaign was re-energized as the candidates tour Indiana Wednesday, brushing off the still daunting task that lies ahead.
Clinton raised $3.5 million in the initial hours after her victory, and the campaign said it was on track to raise $10 million online in the 24 hours since winning Pennsylvania — which the campaign claimed was her best one-day haul.
“At the end of the day, people have to decide who they think would be not only the best president, which is the most important question, but who would be the better candidate against Senator McCain. And I think the coalition that I’ve put together, as demonstrated once again last night, is a very strong base for us to beat Senator McCain,” Clinton told NBC’s “Today.”
Not so, said Obama.
“It’s important to put this in perspective,” he told reporters after a town hall meeting in New Albany, Ind., Wednesday. “What we did do in Pennsylvania is create an organization, make voters familiar with me, close the gap significantly, which creates an organization for us in November in a general election. It’s a strong base to build on … We’re very confident about where we’re going to be once we’re the nominee.”
Clinton won at least 81 of the 158 delegates up for grabs in Tuesday’s contest, according to an analysis of election returns by The Associated Press. Obama won at least 70, with seven still to be determined. That closed some of the distance for Clinton, but not enough to take away Obama’s front-runner status. She still trails Obama in the delegate count 1,591 to 1,719 — the eventual nominee needs 2,025 delegates to win. Clinton had been down 1,509 to 1,648 before the night’s delegate tally.
Her electability argument is based on the success she’s had in big states. Clinton has won states, including New York and California, with 240 electoral votes compared to 202 electoral votes in states that Obama has won. She has used that statistic to argue that she will be a better candidate in the general election. Her campaign also issued a statement that she has won more of the popular vote than Obama although that count included Michigan, where he wasn’t on the ballot, and Florida, where neither campaigned.
“I’m very proud that as of today, I have received more votes by the people who have voted than anybody else,” Clinton said Wednesday at a rally in Indianapolis.
Indiana and North Carolina are the next states to vote on May 6.
Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said any Democrat can win California and New York, but Obama is doing better than Clinton in states where polls have been taken on hypothetical head-to-head match-ups with McCain. Plouffe named Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, New Mexico, Nevada, Virginia and Wisconsin as strong Obama performance states. Obama hasn’t won a major state since Wisconsin on Feb. 22.
Plouffe added that by Clinton’s own definition, she must win North Carolina, with 115 delegates, by a healthy margin in order to be consistent in her claim that she can win big states. Polls show Obama well ahead in that state.
“We don’t think performance in primaries is the most important measure in how you’re doing against McCain right now, but we’ve performed well in a lot of those states in the primaries,” Plouffe said. “It’s a flawed exercise to somehow suggest that performance in primaries is the leading indicator in what’s gonna happen in the general.”
He also shot down some of Clinton’s argument that Obama can’t win households with income under $50,000 and voters under 60 . Plouffe pointed out that Obama won voters under 60 in 19 states to Clinton’s nine, and won 14 states to Clinton’s 15 states with voters making less than $50,000.
Obama hinted Wednesday that he feels he’s already earned the nomination.
Asked about superdelegates at his town hall meeting Obama said: “I have to admit I have a little self interest in here — but I do think that these elections that we’ve been doing should be counted for something. And so if we’ve won the most delegates from the voters, seems to me that it might be a good idea to make me the nominee.”
Clinton still leads Obama in superdelegates by 25. Hot off her victory, Clinton on Wednesday picked up a new superdelegate, Tennessee Rep. John Tanner. For either candidate to win, they will have to rely on the remaining 300-plus unpledged party leaders who serve as superdelegates.
“There’s no chance she’s gonna catch him in terms of pledged delegates,” National Public Radio national correspondent Juan Williams told FOX News, adding that if she can make a convincing argument that she can win the big states, then she has a chance to catch up through superdelegates.
“Short of that she’s really inviting civil war inside the Democratic Party. That’s literally the nuclear option,” he said.
FOX News’ Bonney Kapp contributed to this report.
Is there a maytag repariman out there. The Spin cycle has gone all out of whack.
All of the remaining candidates are electable - they are all still getting votes.
And on the Dem side. They are getting record numbers out. In fact, in many of the large states the vote has been close enough that both candidates beat previous votes recieved than previous primary years…….
Campaign or should I say Complain season way to long anymore. They need to allow all of the delagates to campaign for 3 months, then hold all States Primaries on the same day.
To Joseph Browning… and others for that matter…
If Obama has no substance, yet his and Clinton’s policies are very similar, even by her own admission, wouldn’t that mean that she has no substance either?
As for electability… when the dems stop fighting and more focus is on what McCain’s actual policies.. or lack thereof are, how the hell can any sane person vote for him? Don’t we all agree that Bush messed up the country and that McCain wants to continue with the same policies? If your hatred of Obama…or for Obama supporters, hatred of Clinton runs so deep that we will continue 4 more years of hell… you might be a communist. But I digress.
Comment by reg…
So Clinton is from PA? So how did she become the Senator from New York?
I’m confused, and I’m a pretty smart guy…
Senator Clinton leaves the impression that if she does not win the nomination that ALL the people who voted for her would not vote for Obama.
It annoys me to know that the American people can be so shallow minded.. Sen. Obama is the perfect man for the job hands down..just look at the delegates… And all you guys say is that he has no background…of course not he’s only in his mid forty’s but he knows where we’re all coming from.. He sees things our way and he will be our next president
Obama/Clinton 08′
2 heads are better than 1
I think it this article shows us how America has really changed in the last 70 years. Becoming President was such a grand undertaking. It wasn’t about bad mouthing candidates as much as it was proving how you are better for the position at hand. The article shows us how candidates are now more concerned with becoming the candidate of a certain political group in order to be one of another group. It is merely a game of who can win. It isn’t about becoming the most Powerful and influential person in the world, the figure we are to look up to, like it should be. Why and when did we lose track of what the President is. Why are we so concerned with winning? It isn’t about winning, it is about finding the person best qualified for the most stressful, time consuming, and exhausting job in the World. We should be more concerned about who they are, what they believe in and not what say about other candidates. This may be the problem with a two party system. We have such a disconnect between our Country that we just fight back and forth over who is right. We must remember that in our own mind we, each of us are correct. We need not fight over our opinions, we aren’t going to change someone else’s mind. We go into these political wars with our minds made up, some preconception about what the Country should or shouldn’t do. In reality, we need to worry about unifying ourselves, making a stronger Country, and helping each other out. No more fighting, let’s negotiate and fix the problems we face every day.
Super Delegates please put an end to this Obama madness once and for all. Hillary is the best candidate that can win back the White House. Stop spinning the wheel and allocate your vote for Hillary.
HILLIARY 08…
If Obama’s association with the Rev Wright and his church, his association with a known terrorist, his wife’s comment had been known before the 10 states he won in a row….my guess is there is no way he would not have won ANY of those states. There is no doubt in my mind that there are people who wish they could change their vote to Hiliary and will always feel duped by this man. This is obviously the reason he has lost the last three states. There are way too many people wearing rose-colored glasses.
Hillary won her hoime state of Pennsylvania and you would think she won Illinois. How can she possibly really think this makes a difference. This Billary team are nut’s especially husband Bill. Do we waqnt to see this ego self serving couple in the white house again. This is not the nineties. Please INDIANA and NORTH CAROLINA go big for Obama and lets put this in fighting to bed. I think the fact she is trying portray Bin Laden and Obama as related situations is the ultimate negative attack of all beyond the just trying to win the nomination.
Hillary won PA for 1 reason, we know she will not beat McCain in the General election… why would we actually want someone with no morals or integrity to lead our nation.