Obama Iowa Rally Planned For Tuesday

On Saturday the Obama campaign announced that they would be holding a rally in Des Moines, Iowa on Tuesday, May 20, the night of the Kentucky and Oregon primaries. The announcement has set off speculation about whether Obama might declare victory in the Democratic primary that evening. From Reuters:

Hoping that a pair of contests in Oregon and Kentucky on Tuesday will allow him to essentially clinch the Democratic nomination, Barack Obama will make a symbolic return to Iowa, the state that launched his underdog bid for the White House.

Polls suggest the Illinois senator will win Oregon comfortably while his rival New York Sen. Hillary Clinton is expected to prevail in Kentucky by a wide margin.

But the Obama campaign expects that when the results from the two contests come in, he will have racked up a majority of the pledged delegates awarded in the state-by-state contests, making him the likely winner in his battle with Clinton to become his party's nominee to face presumptive Republican nominee John McCain in November.

ABC's Political Radar has more on what kind of victory the Obama camp may declare at the end of the evening:

While Obama still will not have the 2026 delegates he would need to clinch the nomination, the Obama campaign is playing up the symbolism of the majority mark.

On Wednesday night, Obama was asked by a reporter if he would declare victory Tuesday night if he reached the majority of pledged delegates.

"We will declare that we have the majority of pledged delegates," Obama replied flatly.

Comments

[speakingtruth2power]

Obama will and should declare victory of the people over the DLC on Tuesday.

That does not mean that Hillary will be quiting, despite her conciliatory talking.

She will be around when Obama is taken down w/ GOP/MSM words or worse.

[abigail1]

I am not sure how i feel about this, I'd rather he were in Montana or South Dakota. I understand the strategy, I just am not sure I like it. Didn't Iowa get enough attention? Democrats are on the rise in Montana and look how much one visit to the state did in Idaho.

Besides, like it or not, Hillary is still running and I am sure it will annoy her supporters more for him to pretend that she's not.

[lboucher]

Isn't this the only state he won??

[McFlipFlop]

I see you are practicing your questions for November, after McMummy is routed.

[Gma11]

Oh, am I looking forward to this. No corporate media - until I know the Iowa party has begun!!

How exciting!

[CTmom13]

COUNTDOWN....Only 14.5 til majority and only 115 til the nomination is secured!!!!!
Obama 08

[pupbayer]

Are you sure he can even find Iowa?

Not only does he not know how many states there are, he doesn't even know WHERE they are. (For those of you as geographically challenged as Obama, Illinois is a bordering state of Kentucky. Arkansas is much further away.)

"What it says is that I'm not very well known in that part of the country," Obama said. "Sen. Clinton, I think, is much better known, coming from a nearby state of Arkansas. So it's not surprising that she would have an advantage in some of those states in the middle."

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/37388.html

Geez.

[Bluejay00234]

Hmm, yet McStain can't differentiate between Sunni/Shite nor can he decide if we should talked to Hamas, nor can he figure out if he wants to withdraw troops in 2108 or 2013. Save the BS a misspeak trumps 4000 more dead soldiers any day.

[pupbayer]

And that has what to do with Obama's lack of geographical knowledge? Misspeak...hmmmm...I don't think so.

[claytonbell]

Yep, all he knows is how to win states, raise more money in small donations with grass roots support and take the Democratic party back away from the DLC folks like Terry Mcauliffe.

[eej]

He knows Sunni from Shiite though!

[DanniD]

He didn't say it was a neighboring state. He said it was a "nearby" state! I don't know where you got your degree in Geography from but Arkansas is indeed "nearby" Kentucky!

[XME]

I'd rather he be slow with geography when he's tired than lie about getting shot at in Bosia!

[PrairieRobin]

I'm so proud to be from Iowa where we gave Obama his start! We had an awesome team of Obama Field Organizers and grassroots volunteers. We carried on, knocking on doors during the worst of Iowa winters, because we knew Obama was America's best chance to get things right again. It's wonderful to have him come back "home" to celebrate his victory!

[buckygreen]

As a Badger, I never thought I'd say this, but I love the Hawkeyes!

Seriously, thank you thank you thank you Iowa for giving us this huge opportunity.

Obama 08

[buckygreen]

How big is the venue in Des Moines?

[AtlantaBill]

Robin - thanks to you and the many other volunteers for the remarkable victory. Being a georgian, we too had a resounding victory but I concede it pales in comparison to what you guys accomplished. I SAY GO IOWA - we will be watching tuesday nite as i am sure the place will be rocking out there.

[XME]

Iowa rocks!

[buckygreen]

I'm in Wisconsin and I'm going to try to make it. Huge thanks to our neighbors in Iowa.

The Big Ten is going Obama.

[smoo]

Wisconsin you guys deserve a bunch of credit too. More than any primary, Wisconsin provided a solid flank. Your DNC convention was powerful and the voters of that state said "yes we can" and they did. So up ups to Wisconsin too.

[buckygreen]

It helps to have a great candidate. Obama drew 8000+ in my town of 62000, which I might add is white as a Wisconsin winter and generally fairly conservative.

Obama will win Wisconsin by 10-12% in the general.

[AtlantaBill]

Following the Iowa victory, several other states stand out in my mind as providing critical sustainability for the Obama march to victory. I sense the top four victories were: SC, WS, NC and VA. Note that the three contiguous east coast states (SC, NC, and VA) are in-play in the fall. I am sixty someting guy and find this to have been the most exciting campaign of my life-time.

[MsLiz]

I celebrated AL-Obama's victory, since my vote counted! Yeeehiii!

[XME]

Wisconsin rocks too! = )

[Midnightrain]

Sounds exciting. I might drive to Des Moines.

[Sctt859]

As a mixed guy myself who is half black half white i can feel what obama is going through ussually the Black side of my race is more accepting than the white side.

[Midnightrain]

The ability to accept and receive is cultural. Some cultures have it, others don't.

[dollars2donuts]

I know exactly what you mean. Although I'm lucky that both my white and black relatives are great, I have friends who are biracial who that isn't the case....and my husband too. My husband has never even met his white side of the family (Polish-American, from--shocker--Ohio), they've stayed away and have never shown interest. I have some friends who are also biracial, and they had 2 older siblings who were not, who were white--and their white relatives flew them out to see them all the time, showered them with money, while refusing to even meet the biracial kids. I have known many biracial people in my life, and none of them have ever had anything but love and acceptance from the black side of their families, while in many cases the white relatives have shunned them completely....sad but true.

[riverhouse]

We need to get on with this. It's time to take on McCain and unify the party. Hillary is old news. She's over. She can't win. We're wasting time with her hanging on, stirring up racial prejudice and keeping the Clinton chaos and divisiveness going strong. It's time to move on and start the Democratic campaign against the GOP for the White House and control of Congress.

[MizLiz]

I've been waiting for this day since I heard him give the keynote address at the last Democratic convention. I knew then that he'd be President someday. Here's a link in case you haven't seen it:

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/convention2004/barackobama2004dnc.htm

[LeftLeanWing]

Imagine this

If the U.S. Treasury decided to President Obama's profile on new pennies they would almost look photorealistic,

[4wehttam]

I think it's fantastic that Barack is going to Iowa where all this started, but I don't want him to declare victory just yet. It's gonna seem like he's trying to push Hillary out. If he only does what he says he's gonna do, which is to just announce that he has the majority of delegates then I think the Clintonites won't go stark raving mad.

[StillIRise]

Senator Obama won't declare victory before the appropriate time, which is when Senator Clinton concedes. The opinion that he will declare victory is coming from the same media or pundit mindset that told us that Clinton would concede after West Virginia. Senator Obama has more class than what some would like us to believe.

[Midnightrain]

Well, be fair here. Bill continued to make suggestions about when the race would be over. The media just reported on it. You are right, though about Obama's sense of timing and class.

[MsLiz]

I hope the Obama and Clinton campaigns are coordinating this. After the Indiana and NC primaries, the Obama group realized it would look bad to have Clinton concede, and then beat him by large margins in WV and KY. Maybe I am assuming too much about the Clinton side, but then, I am a bit of a Pollyanna.

[loax]

The only thing I regreat is that I will not be there for that wonderful experience. We well may have an honest person back in the White House who cares about We, the people of these United States!