Obama plans general election team

WASHINGTON — Barack Obama is quietly planning to take over the Democratic National Committee and assemble a multistate team for the general election, the latest sign that he is putting rival Hillary Rodham Clinton and the nomination fight behind him.

Top Obama organizer Paul Tewes is in discussions to run the party, several Democratic officials said Tuesday.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton said no final decisions have been made on general election plans and that such decisions would be premature with Obama yet to clinch the nomination.

Tewes is one of the leading architects of Obama's success in the marathon Democratic primary race. He engineered Obama's critical victory in the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3, which gave Obama the upper hand and Clinton was never able to fully overcome.

DNC executive director Tom McMahon and DNC political director Dave Boundy traveled to Chicago last week to meet with Tewes and other campaign officials to discuss merging efforts. The party officials have held similar meetings with Clinton campaign officials and last week got an agreement with both campaigns to start raising money that will benefit the eventual nominee.

The Obama campaign also is in discussions with staffers who will be dispatched to various swing states, but holding off on making announcements until Obama has won the nomination. Officials who spoke to The Associated Press about the discussions insisted on anonymity because the campaign wanted to keep the deliberations quiet.

Obama needs 2,026 delegates to clinch the nomination, and he moved within 100 of that goal after contests in Kentucky and Oregon Tuesday. Clinton was more than 250 delegates back.

The staffing decisions are a natural progression for Obama, who still is engaged in a primary campaign while Republican candidate John McCain has been free to prepare his general election team for months. Obama will have to hit the ground running to make up for lost time when, as expected, he dispatches Clinton.

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Democratic and Republican nominees traditionally install loyalists at their party committees even though it is technically headed by its chairman _ in this case Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor and a presidential candidate four years ago.

McCain has put his own team at the Republican National Committee to operate a Victory Fund Committee that is corralling top GOP donors and plotting strategy for the general election. McCain took the steps shortly after locking up the nomination after primary wins on March 4.

But Obama can't afford to move too quickly toward the general election, or he will risk alienating Clinton supporters who are already emotional about the likelihood of their chosen candidate's closely fought defeat.

There have been other steps toward the Democratic nomination. Obama has been campaigning in general election battleground states. Fundraisers for the two campaigns have held quiet discussions on working together in the fall campaign. And Obama's campaign reached out to former Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle about joining forces for the general election, although several other top Clinton staffers said they have not been contacted.

___

On the Net:

http://www.barackobama.com

Comments

[marymansour]

The entire world is waiting to see if we have at least the good sense to nominate Obama. I can see overtures of peace coming from the Middle East. Get off your bums, DNC and get this thing rolling toward Obama. Enough is enough.

[rzan]

It is becoming obvious that people around the world are for Obama. That really does matter. This is a mighty small planet, and we have lost so much of the good will of our fellow human beings. Obama can change that.

[BannedFromCommenting]

OBAMA OUTSPENT CLINTON 2 TO 1 IN KENTUCKY. LOST BY 35 POINTS!!!

OBAMA OUTSPENT CLINTON IN OREGON, A STATE HE WAS EXPECTED TO WIN, AND STILL ONLY WON BY 16 POINTS!!!

ITS NOT ALWAYS ABOUT WHO HAS THE MOST MONEY TO GET THE VOTE AS CLEARLY DEMONSTRATED IN THESE TWO STATES LAST NIGHT!!!

STOP SAYING HILLARY SHOULD QUIT, OBVIOUSLY THERE ARE REGISTERED VOTERS CASTING THEIR BALLOTS FOR HER, ITS NOT LIKE SHE IS GETTING STOMPED!!!!

HILLARY '08!!!!!!

PS. MCDENSE WILL LOSE TO EITHER DEM ONCE DEBATES CLEARLY SHOW HIS INABILITY TO LEAD, HIS IGNORANCE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND HIS AGE AND FATIGUE TO BATTLE, UNLESS THEY 'ROID HIM OUT TO BOOST HIS ENERGY, THEN THAT TEMPER REALLY OUGHT TO FLY!!

[Arbos]

I usually subscribe to the traditional rule of "don't feed the trolls" but...

1) Obama's advertising and marketing numbers were not released, neither were Clinton's. Pure assumption on part of her surrogates. I heard anywhere from 2:1 to 5:1 all being parroted by her troops of Democratic Party destroyers.

2) Obama won 11 straight contests against the "inevitable" Democratic nominee for President. With the Clinton brand name.

3) Obama's campaign is bought and paid for by people like me. 93% of his donations are small donations by people like me. ITS YOU and other Hillary Clinton supporters that do not want to come out of pocket to support your "inevitable" candidate"

4) Racist Appalachia should be cut out of the U.S. and attached to Northern Canada.

[Gracehoper]

I don't think Canada wants them anymore than we do.

[rzan]

Hey, start financially supporting your candidate so she has enough money to spend. That is, when she does something about that massive debt of hers. If you have not been financially supporting her, even with a small donation, then you must not be all that dedicated. Obama has the money to spend because we have been sending him money for his campaign. That is how much we believe in him. He will not have a huge campaign debt. By the way, part of your financial support will be going to that 11.4 million that she lent herself, so she can put it back into her massive bank account.

[olivia]

The front page of her website is a plea to give $5.

You have $5 for her, don't you?

[Gracehoper]

You should send your candidate some money. I hear she's $22 million in debt.

[JJaye]

Just because you post your Hillary rant in all CAPS doesn't make your argument sane. It's not. Hillary really ought to be ashamed of herself keeping you guys whipped up in a frenzy w/ no where to go. Hillary doesn't have to drop out of the race, but she does have to wake up and join reality. It's just getting embarrasing now. I wish she and Bill would leave me with just a little memory of the good ole' days - though it seems it was all fake. Their true colors have really come out in this campaign - and no, I'm not calling them racist - just Elitist. Had they not gone into this thing assuming they would waltz freely back into the White House, we may be looking at a different scenario now.

[hillarysupporter]

People like JJaye are what's embarrassing!

[wmbear]

I PREDICT THERE'LL BE A SURPRISE ANNOUNCEMENT FROM HILLARY SHORTLY...

That she's conceding the nomination to Obama. She might not like it but I strongly suspect that she realizes by this time that she can't keep it up much longer. Big WHEW!

[olivia]

She intends to take this to the August convention. This was in the LA Times today:

McAuliffe hinted that the campaign might continue until the Democratic National Convention in August.

"Superdelegates do not vote until the convention," he said. "On we go."

[robeson]

I suspect that Bill and Hillary will run against Obama after the convention.

[TravisLA]

"But Obama can't afford to move too quickly toward the general election, or he will risk alienating Clinton supporters who are already emotional about the likelihood of their chosen candidate's closely fought defeat."

Oh, Nedra Pickler you scamp. Is this a news piece or an editorial?

[justShareandbeNice]

It's like we are one big dysfunctional family. Ooooh, no, we can't make mommy mad!

When you use the word "emotional" and imply that we can't make Hillary supporters mad, it all smaks of what it is: enabling. Hillary is living off of people who are enabling her.

Her supporters, who are by and large great people who want to see good change in this country, need to do some soul-searching.

Supporting Hillary at this point is helping McCain. We need to hit McCain HARD right NOW. Please help us by not enabling Hillary. Write her a letter and thank her for what she has done, then say you are now supporting Obama. Please!

[lotuslike]

So true! They (Team Clinton, corporate media, too many of her supporters, too many superdelegates) are all treating her like she's Joan Crawford in 'Mommy Dearest' or something! What are they afraid of???

[Gma11]

He has run one heck of a campaign - truly impressive!!

[kiga]

Obama doesn't need these voters because he has egg heads and Blacks. We saw how Dukakis won! NOT!

[bigbingtheory]

OK Paul Begala.
Obama is no Dukakis and he has much more support than "egg heads and blacks" as is evidenced by his beating Hillary Clinton all over the map.

[Arbos]

It's amazing how these no nothings repeat Clinton surrogate talking points.

Parrots.

[LAJonathan]

The bitter and selfish are welcome to stay home and enjoy the pain of shooting themselves in the foot.

[AnotherTry]

We won't be enjoying it alone, will we.

[TGCNY]

Well guess what it a free country so u can go vote for McShame u do better in his camp anyways

[truthskr]

According to early polling, black voters actually preferred Clinton to Obama by a pretty wide margin. But of course that was before good ol' boy Bill rolled into the Carolinas and played the race card on behalf of the campaign. And then Hillary did it, then Ferraro, then Hillary some more, then other surrogates...though I'm surprised anyone noticed the race baiting over all of the whining of sexism (and mind you, I am a third wave feminist).

And lord knows we certainly don't want the educated portion of the Party (not to mention the majority) to elect the nominee. We best leave that to all of the thinkers in KY and WV. And any of the larger states that she won are very blue states, who will vote for the Dem regardless.

I heard on CNN today that 71% of Obama supporters would have voted for for Clinton in the GE, but only 33% of Clinton supporters say that they will vote for Obama. I guess that just proves that a pretty sizable portion of Clinton's supporters weren't voting on issues, on which she and Obama are nearly identical, but were either only voting for Hillary because she's a woman (her large, bitter second wave feminist contingent) or because she was white (her wins in the white southern states, where eduation above the seventh grade is apparently just for "eggheads").

[panickedkernel]

Well said.

[gladys46]

The Clinton campaign knows full well that they are playing ring-around-the-rosy ... they are very much aware that they cause Obama time and $$$ .. it's their only stratagem. Any politically savvy individual knows exactly what Hillary is doing. She can't win, she knows it ... what she can do is attempt to exhaust Obama's schedule, his formation of general election staff, etc. She is at this point a "spoiler!"

[Muzikal203]

That's a pretty crappy strategy, Obama's not going to run out of money. I'm sure they know exactly what she's doing, and planned ahead for it. I'm not even worried, through this primary I've learned it's pointless to worry because he knows exactly what he's doing.

[apoyo]

Bill Clinton said politics is a contact sport. She needs to stop whining and get out of the way cause she got beat. I never heard of a sports team (male or female) who wanted to change the rules of the game because they did not like the score. All these women who insist on her winning because she is a woman are not only selfish, they are a detriment to progress. How can they back someone who can't manage her checkbook? Who can't manage her campaign. Who goes around claiming false numbers of votes. Is this what female leadership looks like?

[gladys46]

What a way to run a presidential primary campaign!! "Emotional" ... I am ashamed that the very 1st so-called formidable female candidate should continue to stoop to actually solifying that same ole sterotypical crapola! Hillary is no "feminist" ... she drinks up "emotionalism" as if any ole thing will help her! She has just run out of rope, and is dangling from what could have been for her a real woman's matriculation!

[marymansour]

Hillary is a basket case. God help us all if she gets at the wheel of our country and starts driving. As a woman, I am embarrassed silly. Most nations that have elected women, have had outstanding examples of such. Not old Hillary. She needs post menopausal therapy and fast.

[olivia]

She embodies the worst stereotypes of politicians of low moral character, and because she's a woman, she's creating a new stereotype of a female politician.

She's made history alright, and set the women's movement back 20 years.

[BassMent]

"Obama will have to hit the ground running to make up for lost time when, as expected, he dispatches Clinton."

Ain't it the truth. And while I gladly acknowledge Clinton's "right" to continue to the end of the primaries and beyond if she feels like it, I wonder how much "making up for lost time" she wants her party to face.

I also wonder who is going to repay her campaign debt. She's somewhere around $31 million in the hole right now... where will she be in 2-3 weeks? $45 million down? We already know that Obama, being the gentleman that he is, has been looking for ways to raise money from his supporters to bail her out. But frankly, that's millions of dollars that should be spent on getting him elected in November.

Will the Clinton's ever take personal responsibility for ANY of the damage they've done?

Oh wait, I think I already know the answer to that question....

[allonfla]

Obama can only sponsor a fundraiser for her he can't use the money of donors that sent money directly to him.

[justobserve]

Of course but his sponsors had revolved if it is for Clinton! No way!

[gladys46]

Talking heads continue to say that this has been a "respectful" campaign! What are they talking about. People (americans) have been publicly, indelibly marked, insulted (some self-inflicted, i.e. those race is a factor folks) by this identification politic. There an entire sector of america (african americans) who have had to listen to people say that they cannot and will not vote for an otherwise qualified candidate because of skin color! There are geographic maps absolutely detailing where people live who are absolute bigots .. and in my mind unhealthy! Personal responsibility has never been accepted by Hillary or Bill eventhough Bill began this sick quest to conjure up the scorge of racism to Hillary's selfish advantage.

There's more to heal than just the institution called a democratic party!

[kellygrrrl]

I have a question: When can we stop tip-toeing on eggshells?

[ApolloniaCreed]

The simple answer: After the nomination process is over. That is if you have the interests of the Democratic party in mind. We should be mindful of each other... it's not a one way thing.

[divaatty]

When does Hillary have to start being "mindful of each other" and "having the interests of the Deomocratic party in mind?" Just wondering because so far she has shown none of that philosophy nor implored her supporters to do so.

[olivia]

The nomination will never be over. This was in the LA Times today:

McAuliffe hinted that the campaign might continue until the Democratic National Convention in August.

"Superdelegates do not vote until the convention," he said. "On we go."

Hillary is going to take this to the August convention. Then Obama will have but two months to campaign against McSame.

[olivia]

I'm done. I wrote the DNC today.

I am writing to beg you to bring the nightmare primary to an end. Hillary continues to create enmity with Obama supporters by doing a new outrageous thing every today. Today it was asking her supporters to turn out to protest Obama in Florida on May 22 (I believe that has now been removed). Most infuriating is the lie she keeps telling (and the MSM keeps parroting) that she leads in the popular vote - disenfranchising the caucus states that do not count individual votes, where Obama won.

Please let this nightmare end. If she wants to remain in the race, she must be made to stop with the divisive tactics and outright lies. I've never been more disgusted with the Democratic party's lack of discipline. No wonder they keep losting, and getting elections stolen from them.

The only way the Republicans could take the White House in the fall would be for Hillary to be allowed to run amok. I will blame the party if that happens. She can be stopped. Do it.

Thank you.

I hope others will write the DNC too:
http://www.democrats.org/page/s/contactissues

[Liberoservative]

Done as well:
My comment:
Please for the love of God stop this Primary. I was watching Clinton's speech in Boca Raton today and was almost physically ill listening to her bash Obama. I also watched Obama's speech in Tampa, what little part I could.. and even when he had a chance to mention her in a negative light, i.e. the gas tax, he didn't go there. He praised her profusely and he kept on point against McCain. I have no idea why you are allowing her to continue to denigrate the best presidential candidate we have had in my lifetime of 52 years.. and, yes, I think that he's even better than JFK (blasphemy)... Please allow this man to get on to the GE and let people know him for who he is. Instead, you are letting a rogue Democrat run around like a nut and cut him down over and over...
Thank you DNC....
PS. Once Obama is officially named the Nominee, you will get my campaign donations. Until then, they are going to his campaign.

[WasteNJ]

---"But Obama can't afford to move too quickly toward the general election, or he will risk alienating Clinton supporters who are already emotional about the likelihood of their chosen candidate's closely fought defeat."

When can we stop holding Clinton supporters' hands and get on with the business of the General Election? As if there's a chance HRC can win. All she's doing is holding up the process and buying McCain more and more time. HRC people, please get in line with us.

And HRC, Just f*ing leave already.

[ApolloniaCreed]

Hillary Clinton has not been attacking Barack Obama. There are only 3 states left, she is entitled to go through the motions... No one is calling for her to get out. I think everyone in the Dem establishment is in agreement that she should be allowed to finish out the primary... she has been in this long. IIt is not necessary or even wise to push her out at this point.

[t9chi]

And in the mean time, the Queen is doing damage. Tell me, is it about her? or is it about the Party?

[bigbingtheory]

Hillary Clinton hasn't been attacking Obama? Is it a look alike then?

[Wheatstraw]

Hell to the NO! I would rather loose with Obama than Win with Clinton.
Why you may ask?....lets go down the list.

This list is only about the Primary contest:

Her non attack method is = to patting Obama on the back with one hand and holding a shank in the other.

She has already blamed the FL and MI issue on Obamas non movement when she knew from the outset that the votes would not count...now that she needs them...she wants to fight for them...can you say two faced.

Want proof:
http://vodpod.com/watch/702291-before-it-was-2209-?pod=politicobensmith

She is 31 Mil in Debt yet trying to spin the 20+mil they brought in.

She is staying in for herself...If you believe that she is not....please prove me wrong.

She can openly ask Women to support her and has...but if Obama did the same thing you can bet the S$#% would hit the fan.

I have lost track of the times she has tried to "move" the goal post.

[Fabienne]

But Senator Clinton is perpetuating the lie that she has "won" the popular vote, which is blatantly untrue and which undermines Senator Obama's credibility. I think she should stay in the race also since it is almost finished and it will look better to Senator Obama if she does, but this kind of lie should be denied by the media and the Democratic Party. As for her supporters, let them do as they will. Time to move on and concentrate on positive change. No one held my hand or any other anti-war voter in 2004 when the DLC wing of the party went after Howard Dean and replaced him with two pro-war candidates (Kerry and Edwards).

[olivia]

She's telling lies every day (to her supporters and everyone else) about the popular vote.

Every day she dishes a new dirty trick out at Obama. Today it was calling for a protest against Obama in Florida, via her website.

That crap needs to stop. She does not have the right to tell lies and dish dirt against a fellow Democrat. If she wants to stay she needs to find some character.

[ajax2]

"Barack Obama is quietly planning to take over the Democratic National Committee"

Then squash the corporate DLC and you've got a real Democratic Party.

[oldrwsr]

I don't think the DLC is such an evil group. I wish Harold Ford would leave the DLC and go to work on Obama's campaign. He seems to offer a lot of good advice on MSNBC.

[bigbingtheory]

Well they shifted the focus of the party to corporations and left labor and other citizens in the lurch. I'd say the dLC is as evil as a double agent.

[naschkatze]

Absolutely! Kick 'em out! As I wrote to Gov. Corzine, go form your own DLC party but don't use the word "Democratic". We have the copyright on that.

[dapperd72]

Howard Dean has been a generally honorable and fair mediator of the Clinton/Obama disputes, especially as he refuses to surrender to Clinton on the Michigan/Florida primaries where an even playing field was nonexistent. Inflammatory remarks have unquestionably come entirely from Clinton's perpetually disingenuous surrogates across the board, even including Debra Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) who I formerly respected before this contest ensued. They go out of their way to exaggerate Clinton's assets & alter factual math (ie. required delegates to win nomination) while undermining Obama's credibility based on utterly false premises. I'll be pleasantly shocked if Clinton leaves this race before Hell freezes over, let alone if she honorably campaigns for Obama, rather than disingenuously asserting, as she did last night in her Kentucky victory speech, that she'll work her heart out to help the Democratic nominee win against McCain, "whoever SHE may be." Is she schizophrenic (talking about herself in 3rd-person as if there are more than 1 woman in this race) or is she that desperate to insult all of our collective intelligence so we'll rally the superdelegates to flush the actual vote count down the toilet & nominate her? The contrasts in intellectual honesty between Clinton & Obama are as glaring as night & day.

[ApolloniaCreed]

I have my own issues with Debra Wasserman-Schultz... I am from FL and was a supporter if not a fan. And have had some issues with how she has conducted herself this primary season. With that being said, I'd rather at this point tout where my candidate (Barack Obama) has been strong, and he has certainly shown some strength in this exchange with McCan't and Bushit! And I absolutely loved the way Joe Biden came out swinging before Obama could even react... they nipped that Hitler comment in the proverbial bud!

[olivia]

I wish the people from Florida would understand that their disenfranchisement was brought upon them by the state leaders - Republicans, then Democrats - who knowingly and deliberately flaunted the rules, knowing the consequences, and did it all as if it were a huge joke.

http://www.youtube.com/user/stepher48

That should outrage Floridians. Throw those bums out, Florida!

[naschkatze]

I give Howard Dean a lot of credit. I saw a Hillary Harridan on CNN the other day who blamed Dean and Donna Brazile for stealing the coronation away from Clinton and giving it to Obama. I won't say Dean gave it to Obama, but he made it possible for it to be a real race and for us grassroots to finally have some say in who our nominee and president will be. It's been ugly because Dean was in unchartered waters loosening the power of the DLC, but he did it and the end result is all that matters. So my apologies, Gov. Dean, for sometimes whipping you on like a horse.

We owe our thanks to John Edwards and John Kerry too as well as Howard Dean. Each had the prize denied to them, but instead of selfishly sulking over their losses, they came out and ensured that Barack Obama would win what they had lost.

[Paula1953]

Does anyone have any thoughts as to why Obama did not campaign as hard in WV and KY? I wonder if there was a behind the scenes deal to just let her HAVE those states. If so then what would the reason be? To see just how well she could rally supporters?
She might end up the VP running mate after all. Although I really hope NOT!

[dentuso]

I think it was a perception issue - If Obama was seen as being "active" in the campaign there, then getting blown out by 35, it would be a "What happened to him?". The reality is that Axelrod and co. knew damned well that these two states wouldn't cast a vote for a black man (remember, exit polls showed 20-22% of voters cast based on race, add Bradley effect, and it becomes the point of difference).

Basically, I think they knew there wasn't a chance in getting Ma and Pa Kettle to vote for a black guy, so why embarass everyone, including the voters there?

[Paula1953]

I think it sucks that some people will actually vote against the color of someone's skin and not for the issues!!
Those people should NOT be allowed to vote at all.

[XME]

Ditto!

[Mayoyo]

It is not unusual to concede a state in a primary..she did the same thing when she conceded Louisiana and Illinois to him..she never campaign there.

[arkgrfx61]

My thoughts are this - he and his campaign researched the demographics and realized that he really didn't have much of a chance with those particular states (aka - he's black)
So, rather than using that time to talk to people that he knew would most likely not vote for him, he chose to put his attentions elsewhere.
It might sound like a bad idea at first and "elitist".
But, if you were talking to someone that you knew wasn't going to change their mind about something - would you continue spending your time trying to convince them or would you go elsewhere and instead focus on someone who was willing to listen to what you had to say?

[oldrwsr]

I think you got it spot on. Many people in these 2 states would rather turn commie than vote for a black man for President.

[PennP]

The other thing is that the Clinton campaign routinely sneers at how much money Obama has spent in states he's lost--usually multiples of their spending--so why spent millions just to give them that additional benefit?

[naschkatze]

I hope he doesn't spend too much time in these two states in the fall but not completely avoid them because he did have about 1/3 of the primary voters in each state and he should encourage them even though they are going to fight a losing battle. It's part of the 50 stage strategy to gain as much of the popular vote as possible. It was a long haul for the Republicans in the South. Let's acknowledge those people in WV and KY, PA and OH, who were on our side and encourage them to keep fighting.

[naschkatze]

I've read that there was an actual threat against Obama in WV. I think for the most part, however, Obama probably decided wisely not to waste money in contests he felt were hopeless.

[allonfla]

He spent a lot of money in PA and lost by 9 points. Although he knocked down a 20 point clinton lead, the MSM and other critics gave him a lot of flack for that. He spent so much money, why can't he close the deal? they asked. Now it's he didn't spend enough money or time in WV and KY why don't they like him? Blah, blah, blah

So, my guess is seeing that all the polls said he could lose by 40 in WV and KY, he decided to keep his money, give a little love and move on. Their real focus is delegates and win or lose, they got that locked up.