Obama Camp Challenges Clinton On 'Important State' Criteria, Wears T-Shirts
Obama campaign spokesman Robert Gibbs joined Morning Joe this morning, where he spun the Pennsylvania race as "great improvement" for Obama, citing the halving of Clinton's lead and the incremental gains achieved in demographics such as "working-class voters...white men and white women." Gibbs also threw down a gauntlet over North Carolina, suggesting that the state fit the profile that the Clinton campaign has been using to define as big, "important" states. Of course, all signs seem to indicate that Clinton has about as much chance of winning North Carolina as he did Pennsylvania, so the challenge seems a bit facetious. Also, the wisdom of similarly engaging in this "important state" argument seems a little dubious. But not nearly as dubious as grown men wearing silly t-shirts!
[WATCH.]
SCARBOROUGH: Two-part question here. Put up those shirts again, if you will. We're showing "Stop the Drama -- Vote Obama" t-shirts. I will ask you - why, why, why, first of all. And secondly, Barack Obama, probably on the same day you were wearing those shirts, said -- told a radio station, KDKA, that he was going to keep it a lot closer than people thought, that this was going to be a close race, but it didn't end that way.
GIBBS: Well, look, I think everyone talked about the bar that the Clinton campaign was set at was at least ten points. They finished a little less than ten points. We bought -- I bought those shirts on the sidewalk in Philadelphia. They looked great. I didn't tuck mine in like Axelrod did but --SCARBOROUGH: Good for you. Axelrod tucks in t-shirts? Something my dad --
GIBBS: Well, it looked like my dad, too, so -- but, you know, look, I think we made great progress in Pennsylvania. Again, we made progress with the voting groups, improved our showing as what we did in Ohio. We brought new voters into the process, and I think as we go forward, look, we've got two important states coming up. You know, Andreas mentioned this a minute ago. North Carolina is a state that if you look at the most previous rationale to the current rationale for the Clinton campaign, it was how well they did in big states, and they often list states like New Jersey and Massachusetts in those big states. Well, North Carolina is a state that's bigger than both of those two states, and I would expect Hillary Clinton would be able to win a state like North Carolina. It fits in exactly the criteria that she laid out just a few weeks ago.
April 24, 2008 10:32 AM