Obama: Wheels Down In Missouri And Fortunes Rising
There's a big bucks fundraiser being held in Missouri tonight and one of the event chairs -- translation: must raise $50,000 -- the "Donald Trump of St. Louis," Mike Roberts, gave an exclusive interview to OffTheBus, explaining just why Missouri is one of the top battle states in November and predicting a "landslide win for Obama" there.
"We're going to be one of the top four-to-six battlegrounds and at the end of the day, we're going to go blue and take back a state that has historically been Democratic -- and that includes sweeping a new Democratic governor, Jay Nixon, into office. This race isn't just about taking over the White House; it's a change election all the way around, including changing the electoral map of the country," said Roberts.
Now that Barack Obama has assumed the de-facto leadership of his party, his people are busy renting apartments in the nation's capital and designing their power-point presentations on just how they plan to bring about a Democratic Revolution.
The Obama team has quite literally taken over the keys to the National Democratic Committee headquarters in Washington, where Obama dispatched a handful of his top former campaign managers last week and charged them with coordinating national party efforts with those of his campaign, including work on fundraising, GOTV, opposition research, campaign messaging and media coverage.
With this initial phase of staff reordering completed -- more staffers are still being recruited from other presidential campaigns and are now merging into one seething cauldron of Blackberry-bonded super-charged, super-smarties responsible for making political history -- the Obama 50-state general campaign strategy is underway.
Central to Obama's strategy is targeting several swing states, including North Carolina and Missouri, where the Democratic presumptive is campaigning today. Hard-core Democrat Mike Roberts is in the thick of it. A lawyer and real estate mogul, Roberts is also an experienced pol.
As state campaign manager for Jimmy Carter, he delivered Missouri to help Carter win in 1976, and he's devoting time, money, and even a child to the cause. His son, another Obama supporter, Mike Roberts, Jr., is challenging Rachel Storch, a former Hillary supporter, for her state legislative seat in a district that went 79 percent for Obama in the Missouri primary, which Obama narrowly won.
"This is a historic year for the Democrats here and around the country and Obama with the help of Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo) isn't going to just squeak by. He'll kill McCain in Missouri," said Roberts.
Roberts may be onto something.
Rasmussen Poll results issued last Thursday found Obama leading John McCain 45-43, basically tied. But the more significant metric is Obama's precipitous 16-point rise since Rasmussen's late March poll during the "[Reverend] Wright freak-out" when McCain led Obama 53-38.
The Obama fundraiser tonight is putting the Republicans on notice that Missouri state Democrats are keeping the 'mo' going for Obama, not only by raising money to keep the deep organizational effort humming along -- that began months ago while the Republican nominee was napping -- but pulling together the enormous jingle-jangle for party coffers by throwing a swank VIP reception -- $2300 per person; general reception tickets $500 per -- at the Renaissance Grand Hotel in St. Louis.
"We haven't announced the fundraising goal yet," said Roberts, but he's confident it will be a sell-out.
Knowing how hard-fought the Missouri primary battle was between Clinton and Obama and the bruised feelings that remain, I asked Roberts if Hillary supporters would gather under the blue tent for an Obama ticket.
"Most of them will turn out for Obama, absolutely. I've just heard from one of Hillary's state vice-chairs, Steven Stogel, one of our city fathers and long involved in Dem politics. He's one of those heavy hitters, and he's attending the event tonight that's aimed at pulling together the insiders and larger contributors," said Roberts.
Roberts said that the economy is the most important issue to his state's voters, echoing Obama's week-long economic message that started earlier today in North Carolina, another possible blue state.
Roberts smelled victory, citing how both the Clinton and Obama campaigns had developed sophisticated grassroots organizations that have left left the Republicans with a lot of ground work to make-up, especially given that Independents and Republicans, like Democrats, are worried over the economy and angry over the continued Iraq War.
"It's extremely exciting here, but the great thing is that we're not here to win one race. We're here to change the Democratic Party with a high degree of permanence -- not with just one win, but a victory for the future and that speaks back to the whole discussion of change, which is Obama's message," said Roberts.
With the excitement factor, money, organization, and numbers all turning in his favor, Barack Obama puts wheels down today in a Midwestern state that could turn blue, which can't be good news for McCain, who is also working hard to keep Missouri in the red column come November.
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Lovin it.!
This sounds exciting. However, I'm not sure "kill" is the best word choice here.
My thoughts exactly.
Obama is a genius when it comes to logistics and organization. I am impressed.
Obama's has 5 months and a ton of money to spend hammering McCain. I'm going to enjoy watching this beatdown
a copy of Bill Moyer's "Buying the war" will give you an insight into the reason we went to IRAQ.
It is scary to realize we no longer have effective journalism in this country.
Obama will prevail because the polls don't reflect who is going to vote this year.
Many,many young people and African Americans who never voted in the past will vote this time.
Also McCain is an underfunded mediocre opponent
I wholly agree. The most telling clip, to me, from Moyers' 'Buying the War' program was the bit with Walter Pincus, discussing the end of objective journalism.
I posted the 3m clip to YouTube, here... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfqr7qLBQJ4
(And I love Moyers' including the Russert clip to show one example of a faux journalist who has let the barbarians run rampant.)
That sounds wonderful. I cannot wait for Jan. 20th. The history that will be made.
I live in Missouri and I believe he will win Missouri in the fall. He has the urban and suburban vote wraped up. What he has go to do is spend some time in southern Missouri like Branson where the red voters are. The big issues here are the economy and education. He will need to speak to that. The governor has likened Obama to Hoover in the southern papers so he will need to demonstrate mastery in the area of the economy. Missouri votes have been with the winning President for the last hundred years. Emphasizing Universal health care is another area he could win votes in rural Missouri since there are a great deal of poor people who have challenges with healthcare.
Missouri Dems you can help, take part in registering new voters especially in the urban areas and college towns, you need HIGH turnout to counter the conservative areas.
Good luck Missouri, they way we can win this is through Grassroot work like GOTV!
I sure hope Obama can make inroads into Missouri as well as other past red states like Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, maybe Indiana and maybe even Georgia. I think he's got to do a lot more town hall, one on one, meetings with people in Missouri, particularly white people, which worked so well for him in Iowa.
Unfortunately, looks like Florida is going for McCain this election. It doesn't make much sense given that McCain will privatize social security for all those poor elderly folks out there, but there you have it.
Florida voted for Bush. I bet they regret that now.
No they don't
And will prove it by voting for McCain
I hope Roberts is right.
Everywhere I've been in Missouri lately, supporting McCain is getting to be sort of like smoking. You gotta go outside by yourself to do it because it ruins the air for the rest of us.
There is a part of the population here that still won't vote for a black, though. It's a sad fact. Maybe if the gas prices get them mad enough they might.
Don't color us red yet.
It is time for All True Patriots to rise up
Take This Country Back!!!
America will be Great again
Obama 08
You are Wright
McCain in 2008
You mean the true patriots from Trinity United, Never been proud of my country crowd, Bill Ayers crowd, Rev Wright and Ottis Moss crowd?
Or the real McCain crowd?
"OBAMA WILL NOT WIN THE ELECTORAL VOTE."
You are right. He won't just win it, he will dominate it. This will be the worst shellacking the Republican party has ever gotten in history. Poor John is still trying to figure out why BO declined his town hall invite.... Well John needs to softened up just a little bit for the town halls. So sit back and watch the BO magic in MO and the economy tour unfold.
hey, let's not be too over confident on this matter. give me a break...
How will he dominate without FL,MI,OH,NJ,PA
Obama will win in MI, OH,NJ and PA. Maybe even FL if some of Charlie Crist's old boyfriends come forward.
I've got a feeling that Missouri is going to vote Democratic in November.
I'm not so hopeful in my other "Home State," Alabama.
Obama can win Alabama by the simple expedient of dropping the 1st letter of his last name in all campaign paraphernalia. Go 'Bama!
Thank you Republicans, for choosing McCain as your parties leader. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Go Missouri & Go Obama. Let's swing these states back to the Dems!
I AM GLAD YOU GUYS FEEL SO OPTIMISTIC ABOUT MISSOURI.
OBAMA WILL NOT WIN THE ELECTORAL VOTE.
Yes, but will he win the electoral college?
Ha ha ha since electoral college, who cares if he loses elecoral Vote whatever that means
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