[Dems2008] Op-ed - Hillary's Big State spin does not work

FR: Iowa Governor Chet Culver, Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, Washington
Governor Christine Gregoire, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, Missouri Senator
Claire McCaskill

DT: Wednesday, March 12, 2008

RE: Debunking the Clinton Campaign's Dubious "Big State" Spin

In an attempt to minimize the significance of Barack Obama's success in
winning more than twice as many states as Senator Clinton, her campaign's
supporters have attempted to diminish the importance of the states where
Senator Obama has prevailed.

Senator Obama has scored important victories in each of our states - states
that will play a decisive role in deciding whether or not John McCain will
be given the chance to enter the White House and extend George Bush's failed
policies for another 4 years.

In each of the 30 primaries and caucuses that Obama has now won, including
Mississippi yesterday, he's shown the ability to motivate Democrats to turn
out at the polls, win the support of blue collar voters in suburban and
rural communities and attract the support of Independents and Republicans.
That's the kind of candidate Democrats need to nominate
to beat John McCain in November, and it's the kind of leader America needs
to bring to Washington the kind of change we can believe in.

The Clinton campaign's argument ignores relevant facts about how significant
a role these states played in determining the outcome of the presidential
race in 2004. In fact, Obama has won 7 of 9 of the biggest states that were
close in the 2004 presidential election and have already selected delegates
to the 2008 Democratic convention.

More than half of the votes that Senator Clinton has won so far have come
from just five states. It's also worth noting that polls in four of these
five states show that Obama would be a stronger general election candidate
against McCain than Clinton.

Obama Winning Vast Majority of Big States that Were Close in 2004

Nine of the largest states that were decided by a margin of 8 points or less
in 2004 have already held a caucus or a primary to select delegates to the
2008 Democratic Convention in Denver. Obama has won seven of those nine
contests - including four that Bush won.

Clinton Totals Padded by States Where Obama Does Best Against McCain

The Clinton campaign's misleading argument about the importance of her
performance in the largest states actually highlights the limits of her
appeal and her ability to win the general election.

To turn the Clinton argument around, more than 55% of her popular vote total
and nearly half of her pledged delegates have come in just five states. In
four of them, polls show that Obama would be a stronger general election
candidate against McCain than Clinton. In the fifth, Texas, Clinton admitted
that she didn't expect it to be "in the general election
calculation."

---

Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage. __._,_.___

Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe

__,_._,___