WASHINGTON — Senator Barack Obama’s chief strategist said Sunday that he believed Mr. Obama would by the first week of June reach the absolute number of Democratic delegates needed to clinch the party’s presidential nomination.
The strategist, David Axelrod, was asked on the ABC News program “This Week” whether Mr. Obama might “go over the top” after Puerto Rico votes on June 1, and Montana and South Dakota hold the final primaries two days later, presumably bringing new superdelegates to him. “I believe that we will,” he said.
“By any calculation, we’re within striking distance of getting the absolute number that we need,” he said, “and I’m confident — I’m confident that we will.”
Mr. Obama has already attained a majority in the pledged delegates, but remains short of the overall majority — including superdelegates — needed for nomination. A count by The New York Times shows the Illinois senator leading Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York by 1,965.5 delegates to 1,775, with 2,026 delegates needed for nomination.
Spokesmen for Mrs. Clinton, for their part, took to the Sunday morning news programs to try to stem the criticism of her for her remark on Friday that she was staying in the race because earlier nominating races had remained unresolved into June — including in 1968, when Senator Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated.
Her campaign chairman, Terry McAuliffe, appeared irritated at the way the remark had taken on life. “She was referring to the timeline, how these events had gone into June,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.” He said a “hyped-up press” had twisted Clinton’s words, and he noted that Robert Kennedy Jr., the son of Senator Kennedy, had said he had taken no offense.
Howard Wolfson, Mrs. Clinton’s communications director, made a similar point on the CBS News program “Face the Nation,” asserting that both the news media and the Obama campaign had been fanning the flames in this controversy. Mrs. Clinton and her aides have insisted that she was merely making a point about the length of past campaigns.
Mr. Axelrod, on ABC, reiterated that the Obama campaign wanted to move on. “We take her at her word, and we’re beyond that issue now,” he said.
Mr. McAuliffe declined Sunday to say whether Mrs. Clinton might battle on to the Democratic convention in August, but said he expected the nominating process to “be over shortly.”
He also said that reports that Bill Clinton wanted his wife to be Mr. Obama’s running mate if he wins the nomination were “100 percent not true” and that no talks had been held to discuss such a ticket.
Both candidates campaigned in Puerto Rico over the weekend, although on Sunday Mr. Obama returned to Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., to deliver a commencement address. Standing in for Senator Edward Kennedy, who was recently diagnosed with brain cancer, he urged the young graduates to look past material gains and work for the country’s “collective salvation.”
The Clinton campaign is hoping for a favorable decision when the Democratic Party’s rules committee meets Saturday to decide whether to seat delegates from Florida and Michigan at the nominating convention, although the states broke party rules by scheduling early primaries. Mr. McAuliffe was asked whether the senator might ignore an unfavorable ruling and fight on.
“I’m not saying that today,” he said. “We’ll see where we are.”
The Clinton campaign is quickly running out of time to make its argument that Mrs. Clinton is the Democrat best qualified to take on Senator John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican nominee.
A new survey by Newsweek, however, gave her campaign some comfort. It found that Mrs. Clinton would do substantially better among white voters, in a matchup against Mr. McCain, than Mr. Obama would do. Both Democrats trailed Mr. McCain among white voters, but Mrs. Clinton lagged by 4 percentage points and Mr. Obama by 12 points. Among voters over all, Mr. Obama tied Mr. McCain, 46 percent to 46 percent.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment