Obama Says Nomination ‘Within Reach’

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: Obama Says Nomination ‘Within Reach’
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and JEFF ZELENY
Published: May 21, 2008

DES MOINES — Senator Barack Obama took a big step toward becoming the Democratic presidential nominee on Tuesday, amassing enough additional delegates to claim an all but insurmountable advantage in his race against Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Mr. Obama won the Oregon primary on Tuesday night, although he lost Kentucky to Mrs. Clinton.

While Mrs. Clinton’s campaign continued to make a case that she could prevail, Mr. Obama used the Kentucky and Oregon results to move into a new phase of the campaign in which he will face different challenges. Those include bringing Mrs. Clinton’s supporters into his camp; winning over elements of the Democratic coalition like working-class whites, Hispanics and Jews; and fending off attacks from Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, especially on national security. Mr. Obama’s obstacles were underlined by the lopsided defeat in Kentucky, where just half of the Democratic voters said in exit polls that they would back him in the general election this fall.

Under the rules used by Democrats, Mr. Obama’s showing in Kentucky and his victory in Oregon appear to be enough to allow him to secure a majority of the delegates up for grabs in primaries and caucuses. He has portrayed that threshhold as a yardstick for judging the will of Democratic voters. “We have returned to Iowa with a majority of delegates elected by the American people, and you have put us within reach of the Democratic nomination for president of the United States in America,” Mr. Obama said, standing in front of a moonlit Capitol in Des Moines.

But even as Mr. Obama moved closer to making history as the first black presidential nominee, he stopped short of declaring victory in the Democratic race, part of a calibrated effort in the remaining weeks of the contest to avoid appearing disrespectful to Mrs. Clinton and alienating her supporters. Instead, he offered her lavish praise. “Senator Clinton has shattered myths and broken barriers and changed the America in which my daughters and your daughters will come of age, and for that we are grateful to her,” Mr. Obama said....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/21/us/politics/21campaign.html

[Rene]

1. so is this the video that's being talked about

http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/video.aspx?RsrcID=2036

wrong man for the job folks!

[jespwrs]

2. HHeadline: Clinton to continue hurting democratic chances in the fall.

Now she's headed to Florida to tell them how Obama "disenfranchised" them by following an agreement that she also signed-real f@cking helpful Hillary. No VP for Hillary, No bailout for Hillary, I look forward to watching her career end.

[Bonn1997]

3. If the situation were reversed...

Hillary ahead in every metric and Obama sticking in the race, I can't imagine how nasty she'd be toward him.