Oh yeah, I shall also add one of the major "accomplishments" of John McCain is his co-sponsored campaign finance bill that bans soft money. What has it achieved? Next to nothing.
Because McCain's bill failed to achieve, and Obama's has been successful aren't really connected unless you are assuming that they will be the two nominees.
Umm no, I don't think Obama has achieved anything meaningful as far as questionable campaign contributions are concerned. The fact remains he still accepts tens of millions of dollars (which make up a majority of his campaign fund) from bundlers who are either part of or have close ties and act directly on behalf of wealthy special interest groups. Making things transparent adds little inconvenience to the lobbying effort by these bundlers. In this day and age, nothing really can be hidden from the public, especially when it comes to large campaign contributions. In the end, Obama's transparency bill is about as useless as McCain's ban soft money bill, because each knows how to get around the bill he sponsored and does it really well.
For all that Obama has managed his campaign basically to perfection, he's made a few missteps in the last few days that may come back to bite him. I'm not sure if it's him personally or a campaign strategy, but everytime things look up for him, he seems to try to jump on the frontrunner pedestal - he or his campaign doesn't seem to understand "stay humble, stay hungry" very well. I think this came back to bite him in New Hampshire with some of his debate comments and pre-election spin and such. In got better for a while, but then the last few days, it's hit him a couple of times: 1. His comments on Romney today (that he ran a weak campaign). He should have just stayed out of it. No need to comment on the other party's race. 2. His aggressive promotion of his fundraising success last month and the last few days - it just spurred Hillary's donors to get more involved. After struggling with fundraising the last month, she's really started raising money the last few days. He should have just quietly held on to that advantage. 3. His way of framing the debate issue "not on Clinton's schedule". Just saying he wanted to spend more time with voters and couldn't agree to that many debates would have been enough. I don't know that any of these things were widely covered or if it will affect any of the upcoming races, but he really needs to adopt the idea of "quiet confidence" instead of talking about all his success. Being the underdog and fighting for every little thing is part of what gets people out to vote.
Actually the transparency bill has not been a failure at all, and makes it easy for people and the media to track where the donations are coming from. It's the way it should be.
Excellent points. Some of what he's done in regards to commenting on Romney just seems silly and like a stupid thing to do. Commenting on Romney's remarks about Democrats would be a good thing to address, though
The next 4 days are going to be an interesting test. To expand on the overaggressiveness of the Obama camp, I think they've set expectations way too high here yet again. They can only match expectations or disappoint. I think he should win Louisiana, Nebraska, DC and Maryland. Probably Virginia, but not sure. The big questions will be Washington and Maine. Washington's demographics tend to favor Obama, but their three top state officials (governor, both senators) are women, and two of the three are supporting Clinton. The governor is supporting Obama, but I don't know how popular she is - she squeaked by the last election with a 100 vote win. Maine's demographics tend to favor Clinton and both their Senators are women as well. I think he's favored because of the caucus aspect, , but I think both of these will be real tests and danger points for Obama. Maine is not as big a deal, but Washington has a lot of delegates. People are already skipping ahead to TX/OH, but these elections in the next four days have more delegates than TX and OH combined. Adding in the following week, and you're looking at nearly 600 delegates before TX/OH, which have a combined 390. What happens this week will go a long way to determining this election. If Hillary can win both Maine and Washington, that puts a lot pressure on Obama in OH/TX. If Obama can convincingly sweep by good margins, it gives him flexibility to lose OH/TX and still be in good shape.
I hope you don't mind that I bolded a portion of your post. I agree with all of this. The bolded part troubled me from the beginning, which is why I commented on this in batman's thread. Even if he wins his momentum won't be as great because of high expectations. I think Hillary could win VA. It's hard to tell because it is a very diverse state, and with such a variety of voters it will be hard to know for sure.
If that's true, then his touting of "no money from lobbyists" does smell of bull****, I agree. It's hypocritical to call other candidates out for that while profiting yourself on a technicality. However, if you look at the percentages of overall funds going to him, the percentages coming from donors giving $100 or less- it's incredible. Put it in light of the fact that his campaign is the best fudraising powerhouse of the whole race, it's amazing. Ron Paul comes close but he hasn't raised a fraction of the money. Pointing out twenty five dollars from a PAC... that is so weak. Huh? Wow. I have to say I disagree mightily.
It's weird that no one has done any polls of any of those upcoming states. You'd think someone would do one!
^^^ Well, not all of them -- Obama Up By 20 In Virginia Primary New SurveyUSA poll of Virginia gives Barack Obama a huge lead in this Potomac Primary state, with 59% to Hillary Clinton's 39%. http://www.wtvr.com/global/story.asp?s=7843593
WOW!!! Huck crushes the republican front runner in my state of birth! The great state of Kansas! I guess the evangelicals ain't going to take the coronation sitting down.
The only surprise about it is the margin, 62%-22%. From recent history, we all know Kansas is tailor made for Huckabee more than any other state. Still, 62-22 is huge. But as long as McCain and Huck remain cordial, this is no big deal.
I don't know the demographics of Nebraska, but one congressional district is already reporting (I think there are only 3 or 4?): http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2835&u_sid=10254853 Preliminary caucus results favor Obama Barack Obama won 76 percent support today from caucusgoers in Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District. The Omaha-based district includes Douglas County and almost all of Sarpy County. In unofficial results announced by the Douglas County Democratic Party, Obama won 12,252 votes in the 2nd District to 3,709 for Hillary Clinton. Statewide results will be announced later tonight by the Nebraska Democratic Party.
I only heard about one precinct in Seattle but the numbers for that one precinct were about 74% for Obama. Of course I've heard nothing close to final numbers.
