Monday, February 11, 2008

Maine to Obama; Clinton Replaces Campaign Leader


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/11/us/politics/11dems.html?ei=5065&en=ebcfa77550e87414&ex=1203397200&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print

Senator Barack Obama racked up his fourth decisive victory this weekend, winning the Maine caucuses on Sunday, as Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton replaced her campaign manager and longtime aide in the biggest shakeup of her campaign to date.  [...]

Meanwhile, Mr. Obama intensified his criticisms of Mrs. Clinton — and her husband — saying that when Mr. Clinton was president Democrats lost at every level of government and that Mrs. Clinton could not bridge the nation's political divide.

"Senator Clinton starts off with 47 percent of the country against her," he said in response to a question in Alexandria. "That's a hard place to start."

Mr. Obama said the Clintons had been unable to assemble a working majority in Congress in the 1990s, when Mr. Clinton was president.

"She's a smart person, she's a capable person, she would be a vast improvement over the incumbent," he said in response to a question at a rally with 3,000 people, with 1,200 more listening in an overflow room. "What is also true is, I think it's very hard for Senator Clinton to break out of the politics of the last 15 years."

Mr. Obama said the country was divided politically, with about 47 percent on each side and the rest in the middle and that Mrs. Clinton would be unable to bring people together.

"Keep in mind, we had Bill Clinton as president when, in '94, we lost the House, we lost the Senate, we lost governorships, we lost state houses," he said. "And so, regardless of what policies they wanted to promote, they didn't have a working majority to bring change about."

Obama is cruising to victories and showing a lot of confidence.  He's not afraid to take on the Clintons.  It's time for Hillary to get tough, but what can she do?  I don't think Maggie Williams is going to be the answer.  Unless she gets Al Gore to endorse her (which seems almost impossible), she will not get the nomination.  It's time for Obama to start thinking about his VP selections.  He absolutely will not offer it to Hillary.  He knows that she carries too much baggage and that Bill would be a huge distraction during the campaign.

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