In the News
11 June 2008 6:00 am by Taylor Marsh
BY TAYLOR MARSH
Yesterday we began this tale with the video of David Kuo and Tony Perkins talking about John McCain’s problems with evangelicals, among other things.
Last night Barack
Obama met with evangelicals and others, a list that included for Clinton press secretary Mike McCurry, in a group called “The Matthew 25 Network.” So today you might want to brush up your religious leader knowledge. Start with Douglas
W. Kmiec, a major pro-life Catholic constitutional lawyer on the right,
as well as Bishop
TD Jakes, who doesn’t endorse but who has praised Obama.
Barack Obama discussed Darfur, the Iraq war, gay rights, abortion and other
issues Tuesday with Christian leaders, including conservatives who have been
criticized for praising the Democratic presidential candidate. … – AP
Meanwhile, McCain, with the help of Joe Lieberman, is working to reach out
further to the Jewish vote, though there’s some mixed signals so far on this
one, but undoubtedly, the rumblings and early evidence likely means Obama is in for a fight on this one. Via The Hill, published
last night:
Brian Ballard, a prominent McCain fundraiser, said that several major Jewish
Democratic donors have said they will join McCain’s camp.“There are Bill Clinton folks who for the last three to six months
we’ve been pushing to get involved,” said Ballard in an interview
last week, referring to former President Bill Clinton. “In Florida there
are a lot of people not happy with Obama’s stance with regards to Israel
and regards to Cuba. We’re starting to see some significant people come
over.“Democrats who are traditional large Democratic givers are coming over
to our side,” said Ballard.… .. “I’ve talked to a lot of people in the past couple of
days and I have not spoken to anybody who was supporting Hillary Clinton and
who has indicated any likelihood of supporting McCain,” said Steve Grossman,
a former co-chairman of the Democratic National Committee and a former chairman
of AIPAC, who raised tens of thousands of dollars for Clinton this election
cycle.
Everyone knows how important the Jewish vote is to Democrats. According to a recent article in The Jerusalem Post, absentee voting in Israel is way up.
…With sentiment like that, it’s not surprising that Americans in Israel currently represent 23 percent of the total completed registrations abroad according to the Overseas Vote Foundation (OVF), an international nonpartisan voter services organization for US citizens overseas and members of the uniformed services. Using numbers from the last seven months, Israel came in third behind the United Kingdom with 35 percent and Canada with 25 percent. …
On another front, the Clinton
donor reach out has begun.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s top national fundraisers convened a series
of conference calls today with major donors in various regions around the
country to urge them to throw their financial weight behind Sen. Barack Obama
— sooner rather than later.The calls were led by Jonathan Mantz, the Clinton campaign’s finance director,
and were cast as a follow-up on Clinton’s appeal for unity during her concession
speech over the weekend.“Honestly, reaction has been mixed,” said one source familiar with
the calls. “There are a lot of hurt feelings out there. And a lot of
folks that want to make sure Hillary is respected through the remaining process.”…
Hurt feelings. Ya think? Barack Obama may be a lot of things, but
stupid isn’t one of them, especially when his own fate hangs in the balance.
If Obama and his team blow how they handle the veep stakes, disrespect Clinton
in any way, do not reach out to her and honor what she’s accomplished, he will
be in serious trouble with her supporters, including me. I’m all in when it
comes to defeating John McCain, but Hillary Clinton has earned her stature and Barack Obama and his team need to honor it. I believe they will. Again, they’re not stupid. That said, adding to the Clinton supporter skepticism are comments made by the Obamas during the primary season that revealed a flippancy about Clinton’s voter base that needs to be healed. But some of this convincing about supporting Obama can only be done by Hillary, coupled with serious outreach by Obama. But to say I miss Hillary not being in the news every day is an understatement. Bridging the current divide between our two camps simply can’t be done without her. It just cannot.
What are you reading today in the papers, on the blogs, seeing in the news?
Link ‘em up. I’m researching this morning, plus on a project deadline, among other things. I’ll check in a bit later.
