From The Hotline Latest Edition for Friday, April 18,2008

SUPERDELEGATES

Howard Wants A Who!

Fri. Apr. 18, 2008


DNC Chair Howard Dean appeared in the "Situation Room" last p.m.

On saying he wants the battle for the Dem nod resolved before 7/1: "That's right. ... About 65, roughly, percent of the superdelegates have voted. There's about 320-some-odd left to vote. I need them to say who they're for starting now."

"We cannot give up two or three months of active campaigning and healing time. We have got to know who our nominee is. And there's no reason not to know after the last primary on June 3. "

Asked if superdelegates should vote according to the popular vote or with their gut: "The rules say they should vote their conscience. And I think that's pretty good advice. My job is to enforce the rules. You can agree with them or not agree with them, but they're going to vote their conscience. (CNN, 4/17).

Supercandidate

Througout the 4/16 debate, Hillary Clinton "tried again and again" to put Barack Obama on the defensive "in a pointed attempt, her advisers say, to raise doubts about his electability among a small but powerful audience:" superdelegates.

However, interviews on 4/17 with a cross-section of them "showed that none had been persuaded much by her attacks" on Obama's electibility, "his recent gaffes and his relationships with his former pastor and with a onetime member of the Weather Underground."

In fact, the Obama camp announced endorsements from two more superdelegates 4/17, after rolling out three on 4/16 and two others since late last week "in what appeared to be a carefully orchestrated show of strength" before the PA primary on 4/22.

Fifteen superdelegates "said they did not believe that recent gaffes by both candidates would carry any particular influence over their final decision. They said they had particularly tired of all the attention" on Obama's "bitter" comments. DNCer John Olsen: "I feel like we've heard a lot about gaffes as they relate to electability, but what really matters to people is how to deal with the economy and create jobs."

"Clinton advisers acknowledged that they had not seen short-term evidence that their attacks" on Obama "were winning over many superdelegates.... They predicted, however, that the mounting scrutiny" of Obama "would lead superdelegates to cool to his candidacy and come to see her as more of a known quantity, battle tested, and shrewd about the best ways to beat" John McCain.

Clinton spokesperson Phil Singer: "When it comes to picking a candidate, automatic delegates don't want to guess about what lies behind Door No. 2, they want to know. The debate raised more questions about Senator Obama than have been answered, and that means that automatic delegates are likely to keep their powder dry as the process moves forward."

Obama spokesperson Hari Sevugan: "Since Feb. 5, Senator Obama has garnered the support of 80 superdelegates to Senator Clinton’s 5. We'll let the results of Senator Clinton's 'kitchen sink' strategy speak for themselves" (Healy, New York Times, 4/18).

Superconstituents

This year's "fractious" Dem primary "has upended the logic of endorsements and turned longtime leaders into followers. Where once power flowed downward from party chieftains and elected officials to voters," superdelegates "are for the first time feeling strong pressure from those they represent."

Uncommitted Rep. Robert Brady (D-PA): "I'm kind of hoping my district will tell me what to do."

Ex-Philadelphia city commis. Maurice Floyd: "I think the voters are having a lot of clout. If I'm an elected official and my voters are talking to me about who I'm going to support, I'm going to listen -- especially if I'm running. How can you be against them?"

On 4/17, City Council member Harry Thomas, Jr. (DC) "abandoned" Clinton for Obama "after being contacted by more than 100 constituents who encouraged him to support the candidate who had overwhelmingly carried the city and Thomas's district" in the 2/12 primary (Issenberg, Boston Globe, 4/18).

Girl Power Outage

Some female superdelegates backing Obama "are having their 'sisterhood' questioned, just as some black Democrats have been challenged for their endorsement" of Clinton.

EMILY's List founder Ellen Malcolm: "There's no question that some of our members are very angry. They feel that they elect the women and they've gone to bat for the women and they want every single woman to go to bat for every woman candidate." Asked whether pro-Obama Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Claire McCaskill (MO) "risk losing their seats over these endorsements," Malcolm: "We'll just have to wait and see."

The issue is so sensitive some superdelegates are remaining neutral until a clear winner emerges. Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-MI), "who is black and a woman," said she was remaining neutral "because she's the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus and did not want to take sides."

"And some feel simply that it's Clinton's turn, something she's owed." McCaskill: "I don't know, really, where that comes from, the 'her turn' stuff. ... Nobody ever considered it my turn. I had to go out and fight for it."

Ex-Rep. Pat Schroeder (D-CO) "said the media's focus on Clinton's difficulties -- from the pitch of her laugh to Bill Clinton's affect on her candidacy -- 'have become kind of female legend.'" Schroeder: "There's a feeling, you know, of sisterhood. There's really a general consensus that [Clinton's] gotten the short end of the stick when it came to media, and you have women knowing all along that women have had a tough go in politics" (Kellman, AP, 4/18).

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