From The Hotline Latest Edition for Monday, April 28,2008

CLINTON I

Getting Her Closer To Giving The Gettysburg Address

Mon. Apr. 28, 2008


Hillary Clinton manager Maggie Williams sent a letter 4/26 to Barack Obama manager David Plouffe 4/26 calling for Lincoln-Douglas style debates between Obama and Clinton: "It is the American way to place our would-be leaders side by side to hear them articulate and defend their ideas; to challenge each other on their visions for the future...In the spirit of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, we make this proposal: Senator Clinton and Senator Obama will participate in a 90-minute debate in an open public forum. Just the two of them -- no questioners, no panelists, no video clips" (release, 4/27).

In Wilmington, NC 4/27, Hillary Clinton repeated her call for Obama to "debate her Lincoln-Douglas style on the back of a flatbed truck." Clinton: "The people of North Carolina deserve this. I don't care where we do it, we just need to do it'" (Vaughn, Wilmington Morning Star, 4/27).

CBS News' Suarez writes, this weekend was "part of Clinton's new strategy is to push back against Obama so much that he finally agrees to a debate. In their previous four one-on-one meetings, Clinton has fared better than her opponent, and most recently at a debate in Philadelphia, Obama’s campaign complained that he was unfairly targeted by the moderators. Some said Obama's performance may have cost him votes in the primary there" ("From The Road," 4/27).


Bread And Butter

The faltering economy, the focus of Clinton's camp, is giving HRC a boost as jobs and healthcare play to a her strength:

• New York Times Kantor writes "all politicians talk about jobs, but these days" Clinton "does it with tactile, almost sensuous detail." So every speech she gave in IN this weekend had the same topic sentence to thunderous applause: "My campaign is about jobs, jobs, jobs and jobs" (4/28).

• Clinton "focused on boosting the economy at a rally in Wilmington, where she "unabashedly recalled the 1990s, when her husband, Bill, was president, "as a period of economic growth and great national promise."She criticized the economic and foreign policies" of Pres. Bush and his GOP administration, "barely mentioning" Obama. Clinton: "We've been on a bit of a detour from America's destiny for the last seven years" (Murawski, Raleigh News & Observer, 4/27).

• Also in Wilmington, Clinton "suggested a gas tax holiday would be possible by imposing a windfall profits tax on oil companies" (CNN, 4/28).

• "Touring military towns of Eastern" NC "and the mountains this week, Clinton is foinf after the same sort of voters" who helped her win PA- "rural and small town white votes, many of them blue collar and traditional" (Christensen, Raleigh News & Observer, 4/26).

• On 4/26, Clinton launched a new ad airing in NC and IN, "Cost," highlighting her plan to take on oil companies and lower the cost of gas for families. Ad: "These days it costs fifty bucks to fill up the tank...With gas this expensive, talk is cheap. It's time for leadership" (release, 4/27).


Lesson Learned

As it "continues to refine its tactics," the Clinton camp is "devoting far more energy to on-the-ground efforts" in IN than it did in many of the early states she lost to Obama. Driven by "strategy and necessity" as Clinton's "budget runs low," the campaign has opened 28 offices in IN. With 72 delegates at stake in IN the "Clinton family has made more than 50 stops in the state already, far more than Obama and his wife, Michelle" (Slevin, Washington Post, 5/29).


Taking Her Afghanistand

Clinton said 4/27 the weekend's assassination attempt on Afghan pres Hamid Karzai "shows that the U.S. has failed to give proper attention to Afghanistan." Clinton noted how she had met Karzai, and said, "He is a brave man trying under very difficult circumstances to hold that country together, and we have not given him the resources he needs." She added that Afghanistan needs to get "as much, if not more attention" than Iraq (Kuglar, AP, 4/27).


Shaky Grounds And Semi-Autonomous Territories

Wall Street Journal's Kronholz writes that Clinton, "flush with" her 200K vote win in PA, "is suggesting that the popular vote should settle" the nomination. "But that plan, aimed at swaying the superdelegates to the Democratic convention this summer, is built on some shaky calculations -- or may depend improbably on Puerto Rico. Clinton's "ace" could be Puerto Rico, whose 2.4M "registered voters will hold their first-ever" primary on 6/1 (4/26).


Money Cash Woes

Politico's Vogel writes, by trumpeting a record $10M fundraising haul in the 24 hours after the primary, the Clinton camp managed to silence speculation about whether she'll be able to compete in the next round of states after emptying her coffers" in PA. It "made no difference that the details didn't always add up -- wide variations in the numbers of new donors; a conflicting timeline of when the money was actually raised." It was the eye-popping $10M figure-- "the most ever claimed in a 24-hour period -- that dominated the news cycle" (4/26).


Direct Correlation Between Milk And Strength

• New York Times' Herbert writes "Hillary Clinton may be behind, and she may lose. But she is now widely seen as the tougher of the two candidates, the one who is more resolute, who will fight harder and longer (and, yes, more unscrupulously) to achieve her desired ends" (4/26).

• "When it comes to milk, Clinton appears to like the real thing." Linda Meyer, helping to serve concessions at Clinton's 4/26 rally at Coveleski Stadium in South Bend, said the Clinton's "campaign had requested that milk be on hand when she arrived at the stadium — so stadium staff were prepared with skim milk. But campaign staff said the senator preferred whole milk, Meyer said, and so the change was made" (South Bend Tribune, 4/26).


Hello, Last Person I'd Expect At The Door

Bill Kristol writes, "I can speak for most of my fellow right-wingers when I say this: We once looked forward with unambivalent glee to the fall of the house of Clinton. Many of us still do. But we also see the liberal media failing to give Hillary Clinton the respect she deserves."

"It's startling how much of the commentary: on the PA results has had to do with "Obama's flaws and mistakes - rather than Hillary's strengths and successes." Maybe in PA, they were "voting for Clinton, not simply against Obama."

Which leads to this question: Will the media this week give Obama a pass on refusing to debate Clinton before the IN and NC primaries on 5/6? "Will he be chastised for his lame excuse?" (New York Times, 4/28).