Obama's Challenge: Gain Lead in Polls

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: Obama's Challenge: Gain Lead in Polls
Presidential Campaigns Seek to Lower Expectations on 3rd Quarter Fundraising
By Perry Bacon Jr. and Matthew Mosk
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, September 23, 2007; Page A04


Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), ahead in the money race but second in most polls among Democratic presidential contenders, greets students in Ames, Iowa. (By Kevin Sanders/Associated Press)

While the candidates for the White House will spend the next week furiously raising money in advance of their next financial reporting deadline, the man who has raised the most is facing a different challenge: turning that money into a lead in the polls.

Like his fellow contenders, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who led all candidates in both parties by pulling in $58.5 million over the first six months of the year, will be holding a string of fundraisers this week, before the latest quarterly fundraising deadline of Sept. 30. Even before the totals are announced, however, some of the donors who have helped raise millions for Obama are beginning to ask when the gap in polls between Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) will finally begin to narrow. The first votes in the primary season will be cast in less than four months, and the nomination could be wrapped up in a matter of weeks after that....

***

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe contended that the race should be viewed through the early crucible of Iowa, which remains almost certain to have the first say in the nomination contest despite a shifting campaign calendar. "I think Iowa is in a different level of engagement than any other state in the country, and what you see there is a very tight three-way contest" among Obama, Clinton and former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.), Plouffe said in an interview. "It's the only place we've advertised in and the place Senator Obama has spent most of his time."

Some Obama supporters are pushing him to make a change in strategy: a full, no-holds-barred attack on Clinton and aspects of her husband's legacy. For now, sources said, others inside the campaign -- most important, the candidate himself -- favor a more nuanced approach, seeking contrast with Clinton on issues that emphasize Obama's strengths, particularly the notion that he can unite Americans while arguing that the Clintons are more polarizing figures....

Steve Hildebrand, a veteran Democratic operative who has been overseeing the early-states strategy of Obama, is broadening his portfolio to include states such as California and New York that will vote on what could amount to a national mega-primary on Feb. 5. He is taking this tack as Obama aides are preparing for a protracted nomination battle, betting that balloting in Iowa and New Hampshire alone will not determine the final outcome of the contest....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/22/AR2007092201347.html?hpid=topnews

[Colobo]

1. He will be our next President.

[silverojo]

2. Not if he continues along the wimp route

Any time a candidate won't go on the offensive, he/she loses. Sad, but true.

[Silence Dogood]

3. Agreed. Obama is already cutting his losses

He's found a replacement for Plouffe, not officially, but the replacement is traveling with him and his family advising them en route. There are rumors of a shakeup in his campaign. He's limiting his campaign to the primary states and discarding a nationwide campaign. Basically, his campaign is finished with any hope of resurrecting it for a final full court press.