The "OMG TEH CLINTONS ARE GOING AFTER PLEDGED DELEGATES!!!" story has now been torpedoed

[Tarc]

Clinton Spokesperson Rules Out Pursuit Of Obama's Pledged Delegates

Hillary spokesperson Phil Singer is adamantly denying a report this morning in The Politico quoting an anonymous campaign official suggesting that the Clinton campaign will pursue Obama's pledged delegates. Singer sends me this:

We have not, are not and will not pursue the pledged delegates of Barack Obama. It's now time for the Obama campaign to be clear about their intentions.

It's worth noting that the Politico story quotes a Clinton official predicting that both campaigns will pursue the pledged dels. The Obama camp has not yet put out a statement on whether they'll pursue Hillary's pledged dels, though they very likely will soon.

More in a bit.

Late Update: The Obama campaign has ruled out this tactic, too. Obama spokesperson Tommy Vietor sends me this:

"We would absolutely not use these sorts of tactics. Senator Obama is focused on winning contests and earning the support of pledged delegates."

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/02/clinton_spokesperson_we_will_n.php

See, this is the vital difference between Clinton supporters' outrage over Obama missteps (i.e plagiarism), and Obama supporters' outrage over Clinton mishaps (i.e. this story); the former is at least based on actual events, while the latter is based on supposition, innuendo, and rumor.

[Perry Logan]

1. Logan's Law: All Obamite accusations against Hillary are bullshit.

[NYCGirl]

3. NYCG Law: Ignore Logan's Law. NT

[southern_dem]

7. Southern_Dem's Law is like SDem's love: hard and fast n/t

[southern_dem]

8. Oh shoot, I forgot to credit that

Zapp Brannigan, Futurama

[yellowcanine]

19. Who is Logan and why does he think his word is Law?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

2. Are we supposed to believe the Clinton campaign?

:shrug:

[griffi94]

4. no don't believe the hillary campaign

we all know that only obama is honest and good and true......are we not supposed to believe what they tell us now.........would you care for more kool aid?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

6. Given this stupid plagiarism thing...

don't you think it's pretty hard to take anything the Clintons say seriously?

Who here is really drinking the kool-aid?

[adabfree]

5. Exactly...You had two members of her camp yesterday on MSNBC with two diff. stories

Wolfson and the female that spoke to Nora O'Donnell yesterday afternoon. She denied the camp used the term "Plagarism," and said it was the media labeling it that..yet he called it just that...on a conference call.

They need to meet and get their stories together...before hitting the airwaves.

Yeah, I'm going to believe the Clinton camp

[Tarc]

11. So the Politico quoting anon sources trumps an official campaign statement?

:rofl:

Until you can show that the Clinton campaign is actively working to sway pledged delegates, the you have no leg to stand on here, I'm afraid.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

12. One that's shown to be so dishonest recently...

yes.

[Tarc]

14. Obamanation: the last refuge of fantasy indeed

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

18. That's exactly the sort of dishonesty I'm talking about.

Thanks for demonstrating.

[meow mix]

9. clintons campaign says pledged delegates in Iowa can be stolen on march 15

more recently.

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

10. But the states that Caucused do not have their delegates pledged yet.

Are these the delegates they may target? That was the line msnbc was taking this past hour.

[CoffeeCat]

13. I think the Clintons initiated and floated...

...this pledged-delegate story---so they could deny it, appear innocent and then demand
that Barack Obama promise that he won't go after Hillary's pledged delegates.

The Clinton camp knows damn well that the wheels are coming off of their campaign bus.

They know that they are vulnerable and that it is possible that their pledged delegates
may defect. We can see the Texas polls--with Clinton's 20-point lead disintegrated. Their
own internals are more accurate and probably paint a very, very bleak picture of what is
to come in the near future. They can't win.

The Clinton camp is worried that Obama momentum may sweep into the pledged delegates and
they're asserting that if this does happen--that it's Obama's doing.

Notice that this was never an issue for Obama. He never had any plans to mess with pledged delegates.
This was a meme that came out of the Clinton camp, and now they're working the messaging surrounding
this issue---in an effort to paint any potential Clinton delegate-defectors---as the fault of Obama.

[HeraldSquare212]

15. It was based on a statement from the Clinton camp; they've now retracted.

That's why you think it's supposition, innuendo and rumor - you can't keep up with her campaign's positions, because they change every day.

[Tarc]

16. No, it was based on an alleged and unnamed source

Until we see that name in print and confirmed, the Politico.com story was bogus. Not that that stopped the O-Bots from trying to run with it.

[HeraldSquare212]

17. Huh? So all stories quoting a "top campaign official" are bogus?

Or is it just Politico? The other day people were quoting Politico stories that cut against Obama - so that's OK, but quoting stories that cut against HRC is still verbotten?

[Tom Rinaldo]

20. K&R n/t

[catgirl]

21. THIS is inaccurate reporting

The Obama campaign immediately said they would not do this. It looks like
a Clinton senior advisor accidentally leaked this info., forcing the campaign
to backtrack.