HuffPo: Clinton Campaign Cuts Back Wooing of Superdelegates

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"With the Democratic presidential race heading toward a possible climax Tuesday as four states including Texas and Ohio conduct their primaries, the lagging Hillary Clinton campaign has cut back its efforts to win over those superdelegates who have pledged to Barack Obama or who remain uncommitted. Instead, the former First Lady's campaign is straining to hold onto those "automatic delegates" who have already pledged their support to her while trying to curb any further defections toward Obama.

Just ask the youngest of Democratic superdelegates, 21 year old Marquette University student Jason Rae, for whom life was a lot more exciting two weeks ago. "The phone calls started after the Iowa caucus," he says of the barrage of enticements to endorse one or another presidential candidate that came his way earlier this year.

Chelsea Clinton even came to his university cafeteria to have breakfast with him and make the pitch for her mother. Bill Clinton called him. So did former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. And from the rival Obama campaign, Rae got a personal telephone plea from no less than John Kerry.

Elected to the Democratic National Committee for a four-year term as a 17 year old in 2004, Jason Rae momentarily loomed as large on the campaign radar screen as perhaps a sitting member of congress.

But all of a sudden the spotlight on Rae was dimmed. "The calls from Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright and John Kerry were before Super Tuesday," Rae emphasizes. Once his state of Wisconsin went for Obama, and once he publicly declared his support for the surging Illinois Senator, Rae's phone stopped ringing off the hook.

The Clinton campaign simply gave up on Jason Rae.

And not just on him.

Interviews with numerous superdelegates over the last two weeks from California through the heartland and up into Maine reveal a similar pattern. With momentum running in Obama's favor after 11 straight primary wins, and after the recent high-profile defections of pro-Clinton superdelegates like civil rights icon John Lewis (D-GA), the Clinton campaign has re-focused its work among superdelegates to stem a possible ebb tide rather than to recruit new converts."

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[snooper2]

1. Kind of like stopping the bleeding with a tourniquet...

When you really need 20 stiches... :rofl:

Soon, that leg will get infected and need to be chopped off...

[berni_mccoy]

2. The Clinton Campaign was so obnoxious about it they were actually driving SD's away.

[HooptieWagon]

4. true that

Since WI, Obama gained something like 25 SDs, and Clinton had a net loss of 6. Obviously their SD "surge" strategy wasn't going as well as planned.

[Exilednight]

3. Her delegatehub site is still up, but hasn't been updated since the 3/1

[Apollo11]

5. He got to go on a date with Chelsea! And he still supports Obama?

OK - so it was just breakfast. But this kid could learn to show some gratitude.

I mean - how does a phonecall from John Kerry make a greater impression on this young man than a "Chelsea Morning"? :eyes:

And now he acts surprised that Chelsea won't call him anymore ??? :rofl: