PA: Bill campaigning for Hillary pushes "tired" and "old" as Obama's campaign continues to gain

[ProSense]

Bill's Vote for Tired, Old Hillary tour continues (in Bill's world, 60 is the new 100).

“Some of them, when they’re 60, they’ll forget something when they’re tired at 11 o'clock at night, too,’’ Bill Clinton said this week of Hillary Clinton’s comment.

Bill Clinton's Golden Oldies act

On the road and off the radar, playing small-town Pennsylvania with the former president.

By Walter Shapiro

At a wan rally at Wilkes University here Saturday morning, he squinted at a card listing local dignitaries and confessed, "You'll have to forgive me. I'm getting old. I can't read well this early in the morning." Burbling about building cars that could get 100 miles to the gallon at a Friday night town meeting in Fort Washington, just outside Philadelphia, Clinton remarked, "Whenever I say this about energy ... people start to look at me and say, 'You know, he's not as young as he used to be, but I actually think he's starting to lose it.'"

These out-to-pasture cracks are an easy way for Clinton to create an empathetic bond with his audience, especially in Pennsylvania, a state with the third highest median age in the nation. But watching Bill Clinton campaign for his wife on the eve of Tuesday's win-big-or-else Pennsylvania primary, it is easy to get the sense that the 42nd president worries that he has become yesterday's man. The crowds can be modest. Even the tricks of advance men, such as subdividing the Wilkes gym in half, could not hide the reality that only 300 people turned out for Bill Clinton in a place where Barack Obama recently played to a turn-away crowd. The underlying problem for Clinton is not his potential Denis Thatcher role if Hillary defies the odds and makes it to the White House, but rather that his political style and persona seem so anchored in the 1990s.

His Arkansas accent, which may be thicker than when he was governor, sets him apart in a political year in which it is difficult to hear any regional tinge in the words of Hillary (who long ago shed her suburban Chicago roots), Obama (whose boyhood homes were in Hawaii and Indonesia) and McCain (who grew up on naval bases). No candidate running dares attempt Bill Clinton's pile-on, bludgeon-you-into-submission style of political argument. As a rhetorician, Obama, in fact, is the anti-Clinton, since his artfully constructed speeches are in sharp contrast to the improvisational and-another-thing oratory of the former president.

When Clinton talks policy, which (no surprise) he does at length, his arguments always circle back to what may have been the signal accomplishment of his presidency -- defying the spendthrift history of the Democratic Party by bequeathing his successor a balanced budget. (What George W. Bush did with that legacy is a tragic tale best retold when small children have been removed from the room.) "This is underappreciated," Clinton said in Fort Washington, in what may have been a reference to himself as well as to fiscal restraint. "If you go to HillaryClinton.com, you will see how she pays for every program she advocates in this election because she really does believe that ... if we want to get these young people their economic future, we've got to provide for a balanced budget."

more

Hillary needs as many sympathy votes as she can get.

Dem voter surge could cut Clinton margin

By JEANNE CUMMINGS | 4/21/08 4:29 AM EST

An historic spike in Democratic voter registrations in Pennsylvania could help Barack Obama cut into Hillary Clinton’s vote in Tuesday’s primary, robbing her of the big victory margin she needs to justify continuing the primary fight.

The changing party demographics also are contributing to an overall bluing of the Keystone State that could dim Republican John McCain’s hopes of competing there in the fall.

A county-by-county analysis by Politico suggests that the hard-fought primary between Obama and Clinton has accelerated an ongoing partisan shift in Pennsylvania that could soon move it out of the battleground presidential states and ripple across congressional races this fall, as well.

“We may have one or two more competitive presidential races, but I’m not sure what will come after that,” said Terry Madonna, a political scientist and director of the Franklin & Marshall College Poll.

The first evidence of the changing Democratic demographics could be on display Tuesday.

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Report: Popular Vote Win For Hillary Is All But Impossible

By Greg Sargent - April 21, 2008, 10:03AM

Bloomberg News takes a look at what Hillary needs to do to earn a popular vote win, and finds that she basically needs to do the political equivalent of pitching a no-hitter, hitting for the cycle, and pulling an unassisted triple play -- all in one game:

Clinton would need a 25-point victory in Pennsylvania, plus 20-point wins in later contests in West Virginia, Kentucky and Puerto Rico. Even that scenario assumes Clinton, 60, would break even in Indiana, North Carolina, South Dakota, Montana and Oregon -- a prospect that's not at all certain.

More than just big margins, Clinton would need record voter turnout too. In Pennsylvania, she would need a turnout of 2 million, about half the state's registered Democrats; in the 2004 primary, about 800,000 voted. She would also need turnout to almost double in other states where she leads, and reach some 1 million in Puerto Rico, which is about how many Democratic- leaning voters went to the polls in a 2004 gubernatorial election.

As I reported here recently, Hillary advisers and major supporters are divided over the question of whether she can continue to woo super-dels without a popular vote win, with top adviser Harold Ickes saying it can be done, and many others saying they think it's politically untenable.

The problem for Hillary is that without a popular vote win she has no way of muddying the waters or arguing that the Democratic electorate didn't deliver a clear verdict in favor of Obama.

Obama's endorsements keep rolling in:

Democrats must choose Obama

Published: April 20 2008 18:59 | Last updated: April 20 2008 18:59

<...>

After Tuesday’s vote, the Democrats should move quickly to affirm Mr Obama’s nomination. That is not just because his lead in elected delegates is already unassailable and the contest should be brought to a swift conclusion. It is also because he is, in fact, the better candidate.

<...>

Mr Obama has fought a brilliant campaign, out-organising his opponent, raising more money, and convincing undecided Democrats as well as the country at large that he was more likeable, more straightforward and more worthy of trust.

On form, he is a spell-binding orator and holds arena-sized audiences in thrall. He is given to airy exhortations, it is true, but genuinely seeks consensus and has cross-party appeal.

Mrs Clinton’s campaign, in contrast, has been a shambles. She and her team expected to have it all sewn up long ago; they made no plans for a long struggle, ran short of money and had to reorganise on the run.

link

Delegate update: Obama gets one more

Posted: Monday, April 21, 2008 11:03 AM by Domenico Montanaro

From NBC’s Domenico Montanaro
The Obama campaign announced that it got the support of superdelegate/Ohio DNC member Enid Goubeaux.

The superdelegate count now is: Clinton 262, Obama 238.
Obama leads by 142 in the overall count: 1,655-1,513.
He also leads by 166 in the pledged delegate count: 1,417-1,251.

Since Super Tuesday, Feb. 5, Obama is +68, Clinton is +2.

Given that Hillary expected to win PA by a huge margin a few weeks ago, Obama's position looks fantastic.

BREAKING: Obama +3





Edited title and typo.


Video that just can't get enough play: Pennsylvania Governor Rendell Praises Farrakhan and N.O.I.

[Scurrilous]

1. K & R

:thumbsup:

[XemaSab]

2. My grandma's 80

and she thinks McCain is too old to be president.

Playing the "old" card could really backfire.

[barack the house]

3. Couldn't the oh your 60 so your mind has gone argument might offend some people, Most in 60s I know

are very lucid and active. Still their campaign if they feel that sells.

[Zachstar]

4. Today is looking to be a very bad day for the Clinton Campaign!

In one min Obama likely has raised more than a week of after PA donations Clinton will get.

And now the Rendellgate along with another Adgate and other gates will cause Clinton Campaign MASSIVE losses in May!

[ProSense]

9. I hope Hillary is asked

about the Rendell video in one of her TV appearances tonight

[PVnRT]

5. Yeesh. This after the Clinton campaign accused Obama of insulting boomers?

[gabby garcia]

6. this just plum tickles me.

;)

[livetohike]

8. Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[karynnj]

7. Some people age more gracefully than others - and Bill is clearly not among them

Here:
"At a wan rally at Wilkes University here Saturday morning, he squinted at a card listing local dignitaries and confessed, "You'll have to forgive me. I'm getting old. I can't read well this early in the morning." Burbling about building cars that could get 100 miles to the gallon at a Friday night town meeting in Fort Washington, just outside Philadelphia, Clinton remarked, "Whenever I say this about energy ... people start to look at me and say, 'You know, he's not as young as he used to be, but I actually think he's starting to lose it.'"

Now in both 2004 and 2007 on their book tour, I heard both Teresa Heinz Kerry, who I think is 68 and John Kerry, who is 64, both sparkle with interest and excitement speaking of the after market battery that a MA company makes that can be retrofit to cars like the Prius that get 150 miles a gallon and can run just on the rechargeable battery for round trips under (I think) 40 miles. This may be a new topic for Bill Clinton, who reveals his own prior skepticism for advancements that both Kerrys lobbied for a decade ago. Under Clinton's watch, the real mileage per gallon for personal vehicles actually rose - because the increasingly larger, more common and heavier SUVs weren't counted as cars under CAFE rules.

[ProSense]

12. Excellent contrast. More

When we got to the Quakertown headquarters, we were surprised to learn that Senator John Kerry was there to give all the volunteers a pep talk. (Also there were his two sisters; and his daughter who was also going door-to-door for Obama.)

I voted for Kerry, but I had never seen him in person before. I was amazed by how charismatic he was. He spoke really well, and effortlessly. Of course, he was among people he knew he was in sync with; and that makes a person more relaxed.

He thanked us all for being there, and said that we all had seen that Barack Obama was the best chance for a new politics, for moving the country forward, and for changing its direction. (When Alice and I did our canvassing in a little while, even those who were undecided seem desperate for change.)

Kerry said we were not running against anyone, we were not running against Hillary Clinton. He knows and likes her. Instead, we were running in favor of Barack Obama, in the belief he was the best choice, and chance, for our country. He has very special gifts, and his candidacy was a very singular opportunity to change course FOR REAL. Which most of us passionately want.

<...>

Again I was struck by how loose he was. (And how we must start looking at how the media interviews politicians. It's hard to communicate easily if there's a constant "gotcha" mentality all the time, and not just in debates. What was missing in the first half of that Stephanopoulos-Gibson-moderated debate was an actual interest in getting information. We need information first; challenge and opinion can come later, and in proper formats, like all those Sunday pundit talk shows... Well there's lots of good analysis on the Huffington Post and elsewhere on this issue.)

Anyway, Kerry was terrific.

link

[karynnj]

14. Fantastic article - and from the photos and videos

campaigning for Obama is certainly agreeing with both Kerrys - they look extremely happy - and younger than Bill Clinton.

[ProSense]

15. Agree! n/t

[ProSense]

10. Should have pointed out that there are

excellent slideshows at the link above Obama's photo.

[tblue37]

11. If she is too old and tired to know what she is doing or saying at

11:00 p.m., then how can we assume she would be ready to answer the phone coherently at 3:00 a.m.?

[Why Syzygy]

13. Bwhawahaha . Ol' Bill is just the ticket for a good belly laugh.

Something tells me HE is going to catch the kitchen sink!

[azmouse]

16. K&R