How can Clinton & Obama unite the party?
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FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are set to appear together next week in Washington – side-by-side – for the first time since the long and sometimes nasty primary battle came to an end. It's an important moment, since some Democrats are still bitter about the way it ended.
The two will meet to try to get some of Clinton's top contributors to support Obama. Some of Clinton's supporters say that fund-raisers have complained because they don't think their concerns were being heard during meetings with the Obama camp. The donors apparently want to make sure Obama knows he needs to help Clinton pay down her campaign debt – estimated at more than $20 million – if he wants their support.
Other Clinton backers steamed that Obama hired ousted Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle to be the chief of staff for his eventual vice presidential nominee.
And, more tensions boiled up yesterday at an Obama rally when former Clinton supporter and Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm mentioned Clinton's name, and drew loud boos from the crowd. Obama shut that down and made very clear to the 20,000 people at the rally that Senator Clinton deserves respect.
Aides say Obama and Clinton have not met or spoken since that private meeting in Washington a couple weeks back, but the campaigns are reportedly cooperating as Obama gears up for the general election. One Clinton fundraiser suggests there's no rift and it will just take some time to heal from the primary.
Here’s my question to you: What do Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama need to do in their first joint appearance to unite the party?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Should Obama help Clinton pay off her debt?
Sen. Hillary Clinton lent $11.4 million of her own money to her campaign.(PHOTO CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES)
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Hillary Clinton is out of the race for president, but she's not out of the red. Far from it.
In fact, it's believed Clinton has the largest presidential campaign debt in history. Recent filings show Senator Clinton loaned her campaign $11.4 million of her own money, and she also owes vendors about $9.5 million. That's at least $20 million.
Other wealthier candidates, like Mitt Romney, have loaned themselves more money... but they don't always plan on getting it back. Clinton also has to deal with both the personal loan and the unpaid bills. One campaign finance lawyer tells the New York Times that Clinton's debt is "unprecedented." Other candidates who have lost have owed less than half the amount she owes to businesses.
So what exactly are Clinton's options? The good news for her is her campaign says it's raised about $1 million since the final primaries last week. That suggests some supporters may be committed enough to help out with her bills.
The other possibility floated around is for Barack Obama to pitch in. Although campaign finance laws prohibit him from transferring money from his campaign to hers... his campaign could ask supporters to chip in or he could hold fund-raisers on her behalf.
But not everyone is sure this is the way to go. Some Obama fund-raisers say it will be tough to help out Clinton because they're already raising money for Obama and for the DNC. Others say the tensions from the primary race could make it more difficult. But if Obama does help Clinton, it could go a long way toward getting her – and her supporters – on board his run for president.
Here’s my question to you: Would it be a good idea for Barack Obama to help Hillary Clinton repay her campaign debt?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
How can Obama win over Clinton supporters?
Senator Hillary Clinton speaks to supporters Saturday at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC.(PHOTO CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES)
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Hillary Clinton may be out of the race, but that doesn't mean her supporters are automatically going to flock to Barack Obama. Not by a long shot.
As she officially endorsed Obama on Saturday - Clinton urged the crowd to back Obama. When she said it, many cheered. But some supporters booed, loudly.
A CNN poll out Friday shows 60% of Clinton supporters say they'll vote for Obama, but 17% say they'll vote for Mccain and 22% say they won't vote at all.
Hillary Clinton's base includes many working-class voters as well as elderly, and of course, women voters. Clinton made a special appeal to women in her speech on Saturday, as she compared the milestones that both she and Obama had achieved in this race – as the first serious female and African-American candidates with a shot at the White House.
Obama says he's "thrilled and honored" to have Clinton's support and honors her historic campaign, saying, "She shattered barriers on behalf of my daughters and women everywhere" unquote.
There are now signs of unity online as well: Obama's web site was updated with a message that says "thank you Senator Clinton" and links to a form where visitors can write to her, and Clinton's web site now urges visitors to "support Senator Obama today."
Some Clinton supporters think the best way for Obama to get her 18 million voters is by putting her on the ticket as vice president.
Here’s my question to you: What does Barack Obama have to do to win over Hillary Clinton’s supporters?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Most important thing for Hillary to say tomorrow?
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FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Looks like tomorrow will be the end of the road for Hillary Clinton. After 16 months of campaigning to become the first major party woman candidate for president, she is expected to endorse Barack Obama at an event in Washington.
And it now looks like the Democrats are finally on their way to healing the bruises of an often nasty primary season. Last night, Clinton and Obama met face-to-face, all alone, at Senator Dianne Feinstein's Washington home.
Feinstein, who was a Clinton supporter, says the two candidates emerged laughing after the hour-long meeting in her living room. She called it a deeply personal time, saying Obama is trying to put things together for a major presidential campaign. Feinstein said there is a lot of decompression going on and many frayed nerve endings that need to come together.
As Clinton prepares to suspend her campaign – which actually means she'll keep her delegates – other pieces are falling into place for Obama. Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, who had remained uncommitted through this entire process, endorsed Obama today, calling him a "once-in-a-generation leader." New York's 23-member Democratic delegation in the House has collectively endorsed Obama; some of them had been among Clinton's strongest supporters. Also, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, a longtime Clinton backer, came out for Obama.
The big question mark hanging over reconciling the Democratic Party is what kind of relationship will ultimately exist between Clinton and Obama following one of the longest, and at times nasty, primary battles ever.
Here’s my question to you: What's the single most important thing for Hillary Clinton to say tomorrow?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
How is Clinton handling her exit?
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FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Hillary Clinton is offering Barack Obama half a loaf on her way out the door. No joint appearance with the presumptive nominee and their families in prime time – which would be carried live on television. No appearances by folks like Harold Ickes and Terry McAuliffe who ran her campaign telling her supporters to unite behind Obama. No appearance by Bill saying "let bygones be bygones, and I'm going to offer to work hard to get Barack Obama elected."
Instead Senator Clinton is planning a public appearance on Saturday to talk about how "we can rally the party behind Senator Obama. The stakes are too high and the task before us too important to do otherwise."
Meanwhile, it turns out Clinton had to be pushed to get out of the race by several of her Democratic congressional colleagues... and reportedly she didn't even bother to call Obama to tell him of her decision. One more thing, and it's important: Clinton is expected to suspend her campaign instead of dropping out altogether. That means she will technically remain a candidate, and she will hold on to her delegates.
Some Obama supporters worry that questions about what Clinton does next will turn into a "second campaign" that won't end until Obama chooses a running mate, a job that Clinton is apparently interested in even though no one has asked her.
Mike Lupica writes in the New York Daily News that even at the end of this, Clinton is trying to rewrite the party rules that her people helped write in the first place, adding: "She acts as if she is the shadow president of a constituency that includes the 18 million people she says voted for her, as if those votes belong to her, as if all 18 million people are waiting for her to give them their marching orders. She leaves the race with the same air of entitlement with which she entered."
Here’s my question to you: How would you describe the way Hillary Clinton is handling her exit from the race?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
How should Obama handle the Hillary “situation”?
Click the play button to see what Jack and our viewers had to say.
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Anyone who thought Hillary Clinton would admit defeat and graciously make her exit to begin healing the party wasn't paying attention last night.
Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination, not by a delegate or two. The superdelegates poured into his camp all day and all night and made a bold statement. "He's our guy." But when the sun came up this morning, she is still there.
If Obama wants a hint what it will be like if she is the vice president, last night should give him a pretty good idea. Refusing to concede, she chose instead to try to steal the spotlight from him on one of the most historic nights in our history. Barely acknowledging his accomplishment, she went on in her speech at Baruch College like nothing had changed. It was pathetic.
Earlier in the day, she let it be known she is interested in the Vice Presidential nomination. Like it's her option. This puts enormous pressure on him to agree or risk further angering her dwindling supporters. Not that some of them could get any angrier.
Barack Obama at this moment has a much bigger problem with Hillary Clinton than he does with John McCain. You would think her advisers and supporters would start to be embarrassed by her behavior at some point.
At a time when our country should be celebrating a quantum leap forward in healing our racial divisions, Hillary Clinton is ruining the party – a spoiled child who refuses to go when told, "It's bedtime."
Here’s my question to you: How should Barack Obama handle the Hillary Clinton “situation”?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Will Clinton’s supporters back McCain?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Guess who Hillary Clinton's new best friend is? The presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain, is singing Hillary's praises to the heavens.
McCain to a group of Tennessee voters: "I admire and respect her. Hillary Clinton has inspired generations of American women to believe that they can reach the highest office in this nation. I admire the campaign she's run. She's deserving of a great deal of credit."
Interesting timing, now that Clinton's campaign is on its final leg. Clinton has insisted that if she's not the nominee she'll work with Barack Obama to unite the party and beat the Republicans in November. But remember all those Clinton supporters who angrily said they will vote for John McCain in the fall if she is not the nominee? Apparently John McCain remembers. And it sounds like he wants to know if they're serious.
Another sign McCain may be reaching out to Clinton's female supporters: one of his top advisers, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, says she believes Clinton faced sexism on the campaign trail. Fiorina says she has a lot of sympathy for what Clinton has been through, and that "a lot of women recognize she's been treated differently, whether they're Democrats or Republicans."
Some of the exit polls suggest there might be something to all this. For example, in Kentucky, 42% of Clinton voters said they'd back McCain, 32% said Obama, and 23% said they wouldn't vote at all.
It remains to be seen once the race is over and tempers have cooled whether these trends will really hold up. After what eight years of the Bush administration have done to this country, wouldn't you have to think long and hard before voting for someone who is almost exactly like him?
Here’s my question to you: How likely is it that Hillary Clinton’s supporters will actually vote for John McCain in November?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Will Clinton go gracefully when the time comes?
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FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
If you're looking for clues, try this one: Hillary Clinton will give her post-primary speech in New York tomorrow night. The thing is: New York is not voting, Montana and South Dakota are.
Campaign aides say staffers who worked for Clinton in those two states and Puerto Rico have been invited to attend the event or go home and await further instructions. Here's another clue: it's being reported that the campaign's finance department is asking Clinton staffers to turn in their outstanding expenses by the end of the week.
Clinton has also has planned a rally with her husband and daughter in South Dakota tonight, the kind of reunion she usually saves for election nights. Meanwhile, former President Bill Clinton said that today may be his last day campaigning for his wife.
All this would seem to indicate that the end is near. The news comes on the heels of a weekend where Clinton swept up in Puerto Rico, yet was frustrated by the decision of the rules committee. With just two contests to go, Clinton continues to trail Barack Obama in the ever-important categories of pledged delegates and superdelegates.
Nevertheless, Clinton is making the argument that she leads in the popular vote and that by the time all the votes are counted, she will have won more votes "than anyone in the history of the primary process." The problem here is this is only true if you include Michigan and Florida, and don't include some of the caucus states.
Clinton has also suggested she's focusing not only on undecided superdelegates, but also those who have backed Obama and still have the option to change their minds. And finally she says she's still deciding whether to challenge the decision of the Democratic rules committee.
Here’s my question to you: Will Hillary Clinton admit defeat and go gracefully when the time comes?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Clinton’s “I’m more electable” working?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Despite being hopelessly behind in pledged delegates and with only three primaries to go, Hillary Clinton refuses to give up. In fact, she continues to insist that she is more electable than Barack Obama.
Clinton told voters in South Dakota yesterday that her wins in swing states and her strong vote margins among certain groups make her more likely to beat John McCain in the general election.
At the same time, her campaign sent uncommitted superdelegates a letter with polling data showing how she could compete better than Obama in the fall. They pointed to her wins in states like Ohio and West Virginia along with her strong showings among older women, Hispanics and rural voters.
While Clinton has toned down her attacks on Obama in recent weeks, she has implied that if he becomes the nominee, the Democrats could lose in November. Clinton insists she's the stronger candidate against McCain "based on every analysis of every bit of research and every poll that's been taken and every state a Democrat has to win." Not true at all.
There are polls that show Clinton in a close race with McCain, many within the sampling error. And more importantly there are polls that show Obama beating McCain by a larger margin than she does. Sometimes facts are very inconvenient.
Clinton also claims to have won the most popular votes – but that's only if you include Michigan and Florida, states that were stripped of all their delegates after breaking the party's rules. Their votes don't count. Obama actually leads by 570,000 in the popular vote, and is now just 45 delegates shy of clinching the nomination.
Here’s my question to you: Has Hillary Clinton's continual drumbeat of "I'm more electable" gained her any traction?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
What should Dems do about Michigan & Florida?
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FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
The Democratic Party is going to try to sort out the headache created by Michigan and Florida.
The rules committee meets this weekend to decide what to do with the delegates from those states. Michigan and Florida broke party rules by moving up their primaries and as punishment were stripped of all their delegates. It was made clear to them before they changed the primary dates that is what would happen.
Party lawyers say the DNC has the authority to seat some of these delegates, but not all. They say seating half of the delegates is quote "as far as the committee can legally go." And, once the committee decides how many of the delegates to seat then they need to figure out how to divide them between Clinton and Obama. Could be a long weekend.
It becomes pretty tricky when you consider that in Michigan, Barack Obama's name wasn't even on the ballot. It's also important to note that both candidates signed a pledge not to campaign in either state and agreed the primaries should be invalid if the states changed the dates. Senator Clinton appears to have forgotten this.
Clinton is hoping the committee will seat as many delegates as possible, so she can narrow the gap with Obama and then try to persuade superdelegates to side with her. But the fact is that even if the delegates are fully restored, it won't be enough for her to overtake Obama's lead.
Meanwhile, a Florida court has thrown out a lawsuit challenging the party's decision not to seat the state's delegates. The judge sided with the Democratic Party, saying that political parties have the right to make their own rules. It's the second lawsuit in Florida protesting the DNC's decision to be thrown out of court.
Here’s my question to you: What should the Democrats' rules committee do about Michigan and Florida?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
@jackcafferty on Twitter
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