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Obama to Iowans: If I'm Not Your First Choice, Make Me Your Second
CBS News ^
| 12/31/07
| Maria Gavrilovic
Posted on 12/31/2007 5:04:49 PM PST by melt
BOONE, IOWA -- In the days leading to the Iowa caucuses, Barack Obama is focusing on undecided voters by stressing his record on special interests and telling voters that he can be their second choice if he isnt their first choice.
Obama began his stump today by making an appeal to voters, If youre not going to caucus for me, make me your second choice. I know that some of you had made early commitments and now you regret it, youre thinking 'I wish I had held off because I hadnt heard Barack yet.'... I can still be your second choice.
Campaign manager David Plouffe said on a conference call this morning that Obama is the strongest second choice candidate in the race. He said Edwards is strong but that Clinton doesnt bode as well as a second choice. Plouffe also said Obama could benefit from the second choice option.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: election; ia2008; obama; runnerup
It's official: Barack Obama is now the "Fred Thompson of the Democratic Party...
1
posted on
12/31/2007 5:04:50 PM PST
by
melt
To: melt
That hat must be sitting on Obamas halo.
2
posted on
12/31/2007 5:08:28 PM PST
by
digger48
To: melt
Looks like Obama is bucking for VP.
3
posted on
12/31/2007 5:08:36 PM PST
by
Mad_Tom_Rackham
(Elections have consequences.)
To: melt
Predicted from word go. They will crash hard.
To: Mad_Tom_Rackham
The Hillary people showed him the file.
5
posted on
12/31/2007 5:11:21 PM PST
by
claudiustg
(You know it. I know it. I'm optimittstic!)
To: melt
That strategy worked for Lincoln in 1860. He was everyone’ second choice for President.
6
posted on
12/31/2007 5:15:37 PM PST
by
GAB-1955
(Kicking and Screaming into the Kingdom of Heaven.)
To: melt
How many of us women would have said that to our favorite guy?
Never mind.
7
posted on
12/31/2007 5:18:03 PM PST
by
dforest
(Duncan Hunter is the best hope we have on both fronts.)
To: melt
I saw his wife on C-SPAN earlier today and am not sure which is more stupid.
8
posted on
12/31/2007 5:22:04 PM PST
by
onedoug
To: melt
This is a SMART move on Obama's part. This is a caucus, not a primary. In the Dem rules, candidates not getting 15% at an individual caucus are eliminated, and those supporters can jump to a new candidate.
So, assume Clinton, Obama and Edwards typically meet the 15% threshold ... Dodd, Biden, Kucinich and maybe Richardson will not. Zero Kucinich supporters will go to Clinton. Asuming the Dodd and Biden supporters have to move simultaneously, they may go any number of ways. I don't see too many of them gravitating towards Clinton. Obama is wise to make the pitch, because it may make the difference between 1st and third. Of course, Edwards is making the same pitch. Clinton can't acknowledge that she could be a mere second choice.
9
posted on
12/31/2007 5:22:05 PM PST
by
Dr. Sivana
(Not a newbie, I just wanted a new screen name.)
To: melt
Gee, and I always thought that second place was just the first loser, but not in dem politics, I guess.
10
posted on
12/31/2007 5:25:42 PM PST
by
bill1952
(The right to buy weapons is the right to be free)
To: melt
Obama has ALWAYS been a pile of #2 in my book...
11
posted on
12/31/2007 5:26:20 PM PST
by
river rat
(Semper Fi - You may turn the other cheek, but I prefer to look into my enemy's vacant dead eyes.)
To: GAB-1955
Not being up on my Lincoln history
did he indicate, as Obama is doing, that he would have been happy with second place? Did they even have such a thing as a state caucus back in the day?
12
posted on
12/31/2007 5:27:26 PM PST
by
doc1019
(Rabbit and the Hare … Fred ‘08)
To: melt
do they ask you who your second choice is in Iowa?
To: doc1019
What he did from after the 1858 Senatorial election to the Chicago convention in 1860 was to make it clear that the other candidates, Seward, Stanton, Cameron, and Bates, were first-rate men, and he would be happy to be everyone’s second choice in the event none of them could get the nomination. (They were first-rate men; all four of them served in Lincoln’s cabinet). Sure enough, no one won on the first ballot, or the second; Lincoln won on the third ballot.
I sometimes think the old smoke-filled room was a cleaner and more efficient process than this four-year pandering, but Lincoln and Stanton worked hard for that nomination for two years, so it wasn’t that much more efficient than the current primary system.
14
posted on
12/31/2007 5:44:32 PM PST
by
GAB-1955
(Kicking and Screaming into the Kingdom of Heaven.)
To: GAB-1955
Thanks. Great insight into our political history.
15
posted on
12/31/2007 5:47:35 PM PST
by
doc1019
(Rabbit and the Hare … Fred ‘08)
To: GAB-1955
Thanks. That was interesting.
16
posted on
12/31/2007 6:09:35 PM PST
by
melt
(Fred Thompson for President !)
To: claudiustg
Obama has been having wierd dreams and has reached a decision.
He decided he doesn't want to be just another unexplained suicide found lying in a park somewhere with three slugs in the back of his head.
OBAMA'S WORST NIGHTMARE
17
posted on
12/31/2007 6:22:50 PM PST
by
Iron Munro
(Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself.)
To: Iron Munro
LOL!
Obama has a "shot" at the nomination, I see...
18
posted on
12/31/2007 6:37:50 PM PST
by
melt
(Someday, they'll wish their Jihad... Jihadn't.)
To: Iron Munro
It is very hard to arrange a whack on a senator from Illinois who can arrange for Chicago police detectives or Illinois State Police for protection, you know. Obama thinks he can win and I’m sure he could too. Hillary doesn’t have the resources and she has the visibility to suppose she would have political enemies that powerful killed.
19
posted on
12/31/2007 7:42:18 PM PST
by
GAB-1955
(Kicking and Screaming into the Kingdom of Heaven.)
To: GAB-1955
Only the Shadow knows.....
20
posted on
12/31/2007 10:14:29 PM PST
by
Iron Munro
(Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself.)
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