THINKING ABOUT NOVEMBER (Paul Krugman, New York Times) What can be done to heal the party’s current divisions? More tirades from Obama supporters against Mrs. Clinton are not the answer — they will only further alienate her grass-roots supporters, many of whom feel that she received a raw deal. Nor is it helpful to insult the groups that supported Mrs. Clinton, either by suggesting that racism was their only motivation or by minimizing their importance. After the Pennsylvania primary, David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s campaign manager, airily dismissed concerns about working-class whites, saying that they have “gone to the Republican nominee for many elections.” On Tuesday night, Donna Brazile, the Democratic strategist, declared that “we don’t have to just rely on white blue-collar voters and Hispanics.” That sort of thing has to stop. One thing the Democrats definitely need to do is give delegates from Florida and Michigan — representatives of citizens who voted in good faith, and whose support the party may well need this November — seats at the convention. And to the extent that campaigning matters, Mr. Obama should center his campaign on economic issues that matter to working-class families, whatever their race. The point is that Mr. Obama has an extraordinary opportunity in this year’s election. He should do everything possible to avoid squandering it.
OBAMA SEEKS TO UNIFY PARTY FOR NOVEMBER (Shailagh Murray and Perry Bacon, Jr., Washington Post) Returning to Washington yesterday, Obama was mobbed by well-wishers as he walked onto the House floor. But behind the scenes, his campaign worked with a light touch to win over uncommitted superdelegates and allies of Clinton, mindful of not appearing overconfident and of the fact that they would need the backing of the candidate, her husband and their supporters in the fall. With numerous prominent Democrats believed to be waiting in the wings to endorse his candidacy, Obama appears poised to win the pledged delegates and superdelegates he will need to claim the Democratic nomination as early as May 20, when Kentucky and Oregon vote.
CLINTON ASKS SUPERS TO COMMIT IN PRIVATE (Ben Smith and Amie Parnes, Politico) Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s visit to Capitol Hill this week may have been more about weighing her support than it was about wooing superdelegates. According to a senior Democratic aide, Clinton asked some uncommitted superdelegates if they could commit to her privately–without the political risks of a public endorsement–so that she could gauge whether she has the support she feels she needs to remain a viable candidate… One Clinton supporter familiar with the meetings described the senator’s “ask” as “vague” …Obama, by contrast, took the Hill by storm Thursday. In the morning, he met with a large group of uncommitted Blue Dog Democrats [the House moderate and conservative coalition] at a townhouse owned by UPS. Then he walked over to the House and spent half an hour working the left side of the chamber, shaking hands, signing autographs and posing for pictures. In the afternoon, he spent nearly three hours at the Democratic National Committee, where he met with a number of superdelegates, including four North Carolina congressmen. “We seem to be making progress,” Obama told reporters after his meetings ended on Thursday.
MORE: Obamamania Sweeps the Hill (Ryan Grim, Politico) As Obama made his way slowly through the House mob, reporters piled up outside the nearest door to the House floor, craning their necks to get a look. Security guards pressed through the media crowd, repeatedly asking the Fourth Estate to keep a lane open for lawmakers. Supporters and opponents alike maneuvered to get face time, whether it was 73-year-old Rep. James L. Oberstar (D-Minn.) patiently waiting his turn or Rep. Alcee L. Hastings (D-Fla.), a Clinton supporter, giving Obama a big hug. Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) had the man autograph today’s copy of the NY Daily News. (Cover: “It’s his Party.”) Reps. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), a Clinton backer, and Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) gave him bear hugs on the floor, as well. Even Republicans were star-struck. Rep. Illeana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) said she was escorting a group of elementary school students onto the House floor when Obama made his entrance.
FOR HILLARY CLINTON, NO ‘CLEAR PATH TO VICTORY’–NOR TO AN EXIT (Peter Nicholas, Los Angeles Times) She’s darting around the country like a full-fledged presidential candidate, but within Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s circle of advisors and donors, the conversation has turned to how she can make a dignified exit from the race. But for all the signs of normalcy, much of the infrastructure that keeps the New York senator’s campaign going – the aides, donors and political allies – is resigned to the hard reality that the Democratic nomination now appears out of reach. One Clinton aide said Thursday: “There is a profound sadness” among the staff. “I don’t think anyone sees that there’s a clear path to victory here.”… Ultimately, an aide said, Clinton will decide with her husband what to do; staff won’t be consulted on so momentous a decision… Some members of Clinton’s circle are thinking through the conditions under which she might concede the race. One supporter familiar with the campaign’s operations said that Clinton wanted to go out on a positive note – say, after winning in West Virginia and Kentucky, whose primaries are May 13 and 20, respectively.
MCCAIN SETS STAGE FOR FALL RUN (Laura Meckler and Elizabeth Holmes, Wall Street Journal) Sen. McCain received the gift of time to lay the groundwork for his fall campaign, as Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton fought each other for the Democratic nomination. Now that the Democratic fight appears to be nearing an end, the Arizona senator will soon find out how effectively he used the time. Sen. Obama already has begun pivoting toward the general election. Soon, he is likely to unleash attack ads aimed at defining Sen. McCain. With vastly more money, Sen. Obama will be able to flood the airwaves as voters are forming impressions.
MORE: GOP Voters Still Dissing McCain (Jonathan Martin, Politico) Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee got a combined 27 percent of the vote in Pennsylvania last month, long after the GOP nomination had been settled in McCain’s favor. On Tuesday, Paul, Huckabee and Mitt Romney received a combined 23 percent in Indiana. Alan Keyes, Huckabee, Paul and “No Preference” took 26 percent in North Carolina… Aides to McCain and other observers say the results are less than meets the eye. They argue that the lingering votes for Paul and Huckabee—who together won about one-fifth of the vote in Indiana and North Carolina—represent vestigial passion for two candidates who developed a fervent, if narrow, grassroots following. Still, for a candidate viewed with suspicion by some in his party’s base, the dissenting votes are a nuisance he could do without.
LET THEM EAT ARUGULA (Jonathan Chait, New Republic) The dying days of the Hillary Clinton campaign have brought the breathtaking spectacle of a candidate lashing out at every element of public life that has nourished her career. The über-wonk has disparaged economists and expertise. The staunch ally of black America has attacked her opponent for lacking support of “working, hard-working Americans, white Americans.” People who thought they knew Hillary Clinton have gazed in astonishment: What has she become? The answer is, a conservative populist… Liberal populism posits that the rich wield disproportionate influence over the government and push for policies often at odds with most people’s interest… Conservative populism prefers to divide society along social lines, with the elites being intellectuals and other snobs who fancy themselves better than average Americans. Consider this analysis recently offered by Bill Clinton in Clarksburg, West Virginia: “The great divide in this country is not by race or even income, it’s by those who think they are better than everyone else and think they should play by a different set of rules.” This is precisely the dynamic that allows multimillionaires like George W. Bush and Bill O’Reilly to present themselves as being on the side of the little guy.
TEN ‘WHAT IFS’ ABOUT HILLARY CLINTON’S CAMPAIGN (John Heilemann, New York) 9. What if Clinton had gone magnanimous on Obama and the Reverend Wright? The GOP strategist Alex Castellanos offers an intriguing theory about how Hillary might have reacted differently, and more effectively, to the issue that threatened to swallow Obama. “After the Reverend Wright controversy, Obama was suffering the worst press month of his campaign,” he says. “Hillary had a choice. She could have gotten bigger, more presidential, less political; she could have risen to defend Obama, saying, ‘This is outrageous and has no place in politics.’ Instead, she chose to become smaller, more political, less presidential. She diminished the value of the attacks on him by making them hers. Her instincts betrayed her. What if she had chosen to soar above a weakened Obama? That was her moment. And I believe she missed her last great opportunity to win this race.”
MCCAIN PUSHED LAND SWAP THAT BENEFITS BACKER (Matthew Mosk, Washington Post) Sen. John McCain championed legislation that will let an Arizona rancher trade remote grassland and ponderosa pine forest here for acres of valuable federally owned property that is ready for development, a land swap that now stands to directly benefit one of his top presidential campaign fundraisers. Initially reluctant to support the swap, the Arizona Republican became a key figure in pushing the deal through Congress after the rancher and his partners hired lobbyists that included McCain’s 1992 Senate campaign manager, two of his former Senate staff members (one of whom has returned as his chief of staff), and an Arizona insider who was a major McCain donor and is now bundling campaign checks.
