Earlier I mentioned some comments from Chuck Todd that implied that Obama's leaving California today while Clinton remains was a sign his campaign believes there's more to gain by going to other February 5th states than there is to lose by leaving the state to surrogates like Ted Kennedy, even if it means conceding California to Clinton. But has he really given up on California? Obama addressed the question at a press conference earlier today.
Today, Mr. Obama flew from California to begin the sprint to Super Tuesday, campaigning in New Mexico and Idaho, Minnesota and Missouri. In a news conference in Los Angeles, Mr. Obama was asked why it appeared he was giving up on California, which holds the largest trove of delegates. He smiled...and said: "We'll see. I don't share that view.""I think this is going to be very competitive, but we've got 22 states," Mr. Obama said. "Just from a purely strategic perspective, I think everybody understands that if we are spending all of our time in one state and not spending time in the other 21, then that might not lead to the most delegates. And this is, frankly, a delegate race at this point."
The reason for his confidence just arrived in my inbox:
LOS ANGELES -- The Obama for America campaign today announced that Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey and Caroline Kennedy will hold a Get Out The Vote Rally this Sunday in Los Angeles . The rally will be free and open to the public. More details will be released when they become available.
Just as the Obama campaign has dispatched Kennedy and a stable of local hispanic leaders to campaign for Obama throughout California to try to undermine Hillary Clinton's strength among latinos, so is this Oprah event a blatant attempt to eat into Hillary's support among women.
Whether it will do what's intended is another story. When Oprah initially went on the campaign trail for Obama, she won universally rave reviews in the media but the consensus was that her endorsement itself wouldn't necessarily move voters, rather it would merely open the door to a whole universe of voters and it would be Obama's responsibility to win them over on his merits. At this point, does Obama still need that introduction? And isn't there a danger it could hurt rather than help? There was a lot of consternation on the message boards of Oprah's website at the time complaining that Oprah turned political and that she "turned it into a black thing," as though she broke some sacred trust with her fans. And my Mom's take I think was not atypical: Oprah is asking people to support Barack for the wrong reasons, namely simply because she said so.
I personally don't begrudge Oprah's advocacy on Obama's part for either of these reasons, and perhaps if there's any backlash it's against Oprah herself rather than against Obama, but it's something to look for. I'll be attending the Oprah event on Sunday and will, of course, report back from the ground.
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