Obama pushes back

By Jennifer J. Foster

Barack Obama’s campaign has kicked into gear with a two-pronged push-back in the wake of his 31-point loss to Hillary Clinton in West Virginia last night.

The first push-back actually came before the loss was in the books. The campaign dispensed a widely circulated memo yesterday in an effort to dispell “myths” with “facts.“ Among the items discussed: Divisions in the Democratic Party and Obama’s weakness among swing voters, independents, white voters, women and working-class voters. (Gee, what gives them the idea that the party could possibly be divided?) Check out the memo at RealClearPolitics.com.

The next push-back came in the form of a drawlin’ former U.S. senator and presidential candidate. John Edwards endorsed Obama tonight at a rally in Grand Rapids, Mich.

I told you earlier that the timing and placement of the endorsement, which is being described by CNN’s Anderson Cooper as “the biggest of this election season,“ is nothing short of curious to me. Edwards seems to be giving away all the leverage he has worked so hard to protect since dropping out of the race in late January.

Now having had four hours to digest the news, pundits are in near-agreement that the timing of the endorsement is meant to put an abrupt end to Clinton’s victory lap and bookend her positive news cycle short of the 24-hour mark.

My favorite pundit, Gloria Borger, said she spoke to someone who spoke to Edwards today, and Edwards pulled the trigger on the endorsement today because he didn’t like the headlines that were coming out of West Virginia: that Obama can’t win white working-class voters—Edwards voters.

Time’s Mark Halperin said it was clear that Obama had become the leader of the Democratic pack, but that Edwards’ endorsement can’t “paper over” Obama’s problems with working-class whites.

Joe Klein added that Obama’s people hope Edwards’ endorsement will encourage Clinton to “say goodbye pretty soon” so that Obama can have the month of June to retool himself and his campaign—a breather of sorts—as Bill Clinton did in 1992.

Edwards took great pains to compliment Hillary Clinton and the strides she has made in her campaign. Klein noted that Edwards actually said more nice things about Clinton than he did about Obama. But Edwards left no doubt as to his support: “The reason I am here tonight is because Democratic voters in America have made their choice, and so have I.“

One more thing: Edwards appeared on Larry King Live Monday night—fewer than 48 hours before his endorsement of Obama—and demurred when asked about his endorsement:

KING: Now we go to Philadelphia. Senator John Edwards, the former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, former U.S. senator from North Carolina. He was also John Kerry’s running mate in 2004. You have not endorsed, senator. Some might say as a major figure in the party at this point, don’t you have a responsibility to endorse?

JOHN EDWARDS (D), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No. I think that what I have a responsibility to do is make sure that the Democrats’ message and our cause is heard and that we’re united in the fall. You know, myself, Al Gore, I think there are some others who haven’t spoken out yet about this nomination battle. I think we have two great candidates. I have such an extraordinarily high opinion of both of them. You watch sort of what’s happened in the past, I think that some of the endorsements as opposed to helping unite have contributed to the divide. And what I don’t want to do is contribute to the divide. I mean, we had a primary in North Carolina where I live. I live in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. I voted in that primary. So obviously, I made a choice in that vote. But at least for this moment, I think the reasonable thing for me to do is let voters make their decision.

It would be really great if someone—ANYONE—would ask Edwards when he decided to make this endorsement. Was it triggered by West Virginia? Was the decision already made, and was Edwards just waiting on Obama to make the call? This seems like a pretty obvious line of questioning, especially in light of Edwards’ comments Monday. But it has, so far, gone unexplored.

Later, King asked Edwards whether he would consider running for vice president again:

KING: Senator Edwards, would you run again for vice president if asked?

EDWARDS: No. I don’t have any interest in it, no intention to do it. The cause of my life, Larry, is to do something about poverty in this country, and I’m going to pour my heart and soul into that. I knew you were going to ask me about this. But you know, we’re here in Philadelphia to launch a campaign to cut poverty in half in the next 10 years. I’m committed to this cause. We have wonderful organizations who are working on this cause. And I just came, in fact, today—I mentioned this to you earlier. Just came today from being on the Gulf Coast with Habitat for Humanity and President Carter. Earlier today I was hammering nails and building houses on the Gulf Coast. So that’s what my life is about now.

Maybe. But that didn’t stop Matt Drudge from posting a picture of Obama and Edwards above the headline, “The Ticket?“

We shall see.

Read the full transcript from Edwards’ appearance on Larry King Live here.

Edwards takes Obama

By Jennifer J. Foster

Barack Obama’s campaign confirmed today that John Edwards will endorse him tonight in Grand Rapids, Mich.

That Edwards ended up behind Obama isn’t much of a surprise. Most of Edwards’ campaign staffers had already drifted into Obama’s camp.

The curious thing about the endorsement is—everything about the endorsement.

First, why would Edwards choose to endorse today, more than a week after the primary in his home state of North Carolina? I’m not usually one to think that an endorsement will win a candidate a flood of votes, but it could have made a difference for Obama in Indiana, where Obama lost to Hillary Clinton last Tuesday by just two points. And his much-ballyhooed “trouble with white guys” might have been assuaged a bit by an endorsement from, say, a white guy.

Conventional wisdom held that Edwards was keeping his powder dry to maximize his opportunity, whatever it might be, to broker the peace between Obama and Clinton, either before or during the convention. At the least, Edwards was expected to use his influence as leverage for his signature issue: Ending poverty in America.

As it is, It’s too late to help Obama in Pennsylvania or Indiana, and it’s too early to make much of a difference at the convention. But Obama has made strides in the last week with superdelegates, and just about every pundit who is converting oxygen to carbon dioxide has declared the race to be over. Maybe Edwards just didn’t want to be left out.

And why Michigan? Michigan isn’t gearing up for a second primary, and its legislators and party leaders have already agreed on a plan that, if approved on May 31, will pave the way for its delegates to be seated at the convention.

I don’t understand anything about the way this decision is being delivered. Maybe they’ll shed some light on it as they take the stage now.

‘Good Morning, Democrats’

By Jennifer J. Foster

For about the last month or so, I’ve been receiving a curious feature in my inbox every weekday morning.

It’s called, “Good Morning, Democrats.“ It’s a project of the Alabama Republican Party, so you can probably guess that it’s not really meant to wish Democrats a good morning.

The idea is to deliver the Republican message of the morning, whatever it may be, but with a little zing.

Some zingers have more bite than others. But the overall tone of GMD is unabasedly, unapologetically acerbic.

I was intrigued. So I picked up the phone and called ALGOP Communications Director Philip Bryan, who writes and distributes GMD every morning.

Bryan, 31, whose background is in advertising and public relations, was more than willing to talk about GMD, which he told me he conceived after reading the Montgomery Advertiser’s “Good Morning, Governor” feature one day last month.

“It just hit me that there is enough (material) out there I could have something every morning and send it out to the media,“ Bryan said. Before GMD, he would usually put such information on party blogs, he said. But they “are not highly trafficked.

“It’s a way to adjust to where biggest exposure potential is, and that’s our base,“ he said.

Bryan said he gets most ideas for the feature from reading the morning newspapers, but Republican legislators and other party officials have been known to pass along a tip or two.

“One of the most enjoyable things of my day is knowing I get to read through all the papers” for an idea, he said.

And GMD’s tone?

“I think it is kind of done tongue-in-cheek on some things,“ Bryan said. “I think the message is still there. It’s just a different way to communicate than a regular press release. It’s not all tongue-in-cheek, because it is serious stuff and there are issues people are dealing with. So there is seriousness in it, but it’s a creative way to get my message out.

“(GMD) is just a way to lighten it up a bit, a way to be partisan with a sense of humor.“

But I thought the old-style partisanship was going by the wayside, what with the “new kind of politics” and all, I said.

Bryan responded that while bipartisanship has its merits, it’s not always the way to go.

“There are good bipartisan efforts that go on in the Legislature, and there are good persons who are Democrats,“ Bryan said. “But that’s where the line has to be drawn ... there’s enough that we’re seeing statewide that people understand we’re right on the issues.

“When I go around to (local Republican) clubs and speak, I tell them that I wake up with goal of being the most partisan man in the state,“ Bryan said.

Bryan said his job as communications director is to coordinate and spread the Republican message throughout Alabama—not only for the benefit of voters the GOP is trying to draw, but also for party faithful who look to the ALGOP to lead them. That starts with “team building and relationship building” among Republicans, things Bryan said he believes the state party has done well of late.

“This is first time the party has put together a team with a goal in mind to raise as much money as we can and win every election between now and 2010. It’s never been done before,“ Bryan said, adding that the ALGOP is “really kind of puting the rift together that had been in the party after Amendment 1.“ The party’s efforts have been “well received, because they’re just glad that someone from the party is reaching out to them.“ That bodes well, he said, for the party’s ultimate goal—taking control of the Legislature in 2010—and it ties in with his second job, which is to “identify weaknesses in the Democratic Party and (show) we are right on the issues and they aren’t,“ he said.

“My role is to ... push for as much media coverage as we can on hot-button issues like corruption in our state, because it does resonate with the guy who has voted Democratic all his life when you see someone go to jail for cheating the system ... It is a way to understand that we can change the way politics can be done by getting majority out and getting new blood in,“ Bryan said.

“Everybody’s got bad eggs. We’re not perfect,“ Bryan acknowledged. But he’s going to keep on spreading the GOP message, he said.

“In terms of impacting the masses, I don’t see it that way,“ he said of the GMD feature. “I do visualize it impacting key players who talk to two, who talk to four, who impact people at their church, pushing our message out through the executive committees.“

So, at least for the time being, Bryan will keep wishing his political opponents good mornings—sort of.

Haven’t seen GMD? Not on the list? Check out archived editions of the feature here. What do you think? Is Bryan’s brainchild a creative departure from ordinary talking points? Or does it go too far? Have your say in comments.

And check back here tomorrow for what Alabama Democratic Party Chairman Joe Turnham has to say about GMD—and a bunch of other stuff.

GOP disaster

By Jennifer J. Foster

Almost lost in the Clinton-Obama hubbub were the results of last night’s special election to fill the 1st Congressional District seat in Mississippi.

Democrat Travis Childers eked out a victory over Republican Greg Davis in the northern Mississippi district that includes the cities of Southaven (where Davis is mayor), Corinth, Tupelo, Columbus and Grenada.

This special election is the third such contest where Democrats have beaten Republicans this year; Davis’ defeat was just the latest in a series of bad signs for the GOP. The special election was required to fill the seat of Roger Wicker, who left to fill the seat of Trent Lott—both Republicans. Mississippi has a popular Republican governor and is a red, red state when it comes to national contests. Danny from Doc’s Political Parlor points out that President Bush won the district with 62 percent of the vote in 2004.

So it should have been a lock for the GOP, right?

Um, no.

Republicans were left to play defense, and, as Dan Fouts would say, they “didn’t hold anything back.“

The National Republican Congressional Committee has spent more than $1.3 million in advertising and direct mail. Mr. Davis also has benefited from funding from outside Republican groups. Freedom’s Watch, a group working to elect Republicans to the House, has spent an additional $550,000 on advertising. The NRCC has sent staff to Mississippi to help boost Republican voter turnout, which will be critical to Mr. Davis’s chances.

Republicans have drawn on a long roster to campaign for Mr. Davis, including Gov. Haley Barbour, Sen. Thad Cochran, Mr. Lott, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Vice President Dick Cheney, who appeared Monday at an event with Mr. Davis.

The Mississippi First was also the latest test of the GOP strategy to “Obamify” Democratic congressional candidates:

The race has attracted national attention, with Vice President Dick Cheney campaigning for Davis on Monday, and Davis running ads trying to tie Childers to Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Childers has brushed aside those comparisons, countering that with his own support of gun rights and opposition to abortion, his social values match those of most voters in the deeply conservative district.

As Republicans are finding out, “Obamify” means something totally different.

And the GOP doesn’t need to add insult to injury, but when it rains, it pours: Politico reported that the NRCC spent NEARLY 20 PERCENT OF ITS ENTIRE CASH-ON-HAND to save the seat.

That’s bad, bad news, because I’m pretty sure there are more than four congressional seats for Republicans to defend.

All of this is why “a GOP House leadership aide told Politico last week that ‘if we don’t win in Mississippi, I think you are going to see a lot of people running around here looking for windows to jump out of.‘“

Of course, Childers will have to stand for re-election in the fall. But for now, at least, three of Mississippi’s four congressional seats are blue.

I hope Capitol windows have bars.

Mayor Young’un

By Jennifer J. Foster

Hillary Clinton wasn’t the only one politician who won big last night.

Check this out:

MUSKOGEE, Okla. (AP) — A 19-year-old freshman at the University of Oklahoma was elected mayor Tuesday of Muskogee, a city of 38,000 in the northeastern part of the state.

With all precincts reporting, John Tyler Hammons won with 70 percent of the vote over former Mayor Hershel Ray McBride, said Muskogee County Election Board Secretary Bill Bull.

Hammons won in each of the city’s four wards, but he owes his margin of victory to Ward II, where he won 1,484 votes to his opponent’s 370.

That’s a 3-to-1 split.

And his opponent was a former mayor of Muskogee. 

Look at that picture of Hammons, right, with his campaign manager. Listen to this quote from the mayor-elect:

“Because of the support of the voters, we have accomplished the impossible,” Hammons said. “With their continued support we will continue to accomplish the impossible. Muskogee is on the rise — nothing can stop us now.”

That is unadulterated joy fuled by the enthusiasm of youth. If that doesn’t make you smile, nothing will.

The city’s newspaper, the Muskogee Daily Phoenix, brings us this account of the victory. Its editors didn’t waste any time in engaging Hammond on his transition from idealistic hopeful to productive public servant: This editorial was posted at 9:39 p.m. last night.

Yes, governance will probably dull his idealism, and the rigors of his office will probably age Hammons beyond his years. (He’ll probably look 25 when he runs for re-election.) But he will always have Tuesday night, and if he holds on to that feeling he had as those results came in, he’s right: He will continue to accomplish the impossible, for himself and for his town.

Whenever you start sensing the cloud of disillusion creeping over your political horizon, think about John Tyler Hammons.

The namesake of a long-ago president, Hammons can’t yet have a beer at the corner bar. Some people, no doubt, scoffed at his ambition to be Muskogee’s mayor at 19. But there is no age minimum for making a difference, so Hammons didn’t let his age stop him from giving legs to his dream. As a result, it didn’t stop Muskogeeans from placing their trust—and their city’s budget—in his hands.

You go, John Tyler Hammons. Thanks for reminding us that we can all do something to make our government better—no matter how young, or young at heart, we are, no matter how much money we have or lack, no matter our experience, or lack thereof.

We can all make a difference.

Just ask John Tyler Hammons.