Obama: No Victory Declaration Tuesday - Democratic Underground

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Mon May-19-08 06:54 AM
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Obama: No Victory Declaration Tuesday

MILWAUKIE, Ore. – Concerned about appearing presumptuous or antagonistic towards Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama will not declare victory in the Democratic nomination fight Tuesday in the event he wins enough pledged delegates to claim a majority.

Rather, he’ll tiptoe right up to the line, without explicitly asserting the race is over.

While it may sound like an exercise in hair-splitting, the conscious decision not to declare victory is a revealing measure of the sensitivity surrounding overtures that appear to disrespect Clinton and her supporters.

It’s also a reflection of the Obama campaign’s supreme confidence in the delegate math at this juncture—the campaign now appears secure enough in its commanding position that it no longer feels compelled to declare victory in an attempt to marginalize Clinton.

That marks a departure from the stance the Obama campaign took after his blowout win in North Carolina and narrow loss in Indiana May 6.

An Obama senior adviser, who asked that his name be withheld to speak candidly, told Politico the next day: "On May 20, we’re going to declare victory.”

Three days after those contests, Obama hinted that amassing the majority of pledged delegates following Tuesday’s Kentucky and Oregon primary elections meant his campaign could claim victory.

“That will be an important day,” Obama told NBC’s Brian Williams when asked if he would declare victory after the May 20 Kentucky and North Carolina primaries. “If at that point we have the majority of pledged delegates, which is possible, then I think we can make a pretty strong claim that we’ve got the most runs and it’s the ninth inning and we’ve won.”

The NBC quote was widely interpreted as a move by Obama to end to the race, but context was missing: He went on to state that he wants to “let this play out.”

After an ABC News blog used Obama’s NBC quote to question whether he was making a “huge miscalculation,” the campaign sought a clarification, which was posted, saying Obama was not talking about winning the nomination but rather an “important metric.”

Indeed, Obama aides have spent the last week trying to reverse the perception that he will declare victory May 20 – saying instead that he will simply recognize a milestone – in an attempt at message shifting that underscores the sensitive nature of this phase of the campaign.

When asked again Wednesday whether he still planned to declare victory following the results from Oregon and Kentucky, Obama dispatched the suggestion with a cool stare.

“We will declare that we have the majority of pledged delegates,” Obama said, giving the question only three seconds of his time before pivoting towards the front cabin of his campaign plane.

Obama said Sunday that he has not sent mixed messages.

“What we have consistently said is that we will have the majority of pledged delegates at that point and obviously ware going to make the argument to any superdelegates remaining that we should be the nominee,” Obama said. “But until those pledged delegates actually commit to us, we won't have achieved that number yet."

Although not declaring victory, Obama is returning to Iowa May 20, the state that launched his campaign, offering a symbolic bookend to the primary season. He acknowledged Sunday that holding his rally there Tuesday was a “terrific way to kind of bring things full circle.”

more at link: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0508/10438.html