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The Clinton camp got off a beauty.
“So he’ll meet with dictators but not the black caucus or seniors in
Iowa?”
But Obama’s decision to limit
his debate or forum appearances doesn’t mean he’s going to disappear from
the stage.
… after this week, we will only be attending the five DNC debates through
the sanctioning period of December 10, Univision, and the two Iowa debates
previously mentioned. Candidate forums – where candidates appear sequentially
will be considered, but we are unlikely to accept many of these. Instead,
Barack will spend his time answering questions directly from voters in places
like Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada, and elsewhere. We simply
cannot continue to hopscotch from forum to forum and run a campaign true to
the bottom up movement for change that propelled Barack into this race. …
..
You can’t blame any campaign for wanting to coral the continuous tv performances
that has their candidate whipsawing around from one special interest debate
to another, while also trying to campaign in states that he or she needs to
win. I mean, who doesn’t have great respect for what Lance Armstrong has accomplished,
but when it was announced that he was joining up with Chris Matthews for a presidential
’08 forum it had me scratching my head.
There is another issue, however. Obama’s style and talents are better suited
to stump events. That’s just a fact. I’ve seen him in action and he’s simply
phenomenal. At some point you’ve got to put your candidate where he’s most effective,
making sure he’s present for all of the DNC events.
Democratic sources say that there have been long-running informal talks about the course of the debates between the Clinton and Obama camps, sometimes also including representatives of former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, the other leading contender for the nomination. But these sources say that no unified position on the invitations emerged, and Obama’s campaign decided to move unilaterally. … ..
Will Obama face a backlash? That’s the gamble, which signifies that his camp
understands that to catch Clinton they’ve got to get in front of a lot of primary voters.
It’s an interesting tactic, but as a strategy it’s as risky as it comes. Then
again, Clinton’s got solid numbers in the early primary states, so since the
strategy is obviously for Obama to try to take Iowa this is a tactic that could
make the difference. Obviously, it cuts both ways.
However, just imagine if Clinton had made this decision. She would have been
fried in the blogosphere and the negative response would have been deadly for
her among primary voters. Clinton doesn’t get a pass for anything. Double standard?
Chris
Cillizza raises the real issue: Does Obama face a backlash for setting
up a situation where the top three candidates won’t be at every forum? Possibly.
But this is potentially a big opening for Edwards if he can exploit it.
We shall see.
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