The messiah condemns his political opponent for campaigning against him:
>By Kim Chipman, bloomberg.com
May 25 (Bloomberg) -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said his rival Hillary Clinton is trying to incite anger in Florida because it's her last hope to justify claims that she can still win her party's nomination.
``The Clinton campaign has been stirring this up for fairly transparent reasons,'' Obama, 46, told reporters on his campaign plane yesterday when asked about anger in Florida over not having votes in the state's Democratic primary count toward determining the party's nominee.
In Miami earlier this week, Clinton pressed the case for counting her victories both in Florida and Michigan. The two states were stripped of their delegates after holding primaries in January in violation of party rules. Clinton this week compared the situation to a recent post-election dispute in Zimbabwe that's threatening to provoke a military coup.
``This is, from their perspective, their last slender hope to make arguments about how they can win,'' said Illinois Senator Obama, referring to the Clinton campaign. ``I understand that.''
Obama dismissed suggestions that bitterness over the matter might unravel the likelihood of Democratic voters uniting behind a single presidential contender in November.
Once delegates are seated ``this is going to be a story nobody is thinking about in August,'' Obama said. The senator's campaign said yesterday he is 56 delegates short of the 2,026 needed to secure the nomination.
Rules Decision
Aides for New York Senator Clinton, 60, argue that no claim on the nomination can be made until the Democratic National Committee settles the dispute over Florida and Michigan. The DNC's rules committee is scheduled to meet May 31 to discuss how to handle the two delegations.
``I just want them to decide how to approach this in a way in which the Florida and Michigan delegates are seated and they are happy,'' Obama said yesterday. ``I want to be looking at them when I'm standing on stage in Denver in August,'' he said, referring to the Democratic National Convention.
Separately, Obama said he doesn't believe there were any sinister political motives behind Clinton's remark linking Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 assassination to the current election.
Clinton apologized yesterday after she made the comment, to justify her continuing campaign, during a meeting in South Dakota with the editorial board of the Sioux Falls Argus Leader newspaper. A video of the interview was posted on the publication's Web site.
``My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right?'' she said in response to a question about calls for her to end her campaign. ``We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don't understand'' calls to drop out, she said.
`Unfortunate Remark'
Obama, when asked about the incident yesterday, said it was an ``unfortunate remark.'' He also said he empathizes with misstatements made while under the stress of campaigning.
``When you are on the campaign trail for 15 months you are going to make some mistakes,'' he said. ``I don't think that Senator Clinton intended anything by it and I think we should put it behind us.''
Obama ducked a question on whether he believed there was any way for Clinton to win the Democratic nomination at this stage.
``I think you should address that to her,'' he said. ``We are just going to finish up.''
The U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, where both Obama and Clinton campaigned yesterday, holds its primary on June 1. Montana and South Dakota hold the last two Democratic nominating contests on June 3.
``We've got three more contests,'' said Obama, who has already started campaigning in key general election battleground states such as Missouri. ``We've got to hit a certain number in order to achieve the nomination and that's what we are going to be shooting for over the next couple weeks.''< |
