October 20, 2008, 9:01 am
The Early Word: Obama Predicts Tighter Race
By Michael Falcone
Despite widening leads over his rival, Senator Barack Obama said in an interview on NBC’s “Today Show” this morning that he had a simple message for his campaign staff in the final two weeks of the race: “We do not let up.”
In the interview with Matt Lauer taped on Sunday, Senator Obama also made a prediction: “We think that the race will tighten just because that’s what happens at the end of campaigns,” he said. “They always have, even when there are substantial leads.”
Still there is little doubt that Mr. Obama appears to have gained momentum heading into the final stretch against his opponent, Senator John McCain. Over the weekend, the Democrat picked up the coveted endorsement of former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell.
And as The Times’s Jeff Zeleny notes, Mr. Powell’s support may carry more weight than most: “The description of Mr. Obama, the Democratic nominee for president, as a ‘transformational figure’ by Mr. Powell, a Republican who directed the first Iraq war, could lift Mr. Obama among some independents, moderates and Republicans and neutralize concerns about his experience.”
In the “Today Show” interview, Mr. Obama said he spoke with Mr. Powell after the endorsement, and issued an open invitation for the former secretary of state to campaign with him and that, if elected, Mr. Powell would have a role advising Mr. Obama.
The Times’s Elisabeth Bumiller writes that Mr. Powell’s endorsement “was not only an embrace of a presidential candidate from the other party, but also an effort to reshape a legacy that he himself considers tainted by his service under President Bush.”
The Wall Street Journal’s Jonathan Weisman and Amy Chozick note that the endorsement is the “latest sign that the Republican Party’s coalition is fracturing amid the stresses of the campaign.”
Fund-raising On Sunday the Obama campaign also announced that it has enlarged its war chest by $150 million during the month of September. The Times’s Michael Luo reports:
His campaign has now raised more than $600 million, almost equaling what all the candidates from both major parties collected in private donations in 2004.
It is a remarkable ascent to previously unimagined financial heights — Mr. Obama’s September total more than doubled the record $66 million he collected in August — that has been cheered by some and decried by others concerned about the influence of money in politics. The impact on the way presidential campaigns are financed is likely to be profound, potentially providing an epitaph on the tombstone of the existing public finance system.
On Health The presidential and vice presidential nominees have released far less personal information about their health than previous candidates, The Times’s Lawrence K. Altman reports:
In past elections, the decisions of some candidates for the nation’s top elected offices to withhold health information turned out to have a significant impact after the information came to light. This year, the health issue carries extraordinary significance because two of the four nominees have survived potentially fatal medical problems that could recur.
That said, Mr. Altman takes a closer look at what we know so far about the health records of the four candidates.
On the Trail Senator Obama is campaigning in Florida on Monday, while his opponent, Senator McCain, makes several stops in Missouri. Mr. McCain has increasingly tried to link Mr. Obama’s economic policies to socialism, but as The Times’s Michael Cooper points out, that can be a “complicated argument” in the midst of the current economic crisis.
The Palin Effect Jane Mayer traces the rise of Gov. Sarah Palin in Republican political circles this week’s issue of the New Yorker magazine.
The Transition The Los Angeles compares the transition operations of both campaigns and finds, among other things, that Mr. Obama’s is further along:
The Arizona senator’s effort is headed by John F. Lehman Jr., a Navy secretary under President Reagan. William Timmons Sr., a prominent Washington lobbyist who helped plan Reagan’s and President Bush’s transitions, sent material about the mechanics of presidential transitions to the McCain campaign a month ago.
In an odd political twist, the Obama operation is dominated by alumni of the Clinton political machine, some of whom worked for Hillary Rodham Clinton during the Democratic primaries.
John Podesta, a chief of staff under President Clinton, has spent much of the election year helping 50 experienced Washington hands — including a couple of Republicans — compile a comprehensive transition blueprint, one that most thought would be used by Hillary Clinton.
Campaign Trail Roundup
* Senator Barack Obama holds rallies in Tampa and Orlando, Fla.
* Senator Joe Biden is in Seattle with no public events.
* Senator John McCain holds rallies in St. Charles, Columbia and Belton, Mo.
* Gov. Sarah Palin in Colorado Springs and Loveland, Co. |
