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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (126013)	2/2/2008 1:49:15 PM
From: sylvester80	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 362941

OMG! Obama draws some 15,000 in 'red state' Idaho by John McCormick weblogs.baltimoresun.com [ed: This is as red states as they come and yet look at the numbers and the cross-over appeal!!! Democrats must underatnd that if we want to win the White House back there is only one person that will do it and bring mega-numbers of new voters with him. BARACK OBAMA!!!] BOISE, Idaho - This is a geographically big state. But despite its rapid growth in recent years, there are just 1.5 million people (and a lot fewer Democrats). Still, Sen. Barack Obama brought his presidential campaign here Saturday morning, drawing what his campaign said was about 15,000 to the Taco Bell Arena on the campus of Boise State University. That's about three times as many people who participated in the state's Democratic caucuses in 2004, when Idaho was not among early and important contests. "Wow, look at this," Obama said as he took the stage, triggering a giant roar from the crowd. "What an unbelievable crowd, what and unbelievable reception." Red state Idaho is one of 15 states Obama is expected to visit in the nine days between his win in the South Carolina primary and the 22 states that will hold nominating contests Tuesday. With just 23 delegates at stake for the Democrats, only North Dakota and Alaska have fewer than Idaho among the Feb. 5 states (Delaware, where Obama is expected to visit Sunday, also has 23). That has left some scratching their heads about why Obama would bother, with such little time available. The answer, in part, lies in the flashy graphics the television networks will display on election night showing what states Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton have won. Obama's campaign believes that if it can win its fair share of states and in diverse locations, those maps will be shaded with his color and could help make a case that he is the most able to win a general election. (And Idaho, with its long panhandle, takes up a fair bit of space on the national map.) "They told me there weren't any Democrats in Idaho," Obama told the cheering crowd. "That's what they told me, but I didn't believe them. I did not believe them." The audience here was almost entirely white and lined up in the cold outside to get in, some starting as early as 7 a.m. local time. "This is the most consequential election in a generation," Obama said, in a speech that made a few nods to the conservative nature of Idaho. "We've got a lot of hunters in Downstate Illinois," he said in a section where he made clear he is a Christian and supports the Second Amendment. " I have no intention of taking away folks' guns." In his introduction, former Gov. Cecil Andrus, Idaho's most recent Democratic governor, compared his guest to a past president Obama has increasingly been compared to in recent days. "I have not seen, since John F. Kennedy in 1960, a person that has the ability to bring together, to excite and to inspire the people of America," Andrus said. "He is the custodian of the hopes and dreams of millions and millions of Americansâ€¦.to bring about change, needed change." Obama is scheduled to hold similar mega rallies later today in Minneapolis and St. Louis. His campaign believes some of his strongest states Tuesday will be in the Midwest. If he's nearly as tired as the dragging press corps following him on this 15-state mission, Obama is not showing it in any major way (he did say Iowa at one point instead of Idaho). He thundered away in his 44-minute stump speech this morning, as fiery as ever, after arriving at his hotel after midnight last night.

To: stockman_scott who wrote (126013)	2/2/2008 2:01:14 PM
From: sylvester80	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 362941

Barack + GOP = ‘Obamacans’ Some prominent Republicans have caught Obama fever. By Richard Wolffe \| Newsweek Web Exclusive Feb 1, 2008 \| Updated: 7:02 p.m. ET Feb 1, 2008 newsweek.com Susan Eisenhower is more than just another disappointed Republican. She is also Ike's granddaughter and a dedicated member of the party who has urged her fellow Republicans in the past to stick with the GOP. But now Eisenhower, who runs an international consulting firm, is endorsing Barack Obama. She has no plans to officially leave the Republican Party. But in Eisenhower's view, Obama is the only candidate who can build a national consensus on the issues most important to her—energy, global warming, an aging population and America's standing in the world. "Barack Obama will really be in a singular position to attract moderate Republicans," she told NEWSWEEK. "I wanted to do what many people did for my grandfather in 1952. He was hugely aided in his quest for the presidency by Democrats for Eisenhower. There's a long and fine tradition of crossover voters." Eisenhower is one of a small but symbolically powerful group of what Obama recently called "Obamacans"—disaffected Republicans who have drifted away from their party just as Eisenhower Democrats did and, more recently, Reagan Democrats in the 1980s. They include lifelong Republican Tricia Moseley, a former staffer for the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, the one-time segregationist from South Carolina. Now a high-school teacher, Moseley says she was attracted to Obama's positions on education and the economy. Former GOP congressman Joe Scarborough, who anchors MSNBC's "Morning Joe," says many conservative friends—including Bush officials and evangelical Christians—sent him enthusiastic e-mails after seeing Obama's post-election speeches in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. "He doesn't attack Republicans, he doesn't attack whites and he never seems to draw these dividing lines that Bill Clinton [does]," Scarborough told NEWSWEEK. Plenty of Republicans are immune to the Obama swoon, of course. The Republican National Committee has emphasized a recent analysis suggesting that Obama had the most liberal voting record in the Senate last year. But even small numbers of Obamacans can help reinforce the candidate's unity message and bolster his "electability" argument. In Iowa, the campaign identified more than 700 registered Republicans who committed to caucusing for Obama (although staffers say they don't yet know how many showed up to vote). And in the Super Tuesday state of Colorado, campaign staffers say they found more than 500 erstwhile Republicans who were willing to switch their party registration. Even if Republicans don't convert in more significant numbers, the friendly outreach may blunt the ferocity of GOP attacks. One senior aide to John McCain has already said he's reluctant to attack Obama: last year, McCain's adman Mark McKinnon wrote an internal memo promising not to tape ads against the Illinois Democrat if he becomes the nominee.