One of the must-read blogs for coverage of the primaries is Talking Point Memo’s Election Central, and they’ve just posted the text of an Obama campaign memo noting the strong fundraising over the first 8 days of the new year — more than $8 million plus 35,000 new donors, which includes me and my now $100 in donations — and their strategy and prospects for the upcoming primaries in Nevada, South Carolina and Super Duper Tuesday.
Of particular note:
In all of the February 5th states, we have active chapters at most colleges and universities and are pursuing support from independent voters aggressively where they are permitted to participate, which is in most of the states. California and New Jersey, two states the Clintons have pointed to as firewalls, both will have healthy independent turnout in the Democratic primary.
We expect to see a great deal of movement to Obama from superdelegates in the coming days, seriously eroding the Clintons’ existing advantage in this universe…
The coming weeks will be challenging and no doubt filled with more haphazard and relentless attacks, but we believe we could not be better positioned for the next twenty four states. Our goal is simple – to win as many states as we can in the next twenty-eight days.
[Check out Victor Infante’s breakdown of the superdelegate situation for one of the reasons so many people believe their votes don’t actually count.]
In Nevada, Obama received the endorsement of that state’s chapter of the Service Employees International Union, a huge boost in a caucus state, and is expected to receive the Culinary Workers Union’s endorsement any minute now. (Announcement is scheduled for 2pm EST.) A win there combined with an expected win in South Carolina would propel him into Super Duper Tuesday with a legitimate shot at effectively winning the nomination that evening, though I doubt anything short of a complete blowout will lead to Clinton conceding that early.
New York, of course, is a closed primary and only registered Democrats and Republicans can vote in their respective primaries, which favors Clinton (for now) so I’ve mailed in my registration form to change my party affiliation back to the Democrats so I can vote for Obama [ETA] I’m apparently screwed because the deadline to change your party affiliation was October 12th, so the most I can do is volunteer my time to help get out the vote. Brand new registrants have until this Friday, January 11th, though, to register as Democrats and vote in the primary. Every vote counts and the general election is too late to stand up and be heard.
Yes we can!
