Subject: Hillary For President News Briefing for Tuesday, May 13, 2008
From: "Bulletin News Network" <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: 13 May 2008 06:30:40 -0400

HILLARY FOR PRESIDENT NEWS BRIEFING (Executive Version)
Full version is attached and available online at http://www.bulletinnews.com/clinton

TO: CLINTON CAMPAIGN

DATE: TUESDAY, MAY 13, 2008 6:30 AM EDT

TODAY'S TABLE OF CONTENTS

SEN. CLINTON'S CAMPAIGN:

+ Clinton Expected To Win Decisively In West Virginia Today.

+ Clinton Avoiding Attacks On Obama.

+ ABC/WPost Poll: 64% Of Democrats Want Clinton To Remain In Race.

+ USA Today/Gallup Poll: 55% Of Democrats Want Obama-Clinton Ticket.

+ Speculation On Clinton Debt Colors Endgame Analysis.

+ Oregon Poll Shows Obama Leading Clinton By 20 Points.

+ Chelsea Clinton Campaigns In Kentucky.

+ Clinton Camp Used "Street Money" To Help Get Out the Vote In Texas, Ohio.

+ Obama On Pace To Secure Nomination In Three Weeks.

Sen. Clinton's Campaign:

CLINTON EXPECTED TO WIN DECISIVELY IN WEST VIRGINIA TODAY. ABC World News (5/12, story 10, 2:35, Gibson, 8.78M) reported Sen. Hillary Clinton "is heavily favored to win West Virginia. She told supporters tomorrow will be a crucial turning point. Barack Obama, however, spent only a few hours in West Virginia, as his campaign focuses on battleground states for November, when he expects to be the nominee."

McClatchy (5/13, Douglas) reports Sens. Clinton and Obama "made their closing arguments in West Virginia Monday on the eve of the state's Democratic presidential primary, which Clinton is expected to win handily. ... 'The goal is to nominate someone who can beat John McCain in November,' Clinton told a crowd in a packed middle-school gymnasium. 'I wouldn't be in this race, I wouldn't be going up and down West Virginia ...I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't believe I could be the best president for West Virginia and America.'" According to McClatchy, Sen. Obama "did a drive-by stop in the state, delivering a speech honoring veterans in Charleston that was aimed more toward the general election. ... 'I'm honored that some of you will support me, and I understand that many more in West Virginia will probably support Senator Clinton,' Obama said."

The Los Angeles Times (5/13, Fiore, 881K) notes "the irony that Sen. Clinton seems to have lost her race...right when she looks to be at the height of her game. Clinton is expected to trounce Obama in West Virginia tonight, after which she'll doubtless bound onto a stage in Charleston to roaring cheers, bobbing signs and a sea of hats. It is sure to look like a victory in every sense, except one: Few people believe that a Clinton victory here would alter the arithmetic that seems to be guiding Obama to their party's presidential nomination."

The New York Times (5/13, Healy, 1.18M) reports Clinton "is determined to rack up two big primary victories in the next eight days - in West Virginia and Kentucky - as she seeks to prove her continued political viability and claim bargaining chips that might help her exit the race on her terms, her advisers say. ... She and her chief political counselor, her husband, see the two coming primaries as crucial to strengthening her standing and, if it comes to it, to allowing her to leave the race on a high note, the advisers say. Sizable victories - the Clinton camp believes it could win West Virginia by 25 points or more - might put pressure on Mr. Obama to agree to her demands to seat the disputed delegates from Michigan and Florida, some of her advisers say, which would let her claim a victory on a battle she has fought for months. Accumulating victories this late in the primary season - as Mr. Obama looks so strong - might also bolster a bid for the vice presidency, should she decide to seek it."

Obama Proving Weak In Key Appalachian Districts. The Politico (5/13, Mark) reports, "The current high spirits in the Obama campaign could be tempered in coming weeks when West Virginia and Kentucky voters render their verdict on the Democratic race. And it's not just that Hillary Rodham Clinton is heavily favored to win both states - but more than that they could further underline Obama's lackluster support in Appalachia, a region that is ground zero for the sort of populist Reagan Democrats both parties will covet in the fall." The Politico notes, "Obama has consistently come up short in Appalachia, even when he was romping to victory nearby. Consider Obama's 14-point victory in North Carolina on Tuesday, when he still soundly lost a series of counties near the Tennessee border, including Cherokee, Clay and Graham. ... Virginia, another strong Obama primary state, also delivered the majority of its rural Appalachian votes to Clinton. In the Feb. 5 contest, Clinton overwhelmingly won a series of counties nestled in the state's southwest corner between West Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina."

CLINTON AVOIDING ATTACKS ON OBAMA. The CBS Evening News (5/12, story 6, 2:15, Couric, 7.66M) reported Sen. Clinton "isn't even hinting at dropping out any time soon. ... She's already running ads in the next two states to hold primaries," but "on the stump, her tone has shifted, sticking to bland and safe parts of her stump speech. ... And going nowhere near attacks on Barack Obama, certainly nothing divisive. Nothing about she being more attractive to white voters than he is."

ABC/WPOST POLL: 64% OF DEMOCRATS WANT CLINTON TO REMAIN IN RACE. ABC World News (5/12, story 10, 2:35, Gibson, 8.78M) reported, "As Hillary Clinton's money and superdelegates have slipped away, there's been talk that she should get out of the race. Most Democrats, however, don't think so. A new ABC News/'Washington Post' poll, finds 64% say she should stay in the race. And 56% say the protracted race will make no difference to the Party in November." ABC also reported that 39% of Democrats "say that she should be Barack Obama's pick for running mate. And among all voters, there's some signs that they believe that would help the ticket. About 25% of Americans say they would be more likely to vote for the ticket if Hillary Clinton was in the number two slot."

USA TODAY/GALLUP POLL: 55% OF DEMOCRATS WANT OBAMA-CLINTON TICKET. USA Today (5/13, 1A, Page, 2.28M), on its front page, reports that in a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll only 35% of Democrats said Sen. Hillary Clinton "should drop out," but USA Today emphasizes that that figure is "a jump of 12 percentage points in a week." USA Today adds that "55% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents also would like" Sen. Barack Obama "to choose Clinton as his running mate, although there's notable resistance among his backers. ... Three of four Clinton supporters would like to see her on Obama's ticket. But 52% of Obama supporters would rather he 'choose someone else.'"

SPECULATION ON CLINTON DEBT COLORS ENDGAME ANALYSIS. NBC Nightly News (5/12, story 7, 2:20, Williams, 9.87M) reported that "despite pressure from friends and foes," Sen. Hillary Clinton "is not going away. Not, aides say, until at least June 3rd, after all the primaries are over, despite a campaign debt of at least $20 million. Today Clinton e-mailed another fund-raising appeal."

The Politico (5/13, Smith) reports, "Some in Clinton's inner circle - and, by some accounts, both Clintons - flatly believe Obama can't win in November. If they really believe it, there's no use extracting anything from him but money; who needs a key role in an administration that's not going to exist? And she needs it: Clinton has loaned her campaign more than $11 million and owes a similar sum to vendors, including the sometimes-litigious Mark Penn." The Politico suggest Sen. Clinton "would press Obama for fundraising help to retire her mountain of debt, then campaign for him hard enough that nobody can blame her for his inevitable defeat."

The AP (5/13, Espo, Sidoti) reports, "Several experienced campaign finance lawyers argue that Clinton can have her Senate campaign fund assume all debts owed to others. Then, with permission from her donors, she could transfer into the same account an estimated $22 million she has raised for the general election campaign. That money could be used to pay down what she owes others, they said, but not the $11.4 million or more she loaned herself." The AP adds that "none of this has been discussed in public. And Clinton...has yet to even broach the subject of seeking help from Obama in retiring her debt."

OREGON POLL SHOWS OBAMA LEADING CLINTON BY 20 POINTS. The Portland (OR) Tribune (5/13, Law) reports, "A bit more than a week away from Oregon's May 20 primary," Sen. Barack Obama "has amassed a nearly insurmountable lead in the Democratic presidential race, according to statewide polling conducted by Portland's Davis, Hibbitts & Midghall Inc. for the Portland Tribune and KPTV News 12." Obama leads Sen. Hillary Clinton "by a commanding 55 percent to 35 percent margin among likely Democratic voters, and even leads among women voters who ordinarily tilt toward Clinton, said Tim Hibbitts of Davis, Hibbitts & Midghall. The poll was conducted May 8-10, during and after visits to Oregon by Obama and Clinton." The survey of 400 likely Oregon Democratic voters has a margin of error of +/- 4.8%.

In Oregon, Bill Clinton Touts Wife's Candidacy. The AP (5/13) reports that former President Bill Clinton "campaigned for his wife Hillary Clinton on the Oregon coast on Monday, addressing an issue of great local concern: liquefied natural gas. During an appearance in Astoria," Clinton "stressed his wife's opposition to the 2005 Energy Act that stripped states of the power to control the siting of liquefied natural gas terminals. ... Astoria is near the sites of two liquefied natural gas terminals that have been proposed in Oregon." Clinton "is on a three-day, 13-city swing through the state."

CHELSEA CLINTON CAMPAIGNS IN KENTUCKY. The Lexington Herald-Leader (5/13, Alessi, 115K) reports that Hillary Clinton, "who is leading Obama in the state by 27 points in the Herald-Leader/WKYT Kentucky Poll, continued to plug away in the Bluegrass State. Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton stumped for her mom in Eastern Kentucky and at a Women for Hillary event in Lexington Monday. But in his speech Monday, Obama barely mentioned Clinton except to compliment her as a 'capable, smart, hard working, intelligent candidate.'" The Herald-Leader notes that "when Obama explained that he opposes a proposed federal gas tax holiday for being 'a gimmick,' he singled out McCain even though Clinton also supports the plan. 'It was designed to get John McCain to the next election instead of solving the problem' of high gas prices, Obama said, adding that McCain is 'running for George Bush's third term.'"

CLINTON CAMP USED "STREET MONEY" TO HELP GET OUT THE VOTE IN TEXAS, OHIO. The New York Times (5/13, McIntire, Luo, 1.18M) reports, "In the threadbare border towns of South Texas, one of the country's poorest regions, enterprising locals like Candelaria Espinoza have long been paid to round up votes for candidates on Election Day. ... So when" Sen. Hillary Clinton's "campaign arrived in South Texas in February seeking an edge in its uphill battle against" Sen. Barack Obama, "Espinoza was happy to oblige, for a price. The campaign paid her and seven other members of her family $100 to $200 each to knock on doors, deliver fliers and get voters to the polls for the Democratic primary on March 4, which Mrs. Clinton narrowly won." The Espinoza family was "among at least 460 Texans...who received payments from the Clinton campaign for this kind of work, according to a review of" FEC "records. The records show that Mrs. Clinton did something similar in Ohio, giving $38,300 to a state legislator, Eugene R. Miller, who says he used it to pay more than 200 people to get out the vote in predominantly black neighborhoods in Cleveland. The payments, known in the political vernacular as 'street money,' are a legal but controversial tool that Mrs. Clinton employed at a time when she was desperately seeking a victory after losing 10 consecutive contests to Mr. Obama."

OBAMA ON PACE TO SECURE NOMINATION IN THREE WEEKS. The AP (5/13, Ohlemacher) reports Sen. Barack Obama's "wave of superdelegate endorsements puts him within reach of the Democratic presidential nomination by the end of the primary season on June 3 - even if he loses half of the remaining six contests." According to the AP, Sen. Obama "has picked up 26 superdelegates in the past week. At that pace, he will reach the number of delegates needed to clinch the nomination - 2,025 - in the next three weeks, when delegates from the remaining primaries are included." Sen. Obama "has 1,871.5 delegates, including endorsements from...superdelegates." Sen. Clinton "has 1,697. ... That leaves Obama just 153.5 delegates short of the number needed to win the nomination." According to the AP, "There are 217 delegates at stake in the six remaining primaries. ... Even if Clinton wins most of those delegates, Obama could reach the magic number by the time South Dakota and Montana vote on June 3."

Akaka, Allen Endorse Obama. The Hill (5/13, Barr) reports that yesterday Sen. Daniel Akaka endorsed Sen. Obama, making him the 15th senator to do so. In a statement, Sen. Akaka called Sen. Obama "the antidote we need to cure Washington of the uninspired, partisan politics that has plagued our country far too long."

The Hill (5/13, Blake) also reports Rep. Tom Allen (D-Maine) endorsed Sen. Obama, in what The Hill cal "a move that could help Allen in his challenge of GOP Sen. Susan Collins. ... Allen's challenge of Collins is one of the top upper-chamber races in the country. He has trailed by more than 20 points in polling on the race, but the state's Democratic lean and the concurrent presidential election are expected to boost his candidacy."

Clinton Delegate Swaps To Obama. The Washington Post (5/13, B2, Helderman, 723K) reports that Prince George's County (MD) Executive Jack B. Johnson, a Democratic convention delegate pledged to support Clinton, said he now "thinks Sen. Barack Obama has 'in a real sense' won the Democratic nomination and that he now plans to support Obama at the August convention." According to the Post, "This is Johnson's second change of heart in the race. He had allowed his name to be listed as a supporter by the Obama campaign in December."

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