Subject: Hillary For President News Briefing for Friday, March 07, 2008
From: "Bulletin News Network" <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: 7 Mar 2008 06:33:24 -0500

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

TO: CLINTON CAMPAIGN

DATE: FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2008 6:30 AM EST

TODAY'S TABLE OF CONTENTS

SEN. CLINTON'S CAMPAIGN:

+ Democrats Ponder Primary Do-Overs In Florida, Michigan.

+ Analysis: Clinton Can't Overtake Obama's Delegate Lead Without Superdelegates.

+ Texas Democratic Caucus Still Unresolved.

+ Breaking Record, Obama Raised $55 Million In February.

+ Clinton Aide Likens Obama To Ken Starr.

+ Clinton Camp Denies Telling Canada Not To Worry About NAFTA Stance.

+ Wyoming Influential In Democratic Politics At Last.

+ Chelsea Clinton Addresses University Of Pennsylvania Crowd.

+ Archivists At Clinton Library Block Release Of Pardon Documents.

+ Bill Clinton's Accoona "Windfall" Noted.

+ Obama Lectures Press On Plane For "Going All Squishy" On Clinton.

+ Rezko Attorney Cites Obama In Opening Statement.

Sen. Clinton's Campaign:

DEMOCRATS PONDER PRIMARY DO-OVERS IN FLORIDA, MICHIGAN. The Politico (3/7) blogger Ben Smith reports, "A climactic showdown over counting the votes of Democrats in Florida and Michigan is fast descending into a round of haggling over who will pay to re-run those states' primaries. ... The details of re-votes in those two states remain uncertain, as relatively weak political players spent the day calling on one another to take action. Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean demanded that the state parties sort it out on their own. Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, in turn, called on Dean to take charge. ... Top officials in both Florida and Michigan said the mechanics of the primaries are becoming clear. In Florida, officials favor a primary conducted by mail. In Michigan, the likely solution is a 'firehouse caucus,' a process with fewer locations and shorter hours than a primary, but more open and flexible to voters than caucuses elsewhere."

The Financial Times (3/7, Luce) reports, "Hillary Clinton on Thursday made headway towards reinstating the excluded delegates from Michigan and Florida, in a move that is likely to add to the fissile atmosphere between her campaign and that of Barack Obama. ... After pressure from the Clinton campaign, Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said on Thursday he would be open to allowing both states to restage their primary elections in June but at their own expense."

The New York Times (3/7, Broder, 1.18M) reports, "With the two Democratic presidential candidates in near-deadlock and battling for every delegate, party leaders and the rival campaigns started searching in earnest on Thursday for a way to seat barred delegations from Florida and Michigan. But they remained deeply divided over how to do so. ... Much remains to be settled. Among the issues are what kind of contests to hold, when to hold them, how to allocate the delegates and, critically, who picks up the multimillion-dollar tab in each state. ... In a sign of growing involvement by party leaders, Speaker Nancy Pelosi met privately Thursday with [Clinton adviser Harold] Ickes and Maggie Williams, Mrs. Clinton's campaign manager, and discussed, among other topics, the Florida and Michigan primary problem, the tone of the campaign and the role of superdelegates." The two campaigns "are talking through surrogates and party leaders about a variety of options."

The Washington Post (3/7, A1, Balz, 723K) reports on its front page, "The stakes are huge." As a result, "Elected officials from Michigan and Florida have called on the national committee to relent, arguing that to do otherwise means disenfranchising several million voters from two battleground states. DNC Chairman Howard Dean has been equally firm in arguing that changing the rules could split the party and undermine confidence in the entire nominating process." So far, "there is more stalemate than progress."

The Los Angeles Times (3/7, Nicholas, Finnegan, 881K) reports that "prominent Democrats are floating possible solutions that would include new presidential nominating contests in Florida and Michigan, or a compromise forged by a special committee of party elders. ... One alternative mentioned now by the Florida Democratic Party is a vote-by-mail election. ... With no consensus in sight, some officials said it was time to convene a committee of party elders. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II (D-Mo.) said that he was so worried about Democratic infighting over the election that he was urging Dean to appoint such a panel to recommend a strategy to resolve the disputes."

Financing Elections Emerging As Hang Up. The CBS Evening News (3/6, story 8, 2:30, Cordes, 7.66M) reported, "There was more talk today about primary do-overs ... But nobody wants to be stuck with the tab." ABC World News (3/6, story 5, 2:30, Tapper, 8.78M) reported, "Another fight consuming the Democratic Party during this campaign with no clear end in sight is whether Florida and Michigan can hold re-votes ... So far, no one is willing to foot the $15 million to $20 million bill. Late news on this story, Senator Clinton has told US News and World Report that she opposes any attempt to have a revote in Florida. And she 'will not accept a caucus' in Michigan. She, of course, has lost 13 of the 15 caucuses so far this year. For his part, Senator Obama says he will abide by whatever the Democratic Party decides."

NBC Nightly News (3/6, story 5, 2:15, Mitchell, 9.87M) reported, "No one is willing to pay for new elections in Michigan and Florida possibly costing $25 million. And today Michigan's Democratic governor ruled it out for her state."

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist was asked on CNN's The Situation Room (3/6, Blitzer) about Sen. Bill Nelson's suggestion that the Democratic National Committee pay for a Democratic presidential primary in Florida. Crist replied, "I wouldn't oppose that at all. ... The difficulty we have for our Florida taxpayers paying for it is the fact that they've paid for it once, number one, and, number two, we're in a tight budget year. But I think Sen. Nelson is on the right track." On MSNBC's Hardball (3/6, Matthews), Crist said, "In an ideal world, what we'd like to see is the Democrats seat the delegates who have already really been selected as a result of the fact that we had a record turnout vote on January 29 here. ... They wanted to have their voice heard. They wanted to make sure, half of the voters of the Sunshine State, that their votes were not disenfranchised."

LATimes Supports "Do-Overs" For Florida, Michigan. The Los Angeles Times (3/7, 881K) editorializes, "It's time to declare an electoral Groundhog Day for Florida and Michigan and allow voters there another chance to help choose the Democratic presidential nominee. Ordinarily, this page objects to mulligans, do-overs and last-minute changes that erode respect for the rules of fair play. But there is a way to put the increasingly wacky nominating contest back on track, giving voters a say without rewarding the errant state politicians who broke the rules in the first place. ... It's the responsibility of the state officials who broke the rules to find the money to fix this problem -- and voters must demand they do it."

Florida Democrats Consider Primary By Mail. McClatchy (3/7, Clark) reports, "With pressure to resolve the Florida Democratic primary's renegade status intensifying, the state party is looking at the possibility of giving voters a chance to cast a second ballot in the presidential primary -- by mail. The party has all but ruled out as too costly holding an election in which voters would go to the polls, but is looking at a mail-in contest." Florida Democratic Sen. and Hillary Clinton backer Bill Nelson "called on the" DNC "Thursday to foot the bill for a revote. But" DNC "Chairman Howard Dean earlier in the day refused. ... Dean said the party has two options: Schedule a re-vote or appeal to a party committee convening this summer to recognize the Jan. 29 vote. But he appeared to warn the states against waiting until just before the August convention in Denver."

ANALYSIS: CLINTON CAN'T OVERTAKE OBAMA'S DELEGATE LEAD WITHOUT SUPERDELEGATES. The AP (3/7, Ohlemacher) reports, "Hillary Rodham Clinton won't catch Barack Obama in the race for Democratic delegates chosen in primaries and caucuses, even if she wins every remaining contest. But Obama cannot win the nomination with just his pledged primary and caucus delegates either, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. That sets the stage for a pitched battle for support among 'superdelegates' ... In the overall race for the nomination, Obama has 1,569 delegates, to 1,462 for Clinton, according to the latest AP tally. The lobbying of superdelegates has been fierce, with at least six Clinton superdelegates switching to Obama. So far, none of Obama's superdelegates has strayed, at least not publicly."

The Wall Street Journal (3/7, A4, Calmes, 2.06M) reports, "Sen. Barack Obama is all but certain to keep his lead in delegates through the last contest in June. He still won't have enough to be nominee. But he'll need a lot fewer superdelegates to put him over the top than Sen. Hillary Clinton. ... Fewer than 1,000 delegates remain; 611 in the final dozen contests ... Look for the candidates to split the 611 delegates ... Sen. Obama would need 147 more; Sen. Clinton 261. That makes the uncommitted 346 superdelegates the deciders (although the previously committed others can change their minds). Sen. Obama would need to snare four out of 10 of the uncommitted. Sen. Clinton would need 75% of them. The one calculation that could help give her the lead: adding the big Florida and Michigan delegations."

Clinton Wins Freeze Superdelegates' Effort To Get Her To Quit. Bloomberg News (3/6, Jensen, Goldman) says Clinton's primary victories this week "helped freeze a movement of top Democrats set to call on her to concede to rival Barack Obama. A group of uncommitted 'superdelegates' were ready to make a show of support for Obama by trying to pressure Clinton to give up," according to ex-Rep. Tim Roemer, who is "rounding up backers for Obama. Now, after her wins in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island, many will still back Obama without calling on Clinton to quit, he said."

The New York Times (3/6, Nagourney, Hulse, 1.18M) says Clinton's victories "barely dented" Obama's lead in delegates, "but they seemed to slow the Democratic Party establishment's move in his direction while giving her campaign time to try to turn the race in her favor." A second New York Times (3/6, Healy, 1.18M) piece considers whether Clinton can "persevere to ultimately win the nomination," concluding that while "she faces a steep uphill climb in trying to overtake" Obama, "it is doable." Clinton advisers "are urging the remaining 448 uncommitted superdelegates to sit tight and let the primary season play out before choosing a candidate."

TEXAS DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS STILL UNRESOLVED. The AP (3/7, Shannon) reports, "Fewer than half of Texas' voting sites had reported the results by Thursday from Democratic caucuses Tuesday night that were so chaotic and overcrowded by record turnout that police were called to some polling places. So there's no winner yet for the caucuses ... As of Thursday afternoon, Sen. Barack Obama was ahead with 56 percent to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's 44 percent based on reports to state party headquarters by 41 percent of the precinct caucuses." Caucus officials "are required only to mail the results of their caucuses to their county party chairmen 72 hours after the primary election day." Another reason for slow reporting is unexpected turnout of "4.2 million, a third of the state's registered voters."

BREAKING RECORD, OBAMA RAISED $55 MILLION IN FEBRUARY. ABC World News (3/6, story 5, 2:30, Gibson, 8.78M) reported, "Now, we turn to presidential politics. The Clinton campaign has announced it has raised $4 million just since Tuesday. The Obama campaign countered by saying it raised a record $55 million in the month of February."

NBC Nightly News (3/6, story 5, 2:15, Mitchell, 9.87M) reported of the Obama campaign, "breaking all fund-raising records for February by collecting $55 million, $20 million more than Clinton. Chuck Todd, NBC News political director: "Fifty-five million in a month is unbelievable."

Clinton Has Raised $4 Million Since Tuesday. The AP (3/7, Kuhnhenn) reports, "All told, Obama has raised $193 million during his yearlong bid for the White House. The campaign's announcement Thursday came two days after Obama lost three of four primaries to Clinton. ... Clinton's camp announced Thursday that she raised $4 million online since Tuesday's presidential primary successes in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island. The Clinton campaign said it had raised the money from the time polls closed Tuesday through noon Thursday. It reported 30,000 new donors. The influx of money made their online total raised for this month $6 million, the campaign announced."

CLINTON AIDE LIKENS OBAMA TO KEN STARR. The AP (3/7, Pickler) reports Sen. Hillary Clinton's "campaign compared rival Sen. Barack Obama on Thursday to independent prosecutor Kenneth Starr, the Clintons' chief nemesis of the 1990s. Clinton herself declined to comment on the comparison, made by her chief spokesman [Howard Wolfson] in a conference call with reporters and also in a memo distributed by the campaign." Wolfson said, "I for one do not believe that imitating Ken Starr is the way to win a Democratic primary election for president," in discussing Obama's announcement "that he plans to be more critical of Clinton's record. ... Obama spokesman Bill Burton said the comparison to Starr is 'absurd' when Clinton has been calling for more scrutiny of Obama's record." Asked about the Wolfson remarks, Clinton said, "I'm not going to respond to that."

NBC Nightly News (3/6, story 5, 2:15, Mitchell, 9.87M) reported, "After Obama's losses this week, he has decided to get more aggressive. Prompting a top Clinton aide to say he was acting like Whitewater prosecutor Ken Starr, fighting words to most Democrats." The Chicago Tribune (3/7, Pearson, McCormick, 607K) called Wolfson's statement a furthering of the Clinton campaign's "efforts to portray her as a political victim."

Clinton Blasts Obama On Foreign Policy. ABC World News (3/6, story 5, 2:30, Gibson, 8.78M) reported, "Senator Clinton took an opportunity to again argue that Senator Obama lacked the experience to be commander in chief." ABC (Tapper) added, "Some Democratic officials fear that Clinton now seems willing to do whatever it takes to defeat Obama, regardless of the risk that she may be irreparably harming him if he is the eventual Democratic nominee." Matthew Dowd, ABC News political contributor: "Everything that Hillary Clinton has been saying over the course of the last couple weeks are all great sound bites and great cuts for John McCain to use in the fall."

CLINTON CAMP DENIES TELLING CANADA NOT TO WORRY ABOUT NAFTA STANCE. The Financial Times (3/7, Simon, Dombey) reports that the "dispute over Canada's involvement in the US presidential race took a new turn" as the Canadian government and Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign "both fended off allegations that Mrs Clinton's staff had told Ottawa not to worry about her stance" on NAFTA. CTV television reporters "said a senior Canadian official had told them in a casual conversation last week that Mrs Clinton's campaign had assured the Canadians that her promise to renegotiate Nafta should be taken 'with a grain of salt.'" The Clinton campaign "fiercely denied the suggestion."

The Financial Times (3/7, Simon) also reports that Ian Brodie, chief of staff to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, "gave journalists the tip-off that led to the damaging story about Barack Obama's stance" on NAFTA, according to CTV staff. But CTV reporters say Brodie "told them that it was Hillary Clinton's campaign -- not Mr Obama's -- which had assured the Canadians that trade threats should not be taken too seriously. The Obama connection surfaced after checking the story with other sources."

The Financial Times (3/7, Dombey, Simon) further reports, "Foreign governments have begun to rethink their own part in the US campaign" in the wake of "the leak of a Canadian government document last week detailing the views of Mr Obama's economic adviser on international trade."

The AP (3/7, Gillies) reports, "Prime Minister Stephen Harper's chief of staff said someone in Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign gave Canada back-channel assurances that her harsh words about the North American Free Trade Agreement were for political show ... The report comes just days after a Canadian government memo stated Barack Obama's senior economic adviser told Canadian officials that the Illinois senator's own comments about NAFTA were for 'political positioning.'" The Canadian Press "said a CTV reporter asked [Harper chief of staff Ian] Brodie about remarks by Clinton and Obama that they would seek to renegotiate NAFTA. 'He said someone from Clinton's campaign is telling the embassy to take it with a grain of salt. ... That someone called us and told us not to worry,' the journalist quoted Brodie as saying ... Clinton spokesman Phil Singer said the campaign 'flatly denied' the suggestion ... Some Democrats, as well as Canadian opposition parties, have accused Harper's Conservative government of meddling in the U.S. primary elections ... In Ottawa, Canadian opposition parties demanded Brodie be fired."

WYOMING INFLUENTIAL IN DEMOCRATIC POLITICS AT LAST. The AP (3/7, Gruver) reports, "Not since 1960 have Wyoming Democrats felt so relevant. That year, at the Democratic National Convention, the state's delegation cast 15 votes that pushed Sen. John F. Kennedy over the top ... Wyoming Democrats are feeling relevant again as Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama focus on the 12 delegates at stake in Saturday's caucus. ... It remains unclear which Democrat might have an edge; no public polling has been done in the state. However, at least one prominent Wyoming Democrat [state party chair John Millin] has questioned whether Clinton's unpopularity would hurt other Democratic candidates in the West." Gov. Dave Frueudenthal, the state's top Democrat, "has said he doesn't like any of the candidates, Republican or Democratic, because they haven't spoken enough about Western issues. He hasn't endorsed anyone and will not say who, as a superdelegate, he will vote for at the national convention."

The New York Times (3/7, Johnson, 1.18M) reports similarly from Wyoming, "Being a Democrat in this state means that one's status in political life is rarely in question and rarely that good. ... This time, Democrats here say, it feels different. In contrast to all the dismally attended, demoralized Democratic presidential caucuses of past years, the outnumbered Democrats of Wyoming might actually have something to roar about. ... Around the state, caucus locations are being moved from living rooms to meeting halls. Here in Laramie County, the most populous, Democrats reserved the Cheyenne Civic Center, which will seat up to 1,500 people for an event that in the past has drawn maybe 250."

CHELSEA CLINTON ADDRESSES UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA CROWD. The New York Times (3/7, Seelye, 1.18M) reports Sen. Hillary Clinton "wasted no time planting her flag in the next big battleground state, sending" Chelsea Clinton to the University of Pennsylvania to speak to students. Chelsea told the students, "I hope you don't get tired of seeing me or seeing my family, because I have a feeling we'll be here a lot over the next number of weeks." MSNBC (3/6, Murray) reported on its website that the "informal Q&A session seemed to be geared towards connecting her mother with the youth vote and educating them on the candidate's issues and stances. Chelsea assured the audience that she believed in her mother 'not only as her daughter, but as a young woman and as a voter.'"

Clinton, Obama Put Iowa-Caliber Effort Into Pennsylvania. The Washington Post (3/7, A8, Kornblut, Williams, 723K) says Clinton and Obama "are mounting campaign efforts in Pennsylvania on a scale not seen since the Iowa caucuses, even as the Obama campaign attempted to cast the April 22 contest as just another in a string of more than a dozen to go." Pennsylvania Democratic Party Chairman T.J. Rooney said, "It's Iowa on steroids." But "senior Obama advisers sought to play down the importance of Pennsylvania, which is full of the same kind of white, working-class voters who supported Clinton in Ohio and other states that she won." The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (3/7, Rujumba, 229K) reports both campaigns "are scrambling to get supporters who are independents and Republicans to register as Democrats so they can vote in the April 22 primary."

The Los Angeles Times (3/7, Frederick, 881K) reports on the national attention that is expected to be applied to Pennsylvania in the coming weeks, noting that since it "bided its time and didn't muscle its way into the first frenetic weeks of the presidential primary process, it is about to be rewarded (or, some voters might think, cursed) with virtually unalloyed attention over the next 6 1/2 weeks from Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama." The Times sees Pennsylvania as "hospitable turf for Clinton. The state, which holds its primary April 22, should be hospitable turf for Clinton. A Rasmussen Reports poll conducted Wednesday -- fresh off her wins in Ohio and Texas -- gave her a 52%-37% lead."

ARCHIVISTS AT CLINTON LIBRARY BLOCK RELEASE OF PARDON DOCUMENTS. USA Today (3/7, Eisler, 2.28M) reports, "Federal archivists at the Clinton Presidential Library are blocking the release of hundreds of pages of White House papers on pardons" approved by Bill Clinton, "including clemency for fugitive commodities trader Marc Rich." Their decision, "based on guidance provided by Bill Clinton that restricts the disclosure of advice he received from aides, prevents public scrutiny of documents that would shed light on how he decided which pardons to approve from among hundreds of requests."

BILL CLINTON'S ACCOONA "WINDFALL" NOTED. The Washington Times (3/7, McElhatton, 87K) reports, "The spring before his wife began her White House campaign, former President Bill Clinton earned $700,000 for his foundation by selling stock that he had been given from an Internet search company that was co-founded by a convicted felon and backed by the Chinese government, public records show. Mr. Clinton had gotten the nonpublicly traded stock from Accoona Corp. back in 2004 as a gift for giving a speech at a company event. He landed the windfall by selling the 200,000 shares to an undisclosed buyer in May 2006, commanding $3.50 a share at a time when the company was reporting millions of dollars of losses, according to interviews."

OBAMA LECTURES PRESS ON PLANE FOR "GOING ALL SQUISHY" ON CLINTON. The Los Angeles Times (3/7, LaGanga, 881K) reports that Sen. Barack Obama lectured "on the finer points of media and politics in front of an audience that's about as captive as it can be. Standing in the aisle of his campaign plane this week -- cabin doors bolted, engines running -- Obama scolded reporters for going all squishy on rival Hillary Rodham Clinton. 'There's no doubt Sen. Clinton went very negative over the last week,' said Obama, whose winning streak had just broken with a loud snap. 'The kitchen-sink strategy I'm sure had some impact, particularly in a context where many of you in the press corps had been persuaded that you had been too hard on her and too soft on me,' he said."

REZKO ATTORNEY CITES OBAMA IN OPENING STATEMENT. Coverage of the opening of the Tony Rezko trial depicted Sen. Barack Obama as a "footnote" who barely figured in the first day's proceedings. The Politico (3/7, Vogel) reports, "Barack Obama is only a bit player in the federal trial of his former fundraiser and friend Antoin 'Tony' Rezko, but it didn't take long for the name of the Illinois senator and Democratic presidential candidate to be raised in court. In his opening statement Thursday, Rezko's lead defense attorney, Joseph Duffy...said that" his client's political involvement "stemmed from Rezko's affection for the political process and desire to help candidates he believed had the public's best interest at heart. Duffy said Rezko raised money for the campaigns of Republicans and Democrats alike and expected nothing in return. ... Rezko 'met Barack Obama when he was in Harvard Law School and tried to hire him' to be the lawyer for Rezko's development company, the defense attorney said." The prosecution "didn't name Obama and barely mentioned Rezko's political fundraising. It focused instead on kickbacks it alleges Rezko arranged and received for steering state business from two state boards to which he had ties."

The AP (3/6) reports federal prosecutors "focused a spotlight on the underside of Illinois politics Thursday, telling jurors" that Rezko, "a prolific fundraiser who lavished donations on Sen. Barack Obama and others, peddled his clout to corrupt state government." But it was Gov. Rod Blagojevich, not Obama, who was mentioned "less than five minutes into" Assistant US Attorney Carrie Hamilton's opening statement, "which highlighted hefty financial contributions to the Democratic governor's campaign and Rezko's apparent influence on state board appointments."

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