Subject: Hillary For President News Briefing for Friday, February 22, 2008
From: "Bulletin News Network" <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: 22 Feb 2008 06:41:37 -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, FEBRUARY 22, 2008 6:30 AM EST

TODAY'S TABLE OF CONTENTS

SEN. CLINTON'S CAMPAIGN:

+ Clinton, Obama Debate In Texas.

+ Clinton Courts Hispanic Voters In South Texas Whistle Stops.

+ Clinton Up Seven In Ohio, Holds Just Single Point Lead In Texas.

+ Ex-Sen. Claiborne Pell Backs Clinton.

+ Clinton Leads Obama 44% To 32% In Pennsylvania Poll.

+ Clinton Campaign's Spending On Consultants Seen As Excessive.

+ WSJournal Blasts Clintons For Not Disclosing Tax Returns.

+ Rezko's Lawyers Reveal Names Of People He Recommended For State Jobs.

Sen. Clinton's Campaign:

CLINTON, OBAMA DEBATE IN TEXAS. Coverage of the Clinton-Obama debate portrayed it as a combative but generally civil encounter in which Sen. Hillary Clinton failed to reverse her opponent's perceived momentum. Her accusation that Sen. Barack Obama had committed "plagiarism" was reported as the harshest moment of the debate, while her response to the final question was seen as the highlight. While having few policy differences, they did disagree on Cuba policy and health care. The AP (2/22, Espo) reports Clinton "accused" Obama "of political plagiarism Thursday night and said he represented 'change you can Xerox.' Obama dismissed the charge out of hand, adding in a campaign debate, 'What we shouldn't be doing is tearing each other down, we should be lifting the country up.' The exchange marked an unusually pointed moment in an otherwise civil encounter." The audience "booed" Clinton's Xerox remark. On Cuba, "Clinton said she would refuse to sit down with incoming President Raul Castro until he implements political and economic reforms. Obama said he would meet 'without preconditions,' but added the U.S. agenda for such a session would include human rights in the Communist island nation. They also sparred frequently about health care."

USA Today (2/22, Kiely, 2.28M) reports that Clinton "was pointed when she charged him with plagiarism, a point her campaign has pressed in recent days," but "Obama dismissed the charge of lifting lines from [Massachusetts Gov. Deval] Patrick, his friend and campaign co-chairman, as part of the 'silly season' in politics."

The Los Angeles Times (2/22, Martelle, 881K) reports Clinton "tonight struggled to create space between herself and rival Sen. Barack Obama in a crucial debate in the heart of Texas." The debate "sharpened" with "accusations by the Clinton campaign that Obama had plagiarized part of a speech from Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick." On Cuba, "Clinton said she would meet with Castro if gains were made in human rights; Obama said he would be willing to meet as long as there was a discussion agenda that included release of political prisoners, freeing the press and establishing human rights." Nonetheless, they "clashed less with each other than they did with the Bush administration on everything from foreign policy to the economy to immigration."

The Wall Street Journal (2/22, A1, Cooper, Chozick, 2.06M) reports on its front page that Clinton took "some shots at Democratic front-runner Barack Obama for both his speeches and his health-care policies" but had "one of her most elegant, memorable moments of the long campaign, reaching over to shake her Illinois rival's hand. ... the debate didn't seem to provide the much-needed turning point for the New York senator to slow the momentum of her Illinois rival. ... The most substantive jabs came over health care."

Closing Statement Seen As Highlight Of Night. Clinton's closing statement is generally receiving positive press this morning, and in many articles, is seen as the highlight of the debate. The Washington Post (2/22, A1, Kornblut, Balz, 723K), in an article more positive than others about Sen. Hillary Clintons' performance, reports on its front page that the two "disagreed sharply on how to achieve universal health care, debated about which of them is most ready to serve as commander in chief and argued over who can best change the country ... The forum closed with a flourish, after the candidates were asked to describe how they had dealt with crises in their lives. ... it was Clinton who turned the question most to her advantage, alluding to her husband's affair with a White House intern and his subsequent impeachment but then shifting to say that what she went through paled in comparison to the challenges ordinary Americans face every day."

In an analysis, the AP (2/22, Fouhy) reports that Clinton "sought to bury...Obama, but also to praise him in their latest campaign debate and revive her own White House hopes in the process." Clinton's final statement "was an unexpectedly gracious moment in a debate that was supposed to be a game changer for Clinton in the run-up to crucial primaries in Texas and Ohio March 4. After losing 11 straight contests to Obama in a race now clearly breaking his way, the former first lady chose the high road and even delivered what sounded to many like the dress rehearsal for a campaign valedictory address. Her remarks were 'almost a quasi-concession speech,' said Texas state Rep. Rafael Anchia, who backs Obama."

In a story headlined "Clinton holds back in high-stakes debate," The Politico (2/22, Brown, Budoff) calls Clinton's final statement a "revealing moment" in which she "acknowledged the possibility of defeat." She "gave her best pitch as to why she should get the job over Sen. Barack Obama, but then made a rare admission about the increasingly long odds of her candidacy." The Politico sums up the debate: "Obama is simply trying to maintain his momentum. Clinton is struggling to revive her candidacy as she heads into Texas and Ohio – two key contests that could give her campaign new life or potentially end it."

The Dallas Morning News (2/22, Hoppe, Jeffers Jr., 432K) adds that they "walked in lock step on the policies needing change but broke ranks on who could deliver it," noting that the debate was "mostly memorable for Mrs. Clinton's emotional conclusion, tinged with a notion that she could lose but asserting that either candidate would serve the country well."

Final Answer Seen As Capitulation. In a blog posting on the website of The Nation (2/21), John Nichols writes that Clinton's statement that she felt honored to be with Obama "was an oddly disarming moment that belonged to the New York senator but not in the way that she or her supporters could have wanted. Clinton seemed to surrender, graciously. Obama seemed to accept that surrender, equally graciously. And rightly so." He concludes that her final statement "was Clinton at her very best, at her most poignant and powerful. Unfortunately, it sounded like the sort of statement that a candidate makes when he or she is concluding a campaign – not turning it around."

In her "The TV Watch" column in the New York Times (2/22, 1.18M), Alessandra Stanley writes that Clinton "turned almost shockingly valedictory at the end" of the debate, adding, "In the nonstop cable news debate over whether she would attack Mr. Obama or go soft, Mrs. Clinton at the end came down on the side of comity. ... And after a night of tightening his mouth and taking notes to avoid her gaze, Mr. Obama also had a last-minute mood swing, returning to chivalrous mode and jumping up to help her from her seat and pat her shoulder." Stanley suggests that Clinton knew that she would be unable to make Obama look bad, concluding, "For some viewers, the showdown was anticlimactic, leaving them hungry to find out if Mrs. Clinton is saving a more fearsome gambit for Cleveland."

ABC's Nightline (2/21, 12:00 p.m., Wright) reported, "In the final few moments Clinton appeared to almost surrender to will of the voters." Nightline adds, "She got a standing ovation for that, and that I think is really the moment that people will be talking about from this debate. She made it personal, almost like that diner moment in New Hampshire, but some folks also hear it as a valediction, as her beginning to say good-bye. Which one it is? ... We'll have a much better idea March 4th."

Clinton Seen As Failing To Dent Obama's Momentum. In an analysis headlined 'Clinton manages only a draw in debate,' the San Francisco Chronicle (2/22, A1 Lochhead, 395K) reports on its front page that Clinton "needed to do more than hold her own," but "left with a draw."

In an analysis, the New York Daily News (2/22, DeFrank, 729K) reports that Clinton "had the far trickier challenge - reversing Barack Obama's trajectory without triggering a backlash or handing Republicans fodder for the fall," while "Obama had the luxury of sitting on his lead and avoiding a serious gaffe. He did. Clinton performed well, but needed to land a game-changing haymaker. She didn't."

In an analysis in The Politico (2/22), Roger Simon reports that "a continuing difficulty for Clinton and her campaign strategists" if "being more negative, more polarizing and less pleasant really help her win over Democratic voters." In fact, "Clinton's best moment Thursday night came at the very end of the debate, when she was asked to talk about a crisis she has weathered and she said with a knowing smile: 'Well, I think everybody here knows I've lived through some crises and some challenging moments in my life.' The audience laughed and applauded at her reference to her husband's infidelity." Still, "by the end of the evening, one was still left wondering what Clinton's Plan B was, how she intends to snap Obama's 11-0 winning streak since Super Tuesday," while Obama had "made his two key points: First, inspiration matters," and "Second, his position against the Iraq war matters."

In an analysis in the Dallas Morning News (2/22, 432K), Wayne Slater relates "For 90 minutes, Hillary Rodham Clinton tried to draw differences with Barack Obama to suggest she's ready to be commander in chief and he isn't." However, "she had to do it without seeming disagreeable, and in the end, she seemed to fall short of the goal." Instead, "Mr. Obama coolly deflected her attacks, keeping his voice even and managing to weave in his message of change," although "He had perhaps the easier task: He did not have to prove that she was incapable of being president, only that her charges were overblown and he's ready for the office."

CLINTON COURTS HISPANIC VOTERS IN SOUTH TEXAS WHISTLE STOPS. The AP (2/22, White) reports that Sen. Hillary Clinton, speaking in Laredo, TX, addressed immigration reform and "contrasted her readiness to be president with that of her surging rival, Barack Obama. Offering a line that's been used by both candidates, Clinton told the crowd in Laredo, a 94 percent Hispanic city, that immigration cannot be treated like a 'political football.' 'Yes, we need secure borders, but we also need a path to legalization,' Clinton said." The AP notes that Clinton's Texas barnstorming has primarily been along the Mexican border, while Bill and Chelsea Clinton have been focusing on the rest of the state.

On its website, Newsday (2/21, German) also reported on Clinton's Laredo appearance, where she "called for immigration reform, better schooling for Spanish-speakers and health care for working families. 'We are going to fix this broken immigration system,' Clinton told the cheering crowd gathered in a downtown square just three blocks from the Mexican border. ... Clinton's remarks on education also drew enthusiastic applause. 'There is nothing more important than to give our young people that passport to opportunity,' Clinton said. 'Let's focus on children who don't come from English speaking families and give them the tools they need to attend public schools.'" Newsday suggested that Clinton was "saving her ammunition" for tonight's debate, keeping her criticisms of Obama relatively low-key.

Bill Clinton Addresses Importance Of Texas Win. The AP (2/22, Blaney), in a piece published in the Dallas Morning News and the El Paso Times, reports that Bill Clinton, speaking in Odessa, TX, yesterday, said "he was confident that a win in the state would start a string of key victories for Hillary Clinton. He acknowledged on Wednesday that the Democratic Texas and Ohio primaries on March 4 could make or break the presidential candidacy of Hillary Clinton, who has suffered 10 straight defeats to Barack Obama. 'I believe she'll win a big victory in Pennsylvania and then I think she'll do quite well on the way out, including in the last big state, North Carolina,' he said, flanked by a large Texas flag as he spoke to about 1,000 people from the bed of a baby blue 1959 Ford pickup at Odessa College. 'It's all up to you.'" The New York Times (2/22, Wheaton, 1.18M) reports on former President Clinton's Wednesday statement that Texas and Ohio are effectively must-win states for Clinton.

Former TX Democratic Chair Backs Clinton. The AP (2/22) reports that superdelegate Bob Slagle, former chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, "said Thursday he is supporting Hillary Clinton for president and that he's been working to help her Texas campaign." Slagle once "had backed New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson before he withdrew from the race." Slagle "said he has known Clinton since 1992 and is impressed by her knowledge of issues, including the war in Iraq and international finance."

CLINTON UP SEVEN IN OHIO, HOLDS JUST SINGLE POINT LEAD IN TEXAS. The Washington Post (2/21, Balz, Cohen, 723K) reports Hillary Clinton "is deadlocked with Sen. Barack Obama here in Texas and holds a slender lead over him in Ohio, according to two new Washington Post-ABC News polls." The "closeness of the races in Texas and Ohio underscore the challenges facing Clinton over the next 12 days of campaigning as she seeks to end Obama's double-digit winning streak in their battle for the Democratic nomination." In Ohio, Clinton "leads Obama in the new poll by 50 percent to 43 percent, a significant but tenuous advantage given the shifts that have taken place elsewhere as candidates intensified their campaigns in advance of previous primaries. In Texas, the race is even, with Clinton at 48 percent and Obama at 47 percent."

On ABC World News (2/21, story 3, 1:50, Gibson, 8.78M), George Stephanopoulos said, "I think one of the reasons they're so close, there's been this tussle all year long in the Democratic campaign over what voters value this year. A candidate with experience, Hillary Clinton wins those, or a candidate that will take the country in a new direction, Barack Obama wins those. In both Texas and Ohio, they are basically split right down the middle on that question. Where Obama is pulling ahead is on the question of electability. Who has got the better chance to win in November, you see there that he's opened up 11-point leads in both states on that question. And you can expect him to hit that hard in the next two weeks."

EX-SEN. CLAIBORNE PELL BACKS CLINTON. The Providence Journal (2/22, 162K) reports that the presidential primary race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama "has split some Rhode Island Democratic households, including one of the most revered of party elders, the Pells of Newport." Former Rhode Island U.S. Sen. Claiborne Pell and his wife seem ad odds regarding the candidates. Mrs Nuala Pell "said yesterday that her husband has voted by shut-in ballot for Clinton. ... He worked with [former President] Bill Clinton and he really likes Hillary Clinton." However, Pells also "said she is a bit more focused on the future and believes Obama would make a good president for the 21st century."

CLINTON LEADS OBAMA 44% TO 32% IN PENNSYLVANIA POLL. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (2/22, O'Toole, 229K) reports that Sen. Hillary Clinton "retained a significant but reduced lead over...Sen. Barack Obama among Pennsylvania Democrats in a new poll released by Franklin and Marshall College. The survey of registered Democrats shows Mrs. Clinton leading Mr. Obama, 44 percent to 32 percent. The 12-point margin was down from the 20-point gap found in another Franklin and Marshall poll in January, before" John Edwards exited "the race. ... The F&M survey also suggested that Pennsylvania would once again be a battleground in the fall, with" Sen. John McCain "essentially tied when matched against either Democratic contender. The survey was based on telephone interviews with 640 registered voters. The margin of error for all voters was plus or minus 3.9 percent; for the smaller sample of Democrats, it was 5.6 percent."

CLINTON CAMPAIGN'S SPENDING ON CONSULTANTS SEEN AS EXCESSIVE. The New York Times (2/22, Luo, Becker, Healy, 1.18M) reports the Clinton campaign's "top consultants collected about $5 million in January, a month of crucial expenses and tough fund-raising." Hillary Clinton's "latest campaign finance report, published Wednesday night, appeared even to her most stalwart supporters and donors to be a road map of her political and management failings. Several of them, echoing political analysts, expressed concerns that Mrs. Clinton's spending priorities amounted to costly errors in judgment that have hamstrung her competitiveness against Senator Barack Obama of Illinois." The "high-priced senior consultants to Mrs. Clinton...have emerged as particular targets of complaints, given that they conceived and executed a political strategy that has thus far proved unsuccessful." The firm "that includes Mark Penn, Mrs. Clinton's chief strategist and pollster, and his team collected $3.8 million for fees and expenses in January; in total, including what the campaign still owes, the firm has billed more than $10 million for consulting, direct mail and other services, an amount other Democratic strategists who are not affiliated with either campaign called stunning."

The Politico (2/22, Vogel) reports about "$15 million - or more than half of the New York senator's January spending - went to a cadre of high-priced consultants. Though much of the cash went through the campaign media buyer for ad time, the considerable payments to outside consultants mark an increase in a pattern that has irked campaign insiders. From the beginning of the race through the end of last month, Clinton paid the consultants $33 million - nearly one-third of the $105 million spent by the campaign."

The Los Angeles Times (2/22, Morain, 881K) reports that "the spread between what Clinton and Obama have paid their top aides is striking. In numerous instances, Clinton has paid vastly more for staff and accouterments and less on the services that directly win votes. Clinton paid $266,000 to communications director Howard Wolfson last month. Altogether, she has paid Wolfson's firm, Gotham Acme, $688,000 since the campaign began. Obama's communications director, Robert Gibbs, receives $144,000 a year." The Times adds, "Through the end of January, Obama also appears to have spent $35 million on the all-important category called 'media,' producing and airing television spots aimed at winning over voters. Clinton has spent about $27 million on such spots."

WSJOURNAL BLASTS CLINTONS FOR NOT DISCLOSING TAX RETURNS. The Wall Street Journal (2/22, A14, 2.06M) says in an editorial, "Stonewalling and secrecy helped Bill and Hillary Clinton win the White House without a thorough enough vetting in 1992. Now they're trying to do it again, this time by not disclosing either their income tax returns or the donor list for the Clinton Foundation." Only "seven years ago the Clintons were swimming in legal bills. They've since cashed in on their celebrity to pay off a $2 million mortgage on their Washington D.C. home, and are now able to lend $5 million to Mrs. Clinton's campaign." If the Clintons "continue to keep his and her finances under wraps, the public would be wise, given their history, to assume they have something to hide."

REZKO'S LAWYERS REVEAL NAMES OF PEOPLE HE RECOMMENDED FOR STATE JOBS. The Chicago Tribune (2/22, Coen, 607K) reports, "Lawyers for Antoin 'Tony' Rezko on Thursday made public nearly 40 names of people he allegedly recommended for state jobs, arguing that prosecutors should be barred from presenting the evidence at Rezko's coming trial. Rezko's lawyers contended the government plans to offer the list at trial as evidence of Rezko's involvement in state hiring, but the defense sought to block its introduction because the indictment doesn't allege he influenced state hiring." One "exhibit is a spreadsheet from the state Office of Boards and Commissions that tracks open positions on hundreds of state boards. The document shows a number of political figures had made recommendations to fill open posts, including U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), vying for the Democratic nomination for president, and state Senate President Emil Jones (D- Chicago)."

Timing Of Rezko Trial Near Critical Primaries. The Wall Street Journal (2/22, A4, Timiraos, 2.06M) reports, "Barack Obama hopes to deliver a knockout punch to Hillary Clinton's presidential ambitions in the March 4 primaries in Texas and Ohio. His quest may be complicated by the felony trial slated to open March 3 for Antoin Rezko ... While the Chicago trial doesn't involve Sen. Obama, it puts the candidate's ties to Mr. Rezko back in the spotlight."

Copyright 2008 by the Bulletin News Network, Inc. Reproduction without permission prohibited. Editorial content is drawn from thousands of newspapers, national magazines, national and local television programs, and radio broadcasts. The Hillary For President News Briefing is published five days a week by BulletinNews, which creates custom news briefings for government and corporate leaders. We can be found on the Web at BulletinNews.com, [email-masked], or called at (703) 749-0040.