Political Backdrop
By Michael H. Cottman
Go behind the scenes of the historic 2008 presidential campaign with veteran political correspondent Michael Cottman. Get up close and personal with the candidates and voters from small towns to the national conventions as the race for the White House unfolds.
For the moment, the race for the Democratic presidential nomination has been reduced to this: A debate about debating.
The protracted and contentious contest between Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama moves to North Carolina and Indiana for two important primaries May 6th and Clinton has turned up the heat this week by challenging Obama to a Lincoln-Douglas style face-off – a debate without a moderator.
Clinton is using the free-for-all model of debating that first took place during the 1858 U.S. Senate race in Illinois between Republican Abraham Lincoln and Democrat Stephen Douglas where both men presented an argument and sparred in a lengthy and now-famous debate.
With gas prices inching toward $4 a gallon and countless families facing home foreclosures, the Clinton campaign sent a lengthy e-mail to Obama inviting him to debate. Obama respectfully declined saying he has already debated Clinton 21 times, "the most in primary history," which has resulted in discussions for national news programs.
For Obama, the debate with Clinton two weeks ago in Pennsylvania did not go particularly well. He was peppered early with questions about his controversial pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright; asked if he’s an elitist; why he talks down to small-town Americans, and why he won’t wear a flag pin on his lapel – an issue many feel is absurd but Obama still must find a meaningful way to answer the question.
Clinton, a highly skilled debater, wants to clobber Obama before a national audience. And, as history has proven, the candidate who is running behind, usually wants more debates. Clinton trails Obama in pledged delegates – 1724-1589 – and in the popular vote.
Obama doesn’t have to take the bait, but he does have to find a way to win-over blue-collar workers, and white men who may think he’s a closet Muslim and question his patriotism.
Aides to Obama tell me that he is, in fact, connecting with blue-collar workers. They point to the thousands of whites who turn out for his rallies – 35,000 at one recent Midwest rally. They say that even though Obama lost in Pennsylvania by 10 points, he received more than one million votes – many from whites, and white men. And they add that Obama has mobilized an unprecedented national multi-cultural electorate.
But the question many Democrats are asking is whether Obama can win-over enough of the small-town white electorate to beat Republican Sen. John McCain in November? Bottom line: Will rural and suburban whites vote in large numbers for a black man running for president? Are whites being completely honest in polls saying they’ll support Obama? Will race ultimately derail Obama’s historic journey to become American’s first black president? Perhaps.
To be sure, Obama has some super-delegate support, most recently U.S. Rep. Mel Watt of North Carolina, but some of the 300 uncommited super-delegates who may decide the Democratic nomination are getting skittish.
Word is that Obama cannot afford any more serious controversies like Rev. Wright, the comment at the San Francisco fund-raiser where he suggested that small town residents are "bitter" about state of the economy and "cling" to "guns" and "religion," and the unwanted support from Hamas.
There is already evidence the race in North Carolina is turning ugly.
A group of North Carolina conservatives launched a website, ExposeObama.com, which likens Obama to Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton and accuses Obama of being weak on crime. And a Republican TV ad linking Obama to Rev. Wright with the declaration, "too extreme for North Carolina," is airing even as McCain has denounced the ads.
In the meantime Obama’s aides say the Illinois senator will continue to do what he does best: Travel to the nation’s neighborhoods and talk about hope, change, and outline practical policies for moving America forward.
And leave the debating to voters.
