Race Over or Not, Obama Takes a Victory Lap

[onehandle]

Source: New York Times

WASHINGTON — Senator Barack Obama began trying to rally the Democratic Party around him on Thursday and struck a tougher tone against Senator John McCain, saying Mr. McCain was “losing his bearings” in his pursuit of the White House.

Even as Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton persisted with her campaign for the nomination, Mr. Obama made a celebratory return to the Capitol, where he received an enthusiastic reception on the House floor in an appearance staged to position him as the party’s inevitable nominee.

Behind the scenes, there were new discussions between Mr. Obama and the party leadership. Senior Democratic officials said he met with Speaker Nancy Pelosi when their paths crossed at Democratic Party headquarters. They had spoken by telephone earlier in the week. Ms. Pelosi and Mrs. Clinton have had no known recent talks.

Addressing concern among some Democrats that Mrs. Clinton would fight on to the national convention in late August, Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Clinton campaign, suggested that the race would end quickly after the final primaries early next month, sparing the party a potentially debilitating summerlong battle. “After June 3, this is going to come to a conclusion,” Mr. McAuliffe said on NBC’s “Today” program.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/09/us/politics/09obama.html

[Snarkoleptic]

1. Psssssst...race over.

[boobooday]

2. I thought he handled the heinous "Hamas" remarks beautifully

[geiger]

3. what a stupid article.

not everything is staged or planned. for example, who could ever even imagine the McCain campaign complaining about a supposed "age" slur in the context of a statement about him losing his bearings, which also was not a "staged" remark, it was a straightforward honest response to a vicious attack accusing Obama of being a Hamas sympathizer. THAT comment was staged, not the other way around. For Christ's sake.

[meow2u3]

4. McTemper Tantrum has lost his bearings some time ago

Obama is just being charitable.

[ToughLuck]

5. Senator McCain is waisting his time..Obama looked fabulous on the cover of Time

I would have loved to have seen McCain's face when he first saw it!!!

[Peace Patriot]

6. How come they keep calling Hillary Clinton "Mrs. Clinton" rather than "Senator Clinton"?

Does that strike anybody else as odd?

I'm not usually all that crazy about the "language police"--though I'm a woman and a feminist. It's too much like Catholic school. (--cages around the human mind.) I'm also not a Clinton fan, at all. But the usage in this article ("Mrs. Clinton"--twice in this OP quotation--not "Senator") did jump out at me. I wonder if it's an intentional sexist put-down.

I don't click on NYT articles. (I don't think I'll ever forgive them for Judith Miller.) Do they do this throughout the article? It may mean something--as to our reading of corporate news monopoly entrails. A subtle signal about the NYT establishment's attitude toward Clinton?

[ToughLuck]

7. I don't know, but the NYT went after Bill like a tabloid about Monica

thats why I laugh when I hear Republicans say the NYT is a "liberal" newspaper.

[Bragi]

8. I think Obama has declared the race over

I saw Obama on CNN yesterday being interviewed by Bilf Witzler and it looked to me like he has decided to just move forward as the presumptive candidate, and to focus on McCain.

Since the media seem quite prepared to move on with the campaign and to treat him as the presumptive candidate, I guess the Hillary campaign is just a bit of a sideshow from this point on.

Works for me.

- B

[GetTheRightVote]

9. The race is over and Obama is our Candidate, get over it HRC campaign.

It was a nice welcome home and not staged, they know already who is winning, hello.