Changing Minds
Why Obama Is Fighting to Win Montana’s Three Votes
By Robert Struckman, 8-03-08
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| An Obama volunteer talks to a Montana voter. (Great Falls Tribune photo/Ryan Hall) | |
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Montana’s political landscape and its role in the national political scene is changing, and nowhere is it more evident these days than in Barack Obama’s campaign.
His campaign, headed by a savvy political character who cut his teeth in campaigns in the Big Sky, has six fully staffed offices and plans for more.
Some 10,000 voters have signed up to volunteer for his campaign. His media crew is running television ads across the state. His is a serious bid for Montana’s three electoral votes. It’s the first real push by a Democrat in probably 50 years.
The best piece of reporting on this subject so far - and the only one to ask why - is Obama’s high-profile push in Montana draws comparisons to McCain’s low-key approach by Kim Skornogoski in the Great Falls Tribune.
A top Obama official told me not too long ago that there are many ways to reach 270, the magic number of electoral votes needed to win the White House.
Here’s a statistic worth considering: Al Gore had 269 electoral votes without Florida in 2000. He didn’t need that state’s bonanza. If he had redirected his efforts - and cash - to any other state, he could have squeaked out a victory.
But apparently Gore’s campaign thought about politics the way so many East Coast political writers do.
Consider the likes of Blue-Staters Run Through It, by Douglas Belkin in the Wall Street Journal last week.
(But first, would anyone help me to ban any reference to the “River Runs Through It?” It may be a nice piece of writing, but please.... No more.)
Belkin’s analysis is that Montanans are like blocks of wood. Unchangeable. Only by moving those cord piles can you change the voting tendency of the state.
Belkin counts 200,000 college-educated newcomers and 100,000 fewer Montana-born hicks, and that explains the state’s Democratic governor and two U.S. senators. His 10-cent view of Montana’s political past misses its egalitarian, populist base, its contrariness and its isolationism. Most of all, he misses the ability of Montana voters to change their minds.
Why is it so hard for some people to think that voters can change their minds?
In the end, Montana may well disappoint Obama on Election Day. One poll has Obama and John McCain running neck-and-neck.
Still, I hope Obama’s campaign will convince future national candidates to at least fight for votes in states like Montana.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic candidate Barack Obama on Saturday backed away from rival John McCain's challenge for a series of joint appearances, agreeing only to the standard three debates in the fall.
In May, when a McCain adviser proposed a series of pre-convention appearances at town hall meetings, Obama said, "I think that's a great idea." In summer stumping on the campaign trail, McCain has often noted that Obama had not followed through and joined him in any events.
Obama's reversal on town hall debates is part of a play-it-safe strategy he's adopted since claiming the nomination and grabbing a lead in national polls. Advisers to the Illinois senator, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss strategy, say Obama is reluctant to take chances or give McCain a high-profile stage now that Obama's the front-runner.
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There's a vast difference between fighting and pandering for votes.
The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC). The bill would take effect only when enacted, in identical form, by states possessing a majority of the electoral votes—that is, enough electoral votes to elect a President (270 of 538). When the bill comes into effect, all the electoral votes from those states would be awarded to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC).
The National Popular Vote bill has passed 21 state legislative chambers, including one house in Arkansas, Colorado, Maine, North Carolina, and Washington, and both houses in California, Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The bill has been enacted by Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, and Maryland. These four states possess 50 electoral votes — 19% of the 270 necessary to bring the law into effect.
see http://www.NationalPopularVote.com
Obama does not represent me perfectly, but at least he can stand on his own, command a vision. I'm sick of corporate/special interest tools in washington.
By all means vote for this man and then suffer the aftermath.
It is common for the person losing in the polls to demand more debates. This election is no different, with McSame demanding a bunch of town halls. Of course McSame has to throw out librarians and black people from his town halls, so this is a situation where McSame is shaking in his Depends that his bluff isn't called.
Last week Obama tried to play the race card against McCain and couldn't back it up. Can you do any better?
http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/b8529d0e-381e-4a29-9c39-6a57c7e182c9.htm
Always the same old claims from you people. "He's going to take your guns, He' going to raise your taxes." you're like Chicken Little and The Boy Who Cried Wolf rolled into one.
He ain't going to take anyones guns. And it's Bush's fault the economy is tanking. The whole idea with the Bush tax cuts that benefit the top was that it would stimulate the economy (the whole trickle down economics thing). We'll it didn't. It clearly doesn't work. So what the hell do I care if taxes are raised on folks making more than 250,000 dollars a year? ... I just did the math and I'd have to make SEVEN TIMES what I do now before that would effect me. I don't see that happening anytime soon.
Your right-wingers rhetoric is tired and worn out.
he never made much money but he never wavered from his support for Eisenhower,Nixon, Reagan, Bush and W. I watched him die with poor vets benefits and watched as the company he worked for 35 years left him with no retirement.
republicans represent the rich and no-one else. I am ready for change and I hope to see it this November. the middle class needs to get mad about being treated like fools by these aristocrats and their sycophants. McCain wants your vote so he can make his friends rich, just like W. not this time. not this bear. not if my poor independent vote has anything to say about it.
It leaves me scratching my head why anyone commits to any candidate more than 2 weeks before the election so as to keep an open mind as things sort themselves out. We just never know when a John Edwards type issue may pop out and call into question just who is this candidate and why have they earned loyalty and a vote. Just my $.02.