As one of three uncommitted superdelegates in Minnesota, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar said she wouldn't go through the summer without endorsing one of the two Democratic presidential candidates and hinted, as she has before, that she was leaning toward Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.
"I've made it very clear that I won't go through the summer without endorsing somebody," Klobuchar said during a stopover in Rochester on Monday. "I also think that Barack Obama's significant showing in our state and his grassroots efforts he built will be a significant factor."
demconwatch.blogspot.com, my source for supers, doesn't add on leaner types. in order to be considered an endorser, they have to commit. see my sidebar for the latest tally.
obama apparently warming to a superdelegate primary idea for june that would give the nominee time to prepare for the general election and rally the people:
“I think giving whoever the nominee is two or three months to pivot into the general election would be extremely helpful, instead of having this drag up to the convention,” Mr. Obama told reporters as he flew from Greensboro, N.C., to New York City.meanwhile, clinton's big money people make a desperate plea to house speaker nancy pelosi. they say she needs to stop rallying the supers behind the delegate leader, obama.
Mr. Obama holds a combined delegate lead over Mrs. Clinton and has been adding more superdelegates to his column at a faster clip than she has. Mrs. Clinton, meanwhile, has indicated that she is willing to slug it out for the nomination through the summer, and is counting on some sort of Obama collapse or other game-changing development to drive superdelegates into her camp.
In response to other questions, Mr. Obama said that he had no beef with Bill Clinton’s comments today that the Obama and Clinton camps should “just saddle up and have an argument.” But he added that one of his goals in politics was still “to see if we can change the tenor a little bit so it’s more productive.” Mr. Obama said he agreed with the thrust of Mr. Clinton’s point about the rough-and-tumble of politics, saying it was “a contact sport,” though he said he sensed it would be a problem to go too far.
“In Chicago, Harold Washington once said ‘politics ain’t tiddleewinks,’ ” Mr. Obama said, referring to that city’s former mayor. “And I believe President Clinton was the one who decried ‘the politics of personal destruction.’ ”
“There’s a line that can be crossed where you stop focusing on the American people’s business and it just becomes about sport.” Then he added, “I’m proud of how we’ve generally conducted ourselves in this campaign – there are some points where I haven’t been proud.”
“Campaigns have become drawing your opponent off guard, giving them stuff to work with,” he posited a few minutes later. “If you can do that about the economy or foreign policy, maybe over time you get more stuff done.”
