Top Democrats Strain to Keep Pace: Candidates Showing Toll of Compressed Primary Schedule

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: Top Democrats Strain to Keep Pace
In California, Candidates Showing Toll of Compressed Primary Schedule
By Anne E. Kornblut
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 29, 2007; Page A05

SAN DIEGO, April 28 -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) appeared here without her husband this weekend, but she did bring one of his trademarks: a hoarse speaking voice.

Clinton said she was fighting a cold. But at a news conference after her speech to the California Democratic Party Convention on Saturday, she acknowledged that the front-loaded 2008 primary schedule is putting a strain on her candidacy.

Having California, New York and other big states move up their primaries to Feb. 5 "puts an extraordinary burden on me and my campaign," Clinton said, a rare acknowledgment of stress from one who has sought to look as if she finds campaigning a breeze....

***

With the first primary votes at least nine months away, the top-tier candidates in both parties have been traveling at a breakneck speed, cramming cross-country fundraising and campaign swings into their days off.

The past week was an especially grueling one for those Democratic candidates in the U.S. Senate. They voted Thursday on a war spending bill, then rushed to South Carolina for the first debate of the campaign that night. They then headed west for the California state convention, a major gathering of Democrats with a history of shaping the race (in 2003, it helped propel former Vermont governor Howard Dean).

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) flew from Columbia, S.C., to San Diego for his speech, making an energetic entrance down the center aisle of a convention center packed with screaming delegates. "Oh, I am fired up now," Obama said by way of opening.

But he has a long week ahead: He was to travel to Los Angeles late Saturday, attend a church service there Sunday, fly to Chicago that afternoon and then to Dallas on Monday before returning to Senate business Tuesday. Obama travels to New York, Baton Rouge and Detroit within the week. And he warned the Californians in the crowd that his speeches may not be so smooth in the days ahead.

There will be times when I get tired. There will be times when I make a mistake," Obama said....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/28/AR2007042800964.html?hpid=topnews

[w4rma]

1. This new schedule is much worse than the old one. But it's what Hillary's people pushed for so she

gets no sympathy from me.