Obama ups the ante in Iowa

[babylonsister]

Obama ups the ante in Iowa

By: Carrie Budoff Brown
Dec 26, 2007 03:36 PM EST


MASON CITY, Iowa — One week before Iowans gather for the first-in-the-nation caucus, Sen. Barack Obama said Wednesday that his message of change has already been “vindicated.”

Obama made the declaration at the outset of a critical final push in Iowa, first by bus through the Democrat-dominated eastern end of the state, then statewide by plane in the days leading up to the Jan. 3 caucus.

He sharpened his criticism of one of his chief rivals, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, even though he did not mention her by name. And in an effort to fine tune his final pitch to voters, Obama told reporters at an unscheduled visit to a HyVee supermarket in Webster City that he is rewriting his stump speech to "focus people's attention on how close we are to making change." He plans to deliver it for the first time Thursday morning in Des Moines.

"I want to make sure people focus on bringing about big change, on who has a track record of pushing against the special interests," Obama said in the deli section as he greeted voters. "Hopefully, people will end up voting their dreams and their hopes as opposed to their fears."

Obama aides said he is still writing the speech. But he appeared to be testing out arguments in Mason City earlier in the day.

At the beginning, “we were banking on the notion that if we gave the people a clear alternative … we felt we might be able to not just change political parties in the White House, but we might be able to change our politics,” Obama told about 500 people at Newman High School. “That was our bet. And 10 months later, that faith has been vindicated. What people said couldn’t be done, we might do.”


more...

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1207/7565.html

[journalist3072]

1. Yawn....

[Nedsdag]

8. journalist3072 has me on ignore but I'll let everyone else read this

She, like many Hillbots, are running scared. So, what do animals do when they are cornered? They attack!

[Evergreen Emerald]

23. oh. I see why

[Skip Intro]

24. Gee, thanks for "letting" me read your arrogant, insulting drivel.

The Obama apple evidently doesn't fall far from the Obama tree.

[Nedsdag]

25. Skip Intro, calm down, place the Kool-Aid glass on the table,

take a deep breath.

::breathe::

Good. Feel better?

:rofl:

[Skip Intro]

27. Oh I'm calm, thanks. Calling out bs has become second nature.

But you might wanna chill on whatever causes that incoherency.

:hi:

[surfermaw]

2. Is that so strange,

Wasn't he put in the race to hit Hillary hard and force her out of the run, Democrats are pretty smart..

[MethuenProgressive]

3. "There's just an air of eloquent naivete about him,"

Barack Obama still faces doubts
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2007/12/26/2007-12-26_barack_obama_still_faces_doubts.html
WASHINGTON, Iowa - Barack Obama's soaring, inspirational message seems to work its magic on most voters in his audiences, sending them off with a warm and fuzzy we-can-change-the-world feeling.

Not Stan Potratz. "There's just an air of eloquent naivete about him,"

[maximusveritas]

7. Still quoting that McCain supporter?

Maybe I should start quoting what the Freepers say about Hillary. :sarcasm:

[MethuenProgressive]

10. "McCain supporter"? That's a good one! At least you didn't blame Clinton!

Link? Or just ESP, maxi?

[maximusveritas]

21. Here you go

From Opensecrets.org via SOS in that thread about him:
POTRATZ, STAN MR
Washington, IA
$500
John McCain

And Bellator seems to confirm below that he's a Repug.

[Tashca]

22. just stating fact

I am certainly not trying to upset anyone....Just stating fact.
I think the more important point here is the way the article was written.
It all seems like fact until you know the situation. Then you wonder how the reporter got things so screwed up.
It is obviously a good example of reporting bias.

I am not an Obama supporter......just want the facts straight.

[Tashca]

12. Oh my

Interesting.....I know Stan......His business actually is world wide....mostly U.S., Australia, and UK. ....He is a very intelligent man....no question.
I have never known that family to vote Democrat....ever
I grew up about 2 miles from his family. I can't say that I would ever repeat something he said...
eloquet naivete would be a very good way to describe Stan...

[ccpup]

4. testing out arguments?

what, is he focus group-polling his positions now? Seeing which "message of change" will sell himself better to the Public?

Guess the Politics of Hope and Change (as in "buddy, can you spare any?") wasn't working out like he thought it would.

[babylonsister]

6. You're a riot. You don't think your candidate is fine-tuning her

argument? And BTW, why DID she steal his 'change' framing? Not very original. I guess she thought it was a winner, seeing as how her 'experience' frame is tanking.

[ccpup]

11. actually, in recent Polls,

people point to her experience -- and not Obama's -- as a reason for supporting her.

[madrchsod]

13. experience because she was the wife of a president?

why does`t she release all the facts of what she did those 8 years....

[ccpup]

19. perhaps you should Google her travels

with Madeline Albright, the historic speech she made in China (and, yes, it was historic), the World Leaders she met and pressed -- much to the chagrin of the repugs in the House and Senate -- to act on urgent matters of the day, the legislation she helped pass. A simple Google Search and a quick browse of even, for God's sake, Wikipedia could answer some of your questions, I'm sure.

[Cha]

18. I'm betting that "change" thing

from hillary will tank soon, also, since all we've gotten from that clinton, the last 5 years, is sticking to YEA votes that enable bushit policy.

[Nedsdag]

9. Running on "strength and experience"

isn't working out for Hillary either, unless she's trying out for American Gladiators.

[Evergreen Emerald]

5. didn't he invent the word "change?"

and now other people are using it without his authorization. Damn them!

[Cameron27]

20. What exactly is his defintion of change anyway?

He talks about change, but he uses it as a divisive tactic against the boomers, or maybe he thinks that change means just not being Hillary Clinton. He was no maverick as a senator, why would anyone expect him be "an agent of change" as a president.

[forsberg]

14. he's still too preachy, too inexperienced, and undeniably unelectable

[earthlover]

16. Thanks for preaching to us! Obama is more electable and has more electoral experience

than Hillary!

[AtomicKitten]

26. Zogby: "Obama is the only Democrat leading all 5 Republicans."

It appears the only thing undeniable is your false rhetoric.

Zogby: Obama is only Dem leading all 5 Republicans

Sen. Barack Obama is the only Democratic presidential candidate who polled higher than all five of the top Republican contenders in its latest national telephone survey of potential "general election matchups," Zogby International reports this morning.

Democrat John Edwards polled higher than three of the Republicans. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton edged out two, though all but one of her matchups produced results signalling nearly dead-even races.

Zogby's results, based on a survey of 1,000 "likely" voters that it says produced a margin of error of +/- 3.2 percentage points on each figure:

Obama led:

• Rudy Giuliani, 48%-39%.
• Mike Huckabee, 47%-42%.
• Sen. John McCain, 47%-43%.
• Mitt Romney, 53%-35%.
• Fred Thompson, 52%-36%.

(So, Obama's leads over Giuliani, Romney and McCain are outside the margin of error -- but not his leads over Huckabee and McCain. Remember, each figure's margin is +/- 3.2 points. So the spread between the results needs to be at least 6.5 points to be outside the margin.)

Edwards:

• Led Huckabee, 47%-41%.
• Led Romney, 50%-38%.
• Led Thompson, 51%-35%.
• Trailed Giuliani, 45%-44%.
• Trailed McCain, 46%-42%.

(So, Edwards' leads over Romney and Thompson are outside the margin of error -- but not his lead over Huckabee. And he trails Giuliani and McCain by less than the margin of error.)

Clinton:

• Led Romney, 46%-44%.
• Led Thompson, 48%-42%.
• Trailed Giuliani, 46%-42%.
• Trailed Huckabee, 48%-43%.
• Trailed McCain, 49%-42%.

(So, the only matchup outside the margin of error is McCain's advantage over Clinton. Zogby reports that Clinton "has improved her position slightly. A November Zogby Interactive poll showed her losing by small margins to all five of the top GOP candidates.")

http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2007/12/zogby-obama-is.html

[Gloria]

15. His version of "change" ain't my version of change

[Bitwit1234]

17. Is he gonna threaten to bomb Iowa if they don't vote for him.

[info being]

28. He lost me with "Track Record" and "Special Interests"

Is that all he's got?