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Obama Campaign: We Won’t Tell Clinton To Leave


In a conference call with reporters this morning, several of Barack Obama’s top supporters said they won’t try to tell Hillary Clinton it’s time for her to leave the race.

Meanwhile, campaign manager David Plouffe again insisted Obama intends to campaign hard in Florida in the general election.

The conference call included Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona.

Asked whether they would suggest it’s time for Clinton to leave the race, their responses included:

-- McCaskill: “There is sincere respect for Hillary Clinton within this campaign. It would be inappropriate and awkward and wrong for any of us to tell Sen. Clinton when it is time for the race to be over ... that is her decision to make on her terms when she thinks it’s appropriate.”
-- Klobuchar – “It’s her decision to make – as long as this is resolved by June, we will be in very good position.”
-- Napolitano – “I have a lot of faith in both these people,” and she believes Clinton will do what’s right.

Plouffe rejected the Clinton campaign’s assertion this morning that the 2,209 delegates should be regarded as the majority needed to guarantee the nomination, not 2,025, because the disputed delegations from Florida and Michigan should be counted.

“The number is 2,025,” he said. “That’s not our number, it’s the DNC [Democratic National Committee] number.” He called the Clinton campaign’s insistence on 2,209 “a creative attempt to create some new metric.”

Plouffe said Florida is “the one state where we probably suffer the most because of lack of campaign activity,” and noted that despite that, a Quinnipiac University poll last week showed Obama virtually tied with John McCain. “We believe Florida’s going to be an enormously competitive state in the fall,” and the Obama forces are eager to begin campaigning here, he said.

There has been some speculation that Obama won’t campaign in Florida, effectively conceding its electoral votes to McCain, in order to devote campaign time and resources to states where he has a better chance of winning.


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