March 04, 2008
Hotline After Dark -- Is Today The Day?
What will happen on 3/4 dominated TV last night:
"Nightline" aired more of ABC's Moran's interview with Barack Obama:
Obama, asked if he feels pressure to keep HRC from winning states: "I think the Clinton team has been very clever at spinning this thing so that we win 11 in a row and they say the only ones that count are the two after the 11 we won. We've got an enormous delegate lead. This is going to be close in Ohio and Texas. I want to win both states badly but even if we don't win we're still going to be ahead by an enormous amount of delegates."
Asked if he loses TX and OH if it means Dems are having second thoughts: "I don't think it could. We were down 20 as recent as a few weeks ago so we've closed the gap."
Asked about Rezko and his home purchase: "This was a transaction that was completely above board. It was a standard real estate transaction."
Asked if he's worried the crowd enthusiasm will dim: "No, no. This is what people have been saying for months. This is what people said when I announced -- oh, it's a flash in the pan. It'll fade. I don't have much of a romantic sphere. There have been a whole bunch of people in the crowds who have lost jobs, have lost health care. They're not in it out of infatuation. They think this is how we're going to change the country and they're right" ("Nightline," ABC, 3/3).
More on Obama and Rezko, along with Hillary Clinton's options, after the jump: [EMILY GOODIN]
"World News" did a piece on the Rezko trial and showed a bite from Moran's interview with Obama, where Obama is asked what happens if he gets called to testify:
Obama: "I don't know what my legal obligations would be so I'll leave that up to the lawyers" ("World News," ABC, 3/3).
ABC's Stephanopoulos, on 3/4: "If Senator Clinton does well people will look back and say what do we really know about this guy and the scrunity will intensify" ("World News," 3/3).
BEST CASE SCENARIO?
Lots of talk about HRC last night, including her chances in the 3/4 states and her post-3/4 options. She also appeared on the "Daily Show" via satellite from TX. The video of the interview is available on the "Daily Show" website.
FNC's Garrett: "Clinton's aides, who now can't even agree on who's been running the campaign, so as to avoid or shift blame if Clinton fails tomorrow, spoke cautiously of being 'successful in the primaries'" ("Special Report," 3/3).
Newsweek's Alter: "What's fascinating about this ... is that Harold Ickes, the long-time Clinton aide who has brought back in the fold now, to really run things. He told a reporter recently that Mark Penn at every turn insists that he'd be described as the chief strategist, precisely the opposite of Penn's interpretation that when he's called a pollster, Penn apparently gets very upset about that within the counsels of the Clinton campaign. So, there is a lot of finger pointing, you know, within that campaign that will obviously continue should she not prevail and her path, even if she has a big day tomorrow, wins Ohio and Texas" ("Countdown," MSNBC, 3/3).
New Republic's Cottle: "The Hillary team is currently eating its own at this point. And thus, the whiff of desperation goes out over the airwaves" ("Live with Dan Abrams," MSNBC, 3/3).
NBC's Todd, on HRC: "I do think the fact that she went negative with a TV ad today in Texas and not Ohio tells you that she's going -- you don't usually close on a negative if you're ahead. You close on a negative if you're behind, if you're sort of throwing not quite a Hail Mary but you're certainly trying to play catch-up. And I think that that says a lot."
More Todd: "I think that if she plans on being the nominee, it means she won three or four. ... I don't think she will walk away from this race after winning Ohio. I think if she wins Ohio, she's going to say, how do I get out after winning Ohio, the single most important swing state in the country?" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 3/3).
Ex-WH adviser David Gergen: "If Obama has a sizable lead and has -- and she doesn't have a plausible argument for how she can really win this, Bill Richardson is going to come out and endorse Obama, and I think you are going to see others do that, too, and ask her to leave" ("AC 360," CNN, 3/3).
MSNBC's Matthews: "We have got to stop thinking that Hillary Clinton is going to agree with the objective world. We have to assume she has the perfect right as a candidate to keep spending money, to keep campaigning even it's a hopeless cause" ("Hardball," 3/3).
MSNBC's Carlson: "If Barack Obama had lost the last 11 contests and was 160 pledged delegates down, we would treat him like Mike Huckabee or Mike Gravel. You'd never hear his name. The press has been really nice to Hillary Clinton, extending her the benefit of every doubt" ("Live with Dan Abrams," 3/3).
WORST CASE SCENARIO?
Mike Huckabee appeared on "Lou Dobbs Tonight":
Asked if he'll go no matter what the 3/4 results: "Until somebody has 1,191 confirmed delegates, we don't have a nominee. Nobody clinched it. I resent the attitude that we ought to give up and quit because some are tired of the game being played" (CNN, 3/3).
FNC's Cameron: "Huckabee, so far, has collected 257 delegates. He hopes tomorrow to at least put enough delegates to get ahead of Mitt Romney, who before leaving the race had earned 280. Huckabee, who's determined to remain a force in the GOP for years to come, continues to sidestep questions about when he'll quit the race" ("Special Report," 3/3).
CNN's Bash: "I talked to actually Senator McCain and some of his advisers about that this weekend. What happens if Mike Huckabee actually stays in this race if he does in fact lose the primaries tomorrow night? And what they say is that it delays them in a very important way, from their perspective. And that is, once McCain officially becomes the nominee, that opens up the Republican National Committee to the McCain campaign. It even opens up the White House political shop to them. And what that means is that they get critical information, critical data, that will help them really formulate the general election campaign against the Democrats" ("AC 360," 3/3).
Posted at 09:11 AM
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