Obama's Monday Daily Talking Points

March 24, 2008

Clinton's Long Odds for the Nomination
News reporting over the last week has begun to focus on a bedrock fact of the race for the nomination: Senator Clinton will not be able to win the nomination by any conventional measure. As the Politico wrote, Clinton has “virtually no chance of winning.”

Their only hope lies in tarring Senator Obama and making him appear to be an unacceptable choice. But Americans are rejecting that kind of negativity, and have consistently shown throughout this primary season that they're not interested in a politics that tears people down—they're interested in a politics that lifts the country up.
Barack Obama leads in pledged delegates, states won, and in the popular vote, because he's built an unprecedented coalition for change, drawing support in every region of the country and from voters of every stripe. Even if Senator Clinton were to win every remaining state, Obama would still lead in all three of those categories. No amount of desperate, baseless attacks is going to change that.

New Polling Shows 10-Point Improvement for Obama
Despite the chatter from the pundits and cable news commentators, Barack Obama has been surging in recent days. A new national poll shows a ten-point turnaround for Barack Obama over the last week. Down as much as seven points only days ago, Obama is now beating Hillary Clinton by three points, 48 to 45, showing a boost following his groundbreaking speech on race in America and his endorsement by Governor Bill Richardson.

Americans are reacting positively to Senator Obama's speech, because real change means having a leader who will be candid about the challenges we face—including race—and who won't shy away from taking them on, even when it's not the politically safe thing to do. Governor Richardson echoed that sentiment in his endorsement of Obama on Friday.

A Grim Milestone: 4,000 Deaths in Iraq
Americans opened their newspapers this morning to another tragic reminder of the consequences of a war that should never have been authorized and never been waged: at least 4,000 of our young men and women in uniform have now been killed in Iraq . Every death is a tragedy, made even more tragic, because the war in Iraq has distracted from the real war against Al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan .

It's time that we push Iraq's political leaders to reach new milestones—milestones of political reconciliation to end the political differences that fuel this civil war—and the best way to do that is to begin a phased redeployment of our troops from Iraq. That's what Barack Obama will begin to do on day one as President.

Bill Richardson endorses Barack Obama
Last Friday, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is endorsing Barack Obama. As a former ambassador to the United Nations and senior U.S. diplomat, Richardson has had to deal with some of the world's toughest characters – from Saddam Hussein to North Korean generals. And he believes that Barack Obama has the judgment we need in a Commander-in-Chief when our nation's security is on the line. Barack Obama showed this judgment by opposing the Iraq war from the start, and he has shown it during this campaign by standing up for a new era in American leadership around the world.