Political Buzz - Archives for: May 2008, 08

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Thursday, May 8th, 2008

Larsen the latest superdelegate to jump on the Obama bandwagon

Posted by Niki Sullivan @ 04:23:41 pm

U.S. rep. and superdelegate Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) pledged his support to Barack Obama today, a move that will likely increase the "Clinton's presidential bid is dead" headlines by a measure.

I'll post the full statement below. But first, here's where Washington's superdelegates are at, according to The Superdelegate Transparency Project and our own notes:

Obama: 5
(Congressman Larsen, Rep. Brian Baird, Adam Smith, Gov. Chris Gregoire, Pat Notter)

Clinton: 5
(U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee, U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, Ron Sims)

Undeclared: 7*
(U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott, Ed Cote, Eileen Macoll, Sharon Mast, David McDonald, state party chairman Dwight Pelz, Tom Foley*)

(Total of 17. Plus, there are two unnamed add-ons that will be chosen later.)
* The New York Times and the Associated Press say Foley is undecided. The Superdelegate Transparency Project and a spokesman for the party says Foley is a Clinton delegate. We'll err on the side of caution and say he's undecided until or unless we hear from Foley himself.

And now, for the Larsen statement you've been waiting for:

“Today I am endorsing Senator Barack Obama for President. I believe Senator Obama is the best candidate to turn our country’s hopes for a better future into reality.

=> Read more!

Categories: Campaign news, President • 2 comments

Polls are open

Posted by John Henrikson @ 01:23:56 pm

In case you missed it, today's Hot Button poll is your chance to weigh in on whether Hillary should get out of the primary race or hold out.

And we won't even ask you to declare a party affiliation.

Categories: President

Updated: NYT says superdelegate Mast is for Clinton. Mast disagrees.

Posted by Niki Sullivan @ 10:31:20 am

Superdelegates, superdelegates, superdelegates.

We ran a story this morning (posted here last night) about Washington state's remaining uncommitted superdelegates and whether their resolve has cracked yet. The answer: No. But one Washington superdelegate has announced support for Obama. (See below.)

But we were puzzled by one bit: The Superdelegate Transparency Project said Sharon Mast is uncommitted. The New York Times says she's a Hillary delegate.

I just got off the phone with Mast. She says she's uncommitted.

"I was surprised when I went to The New York Times site and saw that I was committed," she said. "I have been uncommitted all along in this process."

She said she intends to "remain so until this process completes itself."

I'm always suspicious of passive statements, so I asked how the process will "complete itself." "We have some states left and one more territory," she said.

I asked where she thinks the Times got the idea she was a Clinton supporter: "I have no idea. It doesn't matter. In real life, I know where I'm at, which is uncommitted."

Update: Rep. Rick Larsen just announced on a conference call that he's throwing his superdelegate support to Obama. I know that because I read it on other blogs, which I had to do because I wasn't invited to the conference call.

I rescind my birthday party invitation to Larsen.

Categories: Campaign news, President • 1 comment

Did Obama really say he'd rather salute "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" than the National Anthem?

Posted by Hunter George @ 06:00:18 am

I spent much of the past two days filling in for a reporter as the Reader Representative, answering questions, fielding complaints (and a few compliments), etc.

A reader named Bernadine wanted to know if something she got in an e-mail is true. The question: Did Barack Obama really say he'd rather salute "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" instead of the National Anthem because he feels the anthem conveys "a war-like message"?

Answer: No. This is an urban legend debunked by snopes.com and factcheck.com, both of which determined that it was a satirical column written by an Arizona writer that's now being circulated via chain e-mail as true.

Categories: Campaign news, President

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Niki Sullivan covers politics. Before coming to Tacoma, she covered state government in Oregon. She is a regular contributor to the GritCity blog. Email Niki

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Hunter George is the local news editor who oversees coverage of state and county politics. Before coming to The News Tribune in 2001, he spent 11 years covering the statehouses in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Washington state for The Associated Press. Email Hunter

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