A round-up of this morning's must-read stories.
OBAMA IS RACING AGAINST THE CLOCK
(Alec MacGillis and Anne E. Kornblut, Washington Post)
The compressed primary calendar presents a challenge for all of the
remaining candidates, as they try to visit as many as possible of the
more than 20 states holding elections or caucuses on Tuesday. But the
time crunch is particularly acute for Obama, who, for all the hype
around his candidacy, remains far less well known than Clinton. Obama
vaulted into contention against her by spending week upon week in Iowa
before the state's first-in-the-nation caucuses. He engaged in an
intensive grass-roots effort and visited the smallest towns and the
most remote county fairgrounds to introduce himself to voters, who
rewarded him with a big win over his rivals. Now, with far less
time and broader territory to cover, he must make do with a radically
truncated version of that outreach, relying on a single final visit to
big cities to win over voters to whom he remains little more than a
first-term senator with an exotic name and a reputation for oratory. His
efforts appear to be paying off, as his standing in polls inches closer
and closer to Clinton's. The question is whether he has enough time to
make up the gap.
OBAMA WORKS TO CLAIM LATINO VOTE
(Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten, Los Angeles Times)
Some polls have shown Obama trailing Clinton among Latinos by a 3-to-1
margin. Many Latino voters have a deep-rooted relationship with the
senator from New York and her husband. Clinton advisors are confident
that this will serve her well Tuesday in states with large Latino
populations, including California, New Mexico, Arizona and New Jersey. Nonetheless, the Obama campaign has put substantial money and energy
behind the idea that newly minted political activists like Perez --
working in places that are not a major focus for the Clinton campaign
-- ultimately will yield a rich harvest of delegates. Their bet: that they can take advantage of elaborate rules for the
allocation of delegates. Rather than using a winner-take-all system,
Democrats will award delegates to candidates in each Super Tuesday
state according to the share of the vote they win. That means that even in states where Clinton is on track to win the
most votes, such as New York and New Jersey, Obama could emerge with a
large share of delegates too. And in other states, the Obama camp hopes
its strategy will boost it to an outright win in the statewide vote --
or, in the case of Colorado, to a win in the state's nominating
caucuses.
KENNEDY REVELS IN LIMELIGHT AS HE STUMPS FOR OBAMA
(Mark Leibovich, New York Times)
The white-haired liberal legend with a bad back, halting speech and
worn brown shoes has been called a “lion in winter” so many times that
he has the political cliché version of frostbite.
Yet Mr. Kennedy, 75, is hot, hot, hot on the trail, stumping for Senator Barack Obama,
who was 15 months old when Mr. Kennedy began his Senate career in 1962.
He is drawing raucous crowds, invoking the family legacy, working the
lunch crowd at the Flying Tortilla in Santa Fe and getting the kitchen
staff together for a photo.
MORE OBAMA:
Oprah's Back (New York Times)
Obama Slams McCain in N.M. (ABC)
IN CHASE GAME WITH MEDIA, BILL'S 'IT'
(Michael Calderone, Politico)
With presidential candidates dropping like flies, the television
networks are pouring more resources into covering the most famous
non-candidate on the campaign trail: Bill Clinton. Now, all the major players — NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX and CNN — have
producers on the President Clinton beat, most joining within the past
two weeks. But, at times, it has been a game of catch me if you can. Top-tier presidential candidates will have a bus, and often a plane,
reserved for traveling media and embedded network producers trying to
make every event. But former President Clinton — despite occasionally grabbing more
headlines than anyone in the field — is a campaign surrogate, not a
candidate. So it’s often impossible to have one producer cover him, as he jets
between campaign stops in a private plane, along with his Secret
Service detail. Matt McKenna, who shifted within the Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign to
become the press liaison for President Clinton in December, called the
situation “unprecedented.”
CLINTON'S GRADUAL EDUCATION ON ISSUES OF RACE
(Mark Leibovich, New York Times)
In a presidential campaign in which race has become a dominant
issue, Mrs. Clinton’s early brush with Dr. King has been a recurring
theme, invoked as a kind of “a-ha” episode to explain her coming of age
on race. Yet Mrs. Clinton’s passage from sheltered Park Ridge, through
the ferment of the civil rights era, to competing for black votes
across the South, has been more gradual and introspective.
HUCKABEE MAY TIP SOUTH AWAY FROM ROMNEY
(Michael Kranish, Boston Globe)
As Mitt Romney prepared this week to enter the Super Tuesday
contests, he declared confidently that "in a two-person race, I like my
chances." But
the problem with Romney's assertion is evident in the South. Romney is
not just facing John McCain, but Mike Huckabee, who is running strongly
in polls in the four Southern states voting Tuesday, where he has his
biggest base of evangelical support. The Huckabee factor may be
getting relatively little attention nationally in the Republican
nomination battle because the former Arkansas governor has failed to
repeat his Iowa victory. But in a region that has equal or greater
evangelical strength than Iowa, Huckabee may become the decisive factor
- at Romney's expense.
IMMIGRATION BATTLE DIVIDES ARIZONA G.O.P.
(Joel Achenbach, Washington Post)
McCain is likely to win the state's Republican primary on Tuesday. He wins elections here in Arizona
easily. Party activists don't control the Republicans in voting booths
any more than they control the senior senator. But McCain's in-state
problems reflect his national quandary as he tries to convince American
conservatives that he's one of them. Once home to Barry Goldwater,
Arizona has a credible claim as the birthplace of modern American
conservatism. But even Goldwater, late in life, found himself at odds
with many conservatives in the state who laced the ideology with social
issues that had nothing to do with low taxes and small government.
ROMNEY MAPS A STRATEGY FOR SURVIVAL
(Michael Luo, New York Times)
Operating in survival mode, Mr. Romney’s circle of advisers has come
up with a detailed road map to try to salvage his campaign. The plan is
complete with a new infusion of cash from Mr. Romney, a long-term
strategy intended to turn the campaign into a protracted delegate fight
and a reframing of the race as a one-on-one battle for the future of
the party that seeks to sound the alarm among conservatives about Mr.
McCain. The advisers have drawn up a list of states, dividing and
ranking them into those considered relatively easy and inexpensive
targets, along with a broader grouping of more costly battlegrounds
where the advisers hope that Mr. Romney can be competitive.