Text-B-Ahead-of-3-Primaries--a-Dash-about-Chesapeake-(1).doc

Text B Ahead of 3 Primaries, a Dash about Chesapeake
By Katherine Q. Seelye and Elizabeth Bumiller
Published: February 12, 2008
New York Times
[1] BALTIMORE — Hopscotching around the region on the eve of the so-called Chesapeake primaries, the two contenders for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination traded boasts and challenges on Monday about who was better equipped to take on the likely Republican nominee, Senator John McCain
[2] At a rally here packed with 11,000 people, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois said Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton says he is not tough enough to take on the Republican attack machine.
[3] “I have to explain to people, I’m skinny but I’m tough,” Mr. Obama said, to laughter. “Yes. Skinny. I’m wily. Don’t mess with me. Let’em bring it on. Who they got? John McCain?”
[4] He then added, “Listen, I respect John McCain for his half-century of service to this country,” praising Mr. McCain, of Arizona, while also drawing attention to his age. “But he is on the wrong side of history right now.”
[5] Mrs. Clinton, coming off a weekend in which she lost four nominating contests to Mr. Obama and shook up the top level of her campaign, spent much of the day trying to demonstrate that she had a better chance to win the White House for the Democrats in November. At the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, she tried out some likely lines of attack against Mr. McCain before an auditorium of students.
[6] “He didn’t even vote on the stimulus package. He said he doesn’t really understand the economy,” she said, drawing laughter. “Well, I think it’s really important for the next president to understand the economy.”
[7] With contests on Tuesday in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia, and 171 pledged delegates at stake, the candidates were making last-minute pitches for support, holding rallies, stopping at a General Motors factory (Mrs. Clinton) and a coffee shop (Mr. Obama) and, in the case of Mr. McCain, holding a news conference at a hotel near the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., where he was once a midshipman.
[8] There, he continued his campaign of congeniality with his Republican opponent, former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, saying it was fine with him if Mr. Huckabee challenged the results of Saturday’s Washington State caucuses. Party officials have declared Mr. McCain the winner by several hundred votes, but the Huckabee campaign says that 1,500 votes went uncounted.
[9] “He certainly has the right to challenge if he chooses to,” Mr. McCain said. Nevertheless, Mr. McCain said that “it’s pretty clear that we won.”
[10] Mr. McCain, who is far ahead of Mr. Huckabee in delegates and remains the presumptive nominee, suffered embarrassing losses over the weekend to Mr. Huckabee in the Louisiana primary and the Kansas caucuses. Asked why voters persisted in voting for Mr. Huckabee, Mr. McCain replied, “Because they like him.”
[11] Although Mr. Huckabee cannot mathematically win the nomination at this point, he has said he will remain in the race until Mr. McCain reaches the delegate count that will put him over the top, 1,191.
[12] Later, Mr. McCain appeared at an evening rally in Richmond, Va., where he said at a news conference that his campaign had decided not to accept federal matching funds because “we didn’t need to.”
[13] Mr. McCain, who has made limiting the money spent on campaigns a central part of his record in the Senate, had considered accepting the money, particularly after his campaign ran out of money last summer. But since winning the New Hampshire primary, Mr. McCain has received enough donations to forgo the $6 million he might have received.
[14] Mr. McCain, though, is still trying to overcome resistance by conservatives to his nomination. On Monday, he received support from Gary L. Bauer, a prominent Christian conservative who was one of the few evangelical leaders to endorse Mr. McCain in his race for president eight years ago.
[15] “John McCain has dedicated his life to defending human rights around the world, including the rights of the unborn,” Mr. Bauer said in a statement released by the McCain campaign.
[16] Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida and the president’s brother, also endorsed Mr. McCain on Monday.
[17] Both of the Democratic candidates, meanwhile, have been seeking an endorsement from former Senator John Edwards, who dropped out of the Democratic field last month. Mrs. Clinton met privately on Thursday with Mr. Edwards, and Mr. Obama was scheduled to fly to Mr. Edwards’s home in North Carolina on Monday, but the meeting was canceled. Aides said it was because the meeting was threatening to turn into a media circus.
[18] Mr. Edwards has discussed a possible endorsement with both candidates for weeks, while soliciting advice from his closest aides, who are deeply divided over whom he should endorse. In the days leading up to Mr. Edwards’s withdrawal from the race at the end of January, two advisers said, he and Mrs. Clinton had friendly telephone conversations nearly every day.
[19] “He feels both candidates have great strengths,” said John C. Moylan, a close friend who ran Mr. Edwards’s South Carolina campaign. “He’s watching to see how things play out.”
[20] Mrs. Clinton, making stops in Washington, Maryland and Virginia, was dogged by questions about her campaign shake-up, when Patti Solis Doyle, her campaign manager and longtime aide, resigned as campaign manager. Ms. Doyle was replaced by Maggie Williams, a friend of Mrs. Clinton and her chief of staff when she was first lady.
[21] “This was Patti’s decision,” Mrs. Clinton said. “I have the greatest respect and affection for her. She’s going to remain as a senior adviser to me. But this has already been a very long campaign, and it takes quite a toll on the people who are directly involved, particularly those with families.”
[22] Mrs. Clinton offered reassurances about her campaign in the face of what even her advisers said would be a difficult month.
[23] “I feel good about where we are,” she told reporters. “I’m still ahead in delegates and in the popular vote. We’re each picking up delegates.” She commended Mr. Obama on his victories and said she looked forward to Ohio and Texas, “because we know that those are states where they represent the broad electorate in this country.”
[24] Mark Penn, Mrs. Clinton’s pollster and chief strategist, said in a conference call with reporters that Mr. Obama would fall victim to “the Republican attack machine” and lose support from his base.
[25] “How much do independent voters really know about Barack Obama, his voting record and his past positions?” Mr. Penn said, adding that Mr. Obama “has never had a serious Republican challenger.”
[26] Mr. Obama, who drew a crowd estimated by his campaign at 17,500 at the University of Maryland in College Park, answered a challenge from Mrs. Clinton by agreeing to a second debate before March 4, when Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont hold primaries.
[27] But he did not mention that to his audiences Monday. Instead, he said in Baltimore, “I’m happy to have a debate with John McCain, because we are the party of tomorrow, he’s the party of yesterday. He’s the past, we’re the future.”