Democracy for New Mexico

NM Dems Elect Final Unpledged Delegate and More; Clinton Camp Protests

DPNM Chair Brian Colon calls meeting to order

Click to see our complete photo album on this event at Flickr.

The State Central Committee of the Democratic Party of New Mexico met in Albuquerque yesterday at the Barcelona Suites to elect its add-on unpledged delegate to the DNC Convention, as well as its DNC Committeewoman and Committeeman who will represent NM Dems within the Democratic National Committee structure next year. Mary Gail Gwaltney easily beat Mary Helen Garcia to retain her Councilwoman position and incumbent Raymond Sanchez also kept his seat on the DNC, emerging victorious over challenger Bruce Barnaby. The SCC also unanimously approved the State Party's 2008 Platform.

Crowd stands for Pledge of Allegiance

Afterwards, the SCC members in attendance (no proxies allowed) split into separate caucuses for Obama and Clinton and selected a number of other pledged delegates to complete the New Mexico delegation. A total of 42 Dems, including four alternates, four Pledged Party Leader and Elected Official (PLEO) delegates, 11 unpledged or superdelegates and one unpledged add-on delegate, will be heading to Denver for the Party's Convention on August 25-28, 2008. I'll have a complete list of the delegates elected yesterday as soon as the DPNM releases the official list.

DPNM Executive Director Josh Geise

The Party had previously elected its Congressional District pledged delegates at its April 19 CD Conventions, an official listing of which you can see here.

Dominique Aragon, Benny Aragon, House Speaker Ben Lujan and wife

Clinton Camp Protests
Controversy erupted over the process used to elect the unpledged add-on delegate. The process is governed by the State Party's Delegate Selection Plan (DSP). The State Plan must conform to a number of requirements stipulated by the DNC and its Rules and Bylaws Committee, and be approved formally by both the SCC the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee. New Mexico's DSP had been duly passed by the SCC, reviewed by the DNC, made to conform to all necessary DNC requirements and released publicly in its final form.

Sidebar discussion over add-on delegate voting rules

Regardless, several top-level Clinton supporters, including former State Party Chair John Wertheim and former Arizona State Party Chair and CD1 Clinton delegate Mark Fleisher, tried and failed to change the add-on delegate selection process midstream during yesterday's meeting.

The rules for electing the pledged add-on were clearly set out in the NM Delegate Selection Plan, and were summarized this way on the DPNM website:

This delegate will be nominated by the State Chair in consultation with the Executive Committee. The State Chair must nominate at least two names. The entire SCC will elect the unpledged add-on delegate.

No allowance for floor nomination of add-on delegate candidates is contained in the New Mexico DSP.

Clinton and Obama camp reps discuss add-on delegate election

Rumors had spread throughout the crowd early on that the Clinton camp might be mounting a challenge. Sure enough, Wertheim and Fleisher stepped to the microphone when the agenda item was announced to assert that additional nominations for the add-on delegate slot should be allowed from the floor. Despite being ruled out of order, they persisted in verbally protesting the way the process was structured. Much murmuring had been heard among Clinton supporters that the two nominees chosen by DPNM Chair Brian Colon might not really be undecided, and instead just might have been nominated because they were Obama supporters.

Some heated exchanges followed, including a contentious mini-caucus to the side of the podium between representatives of the Clinton and Obama camps. A call was also reportedly made to the DNC to double check the rules that applied to the process. Obama campaign reps in the discussion included State Rep. Al Park and Santa Fe attorney John Pound, both co-chairs of the Obama campaign here, and CD-3 Obama delegate Patsy Trujillo.

DPNM Chair Brian Colon

Laurie Weahkee Elected as Add-On Delegate
Ultimately, the challenge was ruled out of order and SCC members voted to elect Laurie Weahkee over Charlotte Little by a margin of 71 to 59. The two Native American women had been nominated by Colon to help fulfill the Party's goal of having a diverse delegation representatives of all segments of the Dem population in the state. Weahkee is a member of the Cochiti and Zuni Pueblos, and is also half Navajo; Little is a member of Taos and San Felipe Pueblos.

Meeting room as SCC members start to filter in.

As reported in the Albuquerque Journal,

Weahkee ... said she has yet to commit to either candidate, adding that Native American issues, including sovereignty and health care, are her top concerns. "My first loyalty is really to the Native American agenda. I'm really going to be listening to both candidates to find out what their positions are ... how hard they're willing to go to bat for the Native American people," Weahkee said.

Write-In Votes
Although there were more than 200 SCC members credentialed for the meeting, only 130 voted for either Weahkee or Little. The diminished vote totals were the result of Mark Fleisher grabbing the microphone after being ruled out of order and urging Clinton supporters to refuse to vote for either of the Colon nominees so that neither would receive a majority of SCC votes. He encouraged Clinton supporters to vote for a write-in candidate seen as being on Clinton's side, and some apparently did just that. The Clinton camp suggested they might attempt to challenge the selection method used to elect Weahkee as NM's final unpledged delegate, but no news has emerged yet regarding any action on that front.

New Mexico's superdelegates and their expressed candidate preferences are:

Governor Bill Richardson (Obama)
Lt. Governor Diane D. Denish (Clinton)
U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman (Undecided)
Congressman Tom Udall (Undecided)
DPNM Chairman Brian S. Colón (Undecided)
DPNM Vice Chairwoman Annadelle Sanchez (Clinton)
DNC Committeeman Raymond G. Sanchez (Clinton)
DNC Committeewoman Mary Gail Gwaltney (Clinton)
DNC Committee Member Fred Harris (Obama)
DNC At-Large Member Mayor Martin Chavez (Clinton)
DNC At-Large Member Christine Trujillo (Clinton)

New Add-On At-Large Unpledged Delegate Laurie Weahkee (Undecided)

Obama table from above the action

You can see the split of pledged delegates awarded by Congressional District according to vote totals for each candidate in New Mexico's March 3rd Presidential Preference Caucus here.

Click on photos for larger images. All photos by M.E. Broderick. See our complete album of photos from this event at Flickr.

Technorati Tags:Democratic Party of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, presidential caucus, Democrats, Brian Colon, John Wertheim, Mark Fleisher, Democratic National Committee, DNC, Mary Gail Gwaltney, Raymond Sanchez , John Pound, Al Park

Richardson to Carville: Clintons "Clinging to the Throne"

Gov. Bill Richardson and an antagonistic James Carville traded barbs in a heated discussion on Larry King last night (video above and below the fold). They tangled about the results of the Pennsyvania primary, where the race now stands and what it's doing to the chances for a Dem presidential win.

Richardson was once again highly critical of the negative campaign tactics of Hillary Clinton, and accused the Clintons of "clinging to the throne" instead of facing the realities of the contest at this point in time. You know, we're America, not Monaco," said Richardson, adding, "We've had enough of [the Bush and Clinton] famlies running the country." Carville countered that Richardson's remarks were "idiocy."

Richardson also called into question the Clintons' push to go against the DNC rules that disqualified the primaries in Michigan and Florda -- rules that all the candidates long ago pledged to uphold. "You're changing the rules and this is what I'm saying about the Clinton campaign, they're changing the rules" said Richardson. "And they're basically saying about Obama that he can't win in November when he is obviously the strongest general election candidate winning battleground states and his message with independents, and now the presidency is slipping away and they'll do anything to keep it." Richardson termed the Clinton's attempt to use the Florida and Michigan results to claim they are ahead in the popular vote as "lunacy."

Just for fun, Carville also said the people on the New York Times editorial board "don't know anything about politics" in response to yesterday's editorial that came down hard on Clinton and its use of right-wing framing and tactics to bash Obama.

Carville accused the Obama campaign of "whining" and "namby-pambyism" and then proceeded to whine about the disqualified Florida and Michigan primaries and Obama's reluctance to add two more debates to the 20 that have already been held on the Dem side. The unasked question? Why would Obama want to debate a candidate who can no longer win the nomination via pledged delegates, the popular vote, states won, money raised or any other conventional measure?

The latest twist in the Clinton spin is that more people voted for Hillary than for Obama. The problem? It's blatantly untrue. To concoct their new brag, the Clinton camp eliminates the votes Obama received in the caucus states and adds in her totals from Michigan, where she was the only candidate on the ballot, and Florida, where it's been widely reported her surrogates campaigned for her despite the agreed-to disqualification of the race. Moreover, Clinton's campaign doesn't count any of the votes in those contests that didn't go to her in the totals for Obama.

It's obvious that all the Clintons have left is the weakest of arguments about results, and the hope that the Obama campaign implodes or they can tarnish him enough with Rove-style smears to claim he's "unelectable." Then they can push for the superdelegates to overturn the will of the people.

Richardson called for the winner to be determined after the June 3rd primaries -- based on the pledged delegate count, popular vote, total states won, battleground states won and success with independents. "The worst thing we can do is continue this negativity, this backbiting, these negative ads all the way till August," said Richardson. "The ending if fairly clear, that  Senator Clinton is gonna need 70% of all future delegate votes to even come close. That's not gonna happen," said Richardson.

You can see more of the discussion in the above videos. The first includes some footage from the video at the top of this post, and then continues beyond it. The second continues from there to the end of the discussion.

Technorati Tags:Bill Richardson, James Carville, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain, Pennsylvania, primaries, Democrats, Larry King, New York Times

Quote of the Day on PA Primary: McAuliffe Hearts Fox Noise

From the Philadelphia Daily News:

On Fox News Channel, the first of the three 24-hour news networks to call Pennsylvania for Clinton, the suspense lasted a full 45 minutes. At 8:45 p.m., with fewer than 1 percent of the votes in, Fox blew the whistle. ... "Fair and balanced Fox, you beat them all!" Clinton adviser Terry McAuliffe told Fox News' Major Garrett during an interview, to anchor Brit Hume's delight.

Add in Richard Scaife's hearty endorsement of Clinton and you've got a vast right-wing conspiracy -- on Hillary's behalf this time.

My Take: Clinton's Rovian Path to "Victory"

Hillary Clinton's lead went from 20 points in the polls in Pennsylvania only weeks ago to about 8-10 points as the last election results trickle in. This will gain her somewhere in the range of 8-12 delegates in a state that was dominated by Gov. Ed Rendell's old-style -- but still mighty -- political machine pulling out all the stops on her behalf.

Obama still retains his essentially insurmountable lead in pledged delegates and votes. Clinton needed a blowout to even pretend the nomination is still in play, and she didn't get it. This, of course, hasn't stopped Terry McAuliffe and the rest of the Clinton spinners from openly begging for money on TV for her in-the-red campaign so she can continue her path to "victory." I find this highly ironic, to say the least, given McAuliffe's long-time mockery of Dean-style politics, the power of the net, grassroots activism and small donor fundraising. Any port in a storm I guess.

If Democrats with power in the superdelegate group and beyond don't stop her soon, she will surely try to continue her quest for personal political power at the expense of Democrats and Democratic principles right onto the Pepsi Center floor in Denver. And if that happens, we will lose in November. Plain and simple. Not only will there be few crossover votes, but huge swaths of activists, new and young voters and the African-American community will sit on their hands.

I agree with the New York Times editorial board, which previously endorsed Hillary Clinton, in their op-ed entitled The Low Road to Victory:

The Pennsylvania campaign, which produced yet another inconclusive result on Tuesday, was even meaner, more vacuous, more desperate, and more filled with pandering than the mean, vacuous, desperate, pander-filled contests that preceded it.

Voters are getting tired of it; it is demeaning the political process; and it does not work. It is past time for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to acknowledge that the negativity, for which she is mostly responsible, does nothing but harm to her, her opponent, her party and the 2008 election.

If nothing else, self interest should push her in that direction. Mrs. Clinton did not get the big win in Pennsylvania that she needed to challenge the calculus of the Democratic race. It is true that Senator Barack Obama outspent her 2-to-1. But Mrs. Clinton and her advisers should mainly blame themselves, because, as the political operatives say, they went heavily negative and ended up squandering a good part of what was once a 20-point lead.

On the eve of this crucial primary, Mrs. Clinton became the first Democratic candidate to wave the bloody shirt of 9/11. A Clinton television ad — torn right from Karl Rove’s playbook — evoked the 1929 stock market crash, Pearl Harbor, the Cuban missile crisis, the cold war and the 9/11 attacks, complete with video of Osama bin Laden. “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen,” the narrator intoned.

If that was supposed to bolster Mrs. Clinton’s argument that she is the better prepared to be president in a dangerous world, she sent the opposite message on Tuesday morning by declaring in an interview on ABC News that if Iran attacked Israel while she were president: “We would be able to totally obliterate them.”

Women, Feminism, Progressivism
I'd like every woman in my age group who has voted for Clinton to explain to me how they can overlook her vote for the Iraq invasion and her continuing Bush-Rove-McCain-style macho war rhetoric -- and somehow manage to stick to the notion that Hillary is representing anything even vaguely related to a progressively feminist point of view. By ignoring the realities of Clinton's campaign strategy and positions, these women voters are rewarding a supposedly Democratic politician for cravenly pushing more of the same militaristic, fear-based rhetoric that has produced fiascos and horrors of the worst kind for almost eight years.

Is it really worth the "loyalty to gender" rush if you have to twist yourself into an illogical pretzel to pretend she's for peace and the people and diplomacy? If women can still vote in droves for Hillary Clinton after what she has done and continues to do and say, I have to admit that the women's movement I've been a part of has been a failure in some very critical ways.

Sorry. In my book genitals that match mine don't trump savage war mongering and fear-based campaigning on the part of a female candidate, I don't care who she is. Clinton and her campaign are playing to the same reptilian fear-centers of the brain so faithfully targeted by right-wing Repubs and neocons. And women over a certain age who should know better are supporting that in large numbers? It boggles the mind.

Photos by AP.

Technorati Tags:Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Pennsylvania, Karl Rove, John McCain, George Bush, feminism, Democrats, primaries, women, war, militarism

PA Prez Primary Day Here at Last

UPDATE: After leading just a few weeks ago by 20 points, Clinton's lead was cut to about 10% as the final results trickle in. She "won," as expected, but she didn't win by enough to change the basic math in this race.
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Here's one place you'll find PA results starting at 6:00 PM our time tonight, when the polls close. Take a deep breath.

It seems like an eternity since the last contest in the Dem presidential nomination race was held, although it's been only six weeks or so. Six long weeks filled with slash and burn campaigning from the Clinton camp, innumerable rallies and town halls, an ABC debate on nothingness and a daily trickle of superdelegates to Obama.

The math is as daunting as ever for Clinton. Unless she wins Pennsylvania by 20 or so points, she won't make a meaningful gain in pledged delegate or popular vote totals. Even if such a miracle were to occur, she'd still have to win all the remaining contests by significant margins to get close to Obama's numbers. Not likely. No, as before today's contest, Clinton's only path to the nomination would be to convince a huge number of superdelegates that Obama is "unelectable" and that they should annoint her as the nominee despite all evidence to the contrary.

The trad media likes to pretend there's still a horse race going on, but the horse race was over long ago according to the metrics that matter. The only thing at issue is when -- not if -- Clinton will give in and admit defeat. If she wins by 10 points or so in PA today, she'll convince herself this means she should stay in the race because she has "momentum, Certainly not momemtum towards a victory by the numbers, but momentum enough to permit her to raise enough funds to keep bashing Obama with GOP talking points and imagery as the months drag on with McCain out there on his own.

Given the realities in play, I don't think we can completely discount the possibility that her campaign's new goal is to try and damage Obama so profoundly that he'll lose in November, thus giving her another chance to run for prez in 2012. What else can we think when she's fallen to the level of using trademark Repub fear tactics to the point of using an image of Osama bin Laden in her closing ad in PA? I find it very sad and disturbing.

Technorati Tags:Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Pennsylvania, Democrats, primaries

OMG: Naked Lapels Shock Viewers of ABC's This Week

George Stephanopoulos and John McSame on today's This Week on ABC, sans flag pins on their lapels. What are we to make of this after last week's ABC debate that made a candidate's decision to wear or not to wear a flag pin on a lapel one of the defining critieria we should consider in choosing a president this year? And why wasn't Johnny badgered about why he wasn't wearing one? (h/t Crooks and Liars)

Then again, maybe we should pay more attention to this kind of story about the Repub prez nominee and his history of temper tantrums and rants.

Technorati Tags:John McCain, ABC, This Week, flag pins, George Stephanopoulos, McCain temper

NM Congressional Districts Elect Pledged Delegates to Denver Convention

Crowd gathering at National Hispanic Cultural Center

See the entire photo album on this event at Flickr. UPDATE: Also see this diary at Daily Kos that reports on what happened in NM-03 and has some terrific photos.

Here's the official list of winners in all three CDs.

Today a Democratic Party convention to elect pledged delegates to the DNC Convention was held in each of our state's three Congressional Districts. Excited Democrats again turned out in droves. I attended the packed NM-01 convention at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, where members of the State Central Committee and those who had previously registered to vote in the process selected delegates pledged to either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. Attendees signed in as supporters of a certain candidate, and then got to vote for delegates to represent that candidate from among a crowded list of candidates for the slots.

Standing room only before splitting into two caucuses

The crowd hears how the process will work

Obama's NM presidential caucus win on February 5th in CD1 entitled him two female and one male delegate and a male alternate. Clinton's second place finish in the District caucus earned her one male and one female delegate along with a male alternate. There were 62 candidates approved to run for the Clinton delegate slots 53 candidates for Obama's and competition was lively. A number of candidates plastered signs inside and outside the hall and lots of electioneering was evident for several hours before the voting began. The CD1 winners are:

Three of four Obama Winners: Dory Shonagon, Brad Lyua, Pamelya Herndon

Pledged Obama Delegates NM-01
Female Delegates: Dory Shonagon and Pamelya Herndon
Male Delegate: Brad Lyau
Male Alternate: Brian Eagan

Two of three Clinton winners: Terri Holland, Richard Cooley

Pledged Clinton Delegates NM-01
Female Delegate: Terri Holland
Male Delegate: Richard Cooley
Male Alternate: Mark Fleisher

Brad Lyau campaigning at event

Those elected as pledged delegates and alternates will all be representing their candidates at the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August, as will the winners in NM-02 and NM-03.

Pamelya Herndon working the crowd

I don't yet know who won the pledged delegates slots at today's elections held in NM0-02 at the NM Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum and in NM-03 at the Taos Convention Center. If you attended one of these meetings, please report on your event in the comments thread.

Counting the votes on stage for all to see

Next Saturday, the State Central Committee will elect other Convention delegates including those known as PLEO (elected official) and at-large delegates (based on statewide caucus totals), as well as a DNC Committeeman and Committeewoman to serve starting next year. These pledged delegates will be joined by New Mexico's contingent of super (or automatic) delegates who are free to support either candidate at the Convention. As we've learned as we've watched the caucus, primary and delegate election process unfold nationwide, it's a complex undertaking indeed.

New Mexico will have a total of 26 elected pledged delegates at the Denver Convention, including 17 at the district level, 6 at large and 3 PLEOs (filled by party and elected officials). In addition, we'll have 11 unpledged super delegates and 1 unpledged at large, for a total of 38 delegates, plus 4 alternates, or 42 Democrats who will all be traveling to Denver to decide the presidential nominee.

See the entire photo album on this event at Flickr. All photos by M.E. Broderick. Click on photos for larger versions.

Technorati Tags:Democratic Party of New Mexico, Democrats, pledged delegates, NM-01, Albuquerque, New Mexico Barack Obama Hillary Clinton

Lobbyist $$$$ (Updated: Hillary Disses Activists)

UPDATE: A story just broke on Huffington Post about Hillary being highly critical of "Democratic activists" and MoveOn, and blaming them (in other words, us) for her prez campaign woes at a private fundraiser after Super Tuesday. Mindboggling. It obviously bugs DLC Dems that ordinary people are becoming active in the political and election processes. That damned Howard Dean started it all. Read all about it. There's an audio clip too.
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Yes, it's one of the new Obama web ads. But it doesn't mention his name .... By the way, I was at the Dem prez candidate forum at YearlyKos last summer (below) where Hillary uttered her defense of lobbyists statement that's shown in the video. It was astonishing at the time, and I think it still is.

So long ago when Edwards & Kucinich were still in the race

As we move ever closer to Tuesday's Pennsylvania primary, another national poll shows Obama pulling away with a large lead. According to the new Newsweek poll of registered Democrats and Dem leaners:

The survey of 1,209 registered voters found that Obama now leads Clinton by nearly 20 points, or 54 percent to 35 percent, among registered Democrats and those who lean Democratic nationwide. The previous Newsweek poll, conducted in March after Clinton's big primary wins in Ohio and Texas, showed the two Democrats locked in a statistical tie (45 percent for Obama to 44 percent for Clinton). The new poll puts Obama ahead among women as well as men, and voters aged 60 and older as well as younger voters. (For the complete poll data, click here).

One of the more devastating results for Clinton was that a majority of all registered voters now see her as dishonest and untrustworthy. According to the poll, just four in 10 (41 percent) registered voters view the New York senator as honest and trustworthy, while 51 percent think the opposite. This compares with solid majorities of voters who see Obama and McCain as honest and trustworthy (both polled 61 percent).

The results suggest that Clinton was damaged more by being caught in a tall tale about landing in Bosnia under sniper fire than Obama has been by his recent controversies, including the firestorm of criticism provoked by the Illinois senator's remarks that blue-collar voters "cling" to religion, guns and other issues because of their bitterness. In addition, over half (53 percent) of voters say they believe Obama shares their values, more than those who say the same thing about Clinton (47 percent) or McCain (45 percent).

Maybe it's because of responses like this one by Obama:

Post debate in Raleigh, NC

Technorati Tags:Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, lobbyists

Worst. Debate. Ever.

Greg Mitchell at Editor & Publisher pretty much about tonight's prez debate:

In perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years, ABC News hosts Charles Gibson and George Stephanopolous focused mainly on trivial issues as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama faced off in Philadelphia.

Not one question was asked about:

• health care
• the worldwide economic crisis
• Darfur
• China
• Pakistan
• worldwide rioting over food
• the housing market collapse
• massive trade deficits
• inflation
• Afghanistan
• torture planned in the White House

• FISA
• collapse of the U.S. dollar
• education
• trade policy
• renewable energy
• global warming
• immigration
• job losses
• unions
• civil liberties
• government checks and balances
• infrastructure collapse
• where the trillion dollars for the Iraq occupation will come from
• Supreme Court appointments
• repairing damages to U.S. Constitution
• Guantanamo
• Geneva Convention

I could go on. But what we did learn was that pompous Charlie Gibson is incensed at any hint that capital gains taxes may rise even a smidgeon. In an odd move, the moderators abandoned playing off the results of their network's own polling. The just released ABC News/WaPo poll barely came up, probably because the numbers almost all amounted to devastating news for Hillary's campaign. Only one question on the polling, having to do with Hillary's trust numbers being bad, was broached during the two-hour "debate."

The questions were mostly trivial "gotcha" attempts that had nothing to do with the challenges that face our nation and our planet. Way too many focused on Obama and his alleged a) lack of patriotism, b) dislike of the U.S. flag, c) former pastor, d) serving on a well respected board with an ex-60s radical. Dead horses beaten some more. Nonissues raised to prominence. Near total neglect of anything that matters to ordinary people facing rising challenges from every angle.

Of course when you have the questions being asked by the former happy talk co-host of Good Morning America and one of the Clinton administration's senior advisors, you have a scene ready made for disaster. What we got was a video version of the National Enquirer. We all deserve better.

Last point: What I wanna know is why Hillary is never asked why she doesn't wear a flag pin. She has lapels just like Obama. And they're bare!

UPDATE: Apparently I'm not alone in bagging ABC's handling of this debate. Truly scathing:

• Tom Shales, Washington Post
• Will Bunch, Philadelphia Daily News

Technorati Tags:Democrats, presidential debate, ABC News, George Stephanopoulos, Charlie Gibson, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Philadelphia

Your Morning Read: Pre-Debate ABC/WaPo Prez Poll

(Click on image for larger version.)

New national polling by ABC News and the Washington Post shows Obama ahead of Clinton now in almost every major category. The new numbers should provide some fodder for tonight's Dem candidate debate in Philadelphia, which will air on ABC at 6:00 PM Mountain time. Tonight's debate is the last chance for the candidates to face off before next Tuesday's Pennsylvania primary.

Complete Poll, Crosstabs. Excerpt:

Obama Surges on Electability, Challenges Clinton on Leadership
Barack Obama has knocked down one of the three tent poles of Hillary Clinton’s campaign for president, surging ahead of her as the candidate Democrats see as most likely to win in November. He’s challenging her on leadership as well, leaving only experience as a clear Clinton advantage in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll.

On the eve of their debate before the Pennsylvania primary next week, Democrats by a 2-1 margin, 62-31 percent, now see Obama as better able to win in November – a dramatic turn from February, when Clinton held a scant 5-point edge on this measure, and more so from last fall, when she crushed her opponents on electability.

The poll finds other pronounced problems for Clinton. Among all Americans, 58 percent now say she’s not honest and trustworthy, 16 points higher than in a pre-campaign poll two years ago. Obama beats her head-to-head on this attribute by a 23-point margin.

The number of Americans who see Clinton unfavorably overall has risen to a record high in ABC/Post polling, 54 percent -- up 14 points since January. Obama's unfavorable score has reached a new high as well, up 9 points, but to a lower 39 percent.

The ABC/WaPO phone poll was conducted on April 10-13 among a random national sample of 1,197 adults, including 643 Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents. The results from the full poll have a margin of error of plus or minus 3%; the Democratic sample has an error margin of 4%.

In the national Gallup daily tracking poll, Obama has recently held a steady lead of about 10 points vs. Clinton. The latest numbers show Obama besting Clinton 51% to 40% in the April 12-14 average.

In Pennsylvania, the most recent LA Times/Bloomberg poll, conducted 4/10-14, shows Clinton leading Obama by only 5 points, 46-41% (MoE 4%). Some other polls show a wider margin for Clinton. However, a new Public Policy Polling survey, conducted April 14-15 in Pennsylvania, has Obama edging Clinton 45% to 42%, the third week in a row the poll has showed a statistical tie.

In other words, the 24/7 trash talking by pundits and the Clinton camp about Obama's "bitter" comment doesn't seem to be making much of a dent, if any, in Obama's popularity with voters.

Technorati Tags:Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, polling, Pennsylvania debate, ABC News/Washington Post Poll, Gallup