• The Obama campaign has made a conscious effort to retool their public strategy for reaching voters at events and on the trail after the long primary fight with Hillary, ditching the “energizing” mega-rallies with tens of thousands of rabid supporters in favor of more intimate meetings with a handful of people who aren’t necessarily die-hard Obama-maniacs. During his “economy tour” through several states where he lost big to Hillary and where he is struggling to get ahead of McCain in the polls, Obama has been made to focus much of his time on reaching out to individuals as a show of empathy and a push-back against conservative attacks on him as “elitist” and “out of touch.” He’s also tweaked his stump speech at the larger events to specifically nail McCain on such close-to-home topics as gas prices and the housing crisis (although Jim Johnson’s resignation from the vetting team stopped that chatter recently) - topics that directly harm the working class voters who loved HRC and are now teetering on the brink of defecting to McCain. This is what is different about the Obama team: They are constantly thinking on their feet and making the changes necessary to pull their candidate out of potentially big trouble.We’ll see if it holds up through the summer…
  • Just as former Virginia Gov. and top candidate for Obama’s Veep slot Mark Warner decides to bow out of the running and launch a Senate bid…
  • …the biggest favorite not named Hillary gives strong indications that he wants his name back in consideration. John Edwards made a rare post-primary appearance on ABC’s “This Week” today and refuted his earlier comments from Spain where he talked down the notion of accepting another VP bid. Edwards didn’t flat out say he wants the job, but he went in the other direction from his Spain remarks and noted that he would “take anything he (Obama) asked me to think about seriously…” It was always clear that Edwards would be the best running mate for Obama out of the available crop (meaning; no crazy names like Al Gore in the mix…) - he’s a white Southerner, brings political experience to the table and is popular with working class voters around the country - but not so clear if he would want a second shot at a grueling and mostly thankless job. Now that he’s back, could the search be over?
  • The McCain campaign has talked a big game about going after disgruntled female Hillary supporters furious with the “sexist” Obama as Dem nominee, but now they have finally gone out to hunt these elusive voters. McCain himself met privately with under 100 of what were called former Hillary supporters - they must have all been grass roots folks because there were no big names from the campaign there - and made his pitch with a hearty dose of spin. These women are all still liberals (they backed Hillary, after all) and would apparently like to stick to their ideology. So when one member of the group “Party Unity, My Ass - PUMA - queried a McCain staffer at the event made available for Q&A about JMac’s stance on gay marriage, the staffer replied, “the same as Kerry’s position.”
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