13% Bam statewide lead; 43% Hispanic

 

Obama beats McCain 13%
in 4-man nationwide relay

Barack up 43% among Hispanic votes 

 
By MITCH R. CONFESOR
OIC (Obamanos-in-Chief)
25 July 2008
 
 
DEMOCRATIC frontrunner Barack Obama has a 13-point lead over Republican contender John McCain in a four-man presidential race including perennial nuisance candidate Ralph Nader and Libertarian progressive Bob Barr, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released on Wednesday.
 
In the four-man race, Obama leads at 48 percent, McCain follows at 35 percent, while Nader trails behind at 5 percent and Barr at 2 percent, the poll said. Meanwhile, in a two-man race, Obama leads McCain by 47 to 41 percent for the November election, or 6 percent unchanged from last month.
 
With an overall error margin of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, the survey of 1,003 registered voters was conducted July 18-21, during the start of Obama’s trip to the Middle East and Europe.
 
But according to a nationwide survey of 2,015 Latinos conducted from June 9 through July 13 by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center, registered Hispanic voters support Obama over McCain by 66 to 23 percent, or a 43-percent lead.
 
It said Obama’s strong showing in the Hispanic survey has represented a sharp reversal in his fortunes from the primaries, when Obama lost the Latino vote to Hillary Clinton by a nearly two-to-one ratio, giving rise to then speculations in some quarters that Hispanics had been disinclined to vote for a black candidate.
 
Yet in the new survey, three times as many respondents said being black would help Obama (32 percent) with Latino voters than those who said it would hurt him (11 percent). The majority (53 percent) said his race would make no difference to Latino voters.
 
Obama is rated favorably by 76 percent of Latino registered voters, making him much more popular among that voting group than McCain (44 percent favorable) and President George Bush (27 percent favorable). Clinton’s ratings among Latino registered voters are 73 percent favorable and 24 percent unfavorable; Obama’s are 76 percent favorable and 17 percent unfavorable.
 
Further, the survey said more than three-quarters of Latinos who reported that they had voted for Clinton in the primaries now say they are inclined to vote for Obama in the fall election, while just 8 percent say they are inclined to vote for McCain.
 
That means that Obama is doing better among Hispanics who supported Clinton than he is among non-Hispanic white Clinton supporters, 70 percent of whom now say they have transferred their allegiance to Obama while 18 percent say they plan to vote for McCain, according to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.
 
Aside from their strong support for Obama, the survey said, Latino voters have moved sharply into the Democratic camp in the past two years, reversing a pro-Republican tide that had been evident among Latinos earlier in the decade.
 
According to the survey, some 65 percent of Latino registered voters now say they identify with or lean toward Democrats, compared with just 26 percent who identify with or lean toward Republicans.
 
This 39-percentage point Democratic identification edge is larger than it has been at any time this decade, the survey said.  It added that as recently as 2006, the partisan gap was just 21 percentage points.

Mac frustrated

 

 

McCain’s foreign policy frustration

 
By JOE KLEIN
TIME, 23 July
 
 
“I HAD the courage and the judgment to say that I would rather lose a political campaign than lose a war,” John McCain said during a Rochester, New Hampshire town meeting on July 22. “It seems to me that Senator Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign.” It was a remarkable statement, as intemperate a personal attack as I’ve ever heard a major-party candidate make in a presidential campaign, the sort of thing that no potential President of the United States should ever be caught saying. (A prudent candidate has aides sling that sort of mud.) It was also inevitable.
 
You could see McCain’s frustration building as Barack Obama traipsed elegantly through the Middle East while the pillars of McCain’s bellicose regional policy crumbled in his wake. It wasn’t only that the Iraqi government seemed to take Obama’s side in the debate over when U.S. forces should leave (sooner rather than later). McCain was being undermined in Washington as well, by his old pal George W. Bush, who seemed to take Obama’s side in the debate about whether to talk to Iran. Bush sent a ranking U.S. diplomat to negotiate with the Iranians on nuclear issues – and also let it be known that a U.S. Interests Section could soon be established in Tehran, the first U.S. diplomatic presence on Iranian soil since the 1979 hostage crisis.
 
In the end, both Obama and McCain seemed to have a piece of the truth about Iraq, but Obama’s truth was larger and more strategic. Obama had been right about the war in the first place. It was a disastrous idea, a phenomenal waste of lives and American credibility that diverted focus from our real enemy, al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan. And Obama was right about the war now: the progress in Iraq was enabling a quicker withdrawal – a plan already hinted at by Bush. And Obama was right about the future: the Iraqis don’t want long-term U.S. bases on their territory, a McCain keystone and the source of his infamous comment about staying in Iraq for 100 years. McCain’s piece of the truth was tactical: he was right about the surge and right about the brilliance of David Petraeus’ battle plan, which had helped quiet down Iraq. McCain was justifiably infuriated that Obama wouldn’t acknowledge that success – indeed, Obama seemed to understand that he was pushing McCain’s buttons, hoping perhaps to elicit McCain’s Vesuvian temper, and in Rochester the eruption occurred.
 
McCain’s greatest claim to the presidency – his overseas expertise – now seems squandered. He has appeared brittle and inflexible, slow to adapt to changes on the ground, slow to grasp the full implications not only of the improving situation in Iraq but also of the worsening situation in Afghanistan and especially Pakistan. Some will say this behavior raises questions about his age. I’ll leave those to gerontologists. A more obvious explanation is that McCain has straitjacketed himself in an ideology focused more on enemies (real and imagined) than on opportunities. “It is impossible to ignore the many striking parallels between [McCain] and the so-called neoconservatives (many of whom are vocal and visible supporters of his candidacy),” writes the Democratic diplomat Richard Holbrooke in a forthcoming issue of Foreign Affairs. “I don’t know if John has become a neocon,” says a longtime friend of the Senator’s, “but he sure has surrounded himself with them.”
 
Neoconservatism in foreign policy is best described as unilateral bellicosity cloaked in the utopian rhetoric of freedom and democracy. McCain hasn’t always sided with the neocons – he opposed torture, wants to close down Guantánamo – but his pugnacity seems a natural fit with theirs. He has been militant on Iran, though even there his statements have been tactical rather than strategic: his tactic is not to talk to the bad guys.
 
The strategic question here is whether to go for regime change or diplomatic engagement. McCain hasn’t said he was for regime change, but he has rattled sabers noisily, joked about bomb-bomb-bombing Iran and surrounded himself with, and been funded by, Jewish neoconservatives who believe Iran is a threat to Israel’s existence. He has also taken a rather exotic line on Russia, which he wants to drum out of the G-8 organization of major industrial powers (a foolish proposal, since none of the other G-8 members would abide by it). His notion of a “League of Democracies” seems a transparent attempt to draw a with-us-or-against-us line in the sand against Russia and China. But that’s the point: McCain would place a higher priority on finding new enemies than on cultivating new friends.
 
The sudden collapse of McCain’s Middle East policy is a stunning event, although McCain’s regional stridency raised questions from the start. This is a long campaign – with, I fearlessly predict, at least one major Obama downdraft to come – but John McCain seems panicked, and in deep trouble now.

OBAMAPOLOOZA! Bam in Berlin

 

Germany goes gaga as crowd
of 200,000 ‘volks’ mob Obama

‘People of Berlin – people of the world
– this is our moment. This is our time.’

 
By MITCH R. CONFESOR
OIC (Obamanos-in-Chief)
24 July 2008
 
 
HIS crowd in Pennsylvania in March was 20,000.  Portland in Oregon expected 30,000 but that crowd in May ballooned to 70,000.
 
Yet the German capital of Berlin on Thursday delivered 200,000 and a rock-star status for Barack Obama, where he declared himself a citizen of the world in an historic speech at the Victory Column in the central Tiergarten park, reminiscent of the equally historic speeches of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan at the Brandenburg Gate.
 
Call it ObamaMania Lovefest, or Obamapolooza.
 
A couple of days earlier, when somebody would take a walk in Berlin, it would seem that Germany was the 51st state of the United States, with joggers in local parks proudly sporting Obama T-shirts, according to a Time web article.
 
It said the trendy expatriate hangout White Trash Fast Food had been turned into an Obama campaign center for a day, while a Berlin magazine had published instructions on how to make little U.S. flags to wave in welcoming the Democratic presidential frontrunner.
 
Meanwhile, a German survey showed that 60 percent had been in favor of Obama speaking at the initial prospected venue, at Brandenburg, and 74 percent would choose Obama if Germans could vote in the U.S. election.
 
For his first stop in Europe, it just showed how the peoples of the world – from Berlin to the Philippines – has always viewed him as the New Generation JFK.

Obama in Kuwait, Iraq

 

COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. United States presidential frontrunner Barack Obama, a Democratic Senator from Illinois, tours Iraq in an American chopper together with U.S. Gen. David Petraeus and Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska.

Asia cheers; GOPs jeer 

 
By MITCH R. CONFESOR
OIC (Obamanos in Chief)
23 July 2008
 
 
MANILA – The Filipinos for Obama Movement, a grassroots-based social networking movement favoring Barack Obama as the next President of the United States, expresses its solidarity with the senator from Illinois in his landmark and historic visit from Europe to Asia as he promotes healing peace and stability in the conflict-affected corners of the world.
 
The Obamanos: Filipinos for Obama (http://carlosjackal24jasonbourne.wordpress.com/) and its affiliates the Philippines-America for Obama Movement or Phil-Am for Bam  (http://jasonhusseinbourne.blogsome.com/ and http://jasonhusseinbourne.blogvis.com/) and the Filipinos Audicious for Change (FACs) support Sen. Obama as he strengthens his foreign policy credentials in his travels to Kuwait, Afghanistan, Iraq, Jordan, and the troubled regions of the border between Israel and Palestinian Territory.
 
Sen Obama, who is visiting these regions with Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and fellow Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, is expected to visit Germany this week to deliver an historic speech on U.S.-German partnership and trans-Atlantic relations in front of the gold-topped Victory Column, or Siegessaeule, in downtown Berlin.
 

Statement on U.S. troops withdrawal
by 2010 follows meeting with Iraqi PM

 
MSNBC News Services
Monday, 21 July 2008
 
 
BAGHDAD – Iraq’s government welcomed Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Monday with word that it apparently shares his hope that U.S. combat forces could leave by 2010.
 
The statement by Iraq’s government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, followed talks between Obama and Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki – who has struggled for days to clarify Iraq’s position on a possible timetable for a U.S. troop pullout.
 
Al-Dabbagh said the government did not endorse a fixed date, but hoped American combat units could be out of Iraq sometime in 2010. That timeframe falls within the 16-month withdrawal plan proposed by Obama, who arrived in Iraq earlier in the day as part of a congressional fact-finding team.
 
“We are hoping that in 2010 that combat troops will withdraw from Iraq,” al-Dabbagh told reporters, noting that any withdrawal plan was subject to change if the level of violence kicks up again.
 
As he departed from talks with al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani in Baghdad’s heavily protected Green Zone, Obama said, “We had a very constructive discussion.” Obama also plans meetings with U.S. military commanders who will outline recent progress in the war he has opposed from the start.
 
This was the third stop on a foreign tour designed to gather information while burnishing the Democratic contender’s foreign policy credentials. National security issues are the one issue area in which Obama trails Republican John McCain in the polls.
 
The Iraqi government comment on troop withdrawals could be embraced by the Obama campaign, but may irritate White House officials. The Bush administration has refused to set specific troop level targets and only last week offered to discuss a “general time horizon” for a U.S. combat troop exit.
 
At the White House on Monday, Press Secretary Dana Perino said she had not heard the latest statement from al-Dabbagh. But responding to the continuing debate over withdrawal, Perino said the U.S. shares the goal of bringing U.S. troops home based on security success.
 
“The key issue is that they understand it will not be arbitrary; it will not be a date that you just pluck out of thin air; it will not be something that Americans say, ‘We’re going to do – we’re going to leave at this date,’ which is what some have suggested,” she said.
 
The Iraqi stance also is another wrinkle in a confusing series of remarks and denials in recent days.
 
Al-Maliki was quoted last week by the German magazine Der Spiegel appearing to endorse Obama’s 16-month timetable. The Iraqi leader’s aides have since said his comments were misunderstood, and he is not taking sides in the U.S. election.
 
The U.S. military also took the unusual step of translating and distributing the Iraqi government reaction to the Der Spiegel article.
 
On-the-ground inspections
 
The meetings with Iraqi officials came after Obama began his first on-the-ground inspection of Iraq since launching his bid for the White House.
 
It marked the second major leg of a war zone tour that opened in Afghanistan. The contrasts in tone and message were distinct.
 
Obama sees the battle against the resurgent Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan as America’s most crucial fight and supports expanding troop strength there to counter a sharp rise in attacks.
 
But Obama had opposed the Iraq invasion and now worries that an open-ended U.S. combat mission here will sap military resources and focus – at a time when Iraq violence has dropped to its lowest level in four years.
 
The Illinois senator – traveling with Senators Jack Reed, Democrat from Rhode Island, and Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska – arrived first in the southern city of Basra, the U.S. Embassy said.
 
Basra is the center for about 4,000 British troops involved mostly in training Iraqi forces. An Iraqi-led offensive begun in March reclaimed control of most of the city from Shiite militia believed linked to Iran.
 
His meetings in Baghdad included one with the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, and other military chiefs outlining the significant gains in recent months against both Shiite militia and Sunni insurgents including al-Qaida in Iraq.
 
McCain: ‘He was wrong about the surge’
 
The White House and military leaders – and many residents of Baghdad – trace the momentum back to last year’s buildup of more than 30,000 troops in areas around Iraq’s capital. McCain has tried to hammer Obama on his criticisms of that military surge.
 
In an interview Monday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” McCain said he hoped Obama would now “have the opportunity to see the success of the surge.”
 
“This is the same strategy that he voted against, railed against,” McCain said. “He was wrong about the surge. It is succeeding and we are winning.”
 
All five surge brigades have left Iraq, but there are still about 147,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq, more than in early 2007.
 
Iraqi leaders also pressed Obama for more clarity on his long-term vision for relations with Washington.
 
Such discussions have added importance since Iraq and U.S. negotiators appear stalled in efforts to reach a long-range pact to define future U.S. military presence and obligations.
 
American diplomats hoped to reach a final accord by the end of the month, but it now seems the goal is a stopgap “bridge” document that would maintain the status for U.S. forces once a U.N. mandate on their presence expires at the end of the year. Such as move would leave the hard bargaining to the next president.
 
Obama arrived following talks Sunday in Kuwait with the emir, Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah. Earlier he met with U.S. military commanders and troops in Afghanistan and held talks with President Hamid Karzai.
 
He is scheduled to go on to Jordan, Israel and European capitals.

Obama in Afghanistan

 

Obama pledges steadfast aid to Afghanistan

 

 Sunday, 20 July 2008
 
 
KABUL – Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama pledged steadfast aid to Afghanistan in talks Sunday with its Western-backed leader and vowed to pursue the war on terror “with vigor” if elected, an Afghan official said.
 
On the second day of an international tour designed to burnish his foreign policy credentials, the Illinois senator and a pair of colleagues held two hours of talks with President Hamid Karzai at his palace in the capital.
 
Obama has chided Karzai for not doing more to build confidence in his government, which remains weak after the ouster of the Taliban in 2001.
 
He made no public comment after the meeting, but said in a written statement that his main purpose was to see U.S troops, thank them for their “extraordinary service” and let them know the United States is proud of them.
 
Obama said he and his colleagues were talking to military and diplomatic leaders, and Afghanistan’s leaders about whether the U.S. has the right strategy and resources to defeat the Taliban and al-Qaida.
 
‘A strong partnership’
 
“Our message to the Afghan government is this: We want a strong partnership based on ‘more for more’ – more resources from the United States and NATO, and more action from the Afghan government to improve the lives of the Afghan people,” Obama and Sens. Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska, and Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island, said in a joint statement. “We need a sense of urgency and determination.”
 
“We need urgency because the threat from the Taliban and al-Qaida is growing and we must act; we need determination because it will take time to prevail,” they said. “But with the right strategy and the resources to back it up, we will get the job done.”
 
The Afghan presidency said Obama’s message was positive.
 
“Sen. Obama conveyed … that he is committed to supporting Afghanistan and to continue the war against terrorism with vigor,” said Humayun Hamidzada, Karzai’s spokesman. He said Democrats and Republicans “are friends of Afghanistan and no matter who wins the U.S. elections, Afghanistan will have a very strong partner in the United States.”
 
Obama has made Afghanistan a centerpiece of his proposed strategy for dealing with terrorism threats. The Illinois senator has said the war in Afghanistan, where Taliban and al-Qaida-linked militants are resurgent, deserves more troops and more attention as opposed to the conflict in Iraq.
 
Both Obama and his Republican rival for the presidency, Sen. John McCain, advocate sending more forces to the country.
 
‘Precarious’ situation
 
In an interview broadcast Sunday in the U.S., Obama described the situation here as “precarious” and “urgent,” and said the U.S. should not wait to begin the planning that would be needed to send in more troops. As troops sent to Iraq as part of the buildup of forces there begin to leave, Obama says one to two brigades should be redirected to Afghanistan to bolster the efforts here.
 
“The situation is precarious and urgent here in Afghanistan and I believe this has to be our central focus, the central front in our battle against terrorists,” Obama told CBS News. “If we wait until the next administration it could be a year before we get those troops on the ground.”
 
While officially part of a congressional delegation on a fact-finding tour that is expected to take him to Iraq, Obama traveled in Afghanistan amid the security accorded a likely Democratic nominee for president rather than a senator from Illinois.
 
Media access to him was limited, and his itinerary was closely guarded.
 
Earlier Sunday, he praised U.S. troops during breakfast with soldiers at Camp Eggers, a heavily fortified military base in the city. “To see young people like this who are doing such excellent work, with so much dedication … it makes you feel good about the country,” Obama said.
 
“I want to make sure that everybody back home understands how much pride people take in their work here and how much sacrifice people are making. It is outstanding,” he said in footage filmed by the military and obtained by The Associated Press.
 
On Saturday, the delegation received briefings from U.S. commanders and a former Afghan warlord who is now the governor of Nangarhar, a province in eastern Afghanistan where militant attacks are spiraling.
 
The trip is Obama’s first overseas since he secured the Democratic nomination last month. He is scheduled to travel through Europe this week and give a speech on the U.S.-German partnership and trans-Atlantic relations in front of the gold-topped Victory Column, or Siegessaeule, in downtown Berlin.
 
Obama advocates ending the U.S. combat role in Iraq by withdrawing troops at the rate of one to two brigades a month while increasing the military commitment to Afghanistan. Obama has proposed sending two more combat brigades – about 7,000 troops – to Afghanistan. McCain, who has criticized Obama for not spending more time in the region, also advocates sending more forces to the war-battered country.
 
U.S. military officials say the number of attacks in eastern Afghanistan, where most of the U.S. forces in the country operate, has increased by 40 percent so far this year compared to the same period last year.
 
Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, told The Associated Press on Saturday that after intense U.S. assaults there, al-Qaida may be considering shifting focus to its original home base in Afghanistan, where American casualties are recently running higher than in Iraq.
 
Obama also has expressed weariness with efforts by Afghanistan’s neighbor, Pakistan, to go after militants in its territory. That frustration may strike a chord with Karzai, who has accused Pakistan’s intelligence service of supporting the Taliban insurgency – a claim Pakistan denies.
 
But Obama also has chided Karzai and his government, saying it had “not gotten out of the bunker” and helped to organize the country or its political and security institutions.
 

The birth of Jason Hussein Bourne

 

 
 
Philippines-America for Obama launched
 
… and JASON HUSSEIN BOURNE is now born!!

 
MANILA – The OBAMANOS Filipinos for Obama Movement strengthens its solidarity with the worldwide online social networks favoring Barack Obama as the next President of the United States, with the launch today on Philippine-American Friendship Day of another affiliate movement on the World Wide Web.
 
Together with its affiliates the Filipinos Audacious for Change and the Pinoy Bloggers for Barack, the group launches the Philippines-America Movement for Obama, in time for today’s July 4th special historical day for Filipinos both in the Land of the Pearl of the Orient and Crade of Noble Heroes and in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.
 
In solidarity with Obama’s Kenyan father’s middle name Hussein, the new Filipino-American movement favoring the Illinois senator as the next U.S. president is launching the birth of Jason Hussein Bourne as the online electronic servant of more than 80 million pro-Obama Pinoys (Filipinos) and Fil-Ams (Filipino-Americans) all over the world.
 
The new alternative weblogs for Obamanos the Filipinos for Obama Movement(http://carlosjackal24jasonbourne.wordpress.com/) are the twin sites of the Phil-Ams for Bam Movement, accessible on http://jasonhusseinbourne.blogvis.com/ and http://jasonhusseinbourne.blogsome.com/.

Painting reddish states to bluish

 
DEMOCRATIC presumptive nominee Barack Obama at a campaign stop in Colorado Springs on July 2, Wednesday.

Jae C. Hong/AP

 

Obama turning red states blue

 
COLORADO SPRINGS (AP) – It will be a red-state Fourth of July for Barack Obama, who hopes to find votes as well as fireworks in places that blue-state Democrats often bypass in presidential elections.
 
During the long holiday weekend, Obama is making an All-American swing from picnics to parades in reliably Republican corners of the country, states such as North Dakota and Montana.
 
Both have voted Republican for the White House by hefty margins for almost four decades. Neither state offers many electoral votes – three apiece – but appearances there give Obama the opportunity to argue that he can appeal to voters of all stripes.
 
“It may have been Woody Allen who said 90 percent of success is showing up,” Obama told a small but enthusiastic crowd of donors at a fundraiser here. “If I didn’t show up, I wouldn’t get many votes around here. If I did show up, I might get something going.”
 
Colorado, where Obama spent Wednesday, has unexpectedly tipped from a GOP stronghold into the battleground column this year.
 
Ohio and Missouri, which went Republican in 2004, got Obama visits this week. A second trip to Missouri is scheduled for Saturday, another swing state.
 
Democrats have made gains in recent gubernatorial and congressional races in the states. Montana’s governor and two U.S. senators are Democrats, and while North Dakota’s governor is a Republican, the state’s two senators are Democrats.
 
Obama noted this sort of evolution in parts of the West – particularly Colorado – to his supporters Wednesday night, saying that it had been a chief topic of his phone conversation with former President Clinton earlier this week.
 
Clinton told him that he doubted he would have won Colorado in 1992 had independent candidate H. Ross Perot not been in the race and drawn a sizable percentage of voters, mostly away from Republican President George H.W. Bush.
 
“You’ve seen a seismic shift in attitudes here,” Obama said.
 
As a result, the campaign is making a serious play for red states like Montana and North Dakota, building up an extensive ground operation, buying television time and sending the candidate in for a visit.
 
Obama’s first two ads of the general election race are running in 18 states – seven of which have gone Republican in the last several elections, including Montana and North Dakota.
 
His visits this week aren’t his first to either state, either. Obama has been to North Dakota once and Montana three times, with more expected.
 
At a Fargo, North Dakota, children’s museum on Thursday, Obama planned to hold a town-hall meeting with veterans to focus on patriotism, service to country and treatment of veterans.
 
Recalling his grandfather’s enlistment after the Pearl Harbor attack, Obama said in prepared remarks, “When our troops go into battle, they serve no faction or party; they represent no race or region. They are simply Americans. They serve and fight and bleed together out of loyalty not just to a place on a map or a certain kind of people, but to a set of ideals that we have been striving for since the first shots rang out at Lexington and Concord.”
 
And for Friday’s Independence Day holiday, a important symbol for Americans and politicians, the campaign chose Butte, Montana.
 
Obama is attending a Fourth of July parade and picnic there with his wife, Michelle, and their two daughters. Friday is his older daughter Malia’s 10th birthday, so a private celebration also is planned in the town.
 
“The people of North Dakota and Montana are independent-minded voters,” Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. “We think we can not only compete, but we can win.”
 
And while Obama was tromping around on GOP turf, his Republican rival John McCain was nowhere near his base of support. McCain spent part of the week overseas, in Colombia and Mexico.
 
He had no plans to campaign on the Fourth of July or all weekend, spending time at his home in Arizona instead.
 
The Obama camp sees Obama’s huge-margin primary wins over former Democratic rival Hilllary Rodham Clinton in Montana and North Dakota – he drew more than 100,000 votes in Montana – as a starting advantage.
 
If nothing else, forcing McCain to compete for those states’ electoral votes could be enough to alter the outcome this fall. Obama is able to spend as much as the record-shattering fundraiser can raise, while McCain is limited by public campaign financing to $85 million.
 
Still, for all the happy talk about turning these and other red states blue, it will be a very difficult battle for Obama.
 
Montana voted for President Bush over Al Gore by a 25 percentage-point margin in 2000 and 21 percentage points in 2004. North Dakota is even tougher, having gone for Bush by more than 27 points in both 2000 and 2004.
 
In Montana, the three top Democrats waited until after the state’s primary on June 3 to endorse Obama, a sign they didn’t want to be his most aggressive and out-front supporters in the conservative state.
 
Gov. Brian Schweitzer has said Obama could be a tough sell for pro-gun Westerners in the state with the highest concentration of gun owners.  He did have one bit of good news for the Obama team: the perception that McCain is soft on the issue.
 
In North Dakota, the last Democratic candidate to carry the state was Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. Only two other Democrats, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, have won the state since 1900.
 
“Barack Obama is wrong for North Dakota. His values are wrong,” Robert M. “Mike” Duncan, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said in a conference call with reporters. “He’s turned out to be an old-fashioned politician.”
 
Even Obama alluded to his difficulties at the fundraiser, and pleaded for help.
 
“I’m going to have to be a better candidate,” he said. “You are going to have to make sure that over the next four months that outside of your family and your work, this is your project.”