2008 Elections

Monday, Apr 21, 2008 08:58 PDT

War Room

Campaign roundup

Clinton ahead in Pennsylvania polls; Scaife and Moore make their endorsements.

By Steve Benen

Today's installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn't generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:

So, what do the latest polls in Pennsylvania say about tomorrow's primary? Quinnipiac has Clinton up by 7 percentage points (51-44); Strategic Vision (R) also has her up by 7 (48-41); Mason-Dixon has her up by 5 (48-43); Zogby has her up by 6 (48-42); ARG has her up by 13 (54-41); Suffolk shows her leading by 10 (52-42); and SurveyUSA has her up by 6 (50-44). Public Policy Polling (D) is the oddball, showing Obama leading by 3 (49-46).

On Saturday, for the first time in several weeks, the Gallup Poll Daily tracking report showed Clinton taking a narrow, 1-point lead over Obama. By Sunday, however, Obama had reclaimed the lead, 47 percent to 45 percent.

The Clinton campaign still has some financial trouble: "Financial reports released to the Federal Election Commission around midnight this morning show that Clinton raised around $20 million in March and had roughly $8 million available at the beginning of April for use during the primary. But the campaign also reported debts of $10.3 million, which makes it in the red leading into contests in Indiana and North Carolina."

Most of Pennsylvania's newspapers have endorsed Obama, but Clinton picked up the support Sunday of the right-wing Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, owned and published by Richard Mellon Scaife, who helped finance the anti-Clinton crusade of the 1990s. (Just as an aside, the paper said it supports Clinton in the "Democrat [sic] primary." Even when endorsing, conservatives have to use the grammatically incorrect name for the party.)

Bloomberg takes a look at what it would take for Clinton to win the Dems' popular vote: "Clinton would need a 25-point victory in Pennsylvania, plus 20-point wins in later contests in West Virginia, Kentucky and Puerto Rico. Even that scenario assumes Clinton, 60, would break even in Indiana, North Carolina, South Dakota, Montana and Oregon -- a prospect that's not at all certain. More than just big margins, Clinton would need record voter turnout too."

Michael Moore endorsed Obama.