Some say choice of VP could clinch their vote
As speculation swirls about possible running mates, a new poll suggests that the choices made by John McCain and Barack Obama may matter more in this election than usual.
A CBS News survey released yesterday, showing Obama with a 45 percent to 39 percent national lead, reported that 30 percent of voters said the vice presidential pick will have "a great deal of influence" on their vote - double the percentage who said so in the 2000 election. Nearly half of the 13 percent of voters calling themselves undecided said that the choice of running mate will make a difference.
On the veep watch yesterday, Obama campaigned in Indiana with Senator Evan Bayh, who supported Hillary Clinton during the Democratic primaries but is believed to be under consideration by Obama.
Obama called Bayh "one of the finest US senators that we have." Bayh said Obama would bring "a breath of fresh air" to the nation's capital.
On the Republican side, Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota appeared to veer off message a little in an appearance in Arlington, Va., before GOPAC, a Republican political action committee that helps find party candidates.
"Say what you will about Barack Obama," Pawlenty said, "people gravitate when you have something positive to say. People want to follow hopeful, optimistic, civil, decent leaders. They don't want to follow some negative, scornful person."
He added that McCain has been positive as well, and later criticized Obama's experience and résumé in comparison with McCain.
GLOBE STAFF AND ASSOCIATED PRESS
In a video posted on YouTube and cited by ABC News yesterday, Clinton told a group of supporters last week that she is looking for a way for her delegates to be heard. "We're trying to work all this through with the Obama campaign and the DNC," she said.
Clinton also said that Democrats would come out of the convention stronger and more unified if her delegates believed they had been treated well. "It's a catharsis," she said.
In a video posted on her website yesterday, she was more circumspect, urging supporters to check back on her website to find out her convention plans. Clinton, who would have to ask in writing to be nominated, is scheduled to stump on Obama's behalf tomorrow in Las Vegas and Aug. 21 in South Florida.
Some of her loyalists are already planning a march in Denver on Aug. 26, the 88th anniversary of women's suffrage and the day Clinton is expected to give the keynote speech. The grass-roots group is called 18 Million Voices, a nod to the number of votes Clinton won during the Democratic primaries.
FOON RHEE
The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press reported yesterday that 48 percent of respondents said they have been hearing too much about Obama in the media. Only 10 percent said they have been hearing too little about Obama. On the flip side, the respondents want to see more of McCain; 38 percent said they have been hearing too little about McCain, while 26 percent said they have been hearing too much.
FOON RHEE
Mazen Asbahi started as the campaign's outreach coordinator on July 26, and he resigned from the position in a letter to the campaign Monday.
He said he was stepping down "to avoid distracting from Barack Obama's message of change."
Asbahi said in his letter that he had served on the board of the Dow Jones Islamic Index Fund for a few weeks, but resigned "as I became aware of public allegations against another member of the board."
The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the other board member during Asbahi's tenure in 2000 was Jamal Said, imam at a fundamentalist mosque in Illinois.
The Justice Department named Said as an unindicted co-conspirator in the racketeering trial last year of several alleged Hamas fund-raisers.
The case ended in a mistrial.
Dawud Walid, head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Michigan, said Asbahi was a victim of "baseless smears."
"This incident just shows how Islamophobic the political climate is right now," Walid said.
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