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Obama-McCain contest could come down to … Montana?
By Scott Shepard | Thursday, June 19, 2008, 03:37 PM
Barack Obama’s campaign has shown an unusual fascination with Montana, even though the state has only three electoral votes.
Obama has an up-and-running organization in the state already, even though it has voted Democratic in only one of the last 10 presidential campaigns. And last week, Obama tapped Jim Messina, the chief of staff of Sen. Max Baucus, Montana’s senior senator, to be the chief of staff for his presidential campaign.
“Well, there are some credible 269-269 scenarios,” said Obama communications chief Robert Gibbs, referring to a possible tie in the Electoral College. In such a case, even Montana, with just three electoral votes, could put Obama over the 270-vote threshold and make him the 44th president of the United States.
“Besides,” Gibbs added, “it’s really beautiful out there.”
But it could also be guns.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) has begun warning voters that during the Democratic presidential primaries, Obama tried to hide anti-gun positions “behind vague statements of support for ‘sportsmen’ or … claims of general support for the right to keep and bear arms.”
One way to counter such charges was for Obama to reach into the office of Baucus, perhaps the most pro-gun Democratic member of the Senate, and make Messina the chief of staff of his entire presidential campaign.
The trouble is, however, that before he worked for Baucus, Messina was chief of staff to Democratic Rep. Carolyn McCarthy of New York, the most anti-gun member of Congress. McCarthy was propelled into politics by the gun control issue in 1993 after a crazed gunman opened fire on a Long Island Rail Road commuter train, killing her husband and seriously injuring her son.
With Messina as his campaign chief of staff, Obama could also run into questions about his opposition to the Bush tax cuts of 2001, which, just this week, the presumptive Democratic nominee criticized as “rewarding wealth” at the expense of middle class taxpayers.
Baucus was the key Democratic defector to help pass the Bush tax cuts. And Messina, in a subsequent interview, was asked to name the most important bipartisan accomplishment of Baucus. Messina replied: “Senator Baucus was the chief reason bipartisan tax cut legislation was enacted in 2001.”
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/washington/washington/
entries/2008/06/19/obamamccain_con.html
By Scott Shepard | Thursday, June 19, 2008, 03:37 PM
Barack Obama’s campaign has shown an unusual fascination with Montana, even though the state has only three electoral votes.
Obama has an up-and-running organization in the state already, even though it has voted Democratic in only one of the last 10 presidential campaigns. And last week, Obama tapped Jim Messina, the chief of staff of Sen. Max Baucus, Montana’s senior senator, to be the chief of staff for his presidential campaign.
“Well, there are some credible 269-269 scenarios,” said Obama communications chief Robert Gibbs, referring to a possible tie in the Electoral College. In such a case, even Montana, with just three electoral votes, could put Obama over the 270-vote threshold and make him the 44th president of the United States.
“Besides,” Gibbs added, “it’s really beautiful out there.”
But it could also be guns.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) has begun warning voters that during the Democratic presidential primaries, Obama tried to hide anti-gun positions “behind vague statements of support for ‘sportsmen’ or … claims of general support for the right to keep and bear arms.”
One way to counter such charges was for Obama to reach into the office of Baucus, perhaps the most pro-gun Democratic member of the Senate, and make Messina the chief of staff of his entire presidential campaign.
The trouble is, however, that before he worked for Baucus, Messina was chief of staff to Democratic Rep. Carolyn McCarthy of New York, the most anti-gun member of Congress. McCarthy was propelled into politics by the gun control issue in 1993 after a crazed gunman opened fire on a Long Island Rail Road commuter train, killing her husband and seriously injuring her son.
With Messina as his campaign chief of staff, Obama could also run into questions about his opposition to the Bush tax cuts of 2001, which, just this week, the presumptive Democratic nominee criticized as “rewarding wealth” at the expense of middle class taxpayers.
Baucus was the key Democratic defector to help pass the Bush tax cuts. And Messina, in a subsequent interview, was asked to name the most important bipartisan accomplishment of Baucus. Messina replied: “Senator Baucus was the chief reason bipartisan tax cut legislation was enacted in 2001.”
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/washington/washington/
entries/2008/06/19/obamamccain_con.html