TAMPA, Fla. – Barack Obama criticized likely general election rival John McCain yesterday where it could hurt most – the Arizona senator's reputation as a champion of ethics. Hillary Rodham Clinton, meanwhile, raised the possibility she might carry her fight to the Democratic convention floor.
With more superdelegate endorsements after Kentucky and Oregon primaries the day before, Obama was 64 delegates short of the 2,026 needed to get the nomination.
The Illinois senator confidently detoured from the three remaining Democratic primary states – Puerto Rico, Montana, South Dakota – to campaign in Florida, a crucial state in the November election. He also kept his focus on McCain, the Republicans' certain nominee in the fall.
Obama said McCain has lost faith with his own good-government principles. Ten years ago, Obama said, McCain proposed barring registered lobbyists from working for candidates' campaigns. “John McCain then would be pretty disappointed in John McCain now, because he hired some of the biggest lobbyists in Washington to run his campaign,” Obama told a crowd of 15,000 in Tampa.
McCain, R-Ariz., recently instituted a new no-lobbyist policy on his campaign, forcing out some top aides.
With McCain fundraising in California, campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds responded: “Despite his own rhetoric, Senator Obama still refuses to disclose the list of lobbyists advising his campaign. What is Senator Obama hiding?”
Clinton, too, was in Florida, pressing to narrow her gap with Obama by having delegates counted from its renegade January primary.
Democratic rule-makers are to meet May 31 to decide whether to count delegates from Florida and Michigan; the states were stripped of their delegates as punishment for holding early primaries in violation of party rules. Clinton won both states, but Obama had his name removed from Michigan's ballot and neither candidate campaigned in those states.
In an interview yesterday with The Associated Press, Clinton said she is willing to take her fight to seat Florida's and Michigan's delegates to the convention if the two states want to go that far.
Asked whether she would support the states if they appeal an unfavorable rules committee decision to the June 3 convention floor, the former first lady – who is trailing Obama by almost 200 delegates – replied: “I will, because I feel very strongly about this.”
Meanwhile, Obama entered May with more than $37 million in campaign funds. McCain had nearly $22 million in hand. Clinton was in the red.
Obama let his fundraising slow only slightly last month and collected $31 million. Clinton raised more than $21 million, but was saddled with debt. And McCain, in his best monthly performance yet, hauled in $18 million.
All three candidates filed their April fundraising reports Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission.
