Lots of news in California and it all seems to be good news for Barack Obama as Clinton's inevitability campaign in California is being called into question.
First off: Obama's California campaign isn't going to take any crap from Bill Clinton:
With little more than a week to go before the Feb. 5 primary here, the California campaign of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama campaign has officially put former President Bill Clinton -- and by extension, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton -- on notice that the kind of negative campaigning that went down in South Carolina will be met with force in the Golden State.
Camp Obama announced the formation of its ''Truth Squad'' effort here Sunday, headed by the likes of Reps. George Miller, Barbara Lee, Zoe Lofgren, Linda Sanchez and Adam Schiff, along with San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris and LA Federation of Labor Secretary-Treasurer Maria Elena Durazo; the team held a conference call with California reporters to herald the effort.
''We're concerned here in California that we're about to get inundated by the same kind of negative ads that we saw in South Carolina,'' Miller told reporters.
So now, the aim of the California Obama effort is ''to get rid of the politics of the past'' -- and to mount an offensive effort against what he called ''weeks of misleading attacks, negative ads and negative attacks'' by the Clinton camp against the Illinois Senator. ''Whatever they seek to use, we seek to counter,'' Miller said.
Does Bill Clinton help or hurt in California? Seems everyone has an opinion on this one:
Asked about the role of President Clinton - who's still highly popular in Democratic-leaning California, Miller suggested that ''there's probably a major reassessment taking place inside the Clinton campaign'' regarding the effectiveness of the former president's role as surrogate-in-chief.
''There's a pretty strong concensus that he was being used to undermine Barack Obama, to try and undermine his campaign - and it backfired,'' Miller said. ''Seventy percent (of South Carolina voters) thought the Clinton campaign was negative, and they didn't like it.''
Studio hatchet-man against the WGA Chris Lehane gives the Clinton surrogate stance:
"You don't tug on Superman's cape - and you don't mess around with a popular Democratic president whose poll numbers are in the stratosphere among Democratic grassroots voters," laughed Chris Lehane, the Democratic strategist who is supporting Clinton in the 2008 presidential race. "California has historically been Clinton country - and it will continue to be Clinton country."
But pollster Phil Trounstine, who heads the San Jose State University Survey and Policy Research Institute, said the contentious lead-up to South Carolina's primary could come back to haunt Clinton, her husband and the Democratic Party as well.
The results in South Carolina a clearly haunting Clinton in the press. Via Newseum, here's how Barack Obama's victory over Hillary Clinton in South Carolina is playing above the fold in today's California's Sunday papers:
Bakersfield Californian: Obama routs Clinton in S.C.
North County Times (Escondido): Obama romps in South Carolina
LA Daily News: Obama defeats Clinton in rout in S. Carolina
LA Times: Obama easily captures strongest win yet in S.C.
Modesto Bee: Obama crushes Clinton in South Carolina primary
Sacramento Bee: Obama's big win sets up next fight
San Diego Union-Tribune: Obama thrashes rivals in S.C.
San Francisco Chronicle: OBAMA WINS BIG IN S. CAROLINA
Orange County Register: Obama runs away with S.C.
Contra Costa Times: Obama nets huge win in S. Carolina
In the endorsement game, Obama scored the Chronicle endorsement, and Xavier Becerra. Meanwhile Clinton lost the California Teacher's Association endorsement:
CTA’s elites apparently got a big wake up call when their effort to crown Hillary as the official choice of California’s teachers was upended by overwhelming resistance from rank and file Obama supporters. The vaunted pre Feb 5th CTA endorsement – which was widely expected to go Clinton’s way – appears to now be postponed to April (when we will all be on the edge of our seats, I am sure).
The Hillary repudiation at CTA is more than just inside baseball. This could portend an erosion of support among powerful constituencies that are supposed to be the bedrock of Clinton’s California operation. Add this development with Obama’s superior California ground game, and a big bounce coming out of South Carolina, and he may have enough steam to pull off a victory in the Golden state.
In a must-read, Frank Russo reminds everyone:
Message to all California Democrats—and independents (decline to state voters) who can vote in the California Democratic primary: Your vote matters. Delegates will be elected locally, so regardless of who is ahead or behind in the polls statewide, don’t become over confident or discouraged. Get out and vote—as if your vote will determine who the nominee and most probably the next President will be. This is an election where your vote counts, as much as any in recent memory, and I wouldn’t take anything for granted.
Indeed. Who knows where things really stand in the CA right now, especially in light of South Carolina polls totally missing Obama's support:
The polls had a bad day on Saturday in grossly underestimating the support for Barack Obama, though they nailed the Clinton and Edwards votes quite well. Not one poll came within the ten-ring, and the final poll of the primary understated Obama's vote by nearly 15 points. Several polls flirted just inside the 20-ring, and one hapless example of the consequences of poor question wording, the Clemson University poll, understated Obama support by nearly 30 points. The Clemson poll allowed 36% to remain "undecided", hopelessly biasing downward their estimates of candidate support, but especially so for Obama.
Speaking of which, the (cell-phone only) youth vote tripled turnout in South Carolina.