Obama’s Campaign Manager gives State of the Race

This morning the Obama campaign held a conference call with national campaign manager David Plouffe to discuss the results from last nights primary and the events for the rest of the primary season. Plouffe stated that the campaign is less than 300 delegates, meaning pledged delegates and super delegates, away from securing the nomination. The end of the primary season will be June 3rd and they expect that day to tell all. He went on to state that Obama has a 30-16 record in victories while showing a very calm and composed and very confident demeanor on an Obama victory.

The main part of the call was a review of the numbers in states. Plouffe went through their victories and did the math to show that Clinton would need overwhelming victories to secure a nomination. The call seemed like a reaffirmation of their place in the race and to display that there is no shakeup in their confidence.

Obama bin Laden? Senator addresses AP luncheon

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama addressed the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the Newspaper Association of America at the Associated Press annual luncheon. Obama's speech took full advantage of his trademark public speaking skills. More critical of his democratic opponent Hillary Clinton in his opening statement than attendees of the luncheon might have expected, Obama talked about how he was not born into any amount of wealth and understood what it took for an American to work hard to succeed.

Obama was critical of the Bush Administration's tax cuts for the wealthy. Addressing the issue of Republican presidential candidate John McCain saying he was "out of touch" with the American people, Obama said that McCain was using his words against him and that he would "like to have" a debate with McCain over who was better able to relate to the American people.

Far and away, the most surprising moment of the luncheon came when the speech moderator accidentally referred to Osama bin Laden as "Obama bin Laden." Addressing a sincerely shocked audience, Obama coolly

corrected the moderator then noted this was not the first time he had heard such a misstatement.

Also, Obama said John McCain was running for "George Bush's third term" and that he was the candidate running "for the American people." McCain, said Obama, did not understand how to solve the foreclosure crisis sweeping through America.

Stressing he wanted to get the public more involved in politics should he become President, Obama said that our country needed to find a balance between protecting individual liberties and protecting our security regarding the Shield Law and FISA.

When addressing the fact that he is often labeled as being "too liberal," Senator Obama said he ran on a platform that is not liberal nor conservative, but one that is focused on uniting society to solve problems. Obama described Hillary Clinton as a "formidable" opponent, and said her reluctance to withdraw from the presidential candidacy race helped attract interest in each campaign and was actually good for the Democratic party.

Presidential campaigns discuss where education fits in

The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) is meeting in Washington, D.C. this week for their 2008 Legislative Conference. They held an education policy discussion this morning with the presidential campaigns. Catherine Brown from Sen. Clinton’s campaign, Phil Handy from Sen. McCain’s campaign, and Steve Robinson from Sen. Obama’s campaign each spoke on their candidate’s top issues for education.

Brown said Clinton has five key priorities for education: strengthening human capital, starting education earlier, raising expectations and standards, improving school infrastructure, and helping at-risk students. She said Clinton is critical of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), and would like to partner with states and the local level of education to provide flexibility while still sticking to the standards.

Handy said McCain believes in the principals that drove NCLB, and believes in assessment, but that assessment numbers should tell the truth and that usable data should be made available for parents and teachers. He said McCain is committed to collaboration with states and local education, and that he is a promoter of home schooling and charter schools.

Robinson said Obama also believes in the goals of NCLB for desegregating data on student achievement and identifying schools for improvement, but prefers a program to make every child a skilled graduate. He said Obama is focused on early learning, increasing research and development, expanding programs that work and using the data from them, revising standards and assessments, and that his number one priority is how to attract, prepare, develop, retain, and reward teachers.

The CCSSO also held a discussion called “Presidential Politics: Where Does Education Fit In?” with Gov. Roy Romer, Chairman of ED in ’08. Romer suggested that the future president of the United States should create a new partnership with the governors and chief school officers from all 50 states to find a way to have correct expectations and measurements for education throughout the country. He said key issues are the quality of teaching and finding a way to assess standards.

Romer said the measurements should be against the top ten nations in the world, since students will be competing with students from those nations for jobs. He said education is important to the solution of the nation’s economic problems, and is at the base of what he said are the four critical issues to the presidential campaign: national security, the economy, health care, and global warming.

Romer said that in this partnership, the state officers will be responsible for going back to their states and implementing the plans while the president will be responsible for funding the design and the administration of the programs.

Clinton conference call address Obama ads

The Clinton campaign had a conference call today to address ads the Obama campaign is running in Pennsylvania. Mark Nevins, the communications director for Pennsylvania, spoke about the ads and wording used in them. Apparently the ads state how Obama never took money from oil companies, yet TJ Rooney, the state party Chairman in Pennsylvania, notes that it’s illegal for any campaign to do so. Rooney also claims that Obama has taken over $200,000 dollars from employees of oil companies. The Clinton campaign has launched a radio campaign in Pennsylvania to refute the comments. Howard Wolfsen, the national communications director for the campaign, added on that while Obama claims he didn’t take money from oil companies, he doesn’t say that no one can.

Clinton, Dodd and others rally for Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act

March of Dimes held a news conference today in conjunction with Hunter's Hope and Save Babies Through Screening Foundation, Inc. Senators Clinton, Dodd and Congressman Thomas Reynolds in addition to pro football hall of fame member Jim Kelly were on hand to show their support and rally for the swift approval of this bill.

"Newborn screening is a vital public health activity that is essential for preventing the devastating consequences of certain metabolic, hormonal, genetic and or functional disorders not clinically recognizable at birth," the act reads. It is estimated that between 16,000 and 20,000 newborns are afflicted "with one of the 29 treatable conditions for which the American College of Medical Genetics recommends screening."

On December 13th, 2007, the Senate approved the bill and tonight, the bill will be presented in front of the full House. "The Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act lays the groundwork for national screening guidelines and authorizes federal support for assistance to states to improve their programs, develop educational materials for parents and health professionals and provide follow-up and treatment for infants when disorder is detected."