Obama’s Ickes: Matt Nugen Racks Barack Delegates
Political Director Has ‘Relationship With 80 to 86 Percent’ of Superdelegates
Matthew Nugen is not supposed to exist.
Mr. Nugen, Barack Obama’s 36-year-old national political director, is also a shadow operative charged with winning over individual superdelegates, something the Obama campaign is officially not interested in doing, since they also say that superdelegates should be guided by the will of voters instead of come-ons from campaigns.
The Obama campaign has thus far kept him out of the media spotlight, and when they caught wind of an interview with The Observer that he had arranged and confirmed via telephone and e-mail, Mr. Nugen vanished.
And yet he—along with an aggressive superdelegate-outreach program at the Obama campaign—is for real.
“Matt is the unassuming guy that you don’t realize he’s got stroke until you see Obama come in, and he is right there,” said Moses Mercado, an Obama supporter and superdelegate who is friends with Mr. Nugen.
“We don’t have the ex-president stuff, and it’s hard to get Obama to make some of the calls,” said Mr. Mercado. “So a lot of them will say, ‘Look, I’ll wait for the call from the senator,’ but you’ll get either [campaign manager David] Plouffe or Matt to make the call and seal the deal.”
“They have a two-pronged approach,” Tom Ochs, a Democratic consultant with the firm McMahon Squier Lapp, said about the Obama campaign. “Publicly, they don’t want superdelegates to overrule the will of the voters in the form of pledged delegates. Privately, they have built this insurance policy of superdelegates who they continue to roll out relentlessly, day after day. Matt is central to that effort.”
The Obama campaign’s painstakingly low-profile superdelegate counter is, in a way, the perfect symbol for their surreptitious superdelegate operation.
Mr. Nugen is an African-American political operative from St. Louis who worked on Joe Lieberman’s presidential campaign and then at the Democratic Leadership Council, before returning to the DNC, where he counted noses for Howard Dean’s successful 2005 bid for chairman.
Now Mr. Nugen and the Obama campaign are up against an effort headed by longtime Clinton loyalist and Democratic über-operative Harold Ickes; the Clinton team is counting on the Democratic VIP’s with an automatic seat at the convention to hand Mrs. Clinton the White House.
Ivan Holmes, the chairman of the Democratic Party of Oklahoma, knows what it is like to be courted by the Clinton campaign’s aggressive superdelegate outreach program.
First, he received a warm phone call from Bill Clinton. Then, Hillary Clinton called a couple days before the March 4 Ohio and Texas primaries.
“She said she thought it was going to go down to the end and that the superdelegates would decide it,” said Mr. Holmes. “Then she said, ‘You know, I did win in Oklahoma.’ She just made the statement that since she did so well, she hoped that I’d consider supporting her.”
After the candidate’s off-message appeal to his sense of loyalty to his state’s decision—the Clinton campaign has laid groundwork for the superdelegate push by encouraging them to decide independent of what their state’s voters do—Mr. Holmes received another call, just a few days ago, from a Clinton campaign staffer targeting his independent streak.
“She asked an interesting question,” Mr. Holmes said of the campaign staffer, whose name he said he did not remember. “If the pledged delegate difference was 50, 60 or 80 delegates, would that make a difference in who you voted for?’ I told her it wouldn’t and that I never vote on who I think is going to win.”
The Clinton campaign currently holds an estimated 255 committed superdelegates to Mr. Obama’s 214.
Mr. Nugen’s friends think he could give the Obama operation an edge.
“Matt’s an emerging Harold Ickes,” said Brad Queisser, vice president and managing director at the government relations firm mCapitol Management.
Mr. Queisser, a former DNC official, came to Washington from Nebraska in 1998 and met Mr. Nugen who was then working in the office of the secretary at the DNC. Next Page >
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OBAMA IS THE PROJECTED WINNER IN TEXAS (despite Bill's lies).
The Clintons will do ANYTHING to "STEAL" the nomination. --- Look at what Clinton-surrogate Grealdine Ferraro did with 'race-baiting.'
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OBAMA IS THE PROJECTED WINNER IN TEXAS (despite Bill's lies).
The Clintons will do ANYTHING to "STEAL" the nomination. --- Look at what Clinton-surrogate Grealdine Ferraro did with 'race-baiting.'
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When people find out the complete details of what Ferraro said, Obama will get a backlash of disapproval for making such a big deal about it. Kind of like the backlash he'll get when Hillary releases her taxes and the public finds nothing there and wonders again why the politics from him and come to realize that's what he's been all along.
The writing is on the wall, the race for the superdelegates is in full swing..Wonder who's gonna win that one. Hillary 2008 2012
Will NEVER vote for the Clintons in any elections. They are racists and elitist -- I'm a 42 year old white female lifetime delegate. Sitting this one out if the DNC allows Hillary to steal the election. Hope they are listening because I know a lot of people feel the same way. Obama has already won the nomination by all counts. He is the better candidate. DNC, do not fold on this one, or you'll help elect McCain!
Will NEVER vote for the Clintons in any elections. They are racists and elitist -- I'm a 42 year old white female lifetime delegate. Sitting this one out if the DNC allows Hillary to steal the election. Hope they are listening because I know a lot of people feel the same way. Obama has already won the nomination by all counts. He is the better candidate. DNC, do not fold on this one, or you'll help elect McCain!
I watch with amazement how the Clintons have defined and re-defined the race for the democratic nomination with tacit help from the media. First they pick and chose which state is important and which one is not. Then, they say, the pledge delegate lead does not really matter, then they say, you know, the state we won are more important than the states Obama won. They blatantly are trying to change the rules they signed onto before the contest in the middle of the game. What’s worse, the media has applauded their kitchen sink strategy, while down playing Obama’s lead. They Clintons have convinced the media in this country that other states are no longer important but Pennsylvania and what do we hear from the media, Pennsylvania will define the way forward. Now, if Obama was far behind in the popular vote count, has lost more states like the Clintons, far behind in delegate count, the press would have long buried his candidacy. The media has been most unfair to Obama, with the Clintons shifting the post every time it does not favor them with the help of the media. The world is watching how we conduct our affairs in this country, what is good for one American, is as well good for the other.
Clinton or Obama. Doesn't really matter. Neither of them will beat McCain; many Clinton supporters will not vote for Obama, and vice versa. Plus, there's so much negative voting going on - Obama got lots of votes from Repubs and independents not so much because they like him, but more because they hate Hills. I actually voted for Obama last month in the primary, but admittedly I was caught up in all the hype. Now I'm not even sure why I voted for him.
"If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept." …….The words of Geraldine Ferraro
There is no reason why anyone should take offense or outrage over Geraldine Ferraro’s words. Her words read as fact. Senator Obama is a man who is black and we all know it is a man’s world. Senator Obama is doing very, very well in the states that have a heavy African American population. The news media refers to the states that have a large African American presence as the states that Senator Obama will do well in. They also refer to Senator Clinton doing well in states that have large population of white women who are over 50. Is the media’s reference any different??????
Obama’s campaign people protest too much! The attack from Senator Obama and his advising staff on Geraldine Ferraro will be remembered as unfair. When are the African American’s going to stop pulling the race card? It would have been more eloquent for the Obama advisors to overlook the statement than attack Ferraro.
We now have a glimpse of how it will be if Senator Obama is elected as President. He and his advisers will surly cause more divide in the United State, pointing out what they feel is a racist remark. Let’s hope Obama will not pull the race card again it is becoming very tiring. You can cry wolf only so much and no one is going to listen.
Below are the words from Senator Obama’s church’s web site; “Trinity United Church of Christ”. Are these words coming across as discriminatory? There was no mention if the church would welcome any other nationality than African. How can you stop racism if you are not welling to open your hearts or your church to people other than the African nationality? Our country was founded on bringing people together from all walks of life. This is not what the Trinity United Church of Christ is teaching.
“We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian... Our roots in the Black religious experience and tradition are deep, lasting and permanent. We are an African people, and remain "true to our native land," the mother continent, the cradle of civilization. God has superintended our pilgrimage through the days of slavery, the days of segregation, and the long night of racism. It is God who gives us the strength and courage to continuously address injustice as a people, and as a congregation. We constantly affirm our trust in God through cultural expression of a Black worship service and ministries which address the Black Community.”
Web link to “Trinity United Church of Christ” http://www.tucc.org/about.htm
Sincerely,
jg
Let's be clear......with all the dirt still to come out on BHO, the real scenario is this:
VOTE OBAMA = VOTE MCCAIN
Don't waste your votes.
Now that all this Pastor Wright stuff has broken on to the news , I think Matt Nugen's job has gotten a whole lot tougher...oh yeah, the SDs will really want to stand along side the guy whoes pastor says "God Damn America"! And how do you think the GOP will use this stuff in the Fall? Macain will crush BO. These videos were for sale on the church site...did they think no one would see them??
WHAT ABOUT SENATOR OBAMAS MOTHER WHO BROUGHT HIM ONTO THE WORLD AND INFLUENCED HIM TO BE WHAT HE IS????
WHY IS IT GERALDINE FERRARO AND HILLARY CLINTON HAVE NOT RECOGNIZED THE WORK OF THIS MOTHER ,WHO IS A WHITE AMERICAN WOMAN,WHO HAD TO RAISE HER SON WITHOUT HIS FATHER AND SHE DID SUCH A FINE JOB THAT SHE AND HER SON ARE A SHINING EXAMPLE OF WHAT AN AMERICAN WOMAN CAN DO ????
WHY IS IT NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT IT ????
WHY DID GERALDINE FERRARO CALLED HIM " BLACK"???DOES NOT HIS MOTHERS GENES COUNT AND HER PRINCIPLES WHICH SHE INSTIILED IN HER SON ?
PLEASE,GET ON THIS STORY YOU GUYS!
SEE THAT MR.BRADLEY GETS THIS!
When you look at Senator Obama,as a
Jesus Loving ( do not lie now Jesus is
looking at you!),American what do you see?
A Blackman running for President.? A
White Man running for President? A Black
Man/White man running for President ?
An American Citizen running for
President ?
If you are the American manifested by the United States Constitution then you must agree that seeing Senator Obama in any other way but an AMERICAN CITIZEN RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT then you do America and its Constitution and Senator Obama's Mother a grave injustice and the very notion that you are an AMERICAN must be called in to serious question!
Here is why:
(1) Senator Obama is the
wonderful child of A Black Kenyan father
and a White American mother.
He was abandoned by his father at age
two and raised by His White American mother.She taught
Senator Obama all the great principles which defines
Him as a great American. She did not teach Him to be
black or to be White but to be an decent and up right
Human being and thus a Great and exemplary American.
Senator Obama,no one can ever deny,is the living hard
and courageous work of a great American Lady and she
is White and has been a single mother!
As we look at Senator Obama through the eyes of truth
and the light of His Mother's work with him and for him
we are forced to see quite a few things: (1) The sheer
force of What a Woman can do by herself (2) A tribute
to every single mother who has had to struggle to
raise her children alone with no help from the father.
(3) The viciousness of the old "Washington double talk
and double standards and the old Karl Rove and his
followers and imitators and "Wannabees Karl Rove" type
of Politics as they use their surrogates to substitute
race for issues.(4) How a woman who is supposed to be a
Champion of the causes of women can by what she and
her surrogates and the Karl roves of these United
States have done and have not done marginalizes and
made of little or no importance at the great work of
a Woman who safely carried senator Obama for nine
months,the safely brought him into this world and fed
and nurtured Senator Obama and then when abandoned clung
fast to her son and raised him to be the Senator Obama
we all are so proud of....saying he is simply a black
man running for President ignores and marginalizes all
the work and the pain and tears and the efforts of
this great American mother who simply happens to be
white! It is like taking away from her every thing she
has done and stood for!
it is strange that the Press,the Clinton's,The
Geraldine Ferraro's and all those who pretends to be
for women's right are the very ones who are guilty
of this ....if I am wrong somebody prove me wrong!
I,like Senator Obama,understands by personal
experience what it is like to be abandoned by a
father....and so are quite a lot of Americans today.
As I close I do hope some of my American sisters and
brothers,be they Democrat or Republican or Independent,
shall see Senator Obama in the true light
which is ,An American Democrat Running for President
of the United States.
As we see Senator Obama in the light of Truth His
mother shall be honored as the great American Mother she is!
I have question for all of you who have been seeking to pul a " Willie Horton " on Senator Obama as was done to Mr.Dukakas years ago by some idiot whose claim to fame is that he used dirty means to destroy an upright and decent American Citizen's( he boasted of hanging wILLIE HORTON AROUND DUKAKAS'S NECK) chances to become a US President.
As the American Society gets out of Political Ignorance such behaviour will be looked upon by future generations of Americans as," barbaric! and highly uncivilised" as so many cilvilsed countries look upon that type of behaviour today!
My question is this:
(1) Did Bill Clinton served his country ?
(2) Did Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro served their country ?
(3) Did Dick Cheney served his country ?
(Did Rush Limbaugh ( convicted druggie ) served his country?
Why the Questions ?
I was extremely surprised to learn by google that the Reverend Wright ( I catergorically reject all of his statements which speaks lies about my country),,,yes,
I was extremely surprised to learn that Reverend wright SERVED his country in the Military as a US Marine and a US Navy Man.
He had six years of honorable service!
So how come all of thise who beating him down and pretending to be so " Patriotic" did not serve their country when they had the opportunity while the country was at war ?
Today they are playing "so patrotically aggrieved!"
Let George H Bush,Senator John Kerry,Senator McCain,Colin Powell,Wesley Clarke and those fine Americans who served their country in time of war be offended but not you flipping draft dodgers!
moveon.org took an ad in usa today about a month ago, the purpose of the ad was to warn voters about the super delegates and their ability to throw the election one way or the other.
people familiar with the clinton's less than savory political tricks were/are aware that they will stop at nothing to secure the white house. chris matthews talked about a'knife fight' with the clintons behind closed doors at the convention in august.
trying to keep the super delegates honest in denver is not a bad idea in my estimation.