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Opinion
Oct. 25, 2007
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

ERIN NEFF: The Clinton machine

ERIN NEFF
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The conventional wisdom still says a lot can happen in the next 80 days to change the outcome of Nevada's Jan. 19 Democratic presidential caucus.

For starters, three key labor groups have yet to weigh in and none of the top three candidates has begun to advertise on television, leaving Sen. Hillary Clinton's lead in the polls just that -- a lead in the polls.

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    • It's also impossible to tell who exactly will be attending the early caucus. So Sen. Barack Obama's strength in bringing new voters to the fold could, in fact, shake things up.

    But if you believe, as I do, that Democratic activists and a few inveterate voters are going to really show up in force at the caucus, the race has already been won.

    Clinton showed Sunday why she's ahead nationally and in Nevada. It certainly helped that she was in town and holding two public events. But perhaps the two biggest stops on her itinerary that have gone unreported are what makes her campaign almost unstoppable.

    After waking between 2,000-thread-count sheets at the Four Seasons, Clinton attended services at Victory Missionary Baptist Church in West Las Vegas. Dr. Robert Fowler, the pastor and a member of her steering committee, welcomed her to the fold.

    The black churches of West Las Vegas are still in many ways the opening to black voters, a majority of whom have come to expect these election cycle visits as a requirement for their support.

    Obama events continue to draw a more diverse and younger crowd than events staged by the other Democratic candidates. But Clinton certainly won't be ceding the black vote in Nevada. And if Sunday's reception at Victory Baptist was any indication, she hasn't much worry on that front.

    After that stop, Clinton met with the local Service Employees International Union, which is poised to make an endorsement from a short list of the top three candidates. She certainly hasn't lost any ground to former Sen. John Edwards there, and she may put the dagger into his campaign by nabbing the SEIU and its powerful get-out-the-vote activists from neighboring California.

    Clinton's campaign doesn't appear to need that muscle. It is everywhere.

    Those attending the Clark County Democratic Party's Central Committee meeting Sunday could not escape the signature, dark-blue Clinton signs. Volunteers waved them on street corners a full six blocks from the meeting at the Clark County Government Center. From Bonneville Ave., you had to crane to catch the occasional Edwards or Bill Richardson sign at the entrance to the parking lot. And once in that lot, every parking space was under a Clinton sign.

    The Obama campaign had a table but didn't have much of a presence.

    Similarly, if you head out to Democratic clubs and organizations, you are as likely to hear a pitch for Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich as you are for Obama. Clinton, Edwards, Richardson and even Sen. Joe Biden staff these meetings as if their campaign lives depended on it.

    The Clinton folks, with their swagger and numbers, drown out almost all else during the central committee meeting. She trotted out her local bona fides: Clark County Commissioner Rory Reid and state Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus. And then, for good measure, in response to one of many softball questions, she brought the standing-room-only crowd to its feet.

    "It took a Clinton to clean up the mess after the first Bush, and it's going to take a Clinton to clean up the mess after this one," she said.

    For all the talk of change, the biggest change most Democrats want is to win the White House. These voters weren't, by and large, thinking of Clinton's support for the Iraq war. They were preparing to jump onto a bandwagon with almost as much momentum as the one backing the Colorado Rockies.

    At this point, it's hard to see what the big equalizer will be.

    For all the staff and talk, Obama's organization is decidedly stealth. And while Edwards is still the labor candidate, it's not a given he's labor's candidate this time.

    The Culinary union won't offer an endorsement before next month's big CNN debate at UNLV. That Nov. 15 event and the Clark County Jefferson-Jackson Dinner to follow will single-handedly put the Nevada caucus into the national media spotlight. A Culinary endorsement timed to those activities would provide some bounce, particularly if it went to Obama or Edwards.

    Edwards' Nevada strategy appears to boil down to winning Iowa.

    Wednesday night, the Obama campaign unveiled African-Americans for Obama, highlighted by boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. I'm sure the Obama campaign vetted Mayweather's tale of the tape beyond his 38-0 record, to include his misdemeanor battery conviction.

    Clinton, on the other hand, goes right into the black community, attending a church with 10,000 members who might respect their pastor's endorsement.

    The dynamics could still change, but not if Clinton has anything to say about it.

    Contact Erin Neff at (702) 387-2906, or by e-mail at eneff@reviewjournal.com.

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    tim wrote on October 25, 2007 07:54 PM: so the clinton camp trotted out thier bona fides, rory reid who got his job through his daddy the left wing move on.org mouthpiece,and dina titus who still cant lose her southern accent and failed run for for top office of nv.the tax and tax some more reid and titus is a perfect example for the clinton campaign.if shes wins in nv. we are all in trouble we deserve better.


    cas127 wrote on October 25, 2007 07:32 PM: Good for you, Publius - you've hit the nail on the head.

    The two "parties" are really just two mafias battling over the "protection racket" money. Neither places "public interest" before their own.

    Can *anyone* dispute this given the sickening abundance of evidence - everyday?

    Will this be the year that the internet is used to derail the kleptocracy that the US has become?

    Maybe.

    If we fight to make it so.

    One possible fix - how about electing a platform rather than a person (who history has repeatedly shown, can't be trusted)?

    Screw the mafias' version of what is "permitted" - let's post 3 or 4 primary objectives (withdrawal from Iraq, across the board 10% spending cuts in every single Fed program, whatever...specifics actually matter less right now than terminating the mafias) and pick a random citizen who pledges to support the directly voted-for platform and contractually commits to immediately resign if he/she fails to veto every bill that does not adhere to the platform.

    Yeah, yeah, yeah - "law" courts will say this, mafia politicians will say that - screw them the way they have being screwing us (with our complacent acceptance).

    It is past time for the first steps of the next revolution - more direct democracy ("representative" democracy being a long superannuated artifact of the technological limitations of the 18th century).

    Vote for true self determination - vote to end this present corrupt system.

    There will be a zillion objections to the zillions of flaws a new system will undoubtedly have.

    But will anyone (who isn't profiting from the present corruption - I'm looking at you, vote-selling public sector union members) dispute that unless things change very quickly this nation will collapse?

    Doesn't everyone essentially sense the rot beneath the shell-gamed surface of the present?


    Herb wrote on October 25, 2007 05:02 PM: I disagree with s hall. Democrats are not for the working stiff. They tax workers and give the money to the non-productive.
    Also, Democrats are pro-criminal. They release and parole as many dangerous criminals as possible. It is not good for the honest working person, who plays by the rules,to have so many violent predators living in their neighborhood.

    Democrats have also destroyed the traditional family with all their welfare programs.

    I love Republicans, I just wish they were even more conservative.

    Also, don't insult big business, that's who employees most Americans.


    Publius wrote on October 25, 2007 02:30 PM: Jeeeeebus F-in' Crisp!!!! If all of you Republicrat-this and Demican-that criers SERIOUSLY think that ANY of the media-approved "top-tier" candidates on either side has any interest in the future of America, you're completely delusional and deserve what you get when you vote for them. What we have now, and quickly forming in the packs of the 2 camps, is a large socialist party with 2 names- R and D.

    The campaigns are run on 5-second sound bites specifically designed to cause this division we're all yammering about. It's just a numbers game! The sooner We the People come together (I think we're all MORE alike than not)and resoundingly put a stop to this "Emotion-based Politics" we've been buying for the last several years, the sooner we can all move on into the future, together, successfully.

    This finger-pointing, name-calling, and pandering is all very childish. I haven't been on the playground in decades, and I'm sick of seing our so-called representatives acting as if they are. Don't tell me you never tried to play your parents against each other to get your way when you were a kid at one point. That's exactly what these "pols" do to keep us bickering and distracted. Let's send them back where they belong.


    howard wrote on October 25, 2007 01:27 PM: This is a joke. Hillary has bought the endorsement of every politian in this state that is for sale. She will own the union endorsement and with the unions running the caucus she can't lose. These guys have been fixing elections for years. I can't believe the democrat party is going to nominate the one person the republicans can beat. Thanks.


    Rick O. wrote on October 25, 2007 12:04 PM: Ya'll just can't accept the fact the she is the only candidate right now that can run the white house. God help us if she's not elected. Amen.


    andy wrote on October 25, 2007 11:28 AM: I've been waiting for the chance to vote for a female president. Now that I have the opportunity to do so, I won't. Hillary is the wrong woman. She is driven by her life long ambition to be president not by a desire to better America and its citizens. Her ambition clouds her vision of making the right practical decisions for America and its citizens. I don't want someone who will continue to embroil America in wars we don't need and can't win. I want to vote for the democratic candidate who is driven by pure desire and who has a vision to make America a more secure and economically better nation. Obama has my vote.


    s. hall wrote on October 25, 2007 10:43 AM: Todd--I never got to enjoy my $300.00. I also don't enjoy the billions being spent on the Iraq war instead of dealing with our own infrastructure. In 10 years we will have spent 2 trillion on the Iraq war--what do us ordinary people get out of that?


    s. hall wrote on October 25, 2007 10:40 AM: John--Amen to that. This great nation cannot afford 4 more years of Bush. This Clinton will fix another George Bush's mess. She can hit the ground running on day one. Republicans are for Big Business. Democrats are for the ordinary working stiffs.


    John wrote on October 25, 2007 10:23 AM: Do you really think that tax cuts are the biggest problem we are facing? You people must have very short memories. Our country is divided as never before under G.W.'s and the Republicans reign in the White House. You claim Clinton is a con artist based on what? What Presidential candidate out there today isn't trying to attain the goal of the Presidency? I think the Republicans have far more to worry about in their own party than Hillary Clinton. Republicans can't focus on how their party has faltered so badly while in power. Stop whining about Hillary and try to solve your own party's problems. God help us if another Republican is elected. Democrats 08!!!!


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