Two Reports on Obama in Oregon Today

Barack Obama and Peter DeFazio in Oregon today

"Obama Extends an Olive Branch Toward Clinton" (The Trail, WaPo's political blog):

WOODBURN, Ore. -- Even as Hillary Clinton continued to campaign against him, criticizing his health care plan, Barack Obama took another step this afternoon toward extending an olive branch toward her so that she could "feel good" about the outcome of a Democratic nominating process that his campaign hopes to soon bring to an orderly and amicable close.

Asked by a reporter during a stop at a Mexican restaurant here whether he would be willing to use his huge war chest to help Clinton retire her campaign debts, as some have suggested, Obama demurred.

"That's not a conversation that we've had because our working assumption right now is that we're in the middle of a race," he said, seeking as he did at an earlier stop in Beaverton to avoid seeming as if he is presuming victory.

But, he added, "Historically after a campaign is done and you want to unify the party, particularly when you've had a strong opponent, you want to make sure you're putting that opponent in a strong position so that they can work to win an election in November. So, obviously, I would want to have a broad range of discussions with Senator Clinton about how I could make her feel good about the process and have her on the team moving forward."

Obama said he was "gratified" by his nine additional superdelegate endorsements today, which by some counts put him over the top in that department, but his celebration was muted. "Our focus has always been on the pledged delegates and just getting the American people to vote for us, and we think that, ultimately, that should be the strongest measure of who's the nominee," he said. "But if superdelegates also feel that we're going to be a strong candidate, then I'm very pleased with that."

He was more eager to answer a question about the crisis in Burma, where the military junta is resisting humanitarian efforts to help the cyclone-stricken country.

"I've been following this every day with a mixture of heartache and frustration," he said. "The international community has to put significant pressure on the government there to open up and get international aid in with no strings attached. This is a humanitarian disaster and it's very important that the Bush administration immediately starts working with China, which probably has more influence than anyone on the government in Myanmar."

But Obama stopped short of criticizing the Bush administration. "I have not yet had a conversation with Condi Rice or anyone in the State Department, so I don't want to characterize what they have or have not been doing ... But I can't think of a more important foreign policy initiative for us to take a lead on than assuring that -- in addition to the hundred thousand that have already died -- that we don't start seeing a cholera outbreak and several thousand more who die."

"Economics 101: Obama vs. McCain" (Salon):

In Oregon on Friday, Barack Obama delivered a short speech on the economy. His remarks were notable not because he debuted any fresh proposals (he didn't) but for the explicit pains the Senator from Illinois took to distinguish his economic platform from John McCain's -- as opposed to that other candidate still running for President, whose name escapes my memory, possibly because Obama did not mention it a single time during his speech.

A taste:

John McCain wants to continue George Bush's tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans; I want to give a tax cut to working people. I admired Senator McCain when he said he could not "in good conscience" support the Bush tax cuts. But now, as the Republican nominee, he's fully embraced them. He wants to give a permanent tax cut to the wealthiest Americans who don't need them and didn't ask for them while working people are struggling. And for all his talk about fiscal responsibility, he's proposed $400 billion in tax cuts without any word about how he'll pay for him. That's exactly the kind of attitude that has shifted the burden on to the middle class, and mortgaged our children's future on a mountain of debt.

Obama also slagged McCain's gas tax holiday proposal, health care position, and support of the war in Iraq -- noting he would use the money saved from ending the war to invest "in our roads and bridges and ports. And I want to invest in millions of green jobs, so that we finally develop renewable energy, end our addiction to oil, bring those gas prices down, and save our planet in the bargain."

Good luck on getting those gas prices, down, Senator, because, if we've said it once, we've said it a thousand times -- if we want to save the planet, we need higher gas prices, not lower.

Whatever. Again, there wasn't much new to see here, except that, when he concluded with the observation, "there will be real differences on the ballot in November," you could almost feel a fresh breeze wafting through the campaign.

After a long winter and spring of mostly imaginary differences blown up into all-consuming conflagrations, the battle-decks appear to finally be clearing, in preparation for a struggle in which it really won't be that hard to choose sides, however bitter you might be about who is emerging as the most likely person to be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States of America.

UPDATE (from Ben Smith):

Carrie Budoff Brown reports that Sen. Barack Obama's campaign distanced itself tonight from some harsh remarks from Congressman Pete DeFazio about Sen. John McCain at a town hall meeting in Albany, Ore.

DeFazio, an Oregon superdelegate who endorsed Obama today and introduced him at the event, went on an extended critique of McCain, saying voters could not "underestimate the threat that John McCain poses in this election to our future." DeFazio said McCain's Straight Talk Express should be called the "trojan horse express."

And then, DeFazio raised the Keating Five, a 1980s savings and loan scandal in which McCain was implicated. The Senate Ethics Committee later concluded that McCain used "poor judgment" in the matter.

"John McCain has already told us he doesn’t know much about economics," DeFazio told the crowd of 3,000. "He says we need less regulation. Hello? Wall Street, mortgage meltdown, Bear Stears, taxpayer bailout, Enron. But I guess maybe for a guy who was up to his neck in the Keating Five, and savings and loan scandal, less regulation is better for his friends. No, that is not good for the American people."

The comment received only scattered applause. Obama did not make mention of the comment when he took the microphone a few minutes later.

After the event, Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki suggested in a statement that the Keating Five would not reemerge as an issue -- at least not from the campaign.

"There is more than enough space between Barack Obama and John McCain on the issues, whether it is tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans or a timeline for bringing our troops home, and that is where we will focus our campaign," Psaki said.