Obama might be first but still assumed to be second

Barack Obama tried to insist to Hillary Clinton that he was a front runner. Though there’s no proof, it’s speculated that behind closed doors he was crying into his hands, while muttering “I am, I am, I am”. It’s obvious that Obama isn’t yet aware that being a front runner doesn’t always matter.

“With all due respect, I won twice as many states as Senator Clinton. I won more of the popular vote than Senator Clinton. I have more delegates than Senator Clinton,” Obama said while campaigning in Mississippi, which is holding a primary tomorrow. “I don’t know how somebody who is in second place is offering the vice presidency to somebody who is in first place.”

Obama, a senator from Illinois, said voters shouldn’t think that somehow they can “get both” New York Senator Clinton and himself on the Democratic ticket.

“We are in a tough battle, and I don’t presume I have won this election,” Obama, 46, said in Columbus, Mississippi. “But I want everyone to be absolutely clear. I’m not running for vice president. I’m running for president.”

Obama is favored to win the Democratic primary in Mississippi and the majority of the 33 pledged convention delegates at stake, according to recent polls in the state. Clinton, after winning in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island, is focused on the Pennsylvania primary on April 22.

Delegate Count

Obama leads Clinton in delegates 1,578 to 1,468, according to an unofficial tally by the Associated Press. That includes superdelegates, who are party officials and office holders not bound by the results of primaries and caucuses. A candidate needs 2,025 to get the nomination.

Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have raised the prospect of a possible Clinton-Obama ticket to run in November against Senator John McCain of Arizona, who has clinched the Republican nomination. The New York senator, speaking in Mississippi on March 7, said it “might be possible some day” to get both Clinton and Obama on the same ticket and Bill Clinton at a separate event called the combination tough to beat in November.

While campaigning today in Pennsylvania, Clinton said the subject of a ticket consisting of the two contenders has taken on “a life of its own.”

`Premature’ Talk

“Obviously, Democrats have to make a choice,” Clinton said, adding, “It’s premature to talk about whoever might be on whose ticket.”

Obama said Clinton is trying to “bamboozle” voters by contending that he isn’t experienced enough at the same time she is suggesting she would consider him as a running mate.

“You can’t say that he is not ready on day one unless he is willing to be your vice president,” Obama said today to the crowd of more than 1,700 at the Mississippi University for Women.

Obama’s advisers also sought to counter Clinton’s argument that her experience makes her the more qualified candidate.

“For Senator Clinton and others to suggest that somehow their experience as first lady or other some other set of experiences uniquely qualifies them” to deal with a crisis “is a dubious proposition,” said Obama foreign policy adviser Susan Rice, an assistant secretary of state in the Clinton administration.

Experience `Threshold’

When asked to reconcile the claims of Obama’s inexperience with the possibility of his running as vice president, Clinton Communications Director Howard Wolfson said having Obama as a running mate is “not something she would rule out.”

“But we do not believe that, as of this point, Senator Obama has passed that key commander-in-chief test,” he said. “And there’s a long way to go between now” and the Democratic National Convention in August.

While Obama has the lead in polls in Mississippi, Clinton, 60, holds an advantage over Obama in Pennsylvania, which has the biggest single prize — 158 pledged delegates — among the 11 contests left in the Democratic nomination race.

Neither candidate is likely to gain enough pledged delegates to secure the nomination. That will leave the superdelegates in a position to decide the race.

Democrats also are still struggling to come with a plan for dealing with Florida and Michigan, which were stripped of their delegates by the Democratic National Committee for holding early primaries. Clinton won the primaries in both states, even though none of the candidates actively campaigned, and her name was the only one on the ballot in Michigan.

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