Does Obama Even Care About Nevada?

While Obama volunteers in Nevada are busy and doing one "Obama walk" after the other (even in Elko), Obama himself doesn't seem to care too much about Nevada.

At least he hasn't been to the state too much. After he missed out on the AFSCME forum in Carson City one would have thought that he'd make that up by traveling to Northern Nevada soon after. Yet, three months later, and nothing happened. Obama's been a total of two times in Nevada, both times in Las Vegas. He ranks at the bottom of the list of candidates:

Richardson: 14
Dodd: 7
Edwards: 5
Biden: 4
Clinton: 4
Kucinich: 4
Gravel: 3
Obama: 2

(numbers via MyDD, via Washington Post)

Obama was on top of the list in primary contributions in the first quarter and the two men with the least money managed to travel to Nevada more often than he did? Are you serious?

All I can decypher from this is the following: currently Senator Obama is not seriously competing in Nevada. If he wants to compete here, he needs to visit and talk to the voters. He really has to make up some ground. So it better be a real visit and not just a quick stop in Reno on the way to another California fundraiser. Otherwise he might just surrender Nevada to either Hillary or Edwards who have both been to Northern Nevada more than once.

Biden in Carson City on Wednesday

While Sen. Joe Biden is not attending the SEIU forum on health care in Las Vegas this weekend. However, he seems to have liked visiting Carson City for the AFSCME forum last month so much that he's returning to Nevada's capital city tomorrow:

U.S. Sen. Joe Biden, a Democrat seeking the presidential nomination, will speak in Carson City this week, his campaign announced Monday.

Biden is the only Democratic presidential candidate not scheduled to attend Saturday's forum on health care in Las Vegas. But he will make two speeches in the state capital on Wednesday, according to the campaign.

The five-term Delaware senator is scheduled to speak at 6 p.m. at the legislative conference of the Nevada AFL-CIO at the Carson Nugget. Then at 7:45 p.m., he will speak to the Carson City Democratic Party's Jefferson-Jackson Presidential Series, at the Silver Oak Golf Club.

Saturday's forum at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas will feature Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sen. Chris Dodd, former Sen. John Edwards, former Sen. Mike Gravel, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Sen. Barack Obama and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

The forum is sponsored by the Service Employees International Union and the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Blogger Outreach? What Blogger Outreach?

The following is a pretty interesting read. From The Hotline's Blogometer:

3/14: How Blog Outreach Is Done

WH '08ers can't seem to agree on how to title their official blog advisers (eCampaign Adviser, Blog Outreach Dir., and Dir. of Online Communications are a few choices), and most campaigns also have trouble defining how exactly their blog experts fit into their campaign. Each candidate's strengths in other areas ought to inform how they handle blogs, but Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) aide (he doesn't even have an official title) Patrick Hynes' push-back efforts 3/13 are a textbook example of how the job should be done. After a flurry of posts hit McCain for skipping the Club for Growth's winter conf., Hynes went to work emailing bloggers to let them know CFG only offered McCain dates to speak that coincided with a previously planned trip to Iraq. The retractions and updates Hynes netted his candidate both tampered down implications that he was dissing conservatives and reinforced McCain's strength on just about the only issue conservative bloggers back McCain on. This one episode is not going to magically swing bloggers to McCain's column, but it is an example of the vigilant defense WH '08ers must be prepared to play online.

Now, I have to say this is a very little blog and I would be surprised if there were a lot of "outreach" in this direction from presidential campaigns. That said, Nevada is now an early Caucus state and I haven't heard of much outreach to any Nevada blog. There was the case of Obama skipping the AFSCME forum in Carson City - no explanations, no outreach whatsoever. Then the Fox News debate controversy. The only outreach at all was by Edwards and Richardson to Kos, but only after he contacted them. None of the candidates did any outreach during this time to any Nevada blogs - as far as I know, at least there was none reporting in this respect on the two biggies, Reno and its Discontent and the Las Vegas Gleaner.

So, maybe, just maybe, Democrats could actually learn something from a Republican for a change!

End of rant.

Viedo and More From The AFSCME Forum

One would wish that every campaign were as professional as AFSCME. The union has everything relating to the presidential forum in Carson City on Wednesday up on their website. You can view watch video of the forum, read the entire transcript of the debate, and find links to news accounts of the forum. Great job!

AFSCME Forum - Roundup

I had some problems with the livestream at C-Span from time to time but other than that I must say that I was positively surprised by today's forum.

First of all, I really liked the format. I've seen my share of debates and most of them sucked. Even though there were 600 people in the audience the setting came across as quite intimate. 10-15 minutes for each candidate by himself was quite a good idea to get acquainted with all the candidates.

Generally, I was surprised by the quality of the field. We have a wide variety of qualified candidates. And even the ones that are not taken seriously are still interesting and have something to say. Two of the frontrunners, Edwards and Hillary, pretty much performed as expected though Edwards was better than Hillary.

Because of livestream problems at the beginning I didn't catch too much of Dodd but it seemed like he did really well and got a great response from the audience. Other than that I was quite impressed by Bill Richardson and also Joe Biden who came across as the most qualified candidates. Finally Kucinich and Gravel rounded things up and didn't disappoint. I don't know if either should be president but I'd definitely like to see more of them in politics.

All in all, it's gonna be a fun year - and a much better and more interesting primary campaign than 2004.

PS: Oh, yeah, Obama wasn't there. He chose to spend the day in Iowa. After watching the forum I must say that that was probably not the smartest move. Though he did get the endorsement of former Senate leader Tom Daschle today.

Liveblogging the AFSCME Forum Today

I intend on liveblogging the AFSCME forum in Carson City later today. Fortunately, the forum will be broadcast live on C-Span and will also be available as a livestream on the websites of C-Span and ABC News. This way I'll actually be able to watch it from Germany.

The forum itself will take place at 12noon pacific in the following format:

Candidates confirmed to attend, as of publication, in order of appearance at the forum:
(as determined by lottery)
United States Senator Chris Dodd, D-CT
United States Senator Hillary Clinton, D-NY
Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, D-IA
Former United States Senator John Edwards, D-NC
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, D-NM
United States Senator Joe Biden, D-DE
United States Congressman Dennis Kucinich, D-OH
Former United States Senator Mike Gravel, D-AK

The forum layout and rules (as determined by AFSCME)

At 2:45 am EST all the candidates attending have been invited to attend a group photo and video on then the forum stage. Following the photo the forum will begin with remarks from United States Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), AFSCME president Gerald McEntee and Nevada State Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley.

After the introduction and welcome, each candidate will take the stage individually:
- The candidate will give 2:00 minute opening remarks
- The candidate will answer three questions. Two from George Stephanopoulos and one submitted by AFSCME the order of questions is up to the moderator.
- The candidate has no more than 3:00 minutes to answer each question.
- The candidate has 1:00 minute to make closing remarks
- There will be a count-down clock visible to both the guest and moderator during each segment.

Reports on Obama in Vegas

Barack Obama was in Las Vegas yesterday and apparently he made quite a splash. Somewhere between 1,000 (a blogger's count) and 3,500 (a reporter's count) people attended the rally. Unfortunately, he had so little time that he did not take any questions. Maybe next time around.

Read more about yesterday's rally:

Blogging the ObamaFest (Vote Gibbons Out)

Obama campaigns as the outsider in brief stop in Nevada (AP)

Barack the vote (Nevada Today)

Barack Obama will be the only candidate not taking part in Wednesday AFSCME forum in Carson City. There are some rumblings about it in the Nevada blogosphere as Obam will actually be in LA the night before the forum and could have stopped by the forum before going to Iowa. It remains to be seen how this will play out with caucus goers in Northern Nevada and whether anyone will still remember it in 11 months:

Obama's Nevada Flyover (Taylor Marsh)

Obama's Nevada Fly-over (Reno and Its Discontent)

Carson City Forum to Be Broadcast on C-Span

According to the Reno Gazette-Journal, the Carson City Forum will be broadcast on C-Span this Wednesday. The forum, which will include all Democratic presidential candidate except Barack Obama, will start at 12pm PST. I will post more info once it becomes available.

Stephanopoulos Will Host Carson City Forum

Alas, the Nevada Caucus seems to be taken seriously after all. Not only have all candidates, except for Obama, agreed to participate in the AFSCME forum in Carson City. This weekend it was announced that none other than George Stephanopoulos will moderate the forum:

The Nevada Democratic Party announced Friday that a Democratic presidential candidate forum planned in Carson City later this month will be moderated by newscaster George Stephanopoulos, a former senior advisor to President Bill Clinton.

The event is set to be the first such candidate forum of the 2008 presidential campaign. Organizers say the issues affecting working families will take center stage at the forum.

It'll be interesting to see how the press will spin Obama's absence and how, if at all, Obama will make up for it to Northern Nevadans and AFSCME.