By Adrian Culea
A crowd of listeners assembled on the 10th floor of the Axinn Library to hear Adam Nagourney speak on Monday.
Nagourney, the New York Times chief political correspondent and SUNY Purchase classmate of Honors College Dean Warren Frisina, discussed the state of the presidential race in “An Insider’s Look at the 2008 Campaign: How we got here and where we are going.”
As Democratic candidates Sens. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.) battle for the nomination, many onlookers are confused as to who will face Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) in November. Nagourney admitted he thought that the race would have been over by the time he spoke at the University. That, in part, was why he agreed to speak at the University in the first place, he joked.
Many Obama supporters, including Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), have been calling for Clinton to drop out of the race. Nagourney dismissed the notion, saying there is a “tough road ahead for her, but not impossible.”
The key to Clinton’s victory, he believes, lies in her performance in the Pennsylvania primary on April 22. Initial polls in the Keystone State had her leading by nearly 20 percent, but more recent polls show the race tightening as Clinton only leads by five points in a Rasmussen poll. One Public Policy Polling survey has Obama in the lead by two percent.
Nagourney all but predicted a Clinton victory, saying “I don’t think it’s possible” for her to lose.”
Another factor in deciding the Democratic nominee is what will be done with the Florida delegates, Nagourney said. After moving up their primary without the Democratic National Committee’s consent, the Sunshine State was stripped of its delegates by the DNC, and the Republicans chose to only seat half of theirs.
Clinton went on to win with 50 percent of the popular vote, while Obama finished with 33 percent. Nagourney said, “Democrats have got to figure out a way to seat Florida,” or they will risk disenfranchising voters who will play a key role for whomever the nominee is in November.
The DNC announced on Tuesday that the delegates from both Florida and Michigan who have seats on the “standing committees,” the committees that make decisions on the party platform, rules and credentials, will be able to take their seats despite their states’ delegates still not being allowed on the convention floor, shocking both campaigns, according to a Wednesday night report by Politico.com.
Answering questions about both the remaining campaigns, Nagourney applauded Obama’s campaign for “doing some really smart things and creating an edge in delegates that really hurt her.” He then criticized Clinton’s campaign by comparing its actions to the strategies of Karl Rove, the Republican political strategist credited with getting President George W. Bush elected by using divisive and negative attacks on his opponents.
Nagourney saw “a lot of bitterness” in both the Clinton and Obama campaigns. Because of this, he questioned whether or not voters will cast their ballot for the eventual Democratic nominee in the general election in November.
“Supporters are loyal, and each side is annoyed by the other,” he said. A student asked Nagourney about Joe Klein’s article, “Is Al Gore the Answer?” in the April 7 issue of Time Magazine, in which Klein speculates the possibility of Al Gore emerging out of the Democratic National Convention in August as a “compromise candidate.” Nagourney said it is unlikely because of the “tremendous enthusiasm” behind each campaign, especially in this election cycle.
It would take a cataclysmic event to have both Clinton and Obama step aside for Gore, Nagourney said, but he also noted “all this is possible.”
Nagourney predicted Clinton will stress that she is more electable in a match-up with McCain. He believes she will try to raise questions about Obama’s affiliation with Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
When asked who he believed was stronger in a general election, Nagourney seemed torn. He said, “I don’t know. That’s the million dollar question.”
New York Times Chief Political Correspondent Adam Nagourney expected to discuss the two presumptive presidential nominees, but the Democrats have yet to decide on a candidate.