Richardson Set to Throw Support to Obama

Well it seems the bottom their candidates have heard the sounds of the chicken's coming home to roost. Kucinich has done it, and now so has Richardson. I wonder what it will all mean now that two of the rivals 9one compelling and one more qualified and less compelling, have said support Obama if we don't get to where we need to go?

From the Iowa Independent

Gov. Bill Richardson's campaign is expected to direct their supporters to caucus for Sen. Barrack Obama in the second round of voting at Thursday's caucuses in precincts where he is not viable. Two sources familiar with the plan told Iowa Independent that the New Mexico Governor's organizers have been instructed to direct supporters to Obama in the places where they fail to reach the 15% threshold for viability.
Richardson, whose poll numbers in Iowa have hovered near 10% since June, may need a solid fourth-place finish in the caucuses to continue his campaign. And he is best served by directing support away from former Sen. John Edwards, who consistently polls between him and the two national front-runners, Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton, in national and early state polls.

But Richardson's modest gains from diverting second-choice support away from Edwards may be eclipsed by Obama's potential success on caucus night, should everything go as planned. If Richardson's field organization manages to direct a significant number of supporters to Obama, it could be enough to win him the Iowa Caucuses.

And if Edwards loses a large block of second-round voters, a group he seems to be relying on to break in his direction, it could irreparably damage his campaign.

Richardson would prefer an Obama victory over Clinton because a Clinton victory could end the campaign before New Hampshire voters even head to the polls. And if Edwards's numbers look weak, Richardson could head to New Hampshire as the best alternative to the top two contenders for the Democratic nomination.

See this thread!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3936439

I just heard the story on Ed Schultz and went to look for the story and found it. Excuse me for thinking that it might be a story people here would be interested in.

I wasn't purposely trying to repeat something that has been debunked. No need to be nasty about it...Stop being so paranoid.

Obama is foaming at the mouth. His inexperience is evident now, that he can not stand up and play 1:1 with the high rollers for the long haul.

Do you have a link that shows the false rumor originated with the Obama campaign? Or not?

I also wish people would stop posting this, however.

stop with this shit!

I heard the story on Ed Schultz and looked it up. Excuse me for thinking people here might be interested in the story. Not EVERY thing is a part of some campaign propaganda. Sometimes people just post things they think may be interesting and make well intentioned posts.

If the info turned out to be incorrect sorry, but I wasn't doing anything but reporting what the Iowa Paper was reporting... what is the debunking info?

everyone here at DU is so much better informed on on ground Iowa events.

Imagine how stupid I must be to take a story from an Iowa newspaper about events in Iowa! Man I must be really dumb. Good thing I have all these smart folks here to help straiten out this naive Philadelphia boy.

I just heard the story on Ed Schultz and went to look for the story and found it. Excuse me for thinking that it might be a story people here would be interested in.

I wasn't purposely trying to repeat something that has been debunked. No need to be nasty about it...Stop being so paranoid.

candidates was wrong.

gee maybe I'm not such an idiot?

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/03/obama-will-get-richardsons-second-choice-votes/

By John Harwood

Barack Obama’s drive to win tonight’s Iowa caucuses is getting a boost from two of his putative rivals. After earlier winning the support of Dennis Kucinich, Obama’s campaign has reached an agreement with Bill Richardson for the second-choice votes of Richardson supporters in caucuses where the New Mexico governor can’t clear the threshold for competition, according to a senior Obama campaign adviser. The adviser estimated that the deal puts Mr. Obama in position to claim support from roughly half of the 15 percent of Democratic caucus-goers expected to support second-tier candidates.
In return, the Obama adviser said, Obama forces will lend support to Mr. Richardson at caucuses where Mr. Obama turns out more backers than he needs to win any additional delegates. Mr. Richardson drew 6 percent of the vote in the most recent Des Moines Register Poll, trailing Mr. Obama’s 32 percent, Hillary Clinton’s 25 percent and John Edwards’ 24 percent.
In a close race, such a deal could make an important difference. John Edwards’ 2004 campaign credits a similar deal with Mr. Kucinich then as helping fuel his strong second place showing.
But the specter of backroom deal-making could also raise questions about Mr. Obama’s stance as an opponent of traditional politics. The national spokesman for Mr. Obama’s campaign, Bill Burton, said word of a deal “isn’t true.”
Update | 3:25 p.m. David Plouffe, Obama campaign manager, responding to the report that Mr. Obama had reached an agreement for reciprocal support with Bill Richardson’s campaign, insisted the campaign had reached “no formal arrangements” with any of his rivals. But he said that “there are certainly places where our precinct captains want to work with Richardson” supporters — to gain second-choice support in cases where Mr. Richardson doesn’t reach the threshold to compete, or to lend Mr. Richardson surplus backers in instances where they can’t yield any additional Obama delegates...

Update | 3:25 p.m. David Plouffe, Obama campaign manager, responding to the report that Mr. Obama had reached an agreement for reciprocal support with Bill Richardson’s campaign, insisted the campaign had reached “no formal arrangements” with any of his rivals. But he said that “there are certainly places where our precinct captains want to work with Richardson” supporters — to gain second-choice support in cases where Mr. Richardson doesn’t reach the threshold to compete, or to lend Mr. Richardson surplus backers in instances where they can’t yield any additional Obama delegates.

“We’re giving our precinct captains a lot of latitude to work this out,” Mr. Plouffe said. “We’re going to fight as hard as we can for every one” of Mr. Richardson’s available supporters, and “It comes down to how well our precinct captains do.” With polling showing that Mr. Obama and Mr. Edwards are the top contenders for second-choice support, Mr. Plouffe said they’d made similar efforts with supporters of Joseph Biden and Chris Dodd as well. Dennis Kucinich has already publicly urged his backers to support Mr. Obama in precincts where Kucinich is not viable.

Hey I quoted that and I DID read it. They said there is no "formal" agreement. So what? There is a lot of room in politics between a formal agreement and this whole thing is BS. It also doesn't say the entire thing is bunk, and the reporter doesn't draw the conclusion, as so many here have, that this is some sort of dirty trick rumor started by the Obama camp. That is my only point.