On a conference call with reporters, Obama campaign attorney Bob Bauer discussed concerns over how the Nevada caucuses were conducted Saturday.

According to state law, “In order to participate in the Nevada State Democratic Party Caucuses, attendees MUST be in line, or signed in, by noon. At noon, Presidential Preference Cards should be given to any person in line, and after that point, no Presidential Preference Cards should be given to any new arrivals, as they will not be allowed to caucus.”

The Obama campaign claims to have received a “significant amount of reporting from precinct locations that doors were closing well before noon, many times as early as 11:30.” The campaign also described reports that a manual had been distributed to Clinton precinct captains that said that registration deadline for caucus ended at 11:30. They had an “unusual high number reports that the Clinton campaign was insisting” that this be enforced.

After setting up a hotline for voters to report irregularities, the campaign says it has received “hundreds of calls” from “all over the state.” Although many of these complaints came from Obama voters, the campaign said they want to make sure that no voter, no matter who he or she supports, is disenfranchised.

Other than the number of calls, the campaign doesn’t know how pervasive these early closings were and stressed they “are not calling the results into question at all.” They will notify the Nevada Democratic Party and request that they look into the matter along with the DNC to “collect all the relevant facts.” The Obama campaign stated that they wanted to make sure “this sort behavior was highlighted.”

The Obama is set to hold a conference call in the next few minutes to discuss what it sees as at least a partial victory here in Nevada - they are claiming that while Hillary won 12 delegates, Senator Obama won 13. In an email advising the conference call, the campaign quotes Clinton Communications Director Howard Wolfson from a 1/16/08 Washington Post story, during which Wolfson said, “This is a race for delegates. It is not a battle for individual states. As David knows, we are well past the time when any state will have a disproportionate influence on the nominating process.”

Here is the statement sent by the Obama campaign to reporters on the Nevada caucus.

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Statement from Barack Obama:

“We’re proud of the campaign we ran in Nevada. We came from over twenty-five points behind to win more national convention delegates than Hillary Clinton because we performed well all across the state, including rural areas where Democrats have traditionally struggled. The reason is because tens of thousands of Nevadans came out to say that they’re tired of business-as-usual in Washington and ready for a President who can bring this country together, take on the lobbyists and special interests, and end the politics of saying and doing whatever it takes to win an election. It is the kind of politics that feeds our cynicism and distracts us from taking on the real challenges facing America – an economy that’s left working families struggling, a broken health care system, and a war in Iraq that must end.

“We ran an honest, uplifting campaign in Nevada that focused on the real problems Americans are facing, a campaign that appealed to people’s hopes instead of their fears. That’s the campaign we’ll take to South Carolina and across America in the weeks to come, and that’s how we will truly bring about the change this country is hungry for.”

Statement from Obama campaign manager David Plouffe

“We currently have reports of over 200 separate incidents of trouble at caucus sites, including doors being closed up to thirty minutes early, registration forms running out so people were turned away, and ID being requested and checked in a non-uniform fashion. This is in addition to the Clinton campaign’s efforts to confuse voters and call into question the at-large caucus sites which clearly had an affect on turnout at these locations. These kinds of Clinton campaign tactics were part of an entire week’s worth of false, divisive, attacks designed to mislead caucus-goers and discredit the caucus itself.

“We will investigate all of these thoroughly and would encourage anyone who had concern about actions at the caucus sites to call (866) 675-2008.”

Senator Barack Obama hit the Vegas strip one last time this morning before flying home to Chicago. He had planned to leave prior to the start of the caucus, which was held at noon local time. “I’m going to try to see my kids before I go down to South Carolina,” he explained to reporters as he greeted employees of the Mirage Hotel and Casino in the “back of the house.” That’s Vegas-ese for employees only part of the casino.

Obama stopped by the Mirage employees’ cafeteria, kitchen, and uniform control room (which looks a lot like your local dry cleaners - but with a vending machine that pops out pantyhose for $4.50) to greet the hotel’s workers. The workers, all union members, were expected to caucus at an at-large precinct set up in a Mirage ballroom.

He greeted a myriad of staffers - cooks, cleaners, dealers, and the like - posed for pictures and made small talk. “What’s the most popular soup?” he asked a chef. If you’re wondering what the folks who eat at the Mirage prefer, it’s cream of mushroom, cream of broccoli and the clam chowder.

Senator Obama also reminded workers to caucus in his whirlwind tour. Will they? According to the pool report, when asked, one worker still hadn’t decided if he would. “I don’t know, it’s on my lunch break. I’ll think about it,” slot supervisor Eujene Rangel said.

Obama was trailed by his Secret Service detail and about a dozen journalists. When asked about possible voter intimidation here in the Silver State, Obama responded, “I want to make sure that everybody who has the right to participate in this caucus is participating. The Democratic Party has been about getting people involved in the process, not excluding them. Hopefully, that’s a tradition that we will maintain when we’re here in Nevada.”

His campaign put out a memo that, in part, addressed the concerns, alleged by President Clinton, reading he was “accusing the Culinary workers, whose support both Clintons furiously sought, of engaging in deliberate voter suppression. The conduct of the Clinton Campaign in recent weeks essentially makes the case for why we need Barack Obama - it’s the same old-style say anything or do anything to win, divisive attacks that have prevented progress in this country for so long.” (read the full memo after the jump)

And, since he was in Vegas, Obama hedged his bets on how he’d fare today (this was asked before the caucus was called for Senator Clinton). “You know I think we’re gonna do pretty well. I think its going to be close. I don’t think anyone knows what’s really going on,” he answered while walking down a narrow hallway to the exit.

Obama was scheduled to leave Vegas after his casino drop by, and so it’s not clear if and how he will concede the Nevada caucus. His press staff have yet to respond to phone calls and emails.

(more…)

At 10pm on the night of his handy Iowa victory, Senator Barack Obama took the stage in front of 3200 screaming supporters in downtown Des Moines, with his wife, Michelle, and their daughers, Sasha and Malia. The candidate seemed serene in his victory, and appeared to soak in the moment. There was no reference to his rivals, John Edwards or Hillary Clinton, and the senator did not ask his fans if they were “fired up” or “ready to go.”

Instead he delivered a moving and measured 10-minute speech, thanking the state for building a “coalition for change,” choosing “hope over fear,” and “unity over division.” Obama declared this “the moment when we tore down barriers that have divided us for too long. When we rallied people of all parties and ages to a common cause. When we finally gave Americans who’ve never participated in politics a reason to stand up and to do something.”

And it didn’t take him long to appeal to New Hampshire voters. “You have done what the state of New Hampshire can do in five days,” he said just a few minutes upon taking the stage.

done

Afterwards, on board his campaign plane, the weary candidate told the press, “My throat is hoarse, but my spirits are good.” When Obama was asked to describe his moment of realization upon winning the Iowa caucuses, he loosened his tie and replied, “We felt good for the last two weeks, because we are so proud of what is happening on the ground, we were seeing the crowds, and so regardless how the numbers played out exactly, we were really confident of us having changed how politics operated in this caucus and it makes me very optimistic in this country and I think that we can do it with the country as a whole.”

After a few minutes and shortly before takeoff, he smiled, turned to leave, and said, “Alright, guys. Let me go to sleep now.” Someone yelled out, “Can you?” He turned his head and chuckled, “You bet.”

The plane landed just before 4:30am Eastern Standard Time in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and whisked the winning candidate to his hotel. He begins his day in just a few hours, with a rally at 9:30.

An email sent to traveling Obama press from the campaign reads:

“After visiting the caucus location in Ankeny, Obama went to dinner with family and friends at Flemmings in West Des Moines until about 8:30pm. At 8:30, standing with David Plouffe, he saw that he had been projected the winner.”

Barack Obama appeared on five of the six morning shows this morning - opting not to appear on FOX News Channel. The official campaign rationale was “scheduling.”

Basically the news is he has a hoarse voice, but is confident. “This is the beginning and not the end,” he said on Good Morning America. And when asked about Hillary Clinton using his “fired up, ready to go” line yesterday he predictably responded, “I want everybody in the country to be fired up and ready to go.”

Obama woke up early to pretape his morning show appearances, beginning at 5:40am. He then did a series of radio interviews and spent the morning with his family. As I type this he is stopping by a Des Moines food court for a photo-op. The campaign has “pooled” this event, so one television and one print reporter and a couple of cameras will go with him to minimize the commotion. The photos, video, and read-out will be shared with the whole traveling press.

He will spend his afternoon doing satellite interviews with local Iowa television stations - as well as WMUR, the only local television in New Hampshire.  The campaign has told us that Senator Obama will watch the caucus returns at his West Des Moines hotel with his family, before heading over to his caucus night rally, which is being held in a large auditorium at the Des Moines Hyvee Center.

David Axelrod, his senior advisor just walked past a few of us in the Obama traveling press corps, who have taken over the lobby of the Holiday Inn where we stayed last night. He appeared relaxed and assured - and assured us that he was both.

Obama will take the stage tonight at 10pm and address his supporters. Following the rally and 45 minutes of file time, we will make the long, late journey to New Hamphsire. So long, Des Moines.

Dennis Kucinich encouraged his Iowa supporters today to make Barack Obama their second choice candidate. Should Kucinich fail to receive the needed 15% support of caucus goers to remain viable, he asks that his supporters to realign behind Obama. The “second choice” vote is one that Obama has been pitching to voters for some days now.

“I hope Iowans will caucus for me as their first choice this Thursday, because of my singular positions on the war, on health care, and trade,” Kucinich said in a writen statement. “But in those caucus locations where my support doesn’t reach the necessary threshold, I strongly encourage all of my supporters to make Barack Obama their second choice.”

Why Obama? “Senator Obama and I have one thing in common: Change,” Kucinich said. Kucinich, also a “fringe candidate” in 2004, asked his supporters to go with John Edwards four years ago. According to sources inside the Kucinich campaign, the congressman chose Obama this time around because of comments Edwards made to Hillary Clinton on an open microphone after an earlier debate, saying candidates like Kucinich weren’t “serious.”

Senator Obama’s campaign issued a “thank you” statement, in which it was noted that “he and I have been fighting for a number of the same priorities — including an end to the war in Iraq that we both opposed from the start, reforming Washington and creating a better life for America’s working families.”

Soon after the thank you statement, the Obama issued another statement urging television networks to “allow full participation” in the upcoming debate in New Hampshire. Both the Kucinich and Obama campaigns insist no deals were brokered in exchange for this statement.

The senator phoned the congressman upon hearing the news to personally thank him. No word if Kucinich told Obama on the phone what he also said in the statement: “This is obviously an ‘Iowa only’ recommendation, as Sen. Obama and I are competing in the New Hampshire primary next Tuesday where I want to be the first choice of New Hampshire voters.”

“It’s a good way to ring in the new year,” Obama communications director Robert Gibbs said last night in response to the new Des Moines register poll showing Senator Obama up four percentage points to 32% over Hillary Clinton’s 25%.

At his New Year’s Eve rally in Ames, Obama seemed pleased and announced that he was up “six or seven” points in the poll. “It’s beyond the margain of error - so we might just pull this thing off.” Of course the New Year’s Eve/Obama revelers cheered.

But caucuses are notoriously difficult to poll and even the Register cautioned relying on this one too heavily. The next morning in the sober six degree weather, Obama told a gym full of voters/canvass volunteers in Des Moines that polls are not enough. “The only thing that counts is whether or not you show up to caucus. The only thing that counts is whether over the next 72 hours, you’re willing to work for this and make the phone calls and knock on the doors and grab your friends and grab your neighbors and say it is time for us to deliver on change. That’s the only thing, that’s the only poll that we’re paying attention to is Thursday.”

He later told reporters on his plane that he hasn’t been paying “too much attention to polls at this point.” He added, “Now I think it’s going to come down to who gets their supporters out and I’ll put my money on my organization - it’s as good, and as dedicated and as intense as I’ve ever seen.”

Obama does regularly reference “recent polls” in his stump speech to prove to Iowans that he is more electable than Senators Clinton and Edwards. He tells voters that polls show that he can beat all five of the Republicans running for the nomination while other Democrats cannot. So clearly he’s paying attention to some polls.