Indiana School Allowed Obama but Not Hillary to Speak?

by D. Cupples |   Wednesday night, Sen. Barack Obama spoke at Washington High School in South Bend, Indiana.  Hillary Clinton had sought to hold a town hall meeting at that same high school some weeks ago.  Her request was denied.  On March 27, the Associated Press reported:

"School officials say Clinton’s visit would have interfered with the school day. They also worried that the visit would give the impression the district was endorsing Clinton."

When Sen. Barack Obama spoke at that same school on Wednesday night, he was introduced and endorsed by Congressman Tim Roemer and South Bend Mayor Steve Luecke.  This likely confused 3,500 South Bend residents about the school district's neutrality.

If all else fails, the Democratic Party could simply fold its arms and blink its eyes and wish for party unity.

Comments

[Adam]

Hillary was requesting an event during the school day. Obama's rally was at night. That doesn't disrupt the school day. It's not really comparable.

Apropos to the question of unity, though, this is a very interesting post:

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/04/contemplating-unity-bounce.html

[D. Cupples]

Adam,

The school officials made TWO statements (printed above): the second was that it didn't want to appear to be endorsing Hillary.

And yet, two officials did just that at the speech.

You can't validly ignore the one statement and focus only on the other.

[D. Cupples]

Adam,

I went to that article re: the polls. It's interesting, but there are a whole lotta assumptions and extrapolations.

[Adam]

Yeah, the latter reason was clearly bunk. Of course, any school board, city council member, mayor, governor, or member of congress is free to endorse whoever they want. No point in being duplicitous about it.

I'm not about to put any money down to back the conclusions of that fivethirtyeight.com article. But the analysis overall is quite interesting, and it does make a lot of sense. As I've said before, the loser of this nomination is going to have an enormous role in the success of the winner, either by taking the VP slot or by agressively campaigning for the winner. The lack of visible support for Hillary/Obama would be a huge blow to Obama/Hillary's chances.

[Adam]

Actually, you could make the argument that it was the school officials that wanted to remain neutral, while the mayor and congressman never really hid their feelings. So, it's possible that nobody was dishonest about their motivations here.

[D. Cupples]

You're right again: officials can endorse, BUT the district's claim that it wanted to appear neutral was a BS reason to deny her request -- given that they gave Obama the venue.

Why give a BS reason if you have one good one (timing)?

It'd be interesting to know whether the school system offered Hillary an after-hours spot.

[Adam]

fivethirtyeight did a follow-up where he took the same approach with Clinton. It makes her the clear favorite, although there's a bunch of tossup states so it's not as secure as Obama after his projected bounce.

[D. Cupples]

Adam,

I'm skeptical even if the assumptions and speculations put Hillary in the lead. That's just me.

But It WAS an interesting analysis!