Obama Moves To Reintroduce Himself to Voters

Sen. Barack Obama, continuing his opening thrust of the campaign against Sen. John McCain, greets U.S. mayors on Saturday at a conference in Miami. (By Hans Deryk -- Associated Press)

Throughout the past week, other elements of Obama's aggressive outreach were on display. Shifting increasingly toward general-election issues, he met with military officers and a newly formed national security working group. He hit McCain over a secret meeting the Republican held with Hispanics in Chicago -- a hit that is part of his effort to win over a group that backed Clinton overwhelmingly in the primary and could be key to helping him reshape his electoral opportunities to include Western states.

At his meeting with 16 Democratic governors on Friday, the participants, including some of Clinton's most politically important backers, gushed about the degree to which his campaign staff had sought their input, inviting them to Chicago for dinner, putting them onstage with Obama at a briefing and asking each governor to bring in a top political aide who can be involved in planning as the campaign progresses.

"This isn't about 'I'm coming to your state, and can you go do a photo op,' " said Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. Another Democratic governor, Jennifer M. Granholm of Michigan, said the level of contact from the Obama campaign has surpassed any she has ever received from a presidential candidate. "We've never been reached out to in this way," said Granholm, a former Clinton supporter.

Given that he is running in a year in which the political climate is as favorable for the Democrats as it has been in any year in recent memory, one question the Obama team must grapple with is why the presumptive Democratic nominee does not have a more substantial lead over McCain in early polls.

Top advisers point to several factors. First, they acknowledge that the long nomination battle has left scars within the party. Right now, polls show that Obama is winning a smaller share of Democratic support than McCain is winning of Republican support. Campaign officials expect that to change as the summer progresses.

But they also acknowledge that McCain runs better with independent voters than anyone else the GOP might have nominated. By the fall they hope to have drawn enough distinctions with McCain to make those independents think twice about their support for him.

Finally, they argue, they have not yet begun to compete for Republican support, particularly among women who favor abortion rights or GOP voters disaffected with President Bush. In the end, they believe that whichever candidate wins the highest percentage of voters in the other party is likely to be the next occupant of the White House.