Obama to backers: no rally, please

by Christi Parsons

Barack Obama's campaign is discouraging supporters from showing up to demonstrate at a Saturday meeting of the Democratic National Committee rules panel, citing concerns that it could create a "circus" atmosphere and harm party unity.

But aides to Hillary Clinton say they expect a big turnout from their supporters, evidence not of a coordinated campaign effort but instead of the "passion" people feel for the candidate.

The DNC's rules committee will hear presentations Saturday on the question of whether Democratic delegates from Florida and Michigan should get to vote on the presidential nominee at the party's summer convention. The two states are in jeopardy of getting no votes at all because they held early primaries in violation of DNC rules.

Meanwhile, Clinton supporters are gearing up to make a presentation of their own outside the Washington hotel where the meeting is being held. They want the DNC to restore full voting rights to the Florida and Michigan delegates, even though the candidates didn't campaign there and Obama wasn't on the ballot in Michigan.

"I am aware that there are lots of people very passionate about this topic," said Clinton aide Howard Wolfson, and "planning coming down to express their point of view."

The Clinton campaign still believes they have a chance to win the Democratic nomination even though Obama holds a substantial lead among elected delegates, Wolfson said.

"We believe there is a path to the nomination and we are following it," he said, in part by trying to get the Michigan and Florida delegates seated at the convention.

But Obama aides say they don't want their supporters to demonstrate outside the meeting, which takes place as his campaign tries to turn its focus to the fall general election. If the DNC committee doesn't change the working number of elected delegates by seating the two disenfranchised delegations, Obama campaign officials expect him to hit the magic number after Tuesday's primaries.

The Obama team says it is open to some compromise that would allow the seating of some of the Michigan and Florida delegates, even though "any compromise is clearly going to benefit Sen. Clinton," said David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager. They would agree to that in the interest of "bringing this to a resolution," Plouffe said.

Obama is trying to achieve party unity, said Obama supporter and former DNC chairman David Wilhelm.

"He has played by the rules every step of the way," Wilhelm said. "It's very appropriate that he is, at this point, acting so clearly in the interest of promoting party unity. We're not going to have Obama folks protesting. We're not going to turn this into a circus."

If Obama wins the nomination as he expects, party unity will be crucial to his election. While the acrimonious Democratic primary season plays out to the final states, presumptive Republican John McCain is already running a general election campaign.