Obama’s long to-do list

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama has a long to-do list, and less time to check off tasks than Democrats that have come before him.

Just a few items he’ll need to take care of, and soon: Choose someone to join him on the ticket, win over the lower-income voters who backed his rival and comfort women devastated their candidate didn’t make the cut.

The Illinois senator Saturday took the first major step toward healing any rifts remaining in the Democratic Party as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton stepped aside and endorsed him.

He encouraged his backers to send her a note of thanks through his Web site - a move that could lead to asking them to help retire her more than $30 million campaign debt. He also shared video of his Tuesday speech when he lavished praise on his rival as shattering barriers and making him a better nominee.

Mr. Obama said he will ask loyal Clinton voters to join him and campaign vigorously in states he lost such as Pennsylvania and Ohio.

“They did very well in a number of states where we need help,” he said. “We’re going to try, with all humility, to seek their support, and figure out how we can all work together to win in November.”

But some are exploiting Mrs. Clinton’s concession, with the Republican National Committee noting in a statement, “Voters across America will reject Barack Obama on Election Day, just as half of his party already has.”

It’s been five months since Mr. Obama won the Iowa caucus - and there are less than five months until the general election Nov. 4. The halfway point is daunting, considering that in addition to his top to-dos, Mr. Obama also has to get back out on the campaign trail and raise money.

He has some financial and organizational advantages over his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, but it will be no easy task to win the general election.

“I’m not underestimating the challenge we have ahead of us,” Mr. Obama said. “John McCain is a strong candidate and the Republican Party is accustomed to winning presidential elections. They’re not going to give up without a fight. I’m going to have to bring my A-game and I’m going to need the best teammates possible to win.”

Democrats note that for all the bruised feelings and sometimes sharp jabs in debates and television ads, Mr. Obama has not yet realized the full force of attacks that are sure to come, especially since his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004 was against a weak Republican opponent.

“He’s been given a free ride to this point and the free ride is over,” Democratic strategist James Boyce said. “The entire force of the Republican machine is going to be focused on him. They will just start to tear him apart top to bottom.”

Mr. Obama often counters this argument by noting he survived against the tough Clinton machine, but Mr. Boyce and others have said the few negative spots she ran against him - saying he was afraid to debate her and painting him as weak on national security - pale in comparison to what is to come.

Republicans have had months to collect ammunition, and Mr. Obama’s own comments about some rural people feeling “bitter” and wanting to “cling” to religion and guns will be lines of attack in the fall.

“The GOP machine that took John Kerry with his three Purple Hearts and turned him into a coward now has a real candidate,” said Mr. Boyce, who was a Kerry adviser during the 2004 election. “George Bush is an idiot and he got elected twice against superior candidates.”

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