Obama takes campaign to House floor

The fight for Democratic superdelegates moved to the House floor on Thursday as Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) spoke to dozens of Democrats in the House chamber.

{mosads}Obama, increasingly looking like the Democratic presidential nominee, strode into the House chamber just before 11 a.m. as the House was beginning a series of votes. Obama, who was greeted with hugs and backslaps, slipped in the side door along with what appeared to be  only his security detail.

“I wanted to see what's going on over here,” Obama, wearing a broad smile, told reporters. “I hear there's a lot of action on this side.”

He spoke to uncommitted superdelegates as well as supporters of his rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) He was also seen speaking to Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), who is neutral in the race. And he talked at length to Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), an uncommitted superdelegate.

The Democratic frontrunner spoke with Clinton supporters Reps. John Murtha (Pa.) and Bill Pascrell (N.J.), as well as Reps. Chris Van Hollen (Md.) and John Spratt (S.C.), who are both uncommitted.

Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), a Clinton supporter, got Obama to sign a copy of today’s New York Daily News with the headline: “It’s His Party.”

He also talked with Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.), a Clinton supporter whose district voted for Obama. But those votes have not been counted in the Democratic primary because Florida defied the party rules in scheduling its primary.

“I was teasing, as everyone was. I said, ‘Do you want me to kiss the ring now, or when you come to Florida,’” Hastings said. “He said, ‘Take your time.’ I said, ‘I will take my time, because you do need to come to Florida,’” Hastings related later. "I didn't get to say what I wanted to say, which is that he could just say right now, ‘Seat the Florida delegation.’”

Even Republicans were not immune. Rep. Chip Pickering (R-Miss.) brought his children over to say hello. Obama also spoke with Republican Reps. David Dreier (Calif.) and Jerry Lewis (Calif.). Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) came running after him, and Rep. Barbara Cubin (R-Wyo.) came over to chat.

He spent about 40 minutes speaking to lawmakers. After he exited the floor, Obama said the goal is to “bring the party together as soon as possible.”

He also told reporters that he expects to lose the upcoming primaries in West Virginia and Kentucky to Clinton.

“We're going to have to keep on working. Senator Clinton is a formidable candidate, she is very likely to win West Virginia and Kentucky, those are two states where she's got insurmountable leads,” Obama said. "We're going to spend some time there. But we are also going to be going to Oregon, Montana, South Dakota and Puerto Rico.”

Obama denied that he was campaigning on the House floor, which some Republicans grumbled was inappropriate.

“I wasn't campaigning, I was saying hello,” he said.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was at a news conference for most of Obama’s time on the floor. He was leaving the chamber by a different door when she entered, but the two later encountered each other.

Outside the chamber, Obama yelled: "where are my pages?" before shaking hands with House pages crowding a staircase.

A crush of media swarmed Obama as he walked from the House to the Senate and tourists stopped and cheered him as he passed by. A group of tourists from Schaumberg, Ill. yelled for him to stop.

“Good to see you guys! I'm surrounded, but I appreciate you,” he yelled back to the crowd.

Clinton was not on the House floor, but some of her surrogates were. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), a Clinton backer, also could be seen talking to members on the House floor.

Obama also spoke with supporters of his campaign including Reps. Bennie Thompson (Miss.), Barbara Lee (Calif.), Artur Davis (Ala.), Jan Schakowsky (Ill.) and Jesse Jackson, Jr. (Ill.).

As Obama worked the floor, House members found that they didn't know what they were voting for. Wording had gotten confused on a bill designed to deal with the housing crisis, and Republicans and Democrats found members on both sides had been voting the wrong way. After some partisan haggling and yelling that seemed to take a backseat to the celebrity performance unfolding on the Democratic side of the chamber, they vacated the vote and held a "re-do."