Obama memo to surrogates: No victory yet

Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), all but certain of claiming the Democratic nomination Tuesday night, is telling his surrogates not to make that assertion just yet, according to an internal campaign memo.

The memo, obtained by The Hill, contains suggested talking points on a number of issues, but even though Obama will likely hit the magic number of delegates needed to claim the nomination, his campaign is telling his supporters that the senator will not claim victory in his speech in Minnesota.

{mosads}“Obama’s speech tonight will address how far we’ve come and the journey ahead of us in taking on John McCain,” the memo reads. “He’ll be talking about the need for unity and articulating his positive vision for change at this major junction in the race, the end of the primaries.”

The mock question-and-answer part of the memo, however, contains a suggestion for how surrogates should respond when pressed to acknowledge that Obama will hit 2,118 delegates either sometime Tuesday or after the last primaries — South Dakota and Montana — Tuesday night.

“I simply don’t know the answer to that,” the memo encourages surrogates to respond. “Over the last few days and weeks, we’ve seen large numbers of superdelegates expressing their desire for unity in the fight ahead, and many have said that they will back the candidate with the most delegates elected by the voters. So I expect him to reach the mark, but I can’t project a time frame.”

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) campaign spent much of the morning creating mass confusion as to what the evening could bring.

Terry McAuliffe, Clinton’s campaign chairman, said on MSNBC that he thinks Clinton would concede if Obama passes the delegate threshold Tuesday night.

Since those comments, however, and a subsequent story by The Associated Press that repeated that the former first lady was set to concede, the Clinton campaign has pushed back, asserting that the New York senator has no intention of dropping out Tuesday night.