Although I wasn't able to get to the rally for Hillary, in Annapolis, yesterday, I heard there was a terrific turnout.  The front page of today's Baltimore Sun has 2 articles pertaining to our upcoming primary, under the combined headline: 

Money, gender add complexity to campaigns.  

Women drawn to Clinton by their hearts, minds

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Though Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois has surged in the polls in recent weeks, he has not cracked Clinton's bedrock of support among women of her generation, the first for whom the idea of a woman becoming president was more than just a fantasy. It's an advantage her supporters in Maryland - both men and women - are seeking to capitalize on.

"I'm looking forward to the day my daughters and everyone can say the words, 'Madam President,'" Gov. Martin O'Malley said to cheers at an Annapolis rally yesterday, where he was surrounded by women officeholders supporting Clinton.

Evidence of her appeal to women is hard to miss, wherever she appears.

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Many analysts expect Obama to best Clinton in the Maryland primary Tuesday, but there have been no recent public polls. The most recent one, conducted for The Sun in early January, showed that he enjoyed more support among women at the time than she did, with 39 percent for him and 29 percent for her.

But that was on the heels of his big win in the Iowa caucuses and before her comeback in the New Hampshire primary. Since then, said Annapolis pollster Steve Raabe, who conducted The Sun's survey, the New York senator has been corralling a greater share of women's votes, even as Obama firmed up his support among African-American voters.

<snipped>

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the former lieutenant governor, said at yesterday's rally that she supports Clinton, because of her advocacy of women's rights and her ruggedness in the face of criticism and adversity.

"And for the last 35 years, we've seen a woman who has had a lot thrown at her, and a lot of tough times, tough days," Townsend said at yesterday's rally. "But she's given us inspiration, by saying you don't give up, you don't give in, you keep fighting for people - and she's done it particularly, I have to say, for women."

Melissa Deckman, a political science professor at Washington College in Chestertown, said many women are torn. While women voters tend to support candidates with strong social-welfare and health stands, Deckman says that the policy choice is blurred because Clinton and Obama basically agree on many issues. So gender does become a factor, at least for some.

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Next.....Where were these guys in 2004, when we desperately needed the votes to put Bush out of office???

Obama camp wary of drive for votes

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Bacote's get-out-the-vote effort in Prince George's County, underwritten by a San Francisco-based advocacy group called PowerPAC, is part of an eight-state campaign to increase voter turnout in African-American communities for the presidential primaries. Its cost could exceed $2 million, organizers say. If successful, it would likely benefit Obama more than any other candidate.

"It is sort of hard to untangle the two things," said Kirk Clay, the group's field director in Maryland, of his mission and support for Obama. "But we don't care who they vote for; we just want to increase the turnout in African-American communities."  (posters comment:  Yeah, right!)

Still, the prospect of large numbers of black men showing up at the polls is such a potential boon to the Illinois Democrat's presidential hopes that Obama has been forced to issue a clear and somewhat curious response to efforts like Bacote's. He wants them shut down.

Worrying that PowerPAC support runs afoul of his pledge not to accept money or support from political action committees, Obama and his campaign officials sent a letter to the group Dec. 28 asking it to stop the effort "without further delay."

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Organizers in Maryland say they started building their operation a few days before the letter was sent and haven't backed off since. There's no denying that getting African-Americans to the polls benefits Obama, they say, but it benefits black communities even more.

"In the end," Clay said, "what we most believe in is democracy, that the more people get involved, the more they get inspired, the better of America is going to be."

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In California, where PowerPAC's efforts began, the group sponsored television advertising for Obama and announced outright support for the candidate. That message has been tempered, but the group's goals in Maryland are still ambitious.

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The potential benefit to Obama of an increase in black male voters at the polls - a group with historically low turnout, but which has supported Obama overwhelmingly in earlier primaries - is so big that many doubt the candidate's efforts to squelch it are truly genuine.

"It's probably not whole-hearted," said Matthew A. Crenson, a professor of political science at the Johns Hopkins University and an Obama supporter.

"He needs to make the gesture, show that he's against accepting PAC money and is being transparent with his financing," he said. "But if they can increase turnout among African-American men, it's very likely it will help Obama considerably."

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*Note:  I have tried desperately to get the link to post in the PowerPAC piece, but for some reason it won't cooperate.  If anyone wants it, just ask and I'll try it again in my reply.