Presidential Watch 2008

China goes back on its words

2008-07-29T21:18:00.000-07:00

Like a commenter said, should anyone be surprised about this? China has decided to reverse its pledge to offer complete media freedom, and will censor the Internet used by foreign media during the Olympics.

Sorry, Sun Weide, your so-called "sufficient access to the Internet for reporters" is not sufficient. China had pledged to offer complete media freedom and China has an obligation to keep its words. China has gone back on its own words on an international stage. China has slapped itself in its own face.

China prohibits reporters from accessing sites regarding "Falungong spiritual movement". What is China so afraid of Falungong for? Falungong is just a type of exercise while promoting truth, compassion and tolerance. Like Tai Chi or Judo, Falungong has its philosophy that comes with the territory. It is beyond the free world why China has been convinced that Falungong will create a "movement" that will overturn the corrupted Chinese government. Is Falungong promoting everything that China government is not? Why the paranoia?

The spokesman said that there were other unspecified sites unavailable to journalists. Let me guess, those sites couldn't have anything to do with the themes of "Free Tibet" or 1989 Chinese government massacring students, could they?

China completely disgusts the free world. This Olympic Game has been way over China's head. While China is boasting this August 8, 2008 (8.8.8) Olympics as its demonstration of its powerfulness to the world, the world sees a 666 instead. You heard me. China is nothing but a nasty BEAST for its notorious human rights record. China government has blood on its hands from almost every family in China. It is a shame that China seems to be the only member in the international society that does not understand how horrific China's human rights record is. China will not get away if it's using this opportunity to crack down on Tibet. Free world, don't let it happen in front of our eyes again like in 1989!

This is the report:

China will censor the Internet used by foreign media during the Olympics, an organising committee official confirmed Wednesday, reversing a pledge to offer complete media freedom at the games.

"During the Olympic Games we will provide sufficient access to the Internet for reporters," said Sun Weide, spokesman for the organising committee.

He confirmed, however, that journalists would not be able to access information or websites connected to the Falungong spiritual movement which is banned in China.

Other sites were also unavailable to journalists, he said, without specifying which ones.

Copyright AFP 2008, AFP stories and photos shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium

China Censors Writers

2008-05-06T12:01:00.000-07:00

After launching tens of thousands of netizens to flood the blogs on Tibet issue all over the world to assert that Tibet was, is and will always be China's, Beijing exercised censorship on their own columnist who called out the government to "allow more media freedom in covering the Tibet riots and to review its policy on Tibet" by firing a renowned Chinese columnist Zhang Ping.

I am reminded of all these angry netizens who cried foul about the news reports from CNN, BBC, and Fox News. Weren't they glad that there was actually someone, a Chinese with conscience, that they could fire? This renowned Chinese columnist Zhang Ping, I suspect, is not alone with such opinions that China should allow more media freedom and review its Tibet policy, among the Han Chinese, who mostly do not have the access like Zhang Ping's to voice such opinions.

It is ironic that those who accuse western media of being biased are doing exactly what they are denouncing: silencing the opposition by calling Zhang Ping a traitor and firing him. Those netizens' real agenda is to stop the western media from reporting the facts that they don't want the world to know. It is not the truth that the netizens care about. What frustrates the Chinese Communist Party hacks is the resistence of their propoganda, from conscientious reporters and columnists, like their very own Zhang Ping.

BEIJING (Reuters) - A renowned Chinese columnist has lost his job at a magazine over commentaries on unrest in Tibet which did not conform with the official line, a watchdog group and a source with knowledge of the dismissal said on Tuesday.

Zhang Ping, who writes under the pen name Chang Ping, was sacked as deputy chief editor of the Southern Metropolis Weekly magazine, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said.

The group said in an e-mail Zhang's departure was "because of his editorials about Tibet", including the controversial piece "How to find the truth about Lhasa?"
"We deplore this unfair removal of a well-known member of the liberal press," the statement said.

Zhang declined to comment when reached by telephone. The source, requesting anonymity, confirmed the sacking but declined to provide further details.

Violent anti-Chinese riots broke out in Tibet and Tibetan-populated areas in neighboring provinces in March, with mobs killing about 20 non-Tibetan civilians, the Chinese government says. The Tibetan government-in-exile puts the figure at more than 200, most victims of a subsequent crackdown.

The crackdown led to protests by exiled Tibetans around the world and a troubled international leg of the Olympic torch relay for the Beijing Games in August.

Zhang's articles were published mainly in his magazine's sister newspaper, the Southern Metropolis Daily, and called on the government to allow more media freedom in covering the Tibet riots and to review its policy on Tibet.

The commentaries drew an angry backlash from a large number of Internet users, who accused Zhang of being a traitor and downplaying the violence by Tibetans as well as the perceived anti-China bias of Western media.

(Reporting by Benjamin Kang Lim; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Clinton Wins PA

2008-04-22T20:40:00.000-07:00

Dems Fight On, Clinton Wins PA Primary
Despite Delegate Lead, Obama Can't Seem to Lock Up Democratic Nomination
By JENNIFER PARKER
April 22, 2008

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., has won the Pennsylvania primary vote as expected, claiming victory in a Philadelphia speech.

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., addresses supporters after winning the Pennsylvania primary in Philadelphia, Tuesday, April 22, 2008.
(Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo)"Some people counted me out and said to drop out but the American people don't quit, and they deserve a president who doesn't quit, either," Clinton told supporters at a victory rally after walking out to Tom Petty's song "I Won't Back Down." (More...)

June notes: Is she wearing the same outfit as the one she wore in the ABC debate?

Another Slap in China's Face

2008-04-11T21:33:00.000-07:00

Japan says no to Chinese torch guards

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan will not allow the squad of Chinese flame guards to intervene with the Beijing Olympic torch's progress when it arrives in a Japanese city this month, the national police head was quoted as saying on Friday.

"We should not violate the principle that the Japanese police will firmly maintain security," Kyodo news agency quoted Shinya Izumi, head of the National Public Safety Commission, as saying.

...
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has said Australia, not China, would be the one to provide security for the flame when it comes to his country. (More...)

This unprecedented "flame protection squad" consisting of some 70 members of China's People's Armed Police, is described as "a phalanx of large and physically fit Chinese men in blue-and-white track suits...trotting besides the torch along its ambitious global torch route and turned off the flame several times in Paris earlier this week".

So this is the way China answers to the global protests toward its poor human rights record and its violent crackdown on Tibet. Money has been poured into this Chinese Olympic propaganda but the world is not fooled. Japan and Australia have stood up to China's ridiculous scheme of "flame protection squad". This is the start of a global movement in accord against China's violation of human rights: the violent crackdown on Tibet, the brutal persecution of Fa lung Gong members, and the bloody slaughter of students on the Tienanmen Square. China government has blood all over their hands and the world is demanding China to stop!

Bravery and Elegance

2008-04-08T23:01:00.000-07:00

"So well planned. So well thought out." - CBS News

"A stunningly bold protest for the world to see." - CBS News

"Tremendous amount of skill. Obviously it's a dangerous operation." - Golden Gate Bridge Manager

"Oh, this is unbelievable! I just can't believe this!" - Tourist from Indiana

"We are in solidarity with the Tibetan people." - Laurel Sutherlin, one of the three heroes

Thank you, Laurel Sutherlin, Duane Martinez, and Hannah Strange. We are with you. We are with the Tibetan people. China is at odds with the rest of the world for its oppression of the peaceful Tibetan people for nearly 60 years. Time to come clean, China!

Click picture to see the CBS video

Salute Protester Heroes

2008-04-07T21:32:00.000-07:00

(Click the above to see the 2 CNN videos back to back. Awesome!)

(Video: Work destroyed. Heroes Arrested. The message is out!)

Thank you! Golden Gate Bridge Three Heroes! You have brought the attention to the entire world!

The heart-wrenching daily reports on Tibetans' risking their lives to have their voice heard.

The condemnation from all over the world on China's crackdown on Tibet.

The dilemma why the Chinese People's Liberation Army has used weapons on the peaceful Tibetans since 1950.

The ardent protests against China's crackdown on Tibet in every major city in the world.

The Chinese Communist Party's hacks rear their ugly heads and flood blogs with half-truth and outright lies.

But the truth can not be silenced.

The Western world continues trying, in all earnest, to show China that human rights need to be respected and Tibetans are entitled to their opinions. Passionate bloggers all over the world rigorously debate with the CCP hacks and only find that they are not sincere, not logical, and they do not hesitate resorting to name calling.

These are the typical hacks' rhetorics:
-Tibet was, is and always will be China's.
-Why is US invading Iraq?
-Tibet is China's internal affair, mind your own business at home.
-How about the US Civil war? You didn't allow division, did you?
-How about US invaded American Indians?
-Tibetans are well treated with financial and educational opportunity better than the Han Chinese.
-Tibetans are taking vacations on the beach.
-Tibetans steal.

Conclusion of their excuses: How dare the Tibetans! How dare the Western world! How dare anyone think differently from the China stinky oligarchy!

It comes down to this moment of the heroes climbing on the Golden Gate Bridge to raise banners drawing attention to China's crackdown on Tibet.

My tears of awe, respect, joy and admiration burst out for these heroes. Thank you heroes for risking your lives to carry out such a beautiful, well-planned action. From the design of the banner sizes and materials, the calculation of the wind speed, the physical training of climbing on the Golden Bridge Cables, the timing, and the well-articulated interview you gave to the reporter. You have done such a wonderful job. Your brave action goes down in history as credit for the eventual Tibetan freedom. You will be forever celebrated as the Golden Gate Bridge Three. You shocked China. You awed the world. Thank you. You are beautiful.

About the Golden Gate Bridge Three heroes:
"The three who ascended the cables are all experienced mountain climbers."
"Ginger Cassady, spokeswoman for the group, identified the climbers as Duane Martinez and Laurel Sutherlin, both men of Sausalito, and Hannah Strange, from Oakland. She said the protest, which began about 10 a.m., was timed so it didn't disrupt the morning commute."

Posted by June

Pugnacious McCain

2008-02-04T13:38:00.000-08:00

GOP Senators Reassess Views About McCain
His Old Foes Still Wary Of His Pugnacious Style
By Paul KaneWashington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 4, 2008; A01

John McCain once testified under oath that a Senate colleague inappropriately used tobacco corporation donations to sway votes on legislation. He cursed out another colleague in front of 20 senators and staff members, questioning the senator's grip on immigration legislation. And, on the Senate floor, McCain (R-Ariz.) accused another colleague of "egregious behavior" for helping a defense contractor in a move he said resembled "corporate scandals." (more...)

Chelsea Stumps for Mom

2008-02-04T13:33:00.000-08:00

Chelsea Clinton On The Campaign Trail: Former First Daughter Stumps For Mom, Deflects Date Offers

'You're not voting for the Clintons. You're voting for my mother,' candidate's daughter emphasizes.
By Garth Bardsley with Shawn Adler

As the daughter of a former president, Chelsea Clinton has long been in the public spotlight. Now campaigning to become the daughter of a future president, the 27-year-old Stanford graduate is finally ready for her close-up. (more...)

35 Years of Experience?

2008-02-04T13:26:00.000-08:00

Clinton's '35 years of change' omits most of her career
By Matt Stearns McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — To hear Hillary Clinton talk, she's spent her entire career putting her Yale Law School degree to work for the common good.

She routinely tells voters that she's "been working to bring positive change to people's lives for 35 years." She told a voter in New Hampshire: "I've spent so much of my life in the nonprofit sector." Speaking in South Carolina, Bill Clinton said his wife "could have taken a job with a firm ... Instead she went to work with Marian Wright Edelman at the Children's Defense Fund." (more...)

McCain: Super Tue Decides

2008-02-02T12:04:00.001-08:00

McCain: Super Tuesday may end the GOP race
February 2, 2008

McCain told reporters Super Tuesday might end the Republican race.

(CNN) – Republican John McCain said Friday that Super Tuesday could mark the finish line of his party’s presidential race this year.

“Do I think the race will be over on Tuesday? Not often do I ask for divine intercession, but I have asked for that. Yes,” he told reporters on a campaign flight to Chicago. Republicans in 21 states will weigh in on Super Tuesday, February 5.

“From what we see in the polls, there is a very good chance it could be over on Tuesday,” said the Arizona senator, adding: “The sooner we get that done, the sooner I can go to work on uniting the party." (more...)

Billion Dollar President

2008-02-01T23:33:00.000-08:00

Race to become $1bn president
By Ben White in New York
Published: February 1 2008 19:50

The US presidential candidates are heading towards the $1bn mark in campaign fundraising, shattering records as Wall Street and corporate America pump cash into a race that started early and has produced at least eight viable candidates.

The highly competitive field has forced corporate interests to generously spread their contributions to ensure continued good standing with potential future presidents.

Obama on McCain

2008-02-01T23:22:00.000-08:00

Blogger notes: Since Bill Clinton predicted that Hillary and John McCain, if both got nominated, would have too civilized campaigns, maybe there is more to watch if Obama is on the ticket instead of Hillary...

Obama Says He'd Be Better Against McCain
Feb 1, 8:02 PM (ET)
By NEDRA PICKLER

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Democratic Sen. Barack Obama sees one of the best arguments for his presidential candidacy in the rise of Republican Sen. John McCain. McCain has become Obama's favorite punching bag, an easier mark in front of partisan audiences than the rival Obama will have to beat first to get to the general election - Hillary Rodham Clinton. (more...)

Oprah for Obama

2008-02-01T23:18:00.000-08:00

February 1, 2008, 4:10 pm
Oprah’s Back
By Jeff Zeleny

ALBUQUERQUE – Oprah is on the way.
On Sunday, Oprah Winfrey is returning to the presidential campaign trail to headline a California event for Senator Barack Obama. The Obama campaign has yet to announce details, but people familiar with the event say the television talk show magnate will join Michelle Obama at a campaign rally in the Los Angeles area. (more...)

Obama: Raised $32M in Jan.

2008-01-31T21:33:00.000-08:00

Obama Raises $32 Million in January

By JIM KUHNHENN
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama raised $32 million in the single month of January, matching his best three-month period last year, aides said Thursday.

The money positions Obama for the sweeping Feb. 5 primary contests, when 22 states will be in play for the Democratic nomination. Aides also announced that with their money they can now advertise in states beyond the Super Tuesday contest next week.

Guthrie endorses Paul

2008-01-31T21:28:00.000-08:00

ELECTION 2008
Arlo Guthrie endorses Ron Paul
Huckabee has Norris, McCain has Stallone
Posted: January 31, 20081:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2008 WorldNetDaily.com

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has been endorsed by martial arts champion and movie star Chuck Norris; rival John McCain has the support of "Rocky" star Sylvestor Stallone. Now Ron Paul has announced the endorsement of Arlo Guthrie. (More...)

Bill: Fighting Global Warming

2008-01-31T21:22:00.000-08:00

Bill: "We Just Have to Slow Down Our Economy" to Fight Global Warming
January 31, 2008

Former President Bill Clinton was in Denver, Colorado, stumping for his wife yesterday.

In a long, and interesting speech, he characterized what the U.S. and other industrialized nations need to do to combat global warming this way: "We just have to slow down our economy and cut back our greenhouse gas emissions 'cause we have to save the planet for our grandchildren." (More...)

Romney Plans Major Ads

2008-01-31T21:18:00.000-08:00

Romney Plans Major Ad Buys in California, Other Super Tuesday States
by FOXNews.com
Thursday, January 31, 2008

Mitt Romney plans to buy TV ads in California and other Super Tuesday states, contradicting earlier reports that he was avoiding a costly campaign on Feb. 5, when 21 states hold Republican primaries and caucuses. (More...)

Obama: Most Liberal 2007

2008-01-31T21:13:00.000-08:00

Obama: Most Liberal Senator In 2007
By Brian Friel, Richard E. Cohen and Kirk Victor,

National Journal© National Journal Group Inc.

Thursday, Jan. 31, 2008

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., was the most liberal senator in 2007, according to National Journal's 27th annual vote ratings. (More...)

TX Governor Endorses McCain

2008-01-31T20:50:00.000-08:00

Gov. Perry Endorses John McCain
Jan 31, 2008 12:17 PM PST

Gov. Rick Perry on Thursday announced his endorsement of presidential candidate John McCain.

Perry said he is backing McCain, because he is the candidate who would do the most for and win the war on terror.

"Two words: Hilary Clinton; that kinda gets everybody focused on what the alternative is," Perry said. "How would that make you feel if you were to see her as president? Where do you think the nation would be?" asked KXAN Austin News' Michelle Valles."Hilary Clinton as a president? I guess 'to hell in a hand basket' probably would not be a good quote, but that's the first thing that came to mind," Perry replied.

Perry spoke by telephone earlier in the day with McCain and said he expects the Arizona senator to visit Texas soon to see what the state has done to try to combat crime along the border.

The governor would not expand on his political aspirations after his term ends.

Perry announced his endorsement of Rudy Giuliani in October. Giuliani bowed out early Wednesday evening, throwing his support to John McCain.

Texas' primary is March 4, well after the huge slate of Feb. 5 primaries that could decide the nomination.
.

Obama: Clinton Divisive

2008-01-31T20:44:00.000-08:00

Obama Calls Clinton Divisive Figure
By NEDRA PICKLER and MIKE GLOVER

DENVER (AP) - Democratic Sen. Barack Obama said Wednesday a Hillary Rodham Clinton presidency would be a step back to the past, turning her husband's image of a bridge to the future against her. The former first lady decried the tenor of his comments in an interview with The Associated Press. (More...)

Clinton, Obama make peace

2008-01-31T20:10:00.000-08:00

Clinton, Obama make peace but spar over war
By Ellen Wulfhorst and Jeff Mason

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton struck a cordial tone in their first one-on-one presidential debate on Thursday, directing their attacks at Republican front-runner John McCain while disagreeing on who could best lead U.S. troops out of Iraq.

The two Democratic White House contenders dropped the angry and confrontational approach of their last debate in South Carolina, adopting a friendly tone and saying their similarities were greater than their differences.

"I was friends with Hillary Clinton before we started this campaign; I will be friends with Hillary Clinton after this campaign is over," said Obama, a 46-year-old Illinois senator who would be the first black U.S. president.

Clinton, a 60-year-old New York senator who would be the first woman U.S. president, said the Republican White House contenders were offering "more of the same."

"Just by looking at us, you can tell we aren't more of the same," she said at the debate at Los Angeles' Kodak Theatre. "We will change our country."

The meeting was the final debate ahead of Tuesday's Democratic nominating contests in 22 states, the biggest single day of voting in U.S. presidential nominating history. Clinton and Obama are in a tight battle for the right to represent Democrats in November's presidential election.

They split the first four significant nominating contests, with Obama winning Iowa and South Carolina and Clinton winning New Hampshire and Nevada.

Both candidates leveled criticism at the 71-year-old McCain, citing his comment U.S. troops could remain in Iraq for 100 years and his support for extending President George W. Bush's tax cuts from 2001 and 2003 after voting against them at the time.

"Somewhere along the line, the (McCain) Straight-Talk Express lost some wheels and now he is in favor of extending Bush tax cuts that went to some of the wealthiest Americans who don't need them and we're not even asking for them," Obama said.
Clinton, asked about the prospect of another term in the White House for a Clinton after eight years of her husband and 12 years of a member of the Bush family, took aim at both Bushes.

'CLEAN UP AFTER BUSH'

"It did take a Clinton to clean after the first Bush and I think it might take another one to clean up after the second Bush," she said.

It was the first debate since last week's fierce South Carolina showdown, which featured harsh personal attacks between the two senators that sparked a week of bitter accusations by Obama, Clinton and Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton.

But they eased off the attacks after Obama's South Carolina win and clearly decided it was better to stay positive in Thursday's debate.

Obama, an early opponent of the Iraq war, questioned her 2002 Senate vote to authorize the war in Iraq. He assailed Clinton who has frequently said she had the experience to lead from "day one" in the White House.

"Part of the argument that I'm making in this campaign is that it is important to be right on day one," he said.

Both candidates pointed to health care as one of their biggest policy differences. Clinton's plan requires all Americans to have coverage, and she criticized Obama's plan because it could leave up to 15 million people uninsured.

"You have to bite this bullet, you have to say 'Yes, we will try to get to universal health care'," she said.

Obama said anyone who wanted health care could get it under his plan, which would focus on bringing down costs.

Obama and Clinton also disagreed on whether illegal immigrants should have the right to driver's licenses, with Clinton opposing the idea. But Obama noted Clinton's difficulty in forming a position after a debate in October when she dodged the issue several times.

"Sen. Clinton gave a number of different answers over the course of six weeks on this issue, and that did appear political," Obama said.

The debate was their first since Obama crushed Clinton and John Edwards in a South Carolina landslide on Saturday, driving Edwards from the race. Both Clinton and Obama praised Edwards in their opening statements.

Earlier on Thursday, popular California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger endorsed Republican presidential candidate John McCain, giving the Arizona senator a boost in his drive to gain his party's nomination for the White House.

"He is a great American hero and an extraordinary leader. This is why I am endorsing him to be our next president of the United States," the actor-turned-politician said.

California is the largest prize among the states that hold nominating contests on "Super Tuesday." McCain, the Republican front-runner, already leads state polls over former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Obama reported he raised $32 million in the month of January alone, matching his biggest three-month fundraising haul of the year and helping him pay for new ads in a half-dozen states that hold contests after "Super Tuesday."

(Writing by John Whitesides; editing by Howard Goller)

Obama vs Clinton at Kodak

2008-01-31T09:42:00.000-08:00

Primary time for celebs: Star power floods political arena
By Gary Strauss, USA TODAY

It's fitting that tonight's Democratic presidential debate will be held at Los Angeles' Kodak Theatre, home of the Oscars and one of Hollywood's most hallowed monuments to the stars.
Star power rocks on the campaign trail these days, with an unprecedented number of actors, entertainers and sports figures stumping for candidates

And it's not only the phalanx of celebrities attempting to influence the primary races; it's also what they're doing. In years past, most stars have been content to endorse and bankroll candidates and make high-profile appearances. But this year, with the race still open and 22 states up for grabs on Super Tuesday next week, celebrities have been working in key states earlier, in greater numbers and more extensively than ever.

Ron Howard, Quincy Jones, Ted Danson and wife Mary Steenburgen, America Ferrera, Amber Tamblyn and sport legends Magic Johnson and Billie Jean King have stumped for Hillary Clinton. Barack Obama's celebrity campaigners include Scarlett Johansson, Chris Tucker, Kerry Washington and singer Usher.

Before bowing out of the race Wednesday, John Edwards had Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, James Denton and others stumping for him, and singers Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and John Mellencamp performing.

"At this stage of the game, celebrity and politics are fusing in a way that hasn't happened before — and the exposure and media play is remarkable," says veteran entertainment industry watcher Jeffrey Ressner of Politico.com. "In the past, many celebrities waited until there was a two-person race. Now, they're working hard and getting their hands dirty if they have strong feelings for a candidate."

Says talk-show host and Clinton supporter Star Jones, "People are stepping out of their comfort zone. They know they may take a (public relations) hit. But people are really vested in this presidential campaign. People are (angry) at the way this country has been run. Everyone wants change."

Do stars matter?

Of course, even an army of stars is no guarantee of success. With his star-studded campaign trail help, Edwards still couldn't generate enough heat to remain a contender. And numerous studies and public opinion polls have pointed to the marginal impact a celebrity endorsement brings.

Yet in a 24/7 media-saturated environment where style often supersedes substance, Hollywood buzz has been key for some candidates. Winfrey's appearances for Obama in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina drew thousands of onlookers at campaign stops, helping validate his campaign. Action icon Chuck Norris kick-started Mike Huckabee's campaign, from his first TV ad to stops in early primary states.

"Chuck Norris has been a tremendous asset," Huckabee says. "He's a big hit on the campaign trail. In fact, there've been many times when Chuck's fans have flooded into events to see him — which is OK with me, since it gives me exposure to a whole new group of potential voters."

Huckabee's eclectic entourage has since been joined by professional wrestler Ric Flair.

John McCain has had veteran character actor Wilford Brimley at his side. Mitt Romney has had Olympic speed skating champion Dan Jansen introduce him at events. While Romney spokesman Kevin Madden says celebrity endorsements have limited value, star power "does give you an extra news cycle or two."

Star power is especially bright for Democrats, who've lost five of the past seven presidential elections. Campaign rallies aside, celebs have worked phone banks, canvassed door to door, shaken hands at local diners, attended union gatherings and hit countless small towns and communities to spur support.

"They have been very generous with their time and resources, and I'm grateful for the help they have provided this campaign," Clinton said hours after winning Tuesday's Florida primary. "They understand that this election is too important to sit on the sidelines."

Fresh off Tuesday's Florida primary win, Clinton staffers are plotting how best to deploy celebrities in preparation for Super Tuesday. Aside from the current cast, "we've got a lot of new people coming," says spokesman Jin Chon.

Celebs aren't naive enough to think they sway voters. "No one should give more credence to (celebrity) opinions than anyone else," says Designing Women star Jean Smart, who was an Edwards backer. "I'm no Oprah. But if I can get people to come out, even if it's just out of curiosity, that's fine."

But "they help to draw crowds," Edwards said in an interview last week. "That's the most important thing they do: bring attention."

Republican Rudy Giuliani, who also withdrew from the race on Wednesday, had actor Jon Voight accompanying him. "This election is the most important of my lifetime," the actor and lifelong Democrat recently said.

Observers cite Winfrey's early praise and fundraising efforts for Obama for bringing fellow celebrities to primary races.

"It's the Oprah factor," says public relations and crisis management strategist Robbie Vorhaus. "It hasn't been that long since celebrities might have felt their careers were in jeopardy if they made a political stance. Now they're realizing the fate of the world, in many respects, is in the balance. The fact that Oprah went out and got behind a candidate opened the door for celebrities and other people of influence to stump for candidates."

Images at risk

Some celebrities, such as Obama-supporter George Clooney, have stated that some campaign work might do more harm than good, because Hollywood's left-leaning image doesn't always play well in middle America.

There's also the risk to an actor's own career. Desperate Housewives' Denton, a long-time Republican who canvassed door to door for Edwards in New Hampshire, toured colleges in Iowa and stumped in Nevada and South Carolina, has already felt some backlash.

"I've gotten a surprising amount of mail from unhappy fans, some real conservatives who say that they're disappointed in you and will never watch your show again," he says. "It's been eye-opening."

There's also the risk of a TMZ-type moment. At a fundraiser at his Texas ranch this month, Norris told reporters that Huckabee rival McCain, who's 72, was too old for the presidency. McCain later responded that he'd send his 95-year-old mother to "wash Chuck's mouth out with soap."

"This is the problem you can run into," says Boston University professor Alan Schroeder, author of Presidential Debates: 40 Years of High Risk TV. "Celebrities don't edit themselves."

Interviewed last week on cable channel MSNBC, Norris, 67, admitted he'd made a mistake and said he had apologized to McCain. "I don't go in as a celebrity," Norris told USA TODAY. "I'm just a concerned citizen. I'm concerned about the future of our country."

Conversely, twentysomething celebrities such as Johansson and Ferrara could draw young voters who've been largely absent from presidential races. "Celebrities are rarely a key in someone's voting decision, but one of their biggest values is attracting new voters to at least listen to a candidate or attend an event," says David Burstein, founder of advocacy group 18 in '08. "Bringing new voters into the process, engaging young people any way they can be engaged, these are good things for democracy."

Looking for a winner

Early celebrity support focusing on a potential winner is somewhat of a departure from recent elections. "With a lot of celebrities, it's been more a case of who they identify with instead of who they think can actually be elected," notes Schroeder.

Electability was a common theme among many of Edwards' star supporters, who believe voters will ultimately reject Clinton as too polarizing to win a presidential race and Obama's African-American ethnicity and youth as too great to overcome, at least for 2008.

"You have to think beyond the caucuses and the primaries to the general election," Smart says. Sarandon, who initially supported Obama and donated to his campaign before switching to Edwards, said in an interview last week, "Edwards is the only authentic electable candidate" among Democrats.

But Edwards' withdrawal demonstrates that the question of electability ultimately rests in the electorate, not in endorsements. "At the end of the day, a celebrity will get you noticed, but you still have to deliver a compelling message that resonates with voters," Vorhaus says. "And that message has to resonate with more people than your competition."

Contributing: David Jackson

Ex-President and Big Donor

2008-01-30T23:30:00.000-08:00

January 31, 2008
An Ex-President, a Mining Deal and a Big Donor
By JO BECKER and DON VAN NATTA Jr.

Late on Sept. 6, 2005, a private plane carrying the Canadian mining financier Frank Giustra touched down in Almaty, a ruggedly picturesque city in southeast Kazakhstan. Several hundred miles to the west a fortune awaited: highly coveted deposits of uranium that could fuel nuclear reactors around the world. And Mr. Giustra was in hot pursuit of an exclusive deal to tap them.

Unlike more established competitors, Mr. Giustra was a newcomer to uranium mining in Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic. But what his fledgling company lacked in experience, it made up for in connections. Accompanying Mr. Giustra on his luxuriously appointed MD-87 jet that day was a former president of the United States, Bill Clinton.

Upon landing on the first stop of a three-country philanthropic tour, the two men were whisked off to share a sumptuous midnight banquet with Kazakhstan’s president, Nursultan A. Nazarbayev, whose 19-year stranglehold on the country has all but quashed political dissent.

Mr. Nazarbayev walked away from the table with a propaganda coup, after Mr. Clinton expressed enthusiastic support for the Kazakh leader’s bid to head an international organization that monitors elections and supports democracy. Mr. Clinton’s public declaration undercut both American foreign policy and sharp criticism of Kazakhstan’s poor human rights record by, among others, Mr. Clinton’s wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

Within two days, corporate records show that Mr. Giustra also came up a winner when his company signed preliminary agreements giving it the right to buy into three uranium projects controlled by Kazakhstan’s state-owned uranium agency, Kazatomprom.

The monster deal stunned the mining industry, turning an unknown shell company into one of the world’s largest uranium producers in a transaction ultimately worth tens of millions of dollars to Mr. Giustra, analysts said.

Just months after the Kazakh pact was finalized, Mr. Clinton’s charitable foundation received its own windfall: a $31.3 million donation from Mr. Giustra that had remained a secret until he acknowledged it last month. The gift, combined with Mr. Giustra’s more recent and public pledge to give the William J. Clinton Foundation an additional $100 million, secured Mr. Giustra a place in Mr. Clinton’s inner circle, an exclusive club of wealthy entrepreneurs in which friendship with the former president has its privileges.

Mr. Giustra was invited to accompany the former president to Almaty just as the financier was trying to seal a deal he had been negotiating for months.

In separate written responses, both men said Mr. Giustra traveled with Mr. Clinton to Kazakhstan, India and China to see first-hand the philanthropic work done by his foundation.

A spokesman for Mr. Clinton said the former president knew that Mr. Giustra had mining interests in Kazakhstan but was unaware of “any particular efforts” and did nothing to help. Mr. Giustra said he was there as an “observer only” and there was “no discussion” of the deal with Mr. Nazarbayev or Mr. Clinton.

But Moukhtar Dzhakishev, president of Kazatomprom, said in an interview that Mr. Giustra did discuss it, directly with the Kazakh president, and that his friendship with Mr. Clinton “of course made an impression.” Mr. Dzhakishev added that Kazatomprom chose to form a partnership with Mr. Giustra’s company based solely on the merits of its offer.

After The Times told Mr. Giustra that others said he had discussed the deal with Mr. Nazarbayev, Mr. Giustra responded that he “may well have mentioned my general interest in the Kazakhstan mining business to him, but I did not discuss the ongoing” efforts.

As Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign has intensified, Mr. Clinton has begun severing financial ties with Ronald W. Burkle, the supermarket magnate, and Vinod Gupta, the chairman of InfoUSA, to avoid any conflicts of interest. Those two men have harnessed the former president’s clout to expand their businesses while making the Clintons rich through partnership and consulting arrangements.

Mr. Clinton has vowed to continue raising money for his foundation if Mrs. Clinton is elected president, maintaining his connections with a wide network of philanthropic partners.

Mr. Giustra said that while his friendship with the former president “may have elevated my profile in the news media, it has not directly affected any of my business transactions.”

Mining colleagues and analysts agree it has not hurt. Neil MacDonald, the chief executive of a Canadian merchant bank that specializes in mining deals, said Mr. Giustra’s financial success was partly due to a “fantastic network” crowned by Mr. Clinton. “That’s a very solid relationship for him,” Mr. MacDonald said. “I’m sure it’s very much a two-way relationship because that’s the way Frank operates.”

Foreseeing Opportunities

Mr. Giustra made his fortune in mining ventures as a broker on the Vancouver Stock Exchange, raising billions of dollars and developing a loyal following of investors. Just as the mining sector collapsed, Mr. Giustra, a lifelong film buff, founded the Lion’s Gate Entertainment Corporation in 1997. But he sold the studio in 2003 and returned to mining.

Mr. Giustra foresaw a bull market in gold and began investing in mines in Argentina, Australia and Mexico. He turned a $20 million shell company into a powerhouse that, after a $2.4 billion merger with Goldcorp Inc., became Canada’s second-largest gold company.

With a net worth estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars, Mr. Giustra began looking for ways to put his wealth to good use. Meeting Mr. Clinton, and learning about the work his foundation was doing on issues like AIDS treatment in poor countries, “changed my life,” Mr. Giustra told The Vancouver Sun.

The two men were introduced in June 2005 at a fund-raiser for tsunami victims at Mr. Giustra’s Vancouver home and hit it off right away. They share a love of history, geopolitics and music — Mr. Giustra plays the trumpet to Mr. Clinton’s saxophone. Soon the dapper Canadian was a regular at Mr. Clinton’s side, as they flew around the world aboard Mr. Giustra’s plane.
Philanthropy may have become his passion, but Mr. Giustra, now 50, was still hunting for ways to make money.

Exploding demand for energy had helped revitalize the nuclear power industry, and uranium, the raw material for reactor fuel, was about to become a hot commodity. In late 2004, Mr. Giustra began talking to investors, and put together a company that would eventually be called UrAsia Energy Ltd.

Kazakhstan, which has about one-fifth of the world’s uranium reserves, was the place to be. But with plenty of suitors, Kazatomprom could be picky about its partners.

“Everyone was asking Kazatomprom to the dance,” said Fadi Shadid, a senior stock analyst covering the uranium industry for Friedman Billings Ramsey, an investment bank. “A second-tier junior player like UrAsia — you’d need all the help you could get.”

The Cameco Corporation, the world’s largest uranium producer, was already a partner of Kazatomprom. But when Cameco expressed interest in the properties Mr. Giustra was already eying, the government’s response was lukewarm. “The signals we were getting was, you’ve got your hands full,” said Gerald W. Grandey, Cameco president.

For Cameco, it took five years to “build the right connections” in Kazakhstan, Mr. Grandey said. UrAsia did not have that luxury. Profitability depended on striking before the price of uranium soared.

“Timing was everything,” said Sergey Kurzin, a Russian-born businessman whose London-based company was brought into the deal by UrAsia because of his connections in Kazakhstan. Even with those connections, Mr. Kurzin said, it took four months to arrange a meeting with Kazatomprom.

In August 2005, records show, the company sent an engineering consultant to Kazakhstan to assess the uranium properties. Less than four weeks later, Mr. Giustra arrived with Mr. Clinton.
Mr. Dzhakishev, the Kazatomprom chief, said an aide to Mr. Nazarbayev informed him that Mr. Giustra talked with Mr. Nazarbayev about the deal during the visit. “And when our president asked Giustra, ‘What do you do?’ he said, ‘I’m trying to do business with Kazatomprom,’ ” Mr. Dzhakishev said. He added that Mr. Nazarbayev replied, “Very good, go to it.”

Mr. Clinton’s Kazakhstan visit, the only one of his post-presidency, appears to have been arranged hastily. The United States Embassy got last-minute notice that the president would be making “a private visit,” said a State Department official, who said he was not authorized to speak on the record.

The publicly stated reason for the visit was to announce a Clinton Foundation agreement that enabled the government to buy discounted AIDS drugs. But during a news conference, Mr. Clinton wandered into delicate territory by commending Mr. Nazarbayev for “opening up the social and political life of your country.”

In a statement Kazakhstan would highlight in news releases, Mr. Clinton declared that he hoped it would achieve a top objective: leading the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which would confer legitimacy on Mr. Nazarbayev’s government.

“I think it’s time for that to happen, it’s an important step, and I’m glad you’re willing to undertake it,” Mr. Clinton said.

A Speedy Process

Mr. Clinton’s praise was odd, given that the United States did not support Mr. Nazarbayev’s bid. (Late last year, Kazakhstan finally won the chance to lead the security organization for one year, despite concerns raised by the Bush administration.) Moreover, Mr. Clinton’s wife, who sits on a Congressional commission with oversight of such matters, had also voiced skepticism.

Eleven months before Mr. Clinton’s statement, Mrs. Clinton co-signed a commission letter to the State Department that sounded “alarm bells” about the prospect that Kazakhstan might head the group. The letter stated that Kazakhstan’s bid “would not be acceptable,” citing “serious corruption,” canceled elections and government control of the news media.

In a written statement to The Times, Mr. Clinton’s spokesman said the former president saw “no contradiction” between his statements in Kazakhstan and the position of Mrs. Clinton, who said through a spokeswoman, “Senator Clinton’s position on Kazakhstan remains unchanged.”

Noting that the former president also met with opposition leaders in Almaty, Mr. Clinton’s spokesman said he was only “seeking to suggest that a commitment to political openness and to fair elections would reflect well on Kazakhstan’s efforts to chair the O.S.C.E.”

But Robert Herman, who worked for the State Department in the Clinton administration and is now at Freedom House, a human rights group, said the former president’s statement amounted to an endorsement of Kazakhstan’s readiness to lead the group, a position he called “patently absurd.”

“He was either going off his brief or he was sadly mistaken,” Mr. Herman said. “There was nothing in the record to suggest that they really wanted to move forward on democratic reform.”
Indeed, in December 2005, Mr. Nazarbayev won another election, which the security organization itself said was marred by an “atmosphere of intimidation” and “ballot-box stuffing.”
After Mr. Nazarbayev won with 91 percent of the vote, Mr. Clinton sent his congratulations. “Recognizing that your work has received an excellent grade is one of the most important rewards in life,” Mr. Clinton wrote in a letter released by the Kazakh embassy. Last September, just weeks after Kazakhstan held an election that once again failed to meet international standards, Mr. Clinton honored Mr. Nazarbayev by inviting him to his annual philanthropic conference.

Within 48 hours of Mr. Clinton’s departure from Almaty on Sept. 7, Mr. Giustra got his deal. UrAsia signed two memorandums of understanding that paved the way for the company to become partners with Kazatomprom in three mines.

The cost to UrAsia was more than $450 million, money the company did not have in hand and had only weeks to come up with. The transaction was finalized in November, after UrAsia raised the money through the largest initial public offering in the history of Canada’s Venture Exchange.

Mr. Giustra challenged the notion that UrAsia needed to court Kazatomprom’s favor to seal the deal, contending that the government agency’s approval was not required.

But Mr. Dzhakishev, analysts and Mr. Kurzin, one of Mr. Giustra’s own investors, said that approval was necessary. Mr. Dzhakishev, who said that the deal was almost done when Mr. Clinton arrived, said that Kazatomprom was impressed with the sum Mr. Giustra was willing to pay and his record of attracting investors. He said Mr. Nazarbayev himself ultimately signed off on the transaction.

Longtime market watchers were confounded. Kazatomprom’s choice of UrAsia was a “mystery,” said Gene Clark, the chief executive of Trade Tech, a uranium industry newsletter.

“UrAsia was able to jump-start the whole process somehow,” Mr. Clark said. The company became a “major uranium producer when it didn’t even exist before.”

A Profitable Sale

Records show that Mr. Giustra donated the $31.3 million to the Clinton Foundation in the months that followed in 2006, but neither he nor a spokesman for Mr. Clinton would say exactly when.

In September 2006, Mr. Giustra co-produced a gala 60th birthday for Mr. Clinton that featured stars like Jon Bon Jovi and raised about $21 million for the Clinton Foundation.

In February 2007, a company called Uranium One agreed to pay $3.1 billion to acquire UrAsia. Mr. Giustra, a director and major shareholder in UrAsia, would be paid $7.05 per share for a company that just two years earlier was trading at 10 cents per share.

That same month, Mr. Dzhakishev, the Kazatomprom chief, said he traveled to Chappaqua, N.Y., to meet with Mr. Clinton at his home. Mr. Dzhakishev said Mr. Giustra arranged the three-hour meeting. Mr. Dzhakishev said he wanted to discuss Kazakhstan’s intention — not publicly known at the time — to buy a 10 percent stake in Westinghouse, a United States supplier of nuclear technology.

Nearly a year earlier, Mr. Clinton had advised Dubai on how to handle the political furor after one of that nation’s companies attempted to take over several American ports. Mrs. Clinton was among those on Capitol Hill who raised the national security concerns that helped kill the deal.

Mr. Dzhakishev said he was worried the proposed Westinghouse investment could face similar objections. Mr. Clinton told him that he would not lobby for him, but Mr. Dzhakishev came away pleased by the chance to promote his nation’s proposal to a former president.

Mr. Clinton “said this was very important for America,” said Mr. Dzhakishev, who added that Mr. Giustra was present at Mr. Clinton’s home.

Both Mr. Clinton and Mr. Giustra at first denied that any such meeting occurred. Mr. Giustra also denied ever arranging for Kazakh officials to meet with Mr. Clinton. Wednesday, after The Times told them that others said a meeting, in Mr. Clinton’s home, had in fact taken place, both men acknowledged it.

“You are correct that I asked the president to meet with the head of Kazatomprom,” Mr. Giustra said. “Mr. Dzhakishev asked me in February 2007 to set up a meeting with former President Clinton to discuss the future of the nuclear energy industry.” Mr. Giustra said the meeting “escaped my memory until you raised it.”

Wednesday, Mr. Clinton’s spokesman, Ben Yarrow, issued what he called a “correction,” saying: “Today, Mr. Giustra told our office that in February 2007, he brought Mr. Dzhakishev from Kazatomprom to meet with President Clinton to discuss the future of nuclear energy.”

Mr. Yarrow said his earlier denial was based on the former president’s records, which he said “show a Feb. 27 meeting with Mr. Giustra; no other attendees are listed.”

Mr. Dzhakishev said he had a vivid memory of his Chappaqua visit, and a souvenir to prove it: a photograph of himself with the former president.

“I hung up the photograph of us and people ask me if I met with Clinton and I say, Yes, I met with Clinton,” he said, smiling proudly.

David L. Stern and Margot Williams contributed reporting.

Edwards Exits

2008-01-30T23:13:00.000-08:00

Blogger notes:

Sorry to see Senator Edwards go. Thanks Senator Edwards for a nice and clean campaign. I appreciate his statesmanship. I also appreciate what he said to people who struggle, "We will never forget you. We will fight for you. We will stand up for you."

Edwards Exits Presidential Race
Jan 30, 4:54 PM (ET)
By NEDRA PICKLER and BECKY BOHRER

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Democrat John Edwards bowed out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination on Wednesday, saying it was time to step aside "so that history can blaze its path" in a campaign now left to Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.

"With our convictions and a little backbone we will take back the White House in November," said Edwards, ending his second campaign in the same hurricane-ravaged city where he began it more than a year ago.

Edwards said Clinton and Obama had both pledged that "they will make ending poverty central to their campaign for the presidency."

"This is the cause of my life and I now have their commitment to engage in this cause," he said before a small group of supporters. He was joined by his wife Elizabeth and his three children, Cate, Emma Claire and Jack.

It was the second time Edwards sought the Democratic presidential nomination. Four years ago he was the vice presidential running mate on a ticket headed by John Kerry.

Four years later, he waged a spirited, underfunded race on a populist note, pledging to represent the powerless against the corporate interests.

He finished second in the Iowa caucuses that led off the campaign, but he was quickly overshadowed - a white man in a race against the former first lady and a 46-year-old black man, each bent on making history.

Edwards said that on his way to making his campaign-ending statement, he drove by a highway underpass where several homeless people live. He stopped to talk, he said, and as he was leaving, one of them asked him never to forget them and their plight.

"Well I say to her and I say to all those who are struggling in this country, we will never forget you. We will fight for you. We will stand up for you," he said, pledging to continue his campaign-long effort to end what he frequently said was "two Americas," one for the powerful, the other for the rest.

The former North Carolina senator did not immediately endorse either Clinton, seeking to become the first female president, or Obama, the strongest black candidate in history.

Both of them praised Edwards - and immediately began courting his supporters.

"Particularly during this campaign he has made poverty a centerpiece of his candidacy and it needs to be on top of the list of American priorities. ... I want to wish John and Elizabeth well and thank him for running a great campaign that was really important for millions of Americans,"

Clinton told reporters in Arkansas. John Edwards ended his campaign today in the same way he started it - by standing with the people who are too often left behind and nearly always left out of our national debate," Clinton said.

Obama, too, praised Edwards and his wife. At a rally in Denver, he said the couple has "always believed deeply that two Americas can become one, and that our country can rally around this common purpose," Obama said. "So while his campaign may have ended, this cause lives on for all of us who still believe that we can achieve that dream of one America."

Edwards, trudging through mud toward a Habitat for Humanity House he was to help work on, told reporters he would meet again with Clinton and Obama before deciding whether to make an endorsement. He set no timetable for deciding whether to endorse either candidate.

The impact of Edwards' decision will be felt in one week's time, when Democrats hold primaries and caucuses across 22 states, with 1,681 delegates at stake.

Four in 10 Edwards supporters said their second choice in the race is Clinton, while a quarter prefer Obama, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo poll conducted late this month.

Edwards amassed 56 national convention delegates, most of whom will be free to support either Obama or Clinton.

As expected, Edwards said he was suspending his campaign rather than ending it, but aides said that was simply legal terminology so that he can continue to receive federal matching funds for his campaign donations.

In suspending his campaign - instead of terminating it - Edwards keeps all 26 delegates he won in the Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina contests. After he officially exits, 10 of those delegates will be dispersed to the other candidates, with Obama getting six and Clinton getting four. Under party rules, Edwards will maintain a say in naming the other 16 delegates.

Edwards had also collected endorsements from 30 superdelegates - mainly party and elected officials who automatically attend the convention and can support whomever they choose. Three superdelegates had already switched from Edwards to Obama before Edwards suspended his campaign.

In the overall race for the nomination, Clinton has 249 delegates and Obama has 181. A total of 2,025 delegates are needed to secure the Democratic nomination.

Edwards waged a spirited top-tier campaign against the two better-funded rivals, even as he dealt with the stunning blow of his wife's recurring cancer diagnosis. In a dramatic news conference last March, the couple announced that the breast cancer that she thought she had beaten had returned, but they would continue the campaign.

Their decision sparked a debate about family duty and public service. But Elizabeth Edwards remained a forceful advocate for her husband, and she was often surrounded at campaign events by well-wishers and emotional survivors cheering her on.

Elizabeth Edwards said she informed her son Jack about the announcement Wednesday morning.

"You don't tell a 7-year-old any time earlier than absolutely necessary. So I told him this morning what was happening. And he said 'So, Dad's going to be home tomorrow and the day after and the day after,'" she said, laughing. "So there are some people who are very excited about this decision."

The campaign ended as it began 13 months ago - with the candidate pitching in to rebuild lives in a city still ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. Edwards embraced New Orleans as a glaring symbol of what he described as a Washington that didn't hear the cries of the downtrodden.

Edwards burst out of the starting gate with a flurry of progressive policy ideas - he was the first to offer a plan for universal health care, the first to call on Congress to pull funding for the war, and he led the charge that lobbyists have too much power in Washington and need to be reigned in.

The ideas were all bold and new for Edwards personally as well, making him a different candidate than the moderate Southerner who ran in 2004 while still in his first Senate term. But the themes were eventually adopted by other Democratic presidential candidates - and even a Republican, Mitt Romney, echoed the call for an end to special interest politics in Washington.
Edwards' last primary was in his home state of South Carolina last week. He finished a poor third, wining only his home county, his victory in the 2004 race a distant memory.
---
Associated Press Writers Mike Baker in North Carolina and Mike Glover in Arkansas contributed to this report. Nedra Pickler reported from Denver.

Romney Accuses McCain

2008-01-30T23:08:00.000-08:00

Romney Accuses McCain of 'Dirty Tricks'

Jan 31 12:04 AM US/Eastern

By LIZ SIDOTIAssociated Press Writer

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. (AP) - Republican Mitt Romney accused John McCain of using dirty tricks by suggesting the former Massachusetts governor wanted a deadline for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, in a spirited debate Wednesday night that underscored the intensity of their presidential rivalry.

Coming 24 hours after McCain defeated him in Florida, Romney vented his frustrations over the Arizona senator's claims from last weekend.

"I have never, ever supported a specific timetable" for withdrawing troops, Romney said.

McCain's accusation on the eve of Tuesday's primary, he said, "sort of falls into the dirty tricks that I think Ronald Reagan would have found reprehensible."

The debate was held in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., six days before more than 20 states hold primaries or caucuses that could determine who succeeds President Bush as the party's standard-bearer.

McCain stuck to his guns, saying, "of course he said he wanted a timetable" for a withdrawal. McCain had made the allegation in Florida as he tried to shift the debate from the ailing economy, a stronger issue for Romney, a former venture capitalist and businessman.

Last April, Romney said U.S. and Iraqi leaders "have to have a series of timetables and milestones that they speak about" in private.

In Wednesday's debate, Romney said he was not calling for a specific withdrawal date. "It's simply wrong, and the senator knows it," he said. "I will not pull our troops out until we have brought success in Iraq."

For 90 minutes, Romney and McCain sharply challenged each other's conservative credentials and ability to lead the country. But they generally remained civil, and each called the other "a fine man."

Romney tried to portray McCain, who performs well among political independents, as out of the conservative mainstream as the contest moves toward a cluster of states where only registered Republicans can vote. He said the Arizona senator twice voted against President Bush's tax cuts and pushed campaign finance reforms that restricted fundraising and spending. The Republican establishment embraced the tax cuts and opposed the new campaign law, which many saw as helpful to Democrats.

"Those views are outside the view of mainstream Republican thought," Romney said. He made similar arguments in Florida, but lost to McCain by 5 percentage points.

McCain disputed the claims. "I'm proud of my conservative record," he said.

In a counterpunch, he said Romney left Massachusetts with high taxes and a large debt. "His job creation was the third worst in the country," McCain said, a claim Romney rejected.

The debate allowed McCain and Romney to focus on one another after Florida voters left no doubt that they are the party's two viable contenders. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani left the race earlier Wednesday and endorsed McCain.

During the debate, The Associated Press reported that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger would endorse McCain on Thursday. Schwarzenegger was in the audience, as was Nancy Reagan, widow of the former president.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas also participated in the debate televised by CNN, but largely watched as the two front-runners, who were seated next to each other, trade barbs. Huckabee protested, "this isn't a two-man race."

"If you want to talk conservative credentials, let me get in on that," said Huckabee, who has won no contest since the Jan. 3 Iowa caucus.

Paul reiterated his criticisms of the Iraq war and U.S. monetary policies.

McCain tried to deflect questions on illegal immigration, a sore point with many Republicans who resented his push for a Senate bill, ultimately unsuccessful, that would have granted a path to legal status for millions of undocumented immigrants now in the country.

Asked if he would vote for his bill now, McCain replied, "it won't" come to a vote "because people want the borders secured first." He said he supports new efforts to prevent illegal crossings.

California is one of several states voting on Tuesday that has a large immigrant population.

Romney said McCain opposed Bush's first-term tax cuts because they were tilted largely toward the rich. But Romney defended the cuts, saying, "I believe in getting rates down. I think that builds our economy."

McCain said he opposes tax cuts that are not coupled with spending restraints. Republicans lost congressional seats in 2006 less because of the Iraq war than because of out-of-control spending that alienated conservatives, McCain said.

Schwarzenegger for McCain

2008-01-30T22:51:00.000-08:00

Gov. Schwarzenegger to Endorse McCain
Jan 30, 9:20 PM (ET)
By LIZ SIDOTI and MICHAEL R. BLOOD

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will endorse John McCain on Thursday, giving a certain boost to the Republican presidential front-runner six days before California's high-prize primary.

The two will appear at a news conference after touring a Los Angeles-based solar energy company and the governor will make his endorsement official, his senior aides confirmed Wednesday.

Schwarzenegger's endorsement is yet another setback for Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who saw Florida slip from his grasp Tuesday after McCain rolled up the support of that state's two top elected Republicans, Gov. Charlie Crist and Sen. Mel Martinez.

His strategy in tatters, Romney plans to offer himself as the conservative alternative to McCain as he pushes ahead in hopes of winning enough delegates to topple the Arizona senator when 21 states vote in the Republican contest on Tuesday.

Schwarzenegger's move comes as McCain plows ahead toward the nomination, the only Republican candidate to have won three hotly contested primaries since voting began earlier this month.

"Governor Schwarzenegger is an exceptional governor and we are honored that he has decided to endorse Senator McCain, and look forward to the event tomorrow," said Steve Schmidt, a senior McCain adviser who managed Schwarzenegger's 2006 campaign.

The four-term senator is running strongly ahead of his competitors in California, which offers a whopping 170 delegates to the Republican nominating convention. Candidates secure three delegates for each of the state's 53 congressional districts they win in the primary, in which only Republicans can vote.

The ultimate effect of Schwarzenegger's endorsement is unclear. The celebrity governor and former actor is universally known in the state, and his political network certainly will be helpful to McCain, who has virtually no organized effort in California after his candidacy nearly collapsed. The actor-turned-governor also is a prolific fundraiser.

But Schwarzenegger has a strained relationship with some conservatives in his own party and McCain, himself, is fighting to convince GOP rank-and-file that he's committed to conservative values. Schwarzenegger's nod could exacerbate concerns about McCain among the party establishment.

Schwarzenegger also is taking heat from state Republicans who argue he's been too willing to bend to the wishes of the Democratic-controlled Legislature. At the same time, California faces a $14.5 billion budget deficit over the next year-and-half, and the governor has rankled the state's powerful education lobby with his proposal to cut spending by 10 percent from state agencies to deal with the financial crisis.

McCain and Schwarzenegger have been friends for years, and the two share a bond over their work on global warming issues as well as their similar independent streaks. Aides say Schwarzenegger long has respected McCain's push to eliminate wasteful spending in Washington, protect the environment and fix a broken immigration system.

The governor offered high praise of McCain throughout the campaign, calling him a "great senator" and "very good friend," and the two appeared together at the Port of Los Angeles last year. "We share common philosophy and goals for this country," McCain said at the time.

But Schwarzenegger always has stopped short of endorsing McCain, given that another friend, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, also was in the race.

Earlier this month, Schwarzenegger told reporters he would not make an endorsement in the GOP primary, saying then: "It doesn't help me, and it doesn't help the state of California." But senior advisers say Giuliani's departure from the race Wednesday changed the dynamics of the decision for Schwarzenegger, and he decided to go ahead with the endorsement as it was clear that Giuliani's candidacy was over.

Giuliani Backs McCain

2008-01-29T20:57:00.000-08:00

Giuliani Prepares to Exit, Back McCain
Jan 29, 10:40 PM (ET)

By DEVLIN BARRETT

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Rudy Giuliani, who bet his presidential hopes on Florida only to come in third, prepared to quit the race Tuesday and endorse his friendliest rival, John McCain.

The former New York mayor stopped short of announcing he was stepping down, but delivered a valedictory speech that was more farewell than fight-on.

Giuliani finished a distant third to winner McCain and second-place finisher Mitt Romney. Republican officials said Giuliani would endorse McCain on Wednesday in California. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the public announcement.

"The responsibility of leadership doesn't end with a single campaign, it goes on and you continue to fight for it," Giuliani said, as supporters with tight smiles crowded behind him. "We ran a campaign that was uplifting."

Asked directly if he was dropping out of the race, Giuliani said only: "I'm going to California."
Republican presidential candidates are scheduled to debate in Simi Valley Wednesday night.

Tuesday's result was a remarkable collapse for Giuliani. Last year, he occupied the top of national polls and seemed destined to turn conventional wisdom on end by running as a moderate Republican who supported abortion rights, gay rights and gun control.

"Elections are about fighting for a cause larger than ourselves," he said at one point, echoing one of McCain's most popular refrains.

The results seriously decimated Giuliani's unconventional strategy, which relied heavily on Florida to launch him into the coast-to-coast Feb. 5 nominating contests.

He largely bypassed the early voting states, figuring that the early states would produce multiple winners and no front-runner.

But Florida proved to be less than hospitable. The state's top two Republicans - Sen. Mel Martinez and Gov. Charlie Crist - endorsed McCain. And Giuliani, who once led in state polls, saw his support swiftly erode.

After seven contests, Giuliani had just one delegate and four sixth-place finishes. His third-place showing in Florida was his best. He finished fourth in New Hampshire.

Giuliani's bid for the nomination was based on his leadership. The only question was how many voters would follow.

His stalwart performance as New York mayor in the tense days after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks earned him national magazine covers, international accolades and widespread praise. Yet, Giuliani was always a Republican anomaly - a moderate-to-liberal New Yorker who backed abortion rights, gay rights and gun control in a party dominated by Southern conservatives.

And even though several of his rivals were divorced and remarried, none had the dissolution of their second marriage and trysts with current wife Judith Nathan attract as much attention.

In the early days of the presidential campaign, Giuliani's mayoral record and familiar name propelled him to the lead in the polls, but voters admitted they had lots to learn about him and his positions on the issues.

Florida: Economy Shadow

2008-01-29T17:47:00.000-08:00

Economy Casts Heavy Shadow Over Florida Primary
GOP Electorate Moves Further Right: Conservatives Account for Six in Ten

By PEYTON CRAIGHILL and BRIAN HARTMAN
Jan. 29, 2007 —

The number of conservatives voting in today's Florida Republican primary ticked up again this election cycle, and most of them showed up at the polls this year with the economy on their minds.

If these preliminary exit poll results hold, the GOP electorate will have moved further right since 1992, when about half described themselves as conservative. This year, conservatives accounted for six in 10 voters. Fewer than half of voters -- about four in 10 -- consider themselves evangelicals.

The economy is by far the top issue -- just about half said so in these preliminary results. That's double the next highest priorities, terrorism and illegal immigration. Though more than six in 10 expressed positive feelings about President Bush, about as many said the nation's economy is not going well.

Slightly more Republicans were looking for a candidate who shared their values, as opposed to one who has the right experience. But more than half said the candidates' positions on the issues was more important than their personal qualities.

GOP voters are overwhelmingly white -- more than in eight in 10 of them. More than half the voters are male, slightly higher than in the last two Florida primaries. Hispanics account for about one in 10 voters; just over half of them are Cuban, about what they've been in the past.
More than half said illegal immigrants should be offered citizenship or given temporary worker status. Somewhat fewer, around four in 10, said they should be deported.

But this race may not be captivating seniors as much as in the past. They appear to be turning out in a slightly smaller proportion to the rest of the vote when compared with 2000, when they were about four in 10.

Just over a quarter of the voters were veterans.

Change Sought By Florida Democrats

On the Democratic side, about half of all Democratic voters identified themselves as political liberals, up from past Florida primaries.

As in previous primaries, delivering change was the top quality sought by Florida Democrats, according to these preliminary results. Just under half said it mattered most to their vote, about double those who said they were looking for experience.

If preliminary results hold, women will have made up slightly more of the Democratic vote than in 2004, and black voters will have made up slightly less.

Democrats are even more downbeat on the economy than Republicans, with more than nine in 10 saying the economy is not going well. And more than half ranked the economy as the issue that most determined their vote. A quarter named the war in Iraq, and somewhat fewer said health care.

Most Democrats also expressed displeasure at the tenor of the campaign so far, with three-quarters saying at least one of the candidates had launched unfair attacks. But whoever wins, they believe he country is ready for either a woman or a black president.

ABC News' Richard Morin and Patrick Moynihan contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2008 ABC News Internet Ventures

Romney, McCain Showdown

2008-01-29T05:57:00.000-08:00

McCain, Romney Set for Florida Showdown
By LIZ SIDOTI

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Republicans John McCain and Mitt Romney spent a week hammering each other on the economy and national security heading into the Florida presidential primary that could solidify one man as the party's front-runner.

All that was left to do Tuesday was urge people to vote.

Critical phone calls, negative radio ads, and bitter, personal exchanges marked the final hours before the primary. The contest offers the winner the state's 57 delegates to GOP nominating convention and serves as a gateway to the 20-plus states with nominating contests on Feb. 5.

Recent polls show McCain, the Arizona senator, and Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, in a dead heat; both hope a Florida win will provide a burst of energy heading into the virtual national primary a week later.

Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor who has lost six straight contests, is seeking a win to remain a viable candidate. But he is far behind in the polls, and a poor showing could force him to abandon his bid. Also lagging is Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor who hasn't won since the Iowa caucuses nearly a month ago and hardly competed in Florida.

The contest is so tight that just about any factor could tip the balance.
More so than his rival, Romney has a get-out-the-vote effort as well as early and absentee voting programs. He's spent considerable time and money in the state in the past year. The recent focus on the economy works in his favor; he's been pushing his private-sector credentials and arguing that he's the most capable to turn the country away from the brink of recession.

Conversely, McCain is backed by Florida's top two Republican elected officials, Sen. Mel Martinez and Gov. Charlie Crist, and has endorsements from a slew of Florida newspapers. The former Vietnam prisoner of war also has universal name recognition, as well as ownership of an issue important to the large number of veterans and active military in the state - national security.

McCain is expected to do well in areas with a strong military presence - Pensacola, Jacksonville, Tampa. He's also hoping for a strong turnout in Miami, with its heavy Cuban-American population, and Orlando, a melting pot. Romney is fighting for the southwest part of the state around Fort Myers and Sarasota; it's much like the Midwest, where he was raised. Another likely stronghold, Palm Beach and Broward County, home to many Northeastern transplants.

Up for grabs is the corridor along Interstate 4 between Tampa and Daytona Beach, a swing area that has seen much growth and is home to roughly two-thirds of the Republican primary vote.

Expect Florida Record Turnout

2008-01-29T05:37:00.000-08:00

Florida primary turnout may set record
BY GARY FINEOUT

Nearly one million Floridians have already cast early and absentee ballots in the state's primary, a sign that moving up the date of the presidential primary will likely yield a record turnout on Tuesday.

The last time there was a contested presidential primary on both the Republican and Democratic sides, only about 19 percent of Florida voters, or 1.34 million, cast ballots. But numbers assembled by the political parties show that more than 988,000 people had voted by Sunday.

And thousands more voted Sunday afternoon in the seven Florida counties, including Miami-Dade and Broward, that were still conducting early voting. Lines at some early voting sites in South Florida snaked around buildings and stretched out onto sidewalks.

The boost in voters, a stark contrast from the 2000 presidential primary, coincides with the decision by the Florida Legislature to move up the primary date from March to Jan. 29 as well as highly competitive races in both parties.

''I think the Legislature's decision to move Florida's primary earlier in the process has been vindicated by the overwhelming voter participation that we have already seen,'' said Rep. David Rivera, a Miami Republican and sponsor of the bill to change the primary date. "Florida is finally relevant in the presidential nominating process and voters are responding to that newfound relevance.''

Miami-Dade Elections Supervisor Lester Sola said that, between early voting and absentee ballots, turnout has already matched the entire 2000 primary turnout. Nearly 10,000 people voted on Sunday afternoon and he said that points to plenty of voters showing up on Tuesday.

"We're expecting a busy day,'' Sola said.

There are 10.2 million registered voters in Florida. Of those who had already voted by Sunday, nearly 474,000 are registered Republicans and 405,000 are Democrats. An additional 109,000 voters -- who are either registered with other parties or are independents -- have also voted on the property-tax amendment on the ballot.

PUSHING FOR VOTES

The Republican edge isn't surprising, given that GOP candidates have descended on the state with bus trips, television ads and coast-to-coast campaigning. But the Democratic turnout has been boosted by an absentee-ballot effort by the Florida Democratic Party and by unions supporting Hillary Clinton that sent mailers to members urging that they vote.

The Democratic National Committee stripped Florida of its 210 delegates for moving up the primary date, but that hasn't sapped voter enthusiasm.

In Miami Beach, Patricia Jungman, 49, and her 21-year-old son, Andrew, both showed up on Sunday to vote in the Democratic primary. Patricia voted for Clinton. Andrew said he supports Barack Obama but cast his vote for John Edwards to "keep him in the race.''

''The more options we have, the more they'll compete,'' he said. "When it's only Barack and Hillary, they're going at it. It's like a slugfest. Then you have Edwards in the back keeping peace.''

At Southwest Regional Library in Pembroke Pines, a line snaked from inside the sprawling building onto the parking lot midafternoon. Mitt Romney yard signs dotted the grass and droves of voters spent long minutes looking for parking in the crowded lot.

The scene at the Davie/Cooper City Branch Library was less intense, but voters who work weekdays came out to beat Tuesday's crush. Voters and sign holders parked on the grass.

SWITCH BACK TO PAPER

This year's election will not only go down in the history books for its record turnout -- it will also mark the last time touchscreen voting machines will be used by most voters in a major statewide election. This fall, only disabled voters will be using touchscreen machines.

Fourteen counties -- including Miami-Dade and Broward -- will use the ATM-style machines on Tuesday, then switch to optical-scan machines that use paper ballots.

Later this year, the state will take possession of nearly 28,000 touchscreen machines -- including nearly 10,000 now used in Broward and Miami-Dade.

While problems with touchscreen machines were reported earlier this month in South Carolina, Florida election supervisors reported only minor problems.

Secretary of State Kurt Browning said there wasn't enough time to have counties switch from touchscreen machines to optical scan in time for Tuesday's primary, but added he remained confident that Florida's election should go smoothly.

Miami Herald staff writers Rich Bard, Natalie P. McNeal and Jonnelle Marte contributed to this report.

Clinton, Obama Steal Show

2008-01-28T22:04:00.000-08:00

Clinton, Obama steal Bush’s final show
By Alexander Bolton

All eyes were on Democratic presidential frontrunners Sens. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) Monday night as spectators and pundits followed their every move during President Bush’s final State of the Union address.

Clinton set observers atwitter when she waded through the crowd before the speech to shake hands with Democratic dean and senior Sen. Edward Kennedy (Mass.), who made headlines Monday by endorsing Obama in the primary.

For the second year in a row, Obama sat next to Kennedy for the president’s annual address. Yet despite this, Clinton managed to miss Obama’s attention as she chatted with Kennedy while reporters looked on hungrily from the overhanging balcony.
The race between Obama and Clinton has become colored with growing animosity in recent weeks as each side has leveled veiled accusations that the other has used race as a political weapon.

But Obama and Clinton seemed to see eye to eye on Bush’s domestic agenda, sitting firmly on their hands through most of the first half of his speech.

“I think there is some consensus in the Democratic Party,” Obama said in an interview with CNN immediately after the State of the Union when asked about the lack of difference between him and Clinton on economic policy.

Clinton and Obama’s divergent views on the troop surge in Iraq, however, were plainly visible.
When Bush proclaimed, “Ladies and gentlemen, some may deny the surge is working, but among terrorists there is no doubt,” Clinton sprang to her feet in applause but Obama remained firmly seated. The president’s line divided most of the Democratic audience, with nearly half standing to applaud and the other half sitting in stony silence.

In one instance Clinton appeared to gauge Obama’s response before showing her own.
When Bush warned the Iranian government that “America will confront those who threaten our troops, we will stand by our allies, and we will defend our vital interests in the Persian Gulf” Obama jumped up to applaud. Clinton leaned across Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), seated to her left, to look in Obama’s direction before slowly standing.

The Illinois senator strongly criticized the former first lady last year when she supported a resolution calling for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to be designated a terrorist organization. Obama supporters and other Democrats charged the vote would give Bush political cover to begin military operations against Iran.

There also appeared to be some division among Democrats Monday over whether to continue to pump money into the Iraq war effort. When Bush said he would “ask Congress to meet its responsibilities to these brave men and women by fully funding our troops,” Obama and Clinton remained seated while Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) stood up behind them to applaud.

Dissension was not limited to Democratic ranks. Though a mostly united GOP caucus applauded Bush enthusiastically throughout the speech, the president received a mixed response from Republicans when he asked Congress to strengthen the No Child Left Behind Act, his signature legislative achievement in the area of education reform. While many Republicans clapped to endorse No Child Left Behind, Sen. Charles Grassley (Iowa), ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee remained motionless. Grassley is one of seven Senate Republicans to cosponsor legislation that would significantly reform No Child Left Behind. The Bush administration opposes the bill.

While many Republicans applauded Bush’s announcement that he would issue an executive order directing his administration to ignore earmarks contained in conference reports accompanying future spending bills, some lawmakers voiced skepticism.

“We’ll see about that when the time comes,” said Hal Rogers (Ky.), a senior Republican member of the House Appropriations Committee.

After his speech, Bush sought out Kennedy, his former partner in education reform, to exchange greetings. He also shook Obama’s hand and said hello in typical Bush fashion: “Hey buddy, how’s it going,” he said, according to Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), who also sat next to Obama for the speech.

McCain, Romney Tie at 27%

2008-01-27T11:16:00.000-08:00

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
Sunday, January 27, 2008

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows a two-man race for the Republican Presidential Nomination. John McCain and Mitt Romney are tied for the lead at 27% and no one else is close. Mike Huckabee is eleven points back at 16%, Rudy Giuliani is at 14%, and Ron Paul is supported by 6% of Likely Republican Primary Voters (see recent daily numbers).

New polling data released today shows Romney with a six point lead over McCain in Florida. But, the survey was conducted just before Governor Charlie Crist endorsed McCain and nearly one-in-four likely voters still might change their mind.

Looking ahead, McCain leads in New York, McCain and Giuliani are close in New Jersey, while McCain and Romney are close in California. Huckabee leads in Georgia, Huckabee and McCain are essentially tied in both Missouri and Alabama.

In the race for the Democratic Presidential Nomination, has gotten much tighter. It’s now Hillary Clinton 40%, Barack Obama 31% and John Edwards 17% (see recent daily numbers). In general election match-ups, Clinton and Obama both lead Romney, McCain, and Huckabee.

Voters nationwide now agree that the economy is the top voting issue for Election 2008. But it means different things to Democrats than it does to Republicans.

Daily tracking results are collected via nightly telephone surveys and reported on a four-day rolling average basis. All of the interviews for today’s update were completed before the polls closed in South Carolina yesterday. The next Presidential Tracking Poll update is scheduled for Monday at 11:00 a.m.

New data for the Democratic race in Florida shows Clinton still on top, but her lead is a bit smaller than earlier in the week. Dick Morris believes that Bill Clinton’s temper is starting to hurt Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Exit polling data shows that may have been the case during Obama’s big win in South Carolina.

Looking ahead on the Primary calendar, Obama leads in Georgia. However, Clinton leads Missouri, Alabama, California, New York, and New Jersey.

Rasmussen Markets data gives Clinton a 62.2
Numbers in this paragraph are from a prediction market, not a poll.

Using a trading format where traders "buy and sell" candidates, issues, and news features, the Rasmussen Markets harness competitive passions to provide a reliable leading indicator of upcoming events. We invite you to participate in the Rasmussen Markets. It costs nothing to join and add your voice to the collective wisdom of the market.

Each Monday, full week results are released based upon a seven-day rolling average. While the daily tracking result are useful for measuring quick reaction to events in the news, the full week results provide an effective means for evaluating longer-term trends. Rasmussen Reports also provides a weekly analysis of both the Republican and Democratic race each Monday.

Daily tracking results are collected via nightly telephone surveys and reported on a four-day rolling average basis. Each update includes approximately 900 Likely Democratic Primary Voters and 800 Likely Republican Primary Voters. Margin of sampling error for each is +/- 4 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

Rasmussen Reports is an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information.

The Rasmussen Reports ElectionEdge™ Premium Service for Election 2008 offers the most comprehensive public opinion coverage ever provided for a Presidential election.

Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports, has been an independent pollster for more than a decade.

Obama SC Victory Speech

2008-01-26T22:43:00.000-08:00

Click picture for video

Obama Wins South Carolina

2008-01-26T18:37:00.000-08:00

Blogger Notes: Look how close our blog's statistics match the real life result!
Obama 55%
Clinton 27%

'Yes We Can!'; Obama Rolls Clinton in Landslide S.C. Primary
Large African-American Turnout Carries Sen. Barack Obama to Victory in S.C.

Barack Obama Wins South Carolina Primary
Large African-American Turnout Carries Sen. Barack Obama to Victory in S.C.
By JENNIFER PARKER
Jan. 26, 2008 —

Sen. Barack Obama, vying to become the nation's first black president, has won the South Carolina primary today, ABC News projects, boosted by huge turnout of African-American voters in a state whose electorate appears polarized along racial lines.

Sen. Hillary Clinton came in second and former Sen. John Edwards was third.

"I have called Senator Obama to congratulate him and wish him well," Clinton wrote in a written statement.

"We now turn our attention to the millions of Americans who will make their voices heard in Florida and the twenty-two states as well as American Samoa who will vote on February 5th," the Clinton statement read. This is the second win of the nomination battle for Obama, who won the Iowa caucuses earlier this month, but this is his first win in a state with a sizable African-American population.

African American Voters Boost Obama
Women and African Americans, courted heavily by the candidates, turned out in very large numbers to vote in what became a bitter Democratic primary marked by rhetoric about race and gender.

Exit poll results indicate 53 percent of Democratic primary voters this year were black -- the highest turnout among African Americans in any Democratic presidential primary for which data is available, reports ABC News' Gary Langer. Women accounted for six in 10 voters, similar to their 57 percent turnout rate in 2004.

Obama won the support of 80 percent of black voters, compared with 18 percent for Hillary Clinton and just two percent for John Edwards.

Whites meanwhile divided more closely among the three candidates, though Obama notably failed to attract more than a quarter of their votes, reports Langer. Clinton and Edwards were even among whites, with Clinton winning white women, Edwards, white men.

Obama went into the first Democratic Southern contest the clear favorite, buoyed by support from black voters.

Sen. Hillary Clinton started out strong in the state, but began to trail Obama in December. In recent weeks her campaign has tried to lower expectations, positioning her as the underdog in the race, and largely leaving her husband, former President Bill Clinton, to campaign for her in the Palmetto State.

Yet to win any primary contest so far, John Edwards lost again tonight, another crushing blow to the former senator, who was born in South Carolina and won the state in 2004. Edwards suggested this week that even if he lost his home state, he intended to continue campaigning into Super-Duper Tuesday, Feb.5.

But in a campaign dominated by talk of race, South Carolinians went into the polls with the economy on their minds; just over half called it the most important issue in their vote. South Carolina has the fourth-highest unemployment rate in the nation, and has lost more than 90,000 manufacturing jobs over the last decade.

Obama is expected to address supporters soon tonight in Columbia. This afternoon he played a pickup game of basketball at the Columbia YMCA with some of his staffers. Earlier in the day, Obama visited a predominantly African American church and college, and greeted brunch-goers at Harper's Restaurant in Columbia, posing for photographs and thanking people for their vote.

Obama: Media Focused 'Maniacally' on Race
"Here in South Carolina there is a sizable African-American population. Not surprisingly, we're doing well there. I'm sure they're taking pride in my candidacy," Obama told ABC News' Kate Snow on Saturday's "Good Morning America Weekend" edition.

Early on, the Obama campaign sought out African-Americans, employing a large staff in the state and organizing in churches, beauty parlors and barber shops. The Clinton campaign, too, fought hard for black women voters, who tend to turn out reliably at the polls.

But Obama complained the media's focus on race has been excessive.

"The press has been very focused, almost maniacally, on the issue of race here in South Carolina," Obama told ABC News' Kate Snow. "But as we move forward after this contest, I'm very confident that we are going to continue to build the kind of coalitions that we've been seeing all across the country."

The junior senator from Illinois dismissed the notion he has been marginalized, in the words of Associated Press writer Ron Fournier, as "the black candidate, by the Clinton machine."

"I think it'd be hard to argue that I have been marginalized, when I won Iowa, which was 94 percent white. We were almost tied in New Hampshire, a state that has an all-white population. And in Nevada, I was able to win, actually, the biggest votes, uh, margins, in those northern areas that are predominantly white, rural, conservative areas," Obama said.

Former President Bill Clinton made headlines this week when he chastized CNN reporter Jessica Yellin for challenging him about comments he made about race and gender.

Even before Obama's victory, the Clinton campaign was already spinning the results, discounting the notion of an Obama victory.

"Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in 84 and 88," former President Bill Clinton told reporters outside a polling station in Columbia. "Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here."

Clinton Camp Plays Expectations Game

Hillary Clinton boarded a plane in Columbia S.C. tonight for Nashville, Tennessee where she will speak to supporters at 8:30pmET.

Campaigning Saturday morning in Columbia with her daughter, Chelsea, Hillary Clinton popped into a Shoney's restaurant and urged people to vote.

Sitting down beside an 8-year-old boy named Messiah, who was playing a video game, Clinton leaned in and said, "So this guy, what's he doing?" reports ABC News' Eloise Harper.

Looking at the game, he said, "Beatin' up the evil people." Clinton paused and said, "Can I have him come with me?"

Nearby, Bill Clinton ate grits and eggs with supporters of his wife at Bert's Grill and Diner, and visited a voting station down the road, reports ABC News' Sarah Amos.

Race Shifts to Florida

Behind the scenes, Clinton's campaign sent out a memo to reporters that attempted to minimize the impact of the South Carolina contest.

"Regardless of today's outcome, the race quickly shifts to Florida, where hundreds of thousands of Democrats will turn out to vote Tuesday," wrote Clinton Communications Director Howard Wolfson.

In a sign of how bad the blood is between the two campaigns, Obama's spokesman Bill Burton quickly sent a memo of his own.

"It should not be surprising given recent events that the Clinton campaign would in one breath say the election is about winning delegates and then tout their success in states that don't award any delegates in the next breath," Burton wrote.

That type of back-and-forth bickering between the Obama and Clinton campaigns has allowed Edwards, who has moved up in the polls in recent weeks, to argue that he is the only "grown-up" in the race, running ads showing his rivals attacking one another at Monday night's debate.

"Vote for somebody who's actually focused on the problems that you're faced with, from jobs to health care to ending the war in Iraq, as opposed to two candidates who are spending all their time and energy tearing each other down. I'm about building South Carolina up, not about tearing people down, not about tearing politicians down," Edwards said Saturday, campaigning in Charleston.

A loss in his home state could drive a stake through the former senator's presidential ambitions, but Edwards told ABC News' David Muir Friday he's going to continue to fight, even if he comes in third.

Edwards is expected to stay in the race at least until the Super-Duper Feb. 5 contests, because his advisers believe he could play kingmaker if his two rivals end up short on delegates.

On primary day the Clinton campaign launched a series of anti-Edwards robotic calls in South Carolina, reminding voters that Edwards once worked for a hedge fund that, the call maintained, has been "profiting" from subprime lending and home foreclosures.

"You should also know that John Edwards made nearly a half a million dollars working for a Wall Street investment fund. A fund that's been profiting on foreclosing on the homes of families, including 100 homes right here in South Carolina. Can you trust John Edwards? This call is paid for by the Hillary Clinton for President Campaign."

In a race that has increasingly become a delegate war leading up to the Super-Duper Feb.5 primaries and caucuses, 45 delegates are up for grabs in the state.

A win tonight gives Obama a boost, and some much needed momentum before Tuesday's Florida primary and before voters in more than 20 states have their say Feb. 5.

ABC News' Gary Langer, Kate Snow, David Muir, David Wright, Eloise Harper, Sarah Amos, Sunlen Miller, Raelyn Johnson and Karen Travers contributed reporting.

Copyright © 2008 ABC News Internet Ventures

Obama, Clinton Face Off

2008-01-26T12:37:00.000-08:00

Obama, Clinton Face Off in SC Primary
Jan 26, 2:50 PM (ET)

By DAVID ESPO

Democratic presidential rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton collided Saturday in a racially charged South Carolina primary, prelude to the Feb. 5 coast-to-coast competition for more than 1,600 national convention delegates.

Former Sen. John Edwards was the third contender on the ballot, hoping to benefit from the acrimony between the other two.

South Carolina offered 45 Democratic National Convention delegates, as well as the campaign's first indication of Obama's political appeal in a state with a large black population.

Clinton hopes to become the first woman to occupy the White House, and Obama is the strongest black contender in history.

After playing a muted role in the earlier contests, the issue of race dominated an incendiary week that included a shift in strategy for Obama, a remarkably bitter debate, and fresh scrutiny of former President Clinton's role in his wife's campaign.

Polls opened at 7 a.m. and election officials reported no problems with voting machines as there were in last week's GOP primary after one county's electronic machines failed to function properly.

"Everything's going smoothly," said state Election Commission spokesman Chris Whitmire.

Obama spent Saturday morning greeting South Carolinans at a predominantly black Baptist church and at historically black Benedict College in Columbia, S.C. Later, he surprised lunchgoers at Harper's restaurant who posed for pictures with him and shook his hand. Restaurant patron Scott Boyd, a surgeon, told Obama he's been a lifelong Republican but did not vote in last week's GOP primary so that he could vote for the Illinois senator in the Democratic primary.

"There is a charisma about him. He seems to represent change. He's an aggregator, he pulls people together," Boyd said in an interview.

Clinton and daughter Chelsea greeted voters at a Shoney's restaurant in Columbia. Clinton hoisted babies and wedged into booths to chat with patrons surprised to have their breakfast interrupted by a presidential candidate and a huge media horde.

Patron M.J. Hassell, 66, said she had agonized over whom to support but finally sided with Clinton.

"I did like Obama's stand on being against the war from the start. But Hillary's got the experience we need," Hassell said.

Clinton and Chelsea later sat down for breakfast with California Rep. Laura Richardson, a black congresswoman who was campaigning in South Carolina for the former first lady.

In a separate morning stop at a diner, also in Columbia, Bill Clinton had grits, coffee, three helpings of eggs and a swipe at the Obama campaign's mantra of change, which is juxtaposed with his wife's emphasis on experience.

"Since a hundred percent of medical malpractice is committed by doctors, next time you need surgery, go to an electrician," the former president quipped in the restaurant that had about three dozen people.

He later went to a polling place where he signed autographs and posed for pictures.

Edwards also hit a cafe and polling place. He acknowledged his prospects for winning the primary are dim, but he told reporters at a Mount Pleasant, S.C., restaurant that he's still in the race, no matter how he fares Saturday.

"The role I want to play is president of the United States," Edwards said.
Clinton and Obama swapped accusatory radio commercials earlier in the week.

The former first lady aired an ad saying Obama had once approved of Republican ideas. His camp responded quickly: "Hillary Clinton will say anything to get elected." First she, then he, pulled the commercials after a couple of days.

Given the bickering, Edwards looked for an opening to reinvigorate a candidacy all but eclipsed by the historic campaign between Obama and Clinton. He went on the "Late Show with David Letterman" at midweek to say he wanted to represent the "grown-up wing of the Democratic party."

That was one night after a finger-wagging debate in which Obama told Clinton he was helping unemployed workers on the streets of Chicago when "you were a corporate lawyer sitting on the board at Wal-Mart."

Moments later, the former first lady said she was fighting against misguided Republican policies "when you were practicing law and representing your contributor ... in his slum landlord business in inner city Chicago."

Each side accused the other of playing the race card, sparking a controversy that frequently involved the former president.

"They are getting votes, to be sure, because of their race or gender. That's why people tell me Hillary doesn't have a chance of winning here," Bill Clinton said at one stop, strongly suggesting that blacks would not support a white alternative to Obama.

Clinton campaign strategists denied any intentional effort to stir the racial debate. But they said they believe the fallout has had the effect of branding Obama as "the black candidate."

By week's end, one poll indicated that Obama's support among whites in the state had dropped sharply, a danger sign for him in the rush of primaries and caucuses that begins on Feb. 5.

The former president's efforts drew criticism from Obama's allies as well as Democrats neutral in the race. "Not presidential," said Tom Daschle, an Obama supporter who was Senate majority leader at the time of Clinton's impeachment nearly a decade ago.
---
Associated Press writers Beth Fouhy, Charles Babington, Seanna Adcox and Mike Baker in Columbia, S.C., contributed to this report.

Clinton Pulls Negative Ad

2008-01-25T09:37:00.000-08:00

Clinton Pulls Negative S.C. Ad
By Anne E. Kornblut

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Under fire for airing misleading attacks on Sen. Barack Obama, the Clinton campaign has pulled a radio ad that quoted the Illinois senator calling Republicans "the party of ideas" and suggesting he thought those ideas superior to Democratic ones. But the Obama campaign has already counter-punched, launching a new radio spot saying Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton will "say anything" to get elected.

The Clinton campaign did not immediately explain why it had pulled its radio spot, which had triggered a furious response from the Obama campaign and touched off a wave of criticism from Democrats who said the Clinton campaign has grown excessively aggressive in recent days. The Obama ad was no less fierce. It reminded voters that Clinton had voted to authorize the war in Iraq, saying she "voted for George Bush's war," and accused her of making "false attacks" on Obama.

"Hillary Clinton: She'll say anything and change nothing," the ad says.

Clinton tried to rise above the fray, delivering remarks on the economy here. She focused her public statements on President Bush, saying he had failed to confront a slipping economy during most of his presidency. Her aides, meanwhile, are downplaying expectations for how she will do here on Saturday, in the fourth nominating contest. Even though she has campaigned here at length and deployed her husband, described as her most effective surrogate, extensively, her advisers said they expect her to lose.

Clintons cozy with Rezko

2008-01-25T09:15:00.000-08:00

Blogger notes: Does this proverb come to mind? He who lives in a glass house shouldn't throw stones at others. And does Hillary Clinton's "I wouldn't know him if he walked in the door." remind you of Bill Clinton's, "I did not have sex with that woman."

'I DON'T REMEMBER MEETING REZKO'

Fri Jan 25 2008 07:40:02

**INTERNET EXCLUSIVE**

Photo surfaces of smiling Clintons with Tony Rezko.

MORE...

Clinton injected the indicted developer's name this week in debate with Obama: 'I was fighting against those ideas when you were practicing law and representing your contributor, Rezko, in his slum landlord business in inner city Chicago.'

Clinton tells NBC 'TODAY' show on Friday: 'I probably have taken hundreds of thousands of pictures. I don't know the man. I wouldn't know him if he walked in the door.'

Developing...

Obama on Clinton's War Vote

2008-01-24T20:06:00.000-08:00

Obama Returns to Clinton's War Vote

BEAUFORT, S.C. (AP) - Democrat Barack Obama suggested Thursday that Hillary Rodham Clinton cannot be trusted to make good judgments on national security and military matters, citing her Iraq war vote.

Obama, accusing the New York senator of trying "to rewrite history," said Clinton still contends that her 2002 vote authorizing military intervention in Iraq was "not really a vote for war."

"She cast her vote after failing to read the national intelligence estimates on Iraq," which raised doubts in some lawmakers' minds about the justification of ousting Saddam Hussein, Obama said during a discussion with armed service members.

Obama, who was in the Illinois Senate at the time, publicly opposed the invasion.

"We need accountability in our leaders," said Obama, now a U.S. senator from Illinois. "You can't undo a vote for war just because the war stopped being popular."

Obama has been campaigning across South Carolina this week ahead of the state's Democratic presidential primary on Saturday.

A poll released Thursday evening showed Obama still leading Clinton 38 percent to 30 percent, but his support among men had dropped by half in just a week. Obama is supported by 10 percent of likely male voters now, and the rest of his male support shifted to John Edwards, according to the McClatchy-MSNBC poll.

Obama said voters "need to judge us on the judgments we've made and the lessons we've learned." Instead of saying her vote was wrong, Obama said, Clinton "has simply blamed the civilian and military leaders who carried out the policy she authorized."

Clinton has said her vote was intended to strengthen President Bush's hand in building international pressure against Hussein, not to approve a prompt invasion.

Zac Wright, a Clinton campaign spokesman in South Carolina, said it was "tough to take his comments too seriously."

"There hasn't been much action to match Senator Obama's talk," Wright said.

Both Hillary Clinton and Obama have voted against legislation that paid for the war but lacked a timetable for troop withdrawal. Obama has supported withdrawal of combat troops in 16 months.

Hillary: Hispanic Bring Brooms

2008-01-24T10:09:00.000-08:00

Blogger notes: Do you find it disturbing as well? Hillary said to Hispanic voters to bring their brooms and vacuum cleaners to help clean White House.

Why didn't she say that to white people? Black people? Asians? Mid-easterners? Should Hispanic people tolerate such stereotyping?

Tell us what you think by posting your comments.

Clinton: This Is Personal

ABC News' Eloise Harper Reports: Speaking in North Bergen, N.J., Sen. Hillary Clinton was brought on stage by Sen. Bob Menendez. Menedez spoke in Spanish and riled up the majority-Hispanic crowd.

A banner behind a group of Clinton supporters read: "Juntos con Hillary, Una Vida Mejor."
Clinton rattled through her stump speech. She told the crowd that she is going to need their help cleaning up the White House and suggested they bring their brooms and vacuum cleaners to help.

Clinton closed with a line that she doesn't normally use.

"This is really personal to me," Clinton said. "I want New Jersey to be with me not just on Feb. 5 and all the way through the election in November."

Then Clinton began chanting/yelling, "Will you help me? Will you help me? Will you help me? Will you help me? Will you help me? Will you help me?"

After that members of the crowd chanted back, "Will you help me?" -- and the cries soon turned into calls of "Hillary! Hillary!"

Super Tuesday not Deciding

2008-01-24T09:35:00.000-08:00

Super Tuesday Won't Decide Nominations

Jan 24, 6:57 AM (ET)

By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER

WASHINGTON (AP) - Don't look to crown any presidential nominees on Super Tuesday. The race for delegates is so close in both parties that it is mathematically impossible for any candidate to lock up the nomination on Feb. 5, according to an Associated Press analysis of the states in play that day.

"A lot of people were predicting that this presidential election on both sides was going to be this massive sprint that ended on Feb. 5," said Jenny Backus, a Democratic consultant who is not affiliated with any candidate. Now it's looking as if the primaries after Super Tuesday - including such big, delegate-rich states as Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania - could grow in importance.

"Maybe some states were better off waiting," said Backus.

That doesn't mean Super Tuesday won't be super after all. Voters in more than 20 states will go to the polls on the biggest day of the primary campaign, and thousands of delegates will be at stake.

But it's possible Feb. 5 might not even produce clear front-runners.

Here's why:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton leads the race for delegates to the Democratic National Convention this summer. She has 236, including separately chosen party and elected officials known as superdelegates, giving her a 100-delegate lead over Sen. Barack Obama.

There will be nearly 1,700 Democratic delegates at stake on Feb. 5, enough to put a candidate well on his or her way to the 2,025 needed to secure the nomination. But even if somehow either Clinton or Obama won every single one of those delegates, it wouldn't be enough. And with two strong candidates, the delegates could be divided fairly evenly because the Democrats award their delegates proportionally - not winner-take- all.

The biggest prizes among the Democratic states are California (370 delegates), New York (232) and Illinois (153). All three states award Democratic delegates proportionally, with most delegates awarded according to the popular vote in individual congressional districts, and the rest based on the statewide vote.

The wild card for the Democrats involves the superdelegates, nearly 800 elected officials and members of the Democratic National Committee. They are free to support any candidate they choose at the national convention, regardless of the outcome of the primaries.

The AP has interviewed more than 90 percent of the superdelegates who have been identified by the party, and most have yet to endorse a candidate. Many say they will not make endorsements until after their states vote.

The Republicans have a better chance to produce a clear front-runner because several states, including New York, New Jersey, Missouri and Arizona, award all their GOP delegates to the candidate who wins the popular statewide vote. But a Republican candidate would have to attract support across the country to build a formidable lead.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney leads the race for delegates to the Republican National Convention with 59. He is followed by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee with 40 and Arizona Sen. John McCain with 36.

There will be more than 1,000 Republican delegates at stake on Feb. 5, enough to give a candidate a substantial boost toward the 1,191 needed to win the nomination - but only if one man emerges victorious in numerous states.

"I think you could have two or three viable (GOP) candidates" following Super Tuesday, said Ohio Republican Chairman Robert Bennett.

Ohio is waiting in the wings with its 85 Republican delegates a month later, on March 4, a date it shares with Texas, which will award 137 GOP delegates.

Other big states with later contests include Maryland and Virginia on Feb. 12, Wisconsin on Feb. 19 and Pennsylvania on April 22.

Four years ago, Sen. John Kerry clinched the Democratic nomination on March 2 - the earliest date in modern times - with a string of Super Tuesday primary victories. In 2000, George W. Bush and Al Gore both clinched their parties' nominations on March 14, each sweeping a string of Southern primaries that day.

This year, Super Tuesday has grown to include more than 20 states, and it was moved up to Feb. 5 as states leapfrogged each other in an attempt to increase their influence in picking the nominees.

With so many states voting so early, the stage was set for a lengthy general election campaign after nominees were settled early in the year.

Some think that is still a good bet, especially if candidates who don't fare well on Feb. 5 decide to drop out.

"It may take a while for Obama or Clinton to get 50 percent plus one of the delegates. But if it does narrow to a two-person race, then the Democratic nomination will be determined relatively soon," said David Rohde, a political science professor at Duke University.

Rohde said the nomination contests may drag all the way to the conventions this summer. But he added, "It is also possible for aliens from Mars to land tomorrow and interfere with the election."

Clinton will 'say anything'

2008-01-24T09:23:00.000-08:00

Clinton will 'say anything and do nothing': Obama

Jan 24 11:10 AM US/Eastern

Barack Obama fought back against rival Hillary Clinton with stinging attacks on her record Thursday as the Democratic rivals battled for votes in South Carolina and beyond.

The two White House hopefuls have taken their war of words to the airwaves in this conservative southern state where polls show Obama with a double digit lead over Clinton ahead of a Democratic primary here Saturday.

The state is critical for the young Illinois senator, following Clinton victories in New Hampshire and Nevada, and amid polls that show her as the frontrunner nationally.
Faced with a Clinton radio spot -- or advertisement -- claiming he endorses Republican ideas, Obama shot back with a denial and a drubbing of her record.

"She championed NAFTA -- even though it has cost South Carolina thousands of jobs. And worst of all, it was Hillary Clinton who voted for George Bush's war in Iraq," an announcer says in the new radio spot.

"She'll say anything, and change nothing. It's time to turn the page," the spot says.

Clinton returned to South Carolina Thursday to deliver what she billed as a major speech on how she would deal with the economic crisis and mortgage crunch gripping the United States.

She made whirlwind campaign trips Tuesday and Wednesday to California, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, with an eye on big states that could decide the Democratic nomination, leaving her husband Bill Clinton on the front lines in South Carolina.

While her husband assailed Obama, the former first lady barely even referred to her rival, instead delving deep into healthcare, the mortgage crisis and education -- key concerns of her core blue collar voters.

The former president hurled a venomous new broadside against the Illinois senator Wednesday, accusing him of a political "hit job" and soft treatment from the media.

Bill Clinton was not the only spouse on the stump in South Carolina. Obama deployed his wife Michelle on a tour of the state, where overwhelming black support has propelled the Illinois senator to a 19-point lead over Hillary Clinton, according to a new Zogby poll.

Clinton leads the latest national poll of US voters, with a nine-point lead over Obama, but that lead has shrunk from 24 points in December, a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg News poll found.

In the poll, released late Wednesday, Clinton was first among Democrats with 42 percent, Obama was second with 33 percent and former senator John Edwards was third with 11.

However, the poll also found that about two-thirds of Democratic voters now say they are "certain" about who they will vote for, making last minute changes less likely, the Los Angeles Times said in its analysis of the numbers.

Arizona Senator John McCain led the Republican field with 22 percent, followed by former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee (18 percent), former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (17 percent), and former New York mayor Rudi Giuliani (12 percent).

The top three Republicans were in a dead heat when the four-point poll's margin of error was taken into account, and pundits said that the Republican race remained wide open.

The Republican candidates were campaigning full-bore in Florida ahead of its high-stakes primary Tuesday, with its rich prize of 57 winner-take-all delegates to the Republican National Convention in September.

The state was to host a Republican candidate debate in the city of Boca Raton late Thursday that could tip results toward any of the candidates.

"On the eve of a primary, when people who have not been paying attention get a chance to do that, it could be quite decisive," Richard Noyes, an analyst at the Media Research Center in Alexandria, Virginia, said of the debate.

After winning South Carolina's Republican primary last Saturday, McCain picked up a crop of Florida endorsements and one from General Norman Schwarzkopf, who led allied forces in the 1991 Gulf War.

He also bagged a new victory in Louisiana, where preliminary results showed he won the state's caucuses on Tuesday.

A poll of Florida voters Wednesday showed McCain with 25 percent heading into Tuesday's primary, and statistically tied with Romney on 23 percent.

Giuliani, who is staking his presidential campaign on Florida after all but ignoring the early nominating contests, trailed on just 15 percent, alongside Huckabee, in the St. Petersburg Times poll.

Giuliani on Wednesday sidestepped the question whether he would continue his race if he loses the crucial contest in Florida.

"We're going to win in Florida. I have a very good feeling about it," the former New York mayor told CNN.

Bill Clinton is Lying

2008-01-24T09:17:00.000-08:00

Ed Schultz: Bill Clinton is Lying

Obama's Clinton Education

2008-01-23T12:01:00.000-08:00

Blogger notes: I think not only now Obama knows how the rest of us feel, but he is confronted with a nasty battle. Good thing he is not alone in this. What do you think? Please post your comment.

Obama's Clinton Education

January 23, 2008; Page A24

One of our favorite Bill Clinton anecdotes involves a confrontation he had with Bob Dole in the Oval Office after the 1996 election. Mr. Dole protested Mr. Clinton's attack ads claiming the Republican wanted to harm Medicare, but the President merely smiled that Bubba grin and said, "You gotta do what you gotta do."

We're reminded of that story listening to Barack Obama protest his treatment by the now ex-President Clinton on behalf of his wanna-be-President wife. "You know the former President, who I think all of us have a lot of regard for, has taken his advocacy on behalf of his wife to a level that I think is pretty troubling," Mr. Obama told a TV interviewer. "He continues to make statements that are not supported by the facts -- whether it's about my record of opposition to the war in Iraq or our approach to organizing in Las Vegas."

Now he knows how the rest of us feel.

The Illinois Senator is still a young man, but not so young as to have missed the 1990s. He nonetheless seems to be awakening slowly to what everyone else already knows about the Clintons, which is that they will say and do whatever they "gotta" say or do to win. Listen closely to Mr. Obama, and you can almost hear the echoes of Bob Dole at the end of the 1996 campaign asking, "Where's the outrage?"

This has been the core of the conservative critique of the Clintons for years. So it is illuminating to hear the same critique coming from Mr. Obama and his supporters now that his candidacy poses a threat to the return of the Clinton dynasty. Even Democrats are now admitting the Clintons don't tell the truth -- at least until Mrs. Clinton wins the nomination.

Mr. Obama's two examples are instructive because they are so wonderfully Clintonian. On the eve of the New Hampshire primary, Mr. Clinton attacked Mr. Obama's claims of having opposed the Iraq war all along as a "fairy tale." This is a tough charge coming from a two-term Democratic President in a Democratic primary, and it probably helped turn some voters against Mr. Obama.

But it was also a classic distortion intended to turn voter attention away from his wife's own Iraq fairy tale. She's the candidate who voted for the war and backed it for years before she decided she had to be sort of against it, only to later become really against it, and now to favor a withdrawal starting in 60 days. We think Mr. Obama is dangerously wrong about Iraq, but compared to Mrs. Clinton he's a model of consistency.

Then there's Mr. Clinton's moaning before Saturday's Nevada caucuses that his wife's supporters were being strong-armed by pro-Obama unions at casino voting sites.

Clinton campaign allies sued and lost on the matter, and the former President sounded like a Chicago ward heeler as he told reporters about the Obama campaign's voter-intimidation tactics. Yet on the day of the vote Mrs. Clinton won at seven of the nine casino sites, and the Obama campaign was left asking if its vote had been suppressed. It wouldn't be the first time Mr. Clinton accused an opponent of doing something his own campaign was planning to do.

Some in the press corps argue that Mr. Clinton's attacks are hurting his wife. But if they were, he'd stop. His behavior is part of the familiar Clinton playbook of letting others do the dirty work so the candidate can stay above the fray. Hillary and other surrogates took on the task of saving her husband from his lies under oath by inventing the specter of the "vast right-wing conspiracy," calling Paula Jones trailer trash, and portraying the widely respected Ken Starr as a rabid partisan.

Now Bill is returning the favor by attacking Mr. Obama; at the same time, other surrogates raise his long-ago cocaine use, only to apologize after it's been widely reported. News reports also say that so-called robo-calls in Nevada repeatedly referred to Mr. Obama by his middle name, "Hussein." And emails suddenly appeared last week on Jewish lists accusing the African-American Senator of being fond of Louis Farrakhan. Mr. Obama had to disavow Mr. Farrakhan and his associates.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Clinton can claim to disapprove of these attacks, and even assert that she herself is being unfairly picked on by the media because she's a woman. She wants to make the primary contest about race and gender, rather than about Mr. Obama's larger, more inspiring message of change. She can then diminish Mr. Obama and make the choice a trench fight for the votes of typical Democratic constituencies. You gotta do what you gotta do.

"I understand him wanting to promote his wife's candidacy," Mr. Obama added on Sunday, referring to Bill Clinton. "She's got a record that she can run on. But I think it's important that we try to maintain some -- you know, level of honesty and candor during the course of the campaign. If we don't, then we feed the cynicism that has led so many Americans to be turned off to politics."

Welcome to the education of Barack Obama.

Bill likes to see them fight

2008-01-23T11:22:00.000-08:00

Blogger notes: Maybe Bill likes to see Barack and Hillary fight. I would like to see debates with truthful statements. Arguments should be substantiated with facts. Give us a reason to vote for him/her, not vote against his/her opponent. I agree with Tom Daschle's warning that this could "destroy the party." What do you think? Please give us your comments.

Just when you thought the Clintons and Barack Obama couldn't get any nastier

BY STEPHANIE GASKELL in Greenwood, S.C. HELEN KENNEDY in Greenville, S.C. and IAN BISHOP in New YorkDAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Move over, Hatfields and McCoys.

That blood feud is looking downright civil compared with the trash talk in the Democratic duel between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, which took on the ring of schoolyard taunts the day after a debate melee in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

"Sen. Obama is very frustrated. The events of the last 10 or so days ... have apparently convinced him to adopt a different strategy," cracked Clinton, who appeared the morning after to revel in the bareknuckle brawl.

"He clearly came [Monday] night looking for a fight and he was determined and launched right in," she added.

"I wasn't looking for a fight," Obama retorted. "What I'm looking for is a correcting of the misstatements that have been coming out of the Clinton camp."

The intensity of their grudge match has kicked up a notch ahead of Saturday's South Carolina primary and the approach of Super Tuesday, Feb. 5, when New York, California and 20 other states hold primaries.

Clinton and Obama had no qualms about slinging mud Monday night and seemed to relish the personal and policy slaps - more comfortable territory than their flareup over race earlier this month.

Their verbal combat has gotten so nasty that rival John Edwards said he was happy to "represent the grownup wing of the Democratic Party."

Ex-President Bill Clinton, stumping in South Carolina Tuesday in his wife's stead while she campaigned in the West, suggested Democrats wringing their hands over the rancor should lighten up.

"I know you think it's crazy, but I kind of like to see Barack and Hillary fight," he said lightheartedly. "They're flesh-and- blood people and they have their differences - let 'em at it."
Obama told the Christian Broadcasting Network that Bill Clinton is "making stuff up" about his Iraq record.

Justifying his retaliation, Obama told a Palmetto State crowd: "I think its very clear that Sen. Clinton and President Clinton have been spending the last month attacking me in ways that are not accurate. At some point, it was important for us to address them."

Obama backer Tom Daschle, the former Democratic Senate boss, whacked the ex-President yesterday for his "overt distortions," which he branded unpresidential and warned could "destroy the party."

Hillary had no apologies for what the Clintons said, or will continue to say.

"Time and time again, we see where the words and actions don't match," she said.

If anyone is making stuff up, she contended, it's Obama. "Many of the points that he was making [Monday] night, his record doesn't support them," she said.

Clinton Accuses Obama

2008-01-22T12:24:00.000-08:00

Clinton Says Obama 'Looking for a Fight'

By BETH FOUHYAssociated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday accused Barack Obama of "looking for a fight" in their rancorous debate and suggested her presidential rival acted out of frustration over primary campaign losses in New Hampshire and Nevada.

Obama argued that the Clintons—Hillary and Bill—have been distorting his record.

"When it comes to Senator Clinton's remarks, I think it's very clear that Senator Clinton has and President Clinton have been spending the last month attacking me in ways that are not accurate," Obama told reporters in a conference call.

Speaking to reporters in Washington, Hillary Clinton belittled Obama's various criticisms at the debate as "rehearsed points."

"I think what we saw last night was that he's very frustrated," she said. "I believe that the events of the last 10 or so days, the outcome of New Hampshire and Nevada, have apparently convinced him to adopt a different strategy. He clearly came—he telegraphed it, he talked about it—he clearly came last night looking for a fight. He was determined and launched right in."

The morning after the debate, the back-and-forth between the two leading Democrats continued unabated. The two had argued bitterly and in personal terms at Monday night's debate in Myrtle Beach, S.C., over issues such as the Iraq war and Bill Clinton's role in the campaign. The two also traded accusations over Hillary Clinton's work as a lawyer for anti-union Wal-Mart and Obama's relationship with a political patron facing fraud charges.

"He was determined and launched right in. And I thought it was important to set the record straight," Hillary Clinton said.

She restated her argument that Obama was unwilling to answer hard questions about his record, from his opposition to the Iraq war but support for military budgets to his "present" votes as a member of the Illinois legislature.

Obama countered that this was all part of Clinton's strategy.

"Senator Clinton announced while we were still in Iowa that this was going to be her strategy and called it the fun part of campaigning. And, you know, I don't think it's the fun part to fudge the truth," he said. "The necessary part of this campaign is to make sure that we're getting accurate information to voters about people's respective records."

The New York senator also defended her husband's aggressive criticism of Obama, saying it didn't contradict the former president's role as senior statesman and Democratic Party leader. Obama has recently complained about Bill Clinton's role in the campaign and suggested he has repeatedly misrepresented Obama's record.

"I can tell you that never crossed our minds. That's not how we think," she said. "It has absolutely nothing to do with a unified Democratic Party around a nominee and a full support for whoever our Democratic president will be. That is just the way it works."

Clinton also rejected the notion she had used patronizing or racially charged language against Obama. She has called him, among other things, a "talented" and young" African American man.

"I really cannot strongly enough just reject that," Clinton said. "I think this is totally about us as individuals. He is African American. I am a woman. This obviously brings with it an enormous historical significance on both of our behalfs."

Obama said to make progress on issues such as the economy, it is necessary to bring the country together and be honest with the American people.

"If you get the kind of looseness with the facts that Senator Clinton's displayed and you're willing to say anything to get a political or tactical advantage—that erodes people's trust in government.

It makes them cynical. It's part of the perpetul campaign that is how Washington all too often operates these days and it keeps us from solving problems."

The New York senator was flying to California Tuesday to accept the backing of the United Farm Workers Union, a senior campaign official said on condition of anonymity because the endorsement had not yet been publicly announced.

Founded by famed labor activist Cesar Chavez, the union represents a heavily Hispanic work force. Clinton won Nevada's presidential caucuses Saturday in part because of a strong showing among Hispanic voters—a central part of her strategy to win several states holding contests Feb. 5, including California, Arizona and New Mexico.

Fred Thompson Drops Out

2008-01-22T12:06:00.000-08:00

Fred Thompson Quits Presidential Race

NAPLES, Fla. (AP) - Republican Fred Thompson, the actor-politician who attracted more attention as a potential presidential candidate than as a real one, quit the race for the White House on Tuesday after a string of poor finishes in early primary and caucus states.

"Today, I have withdrawn my candidacy for president of the United States. I hope that my country and my party have benefited from our having made this effort," the former Tennessee senator said in a brief statement.

Thompson's fate was sealed last Saturday in the South Carolina primary, when he finished third in a state that he had said he needed to win.

In the statement, Thompson did not say whether he would endorse any of his former rivals. He was one of a handful of members of Congress who supported Arizona Sen. John McCain in 2000 in his unsuccessful race against George W. Bush for the party nomination.

Thompson, best known as the gruff district attorney on NBC's "Law & Order," placed third in Iowa and South Carolina, two states seemingly in line with his right-leaning pitch and laid-back style, and fared even worse in the four other states that have held contests thus far. Money already tight, he ran out of it altogether as the losses piled up.

Thompson, 65, exits the most wide open Republican race in half a century; three candidates each having won in the six states that have voted.

In Florida, McCain, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani are battling for the lead ahead of its Jan. 29 primary, while former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee evaluates his next steps amid money troubles.

Thompson's withdrawal capped a turbulent 10 months that saw him go from hot to not in short order.

He began toying with a presidential run last March, emboldened by a fluid Republican nomination fight and a restive conservative GOP base. He also was charmed by resounding calls for him to get into the race—and his meteoric springtime rise to the top of national and state polls.

Fans trying to draft him as a candidate launched an online effort, seizing on his conservative Senate voting record as well as his lumbering 6-foot-5 frame and deep baritone as they argued that he was right out of central casting. They painted him as the second coming of Ronald Reagan and the would-be savior of a Republican Party demoralized after electoral losses in 2006 at all levels of government.

Expectations rose higher—and his standing in polls started to fall as he failed to meet them.
Thompson played coy about his intentions all the while taking steps to prepare for a formal entrance into the race with a flourish. He cut ties with NBC, visited early voting states and delivered high-profile speeches. And, he started raising money and set up a preliminary campaign organization.

He delayed his expected summertime entrance in the race until fall, perhaps missing an opening created by McCain's near campaign implosion.

As he prepared to officially join the race, Thompson was plagued by lackluster fundraising; high-profile staff departures, including some prompted by his wife Jeri's involvement in the campaign, and less- than-stellar performances on the stump. Thompson also endured repeated questions about his career as a lobbyist and his thin Senate record.

Thompson formally announced his bid in early September, but hit a rocky patch from the get-go.
His easygoing style and reputation for laziness translated into a light campaign schedule that raised questions about his desire to be president. A spate of inartful answers to campaign-trail questions—on everything from the Terri Schiavo case to Osama bin Laden—didn't help matters.

Though his star had faded, Thompson earned positive reviews for a series of debate performances last fall and earned an endorsement by the National Right to Life Committee.

Thompson first made a name in Washington politics three decades ago when he served as minority counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee. Thompson, who was 30 at the time, was appointed to the high-profile job by his political mentor, then-Sen. Howard Baker of Tennessee, who was the top Republican on the committee. Thompson had managed Baker's re-election campaign and had been an assistant U.S. attorney in Nashville.

Thompson asked one of the key questions of the Watergate hearings: "Mr. Butterfield, are you aware of the installation of any listening devices in the Oval Office of the president?"

Butterfield's reply was the first time the public learned that President Nixon had been secretly taping his conversations. But Thompson, who knew the answer before he asked his famous question, had tipped off the White House before the hearing that the committee had discovered the existence of the tapes.

Several years later while practicing law in Tennessee, Thompson represented Marie Ragghianti, the head of the Tennessee Parole Board who was fired after exposing a pardon-selling scheme involving aides for then-Gov. Ray Blanton. Thompson played himself in the 1985 movie "Marie" based on the episode and got generally positive reviews.

The film launched Thompson's acting career. Among his many characters, he played President Ulysses S. Grant in this year's made-for-TV movie "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," and the fictional President Charles Ross in the 2005 film "Last Best Chance."

Thompson was elected in 1994 to the Senate to fill the unexpired term of Al Gore, who had been elected vice president. He easily won re- election in 1996.

During his eight years in the Senate, Thompson was considered a reliably conservative vote.
A couple of months after his 38-year-old daughter died of a heart attack, Thompson announced he would not run for re-election in 2002.

In April of last year, Thompson disclosed that he was diagnosed in 2004 with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a highly treatable form of cancer.
___
Associated Press Writer Joan Lowy in Washington contributed to this report.

Obama Serious About Clintons

2008-01-22T10:53:00.000-08:00

Obama Serious About Clintons

By NEDRA PICKLER

Associated Press Writer

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) - Barack Obama wasn't kidding when he said he would start speaking out more aggressively against the Clintons.

From his first answer at a highly acrimonious debate Monday night, the Illinois senator went after the first couple of Democratic politics with a tenacity he had not shown before in his campaign of hope. He drew quick return fire from Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is pointing her campaign toward Super Tuesday Feb. 5 when more than half the Democratic delegates are at stake.

John Edwards played the role of referee, but many of his calls went against Obama. That double-teaming with Clinton was a reflection of Obama's strong standing in the South Carolina primary Saturday in which at least half of the voters are expected to be black. Obama needs to protect his standing with that group to win South Carolina and maintain his strong position against Clinton, who came back to defeat him in New Hampshire after a big Obama victory in Iowa.

He cannot afford to ignore the criticisms coming from the Clinton campaign—most prominently and aggressively from the former president. Even though Bill Clinton is beloved by many black voters, Obama accused both Clintons of playing loose with the facts and being willing to do anything to get elected.

"There's a set of assertions made by Senator Clinton, as well as her husband, that are not factually accurate," Obama said. "And I think that part of what the people are looking for right now is somebody who's going to solve problems and not resort to the same typical politics that we've seen in Washington."

"Your record and what you say does matter," Clinton retorted. "And when it comes to a lot of the issues that are important in this race, it is sometimes difficult to understand what Senator Obama has said, because as soon as he is confronted on it, he says that's not what he meant."

Their debate only intensified from there, with the two candidates shouting over one another, jabbing fingers in the air and glaring at one another while Edwards struggled to get a word in.

When Clinton criticized Obama for complimenting Republicans in a recent newspaper interview, Obama responded by defending his comments about Ronald Reagan. Clinton said she wasn't talking about Reagan.

"Your husband did," Obama said.

"Well, I'm here. He's not," she snapped.

"Well, I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes," Obama complained.

Obama said while he was working on the streets of Chicago, helping workers whose jobs were shipped overseas, Clinton was "a corporate lawyer sitting on the board at Wal-Mart."

Moments later the former first lady responded that she was fighting for workers while Obama was representing a now-indicted political patron "in his slum landlord business in inner city Chicago."

He said her current opposition to a bankruptcy bill that she previously voted for meant voters can't trust what she says. Clinton suggested Obama did the bidding of the insurance companies and refuses to take responsibility for his votes.

And on it went.

Clinton criticized Obama for voting "present" 130 times while he was in the Illinois state Senate, refusing to take a yes or no position on bills that would keep sex shops away from schools and limit the rights of victims of sexual abuse, among other things. Edwards chimed in to press Obama on the issue.

"What if I had just not shown up to vote on things that really mattered to this country?" Edwards said. "It would have been the careful and cautious thing to do, but I have a responsibility to take a position even when it has political consequences for me."

"Don't question, John, the fact that on issue after issue that is important to the American people, I haven't simply followed, I have led," Obama responded.

The second half of the debate was less personal, and Obama even allowed that former President Clinton had earned his enormous affinity in the black community when he was asked if Clinton deserved his title as the "first black president."

"I have to say that, I would have to investigate more of Bill's dancing abilities and some of this other stuff before I accurately judge whether he was in fact a brother," Obama said.

"Well, I'm sure that can be arranged," Clinton responded.

Huckabee Gains Black Support

2008-01-21T22:43:00.000-08:00

Huckabee Gains Black Support

By CHARLES BABINGTON
Associated Press Writer

ATLANTA (AP) - Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee paid tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. at a lengthy memorial service Monday at King's old church and was endorsed by several black religious leaders.

While his main GOP rivals campaigned in Florida, Huckabee sat quietly through a nearly four-hour King ceremony at the Ebenezer Baptist Church. He was overshadowed by fellow Arkansan Bill Clinton, who received a long ovation for his 18-minute address.

The former president acknowledged Huckabee, who did not speak. "We don't agree on much, but he is a very good man," Clinton told the audience of several hundred.

Huckabee said he was willing to put aside campaigning for a half day to attend the King event, which he called inspiring.

The former Arkansas governor finished second in the South Carolina Republican primary over the weekend after campaigning in which he said the federal government should stay out of disputes over display of the Confederate battle flag in the state. He said last week, "If somebody came to Arkansas and told us what to do with our flag, we'd tell 'em what to do with the pole, that's what we'd do."

The flag is a symbol of racism to some, of Southern pride to others.

After his South Carolina loss, Huckabee needs strong showings in states such as Florida, Georgia and Alabama to keep his campaign alive. He went to Orlando for a late-afternoon rally and fundraiser Monday and planned to return to Atlanta Tuesday for an anti-abortion event.

"Winning Florida would be great," Huckabee told an Orlando airport crowd of about 100, speaking of the state's Jan. 29 GOP primary. But winning the nomination is the bigger goal, he said. "Nobody is going to have this wrapped up by Florida," he said.

"We plan on carrying Georgia," Huckabee told reporters.

After leaving the King ceremony, Huckabee was endorsed by three dozen African-Americans, most of them connected to conservative religious organizations.

Huckabee's strong opposition to abortion and gay marriage matches the "high moral values" of many black Americans, said William Owens, founder of a group called the Coalition of African American Pastors.

Clinton, Obama Clash

2008-01-21T18:00:00.000-08:00

Clinton, Obama Clash at Debate

By NEDRA PICKLER

Associated Press Writer

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) - Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama clashed bitterly Monday over Bill Clinton's role in his wife's campaign and Obama's recent praise for Republicans in a presidential debate five days before the pivotal South Carolina primary.

After a brief discussion of the nation's economic woes, the debate devolved into an angry exchange between the two senators, with Clinton noting Obama had taken campaign contributions from a political patron facing fraud charges and Obama calling Clinton a "corporate lawyer sitting on the board of Wal-Mart."

As Obama tried to defend his comments about Republicans and Ronald Reagan, Clinton interrupted and said she has never criticized his remarks on Reagan.

"Your husband did," said Obama, who has accused the former president of misrepresenting his record.

"I'm here. He's not," she snapped.

John Edwards, who badly trails his two rivals, tried to stay above the fray while pleading for equal time.

"Are there three people in this debate, not two?" he asked.

"We have got to understand, this is not about us personally. It's about what we are trying to do for this country," Edwards said to applause from the audience.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP)—Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama engaged in an angry exchange Monday over past statements on the Iraq war, Republican ideas and the words of former President Clinton in a presidential debate five days before the pivotal South Carolina primary.

The two candidates often talked over each other—and traded accusations over past records—in one of the most heated confrontations of the 2008 race.

"What she said wasn't true .... there was a set of assertions made by Senator Clinton as well as her husband that are not factually accurate," Obama said. "I think that part of what people are looking right now is someone who is going to solve problems and not resort to the same typical politics that we've seen in Washington."

Clinton countered: "I believe your record and what you say should matter."

Bill "Has a Dream"

2008-01-21T17:50:00.001-08:00

Bill nods off during MLK service. Click picture to see video.

Atlanta Mayor Rips into Bill

2008-01-21T12:07:00.000-08:00

Atlanta mayor takes political shot at Bill Clinton

During the MLK service, Franklin addresses Clinton's reference to Barack Obama's rise as a 'fairy tale'

By AARON GOULD SHEININ

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 01/21/08

With former President Bill Clinton standing not 20 feet in front of her, Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin took what appeared to be a political shot at the former president's comments about Barack Obama's candidacy.

Speaking at the 40th annual MLK commemorative service at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Franklin said the country is on the "cusp of turning the impossible into reality. Yes this is reality, not fantasy or fairy tales."

Clinton, in supporting his wife Hillary's bid for the Democratic nomination, recently took heat for using the term "fairy tale" to describe Obama's depiction of his stance on the war.

Franklin has endorsed Obama, who spoke from the same pulpit at Ebenezer on Sunday.
Today, after Franklin's remarks, the crowd of more than 2000 rose to its feet - except for Bill Clinton, who sat in his front pew seat and clapped politely.

Five seats to Clinton's left sat another former Arkansas govenor, Republican Mike Huckabee, also seeking his party's nomination as president. He stood at the end of Franklin's remarks.

During his address, Clinton responded to Franklin's remarks. "Mayor Franklin already took care of the political stuff. I wouldn't have said it quite the way she did but she got it all out there."

Earlier in her address, Franklin said the country was nearing a historic occasion when it could elect as president, "a former first lady, a Mormon, a Baptist preacher, and yes, a black man."

The first lady is Hillary Clinton, the Mormon is Republican Mitt Romney, the Baptist preacher is Huckabee, and the "black man" is Obama.

NY: McCain Ahead Giuliani

2008-01-21T11:40:00.000-08:00

Giuliani trailing on home ground: poll
Mon Jan 21, 2008 1:07pm EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani is trailing in the race for the Republican presidential nomination even on his home turf of New York state, a new poll showed on Monday.

The WNBC/Marist poll ahead of the February 5 primaries in New York showed 34 percent of registered Republicans support John McCain, compared to 23 percent for Giuliani. Among Republicans likely to vote, McCain kept his 34 percent support, while Giuliani was tied in second place with Mitt Romney at 19 percent.

McCain's campaign has been boosted by wins in New Hampshire and South Carolina in the state-by-state race to pick the two candidates to contest the November 4 election to succeed President George W. Bush.

Giuliani, whose once large lead in national polls has evaporated, largely bypassed early voting states and focused on Florida, which votes on January 29.

As the former New York mayor who won national recognition in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, Giuliani would hope for a strong showing in New York.

But the poll showed 46 percent of registered Republicans in New York think Arizona Sen. McCain is the Republican most likely to beat the Democratic candidate in November. Nineteen percent saw former Massachusetts Gov. Romney as the most electable and 15 percent picked Giuliani as most electable.

Another local politician, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, appeared to be in a strong position ahead of the New York primary for the Democratic Party nomination.

The poll showed her with the support of 48 percent of Democrats likely to vote in the primary, followed by Illinois Sen. Barack Obama with 32 percent.

The survey of 1,467 New York state registered voters was conducted January 15-17, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent, the poll said.

Neither party has established a clear front-runner, as the first major state-by-state battles produced multiple winners.

(Reporting by Claudia Parsons, editing by Vicki Allen)

Romney on Tonight Show

2008-01-21T00:03:00.000-08:00

Gov. Romney on The Tonight Show - Highlights

Nevada Vote Irregularities

2008-01-20T21:50:00.000-08:00

Obama campaign cites Nevada vote Irregularities
US Senator Barack Obama's presidential campaign on Sunday said that it had received reports of voting irregularities in Nevada's nominating caucuses, which were won by rival Hillary Clinton.

Spokesmen for Obama's campaign told reporters that a Clinton party handout urged registration lines for the caucuses Saturday to close at 11:30 am, whereas state party rules said anyone in line until 12:00 pm was to be allowed to participate.

"Despite clear rules and timelines laid out by the Nevada Democratic Party that caucus doors should remain open and voter registration should continue until noon, the Clinton campaign encouraged their operatives to close the caucus doors at 11:30 am, a half hour before that deadline," said spokesman Bill Burton.

"This caused confusion and led to people leaving the caucuses before having the chance to participate."

Clinton won the state's nominating contest with 51 percent of the vote, while Obama received 45 percent. The victory increased the former first lady's lead over Obama, after she also won the New Hampshire primary on January 8.

Obama won the Democrats' first nominating caucuses in Iowa at the beginning of the month. His campaign called for a full review of the Nevada vote but insisted it was not calling into question the results.

"We found an unusually high number of reports that the Clinton campaign was insisting that 11:30 was the deadline," said general counsel Bob Bauer, adding that at least 300 complaints had come in.

"We are not calling the results into question at all. We want to make sure this doesn't happen again," Bauer said.

"We are going to notify the Nevada Democratic party that we want a full review of this, and make sure we have in front of us a full picture to make sure this behavior is highlighted and discouraged in the future."

Asked by reporters why an early close would have particularly affected Obama supporters, Bauer said "a campaign that departs from the rules and disenfranchises voters has to be held accountable for that."

He added: "We care about all the voters who would have been affected by this rule."

According to the Nevada Democratic Party rules: "Caucus registration will remain open until viability is determined by 12:00 pm."

Burton sent reporters an email containing what he described as the contents of the Clinton campaign precinct captain handbook, which said 11:30 am was the "deadline for registering (or standing in line to register) to participate in the caucus."

It also said 11:30 am was the time when the "caucus chair closes doors and announces attendance."

Contacted for comment, Clinton spokesman Phil Singer said the New York senator's campaign planned to hold its own press conference at 6:15 pm.

Obama Finds Bill Troubling

2008-01-20T19:12:00.000-08:00

Click picture for video

Ron Paul on MLK Jr.

2008-01-20T18:26:00.000-08:00

Ron Paul Statement on MLK Jr.'s Legacy of Freedom
January 20, 2008 6:47 PM

ABC News' Zachary Wolf reports: Ron Paul has mounted a PR offensive since a New Republic reporter unearthed newsletters, bearing his name from 1992, that criticized Martin Luther King Jr. as a philanderer and worse, and argued against the designation of a national holiday in his honor.

Paul disavowed the articles immediately upon the posting of The New Republic article earlier this month, and said he had nothing to do with them.

Tomorrow, organizied at http://www.freeatlast2008.com/, Paul supporters will mount their latest money bomb.

And today, Paul released a statement lauding King and arguing that Paul is the presidential candidate to carry on King's legacy.

Paul's written statement, below, calls King a "great freedom fighter," and says King would be disappointed with the current president's approach toward civil rights.

PAUL STATEMENT:

“It is especially fitting that we take the time to reflect on one man’s struggles to defend our constitutional freedoms during this primary election season. Jan. 15 was the birthday of the great freedom fighter, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and on Monday, we honor him nationwide for his sacrifice and love of liberty for all people.

“To me, the timing is more than a coincidence. The American people, regardless of color or creed, have the opportunity to choose a candidate who will uplift the ideals for which Dr. King fought -- and died.

“The fight for freedom -- the preservation of our civil rights -- is the fight of our lives. Sadly, after Dr. King’s passing, we are faced with a violation of our civil rights in the same vein as Jim Crow: The Patriot Act. I have stood against this and all unconstitutional violations of Americans' civil rights, and will continue Dr. King’s charge, as president.

“Dr. King would be disappointed in our current administration for more than its continued disregard for civil rights, as he stated: ‘a nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift, is approaching spiritual doom.’

We need to change our interventionist foreign policy, and take care of our brothers and sisters at home. Our nation is in a crisis: we are spending billions on war overseas, while those around us are suffering and losing jobs, homes, and hope. It is inexcusable; we must solve the economic crisis at home, and bring hope to America.

“Dr. King’s heroic actions should resonate with us today, as we recognize that our votes strengthen the fight for our civil rights. Liberty is the true antidote to racism, and freedom -- limited, constitutional government devoted to the protection of individual rights -- can uplift us all.”

Obama SC Primary Critical

2008-01-20T18:24:00.000-08:00

Obama Calls So. Carolina Primary 'Absolutely Critical'
Share January 20, 2008 6:58 PM

ABC News' Sunlen Miller reports: Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., after a tough loss in the Nevada caucus, said that the next primary state, South Carolina, is “absolutely critical.”

Speaking with Rev. Jesse Jackson on a Chicago radio station, Obama said, “We think we're moving in the right direction, but we've got a lot of work to do. South Carolina, obviously, is going to be absolutely critical to our success.”

Obama refocused on the primary state of South Carolina after losing the New Hampshire primary, in addition to losing the overall vote tally in Nevada, to Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.

“We had a hard fought battle in Nevada,” Obama told Jackson on the phone from an event in Atlanta. “We feel very strong about our showing.”

After a morning speech at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Obama will be spending significant time in South Carolina, leading up to Saturday’s primary -– targeting the key African-American vote, with events, like Monday’s parade and church visit, marking Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Obama's wife, Michelle, will hold her own events throughout the state, and just today, crossed paths with a Clinton -– Chelsea Clinton -– at the Bible Way Church in Columbia, where they both attended Sunday service.

Obama Rips into Clintons

2008-01-20T13:28:00.000-08:00

EXCLUSIVE: Obama Rips Bill Clinton Slams as 'Troubling' and Inaccurate

January 20, 2008 4:03 PM

ABC News' Michael James and Tahman Bradley report: Sen. Barack Obama says he's ready to confront former President Bill Clinton, calling his advocacy on behalf of his wife's presidential campaign, "troubling."

In an exclusive interview with ABC News' Robin Roberts to air Monday on "Good Morning America," Obama, D-Ill., directly engages Bill Clinton on a series of issues.

"You know the former president, who I think all of us have a lot of regard for, has taken his advocacy on behalf of his wife to a level that I think is pretty troubling,” Obama said. “He continues to make statements that are not supported by the facts -- whether it's about my record of opposition to the war in Iraq or our approach to organizing in Las Vegas. This has become a habit, and one of the things that we're gonna have to do is to directly confront Bill Clinton when he's making statements that are not factually accurate."

Obama apparently refers to Clinton’s comment that it was a “fairy tale” that Obama has consistently opposed to the Iraq war from the start, and that Nevada union officials backing Obama were strong-arming members into caucusing for Obama.

The former president took on Obama's Iraq position at a Dartmouth College event days before the New Hampshire primary, saying that it was wrong Obama was able to trumpet superior judgment on Iraq by being opposed to the war from the start.

"Give me a break. This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen," Bill Clinton said.

Clinton was making the case that Obama -- just like Sen. Hillary Clinton -- has voted to fund the war since he's been in office. ....

Hillary snubs 'Vogue'

2008-01-20T12:24:00.000-08:00

Wintour goes nuclear over Hillary's snub to 'Vogue'
By Susie Mesure
Published: 20 January 2008

Who in Hillary Clinton's meticulously crafted campaign could have predicted that the White House pretender would come up against Anna Wintour in her attempt to win the presidency?

But that is exactly what has happened after the Senator snubbed the famously frosty US Vogue editor by backing out of an agreement to be photographed by Annie Leibovitz for the magazine's cover. The change of heart followed fears in the Clinton camp that the presidential candidate would appear "too feminine" if she was plastered across the style bible in designer outfits.

"The notion that a contemporary woman must look mannish in order to be taken seriously as a seeker of power is frankly dismaying," writes Ms Wintour, the inspiration for the book and film The Devil Wears Prada, in her editor's letter in February's Vogue. "This is America, not Saudi Arabia. It's also 2008: Margaret Thatcher may have looked terrific in a blue power suit, but that was 20 years ago. I do think Americans have moved on from the power-suit mentality."

Since rebuffing Vogue the Senator has had something of an epiphany on the femininity front. Her wet eyes and quavering voice in New Hampshire are credited with her surprise victory in the state's primary after female voters lapped up her performance. So perhaps she might like to heed the sartorial advice dished out by Ms Wintour "in a spirit of fashion, feminism and fun".

First is a "demure coat in a delicious plum" by Carolina Herrera. Ms Wintour sees it as an ideal choice for a memorial service on Martin Luther King Jr Day.

Or how about some trouser suits? She could try a white silk number by Francisco Costa for Calvin Klein for campaigning in Florida ahead of its primary next week. Or, for lunch with supporters in South Carolina, a "chocolate-brown ensemble with fuller legs and pretty sleeves by Oscar de la Renta", the Dominican Republic-born designer.

In Ms Wintour's view: "They speak volumes about the confidence, discretion, experience and – yes – femininity of their wearer. And they'd get my vote."

"How the West Was Won"

2008-01-20T12:01:00.001-08:00

Click picture for video

Rudy Calls Out John, Mitt

2008-01-20T00:39:00.000-08:00

Rudy Calls Out McCain and Romney on Bush Tax Cuts

ABC News’ Jan Simmonds reports: At the mega Florida retirement community, The Villages, today, Rudy Giuliani did something he has shied away from this entire campaign. He called out his fellow Republicans John McCain and Mitt Romney, by name, for failing to support the Bush tax cuts.

“I supported the Bush tax cuts,” said Giuliani. “John McCain voted with the Democrats against the tax cuts twice. And Mitt Romney did not clearly support the Bush tax cuts. Now, I clearly supported the Bush tax cuts for a very simple reason -- because I had done the same thing several years earlier. I had done the same thing in New York. I knew it would work. I knew it would work to grow our economy.”

While not using the harshest of language, Giuliani has been vigilant in his efforts to not go after his fellow Republicans unless they went after him first. He told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos in December that, as a rule, he does not "criticize" fellow Republicans.

"I try to follow the rule, if you attack me, or attack my record, and then I have to explain it. And in the nature of explaining it, [if] I have to point out that your record was weaker in that area than mine, then I will do it," Giuliani said.

"But if you don’t attack me, I have no right to attack you. I mean, there’s no point in that."
This change is a significant one, since Giuliani and his campaign now appear ready to put the gloves on and get into the fight.

Asked at a press avail following The Villages rally, Giuliani acted as if the change in rhetoric was not a big deal.

“I just pointed out where there were differences,” he said, repeating the lines he gave during the rally, adding that Romney was “equivocal in his support.”

In recent weeks, Giuliani has been an afterthought in the minds of most Americans, sitting on the sidelines while his competitors battled it out in Michigan, South Carolina and Nevada.

But starting tomorrow, all eyes will fall upon the Sunshine State, and after being camped out in Florida since the New Hampshire primary on Jan. 8, the Giuliani campaign feels that the extra time they have devoted on the ground, combined with what they tout as their organizational strength, will pave the way for a victory on Jan. 29.

If the Giuliani strategy works, the single win in Florida would leapfrog the former New York City mayor to the top of the Republican delegate count.

Paul 2nd in Nevada

2008-01-19T23:35:00.000-08:00

Paul Happy With 2nd in Nevada

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Texas Rep. Ron Paul said his second-place finish in Nevada's GOP presidential caucuses on Saturday showed his message is being heard and that he has more supporters than he thought.

"Millions of people have heard this message and this is why coming in second is very great, it sends a great message," Paul said to loud cheers. He conceded that South Carolina's primary, where he was running a distant fifth, was not his to win.

Paul took several swipes at former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who got fewer votes than Paul in Nevada and was trailing Paul in returns being tabulated Saturday night in South Carolina. He told the audience about a confrontation with Giuliani during this month's debate in South Carolina. He said Giuliani "cut me down."

"Tonight, if this is the final tally on that confrontation, we got three times as much vote as the mayor got," he said, referring to Nevada.

Paul collected four delegates from the Nevada caucus to Giuliani's one.

Paul's campaign supports low taxes and reduced government spending.

Ron Paul: A New Hope

2008-01-19T23:32:00.000-08:00

Ron Paul: A New Hope

Republican NV Caucus Result

2008-01-19T23:23:00.000-08:00

Republican Nevada Caucus on Jan. 19, 2008

Mitt Romney 51%
Ron Paul 14%
John McCain 13%
Fred Thompson 8%
Mike Huckabee 8%

Clinton, "Big Fairy Tale"

2008-01-19T23:22:00.000-08:00

Bill Clinton on Obama: Big Fairy Tale

Robocall Trashes Obama

2008-01-19T22:41:00.000-08:00

January 19, 2008

Robocall trashes "Barack Hussein Obama"

The Obama campaign has released a recording (mp3) it says came from a Nevadan's answering machine of an anonymous robocall that criticizes Obama for taking money from special interests while repeating, four times, his rarely used middle name: "Hussein."

"I'm calling with some important information about Barack Hussein Obama," the call begins, before saying that "Barack Hussein Obama says he doesn't take money from Washington lobbyists or special interest groups but the record is clear that he does."

After mentioning his full name once more, the call concludes:

"You just can't take a chance on Barack Hussein Obama."

Click here to listen to the campaign's recording of the call.

Blogger notes: This selected comment is hilarious. Hope you enjoy it too.

I personally have, to be fair, begun to use the candidates' full names. Equal opportunity, you know.
"You just can't take a chance on...
Hillary Diane Clinton!
John Reid Edwards!
Rudolph William Louis Giuliani!
John Sidney McCain III!
Michael Dale Huckabee!
Freddie Dalton Thompson (serious, this is on his birth certificate!)
Willard Mitt Romney!
Ronald Ernest Paul!
Now really, how about we start calling Hillary "Hillary Diane" and Fred "Freddie Dalton" or Rudy "Rudolph William Louis" or Mitt (already weird) "Willard Mitt"? It's only fair!
Posted By: LS January 20, 2008 at 12:23 AM

Obama Campaign Speaks

2008-01-19T22:25:00.000-08:00

OBAMA CAMPAIGN: The Clintons and the Discredited Caucus
Sat Jan 19 2008 15:05:07 ET
TO: Interested Parties
FR: David Plouffe, Obama Campaign Manager
DA: January 19, 2008
RE: The Clintons and the Discredited Caucus

Barack Obama is very proud of the effort that he and his campaign have made in Nevada. As people head to their Caucus sites this morning, we have closed over a 25-point gap in a state where Hillary Clinton was the choice of much of the political establishment and enjoyed huge advantages in terms of name identification. In a very short period of time, our campaign has built an amazing grassroots network and has brought thousands of Independents and disillusioned Republicans into the Democratic Party. These efforts will go a long way to ensuring that Senator Obama wins this critical swing state when he is the nominee.

We expect to do well today and a win in Nevada for Obama would be a significant upset. As University of Nevada Reno Political Science professor put it – “If she loses Nevada, it’s not just a loss. It’s a collapse.”

Our hope is that today’s caucus comes off without a hitch and as many people as possible participate, however we remain concerned that the tactics of the Clinton Campaign and their allies in recent days have confused voters and could lower participation.

And now, according to Jon Ralston, allies of the Clinton Campaign may be planning to challenge voters at the at-large precincts. It is a sad day when Democrats start trying to suppress the vote of other Democrats.

Beginning with the lawsuit filed by their allies to suppress turnout among union members, the Clinton Campaign has been engaged in a systematic effort to discredit the process – a process which was pushed, developed, and approved by their supporters at the Democratic National Committee and in Nevada. It wasn’t until Obama began gaining strength in a state they expected to win by at least 20 points that they began their attempts to delegitimize the process.

Former President Clinton said that this caucus “was not like an election” and that it disenfranchised voters. Even though the lawsuit was rejected as completely meritless by a federal judge, we remain concerned that the specter of the lawsuit has confused voters and threatens turnout at the at-large precincts, which may have been the intent of the Clinton allies all along.

The Clinton Campaign has also repeated the efforts it made in the closing days of the New Hampshire primary by launching knowingly false attacks on Barack’s opposition to Yucca, his 100-percent pro-choice rating, and position on Social Security. There have been push polls and robocalls pushing these false attacks.

And just last night, former President Clinton made two false and outrageous allegations, distorting a radio ad that does not even mention Senator Clinton and accusing the Culinary workers, whose support both Clintons furiously sought, of engaging in deliberate voter suppression.

The conduct of the Clinton Campaign in recent weeks essentially makes the case for why we need Barack Obama – it’s the same old-style say anything or do anything to win, divisive attacks that have prevented progress in this country for so long.

Clinton Dinner Tab $1,530

2008-01-19T22:17:00.000-08:00

CLINTON, OBAMA KEEP N9NE STEAKHOUSE BUSY

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her camp ate a little higher off the hog than her rival Barack Obama during their week of campaigning in Las Vegas.

Both campaign camps called N9NE Steakhouse at the Palms minutes apart Friday for a food delivery.

Chef Barry Dakake and Jenna Morton, wife of N9NE co-owner Michael Morton, delivered around $200 worth of food, including two Kobe burgers, two organic chicken sandwiches and one order of Dover sole, to Obama in a conference room at the Las Vegas Signature Terminal.

The Clintons' tab came to $1,530 and included entrees of nine steaks, three chicken, three salmon and three Maine scallops, two lobster pappardelle, salads, sashimi, rock shrimp, and various side dishes.

The Clintons, who spent the week in a Bellagio villa, also had a big order delivered from N9NE on Monday.

McCain Wins SC

2008-01-19T19:52:00.000-08:00

McCain Celebrates Southern Win
Jan 19, 9:21 PM (ET)

By LIZ SIDOTI

WASHINGTON (AP) - Republican John McCain called his victory in South Carolina's presidential primary on Saturday evidence that his campaign "can carry right through" Florida into the giant round of caucuses and primaries on Feb. 5. "I know it's not easy," he told The Associated Press, "and we've got a long way to go."

South Carolina was where McCain's presidential prospects died eight years ago, and he savored the victory this time.

"It just took us awhile, that's all," he said in the interview. "Eight years is not a long time."

This time, he said, "It sure was nice to have a lot of our old friends be happier that we won."

Asked if he was now the front-runner for the GOP nomination, McCain demurred.

"I don't know," he said, "we like to run from behind."

Still, he expressed optimism going forward.

"I'm very confident that we'll win in Florida," he said.

"We showed that the first-in-the-South primary is a very important victory, and it gives us a very important progress that we can carry right through Florida and February 5th," he said.
McCain said he planned to stress pocketbook and national security issues going forward.

"People care about our nation's security and they're worried about our economy," McCain said.

"I'm going to be talking to them about those issues and how I'm best qualified to lead the nation."

Clinton Wins Nevada

2008-01-19T13:39:00.000-08:00

Hillary Clinton Wins Nevada Dem Caucuses
Jan. 19, 2008

(CBS/AP) CBS News estimates that Sen. Hillary Clinton will win the Nevada Democratic caucuses. CBS News also estimates that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will win the Nevada Republican caucuses.

According to CBS News entrance polls, the economy was the issue most on the minds of Democratic caucus-goers today, ahead of health care and the war in Iraq. Nearly half of Democratic caucus-goers said the economy was their most important issue, while one in four cited health care and 22 percent cited the Iraq war.

Twenty-nine percent of Democratic voters said they were members of a union household. Fourty-three percent of union voters said they favored Clinton, while 42 percent favored Barack Obama and 11 percent favored John Edwards.

Obama won the support of voters under age 45, while Clinton won among older voters. Voters under age 45 broke for Obama over Clinton 48 percent to 34 percent, while those over 45 chose Clinton over Obama 54 percent to 33 percent.

More than half of women said backed Clinton in today's caucuses, while men were more divided in their support, with 43 percent supporting Clinton and 42 percent supporting Obama.

Hispanics made up 14 percent of Democratic caucus-goers in Nevada today, and they overwhelmingly supported Clinton. She got 64 percent support from Hispanics, while Obama got 24 percent and Edwards got 9 percent.

Complete Nevada Returns

Romney, the only Republican to seriously focus on Nevada, earned his second straight victory today, following a win in the Michigan primary earlier in the week.

In a statement released while he flew to Florida, site of the Jan. 29 primary, Romney said Nevada Republicans had cast their votes for change. "With a career spent turning around businesses, creating jobs and imposing fiscal discipline, I am ready to get my hands on Washington and turn it inside out," it said.

According to early CBS News exit poll data, the economy and illegal immigration were the issues on the minds of Nevada's Republican voters today.

About three in four Nevada GOP caucus-goers were conservative, and nearly half of GOP voters chose sharing values as their top candidate quality. GOP caucus-goers in both categories supported Romney.

Romney had made seven campaign trips to Nevada. He has largely ceded the South Carolina Republican race, also taking place today, to his rivals. South Carolina will hold its Democratic primary next Saturday.

In Nevada, Democrats have been mired in legal disputes and exchanges about race. The uncertainty stemmed in large part from earlier-than-usual voting in the U.S.'s fastest-growing state that has also been hit by a high mortgage foreclosure rate.

Clinton and Edwards ganged up on chief rival Obama in the final days, mocking his evocation of former Republican President Ronald Reagan in an effort to offset Obama's endorsement by the powerful Culinary Workers Union. The Illinois senator was thought to benefit from special caucus rules that Clinton supporters tried but failed to overturn in federal court.

Obama, who hopes to become the first black president, responded by suggesting Clinton would be a "president whose plans change with the politics of the moment" as part of one of his most direct critiques of the New York senator yet.

Clinton won in New Hampshire and scored a victory in the largely meaningless Democratic race in Michigan where Obama and Edwards had withdrawn their names from the ballot after the national party stripped the state of its delegates for violating party rules by moving up its primary date.

Going into Nevada's contest, a poll Friday showed Clinton leading in the state with 41 percent while Obama trailed with 32 percent. But the survey by Mason-Dixon showed about 10 percent of likely caucus-goers still undecided. Edwards had 14 percent. Other polls have shown the three in a statistical dead heat.

For both parties, Florida's voters go to the polls on Jan. 29. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has focused virtually all of his efforts on the state. South Carolina Democrats - the majority of whom are black - will choose a nominee on Jan. 26.

Still ahead for those who remain in the race is "Mega Tuesday," Feb. 5, when two dozen states cast what could be deciding votes for the presidential nominees.

Bill Claims Voter Suppression

2008-01-19T10:46:00.000-08:00

January 19, 2008

Bill Clinton says he witnessed voter suppression

Bill Clinton, speaking at a Vegas YMCA last night, made more charges against Obama and claimed to have, with Chelsea, personally witnessed voter suppression by the Culinary Workers:

There is this whole business of the new politics. Well I got a taste of the new politics today. We need a new politics where we all love each other. You’ve heard all that. There’s a radio ad up in the northern part of Nevada telling Republicans that they ought to just register as Democrats for a day so they can beat Hillary and go out and be Republicans next week and vote in the primary. Doesn’t sound like the new politics to me.

Today when my daughter and I were wandering through the hotel, and all these culinary workers were mobbing us telling us they didn’t care what the union told them to do, they were gonna caucus for Hillary.

There was a representative of the organization following along behind us going up to everybody who said that, saying 'if you’re not gonna vote for our guy were gonna give you a schedule tomorrow so you can’t be there.' So, is this the new politics? I haven’t seen anything like that in America in 35 years. So I will say it again – they think they're better than you.

(The transcript was provided by one source with a recording of the event, and confirmed by another.)

To go over the facts here, the only publicly reported radio ad anything like what Clinton refers to is one that encourages Republicans and independents to caucus, but doesn't mention Hillary.

And the Vegas papers haven't found any evidence of the kind of straightforward voter suppression Clinton reports. The Obama campaign has suggested the Clinton campaign file formal complaints if it has evidence.

"This is ludicrous," Culinary Workers political director Pilar Weiss told Politico. She said the union is "aware that some workers aren't going to vote our way" and doesn't engage in intimidation.

"The fact that they lost a lawsuit aimed at suppressing workers' votes, and that now they're trying to hold on to these baseless claims is ridiculous," she said.

Weiss also said Clinton's claim is "technically impossible." Clinton supporters can ask union organizers -- who are actively promoting Obama's candidacy -- to add their names to the lists of workers who will take time off to caucus today. But signs posted around the casinos advertise another avenue to get the time off: Workers can go around the union and ask their managers directly.

"We have found it shocking that President Clinton has gotten so engaged in promoting these accusations," she said.

Romney wins Nevada

2008-01-19T10:24:00.000-08:00

Republican Romney wins Nevada caucuses
By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent

Republican Mitt Romney won Nevada's caucuses Saturday while John McCain and Mike Huckabee dueled in the South Carolina primary, a campaign doubleheader likely to winnow the crowded field of presidential rivals.

Democrats shared the stage in Nevada, where Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama vied for a caucus victory and the campaign momentum that goes with it.

Romney's western victory marked two straight successes, coming after a win in the Michigan primary earlier in the week that revived his campaign.

Alone among the Republican contenders, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas aired television ads in Nevada, and the libertarian-leaning Texan looked for his best showing of the campaign season.

Nevada offered more delegates but far less appeal to the Republican candidates than South Carolina, a primary that has gone to the party's eventual nominee every four years since 1980.
That made it a magnet for former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, who staked his candidacy on a strong showing, as well as for Romney, McCain, the Arizona senator; and Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas.

McCain, a former Vietnam prisoner of war, appealed to a large population of military veterans in South Carolina, and stressed his determination to rein in federal spending as he worked to avenge a bitter defeat in the 2000 primary.

Huckabee reached out to evangelical Christian voters, hoping to rebound from a string of disappointing showings since his victory in the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses.
Romney campaigned on a pledge to help restore the state's economy, much as he did in winning Michigan.

Alone among the major Republican contenders, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani skipped the day's events. He camped out in Florida, the first of the big states to vote, with a winner-take-all primary on Jan. 29.

If the Republican race had no clear front-runner, the Democrats had two, and little room in the campaign spotlight for the third man on the ballot, former Sen. John Edwards.

Obama and Clinton both ran all-out in Nevada, even though only 25 delegates are at stake.
Obama won the backing of an influential Culinary Workers Union. That, in turn, led to an unsuccessful lawsuit by some of Clinton's supporters who hoped to ban specially arranged caucuses along the Las Vegas Strip that could draw thousands of unionized casino and hotel workers.

Obama, hoping to become the first black president, spent nearly $1 million in television commercials. Clinton, campaigning to become the country's first woman chief executive, ran nearly $700,000 worth of commercials, and a union group backed her with nearly $100,000 on an independent ad campaign.

Former President Clinton was a constant presence, as well, in a state he carried twice on his own in 1992 and 1996.

Remarkably, neither Obama nor Clinton has aired a television commercial criticizing the other, and both of the rivals stepped back earlier in the week from a controversy over race. But that didn't prevent almost constant sniping between the two camps, each pointing out alleged inconsistencies in the other's record.

A wild card in the South Carolina GOP race was the wintry weather. In northern areas of the state, snow was forecast and expected to intensify through the day.
Bad weather and some last-minute push polling could put a damper on turnout for the primary, with first-time voters, senior citizens, independents and those still wavering staying home, according to political experts.

Huckabee, greeting voters at a polling place, said he was worried turnout in the more conservative upstate regions.

"You never know how that's going to affect people who will go your way or the other way," he told reporters. "And obviously, the upstate is an important part of South Carolina for us, and if it starts snowing up there, that's something we hope doesn't happen. But we have to take the weather what it is. We don't get to choose.

"I just hope that our voters are so committed that it doesn't affect the fact that they're going to go out and vote, because they believe this is a mission," Huckabee said.
In southern areas of the state, a misty rain greeted people at the polls.
Doug Pinkerton, a financial adviser, was among about 20 people who voted early in Mount Pleasant.

"Giuliani was my original favorite, but he seems to be running such a halfhearted campaign and putting it all on Florida. I just think that was a bad idea. If he had campaigned here more and showed some interest I probably would have voted for him, but I think that Romney will be the candidate," said Pinkerton, 59.

David Dawson, an information technology manager, said he cast his vote for McCain because he believed the Arizona senator is the most honest. "I rely on him to tell us the truth whether we like it or not. That is pretty much it," said Dawson, 32.

Across the country in Las Vegas, Romney handed out coffee and doughnuts to a crowd of supporters outside a caucus site that included two of his nieces from California, part of a crowd of door-knockers who have been helping his campaign.

Romney made seven campaign trips to Nevada, and polls showed him leading.
"It's hard to know in a caucus just who's going to come out," Romney said as he signed autographs and posed for pictures. "I saw the poll in the paper and that looked very encouraging and I've been working hard in Nevada."
___
Associated Press writers Seanna Adcox and Libby Quaid, both in Columbia, S.C., Bruce Smith in Mount Pleasant, S.C., and Glen Johnson in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

Shootout Saturday

2008-01-19T09:43:00.000-08:00

THE NOTE: Shootout Saturday
South Carolina, Nevada Mark Big Day For Both Races

By RICK KLEIN with LAUREN EFFRON
Jan. 19, 2008

COLUMBIA, S.C. --
Three contests in two states separated by 2,000 miles make for an extraordinary Saturday in the race for 2008, in a day that's likely to shrink the Republican field and give a Democratic frontrunner a distinct edge.

Call it Shootout Saturday, since it's time to break some ties. With Republicans voting in suddenly snowy South Carolina, and both parties holding contests in Nevada (on and very far off of the Vegas Strip) the day will determine:

1. Can Sen. John McCain rebuild his campaign on the site of his greatest defeat? (And what should have the McCain campaign more worried -- whispers or white flakes?)

2. Will Mike Huckabee relieve Fred Thompson of the burden of campaigning? (Or does Thompson's next act including trying out for the role of spoiler?)

3. Will Mitt Romney be rewarded for heading west while his rivals swarm the South? (And can he spin a bronze as a very expensive pseudo-victory?)

4. Can Sen. Barack Obama use a political machine to hold off Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in Nevada caucuses that have never really mattered before? (And can a Mark Penn spin-o-gram make a Clinton loss feel any better?)

5. Can former senator John Edwards pick up enough support to stay relevant -- or even surprise some people? (And will holding Obama's words against him matter even a sliver in the Silver State?)

South Carolina polls close at 7 pm ET. In Nevada, Republican caucuses will end by 1 pm ET (expect results by 3:30 pm ET), with the Democrats ending around 3:30 pm ET (results around 5 pm).

If you're looking for clarity, don't look to the skies over South Carolina (and no, that's not a reference Ron Paul's "open blimp" in Columbia).

And if you're looking for clues about turnout, look at the capital letters: "An unexpected X-factor that could contribute to that lower turnout is the weather. Specifically, sleet or SNOW," Roddie A. Burris writes in The State. "Forecasters say there is a 100 percent chance of precipitation across the state today, with up to three inches of snow forecast in the Republican-leaning, vote-rich Upstate. The bad weather also could affect Columbia, where up to an inch of snow could fall."

"But the main reason turnout might be lower than expected could be of greatest concern to Republicans everywhere: what many are calling a lackluster slate of candidates," Burris writes.
Weather won't be a major factor out in the desert, but the truth is nobody should bet the house/double down/go all-in in unpredictable Nevada. "It will end today with a show of raw political power by the winner, who will have managed to build an organization, recruit volunteers, persuade voters, dominate the media narrative and get his or her people to the caucus sites," J. Patrick Coolican, David McGrath Schwartz, and Michael Mishak write in the Las Vegas Sun.

Think anyone's confident? "Because Nevada has never had a nominating contest so early in the schedule before, it is considered especially unpredictable," Molly Ball writes in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "Even as they worked furiously to mobilize their supporters, the campaigns sought to hedge against the possibility of a loss by pointing out their opponents' strengths."

The expectations game: "For Clinton, that meant highlighting what her campaign considers an unfair advantage for Obama -- the controversial special precincts for Strip workers, most of whom are members of the Culinary union that has endorsed Obama -- even as she sought to turn Culinary members her way. Obama's campaign, meanwhile, has been emphasizing Clinton's lead in most polls to suggest it would be a feat for him to come in a close second."

In South Carolina, the battle for first pits McCain, R-Ariz., and Huckabee, R-Ark., "who seemed to be campaigning across the state on parallel paths, rather than engaging each other," Michael Cooper and Michael Powell write in The New York Times.

"Mr. McCain, who has predicted victory here, needs to win to show that he can replicate his showing in New Hampshire," they write. "Mr. Huckabee needs to show that he can duplicate his success in the Iowa caucuses. And Fred D. Thompson, the actor and former Tennessee senator who has failed to win any contests, is staking his candidacy on a strong showing here, in the first Southern primary."

If McCain can expect any bounce from the troop surge in Iraq, it will come in South Carolina -- or the state that famously sank him in 2000 could again ice him out.

South Carolina will not settle the nomination fight, but it will carry Southern-fried weight, with just one more contest remaining (Florida) before the de facto nationwide primary on Feb. 5.

"Strategists said a victory by McCain could establish him as the closest thing to a front-runner the Republicans have had this year, but they noted that he would need to follow that with a win in Florida to secure the favorite position," Dan Balz and Juliet Eilperin write in The Washington Post. "Huckabee, they said, would get a boost by winning but would still need to demonstrate an ability to draw support substantially beyond conservative Christians."

The ads bespeak the final pitches: "McCain stressed his long record of service to the nation as a Navy pilot and a senator, and said he is most ready to be commander in chief. Huckabee offered himself as a 'Christian leader' and an 'authentic conservative.' Thompson underscored his conservative credentials and his endorsement from South Carolina Citizens for Life, an antiabortion group. Romney emphasized his business credentials, which he said give him the expertise to 'turn around Washington.' "

Lee Bandy, the Broder/Balz/Nagourney of South Carolina politics, sees the weather benefiting Huckabee: "His voters are more passionate and will turn out come hell or high water," Bandy tells The Wall Street Journal's Laura Meckler.

If Huckabee pulls off a win, he can thank Chuck Norris and Ric Flair, his pair of Homeland Security secretaries-in-waiting, but mostly he can credit "Huck's army." "Short on funds, Huckabee is relying on these young, enthusiastic volunteers for a much-needed victory in South Carolina," ABC's Jake Tapper and Katie Hinman report. "Up to 40 percent of the Republican primary voters in South Carolina will be evangelicals, a group Huckabee can't expect to win without."

McCain enters Primary Day with far more optimism than he had eight years ago, Maeve Reston reports in the Los Angeles Times. "I can sense a crowd," McCain said. How's this for crowds: "This election eve, as many as 1,000 people met the former Navy fighter pilot and prisoner of war at sunset on the Yorktown aircraft carrier in Charleston Harbor," Reston writes.

Prep the campaign obits: Thompson, R-Tenn., appears the likeliest to exit the race if he has a disappointing day. "The verdict on what very well could be his final performance in this presidential race will come Saturday," Lisa Anderson writes in the Chicago Tribune. "The previews have not brought raves."

"He's won support for his conservative credentials while struggling with voters' doubts about whether he can win in November," McClatchy's Peter Smolowitz reports. "After finishing third in Iowa, he got 1 percent of the vote in New Hampshire and 4 percent in Michigan. He acknowledges that he must finish strong in South Carolina: 'South Carolina is where it's at for me.' "

The fight scared Romney, R-Mass., out of the state (and all the way to Jay Leno's couch on Friday) -- but he had a good reason.

"South Carolina, he frequently points out, awards just 24 [convention] delegates to Nevada's 31," Michael Levenson writes in The Boston Globe. He's had Nevada virtually to himself, but recall that it was not always this way: "His TV ads aired 5,257 times between February and Tuesday in the major South Carolina markets -- more than John McCain's and Mike Huckabee's combined, Nielsen reported yesterday." Among the Democrats, either Obama, D-Ill., or Clinton, D-N.Y., appears likely to finish the day as the race's first repeat winner, providing a tough of "mo" in a race that's resisting it. "Clinton and Obama practically pitched their tents in the high desert, arriving soon after New Hampshire voted and leaving Nevada for only brief excursions," Mark Z. Barabak and Seema Mehta write in the Los Angeles Times. "They made an unprecedented effort to court Latinos, endorsed gun-loving Nevadans' right to bear arms and competed with Edwards to be the most adamantly opposed to the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site, 90 miles from Las Vegas."

The final days have been marked by a burst of union spending on Obama's behalf -- Spanish-language radio and TV ads that seek to boost Obama and take down Clinton. Clinton and Edwards have noticed Obama's silence -- and want it to end, per ABC's Kate Snow, Raelyn Johnson, Eloise Harper, and Sunlen Miller. "I just want to say how personally offended I am by these ads and outraged," said Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle. Said Edwards, D-N.C.: "Everyone pledged that this kind of divisive politics that divides the Democratic Party and could divide America would come to an end."

The final days before Nevada have featured an aggressive Clinton, on issues that fit on the local pages, the national section, and even sports. Magic Johnson offers some less-than-friendly locker-room advice: "We won our first game on a last-second shot," Johnson says in the Clinton campaign ad. "I was so hyped. But the captain of my team said, 'Take it easy rookie, it's a long season, it's a long road to the championship.' "

(But ABC's David Wright remembers his basketball history: Magic won the championship as a rookie. "Johnson went toe to toe with 'Dr. J,' Julius Erving, scoring 42 points, with 15 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals, leading the Lakers to a 123-107 victory in the final game, despite Philadelphia's home-court advantage," Wright reports. "Sportswriters still regard Johnson's clutch performance as one of the finest individual games in NBA history.")

The Las Vegas Sun synthesizes the broad yet precise Clinton attacks: "She used the run-up to the Nevada caucus to teach the less politically experienced Obama about rough politics, attacking him at every turn. He's suspect on Yucca Mountain, having accepted money from the nuclear industry. He's suspect on abortion rights, having voted "present" on an abortion-related issue in the Illinois Legislature. He's suspect on gaming, having raised the issue of its social and moral costs and opposed its spread when in Illinois."

"She accused him of wanting to raise taxes, and she questioned his ability to manage the federal bureaucracy after he said he didn't see that as the chief role of the president. Plus, he spoke positively of President Reagan," Cooligan, Schwartz, and Mishak write.

He's taken plenty of incoming -- but he's starting to give it back, too. On Friday, his message was the economy, accusing Clinton of swiping his idea for a tax rebate, per ABC's Sunlen Miller.

"Obama painted Clinton's addition of the tax rebate, not only as following his lead, but as evidence that she is changing her positions for the politics of the moment," Miller reports. Said Obama: "Senator Clinton has said she is ready to lead from day one, but it's important on day one to get it right, whether you're talking about war or you're talking about economic proposals."

The Washington Post's Shailagh Murray and Alec MacGillis see a different tone from the candidate, after New Hampshire roughed him up. "Much of the feel-good imagery was ditched in the New England snow, and it has been replaced by a more traditional campaign that rebuts and prebuts, brags about endorsements, and engages with -- rather than floats above -- the competition," they write. "In Nevada, which holds its caucuses Saturday, the campaign has reverted to 'town hall' meetings built around audience questions, rather than the rousing standalone speeches Obama gave in New Hampshire." Strategist David Axelrod concedes the point: "This is a long process, and this is how you learn."

Here's one rhetorical battle that will live past the Strip: Clinton is attacking Obama for his comment that "the Republicans were the party of ideas for a pretty long chunk of time there." Said Clinton on Friday: "That's not the way I remember the last ten to fifteen years. I don't think it's a better idea to privatize social security. I don't think it's a better idea to try to eliminate the minimum wage."

Neither does Obama. Clinton "has taken one section of this and totally mischaracterized it to say that Obama was saying Republicans had 'better' ideas," ABC's Jake Tapper reports.

Elko, Nev. -- population 17,000 -- saw four presidential hopefuls pass through in a 24-hour span. If you're looking for harbingers . . . "Hillary Clinton visited an Indian school gymnasium, filling the place with 600 to 1,000 people, depending on whom you believe," Alexandra Berson writes in the Las Vegas Sun. "Many of them left while she was still taking questions to attend the Barack Obama event 20 minutes later at the local high school. That event drew about twice as many people, it seemed."

And yet . . . "Obama fell victim to the same crowd exodus that Clinton had," ABC's Eloise Harper and Sunlen Miller report. "In the short interlude between his stump speech and the 'question and answer' portion of the program, people began to exit in large groups. By the end of the actual town hall, the top section of the bleachers had been partially emptied out, most giving sheepish excuses for their early departure as they left."

At least, by nightfall Saturday, Michelle Obama won't have to pronounce "Nevada" again for a while.

ABC's Karen Travers, Teddy Davis, and Talal Al-Khatib have pointers on what to watch for Saturday in The Note's "Sneak Peek" -- along with the candidates' schedules.

Also in the news:

If you think these drips are coincidences, you don't know Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg, I-N.Y., "met Friday with the ballot access expert and campaign manager for H. Ross Perot's third-party presidential bid," the AP's Sara Kugler reports. "Despite his public denials, Bloomberg has been consulting with people such as [Clay] Mulford and is conducting a sophisticated analysis of voter data in all 50 states to better understand his chances as a third-party candidate. Aides have said he would delay a decision until after the major parties produce clear front-runners."

Romney is rolling out his economic stimulus package -- and it has a pretty little price tag attached. "Mr. Romney's package is valued at nearly $250 billion, far broader and more costly than the $150 billion stimulus plan that President Bush unveiled this morning," Elizabeth Holmes reports in The Wall Street Journal. "The Romney plan resembles that of rival John McCain but takes a key cut -- the corporate tax rate -- one step further. It also wraps in benefits for individuals as well as businesses."

His new theme -- the fixer/outsider/turnaround artist -- may or may not work, Michael Luo reports in The New York Times. "As has often been the case with Mr. Romney, parts of his change mantra have rung inauthentic to some, engendering fresh accusations of pandering and political misspeak from critics and rivals," he writes.

It's old oppo, but it still works: "In South Carolina this week, Mr. Romney trotted out his private-sector background -- he began his career in consulting and then earned millions of dollars as a founder of the leveraged buyout firm Bain Capital -- as evidence of his economic expertise and commitment to job creation. He did not mention that in some cases his company caused layoffs."

On Leno, Romney dropped his feud with the AP's Glen Johnson, calling the confrontation "kind of a normal thing" (though Eric Fehrnstrom begs to differ). "We put them in the back of the aircraft. We feed them lousy food," Romney said. "We wake them up early in the morning to go to events, and then as you'll see in this clip, I think, we don't give them chairs to sit on either. So they have a tough go of it, but they're doing their job."

As to the question that caused the controversy -- his ties to lobbyists -- the Boston Herald's Jessica Van Sack finds 13 of them raising money for the former governor.

Huckabee raised the Confederate flag issue himself this week -- but let it drop in his final day on the trail. He brushed aside a question from the Greenville News' Dan Hoover on Friday: "That's not a presidential issue," Huckabee said. And yet . . . the flag is still there, Hoover writes: "Signs with the battle flag and critical messages have been aimed at McCain, Romney and former New York City Mayor Giuliani."

The New York Times' David Kirkpatrick and Michael Powell write up Huckabee's balancing act: "Between his droll performance and heartfelt encore runs the delicate line that Mr. Huckabee, a Southern Baptist minister before becoming governor of Arkansas, walks as he tries to fire up his fellow evangelical Christians to vote for one of their own without unnerving more secular-minded voters." They write, "as Mr. Huckabee has moved to the front of the Republican field and as the race will now quickly move beyond the Bible Belt, his ability to harmonize both elements is under new scrutiny from the liberal and conservative sides of the pew."

Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, is pressing for Saturday's caucuses to be delayed -- quick, someone tell the bunnies. "The inconsistencies, errors and multiple changes in the rules reek of playing politics with the what should be a neutral process," Paul campaign manager Lew Moore in a press release sent to reporters Friday, per ABC's Z. Byron Wolf.

Democrats have another week to fight it out in South Carolina, though Edwards gets a jump start by hitting the trail on Saturday. When all the candidates arrive, they'll find an electorate that's already mired in the politics of race, Krissah Williams writes in The Washington Post.

"A week before the Democratic primary here, racial rhetoric is on the minds of black voters -- even as the candidates have tried to move on, effectively declaring a truce at a debate in Nevada on Tuesday," Williams writes. "For Obama supporters, the comments have become talking points in their efforts to attract voters to what could be a historic candidacy. For Clinton backers, they are examples of words taken out of context. Undecided voters are tired of the racial talk and want the candidates to discuss ending the war in Iraq, making health care affordable, increasing funding to minority school districts and dealing with other concerns facing their community."

Peering ahead to Florida, the race is on for key endorsements. "John McCain is hoping to campaign Monday in Miami with U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez in the hopes that the popular Florida Republican can help him win crucial votes in South Florida's Hispanic community," Marc Caputo reports in the Miami Herald. "But Martinez isn't sure he'll endorse him now because he feels badly for McCain's opponent, Rudy Giuliani -- who also thought he had a shot at Martinez's support. . . . With his loyalties divided, Martinez, known as a pleaser to his political friends, froze Friday. He's considering just staying out."

Giuliani, R-N.Y., is returning to 9/11 imagery in his latest Florida TV ad, ABC's Jan Simmonds reports -- and he's still got New York City firefighters trailing him across the state.

Republicans are set to show lots of Sunshine State love. But the Democrats aren't -- and that's why Florida Democratic primary matters approximately as much as Wyoming's Republican caucuses. But the St. Petersburg Times' Adam C. Smith says it doesn't have to be that way: "Here's the bottom line: Ignore the pundits and reporters ignoring you, Florida Democrats. Follow the lead of New Hampshire voters who showed how wrong conventional wisdom can be in politics," Smith writes. "As the campaign heads into a national race Feb. 5, you couldn't find a better indicator of how voters in a terrific microcosm of America view their presidential choices."

Your Sunday menu: It's new Florida resident Rudy Giuliani and House Ways and Means Chairman (and Clinton supporter) Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."

CBS's "Face the Nation" has on Edwards and our favorite dueling campaign strategists -- Obama's David Axelrod vs. Clinton's Howard Wolfson. On "Fox News Sunday," the guests are Romney and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. CNN's "Late Edition" bags Edwards, Clinton supporter Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and still-neutral Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., who will also appear on C-SPAN's "Newsmakers."

I'll be blogging the results Saturday, from South Carolina. Be part of the conversation at http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/.

The kicker:

"I guess he's more focused on the caucus in L.A. rather than the caucus in Iowa." -- Mitt Romney, earlier this month, criticizing Mike Huckabee's decision to appear on Jay Leno's show the night before the Iowa caucuses.

"I figure it's the only way I can be in South Carolina and Nevada at the same time." -- Romney, on Friday, explaining his decision to appear on Jay Leno's show the night before both the Nevada caucuses and the South Carolina primary.

Copyright © 2008 ABC News Internet Ventures

Huckabee McCain Dead Heat

2008-01-18T22:39:00.000-08:00

Huckabee, McCain in South Carolina dead heat
Sat Jan 19, 2008 1:19am EST
By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (Reuters) - Republicans John McCain and Mike Huckabee are in a statistical dead heat as voters head to the polls in South Carolina's presidential primary, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Saturday.

Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, shaved six points off McCain's lead in the tracking poll to trail the Arizona senator by just one point, 27 percent to 26 percent, as voting began -- well within the 3.4 percent margin of error.

In Nevada, which also holds a presidential nominating contest on Saturday, Democrat Hillary Clinton maintained a stable 6-point lead over rival Barack Obama, 45 percent to 39 percent, with John Edwards well back at 6 percent.

In both states, large pools of undecided or persuadable voters make the outcomes unpredictable. The uncertainty is compounded in Nevada, a relative newcomer to early nominating contests, because it has no real track record on turnout.

"It's a very close race in Nevada -- it's all about turnout," said pollster John Zogby. "It's probably Clinton's to lose, but how engaged will people be to come out and vote?"

Huckabee, a Baptist minister whose January 3 win in Iowa was fueled by support from evangelicals, has pulled even with McCain in South Carolina by gaining ground among Republicans and conservatives.

McCain still holds healthy leads among independents and Democrats, who do not hold their primary in South Carolina until next Saturday.

"It was a good day for Huckabee, he caught McCain among Republicans," Zogby said. "The key for McCain is going to be how many Democrats turn out for him here."

South Carolina and Nevada are the next battlegrounds in a chaotic race to choose candidates for November's election to succeed President George W. Bush, and so far no one in either party has been able to claim the role of favorite.

The first five major contests produced five different winners. Saturday's contests will give several top contenders a chance to win consecutive contests for the first time.

About 7 percent of Republican voters in South Carolina were unsure who they would support, and about 6 percent of Democrats in Nevada uncertain. Nearly one of every five Republican voters in South Carolina who back top contenders said they could still change their minds.

OBAMA VS. CLINTON

Obama, an Illinois senator, and Clinton, a New York senator, split the first two Democratic battles and have been running close in polls in Nevada.

Clinton, who would be the first woman U.S. president, led Obama among women, older voters and voters in union households. She also had double-digit advantages among white and Hispanic voters.

Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, led by almost 3-to-1 among black voters and enjoyed a double-digit edge among younger voters.
Republicans also hold a contest in Nevada on Saturday in a race that has drawn less attention. The Republican race in Nevada was not polled by Zogby.

The Republican presidential contenders have focused instead on South Carolina, the first primary in the South. McCain, who won New Hampshire, hopes to rebound from his loss in Michigan on Tuesday.

McCain finished second there to Mitt Romney, a former Massachusetts governor who won with promises to revive the state's ailing manufacturing base and ease economic worries.

The economy was also the top concern of South Carolina voters, with 31 percent listing it first. Immigration was next at 17 percent and the Iraq war followed at 15 percent.

Romney was in third place in South Carolina with 16 percent, while former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, who has staked his future in the race on a strong showing here, was at 12 percent.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul was at 4 percent and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was at 3 percent.

The rolling tracking polls of 817 likely Republican voters in South Carolina and 757 likely Democratic voters in Nevada were taken Thursday and Friday. The Nevada poll had a margin of error of 3.6 percentage points.

In a rolling poll, the most recent day's results are added while the oldest day's results are dropped in order to track changing momentum.
(Editing by Todd Eastham)

Hillary on Lewinsky Saga

2008-01-18T20:09:00.000-08:00

10 years on, Hillary Clinton reveals anguish over Lewinsky saga

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Hillary Clinton said in an soul baring interview aired Friday she never doubted her husband's Bill Clinton's love for her, despite the former president's infidelity with a White House intern.

Exactly a decade after the Monica Lewinsky affair was first reported, the former first lady candidly revealed how she worked through the inner torment it caused, as she battles Barack Obama for the Democratic White House nomination.

"I really had to dig down deep and think hard about what was right for me, what was right for my family," Clinton said on the Tyra Banks talk show on Fox television.

"I never doubted Bill's love for me, ever, and I never doubted my faith and my commitment to our daughter and our extended family.

"But I had to decide what I ought to do, I think it is so important to be able to hear yourself at a moment when it is hard ... there are so many times when you really have to listen to yourself."

Asked by Banks whether she was embarrassed by the public scrutiny of Clinton's transgression, which eventually led to his impeachment, she said "sure, all of that."

"The momentary feelings -- you are mad, you are really upset, you are disappointed, all of that goes through your mind.

"I have found you really shouldn't make decisions in the heat of those moments.
Clinton also said she was asked by other women "all the time" about what to do with unfaithful husbands.

"I say you have to be true to yourself, no one story is the same as any other story," she said.

"'I don't know your reality. I cannot possibly substitute my judgment for yours, but what I can tell you is you must be true to yourself, you have to do what is right for you.'"

Clinton's comments, some of her most open and public on the Lewinsky episode were broadcast 10 years and one day after news of the affair broke on the Drudge Report website, and shocked the world.

A decade on from the scandal which tainted his legacy, former president Clinton is now his wife's most outspoken campaign surrogate, and a key behind-the-scenes strategist who has recently denounced what he sees as an easy ride being given to Obama in the press.

Despite his impeachment, Clinton left office with approval ratings of around 65 percent, and has since further bolstered his reputation by working for his global foundation, on issues like AIDS relief.
The Lewinsky affair has never been mentioned directly by Clinton's opponents, though some have indirectly made reference to the hyper-partisanship and political scandals of his two terms in office.

Late last year Obama argued it would be better to elect a president who was untainted with the political fights of the past.

"Because of the history of some of the battles that have taken place back in the '90s, it is true that she tends to galvanise the other side," he said on CBS television.

The more than year-long-battle by former president Bill Clinton to stave off attempts by rivals to have him thrown out of office for lying under oath about the affair consumed Washington in a poisonous political storm.

He was acquitted in the Senate after the Republican-led House of Representatives impeached him, but the battle, in which Hillary Clinton played a key role, drained political capital at a key moment of his second term.

Last minutes in NV, SC

2008-01-18T19:40:00.000-08:00

Last-minute campaigning in Nevada and South Carolina
By Jeff Zeleny and Michael Luo
Published: January 18, 2008

LAS VEGAS: On the eve of the Nevada caucuses, Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton were following similar paths across the state, making last-minute appeals Friday to voters in Las Vegas, Reno and Elko. John Edwards, who polls show is in a distant third place, held a morning rally before leaving Nevada to focus on future contests.

Nevada is the third stop in the Democratic presidential nominating fight. Obama and Clinton have been locked in a close contest, their strategists say, with voter turnout remaining an open question.

As the candidates made their final pitches to voters, their organizations geared up in a state that has not previously had a starring role in the early stages of the presidential nomination process. Presidential campaigns have been plotting for nearly a year how best to drive vast numbers of Nevadans to the more than 500 caucus sites statewide by 11:30 a.m. local time on Saturday, according to The Associated Press.

In the finals hours of the campaign here, the candidates increased the volume of their rhetoric. At a rally in Las Vegas on Thursday evening, Obama mocked his rivals for how they answered a question during a debate on Tuesday.

"Folks, they don't tell you what they mean," Obama said.

Although the Republicans were focusing on South Carolina, one of the candidates, former Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, was also in Nevada. He flew from Las Vegas to Elko, in the northern part of the state, for an early-morning rally attended by about 250 people.

A new poll by The Las Vegas Review-Journal showed him with a commanding lead over Senator John McCain of Arizona in Nevada's Republican caucuses, which have essentially been uncontested by the other major candidates.

Romney continued his mantra about bringing change to Washington but also made sure to dwell some on illegal immigration, an important issue in the state, and his own family values.

He is not broadcasting televisions commercials in Nevada but went on the air earlier this month with radio commercials that spotlight his opposition to same-sex marriage and his hard-line stance on illegal immigration.

Romney was to fly Friday afternoon from Reno to Burbank, California, to tape "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno.

"It occurred to us the best way to be in South Carolina and Nevada at the same time was to be on 'The Tonight Show,' " said Eric Fehrnstrom, the campaign's traveling press secretary. "Plus, it worked for Mike Huckabee: He won Iowa."

Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, of course famously left Iowa on the eve of the caucuses there to appear on "The Tonight Show."

McCain spent Friday touring through South Carolina, pushing his national security credentials and a proposal that would improve health care for the state's many veterans.

Primaries in South Carolina are on Saturday for Republicans and a week later for Democrats.

At a stop in Florence, South Carolina, McCain held aloft a copy of USA Today, which carried a front page headline saying "75% of Areas in Baghdad Secure."

"My friends, I want to remind you, that was at great cost," McCain said. "If we had done what the Democrats wanted to do six months ago and withdrawn from Iraq, Al Qaeda would be telling the world that they had defeated the United States of America.

"And my friends, we are succeeding. I also would remind you it's still only 75 percent. It's not 100 percent. And so if you forget everything I mention to you this morning, please remember this: Al Qaeda's on the run, but not defeated."

Later, at a campaign stop in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, McCain said that he would work with President George W. Bush and the Congress to improve the economy.

"My friends, what we need to do to start with before we go any further is stop the out-of-control spending," he said.

"I still believe that the fundamental underpinnings of our economy are good and strong," he said, adding that he would like to cut corporate taxes and make Bush's tax cuts permanent.

In Bluffton, South Carolina, Huckabee said that his Southern roots helped him grasp the problems of South Carolina voters.

"We really want to win here," Huckabee said, according to The Associated Press, "in part because as governor of a state of similar circumstances, I think I have a better understanding than anybody else running for president what unique challenges we face - not just in Southern states, but especially in Southern states."

After winning the Iowa caucuses with the support of evangelical Christians, he is facing competition for their votes from Fred Thompson, the former senator from Tennessee, even though many in that group are supporting Huckabee.

Michael Luo reported from Elko, Nevada. Michael Cooper contributed reporting from South Carolina.

McCain, Romney On Flag

2008-01-18T14:51:00.000-08:00

McCain, Romney hit over Confederate flag
January 18, 2008

By Stephen Dinan

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Confederate battle flag — an issue that has confounded politicians in South Carolina for more than a decade — is back again, this time in the form of radio ads attacking Republican presidential candidates Sen. John McCain and Mitt Romney for criticizing the flag.

Paid for by Americans for the Preservation of American Culture, the ads also single out rival Republican Mike Huckabee for praise, saying the former Arkansas governor defended the flag as a state and heritage issue. They began running yesterday.

"Mitt Romney's been trying, but when it comes to bashing the Confederate flag, he can't hold a candle to John McCain. McCain's been doing it — calling the flag a racist symbol — for years," one of the minutelong ads says.

Another ad goes straight for Mr. Romney, with the announcer saying, "Romney let fly in a CNN debate, saying 'that flag shouldn't be flown' and 'that's not a flag I recognize.' "

Ron Wilson, a former national commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and a South Carolinian who was involved in raising money for the ads, said they will be run through Saturday's primary on every radio station in the state that carries the radio shows of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity or Bill O'Reilly.

He wouldn't say how big the ad buy was, only that he has been told the commercials will reach 60 percent to 65 percent of all Republican primary voters.

In his 2000 presidential bid, Mr. McCain, of Arizona, seemed to straddle the issue, first calling the flag "a symbol of racism and slavery" but then releasing a statement saying he understood both sides.

"Some view it as a symbol of slavery; others view it as a symbol of heritage. Personally, I see the battle flag as a symbol of heritage," Mr. McCain said.

Candidate George W. Bush, meanwhile, said it was up to the people of the state to decide, an acceptable stance to pro-flag groups at the time.

In his new book released last year, "Hard Call: Great Decisions and the Extraordinary People Who Made Them," Mr. McCain labeled his support for the flag one of the "worst decisions" he ever made.

Some voters don't want to let him drop the issue. Mr. McCain has been dogged by flag supporters at many of his events here, including yesterday's rally outside his Columbia headquarters.

"I just think anybody that's attacked the Confederate flag has attacked my ancestry and the South," said James Green, 58, as he marched outside the rally holding a sign that read "The South does not want John McCain."

Neither Mr. Romney's campaign nor Mr. McCain's responded to requests for comment yesterday.

But when asked by a voter Wednesday about holding a position at odds with a majority of state residents, who support flying the flag, Mr. McCain said the issue is over.

"My answer to that is I can't be more proud of the overwhelming majority of the people of this state who came together in taking that flag off the top of the Capitol," Mr. McCain said, earning a standing ovation, according to CBS News.

As for Mr. Romney, Mr. Wilson said that the former Massachusetts governor's comments at the CNN/YouTube debate were bad, but that what really upset Confederate battle-flag supporters was that a Web site from South Carolina supporters of Mr. Romney also attacked the Sons of Confederate Veterans group itself.

"He actually attacks the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which is the first time that's ever been done," Mr. Wilson said.

Mr. Wilson said presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul of Texas is good on this issue from his standpoint, while candidate Fred Thompson is a mixed bag.

He said Mr. Thompson's answer at the CNN-YouTube debate was troublesome. Mr. Thompson, a former senator from Tennessee, said that the flag isn't necessarily racist but that he supported the state's decision to limit its display on public property. His campaign called later to try to smooth over the issue. Mr. Wilson said they decided not to run ads against Mr. Thompson, for now, because they don't see him as a major player here.

Mr. Wilson said as much as 8 percent of the primary electorate could consider the battle flag a voting issue: "This is close enough now that this issue is probably going to determine whether McCain wins or Huckabee."

Nevada Caucus Saturday

2008-01-18T14:12:00.000-08:00

Campaigns Scramble for Votes in Nevada
Jan 18, 6:43 AM (ET)
By KATHLEEN HENNESSEY

LAS VEGAS (AP) - The fight for top billing in Saturday's Nevada Democratic presidential caucus has become much like its model in Iowa: an hour-by-hour test of who has the best organization.

But unlike Iowa, Nevada never really has done this before, and not on the scale an early caucus date requires. No one knows for sure what the best organization should look like in a state with two major population centers and vast stretches of desert in between.

As the top three candidates made their final pitches to voters, their organizations geared up to find out.

This presidential campaign is the first time the state's caucus has attracted such attention and effort, and the first time it's been scheduled early enough to play a role in who becomes the party's nominee.

The prized position on the nominating calendar was an odd pick, organizers here soon learned.

With a transient population, a libertarian history and a work force with odd hours, Nevada is not a state prone to political enthusiasm. Just 9,000 Democrats caucused in 2004. Estimates for Saturday's turnout range from 30,000 to 100,000.

Presidential campaigns have been plotting for nearly a year on how best to drive vast numbers of Nevadans to the more than 500 caucus sites statewide by 11:30 a.m. PST Saturday. They've been testing volunteers to see who delivers on promises to show up at house parties or phone banks. They've worked to lower what one campaign worker called a surprising "50 percent flake rate" - the percentage of no-shows at events.

Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama appear best positioned to pull off the organizational feat. Both have had more than 100 staff, including dozens of field organizers, on the ground for weeks. Both transferred additional workers from Iowa and New Hampshire as reinforcements.
Obama brought in the head of his winning Iowa team to lead the effort. He also secured a clutch endorsement from the state's most powerful and disciplined union, the 60,000 member Culinary Workers Union, Local 226, which has a history of influencing the outcome in November.

Clinton's campaign is powered by party activists, prominent endorsements and unions of her own. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees represents just 3,000 members in Nevada, but the union has imported 125 paid political workers to the state.

John Edwards' manpower has lagged, but he has parlayed support from steelworker and carpenters unions into a solid base with a crop of seasoned organizers working the streets. His campaign says it received 75 new staff after the Iowa and New Hampshire contests, nearly tripling its total.

A recent poll showed any one of the three could land in front.

So the morning of the caucus will begin for Obama's campaign in the dark, state director David Cohen said. While Iowa's evening caucus gave workers all day to remind and corral supporters, Nevada's morning caucus means field workers will be trying to catch people at first light.

"For the field guys it's going to be a long night," Cohen said.

The Obama campaign's "van plan" has reserved more than 50 vehicles to give rides to those who call into a hot line.

Edwards precinct captains will start the day picking up information packets at one of three offices and about dozen "staging areas." The packets give instructions on the complicated mathematical formula used to assign delegates. (Obama's campaign is handing out calculators.) It also includes key campaign talking points for precinct captains to try to persuade other caucus-goers to join their ranks.

"We believe the last 24 hours is primarily about making sure all your precinct captains have the material they need, making sure everyone knows where to go and what to say about John Edwards," said Edwards campaign spokesman Adam Bozzi.

The Clinton campaign's information packet is a "tote bag with some T-shirts and goodies," said her Nevada campaign director Robby Mook, who a sent U-Haul truck full of them to Reno late Wednesday.

Mook said the campaign has a "senior transportation program" to accommodate its large number of elderly supporters. Many are clustered in retirement communities and will hitch rides together, he said. More than 100 vehicles are reserved to provide transportation.

The Clinton camp also ensured that most of its drivers speak Spanish, a plus with Nevada's large Hispanic population.

Foreign Policy Divides Dems

2008-01-18T14:05:00.000-08:00

The New Yorker

The Starting Gate
Foreign policy divides the Democrats
by Jeffrey Goldberg

Clinton's card against Obama

2008-01-18T13:24:00.000-08:00

Clinton plays gaming card against Obama
Democrats' gambling stances may be an issue beyond Nevada.

By Peter Wallsten and Peter Nicholas
Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

January 18, 2008

LAS VEGAS — Barack Obama has warned about the dangers of gambling -- that it carries a "moral and social cost" that could "devastate" poor communities. As a state senator in Illinois, he at times opposed plans to expand gambling, worrying that it could be especially harmful to low-income people.

Today, those views are posing a problem for Obama in the gambling mecca of Nevada, which holds its presidential nominating caucuses Saturday. While his top rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, also talks often about aiding low-income Americans, she has embraced the gambling industry and its executives, and her campaign has used Obama's past statements in an effort to turn casino workers and other Nevada voters against him.

The split on gambling between the Democratic rivals is a little-noticed but meaningful development that could affect the caucus vote Saturday and the broader election, as Obama and Clinton try to raise money and win votes in what is likely to be a drawn-out fight for the presidential nomination.

FOR THE RECORD:An earlier online version of this article included a file photograph of the Desert Inn Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas, suggesting that it remained in operation. In fact, it closed in 2000.

The differences could also help shape the outcome of the primary election in California, where the Feb. 5 ballot will carry four high-profile initiatives that could either rescind or allow an expansion of slot machines at Indian casinos. Californians who turn out to vote on those initiatives may also be motivated by a candidate's position on gambling when they cast ballots in the presidential contest.

"There's a fundamental question here," said the Rev. Tom Grey, executive director of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling. "Until this point, Obama's statements seemed to suggest that he did not buy into the industry arguments that this is a product like golf or Starbucks that should just go on Main Street. And Hillary, by attacking him, seems to have come down clearly on the side of the industry that this is economic development."

Although critical of Clinton's stance, Grey and others who want to limit the gambling industry are now watching Obama with a wary eye. Obama is courting union workers at casinos and has calibrated his criticisms to declare Nevada a "model" for properly regulated casino gambling.

The issue has come into focus primarily due to the Clinton campaign, which has distributed a document to local reporters, headlined, "Obama Blasted Gambling as Socially Destructive and Economically Irresponsible," listing several of his past quotes.

Among them are a 2003 comment in the Chicago Defender, a black newspaper, in which Obama argued that the "moral and social cost of gambling, particularly in low-income communities, could be devastating."

In 2001, the Clinton memo states, Obama described himself as "generally skeptical" of gambling as an economic development tool and likened the expansion of slot machines to the state lottery, in which, he said, "you'll have a whole bunch of people who can't afford gambling their money away, yet they're going to do it."

As part of its efforts to publicize those statements, the Clinton campaign has secured the help of top industry players -- several of whom participated in a campaign-sponsored conference call with the media last week designed to chastise Obama.

Former Las Vegas Mayor Jan Jones, now a senior executive at Harrah's Entertainment, and Philip Satre, a former Harrah's executive and top industry spokesman, argued on the conference callthat gambling had brought jobs and much-needed tax revenue to many communities, including economically challenged places in Obama's home state, such as Joliet, Ill., home to a casino.

They disputed the argument that gambling causes social problems and that those problems disproportionately affect lower-income people."

People are not gambling away their mortgages," Jones said in an interview later, adding that she planned to raise campaign money for Clinton."

We saw the caucus as an opportunity to really showcase how important this industry is to providing capital investment and jobs that give Nevada residents the opportunity to live the American dream," she said.

Former Nevada Gov. Bob Miller, an official in Clinton's campaign and a board member of International Game Technology and Wynn Resorts, said Obama's stance was reason for Nevada voters to choose Clinton.

Obama, said Miller, has been "critical not just of gaming in Illinois, but gaming as an industry. Sen. Clinton, to the contrary, has always been supportive and understanding of our industry." He said he was not speaking for Wynn Resorts or International Game when talking about the presidential contest.Satre, former chairman and chief executive of Harrah's Entertainment, said he too would help raise money for Clinton. Obama, he said in an interview, "doesn't think gambling should expand. He thinks gambling has a moral and social corruption attached to it."

Satre and Jones are part of a group of Clinton supporters called the Nevada Business Leadership Council. Satre said the group's purpose is to act as a sounding board for the candidate on Nevada's business climate.

Clinton aides said the New York senator had long supported communities' efforts to lure new casinos to economically struggling places outside New York City, such as upstate New York and the Catskills.One proposed casino, to be built in the Catskills by the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe, was rejected by the federal government earlier this month. That casino would be operated in partnership with Nevada-based Empire Resorts, which lists Clinton on its website as a key supporter. The tribe is appealing the federal rejection, and the decision could be left to the next administration.

In a brief interview Thursday with The Times, Clinton described the gambling industry as an "economic development tool" and said that "for many places in the country, it seems to be an important part of what they are trying to do to revive and maintain an economic base."Clinton likened the potential social costs of gambling to the costs of other industries that pollute or leave toxic dumps, saying that the impact "depends on how well-regulated it is."
Grey, who heads the coalition against legalized gambling and is also a Methodist minister, said Clinton's position conflicted with the church's Social Principles, its statement of values, which Clinton has cited as a personal moral guide.

He pointed to a quote published last month in the Christian Science Monitor in which Clinton said: "For me, the Social Principles of the Methodist Church have been as much a description of our history as a prod to my future actions."

The Social Principles say: "We call on Christians to abstain from gambling and to be in ministry with persons who are the victims of this societal menace," according to a copy posted on the United Methodist Church website.

Grey said: "It's perplexing to me that she would use the principles and choose to omit the one on gambling." The Clinton campaign did not respond to questions about whether Clinton's stance on gambling conflicted with church policy.

Obama, an avid poker player, developed a reputation in Illinois as a critic of gambling. He voted against a 1999 measure to extend riverboat gambling to include boats stationed at dockside.

But Obama was not dogmatic. In submitting campaign questionnaires in 1998 and 2002 for the anti-gambling group Illinois Churches in Action, he left himself room to back the industry, answering "undecided" on whether he favored adding riverboat and land-based casinos. On a 2002 questionnaire bearing his signature, the words "not sure" were penciled in as answers to questions about several forms of expansion, such as moving casinos from rivers to land and raising the gambling age to 21.

Asked about Obama's stance on gambling, his presidential campaign sent a list of quotations from the candidate in which he distinguished between Illinois and Nevada when talking about the industry.

In the comments cited by the campaign, Obama cast the industry's effect on Nevada in a positive light. For example, he told the Associated Press last month that gambling could be a "successful economic model" as long as it was "properly regulated."

peter.wallsten@latimes.com

Nicholas reported from Las Vegas and Los Angeles; Wallsten from Washington.

John McCain Martyrdom

2008-01-18T13:08:00.000-08:00

The martyrdom of John McCain
By: Jonathan Martin
January 18, 2008 02:10 PM EST

COLUMBIA, S.C. —The national media thinks John McCain is under siege again, and his campaign is only too happy to help reporters file their stories.

At a rally Thursday, outside McCain’s headquarters just down the street from the state capitol here, the candidate and a key local supporter, Sen. Lindsey Graham, are explaining that sorcerers of the dark political arts are at work.

“There’s a lot being said out there on phone calls, in the mail, that’s a bunch of garbage — ignore it,” Graham proclaimed. “We know the truth.”

“You know that a lot of nasty things are going on,” McCain added, “but ignore that stuff.”

The truth is, not that many nasty things are going on in 2008, certainly not compared to the bare-knuckled 2000 GOP presidential primary here, and probably not much more so than in your garden-variety campaign for elected office.

A nasty flier touching on McCain’s POW experience has surfaced and a round of anti-McCain automated phone calls has been launched by a pro-Huckabee third-party group — but those are the same calls that were placed in every other early primary state. Other than that, there’s been little in the way of dirty tricks.

McCain’s lagging rivals don’t mention his name in stump speeches, they don’t criticize him and they aren’t even airing negative ads against him.

The campaign is savvy enough to understand the almost unslakable thirst among national reporters to write stories heavy with tales of the sort of down-and-dirty tactics that characterized the race between McCain and George W. Bush in 2000.

The votes were barely all counted in New Hampshire before McCain began facing breathless questions such as, did he have any trepidation about going back to the South Carolina killing field?

“Those rubes down in South Carolina, they vote because of dirty, nasty politics,” said Tucker Eskew, a Palmetto State native and former top Bush adviser in the 2000 race, sarcastically giving voice to what he and many others here see as the outsider view of the state. “The gloves are on — and that doesn’t make for nearly an interesting story.”

“Will South Carolinians see their way through their own hatred to do the right thing?” posits former top McCain strategist John Weaver, also mimicking perception of the state’s voters in elite quarters. “It must be oh-so-entertaining at Elaine’s.”

Indeed, the national media is consumed by the McCain-as-victim narrative just two days out from the Republican primary, with the major newspapers filled with accounts of McCain valiantly fending off smear tactics and the networks focused on the same.

A Thursday evening segment reports that McCain’s “South Carolina Truth Squad” is doing a better job of combating negative ads than in 2000.

Of course, the creation of the group was as much about reminding voters that McCain was attacked in 2000 as it was about defending against actual attacks.

The squad convened a conference call on Tuesday over the POW flier, but they've not had much to do since, aside from decrying the “Trust Huckabee” group’s automated calls — the same calls that have been launched against most of the other candidates as well.

Attorney General Henry McMaster recorded an automated call on behalf of McCain that was sent out to rebut the “Trust Huckabee” calls — but also to point out that McCain was getting hit.

If McCain is any sort of victim this time around, he’s a victim of his own success. Through the hard work of healing old wounds, with soft threats about trains leaving the station and a bit of cold cash for campaigns and consultants, McCain has become the closest thing here to the establishment candidate in a race that lacks a consensus pick.

“The people that beat him in 2000 are for him now” is how Trey Walker, one of McCain’s top advisers here, explained it, doing his best to suppress a smile and talk up the efforts of “Trust Huckabee.”

“He now has the establishment,” Walker bragged.

Thursday’s rally in Columbia gave witness to it. Inside the tent set up in McCain’s headquarters parking lot, a procession of lawmakers took their turn at the microphone before McCain’s convoy arrived. In the sort of towel-snapping bonhomie that is native to Southern capitals, one statehouse insider after another explained that they, too, had been for Bush in 2000 but were now siding with the former insurgent.

Huddled inside McCain’s headquarters and out of the bitter-for-Carolina cold after the rally, McMaster, a smooth-talking Southern pol if there ever was one, was asked directly if he could ever remember another South Carolina race where the front-runner was subjected to nary a negative ad or even any attacks by his rivals on the stump.

“Well, that’s a pretty good question,” McMaster drawled, at a rare loss for words. “Let me think about it.”

And so with Mitt Romney effectively waving the white flag in South Carolina and Mike Huckabee and Fred Thompson seemingly more interested in being vice president or at least retaining their friendship with him, McCain appears headed into Saturday’s primary without a single glove being laid on him.

TM & © THE POLITICO & POLITICO.COM, a division of Allbritton Communications Company

Steaming Bill Clinton

2008-01-18T11:40:00.000-08:00

Bill Clinton, Stumping and Simmering
By PATRICK HEALY
Published: January 18, 2008

Hillary Rodham Clinton may be the spouse running for office, but it is more Bill Clinton who appears to be feeling the heat.

After weeks of complaining publicly about Barack Obama’s record, the news media’s coverage of the Democratic presidential race, or both, Mr. Clinton on Wednesday ripped into a television reporter who had asked him about a Nevada lawsuit concerning participation in the state’s caucuses this Saturday. Mr. Clinton believed the question had seemed sympathetic to Mr. Obama’s stakes in the suit, Clinton campaign officials said.

A federal judge in Las Vegas ruled in the case Thursday, with a decision that will apparently benefit the Obama campaign. The judge, James C. Mahan, held that some hotel-casinos, as arranged by the Nevada Democratic Party, would be permitted to set up caucus precincts on site so employees who work Saturday can participate. Many of those Nevadans are members of Culinary Workers Union Local 226, which has endorsed Mr. Obama, and their votes on Saturday could help him significantly against Mrs. Clinton.

The suit was brought by the state teachers’ union, which maintained that the arrangement gave the hotel employees an advantage that others working Saturday did not have. Some of this union’s top officials have endorsed Mrs. Clinton. But her campaign has denied involvement in the suit, and when the television reporter suggested a connection between it and her supporters, the former president, stumping for her in Oakland, Calif., narrowed his eyes. As his aides looked on with concern, Mr. Clinton’s voice took on an edge.

“When you ask me that question, your position is that you think that the culinary workers’ vote should be easier” than those of other Nevada workers, Mr. Clinton told the reporter, Mark Matthews of KGO-TV in Oakland. “If you want to take that position, get on the television and take it. Don’t be accusatory with me.”

Mr. Clinton’s temper has been an issue for him as long as he has been in public life. But it has played an unusual role during the current campaign, his face turning red in public nearly every week, often making headlines as he defends his wife and injects himself, whether or not intentionally, into her race in sometimes distracting ways.

Some Clinton advisers say the campaign is trying to rein him in somewhat, so that his outbursts become less of a factor to reporters, but his flashes of anger only seem to be growing. Last week, for instance, a clearly agitated Mr. Clinton told Dartmouth students that it was a “fairy tale” for Mr. Obama to contend that he had been consistently against the war in Iraq. And in December he said that voters supporting Mr. Obama were willing to “roll the dice” on the presidency.

“The bottom line is, his outbursts don’t help the campaign,” said James A. Thurber of American University, an analyst of the presidency and Congress. “They become an issue, and it can grow into a real problem. I think the campaign is worried about him right now.”

But some advisers say a former president at times prone to outrage can draw attention to issues as no one else can. They say Mr. Clinton’s “roll the dice” comment, made on the PBS television program “Charlie Rose,” helped focus public and media attention on Mr. Obama’s scarce experience relative to Mrs. Clinton’s, a factor that her campaign saw as contributing to her victory in the New Hampshire primary.

At the same time, Mr. Clinton was releasing steam that had built up within the campaign over news coverage.

“Bubbling just below the surface is a deep resentment on his part against the press about the way he feels she is portrayed against Barack,” said David R. Gergen, a Harvard professor of public service who has been an adviser to presidents of both parties, including Mr. Clinton. “He is a bit like Mount Vesuvius: he’ll just erupt, but then it’s over, because the good thing about his temper is that he doesn’t bear grudges.”

Aides and advisers to both Clintons say he tends to explode in anger more often and more fiercely than his wife, whose temper is usually described as that of a slow-burn and clipped-tone variety.

His so-called “purple fits” and “earthquakes” have been a constant to those who have worked with him. Some have dealt with it by avoiding him, others by simply responding with silence. One senior White House aide, George Stephanopoulos, who was often a target of Mr. Clinton’s fury, has written of taking an antidepressant because the vicissitudes of the job were so intense.

Mr. Clinton has reflected on his temper over the years, perhaps most revealingly in his autobiography. At one point in it, he recalls a day in junior high school when he hit a boy who had been taunting him. It was a moment from which he came to draw lessons.

“I was a little disturbed by my anger, the currents of which would prove deeper and stronger in the years ahead,” Mr. Clinton wrote. “Because of the way Daddy behaved when he was angry and drunk, I associated anger with being out of control and I was determined not to lose control. Doing so could unleash the deeper, constant anger I kept locked away because I didn’t know where it came from.”

Steve Friess contributed reporting from Las Vegas

Chris Matthews' Apology

2008-01-17T23:35:00.000-08:00

Chris Matthews' apologies to Hillary Clinton.

Ron Beats Rudy and Fred

2008-01-17T21:38:00.000-08:00

Ron Paul, Dr. No-body, beats Rudy and Fred -- again
Andrew Malcolm
L.A. Times Blog: Top of the Ticket

Well, he's hanging in there. Not only that, but Rep. Ron Paul thumped two reputed Republican heavyweights in the Michigan primary -- former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Who'd have predicted that a couple of months ago?

Giuliani, you may recall if you can remember anything as distant as last summer, was the longtime GOP national front-runner in polls. He ran strongly against everybody in his party, even former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who won one last night, taking his home state from Sen. John McCain, who won there in 2000. Everybody wondered if anyone had a chance against the hero of 9/11, who defied standard Republican theocracy with his liberal social views.

But guess what? Ron Paul, the 72-year-old Texas congressman and ob-gyn who delivers babies and a strict view of the Constitution, beat Giuliani in Michigan. And beat him good. Not only that ...

he doubled Giuliani's totals of 24,000 votes, or 2.8%, getting more than 52,000 votes, or 6.3%, of the total Republican ballots.

Paul even beat Thompson this time, the real consistent conservative who was supposed to be the next Ronald Reagan until he actually announced his campaign in September. Thompson got about 31,000 votes, or 3.7%, which is more than Rudy but still less than the nobody congressman with the libertarian views whom few people but his passionate partisans took seriously months ago. He's often called Dr. No for his consistent congressional votes against spending.

Paul was so written off that Fox News banned him from its recent debate in New Hampshire. Oops, now the Paulunteers are organizing a boycott of Fox sponsors in return for the snub, a move that Dennis Kucinich's fans are now calling for against MSNBC for barring him from Tuesday's Democratic debate in Las Vegas.

True, Romney killed all his Republican competitors in Michigan, as he had to, with more than 326,000 votes, nearly 39%, with McCain trailing at 29.7%, or 248,000. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee garnered less than half of Romney's votes, 135,000, or 16%.

And it's also true that Thompson and Giuliani didn't really campaign seriously in Michigan. Or New Hampshire. Or Iowa except for a last-minute Thompson bus tour. Obviously, both Giuliani and Thompson are intentionally laying back, trying to make the rest of the Republican field overconfident. No doubt.

Paul hasn't won anything yet, either, except the continued devotion of his followers and growing national attention, including two national TV appearances on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" plus a full hour on "Meet the Press." On Tuesday, Richard Viguerie, the noted conservative author, announced he's launching a website to support Paul. Viguerie called Paul "truly a principled conservative in the grand tradition of Robert Taft, Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan."

Paul just keeps picking up his 6% to 10% each time there's a vote. But Paul also beat Giuliani in Iowa. And he came pretty close to Giuliani in New Hampshire and did, in fact, beat Thompson there. And now in Michigan, Paul beat them both rather handily. He does it by going against virtually all the views of his GOP colleagues, including opposing the Iraq war.

Fueled by the generous donations of Paul believers, the congressman was probably the most successful GOP fundraiser in the fourth quarter, acquiring nearly $20 million then and, according to his website, more than $834,000 more so far this month. He's already launched an eight-state ad blitz and has been campaigning in recent days in South Carolina, where he has three offices and will return later this week, and across Nevada. He got skunked in Wyoming, where Romney won, but imagine if Paul scored big one day in the wild West, where many people believe government got too big about 100 years ago.

Paul's website and new campaign blog claim to have quietly organized more than 7,800 precinct captains around the country. Meantime, Giuliani's top staff is going unpaid this month to save dwindling funds. Is there a pattern here?

So, while the "front-running" Republicans each win one state and no one builds up a head of steam, Paul just keeps hanging around, like a bad cold. Some of the other Republican candidates should be careful, lest they get the sniffles one of these days.