Guthrie endorses Paul

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...)

Super Tuesday not Deciding

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."

Huckabee Gains Black Support

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.

Atlanta Mayor Rips into Bill

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.

Paul 2nd in Nevada

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.

Huckabee McCain Dead Heat

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)

Last minutes in NV, SC

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.

Huckabee on illegals

Huckabee vows to send all illegal aliens home
By Stephen Dinan
January 17, 2008

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who campaigned yesterday at North Greenville University in Tigerville, S.C., introduced an immigration plan that makes his position on illegal aliens one of the toughest among the Republican presidential contenders. (Rod Lamkey Jr./The Washington Times)

TIGERVILLE, S.C. — Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee yesterday continued to move to the right on immigration during this year's presidential campaign, signing a pledge to enforce immigration laws and to make all illegal aliens go home.

The pledge, offered by immigration control advocacy group Numbers USA, commits Mr. Huckabee to oppose a new path to citizenship for current illegal aliens and to cut the number of illegal aliens already in the country through attrition by law enforcement — something Mr. Huckabee said he will achieve through his nine-point immigration plan.

"Some would say it's a tough plan. It is, but it's also fair and reasonable," Mr. Huckabee said.

Mr. Huckabee signed the pledge in South Carolina, whose Saturday Republican primary is shaping up as the most important contest so far. Unlike the previous primaries and caucuses, which have been contested usually by just two candidates, four Republicans are making all-out efforts here: Mr. Huckabee, former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts.

Mr. Romney campaigned in South Carolina fresh off his Tuesday win over Mr. McCain in Michigan's primary. And though he held a lead here earlier last year, he tried to lower expectations yesterday, telling reporters that the pressure is really on Mr. McCain, who now leads in the polls here.

As the front-runner, Mr. McCain finds himself playing defense. Yesterday, he had one surrogate challenge charges on abortion and other issues from Common Sense Issues, a Colorado-based group that the Associated Press said is conducting push-polling here, and had another group of surrogates respond to charges from a group called Vietnam Veterans Against McCain.

The McCain campaign said the veterans group is circulating fliers that say Mr. McCain turned his back on fellow prisoners of war in order to receive special treatment while in captivity in Vietnam.

One issue that continues to hurt Mr. McCain here is immigration. Many voters say he supports amnesty for illegal aliens, and they point to his partnership with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, to try to pass a bill to legalize illegal aliens.

Mr. McCain has said he "got the message" from his bill's defeat last year in the Senate — when a majority of senators voted to filibuster his bill.

He says that as a senator from a border state, he knows how to secure the borders and says border governors would have to certify that fact before a guest-worker program and legalization could go forward. But Mr. McCain still supports a pathway to citizenship, and it's not clear how different his new stance is from the bill that failed.

Mr. Huckabee has faced some of the same questions, and yesterday's pledge — signed at a press conference with Numbers USA Executive Director Roy Beck — was an effort to provide answers.

It's a major reversal from less than two months ago, when Mr. Beck told The Washington Times that Mr. Huckabee was "an absolute disaster" on immigration during his time as governor. Americans for Better Immigration, another group Mr. Beck runs, has rated Mr. Huckabee's record as "poor."

Mr. Huckabee fought for tuition breaks for illegal-alien college students, failed to complete an agreement to let state police enforce federal immigration law and criticized enforcement efforts both at the federal and state level.

But Mr. Beck yesterday said Mr. Huckabee has made a number of key promises going forward, including to not grant illegal aliens long-term legal status; to reject a guaranteed right of return for those who go home voluntarily under his nine-point plan; and to not increase green cards as a way of allowing them to come back more quickly.

"Probably, this is the strongest no-amnesty, attrition plan of any of the candidates," Mr. Beck said.

Numbers USA does not plan to endorse a candidate. The group has asked all of the candidates to sign the pledge, but Mr. Huckabee is the only one to do so.

Mr. Beck said doing so will improve Mr. Huckabee's rating on the issue, bringing him in line with Mr. Thompson, Mr. Romney and Rep. Duncan Hunter of California.

On the campaign trail, Mr. Huckabee continued tapping into the network of Christian conservatives that served him well in winning the Iowa caucuses. He signed his immigration pledge at North Greenville University, a Christian school in the state's far northwestern corner, after holding a rally with hundreds of students there.

In his speech to the students, Mr. Huckabee took a swipe at Mr. McCain on immigration, though he didn't mention the senator by name.

"I don't think electing somebody who's part of the Washington scene makes a lot of sense, because if they could've fixed it, they would have," Mr. Huckabee said. "It's the principle that says that if you're faithful in little [things], you're given responsibility over greater things. But if you're not faithful with what you have, we don't give you greater responsibility, we take that responsibility and we give it to someone who might exercise it more responsibly."

At the end of the rally, the students held a group prayer led by school President James B. Epting.

"You've got to be pleased that one who loves You is running for such an important position," Mr. Epting said in his prayer.

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