USA Presidential Election 2008 [Daily News]

[Maldini]

McCain triumphs in New York primary

 

By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent

 

WASHINGTON - Sen. John McCain swept a series of delegate-rich primaries along the East Coast Tuesday night, reaching for command of the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama swapped victories in a grueling Democratic race.

 

McCain, whose campaign nearly unraveled six months ago, won in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Delaware to gain all 198 delegates at stake. He also put Illinois in his column.

 

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee won in Alabama and in his home state. He also triumphed at the Republican West Virginia convention.

 

Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, won a home state victory.

Clinton, seeking to become the first female president, won at home in New York as well as in Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Arkansas, where she was first lady for more than a decade.

 

Obama, hoping to become the first black president, won in Georgia, Alabama and Delaware as well as his home state of Illinois.

[Maldini]

Clinton wins New York, Massachusetts

 

By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent

 

WASHINGTON - Sen. John McCain won a string of primaries along the East Coast and in Illinois Tuesday night, reaching for command of the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Democratic rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama swapped victories in a grueling national struggle for delegates.

 

McCain, whose campaign nearly unraveled six months ago, won in New Jersey, Connecticut and Delaware, gaining all 97 delegates at stake in the three states combined. He also secured Illinois for his column.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee won in Alabama and his home state. He also triumphed in the Republican West Virginia convention.

 

Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, won a home state victory.

Clinton, seeking to become the first female president, won at home in New York as well as in Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Arkansas, where she was first lady for more than a decade.

 

Obama, hoping to become the first black president, won in Georgia and Delaware as well as his home state of Illinois.

(Corrects Obama won in Delaware, not Alabama.)

[Maldini]

New York Totals

 

 

Democrats

 

Clinton 64%

 

Obama 33%

 

Republicans

 

McCain 53%

 

Romney 22%

 

Huckabee 12%

 

Paul 6%

[Maldini]

Huckabee wins Arkansas Republican presidential vote

 

DALLAS, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee won his home state primary on Tuesday in a victory that could help him stay a contender in the Republican nominating race, U.S. media projected.

 

Arkansas was the third state to go for Huckabee in voting on Super Tuesday, so called because nearly half of the U.S. states are holding contests to choose Republican or Democratic candidates for the November general election.

 

Republican front-runner John McCain, an Arizona senator, has won three states so far in Super Tuesday contests, while former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has won one. Huckabee served as Arkansas governor between 1996 and 2007.

[winigwl]

its too much to follow in one day! i need to wait til tomorrow to see the delegate count. Go democrats!

[berrywoman]

I'm reall happy to see Paul still in there.... :) anything he can do to upset of off balance the count towards McCain is a go for me!!! :)

[GazeboflossUK]

Yes.

 

I praying for some sort of 3rd party run for Paul - it's probable in some capacity.

 

It's all about his message for me and that may sound cheesey but it's 100% true.

 

Current/future Ron Paul supporters are part of something that WILL grow in a new revolution.....and there's no getting away from that. It's a great thing to be part of - even if I am over the other side of the world - his messge has spread far and wide and will never stop to grow.

 

So - beware of the terrible things to come.....it's sad but true.

There are many people working against the interests of US citizens and the human race in general and they will do anything to keep us enslaved. This is something that people must begin to understand - and fast.

 

Just reading the books of these people gives you a very interesting insight into their mindset:

 

QUOTE

 

"Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as 'internationalists' and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure - one world, if you will. If that is the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it." -David Rockefeller

 

They will not stop.

[chuck kottke]

As much as I like Obama (and admittedly Kucinich and Edwards would have been still better), I really hope Paul does well. Since our constitution has all been but inverted (especially by our sitting duck president), we need a strong advocate for adherence to those founding principles. Any more, and we might as well say we have another King George of 1700's infamy. Funny, how we're supposed to learn from and not repeat history, and yet we stumble right back into the same traps time and again.. At least Nixon got caught - this fella is going to waltz right out of office, unscathed!

 

[winigwl]

i don't get this ron paul nonsense to be honest.

[anna111]

Ooof... me neither! Huckabee's even worse though..

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22197928/#storyContinued

 

quarantining AIDS patients??? what a joke. did he even go to middle school?

[winigwl]

^who do you support?

[chuck kottke]

opensesame

 

I'm supporting Obama, as he makes the most sense in terms of voting for legislation that actually helps the general public. His funding is broader, and he's not been in politics too long to be tainted by the process. Kucinich threw his support behind him, so I'm betting that's a good sign, as Kucinich was very much in favor of helping the average citizen and doing what's right for the country and the world. For a non-partisan look at funding, see: www.opensecrets.org

As for the Republicans, McCain was, along with Russ Feingold, the author of a piece of campaign finance reform legislation that had the potential to change the corrupt and corrosive process of big donors controlling our government via the elections funding process; congress watered it down in the end, and the parties used loop-holes to run an end-game around it, though.

But McCain has some views I'm not too fond of either..

Ron Paul is a Libertarian, who decided to run as a Republican to garner more attention on the national stage. He basically wants to reduce the overall size of the government to a fraction of where it now stands (which I think is draconian), but he genuinely feels we have drifted away from following the intent of the US Constitution, which I have to say I agree with.

[winigwl]

not saying what kucinich believes is bad, but he is not fit to be in national politics. He was at one point nearly bankrupt and was known as one of the worst mayors ever

[Maldini]

McCain widens lead, Clinton lends cash

 

By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent

 

WASHINGTON - Sen. John McCain padded his commanding delegate lead in the Republican presidential race Wednesday and urged conservative critics to cut him some slack. In a Democratic surprise, Hillary Rodham Clinton disclosed she'd lent $5 million to her cash-short campaign.

 

"And I think the results last night proved the wisdom of my investment," said the former first lady, one day after trading victories with Barack Obama in a Super Tuesday string of contests from coast to coast.

 

The competition for Republican delegates was a runaway.

 

Nearly complete returns from Super Tuesday left McCain with 707 delegates, nearly 60 percent of the 1,191 needed to win the nomination at the national convention in St. Paul, Minn., this summer.

 

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney had 294, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee 195 and Texas Rep. Ron Paul 14.

 

Despite steadily lengthening odds, neither Romney nor Huckabee offered any hint they were ready to exit the race.

 

McCain, the Arizona senator, said the nomination was his, though, and added he recognized there was work to be done to unify the party after acrimonious campaigning.

 

"I do hope that at some point we would just calm down a little bit and see if there's areas we can agree on," he said, one day in advance of an appearance before conservative activists who have shunned his candidacy.

 

The Democratic delegate count lagged, the result of party rules that shunned the type of winner-take-all primaries in states such as New York and New Jersey that helped McCain build his advantage.

 

On Tuesday's busiest primary night in history, Clinton and Obama were separated by 26 delegates, with 139 yet to be allocated.

 

Overall, that left Clinton with 1,045, more than half of the 2,025 needed to secure the Democratic nomination. Obama was right behind with 960.

 

With little time to rest, both Obama and Clinton pointed toward the next contests, primaries in Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia plus caucuses in Nebraska, Washington, Maine and the Virgin Islands in the next week. In all, those states offer 353 delegates.

 

At a news conference in Chicago, Obama claimed victory on Super Tuesday, saying he had won more states than the former first lady for the day and would wind up with more delegates by the time all were tallied.

 

He bluntly took issue with the suggestion that he, more than she, could be brought down by Swift Boat-style criticism in the fall campaign.

 

"I have to just respond by saying that the Clinton research operation is about as good as anybody's out there," he said.

 

"I assure you that having engaged in a contest against them for the last year that they've pulled out all the stops. And you know I think what is absolutely true is whoever the Democratic nominee is the Republicans will go after them.

 

The notion that somehow Senator Clinton is going to be immune from attack or there's not a whole dump truck they can't back up in a match between her and John McCain is just not true."

 

He said he would be campaigning in all the states in the next round of primaries and caucuses.

 

 

Clinton said she would contest Obama everywhere, although senior aides conceded Obama would have more to spend on ads.

 

"We will have funds to compete," Mark Penn, Clinton's chief strategist, told reporters in a conference call. "But we're likely to be outspent again."

 

A few hours later, Howard Wolfson, the campaign's communications director, said the senator had loaned money to her campaign late last month.

 

Officials with both campaigns have said Obama raised $32 million in January and Clinton $13.5 million, a significant gap between the two that allowed Obama to place ads in virtually every Super Tuesday state and get a head start on advertising for the next primaries and caucuses.

 

Among Republicans, there was speculation that Romney was contemplating a withdrawal. He offered little hint of his plans, announcing only that he would appear before conservatives and make a speech to Maryland Republicans on Thursday.

 

The wealthy former businessman has spent an estimated $40 million to $50 million in personal funds to finance his campaign, but he ran something of a scaled-back effort in several Super Tuesday states.

 

He emerged with a string of victories in caucuses, but won primaries only in his home state of Massachusetts and in Utah.

 

Huckabee scored a series of Southern victories on Super Tuesday and has said he will stay in the race until someone has enough delegates to clinch the nomination.

 

Interviewed on CBS, Huckabee sidestepped when asked whether he might be an irresistible vice presidential running mate on a ticket headed by McCain. "I still want to be the irresistible choice to be the president," he said.

 

McCain wasn't talking on that subject, but the vote totals and exit polls made it abundantly clear that he was weak where the former Arkansas governor was strong — in appealing to evangelical conservatives in the Bible Belt.

A Louisiana primary and caucuses in Kansas on Saturday offer an inviting target for Huckabee, who has demonstrated a strong appeal to social conservatives.

 

McCain didn't say so, but there is ample evidence he is pleased to have Huckabee in the race. In state after state, Huckabee has divided the anti-McCain vote with Romney, preventing the former Massachusetts governor from emerging as a more serious threat.

On Tuesday, McCain's delegates at the West Virginia convention swung over to support Huckabee at the last minute in a successful maneuver designed to deprive Romney of a victory.

[Maldini]

Obama bullish; Clinton looks to March

 

By JIM KUHNHENN and BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writers

 

WASHINGTON - Super Tuesday's mixed outcome has set up at least four weeks of frenzied delegate hunting for Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, pitting his well-financed all-terrain campaign against her big-state strategy.

 

In a sign of Obama's growing financial advantage, Clinton acknowledged Wednesday that she loaned her campaign $5 million late last month as Obama was outraising and outspending her heading into Feb. 5 Super Tuesday contests. Some senior staffers on her campaign also are voluntarily forgoing paychecks as the campaign heads into the next round of contests.

 

Buoyed by strong fundraising and a primary calendar in February that plays to his strengths, Obama plans a campaign blitz through a series of states holding contests this weekend and will compete to win primaries in the Mid-Atlantic next week and Hawaii and Wisconsin the following week.

 

Clinton, with less money to spend and less confident of her prospects in the February contests, will instead concentrate on Ohio and Texas, large states with primaries March 4 and where polling shows her with a significant lead. She even is looking ahead to Pennsylvania's primary April 22, believing a largely elderly population there will favor the former first lady.

 

Clinton's personal loan illustrated her financial disadvantage and her desire to pick her targets with care. She sent an e-mail appeal to donors Wednesday seeking $3 million in three days — an effort, that if successful, would match the fundraising rate Obama averaged for the entire month of January.

 

"I loaned it because I believe very strongly in this campaign," Clinton told reporters Wednesday. "We had a great month fundraising in January, broke all records, but my opponent was able to raise more money and we intended to be competitive and we were."

 

"And I think the results last night proved the wisdom of my investment."

Both campaigns claimed bragging rights for their Super Tuesday successes Wednesday while acknowledging it could be weeks or even months until either candidate has amassed enough delegates to win the party's nomination.

 

Obama won 13 Super Tuesday states while Clinton picked up eight and American Samoa, with New Mexico left to be decided. Both camps claimed a small delegate lead, but an analysis by The Associated Press indicates there were still many to be counted.

 

"We are going to try and contest every contest, and win as many delegates we can," Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said. "If you look at the next month, we have a lot of confidence that we will hold the pledged delegate lead."

 

Obama, riding a wave of fundraising both from large donors and small Internet contributors, raised a stunning $32 million in January. Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe said last week the Clinton campaign raised only $13.5 million for the month. The $5 million loan was in addition to that amount, Wolfson said.

 

Clinton advisers were stunned by Obama's January fundraising and have marveled at his ability to raise small-dollar amounts from a vast field of donors.

"We will have funds to compete," chief Clinton strategist Mark Penn said, "but we're likely to be outspent again."

 

The Clinton camp was eager to take the luster off of Obama's status as a "movement candidate" who has generated unprecedented activism and fundraising through the Internet. Clinton strategists went out of their way to label him an "establishment candidate" and worked to pitch her message to online activists.

 

Obama was heading late Wednesday to Louisiana, where he is favored to win the state's primary Saturday largely on his strength among black voters. He also planned to campaign in Nebraska and Washington state, which also hold contests that day.

 

Clinton was being more circumspect. She planned to campaign Thursday in Virginia, which holds its primary next Tuesday along with neighbors Maryland and the District of Columbia. She was also headed to Maine, which holds precinct caucuses Sunday.

 

Penn conceded the campaign would rely on surrogates to campaign for her in most of the states with contests Saturday, including former President Clinton and daughter Chelsea. It was a tacit admission that the former first lady was unlikely to win any of those states outright.

 

 

Privately, her strategists also have largely written off her chances of winning the so-called Potomac primary Feb. 9, given the large black populations in Virginia, Maryland and D.C. They also played down her chances in the following week's major primaries — Hawaii, where Obama grew up, and Wisconsin, which has virtually sealed the nomination for other Democrats in years past.

 

Wisconsin's Democratic electorate is largely liberal and college educated, and its open primary allows independents to vote — all factors that favor Obama.

 

Clinton political director Guy Cecil insisted the campaign was competing hard in all those places. The campaign has paid staff in Wisconsin and has developed a strong grass-roots organization there.

 

The campaign, however, clearly was focused on the March 4 contests in Ohio and Texas, both of them offering a trove of delegates. But both states have several media markets, making advertising an expensive proposition. A statewide race in Texas can cost $1 million a week in advertising.

Cecil identified Texas as a top priority. "We think it is a linchpin in our nomination to the presidency," he said.

 

While Clinton was focusing on Ohio and Texas, her organized supporters were weighing in for her in upcoming state contests. The American Federation of Teachers was going up with radio ads promoting her in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. They also planned a two-week placement of radio ads in Wisconsin, which holds its primary Feb. 19.

 

Clinton faces significant fundraising obstacles ahead, raising the possibility that she might have to dip into the family's wealth again. The Clinton's financial disclosures, which reveal only broad ranges of assets, place their wealth between $10 million to $50 million.

 

Campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson said the loan came from Sen. Clinton's "share of their joint resources."

An analysis by the Campaign Finance Institute, which tracks trends in political money, found that Obama raised about a third of his money in 2007 from donors who gave $200 or less. Only one-third of his money came from donors who have given the legal maximum of $2,300, compared to Clinton. She has raised about half of her money from "maxed out" donors and only 14 percent from donors of $200 or less.

[berrywoman]

what kind of a name is Huckabee anyways.... lol I can't stop thinking about the movie whenever I hear his name... :lol:

[GazeboflossUK]

i don't get this ron paul nonsense to be honest.

 

 

What?!?!

 

That's exactly why I'm concerned.

[GazeboflossUK]

Romney Out.

 

Good.

[GazeboflossUK]

His departing speech was just pure neo-con propaganda.

 

Absolutely sick. The war on terror....what a fucking joke. His supporters must be air heads.

 

I never want to see his face or hear his shit again!

 

 

It's maddening!!!

[winigwl]

now lets hope huckabee catches up to beat mccain...Then the democrats win!

[The Mad Hatter]

My dad was at the West Virginia GOP convention as a delegate.

 

Apparently the whole thing was fucked up and could be challenged, or something like that. I've got the scoop on just about everything that goes on in WV with the GOP elections, really. I don't pay too much attention to it though. It annoys me.

 

Our whole system is screwedddd.

[GazeboflossUK]

Hey...I'd love as much information on that as possible.

[winigwl]

wtf is with the john mccain ads!?

[GazeboflossUK]

A former Vietnam veteran with top secret clearance says he has personally spoken to numerous POW's who dispute John McCain's claim that he refused to provide information after he was captured and tortured in Hanoi, saying that in fact McCain's code-name was "Songbird" because of his willingness to tell all to avoid torture.

 

Jack McLamb served nine years in secret operations in Cambodia and other nations before going on to become one of the most highly decorated police officer's in Phoenix history, winning police officer of the year twice before taking a role as a hostage negotiator for the FBI.

 

"I know a lot of Vietnam veterans and a few POW's and all the POW's that I've talked to over the years say that John McCain is a lying skunk,"

 

"He never was tortured - they were there in the camp with him and then when he came in....he immediately started spilling his guts about everything because he didn't want to get tortured," said McLamb, contradicting the official story that McCain only offered his name, rank, serial number, and date of birth.

 

"The Vietnamese Communists called him the Songbird, that's his code name, Songbird McCain, because he just came into the camp singing and telling them everything they wanted to know," said McLamb.

 

McLamb said the POW's told him that McCain had sustained two broken arms and a leg injury from not pulling his arms in when he bailed out of his A-4 Skyhawk that was shot down over the Truc Bach Lake in Hanoi.

 

The POW's said that McCain made 32 propaganda videos for the communist North Vietnamese in which he denounced America for what they were doing in Vietnam.

 

"They have these sealed now, our government has these sealed, we can't get to it, they have it classified," said McLamb, adding that in truth "the POW's hate John McCain."

 

It is commonly accepted that McCain was treated better than other POW's and afforded medical care immediately after the North Vietnamese discovered that his father was a top admiral.

 

Several Vietnam veterans groups do solely exist to expose McCain's abandonment of veteran's interests as well as his lies about being tortured, including Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain and U.S. Veteran Dispatch.

 

Doubts over McCain's alleged war hero status and his support to curtail efforts to look for missing POW's contributed to torpedoing his presidential campaign in 2000 and those same questions will undoubtedly surface again should the Senator win the Republican nomination.

[Maldini]

Romney Suspends Campaign, Clearing the Way for McCain

 

Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Mitt Romney suspended his presidential campaign today, clearing the way for John McCain to seal the Republican presidential nomination.

 

Romney said fighting all the way to the party's national convention would damage Republican chances in the November election and make it more likely that a Democrat, Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, would take the White House.

 

``In this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror,'' Romney said in a speech to the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, where he was greeted with cheers. ``I feel I must now stand aside, for our party and our country.''

 

McCain, 71, an Arizona senator, told the conference this afternoon he spoke with Romney and congratulated him for his ``dedicated'' campaign. The two men will ``sit down together,'' and they agree on the importance of uniting the party, he said.

 

Romney, 60, is yielding after losing in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary as well as several later contests that he was counting on to propel him to the nomination.

 

The former Massachusetts governor emerged from the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday round of primaries and caucuses having been thwarted in states such as West Virginia, Georgia and Tennessee by former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.

 

Battle for Support

 

While Romney won contests in Nevada, Wyoming and his home state of Michigan, he faced difficulties gaining support from evangelical Christians with Huckabee, 52, in the race and from Republicans concerned about national security, who are McCain's prime constituency.

 

Romney trailed McCain in national polls and in the race for delegates to the Republican National Convention. A candidate needs at least 1,191 to win the nomination, and an Associated Press count showed McCain had a total of 707 so far. Romney had 294 and Huckabee had 195. Representative Ron Paul, who also remains in the race, had 14.

 

``It was inevitable,'' Republican strategist Rick Wilson, who isn't affiliated with any campaign, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. ``If he wants to live to fight another day in a way that is viable, he needs to step aside.''

 

Huckabee to Continue

 

Huckabee said he planned to stay in the contest.

 

``This is a two-man race for the nomination, and I am committed to marching on,'' he said in a statement. ``As a true authentic, consistent, conservative, I have a vision to bring hope, opportunity and prosperity to all Americans, and I'd like to ask for and welcome the support of those who had previously been committed to Mitt.''

 

While Romney's name will remain on ballots, he is no longer seeking votes or campaigning, his spokesman Kevin Madden said in an e-mailed response to questions.

 

``The governor will bring his delegates to the convention'' to make sure he has a say in the party's platform ``with the expectation of releasing those delegates to the eventual nominee,'' Madden said.

 

In his speech to CPAC, an annual gathering of students, activists and policy makers, Romney said he disagrees with McCain ``on a number of issues.'' Their main area of agreement, he said, is continuing the U.S. military effort in Iraq and prosecuting the war on terror.

 

`Declare Defeat'

 

``And Barack and Hillary have made their intentions clear regarding Iraq and the war on terror,'' Romney said. ``They would retreat and declare defeat.''

 

Pressing on with a campaign would ``make it more likely that Senators Clinton or Obama would win,'' he said.

 

Romney didn't explicitly give his endorsement to McCain.

 

Romney based his campaign on the managerial experience he gained as a businessman, head of the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics and Republican governor of Democratic-leaning Massachusetts.

 

In his campaign kickoff on Feb. 13, 2006, he said Washington can't be changed by a ``lifelong politician.''

 

``There have been too many deals, too many favors, too many entanglements, and too little real-world experience managing, guiding, leading,'' he said at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, the state where he was born and where his father, George Romney, served as governor in the 1960s.

Fundraising

 

Though never a national front-runner, Romney excelled at fundraising, collecting twice as much as McCain early in the campaign last year.

He also benefited from the fortune he built as the former chairman of Boston-based management-consulting firm Bain & Co. and founder of investment firm Bain Capital LLC, by loaning more than $35 million to his campaign.

During 2007 he spent $87.6 million on the race, more than any other Republican hopeful.

 

Romney's political career in Massachusetts provided targets for his opponents, such as his support of a woman's right to have an abortion during an unsuccessful 1994 bid for the Senate. He also said he would be a better advocate for homosexuals than the state's Democratic Senator, Edward Kennedy.

 

During the presidential campaign he said he is now firmly anti-abortion and has been an advocate for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, aligning him more with Republican conservatives.

 

There was also the issue of Romney's membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. A July Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll found that 35 percent of registered voters said they wouldn't vote for a Mormon for president. That includes about a third of both Republicans and independents.