USA Presidential Election 2008 [Daily News]

[winigwl]

pledged delegates are people who represent how the people voted.

superdelegates are important people in democrats (governors, senators, former presidents) who get to chose who they want to vote for

[Open-Politik]

So whats happening in America has Georgr Bush being voted President AGAIN??

I so hope that dosent happen, hes so full of bullshit.

[winigwl]

He can't run again. You can only be president 2 terms. (Thank goodness)

[Nicko84]

Due to the dwarf :laugh3:

 

Then it's my vote to obama....counted as a half:D!!

[GazeboflossUK]

It's sad to see people buying into the illusion of "choice" and "change" with people like Obama & Clinton.

 

In the realm of public opinion the Republicans are hurt, and bad due to the last 2 G.W Bush terms and the whole Bush-Cheney neo-conservatisim madness. This means that there is always a public shift in the perceived opposite direction. When in truth - both parties have been hi-jacked by neo-facists, neo-cons and by the overall global crime sydicate that is pulling the strings around the world - and the 2 major parties are opperating in a complex, compartmentalised fashion.

 

It's a punch and judy show - literally, there's always someone behind the curtain with their had up the puppets ass.

[Maldini]

Clinton Aims to Push Beyond Ohio and Texas

 

By JACKIE CALMES

March 4, 2008

AUSTIN, Texas -- Hillary Clinton faces the judgment of Texas and Ohio voters today in what she and her backers have declared "must win" contests, following 11 straight losses to Barack Obama. The big question: What constitutes a "win"?

 

If the New York senator gets large majorities of the popular vote in both states, she will clearly keep fighting for the Democratic nomination, at least until the next major primary in Pennsylvania on April 22. If she loses both, she will face tremendous pressure to drop out of the race.

 

The latest polls suggest, however, that the outcome is likely to be muddier than either of those scenarios. The surveys show Sen. Clinton with a solid, even expanding, lead in Ohio. In Texas, two polls released yesterday, show Sen. Obama with a slight lead, while a third puts Sen. Clinton somewhat ahead. Texas's results will be complicated by separate caucuses held after the primary polls close. Sen. Obama is favored to win the caucuses even if he loses the primary.

 

Should the senators split the states' contests -- or if Sen. Clinton wins, but only by narrow margins -- the debate will turn to how to interpret the results. Two smaller states, Rhode Island and Vermont, also vote today. Clinton aides have started to imply that even just one big win today would allow her to claim she had broken Sen. Obama's momentum, justifying a continuing competition.

 

If the outcomes are as close as polls suggest, Sen. Clinton won't be able to cut into Sen. Obama's lead in delegates to the Democrats' August nominating convention. The more likely net result from the four states is that his edge will grow. The Illinois senator currently is ahead with 1,386 delegates to 1,276 for Sen. Clinton, as calculated by the Associated Press. A candidate needs 2,025 to secure the nomination.

 

Meanwhile, Arizona Sen. John McCain is expected to win enough delegates in Texas and Ohio to formally claim the Republican nomination. He needs 177 to secure a majority, or about two-thirds of the 265 delegates at stake today.

 

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe predicted Sen. Clinton would end the day having failed to make up her shortfall in delegates. "There's a lot of smoke screens going on right now and then there's the cold, hard reality of the math," he said yesterday.

 

The Clinton campaign is greatly dialing down expectations from nearly a month ago, when she first declared that big wins in the Ohio and Texas contests would put her on the march to nomination.

 

"We expect on Wednesday the momentum of Sen. Obama will be significantly blunted and new questions will be posed as to whether he is the right candidate for the Democratic Party," said Mark Penn, Sen. Clinton's chief strategist, in a conference call with reporters. "Then this nomination will go straight to the convention."

 

Sen. Clinton, asked yesterday in Toledo how she would measure success today, said, "Winning." Noting the tight races in Ohio and Texas, she added: "Let's wait and actually let people vote before we start commenting on something that hasn't happened yet."

 

Broader Doubts

 

The Clinton campaign has done its best in recent days to raise questions about Sen. Obama's readiness to be commander in chief and his association with Chicago businessman Tony Rezko, who went on trial this week in a fraud case that doesn't involve the senator. In Ohio, Sen. Clinton also has sought to stoke broader doubts about Sen. Obama's trustworthiness by questioning just how strongly he opposes the North American Free Trade Agreement that many in the state blame for widespread job losses.

 

After the two-month grind through primaries and caucuses, party strategists agree that neither Sen. Clinton nor Sen. Obama can reach the majority needed to clinch the nomination solely with pledged delegates. The winning margin will have to come from among 795 superdelegates -- the Democratic members of Congress, governors and party officials nationwide who can support whomever they choose.

 

While Sen. Clinton began with a big edge among superdelegates, Sen. Obama has cut deeply into it in recent weeks as many superdelegates followed the lead of voters in their states.

 

Texas has 193 pledged delegates at stake, while Ohio has 141. Delegate-apportionment rules in both states tend to favor Sen. Obama, meaning he may win more delegates even if he loses the popular vote. The two states give the most delegates to areas that have had high Democratic turnout in recent elections. Those tend to be districts with electorates heavy in young, liberal and African-American voters -- groups that are the base of Sen. Obama's support.

 

Of the two smaller states also voting today, Sen. Clinton is hopeful of winning in Rhode Island, while Sen. Obama is expected to win overwhelmingly in more liberal and less working-class Vermont. His delegate margin there could exceed any margin Sen. Clinton might achieve in the bigger states.

Another advantage for Sen. Obama: Voting in the Democratic primary in both Texas and Ohio is open also to independents and Republicans, who have tended to favor him in earlier contests.

 

Texas not only holds a primary but also caucuses in the evening -- the "Texas two-step," as Sen. Clinton termed it yesterday. One-third of its delegates will be awarded based on the caucus results. Democrats can't participate in Texas's caucuses unless they show proof of having voted in the earlier primary. Sen. Obama, with his energetic young volunteers, has won nearly every caucus to date.

 

Anticipating that Sen. Clinton could win the Texas primary but lose the caucuses, her advisers indicated on the call with reporters yesterday they may revive their past argument that caucuses are less representative than primary elections. For example, they note, people with night jobs can't participate, and Sen. Clinton has shown appeal among working-class voters.

 

Sen. Clinton's campaign plane has been more crowded with reporters in recent days, with many aboard expecting to chronicle her final days. The candidate and her crowds in Ohio and Texas were energetic. Her audiences, however, left empty space in gyms and airport hangars in both states, while Sen. Obama's events continued to draw thousands.

 

At the University of Toledo yesterday morning, the Clinton crowd was less than 1,000. Eight days earlier, Sen. Obama had drawn an estimated 10,000 to a larger field house at the campus, and fire marshals turned away several thousand more.

 

Closing Argument

 

In her closing argument to voters, Sen. Clinton emphasized her preparedness to be commander in chief and a steward of the struggling economy -- with the latter point more prominent in hard-hit Ohio, and the former in Texas. She told voters "to effectively consider this as a hiring decision."

 

She spotlighted endorsements from several admirals and generals, and at each stop repeated the theme of a campaign television ad suggesting she -- not Sen. Obama -- was qualified to respond as president to a 3 a.m. phone call about a threat to the nation. "I don't want anybody in Youngstown taking a leap of faith on me," she said Sunday in that eastern Ohio city.

 

At an event in Akron Sunday, 67-year-old Jeanette Poole said she was undecided, but the 3 a.m. ad "upset me" -- smacking of Republican-style attacks. "I don't like using the fear issue," she said. Still, Mrs. Poole left Sen. Clinton's speech leaning toward voting for her because "she sounded like her experience really would make a difference."

 

The Obama campaign quickly countered with its own ad, using the Clinton ad's own footage, to argue that he would show the better judgment upon getting such an emergency call. The ad cites Sen. Obama's opposition to the war in Iraq.

 

The candidates also stepped up their sparring over Nafta, the 1994 free-trade agreement with Mexico and Canada. Sen. Obama has linked Sen. Clinton to the accord, noting that Bill Clinton completed it as president. As Sen. Clinton's motorcade neared its destination outside Youngstown, a sign greeted her: "Remember the Shafta We Got From Nafta."

 

But Sen. Clinton scored some points over reports, denied by the Obama camp, that Sen. Obama's chief economic adviser had reassured a Canadian official not to worry should the Illinois senator be elected president. Sen. Clinton called it "the old wink-wink, don't pay attention, this is just political rhetoric."

 

In Akron, Rick Ewing, 49, attended the Clinton event there Sunday evening, though he had resolved to vote for Sen. Obama as "the more presidential."

 

His wife, Terry Ewing, 49, remained undecided, even after Sen. Clinton's address. "It's going to come down to something intangible," she said, "like personality."

--Amy Chozick contributed to this article.

[Maldini]

Clinton wins could trump Obama delegate edge

 

03-04) 04:00 PST Washington - -- On the eve of the Democrats' second Super Tuesday, polling is so close in both Texas and Ohio that the Clinton and Obama campaigns are preparing their own spin on what will matter when the nation wakes up Wednesday morning: Will it be math or momentum?

On the math side, it is a certainty that Sen. Barack Obama's lead in pledged delegates, at least 151, according to the Associated Press, after 11 straight victories last month, most of them by wide margins, is so wide that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton cannot catch up with anything less than blowout victories in the 60-40 percent range in both states.

 

On the momentum side, however, if Clinton wins both states, even narrowly, she could blunt Obama's momentum and generate some of her own. Headlines will declare a Clinton victory in two giant states, lifting some of the pressure on her from party leaders to exit the race.

Obama's best chance for a knockout blow is Texas, where polls have given him a slight edge.

 

"Obama, to stop her, really has to win one of the two big states. Then the delegate math does take over," said Tad Devine, a top strategist for the Al Gore and John Kerry presidential campaigns.

 

But if Clinton wins both, she is likely to stay in the race.

 

"Even if the math works in Obama's favor, if he loses two big states, I don't think that's how you win the nomination," Devine said. "You don't win the nomination by losing. You have to win the nomination by winning, or at least splitting ... I think it's going to be incumbent on Obama to win one of those big states if he wants the race to end tomorrow."

 

Seeming to concede that Clinton could win the popular vote in both states, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said the race hinges instead on "the cold hard reality of the math."

 

There are 370 pledged delegates, the kind chosen by voters, at stake Tuesday in Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont. Even if Clinton ekes out victories in all four, she cannot begin to close the delegate gap because delegates are awarded based on vote shares. A close outcome will distribute the delegates nearly evenly in each state.

 

"If we can come out of Tuesday night's contests with a pledged delegate lead still healthy in our favor, and we're able to maintain or even build on it, I think that's going to be a major event in the nomination fight," Plouffe said. A close Clinton victory is "simply not good enough," he said, and will require "more creative math and tortured explanations" to conceive a path to the nomination.

 

For the Clinton campaign, Tuesday's votes are all about momentum: ending Obama's string of huge victories, generating a long-overdue win and allowing her to fight on to the Pennsylvania primary seven weeks away, hoping that Obama implodes in the meantime.

 

That breather would give Clinton time to press the hard-hitting attacks that seek to generate "buyer's remorse" among Obama supporters by undermining Obama's credibility on national security, trade and his relationship with Chicago real estate developer Tony Rezko, whose racketeering trial has begun.

 

"We expect that by Wednesday morning, the momentum of Sen. Obama will be significantly blunted and new questions will be raised about whether he is the right nominee for our party," said top Clinton strategist Mark Penn.

"If we wake up Wednesday and Sen. Clinton wins Ohio and Texas, we have a whole new ballgame here," said Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson.

 

Clinton has watched her double-digit leads in both states vanish over the last two weeks, but her campaign said internal polling shows votes breaking her way. She would add two more big-state victories to her ledger, along with California, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts.

 

Ohio is critical in general elections, narrowly swinging for President Bush 2004.

 

A Clinton win might persuade some super delegates - the elected and party officials who make up 20 percent of the 2,025 delegates needed to win the nomination - to stop jumping from Clinton's ship and allow her to continue the race.

 

By the same token, Clinton will be out of the race if she loses both Ohio and Texas and will find it all but impossible to continue if she loses one. The candidates are likely to split the two smaller states, as Clinton is ahead in Rhode Island and Obama in Vermont.

 

Garry South, a veteran Democratic strategist who once worked for California Gov. Gray Davis, said he voted for Clinton and feels bad for her but that Obama's advantage even now is overwhelming.

 

"The fact is, Barack Obama has been winning (earlier) states, not barely, but 2 to 1, 3 to 1," said South. "If she turns around and wins a close victory in Texas and Ohio, that doesn't change the momentum of the race" or flip Clinton's delegate count, in which South said she is "getting killed" by proportional delegate allocation.

 

"Look, I'm a world class spinner myself," South said. "I've had to spin myself in and out of all kinds of campaign situations over my 36 years in this business, but there comes a point where you can't spin away the facts."

Even if Clinton wins Texas and Ohio, however, she faces a tough calendar strikingly similar to the one she confronted after tying Obama on Super Tuesday Feb 5.

 

 

This time the wait for another big primary is even longer: seven weeks, not four, until Pennsylvania, with its 158 delegates and blue-collar base, where Clinton holds a large but declining lead. In between is a Wyoming caucus Saturday, exactly the kind of red-state, rally-style contest where Obama has a proven advantage. A week after tomorrow comes Mississippi, whose large African American population looks to be in Obama's pocket.

 

Though after Tuesday, there are still 611 delegates up for grabs in the remaining contests that end in June in Puerto Rico, many Democrats are eager for the rivalry to end so they can begin focusing on likely Republican nominee John McCain. Others worry that the sharply escalating negative attacks provide fodder for Republicans, who for now can sit back and let Democrats attack each other.

 

Some top superdelegates have begun to call for the race to end. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Sunday that whoever is ahead in pledged delegates after Tuesday should be the nominee. Neither candidate can win the Democratic nomination on pledged delegates alone, thanks to the proportional allocation of delegates.

 

"Some superdelegates might see (wins by Clinton today) as persuasive enough to take the pressure off of her to drop out," said Bruce Buchanan, a political scientist at the University of Texas in Austin. "They might then say, 'Go ahead and go through Pennsylvania, we won't gang up on you and attempt to get you to quit,' as was happening over the last week."

 

Clinton's negative attacks, and Obama's aggressive responses, have escalated in the last few days, but experts say they do not feel they have crossed the line to be damaging to either candidate.

 

If anything, they may be toughening Obama, who has enjoyed positive press coverage and comparatively little scrutiny.

 

"These are charges that certainly would come out in a general election against either of these two candidates," South said. "And they better damn well be prepared to deal with them in the fall. One of the ways you do that is by having to fend off these kinds of charges during the primary election campaign."

 

John Gilliom, a political scientist at Ohio University, said the candidates are still in a healthy process of "checking for glass jaws." Voters "want to know what Sen. Obama's answers are on the various questions she's been asking," he said. "They're going to be asked in a lot tougher way later on."

[Maldini]

Clinton Wins Ohio, Texas; McCain Clinches Republican Nomination

 

By Cindy Saine

Washington

05 March 2008

 

Senator Hillary Clinton scored crucial primary wins Tuesday in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island, reviving her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. But her opponent, Senator Barack Obama, has more pledged delegates and says he still expects to be the nominee. Republican Senator John McCain clinched his party's nomination. VOA Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from Washington.

 

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton acknowledges supporters during Columbus, Ohio rally 04 mar 2008

 

As the dust settles from Tuesday's Democratic primaries, the party faces the reality of a long and likely contentious battle for its presidential nomination.

 

Senator Hillary Clinton's wins extend the race until Pennsylvania's primary in late April and possibly all the way to the nominating convention in late August.

 

Clinton ended her losing streak of 12 straight defeats in caucuses and primaries to Senator Barack Obama, and told voters Tuesday in Ohio their state is known for picking presidential winners.

 

 

"This nation is coming back and so is this campaign," she said.

Senator Obama had hoped to deliver Senator Clinton a knock-out blow by winning Ohio and Texas, but he came away with only a win in Vermont.

 

Texas has both a primary and a caucus. Clinton narrowly won the primary, but caucus results are still being counted. They will determine the number of delegates each candidate wins.

 

Senator Barack Obama speaks during rally San Antonio Texas, 04 Mar 2008

 

Obama has a lead of about 90 pledged delegates. He told told the CBS News Early Show that he has won more states, more of the popular vote and more delegates.

 

"Senator Clinton has tried to cherry pick which states she thinks are important," he said. " But what we know is at the end of the day, we feel confident that we are going to have a strong delegate lead and we will have a strong claim on the nomination."

 

 

Asked on the same morning television show whether she and Obama might join forces as the presidential and vice presidential candidates on the same ticket in November, Clinton replied: "Of course we have to decide who is on the top of the ticket."

 

The next nominating contests are in Wyoming this Saturday and in Mississippi on Tuesday.

 

Senator John McCain, wife Cindy react to news he has won enough delegates to be named Republican presidential nominee in Dallas, Texas, 04 Mar 2008

 

It was a night of quiet triumph for Republican Senator John McCain, whose campaign had been prematurely declared "finished" months ago. Speaking in Texas, McCain thanked his supporters.

 

"Thank you Texas, Ohio, Vermont, and Rhode Island," he said.

 

His main remaining rival, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, bowed out of the race, pledging support for McCain.

 

The senator from Arizona, considered a maverick by some conservative Republicans, will shortly receive a formal endorsement from President Bush at the White House.

 

McCain told his supporters Tuesday the contest for the White House in November has now begun, and that he will present himself as the candidate best able to keep America safe from terror attacks.

[Maldini]

Reuters Politics Summary

Obama wins Democratic contest in Wyoming

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama beat rival Hillary Clinton in Wyoming's nominating contest on Saturday, bouncing back from a string of losses that gave Clinton new life in their hotly contested presidential battle. Obama's victory in the nominating caucus in sparsely populated Wyoming slowed Clinton's momentum after she won three of four contests on Tuesday in their tight duel for the right to face Republican John McCain in November's presidential election.

 

 

Democrats take high-profile Republican district

 

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A Democrat captured on Saturday an Illinois U.S. House of Representatives seat that had been a Republican stronghold, in a symbolic blow to President George W. Bush's party ahead of November elections. Returns showed physicist and businessman Bill Foster beating dairy owner Jim Oberweis by 52 percent to 48 percent of the vote in the district that had been held by former House Speaker Dennis Hastert for more than two decades.

 

Obama aide quits over Clinton "monster" comment

 

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A foreign policy adviser to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama resigned on Friday after calling campaign rival Hillary Clinton a "monster" during an interview with a British newspaper. Samantha Power, a foreign policy aide on the Illinois senator's White House campaign, said the comments were inexcusable. They were published on Friday by The Scotsman newspaper.

 

 

Wyoming, land of firsts for women, tough on Clinton

 

CHEYENNE, Wyoming (Reuters) - With a long history of firsts in women's rights, Wyoming would seem to be a state primed to put its stamp on the presidential aims of Sen. Hillary Clinton, but experts say that doesn't seem likely. They are predicting the western state of just 59,000 registered Democrats will back Clinton's rival, Sen. Barack Obama, in Saturday's presidential nominating caucuses. It has backed Republicans in the past 10 presidential elections.

[Nicko84]

paolo maldini, for who will you vote:D?

[Maldini]

paolo maldini, for who will you vote:D?

 

I'm Egyption as you know so I can't vote, I just owning a hope and this hope just wiped when Ron Paul get out from the presidential race. I considered him a real hope for Middle East.

[Maldini]

McCain to visit Israel next week

 

Hoping to garner support among Jewish voters, Republican presidential candidate to arrive in Israel on March 18, meet with Olmert, Livni and Barak

Yitzhak Benhorin Published: 03.09.08, 07:33 / Israel News

 

WASHINGTON – Republican presidential candidate John McCain will arrive in Israel on March 18 as part of a delegation of senators visiting the region.

 

 

The schedule for the trip has not been released yet, but it is expected to be a brief, one-day visit during which McCain will meet with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

 

According to US sources, the trip is aimed at boosting support for McCain among Jewish voters in the US.

 

McCain has already declared that he plans to attend Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations this year. The republican candidate is considered a staunch supporter of Israel, and his visit to the country is expected to further boost his pro-Israeli image.

 

McCain visited Israel about six months ago, but at the time his prospects for winning the republican race seemed less than promising. While in Israel, he met with Olmert and Livni.

 

Roni Sofer and Itamar Eichner contributed to the report

[Maldini]

Obama Wins Mississippi Democratic Race

 

By JERRY ESTILL – 1 hour ago

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — With a six-week breather before the next primary, Hillary Rodham Clinton turned her attention to Pennsylvania and beyond to counter the latest in a string of victories by Barack Obama in Southern states with large black voting blocs.

 

Obama won roughly 90 percent of the black vote in Mississippi on Tuesday, but only about one-quarter of the white vote. That was similar to the breakdown that helped him win South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana before losing to Clinton in Texas and Ohio, which has similar voter demographics to neighboring Pennsylvania.

 

"We have now basically recovered whatever delegates we may have lost in Texas and Ohio, and we have a substantial lead," Obama said Wednesday morning during a round of television network interviews.

 

Maggie Williams, Clinton's campaign manager, congratulated Obama on his victory in a written statement.

 

"Now we look forward to campaigning in Pennsylvania and around the country," Williams said.

 

Obama, in claiming his victory in Mississippi, said he expects to be the Democratic nominee and "the party is going to be unified."

 

Clinton was attending a presidential forum in Washington on Wednesday. Obama planned to be in his hometown of Chicago.

 

With 99 percent of the vote counted, Obama had 61 percent to 37 percent for Clinton.

 

Republican Sen. John McCain, who has already won enough delegates to claim the GOP nomination, rolled up 79 percent of the vote in Mississippi.

 

Obama picked up at least 17 of Mississippi's 33 delegates to the Democratic National Convention, with five more to be awarded. He hoped for a win sizable enough to erase most if not all of Clinton's 11-delegate gain from last week, when she won three primaries.

 

The Illinois senator had 1,596 delegates to 1,484 for Clinton. It takes 2,025 to win the nomination. With neither appearing able to win enough delegates through primaries and caucuses to claim the nomination, the importance of nearly 800 elected officials and party leaders who will attend the national convention as unelected superdelegates is increasing.

 

Obama leads Clinton among pledged delegates, 1,385-1,237 in The Associated Press count, while the former first lady has an advantage among superdelegates, 247-211.

 

Blacks, who also supported Obama in overwhelming numbers in earlier primaries, accounted for roughly half the ballots cast in Mississippi, according to interviews with voters leaving polling places. About one in six Democratic primary voters were independents, and Clinton and Obama split their support.

 

Another 10 percent of voters were Republican, and they preferred Clinton by a margin of 3-1.

 

Exit polls showed blacks accounted for a majority of the ballots in all but Louisiana, where they represented a plurality. Obama's share of the black vote in those states ranged from 78 percent in South Carolina to 88 percent in Georgia, while Clinton won the white vote with ease.

 

Other than Pennsylvania, the remaining primaries are in Indiana, North Carolina, West Virginia, Kentucky, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Montana and South Dakota.

[Matter-Eater Lad]

I'm Egyption as you know so I can't vote, I just owning a hope and this hope just wiped when Ron Paul get out from the presidential race. I considered him a real hope for Middle East.

 

We agree on something...wow

[Maldini]

Obama picks up 14 more delegates

 

by James Oliphant

 

Sen. Barack Obama picked up 14 new delegates yesterday, widening his lead over Sen. Hillary Clinton even as the Clinton campaign maintained the race was in a dead heat.

 

Obama grabbed nine delegates in Iowa as the majority of John Edwards' delegates were awarded to him. And late Saturday night, he added five delegates in California. According to the Associated Press, Obama now enjoys a 119-delegate advantage over Clinton.

 

The delegate count was a central focus of Sunday's "Meet the Press" on NBC. The news program featured Rep. Nita Lowey, a Clinton supporter, and former Sen. Bill Bradley, who backs Obama.

 

Lowey focused on a core Clinton argument, that because Clinton has won more key states, she is more electable than Obama.

 

 

"Now, you and I know that no one, since 1960, has won the presidency without winning Iowa. We know you have to win Iowa, we have to win Pennsylvania, you have to win Florida. There are key states that are critical to getting the number of votes in the electoral college," Lowey said. "And I think right now, frankly, it's a tie, and I would hope . . . that between now and the time we go to the convention, we can have a really constructive discussion [about the issues]."

 

Bradley countered that if Obama has the most delegates at the time of the convention, he should be the nominee.

 

"Barack Obama has more delegates, more votes, he's won more states. Last night in Iowa he won 10 more votes. If you take what happened in Mississippi and Wyoming, he won more net delegates in those two races than Senator Clinton did in Ohio and Texas combined," Bradley said. "So I clearly think that we're heading into a period where, certainly, after last night, she's got to win more than 60 percent of all the remaining -- all the remaining states."

 

The contentious subject of what to do about Florida and Michigan came up.

 

Not surprisingly, Bradley echoed the position of the Obama camp, saying, in effect that because the Democratic party in those states broke the rules, they shouldn't be seated. Or if they are, the delegates should be split 50-50.

 

Moderator Tim Russert quoted Clinton saying in October about Michigan: "You know, it's clear, this election they are having in Michigan is not going to count for anything."

 

Last week, Clinton said she believed the results in Michigan should indeed count.

 

Lowey responded to Russert by saying that if Democrats had any hope of winning the general election, voters in Michigan and Florida should not be disenfranchised.

[Maldini]

Analysis: Obama goes beyond generalities on race

 

Posted by James F. Smith March 18, 2008 03:08 PM

 

By Peter S. Canellos, Globe Staff

 

PHILADELPHIA -- After a year of speaking of racial reconciliation in mostly hopeful, uplifting terms, Barack Obama today offered a fuller, deeper, and more personal testament to the nation's tormented racial history and how to begin to overcome it.

 

The speech had greater weight and specificity than his usual stump speech, and made fewer promises as it wrestled with the legacy of his former pastor and his inflammatory rhetoric. It suggested that an Obama administration would be a time of grappling with difficult and sometimes unpleasant issues rather than conjuring great visions.

 

For some voters, the speech might serve to remove the glow of optimism surrounding Obama's candidacy; but for many others, it could make him a more realistic president.

 

Like Mitt Romney's address on his Mormon faith last year, Obama's speech was delivered in a presidential setting -- in the very shadow of Independence Hall -- and invoked common values and historic truths; it showcased Obama more as a national teacher, a role that particularly flatters him, rather than simply an eloquent speaker.

 

As such, it added gravitas to a candidacy that some have found superficial; and it also served to quell the controversy-of-the-moment over Obama's long association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the pastor whose statements Obama condemned in no uncertain terms while offering a reasonable explanation for why he's sticking by his church and its former minister.

 

"I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community," said Obama. "I can no more disown him than I can disown my white grandmother."

 

Starting with a reference to slavery as the country's original sin, Obama aimed for a Lincolnesque tone. Lincoln is frequently cited as a model of presidential leadership and invoked as a figure of reconciliation. But few have tried to capture Lincoln's almost mournful tone of parsing painful issues, piece by piece, in reference to timeless principles -- speeches that were meant to be printed and passed around rather than delivered on the stump and posted on YouTube.

 

"For the African-American community, that path [to a more perfect union] means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past," Obama said. "It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances – for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans. . .

 

``In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed.''

 

Obama provided a coda that tied this ongoing struggle to his politics of hope -- suggesting that the benefit of all this hard work will take the form of unified action on priorities such as health care and housing that challenge all Americans.

 

But this speech will be remembered as the moment that Obama got a little more down and dirty, and grounded his candidacy in serious mechanics of governance. He tried to take apart the engine and get some grease on his hands rather than just pat the hood.

 

This wasn't the gauzy vision of diversity draped in tapestry metaphors and colored in rainbow hues: It was a nation confronting its sins and overcoming its deeply held fears and prejudices.

 

"We have a choice in this country . . .," Obama said. "We can tackle race only as spectacle – as we did in the OJ trial – or in the wake of tragedy . . . We can play Reverend Wright’s sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she’s playing the race card . . .Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, “Not this time."

 

For perhaps the first time in the 2008 campaign, Obama presented a big problem as something to be confronted by average people -- the aggrieved white worker, the black person fuming about injustice -- who are part of his own political constituency. There was no corporation or lobbyist or rival politician in the picture.

 

The question -- for Obama, as well as his legions of hopeful supporters -- is whether those average Americans will give him the answer he wants.

[Maldini]

Clinton says Obama blocking re-vote in Michigan

 

Posted by Foon Rhee, deputy national political editor March 19, 2008 11:29 AM

 

As Hillary Clinton holds a rally in Michigan this morning to press for a do-over nomination contest, the Democratic National Committee's rules committee has issued an opinion that the working plan could pass muster.

 

"Our review of this legislation indicates that it would, in fact, fit within the framework of the Rules if, it were, passed by the state legislature and used by the Michigan State Democratic Party as the basis of drafting a formal Delegate Selection Plan," the memo says.

 

But Barack Obama's campaign issued a memo of its own this morning that lays out all the problems with a re-vote.

 

The proposal in play for a June 3 primary would unconstitutionally disqualify voters who cast ballots in the Republican primary in January, which unlike the

Democratic primary, officially counted.

 

The plan would never win approval in time from the Justice Department under the Voting Rights Act, the memo says. There's no way an election can be fairly and adequately prepared in time.

 

And the idea that private donors, or the campaigns themselves, would pay for the primary could be legally problematic. "It is therefore well within the realm of possibility that such a case will be made, subjecting the party and its candidates to potential liability," the memo says.

 

The Clinton campaign is accusing Obama of being the lone roadblock to a re-vote. "On February 8, 2008, Barack Obama stood in the aisle of his airplane and told reporters that he would be 'fine' with a new primary in Michigan if it could be done in a way that gave him and Senator Clinton time to make their respective cases and the DNC signed off. Since then, such a plan has garnered broad support from top Michigan lawmakers and the DNC has given its blessing," the Clinton camp said in a memo. "So Barack Obama is on board, right? Guess again. It turns out that his comments about being fine with a re-vote if the above conditions were met were just words."

 

Clinton won the Michigan primary, but Obama's name wasn't on the ballot because Democrats had agreed not to campaign in the state after the DNC penalized the state party for holding the primary earlier than allowed. The DNC also punished Florida, which Clinton also won, for the same reason.

 

Clinton badly needs the delegates from Florida and Michigan to have any hope of catching Obama in the delegate count.

 

UPDATE: At the Detroit rally, Clinton said millions of Democrats would be disenfranchised if the two states' delegates aren't seated.

 

"I think that's wrong and frankly un-American," she said. "We can't let that continue. Every voice should have the chance to be heard, and every vote counted."

 

Clinton sought to compare the dispute to the fight for voting rights during the 1960s. She said one reason that Democrats will have a historic nominee -- either the first woman or the first African-American -- is because that struggle was successful.

[Maldini]

McCain's Holy Land Pilgrimage

 

By TIM MCGIRK/JERUSALEM

 

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain visits the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem's Old City, March 19, 2008.

 

Ronen Zvulun / Reuters

 

John McCain, the Arizona Senator and Republican Presidential hopeful, was doing his best to look statesmanlike during a tour of Jerusalem's Western Wall, but it wasn't easy. As McCain approached Judaism's holiest site, a Rabbi in a Moses-like beard, all draped in flowing white robes — a publicity-seeker posing as soothsayer — called out: "Ladies and Gentlemen, John McCain, the next President of the United States." Meanwhile, a cheeky kid had wormed his way into the media mob, held up his camera-cellphone to McCain and yelled: "Say cheese."

On his way out, weaving past Japanese tourists having their photos snapped with Israeli soldier girls, McCain was accosted by a gaunt, Jewish ex-settler, one of 7,000 removed from Gaza in 2005, who pleaded with the Senator for money since he wasn't getting any from the Israeli government. He was quickly pushed away by McCain's American and Israeli security guards.

Israel is just one stop on the future Republican candidate's tour as part of the Senate Armed Services Committee. After Israel, where he met with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert — and to the chagrin of the Palestinians, only spoke on the telephone to President Mahmoud Abbas — he flies on to the United Kingdom and France.

But a stopover in Israel suits McCain politically. His pro-Israel stance, which he has long maintained, is bound to help his electoral prospects back home with American Jews and, more crucially, with Evangelical Christians who are a large part of the Republican party base, and who, until now, have regarded the twice-married McCain as too liberal and hard to pigeonhole. A recent Pew Poll says that 65% of Evangelicals believe that the state of Israeli fulfills a biblical prophecy about Jesus' Second Coming.

When it comes to voting, these right-wing Christians will probably cast their ballot depending on other factors — a candidate's views on the failing economy or the Iraq war — but McCain's support of Israel may tip the balanced in his favor. Recently, McCain sought and obtained a controversial endorsement from Texas televangelist, Pastor John Hagee, a key figure in the Christian Zionist movement backing Israel and its expansion of settlements in Palestinian territories. Hagee is instrumental in drumming up funds and political support in Washington for Israel.

McCain pleased his Israeli hosts by pledging support, if elected President, to help Israel in its struggle against Islamic militants Hamas and Hizballah and Iran. "If Hamas and Hizballah succeed here, they are going to succeed everywhere," McCain told reporters after meeting with Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni. "They are dedicated to the extinction of everything that the U.S., Israel and the West believe and stand for." He also met President Shimon Peres and was supposed to tour Sderot, a southern Israeli town often targeted by rockets from Gaza militants.

Accompanied by two other members of the Senate Armed Services Committee — Independent Senator Joe Lieberman from Connecticut (a possible McCain V.P. candidate), and Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina — McCain visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum on Tuesday where he wrote in the guestbook: "I am deeply moved. Never again."

Many right-wing Israelis see Iran as posing an existential threat to the Jewish state, and they embrace McCain's hawkish "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" stance. But as Yossi Beilin, a leftwing politician, told reporters: "A real friend [of Israel] is someone who will make an effort to bring an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The question is if McCain is that guy."

[Nicko84]

I'm Egyption as you know so I can't vote, I just owning a hope and this hope just wiped when Ron Paul get out from the presidential race. I considered him a real hope for Middle East.

 

my friend also said Ron Paul was the best for US, but has been boycotted by lobbies and strong powers.....Which kind of policy would have done for Middle East?

[Maldini]

my friend also said Ron Paul was the best for US, but has been boycotted by lobbies and strong powers.....Which kind of policy would have done for Middle East?

 

 

The policy of justice Nicko.

[Nicko84]

oh ok...that's enough i think...;)

what's your name....btw.....i don't remember:confused: it!!!!!

[Maldini]

oh ok...that's enough i think...;)

what's your name....btw.....i don't remember:confused: it!!!!!

 

Good, the justice is the core of the right

My name is Samir

[Maldini]

Richardson backs Obama

By: Matthew Bigg

Fri Mar 21, 2008 7:14 PM EDT

 

 

PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) - Sen. Barack Obama won a coveted endorsement from New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson on Friday while the State Department apologized that employees snooped into the Illinois Democrat's passport files and those of his two main White House rivals.

 

The backing from the Hispanic governor is a victory for Obama and could improve his chances of winning over Latino voters who have leaned toward New York Sen. Hillary Clinton.

 

A Clinton adviser dismissed the endorsement as not significant at this stage in the race.

 

Obama and Clinton are in a heated battle to represent the Democrats against the presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, in the November 4 presidential election to succeed President George W. Bush.

 

In an embarrassment to the Bush administration, the State Department on Friday revealed that the passport records of all three major candidates had been improperly viewed by three contract employees and by a regular department staffer.

 

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Obama, Clinton and McCain to apologize and the State Department said it was conducting an investigation and would look at how to tighten its systems to prevent such privacy violations.

 

"It is deeply disturbing, what's happened," Obama told a news conference.

 

"When you have not just one but a series of attempts to tap into people's personal records, that's a problem not just for me but for our health in this country and so I expect a full and thorough investigation."

 

Clinton, who was spending the Easter holiday at home off the campaign trail, said in a statement she would follow the probe closely.

 

The incident revived memories of the political firestorm that erupted in 1992 after State Department officials searched former President Bill Clinton's passport and citizenship files when he was a Democratic presidential candidate.

 

HELPING WITH HISPANICS?

 

Richardson, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and energy secretary during the Clinton administration, chose to abandon the former president and his wife, saying it was time for a new generation to lead.

 

"Your candidacy is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our nation and you are a once-in-a-lifetime leader," Richardson said as he stood next to Obama in Oregon.

 

Clinton and Obama had cultivated Richardson's backing in part because the Hispanic politician could garner support among the Hispanic community, the fastest-growing segment of the electorate and a potentially vital voting bloc.

 

Richardson praised a speech Obama gave on race earlier this week and said it touched him as a Hispanic. "This is a man who understands us and who will respect us," he said in Spanish.

 

Hispanics largely backed Clinton in nominating contests on "Super Tuesday," with polls showing her winning two-thirds of the Latino vote in several states, and it was unclear whether they might shift to Obama because of Richardson's endorsement.

 

Clinton's chief strategist, Mark Penn, on a conference call with reporters, dismissed Richardson's potential impact this far into the race. "I think that, you know, perhaps the time when he could have been most effective has long since passed," he said.

 

"We both have our endorsers, but I don't think that it is a significant endorsement in this environment."

 

While saying his "great affection and admiration for Senator Clinton and President Clinton will never waver," Richardson, 60, added: "It is now time for a new generation of leadership to lead America forward."

 

A skilled negotiator and diplomat, the popular governor has been mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate or secretary of state in a Democratic administration.

 

He also is a superdelegate who would have a vote in the nominating contest if neither Obama nor Clinton win enough delegates during the primaries.

 

Obama leads Clinton in the state-by-state contest to amass delegates who will formally select the Democrat to face Republican McCain.

 

The Arizona senator, who pulled ahead of both Obama and Clinton in some national polls this week, was finishing up an overseas trip with a Congressional delegation that visited Iraq, Israel, Jordan, France and Britain.

 

(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed; writing by Arshad Mohammed and Jeff Mason; editing by Sandra Maler)

[Maldini]

Passport Files of 3 Candidates Breached, Officials Say

By HELENE COOPER and MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM

Published: March 21, 2008

 

WASHINGTON — The State Department said on Friday that it was investigating several incidents in which the passport files of all three presidential contenders were improperly accessed by employees.

 

The breaches involved electronic files that contained personal information about Senators Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain. A State Department spokesman declined to say what was in those files, but he said they were likely to contain biographical information and passport applications.

 

Mr. Obama’s passport file was breached on three separate occasions earlier this year and as recently as last week, by three employees working for independent contractors who did not have authorization to access the information. The breaches occurred on Jan. 9, Feb. 21, and March 14, according to The Associated Press.

 

The State Department’s computer system had flagged each incident, but senior department officials were not informed until they looked into the matter, after receiving inquiries from a reporter on Thursday, a department spokesman said. “That information didn’t rise up to senior management levels,” the spokesman, Sean McCormack, said at a Friday news conference. “That should have happened.”

 

Two of the employees were fired, Mr. McCormack said. The Associated Press reported that they had worked for Stanley, Inc., a company that provides administrative support and services to government groups and is based in Arlington, Va. Stanley signed a five-year, $570 million contract with the State Department earlier this week to work on the department’s passport database.

 

The third employee also accessed Mr. McCain’s file, but was only reprimanded and remains employed.

 

Mr. McCormack speculated that “imprudent curiosity” had motivated the employees’ actions. “That is our initial take on the matter,” Mr. McCormack said in a hastily arranged conference call on Thursday night, after The Washington Times published a report about the incident involving Mr. Obama.

 

“We are not being dismissive of any other possibility,” Mr. McCormack quickly added. But at Friday’s news conference, he appeared to take umbrage at the suggestion that the breach was an instance of political foul play.

 

One reporter, Lambros Papantoniou of the Greek daily newspaper Eleftheros Typos, asked a question and noted in passing that “the whole story looks like a new Watergate scandal.”

 

Mr. McCormack interrupted. “You know what? You know what? That is so outrageous,” he said. “You just lost your privilege.” Mr. McCormack refused to acknowledge the reporter for the remainder of the news conference.

 

So far in their investigation, State Department officials have not found additional breaches of files belonging to the presidential candidates who are no longer running. “If they come across any other incidents, of course, they are going to report those,” Mr. McCormack said.

 

Mrs. Clinton’s passport file was breached last summer during a training session for State Department employees. A trainee was encouraged to enter a family member’s name into the passport database for training purposes, Mr. McCormack said. Instead, the trainee entered Mrs. Clinton’s name. Mr. McCormack said the trainee was promptly admonished.

 

Earlier on Friday, before the breaches of the files of Mrs. Clinton and Mr.

McCain were disclosed, Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, said she personally apologized to Mr. Obama. “I told him that I was sorry and I told him that I myself would be very disturbed if I learned that somebody had looked into my passport file,” she said.

 

Mr. McCormack, the spokesman, said that Ms. Rice also apologized to Mrs. Clinton, and was planning to speak to Mr. McCain later in the day.

 

In a statement issued by his campaign, Mr. McCain called on the government to respect its citizens’ privacy. “It appears that privacy was breached, and I expect a thorough review and a change in procedures as necessary to ensure the privacy of all passport files,” he said.

 

Mr. Obama, speaking to reporters in Oregon on Friday, said he appreciated Ms. Rice’s apology. But he called for the passport situation “to be investigated diligently and openly,” preferably by a Congressional committee “so that it is not simply an internal matter.”

 

“One of the things that the American people count on in their interactions with any level of government is that if they have to disclose personal information, that is going to stay personal and stay private,” Mr. Obama said. “And when you have not just one, but a series of attempts to tap into people’s personal records, that’s a problem, not just for me, but for how our government is functioning.”

 

Howard L. Berman, a California Democrat who is the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, issued a statement on Friday that his committee would also look into the breaches.

 

Mr. Berman compared the incidents to a similar breach in 1992 involving a State Department file on then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton, which occurred amid rumors that Mr. Clinton had tried to renounce his citizenship to avoid the draft while he was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford during the Vietnam War.

 

The 1992 incident, Mr. Berman said, “also was characterized as isolated and nonpolitical when the news initially emerged. This time, as then, Congress will pay close attention to the depth of executive branch involvement in the rifling of presidential candidates’ passport files.”

[winigwl]

anyone see any of obama's speech the other day? what did you think?

 

i, as an obama supporter yet concerned jew was left a bit unimpressed. I don't feel he gave a definitive answer of why hes stayed by wright.