click on each candidate to see today's news stories (caricatures by Linda Eddy)

Thursday, Feb. 7, 2008

Romney quits race, eyes 2012

The presidential race Mitt Romney planned for years crashed to a halt Thursday, stopped in its tracks by the surprisingly durable John McCain campaign and by Romney's failure to quell concerns about his shifts on key issues, his political persona and his Mormon religion.

Making the dramatic announcement at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference at a Washington hotel, Romney clearly hoped to preserve the goodwill of his party for another possible bid in 2012. He intends to run again in four years, according to a senior member of his inner circle.

"He should be president. 2012," the confidant e-mailed after talking to Romney.

"The idea that we can afford to have a big fight at the convention and then win the race in the next eight weeks, I think, is not a good scenario," Dean said according to excerpts of an interview with NY1 television.

... "I think we will have a nominee sometime in the middle of March or April. But if we don't, then we're going to have to get the candidates together and make some kind of an arrangement," said Dean, "Because I don't think we can afford to have a brokered convention -- that would not be good news for either party."

Call for Florida, Michigan go-overs

Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean is pushing Florida and Michigan to hold new elections so their delegates can get seated at the national party convention - an act that would snatch two disputed victories from Hillary Rodham Clinton

John McCain... today's headlines with excerpts

McCain to conservative critics: 'Just calm down'

Republican presidential front-runner John McCain yesterday urged his right-wing critics to "calm down" as he tried to persuade wary conservative activists to back his candidacy.

"I do hope that at some point we would just calm down a little bit and see if there are areas that we can agree on for the good of the party and for the good of the country," said McCain, referring to radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh, following his coast-to-coast Super Tuesday victories.

McCain seeks truce with ring wing critics

The effort to win over, or at least blunt the opposition, of talk-radio hosts and other movement figures who resent McCain’s maverick style and past departures from conservative orthodoxy involves both high-level surrogates and the candidate himself.

Its targets include the most influential talk-radio voice, Rush Limbaugh, who has been contacted in recent days by a McCain emissary, according to Republican sources.

The McCain campaign is also wooing Sean Hannity. At least two top McCain supporters, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), made the pitch to Hannity, who has a radio show in addition to co-hosting his nightly Fox News television program.

see also: McCain gets his party's cold shoulder

              McCain hasn't reach end of rocky road

              McCain needs to woo the right

              McCain bids to blunt conservative 'animosity'

Politico's Roger Simon: McCain crowned, now what?

He is certainly the undisputed Republican front-runner. But how does he spend the crucial weeks and months ahead?

Does he try to win over Republican conservatives who still distrust him in order to build a strong foundation within his own party?

Or does he make overtures to moderate and independent voters, those people who might be the margin of victory in November against the Democratic nominee?

see also: Does McCain have the Right Stuff? [TIME]

Sen. Brownback courting right for McCain

After quietly bowing out of the presidential race last fall, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) launched an aggressive effort to court socially conservative leaders who have expressed skepticism about the candidacy of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Brownback is heading McCain’s outreach to Catholic voters and is also one of McCain’s chief advisers on judicial nominations, helping to organize meetings between the candidate and national social conservative leaders. Brownback has met with Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, and Father Frank Pavone, a leader in the anti-abortion rights movement, to enlist their support. 

On Thursday, Brownback will attend Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual convention of conservative activists in Washington, to tout McCain. He will then travel home to persuade voters to support McCain in the Kansas caucus scheduled for Saturday.

McCain misses vote on economic stimulus in senate

John McCain skipped a difficult Senate vote Wednesday on whether to make 20 million seniors and 250,000 disabled veterans eligible for rebate checks as part of a proposed economic stimulus package.

 

Ron Paul... today's headlines with excerpts

Ron Paul to stay in race despite poor showing on Tuesday

Ron Paul did not have a stellar showing on Super Tuesday. But it was good enough for him to stay in the race.

In most states with primaries where Republican voters voted for their Republican nominee preference, he got no more than 5 or six percent of the vote. He runs a distant fourth in the all-important delegate count.

Hillary Clinton... today's headlines with excerpts

Hillary loans campaign $5 million

Hillary Clinton personally lent her cash-strapped campaign $5 million late last month, and some top staffers are now going without pay, officials acknowledged yesterday.

The moves were revealed as Clinton and Barack Obama hunkered down for a war of attrition for the Democratic nomination after Super Tuesday failed to crown a winner. And a series of contests in the coming weeks seem likely to favor the Illinois senator.

"My opponent was able to raise more money, and we intended to be competitive and we were. I think the results last night proved the wisdom of my investment," Clinton told re porters yesterday, after spokesman Howard Wolfson confirmed the loan.

[from Politico.com] Five reasons Hillary should be worried

1. She lost the delegate derby

2. She essentially tied Obama in the popular vote

3. She lost more states

4. She lost the January cash war

5. The calendar is her enemy

Michael Moore weighs in: morality prohibits vote for Hillary

Michael Moore on Larry King the day after Super Tuesday 2000: "I am morally prohibited from voting for Hillary in the primaries because of her war votes, I mean that not as a personal attack against her, but I simply can't side with somebody who participated, whether willingly or unknowingly, as she claims, in something that has been so evil."

Overlooked Asian voters boost Hillary

Asian Americans, whose voting power has been much less scrutinized than of African-American and Hispanic voters, were a significant factor in Sen. Hillary Clinton’s victory in Tuesday’s California Democratic primary.

Asian American voters made up 8 percent of the Democratic vote in the Golden State and supported Clinton by a 3-1 margin. They are now poised to be a factor in upcoming contests as the battle between Clinton and Barack Obama continues.