IOWA
PRESIDENTIAL WATCH
Iowa...
Where Presidents Begin
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on each candidate to see today's news stories
(caricatures by
Linda Eddy)
Friday, March 7, 2008
GENERAL NEWS HEADLINES with excerpts
There are now more McCainocrats than Obamacans — about 14 percent of
Democrats say they would vote for Mr. McCain today instead of Mr.
Obama, but just 8 percent of Republicans say they would vote for the
Illinois Democrat, according to a Pew Research Center survey on Feb.
28.
DNC Chair Dean urges do-over in Florida,
Michigan
"All they have to do is come before us with rules that fit into what
they agreed to a year and a half ago, and then they'll be seated,"
Dean said Thursday during interviews on network and cable TV news
programs.
Dean said the parties will have to find the money to pay for new
contests.
Party donations show GOP edge
The Democratic National Committee ended 2007 nearly flat broke, with
cash of $2.9 million and debts of $2.2 million. Since then it has
raised some money, paid down debt and managed to put $3.7 million in
its piggy bank. This compares, however, with $25 million that the
Republican National Committee has in cash on hand, after having raised
$97 million since the beginning of 2007.
RNC snaps up domain names
The day after Barack Obama won the Iowa caucuses, the R.N.C. snapped
up at least 20 domains related to his candidacy. Some of them may
signal the party’s future strategy: baracknotready.com and
norealexperience.com. The party has also begun preemptively
registering domains that could be used to attack John McCain, like
mccainamigos.com, voteagainstmccain.com, flipflopmccain.com and
hatemccain.com (ihatemccain.com was taken.)
Latinos seek citizenship in time for voting
A lawsuit filed Thursday in a federal court in New York by Latino
immigrants seeks to force immigration authorities to complete hundreds
of thousands of stalled naturalization petitions in time for the new
citizens to vote in November.
The class-action suit was brought by the Puerto Rican Legal Defense
and Education Fund on behalf of legal Hispanic immigrants in the New
York City area who are eager to vote and have been waiting for years
for the federal Citizenship and Immigration Services agency to finish
their applications. The suit demands that the agency meet a nationwide
deadline of Sept. 22 to complete any naturalization petitions filed by
March 26.
Latino groups hope to summon the clout of the federal courts to compel
the Bush administration to reduce a backlog of citizenship
applications that swelled last year.
THE CANDIDATES:
John McCain... today's headlines
with excerpts
McCain begins to take charge at
RNC
McCain non-commital on Veep choice
During his first campaign appearance
since clinching the GOP presidential nomination, McCain
said he has not even begun looking at vice presidential
candidates.
"You know, obviously, we have just begun that process,
and we, in fact, have not even outlined how we're going to go about
this," McCain said at a news conference after he and Crist shook hands
with people at a diner. "We're looking at how the process was
conducted by other candidates and nominees of their party.
McCain balanced public temper with
private acts of compassion
... McCain, 71, has acknowledged his temper, saying he ``works all the
time'' at taming it. ``Every time I lose my temper, I've regretted
it,'' he said in a 1998 interview.
see also:
Hothead McCain
Pelosi points finger at McCain on outsourced
controversy
Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House speaker, said Boeing had been on
course to supply the US Air Force with tankers until Mr McCain
"intervened".
"My understanding is that it was on course for Boeing before. I mean,
the thought was that it would be a domestic supplier for it," Ms
Pelosi told reporters.
"Senator McCain intervened, and now we have a situation where the
contract may be - this work may be outsourced."
see also:
Boeing blame game played on McCain
Hillary Clinton... today's
headlines with excerpts
Clinton again raises running with
Obama
Hillary Rodham Clinton on
Friday again raised the possibility that she might run
with rival Sen. Barack Obama on the same Democratic
presidential ticket.
Speaking to voters in Mississippi, where Sen. Barack Obama is expected
to do well in next week's primary, Clinton said, "I've had people say,
'Well I wish I could vote for both of you. Well, that might be
possible some day. But first I need your vote on Tuesday."
Clinton weapon double-edged sword
in Pennsylvania
In the six-week run-up to Pennsylvania’s April 22
primary, the two will test the limits of their
relationship. Clinton is likely to discover that few
Democratic politicians can deliver as much to her
campaign as Rendell—or inadvertently inflict as much
damage.
Hillary signals support for
Florida, Michigan re-votes
"I'm going to let the leadership of both
states see what they think is the best approach," Mrs.
Clinton told reporters here when asked about the
possibility of a revote in both states.
Hillary launches assault on
Obama's foreign policy experience
"The voters shouldn't have to wonder whether their president is ready
at three in the morning when the phone rings," said Lt. Gen. Joe
Ballard, in one of several statements assailing Clinton's rival.
"Sen. McCain will bring a lifetime of experience to the campaign; I
will bring a lifetime of experience; and Sen. Obama will bring a
speech that he gave in 2002," Clinton said today after her event with
the military leaders.
Hillary raises $4M online after Ohio, Texas &
Rhode Island wins
"We're going to have the funds we need to keep this campaign going, to
keep Hillary Clinton's message out there," senior adviser Ann Lewis
said in a teleconference with reporters.
Archivists block release of Clinton papers
That archivists' decision, based on guidance provided by Bill Clinton
that restricts the disclosure of advice he received from aides,
prevents public scrutiny of documents that would shed light on how he
decided which pardons to approve from among hundreds of requests.
Clinton's legal agent declined the option of reviewing and releasing
the documents that were withheld, said the archivists, who work for
the federal government, not the Clintons.
The decision to withhold much of the requested material could provide
fodder for critics who say that the former president and his wife,
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, now seeking the Democratic presidential
nomination, have been unwilling to fully release documents to public
scrutiny.
Bill Clinton's $700,000 stock windfall
Mr. Clinton had gotten the nonpublicly traded stock from Accoona Corp.
back in 2004 as a gift for giving a speech at a company event. He
landed the windfall by selling the 200,000 shares to an undisclosed
buyer in May 2006, commanding $3.50 a share at a time when the company
was reporting millions of dollars of losses, according to interviews.
Barack Obama... today's headlines with excerpts
Obama aide calls Hillary 'a
monster'
..."We f***** up in Ohio," she admitted. "In Ohio, they
are obsessed and Hillary is going to town on it, because
she knows Ohio's the only place they can win.
"She is a monster, too – that is off the record – she is
stooping to anything," Ms Power said, hastily trying to
withdraw her remark.
Obama apologizes for aides' comment
Aide has now resigned from Obama campaign
Obama blowout: raised $55 million
in February
Barack Obama raised a
record $55 million in February for his presidential
campaign, eclipsing rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's
own substantial fundraising for the month. All told,
Obama has raised $193 million during his yearlong bid
for the White House.
Obama vies to push back, stay
positive
Obama's arsenal is limited by his insistence that his campaign not
engage in below-the-belt attacks. Asked by reporters Tuesday how far
he was willing to go, Obama said he would not "change the tone of our
campaign" or "do things that I'm not comfortable with.
"Just remember," he said. "What we've been doing has worked."
That is partly true - Obama, despite losing three of four primaries
Tuesday, still leads Clinton in the race for delegates. But Clinton,
believing that her fusillade against Obama on trade and national
security contributed to her campaign-saving wins in Ohio and Texas,
has gained a head of steam and shows no signs of letting up. And Obama
acknowledges her attacks on him have worked...
Obama cited in Rezko opening
statement
Barack Obama is only a bit player in the federal trial
of his former fundraiser and friend Antoin “Tony” Rezko,
but it didn’t take long for the name of the Illinois
senator and Democratic presidential candidate to be
raised in court.
In his opening statement Thursday, Rezko’s lead defense
attorney, Joseph Duffy, mentioned Obama and five other
politicians in explaining Rezko’s motivation for
political involvement.
Ralph Nader... today's headlines with excerpts
Ron Paul... today's headlines with excerpts
Ron Paul moves on from
presidential campaign
Paul indicated that the 2008 presidential campaign portion of his
revolution is over.
An earlier version of this report indicated that Paul would "drop out"
of the race. In the video, Paul did not use the words "drop out,"
opting instead to say the campaign is "winding down," and he
encourages supporters to still cast votes for him. But he referred to
his campaign in the past tense.
"We are still in the early stages of bringing about the changes that
this revolution is all about," Paul said in the video. "Let us hope
that we can one day look back and say that this campaign was a
significant first step that signaled a change in direction for our
country. Our job now is to plan for the next phase."
see also:
Ron Paul 'winds down' prez campaign
McCain leads Obama in cross-over votes
...contrary
to conventional wisdom, numbers emerging from polls and
primary results show that Sen. John McCain — who has
alienated conservatives as he courts independents and
moderate Democrats — holds an advantage over Sen. Barack
Obama in the race for crossover votes.
officials
in both states to come up with plans for how that can be done so their
delegates can be counted at the national convention in late August.
For
all the success that Democratic presidential candidates have had in
raising money — taking in a combined total of over $500 million in the
current race — the Republicans are beating them in one crucial area of
fund-raising: the money being raised by the parties themselves. 
Cannotrustclinton.com?
clintonisbad.com? At least 25 domain names related to Hillary Rodham
Clinton have links to the Republican National Committee: the names
were either registered by the R.N.C. last year or showed up on servers
the committee uses. Half a dozen seemed to guess at Mrs. Clinton’s
eventual running mate, like clintonomalley.com, referring to Gov.
Martin O’Malley of Maryland.
The
Republican National Committee tomorrow will announce the appointment
of three top John McCain loyalists to help coordinate the party's
effort with McCain's campaign and to lead the joint voter contact
program, according to GOP sources. Also involved in the effort will
be Rudy Giuliani's former campaign manager. 
Little
known beyond his family and small circle of friends, McCain has a
softer, compassionate side that co-exists with his temper. Those who
have seen him in private moments and in personal relationships say the
Arizona senator has demonstrated extraordinary kindness, bringing to
the political realm a human dimension often obscured by the heat of
the moment. 
Together,
New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Pennsylvania
Gov. Ed Rendell make an odd pairing. Clinton is the
model of message discipline, a politician whose steely
demeanor and unerring ways cause voters to question her
authenticity. Rendell, a strong Clinton supporter, is
the exact opposite, a loose-lipped, gregarious
backslapper whose gaffe-prone ways only underscore his
genuineness. 
Apparently
convinced that her attacks on Barack Obama's national
security preparedness helped her win this past Tuesday,
Sen. Hillary Clinton gathered retired military leaders
to continue her frontal assault on Obama's foreign
policy experience. 
Federal
archivists at the Clinton Presidential Library are blocking the
release of hundreds of pages of White House papers on pardons that the
former president approved, including clemency for fugitive commodities
trader Marc Rich. 
The
spring before his wife began her White House campaign, former
President Bill Clinton earned $700,000 for his foundation by selling
stock that he had been given from an Internet search company that was
co-founded by a convicted felon and backed by the Chinese government,
public records show.
In an unguarded moment during an interview with The
Scotsman in London, Samantha Power, Mr Obama's key
foreign policy aide, let slip the camp's true feelings
about the former first lady.
As
the Democratic primary race enters a new, critical
phase, Barack Obama's campaign is wrestling with how to
respond forcefully to Hillary Clinton's recent attacks
on his record without violating the positive, uplifting
spirit at the core of his message.
"Elections
are short-term efforts," Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, told supporters in a
Web video tonight. "Revolutions are long-term projects."
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