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PRESIDENTIAL WATCH
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on each candidate to see today's news stories
(caricatures by
Linda Eddy)
Tuesday, March 11,
2008
GENERAL NEWS HEADLINES with excerpts
Obama wins
Mississippi Primary
Obama was winning roughly 90 percent of the black vote
but only about one-quarter of the white vote, extending a pattern that
carried him to victory in earlier primaries in South Carolina.
Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana.
Ferraro: Obama where he is because
he's black
Obama fury over Ferraro's race remark
Obama aide Susan Rice called for Clinton to fire Geraldine Ferraro,
the only woman yet to run on a major party's presidential ticket,
after her comments Friday to a Los Angeles newspaper.
"That's a really outrageous and offensive comment," Rice said on MSNBC
television after Ferraro, who sits on Clinton's finance committee, had
said: "If Obama was a
white man, he would not be in this position."
"It is the sort of comment that we have heard repeatedly, I'm afraid,
from some of the Clinton surrogates," said Rice, Obama's leading
adviser on
foreign policy.
She said Ferraro's remarks were "far worse" than those of another
foreign policy aide, Samantha Power, who was forced to resign from the
Obama campaign last week for calling Clinton a "monster."
Clinton and Obama each reach for retired brass
For many of the officers, as well as the Pentagon, which likes to stay
out of political campaigns, the hunt for military endorsements has
become a bit awkward.
Endorsements from retired generals and admirals have been a mainstay
of presidential campaigns for years, but with the nation at war and a
decorated hero as the presumptive Republican nominee, rarely have
Democrats been more desperate for military credibility. Retired
military officers have become as prized as governors or senators for
their endorsement value.
Florida Dems may get a recount
Florida
Democrats were moving forward Monday with a plan to redo their
presidential primary using privately-funded mail-in ballots, a key
state party official said, even though some congressional and party
leaders had yet to sign on to the idea.
“We’re huddling with state brass now,” the official said. “The
spotlight will be on us. We will have a detailed plan.”
GOP moves to force immigration vote
New York Gov. Spitzer is linked to prostitution
ring
The wiretap captured a man identified as Client 9 on a telephone call
confirming plans to have a woman travel from New York to Washington,
where he had reserved a hotel room, according to an affidavit filed in
federal court in Manhattan. The person briefed on the case and the law
enforcement official identified Mr. Spitzer as Client 9.
Mr. Spitzer, a first term Democrat, today made a brief public
appearance during which he apologized for his behavior, and described
it as a “private matter.” He did not address his political future.
see also:
Republicans set deadline for impeachment proceedings
THE CANDIDATES:
John McCain... today's headlines
with excerpts
McCain heads to Israel, Europe
Senator John McCain will
burnish his foreign policy credentials with a trip next
week to Israel and Europe, his office said Monday.
Joined by two close Senate colleagues, Joe Lieberman and Lindsey
Graham, McCain will visit Jerusalem on March 18, London the next two
days, and Paris on March 21, according to a statement.
An Israeli official said Sunday that the senior US lawmakers would
meet Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in
Jerusalem.
McCain scolds Obama, Clinton over
NAFTA
Sen. John McCain said Tuesday that proposals by Democrats Barack Obama
and Hillary Rodham Clinton to use pressure tactics to renegotiate the
North American Free Trade Agreement could undermine U.S. trade
relationships with other nations.
"We've got to stop this protectionist, NAFTA-bashing," said McCain...
McCain reports 'everything's fine'
in health check
He repeated that "everything's fine" several times.
"I got the full cancer check a couple of weeks ago, with
my dermatologist," McCain said. "(On Monday) I just went
through a regular routine. . . . Like most Americans, I
go to see my doctor fairly frequently."
McCain said he intends to publicly release his complete
medical records in mid-April...
Scanning for GOP running mate
The vetting and guessing process already is under way,
so it's a good time to look at three groups of
contenders:
Fellow senators... Sam Brownback, Lindsey Graham, Kay Bailey Hutchison
Fellow presidential hopefuls... Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani, Mike
Huckabee, Mitt Romney
Governors... Mark Sanford (S. Carolina), Haley Barbour (Miss.), Tim
Pawlenty (Minn.), Bobby Jindal (Louisianna)
In Havana, a page from McCain's
past
The Granma clipping in Barral's restaurant, dated Jan.
24, 1970, recalls one of the defining periods of
McCain's life, his 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war
after his Navy jet was shot down over North Vietnam. The
tale of that photo and how an obscure Cuban psychologist
came to interview McCain -- now a 71-year-old U.S.
senator from Arizona and the presumptive Republican
presidential nominee -- rouses the echoes, curiosities
and suspicions of another era.
There is no doubt that the two men met in Hanoi in January 1970. Their
accounts of the basic outlines of the meeting are almost identical.
McCain briefly mentions his encounter with Barral in his 1999
autobiography, "Faith of My Fathers," calling him "a Cuban
propagandist, masquerading as a Spanish psychologist and moonlighting
as a journalist." McCain wrote that Barral concluded he was "a
psychopath," but Barral said in an interview that he never reached
that conclusion...
Hillary Clinton... today's
headlines with excerpts
Clinton tax returns - what's the
holdup?
"What is the holdup?" said Sheila Krumholz of the Center
for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit group that tracks
the role of money in politics. "She hasn't exactly made
it clear as to what process is making it so cumbersome
to just release them."
Past Democratic presidential candidates have set a precedent for
releasing their tax returns before or during the primary season.
Clinton aide: Obama unqualified
for VP
Still, Wolfson said Clinton would not “rule out” Obama as a potential
vice president, in the event the Illinois senator is somehow able to
prove he meets the test to be commander-in-chief in the five months
between now and the August Democratic National Convention.
Can Clinton make Mississippi a race?
"Senator
Obama will carry Mississippi," Dowdy said in an interview. "But
Senator Clinton will be competitive. Senator Clinton will get a number
of the delegates because she had a good base in Mississippi."
The iron lady
Clinton may be criticized for staying too long in the race and for
attacking Obama in ways that his supporters will consider nefarious
and desperate. But no one is entitled to a Presidential nomination. As
ugly as it looks now—and as ugly as it is likely to become—if Barack
Obama becomes the Democrats’ nominee, he may thank Hillary Clinton for
making him a better candidate
Barack Obama... today's headlines with excerpts
Team Obama hits Hillary on
experience claims
The Obama campaign unloads on Hillary Clinton's
"experience" with this memo by
Obama rejects idea of back seat on
ticket
Obama plan allows for 2009 Iraq
elections
A senior military adviser to Senator Obama says Iraqi national
elections, scheduled for late 2009, would be possible under the
Democratic presidential candidate's plan to withdraw American combat
brigades from
Iraq.
"Iraqi elections are a very useful thing," Richard Danzig said
yesterday at a press conference at which three national security
experts gave testimonials on behalf of the junior senator from
Illinois. Mr. Danzig, a former secretary of the Navy under
President Clinton, added that Mr. Obama's plan to withdraw one or two
combat brigades a month over 16 months "would fully be able to protect
those elections and make sure there were enough troops on the ground
to make sure it goes forward." The adviser said later that he believed
progress in training an Iraqi national army and other local Iraqi
forces meant that fewer American troops would be needed than in 2005,
when coalition forces fanned out across Iraqi cities and towns to
protect voters from Al Qaeda and other terrorists.
Obama struggles to stay above fray
... how hard can he hit back without undercutting his message of
uplift?
The question has come into high relief over the past week as Senator
Obama – who is expected to win the Mississippi primary Tuesday but
faces a stiff challenge next month in Pennsylvania – pushes back
against a fusillade of criticism from the Clinton campaign.
Clinton, RNC tee up attacks on Obama
Clinton has launched assaults on Obama made by the RNC over the past
year, while the Republican Party has used lines of attack developed by
Clinton to soften Obama for a possible general election contest
match-up against Sen. John McCain.
Clinton’s intensifying attacks have spurred Obama to promise tougher
campaign tactics. He has also taken advantage of GOP arguments to
criticize Clinton by raising implicit questions about her ethics.
Ralph Nader... today's headlines with excerpts
Barack
Obama coasted to victory in Mississippi's Democratic primary Tuesday,
latest in a string of racially polarized presidential contests across
the Deep South and a final tune-up before next month's
high-stakes race with Hillary Rodham Clinton in Pennsylvania.
Clinton
campaign finance committee member, former vice
presidential candidate, and former Rep. Geraldine
Ferraro, D-NY, told the Daily Breeze of Torrance, Ca.,
that,
"If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this
position.
And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in
this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he
is. And the country is caught up in the concept." 
Republican
leaders hope that by pushing the bill — endorsed by 48 centrist
Democrats and 94 Republicans — they can drive Democrats into a
politically painful choice: Backing a tough immigration measure that
could alienate their base, including Hispanic voters, or being painted
as soft on border security in conservative-leaning districts.
NY
Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who gained national prominence relentlessly
pursuing Wall Street wrongdoing, has been caught on a federal wiretap
arranging to meet with a high-priced prostitute at a Washington hotel
last month, according to a law enforcement official and a person
briefed on the investigation. 
Speaking
Monday to assembled national and local media inside a
Swift Aviation Group hangar at Phoenix Sky Harbor
International Airport, an upbeat McCain said he had
undergone "a regular checkup" that morning. 
After
several days of Bill and Hillary Clinton floating the
idea of a joint ticket with rival Barack Obama, Hillary
Clinton chief spokesman Howard Wolfson declared Monday
that Clinton does not consider Obama qualified to be
vice president. 
Even
Wayne Dowdy, the head of the Mississippi Democratic Party, thinks
Barack Obama will win his state's primary on Tuesday, and it's Dowdy's
job not to take sides. Yet there are good reasons for Obama to be
anxiously watching the returns today...
Greg Craig offering a
point-by-point rebuttal of her claims:
click
“I
don’t know how somebody who’s in second place can offer
the vice presidency to someone who’s in first place,”
Mr. Obama told a town meeting at the Mississippi
University for Women here, alluding to his lead in
delegates. As the crowd cheered, he said: “If I’m not
ready, how is it that you think I should be such a great
vice president? Do you understand that?”
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