THE CANDIDATES:

John McCain... today's headlines with excerpts

Cuba is topic as McCain continues attack on Obama

here in a critical swing state to again argue that Mr. Obama is too willing to talk to America’s enemies.

The question of how to engage controversial foreign foes has emerged as perhaps the central dispute between Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, and Mr. Obama, his likely Democratic opponent.

Mr. McCain accused Mr. Obama on Tuesday of shifting his position on normalization of relations with Cuba, saying he voiced support for it previously but was now offering caveats. In doing so, Mr. McCain homed in anew on Mr. Obama’s stated willingness to conduct a dialogue with controversial foreign leaders.

McCain supports free-trade agreements with Latin America

John McCain on Tuesday laid out his plans for strengthening democracy and U.S. influence in Latin America, vowing to extend free-trade pacts throughout the region and to continue isolating Cuba until the communist-ruled island frees political prisoners and allows multiparty elections.

The promises to uphold a hard line against the regime of Fidel and Raul Castro earned the presumptive Republican Party presidential nominee cheers from the mostly Cuban American crowd at a town hall meeting in southwest Miami...

McCain vows to keep U.S. trade embargo on Cuba

John McCain told Cuban-Americans Tuesday that he would maintain the decades-old U.S. trade embargo on Cuba if he is elected president, and he attacked Barack Obama for his willingness to meet with Cuba's leader...

McCain strategist leaves, won't campaign against Obama

A senior adviser to Republican presidential candidate John McCain said on Tuesday that he was stepping down to keep a commitment he made not to campaign against Democrat Barack Obama.

Mark McKinnon, who was in charge of the McCain campaign's advertising message, said he was still backing the Arizona senator, but that he was simply moving from active campaign participant to cheerleader...

Judges stance bolsters McCain

Prominent conservatives and activists are indicating they will put aside their differences with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain and rally their supporters to his side because of one issue: federal judgeships.

In big gatherings and small, in e-mails and one-on-one conversations, conservative opinion leaders fear a Democratic president, especially Sen. Barack Obama, will use the presidential power to appoint federal judges who will remove references to God and religious symbols from public places...

Hillary Clinton... today's headlines with excerpts

Clinton campaign debt soars to $31 million

Clinton's campaign debt has now soared to nearly $31 million, according to numbers crunched early this morning by The Times' campaign finance guru, Dan Morain.

She added another $9.5 million in unpaid bills to vendors this past month alone, pushing her total debt to vendors and herself to the new astronomical figure, about a 50% debt increase in one month.

Clinton fades even in a victory

Pundits on MSNBC, perhaps stung by the Clinton campaign’s accusations of sexism against that channel and its parent network, kept emphasizing that Mrs. Clinton had run out of time. Keith Olbermann compared her to Wile E. Coyote going over a cliff in the Road Runner cartoons. Mr. Russert marveled that Mrs. Clinton had the gall to act as if the delegate count were a mere “loophole” and that only the popular vote mattered. He reminded viewers that the “elected delegate race is over; Obama has won that.”

Clinton sees many reasons to stay in

in private conversations and in interviews, Mrs. Clinton has begun asserting that she believes sexism, rather than racism, has cast a shadow over the primary fight, a point some of her supporters have made for months. Advisers say that continuing her candidacy is partly a means to show her supporters — especially young women — that she is not a quitter and will not be pushed around...

Clinton claims sexism in campaign

"I think that both gender and race have been obviously a part of it because of who we are and every poll I've seen show more people would be reluctant to vote for a woman to vote for an African American, which rarely gets reported on either," Clinton said. "The manifestation of some of the sexism that has gone on in this campaign is somehow more respectable or at least more accepted. And I think there should be equal rejection of the sexism and the racism when and if it ever raises its ugly head. But it does seem as though the press at least is not as bothered by the incredible vitriol that has been engendered by comments and reactions of people who are nothing but misogynists."

Clinton raises $22 million in April

The Clinton campaign announces that it raised $22 million in April. The Obama campaign raised $31.3 million and the McCain campaign raised $18 million.