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State Democrats Deny Request From Clinton:
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton may want more time to examine the validity of results of the March 4 state Democratic precinct caucuses, but the chairman Boyd Richie said Monday that county and state senatorial district conventions will take place as planned March 29.
The state party "will not do as suggested by one campaign and circumvent Party rules to set up an unnecessary ad hoc 'verification' process that could disqualify delegates selected at their precinct conventions after the fact," Richie said in a prepared statement. |
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Clinton won the popular vote in Texas, and based on that vote, unofficially was awarded 65 national convention delegates to Obama's 61. But Texas' Democratic Party's caucus system awards an additional 67 delegates. Obama is projected to take 37 caucus delegates and Clinton 30. Another 35 Texas superdelegates, some of whom remain unpledged, also can help choose the nominee.
Obama has won more votes, more elected delegates, and more states than his principal opponent, Sen. Hillary Clinton, has. The latest national polls show Democrats preferring Obama over Clinton and Obama with a better chance of defeating the presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain.
Clinton Struggles to Win African American Support:
Former US President Bill Clinton has denied playing the race card in his bid to ensure former first lady and wife Hillary Clinton is chosen as the Democratic Party's nominee.
If you cannot successfully pretty yourself, dirty the other guy. Hence the relentless attacks designed to redefine Obama and take him down to the level of ordinary mortals, i.e., Hillary's level.
Did Bill Clinton deliberately encourage racial polarization by saying before South Carolina that one expects women to vote for Hillary and blacks for Obama? Or, after the primary, by dismissing Obama's victory with: "Jesse Jackson won South Carolina twice"?
The Clinton and Obama camps traded barbs over a flap involving Clinton supporter Geraldine Ferraro, who became a trailblazer for women when she joined the unsuccessful Democratic ticket as a vice presidential candidate in 1984. Ferraro attributed Obama's lead so far in this year's Democratic race to his being black. "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position," she said. Obama camp viewed this statement as racially divisive.
"It's the idea that a black person with a Harvard law degree and a distinguished legislative career only got to where he is because of his skin color. That's surreal," said William Jelani Cobb, a history professor at Spelman College in Atlanta.
Good grief. The optimist will say that when this is over, we will look back on the Clinton-Obama contest, and its looming ugly endgame, as the low point of identity politics, and the beginning of a turning away. The pessimist will just vote Republican. |
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U.S. Presidential Campaign Trail:
Senator Hillary Clinton and her campaign will throw their support behind rival Senator Barack Obama of Illinois if he “for whatever reason” should win the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, a top aide to the former first lady said on Sunday.
“If for whatever reason Senator Obama is the nominee, everyone in this campaign including Senator Clinton will support him enthusiastically,” Howard Wolfson, communications director, told a conference call. |
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Barack Obama to Told Hillary Clinton to Release Information About Her Income Tax:
The Obama campaign challenged Hillary Rodham Clinton to release information about her income taxes, Bill Clinton's foundation and library donors, earmark requests and first lady records. The Clinton team said raising questions about her integrity is a "personal attack."
David Axelrod, Obama's top strategist, said, "Sen. Clinton and her campaign says she is fully vetted, but the truth is that she is a veteran of non-disclosure. In this campaign, we have set a standard. Sen. Obama has released his tax returns, he has released his earmark requests, and he has been forthcoming on these and other issues."
In reponse, Clinton chief spokesman Howard Wolfson said, "They are running a campaign that is designed to tear down Sen. Clinton's character using Republican talking points." He added that "when you accuse somebody of being disingenuous and question their integrity and their honesty, as they are doing, that constitutes a personal attack."
Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Defended By New Pastor:
Rather than acknowledge the truth about the dark past of America, and in some instances the present, we are quick to charge anyone who removes the veil of our history as being racist and or anti-American. The new pastor of Senator Barack Obama’s longtime church in Chicago took it upon himself to issue a statement Sunday to defend the record of his predecessor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., whose incendiary sermons have been played on cable television and the Internet in recent days. |
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On Sunday, a statement from the new pastor, the Rev. Otis Moss III, was handed out at the church defending Mr. Wright’s remarks in the pulpit and laying out the former pastor’s record of achievements.
The Wright and Farrakhan controversies force voters to look at Obama through the lens of their racial or cultural identity, and in a tightly contested race, Obama can't afford to alienate anybody.
Obama rightly notes that Pastor Wright's sermons reflect his experience as an African American, which is different than his own, and notes that such an experience is part of what his candidacy is trying to grapple with and move beyond.
Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, an Obama Superdelegates and former Presidential Candidate, disagrees told FOX News over the weekend:
“The fact of the matter is people would like to move on to other things."
Bill Clinton Rejects Criticism Over Race:
Former President Bill Clinton defended his role in his wife's presidential campaign in South Carolina, disputing claims he made race a campaign issue.
"What happened there is a total myth and a mugging," Clinton told CNN's Sean Callebs in New Orleans, Louisiana, over the weekend.
In an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America" broadcast Monday, Clinton said he had gotten a "bum rap" from the news media after he compared Democratic Sen. Clinton was widely criticized for appearing to cast Obama as little more than a black candidate popular in a state with a heavily black electorate.
Campaigning for his wife in New Hampshire earlier in January, Bill Clinton called Obama's opposition to the Iraq war a "fairy tale."
Obama to Deliver Speech on Race:
aced with what his advisers acknowledged was a major test for his candidacy, Sen. Barack Obama sought Monday to contain the damage from incendiary comments made by his pastor and prepared to address the issue of race more directly than at any other moment of his presidential campaign.
Flare-ups over race have roiled the campaign trail as Obama, who would become the first black U.S. president, battles for the Democratic nomination with fellow Sen. Hillary Clinton, who would be the first woman president.
By addressing head-on such sensitive topics, his speech, aides and other Democrats said, could be a pivotal moment for Obama, who, for all of his electoral victories and copious news coverage, still is known only in the broadest terms by many Americans.
"This isn't red and blue America," said Donna Brazile, a Democratic consultant, referring to the address that catapulted Obama to prominence at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. "This is black and white America." Brazile, who managed Al Gore's campaign in 2000, was the first black woman to run a major presidential campaign. |
Florida Democrats Won’t Vote Again:
Facing strong opposition, Florida Democrats on Monday abandoned plans to hold a do-over presidential primary with a mail-in vote. Supporters of Clinton, including Gov. Jennifer Granholm, generally back the plan for a second election. One top campaign aide, Harold Ickes, who initially voted to strip Michigan of its delegates to this summer's nominating convention, said Monday if Obama blocks a do-over, "he will be putting his own political interests ahead of the people of Michigan."
Democratic Party leaders who developed the plan, which also would move scheduled school elections from May 5 to the primary date, back it as a way out of the impasse between the campaigns of Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama over the legitimacy of the state's Jan. 15 election, which was held in violation of national party rules.
Obama's campaign said it looked forward to an agreement on what to do about Florida.
"We hope that all parties can agree on a fair seating of the Florida delegates so that Florida can participate in the Democratic Convention, and we look forward to working with the Florida Democratic Party and competing vigorously in the state so that Barack Obama can put Florida back into the Democratic column in November," said Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor
Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, who backs Clinton, has suggested one alternative - seating all Florida delegates already chosen but only giving them half a vote each. That is Obama and Clinton would get half those delegate votes.
"We will continue to work with both Florida and Michigan to come to a solution that's fair and within the rules," said Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Stacie Paxton.
Super Delegate Influence is Seen As Unfair:
Majority of Democratic voters say it would be unfair for Hillary Rodham Clinton to win the presidential nomination through the support of "super delegates" if she lags among the convention delegates elected in primaries and caucuses, according to a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll.
There are nearly 800 superdelegates, mostly Democratic members of Congress, top elected state officials and leading members of the Democratic Party. Fifty percent of those polled say that it's a bad idea for the party to have superdelegates, with 42 percent supporting the system.
Most at risk is Democratic support from independents. Nearly two-thirds of those voters call that result unfair, and one-third say they would then vote for the Republican or stay home in November.
"It goes back to this notion: As this race winds down, it's not how we started the campaign, it's how we end it," says Donna Brazile, campaign manager for Al Gore's 2000 campaign, expressing concern that divisions in the party will present "obstacles" to a Democratic victory in November.
Obama leads Clinton by 1,617 delegates to 1,498, according to an Associated Press count. In the nationwide poll, Obama leads Clinton 49%-42% among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, a narrower margin than his record 12-percentage-point lead late last month.
Obama Tells Vets No Lower Drinking Age:
Democrat Barack Obama taped a round-table discussion today in Scranton, Pennsylvania, with eight veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, telling them he would help them with their grievances.
"I know it drives you nuts. But I'm not going to lower the drinking age," the presidential candidate said.
Howard Noel, 28, of New York City, told Obama he "looked at the military as a good thing" when he enlisted. But when he returned, he said he was scorned by friends and, for a while, was homeless.
Christina Correa, 23, of California, said she believed she might have post-traumatic stress disorder, but that it was especially hard for women to find treatment. "They took my name down, but I never heard back," she said.
The segment, sponsored by MTV and The Associated Press, was taped in the back room of "Whistles," a sports bar where a full blown St. Patrick's Day celebration was under way. Before the taping, Obama circulated among the celebrants at the bar, shaking hands and getting his picture taken. |
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