SanLuisObispo.com: Election 2008

Today on the presidential campaign trail

Sat, 17 May 2008 01:09 PDT

IN THE HEADLINES

Clinton tells Oregonians she won't give up, unveils 3 new ads ... McCain asks staff to disclose lobbying connections ... Huckabee quips about gun aimed at Obama in speech to NRA, later issues apology ...

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Clinton to Oregonians: Don't count me out

Fri, 16 May 2008 23:49 PDT

Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday she wasn't ceding Oregon - or the nomination - to opponent Barack Obama, who is heavily favored to collect another victory here next week as he comes closer to winning the Democratic nomination.

"I've been declared dead so many times, and luckily it's been premature, and I'm hoping it stays premature," Clinton said. "If I'd listened to people a month ago, three weeks ago, last week, you wouldn't be here trying to make up your minds about who you're going to vote for," she added.

Clinton spoke during a televised town hall-style meeting with voters in Portland on Friday night, wrapping up a day of campaigning in Oregon, which votes Tuesday along with Kentucky. She unveiled three new ads in both states, including one that pokes fun at Washington pundits fixated on the presidential horse race.

Huckabee quips about gun aimed at Obama

Fri, 16 May 2008 23:14 PDT

Republican Mike Huckabee responded to an offstage noise during his speech Friday to the National Rifle Association by suggesting it was Barack Obama diving to the floor because someone had aimed a gun at him.

Hearing a loud noise and interrupting his speech, Huckabee said: "That was Barack Obama. He just tripped off a chair. He's getting ready to speak and somebody aimed a gun at him and he - he dove for the floor."

There were only a few murmurs in the crowd after the remark.

McGovern joins Obama at rally

Fri, 16 May 2008 20:39 PDT

Former Sen. George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic presidential candidate and an early backer of Hillary Rodham Clinton, joined a noisy rally for Barack Obama on Friday night, describing the Illinois senator as a "ripple of hope" who can win the White House.

McGovern has shifted his allegiance to Obama and suggested it's time for Clinton to pull the plug. He offered an explanation to a cheering crowd of 6,500.

"Last October, I endorsed Senator Hillary Clinton," said McGovern. "She and her remarkable husband, President Clinton, way back 36 years ago worked their hearts out for me in that 1972 presidential campaign. While I endorsed Senator Obama, the Clintons have remained my treasured friends."

Florida, Michigan cannot save Clinton

Fri, 16 May 2008 19:15 PDT

Michigan and Florida alone can't save Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign.

Interviews with those considering how to handle the two states' banished convention delegates found little interest in the former first lady's best-case scenario. Her position, part of a formidable comeback challenge, is that all the delegates be seated in accordance with their disputed primaries.

Even if they were, it wouldn't erase Barack Obama's growing lead in delegates.

Analysis: Obama reacts fast to Bush on diplomacy

Fri, 16 May 2008 17:14 PDT

In President Bush's hint that Barack Obama wants to appease terrorists, Democrats heard troubling echoes of 2004, when Republicans portrayed John Kerry as irresolute and weak on national security.

Determined to end the similarities there, Obama and his allies counterattacked Friday with a multi-pronged response that was as fast and fierce as Kerry's response to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads was slow and uncertain.

And while the Democrats' first-day responses focused on Bush's speech this week in Israel, Friday's reactions mainly targeted John McCain, the GOP presidential candidate who seemed largely on the sidelines at first.

Outside groups plot out fall political campaign

Fri, 16 May 2008 17:04 PDT

For all the money and competitive zeal of this year's presidential contest, Democrats and Republicans are having difficulty financing and organizing the independent groups that supplied so much outside muscle in recent presidential campaigns.

A few independent groups already are active: Ads portraying Obama as weak on terrorism are circulating over the Internet. And messages from organized groups questioning McCain's commitment to veterans and government reform are posted on their Web sites.

But, hindered by tougher regulatory enforcement, a drawn-out primary campaign and cease-and-desist signals from the two front-running candidates, so-called "527" groups - named after a tax code provision - have been slow to coalesce.

McCain asks staff to disclose lobbying ties

Fri, 16 May 2008 16:10 PDT

John McCain's campaign is asking staff members to disclose all previous lobbying ties following the resignation of two officials linked to a firm that worked for Myanmar's military junta.

A memo from McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, also instructs staff to make certain they are no longer registered as lobbyists or foreign agents.

It was issued following the resignations of Doug Goodyear, who was to run the Republican National Convention, and Doug Davenport, a regional campaign director for the mid-Atlantic states. Both worked for DCI Group, a consulting firm hired to improve the image of Myanmar's military junta.

Obama criticizes McCain, Bush on appeasement talk

Fri, 16 May 2008 15:34 PDT

Barack Obama rebuked Republican rival John McCain and President Bush for "dishonest, divisive" attacks in hinting that the Democratic presidential candidate would appease terrorists, staunchly defending his national security credentials for the general election campaign.

Obama responded Friday to Bush's speech Thursday to the Israeli Knesset. The president referred to the leader of Iran, who has called for the destruction of the U.S. ally, and then said some seem to believe that we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals - comments Obama and Democrats said were directed at them. McCain subsequently said Obama must explain why he wants to talk with rogue leaders.

"I'm a strong believer in civility and I'm a strong believer in a bipartisan foreign policy, but that cause is not served with dishonest, divisive attacks of the sort that we've seen out of George Bush and John McCain over the last couple days, " Obama told about 2,000 voters at a town hall-style meeting in a livestock barn.

Democrats accuse McCain of hypocrisy on Hamas

Fri, 16 May 2008 15:34 PDT

Democrats accused Sen. John McCain Friday of hypocrisy on the question of whether the United States should negotiate with terrorists and dictators, saying the certain Republican nominee had previously been willing to negotiate with the militant Palestinian group Hamas.

In an op-ed published Friday in The Washington Post, former Clinton State Department official James Rubin said that McCain, responding to a question in a television interview two years ago about whether U.S. diplomats should be working with the Hamas government in Gaza, said:

"They're the government; sooner or later we are going to have to deal with them, one way or another, and I understand why this administration and previous administrations had such antipathy toward Hamas because of their dedication to violence and the things that they not only espouse but practice, so ... But it's a new reality in the Middle East. I think the lesson is people want security and a decent life and decent future, that they want democracy. Fatah was not giving them that."

McCain courts NRA, makes gun shop visit

Fri, 16 May 2008 15:34 PDT

Courting his sometime critics within the gun lobby, John McCain told the National Rifle Association on Friday that Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton would both undermine the rights of gun owners.

"If either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama is elected president, the rights of law-abiding gun owners will be at risk my friends - and have no doubt about it," the Republican nominee-in-waiting told a crowd of several thousand.

McCain acknowledged he has been no darling of gun-rights advocates, having pushed through signature campaign finance legislation gun supporters say has muzzled free speech. The Arizona senator has also favored tighter restrictions for buying guns at gun shows.

Correction: Kentucky primary story

Fri, 16 May 2008 12:19 PDT

In a May 14 story about the upcoming Kentucky primary election, The Associated Press incorrectly reported the level of trade between Kentucky and China. It is more than $300 million a year, not $300 billion, according to Ying Juan Rogers, vice president of the Kentucky World Trade Center in Lexington.

McCain's courting of youthful voters has limits

Fri, 16 May 2008 11:29 PDT

There's a limit to how far John McCain will go to win over young voters. Wearing a dress on national television crosses that line.

The 71-year-old grandfather and Republican presidential contender said he hopes to use his appearance this week on "Saturday Night Live" to reach out for the youth vote.

"I think Senator Obama has done a very good job with young voters; we have to do a good job as well," McCain said, referring to the leading Democratic presidential contender, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.

Analysis: Gay marriage back as campaign issue

Fri, 16 May 2008 10:35 PDT

A California Supreme Court decision clearing the way for gay marriages in the state injects an element of uncertainty into a presidential race in which the Iraq war and the sputtering economy have largely overshadowed social issues.

John McCain, the GOP nominee-in-waiting whose position on the issue rankles the Republican Party's conservative base, sought to strike a delicate balance to the Thursday ruling.

He "supports the right of the people of California to recognize marriage as a unique institution sanctioning the union between a man and a woman, just as he did in his home state of Arizona," his campaign said in response. "John McCain doesn't believe judges should be making these decisions."

Obama says Bush falsely accused him of appeasement

Fri, 16 May 2008 10:35 PDT

Barack Obama accused President Bush of "a false political attack" Thursday after Bush warned in Israel against appeasing terrorists - early salvos in a general election campaign that's already blazing even as the Democratic front-runner tries to sew up his party's nomination.

The White House denied Bush had targeted Obama, who said the Republican commander in chief's intent was obvious.

In short order, the controversy spilled across the presidential campaign.

Today on the presidential campaign trail

Fri, 16 May 2008 07:54 PDT

IN THE HEADLINES

Democrats say McCain was willing to negotiate with Hamas ... After GOP stumbles in the South, Obama warns Republicans about critical ads ... Democratic Party panel members show little interest in Clinton's call to seat disputed delegates ... Obama picks up endorsements from former Edwards delegate, California congressman

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Obama warns Republicans about critical ads

Fri, 16 May 2008 06:34 PDT

Perhaps no one took greater comfort in the Republican Party's third straight loss of a long-held House seat this week than Barack Obama, who says the results point to clear limits in the effectiveness of attack ads he expects this fall.

The Democratic presidential candidate played a prominent role in all three special elections to fill vacant GOP seats, and he landed on the winning side each time.

In recent contests in Louisiana and Mississippi, Republicans or their allies ran TV ads linking the Democratic House nominees to Obama, warning that a vote for them was a tacit endorsement of Obama's agenda, which the ads described as very liberal. In Mississippi, ads against Democrat Travis Childers also tied him to Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Tenn. GOP mocks Michelle Obama's 'proud' remark

Fri, 16 May 2008 06:34 PDT

The Tennessee Republican Party "welcomed" Michelle Obama's visit for a fundraiser Thursday night with an online video that takes the Democratic presidential front-runner's wife to task for a comment some considered unpatriotic.

Michelle Obama was campaigning in Wisconsin last February for her husband, Barack Obama, when she said: "For the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country."

The four-minute video posted on YouTube is built around the remark, replaying it six times and interspersing it with commentary by Tennesseans, identified mostly by their first names, on why they are proud of America.

Unions turn toward Democratic front-runner Obama

Thu, 15 May 2008 16:19 PDT

The union tide is turning toward Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama, but cracks are showing inside the labor movement as its leaders grapple with internal and external strife as the nomination race drags on.

More and more labor unions are lining up behind the Illinois senator, who on Thursday picked up the 600,000-member United Steelworkers union and the personal endorsement of Larry Cohen, president of the Communication Workers of America.

"I'm convinced that Senator Obama's message of hope and 'change we can believe in' has resonated across our country," said Cohen, whose union will not endorse until June.

Old friends recall Obama's years in LA, NY

Thu, 15 May 2008 15:24 PDT

The way Sohale Siddiqi remembers it, he and his old roommate were walking his pug Charlie on Broadway when a large, scary bum approached them, stomping on the ground near the dog's head.

This was in the 1980s, a time when New York was a fearful place beset by drugs and crime, when the street smart knew that the best way to handle the city's derelicts was to avoid them entirely. But Siddiqi was angry and he confronted the bum, who approached him menacingly.

Until his skinny, Ivy League-educated friend - Barack Obama - intervened.