Breaking Story

Clinton pushes on with uphill White House bid

05.14.08 -- 11:56 AM

By John Whitesides - Reuters

Hillary Clinton's landslide West Virginia victory barely made a dent in Barack Obama's lead in the Democratic presidential race, but his renewed trouble winning white working-class support could raise warning flags for November.

Obama retains an almost unassailable advantage in delegates who will select the Democratic nominee at the party convention in August. He gained the support on Wednesday of two more superdelegates, who are free to back any candidate.

But exit polls showed Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, won support from fewer than one-quarter of white voters without a college degree. That repeats a pattern seen in some other big Obama losses, including Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Superdelegates put Obama within mathematical reach

05.13.08 -- 10:20 AM

By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER - AP

Barack Obama's wave of superdelegate endorsements puts him within reach of the Democratic presidential nomination by the end of the primary season on June 3 - even if he loses half of the remaining six contests.

The Illinois senator has picked up 26 superdelegates in the past week. At that pace, he will reach the number of delegates needed to clinch the nomination - 2,025 - in the next three weeks, when delegates from the remaining primaries are included.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's best chance to slow Obama is to move the goal posts. She will get that chance May 31 when the Democratic National Committee's rules panel considers proposals to seat the delegates that had been stripped from Florida and Michigan. Those two states violated national party rules by holding their primaries in January and lost their delegates.

Top Michigan Democrats suggest splitting delegates

04.29.08 -- 4:39 PM

By Kathy Barks Hoffman - AP

Michigan Democrats working to get the state's delegates seated at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday suggested splitting them 69-59 between presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.

The Democratic National Committee stripped Michigan of its 128 delegates for holding its presidential primary too early in the year.

Clinton has argued that she should get 73 delegates based on the results of the Jan. 15 primary, which she won - 18 more than Obama.

Obama, who removed his name from the ballot, wants the 128 pledged delegates split evenly, 64-64.

The compromise, suggested Tuesday in a letter to Michigan Democratic Chairman Mark Brewer, fell halfway between the two proposals.

The DNC stripped Florida and Michigan of their convention delegates - 366 in all, including pledged delegates and superdelegates - for holding their primaries too early in the nominating process, which violated party rules

Obama Says Race Not An Issue In Election

04.27.08 -- 9:35 AM

By Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Barack Obama, struggling to win over white Democratic voters, said in a Sunday television interview that race would not be a factor in November's U.S. presidential election.

"Is race still a factor in our society? Yes. I don't think anybody would deny that," Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, said on "Fox News Sunday."

"Is that going to be the determining factor in a general election? No, because I'm absolutely confident that the American people -- what they're looking for is somebody who can solve their problems," the Illinois senator said in an interview taped on Saturday.

Clinton challenges Obama to Lincoln-Douglas style debate

04.26.08 -- 1:30 PM

By MIKE GLOVER and SARA KUGLER - AP

MARION, Ind. (AP) - Democratic rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton turned up the rhetoric Saturday in their increasingly heated primary battle as she issued a new debate challenge and he complained of a race that's largely been reduced to trivia while working families feel economic pain.

Clinton took the debate dispute to a new level, challenging Obama to face off with her in a debate without a moderator, Lincoln-Douglas style.

"Just the two of us, going for 90 minutes, asking and answering questions, we'll set whatever rules seem fair," Clinton said while campaigning in South Bend.

Her campaign made the offer formal with a letter to the Obama campaign. Obama aides said they were studying the letter.

Deal on Mich., Fla. Unlikely Before June

04.06.08 -- 1:44 PM

By Darlene Superville - AP

A deal to allow delegates from Florida and Michigan to participate at the Democratic National Convention is unlikely before summer, party chief Howard Dean said Sunday.

Dean said that was partly because presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama want to focus on the coming round of contests. Next on the schedule are Pennsylvania on April 22 and Indiana and North Carolina on May 6, followed by several other states and U.S. territories. Voting ends June 3.

But he continued to express confidence that an agreement would be reached to seat delegates from both states.

Obama Wins Most Texas Delegates

03.31.08 -- 5:26 PM

By Associated Press

Sen. Barack Obama has won the overall delegate race in Texas thanks to a strong showing in Democratic county conventions this past weekend.

Obama picked up seven of nine outstanding delegates, giving him a total of 99 Texas delegates to the party's national convention this summer. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton won the other two, giving her a total of 94 Texas delegates, according to an analysis of returns by The Associated Press.

Texas Democrats held both a presidential primary and caucus. Clinton narrowly won the popular vote in the state's primary March 4, earning her 65 national convention delegates to Obama's 61.

Race is On to Define McCain

03.28.08 -- 5:31 PM

By Liz Sidoti - AP

The race is on to define John McCain.

The likely Republican nominee launched his first television ad of the general election campaign Friday, casting himself as a ready-to-lead wartime president in advance of a biographical tour to pivotal places in his life. Son of a military man, midshipman, Navy pilot, Vietnam POW, member of Congress for nearly three decades - this is the resume of the 71-year-old McCain.

"In some ways, I'm well-known to the American people. In other ways, I'm not well-known," McCain told The Associated Press on Friday.

The Democratic Party - still lacking a nominee - and its supporters offer a starkly different portrait. In their view, McCain is a Washington insider, backer of an unpopular war in Iraq, hair-trigger quick on Iran and indifferent on the economic woes of average Americans. They cast McCain as four more years of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Obama's Rough Patch Could've Been Worse

03.24.08 -- 6:57 AM

By MATT APUZZO - AP

Barack Obama refers to the past couple of weeks as a tough, turbulent stretch.

And why not?

His foreign policy adviser quit for calling Democratic presidential rival Hillary Rodham Clinton a "monster." Then he had to distance himself from his longtime pastor's fiery statements, a controversy that threatened his image as a uniter. He trails in polls in the upcoming Pennsylvania primary. Obama also watched his lead wither in national opinion surveys.

"There's no doubt we had a turbulent couple of weeks but we've had turbulent weeks in the past," Obama told reporters Friday. "... It's not going to be a smooth straight line. There's times when the campaign is going well and there's times the campaign is not going well."

Presidential Candidates' Passport Files Breached

03.21.08 -- 7:47 PM

By ANNE FLAHERTY and DESMOND BUTLER - AP

At least four State Department workers pried into the supposedly secure passport files of presidential contenders Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain, abashed officials admitted Friday in a revelation that had Condoleezza Rice promising a full investigation and telephoning the candidates to apologize personally.

The snooping incidents raised questions as to whether there was political motivation and why two contractors involved were fired before investigators had a chance to interview them. The State Department's inspector general was probing, with the Justice Department monitoring the effort, but Obama said that was not enough. He urged congressional involvement "so it's not simply an internal matter."

The unauthorized digging into electronic government files on politicians recalled a 1992 case in which a Republican political appointee at the State Department was demoted for searching Bill Clinton's passport records when Clinton was running against President George H.W. Bush.

McCain, the Republican nominee-in-waiting, said there should be an investigation of the new snooping as well as an apology.

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