Today's Top News
On Upswing, Huckabee Attracts Funds, Backers
12.29.07 -- 6:00 PM
Wealthy Texas financier Gene Phillips had thought about getting behind Republican Mike Huckabee's presidential bid for some time, but it was only after the former Arkansas governor surged in the polls that Phillips decided to open his wallet and his sprawling Dallas estate for a fundraiser.
"When I saw his numbers start to move, that impressed me," Phillips said. "Then his numbers went from single digits to double digits, and I got on the phone to his campaign and offered to help."
For most of the year, as Huckabee remained at the back of the Republican pack, his campaign struggled to raise money. Only a handful of big-dollar bundlers were aboard, and those were mostly from Arkansas. For a time, he had no finance director, relying instead on his daughter-in-law to organize fundraising.
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Bogus Card Cites Mormon Passages in South Carolina
12.29.07 -- 5:57 PM
Many South Carolina Republicans got a bogus holiday greeting card this week, purported to be from White House hopeful Mitt Romney, that cites some controversial passages of the Book of Mormon.
''We wish you and your family a happy holiday season and a joyful New Year. The Romney family,'' the card says.
The last page features a photograph of a temple above a box that says ''Paid For By The Boston Massachusetts Temple.''
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Romney-McCain battle heats up in New Hampshire
12.29.07 -- 5:53 PM
Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain, closing in on Mitt Romney's once-commanding lead in New Hampshire, arrived in the state on Friday and immediately shot back at his rival, who had spent much of the past two days here blasting McCain.
"Mitt Romney attacks when people are catching up with him," McCain said before boarding his "Straight-Talk Express" bus for six days of campaign events in the early-voting state.
"The people of New Hampshire do not respond favorably to negative campaigns," he said.
Romney, the former governor of neighboring Massachusetts, is virtually tied with McCain for first in the polls in New Hampshire. McCain, who won the state in 2000, arrived there after Romney spent two days of campaigning at coffee shops, town-hall meetings and a ski resort.
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Benazir Bhutto Assassinated
12.27.07 -- 11:13 AM
Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday by an attacker who shot her after a campaign rally and then blew himself up. Her death stoked new chaos across the nuclear-armed nation, an important U.S. ally in the war on terrorism.
At least 20 others were also killed in the attack on the rally for Jan. 8 parliamentary elections where the 54-year-old Bhutto had just spoken.
Her supporters erupted in anger and grief after her killing, attacking police and burning tires and election campaign posters in several cities. At the hospital where she died, some smashed glass and wailed, chanting slogans against President Pervez Musharraf.
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Voters Still Sampling Candidates
12.27.07 -- 10:14 AM
Dig beneath the surface of the raucous Republican presidential race and you will find even deeper turmoil: Four in 10 GOP voters have switched candidates in the past month alone, and nearly two-thirds say they may change their minds again.
Mike Huckabee, who has roared to a tie with longtime front-runner Rudy Giuliani, has little reason to feel safe, according to an ongoing national survey conducted for The Associated Press and Yahoo News.
Half of all voters - including four in 10 Republicans - know too little about Huckabee to even say whether they have a favorable impression of him, let alone whether he is conservative, liberal or moderate. That could be ominous, because it gives his rivals the opportunity to define him. Witness Mitt Romney's criticism of the former Arkansas governor on immigration and Fred Thompson's contention that he raised taxes "like a Democrat."
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Likability is key in presidential race
12.26.07 -- 7:30 PM
John Edwards wears jeans on the stump. Mike Huckabee plays bass guitar with local bands before his speeches and all the main candidates have been accompanied by family or people close to them on the campaign trail.
Their aim is to win perhaps the oldest game in a U.S. presidential race -- to persuade voters to like them.
Candidates trumpet their voting records, their experience and their strong principles. But unless they pass a basic test of likability, their chances of making it all the way to the White House are slim.
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Jabs Sharpen in Final Week Before Voting
12.26.07 -- 7:24 PM
The most wide-open presidential race in a half century pushed unpredictably into a decisive new phase Wednesday, the rhetoric a bit more pointed and the appeals a tad more urgent in the final run-up to the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.
''This is crunch time,'' said former Democratic Sen. John Edwards, and he spoke for all.
In a race without front-runners, a brief Christmas lull yielded quickly in both early-voting states to a new round of subtle digs, outright criticism, fresh TV ads and stepped-up efforts by independent organizations.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, surprise leader in the Republican pre-caucus polls, bagged an Iowa pheasant with a .12-gauge shotgun and said caucus-goers on Jan. 3 should take notice.
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Paris Loses Out: Hilton Fortune Pledged to Charity
12.26.07 -- 7:10 PM
Hotel heiress Paris Hilton's potential inheritance dramatically diminished after her grandfather Barron Hilton announced plans on Wednesday to donate 97 percent of his $2.3 billion fortune to charity.
That wealth includes $1.2 billion Barron Hilton stands to earn from both the recent sale of Hilton Hotels Corp. -- started by his father Conrad in 1919 when he bought a small hotel in Cisco, Texas -- and pending sale of the world's biggest casino company, Harrah's Entertainment Inc.
That money will be placed in a charitable trust that will eventually benefit the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, raising its total value to about $4.5 billion, the foundation said in a statement.
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Editorial: Why Romney Must Not be Nominated
12.26.07 -- 6:08 PM
THERE IS A reason Mitt Romney has not received a single newspaper endorsement in New Hampshire. It's the same reason his poll numbers are dropping. He has not been able to convince the people of this state that he's the conservative he says he is.
Like a lot of people in New Hampshire, we wanted to believe Romney. We gave him the benefit of the doubt. We listened very carefully to his expertly rehearsed sales pitch. But in the end he didn't close the deal for us. Now, two weeks before the primary, the same is happening with voters.
Republicans and right-leaning independents in New Hampshire gave Romney a chance. His events have not been sparsely attended. Nor have they been scarce. He's made more campaign stops here this year than any other Republican, even John McCain.
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Republican moderates look to chart new course in Iowa
12.26.07 -- 3:06 PM
On a recent ice-swept morning, a group of self-described moderate Republicans met in a hotel convention room, looking to find a way to break the chill of a presidential season that has found many of them left out in the cold.
"Our goal is to get traditional centrist moderate Republicans to get to the caucus and make their voices heard," said former Iowa Lt. Gov. Joy Corning.
"The moderates who are out there, they've been rather quiet for a few years. Many of them have dropped out of the party or become independents, and so this is an effort to regroup and encourage people to be active," she said.
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