Today's Top News
Chelsea Clinton Steps on Political Stage
02.17.08 -- 7:30 AM
Chelsea Clinton tells students about her mother's plans for the economy and mortgages. The former first daughter outlines Hillary Rodham Clinton's concern about Darfur and women's rights. She ticks through talking points on electability, health care and the environment.
Oh, and she reveals her mother wants grandkids and her father builds their schedule around a popular TV drama, "Grey's Anatomy."
Chelsea Clinton has emerged as a top surrogate for her mother as the former first lady has fallen behind Sen. Barack Obama in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Read more | Save and Share | Trackbacks(0) | Comments(0) | Email to a friend
Bush: Keep Abstinence in AIDS Program
02.17.08 -- 7:14 AM
President Bush on Sunday said Congress should renew his global AIDS program and preserve a requirement that steers money into abstinence efforts.
"We don't want people guessing on the continent of Africa whether the generosity of the American people will continue," Bush said in Tanzania, the second stop of his African trip.
Congress strongly backs the program, which is credited with getting medicine and preventive treatment to millions of people - most of them in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet its renewal has gotten hung up over ideology and political debate about disease prevention.
Some Democrats want to eliminate a provision in the bill that requires one-third of all prevention spending go to abstinence-until-marriage programs. Critics say that while they don't oppose abstinence programs, the inflexible requirement hampers the effort.
Read more | Save and Share | Trackbacks(0) | Comments(1) | Email to a friend
Rocker Tells Huckabee to Lay Off Song
02.15.08 -- 7:48 AM
The chief songwriter and founder of the band Boston has more than a feeling that he's being ripped off by Mike Huckabee.
In a letter to the Republican presidential hopeful, Tom Scholz complains that Huckabee is using his 1970s smash hit song "More Than a Feeling" without his permission. A former member of the band, Barry Goudreau, has appeared with Huckabee at campaign events, and they have played the song with Huckabee's band, Capitol Offense.
Scholz, who said Goudreau left the band more than 25 years ago after a three-year stint, objects to the implication that the band and one of its members has endorsed Huckabee's candidacy.
Read more | Save and Share | Trackbacks(0) | Comments(0) | Email to a friend
Black Lawmakers Rethink Clinton Support
02.15.08 -- 7:15 AM
In a fresh sign of trouble for Hillary Rodham Clinton, one of the former first lady's congressional black supporters intends to vote for Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention, and a second, more prominent lawmaker is openly discussing a possible switch.
Rep. David Scott's defection and Rep. John Lewis' remarks highlight one of the challenges confronting Clinton in a campaign that pits a black man against a woman for a nomination that historically has been the exclusive property of white men.
"You've got to represent the wishes of your constituency," Scott said in an interview Wednesday in the Capitol. "My proper position would be to vote the wishes of my constituents." The third-term lawmaker represents a district that gave more than 80 percent of its vote to Obama in the Feb. 5 Georgia primary.
Read more | Save and Share | Trackbacks(0) | Comments(0) | Email to a friend
Obama, McCain Sweep Potomac Primaries
02.12.08 -- 7:24 PM
On a primary winning streak, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has swept the so-called Potomac primaries today, overwhelming defeating Senator Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., in Democratic contests in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
On the Republican side, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, won primaries in Maryland and Washington, D.C. and battled back insurgent candidate Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, in a Virginia primary made close by a high turnout among conservatives and Christian evangelicals.
"Today, the change we seek swept through the Chesapeake and over the Potomac. We won the state of Maryland. We won the Commonwealth of Virginia. And though we won in Washington D.C., this movement won't stop until there's change in Washington," Obama told supporters at a rally in Madison, Wisconsin tonight.
Read more | Save and Share | Trackbacks(0) | Comments(0) | Email to a friend
Analysis: Evangelical Message to McCain
02.12.08 -- 7:09 PM
Mike Huckabee's recent refrain about believing in miracles makes the ordained Baptist minister appear almost prophetic.
Christian evangelicals in Virginia who favored him in droves seemed to send the would-be Republican presidential nominee John McCain a message from on high - they won't roll over so easily.
Although the Arizona senator has effectively sealed the GOP nomination, Huckabee and his faith-focused followers waged a fierce fight to overtake McCain in what should have been a stronghold for the Vietnam prisoner of war given the state's long military tradition and Virginia Sen. John Warner's backing.
In the end, McCain captured Virginia - and its 60 delegates - but the primary was surprisingly hard-fought and underscored just how much work he still has to do to get a critical portion of the Republican Party base on board before the general election.
Read more | Save and Share | Trackbacks(0) | Comments(1) | Email to a friend
Clinton Has Lead With Party Insiders
02.10.08 -- 10:32 PM
Hillary Rodham Clinton retains her lead among suddenly critical Democratic Party insiders even as Barack Obama builds up his delegate margin with primary and caucus victories across the country, according to a survey by The Associated Press.
Of the 796 lawmakers, governors and party officials who are Democratic superdelegates, Clinton had 243 and Obama had 156. That edge was responsible for Clinton's overall advantage in the pursuit of delegates to secure the party's nomination for president. According to the AP's latest tally, Clinton has a total of 1,136 delegates and Obama has 1,108, following Obama's victory Sunday in Maine's caucuses. A candidate must get 2,025 delegates to capture the nomination.
The numbers illustrate not only the remarkable proximity between the two candidates, but also the extraordinary influence superdelegates could wield in determining who becomes the nominee. Both campaigns are aggressively pursuing superdelegates, trumpeting their endorsements the moment they are secured.
Read more | Save and Share | Trackbacks(0) | Comments(0) | Email to a friend
McCain Ruins Bloomberg's Run
02.10.08 -- 10:23 PM
To most political observers, the near-certainty that John McCain will be the Republican nominee ends any prospects for a Michael Bloomberg candidacy as an independent. Alas, Bloomberg begs to differ. He reportedly sees the current state of play as another opening for his presidential dreams.
After telling friends he believes Hillary Clinton will be her party's nominee, Bloomberg said at a recent event, "Hillary should pray I get in the race because that would help her," according to a source quoted in the Daily News gossip column Rush & Molloy.
Bloomberg, whose office would neither confirm nor deny he made the remarks, is half-right in his overview of the campaign. The odds have shifted to Clinton's favor since Barack Obama failed to knock her out on Super Tuesday. It's the second time Obama had her down but couldn't finish her. She was reeling after his win in Iowa, but her tears saved her in New Hampshire.
Read more | Save and Share | Trackbacks(0) | Comments(0) | Email to a friend
Obama Defeats Clinton in Maine Caucuses
02.10.08 -- 5:58 PM
Barack Obama defeated Hillary Rodham Clinton in Maine presidential caucuses Sunday, grabbing a majority of delegates as the state's Democrats overlooked the snowy weather and turned out in heavy numbers for municipal gatherings.
Democrats in 420 Maine towns and cities were deciding how the state's 24 delegates will be allotted at the party's national convention in August. Despite the weather, turnout was "incredible," party executive director Arden Manning said.
With 99 percent of the participating precincts reporting, Obama led in state delegates elected over Clinton, 2,079 to 1,396, with 18 uncommitted.
Read more | Save and Share | Trackbacks(0) | Comments(0) | Email to a friend
McCain Refines Plan for General Election
02.08.08 -- 5:48 PM
Republican John McCain plans to run a general election campaign as steadfast protector of the United States in the face of terrorism as well as a crusader against big government. The Democrats, he says, offer neither.
"They would govern this country in a way that will, in my opinion, take this country backward," the likely GOP nominee said this week in a speech to conservative activists that served as his opening argument for a fall showdown with either Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Obama.
With chief rival Mitt Romney out of the race, McCain is gearing up for the most wide-open presidential election in half a century and the first since 1960 in which a senator will win the White House.
Read more | Save and Share | Trackbacks(0) | Comments(0) | Email to a friend
