News politics 2008-05-22 Andanh.com

NY Gov: Clinton should stop Mich, Fla effort Thu, 22 May 2008 18:50 EDT
New York Gov. David Paterson, a superdelegate who supports Hillary Rodham Clinton, said she's showing "a little desperation" and should give up her effort to count votes from renegade primaries in Michigan and Florida.

Paterson said Thursday that Clinton shouldn't derail the process by which the national Democratic Party stripped Michigan and Florida of their national convention delegates because they moved their primaries up to January in violation of party rules. The rules were agreed to by all the candidates, including Clinton, before she won the two January contests. Because of the violations, no candidates campaigned in either state and her rival Barack Obama took his name off Michigan's ballot.

"I would say at this point we're starting to see a little desperation on the part of a woman I still support and will support until she makes a different determination," Paterson told WAMC-FM radio. "Candidates have to be cautious in their zeal to win that they don't trample on the process."

Paterson said he doubted his home-state senator would get the edge over Obama, even if the two states' votes were counted.

Seating both groups in the way most favorable to Clinton would still leave her trailing Obama in the delegate count, because his lead is now almost 200 delegates.

McCain rejects pastor's endorsement Thu, 22 May 2008 22:06 EDT
Republican John McCain on Thursday rejected endorsements from two influential but controversial televangelists, saying there is no place for their incendiary criticisms of other faiths.

McCain rejected the months-old endorsement of Texas preacher John Hagee after an audio recording surfaced in which the preacher said God sent Adolf Hitler to help Jews reach the promised land. McCain called the comment "crazy and unacceptable."

He later repudiated the support of Rod Parsley, an Ohio preacher who has sharply criticized Islam and called the religion inherently violent.

McCain issued a statement Thursday afternoon announcing his decision about Hagee.

"Obviously, I find these remarks and others deeply offensive and indefensible, and I repudiate them. I did not know of them before Reverend Hagee's endorsement, and I feel I must reject his endorsement as well," he said.

McCain, Obama spar on GI bill Thu, 22 May 2008 21:00 EDT
Republican John McCain, a Vietnam War hero who hopes to be commander in chief, said Thursday that Democrat Barack Obama had no right to accuse him of political posturing on military scholarships because the Illinois senator did not serve in uniform.

"And I will not accept from Senator Obama, who did not feel it was his responsibility to serve our country in uniform, any lectures on my regard for those who did," the Arizona senator said in a harshly worded statement issued Thursday.

At issue is an expansion of the GI bill that would guarantee full college scholarships for those who serve in the military for three years. The Democratic-led Senate on Thursday passed the measure, sponsored by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., and supported by Obama, on a 75-22 vote as 25 Republicans abandoned President Bush, who opposed it.

Obama and his rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, returned to Washington for the vote. McCain stayed in California to campaign and raise money.

McCain opposes the measure, as does the Pentagon, out of concern that providing such a benefit after only three years of service would encourage people to leave the military after only one enlistment even as the U.S. fights two wars and is trying to increase the size of the Army and Marine Corps. McCain said he worries it would reduce the number of noncommissioned officers.

Analysis: Party insider Clinton now on the outs Thu, 22 May 2008 18:35 EDT
After more than a decade as the ultimate Democratic Party insider, Hillary Rodham Clinton finds herself in a strange place: on the outside looking in, beseeching party leaders to help keep her White House bid alive.

In campaign appearances through south Florida, Clinton called out her own party's leadership, urging them to restore national convention delegates to Florida and Michigan. These delegates were stripped from the two states for jumping ahead in the line of primaries in violation of party rules that all the candidates, including Clinton, agreed to before she won the two January contests.

"We're asking the Democratic National Committee to make sure they count all of your votes," she said at a Miami rally Wednesday night.

In years past, the Clintons didn't have to ask the DNC for anything; they just told the committee what to do.

Her husband, after all, was the president. She worked in the White House. Her current campaign chairman, Terry McAuliffe, is an old Clinton friend and fundraiser who once ran the DNC.

Fact Check: Obama's outreach to foes questionable Thu, 22 May 2008 18:24 EDT
Barack Obama's willingness to meet Iranian, Cuban and other hostile leaders who would not get face time from John McCain stands as a distinctive element of his foreign policy.

Distinctive, yes, but clearly defined? Not quite.

Obama's openness early on to meeting Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, without preconditions has given way to equivocation. He said this week he's not sure "Ahmadinejad is the right person to meet with right now" and other figures in Iran have more power.

Nor is it certain lately at what point he, as president, would speak personally with some of the dictators he says should be engaged.

On Thursday, speaking to voters in a Boca Raton, Fla., synagogue, Obama again advocated direct diplomacy with Iran, but without specifying at what level.

Cuban American National Foundation to hear Obama Thu, 22 May 2008 13:00 EDT
The Cuban American National Foundation, once the foremost voice representing the Cuban exile cause in Washington, is hosting a speech Friday by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in a bold move to recapture the group's prominence.

Its founder, Jorge Mas Canosa, long served as a symbol of stalwart anti-Castro sentiment. But since his 1997 death, the group has receded into the cacophony of Cuban-American voices.

The decision to host Obama is a daring move in a community generally more supportive of Republican candidate John McCain and even Obama's Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"Right now, it's a very important chapter in the history of Cuba. We are also at a turning point in our own community," said Francisco Hernandez, the foundation's president and co-founder.

Hernandez said the next president will have a unique opportunity - now that Raul Castro has replaced his brother Fidel as Cuban president - to promote change on the communist nation and is calling on the government to allow private organizations to send money directly to dissidents on the island.

Officials say Obama starts search for running mate Thu, 22 May 2008 17:50 EDT
Likely Democratic nominee Barack Obama has begun a top-secret search for a running mate, fresh signs that the general election campaign is well under way and the primary race against Hillary Rodham Clinton is basically over.

Obama has asked former Fannie Mae CEO Jim Johnson to begin vetting potential vice presidential picks, Democratic officials said Thursday. Johnson did the same job for Democratic nominees John Kerry in 2004 and Walter Mondale in 1984.

Obama refused to acknowledge Johnson's role when The Associated Press asked the Illinois senator about it in the Captiol Thursday.

"I haven't hired him. He's not on retainer. I'm not paying him any money. He is a friend of mine. I know him," Obama said. "I am not commenting on vice presidential matters because I have not won this nomination."

The Democratic officials spoke on a condition of anonymity about a process that the campaign wants to keep quiet.

3 superdelegates say they'll stay neutral in primary Thu, 22 May 2008 06:21 EDT
Even after watching U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's landslide 35-point victory in Tuesday's primary, Kentucky's three sought-after undecided Democratic superdelegates -- including Gov. Steve Beshear -- say they're staying neutral in the presidential primary.

Beshear acknowledged that while Clinton's win in the Bluegrass State was big, the New York Senator faces a "difficult" road to lock up the Democratic nomination.

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama leads Clinton in total Democratic delegates and, after Tuesday's contest in Kentucky and win in Oregon, now holds a majority of delegates that are automatically assigned to a candidate based on results.

"It appears very difficult for her to win in the end," Beshear told the Herald-Leader Wednesday after speaking to a business group in Shelbyville. "But, obviously, it's still -- it's still possible."

Beshear, state Democratic Party Chairman Jennifer Moore and Vice Chairman Nathan Smith will serve as three of Kentucky's nine superdelegates at the Democratic National Convention in August.

Obama promises unshakable support for Israel Thu, 22 May 2008 17:55 EDT
Barack Obama is promising an "unshakable commitment" to Israel if he is elected president.

The Illinois senator also says he hopes his presidency would help improve strained relations between American black and Jewish communities.

The Illinois senator was speaking a town hall meeting at a synagogue in Florida on Thursday.

Democratic presidential candidates didn't campaign in Florida during the primary, but Obama is focusing on the state now that he's close to wrapping up the nomination.

Some Jewish voters are turned off by his willingness to negotiate with countries like Iran and Syria. Others reject Obama because of e-mails spreading false rumors about him.

Senator challenges Lunsford on issues Thu, 22 May 2008 02:04 EDT
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell charged into general election mode by moving to define his opponent and by offering an issues test to his newly minted Democratic challenger, Bruce Lunsford.

McConnell, speaking to reporters on a teleconference the morning after Kentucky's primary election, said he wanted to know how Lunsford, if he were a U.S. senator, would vote on the upcoming national spending bill and his reaction to an 11-year-old budget reduction act. He also said he was curious about Lunsford's position on how to address soaring gasoline prices.

The first volley of issue-based challenges opened what is expected to be contentious, nationally watched campaign between the four-term senator -- one of only two Kentuckians to serve as his party's leader in that chamber -- and Lunsford, a Louisville businessman and entrepreneur.

McConnell predicted Lunsford would "run the most negative campaign Kentuckians have ever seen."

He went on to link Lunsford to U.S. Sen. Barack Obama -- whom McConnell said he expects to be the Democratic presidential candidate -- as well as to Gov. Steve Beshear.

Chinese Dir