News politics 2008-05-29 Andanh.com

USVI delegate backs Clinton _ again Wed, 28 May 2008 22:15 EDT
He's for Hillary Clinton.

No, he's for Barack Obama.

Wait, Kevin Rodriquez really is for Clinton.

Whichever candidate the U.S. Virgin Islands superdelegate really supports in this tight race for the Democratic presidential nomination, he has become the first Obama superdelegate to switch allegiance.

At least 13 have gone the other way.

Obama considering visit to Iraq this summer Wed, 28 May 2008 23:05 EDT
Barack Obama is considering a visit to Iraq this summer, his first since becoming a presidential candidate.

The Democrat, who has been criticized by Republican rival John McCain for not visiting Iraq since 2006, revealed his plans to The New York Times. He also declined McCain's invitation for a joint trip.

"I just don't want to be involved in a political stunt," Obama said, according to a report on the newspaper's Web site Wednesday.

"I think that if I'm going to Iraq, then I'm there to talk to troops and talk to commanders," he said in the interview. "I'm not there to try to score political points or perform. The work they're doing there is too important."

McCain said he was pleased to hear that Obama was considering making the trip.

McCain, Bush largely similar on nuclear policies Wed, 28 May 2008 21:20 EDT
John McCain's nuclear proposals are largely in line with those of the unpopular President Bush, and even where the two disagree, the Republican presidential candidate has waffled.

Like the president, McCain favors extending arms control deals with Russia, opening strategic nuclear talks with China and pressing on multiple fronts to limit the spread of nuclear arms technologies.

The most notable difference is perhaps the Arizona Republican's declaration that he dreams of seeing nuclear weapons eliminated. Yet even on that point McCain equivocated by also stating in his nuclear policy speech Tuesday that "we must continue to deploy a safe and reliable nuclear deterrent."

McCain seemed to signal that stopping the illicit spread of nuclear arms technology would be more of a priority in his White House than it has under Bush, calling it a "crisis" that cannot be ended by military action alone.

McCain split with Bush by advocating the total withdrawal of U.S. and Russian short-range nuclear weapons in Europe, although the only such U.S. weapons there are a small number of aerial bombs. The vast majority of U.S. tactical nuclear arms in Europe were ordered out by the first President Bush.

The price of a good time at political conventions: $500,000? Wed, 28 May 2008 20:20 EDT
Want a skybox perch to see John McCain speak at the Republican National Convention, passes to hot GOP parties that week, pampering from the concierge and private wheels to tool around town?

Want a chance to mingle with celebrities like Warren Beatty and Al Franken at the Democratic National Convention, and maybe even get face time with Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton?

It's yours, for a price.

Committees raising money for California delegations to the national conventions are asking wealthy donors to make six-figure donations in exchange for VIP-level treatment and seats to witness history. The top-price ticket package: $500,000, to be a "presidential host" at the GOP convention in St. Paul in September.

"We would be honored to have you and your clients participate," a fundraising pitch from the California Democratic Party says. It offers a "convention chair" position for $250,000 that includes dozens of tickets to convention parties and coveted floor passes to see speeches in person.

Music and Candidates: an Uneasy Alliance Wed, 28 May 2008 17:35 EDT
So let's say it's the early 1980s, and you're a rising young musician named John Cougar Mellencamp. You cut a song with a chorus that oozes Jeffersonian democracy and adds a touch of postwar suburban placidity. "Ain't that America - for you and me," you sing in your gravelly Indiana voice. "Ain't that America; we're something to see. Ain't that America: home of the free. Little pink houses for you and me."

Now let's say you're a strategist for Sen. John McCain, Republican candidate for president in 2008. You hear "Pink Houses" 25 years after it was recorded and think to yourself, hey - this is perfect. Let's blast this out at the big guy's rallies and hitch our wagon to Mellencamp's imagery.

That scenario proved problematic when it unfolded earlier this year. First, Mellencamp is a Democrat and activist who has supported John Edwards. He didn't like his work being co-opted and asked McCain to stop. Second, and just as important, "Pink Houses" is an edgy, melancholy song about chances lost and potential wasted:

"'Cause they told me when I was younger, said, 'Boy, you gonna be president.' But just like everything else, those old crazy dreams just kind of came and went."

For someone coveting the White House, that's not exactly staying on message.

Clinton argues that she's the strongest Democratic candidate Wed, 28 May 2008 17:19 EDT
Hillary Clinton's campaign tried again Wednesday to convince Democrats, especially those on the party's rules committee, that she's their strongest candidate this fall, while her rival Barack Obama talked compromise and calm.

Clinton's campaign sent a letter to the party's uncommitted superdelegates, who may have the final say on the nominee, telling them, "When you look at her wins in the important swing states and her strength against (presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John) McCain in head-to-head matchups, there's no question that Hillary is the strongest candidate."

Obama backers scoffed at the notion that Clinton was ahead in the popular vote, or is a better general election candidate. What's important, said campaign manager David Plouffe, is to resolve a dispute over whether and how to seat convention delegates from Florida and Michigan and move on.

"The attention of voters," he said, "is quickly turning to the general election."

Clinton and Obama face four tests beginning Saturday: The rules committee, which will discuss and possibly decide the fate of the disputed convention delegations; Sunday's Puerto Rico primary and the season's last contests Tuesday in South Dakota and Montana.

Obama offers students pointers on public speaking Wed, 28 May 2008 17:04 EDT
Public speaking is tough enough when the audience is just your eighth-grade class. Try doing it as cameras flash, reporters scribble in their notebooks and one of the nation's best orators, Barack Obama, judges you.

The Democratic presidential candidate played critic Wednesday at a Denver-area school as two students made brief classroom presentations on what they'd learned over the last year at the Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts.

Obama praised their brief performances but made sure to offer a little constructive criticism.

Theodore Rodriguez, 13, got high marks for his warm personality but was advised to look at his audience more and make sure to finish his thought before moving on to the next point.

"You got a little nervous. It's understandable. It's not every day you have to speak in front of the national press," Obama said.

Clinton touts electability in South Dakota Thu, 29 May 2008 00:05 EDT
Hillary Rodham Clinton touted her electability before separate audiences Wednesday, saying her wins in swing states and strong vote margins among certain voting blocs give her the best chance of defeating Republican John McCain in November.

Clinton argued her case on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in remote southwest South Dakota while campaign aides in Washington peppered uncommitted superdelegates with data indicating why she should be the Democratic presidential nominee.

"What we have to do is determine who will be the best president and the stronger candidate against Senator McCain," she told a couple hundred residents of the reservation. "I believe I am, and I believe the states I have won and the electoral votes I will win make a very strong argument for that."

To bolster the argument, her campaign sent uncommitted superdelegates a letter, a memo and a compilation of state polling data demonstrating how she would run stronger than Barack Obama - who is closing in on the nomination - in the fall. Among other things, they pointed to her wins in primaries in such swing states as Ohio and West Virginia, and her strong margins among certain voting blocs, such as older women, Hispanics and rural voters.

"I hope you will consider the results of the recent primaries and what they tell us about the mind-set of voters in the key battleground states," Clinton said in the letter. "I hope you will think about the broad and winning coalition of voters I have built."

Beshear issues ethics order Wed, 28 May 2008 06:28 EDT
Though the state legislature this year did not approve changes in ethics law pushed by Gov. Steve Beshear, the Democratic governor signed an executive order Tuesday to initiate some of them.

But Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesvile, called it "glaringly absent" that Beshear did not limit statewide officials from accepting campaign contributions from lobbyists and state contractors -- a move the Republican-led Senate backed this year.

Williams said Beshear, who vetoed the legislature's road plan and intends to present a substitute plan before July 1, has personally solicited owners of road-building companies for campaign contributions "not only for the state but for the national Democratic Party." He did not identify them.

Beshear spokesman Dick Brown dismissed Williams' comment as "ridiculous."

Beshear, who ran last year for governor on a platform of ethics reform, said in a statement, "As Sen. Williams well knows, I supported placing restrictions on contractors donating to the campaigns of constitutional officers as long as those restrictions applied also to the legislative branch. But Sen. Williams obviously did not want to go there.

Chinese Dir