News politics 2008-06-22 Andanh.com

Paul supporters fall short in Montana Sun, 22 Jun 2008 10:25 EDT
Sen. John McCain may be the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, but supporters of Ron Paul in Montana refused to abandon their candidate.

The group led an impassioned fight Friday at the Montana GOP convention, shaking things up in a failed effort to secure the state's 22 national convention delegates for Paul - who suspended his presidential bid earlier this month.

While the battle jazzed up a normally dull delegate selection process, Paul supporters could not muster enough votes to trump McCain's backers. In the end, McCain received all 22 delegates despite a close vote, party officials said.

Earlier in the evening, Paul told the crowd that his support in Montana was the best he had received anywhere.

"Montana's been treating me quite well," he said. "The spirit is alive here."

Ohio Democrats get pro-Obama message Sun, 22 Jun 2008 10:30 EDT
Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland received a standing ovation Saturday night when he predicted the state will again tip the race for the White House - this time, delivering it to Democratic presidential nominee-in-waiting Barack Obama.

Strickland, noting that he had backed Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination, said she would want him to deliver a message.

"Barack Obama is the nominee of our party. He is a bright, committed, energizing young leader," Strickland said at the Ohio Democratic Party's annual dinner. "I met with him yesterday in Chicago and I pledged to him then, as I had previously, that I will work my heart out for him and that Ohio will work her heart out for him."

"Aren't you glad to be a Democrat?" Strickland shouted. "Aren't you really, really, really angry with George W. Bush and Dick Cheney?"

Democratic governors who won election in states that twice backed Bush have lessons to offer Obama, one of those governors said.

Obama raps McCain on flood prevention programs Sun, 22 Jun 2008 18:19 EDT
With communities in the Midwest still under water, Democrat Barack Obama on Saturday criticized Republican John McCain for opposing federal spending on flood prevention programs and opened a new debate in the White House race.

McCain's campaign said Obama was confusing the facts and engaging in typical political attacks that the Democrat rejects in his speeches.

Both candidates have visited the flood zones in the past two weeks, since tornadoes hit and heavy rains sent rivers surging over their banks. At least 24 people were killed, the majority in Iowa.

Obama, an Illinois senator, canceled a visit to eastern Iowa last week at the request of state officials and instead went to fill sandbags in Quincy, Ill. McCain, an Arizona senator, toured flood damage in Iowa Thursday.

"I know that Sen. McCain felt as strongly as I did," Obama said, "feeling enormous sympathy for the victims of the recent flooding. I'm sure they appreciated the sentiment, but they probably would have appreciated it even more if Sen. McCain hadn't opposed legislation to fund levees and flood control programs, which he considers pork."

Today on the presidential campaign trail Sun, 22 Jun 2008 04:09 EDT
IN THE HEADLINES

Democrats say Ohio will tip presidential race in Obama's favor ... Obama criticizes McCain for opposing flood prevention spending ... Show them the money: Clinton has debt, Obama has fall election

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Ohio Democrats get pro-Obama message

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland received a standing ovation when he predicted the state will again tip the race for the White House - this time, delivering it to Democratic presidential nominee-in-waiting Barack Obama.

Analysis: McCain hampered by campaign missteps Sun, 22 Jun 2008 10:20 EDT
Call it campaign growing pains. Or bad luck. Or a combination of the two.

By any name, Sen. John McCain is hampered by missteps and self-generated controversy in the early days of the general election campaign for the White House.

Take his most recent trip through several states and the Canadian capital, a five-day span during which he courted conservatives and independents alike, raised more than $10 million and began detailing his considerable differences with Sen. Barack Obama on energy policy.

Still, on Tuesday, he criticized his rival for proposing a windfall profits tax on the oil industry. The attack was complicated by McCain's earlier statement that he would consider the same thing.

The following day, he met with a group of Hispanics in Chicago. Aides who had kept word of the event secret were placed on the defensive within hours after one participant criticized some of McCain's comments.

Details of May presidential fundraising Sun, 22 Jun 2008 10:20 EDT
Fundraising figures for May as released by the presidential candidates.

DEMOCRAT

BARACK OBAMA

Total receipts to date: $295.52 million, including $10.72 million for general election.

Total contributions to date: $287.5 million.

How Obama could raise $500 million Sat, 21 Jun 2008 02:06 EDT
Get ready for the $500 million presidential campaign.

That's how much money some Democratic strategists think Barack Obama can raise for the fall election now that he has reversed field and decided to opt out of the public financing system that limits the election spending of presidential candidates.

"Raising a half billion dollars is a very realistic figure for him," said Tad Devine, a Democratic strategist and senior adviser to the last two Democratic presidential candidates.

The pace of fund-raising could be staggering. To make the $500 million mark in the remaining 137 days before Nov. 4, the campaign would need to raise $3.6 million a day, including Sundays, all in increments of no more than $2,300 per person, the legal limit for campaign contributions. That's more than $150,000 per hour, more than $2,500 a minute, much of it likely flowing in over the Internet through mouse-clicks and credit card transactions.

In a widely anticipated decision, Obama announced Thursday that his presidential campaign will reject public financing, abandoning an earlier pledge to participate in the system if his Republican challenger agreed to do the same.

GOP frets Barr could play spoiler in prez race Sun, 22 Jun 2008 17:44 EDT
A fiery former GOP congressman who gained national prominence for doggedly pursuing impeachment of President Clinton has some Republicans worried he'll play spoiler in a tight presidential contest.

Bob Barr's Libertarian Party bid for the White House is the longest of long shots, but political experts say he may be able to exploit the unease some die-hard conservatives still feel about Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee-in-waiting. Combined with the surge in turnout among Democrats during the primaries and a difficult political climate for Republicans, they see what could be a recipe for trouble for the GOP.

"Bob could be the Ralph Nader of 2008," said Dan Schnur, a GOP consultant in California who worked on McCain's 2000 campaign but is not involved in this year's contest. Consumer advocate Nader is the third-party candidate many Democrats blame for helping George W. Bush narrowly win in 2000.

Rep. John Linder, a Republican who defeated Barr in 2002 after Georgia's Democratic-controlled Legislature redrew congressional boundaries to put the two lawmakers in the same district, said he didn't think Barr would top 4 percent of the vote.

"But in some states that may be enough," Linder said.

New McCain attacks link Obama, Carter presidency Sat, 21 Jun 2008 02:06 EDT
Jimmy Carter has been among the country's most active retired presidents, but even the peripatetic Georgian might not have anticipated having his name bandied about in a presidential campaign 28 years after leaving the White House.

Sen. John McCain, who will carry the Republican presidential flag in this fall's campaign, has repeatedly invoked the former president's name on the campaign trail, and with it the less-than-stellar memories of his White House years. Some high-profile allies, including Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney, have done so as well.

The goal: linking Barack Obama to Carter, another Democratic newcomer elected on the promise of hope and change but whose presidency was marred by economic turmoil, high energy costs and a foreign policy widely derided as weak.

More subtly, McCain and other Republicans have criticized Carter for his criticism of Israel and meeting with Hamas leaders. This line has allowed the GOP to question Obama's support for Israel as he has struggled to win over some Jewish voters and donors, unnerved by the anti-Semitic views expressed by his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The Illinois senator has disavowed Wright's remarks.

Last week, McCain made the Carter comparison to push back on Obama's oft-stated contention that electing the Arizona senator would be tantamount to another four years for the unpopular President Bush.

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