Saturday, January 19, 2008

Clinton buoyed by polls and endorsement in Nevada

Dan Glaister in Las Vegas

Hillary Clinton speaks at Citizens of Zion Missionary Baptist church in Compton, California. Photograph: Phil McCarten/Reuters

Hillary Clinton made a final campaign appearance in Las Vegas today before heading out across Nevada in the final hours before Saturday's Democratic caucus.
Buoyed by a poll in one newspaper showing her with a nine-point lead and an endorsement from another paper, Clinton sought to shore up her base by stressing the economic and social themes that have formed the bedrock of her campaign.

Speaking to small business owners and employees at a Las Vegas print shop on Friday morning Clinton assailed President Bush's economic record.

"I want to get back to where we were before President Bush became president," she told the audience packed into a small office, a time, she said, when the budget was balanced and the economy was running a surplus.
Bush was not Clinton's only target, however. She also took a dig at Barack Obama. "My leading opponent the other day said he thought Republicans had the better ideas for the last 10 to 15 years," she said. "That's not how I remember the last 10 to 15 years."

But while supporters held up copies of the Las Vegas Review Journal, which splashed the results of its polling on the front page, showing Clinton on 41%, Obama on 32% and Edwards on 14%, another poll showed the race much tighter in the state.

A Reuters-Zogby poll had Clinton on 42% with Obama closing on her with 37% and Edwards trailing with 12%. The Reuters-Zogby poll was conducted between Tuesday and Thursday, a day later than the Review-Journal poll.

The latter showed Clinton winning by a wide margin among her key Democratic constituencies, women and Latinos. She trailed Obama among men and African-American voters.

In its endorsement of Clinton, the Las Vegas Sun echoed her campaign lines, saying that she had the experience and the resolve needed to defeat the Republicans in November and to lead the country from the first day of her presidency.

"Our country needs someone who can be president from Day One after taking the oath of office. Her steadiness and resolve certainly would aid u sin re-establishing better relations with other nations."

Clinton herself echoed that theme at her Friday morning campaign stop, when asked by a supporter what she planned to do with her husband if she were elected.

"Good question," she remarked, before saying, "I'm excited about the role that my husband can play in repairing relations around the world. We have a lot of repair work to do."

She was due to make three further stops during the day, in Elko and Reno, before returning to the Las Vegas area for a final rally with her husband before the caucuses open on Saturday morning.

Clinton Ad Gets Some Magic

Consider it a bit of advice from one hoops player to another.

In a radio ad for Hillary Rodham Clinton, Earvin "Magic" Johnson, the celebrated Los Angeles Lakers point guard, recalls his first year as professional basketball player.

"We won our first game on a last second shot," he says in the ad, now airing in South Carolina. "I was so hyped. But the captain of my team said, 'take it easy rookie, it's a long season, it's a long road to the championship.' He was right."

Johnson wants South Carolina voters to send the same message to Barack Obama, whose left-handed jump shot and sharp elbows have been known to attract notice in a pickup game.

Of course, it's all a metaphor for the presidency.

"Whether it's winning championships or a president who can lead us back to greatness, I'll always want the most prepared and experienced person leading my team," says Johnson, who has endorsed Clinton and campaigned with her. "That's why I'm asking you to join me in voting for Hillary Clinton for President.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Clinton and Obama Call for Truce Over Dr. King Dispute

By PATRICK HEALY
Published: January 15, 2008

Speaking to black and Hispanic New Yorkers, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton tried on Monday to quell a controversy over race in the fight for the Democratic presidential nomination by praising the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and describing him as a trailblazer for both herself and her rival, Senator Barack Obama.

Mrs. Clinton said President Lyndon B. Johnson had been the shepherd of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, enacting a priority of Dr. King — a comment that Obama supporters and some other people viewed as minimizing Dr. King’s work.

Mrs. Clinton quickly said she had meant no slight, and on Monday she issued a statement proposing a truce. At about the same time, though, a prominent supporter of hers, Representative Charles B. Rangel, Democrat of New York, said in an interview that Mr. Obama was “absolutely stupid” for calling Mrs. Clinton’s original remark ill-advised.

“How race got into this thing is because Obama said ‘race,’ ” Mr. Rangel said on the NY1 cable channel. “I would challenge anybody to belittle the contribution that Dr. King has made to the world, to our country, to civil rights, and the Voting Rights Act. But for him to suggest that Dr. King could have signed that act is absolutely stupid.”

A Clinton adviser said Mr. Rangel was speaking for himself.

Mr. Obama, meanwhile, said at a news conference that Mrs. Clinton had always been “on the right side” of civil rights issues — but in television interviews, he also accused the Clinton campaign of playing up the race issue as “strategy” and of being “silly.” By Monday evening, he urged Democrats to call a truce to avoid dividing the party.

The back and forth came on a day when good-government groups jumped into the fray, criticizing Mrs. Clinton for, they said, appearing to play down the importance of an ethics reform bill Mr. Obama championed.

The campaign day began with Mrs. Clinton’s appearance before members of a service workers union in Manhattan, where she received a tepid reception. The audience, mostly made up of security guards, applauded steadily when she entered — but they did not roar for their hometown candidate, and there were a few scattered boos.

Mrs. Clinton said Dr. King, whose coming birthday observance was the focal point of the labor union event, had made it possible for her and Mr. Obama to be “where we are today,” and she emphasized the importance of Democratic and racial unity.

“We may differ on minor matters,” Mrs. Clinton said of Mr. Obama, “but when it comes to what is really important, we are family. Both Senator Obama and I know that we are where we are today because of leaders like Dr. King and generations of men and women like all of you.”

Mr. Obama, meanwhile, said on a campaign swing through northern Nevada that he was concerned that a heated discussion of racial issues in the presidential campaign could divide the Democratic Party.

“I don’t want the campaign at this stage to degenerate into so much tit for tat, back and forth, that we lose sight of why all of us are doing this,” he said at a news conference. “We’ve got too much at stake at this time in our history to be engaging in this kind of silliness.”

Asked whether he believed that either Mrs. Clinton or former President Bill Clinton had shown racial insensitivity in recent days, Mr. Obama said: “I don’t want to rehash that. I think that Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton have historically and consistently been on the right side of civil rights issues.”

In an interview on the “Charlie Rose Show,” Representative James E. Clyburn, the South Carolina Democrat who was among those raising concern last week about the Clinton comments, urged the candidates to focus on policy issues that can distinguish them and the party.

“People are talking about race versus gender when we ought to be talking about Democrats versus Republicans,” said Mr. Clyburn, who as the Democratic whip is the highest-ranking African-American in Congress.

The good-government groups that criticized Mrs. Clinton took issue with her comments about the ethics reform bill. While she voted for it, she has suggested that the legislation was not a landmark change and that Mr. Obama was hardly alone in championing it.

Fred Wertheimer, president and chief executive of Democracy 21, which promotes campaign finance reform, said the bill contained some of “the most important and comprehensive ethics and lobbying reforms since the Watergate era.”

Meredith McGehee, policy director of the Campaign Legal Center, said: “I think it should be seen as the decent, credible and substantial legislation that it was. It shouldn’t be belittled.”

A Clinton campaign spokesman noted that the bill had been introduced by Senate leaders and that Mrs. Clinton was chiefly questioning the practical effect of a provision limiting meals paid for by lobbyists.

Jeff Zeleny contributed reporting from Nevada, and Michael Falcone from Washington.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Clinton supporters rally in Southfield

By KATHLEEN GRAY

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Even though Sen. Hillary Clinton is the only top tier candidate on the Democratic ballot, her supporters are taking nothing for granted.

About 150 of them gathered in a steamy hotel conference room in Southfield to remind voters that they need to cast their ballots for the New York senator.

“As we’ve gone through tough times in Michigan, Hillary has become the co-chair of the manufacturing caucus in the Senate,” said U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow. “So she gets us, she understands us.”

Gov. Jennifer Granholm, in a poke at Sen. Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards who withdrew their names from Michigan’s ballot, said it’s important to reward the candidate who stayed committed to Michigan.

“All the Democrats signed that darned pledge not to campaign in Michigan,” Granholm said. “But it was Hillary who said she wasn’t going to abandon Michigan. She said ‘I’m going to keep my name on the ballot.’”

Obama and Edwards withdrew their names after Michigan moved its primary election to Jan. 15 in violation of national Democratic Party rules. Supporters of those two candidates can choose to vote “uncommitted.”

Clinton supporters were drumming up support to make sure that their candidate doesn’t end up with an embarrassing showing in Michigan, such as getting fewer votes than “uncommitted.”

That shouldn’t be a problem, said Xavier Lopez-Ayala, a 20-year-old sophomore at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids.

“I can’t tell you how many moderate Republican women ask me for bumper stickers and buttons,” he said. “They’re not going to put them on their car because their husbands won’t let them, but in the privacy of the voting booth, they’re going to vote for Hillary.”

Clinton makes push for Hispanics' support in Nevada

Toe-to-toe fight tries to cool down Obama
By Michael Martinez | Tribune national correspondent

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton rallied Latino voters and leaders Saturday and sought to make a dent in the union endorsements that so far have heavily favored her rival Barack Obama.

Clinton and several Latino leaders chose the headquarters of the Sheet Metal Workers Local 88 to say she understands the growing Hispanic community's political needs. Obama is scheduled to announce Sunday his lineup of supporting Latino leaders in California.

"She can make it happen. We can make it happen. You can make it happen. That's the difference in this election," said Henry Cisneros, a former Cabinet member for President Bill Clinton, Sen. Clinton's husband. "Adelante, Hillary Clinton!" he added, urging her "forward" in Spanish.

In appealing to Hispanics, Clinton, of New York, pledged improvements in education and health care and added that she would seek relief for homeowners at risk of losing their residences in what she labeled the nation's mortgage crisis.

"You're the fastest growing state but you're also the highest foreclosure rate," Clinton said to about 200 Nevada supporters and precinct captains.

Some participants later visited Las Vegas neighborhoods to encourage voters to attend the state's caucuses Saturday.

In one example of how Clinton and Obama are battling in Nevada, one Clinton canvasser, Irma Miller, was working in a North Las Vegas neighborhood when she happened upon a house where two Obama volunteers were already inside.

"The lady answered the door and said, 'Oh, Hillary, Hillary! I'm going to vote for her.' There were two Obama people inside and they got up and left," Miller, 67, a retired travel agent, recounted to a reporter following her and other volunteers, who confirmed the account.

Later, another voter approached by the canvassers, Rosa Montes, said she would vote for Clinton, but Montes added that she was impressed by the thousands of Obama supporters who turned out the night before at Del Sol High School.

"The place was packed. I saw all kinds of people, Hispanic, Asian, white. I thought it would just be African-American people," said Montes, who's Puerto Rican. "I think it's going to be close."

More than 1,000 people were unable Friday night to enter the school gym, which was filled with more than 2,000 people. "We're in a defining moment of our history. Our nation is at war, our planet is at peril. This is our chance," Obama said.

Elsewhere, Obama, of Illinois, is promising health-care reform in an ad running in Arizona that's notable for being his first in a state participating in "Tsunami Tuesday," when more than 20 states will hold primaries or caucuses.

Meanwhile, Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), the highest-ranking African-American in Congress, whose state will hold a Democratic primary later this month, issued a written statement expressing displeasure with the Clintons over comments they have made about the importance of Martin Luther King Jr.'s civil rights movement and Obama's candidacy. In Reno on Saturday, Clinton faulted Obama's campaign for twisting her comments about King.

Clinton was scheduled late Saturday to fly to South Carolina, where rival John Edwards has been campaigning since Wednesday.

"Nobody has to tell me what's happening in South Carolina. I don't jet in here and hold a political event and go back somewhere else. I'm not from Chicago or New York. I'm from South Carolina," Edwards said after a town hall meeting Saturday in Barnwell, S.C.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Clinton fights back to take New Hampshire

· Clinton wins against predictions
· Women voters prove decisive
· McCain wins in Republican race

Ewen MacAskill and Suzanne Goldenberg
Guardian Unlimited

Hillary Clinton waves as she arrives for a visit to a polling site at a school in Concord, New Hampshire. Photograph: Justin Lane/EPA

Hillary Clinton resurrected her campaign for the White House with a win in New Hampshire last night that defied the pollsters and halted Barack Obama's march towards the Democratic nomination.

On the Republican side, there was also a comeback, with John McCain taking first place.

In one of the most unpredictable and exciting contests for years, Clinton overcame a double-digit deficit in opinion polls to squeeze out a narrow victory over Obama.

With almost all the results in, Clinton had captured 39% of the vote and Obama 36%. John Edwards had 17%.

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The significance of the victory, after opinion polls and even Clinton's own advisers expected defeat, was reflected in an unusually emotional speech from the normally self-contained candidate.

"I come tonight with a very full heart. I want especially to thank New Hampshire. Over the last week I listened to you and found my own voice. I want to give America the kind of comeback New Hampshire has given me," she said.

The decisive moment for Clinton appeared to be an encounter in a diner on Monday, in which she came close to tears when talking about the campaign. The clip, which was shown repeatedly on television, revealed a rare vulnerability.

The tight race was all the more resonant because of the Clintons' history in New Hampshire. In 1992, Bill Clinton used his surprising second place finish as a springboard to the nomination calling himself the Comeback Kid.

"This is a huge victory for Hillary. We have stopped the freight train," a Clinton insider said.

Minutes before Clinton made her victory speech, Obama conceded victory and congratulated Clinton.

"I want to congratulate Senator Clinton on a hard fought victory here in New Hampshire. She did an outstanding job; give her a big round of applause," he said.

But he said he was stilled "fired up and ready to go" and that he remained the candidate for change.

"You, all of you who are here tonight, all who put so much heart and soul and work into this campaign, you can be the new majority who can lead this nation out of a long political darkness," he told supporters.

"If we mobilise our voices to challenge the money and influence that stood in our way and challenge ourselves to reach for something better, there is no problem we cannot solve, there is no destiny that we cannot fulfill."

The result marks an astonishing turnaround for Clinton, who seemed almost overwhelmed by the wave of Obama-mania that followed his win in the Iowa caucuses last week.

In the Republican race, McCain celebrated his victory with supporters. "We sure showed the people of this country what a real comeback looks like. We're going to move on to Michigan and South Carolina and win the nomination," he said.

He ran even with Romney among Republicans voters and owes his success to the overwhelming support of independents.

Romney conceded to McCain soon after the television networks called the results. He said he would be fighting on. Third-placed Mike Huckabee claimed a moral victory, saying he had been back in sixth place a few weeks ago.

"I have a great, great friend, who is a highly decorated Marine from Vietnam, and he made a statement once. He said, I've never lost at anything I've done. Sometimes the game ended before I got finished playing."

McCain's win leaves the Republicans with no clear frontrunner.

Exit polls suggested Clinton owed her strong performance to women voters who returned to her camp after drifting away in Iowa. Exit polls showed women voted in greater numbers than men, and Clinton won 46% of their vote against 34% for Obama.

The turnout was also older, according to the exit polls, a demographic which favoured Clinton, who has drawn overwhelming support from middle-aged and retired people.

She also benefited from the residue of affection for her husband. In exit polls, about a third of Democrats said they would have voted for Bill Clinton if they could have.

Clinton is to meet with her inner team today to discuss reshaping her campaign. Earlier yesterday, her strategists were leaning towards directing her energies towards an all-or-nothing focus on Super Tuesday on February 5.

The Clinton camp accepts that her tactic of stressing her experience over Obama had lost out to his message of change. She has since opted to stress that while he is promising change, he cannot deliver it. The campaign team also hopes the US media will subject Obama's life and policies to greater scrutiny, having given him a soft run.

The strategy now is based on the calculation that Clinton will claim victory in next week's primary in Michigan, albeit a potentially hollow one given that she is the only name on the ballot, and hopefully Nevada on January 19, Florida on January 29 and New York, California, Ohio and Texas on February 5. Obama is expected to take his home state, Illinois.

She is banking on winning support from the huge Hispanic population in Florida and California, who, the Clinton campaign claims, do not like Obama because of his stance on illegal immigration. But that strategy could come unstuck because of the nationwide publicity Obama has received since his Iowa win.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Did emotion help Hillary win in New Hampshire?

Clinton scores surprise victory over Obama; McCain comes back to win
By Robert Schroeder & Russ Britt, MarketWatch

Maybe a little show of emotion helped Hillary Clinton after all.

A day after Clinton appeared at a New Hampshire event, her voice cracking with emotion as it appeared she might suffer a double-digit loss to Barack Obama in the state's primary, the former First Lady ended up with a surprise win in the Granite State, narrowly beating her chief rival for the Democratic nomination.

On the verge of tears, Clinton had said at the event on Monday that she took this year's presidential elections personally and said the stakes were high at this point in history. On Tuesday night, that personal theme made another appearance when Clinton gave her victory speech.

"Over the last week, I listened to you," Clinton said as she thanked New Hampshire voters. "And in the process, I found my own voice."

"Let's give America the kind of comeback that New Hampshire has just given me," Clinton later said.

Clinton's surprising victory came just hours after pollsters forecast she would lose to Obama by more than 10 percentage points in the nation's first primary. Political pundits were wondering whether Clinton's chances at the nomination were doomed, but many felt her well-funded effort would continue through the Feb. 5 "Super Tuesday" event in which 20 states would hold primaries and caucuses.

Those same pundits scratched their heads on Wednesday after discovering that an apparent late surge of independent voters helped vault Clinton past Obama as she captured 39% of the vote to his 36%. Polls had given Obama a double-digit lead over Clinton after he had scored a victory over her and former Sen. John Edwards in Iowa caucuses just days before.

Some speculated it may well have been Clinton's show of emotion that helped contributed to that late surge.

"I think that was just a defining moment," said Peter Fenn, a Democratic strategist. "It wasn't phony. She was very genuine."

Along with Clinton, Republican John McCain scored a dramatic victory in New Hampshire, but his victory was predicted as polls showed him ahead. McCain, the Arizona senator who just a few months ago was generally thought to be a non-contender, proved his resiliency and beat out ex-Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney, 37% to 32%. Former Ark. Gov. Mike Huckabee trailed with 11%.

"Tonight we sure showed 'em what a comeback looks like," McCain told supporters in Nashua, N.H.

Granite State voters turned out in record numbers in a contest that was widely seen as a defining test for political veteran Clinton. Edwards came in third in the Democratic race with 17%.

Obama vowed to fight on Tuesday night despite losing to Clinton.
"I am still fired up and ready to go," he told a cheering crowd. "The battle ahead will be long."

"We are ready to take this country in a fundamentally new direction," Obama said.
Key victory for Clinton
Clinton's victory in New Hampshire Tuesday night saved her from a humiliating and widely predicted defeat at the hands of Obama. Her campaign was reeling right up to the first-in-the-nation primary, and analysts said a win by Obama would have sped up the selection of the Democrat's nominee.
Now it looks like the nomination battle in both parties will go on, at least through Feb. 5.

Clinton has "substantial resources, an organization spread across the country and considerable strength in states like California," said Andrew Polsky, a political science professor at Hunter College. Andrews. Plus, she could pull in strong showings in Super Tuesday states like New York and New Jersey on Feb. 5, Polsky said.

In the immediate reaction after the surprising Clinton win, political analysts said there were already signs that Clinton had learned some tough lessons from the past week and was quickly adjusting her campaign style. They noted that former President Bill Clinton was not by her side when she gave her New Hampshire victory speech, that there were more young people surrounding her, and that she called for a change and a new direction.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Tears of a candidate: Clinton's emotions flow

PORTSMOUTH, New Hampshire (AFP) — An exhausted Hillary Clinton fought back tears and her voice trembled with emotion Monday, as the strain of her damaged White House bid welled up and cracked her steely public face.

In one of the few moments in her years on the political stage that her inner feelings have been exposed, Clinton, eyes moist and reddened, was asked by Marianne Pernold, 64, how she managed to keep on going every day.

"It's not easy, and I could not do it if I just didn't passionately believe it was the right thing to do," she said, at the end of a conversation with undecided voters in a coffee shop, a day ahead of the New Hampshire primary.

"I have had so many opportunities from this country, I just don't want us to fall backwards," Clinton said, as her voice dissolved into a whisper.

Then in one of the few insights the campaign has given into Clinton's inner character, she said: "This is very personal for me ... it is not just political ... I see what's happening ... we have to reverse it."

"Some people think elections are a game," said the former first lady, her voice breaking again.

"It is about our country, it is about our kids' futures," she said, in a moment which appeared unscripted and spontaneous.

Later Monday, Clinton mused about the challenges and sacrifices faced on the grueling campaign trail, noting that she had been deeply touched by Pernold's expression of support and concern.

"I actually have emotions. I know there are some people who doubt that. But you know, I really am so touched by what I hear from people," she told CNN later Monday.

"When this woman, this kind woman said to me, 'how are you doing?' it was so touching to me because I am so other-oriented," the former first lady said.

"I'm not good about talking about myself. I don't get up and think about how I'm going to present myself. I think about, okay, what am I going to do today to make a difference in somebody's life," Clinton said.

She added that having a supporter tell her "I want you to be able to go the distance. I want you to be okay ... was very touching to me."

Clinton, who was formerly the runaway frontrunner in national opinion polls but has ceded the lead to Barack Obama in just the past day or so, also revealed frustration about how she often is viewed in the media and by much of the public.

Later, at a Clinton rally in Salem, New Hampshire, there was another bizarre moment, when two men stood up and started shouting "Iron My Shirt!" before they were ushered out by police.

"The remnants of sexism are alive and well," Clinton, who is vying to become America's first woman president, laughed after the protest.

Clinton's tearful moment recalled a notorious teary political moment on the Democratic presidential campaign trail in New Hampshire, when the late Ed Muskie was widely reported to have broken down in tears while defending his wife from political attacks.

Muskie denied he had cried, saying his face was moist because of a snow storm, but the 1972 incident was seen as the moment when his presidential campaign folded under pressure.

Earlier, in an interview with CBS, Clinton expressed determination to battle back against the meltdown of her support base, now under an assault from Obama.

"Whatever happens tomorrow, we're going on," she said of the results of Tuesday's vote. "And we're going to keep going until the end of the process on February 5."

With more than 20 states holding primary votes, February 5 could be the day that the Republican and Democratic White House nominees are decided.