Hillary Clinton - Our Leader

2009-10-29T16:05:00.001-07:00

Though the credit bureaus must give you free annual reports, their important numbers will cost you. Now 3 sites offer free peeks at those scores, but how helpful are they?

If you're curious about your credit scores, you might have tried one of the plethora of Web sites and services that offer some free credit information, then lure you into paying for your scores, usually as part of a credit-monitoring package.
Weird stuff that hurts your credit

Consumers are entitled by law to free credit reports-- which are simply records of your borrowing and repayment history -- but the numerical scores derived from those reports will cost you, in part because credit-reporting agencies aren't required by law to provide them for free to consumers along with the reports.

Now a handful of company Web sites give consumers at least free glimpses at their credit scores. The sites -- Credit.com, Credit Karma and Quizzle -- offer a window into the key factors that go into calculating your scores, what you can do to improve them and how your credit stacks up against other people's. Last week, for example, Credit.com launched free credit report cards that show consumers how they're likely to rate across five credit-scoring models.

All three sites, which have ties to the credit industry, aim to make money through advertising or through fees if users sign up for products offered on the site, such as credit-monitoring services, credit cards or mortgages.

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2009-06-17T07:04:00.001-07:00

How President McCain Might Have Handled Iran

Days like today are one reason I supported the no-nonsense war hero John McCain over Barack Obama.

After the presidential election in Iran was apparently stolen, thousands of protesters took to the streets. Instead of the United States boldly supporting the cause of liberty, and defending dissidents, President Obama meekly said, "It's not productive given the history of U.S.-Iranian relations to be seen as meddling."

That -- of course -- was not a great moment in leadership.

President John F. Kennedy did not say we would "bear any burden -- so long as we don't interfere." Nor can one imagine Winston Churchill saying, "We will fight on the land -- so long as we don't meddle." Nor can one imagine Ronald Reagan saying "Tear down this wall! -- if you're cool with it..."

If the strongest nation in the free world is not willing to take a stand and at least provide moral support for those willing to risk their lives for liberty, the America I know is long gone. While it is understandable for Obama to not invade a nation over this injustice, it is quite another thing to not even bother to forcefully condemn it. Having a humble foreign policy does not preclude one from moral clarity.

Meanwhile, Republican House Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) released a statement calling on Obama to "take a strong public position in the face of violence and human rights abuses." Cantor added that the United States has a "moral responsibility to lead in opposition to Iran's extreme response to peaceful protests." Cantor's full remarks are here.

We'll never know what President McCain would have said, but it's pretty safe to say that he would have taken a forceful stand -- once again positioning America as a beacon of freedom and the last, best hope on Earth.

Instead, we risk becoming a cynical nation that makes decisions based on perceived short-term diplomatic gain.

That's not change I can believe in.

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Text of President Obama's Inaugural Address

2009-01-20T18:40:00.000-08:00

OBAMA: My fellow citizens:

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because we the people have remained faithful to the ideals of our forebears, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land — a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted — for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.

For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.

Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act — not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions — who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them — that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account — to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day — because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control — and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart — not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our founding fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort — even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West — know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment — a moment that will define a generation — it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends — hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

This is the source of our confidence — the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed — why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

"Let it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet (it)."

America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

2009-01-20 12:09:47

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What if McCain had been elected president

2008-12-24T20:23:00.000-08:00

OPINION

The Flipside of Warren-gate

Before we throw Barack Obama under the bus for giving a prominent role to a conservative pastor, let’s imagine the reaction if things were reversed.

By Chris Crain

What if John McCain had been elected president? I know the idea is a bit of a throwback, considering the shellacking the Arizona septuagenarian got from the Illinois senator with the funny name. But just imagine for a minute.

Conservatives would be gleeful, Sarah Palin would be on cable news 24-7 (actually, that happened anyway), and President-elect McCain would be planning his inauguration. Then imagine, in a conciliatory gesture toward Obama supporters, McCain selects Gene Robinson, the openly gay Episcopal bishop, to give the invocation. In a nod to his own supporters, he chooses the evangelical leader Rick Warren to give the benediction.

We know what the response would be. The Republican right would be furious: What a kick in the teeth from McCain to choose a minister whose elevation was an indictment of their core religious beliefs, and who advocates the destruction of traditional marriage and the murder of millions of aborted fetuses!

Gay rights groups and bloggers, still reeling from Obama’s unexpected defeat, would be cheered by McCain’s unexpected and courageous attempt at reconciliation. Press releases from progressives would defend McCain against charges of betrayal, chastising conservatives for their intolerance and their insistence on dividing, not unifying. Besides, they would point out, the benediction will come from Rick Warren, who opposes gay marriage and supported Proposition 8 in California.

You see where I’m going here? We know that, happily for us, history unfolded in opposite fashion, and Barack Obama chose Rick Warren to give his inaugural invocation, and civil rights hero Joseph Lowery, who supports full marriage equality, to say the benediction.

Yet the response from many gay bloggers and rights groups has been every bit as reactionary and intolerant as the Republican right would have been toward Robinson. Aren’t we better than that?

Can’t we see how any meaningful attempt by President-elect Obama to unify the country must include McCain voters, including the 31 million who bought Warren’s best-seller “The Purpose-Driven Life,” and the additional millions who agree with gay marriage opposition?

Can’t we keep our eyes on the prize? This inauguration will install the most pro-gay president, by far, in the history of this country. If reaching out to conservatives buys Obama some additional political capital, that is to our great benefit.

Aren’t we the ones who have argued till we are blue in the face for the separation of church and state? It’s always been a core part of our movement to oppose any attempt by one set of Americans to demand their religious views receive official favor, or that those with contrary views be excluded.

And yet here we are, basically demanding the president-elect remove one minister from his role in a public ceremony because of his religious beliefs and replace him with one whose beliefs we find more acceptable. Are we proving we are no better, when we have access to power, than our conservative opponents?

The misuse of public ceremonies to show official favor for one group over another runs afoul of the First Amendment’s “establishment clause,” which prohibits the establishment of an official religion, or from sending signals that some faith groups or views are preferred over others by government.

That’s why the courts won’t permit sectarian prayers in public schools, and why we no longer have manger scenes at Christmas time in front of city hall. That’s also why Roy Moore, the virulently anti-gay chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, was booted from office after he insisted on a Ten Commandments monument in the courthouse rotunda.

To be fair, it is partly Obama and Warren’s fault that church and state are entangled here. The president-elect’s decision to include inaugural prayers at all, while noncontroversial and in keeping with tradition, opened the door to this debate. What’s more, marriage as an institution is a conflation of church and state, “vesting power” in ministers to officiate at a religious ceremony with civil legal effect.

Warren makes matters worse by basing his opposition to gay marriage and support for Proposition 8 on his own religious beliefs about homosexuality. If you think about it, exclusionary marriage laws are also contrary to the First Amendment, since the primary intent -- repeated by politicians and pastors alike – is to preserve “the sanctity of marriage.” The government ought not be choosing which faith group’s views about marriage will be enshrined in the law or excluded from public ceremonies.

Those of us so exorcised by the idea of Warren saying a two-minute prayer would be much better served by arguing for church-state separation, in marriage laws and public ceremonies, than by demanding the president-elect show favor to friendlier religious beliefs.

Chris Crain is former editor of the Washington Blade and five other gay publications and now edits GayNewsWatch.com. He can be reached via his blog at www.citizencrain.com

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2008-11-06T21:54:00.000-08:00

By BEN FELLER, AP

Talk about a biting critique of the press.

It seems President Bush's dog Barney wasn't much in the mood for friendly attention during his walk outside the White House on Thursday. So when Reuters reporter Jon Decker reached down to pet the Scottish terrier, the seemingly docile dog snapped at him and bit Decker's right index finger.

Barney won't have to worry about bothersome reporters much longer. The Bush administration ends in 75 days, and the president is headed back to Texas.

Mrs. Bush asked McDonough to call Decker and make sure he was fine. She reports that Decker "is being a good sport about it all."

The intrepid reporter got bandaged up by the White House doctor.
As he says in the YouTube clip: "I got bit by Barney, and unfortunately it broke the skin, and I have to be on antibiotics for next few days."

Consider it a cautionary tale. The incoming president, Barack Obama, has promised to buy daughters Malia and Sasha a puppy.

2008-10-26T15:36:00.001-07:00

3 Tips to Choose the Best Credit Repair Service

By Link Robertson

Many credit repair services make it sound as if all you have to do is pay them and your credit report will be fixed. However this is not true, below is a criteria you should use when choosing a service.

Do Not Pay Large Fees

Many services will charge large upfront fees. Instead look for more standard rates such as $179 for a start up fee and then a monthly fee of $100 or less. Some services will charge per action, I do not suggest this as your fees can add up quickly to more than $100 / month.

Also you should avoid a company that says you must make a large upfront payment, these companies are typically not effective services and are looking to make a quick buck at your expense.

Look For Refunds Not Guarantees

Credit repair can not be guaranteed, esspecially upfront. This is similar to a defense attorney guaranteeing that you will be found innocent of a criminal charge - IT CAN NOT BE DONE

I strongly suggest you avoid any service that make a guarantee, instead look for a refund policy or warranty. Many good services will offer a refund if their service is ineffective or you are not satisfied.

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2008-10-25T19:21:00.000-07:00

Here are some new bumper stickers that are making the rounds. Please print them out and circulate. There is not much time left.

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The money mess Obama or McCain will inherit

2008-09-23T10:39:00.001-07:00

The next president's domestic policy cake has already been baked.

The next president’s foreign policy and defense script has long since been written.

To simplify only slightly, it consists of winding down Iraq, declawing Iran and Hugo Chavez, and keeping Russia calm.

And now, after a scary and tumultuous fortnight of economic woes and corporate bailouts, his domestic narrative has also been outlined. And global credit markets, the Bush administration and Congress are holding the pen.

For the president-elect, this will consist largely of navigating the vast and bewildering new economic world order created by Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke.

Unprecedented presidential inheritance

Of course, new administrations always deal with the consequences of the previous one, but this kind of thing has never happened.

Who is Henry Paulson?

Sept. 22: Fearing he wouldn't have much influence, Henry Paulson had to be talked into becoming Treasury Secretary two years ago. Now he's putting his stamp on the entire global economy. NBC's Pete Williams reports.

Imagine if Herbert Hoover had constructed the New Deal just before turning it over to Franklin Roosevelt. Or if James Buchanan had declared war on the South before Abe Lincoln took the oath.

No wonder Barack Obama has said that, if he wins, he’ll keep Paulson in power at least through the transition. Obama will need the treasury secretary to explain this new system he’s supposed to run.

Indeed, Paulson has been on the phone almost every day with both Obama and John McCain.

It’s more than a courtesy. In a sense, a new administration already is in office. These days, George W. Bush rarely emerges from the West Wing.

The new economic machine
And what is the new machine that Obama or McCain will inherit?

Think of it as the world’s largest government-run “sovereign wealth fund.”

Economic decision-making in America is now fully in the hands of bureaucrats. And they don’t have the independent power Americans once had.

While no one can go it alone in a globalized world, we have lost the power acquired — and ultimately abused — after World War II to set the terms of trade.

Until recently, we could afford to make fun of Brussels. Now we are Brussels, with its hive of bureaucrats. Ours is located in Washington.

New York — the city of Alexander Hamilton, J.P. Morgan and the Rockefellers — has now ceased to be the capitol of capital.

What it means for the president-elect

Our greed, folly and ineptitude are to blame. So is a willful refusal to acknowledge that there is no free lunch and that what goes up must come down. We have officially ruined what it took us a hundred years to build: the credibility of Wall Street and dollar-centric commerce.

This is the reality that Obama or McCain will have to deal with.

That means higher taxes, lower spending and a scaling back of grand plans. It means a new realism and a long slog into the future.

The main task of the next president is already set. He’s got to make the act of digging out sound exciting. We’ve done it before. All it takes is leadership.

Another Lincoln or FDR will do.

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2008-08-26T10:21:00.001-07:00

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2008-07-26T09:58:00.001-07:00

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2008-07-26T08:59:00.001-07:00

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Hillary paved way for women

2008-06-16T17:19:00.000-07:00

When Hillary Clinton announced her presidential candidacy in January 2007, she did everything to downplay her gender short of dressing herself in men's clothes. In a taped video, with no audience and no family members, she presented herself first and foremost as a senator and experienced Washington hand, ready to fight for Democratic goals and unintimidated by threats from the GOP.

"We will make history and remake our future," she said, but she left it to others to note that she was, by far, the most serious female candidate either party had considered sending forth as its contender for the White House.

In the long and difficult campaign that followed, the support Clinton enjoyed from other women was probably the single greatest source of her strength. Women staffed her campaign headquarters from her first victory in New Hampshire to her last one in South Dakota, and women provided most of the votes she received. Yet even as they rallied behind her, she steadfastly refused to cast her candidacy in gender terms.

Which made it all the more striking that, when her dogged challenge to Barack Obama finally came to an end, and she had to put it all in perspective, she defined her race — and its long-term influence — in such strikingly feminist terms.

"I ran as a daughter who benefited from opportunities my mother never dreamed of," Clinton said. "I ran as a mother who worries about my daughter's future and a mother who wants to leave all children brighter tomorrows. To build that future I see, we must make sure that women and men alike understand the struggles of their grandmothers and their mothers, and that women enjoy equal opportunities, equal pay and equal respect. Let us resolve and work toward achieving very simple propositions: There are no acceptable limits and there are no acceptable prejudices in the 21st century."

Seeking enlightenment on what had turned Clinton in this unexpected direction for her valedictory, I turned to Ann Lewis, the veteran Clinton political aide and longtime friend of hers.

"It's always who Hillary has been," she said, "but it became more important to acknowledge it explicitly, as she saw the reaction of her women supporters to the level of sexism and hostility to a woman running that was part of the standard media. We have achieved a lot, but we have to acknowledge what we've learned the hard way."

Lewis was referring to the list of grievances compiled by pro-Clinton women with some of the cable television, network and print journalists who covered the campaign. Like every other reporter on the hustings, I heard these complaints — and thought some were legitimate. For Clinton, apparently, it is important that they be acknowledged.

Being Clinton, the candidate is unbowed. She has not allowed herself to indulge the self-pity or voice the bitterness heard too often from her husband. She fell a couple hundred delegate votes short of wresting the nomination from Obama, but, she said, look at what she did achieve. If people still wonder, "Could a woman really serve as commander in chief? Well, I think we answered that one."

In the future, she said, "it will be unremarkable for a woman to win primary state victories, unremarkable to have a woman in a close race to be our nominee, unremarkable to think that a woman can be the president of the United States. And that is truly remarkable."

It truly is. And whatever the fates have in store for this woman, in 2012 or any other year, it is certain that this campaign will be seen as a major step forward for her — and for other women. With Ted Kennedy's illness, she has no rival as the most influential Democrat on Capitol Hill.

She came closer to breaking the White House barrier than any woman in history. Some day, she or someone else will go all the way.

Whoever that is will owe Clinton's 2008 run a huge debt.

David Broder's e-mail address is davidbroder@washpost.com.

Clinton wins big in West Virginia primary

2008-05-15T05:44:00.000-07:00

Obama loses by wide margin, but he adds more superdelegates

Clinton: ‘I’m more determined than ever’

May 13: Sen. Hillary Clinton tells supporters her victory in the West Virginia primary has made her more determined to stay in the race and that her campaign is “in the home stretch.”

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton coasted to a large victory in West Virginia on Tuesday, handing Barack Obama one of his worst defeats of the campaign yet scarcely slowing his march toward the Democratic presidential nomination.

"The White House is won in the swing states. And I am winning the swing states," Clinton told cheering supporters at a victory rally late Tuesday.

Clinton, who was winning the state by more than a 2-to-1 ratio, coupled praise with Obama with a pledge to persevere in a campaign in which she has become the decided underdog.

“I am more determined than ever to carry on this campaign, until everyone has had a chance to make their voices heard,” she said.

As in previous contests, she made another plea for donations to overcome the large fund-raising advantage that Obama has.

Despite the size of her victory, it did not threaten Obama's lead in the race for the nomination. He conceded defeat in advance in the state, looking ahead to the Oregon primary later in the month and the campaign against John McCain.

"This is our chance to build a new majority of Democrats and independents and Republicans who know that four more years of George Bush just won't do," he said at a campaign appearance in Missouri, which looms as a battleground state in the fall.

"This is our moment to turn the page on the divisions and distractions that pass for politics in Washington," added the man seeking to become the fist black presidential nominee of a major party.

Electorate was 95 percent white

Interviews with West Virginians leaving their polling places suggested Clinton's victory could be as overwhelming as any she has gained to date, delivered by an electorate that was 95 percent white and was composed of the kinds of voters who favored her in past primaries. Nearly a quarter were 60 or older, and a similar number had no education beyond high school. More than half were in families with incomes of $50,000 or less.

The exit polls showed race, education, Obama's former pastor and a plan for a summertime suspension of federal gas taxes all gave Clinton a huge advantage in the state's presidential primary.

Three-fourths of whites without college degrees were backing Clinton. They've favored the former first lady all year and were crucial Tuesday because they were nearly two-thirds of the state's voters.

Most also said Obama shares the views of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who has been criticized for incendiary speeches, and favored the gas tax plan that Clinton supports and Obama opposes. Big majorities of both groups backed Clinton. Clinton's aides contended that her strength with blue-collar voters — already demonstrated in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana — made her the more electable candidate in the fall.

Even before the polls closed, spokesman Mo Elleithee said the primary showed voters "don't want to be told that this thing is over. The people of West Virginia rejected the rush to call this thing over. They sent a very clear message tonight that Hillary Clinton is the best person to take on John McCain in the fall."

Obama retains big delegate lead

Clinton won at least 16 of the 28 delegates at stake in West Virginia and Obama won at least seven, with five more to be allocated.

That left Obama with 1,882.5 delegates, to 1,713 for Clinton, out of 2,026 needed to clinch the nomination at the party convention in Denver this summer. The Democratic win on Tuesday in a Mississippi special election increased by one the number of delegates needed to win the nomination.

NBC's national delegate count currently stands at 1,426 for Clinton and 1,591 for Obama. NBC’s estimated superdelegate count stands at 276 for Clinton and 283 for Obama.

[There are differences in how news organizations count delegates, how they award superdelegates, how they account for states that have held caucuses but have not yet chosen their delegates, and how they project the apportionment of delegates within Congressional districts where the vote was close. The Associated Press and NBC news conduct separate delegate counts.]

Clinton's aides contended that her strength with blue-collar voters — already demonstrated in primaries in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana — makes her the more electable candidate in the fall.

Demographics tell the story

Highly favorable demographics helped Clinton rack up one of her largest victory margins of the 2008 Democratic primary season in West Virginia. The exit polls recorded several demographic extremes among groups with a strong history of solidly backing Clinton:

- Roughly 95 percent of Democratic voters were white. Only the Democratic primaries in New Hampshire and Vermont and Democratic caucuses in Iowa had that high a proportion of white voters this year.

- It was the electorate with the highest proportion -- seven in 10 -- of people who lack a college degree. The same held true for whites without a college degree.

- Half of voters were from rural areas, second only to Vermont for rural voters in Democratic primaries this year (though Vermont did go for Obama nevertheless).

- And the West Virginia electorate was among the bottom five Democratic primaries in terms of income, with around 55 percent reporting 2007 family income of less than $50,000.

The Bill Clinton Factor

Three quarters of Hillary Rodham Clinton voters said Bill Clinton's campaigning was important to their vote. More than half of Barack Obama voters said the former president's campaigning was of little or no importance.

The Rev. Wright Factor

Two in 10 voters said Obama shares the views of his fiery former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, "a lot" and three in 10 said Obama shares Wright's views "somewhat." Nearly a quarter said Obama shares Wright's views "not much" and a quarter said the candidate doesn't share his one-time preacher's views at all.

Gas tax holiday

Seven in 10 Clinton voters supported her idea to suspend the federal gas tax for the summer. Obama opposes the plan and a little more than half of his voters called it a bad idea.

Economic worries

More than six in 10 voters picked the economy from three choices as the most important issue facing the country. About one in five picked the Iraq war.
Clinton voters were more likely than Obama backers to say the economy was hurting their families a lot. Half of Clinton voters said the current recession or economic slowdown has affected them and their families a great deal. About three in 10 Obama voters said the slowdown has affected them a great deal and more than half said it affected them somewhat.

Race, gender as voting factors

One in four Clinton voters and about one in 10 Obama voters said race was an important factor in their vote.

About one in five Clinton voters said gender was an important factor in their vote. Nearly as many Obama voters said that.

Change vs. experience

As in earlier primaries, most Obama voters said the candidate quality that mattered most to their vote was that he can bring about needed change -- a signature of his campaign. A third of Clinton voters cited experience but as many picked change.

Unfair campaigning

As in other states, West Virginia Democratic primary voters were more likely to accuse Clinton than Obama of unfair campaigning. Even half of Clinton's own voters said she campaigned unfairly, as did three-quarters of Obama backers. Three in 10 Obama voters said their own candidate campaigned unfairly while more than half of them said Clinton hit below the belt.

Commander in chief

About one in 10 Obama voters acknowledged Clinton as more qualified to be commander in chief. Very few Clinton voters said that of Obama.

... And looking ahead to November
Barely a third of Clinton supporters say they'd vote for Obama over John McCain in a November matchup. As many claim they'd vote for Republican John McCain and a quarter said they would not vote for president. If that horse race were Clinton vs. McCain, half of Obama backers say they'd vote for Clinton, about three in 10 say they'd back McCain and the rest would stay home.

In her speech Tuesday night, Clinton said, "I deeply admire Senator Obama," but she added, "our case is stronger." She said she had won roughly 17 million votes in the primaries and caucuses to date.

Obama also narrowly won Nebraska's nonbinding primary. He had won the state's caucuses earlier in the year and with them, a majority of its delegates.

Clinton arranged a meeting with superdelegates for Wednesday. About 250 of them remain publicly uncommitted.

Clinton used her victory speech to again argue that she still had a shot at the nomination. She said the delegates from Michigan and Florida — states that were penalized by the Democratic Party because they held their primaries too early — should be seated at the national convention.

“I believe we should honor the votes cast by 2.3 million people in those states," Clinton said.

"In light of our overwhelming victory here in West Virginia, I want to send a message to all those who are making up their minds," she said.

"I am in this race because I believe I am the strongest candidate."

The delegate tally aside, the former first lady struggled to overcome an emerging Democratic consensus that Obama effectively wrapped up the nomination last week with a victory in the North Carolina primary and a narrow loss in Indiana.

He picked up four superdelegates during the day, including Roy Romer, former Democratic Party chairman.

"This race, I believe, is over," Romer told reporters on a conference call. He said only Clinton can decide when to withdraw, but he added: "There is a time we need to end it and direct ourselves to the general election. I think that time is now."

Meeting on Senate floor

Clinton and Obama briefly shook hands on the Senate floor Tuesday after interrupting their campaigns for a few hours to vote on energy-related bills.

In the days since, close to 30 superdelegates have swung behind Obama, evidence that party officials are beginning to coalesce around the first-term Illinois senator who is seeking to become the first black to win a major party presidential nomination. Three of his new supporters formerly backed Clinton, who surrendered her lead in superdelegates late last week for the first time since the campaign began.

In his appearance in Cape Girardeau, Mo., Obama sketched the case against McCain. "For two decades, he has supported policies that have shifted the burden onto working people. And his only answer to the problems created by George Bush's policies is to give them another four years to fail," he said.

Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for McCain, said in response that Obama's rhetoric showed "more of the same negative, partisan politics that have paralyzed Washington for too long. Barack Obama talks about change and bipartisanship, but he has never showed the leadership needed to bridge party divides."

Clinton had spent parts of several days campaigning in West Virginia in search of victory.

She refrained from criticizing Obama directly, but had a cautionary word nonetheless for party leaders who seemed eager to pivot to the fall campaign. "I keep telling people, no Democrat has won the White House since 1916 without winning West Virginia," she said at Tudor's Biscuit World in the state's capital city.

Looking toward the fall

Obama was in the state on Monday, but it was clear he was looking beyond the primary.

He said several days ago he expected Clinton to win by significant margins in West Virginia and then in Kentucky, which holds its primary next week. And on Monday, he tried to set the bar of expectations exceedingly low for himself, suggesting that anything above 20 percent would constitute a good showing in West Virginia.

He devoted more time to Oregon, which also holds a primary next week, and announced plans to campaign in several other states that loom as battlegrounds in the fall against McCain.

Among them are Florida and Michigan, two states that held early primaries in defiance of national Democratic Party rules. The two combined have 44 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House, and Obama has not yet campaigned in either.

Obama also broke from his usual practice by wearing a flag pin on his suit jacket. He told several thousand people at the Charleston Civic Center that patriotism means more than saluting flags and holding parades.

Clinton says she's only one with war plan

2008-04-12T12:08:00.000-07:00

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., says she's the only presidential candidate offering a real plan to end the war in Iraq.

(Link to Source Article)

Stumping in Pennsylvania, Clinton took aim at both presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Democratic competitor, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

"One candidate will continue the war, one candidate only says he'll end the war, and one candidate is ready, willing and able to end the war," she said.

Clinton said Obama "says he'll end the war" while his top foreign policy adviser -- no longer with the campaign -- indicated he wouldn't necessarily follow the plan outlined on the campaign trail.

"(You) can count on me to end the war safely and responsibly," Clinton said.

Clinton called on President George Bush to answer questions she said were ignored during testimony by Army Gen. David Petraeus.

"I asked General Petraeus for the conditions under which he would actually support a change of course in Iraq and to begin a drawdown of our troops, given that the surge has failed to achieve its stated goal of political reconciliation among the Iraqis," she said. "Well, he didn't really answer me."

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Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama face off in crucial Texas and Ohio primaries

2008-03-05T15:16:00.000-08:00

By Alex Spillius in San Antonio, Texas

Voters in four US states today decide if Barack Obama will represent the Democratic Party in November's presidential election or if Hillary Clinton will live to fight another day in their epic struggle for the nomination.

The former First Lady refused to rule herself out, while her aides forecast that they would achieve good enough result in Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont to keep going.

If Hillary Clinton loses Texas and Ohio, she will face pressure from senior party figures to step aside

Asked what she would do tomorrow if she lost, she told reporters: "I don't think like that. We're working hard. We think we're going to do really well here in Texas and in Ohio."

The latest polls showed the New York senator has stopped her young challenger's advance, with neither candidate having a lead greater than the four per cent statistical margin of error in either Texas or Ohio, the states which matter most.

A cautious-sounding Mr Obama told reporters on his campaign plane that he thought the race would be "very, very tight".

"We started 20 points behind in Texas and Ohio," he said on the flight from Houston to San Antonio.

"We've closed the gap but whether it's going to be enough to actually win is going to depend on what turnout looks like in both states."

"What my head tells me is we've got a very sizable delegate lead that is going to be hard to overcome," he added.

After 11 straight victories, the Illinois senator had the momentum and led in the contest for delegates who appoint the nominee chase by 1,386 to 1,276, according to a count by the Associated Press.

It takes 2,025 delegates to win the Democratic nomination, and 370 are up for grabs today, the vast majority in Texas and Ohio.

If she loses both, Mrs Clinton will face pressure from senior party figures to step aside, and let Mr Obama become the first black American presidential nominee.

Even former President Bill Clinton has said his wife must win both those major states to continue in the race, but advisers are now suggesting that one victory and a narrow loss might be sufficient justification.

Voters in four US states today decide if Barack Obama will represent the Democratic Party in November's presidential election or if Hillary Clinton will live to fight another day in their epic struggle for the nomination.

If Hillary Clinton loses Texas and Ohio, she will face pressure from senior party figures to step aside

Asked what she would do tomorrow if she lost, she told reporters: "I don't think like that. We're working hard. We think we're going to do really well here in Texas and in Ohio."

The latest polls showed the New York senator has stopped her young challenger's advance, with neither candidate having a lead greater than the four per cent statistical margin of error in either Texas or Ohio, the states which matter most.

A cautious-sounding Mr Obama told reporters on his campaign plane that he thought the race would be "very, very tight".

"We started 20 points behind in Texas and Ohio," he said on the flight from Houston to San Antonio.

"We've closed the gap but whether it's going to be enough to actually win is going to depend on what turnout looks like in both states."

"What my head tells me is we've got a very sizable delegate lead that is going to be hard to overcome," he added.

After 11 straight victories, the Illinois senator had the momentum and led in the contest for delegates who appoint the nominee chase by 1,386 to 1,276, according to a count by the Associated Press.

It takes 2,025 delegates to win the Democratic nomination, and 370 are up for grabs today, the vast majority in Texas and Ohio.

If she loses both, Mrs Clinton will face pressure from senior party figures to step aside, and let Mr Obama become the first black American presidential nominee.

Even former President Bill Clinton has said his wife must win both those major states to continue in the race, but advisers are now suggesting that one victory and a narrow loss might be sufficient justification.

Meanwhile John McCain was hoping to secure the Republican nomination, needing to win a further 177 delegates out of the 256 available in contests in the same four states.

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Clinton Goes After Obama on Health Care

2008-02-25T12:48:00.000-08:00

From CBS News' Fernando Suarez:

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- During her first official campaign visit to Rhode Island, Hillary Clinton continued to criticize Barack Obama, taking aim at his experience and hitting him hard on his health care plan.

“Of all of our differences, the one that is just inexplicable is his refusal to put forth a plan for universal health care and his continuing attacks on my plan to do so," she said. "Senator Obama says one thing in speeches and his campaign does something else.”

“I don’t understand how someone can want to be our Democratic nominee and not be committed to universal health care," Clinton said.

“John Edwards had a plan, I had a plan, Chris Dodd had a plan, Dennis Kucinich had a plan, Bill Richardson had a plan, because we’re Democrats we stand for the principle that every single person should have quality affordable health care!”

Clinton’s comments come one day after she accused Obama and his campaign of purposefully sending out mailings that distort Clinton’s health care plan. A visibly angry Clinton scolded Obama yesterday saying “Shame on you, Barack Obama” for putting out the mailings.

Clinton, who spoke before a crowd of several thousand supporters at Rhode Island College, continued hammering away the point that Obama lacks the experience to be commander-in-chief on “day one.”

“The next president will walk in there and before the day is out will have to start tackling these big problems.” Clinton went on to mention the recent problems in Pakistan, Cuba and the turmoil in Serbia saying all those problems happened in just “one week, and our president needs to be able to handle each and every one of those.”

Clinton warned that voters in Rhode Island should be careful when choosing the next president, reminding them that it has been a while since the United States elected a wartime president.

“We haven’t had many wartime elections. And I think it is important that we do not lose sight of what it means to be a electing a president in the midst of not just one, but two wars,” Clinton said drawing applause form the crowd.

Clinton added, “None of the problems we face will be easily solved. I can stand up here and say, ‘Let’s get everybody together, let's get unified, the sky will open, the light will come down, celestial choirs will be singing and everyone will know we should do the right thing and the world will be perfect.' Maybe I’ve just lived a little long, but I have no illusions how hard this thing is going to be. You are not going to waive a magic wand and have special interest disappear.”

Before arriving to Rhode Island, Clinton decided to visit with the press cabin aboard her campaign plane after some eager photographers took to decorating the rear of the aircraft with balloons and other campaign paraphernalia.

"I actually came back to see the photogs and the camera guys. I wanted to get a little time with them," Clinton said cutting off questions from reporters who stopped Clinton on her way.

Clinton was asked about form Green Party and Reform Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader joining in the current 2008 race to which Clinton said, "Obviously it is not helpful to who our Democratic nominee is. But its a free country and I don't know what party he will run on ... his being on the Green Party prevented Al Gore from being the greenest president we could ever have and I think that was really unfortunate."

Clinton soldiers on, into a darkening horizon

2008-02-23T22:17:00.000-08:00

To her longtime friends, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton sounds unusually philosophical on the phone these days. She rarely uses phrases like “when I’m president” anymore. Somber at times, determined at others, she talks to aides and confidants about the importance of focusing on a good day’s work. No drapes are being measured in her mind’s eye, they say.

And Mrs. Clinton has begun thanking some of her major supporters for helping her run for the Democratic presidential nomination.

“When this is all over, I’m really looking forward to seeing you,” she told one of those supporters by phone the other day.

Mrs. Clinton has not given up, in her head or her heart, her quest to return to the White House, advisers say. But as resolute as she is, she no longer exudes the supreme confidence that was her trademark before the first defeat, in Iowa in January. And then there were more humbling blows, aides say: replacing her campaign manager on Feb. 10, then losing the Wisconsin primary and her hold on the women’s vote there last Tuesday.

Cold, hard political realism

If she is not temperamentally suited to reckon with the possibility of losing quite yet, advisers say, she is also a cold, hard realist about politics — at some point, she is known to say, someone will win and someone will not.

“She has a real military discipline that, now that times are tough, has really kicked into gear,” said Judith Hope , a friend and informal adviser to Mrs. Clinton, and a former chairwoman of the New York State Democratic Party. “When she’s on the road and someone has a negative news story, she says, ‘I don’t want to hear it; I don’t need to hear it.’ I think she wants to protect herself from that and stay focused.

“That said, she knows that there will be an end,” Ms. Hope said. “She is a very smart woman.”

Over take-out meals and late-night drinks, some regrets and recriminations have set in, and top aides have begun to face up to the campaign’s possible end after the Texas and Ohio primaries on March 4. Engaging in hindsight, several advisers have now concluded that they were not smart to use former President Bill Clinton as much as they did, that “his presence, aura and legacy caused national fatigue with the Clintons,” in the words of one senior adviser who spoke on condition of anonymity to assess the campaign candidly.

The campaign’s chief strategist, Mark Penn, and its communications director, Howard Wolfson , have expressed frustration with the difficulty of “running against a phenomenon” in Senator Barack Obama ; their attacks have not stopped Mr. Obama from winning the last 11 contests. Some aides said Mr. Penn and the former campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, had conceived and executed a terribly flawed campaign, something Ms. Solis Doyle disputes. Both she and Mr. Penn have been especially criticized as not planning a political strategy to compete in the primaries after Feb. 5.

“I do believe we built a good organization — 700 people, $100 million, nationwide offices, and a strong base of support and endorsements that helped us win big states like California and New Jersey,” Ms. Solis Doyle said in an interview. “Every time people have written us off, like after Iowa, we’ve come back.”

Comeback less likely?

There is a widespread feeling among donors and some advisers, though, that a comeback this time may be improbable. Her advisers said internal polls showed a very tough race to win the Texas primary — a contest that no less than Mr. Clinton has said is a “must win.” And while advisers are drawing some hope from Mrs. Clinton’s indefatigable nature, some are burning out.

Morale is low. After 13 months of dawn-to-dark seven-day weeks, the staff is exhausted. Some have taken to going home early — 9 p.m. — turning off their BlackBerrys, and polishing off bottles of wine, several senior staff members said.

Some advisers have been heard yelling at close friends and colleagues. In a much-reported incident, Mr. Penn and the campaign advertising chief, Mandy Grunwald, had a screaming match over strategy recently that prompted another senior aide, Guy Cecil, to leave the room. “I have work to do — you’re acting like kids,” Mr. Cecil said, according to three people in the room.

Others have taken several days off, despite it being crunch time. Some have grown depressed, be it over Mr. Obama’s momentum, the attacks on the campaign’s management from outside critics or their view that the news media has been much rougher on Mrs. Clinton than on Mr. Obama.

And some of her major fund-raisers have begun playing down their roles, asking reporters to refer to them simply as “donors,” to try to rein in their image as unfailingly loyal to the Clintons.

Clinton's Wisconsin goal today: make up lost time

2008-02-19T16:03:00.001-08:00

Sen. Hillary Clinton greets voters following a rally at St. Norbert College February 18, 2008 in De Pere, Wisconsin on primary eve. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

by Rick Pearson

DE PERE, Wis.—They say that there’s no do-overs in politics, but that’s exactly what Hillary Clinton is trying to do today—redoing a series of appearances originally scheduled for Sunday but canceled due to ice and snowy weather.

As light snow began to grow heavier shortly before 7 a.m. in Milwaukee, the New York senator embarked on a President’s Day campaign schedule that is supposed to trek from near Green Bay to Wausau to Eau Claire and on to Madison.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. By the time she took the stage at St. Norbert College outside Green Bay, she had originally figured to be campaigning in Ohio instead.

In Wisconsin, the Clinton campaign is hoping to at least finish competitive with rival Sen. Barack Obama in the ever-crucial convention nominating delegate count, if not pull off an upset in the Illinois senator’s neighboring state.

Clinton, seeking to acquire a populist-economic mantle previously held by former contender John Edwards, also is borrowing from the former North Carolina senator’s campaign playbook.

Clinton today unveiled “Solutions for America,” Clinton’s “economic blueprint for the 21st Century,” a compendium of previously stated positions on trade, economic policy and the home foreclosure crisis.

Clinton Shifts to Texas; Aide Exits

2008-02-13T09:28:00.001-08:00

Amy Chozick reports on the presidential race from El Paso, Texas.

Supporters greet Clinton at a campaign stop in El Paso, Texas, on Tuesday night. Photo: Associated Press

Hillary Clinton’s deputy campaign manager resigned today as part of a wider shakeup inside the campaign that began Sunday when campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle was replaced.

In an email sent to staff today, Mike Henry resigned, saying that the campaign needs to move quickly to build a new leadership team. Henry was hired by Solis Doyle and had been involved in early strategy decisions. He became known for a leaked memo he sent early in the campaign that suggested that Clinton skip the Iowa caucus.

“As someone who has managed campaigns, I share the unique understanding of the challenges that the campaign will face over the next several weeks,” Henry said in the email.

The news came just as Clinton fell behind rival Barack Obama in the states and Washington, D.C., that held contests today. With 74% of the votes counted in Virginia, Obama had 63% to Clinton’s 36%. Obama is also the projected winner in Maryland and Washington, D.C.

Clinton didn’t stick around the Potomac area for the results to come in. Instead, she hopped an afternoon flight to Texas where she held a rally at the University of Texas in El Paso. The Clinton campaign has made the strategic decision to focus its efforts on winning delegate-rich Texas and Ohio, which go to the polls on March 4.

“I want to make sure every American who works hard has a minimum wage of at least $9.50,” she told the roaring crowd of more than 12,000 mostly Hispanic voters, shrugging off tonight’s results.

at 9:22 AM 0 comments

2008-01-19T13:03:00.000-08:00

Clinton buoyed by polls and endorsement in Nevada

2008-01-19T13:02:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-19T13:01:00.001-08:00

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.

2008-01-15T05:18:00.001-08:00

Clinton and Obama Call for Truce Over Dr. King Dispute

2008-01-15T05:16:00.001-08:00

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.

2008-01-13T13:54:00.001-08:00

Clinton supporters rally in Southfield

2008-01-13T13:53:00.001-08:00

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

2008-01-13T13:51:00.001-08:00

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.

2008-01-10T05:25:00.000-08:00

Clinton fights back to take New Hampshire

2008-01-10T05:22:00.000-08:00

· 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.

Did emotion help Hillary win in New Hampshire?

2008-01-09T08:04:00.000-08:00

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.

2008-01-08T07:19:00.000-08:00

Tears of a candidate: Clinton's emotions flow

2008-01-08T07:12:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-12-29T17:06:00.000-08:00

The Humanity of Hillary

2007-12-29T16:41:00.000-08:00

The Humanity of Hillary

By: Joe Klein

It is probably no accident that reality TV came into vogue just as Bill and Hillary Clinton were leaving the White House: something had to fill the void. The Clintons anticipated Survivor. Each week they faced daunting challenges and terrible embarrassments, and everyone waited to see if they would be kicked off the island. In the end, they survived--tarnished but still together, quasi-triumphant, even. There was a Homeric quality to all this; the Clinton saga seemed more fantastic than real, the mischievous work of some puckish minor deity. (Cyclops and the Sirens had nothing on Gingrich and Lewinsky.) Bill Clinton was, and remains, a phenomenon of divine--or demonic--exaggeration, a compendium of astonishing strengths, flaws and appetites. But we are talking about Hillary here, and she is far more difficult to explain.

As First Lady, she was a confusing and an uncomfortable public presence--a feminist who came to prominence as a wife, a professional woman laboring under the burden of a dainty, antiquated official title. She was independent, tough minded and yet allowed herself to endure one of the most spectacular spousal humiliations in history. The Hillary enigmas are only semiunraveled in this memoir, but one thing we do learn is that she was as confused and discomforted as we were. She suggests that her ever changing hairstyles, which are a running gag in this book, were a metaphor for her inability to figure out who she was supposed to be and what she was supposed to be doing. (It is no accident that now Senator Clinton--duly elected and with a well-defined role to play--has not changed her hairstyle at all.)

Hillary Clinton's palpable humanity is the pleasant surprise of Living History. Unlike her husband, she is not larger than life. She is a recognizable, somewhat overmatched human being in an utterly ridiculous situation. She is paralyzed and discombobulated by events; she gets angry; she cries; she admits to being brittle. "We were both in the eye of the storm," she writes, "but I seemed to be buffeted by every gust of wind, while Bill just sailed along."

She does not tell all. The quality of her humanity is glimpsed fleetingly, often by inference. The vivid moments in the book--like the now famous scene when Bill tells her the truth about Monica--are packaged like fragile crystal, surrounded by rhetorical Styrofoam. There are many sentences, sometimes whole paragraphs, that snooze along reflexively: "I wanted to guard the social safety net--health care, education, pensions, wages and jobs--that was in danger of fraying for citizens less able to absorb the changes resulting from the high-tech revolution and a global consumer culture." Living History is, first and last, a political memoir, and the leaden formalities of the genre apply. It is also the memoir of an active--and very ambitious--politician. The Senator is looking to augment her political viability. She reveals that she once went hunting and killed a duck (Chelsea was horrified). She reveals that she met with a bipartisan prayer group (including James Baker's wife Susan). She tosses in lectures about the evils of terrorism and her admiration for the military. Occasionally, she hurls a smoke grenade at Bill's successor: "Despite the occasional serious political differences between the United States and France," she sniffs, "Bill and I maintained a comfortable dialogue with the Chiracs during our years in the White House."

There is very little here that is intellectually or politically adventurous, but that doesn't mean Hillary Clinton isn't a daredevil in her own way. Occasionally she will risk a moment of self-deprecating candor, leavened by dry wit. "I was not the same person who had worn the violet blue gown in 1993," she writes of the second Inauguration. "Nor could I fit into it after four years of White House fare. And I had grown not only older but blonder." When a paparazzo catches her and Bill slow-dancing in their bathing suits on a tropical beach, she admits to being embarrassed by how she looks from the rear. Her sense of femininity is as intense as her feminism; her motherhood and her wonkiness complement and compete against each other. And the interplay of these dancing, dueling factors provides the subtext for the often inexplicable choices she makes.

"Are you out of your mind?" asks her friend Sara Ehrman when Hillary Rodham decides to abandon a promising legal career in Washington and follow young Bill Clinton to Arkansas. "Why on earth would you throw away your future?" It is the central question of her life. Her answer is simple: she loves the guy. I tend to believe her; others will be more cynical. I believe her because of the way she describes her husband's hands and his shimmering intelligence and also because of the way she describes her parents--who are nearly as roughhewn as Bill's notoriously trashy family but far more proper and upwardly mobile. She arrives at Wellesley a country mouse, daunted by her wealthy, sophisticated Eastern classmates--they read the New York Times!--and she almost quits after a month. She attends the 1968 Republican Convention as a Rockefeller volunteer and is astonished by the opulence of the Fontainebleu Hotel; she orders room service, and "I can still see the giant fresh peach that came wrapped in a napkin." In her way, Hillary Rodham--the awkward Midwestern grind, the Methodist too-gooder--is as much of an outsider as Bill Clinton. Her swoon is inevitable, her willful blindness to his flaws almost understandable. Almost.

But how does one explain the arrant ingenuousness that defines her many years with Bill? Mrs. Clinton would have us believe that Monica Lewinsky was the first betrayal. Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, the tales the troopers told--all are dismissed as smears floated by political enemies or by grifters looking for money. (By the time the President told her about Monica, he had already admitted in a deposition to having had a sexual relationship with Gennifer Flowers, but Mrs. Clinton doesn't mention that.) One imagines the serial infidelities are too painful, too embarrassing. One imagines she doesn't want to expose Chelsea to the gory details. But there is a skittish, elliptical quality to her descriptions of the nonsexual imbroglios that marked her time in the White House as well.

At one point she mentions in passing that Bill was "weathering controversies over gays in the military and his nominations for Attorney General." His nominations? The First Lady was intimately involved in the selection process, insistent that one of the top four Cabinet officers be a woman. These were, arguably, her nominations as much as his. Her account of the great health-insurance disaster is sketchy to the point of emaciation. She never even describes what her plan was or why she was so unwilling to compromise. It is defeated not on its merits or because of her stubbornness, she says, but because conservative thinker William Kristol convinces the Republicans that passing it would make the Democrats unbeatable in 1994. Al Gore is a nonperson in this book. Her long and bitter rivalry with the Vice President is not mentioned. Sadly, she gives no account of any serious policy fights with her husband. That might have been fun. Her close friend, the late Diane Blair, once told me about an invigorating, substantive screaming match between the Clintons, followed by an embarrassingly passionate reconciliation. There is none of that intimacy here.

She does admit to a disagreement with the President about asking for a special Whitewater prosecutor. She's against (wisely, as it happened). She describes the Whitewater silliness in far greater detail than she does health care, welfare reform or all those other things she cares about. There is real merit to her complaints about the linked and persistent Republican efforts to discredit her husband. But the Clintons were hardly blameless, and her case is damaged by oversimplification and opacity--her insistence on secrecy, her terrible choice of friends and business partners, her profits in the commodities market (another case of creative naivete), her husband's relentless fudging and lawyering of the truth. She doesn't mention the damage caused by his 1992 military-draft controversy, when Bill Clinton misled the press about receiving his induction papers--the first breach of faith in a disastrous relationship with the media. This is such a long book, and there are so few details. She seems in full flight from the anguish of those years.

"I have devoted considerable space in these pages to my foreign travels," she notes in the introduction. This is a staggering understatement. The only overseas problem that is not explored in these pages may be the deforestation caused by the printing of 1 million copies of Living History. Every other issue, especially those affecting poor women and children, is given long shrift. In a way, this is understandable. The overseas trips were Hillary's happiest times as First Lady. Every crowd was adoring; every stop promoted a worthy cause. Even the traveling press was friendly. She often traveled with Chelsea, and they were a joy to watch together. I was on the first of these jaunts, to South Asia, and I think we all left wondering why life couldn't be more like this in Washington. But Washington is too vital to be civil for very long.

And that is why I won't be surprised if she never runs for President. She must be aware that it would be a crazy, ugly campaign. And in the exceedingly unlikely event that she won, her victory would be easily attributable to her husband's genius--and she knows that the first woman President shouldn't be elected like that. No, the Senate seems a most suitable perch for her privacy and humanity. It is collegial and orderly, a place to grow older and blonder still.

(Well Joe, what do you think now?)

2007-12-29T16:18:00.002-08:00

Hillary Rodham Clinton

2007-12-29T16:18:00.001-08:00

Hillary Rodham Clinton

By: LINDSEY GRAHAM

In the early going for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, this former First Lady and New York Senator is virtually lapping the field. The mere thought of a Hillary Clinton presidential bid is shaping Republican primary politics for 2008.

In the Senate, a small body of big egos, Senator Clinton, 58, is sought out by her colleagues to form legislative partnerships. Her high-profile status, combined with a reputation as a smart, prepared, serious Senator, creates real influence. In a short time, this blue-state Senator with a blue-state perspective has managed to build unusual political alliances on a variety of issues with Republicans Bill Frist, Sam Brownback, Elizabeth Dole, Rick Santorum and other conservatives.

As a red-state conservative, I have found common ground with her on improving health-care benefits for members of the National Guard and Reserve. We also created a bipartisan Manufacturing Caucus to help promote and address the problems facing America's manufacturers.

Hillary Clinton's political future is both unpredictable and unlimited. She already has very high name recognition combined with a political network second to none. She has one of the best political strategists in history—former President Bill Clinton—on her team. And money will never be a problem. Senator Clinton would be a formidable opponent for Republicans in November 2008 as the nation remains closely divided. Some say she cannot be elected President. I say those who underestimate Hillary Clinton do so at their own peril.

Graham is a Republican U.S. Senator from South Carolina

Madam President

2007-12-29T16:12:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year Madam President.