Saturday, January 19, 2008
Clinton buoyed by polls and endorsement in Nevada
Dan Glaister in Las Vegas
Hillary Clinton speaks at Citizens of Zion Missionary Baptist church in Compton, California. Photograph: Phil McCarten/Reuters
Hillary Clinton made a final campaign appearance in Las Vegas today before heading out across Nevada in the final hours before Saturday's Democratic caucus.
Buoyed by a poll in one newspaper showing her with a nine-point lead and an endorsement from another paper, Clinton sought to shore up her base by stressing the economic and social themes that have formed the bedrock of her campaign.
Speaking to small business owners and employees at a Las Vegas print shop on Friday morning Clinton assailed President Bush's economic record.
"I want to get back to where we were before President Bush became president," she told the audience packed into a small office, a time, she said, when the budget was balanced and the economy was running a surplus.
Bush was not Clinton's only target, however. She also took a dig at Barack Obama. "My leading opponent the other day said he thought Republicans had the better ideas for the last 10 to 15 years," she said. "That's not how I remember the last 10 to 15 years."
But while supporters held up copies of the Las Vegas Review Journal, which splashed the results of its polling on the front page, showing Clinton on 41%, Obama on 32% and Edwards on 14%, another poll showed the race much tighter in the state.
A Reuters-Zogby poll had Clinton on 42% with Obama closing on her with 37% and Edwards trailing with 12%. The Reuters-Zogby poll was conducted between Tuesday and Thursday, a day later than the Review-Journal poll.
The latter showed Clinton winning by a wide margin among her key Democratic constituencies, women and Latinos. She trailed Obama among men and African-American voters.
In its endorsement of Clinton, the Las Vegas Sun echoed her campaign lines, saying that she had the experience and the resolve needed to defeat the Republicans in November and to lead the country from the first day of her presidency.
"Our country needs someone who can be president from Day One after taking the oath of office. Her steadiness and resolve certainly would aid u sin re-establishing better relations with other nations."
Clinton herself echoed that theme at her Friday morning campaign stop, when asked by a supporter what she planned to do with her husband if she were elected.
"Good question," she remarked, before saying, "I'm excited about the role that my husband can play in repairing relations around the world. We have a lot of repair work to do."
She was due to make three further stops during the day, in Elko and Reno, before returning to the Las Vegas area for a final rally with her husband before the caucuses open on Saturday morning.
Hillary Clinton speaks at Citizens of Zion Missionary Baptist church in Compton, California. Photograph: Phil McCarten/Reuters
Hillary Clinton made a final campaign appearance in Las Vegas today before heading out across Nevada in the final hours before Saturday's Democratic caucus.
Buoyed by a poll in one newspaper showing her with a nine-point lead and an endorsement from another paper, Clinton sought to shore up her base by stressing the economic and social themes that have formed the bedrock of her campaign.
Speaking to small business owners and employees at a Las Vegas print shop on Friday morning Clinton assailed President Bush's economic record.
"I want to get back to where we were before President Bush became president," she told the audience packed into a small office, a time, she said, when the budget was balanced and the economy was running a surplus.
Bush was not Clinton's only target, however. She also took a dig at Barack Obama. "My leading opponent the other day said he thought Republicans had the better ideas for the last 10 to 15 years," she said. "That's not how I remember the last 10 to 15 years."
But while supporters held up copies of the Las Vegas Review Journal, which splashed the results of its polling on the front page, showing Clinton on 41%, Obama on 32% and Edwards on 14%, another poll showed the race much tighter in the state.
A Reuters-Zogby poll had Clinton on 42% with Obama closing on her with 37% and Edwards trailing with 12%. The Reuters-Zogby poll was conducted between Tuesday and Thursday, a day later than the Review-Journal poll.
The latter showed Clinton winning by a wide margin among her key Democratic constituencies, women and Latinos. She trailed Obama among men and African-American voters.
In its endorsement of Clinton, the Las Vegas Sun echoed her campaign lines, saying that she had the experience and the resolve needed to defeat the Republicans in November and to lead the country from the first day of her presidency.
"Our country needs someone who can be president from Day One after taking the oath of office. Her steadiness and resolve certainly would aid u sin re-establishing better relations with other nations."
Clinton herself echoed that theme at her Friday morning campaign stop, when asked by a supporter what she planned to do with her husband if she were elected.
"Good question," she remarked, before saying, "I'm excited about the role that my husband can play in repairing relations around the world. We have a lot of repair work to do."
She was due to make three further stops during the day, in Elko and Reno, before returning to the Las Vegas area for a final rally with her husband before the caucuses open on Saturday morning.
Clinton Ad Gets Some Magic
Consider it a bit of advice from one hoops player to another.
In a radio ad for Hillary Rodham Clinton, Earvin "Magic" Johnson, the celebrated Los Angeles Lakers point guard, recalls his first year as professional basketball player.
"We won our first game on a last second shot," he says in the ad, now airing in South Carolina. "I was so hyped. But the captain of my team said, 'take it easy rookie, it's a long season, it's a long road to the championship.' He was right."
Johnson wants South Carolina voters to send the same message to Barack Obama, whose left-handed jump shot and sharp elbows have been known to attract notice in a pickup game.
Of course, it's all a metaphor for the presidency.
"Whether it's winning championships or a president who can lead us back to greatness, I'll always want the most prepared and experienced person leading my team," says Johnson, who has endorsed Clinton and campaigned with her. "That's why I'm asking you to join me in voting for Hillary Clinton for President.
In a radio ad for Hillary Rodham Clinton, Earvin "Magic" Johnson, the celebrated Los Angeles Lakers point guard, recalls his first year as professional basketball player.
"We won our first game on a last second shot," he says in the ad, now airing in South Carolina. "I was so hyped. But the captain of my team said, 'take it easy rookie, it's a long season, it's a long road to the championship.' He was right."
Johnson wants South Carolina voters to send the same message to Barack Obama, whose left-handed jump shot and sharp elbows have been known to attract notice in a pickup game.
Of course, it's all a metaphor for the presidency.
"Whether it's winning championships or a president who can lead us back to greatness, I'll always want the most prepared and experienced person leading my team," says Johnson, who has endorsed Clinton and campaigned with her. "That's why I'm asking you to join me in voting for Hillary Clinton for President.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Clinton and Obama Call for Truce Over Dr. King Dispute
By PATRICK HEALY
Published: January 15, 2008
Speaking to black and Hispanic New Yorkers, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton tried on Monday to quell a controversy over race in the fight for the Democratic presidential nomination by praising the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and describing him as a trailblazer for both herself and her rival, Senator Barack Obama.
Mrs. Clinton said President Lyndon B. Johnson had been the shepherd of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, enacting a priority of Dr. King — a comment that Obama supporters and some other people viewed as minimizing Dr. King’s work.
Mrs. Clinton quickly said she had meant no slight, and on Monday she issued a statement proposing a truce. At about the same time, though, a prominent supporter of hers, Representative Charles B. Rangel, Democrat of New York, said in an interview that Mr. Obama was “absolutely stupid” for calling Mrs. Clinton’s original remark ill-advised.
“How race got into this thing is because Obama said ‘race,’ ” Mr. Rangel said on the NY1 cable channel. “I would challenge anybody to belittle the contribution that Dr. King has made to the world, to our country, to civil rights, and the Voting Rights Act. But for him to suggest that Dr. King could have signed that act is absolutely stupid.”
A Clinton adviser said Mr. Rangel was speaking for himself.
Mr. Obama, meanwhile, said at a news conference that Mrs. Clinton had always been “on the right side” of civil rights issues — but in television interviews, he also accused the Clinton campaign of playing up the race issue as “strategy” and of being “silly.” By Monday evening, he urged Democrats to call a truce to avoid dividing the party.
The back and forth came on a day when good-government groups jumped into the fray, criticizing Mrs. Clinton for, they said, appearing to play down the importance of an ethics reform bill Mr. Obama championed.
The campaign day began with Mrs. Clinton’s appearance before members of a service workers union in Manhattan, where she received a tepid reception. The audience, mostly made up of security guards, applauded steadily when she entered — but they did not roar for their hometown candidate, and there were a few scattered boos.
Mrs. Clinton said Dr. King, whose coming birthday observance was the focal point of the labor union event, had made it possible for her and Mr. Obama to be “where we are today,” and she emphasized the importance of Democratic and racial unity.
“We may differ on minor matters,” Mrs. Clinton said of Mr. Obama, “but when it comes to what is really important, we are family. Both Senator Obama and I know that we are where we are today because of leaders like Dr. King and generations of men and women like all of you.”
Mr. Obama, meanwhile, said on a campaign swing through northern Nevada that he was concerned that a heated discussion of racial issues in the presidential campaign could divide the Democratic Party.
“I don’t want the campaign at this stage to degenerate into so much tit for tat, back and forth, that we lose sight of why all of us are doing this,” he said at a news conference. “We’ve got too much at stake at this time in our history to be engaging in this kind of silliness.”
Asked whether he believed that either Mrs. Clinton or former President Bill Clinton had shown racial insensitivity in recent days, Mr. Obama said: “I don’t want to rehash that. I think that Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton have historically and consistently been on the right side of civil rights issues.”
In an interview on the “Charlie Rose Show,” Representative James E. Clyburn, the South Carolina Democrat who was among those raising concern last week about the Clinton comments, urged the candidates to focus on policy issues that can distinguish them and the party.
“People are talking about race versus gender when we ought to be talking about Democrats versus Republicans,” said Mr. Clyburn, who as the Democratic whip is the highest-ranking African-American in Congress.
The good-government groups that criticized Mrs. Clinton took issue with her comments about the ethics reform bill. While she voted for it, she has suggested that the legislation was not a landmark change and that Mr. Obama was hardly alone in championing it.
Fred Wertheimer, president and chief executive of Democracy 21, which promotes campaign finance reform, said the bill contained some of “the most important and comprehensive ethics and lobbying reforms since the Watergate era.”
Meredith McGehee, policy director of the Campaign Legal Center, said: “I think it should be seen as the decent, credible and substantial legislation that it was. It shouldn’t be belittled.”
A Clinton campaign spokesman noted that the bill had been introduced by Senate leaders and that Mrs. Clinton was chiefly questioning the practical effect of a provision limiting meals paid for by lobbyists.
Jeff Zeleny contributed reporting from Nevada, and Michael Falcone from Washington.
Published: January 15, 2008
Speaking to black and Hispanic New Yorkers, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton tried on Monday to quell a controversy over race in the fight for the Democratic presidential nomination by praising the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and describing him as a trailblazer for both herself and her rival, Senator Barack Obama.
Mrs. Clinton said President Lyndon B. Johnson had been the shepherd of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, enacting a priority of Dr. King — a comment that Obama supporters and some other people viewed as minimizing Dr. King’s work.
Mrs. Clinton quickly said she had meant no slight, and on Monday she issued a statement proposing a truce. At about the same time, though, a prominent supporter of hers, Representative Charles B. Rangel, Democrat of New York, said in an interview that Mr. Obama was “absolutely stupid” for calling Mrs. Clinton’s original remark ill-advised.
“How race got into this thing is because Obama said ‘race,’ ” Mr. Rangel said on the NY1 cable channel. “I would challenge anybody to belittle the contribution that Dr. King has made to the world, to our country, to civil rights, and the Voting Rights Act. But for him to suggest that Dr. King could have signed that act is absolutely stupid.”
A Clinton adviser said Mr. Rangel was speaking for himself.
Mr. Obama, meanwhile, said at a news conference that Mrs. Clinton had always been “on the right side” of civil rights issues — but in television interviews, he also accused the Clinton campaign of playing up the race issue as “strategy” and of being “silly.” By Monday evening, he urged Democrats to call a truce to avoid dividing the party.
The back and forth came on a day when good-government groups jumped into the fray, criticizing Mrs. Clinton for, they said, appearing to play down the importance of an ethics reform bill Mr. Obama championed.
The campaign day began with Mrs. Clinton’s appearance before members of a service workers union in Manhattan, where she received a tepid reception. The audience, mostly made up of security guards, applauded steadily when she entered — but they did not roar for their hometown candidate, and there were a few scattered boos.
Mrs. Clinton said Dr. King, whose coming birthday observance was the focal point of the labor union event, had made it possible for her and Mr. Obama to be “where we are today,” and she emphasized the importance of Democratic and racial unity.
“We may differ on minor matters,” Mrs. Clinton said of Mr. Obama, “but when it comes to what is really important, we are family. Both Senator Obama and I know that we are where we are today because of leaders like Dr. King and generations of men and women like all of you.”
Mr. Obama, meanwhile, said on a campaign swing through northern Nevada that he was concerned that a heated discussion of racial issues in the presidential campaign could divide the Democratic Party.
“I don’t want the campaign at this stage to degenerate into so much tit for tat, back and forth, that we lose sight of why all of us are doing this,” he said at a news conference. “We’ve got too much at stake at this time in our history to be engaging in this kind of silliness.”
Asked whether he believed that either Mrs. Clinton or former President Bill Clinton had shown racial insensitivity in recent days, Mr. Obama said: “I don’t want to rehash that. I think that Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton have historically and consistently been on the right side of civil rights issues.”
In an interview on the “Charlie Rose Show,” Representative James E. Clyburn, the South Carolina Democrat who was among those raising concern last week about the Clinton comments, urged the candidates to focus on policy issues that can distinguish them and the party.
“People are talking about race versus gender when we ought to be talking about Democrats versus Republicans,” said Mr. Clyburn, who as the Democratic whip is the highest-ranking African-American in Congress.
The good-government groups that criticized Mrs. Clinton took issue with her comments about the ethics reform bill. While she voted for it, she has suggested that the legislation was not a landmark change and that Mr. Obama was hardly alone in championing it.
Fred Wertheimer, president and chief executive of Democracy 21, which promotes campaign finance reform, said the bill contained some of “the most important and comprehensive ethics and lobbying reforms since the Watergate era.”
Meredith McGehee, policy director of the Campaign Legal Center, said: “I think it should be seen as the decent, credible and substantial legislation that it was. It shouldn’t be belittled.”
A Clinton campaign spokesman noted that the bill had been introduced by Senate leaders and that Mrs. Clinton was chiefly questioning the practical effect of a provision limiting meals paid for by lobbyists.
Jeff Zeleny contributed reporting from Nevada, and Michael Falcone from Washington.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Clinton supporters rally in Southfield
By KATHLEEN GRAY
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Even though Sen. Hillary Clinton is the only top tier candidate on the Democratic ballot, her supporters are taking nothing for granted.
About 150 of them gathered in a steamy hotel conference room in Southfield to remind voters that they need to cast their ballots for the New York senator.
“As we’ve gone through tough times in Michigan, Hillary has become the co-chair of the manufacturing caucus in the Senate,” said U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow. “So she gets us, she understands us.”
Gov. Jennifer Granholm, in a poke at Sen. Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards who withdrew their names from Michigan’s ballot, said it’s important to reward the candidate who stayed committed to Michigan.
“All the Democrats signed that darned pledge not to campaign in Michigan,” Granholm said. “But it was Hillary who said she wasn’t going to abandon Michigan. She said ‘I’m going to keep my name on the ballot.’”
Obama and Edwards withdrew their names after Michigan moved its primary election to Jan. 15 in violation of national Democratic Party rules. Supporters of those two candidates can choose to vote “uncommitted.”
Clinton supporters were drumming up support to make sure that their candidate doesn’t end up with an embarrassing showing in Michigan, such as getting fewer votes than “uncommitted.”
That shouldn’t be a problem, said Xavier Lopez-Ayala, a 20-year-old sophomore at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids.
“I can’t tell you how many moderate Republican women ask me for bumper stickers and buttons,” he said. “They’re not going to put them on their car because their husbands won’t let them, but in the privacy of the voting booth, they’re going to vote for Hillary.”
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.”
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