"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." - Thomas Jefferson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mike Huckabee vowed on Saturday to stay in the Republican Party's nominating race for the presidential election in November, despite trailing far behind rival John McCain.
"Am I quitting? Let's get that settled right now. No, I'm not," Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and a Baptist preacher, told a conference of conservative activists.
WASHINGTON — Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton competed for Democratic convention delegates across three states on Saturday, locked in a landmark struggle for the party's presidential nomination.
A total of 158 delegates was at stake in the Louisiana primary and caucuses in Nebraska and Washington. Caucuses in the Virgin Islands offered three more.
Clinton began the day with a slender delegate lead in The Associated Press count. She had 1,045 delegates to 960 for Obama. A total of 2,025 is required to win the nomination at the party convention in Denver.
Republican contests in Louisiana, Kansas and Guam provided John McCain a chance to advance closer to the 1,191 delegates he needs to make his nomination official.
The Arizona senator began the day with 707 delegates. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, with 195, and Texas Rep. Ron Paul, with 14, were his only remaining rivals following Mitt Romney's withdrawal from the race.
The day's contests opened a new phase in the Democratic race between Clinton, attempting to become the first woman in the White House, and Obama, hoping to become the first black.
The Feb. 5 Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses in 22 states, which once looked likely to effectively settle the race, instead produced a near-equal delegate split.
That left Obama and Clinton facing the likelihood of a grind-it-out competition lasting into spring _ if not to the convention itself.
With the night's events, 29 of the 50 states have selected delegates.
Two more _ Michigan and Florida _ held renegade primaries and the Democratic National Committee has vowed not to seat any delegates chosen at either of them.
Maine, with 24 delegates, holds caucuses on Sunday. Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia and voting by Americans overseas are next, on Tuesday, with 175 combined.
Then follows a brief intermission, followed by a string of election nights, some crowded, some not.
The date of March 4 looms large, 370 delegates in primaries in Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont.
Mississippi is alone in holding a primary one week later, with a relatively small 33 delegates at stake.
Puerto Rico anchors the Democratic calendar, with 55 delegates chosen in caucuses on June 7.
If Super Tuesday failed to settle the campaign, it produced a remarkable surge in fundraising.
Obama's aides announced he had raised more than $7 million on line in the two days that followed.
Clinton disclosed she had loaned her campaign $5 million late last month in an attempt to counter her rival's Super Tuesday television advertising. She raised more than $6 million in the two days after the busiest night in primary history.
The television ad wars continued unabated.
Obama has been airing commercials for more than a week in television markets serving every state that has a contest though Feb 19.
Clinton began airing ads midweek in Washington state, Maine and Nebraska, and added Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia on Friday.
Today, February 9th, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will be going head-to-head for delegates in Louisiana, Nebraska, Washington state and the Virgin Islands. On Sunday the race moves to Maine. Of these five contests, four are caucuses (Louisiana is a primary).
On the Republican side John McCain, Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul will compete in primaries in Kansas, Washington state and Louisiana.
Delegates at stake:
Dems:
A total of 158 delegates [are] at stake in the Louisiana primary and caucuses in Nebraska and Washington. Caucuses in the Virgin Islands offered three more.
GOP:
The Republicans have 74 convention delegates at stake.
Hillary Clinton's campaign has just reported that it has received 75,000 contributions since Super Tuesday.
Patti Solis Doyle of Hillary's Campaign has released the following statement to contributors:
"Now THAT is what I call two good days.
Not only did we celebrate huge victories for Hillary all over the country on Super Tuesday, but you matched our success with a breathtaking show of support.
You exceeded our $3 million goal in less than 24 hours. In fact, we've already hit FOUR MILLION DOLLARS! Incredible! And so far, more than 35,000 people -- 35,000! -- have made online contributions.
Your response has been so amazing that we are doubling our goal: $6 million in 72 hours.
I'm simply awed to see everyone stepping up for Hillary. And boy did you pick a good time to do it! We poured our heart, our soul, and -- you better believe -- tens of millions of dollars into February 5. Now it's time to build our resources back up for what we know will be a long and hard-fought contest."
Mr. Romney’s advisers acknowledged Thursday an array of tactical missteps and miscalculations. Perhaps most significantly, they conceded that they had failed to overcome doubts about Mr. Romney’s authenticity as they sought to position him as the most electable conservative in the race, a jarring contrast to his more moderate record as governor of Massachusetts. And during the January nominating contests, as his opponents attacked his shifting on issues, polls showed his favorability ratings plummeting.
Mr. Romney spent more than $35 million of his own money trying to get himself elected, but his campaign faced challenges from the start, some from obstacles beyond his control.
WASHINGTON — Senator John McCain all but captured the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday after Mitt Romney withdrew from the race, saying the war in Iraq and the terrorist threat made it imperative that the party unite.
In a dramatic announcement before a convention of stunned and largely unhappy conservatives, Mr. Romney said that he wanted to fight on but that taking his campaign all the way to the Republican convention in September would delay a national campaign against Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton or Senator Barack Obama, the two remaining Democratic contenders. Mr. Romney described both as weak on national security.
“They would retreat, declare defeat, and the consequences of that would be devastating,” Mr. Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, told a crowd that broke into chants of “Mitt, Mitt, Mitt.”
Staying in the race, he said, “would make it easier for Senator Clinton or Obama to win.”
Mr. Romney, who spent tens of millions of dollars of his fortune on the race, added, “Frankly, in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding the surrender to terror.”
Mr. McCain stepped forward two hours later before the same gathering to try to make peace with a group deeply skeptical of him, if not outright hostile. In a moment that will long be remembered by Republicans, he was greeted with jeers as well as cheers.
By David Roberts (For The Nation) After a decisive Super Tuesday win, John McCain is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. (Why? I'm with Ross Douthat: it was luck.) It's time to start thinking about what a campaign against him is going to look like.
According to the Villagers, McCain is a maverick, and nowhere is that alleged quality more evident than in his pundit-titillating (punditillating?) position on climate change. He is the Republican apostate, a visionary who has reached across the aisle. Why, now that McCain is the Republican nominee, we're practically guaranteed to get bold action on climate no matter who wins! Right?
McCain will be running as a climate champion against a Democrat who claims the same mantle. There's two ways the political media could cover it:
Voters Don't Share Kennedys' Ardor for Obama
By Anne E. Kornblut and Lyndsey Layton
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, February 6, 2008; A21
Sen. Barack Obama won the Kennedys, key members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation and support from the charismatic African American governor of the state.
But in the end, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton won Massachusetts. It was arguably the most surprising twist in the Super Tuesday returns on the Democratic side -- one that seemed to reflect her earlier upset in New Hampshire, and underscored the core of support from women that is becoming her firewall in the nominating contest.
For Clinton, winning in Massachusetts meant significant bragging rights. Obama had earned endorsements from Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the larger-than-life senior senator, and Sen. John F. Kerry, the junior senator who was the party's last presidential nominee. Obama had organizational help from Deval L. Patrick, the governor, who is also a personal friend, and from allies from his days as a Harvard Law student.
But Clinton won comfortably in a race that was, in some ways, always hers to lose. It was, after all, Martha's Vineyard where the Clintons vacationed during the 1990s. Although the Clinton campaign declared Massachusetts the "upset of the night," Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, one of the most prominent elected officials who stayed with Clinton as others broke for Obama, said: "I'm not surprised at all."
"This is Clinton country up here," Menino said.
It "was about real people," Menino said, who saw in Clinton a fighter on their behalf.
By tilting toward Clinton largely on the strength of female support, Massachusetts was on the leading edge of a national trend in the Democratic race, as women continued to break for the N.Y. senator in some, though not all, races. Exit polls showed Clinton ahead among women in the Bay State with a double-digit lead, while Obama had a significant lead among men.
Michael Goldman, a Democratic political operative, said Clinton's advantage among women was decisive. "A lot of women simply came to her rescue," he said.
By Adam Tanner
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - If Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic presidential nomination, historians may look to her primary win in California as key.
The reason, beyond the complexities of delegates, may come from the nation's most populous state's status as a trend-setter. A split in victories on "Super Tuesday" between New York Sen. Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama in the other 21 states voting made her California win all the more dramatic.
"California was very, very critical," said pollster Mervin Field, who has been following presidential elections for more than half a century. "The fact that he didn't win some people might construe as a watershed victory for Hillary Clinton, the fact that the Obama surge somehow got arrested in California."
Clinton, who could become the first woman U.S. president, worked to build on strong support for her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who embraced the state and befriended Hollywood and Silicon Valley leaders.
She won endorsements from top officials in the world's eighth largest economy, from its senior U.S. senator, Dianne Feinstein, to the mayors of Los Angeles and San Francisco. Women and Latinos gave Clinton major support as expected, according to exit polls.
Facing a record 22 states voting on the same primary day, Obama traveled elsewhere in the days leading up to Tuesday, even going to remote Idaho, where he won. Clinton held rallies across California and her husband campaigned here for days.
Obama deployed powerhouse friends, including Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts. A Sunday Los Angeles rally with Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy, talk show host Oprah Winfrey and Kennedy's niece, Maria Shriver, added high-profile female counterweight to Clinton.
Risking the ire of progressive activists, Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign announced that it has accepted a debate to air on Fox News on February 11, according to her chief strategist Mark Penn.
"There is an enormous interest in these debates an clamoring on the part of the Democratic Party for them," said Clinton's spokesperson Howard Wolfson. "We have not had a large number in which two people have participated. We've had multi-candidate debates... the fact is Senator Clinton has enjoyed the opportunity to debate and get her message out. Certainly as we move to the next exciting day of this nomination calendar, voters want the opportunity to see these two candidates compete against each other."
Though Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama have frequently appeared on Fox News for interviews, Clinton may be debating alone. Bill Burton, a spokesman for Obama, said that no plans existed as of now for his boss to participate in upcoming forums.
"As of right now, there are no debates on our schedule at all," Burton told the Huffington Post. "We'll figure out our schedule, including any debates, soon."
When the Democratic candidates declined to participate in a FOX-sponsored debate last April, their choice was readily greeted by Democratic bloggers and party activists, who did not wish to legitimize the station as a neutral political forum. Officials at Fox News were apoplectic.
"The candidates that can't face Fox, can't face Al Qaeda," said Roger Ailes, the Fox News CEO.
During a campaign conference call on Tuesday, Wolfson defended the campaign's decision to accept the Fox News debate, citing the reach the network had in the Chesapeake area (the debate will be held in Washington D.C.) and prior appearances by both Clinton and Obama on station.
"Given that Senator Obama had been on the network, we've been on the network, and that the offer is a good one for this debate in terms of this upcoming primary, it made sense to accept it," he said.
The announcement by the Clinton campaign comes as both candidates are acknowledging that the Democratic primary fight will likely continue well after the results of Tuesday's voting is known. Earlier in the day, Clinton aides let it be known that the Senator would participate in two other February debates, one on ABC, the other on CNN.
"In a one-one race it is important for voters to see the [candidates] side by side and see the differences as opposed to seeing them at rallies and big events," said Penn. "We feel very good about making sure that there is a side by side comparison."
Not that our opinion matters (any more than yours). Nor do we expect that we will influence your vote in any way, but….
Today is Super Tuesday and we feel it is our duty to publicly endorse Hillary Clinton to be the Democratic candidate that will be the next President of the United States.
As we have previously stated, Hillary wasn't our fist choice. We were initially swayed by the promise of change and the inspiring messages of Barack Obama.
But that's not enough!
After careful consideration and much research, we have come to the informed decision that Hillary is the right candidate for us.
We feel more confident with Hillary's abilities to lead and her proven track record of experience. But, more so than that, HER plans for universal healthcare, education reform and emphasis on equality for all are more aligned with what we want in the next President.
We watched the debates and Clinton just won us over.
Barack is great. But Hillary is the better leader, for us.
However, Obama MUST stay in the picture. This country needs him, just as we need Clinton.
It's been a great and heated campaign thus far, but we sincerely hope when it comes time for the Democratic convention that the Clinton/Obama dream ticket will be a reality!
Whether you agree with us or not, please go out and vote today.
Rock it!
[Image via WENN.]
"In my White House, we will know who wears the pantsuits," the New York senator told the talk show host, who asked if former president Bill Clinton might return to the presidential mansion and "be going through stuff."
The Romney campaign is sending around an email highlighting one particular passage from Limbaugh's show today. Here it is:
"I think right now Romney probably -- as the campaign has coalesced and as the campaign has progressing on down the highway -- I think the one candidate of the three still out there on our side ... in saying who more closely embodies all three legs of this conservative stool, you'd have to say that it's Mitt Romney. There's actually no choice in the matter. It certainly isn't Senator McCain."
Tuesday, 5 February 2008
The Kennedy clan, America's largest political dynasty, is as sharply divided as the Democratic Party ahead of today's vote, with many members supporting Barack Obama while others campaign for Hillary Clinton.
Maria Shriver, niece of JFK, showed up at a rally in Los Angeles on Sunday after deciding at the last moment that she needed to make a stand for Barack Obama. The crowd went wild with enthusiasm at the sight of four of America's most formidable women – Oprah Winfrey, Caroline Kennedy, Michelle Obama and Ms Shriver – on stage for Mr Obama.
"I thought, if Barack Obama was a state, he'd be California," Ms Shriver said and the crowd roared back as she ticked off his credentials: "Diverse. Open. Smart. Independent. Bucks tradition. Innovative. Inspirational. Dreamer. Leader." She was there because she wanted "an America that's about unity".
But the Kennedy clan are anything but united. "Within the family, for the first time you have different opinions," said Ms Shriver's husband Arnold Schwarzenegger, governor of California and a John McCain supporter. "I've been in the family 30 years, and I've never seen that.
Ethel Kennedy, widow of Robert Kennedy, supports Mr Obama, along with JFK's daughter Caroline and congressman Patrick Kennedy. Three of Robert Kennedy's children – Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Robert Kennedy Jnr and Kerry Kennedy – have come out for Mrs Clinton.
There are also splits in other prominent Democratic dynasties. Jesse Jackson and his son, Jesse Jnr, are backing the Obama campaign. But Mr Jackson's wife Jacqueline is a Clinton supporter.
Ms Shriver's failure to agree with her husband on politics surprised no one, given her family background. But despite phone calls from Mr Obama, she wavered until the last minute, eventually going straight to the rally from her daughter's showjumping event, with hair unbrushed and without make-up.
The Liberal Standard
