IOWA
PRESIDENTIAL WATCH
Iowa...
Where Presidents Begin
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on each candidate to see today's news stories
(caricatures by
Linda Eddy)
Saturday, March 1,
2008
GENERAL NEWS HEADLINES with excerpts
'Red Phone' ad wars:
Hillary Clinton's
Barack Obama's
In the most explosive moment yet of the Democratic race, Clinton
debuted a negative television ad, dripping with Cold War-style menace,
suggesting Obama would be found wanting in a dead-of-night foreign
policy crisis.
... "It's 3:00 am and your children are safe and asleep. But there's a
phone in the White House and it's ringing," the male narrator says.
"Something's happening in the world. Your vote will decide who answers
that call."
'Red phone' response could decide Texas
Barack Obama's response to a new ad casting doubt on his readiness to
lead in a crisis could determine the outcome of the Texas primary. And
if he responds successfully, the exchange may form a template for a
general election against John McCain...
Hillary Clinton's 'red phone' ad could spark
scare tactics charge
Clinton fired first with a chilling new ad featuring images of
sleeping children...
Obama quickly cut his own version of the red-phone ad, also featuring
sleeping children, hammering home his "judgment and courage" to oppose
the Iraq war.
Obama manager: Clinton already had her 'red
phone' moment
"Sen. Clinton has already had her red phone moment ... in 2002. It was
on the Iraq war, and she and John McCain and George Bush" displayed
the same judgment, Plouffe told reporters on a conference call Friday
Clinton's 'red phone' ad a sure backfire?
Does this ad cut to the heart of an Obama weakness, or is it likely to
backfire?
Obama has slight lead in Texas, close in Ohio
Barack Obama holds a slight lead on Hillary Clinton in
Texas and has almost pulled even in Ohio before contests
that could decide their U.S. Democratic presidential
battle, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Houston Chronicle
poll released on Friday.
Obama, Clinton flush with cash
from February
Mr. Obama’s campaign did not release an official
estimate of its February fund-raising on Thursday. But
several major donors estimated it to be about $50
million, based on their calculations and knowledge of
tallies during the month, when on many days the campaign
took in as much as $2 million.
Sunday Talk Show guests:
CBS Face the Nation: Chris Dodd, Bill Richardson
CNN Late Edition: Howard Dean
Fox News Sunday: Dick Durbin, Dianne Feinstein,
Karl Rove
NBC Meet the Press: roundtable on '08 race with
James Carville, Mary Matalin, Mike Murphy, Bob Shrum
ABC This Week: roundtable with David Brooks,
Matthew Dowd, Donna Brazile, George Will
Bloomberg's Political Capital: Robert Novak,
Margaret Carlson
THE CANDIDATES:
Mike Huckabee... today's headlines with excerpts
Lubbock supporters like Huckabee's
message
"We believe in everything he believes in," said Jenifer Davidson, who
attended the rally with her young son. "Obviously I believe it, or I
wouldn't be here."
Huckabee says Texans can make difference for him
Tuesday
"It's obvious that there's some question
marks about just how many delegates there are. What we do know is if
we can win Texas next week, it probably keeps this thing going, and
that's what we're counting on," said Huckabee
John McCain... today's headlines
with excerpts
McCain gets hell for embracing armageddon sect
In addition to believing that we are the last generation before God
destroys the earth and that "international television" is a sign that
Christ's return is nigh, Hagee has maligned the Catholic Church as
'The Great Whore' and 'a false cult.' Accordingly, the Hagee
endorsement has raised the ire of Catholic activists who claim Hagee
is a bigot who
regularly preaches anti-Catholic hate and blames the Catholic Church
for the Holocaust.
In an interview with
Glenn Greenwald, Catholic League Director, William Donohue,
warned that there would be hell to pay for McCain's embrace of Hagee...
Christian right not yielding Texas to McCain
John McCain may have the Republican nomination all but sewn up, but
some Christian conservatives seem determined to put up a fight for
Mike Huckabee in the Lone Star State.
"Texans have never worried about the odds when it comes to standing
for what's right," said Dave Welch, executive director of the Houston
Area Pastor Council, a coalition of about 175 area pastors involved in
politically conservative causes...
Huckabee will need all the religious conservatives he can find in
Texas. CNN exit polls from the 2004 presidential election found that
25 percent of white voters described themselves as Christian
conservatives. That number jumps to nearly 40 percent in a Republican
primary, said Austin GOP pollster Mike Baselice.
McCain goofs, calls himself a proud
conservative liberal...
"Conservative Republican," he corrected. Wiggling his eyebrows and
drawing out his words for comic effect, McCain added, "Hellooo, easy
there," as the audience laughed
Skirmishes between McCain, Dems heat up
McCain has targeted both Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama but
has focused much of his fire on the latter after he emerged as the
Democratic front-runner by winning 11 contests in a row.
McCain on Friday faulted the Democrats for wanting to renegotiate the
North American Free Trade Agreement.
"I believe that those agreements should be
kept,'' McCain said in Round Rock, Texas.
"And I believe that when someone -- as Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton
have said -- would renegotiate a treaty which went through years of
negotiations with our leading trading partner Canada without
consulting or without the agreement of our Canadian partners, I think
it sends the wrong message to the world."
McCain enters the autism wars
At a town hall meeting Friday in Texas, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.,
declared that "there’s strong evidence" that thimerosal, a
mercury-based preservative that was once in many childhood vaccines,
is responsible for the increased diagnoses of autism in the U.S. -- a
position in stark contrast with the view of the medical
establishment...
Bill would remove doubt on presidential
eligibility
Senator John McCain said Thursday that he had no concerns about his
meeting the constitutional qualifications for the presidency because
of his birth in the Panama Canal Zone. A Democratic colleague said she
wanted to remove even a trace of doubt.
The Democrat, Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, introduced
legislation that would declare that any child born abroad to citizens
serving in the United States military would meet the constitutional
requirement that anyone serving as president be a “natural born”
citizen.
Ralph Nader... today's headlines with excerpts
Nader's running mate was not such
a fan in '04
As a prominent Green Party member, Mr. Gonzalez was asked how he felt
about Ralph Nader taking another shot at the presidency. And what he
said back then could make things a little awkward on the trail now
that he’s Mr. Nader’s 2008 running mate.
One of the students, Jesse Abrams-Morley, wrote this about Mr.
Gonzalez’s remarks:
“I’m not that enthusiastic about his campaign primarily because I
think we’ve already been there a couple of times,” he said, referring
to Nader’s bids as the Green candidate in 1996 and 2000. “I would like
to see somebody else run.”
Gonzalez said he would favor activist and former California
gubernatorial candidate Peter Camejo, though he added that he might
change his mind if Nader, now running as an independent, starts
pushing more policies Gonzalez supports.
Ron Paul... today's headlines with excerpts
Hillary Clinton... today's
headlines with excerpts
Bill Clinton to get mariachi
boost in Texas
At Austin Community College, nine-member Mariachi en Fuego helped warm
up the crowd before the former president arrived. Marlo Soliz, who
plays the small guitar-like instrument known as the vihuela,
said the band had been booked to play three Clinton events. And the
band was getting its usual $480-per-hour fee.
The leaner-and-meaner Obama campaign requested an appearance, added
Soliz, "but they didn't want to pay us." Mariachi en Fuego declined
the gig.
David Broder: Hillary Clinton's flaw -- a
failure to connect
My sense is that in the following months of campaigning, voters were
often frustrated by their inability to discover the real person behind
the notably buttoned-up candidate.
...Her inability to break through the scar tissue -- the accumulated
wounds of a demanding father, a wayward husband and countless
political battles -- may cost her the chance to be president.
Hillary talks about stepping up effort in
Afghanistan
“I will also be a commander in chief who refocuses on winning the war
in Afghanistan,” she said. “I will do everything in my power to
reverse our declining position in Afghanistan,” she said, vowing to
make it clear to allies in NATO “that this is their war too.”
...in Toledo, she reaffirmed the task in Afghanistan: “When you hire a
president you are really hiring someone for that job and in this case
it is someone who manages two wars, a war to end in Iraq and a war to
win in Afghanistan.”
Barack Obama... today's headlines with excerpts
Obama's message reaches out - to
men's urinals
Every urinal in the men's rooms at Verizon amphitheater was outfitted
with a door hanger that not only urged support for Obama, but had an
explanation of the "Texas two-step" voting procedure -- how those who
really want to make a difference on Tuesday first should cast a
primary ballot, then show up for local caucuses.
It's unknown whether locales for the hangers were found in the women's
rooms; understandably, The Times' Mark Z. Barabak was unable to obtain
firsthand knowledge of that.
Bush hits Obama on foreign policy
He also challenged Democrats' skepticism about the North American Free
Trade Agreement, and reminded Obama that Al Qaeda has been seeking to
establish a base in Iraq "for the past four years."
Obama aide: Clinton will 'fail' Tuesday
Obama campaign manager David Plouffe predicted flatly Friday that Sen.
Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) will “fail” to make meaningful
progress toward the presidential nomination in the big Ohio and Texas
primaries on Tuesday.
“They have a huge task in front of them, which is to try to erase this
pledged delegate lead,” Plouffe said on a conference call with
reporters. “They are going to fail by that measure. … This isn’t
whether they can skate by and win the popular vote narrowly.”
Michelle Obama: 'Don't go into corporate
America'
What she doesn’t mention is that the helping industry has treated her
pretty well. In 2006, the Chicago Tribune reported that Mrs. Obama’s
compensation at the University of Chicago Hospital, where she is a
vice president for community affairs, jumped from $121,910 in 2004,
just before her husband was elected to the Senate, to $316,962 in
2005, just after he took office. And that does not count the money
Mrs. Obama receives from serving on corporate boards. She would have
been O.K. even without Jack’s magic beans...
Michelle: name Hussein is 'the fear bomb'
"They threw in the obvious, ultimate fear bomb," Obama said today of
her husband's 2004 Senate race. "We're even hearing [that] now. …
'When all else fails, be afraid of his name, and what that could stand
for, because it's different.'"
The senator's wife said that rivals use innuendo to play on fears.
"Just as they're saying it now," she said.
Even when he lectures them, the crowd
goes wild...
Each line was punctuated by a roar, and Obama began to shout, falling
into a preacher's rhythm. "Am I right?"
"So turn off the TV set. Put the video game away. Buy a little desk.
Or put that child at the kitchen table. Watch them do their homework.
If they don't know how to do it, give 'em help. If you don't know how
to do it, call the teacher."
By now, the crowd of nearly 2,000 was lifted from the red velveteen
seats of the Julie Rogers Theatre, hands raised to the gilded ceiling.
"Make 'em go to bed at a reasonable time! Keep 'em off the streets!
Give 'em some breakfast! Come on! Can I get an amen here?"
Whooooooooooooooooo, went the crowd. "You know I'm right," Obama
laughed. "And, since I'm on a roll, if your child misbehaves in
school, don't cuss out the teacher! You know I'm right about that!
Don't cuss out the teacher! Do something with your child!"
Pandemonium.
Obama
cutting into Clinton's edge among superdelegates
The Clinton campaign said Thursday that it had the support of 258 of
the 795 superdelegates (not counting those from Florida or Michigan,
whose delegations are the focus of a dispute), while the Obama
campaign said it had the support of more than 200. It said it had won
the support of 39 since Feb. 5, including four that formerly supported
Mrs. Clinton.
Obama walks a difficult path as he courts Jewish
voters
Campaign advisers said they approached Jewish voters the way they did
others, confident that once they knew more about Mr. Obama, they would
be reassured. At the same time, they acknowledged that many Jewish
voters were “vigilant” in testing candidates for president,
particularly on Israel.
... The campaign in recent days has moved to shore up Jewish support,
with Mr. Obama speaking last Sunday to an influential group of Jewish
leaders in Cleveland and addressing their questions about Israel, Mr.
Farrakhan and even his church in Chicago, whose pastor, the Rev.
Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., has been viewed with suspicion.
Red Phone attack ad
Red Phone response ad
Clinton, Obama in cold war-style ad blitz
Barack
Obama and Hillary Clinton each had a record-breaking
month of fund-raising in February, bringing in more than
$80 million combined, but with Mr. Obama again far
outraising Mrs. Clinton.
Supporters
seemed undeterred by the Arkansas governor's underdog status, with
many waving signs and cheering in support of his campaign.
John
McCain continued his quest for conservative bona fides by embracing
millionaire televangelist and leader of the "End-Times" Evangelical
movement, Pastor CEO John Hagee.
Even
though
During
Obama's
cadres of aides also pay attention to the smallest of details. And
that was on vivid display tonight at the candidate's rally in San
Antonio.
Setting
aside his stated reluctance to enter the presidential campaign,
“We
left corporate America, which is a lot of what we’re asking young
people to do,” she tells the women. “Don’t go into corporate America.
You know, become teachers. Work for the community. Be social workers.
Be a nurse. Those are the careers that we need, and we’re encouraging
our young people to do that. But if you make that choice, as we did,
to move out of the money-making industry into the helping industry,
then your salaries respond.” Faced with that reality, she adds, “many
of our bright stars are going into corporate law or hedge-fund
management.”
"It's
not good enough for you to say to your child, 'Do good in school,' and
then when that child comes home, you've got the TV set on," Obama
lectured. "You've got the radio on. You don't check their homework.
There's not a book in the house. You've got the video game playing."
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