Jul
21
Conservative Christian leader James Dobson has softened his stance against Republican presidential hopeful John McCain, saying he could reverse his position and endorse the Arizona senator despite serious misgivings.
“I never thought I would hear myself saying this,” Dobson said in a radio broadcast to air Monday. “… While I am not endorsing Senator John McCain, the possibility is there that I might.”
Dobson and other evangelical leaders unimpressed by McCain increasingly are taking a lesser-of-two-evils approach to the 2008 race. Dobson and his guest, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Albert Mohler, spend most of the pretaped Focus on the Family radio program criticizing Democratic candidate Barack Obama, getting to McCain at the very end.
In an advance copy provided to The Associated Press, Dobson said that while neither candidate is consistent with his views, McCain’s positions are closer by a wide margin.
“There’s nothing dishonorable in a person rethinking his or her positions, especially in a constantly changing political context,” Dobson said in a statement to the AP. “Barack Obama contradicts and threatens everything I believe about the institution of the family and what is best for the nation. His radical positions on life, marriage and national security force me to reevaluate the candidacy of our only other choice, John McCain.”
Earlier, Dobson had said he could not in good conscience vote for McCain, citing the candidate’s support for embryonic stem cell research and opposition to a federal constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, as well as concerns about McCain’s temper and foul language.
Dobson said on the radio program he must consider McCain’s record against abortion rights and support for smaller government, and added McCain “seems to understand the Muslim threat.” He also indicated McCain’s choice of a running mate will be a factor.
Of his new position, Dobson said in the statement to the AP, “If that is a flip-flop, then so be it.”
Both the Obama and McCain campaigns declined comment Sunday.
Dobson is considered a powerful voice in conservative evangelical Christianity; his radio broadcast reaches 1.5 million U.S. listeners daily. Critics argue his influence is waning, pointing to a younger generation of leaders pushing to broaden the movement’s agenda.
Last month, Dobson accused Obama, in a 2006 speech on faith and politics, of distorting the Bible and pushing a “fruitcake interpretation” of the Constitution.
Obama replied that Dobson was “making stuff up” and portrayed his speech as an attempt by people of faith, like himself, to “try to translate some of our concerns in a universal language so that we can have an open and vigorous debate rather than having religion divide us.”
Source
Jul
13
Obama, McCain and their awkward Hispanic outreach
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ORLANDO, Fla. - Like eager but awkward suitors, Barack Obama and John McCain are working hard and sometimes fumbling in their efforts to court Hispanic voters who could swing November’s presidential election.
Obama and white Anglo McCain, the problem is less one of language than of trying to understand a group whose own diversity can make it a mystery to others. It’s not a simple matter of saying, “Take me to your leaders.”
But that, in essence, is the ground game the presidential candidates and their campaigns have been playing in pitching to voters who could form decisive constituencies in critical battleground states.
“They just come to me and say, ‘Who are the bosses of the Latin community?’” said Patrick Manteiga, who runs a family-owned newspaper for Hispanics in Tampa’s historic Cuban neighborhood of Ybor City. “That’s like coming and asking, ‘Who are the bosses of white America, of the soccer moms?’”
Both candidates are pressing their case in three speeches in as many weeks to Hispanic umbrella groups and working in other ways to make their outreach more sophisticated. Republicans have opened an office in Orlando, where most of the state’s Puerto Ricans live, and Obama opens one this week in Ybor City.
They’ve both got their work cut out for them in appealing to a large and growing segment of the population that has leaned Democratic but has not always been motivated to vote. A recent AP-Yahoo News poll found Obama leading McCain 47 percent to 22 percent among Hispanic voters, with 26 percent undecided.
McCain is respected by many Hispanics for refusing to pander to anti-immigrant sentiment over the years. Yet he is viewed in some Latin quarters as a sequel to the unpopular President Bush, a problem he has with voters at large, too.
Obama’s vitality and soaring oratory appeal to Hispanics just as they do to others. Whoops of approval were heard throughout his speech this week to the League of United Latin American Citizens’ convention.
Yet Obama emerged from Democratic primaries a distant second to rival Hillary Rodham Clinton among most Hispanic groups. Like voters at large, Latino voters question the one-term senator’s experience. And there are tensions between blacks and Hispanics.
Hispanic voters are hardly monolithic. Some in the West have roots going back more than two centuries, while others were sworn in as citizens last week. Some consider themselves white and some black, and many represent every shade in between.
During the last presidential election, Hispanics in key swing states such as Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Florida represented anywhere from 8 percent to more than 30 percent of voters, according to exit polls, and their numbers are only expected to grow this year.
THE CLINTONITES
Clara Apodaca, 73, of Las Cruces, N.M., is among the Clinton supporters who quickly made the shift to Obama. The longtime Democrat was hoping to see a woman in the Oval Office, but she now believes Obama would be the best candidate to handle the economy, the war and the country’s reputation.
“We’re so badly thought of throughout the world,” she said. “We need to shore up our relationships.”
Yet 64-year-old Denver resident Paul Sandoval, who was also a Clinton supporter, has yet to make up his mind.
“Obama has not sold me that he’s the best candidate, regardless if he’s a Democrat,” the Mexican restaurant owner said as he served up eggs for the morning crowd. “I’m going to wait. I’m going to see how they perform on that stage, answering those hard questions.”
And then there is Fernando Romero, a former casino executive and longtime political organizer in Las Vegas. Romero advised Democratic candidate Bill Richardson, but he calls Obama’s relationship with Hispanics shallow. For now, he’s backing McCain.
“Unfortunately (Obama) is the one that we know nothing about and has made little effort to communicate with us,” Romero said. “There are so many good qualities that Senator McCain has - and proven qualities.”
THE REPUBLICANS
The McCain campaign is counting on such voters, hoping they will judge him as an individual and not a fixture of the Republican Party.
But the Republicans are seeing their own defections among Hispanic voters, especially in Florida, where for the first time more are registered as Democrats than Republicans.
McCain remains popular among Cuban-Americans in Miami, who tend to vote Republican and admire his military record and his support for U.S. policy toward Cuba. The campaign unveiled its Florida Hispanic steering committee last week with names of roughly 100 active Hispanic supporters from throughout the state. But a crowd of nearly 1,000 people, many of them Cuban-Americans, turned out to hear Obama speak at a private luncheon in May. An Obama campaign sticker briefly peaked out from the wall outside Little Havana’s famed Versailles restaurant last month, a traditional gathering point for Republican hard-liners.
Jesus Mendoza, 51, owner of the Tijerazo barber shop in Tampa, explained his change of heart as he wielded his scissors.
I’m a true Republican,” said the Puerto Rican native. “I believe people should work hard and get less help. But the Republicans have been in power for eight years, and I don’t think things are better. Obama, he’s a young candidate, but he’s intelligent. Even though I’m a Republican, I’m not blind.”
In Orlando, Angie Thillet, 38, who voted twice for Bush, is leaning toward Obama because he proposes to get the country close to universal health care.
Thillet went without insurance coverage for years, despite white-collar jobs. She has insurance now through her employment at a funeral home, yet she was afraid to go to the doctor after she hit her head in the bathtub because her deductible is more than $1,200.
She doesn’t like the hype surrounding Obama, especially comparisons to John F. Kennedy. Still, she says, “I won’t be voting for McCain.”
If talk radio is any measure, Obama is making inroads. Magda Yvette Torres, a two-time Bush supporter and host of a Spanish-language program in central Florida, fielded calls heavily in favor of the Democrat on one recent show.
“Most of my listeners supported Hillary Clinton, and a few months ago, you would have heard a lot of these same people calling in to criticize Obama, more than a few talking about his race,” Torres said.
TEXAS IN FLUX
Although Texas Hispanics have tended to vote Democratic, in the 2004 presidential election, Bush, the state’s former governor, split their vote with Democrat John Kerry. Now their support may be up for grabs again - not enough perhaps to swing the state but enough to force McCain to spend more resources there.
Obama’s personal appeal won over San Antonio office manager Naomi Mathews, 35. The Mexican-American considers herself a Republican but is leaning toward Obama. She was impressed that he held a town hall across the street from the coffee shop where she works.
“Maybe it’s the whole change thing,” said Mathews. “He made an impression on us. Maybe we can trust this person.”
Mathews was one of many Hispanic voters, among dozens interviewed by The Associated Press, who said they wanted more of a direct pitch from the candidates.
Angelette Aviles, 32, an active supporter of McCain, believes he will help the economy and be tough in the international arena. But she was frustrated by a recent South Florida radio ad highlighting a former Cuban political prisoner’s support for McCain.
“It’s like, OK, I think the hardcore voters in Miami are going to vote for the Republicans no matter what,” she said. “The younger generation, they’re more concerned about bread and butter issues. You need to reach out to us.”
Manteiga, a Democrat, said Hispanics want more than Obama’s stadium speeches or McCain’s town-hall meetings.
“No one is meeting with the 40 Latin ministries, as they would in the black community,” he said. “Latins want a hug. They want a touch. If 300 or 400 people shake the candidate’s hand, that translates exponentially into votes when they talk to their family and friends.”
MATTERS OF RACE
Manteiga said a personal connection is most important for Obama because he must convince Hispanics who are uncomfortable voting for a black candidate.
Many Hispanics interviewed by the AP acknowledged tensions on that front, because of competition over jobs and services or because of prejudice. Yet many also said these issues would not be the deciding factor for them, especially in a year when the economy and the war in Iraq loom large.
“To me, being Hispanic, the government caters to blacks,” said Eddie Martinez, 51, of Las Vegas. “Anything the government is giving away goes to blacks first.”
Even so, Martinez plans to vote for Obama because he believes the Illinois senator would be the best at bringing jobs to the area.
Manny Genao, a Dominican native, has run the popular Cafe Madrid in east Orlando for years and proudly displays portraits of local Republican leaders across his walls.
Genao said people in his neighborhood complained about an uptick in crime with the influx of “the diverse people” who poured in from New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.
In the next breath, he said the Bush administration was too close to the oil companies and that he views McCain as more of the same. Then he compared Obama’s speeches to those of Martin Luther King Jr.
“I’m still undecided,” he said.
Jul
9
Obama, McCain split on Iran’s missile tests
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WASHINGTON (AFP) - Democrat Barack Obama Wednesday called for aggressive diplomacy with Iran while Republican John McCain warned against making any concessions, as Tehran’s missile tests jolted the White House race.
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The presidential rivals used Iran’s test of a missile capable of reaching Israel to sketch sharply divergent approaches on foreign policy.
Senator Obama said Iran “must suffer threats of economic sanctions with direct diplomacy opening up channels of communication so we avoid provocation, but we give strong incentives for the Iranians to change their behavior.”
“We have to have a kind of aggressive diplomacy which unfortunately has been absent over the last several years,” Obama said in an interview with CNN.
Obama has drawn fire from McCain for his offer to talk directly to the leaders of Iran and other US foes, but the Illinois Senator said only a US backed carrot-and-stick diplomatic strategy could work.
“Part of the problem that we’ve got right now is that we’ve been basically farming out the diplomatic activity to the Europeans. We’ve got to be actively engaged,” Obama said.
Senator McCain issued a statement following the tests implicitly criticizing Obama’s engagement strategy, which Republicans argue is naive and dangerous.
“Working with our European and regional allies is the best way to meet the threat posed by Iran, not unilateral concessions that undermine multilateral diplomacy,” McCain said.
“Iran’s most recent missile tests demonstrate again the dangers it poses to its neighbors and to the wider region, especially Israel,” McCain said.
“Ballistic missile testing coupled with Iran’s continued refusal to cease its nuclear activities should unite the international community in efforts to counter Iran’s dangerous ambitions.”
McCain also said the tests shows the United States needs effective missile defense “now and in the future,” including the planned missile defense sites in the Czech Republic and Poland.
The long-range Shahab-3 was among a broadside of nine missiles fired off simultaneously at 8:00 am (0330 GMT) from an undisclosed location in the Iranian desert, state television showed.
State-run Arabic channel Al-Alam said the missiles test-fired by the elite Revolutionary Guards included a “Shahab-3 with a conventional warhead weighing one tonne and a 2,000-kilometer (1,240-mile) range.”
The firing comes at a time of growing tension over Tehran’s nuclear drive, which Iran insists is aimed solely at generating energy but the West fears could be aimed at making an atomic bomb.
The Bush administration, which has not ruled out military action against Iranian atomic facilities, condemned the missile tests.
“Iran’s development of ballistic missiles is a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions and completely inconsistent with Iran’s obligations to the world,” White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.
He expressed concern that Iran’s ballistic missiles could be used as “a delivery vehicle for a potential nuclear weapon.”
Jun
20
McCain attacks Obama for opting out of public financing
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WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sen. John McCain on Thursday accused Sen. Barack Obama of breaking a promise when the Democrat decided to forgo public financing in this fall’s campaign.
Sen. Barack Obama repeatedly broke campaign fundraising records during the Democratic primary season.
Obama told supporters in an e-mail message Thursday that he would not accept about $85 million in public funds when he becomes the Democratic presidential nominee.
In the e-mail, Obama said the public campaign financing system allowed “special interests [to] drown out the voices of the American people” and asked his supporters to “declare our independence from a broken system.”
McCain said that Obama’s move to drop out of the system “should be disturbing to all Americans” and that he may decide to opt out, too.
“Sen. Obama’s reversal on public financing is one of a number of reversals … that he has taken,” McCain said while touring flood-damaged parts of Iowa.
“This election is about a lot of things, but it’s also about trust. It’s also about whether you can take people’s word. … He said he would stick to his agreement. He didn’t.” Watch McCain’s attack on Obama »
He said his campaign will reconsider whether to opt out as well.
“We”l have to reevaluate in light of his decision,” he said. But he said he leans toward taking public money.
But Rep. Rahm Emanuel, an Obama supporter, argued that the Democrat had “more than realized the objective of public financing” by setting up a system to accept small donations over the Internet.
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“It has given the American people a voice in our political process and has forever changed politics in this country by inspiring record numbers of Americans to participate in bringing change to Washington,” Emanuel said.
Despite the heated back-and-forth, CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider said it is unlikely the controversy will influence voters.
“I’m not sure it’s a big deal for most voters. There’s not a lot of support for the public financing system.” Schneider said. “About a year ago, the polls asked people if they supported the idea that candidates and campaigns should be financed by taxpayer money … and most persons said no.
“They like the idea of financing campaigns through small contributions from a lot of individual contributors, which is what Obama has done,” he said.
Obama would be the first the major presidential candidate to drop out of the modern campaign financing system for the general election since its creation in 1976 in the post-Watergate era.
Under this system, candidates agree to spend only the public funds and cannot raise or spend money directly obtained from individuals.
Because he has decided not participate in the system, Obama will be able to spend an unlimited amount of money during the general election.
The two camps also bickered Thursday over whether they had held negotiations on public financing before Obama’s move to drop out.
Obama counsel Bob Bauer said he discussed the public funding issue for 45 minutes with Trevor Potter, his McCain counterpart, on June 6 when they met to talk about a possible town-hall appearance between the candidates.
Potter said the two “spoke in general terms about the public financing system, with Bob outlining reasons it could be considered ‘broken’ or irrelevant in 2008, and I explaining why Sen. McCain remained committed to it and thought it was good for the country.”
Given his record-breaking ability to raise donations over the Internet, the Illinois Democrat probably will be able to raise more than and outspend the presumptive GOP nominee. Watch CNN’s Candy Crowley explain the significance of Obama’s decision »
Since January 2007, Obama has raised more than $272 million, including nearly $31 million in April. During that time period, McCain has raised less than half that amount, roughly $100 million. In April, the Arizona Republican brought in about $18 million.
The FEC ruled unanimously in March 2007 that presidential candidates could accept general election public financing, provided that they return any money raised for the general election while following certain guidelines. At the time, Obama’s actions appeared to be a desire on his part to preserve the public financing option while enabling him to raise general election money.
After that ruling, spokesman Bill Burton said, “Sen. Obama is pleased the FEC took this important step in preserving the public financing system, which is why he sought the opinion. If Sen. Obama is the nominee, he will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.”
However, Obama asked supporters Thursday to “declare our independence from a broken system, and run the type of campaign that reflects the grass-roots values that have already changed our politics and brought us this far.”
The Democrat also attacked McCain and Republicans for taking money from lobbyists and political action committees, and he faulted McCain for not checking the campaign spending of conservative groups independent from his campaign.
“We’ve already seen that he’s not going to stop the smears and attacks from his allies running so-called 527 groups, who will spend millions and millions of dollars in unlimited donations,” the e-mail said, referring to independent political advocacy groups that often purchase issue ads independent of the presidential campaigns.
These groups operate under Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Service tax code.
E-mail to a friend Source
Jun
3
WASHINGTON - Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois sealed the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, a historic step toward his once-improbable goal of becoming the nation’s first black president. A defeated Hillary Rodham Clinton maneuvered for the vice presidential spot on his fall ticket.
Obama’s victory set up a five-month campaign with Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a race between a 46-year-old opponent of the Iraq War and a 71-year-old former Vietnam prisoner of war and staunch supporter of the current U.S. military mission.
McCain was plainly eager for the race to begin, and accused his younger rival of voting “to deny funds to the soldiers who have done a brilliant and brave job” in Iraq.
In remarks prepared for delivery in New Orleans, McCain agreed with Obama that the presidential race would focus on change. “But the choice is between the right change and the wrong change, between going forward and going backward,” he added.
The newly minted Democratic nominee-in-waiting arranged an evening appearance in St. Paul, Minn., sending McCain an unmistakable message by claiming his victory in the very hall where the Arizonan will accept his party’s nomination in early September.
Obama sealed his nomination, according to The Associated Press tally, based on primary elections, state Democratic caucuses and delegates’ public declarations as well as support from 19 delegates and “superdelegates” who privately confirmed their intentions t/o the AP. It takes 2,118 delegates to clinch the nomination at the convention in Denver this summer, and Obama had 2,128 by the AP count.
Obama, a first-term senator who was virtually unknown on the national stage four years ago, defeated Clinton, the former first lady and one-time campaign front-runner, in a 17-month marathon for the Democratic nomination.
His victory had been widely assumed for weeks. But Clinton’s declaration of interest in becoming his ticketmate was wholly unexpected.
She expressed it in a conference call with her state’s congressional delegation after Rep. Nydia Velazquez, predicted Obama would have great difficulty winning the support of Hispanics and other voting blocs unless the former first lady was on the ticket.
“I am open to it” if it would help the party’s prospects in November, Clinton replied, according to a participant who spoke on condition of anonymity because the call was private.
Obama’s campaign had no public reaction to Clinton’s comments, which raised anew the prospect of what many Democrats have called a “Dream Ticket” that would put a black man and a woman on the same ballot.
McCain’s criticism of Obama referred to a vote last year in which the Illinois senator came out against legislation paying for the Iraq war because it did not include a timetable for withdrawing troops. At the time, Obama said the funding would give President Bush “a blank check to continue down this same, disastrous path.”
Obama previously had opposed a deadline for troop withdrawal, but shifted position under pressure from the Democratic Party’s liberal wing as he maneuvered for support in advance of the primaries.
Tuesday’s fast-paced developments unfolded as the long Democratic nominating struggle ended with primaries in Montana and South Dakota.
Only 31 delegates were at stake, the final few among the thousands that once drew Obama, Clinton and six other Democratic candidates into the campaign to replace Bush and become the nation’s 44th president.
Clinton was in New York for an appearance before home-state supporters. Officials said she would concede Obama had the delegates to secure the Democratic nomination, effectively ending her bid to be the nation’s first female president.
The young Illinois senator’s success amounted to a victory of hope over experience, earned across an enervating 56 primaries and caucuses that tested the political skills and human endurance of all involved.
Obama stood for hope, and change. Clinton was the candidate of experience, ready, she said, to serve in the Oval Office from Day One.
Together, they drew record turnouts in primary after primary - more than 34 million voters in all, independents and Republicans as well as Democrats.
Yet the race between a black man and a woman exposed deep racial and gender divisions within the party.
Obama drew strength from blacks, and from the younger, more liberal and wealthier voters in many states. Clinton was preferred by older, more downscale voters, and women, of course.
Obama’s triumph was fashioned on prodigious fundraising, meticulous organizing and his theme of change aimed at an electorate opposed to the Iraq war and worried about the economy - all harnessed to his own gifts as an inspirational speaker.
With her husband’s two White House terms as a backdrop, Clinton campaigned for months as the candidate of experience, a former first lady and second-term senator ready to be commander in chief.
But after a year on the campaign trail, Obama won the kickoff Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3, and the freshman senator became a political phenomenon.
“We came together as Democrats, as Republicans and independents, to stand up and say we are one nation, we are one people and our time for change has come,” he said that night of victory in Des Moines.
As the strongest female presidential candidate in history, Clinton drew large, enthusiastic audiences. Yet Obama’s were bigger. One audience, in Dallas, famously cheered when he blew his nose on stage; a crowd of 75,000 turned out in Portland, Ore., the weekend before the state’s May 20 primary.
The former first lady countered Obama’s Iowa victory with an upset five days later in New Hampshire that set the stage for a campaign marathon as competitive as any in the past generation.
“Over the last week I listened to you, and in the process I found my own voice,” she told supporters who had saved her candidacy from an early demise.
In defeat, Obama’s aides concluded they had committed a cardinal sin of New Hampshire politics, forsaking small, intimate events in favor of speeches to large audiences inviting them to ratify Iowa’s choice.
It was not a mistake they made again - which helped explain Obama’s later outings to bowling alleys, backyard basketball courts and American Legion halls in the heartland.
Clinton conceded nothing, memorably knocking back a shot of Crown Royal whiskey at a bar in Indiana, recalling that her grandfather had taught her to use a shotgun, and driving in a pickup to a gas station in South Bend, Ind., to emphasize her support for a summertime suspension of the federal gasoline tax.
As other rivals fell away in winter, Obama and Clinton traded victories on Super Tuesday, the Feb. 5 series of primaries and caucuses across 21 states and American Samoa that once seemed likely to settle the nomination.
But Clinton had a problem that Obama exploited, and he scored a coup she could not answer.
Pressed for cash, the former first lady ran noncompetitive campaigns in several Super Tuesday caucus states, allowing her rival to run up his delegate totals.
At the same time, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., endorsed the young senator in terms that summoned memories of his slain brothers while seeking to turn the page on the Clinton era.
Merely by surviving Super Tuesday, Obama exceeded expectations. But he did more than survive, emerging with a lead in delegates that he never relinquished, and he proceeded to run off a string of 11 straight victories.
Clinton saved her candidacy once more with primary victories in Ohio and Texas on March 4, beginning a stretch in which she won in six of the next nine states on the calendar, as well as in Puerto Rico.
It was a strong run, providing glimpses of what might have been for the one-time front-runner.
Personality issues rose and receded through the campaign:
Clinton’s husband, the former president, campaigned tirelessly for her but sometimes became an issue himself, to her detriment.
And Obama struggled to minimize the damage caused by the incendiary rhetoric of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, an issue likely to be raised anew by Republicans in the fall campaign. Source
Apr
21
Obama reports $51M to start April; McCain raised $15M
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WASHINGTON - Barack Obama raised $41 million in March and had $42 million available to spend against debt-ridden Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton in April, campaign finance reports filed Sunday show.
Clinton reported raising $20 million in March and had $9 million for the primary available at the beginning of April. But she also reported debts of $10.3 million, putting her in the red.
Overall, Obama had $51 million in the bank at the end of March, with nearly $9 million of that available only for the general election.
The money positioned Obama to undertake an expensive April campaign in Pennsylvania, where he has outspent Clinton and cut into her lead. Pennsylvania votes on Tuesday.
Obama’s fundraising in March led all candidates, but was still lower than the mark he set in February, when he raised more than $55 million. He has raised $235 million in his campaign.
The campaigns filed their finance reports with the Federal Election Commission.
Republican John McCain’s report showed he raised $15.2 million and had $11.6 million in the bank. The Arizona senator’s March figures were his best fundraising performance of the campaign.
Obama spent $30.6 million in March - a month that began with tough contests for the Illinois senator in Ohio and Texas. He lost the popular vote to Clinton in both state primaries even though he outspent her, but he emerged with more delegates in Texas.
His report showed he spent $9 million on media advertising, an amount mostly spent in final days before the March 4 Ohio and Texas primaries. Obama did spend money in March for ads in Pennsylvania and Indiana, which votes May 6. But he held off on most of his big ad spending until April, permitting him to build up his cash on hand.
Obama reported owing more than $660,000 to various vendors. Beside advertising, his other major expenses were nearly $5 million in telemarketing and $3.6 million for travel and lodging.
In keeping with his trend, California was Obama’s go-to fundraising state, generating nearly $4.6 million in contributions in March. New York was next with nearly $3.2 million.
Clinton spokesman Jay Carson said $15 million of Clinton’s $20 million was raised over the Internet. He said the campaign has raised $60 million over the Internet since Jan. 1. The surge of online support suggests she is attracting more small-dollar donors, but contributors who give larger amounts could also be encouraged to give online.
The March figures do not include the $2.5 million she raised last week at an Elton John concert in New York. Carson said the event’s total sum included money from 6,000 new donors.
Clinton spent $22.2 million in March.
McCain in March refunded donors about $3 million in contributions, most of it money he had received for the general election. The refunds set the stage for McCain to accept about $84 million in public funds for the fall campaign. Candidates who accept public financing cannot raise money from donors for the general election campaign.
McCain’s biggest expense of the month was $3 million to Fidelity & Trust Bank to finish paying off a $4 million loan that had become the focus of a stalemate between McCain and the FEC. Campaign finance regulators want to make sure McCain did not use the promise of public financing in the primary to secure the loan. McCain was eligible for public financing in the primary, but his lawyers said they did not use that eligibility as collateral.
In March, his operating expenses were $5 million, his smallest monthly expense so far this year.
McCain’s March expenses ranged from $758,000 for air charters to $151.55 to a Los Angeles florist. The campaign reported a debt of $707,000, much of it outstanding American Express billings. McCain had his most fundraising success in California and Florida, each of which yielded more than $1 million.
Apr
17
By winning back unhappy GOP voters, McCain makes it a race
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WASHINGTON (AP) - Republicans are no longer underdogs in the race for the White House. To pull that off, John McCain has attracted disgruntled GOP voters, independents and even some moderate Democrats who shunned his party last fall.Partly thanks to an increasingly likable image, the Republican presidential candidate has pulled even with the two Democrats still brawling for their party’s nomination, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo news poll released Thursday. Just five months ago - before either party had winnowed its field - the survey showed people preferred sending an unnamed Democrat over a Republican to the White House by 13 percentage points.
Also helping the Arizona senator close the gap: Peoples’ opinions of Hillary Rodham Clinton have soured slightly, while their views of Barack Obama have improved though less impressively than McCain’s.
The survey suggests that those switching to McCain are largely attuned to his personal qualities and McCain may be benefiting as the two Democrats snipe at each other during their prolonged nomination fight.
David Mason of Richmond, Va., is typical of the voters McCain has gained since last November, when the 46-year-old personal trainer was undecided. Mason calls himself an independent and voted in 2004 for President Bush, whom he considers a strong leader but a disappointment due to the “no-win situation” in Iraq.
“It’s not that I’m that much in favor of McCain, it’s the other two are turning me off,” Mason said of Clinton and Obama, the senators from New York and Illinois, in explaining his move toward McCain. As for the Republican’s experiences as a Vietnam War prisoner and in the Senate, Mason said, “All he’s been through is an asset.”
By tracking the same group of roughly 2,000 people throughout the campaign, the AP-Yahoo poll can gauge how individual views are evolving. What’s clear is that some Republican-leaning voters who backed Bush in 2004 but lost enthusiasm for him are returning to the GOP fold _ along with a smaller but significant number of Democrats who have come to dislike their party’s two contenders.
The findings of the survey, conducted by Knowledge Networks, provide a preview of one of this fall’s battlegrounds. Though some unhappy Republicans will doubtless stay with McCain, both groups are teeming with centrist swing voters who will be targeted by both parties.
The poll shows that McCain’s appeal has grown since November by more than the Democrats’ has dwindled. McCain gets about 10 percentage points more now than a generic Republican candidate got last fall; Obama and Clinton get about 5 points less than a nameless Democrat got then.
Underlining McCain’s burgeoning popularity, in November about four in 10 considered McCain likeable, decisive, strong and honest while about half do now. Obama is seen as more likeable and stronger now but his numbers for honesty and decisiveness have remained flat, while Clinton’s scores for likeability and honesty have dropped slightly.
“You can’t trust Hillary and Obama’s too young,” said Pauline Holsinger, 60, a janitorial worker in Pensacola, Fla., now backing McCain who preferred an unnamed Democrat last fall. “I like him better, he’s more knowledgeable about the war” in Iraq.
Voters at this stage in a campaign commonly focus more on candidates’ personal qualities. That usually changes as the general election approaches and they pay more attention to issues and partisan loyalty - meaning that McCain’s prospects could fade at a time when the public is deeply unhappy with the war, the staggering economy and Bush.
For now, more than one in 10 who weren’t backing the unnamed Republican candidate in last November’s survey are supporting McCain, a shift partly offset by a smaller number of former undecideds now embracing Obama or Clinton. Of those now backing McCain, about one-third did not support the generic GOP candidate last November.
Among people who have moved toward McCain, about two-thirds are discontented Bush voters, with many calling themselves independents but leaning Republican.
About half of this group say they are conservative, yet their views on issues are more moderate than many in the party, with some opposing the war in Iraq. They have favorable but not intensely enthusiastic views of McCain _ for example, two-thirds find him likeable while far fewer find him compassionate or refreshing.
“He’s known, he’s a veteran,” said David Tucker, a retired Air Force technician from Alexandria, La., and Bush voter who was undecided last November but has ruled out Obama and Clinton. “I understand him better.”
Around a third of the voters newly supporting McCain lean Democratic and mostly backed Democrat John Kerry in 2004. They are moderates who disapprove of Bush and the war in Iraq, but find McCain likeable, much more so than they did last November.
Many McCain-backing Democrats express one consistent concern about McCain - his age.
“Let’s face it, we’re not getting any younger,” said retired accountant Sheldon Rothman of Queens, N.Y., who like McCain is 71. “There are too many imponderables when you get to that age, especially with the stress of the presidency.”
Whether those now switching to McCain will stay that way once the Democrats choose a candidate is what the fall campaign will be about.
“McCain has a history of doing well with independent voters,” said GOP pollster David Winston. He said voters’ preference for an unnamed Democratic candidate but McCain’s strong performance against Obama and Clinton means “Democrats have an advantage their candidates are not taking advantage of.”
Democratic pollster Alan Secrest said the contrasting numbers mean that while the voters’ overall mood favors Democrats, they are still taking the measure of Clinton and Obama.
“The Democrats will have to earn their way this fall,” he said.
The AP-Yahoo survey of 1,844 adults was conducted from April 2-14 and had an overall margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points. Included were interviews with 863 Democrats, for whom the margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3.3 points, and 668 Republicans, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.8 points.
The poll was conducted over the Internet by Knowledge Networks, which initially contacted people using traditional telephone polling methods and followed with online interviews. People chosen for the study who had no Internet access were given it for free.
Mar
19
McCain gets warm welcome in Israel
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JERUSALEM - John McCain received a warm welcome in Israel during a visit aimed at burnishing his leadership credentials in the run-up to the U.S. presidential election, but some questioned whether his uncritical support for Israel best serves Mideast peace efforts.
McCain was scheduled to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other Israeli leaders during a two-day trip that started Tuesday, but had no plans to see Palestinians.
With his war hero status and a record of strong support for Israel, the presumptive Republican nominee is widely popular in the Jewish state.
In an op-ed Tuesday in the Haaretz daily, the columnist Amir Oren wrote, “as far as Israel is concerned, and in view of the candidates’ current positions - no one is better than McCain.”
But Yossi Beilin, a dovish lawmaker and former peace negotiator, said a more hawkish candidate was not necessarily better for Israel.
“Some people think that to be a friend to Israel you have to be a Likudnik,” he said, referring to the hardline Likud party. “A real friend is someone who will make an effort to bring an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The question is if McCain is that guy.”
In Amman, Jordan, before traveling to Israel, McCain said he would make Israel-Palestinian peace efforts a top priority. “We will do whatever is necessary to assist that process so that we can bring about a peaceful settlement,” he told reporters. He said that control of Gaza by the Islamic Hamas, which rejects the existence of Israel, is “not helpful.”
The Palestinians, for their part, claimed not to feel slighted by McCain’s decision to meet only with Israeli leaders.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said McCain had a “genuine commitment to peace” and would likely speak to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during his visit. Abbas is conducting negotiations with Israel aimed at creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Officially, the Arizona senator was in Israel strictly on congressional business. The senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, McCain was being accompanied by two other senators: Joe Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, and Republican Lindsey Graham from South Carolina, two supporters who have been mentioned as potential running mates.
Their weeklong international trip includes stops in Iraq, Jordan, Britain and France.
On arrival, McCain immediately headed to Israel’s official Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem. As his motorcade pulled up, dozens of tourists greeted him and chanted “Mac is back” as he shook their hands and posed for photographs.
During his 90-minute visit at the memorial and museum, McCain’s eyes welled with tears as he viewed photographs from Nazi death camps. He laid a wreath in memory of the 6 million Jewish Holocaust victims and lit a memorial flame, wearing a skullcap placed on his head by Lieberman.
Signing the Yad Vashem visitors’ book, he wrote: “I am deeply moved. Never again. John McCain.”
McCain has said the visit is for fact-finding purposes and is not a campaign photo opportunity. But images of McCain embracing Israeli leaders and visiting Jewish holy sites could help McCain with Jewish voters, who make up crucial voting blocs in key states like Florida and Michigan.
Source: Yahoo News
Mar
17
McCain, Cheney: US in Iraq long-term
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BAGHDAD - Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John McCain vowed in meetings with Iraq’s prime minister Monday that the U.S. would maintain a long-term military presence in Iraq until al-Qaida is defeated there.
Explosions went off near the heavily fortified Green Zone shortly after Cheney arrived. Helicopter gunships circled central Baghdad, but no details were immediately available on the cause of the explosions.
The presumptive Republican candidate for president, who has linked his political future to military success in Iraq, met with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki shortly before the Iraqi leader began separate talks with Cheney.
Al-Maliki said he and the vice president discussed ongoing negotiations over a long-term security agreement between the two countries that would replace the U.N. mandate for foreign troops set to expire at the end of the year.
“This visit is very important. It is about the nature of the relations between the two countries, the future of those relations and the agreement in this respect,” the prime minister told reporters. “We also discussed the security in Iraq, the development of the economy and reconstruction and terrorism.”
McCain stressed that it was important to maintain the U.S. commitment in Iraq, where a U.S.-Iraq military operation is under way to clear al-Qaida from its last urban stronghold of Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad.
“We recognize that al-Qaida is on the run, but they are not defeated,” McCain said after meeting al-Maliki. “Al-Qaida continues to pose a great threat to the security and very existence of Iraq as a democracy. So we know there’s still a lot more of work to be done.”
McCain, who arrived in Iraq on Sunday, told reporters that he also discussed with the Shiite leader the need for progress on political reforms, including laws on holding provincial elections and the equitable distribution of Iraq’s oil riches.
Cheney arrived at Baghdad International Airport, then flew by helicopter for talks with U.S. and Iraqi officials. It is Cheney’s third vice-presidential trip to Iraq, where 160,000 American troops are deployed and the U.S. death toll is nearing 4,000.
Violence has dropped throughout the capital with an influx of some 30,000 additional U.S. soldiers as well as a Sunni revolt against al-Qaida and a cease-fire by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia.
The U.S. military has said attacks have fallen by about 60 percent since last February.
McCain, the senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, was accompanied by Sens. Joe Lieberman, an independent, and Republican Lindsey Graham, two top supporters of his presidential ambitions. The weeklong trip will take McCain to Israel, Britain and France.
Police said they found the bodies of three members of a U.S.-allied group fighting al-Qaida in Udaim, 70 miles north of Baghdad. Members of the mostly Sunni groups have been increasingly targeted by suspected al-Qaida members seeking to derail the recent security gains.
A bomb in a parked car in Baghdad’s central Karradah neighborhood killed three civilian bystanders and wounded nine, police said, while a separate roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad killed one and wounded three others.
Source :Yahoo News
Mar
15
McCain links campaign to foreign issues
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WASHINGTON - Like no other candidate, John McCain has linked his campaign for president to an unpopular war - and to a lifelong focus on foreign issues that many voters ignore.
McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone, became famous as a Vietnam prisoner of war and has spent his long Senate career traveling to more foreign countries than most people could even name.
He makes his eighth trip to Iraq this weekend, a visit sure to get a lot of attention. But his weeklong overseas trip also includes Israel, Britain and France - all countries where he’s made many visits.
A defiant supporter of the 2003 invasion and President Bush’s troop increase last year, McCain is likely to focus in Iraq on the drop in sectarian violence and U.S. and civilian casualties since last summer.
His own situation has changed strikingly, too, since then. Now he’s the Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting.
Last April, as McCain’s chances for winning the nomination seemed uncertain, the four-term Arizona senator toured a Baghdad marketplace, hailing the progress even though he was protected by three Black Hawk helicopters, two Apache gunships and 100 U.S. troops.
He was widely ridiculed as being out of touch.
As he returns, a new Pentagon study shows sectarian violence down 90 percent and U.S. and civilian casualties down 70 percent since last July.
Last December, nearly two-thirds of Americans said they opposed the war, including nearly a third of Republicans and nearly all Democrats, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll. Opinions on the war have remained basically steady.
However, a poll released Friday by NBC News and The Wall Street Journal said about 35 percent of those questioned think McCain has the right approach for Iraq, compared with 30 percent for Hillary Rodham Clinton and 27 percent for Barack Obama.
McCain calls the fight against Islamic extremism the “transcendent challenge of the 21st century.”
He suggested on Friday that terrorists in Iraq don’t want to see him in the White House. Asked at a campaign stop in Pennsylvania whether al-Qaida might step up its attacks to hurt his chances, he said, “Yes, I worry about it. And I know they pay attention, because of the intercepts we have of their communications.”
As for any effect his Iraq war stance might have on his candidacy, he said this week in New Hampshire, “I’ve made it abundantly clear that I would much rather lose a campaign than a war.”
The one may be tied to the other.
Says Michael O’Hanlon, a foreign policy analyst at the Brookings Institution: “I have a hard time seeing how he wins if Iraq falls apart between now and November, and I have a hard time seeing how the Democrats use Iraq against him over that time if things continue to improve.”
As Democrats Clinton and Obama fight over which of them has the credentials to be the next commander in chief, McCain offers a much lengthier foreign policy and military resume.
Now 71, he was born in the Canal Zone, where his father, a naval officer, was stationed. A graduate of the Naval Academy, McCain flew in Vietnam and was a prisoner of war for more than five years. In the Senate, he is the senior Republican on the Armed Services Committee.
He has visited every region of the world, including Antarctica and the Arctic Circle, and frequently meets with leaders of the countries to which he’s traveled, both when he visits their countries and when they visit the United States.
McCain has been across the world so many times that aides named off the tops of their heads some 69 countries he’s visited - including Azerbaijan, Estonia, Laos and Palau - and warned the list was far from exhaustive.
Aides say he keeps up to speed on the politics and policies of many nations - a passion he regularly displays to reporters traveling with him - and understands the long-term ramifications of having well-established personal relationships with foreign leaders.
He makes it a point to meet with up-and-comers, too. Aides say he met Angela Merkel at a Munich conference several years ago before she became German chancellor. In summer 2004, McCain met at a restaurant with Viktor Yushchenko before the Orange Revolution when he was elected Ukrainian president.
Next week, McCain is expected to meet with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown for the first time, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy for the third time. He met and corresponded with Sarkozy both before and after he was elected. The two last saw each other last summer.
McCain has relationships with every leader in Israel he plans to see, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and hawkish opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu.
The senator last met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki last Thanksgiving, and he’s also gotten to know other members of the Iraqi government.
He returns with two of his chief presidential supporters, Sens. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, but he insists it is a fact-finding venture, not a campaign photo opportunity.
“There’s nothing like being on the ground,” he said. Mentioning a mountainous area in northwestern Pakistan, he added, “I went to Waziristan once and it gave me a much better understanding of how difficult it is to get Osama bin Laden.”
O’Hanlon, the Brookings analyst who says he’s a Democrat, says McCain has shown a more realistic vision than Bush about the number of troops needed to succeed in Iraq, as well as the problems that were likely to be encountered after the invasion.
“What that tells me in terms of future policy is McCain may be willing to stay the course, so to speak, in terms of future difficulties, but also assess if the strategy is really working or not,” O’Hanlon said.
Jon Alterman, a former Bush administration aide who now runs the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, notes that Bush’s father spoke of “the vision thing.”
“This president has always been strong on the vision thing, even when the implementation is lacking. I don’t think John McCain is enamored with the vision thing. He talks about the task and focuses on the task. It’s just a different orientation,” Alterman said.
“The straight talk express is not often associated with diplomacy,” he said. “But the advantage of it is you know what you’re getting. And it may be that he’s able to form quite valuable relationships precisely because of his bluntness.”
Sores : Yahoo News