<><>DEMOCRATS<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
THE FIELD
Carrying Primary Scars Into the General Election
By Katharine Q. Seelye and Julie Bosman
New York Times
April 1, 2008
President Jimmy Carter and Senator Edward M. Kennedy had been sharp adversaries with a bad history, and in the 1980 presidential campaign they let it bleed into a bitter nomination fight. The Carter administration challenged Mr. Kennedy’s patriotism and refused to debate, while Mr. Kennedy dragged out their fight for nine months, all the way to the Democratic convention. A weakened Mr. Carter prevailed and won the nomination, but he went on to lose in November. Convention fights often spell ruin for a party. The 1980 experience for Democrats — as well as a fight in 1968, and one in 1976 for Republicans — all suggest that a bruising primary carried through the summer can contribute to defeat in November…
CLINTON
Blunders About Past Weaken Credibility; Move to Shift Focus
By Amy Chozick
Wall Street Journal
April 1, 2008
HARRISBURG, Pa. -- In the weeks before the Pennsylvania primary, Sen. Hillary Clinton not only lags Sen. Barack Obama in the race for delegates, she also is losing ground in her effort to convince voters that she is trustworthy. The debate over her record has left Sen. Clinton confronting her lowest approval rating since April 2006, according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released last week…
Ickes is Clinton's not-so-secret weapon
The veteran political operative is relentless in his drive for Democratic superdelegates.
By Peter Nicholas
Los Angeles Times
March 31, 2008
ARLINGTON, VA. -- Harold M. Ickes never forgets a favor, especially if he's the one who did the favor. So the veteran political operative made sure that, when the time was right, he alone would call Garry Shay, former chairman of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party. As Ickes saw it, he had helped Shay; now he was looking for Shay to help him. And once Ickes started calling, he didn't stop until Shay said the words Ickes wanted to hear -- that he would support Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York at the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August…
Bill Clinton: Debate does not hurt the Democratic party
USA Today
April 1, 2008
Allowing the Democratic presidential race to continue several more weeks will not hurt the party's chances in November, former president Bill Clinton said Sunday in San Jose, Calif. He urged people to "chill out" and let the balloting run its course. Clinton said Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York wasn't damaging the party by staying in the race even though she is behind in delegates and unlikely to overtake the Illinois senator based on the contests to come…
OBAMA
Moving to Down-to-Earth Oratory for Working People
By Michael Powell
New York Times
April 1, 2008
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — The Speech is his finely polished sword, a transcendent weapon. Seen and heard on a thousand YouTube postings, Senator Barack Obama’s speeches have made a happening of that hoariest of campaign forms, the stump speech. But Mr. Obama sheaths that sword more often now. He is grounding his lofty rhetoric in the more prosaic language of white-working-class discontent, adjusting it to the less welcoming terrain of Pennsylvania. His preferred communication now is the town-hall-style meeting…
<><>REPUBLICANS<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
McCAIN
As Rivals Battle, McCain Builds November Machine
By Michael D. Shear and Dan Balz
Washington Post
April 1, 2008
As his Democratic presidential rivals squabble, Sen. John McCain has moved to transform his ragtag primary campaign into a general-election operation by boosting fundraising, establishing control over the Republican National Committee, and beginning a conversation with voters who live in states where he has not campaigned. One of McCain's first decisions has been to assemble a novel and risky campaign structure that will rely on 10 "regional managers" who will make daily decisions in the states under their direction, his advisers said. The managers will gather today in New Mexico to plot strategy with GOP state officials…
McCain launches 'biography' tour
By Johanna Neuman
Los Angeles Times
March 31, 2008
Republican John McCain took his "biography tour" to Mississippi today as Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton stumped in Pennsylvania three weeks before that state's crucial primary. During a weeklong tour to "reintroduce" himself to voters, the Arizona senator, who has already clinched the GOP presidential nomination, visited Meridian, Miss., where generations of McCains were raised and where a local air base is named for his grandfather and namesake John Sidney "Popeye" McCain, who was a flight instructor and admiral…
<><> PRIMARY CONTESTS<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
PENNSYLVANIA
Democrats Hit the Campaign Trail in Pennsylvania
By Katharine Q. Seelye
New York Times
April 1, 2008
FAIRLESS HILLS, Pa. — The Democratic campaign took on the feel of the early voting states on Monday, back when the candidates’ buses would crisscross paths in a single state. Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama were both in eastern Pennsylvania courting voters, on a day in which Mr. Obama gained a superdelegate. Senator Amy Klobuchar, a freshman Democrat from Minnesota, announced her support for Mr. Obama in a conference call with reporters, describing him as “a new kind of leader — he speaks with a different voice, he brings a new perspective.”
<><>RACE TO THE WHITE HOUSE<><><><><><><><><><><>
Democrats Respond to Bush Plan
By Nick Timiraos
Wall Street Journal
April 1, 2008
MANHEIM, Pa. -- The Democratic presidential candidates criticized the Bush administration's proposed overhaul of financial regulation for not giving enough teeth to the agencies it seeks to streamline. Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama joined Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, in endorsing the proposed consolidation of regulatory agencies, but said that the steps outlined by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson didn't do enough to address the fallout from the credit and foreclosure crisis…
<><>WAR/TERROR<><><><><>><><><><><><><><><><><><>
<><>CONGRESS<><><><><>><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
<><>OTHER NEWS<><><><><>><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Slipping Tax Revenues Pinch State Budgets
By Conor Dougherty
Wall Street Journal
April 1, 2008
Slack consumer spending and falling corporate profits are hurting tax revenues, forcing states to make painful cuts in their budgets. In Florida, students are facing hotter classrooms and could take fewer field trips as public schools pare spending. In Nevada, planned upgrades of locks and security key-card systems at state psychiatric hospitals have been put on hold. Kentucky's public defenders are considering dropping certain cases, including involuntary-commitment cases and small misdemeanors that might include petty theft and minor assault…
Bush, Putin Set to Clash at NATO
Russia Seeks to Stop Georgia, Ukraine From Joining Group
By John D. McKinnon
Wall Street Journal
April 1, 2008
KIEV, Ukraine -- This week's NATO summit is shaping up as a showdown between President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mr. Putin plans to come to the meeting in Bucharest, Romania, hoping to defeat a U.S.-backed initiative to give Georgia and Ukraine inside tracks to membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A Russian official suggested the plan would amount to "destroying" the strategic balance of power in Europe…
Obstacles Seen as Treasury Proposes New Financial Rules
By Stephen Labaton
New York Times
April 1, 2008
Senior lawmakers and lobbyists from industries opposed to the plan to overhaul the regulatory apparatus predicted that most of it would be dead on arrival…
U.S. Supreme Court takes a new 10 Commandments case
By Warren Richey
Christian Science Monitor
April 1, 2008
Public displays of the Ten Commandments have long been a magnet for litigation. But a US appeals court in Denver has put a new twist on the issue. Last year, the court told a city in Utah that since it allows the display of a Ten Commandments monument in a public park it must also allow followers of the Summum religion to erect a similar monument displaying the "Seven Aphorisms of Summum."
Paulson proposes major new role for the Fed
The central bank would oversee all financial markets, under a new plan.
By Ron Scherer
Christian Science Monitor
April 1, 2008 edition
New York - The Federal Reserve already manages the economy: setting interest rates, supervising banks, making sure the nation's payment systems operate efficiently. Now, the Bush administration is proposing that the Fed become a supercop for the nation's financial system. But should the central bank be that powerful? Can an unelected group of overseers – whose record in dealing with the latest financial crisis looks mixed – also run the world's leading capital markets?
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