<><>DEMOCRATS<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
THE FIELD
Dean says superdelegates are free agents
By Mark Z. Barabak
Los Angeles Times
April 2, 2008
WASHINGTON — Citing Democratic rules, national committee Chairman Howard Dean on Tuesday said that the superdelegates who are poised to select the party's presidential nominee are free to back whomever they wish at the end of the primaries, regardless of who leads in the popular vote or pledged delegates. "They should use whatever yardstick they want," Dean said in an interview at party headquarters. "That's what the rules provide for." Asked about Hillary Rodham Clinton's suggestion that superdelegates should exercise independent judgment and not feel bound by the standings after June 3 -- the day the nominating season ends -- Dean replied: "That's what the rules say, and I enforce the rules."
Dean: Dems 'committed' to seat Fla. Delegates
Associated Press
April 2, 2008
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean said Wednesday the party was committed to seating Florida's delegates at this summer's convention as long as any agreement is supported by the party's two presidential contenders. Dean met with Florida lawmakers to discuss ways of allocating delegates among Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton and prepare for the fall campaign in the battleground state…
CLINTON
By Ruth Marcus
Washington Post
April 2, 2008
The unyielding arithmetic of the Democrats' delegate selection rules makes Hillary Clinton's prospects of winning the nomination dim -- and that's the rosy scenario. The prolonged primary contest, with candidates and aides bickering like cranky toddlers partway through a long, hot car ride, is bad for the Democratic Party. Still, Clinton shouldn't drop out. Not yet, anyway…
Clinton’s Persistence Could Help Obama
By Katharine Q. Seelye
New York Times
April 2, 2008
PITTSBURGH — For someone supposedly in a heap of trouble, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is looking pretty relaxed these days. She hopped out of her motorcade at the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre airport on Tuesday afternoon, chatted with some residents and then took a relatively long stroll across the tarmac to her plane. The sun was out for the first time in days. Her bright fuchsia jacket — gone was the dark coat of winter — drew the eye, and she gave a jaunty nod as she bounded up the stairs of her plane…
OBAMA
Wag the Blog: A Question of Temperament?
By Chris Cillizza
Washington Post
April 3, 2008
In what has been a relatively slow news week, a made-for-television exchange between Sen. Barack Obama and a extremely persistent man requesting a photo with the Illinois Senator became all the buzz of the chattering class on Wednesday…
Associated Press
April 2, 2008
CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal, a former Clinton administration appointee, announced Wednesday that he will support Illinois Sen. Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination. Freudenthal said he was impressed by the large, enthusiastic crowds that turned out to see Obama when he visited Wyoming ahead of last month's caucuses…
Obama: Gore would be considered for Cabinet
Associated Press
April 3, 2008
WALLINGFORD, Pa. (AP) — Sen. Barack Obama said Wednesday he would give Al Gore, a Nobel prize winner, a major role in an Obama administration to address the problem of global warming. At a town-hall meeting, Obama was asked if he would tap the former vice president for his Cabinet to handle global warming. "I would," Obama said. "Not only will I, but I will make a commitment that Al Gore will be at the table and play a central part in us figuring out how we solve this problem. He's somebody I talk to on a regular basis. I'm already consulting with him in terms of these issues, but climate change is real. It is something we have to deal with now, not 10 years from now, not 20 years from now."
By Michael Gerson
Washington Post
April 2, 2008
Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr.'s endorsement of Barack Obama last week -- "I believe in this guy like I've never believed in a candidate in my life" -- recalled another dramatic moment in Democratic politics. In the summer of 1992, as Bill Clinton solidified his control over the Democratic Party, Robert P. Casey Sr., the senator's father, was banned from speaking to the Democratic convention for the heresy of being pro-life. The elder Casey (now deceased) was then the governor of Pennsylvania -- one of the most prominent elected Democrats in the country. He was an economic progressive in the Roosevelt tradition. But his Irish Catholic conscience led him to oppose abortion. So the Clintons chose to humiliate him. It was a sign and a warning of much mean-spirited pettiness to come…
<><>REPUBLICANS<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
McCAIN
Economic Slump Underlines Concerns About McCain Advisers
By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post
April 2, 2008
One of them helped deregulate the financial services industries in the 1990s, and now sits in the corporate suites of Swiss banking giant UBS, which yesterday announced $19 billion in investment losses tied to the crumbling U.S. real estate market. The other pushed one of the most aggressive and controversial mergers of the technology boom, then was sacked by the disenchanted board of Hewlett-Packard…
McCain compiles list of running mates
Associated Press
April 3, 2008
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Sen. John McCain has begun "getting together a list of names" to choose a vice presidential running mate and said Wednesday he hopes to announce his choice before the Republican convention in early September. "I'd like to get it done as early as possible. I'm aware of enhanced importance of this issue given my age," said the Arizona senator, 71…
McCain campaigns, urges public service
By David Jackson
USA Today
April 2, 2008
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — John McCain returned Wednesday to the U.S. Naval Academy he once attended, using the setting to reminisce about his undergraduate years and urging Americans to engage in public service. "If you find fault with our country, make it a better one," McCain told a crowd gathered to hear the likely GOP presidential nominee, in the latest in a week-long "biography tour" series of speeches…
<><> PRIMARY CONTESTS<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
INDIANA
Indiana Marks the Next Test for Clinton
By Amy Chozick
New York Times
April 3, 2008
Sen. Hillary Clinton needs to show strong support among white, working-class voters in coming primaries to mollify those in the party who say she should pull out of the race. While the most prominent test comes April 22 in Pennsylvania, her bigger challenge may be two weeks later, in Indiana. Indiana offers 72 delegates and would give Sen. Clinton a chance to narrow the gap with Sen. Barack Obama. Sen. Obama leads in the race for delegates with 1,632, including superdelegates, to 1,500 for Sen. Clinton, according to the Associated Press; 2,025 are needed to secure the nomination…
<><>RACE TO THE WHITE HOUSE<><><><><><><><><><><>
Democrats Rake In Cash From Industry; Catch-Up for GOP
By Brody Mullins
Wall Street Journal
April 2, 2008
WASHINGTON -- John McCain faces a problem as he tries to close a deep fund-raising deficit against the two Democratic candidates for president: Both have been cleaning his clock among business interests that give mainly to Republicans. Of seven major industries that have been the most reliable Republican resources, Sen. McCain has beaten Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama in only one, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan organization. Even that one, transportation, is a close call. Among the seven combined, the expected Republican nominee raised $13.1 million through February, compared with $22.5 million for Sen. Obama and $27.1 million for Sen. Clinton…
McCain and Clinton Ads Spar Over How to Solve Home Mortgage Crisis
By Michael Cooper
New York Times
April 3, 2008
The advertisements highlighted how the two parties’ candidates have developed starkly different approaches to the housing meltdown, which has come to dominate the presidential race…
Clinton, Obama focus on economy; McCain touts his years at Naval Academy
By Johanna Neuman and Maeve Reston
Los Angeles Times
April 2, 2008
WASHINGTON — Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton promised a series of tax incentives today to encourage U.S. companies not to ship jobs overseas, pledging $7 billion to encourage green technology, research and what she called "in-sourcing" of American jobs. "We reward companies like Exxon-Mobil who park $56 billion in profits overseas because they don't have to pay a dime in U.S. taxes on those profits," Clinton said while hosting a jobs summit in Pittsburgh. "And we're using your tax dollars to reward companies that ship your jobs overseas." Calling for $500 million annually in investments to spur high-wage jobs in clean energy manufacturing technologies and create 5 million jobs in 10 years, the New York senator said her "in-sourcing" agenda would restore jobs lost to a global marketplace…
<><>WAR/TERROR<><><><><>><><><><><><><><><><><><>
<><>CONGRESS<><><><><>><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Despite earmark reforms, 'pork' spending rises
By Gail Russell Chaddock
Christian Science Monitor
April 3, 2008
Washington - Despite promises on both sides of the aisle to cut back on "pork-barrel" spending, Congress served up 11,610 member-sponsored projects in spending bills for FY 2008 at a cost to taxpayers of $17.2 billion. That's the second-highest number of pet projects since Citizens Against Government Waste began counting 18 years ago, according to CAGW's annual Pig Book, released Wednesday. Since 1991, the public tab for "pork" spending is a budget-busting $271 billion…
Plane maintenance lapses draw congressional hearing
By Alexandra Marks
Christian Science Monitor
April 3, 2008
NEW YORK - The Federal Aviation Administration is under fire. With United Airlines now the fourth major carrier to ground planes over the past month because of maintenance concerns, critics charge that the FAA is "too cozy" with the airlines it regulates. It's a situation, they say, that could eventually affect the safety of the flying public. As a result, critics are calling for a complete review and overhaul of the agency…
<><>OTHER NEWS<><><><><>><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Bernanke Nods at Possibility of a Recession
By Steven R. Weisman
New York Times
April 3, 2008
The chairman of the Federal Reserve warned a Congressional committee that the economy could contract in the first half of this year…
Some signs of optimism on economy
Banks raise capital; senators look at a bipartisan mortgage-rescue package.
By Mark Trumbull
Christian Science Monitor
April 3, 2008
America's web of housing and financial problems has no simple or quick fix, but one vital ingredient of progress appears to be on the rise: hope. A 3.6 percent surge of the Standard & Poor's stock index, as happened Tuesday, is hardly an all-clear signal. But the fact that the rally was led by some of the bank stocks at the center of the storm does point to some lessening of fears that neither markets nor policymakers can prevent an economic slowdown from becoming a deep recession…
No comments:
Post a Comment