April 7, 2008

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McCain says Democrats can’t keep promises on Iraq

April 7, 2008 in News by Tony Steidler-Dennison | No comments

(Via Reuters.)

Republican presidential candidate John McCain will accuse his Democratic rivals of making promises they cannot keep with regard to Iraq on Monday in a speech that kicks off a week in which the war returns to center stage of the presidential campaign.

McCain, a senator from Arizona who has wrapped up his party’s White House nomination, will tell an audience of veterans that the United States can look ahead to success in the war, but a hasty withdrawal of troops would go against both U.S. and Iraqi interests.

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Dean expects to seat Fla., Mich. delegates

April 7, 2008 in Featured by Tony Steidler-Dennison | No comments

(Via The Boston Globe.)

A deal to allow delegates from Florida and Michigan to participate at the Democratic National Convention is unlikely before summer, party chairman Howard Dean said yesterday.

But he expressed confidence that an agreement would be reached to seat the delegates.

Dean said presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama should be part of any deal, and the candidates want to focus first on the coming round of contests.

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Crossing Paths, Candidates Face the Same Audiences

April 7, 2008 in News by Tony Steidler-Dennison | No comments

(Via New York Times.)

Because the last few primary states matter much more than anyone could have anticipated when the Democratic presidential race began many months ago, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama spent the weekend chasing each other across the vast northern expanses of the Great Plains and the Rockies.

So it was instructive to see how each spoke when addressing the same audiences at party conventions on Friday evening in Grand Forks, N.D., and on Saturday night in Butte, Mont.

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The Next Campaign Stop: Iraq Hearings

April 7, 2008 in News by Tony Steidler-Dennison | No comments

(Via washingtonpost.com.)

When Army Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker travel to Capitol Hill tomorrow, they might be the ones before the microphones, but the cameras will be trained on three of their inquisitors: Sens. John McCain, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.

The hearings before the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees promise to be as much about presidential politics as about the past six months of military and diplomatic progress in Iraq. All last summer, Washington anxiously awaited the September appearances of Petraeus, the commanding U.S. general in Iraq, and Crocker, the top U.S. diplomat in Baghdad, anticipating that their testimony could determine the political viability of continued war.

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Clinton’s Chief Strategist Steps Down

April 7, 2008 in News by Tony Steidler-Dennison | No comments

(Via washingtonpost.com.)

Mark J. Penn quit Sunday as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s chief strategist, the second shake-up in her campaign’s top ranks since the onetime front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination began trailing Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

Penn had been a polarizing figure within the Clinton campaign for months because of his personality as well as his strategic vision, but his departure came as a result of another continuing controversy — the conflicts of interest that resulted from his representing major clients as president of Burson-Marsteller, the giant public relations firm, while working for Clinton.

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Obama is most in touch with American values

April 7, 2008 in News by Tony Steidler-Dennison | No comments

(Via Slate.)

CBS News and the New York Times have released a comprehensive new poll (PDF) chock-full of fresh insights on the state of the race nationwide. Seventy percent of voters say that Barack Obama is the candidate who most resembles American values—more so than Hillary Clinton or John McCain. Obama’s emphasis on what pundits call his “American story” seems to have outweighed the smear tactics that have dogged him throughout the campaign. Also of note: 52 percent of Republicans think Obama shares American values. Only 27 percent of GOP voters think Clinton does. (Fifty percent of Democrats think McCain has American values.) An equal number of independents (68 percent) think Obama and McCain have American values.

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