Clinton’s campaign announced late Thursday night that Clinton will visit the Bluegrass on Saturday, three days before the state primary. There’s no immediate word on where she will campaign.
WASHINGTON -- Republican John McCain, in a speech forecasting what the country would look like after his first term in office, said today that he expects the war in Iraq to be won and most troops to be home by January 2013.
The prediction marks a major departure for McCain, who railed against rival Mitt Romney shortly before the Florida primary for his remark in April 2007 that he thought President Bush and Iraqi leaders should privately discuss a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq. At the time, McCain suggested that the comment would embolden America's foes in Iraq. The Arizona senator leveled the same criticism at Democratic Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, stating that their advocacy for withdrawing troops from Iraq amounted to setting a date for "surrender."
...
Sen. Clinton also issued a statement noting that McCain "provided no new approach or new proposals" to explain how he would produce victory in Iraq.
"This is not the first time Sen. McCain has predicted victory in Iraq," she said. "He promises more of the same Bush policies that have weakened our military, our national security, and our standing in the world. Our country cannot afford more empty promises on Iraq."
Friday, May 16, 2008, 09:12 AM
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
One day after his favorite endorsed Barack Obama in the Democratic presidential race, former Gov. Roy Barnes called on Hillary Clinton to make a quick exit.
“I think for the good of the party, she needs to come out,” Barnes told Larry Peterson with the Savannah Morning News at a Thursday fund-raiser for Democrats in the harbor town.
“Barack Obama is the nominee,” Barnes said. “I don’t see any way mathematically Hillary Clinton can win.”
Barnes was a supporter of John Edwards. The former North Carolina senator and ex-presidential contender endorsed Obama on Wednesday.
If you're wondering why Hillary Clinton hasn't packed it in yet and ceded the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama, we stumbled across a few reasons Thursday night as we hovered outside two Clinton fund-raisers here in the L.A. area.
Technically, there's still a chance she can win the nomination, though the odds aren't likely to draw many bets. But as we've seen over the last 15 years or so of Clintons in the national spotlight, they tend not to quit. And Clinton's grassroots supporters don't want her to quit, at least not yet, for reasons that have less to do with political maneuvering than with history and glass ceilings and pay disparity and being dismissed with a single "sweetie."
...And Clinton gave no hint that she was considering giving up. "She gave the analogy of the Lakers," said Stacy Brower of Newport Beach. "You're not going to get up and leave [a game] with two minutes left, are you?"
The blowup over President Bush's remarks to Israel's parliament equating talks with rogue regimes to appeasement will be front and center another day.
Barack Obama, who saw himself as the target of Bush's criticism, is expected to directly rebut the president later today at a campaign event in South Dakota.
His top foreign policy adviser, Susan Rice, said this morning on MSNBC that Obama will deliver a "very vigorous response to what was an outrageous, unprecedented, and divisive attack from President Bush yesterday which was patently dishonest."
The McCain campaign today issued this response: “There should be no confusion, John McCain has always believed that serious engagement would require mandatory conditions and Hamas must change itself fundamentally -– renounce violence, abandon its goal of eradicating Israel and accept a two state solution. John McCain’s position is clear and has always been clear, the President of the United States should not unconditionally meet with leaders of Iran, Hamas or Hezbollah. Barack Obama has made his position equally clear, and has pledged to meet unconditionally with Iran’s leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the leaders of other rogue regimes, which shows incredibly dangerous and weak judgment,” Tucker Bounds, a campaign spokesman, said in a statement.
Edwards seemed to rule out a sequel of his 2004 vice presidential run.
"No, no, no, won't happen," he said on NBC's "Today" show.
The recent flap over Sen. Barack Obama calling a female reporter "sweetie" sparked a national dialogue over what is acceptable language between men and women in the workplace.
The moment came at a campaign stop in Detroit, when Peggy Agar, a reporter at ABC's Detroit affiliate WXYZ-TV, asked Obama this question: "Senator, how are you going to help the American autoworkers?"
"Hold on a second, sweetie. We'll hold a press avail," replied Obama, referring to a structured question and answer session with the media.
Hours later, Obama left Agar a voicemail, apologizing for not answering her question and for calling her "sweetie."
"That's a bad habit of mine," Obama said in the message. "I do it sometimes with all kinds of people. I mean no disrespect and so I am duly chastened on that front."
It apparently is a habit. In an earlier campaign stop, Obama said to a woman, "Sweetie, if I start with a picture I will never get out of here."
And then: "Sweetie if I start doing autographs I just won't be … I am really late."
While the extent of the political fallout over Obama's use of the word is unclear, his "habit" has become fodder for talk shows and bloggers.
On "The View," Whoopie Goldberg said that it wasn't such a big deal. "And what he meant to say I believe was with no disrespect, 'cause I call everyone sweetie if I don't know their name," she said.
When men throw out words like sweetie or honey or girl in movies like "9 to 5" or "Anchorman," it is portrayed as supremely condescending.
"GMA" workplace contributor Tory Johnson said that each person has to decide if they are offended by the use of certain words, and to make it clear they are uncomfortable.
"If you don't like someone calling you sweetie, call them on it, but don't assume their intentions are bad," Johnson said.
"I think in general, whether politics or in the workplace, when we start policing spontaneity we're in trouble. And we should let people be themselves, and we should not assume the worst when somebody uses a word like sweetie."
For her part, reporter Peggy Agar wasn't upset about being called sweetie. "I felt more offended that he didn't answer the question," she said.
BARACK Obama has collected the support of seven of former presidential candidate John Edwards' Democratic convention delegates then gained the backing of four super-delegates and a large labour union as he marches steadily towards the party's presidential nomination.
The fresh support brought Senator Obama's overall delegate total to 1898, compared with 1718 for his rival, Hillary Clinton. It takes 2026 to clinch the nomination at the party convention in Denver in August.
Mr Edwards, who bestowed his long-sought endorsement on Senator Obama on Wednesday, won 19 delegates before leaving the presidential race in January.
Within hours, Senator Obama had the backing of five of them from South Carolina, one in New Hampshire and one in Iowa. Three super-delegates — Representatives James McDermott of Washington, and Henry Waxman and Howard Berman of California — endorsed him.
The recent flap over Sen. Barack Obama calling a female reporter "sweetie" sparked a national dialogue over what is acceptable language between men and women in the workplace.
Did Sen. Barack Obama cross a line when he called a reporter "sweetie?"
The moment came at a campaign stop in Detroit, when Peggy Agar, a reporter at ABC's Detroit affiliate WXYZ-TV, asked Obama this question: "Senator, how are you going to help the American autoworkers?"
"Hold on a second, sweetie. We'll hold a press avail," replied Obama, referring to a structured question and answer session with the media.
Hours later, Obama left Agar a voicemail, apologizing for not answering her question and for calling her "sweetie."
"That's a bad habit of mine," Obama said in the message. "I do it sometimes with all kinds of people. I mean no disrespect and so I am duly chastened on that front."
It apparently is a habit. In an earlier campaign stop, Obama said to a woman, "Sweetie, if I start with a picture I will never get out of here."
"I think in general, whether politics or in the workplace, when we start policing spontaneity we're in trouble. And we should let people be themselves, and we should not assume the worst when somebody uses a word like sweetie," Obama says.
