By DAVID BAUDER AP Television Writer
NEW YORK Mar 4, 2007 (AP)— Two months before the 1992 presidential election, an NBC reporter cornered a man to ask whether he preferred Bill Clinton or President Bush.
The man said he didn't care. He just wanted them off his TV screen.
Imagine how he'd feel today?
The 2008 campaign is already playing out so intensely that it dominates airtime at a point where only political junkies usually pay attention. Remember: it's 20 months before voters will make the ultimate decision.
This is uncharted territory for people in both politics and television, who wonder when campaign fatigue will set in. Many Americans may be sick of seeing their next president before he or she even takes the oath of office.
In one measure of news interest, campaign stories have consumed 95 minutes of attention this year through Feb. 27 on the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts. That's more time than in the comparable periods for the previous four presidential election cycles combined, according to the Tyndall Report.
Presidential politics was so far off the radar in January and February 1991 that the three newscasts together spent less than a minute on the upcoming campaign.
The study doesn't even take into account time chewed up by the cable TV networks, with their gaping 24-hour news holes. CNN was around in 1991, but Fox News Channel and MSNBC didn't exist. Neither did "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart.
"It used to be that campaigning was the interval between governing," said Bob Schieffer, host of CBS' "Face the Nation." "Now governing is the interval between campaigning."
Behind Iraq, the 2008 campaign is the top news story of 2007. The Project for Excellence in Journalism, which compiles a weekly news index taking broadcast and cable TV, newspapers and the Internet into account, said the campaign was the top story the week of Feb. 18-23. The biggest development then was Hollywood mogul David Geffen taking shots at Hillary Clinton, and the campaigns of Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama sniping at each other in response. The story is likely to be forgotten in two months, let alone 20.
Television is responding to the unusual early activity in this campaign and, to a certain degree, the public, said George Stephanopoulos, ABC's "This Week" host. Nearly two-thirds of people responding to an ABC-Washington Post poll this week said they were following the campaign closely.
"That is simply astonishing," Stephanopoulos said. "Those are the kind of numbers you see at convention time, not 20 months before the elections."
Many factors are at play: The Iraq war has deeply divided the public and, polls say, many Americans have already checked out on the Bush presidency; the 2008 election will be the first in 82 years with no involvement by an incumbent president or vice president; the biggest political stars of the day are involved, including John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Clinton and Obama.
Knowing the importance of raising money and preparing for a condensed primary season where nominations could be sewn up in a month, the candidates are already running hard.
A campaign where voters have nothing to say for another year exaggerates the media's importance.
Neat narratives and conventional wisdom are already developing. Few Americans could pick Mitt Romney out of a lineup, but know him as the flip-flopper trying to appear more conservative than he is. Giuliani is America's mayor who may be undone by his liberalism. McCain's moment has passed and he's weighed down by his support for the war. Obama's the rookie repository for American dreams. Joseph Biden's campaign was born and died on the same day when he made remarks perceived as racially insensitive. Clinton? Everybody knows Clinton and has made up their minds about her.
Each story line may have a ring of truth now. Time might decide otherwise. So might voters.
"One of the risks of a protracted campaign that doesn't involve voters is you get a kind of creative reality," said Tom Rosenstiel, a former political reporter for the Los Angeles Times and now director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism.
Consider some conventional wisdom of the past: Howard Dean was on the way to the Democratic nomination and John Kerry's campaign was cooked, at least in late 2003. The George Bush who ran in 2000 was a compassionate conservative and non-idealogue who worked well with Democrats.
Candidates left out of the narrative may never have a chance. Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack abandoned his bid for the presidency almost a year before voters in his state meet for their closely watched caucuses.
An aide to Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd called NBC's Chris Matthews to ask him to please not forget his boss' name when talking about the second tier of candidates, Matthews said.
"The hardest thing when I make my quadrennial resolutions is `don't pay attention to early polls,'" Matthews said. "But it is so hard not to."
On the flip side, Schieffer is convinced that Giuliani's surge in the polls may partly be due to McCain's overfamiliarity. McCain is on the news all the time while Giuliani has kept an air of mystery about him, he said.
The veteran Schieffer worries about the impact of a long campaign. The topic has been bandied about in several newsrooms.
"I find myself getting tired of it," he said. "I really do. I love politics, I'm a political reporter. But when they go on and on and on, they just wear you out."
Logic tells Stephanopoulos that there will be lulls in the campaign. But this one may be different. In that, news organizations won't be the drivers, the newsmen say. They'll be driven.
"As long as there is news with the campaigns themselves, we're going to cover it," he said.
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Monday, March 5, 2007
Obama and Clinton vie for black vote
Posted by Mike Dorning at 6:15 am CST
SELMA, Ala. – At a church that served as starting point for a historic civil rights march, Sen. Barack Obama on Sunday positioned his presidential campaign as a part of the long struggle for African-American political representation.
Obama, an Illinois Democrat, declared himself part of a new cohort of black political leaders that he called "the Joshua Generation." It was Joshua, the Biblical successor to Moses, who led the Jewish people to the Promised Land after Moses delivered them from slavery in Egypt. Surrounded on the altar by several veterans of the 1960s freedom marches, some of whom were beaten and bloodied for the cause, Obama said: "We are in the presence today of a lot of Moseses...of giants whose shoulders we stand on."
But Obama was not alone in staking a claim to hearts of African-American voters in the presidential campaign of 2008. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York addressed an audience at a church nearby, and she was joined here by her husband, former President Bill Clinton – the couple making their first joint campaign appearance since the senator declared her candidacy for the presidency.
Sen. Clinton credited the struggles in Selma and the 1965 Voting Rights Act that resulted with providing new opportunities for women and Hispanics as well as for African Americans – calling the Voting Rights Act "the gift that keeps on giving… It is giving Senator Obama a chance to run for president, (New Mexico Democratic Gov.) Bill Richardson, a Hispanic, a chance to run, and it is giving me a chance," Clinton said. "I know where my chance came from, and I am grateful."
Overflow crowds filled both churches. But even larger crowds followed the former president helping lead a re-enactment of the 1965 "Bloody Sunday" march in Selma that led to the landmark federal legislation guaranteeing minorities the right to vote.
While Obama did not explicitly claim for himself the role of Joshua, that was clearly the implication, coming at the beginning of a campaign to be elected the nation's highest leader. Obama said here: "We've got to remember now that Joshua still has a job to do.''
Obama and Clinton both spoke at a jubilee celebration marking the 42nd anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the march for voting rights that baton-wielding state troopers stopped at Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge. At the time, Alabama and most other Southern states effectively denied blacks the right to vote through discriminatory application of literacy tests, poll taxes and other measures.
Public horror at the images of ferocious police beatings of non-violent marchers led President Lyndon Johnson to propose the Voting Rights Act, which ushered in black political power in the South.
Obama spoke at a service at Brown Chapel AME Church, where the marchers prayed before crossing the bridge. He was joined by Rep. John Lewis (R-Ga.), one of the marchers who was beaten on the bridge, and the Rev. Joseph Lowery, a lieutenant to the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Some commentators have argued that Obama's life story – he is the son of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya who was raised by white grandparents in Hawaii -- gives him a different experience than most American blacks. But he asserted that his ancestors in colonial Africa suffered many of the same humiliations as blacks in the Jim Crow-era South, noting his African grandfather was a houseboy whom even in old age his British employers addressed by his first name, rather than his last.
"Sound familiar?" Obama said, rousing a chorus of affirmations.
He offered his life story as a legacy of the civil rights movement, asserting formative events in his life as touchstones of the movement's achievements: Election to high office, the opportunity to study at prestigious Ivy League universities, and even his birth of a mixed-race marriage.
"There was something stirring across the country because of what happened in Selma, Ala., because some folks are willing to march across a bridge. So they got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born," Obama said. "So don't tell me I don't have a claim on Selma, Ala. Don't tell me I'm not coming home to Selma, Ala..
Obama was born in 1961, four years before the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. But spokesman Bill Burton said Obama was "speaking metaphorically about the civil rights movement as a whole."
As both Obama and Clinton court the African-American vote, one of the most important constituencies of the Democratic Party, loyalties are divided.
"We love the Clintons, but it's a brand new day," said Freddie Gholston, 55, of Trinity, Ala., who attends the "Bridge Crossing Jubilee" every year. "It's really possible for Obama to become president."
Althea Roy, 67, a lifelong resident of Selma, said of Clinton: "I think she would be good for our people. Her husband was."
Clinton spoke at the First Baptist Church, just two blocks from the Brown Chapel. During voting rights demonstrations in the early 1960s, the Baptist church often served as a meeting place for King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference organizers. After King's assassination, Lowery led the group.
Clinton, drawing upon biblical scriptures and the sermons of King, added that after all the "hard work getting rid of literacy tests and poll taxes, we've got to stay awake because we've got a march to continue." To shouts of approval and applause, she added: "How can we rest while poverty and inequality continue to rise? We all know we have to finish the march. That is the call to our generation."
Following the church services, Clinton and Obama appeared together outside the Brown Chapel for a rally that kicked off the march from the church over the Edmund Pettus Bridge. They praised each other.
"It is excellent that we have a candidate like Barack Obama who embodies what all of you fought for here 42 years ago," Sen. Clinton said. Clinton is "doing an excellent job for this country, and we're going to be marching arm-in-arm," Obama said of his Senate colleague.
When the commemorative march began, Obama linked arms with Lowery, who had led the Selma-to-Montgomery march at the request of King. Clinton joined arms with her husband.
SELMA, Ala. – At a church that served as starting point for a historic civil rights march, Sen. Barack Obama on Sunday positioned his presidential campaign as a part of the long struggle for African-American political representation.
Obama, an Illinois Democrat, declared himself part of a new cohort of black political leaders that he called "the Joshua Generation." It was Joshua, the Biblical successor to Moses, who led the Jewish people to the Promised Land after Moses delivered them from slavery in Egypt. Surrounded on the altar by several veterans of the 1960s freedom marches, some of whom were beaten and bloodied for the cause, Obama said: "We are in the presence today of a lot of Moseses...of giants whose shoulders we stand on."
But Obama was not alone in staking a claim to hearts of African-American voters in the presidential campaign of 2008. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York addressed an audience at a church nearby, and she was joined here by her husband, former President Bill Clinton – the couple making their first joint campaign appearance since the senator declared her candidacy for the presidency.
Sen. Clinton credited the struggles in Selma and the 1965 Voting Rights Act that resulted with providing new opportunities for women and Hispanics as well as for African Americans – calling the Voting Rights Act "the gift that keeps on giving… It is giving Senator Obama a chance to run for president, (New Mexico Democratic Gov.) Bill Richardson, a Hispanic, a chance to run, and it is giving me a chance," Clinton said. "I know where my chance came from, and I am grateful."
Overflow crowds filled both churches. But even larger crowds followed the former president helping lead a re-enactment of the 1965 "Bloody Sunday" march in Selma that led to the landmark federal legislation guaranteeing minorities the right to vote.
While Obama did not explicitly claim for himself the role of Joshua, that was clearly the implication, coming at the beginning of a campaign to be elected the nation's highest leader. Obama said here: "We've got to remember now that Joshua still has a job to do.''
Obama and Clinton both spoke at a jubilee celebration marking the 42nd anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the march for voting rights that baton-wielding state troopers stopped at Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge. At the time, Alabama and most other Southern states effectively denied blacks the right to vote through discriminatory application of literacy tests, poll taxes and other measures.
Public horror at the images of ferocious police beatings of non-violent marchers led President Lyndon Johnson to propose the Voting Rights Act, which ushered in black political power in the South.
Obama spoke at a service at Brown Chapel AME Church, where the marchers prayed before crossing the bridge. He was joined by Rep. John Lewis (R-Ga.), one of the marchers who was beaten on the bridge, and the Rev. Joseph Lowery, a lieutenant to the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Some commentators have argued that Obama's life story – he is the son of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya who was raised by white grandparents in Hawaii -- gives him a different experience than most American blacks. But he asserted that his ancestors in colonial Africa suffered many of the same humiliations as blacks in the Jim Crow-era South, noting his African grandfather was a houseboy whom even in old age his British employers addressed by his first name, rather than his last.
"Sound familiar?" Obama said, rousing a chorus of affirmations.
He offered his life story as a legacy of the civil rights movement, asserting formative events in his life as touchstones of the movement's achievements: Election to high office, the opportunity to study at prestigious Ivy League universities, and even his birth of a mixed-race marriage.
"There was something stirring across the country because of what happened in Selma, Ala., because some folks are willing to march across a bridge. So they got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born," Obama said. "So don't tell me I don't have a claim on Selma, Ala. Don't tell me I'm not coming home to Selma, Ala..
Obama was born in 1961, four years before the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. But spokesman Bill Burton said Obama was "speaking metaphorically about the civil rights movement as a whole."
As both Obama and Clinton court the African-American vote, one of the most important constituencies of the Democratic Party, loyalties are divided.
"We love the Clintons, but it's a brand new day," said Freddie Gholston, 55, of Trinity, Ala., who attends the "Bridge Crossing Jubilee" every year. "It's really possible for Obama to become president."
Althea Roy, 67, a lifelong resident of Selma, said of Clinton: "I think she would be good for our people. Her husband was."
Clinton spoke at the First Baptist Church, just two blocks from the Brown Chapel. During voting rights demonstrations in the early 1960s, the Baptist church often served as a meeting place for King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference organizers. After King's assassination, Lowery led the group.
Clinton, drawing upon biblical scriptures and the sermons of King, added that after all the "hard work getting rid of literacy tests and poll taxes, we've got to stay awake because we've got a march to continue." To shouts of approval and applause, she added: "How can we rest while poverty and inequality continue to rise? We all know we have to finish the march. That is the call to our generation."
Following the church services, Clinton and Obama appeared together outside the Brown Chapel for a rally that kicked off the march from the church over the Edmund Pettus Bridge. They praised each other.
"It is excellent that we have a candidate like Barack Obama who embodies what all of you fought for here 42 years ago," Sen. Clinton said. Clinton is "doing an excellent job for this country, and we're going to be marching arm-in-arm," Obama said of his Senate colleague.
When the commemorative march began, Obama linked arms with Lowery, who had led the Selma-to-Montgomery march at the request of King. Clinton joined arms with her husband.
Edwards: Jesus Would Be 'Appalled'
By MIKE BAKER, Associated Press Writer
Monday, March 5, 2007
Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards says Jesus would be appalled at how the United States has ignored the plight of the suffering, and that he believes children should have private time to pray at school.
Edwards, in an interview with the Web site Beliefnet.com, said Jesus would be most upset with the selfishness of Americans and the country's willingness to go to war "when it's not necessary."
"I think that Jesus would be disappointed in our ignoring the plight of those around us who are suffering and our focus on our own selfish short-term needs," Edwards told the site. "I think he would be appalled, actually."
Edwards also said he was against teacher-led prayers in public schools, but he added that "allowing time for children to pray for themselves, to themselves, I think is not only OK, I think it's a good thing."
In the interview, the former North Carolina senator discussed how he lost touch with his day-to-day faith during college, but that it "came roaring back" after the death of his 16-year-old son, Wade, in 1996.
Edwards has often cited religion as a part of his politics, frequently linking his efforts to fight poverty as a matter of morality.
Edwards was interviewed by David Kuo, a conservative Christian who served as deputy director of President Bush's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives until 2003. Kuo wrote a book, "Tempting Faith, An Inside Story of Political Seduction," that said Bush aides privately called conservative Christians "nuts,""ridiculous" and "goofy."
Edwards told Kuo he stood by a decision to keep two bloggers on his staff despite their provocative writings criticizing the Catholic Church. Edwards said he also found the writing offensive, but "decided to forgive them and stand by them, knowing there would be potential political consequences for that."
The bloggers later quit, saying they didn't want to be a liability to the campaign.
___
WASHINGTON (AP) — A video is worth a thousand words. And dollars, too.
Prominently featured on John Edwards' presidential campaign Web site is a video of conservative commentator Ann Coulter insulting him. And with just a mouse click you can hear the invective and get a chance to donate at the same time.
On Friday, Coulter, a writer and columnist known for provocative remarks, told an audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington: "I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot,' so I — so kind of an impasse, can't really talk about Edwards."
The Edwards camp is now seeking to capitalize on the slur by soliciting $100,000 in "Coulter Cash" to "show that inflaming prejudice to attack progressive leaders will only backfire."
Meanwhile, conservatives were none too pleased with Coulter, either. Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, Director of the Christian Defense Coalition, said: "Frankly, I would have loved to have heard Ann expose and dissect the radical agenda of Senator Edwards instead of resorting to cheap name calling."
___
ORANGEBURG, S.C. (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Monday called Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a "madman" and raised the possibility that he could be assassinated by foes within his country.
"Ahmadinejad, the madman, is in competition with mullahs and ayatollahs who think he's overstepped his bounds," Biden told members of a local Kiwanis Club in this early voting state.
Ahmadinejad may be "assassinated, not by the good guys, but by the bad guys," said the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
At a campaign stop Sunday, Biden called Ahmadinejad "that wacko guy, the crazy president," and said he would only be in office for a little more than a year before being "taken out" because he threatened Shia interests.
Last week, Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd told a University of South Carolina audience he endorsed the Bush administration's recent willingness to hold joint talks on Iraq with Syria and Iran. But Dodd, also a presidential hopeful, said the United States needs to avoid talking with Ahmadinejad and called him "a thug."
Biden's campaign on Monday also announced he was endorsed by state Sen. Gerald Malloy and state Rep. Jerry Govan, both members of the Legislative Black Caucus.
___
NEW YORK (AP) — New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg had a slightly different answer on Monday for that same old question he's dismissed over and over: Are you going to run for president?
"I don't think so — and if I was going to do it, I don't think I'd announce it right here," he said during a brief appearance Monday morning on Fox News.
The host noted that the billionaire businessman had a similar answer when asked, years ago, if he planned to run for mayor.
"And then fast forward, here you are," she said.
"You never know," he said.
For the record, just days ago Bloomberg told an audience at Harvard University that he was not, in fact, a presidential candidate.
Ever since the Democrat-turned-Republican won re-election in 2005, there has been some talk of a Bloomberg presidential bid. Most of the talk has been fueled by one of his aides, Kevin Sheekey, who has publicly acknowledged his efforts to cajole his boss into the race.
___
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — Democratic presidential contender John Edwards is mailing Iowa caucus voters some 70,000 DVDs that argue he is the only candidate with a health care plan for all Americans.
The Edwards campaign hoped to reach a significant number of Iowa's Democratic caucus voters with the DVD. Slightly more than 100,000 participated in the 2004 caucus.
"What America really wants in their next president is to be able to trust their president," Edwards says in the six-minute video. "In order for that to be true, they want to feel like ... the president is a good and decent and honest human being who's trying to do what's right."
The video and pamphlet specifically address health care problems and statistics in Iowa, where the state's leadoff caucuses will begin the nomination process.
Sen. John Kerry won Iowa in 2004 and went on to earn the party's nomination. Edwards placed second in Iowa and later earned a spot as Kerry's vice presidential nominee.
Edwards has proposed a tax increase to fund a universal health care plan that would cover the estimated 47 million Americans who do not have insurance. The plan would create "health markets," including a government-run plan like Medicare, to create competitive prices. It would also subsidize insurance for low-income Americans and require businesses to help cover the insurance costs of their employees.
___
WASHINGTON (AP) — Judicial Watch, a conservative investigative group that dogged the Clinton presidency, is asking for an investigation of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for filing an incomplete financial disclosure report.
The group filed a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee and the Justice Department, noting that Clinton had failed to report that she was secretary-treasurer of the Clinton Family Foundation in documents that must be filed annually with the Senate. In the face of an official complaint, Senate rules require the ethics committee to begin a preliminary inquiry.
Clinton amended her disclosure report on Feb. 26 to include her foundation affiliation after The Washington Post reported the omission. Data about the foundation, and Clinton's role in it, also is available from other public records. According to Internal Revenue Service records, the foundation had nearly $1.8 million in income in 2005.
Monday, March 5, 2007
Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards says Jesus would be appalled at how the United States has ignored the plight of the suffering, and that he believes children should have private time to pray at school.
Edwards, in an interview with the Web site Beliefnet.com, said Jesus would be most upset with the selfishness of Americans and the country's willingness to go to war "when it's not necessary."
"I think that Jesus would be disappointed in our ignoring the plight of those around us who are suffering and our focus on our own selfish short-term needs," Edwards told the site. "I think he would be appalled, actually."
Edwards also said he was against teacher-led prayers in public schools, but he added that "allowing time for children to pray for themselves, to themselves, I think is not only OK, I think it's a good thing."
In the interview, the former North Carolina senator discussed how he lost touch with his day-to-day faith during college, but that it "came roaring back" after the death of his 16-year-old son, Wade, in 1996.
Edwards has often cited religion as a part of his politics, frequently linking his efforts to fight poverty as a matter of morality.
Edwards was interviewed by David Kuo, a conservative Christian who served as deputy director of President Bush's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives until 2003. Kuo wrote a book, "Tempting Faith, An Inside Story of Political Seduction," that said Bush aides privately called conservative Christians "nuts,""ridiculous" and "goofy."
Edwards told Kuo he stood by a decision to keep two bloggers on his staff despite their provocative writings criticizing the Catholic Church. Edwards said he also found the writing offensive, but "decided to forgive them and stand by them, knowing there would be potential political consequences for that."
The bloggers later quit, saying they didn't want to be a liability to the campaign.
___
WASHINGTON (AP) — A video is worth a thousand words. And dollars, too.
Prominently featured on John Edwards' presidential campaign Web site is a video of conservative commentator Ann Coulter insulting him. And with just a mouse click you can hear the invective and get a chance to donate at the same time.
On Friday, Coulter, a writer and columnist known for provocative remarks, told an audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington: "I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot,' so I — so kind of an impasse, can't really talk about Edwards."
The Edwards camp is now seeking to capitalize on the slur by soliciting $100,000 in "Coulter Cash" to "show that inflaming prejudice to attack progressive leaders will only backfire."
Meanwhile, conservatives were none too pleased with Coulter, either. Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, Director of the Christian Defense Coalition, said: "Frankly, I would have loved to have heard Ann expose and dissect the radical agenda of Senator Edwards instead of resorting to cheap name calling."
___
ORANGEBURG, S.C. (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Monday called Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a "madman" and raised the possibility that he could be assassinated by foes within his country.
"Ahmadinejad, the madman, is in competition with mullahs and ayatollahs who think he's overstepped his bounds," Biden told members of a local Kiwanis Club in this early voting state.
Ahmadinejad may be "assassinated, not by the good guys, but by the bad guys," said the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
At a campaign stop Sunday, Biden called Ahmadinejad "that wacko guy, the crazy president," and said he would only be in office for a little more than a year before being "taken out" because he threatened Shia interests.
Last week, Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd told a University of South Carolina audience he endorsed the Bush administration's recent willingness to hold joint talks on Iraq with Syria and Iran. But Dodd, also a presidential hopeful, said the United States needs to avoid talking with Ahmadinejad and called him "a thug."
Biden's campaign on Monday also announced he was endorsed by state Sen. Gerald Malloy and state Rep. Jerry Govan, both members of the Legislative Black Caucus.
___
NEW YORK (AP) — New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg had a slightly different answer on Monday for that same old question he's dismissed over and over: Are you going to run for president?
"I don't think so — and if I was going to do it, I don't think I'd announce it right here," he said during a brief appearance Monday morning on Fox News.
The host noted that the billionaire businessman had a similar answer when asked, years ago, if he planned to run for mayor.
"And then fast forward, here you are," she said.
"You never know," he said.
For the record, just days ago Bloomberg told an audience at Harvard University that he was not, in fact, a presidential candidate.
Ever since the Democrat-turned-Republican won re-election in 2005, there has been some talk of a Bloomberg presidential bid. Most of the talk has been fueled by one of his aides, Kevin Sheekey, who has publicly acknowledged his efforts to cajole his boss into the race.
___
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — Democratic presidential contender John Edwards is mailing Iowa caucus voters some 70,000 DVDs that argue he is the only candidate with a health care plan for all Americans.
The Edwards campaign hoped to reach a significant number of Iowa's Democratic caucus voters with the DVD. Slightly more than 100,000 participated in the 2004 caucus.
"What America really wants in their next president is to be able to trust their president," Edwards says in the six-minute video. "In order for that to be true, they want to feel like ... the president is a good and decent and honest human being who's trying to do what's right."
The video and pamphlet specifically address health care problems and statistics in Iowa, where the state's leadoff caucuses will begin the nomination process.
Sen. John Kerry won Iowa in 2004 and went on to earn the party's nomination. Edwards placed second in Iowa and later earned a spot as Kerry's vice presidential nominee.
Edwards has proposed a tax increase to fund a universal health care plan that would cover the estimated 47 million Americans who do not have insurance. The plan would create "health markets," including a government-run plan like Medicare, to create competitive prices. It would also subsidize insurance for low-income Americans and require businesses to help cover the insurance costs of their employees.
___
WASHINGTON (AP) — Judicial Watch, a conservative investigative group that dogged the Clinton presidency, is asking for an investigation of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for filing an incomplete financial disclosure report.
The group filed a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee and the Justice Department, noting that Clinton had failed to report that she was secretary-treasurer of the Clinton Family Foundation in documents that must be filed annually with the Senate. In the face of an official complaint, Senate rules require the ethics committee to begin a preliminary inquiry.
Clinton amended her disclosure report on Feb. 26 to include her foundation affiliation after The Washington Post reported the omission. Data about the foundation, and Clinton's role in it, also is available from other public records. According to Internal Revenue Service records, the foundation had nearly $1.8 million in income in 2005.
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Clintons, Obama Honor Activists in Selma
Clintons, Obama Pay Homage to Civil Rights Activists, Crossing Campaign Paths in Selma, Ala.
By NEDRA PICKLER
SELMA, Ala. Mar 4, 2007 (AP)— Presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton crossed campaign paths for the first time Sunday as they paid homage to civil rights activists who they said helped give them the chance to break barriers to the White House.
The two candidates and former President Clinton, making his first appearance with his wife since her campaign began, linked arms with activists who 42 years ago were attacked by police with billyclubs during a peaceful voting rights march. "Bloody Sunday" shocked the nation and helped bring attention to the racist voting practices that kept blacks from the polls.
"I'm here because somebody marched for our freedom," Obama, who would become the first black president, said from the Brown Chapel AME Church where the march began on March 7, 1965. "I'm here because you all sacrificed for me. I stand on the shoulders of giants."
Not to be outdone in the hunt for black votes, Hillary Clinton also spoke in Selma at a church three blocks away and brought a secret weapon her husband. Three days before the march anniversary, her campaign announced that the former president who is so popular among blacks would accompany her for his induction into Selma's Voting Rights Hall of Fame.
Sen. Clinton said the Voting Rights Act and the Selma march made possible her presidential campaign, as well as those of Obama and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who would be the first Hispanic to occupy the Oval Office.
"After all the hard work getting rid of literacy tests and poll taxes, we've got to stay awake because we've got a march to continue," Clinton said in a speech interrupted numerous times by applause and shouts of approval. "How can we rest while poverty and inequality continue to rise?"
Clinton and Obama both appeared outside Brown Chapel for a pre-march rally, but came from opposite sides of the podium and did not interact. Despite the intense rivalry between their campaigns, the two praised each other.
"It's excellent that we have a candidate like Barack Obama who embodies what all of you fought for here 42 years ago," Clinton said. Obama said Clinton is "doing an excellent job for this country and we're going to be marching arm-in-arm."
But they did not join arms when the commemorative march attended by thousands got under way. Instead, Clinton held hands with her husband and Obama was several people down the line. Obama, who shed his coat and tie for the march, approached Hillary Clinton at one point and the two chatted for a few seconds before moving back to opposite sides of the street.
The two candidates sounded similar themes in their speeches. Both said the civil rights movement is not over because inequality still exists in education, health care and the economy. Both criticized the Bush administration for failing to return Hurricane Katrina victims to their homes.
But Obama, who was three years old on Bloody Sunday, delivered a call to action that would be politically unfeasible for Clinton or any of his other white rivals. He said the current generation of blacks does not always honor the civil rights movement and needs to take responsibility for improving their lives by rejecting violence; cleaning up "40-ounce bottles" and other trash that litters urban neighborhoods; and voting instead of complaining that the government is not helping them.
"How can it be that our voting rates dropped down to 30, 40, 50 percent when people shed their blood to allow us to vote?" Obama asked at a unity breakfast with community leaders.
At the breakfast, Obama got a key to the city and another to surrounding Dallas County from a probate judge, Kim Ballard. "Forty-two years ago he might would have needed it because I understand it would open the jail cells," Ballard said. "But not today."
Obama said the fight for civil rights reverberated across the globe and inspired his father to aspire to something beyond his job herding goats in Kenya. His father moved to Hawaii to get an education under a program for African students and met Obama's mother, a fellow student from Kansas.
Obama said he was not surprised when it was reported this week that his white ancestors on his mother's side owned slaves. "That's no surprise in America," he said and added that the civil rights struggle made it possible for such a diverse couple to fall in love.
"If it hasn't been for Selma, I wouldn't be here," Obama said. "This is the site of my conception. I am the fruits of your labor. I am the offspring of the movement. When people ask me whether I've been to Selma before, I tell them I'm coming home."
But the former president stole the show from the two candidates. The audience cheered loudest for him when the three took the stage at the end of the march and the crowd mobbed him as he tried to make it to his limousine, delaying his departure.
Speaking at his induction, Clinton said the 2008 campaign features "a rainbow coalition running for president."
"If it hadn't been for the Voting Rights Act, the South would have never recovered and two white southerners Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton never could have become president," Clinton said.
Other Democratic candidates are not leaving the black vote to Obama and Clinton. John Edwards, the 2004 vice presidential nominee, was speaking about Selma and civil rights at the University of California, Berkeley.
"The fight for civil rights and equal rights and economic and social justice is more than just going to celebrations, even as wonderful as the one in Selma," Edwards said in remarks prepared for delivery as he referred to Berkeley janitors' fight for a wage increase. "The fight is going on right here, right now."
Associated Press writers Phillip Rawls and Bob Johnson contributed to this report.
By NEDRA PICKLER
SELMA, Ala. Mar 4, 2007 (AP)— Presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton crossed campaign paths for the first time Sunday as they paid homage to civil rights activists who they said helped give them the chance to break barriers to the White House.
The two candidates and former President Clinton, making his first appearance with his wife since her campaign began, linked arms with activists who 42 years ago were attacked by police with billyclubs during a peaceful voting rights march. "Bloody Sunday" shocked the nation and helped bring attention to the racist voting practices that kept blacks from the polls.
"I'm here because somebody marched for our freedom," Obama, who would become the first black president, said from the Brown Chapel AME Church where the march began on March 7, 1965. "I'm here because you all sacrificed for me. I stand on the shoulders of giants."
Not to be outdone in the hunt for black votes, Hillary Clinton also spoke in Selma at a church three blocks away and brought a secret weapon her husband. Three days before the march anniversary, her campaign announced that the former president who is so popular among blacks would accompany her for his induction into Selma's Voting Rights Hall of Fame.
Sen. Clinton said the Voting Rights Act and the Selma march made possible her presidential campaign, as well as those of Obama and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who would be the first Hispanic to occupy the Oval Office.
"After all the hard work getting rid of literacy tests and poll taxes, we've got to stay awake because we've got a march to continue," Clinton said in a speech interrupted numerous times by applause and shouts of approval. "How can we rest while poverty and inequality continue to rise?"
Clinton and Obama both appeared outside Brown Chapel for a pre-march rally, but came from opposite sides of the podium and did not interact. Despite the intense rivalry between their campaigns, the two praised each other.
"It's excellent that we have a candidate like Barack Obama who embodies what all of you fought for here 42 years ago," Clinton said. Obama said Clinton is "doing an excellent job for this country and we're going to be marching arm-in-arm."
But they did not join arms when the commemorative march attended by thousands got under way. Instead, Clinton held hands with her husband and Obama was several people down the line. Obama, who shed his coat and tie for the march, approached Hillary Clinton at one point and the two chatted for a few seconds before moving back to opposite sides of the street.
The two candidates sounded similar themes in their speeches. Both said the civil rights movement is not over because inequality still exists in education, health care and the economy. Both criticized the Bush administration for failing to return Hurricane Katrina victims to their homes.
But Obama, who was three years old on Bloody Sunday, delivered a call to action that would be politically unfeasible for Clinton or any of his other white rivals. He said the current generation of blacks does not always honor the civil rights movement and needs to take responsibility for improving their lives by rejecting violence; cleaning up "40-ounce bottles" and other trash that litters urban neighborhoods; and voting instead of complaining that the government is not helping them.
"How can it be that our voting rates dropped down to 30, 40, 50 percent when people shed their blood to allow us to vote?" Obama asked at a unity breakfast with community leaders.
At the breakfast, Obama got a key to the city and another to surrounding Dallas County from a probate judge, Kim Ballard. "Forty-two years ago he might would have needed it because I understand it would open the jail cells," Ballard said. "But not today."
Obama said the fight for civil rights reverberated across the globe and inspired his father to aspire to something beyond his job herding goats in Kenya. His father moved to Hawaii to get an education under a program for African students and met Obama's mother, a fellow student from Kansas.
Obama said he was not surprised when it was reported this week that his white ancestors on his mother's side owned slaves. "That's no surprise in America," he said and added that the civil rights struggle made it possible for such a diverse couple to fall in love.
"If it hasn't been for Selma, I wouldn't be here," Obama said. "This is the site of my conception. I am the fruits of your labor. I am the offspring of the movement. When people ask me whether I've been to Selma before, I tell them I'm coming home."
But the former president stole the show from the two candidates. The audience cheered loudest for him when the three took the stage at the end of the march and the crowd mobbed him as he tried to make it to his limousine, delaying his departure.
Speaking at his induction, Clinton said the 2008 campaign features "a rainbow coalition running for president."
"If it hadn't been for the Voting Rights Act, the South would have never recovered and two white southerners Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton never could have become president," Clinton said.
Other Democratic candidates are not leaving the black vote to Obama and Clinton. John Edwards, the 2004 vice presidential nominee, was speaking about Selma and civil rights at the University of California, Berkeley.
"The fight for civil rights and equal rights and economic and social justice is more than just going to celebrations, even as wonderful as the one in Selma," Edwards said in remarks prepared for delivery as he referred to Berkeley janitors' fight for a wage increase. "The fight is going on right here, right now."
Associated Press writers Phillip Rawls and Bob Johnson contributed to this report.
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