Clinton, Obama in Dead Heat Going Into Texas and Ohio

Related Post 8thJuly2008
Updated 11:04 PM 28-Apr-08

Hillary Clinton celebrates her Pennsylvania primary victory Tuesday in Philadelphia with Gov. Ed Rendell. (AP Photo)Hillary Clinton beats rival Obama in Pennsylvania primary VIDEO Senator Hillary Clinton won Tuesday, April 22, 2008 Pennsylvania primary. The New York Senator beat her rival, Senator Barack Obama, by about 10 percentage points. She picked up a majority of the state's 158 delegates. Her victory follows wins in Ohio, New York, Texas and California. But despite yesterday's results, Obama is still ahead in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. "If Clinton wins by more than 10 points, which was her margin in neighboring Ohio and New Jersey, her campaign will have new momentum and she will soldier on," said Bill Schneider, CNN senior political analyst. "If Clinton wins by single digits, we're in a political twilight zone. Nothing changes." But if Obama scores an upset, Schneider said, "Clinton will face tremendous pressure to end her campaign rather than damage the party." Obama played down his chances of a surprise victory despite outspending Clinton by about $7 million to her $2.7 million in the state. His hopes rest on a strong performance in Philadelphia where he is expected to do well among African-American voters, among large numbers of newly registered voters and in the city's wealthier suburbs.

Updated 12:46 PM 12-Mar-08


Video:Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama told his supporters that he wants to be a President & not a Vice-President!!

Tuesday see Barack Obama surged to victory in Mississippi's Democratic primary, in a new triumph over Hillary Clinton, as a fierce new race row rocked their bitter White House race. The Obama camp demanded the dismissal of Clinton's supporter Geraldine Ferraro, for saying: "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position", noting the swift resignation of an Obama aide last week after her remark that Clinton was a "monster" sparked howls of outrage from the New York senator's team. But Clinton said only that she did "not agree" with Ferraro's portrayal of Obama as the privileged recipient of affirmative action, and found it "regrettable" that supporters might resort to personal attacks. Ferraro refused to apologize, accused the Obama campaign of waging a hate campaign against her, and reiterated that the candidate's political success was "in large measure because he is black." "I said this (Obama's) is one of the best campaigns. I speak about his star quality. I talk about how exciting it is to have two campaigns, but you know, the truth is the truth is the truth," Ferraro added. Clinton's campaign manager Maggie Williams accused the Obama team of waging "false, personal and politically calculated attacks on the eve of a primary." Obama's victory was likely to erase the net gain of nominating delegates by the former first lady with her victories last week, leaving her still trailing by a significant margin.Heading into Tuesday's primary, Obama had 1,589 nominating delegates while Clinton had 1,470, according to a tally by RealClearPolitics.com. Neither can reach the winning post of 2,025 delegates, even if Florida and Michigan go ahead with emerging plans to repeat their contests after running afoul of the national party for holding their primaries early. So the nomination will likely rest in the hands of nearly 800 "superdelegates," Democratic party officials now under enormous pressure from the two campaigns to sway one way or another. Mississippi exit polls suggested that the nomination fight was causing anger inside the Democratic coalition, a possible problem going into November's general election. On the hotly-debated question of which candidate is more ready to serve as president, 53 percent of Democratic voters in the state felt Obama was best prepared, while 43 percent felt Clinton was more qualified. The Democratic race continues to the huge Pennsylvania primary on April 22. VIA

On Saturday, 08-Mar-08, Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama took an early lead over rival Hillary Clinton in rural Wyoming, dubbed cowboy country, has only 12 delegates, a tiny number compared to the 2,025 needed to secure the Democratic Party's presidential nomination at its August convention.A Republican stronghold and home to Vice President Dick Cheney, Wyoming has the smallest population of any US state with just 500,000 people. But with no candidate yet able to lock in victory after eight long weeks of primaries, every vote and every delegate still counts in the battle to be the party's nominee in the November presidential elections against Republican John McCain. After Wyoming, Obama and Clinton will face voters in the bigger state of Mississippi on Tuesday., where 33 delegates are at stake. And the battle will then move to Pennsylvania on April 22.

OHIO AND TEXAS goes to Hillary Clinton!!



Hillary Rodham Clinton's victories over Barack Obama in Ohio and Texas gave her a chance to take on John McCain for the President election in Nov.

Hillary Clinton wins Democratic primary in Ohio and Texas primaries. 05 March 2008 This leads to the longest and most expensive nominating race in US history is set to drag on for weeks or even months more. Clinton, took Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island while Obama had only the consolation prize of Vermont, on a night of high drama that rescued the former first lady's campaign from the threat of oblivion. Obama, 46, seeking to become the first black US president, and Clinton, 60, vying to be the country's first woman in the Oval Office, on Wednesday turned their sights on their next big showdown in Pennsylvania on April 22.Clinton meanwhile still faces long odds of overtaking her rival in the delegate haul, with some 1,447 to Obama's 1,542, according to an updated tally by independent pollsters RealClearPolitics.com. A total of 2,025 are needed for the party's nomination. With the race so close some observers have suggested that a joint presidential ticket would be one way to break the deadlock. On the Republican side though, McCain finally seized the party's mantle realising a dream thwarted by Bush in the 2000 elections.With the republicans, McCain, 71, too capped an amazing comeback after his campaign had looked dead and buried in mid-2007, crippled by overspending and infighting that led to an exodus by top aides, beating former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. But now, McCain can enjoy laying out his lines of attack for the November election while watching the Democrats fight tooth and nail. Senator McCain won the endorsement of President George W. Bush in a White House ceremony.

Updated 12:09 PM 05-Mar-08
Hillary Clinton triumphant over Ohio victory

Hillary Clinton wins Democratic primary in Ohio 05 March 2008 Former first lady Hillary Clinton on Tuesday won a second victory of the night over Democratic rival Barack Obama, after she earlier took Rhode Island, to end a 12-win streak by the young Illinois senator, Obama who has earlier won Vermont. But the fourth Democratic nominating contest of the night in Texas was still too close to call, where under a complicated system Texans were voting twice - first in a primary and then later in evening caucuses. And Clinton's wins means the Democratic White House battle is likely to drag on to other primaries down the line, including Wyoming on Saturday and Pennsylvania on April 22.Ahead of Tuesday's votes, Obama had slightly more delegates than Clinton in the race to lock down the 2,025 needed to secure party's nomination.But Democratic delegates are awarded proportionally so no clear winner was likely to emerge from Tuesday's votes. The Democratic Party's nomination to stand in the November elections remains yet to be seen. Meanwhile Senator John McCain has clinched the Republicans' White House nomination.

Clinton, Obama face off in Ohio on healthcare, Iraq and that controversial photo.
Democratic nominee & the final debate of their marathon White House tussle.

"The prospect of the first female or black United States President", Ms Clinton remarked. Clinton has to sweep all the rest of the primaries after next Tuesday 4th and win 60 percent of the votes in the process just to even the delegate gap, reports CBS News correspondent Jim Axelrod. She hasn't come within 17 points of Obama in the last 11 contests.Race For The White HouseRepublican frontrunner John McCain

Excerpt of transcript OF MINISTER MENTOR LEE KUAN YEW’S INTERVIEW WITH ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE OF UPI ON 2 FEBRUARY 2008 AT ISTANA,SINGAPORE
Favors Ms Clinton



Favors Obama

Mr Lee: “Who will win? Hillary or Obama?” Q: “I think Obama.” Mr Lee: “You think so? Hillary has the resources and the networks.” Q: “Yes, but he’s coming on very strong, sir. He’s very good, he’s got a beautiful manipulation of the English language, which helps. We haven’t had someone like that for a long time and I think more and more people are…” Mr Lee: “But the momentum is coming too late for him, isn’t it?” Q: “You think so, sir?” Mr Lee: “You’ve got Super Tuesday on the 5th, that’s only three days off. If he can’t pull that one off, well, there are many delegates behind, especially California and New York.” Q: “You favour Hillary, don’t you?” Mr Lee: “I feel safer. I’ve watched him on television, but I’m a bit scared when he says ‘We’ll get out of Iraq’ just like that and he can’t get out of it, you know.” Q: “He can’t get out.” Mr Lee: “If he wins, he’s got to get out of Iraq and that will be a very big mess.” Q: “I think that Brzezinski will convince him that you can’t just walk out of Iraq.” Mr Lee: “But I mean, if he doesn’t walk out of Iraq after all this, he’s finished, his credibility is gone.” Q: “You think so, sir?” Mr Lee: “Or are Americans that shortsighted or short memory?” Q: “Well, I come to you, sir, from the new bilingual capital of the United States. You know what our second language is in Washington? It’s the truth, seldom spoken, unfortunately. You’ve seen that in recent years. Memories are very short, sir. People don’t remember what was said one day, the next day, they’ve forgotten.” Mr Lee: “But you know, the world will not forget this. He will lose credibility. He’s got to at least have a caveat. But this is my view, but I will take the assessment of the military leaders at the time.” Mr Lee: “I do not want to say anything that will hurt President Bush because I believe he went in with the best of intentions. He put his trust in Dick Cheney and I had confidence in Dick Cheney because I thought,you know, he had experience in the Gulf, he’s in the oil business, he was Defence Minister first Gulf War, but I don’t know what’s happened to Dick Cheney. He allowed himself to believe people like Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Pearle.” Q: “The Neocons.” Mr Lee: “Yes, that you could change Iraq. How can you change Iraq? It’s a 4,000-year-old society. You know, it’s not malleable, it’s fractured, everybody knows the troubles the British had in their...” Q: “My grandfather, General Townsend, had a tremendous defeat in a place called Kut in World War I when he lost 23,000 Indian army troops, second biggest disaster after Gallipoli. Paul Wolfowitz, all these people were close friends and they were not interested in the history of Iraq. That’s what struck me one year before the war when we were telling them not to do it. He said, it’ll be like France in 1944, that’s what Paul Wolfowitz told us.” Mr Lee: “Did he tell you that?” Q: “And this is a very intelligent man. Ideology blinded them.” Q: “And that’s what happened.” Mr Lee: “But I think, you know, George W Bush, whatever his faults, he’s not walking away from the problem he’s created and I think that’s just as well. Otherwise, further damage will be done. I don’t know, I prefer really John McCain. I think he will see this thing through and you’ve got to see… If Afghanistan is a failed state, it’s not your fault. Nobody has ever made sense out of Afghanistan. Maybe it’s got to be fractured like that.” Q: “Even Alexander the Great bypassed it.” Mr Lee: “But if you leave Iraq in a mess after you went in to put it right, you’ll never live this down. You’ll have trouble throughout the whole Middle East. The Shi’ites will get together, not that they will stay together, but for a short time. The Iranians and the Iraqis, the Iraqi Shi’ites will have to depend on the Iranians because they are such a weak state. The Iranians will want to have mastery of the Gulf area.” VIA

Clinton's strategy for Ohio & Texas 2008-02-27
Clinton is spending much of her time traveling between Ohio and Texas- hoping that these two states can stall Obama's momentum



Democrat rivals clash over health care 2008-02-27
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have accused each other of negative campaigning during a live television debate.

Media faulted over Obama coverage 2008-02-28
Some people on the left and right are slamming the media for giving Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama what they say is a free ride.

"Senator Obama has consistently said I would force people to have health care whether they can afford it or not," said Clinton, insisting it was not true.
Responding quickly, Obama countered that former first lady had consistently claimed his plan "would leave 15 million people out ... I dispute that. I think it is inaccurate," he said.

Clinton said as far as she knew her campaign had nothing to do with circulating a photograph of Obama wearing a white turban and a wraparound white robe presented to him by elders in Wajir, in northeastern Kenya. "I take Senator Clinton at her word that she knew nothing about the photo," Obama said.

On the war, both candidates denounced President Bush's record on Iraq, then restated long-held disagreements over which of them was more opposed. Clinton said she and Obama had virtually identical voting records on the war since he came to the Senate in 2005.The former first lady voted in 2002 to authorize the war, at a time when Obama was not yet in Congress, and he tried to use the issue to rebut charges that he is ill-prepared to become commander in chief."The fact is that Senator Clinton often says that she is ready on day one, but, in fact, she was ready to give in to George Bush on day one on this critical issue," Obama said. Ms Clinton said Mr Obama should be "commended" for opposing the war all along but stressed that he had voted the same way as she did in the Senate to continue funding for military operations.Asked by MSNBC moderator Tim Russert if "you'd like to have your vote back", she replied: "Absolutely. I've said that many times."A day after arguing that her opponent would need a foreign policy "instruction manual", Ms Clinton assailed Mr Obama for advocating a military strike on Al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan without necessarily seeking the Pakistani government's approval.Mr Obama said he would only strike on receipt of "actionable intelligence" if Pakistan was "unwilling or unable to strike against them".

The two rivals also debated NAFTA, the free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico that is wildly unpopular with blue-collar workers whose votes are critical in any Democratic primary in Ohio.Neither one said they were ready to withdraw from the agreement, although both said they would use the threat of withdrawal to pressure Mexico to make changes."I have said I would renegotiate NAFTA," said Clinton. "I will say to Mexico that we will opt out of NAFTA unless we renegotiate it."
Obama said Clinton has tried to have it both ways, touting the trade deal in farm states where it's popular while finding fault with it in places like Ohio.
"This is something I have been consistent about," said Obama, who said he went to the American Farm Bureau Federation to tout his opposition and used it as an issue in his 2004 Senate campaign.

Both campaigns tried to put the best spin on their candidate's performance.

"It was an extremely strong performance," Clinton's chief strategist Mark Penn said in the spin room. "If you care about universal healthcare, she said how important it is, how passionate she's going to fight for it. If you care about jobs and the special interests, she's said she's going to take $55 billion from the special interests and turn that over to programs that would benefit the middle class. And if you're someone who cares about foreign affairs or national security, she made clear she's the person who knows how to deal with Russia and the tough situations that we're seeing."

Axelrod cast the debate as a success for Obama.

"I think it was a great night," he said. "I think that Senator Obama was strong, resolute about where he wants to take the country. I thought his discussion of Iraq and foreign policy was very strong. And I think he has a clear economic vision of where he wants to take the country. He talked about the things we need to do to create jobs and opportunity, here in Ohio and across the country. There were some jabs thrown his way, but I think they were glancing blows."

VIA
Clinton, Obama in Dead Heat Going Into Texas and Ohio
Skirmishes between McCain, Democrats heat up

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