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Former Gov. Joe Kernan says a signature on a petition to place Barack Obama's name on Indiana's 2008 primary ballot isn't his, putting him among dozens of dubious signatures found in a newspaper's investigation. Kernan, a Democrat who campaigned for Hillary Clinton during the 2008 primary, told the South Bend Tribune that he didn't sign the Obama document. "No, not at all," the former South Bend mayor said when asked whether the signature next to his name on the Obama petition looked like his own. "Nor does the printing look like mine." The Tribune reported Wednesday that it has talked...

In an apparent push poll, a research firm has called Iowa Republicans this week praising John McCain and critcizing Mitt Romney and his Mormon faith. An individual in Manchester, Iowa, contacted me on Wednesday night saying he received a call with information about McCain's military service and anti-spending record. Then there were "lots of negatives on Romney," said the recepient of the call in an e-mail, including mentions of his "flip-flops," hiring illegal immigrants as landscapers and extensive discussion of Mormonism. "Statements were on baptizing the dead, the Book of Mormon being on the level of the Bible, and one...

SPARTANBURG, S.C. - Republican presidential candidate John McCain (news, bio, voting record), looking to improve his standing with the party's conservative voters, said Sunday the court decision that legalized abortion should be overturned. "I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned," the Arizona senator told about 800 people in South Carolina, one of the early voting states. McCain also vowed that if elected, he would appoint judges who "strictly interpret the Constitution of the United States and do not legislate from the bench." The landmark 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade gave women the right to choose...

WASHINGTON — A number of 2008 presidential contenders appear to be inching closer to making their first official steps as candidates. Republicans Tennessee Sen. Bill Frist, Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, New York Gov. George Pataki and Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee are all in preparatory stages. Democrats Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama are also being watched carefully for suggestions they are making moves in the White House's direction. None officially has announced they are running, but either they or those close to them are saying...

Question: How do you increase the influence of minorities and working people in the selection of the next Democratic presidential candidate? Answer: Add Nevada and South Carolina to the first two weeks of the schedule. That’s what the Democrats voted to do this week, and supposedly they did it to make the process of picking a candidate for president in 2008 more representative of the diversity of the party. But watch out. If a few decades as what we call a “rules junkie” has taught me anything, it’s to watch out for unintended consequences. And this rules change has that...

To boost diversity in presidential nominating votes, they put Nevada's and South Carolina's soonerMove over Iowa and New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina are now members of the Democratic Party's "early nominators" club.By adding new states to its early roster of presidential nominating contests, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) aims to add racial and geographic diversity to the selection process.

CHICAGO -- New Hampshire maple sugar and Iowa corn dogs have been the staples of early presidential campaigning for decades. Now, add mint juleps and a roll of the dice. Democrats vaulted South Carolina and Nevada into the first wave of 2008 presidential contests on Saturday, creating a compressed, politically saturated but far more diverse schedule for candidates seeking the White House. Party officials embraced the change, though New Hampshire Democrats joined several likely presidential candidates and former President Clinton in opposing the move. "It's an opportunity for the candidates to speak in a broader way to Democrats across the...

CHICAGO, Aug. 19 — The Democratic National Committee voted Saturday to penalize 2008 presidential candidates who defied a new nominating calendar devised to lessen the longtime influence of New Hampshire and Iowa, the two states that have traditionally kicked off the nominating process.

Democrats agreed to shake up tradition Saturday by wedging Nevada between Iowa's leadoff caucuses and the New Hampshire primary in the 2008 presidential nominating calendar and adding South Carolina soon afterward.The addition of Nevada's caucuses and the South Carolina primary to a presidential calendar long dominated by Iowa and New Hampshire is intended to give a greater voice to Hispanics and blacks-minorities critical to Democrats' success.

DEMS VOW SANCTIONS AGAINST CANDIDATES WHO THWART NEW CALENDER Sat Aug 19 2006 11:16:47 ET The Democratic National Committee moved on Saturday to penalize 2008 presidential candidates who defied a new nominating calendar designed to lessen the longtime influence of New Hampshire and Iowa -- the two states that have traditionally kicked off the nominating process. The NEW YORK TIMES will report on Sunday: The sanctions would be directed at candidates who campaigned in any state that refused to follow a proposed calendar that the committee was preparing to approve. Any candidate who campaigned in a state that did not...

CHICAGO Aug 19, 2006 (AP)— Come 2008, Democrats don't want their presidential candidates spending the entire month of January in high boots and barn jackets. The Democratic National Committee on Saturday was expected to add Nevada and South Carolina to the early presidential voting states, a detour into gambling glitz and Southern gentility from the traditional cold winds and snow of Iowa and New Hampshire. The change is designed to address a nagging problem for Democrats: How to give a greater voice in selecting a presidential nominee to minorities who are among the party's most loyal supporters.

Move over, Hillary: Russ Feingold is going to be the Democratic nominee for president in 2008. For far too long the assumption has been that the former first lady would be the Dems' obvious pick. The storyline had dynastic flair, plus the sexy-milestone first-woman-president aspect. It had the wronged-woman-coming-out-on-top Style-section and glossy-headline opportunities. The idea launched many a Clinton-hater (hey, nothing wrong with that, I'm a card-carrier) book. It was scary while it lasted. But the moment's gone. He's positioned himself as the antiwar alternative. He's got the advantage of being able to say to anyone disillusioned about Iraq that...

The stranglehold that Iowa and New Hampshire have long maintained on the Democratic nominating process will slacken in 2008. Late to recognize the danger in allowing two of the whitest states in the nation to play kingmaker for a party that lives and dies by motivating an increasingly diverse constituency, the party has moved to add Nevada and South Carolina to the first contests on the primary calendar. Unlike New Hampshire (95% white) and Iowa (93% white), minorities make up roughly 35% in both Nevada and South Carolina.

Nevada will now beat New Hampshire's primary. That's the biggest change coming from the Democratic Party's decision to alter the presidential nominating calendar, a move that came in response to worries that a lack of racial and geographic diversity in the early primary season was hurting the party's fortunes. On Saturday, the Democratic National Committee bumped New Hampshire from second place in the nominating process. Nevada's caucuses were placed between the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. South Carolina also rose in prominence: Its primary will come after New Hampshire but before Feb. 5, when any state can schedule...

(Washington-AP, July 23, 2006 7:30 AM)_ In an attempt to satisfy complaints from minorities, Democrats moved toward adding Nevada and South Carolina in the early presidential voting lineup along with Iowa and New Hampshire to diversify the voters who select the party's nominee. They added Nevada caucuses the Saturday after Iowa's leadoff caucuses, set for Jan. 14, but before the New Hampshire primary, set Jan. 22. A South Carolina primary was added a week after New Hampshire. The Democrats did their utmost to satisfy everyone -- to little avail. New Hampshire officials are miffed about the intrusion on decades of...

In a quiet, methodical style reflecting his Midwestern roots, Sen. Evan Bayh is laying the foundation for a presidential campaign and prompting some Democrats to talk about a candidate with a realistic shot. "The chatter that you hear is that he's a good guy and nice and he has that honest, Midwestern feel to him, kind of like Harry Truman," said veteran Democratic strategist Dane Strother. "That's all appealing." In his fifth trip to Iowa in the last year, the centrist Indiana Democrat opened a three-day swing Thursday with a fundraiser in downtown Des Moines for legislative candidates. He mingled...

The Hon. Newt Gingrich's recent oracular rumble to a luncheon audience at the Brookings Institution, during which he threatened to seek the Republican presidential nomination if a "vacuum" remains in the Republican field, reminded me of an inescapable insight I suffered sometime in 1998. Mr. Gingrich is the Republicans' Bill Clinton. Being a Republican, Mr. Gingrich is not as hollow as the Arkansas huckster, nor as amusing. In fact, he can be boring. Springing from the same late 1960s jugendkultur as the Boy President, Mr. Gingrich is the career pol, the hustling, self-promoting narcissist, the sempiternal fantasist. When he was...

(AP) MANCHESTER, N.H. Despite Republican scandals, Democrats will not win back majorities in Congress by default, U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold told New Hampshire Democrats on Saturday. Speaking at the state party's annual convention, Feingold, D-Wisconsin, rejected the idea that Democrats should just lay low and let Republicans self-destruct. "Some say 'we've got it made ... let's not rock the boat,"' he said, "but I believe that's exactly how we lost in 2002 and 2004. We won't win by default. We won't win by just running out the clock. We'll only win if we show we are willing to discuss tough...

U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh continues to say he hasn’t decided whether to run for president in 2008, while continuing to position himself to make that run. He also continues to take positions that allow him to be noticed by those assessing which Demo-cratic candidates are likely to emerge as front-runners in the race. Bayh was one of three Democratic members of the Senate Intelligence Committee to vote against an endorsement of Air Force Gen. Michael V. Hayden to head the CIA. The 12-3 vote to confirm Hayden included four of seven Democrats on the committee. According to the Washington Post,...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democrats agreed Saturday to a plan that would shake up their presidential selection process by placing racially diverse states early in the voting. They left room for plenty of debate about the details. One or two state caucuses would be moved ahead of New Hampshire under the plan the Democratic Party's rules and bylaws committee accepted in principle. That could cause a confrontation with New Hampshire, traditionally the site of the nation's first presidential primary. "This was the crucial step," said Alexis Herman, a co-chair of the committee. "Now we will have a debate on which states...