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Like it or not, race and gender will play roles in the choice of a Democratic presidential standard bearer. It can't be avoided, even though the party's leading candidates have decided to bury the hatchet. In the Tuesday night debate in Las Vegas, both Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., said their supporters had been over-zealous in their week-long tiff over the role of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the enactment of federal civil rights legislation in the 1960s. The two candidates agreed to stop the squabbling and to keep their focus on current issues. Someday, they...

Hillary Clinton will undoubtedly lose the South Carolina primary as African-Americans line up to vote for Barack Obama. And that defeat will power her drive to the nomination. The Clintons are encouraging the national media to disregard the whites who vote in South Carolina’s Democratic primary and focus on the black turnout, which is expected to be quite large. They have transformed South Carolina into Washington, D.C. — an all-black primary that tells us how the African-American vote is going to go. By saying he will go door to door in black neighborhoods in South Carolina matching his civil rights...

Both Hillary Clinton and John McCain scored hugely significant wins on Saturday in Nevada and South Carolina, wins which might set them on the road to the nomination. Hillary is very likely to lose South Carolina because of the large black vote there. Had she lost Nevada too, she would have been badly handicapped going into Florida and Super Tuesday, having suffered two consecutive defeats. But now that she has won Nevada, she can lose South Carolina and still have momentum. The run-up to South Carolina and the primary itself will feature constant focus on the African-American vote. Analysts and...

As American banks go hat in hand to foreign financial institutions and governments, begging for capital to help them get out of the mess into which their subprime loans have landed them, the question arises as to whether the United States should permit nations like China, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) and the banks they control to acquire part ownership of our leading banks. The presidential candidates discussed this issue in their Nevada debate and Hillary was asked about it in an interview with Neil Cavuto on the Fox Business Network yesterday. She replied that she would not...

Not that it's going to diminish her ambition to live there again, but Hillary Clinton says she views the White House as something of a prison. She also thinks that when she gets there, she'll have to have some kind of national contest to decide what to call her husband since First Lady wouldn't be appropriate.

People in the Las Vegas neighborhood saw all the cameras and trucks and buses and police on the streets Thursday, and they began to trickle out of their houses to find out what was going on. Soon, as a sherbet-orange desert sunset filled the sky, they got their answer, as New York Sen. Hillary Clinton began walking up the street of low-slung houses near Eastern and Washington avenues, accompanied by the area's representative, state Assemblyman Ruben Kihuen. Clinton hugged Kihuen around the shoulders and asked about his family, and then the two began knocking on doors, the same doors Kihuen...

Barack Obama rebounded from a close loss to Hillary Clinton and won the support of the heavily Hispanic union representing Las Vegas casino workers on Wednesday ahead of the next Democratic presidential contest. The Obama endorsement by the Culinary Workers Union, whose 60,000 members service the famed hotels and casinos on the Las Vegas strip and is a major political force in Nevada, was a blow to Clinton, who had campaigned for its backing in the state's January 19 contest. "We had a wonderful dilemma," D. Taylor, the union's secretary treasurer, told a noisy news conference. "It's been a very...

A day after the New Hampshire primary recast the presidential race, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Wednesday that the candidates’ debate on Saturday was a turning point in her surprising victory over Senator Barack Obama, while Mr. Obama sought to remain upbeat and traveled to New York on a fund-raising mission. On the Republican side, Senator John McCain, fresh off his own comeback victory over former Gov. Mitt Romney, jetted off to Michigan, where in next Tuesday’s primary he will attempt to overcome Mr. Romney’s natural advantage in the state of his birth. The results from Tuesday night breathed...

When I walked into the office Monday, people were clustering around a computer to watch what they thought they would never see: Hillary Clinton with the unmistakable look of tears in her eyes. A woman gazing at the screen was grimacing, saying it was bad. Three guys watched it over and over, drawn to the “humanized” Hillary. One reporter who covers security issues cringed. “We are at war,” he said. “Is this how she’ll talk to Kim Jong-il?” Another reporter joked: “That crying really seemed genuine. I’ll bet she spent hours thinking about it beforehand.” He added dryly: “Crying doesn’t...

Fleetwood Mac would roll over in their musical graves if they could hear how the Hillary campaign has gotten into a time warp, obsessing with the 90s while a new political generation demands a focus on tomorrow. Going into Iowa, the Hillary campaign was notable for transcending the gender barrier while Obama struggled to overcome the racial divide. But last night, as the Iowa results came in, it was apparent that the real polarity was over generation and age. The Baby Boomers are being challenged to give up power. Voters under 30 backed Obama by 4:1, signaling the emergence of...

Hillary Clinton made one thing very clear at Saturday night’s Democratic debate: Her likability tour is definitely over. Baring her claws at opponents Barack Obama and John Edwards, the real Hillary was finally in evidence. The mask was off and her rage, arrogance, and sense of entitlement were on full display. It was not a pretty picture. From the first moment that she entered the stage, Hillary’s body language shrieked one thing — smoldering, simmering anger. The constant smile and the cackling laugh that have been her campaign trademark were suddenly gone. In their place was a furious, primal glare....

If (although I strongly suspect the right word is "when") Hillary Clinton loses tomorrow's New Hampshire primary, there will be a few proto-obituaries for her campaign and many more stories about how it will be "shaken up" or "relaunched." Scapegoats will be found and exiled: Mark Penn, the pollster and strategist, foremost among them. After all, the candidate can't very well dispense with the überstrategist who also happens to be her husband and who was fully complicit in designing and driving her message. The flaw wasn't just the attempt to go back to the future, to the 1990s, but that...

The scope of Barack Obama's victory in Iowa has shaken the Clinton machine down to its bolts. Donors are panicking. The campaign has been making a round of calls to reassure notoriously fickle "superdelegates" — elected officials and party regulars who are awarded convention spots by virtue of their titles and positions — who might be reconsidering their decisions to back the candidate who formerly looked like a sure winner. And internally, a round of recriminations is being aimed at her chief strategist, Mark Penn, as the representative of everything about her pseudo-incumbent campaign that has been too cautious, too...

THE amazing victories by Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee in Iowa last night are truly historic. They demonstrate the impact and viability of a message of change in both parties. On the Democratic side, Obama - by winning in a totally white state - shows that racism is gone as a factor in American politics. On the Republican side, Huckabee's win shows how a truly compassionate conservative can win by harvesting voters who want the message of concern for the poor and for values to prevail. But what of Hillary Clinton? She's down but not out. In the first really...

Helen Thomas on stage with Hill and Bill in Iowa?

VINTON, Iowa - Ever since Barack Obama suggested Hillary Clinton's eight years as first lady were a glorified tea party a few days back, she's looked for an opening to strike back. On Saturday night in Dubuque she pounced, arguing she risked her life on White House missions in the 1990s, including a hair-raising flight into Bosnia that ended in a "corkscrew" landing and a sprint off the tarmac to dodge snipers. "I don't remember anyone offering me tea," she quipped. The dictum around the Oval Office in the '90s, she added, was: "If a place was too dangerous, too...

As first lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton jaw-boned the authoritarian president of Uzbekistan to leave his car and shake hands with people. She argued with the Czech prime minister about democracy. She cajoled Roman Catholic and Protestant women to talk to one another in Northern Ireland. She traveled to 79 countries in total, little of it leisure; one meeting with mutilated Rwandan refugees so unsettled her that she threw up afterward. But during those two terms in the White House, Mrs. Clinton did not hold a security clearance. She did not attend National Security Council meetings. She was not given a...

The National Archives is withholding from the public about 2,600 pages of records at President Clinton's direction, despite a public assurance by one of his top aides last month that Mr. Clinton "has not blocked the release of a single document." The 2,600 pages, stored at Mr. Clinton's library in Arkansas, were deemed to contain "confidential advice" and, therefore, "closed" under the Presidential Records Act, an Archives spokeswoman, Susan Cooper, told The New York Sun yesterday. An official who oversees the presidential libraries operated by the federal government, Sharon Fawcett, said in a recent interview that the records were withheld...

"Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., talks with supporters after she speaks at a campaign stop Sunday, Dec. 16, 2007, in Council Bluffs, Iowa. At right, Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle."

RUDY Giuliani is no oil painting, nor is John McCain. Fred Thompson may have cracked it in Hollywood, but he's hardly leading man material. Barack Obama has those ears to contend with, while every time Joe Biden opens his mouth it's like watching an old episode of Mr Ed. Even pretty boy John Edwards is starting to show signs of wear. But according to the US's leading radio shock jock, Rush Limbaugh, it all matters little for the male presidential candidates, because when men age they look "more authoritative, accomplished and distinguished". What does matter, says Limbaugh, is that Hillary...

Former President Bill Clinton and retired basketball star Earvin "Magic" Johnson will be in Davenport on Tuesday to campaign for Hillary Clinton. The ex-president has been a regular on the campaign trail, but this will be the first time that Johnson, who played for years for the Los Angeles Lakers, will have hit the hustings in Iowa for U.S. Sen. Clinton. The two men will be at Davenport Central High School for a 10:30 a.m. event, according to the Clinton campaign. Clinton and Johnson are making stops in Davenport and Waterloo. Clinton will then continue on to Hampton and Fort...

DUNLAP, Iowa - Standing atop a stage in a livestock auction barn, Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton likened the experience to her quest to woo undecided voters in the closing days before Iowa's pivotal caucuses. "I've been to cattle barns before and sales before, in Arkansas, but I've never felt like I was the one that was being bid on," Clinton told a crowd in western Iowa. "I know you're going to inspect me. You can look inside my mouth if you want. I hope by the end of my time with you I can make the case for my candidacy...

For the first time in history, a former president has a good shot at getting back into the White House … as a spouse. And that's just one reason why Bill Clinton is one of Barbara Walters' "10 Most Fascinating People of 2007." If his wife wins the 2008 presidential election, would the former president sit in on cabinet meetings? "Only if asked," Clinton told Walters. "And I think it would only be wise if it were on a specific issue. I think it's better for me to give her my advice privately most of the time." Clinton says he...

Mrs Hillary Clinton, Senator from New York State, is one of the leading contenders for the Democratic Party’s nomination for President of the USA in 2008. But a question arises, as she is the wife of a former two-term President, whether her candidacy is legally allowed under the US Constitution and American law. America’s first President, George Washington, held office for two consecutive four-year terms and declined to run for a third term in 1796. From that time onwards to Franklin D. Roosevelt, it became a constitutional custom in the USA that no President would serve for more than two...

There’s quite a kerfuffle on this side of the Atlantic about a report in the London Times that included the titillating detail that it was being put about that Hillary Clinton was having an affair with her personal aide Huma Abedin. Allegations of a lesbian affair were made anonymously It was all in the context of South Carolina supposedly being the “foulest swamp of electoral dirty tricks in America” but Matt Drudge picked up on the story headlined “Snarls, smears and innuendo for Hillary Clinton” and left The Times itself looking distinctly sleazy. Credit for that goes principally to its...

DON'T GO THERE: BRIT PAPER STARTS 'UGLIEST MONTH' Sun Nov 25 2007 20:45:12 ET The TIMES of London starts 'The Ugliest Month' with a full page photo takeout on Hillary Clinton and her beautiful aide. "Hillary Clinton has been accused of having an affair with Huma Abedin," reads the caption. MORE The splash stunned British readers and angered campaign insiders. "This does not even qualify as tabloid trash... it's ridiculous and reckless," a Hillary confidante explained over the weekend. The paper made no claims to knowing the truth of the relationship between Hillary and Huma, in its story headlined: "Snarls,...

President Bush's former chief political strategist writes that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton can be defeated next year, but he argues it won't be easy. In his debut column for the liberal Newsweek magazine, Karl Rove describes Hillary as "hard" and "brittle." Recalling two encounters with the former first lady who seemed agitated by his mentioning of a vanity mirror in her old West Wing office, Rove says Hillary is "tough, persistent and forgets nothing." He also implied that a controversial question asked to Sen. John McCain by a woman in South Carolina ["How do we beat the bitch?"] was not...

Are the Clinton secret police back on patrol? It looks like they may be making a late campaign comeback. In a week-end column, Robert Novak alleged that “agents” of Hillary Clinton are “spreading the word that she has scandalous information” about Barack Obama, but decided not to use it. (How considerate of her!) Obama has come out swinging, accusing the Clinton campaign of trying to swift-boat him and demanding that Clinton either release the information or admit that there is none. The Clinton camp is shocked that anyone would ever think that it would use such tactics! Clinton campaign Communications...

CNN debate moderator Wolf Blitzer did an 'outstanding' job in Vegas, a senior adviser to the Hillary campaign said early Friday. 'He was outstanding, and did not gang up like Russert did in Philadelphia. He avoided the personal attacks, remained professional and ran the best debate so far. Voters were the big winners last night.' A rival campaign insider charges: 'Wolf turned into a lamb. No follow-up question on Clinton's huge flip on drivers licenses?'

Bill Clinton was hit with caustic criticism Tuesday from his wife's Democratic rivals, who accused the popular former president of falsely comparing questions about her candor to smears of past campaigns. In a presidential nomination fight growing more intense by the day, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama also criticized the former first lady for having voted in the Senate against incentives for ethanol production and higher fuel efficiency standards. And 2004 vice presidential nominee John Edwards challenged her to spell out what she would do about Iraq. The week after Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign accused her rivals of "piling on," those...

The chairmen of the House and Senate Democratic campaign committees sounded differing notes of optimism on Wednesday, just more than a year away from what they say will be a second straight election on the offensive. Speaking to reporters at a briefing, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) was effusive, saying the 2008 election could be “a seminal election” on par with only a few in the history of the country. The two-cycle chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said the results could “change the tectonic plates of politics.” Schumer said he expects to hold all 12 seats that Senate Democrats...

What if the current polls in Iowa are the final result? What if Romney wins in Iowa and then comes in first again in New Hampshire? What if Giuliani stumbles badly in Iowa and finishes fourth? What if Huckabee surges and finishes second in Iowa? What if Fred Thompson makes an unimpressive third-place finish there? And, on the Democratic side, what if Hillary only narrowly beats Obama in the first caucus state? With two months to go before the Iowa caucus, everything can change, and probably will, but it is worth speculating on what the impact will be if things...

Just because she is supportive of women in politics does not mean first lady Laura Bush would vote for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York Democrat, for president. "You have supported qualified women for big jobs — secretary of state, Supreme Court justice. Are you at all torn by Senator Clinton's candidacy?" Chris Wallace, host of "Fox News Sunday," asked the first lady yesterday. "No," Mrs. Bush replied. "I'm looking forward to voting for a Republican woman, whenever that is. But I'll be supporting the Republican." Why would Mr. Wallace ask such a question? Mark Penn, a senior strategist and...

Washington, the old cliché goes, is Hollywood for ugly people—a mecca for ambitious strivers who lack the cheekbones or the glamour to make it to the silver screen. But that was before wall-to-wall media coverage turned presidential campaigns into lengthy spectacles as relentlessly contrived and overproduced as the Golden Globes. Managed by fleets of pricey handlers and professional writers, candidates have become as manufactured as movie stars: coached on every aspect of their dress and demeanor, and supplied with perky sound-bites for spontaneous delivery on Letterman. Which is why, as we set out to plan the cover of Radar's Politics...

Dear Friend, When I received Hillary's email asking for volunteers, I did what any other Hollywood director would do. Made a movie. Starring myself and a great supporting cast of Hillary volunteers from all over town. You can see it right here: http://www.hillaryclinton.com/teamhillary Hey, I wasn't the only one who answered Hillary's call. We've received an overwhelming response, with supporters from across the country pledging over 300,000 volunteer hours. And that was just three hours after Hillary's email went out! We hit 500,000 volunteer hours later that day. So now there's a new goal. Ready? One million volunteer hours. So...

It's not exactly the old-time religion, but suddenly there's sawdust on the trail. If some other worthy actually wins the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have a new career open to them, reprising Jim and Tammy Faye. Praise the Lord. Just when everyone thought that no Democrat wanted to be caught in church dead or alive, it's revival time. First Hillary started talking about the influence of the Methodist social gospel on her life — this must have been heck all these years for Bubba, a hymn-singing good ol' Baptist boy — and now Barack Obama invokes God...

The public interest group Judicial Watch says the National Archives is apparently ignoring a court order aimed at forcing a more timely release of Hillary Clinton's White House records. Judicial Watch had filed a Freedom of Information Act Request to obtain Mrs. Clinton's office records, including phone logs, personal schedules, and other documents that may shed light on her activities during the Clinton years. A court ruled that 10,000 pages of those documents will be processed completely by the end of January 2008; however, the National Archives and Records Administration "cannot provide a date certain" to complete the processing of...

CONCORD, N.H. - Don Schwartz, who describes himself as "a super-Deaniac progressive type," decided to back Hillary Clinton - whose centrist views, he concedes, do not necessarily match his own - for a simple reason. He wanted, finally, to be with a winner.

Sandy Berger, who stole highly classified terrorism documents from the National Archives, destroyed them and lied to investigators, is now an adviser to presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton. Berger, who was fired from John Kerry´s presidential campaign when the scandal broke in 2004, has assumed a similar role in Clinton´s campaign, even though his security clearance has been suspended until September 2008. This is raising eyebrows even among Clinton´s admirers. “It shows poor judgment and a lack of regard for Berger´s serious misdeeds,” said law professor Jonathan Adler of Case Western Reserve University, who nonetheless called Clinton “by far the...

Ah, those diversity-loving liberals. You know, the kind who would stifle free speech with their Orwellian "Fairness Doctrine," who threaten legal action against mom-and-pop T-shirt makers who criticize MoveOn.borg. Wesley Clark would now take things one step further, whacking Rush Limbaugh off the Armed Forces Newtwork radio airwaves...

Republican presidential candidate John McCain has decided not to assail Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton for her stance on the Iraq War in a speech Wednesday at a military prep school. On Tuesday, McCain's campaign released excerpts of his speech at Camden Military Academy in which the Arizona senator accuses Clinton of indecisiveness, arguing that won't work for a post-Sept. 11 commander in chief. "The Democratic front-runner wants to have it both ways when it comes to foreign policy. On the one hand, the New York senator voted for the Iraq War. On the other hand, she now opposes it—sort...

Some 300 people gathered on Tuesday night at the Brentwood home of CAA's David O'Connor and his wife, Lona Williams, anxious to see the guest of honor, Bill Clinton. Then the power went out --- in the entire neighborhood --- putting this Hillary Clinton fund-raiser into near total darkness. The only light came from candles and some battery operated lanterns, which were shined on Clinton when he spoke in the backyard pool area. That helped, but it was still hard to see guests. And with no electricity, and therefore no microphone, it wasn't always easy to hear, according to a...

The winner of the Hypocrite of the Year award goes to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). Even though the year is far from over and is likely to have its fair share of hypocrisy, Mrs. Clinton's comment on the need to compromise to achieve political and social progress has to outclass any other current or future entrant. This woman, who refused to change a comma or a word of her 1,000-page-plus healthcare reform bill and, as a result of her intractable stubbornness, sent the bill down to defeat along with the Democratic Congress and almost her husband's presidency, is daring...

...RUSH: She was shocked and surprised her own brother was selling pardons... ...RUSH: Yeah, it was a big surprise to find out that Norman Hsu was this bad guy!...When her brothers were involved in the Marc Rich pardons, she was stunned at that...

If women are from Venus and men are from Mars, the former valuing peace and the latter reveling in war, Hillary Rodham Clinton is a lot more like Mars than Venus. She loves war.

Hilary caught taking money from a swindler? Mon dieu! The Los Angeles Times has the story of Hillary’s fund-raising “fugitive in plain sight:” For the last 15 years, California authorities have been trying to figure out what happened to a businessman named Norman Hsu, who pleaded no contest to grand theft, agreed to serve up to three years in prison and then seemed to vanish. “He is a fugitive,” Ronald Smetana, who handled the case for the state attorney general, said in an interview. “Do you know where he is?” Hsu, it seems, has been hiding in plain sight, at...

DALY CITY, Calif. -- One of the biggest sources of political donations to Hillary Rodham Clinton is a tiny, lime-green bungalow that lies under the flight path from San Francisco International Airport. Six members of the Paw family, each listing the house at 41 Shelbourne Ave. as their residence, have donated a combined $45,000 to the Democratic senator from New York since 2005, for her presidential campaign, her Senate re-election last year and her political action committee. In all, the six Paws have donated a total of $200,000 to Democratic candidates since 2005, election records show. That total ranks the...

They work in the same building. They slog through the same rigorous travel schedule. Along the way, they often cross paths several times a day. But Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama have barely spoken to each other — at least in any meaningful way — for months. The tension between the two Democratic presidential hopefuls, which has spilled into public view in the last three weeks, has been intensifying since January. It is clear that the genteel decorum of the Senate has given way to the go-for-the-jugular instinct of the campaign trail. As the Senate held late sessions...