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Clinton declines comment on Spitzer By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writer SCRANTON, Pa. - Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton carefully sidestepped questions Monday about the sex scandal engulfing Eliot Spitzer, her home state governor and political ally. ADVERTISEMENT "I don't have any comment on that. Obviously I am sending my best wishes and thoughts to the governor and to his family," Clinton said, opening her first campaign swing through Pennsylvania, which holds its presidential primary April 22. Spitzer apologized Monday after he was accused of paying for sex with a high-priced call girl. Authorities say he was caught on a federal...

COLUMBUS, Mississippi (Reuters) - Barack Obama on Monday ridiculed rival Hillary Clinton's repeated hints she would take him for the No. 2 spot on her presidential ticket, accusing her of playing political games in their hard-fought Democratic nominating race. Obama, campaigning in Mississippi ahead of the state's contest on Tuesday, said he has won more states than Clinton and is leading in delegates who will decide the Democratic candidate to face Republican John McCain in November. "I don't know how somebody who is in second place is offering the vice presidency to somebody who is in first place," Obama, an...

The spectacle of the presidential race coming to North Carolina brings more than bright lights, banners and Secret Service agents. Independent voters will more likely vote in the Democratic primary, which is bad for Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, a Republican. More women and blacks likely will turn out, which is bad for State Treasurer Richard Moore, a Democrat. Presidential campaign ads will hit the airwaves, which is bad for candidates for lower-tier offices, such as lieutenant governor or labor commissioner. The price of television commercials is expected to go up, and that's bad for all candidates. The invasion of the...

...Say Anything   By Joseph KleinFrontPageMagazine.com | Monday, March 10, 2008 A few days ago, Hillary Clinton said “I’m not sure what the American people should believe.” She was trying to assail Barack Obama’s credibility on Iraq, but she might as well have been talking about her own loose relationship with the truth.Let’s start with Clinton’s infamous TV ad which showed sleeping children and asked voters who they would want to see answering an emergency phone call coming into the White House at 3 AM. Not Obama, Hillary has said repeatedly on the stump. Only she and John McCain...

If Hillary Clinton's latest gambit--floating Obama as her VP--had been a play rather than a ploy, and the Today crew the theater critics, they would have left at intermission to begin penning a blistering pan. Interviewing Tim Russert, Matt Lauer kicked off the kicking around of Hillary's idea. MATT LAUER: Let's talk about this idea. Is it being floated seriously? Is this light-hearted, and who's behind it? TIM RUSSERT: Well the Clintons are behind it, and New York Daily News columnist Michael Goodwin said today that he talked to a Clintonista who said it's an attempt to belittle Barack Obama,...

Hillary Clinton is pointing to a victory in the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination despite her weekend loss to front-runner Barack Obama in the Wyoming caucuses. Talk about chutzpah! For the third time in a week, the Clintons are pushing the idea of a presidential ticket of Hillary and Barack Obama. After Hillary twice gave a thumbs up to the idea, Bubba chimed in, saying the duo would be "unstoppable" in the general election. It's the dream team that makes Democratic hearts flutter and brains turn to mush. It's a dream team all right, as in dream on. It's...

Who would have thought that the gender-barrier crusader Hillary Clinton would be in such a tight race against a candidate before whom young women swoon? Talk about vestiges of patriarchy! Nothing like this has been seen since Beatlemania. But we’re not talking about teenagers who have recently shed their bobby socks and bras, hoping for a world different from their mothers’. No, these are “grrrls� who play a tough game of soccer, trot the globe on spring break, and outperform their male peers academically. The boys have caught Obamamania, but it’s the “grrrls� who actually faint. More than smelling salts...

Sniping by Her Aides Hurt Clinton’s Image as Manager By ADAM NAGOURNEY, PATRICK HEALY and KATE ZERNIKE This article is by Adam Nagourney, Patrick Healy and Kate Zernike. WASHINGTON — The morning after Senator Barack Obama shook the Clinton campaign by winning five contests in one weekend, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s new campaign manager — Maggie Williams, who had taken over in a shake-up the night before — assembled the curious if demoralized staff. “You may not like the person next to you,” Ms. Williams told dozens of aides who ringed the conference room at the campaign’s Virginia headquarters last...

With the two Democratic presidential candidates seemingly poised for a duel to the death, and one of the two being Sen. Hillary Clinton, you can be sure of one thing: The stage is set for some world-class skullduggery. Indeed, the procedural funny stuff is no doubt already under way. Take last Thursday's decision in Puerto Rico to switch from a caucus - a format that so far has favored Sen Barack Obama - to an outright primary, Clinton's stronger suit. And wouldn't you just know it? The party chairman in Puerto Rico is an ardent Clinton backer. Hmm . ....

Democrats fear that civil war may draw crowds but end in bloodshed While Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton go head-to-head to win the presidential nomination of the Democratic party, John McCain is busy uniting the Republican party Tom Baldwin in Washington Surging optimism among Democrats about regaining the White House this year has been tempered by fresh warnings that the battle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama risks turning into a bloodbath before the Denver convention in August. The Democratic race has already smashed all records for turnout and fundraising, with millions of new voters and hundreds of donors galvanised...

I was just on the John Batchelor radio program. He says that Chuck Todd, NBC News political director, has heard from Hillary's people that she would accept the number two spot on the ticket.

<p>March 9, 2008 -- Clintons are trying to steal the nomination from Barack Obama - and he can't let them.</p> <p>The Clintons' campaign attacks put Obama in a bind.</p> <p>If he doesn't answer in kind, he's toast.</p> <p>But if he does, they'll have forced him off his winning message of hope and change from the bitter politics of the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush eras.</p>

The Luckiest Man By Jennifer Rubin Published 3/10/2008 12:08:28 AM Not every politician gets a week like the one John McCain got last week, and most of his good fortune was not of his making. Yes, he did clear the threshold of 1191 delegates to officially gain the nomination and, yes, that did lead to a helpful photo-op at the White House. But the real gifts were delivered by his potential Democratic rivals and by the Democratic Party itself. Most obviously, Hillary Clinton did not quietly exit the stage. By beating Obama badly in Ohio, she ensured the race would...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hillary and Bill Clinton are again teaming up on Barack Obama -- this time saying the first-term U.S. lawmaker, whom they have derided as inexperienced, would be a strong running mate on a Democratic presidential ticket headed by the former first lady. In talking up a joint ticket, the Clintons may be seeking the upper hand, attempting to put her in consideration for the top of the ticket when she so far has failed to win the votes necessary to assure that she would face Republican presidential candidate John McCain in the November election. The maneuver may...

**EXCERPT ** WASHINGTON — The morning after Senator Barack Obama shook the Clinton campaign by winning five states in one weekend, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s new campaign manager — Maggie Williams, who had taken over in a shake-up the night before — assembled the curious if demoralized staff. ~snip~ Still, interviews with campaign aides, associates and friends suggest that Mrs. Clinton, at least until February, was a detached manager. Juggling the demands of being a candidate, she paid little attention to detail, delegated decisions large and small and deferred to advisers on critical questions. Mrs. Clinton accepted — or seemed...

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) on Sunday questioned Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (N.Y.) pitching of herself as the most experienced candidate in the Democratic presidential race, suggesting her years as first lady do not add much to her foreign policy credentials. Speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press, Daschle, a supporter of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), pointed out that Obama has served in elective office longer than Clinton and suggested her time as first lady does not have much relevance to the office she seeks. “I worked with her; I know what a good first lady she was,” Daschle...

Free Republic Opinion Poll: (3/9) Will you be voting FOR McCain because you think he's the best qualified Republican to lead the nation, or will you be reluctantly pulling his lever because you're voting AGAINST Osama, Obama, YoMama, et al. How did you vote and why?

Suddenly the Democratic presidential race is teetering on the edge — not just between Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, but between boost or burden for the party’s hopes in the fall. So far, the clash between the two history-making candidacies has appeared to be an unalloyed benefit to the party. In state after state, Democrats displayed their enthusiasm through robust primary turnouts that drew in many new voters. If Clinton and Obama supporters have fallen into consistent niches by gender, income, education and ethnicity, polls show that most Democrats would happily support either one in November.But now the...

Hillary and Bill Clinton are again teaming up on Barack Obama -- this time saying the first-term U.S. lawmaker, whom they have derided as inexperienced, would be a strong running mate on a Democratic presidential ticket headed by the former first lady. In talking up a joint ticket, the Clintons may be seeking the upper hand, attempting to put her in consideration for the top of the ticket when she so far has failed to win the votes necessary to assure that she would face Republican presidential candidate John McCain in the November election. The maneuver may also be aimed...

Finally some examination and some information about this vast experience Hillary Clinton claims - like helping to bring peace to Northern Ireland: Hillary Clinton had no direct role in bringing peace to Northern Ireland and is a "wee bit silly" for exaggerating the part she played, according to Lord Trimble of Lisnagarvey, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and former First Minister of the province. But to hear Hillary Clinton, she was right in the middle of it: "I helped to bring peace to Northern Ireland," she told CNN on Wednesday. However, the real players disagree: But negotiators from the parties...

What happens if, despite leading in the pledged delegate count, Barack Obama fails to gain the Democratic nomination for president? It's a scenario that is becoming more likely after this week's results in Texas and Ohio revived Hillary Clinton's campaign. And Ed Morrissey sees what many Obama supporters are already hinting at; a massive amount of dissatisfaction not only with Democrats but also with the electoral process itself: Obama himself will be the real source of the disillusionment. No one in politics could live up to the expectation he set for himself and his campaign, especially one who comes out...

(CNN) – Hillary Clinton’s campaign responded Sunday to charges from rival Barack Obama that the New York senator “flip-flopped” on the issue of torture during her presidential campaign, saying she held strong positions against its use by government officials. When President Bush vetoed a bill Saturday that would have prohibited the CIA from using harsh interrogation techniques, Obama used the occasion to criticize his Democratic presidential opponent. "We need a Commander in Chief who has never wavered on whether or not it is acceptable for America to torture, because it is never acceptable,” said Obama. “While I have consistently opposed...

NBC News has learned that New Jersey’s Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine is willing to raise money to pay for a "redo" of both the Florida and Michigan primaries. Both states voted for Hillary Clinton. Corzine and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, [both strong Clinton supporters] have agreed to make the offer to help foot the bill for a redo. Rendell told NBC's “Meet The Press” Sunday that he and Corzine are writing a letter to the Washington Post offering to raise half of the estimated $30 million needed. A source close to Corzine confirmed on Friday to make the offer and...

Exposing the fundamental weak points in Dem electoral strategy!While both Hillary and Obama tear into each other, reminding voters why both are unqualified to serve as President of the United States, their various state primary victories are revealing a roadmap that the GOP can use to win in November, despite who the Democrat nominee is.Old School Dems vs. New LibsIt’s long been a fact that the Democrat Party is nothing more than a collection of special interest groups: unions, environmentalists, social activists etc. These folks don’t always play well together and the differences between them are becoming clearer as this...

It's not a pretty picture The Democrats are headed toward a mess that Republicans will love Sunday, March 09, 2008 By Jack Kelly, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Never before has a presidential nomination been determined by a do-over. This year there may be two. And they may not be enough to prevent a bloodbath at the Democratic convention in Denver in August. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's victories Tuesday in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island primaries mean the battle for the Democratic nomination will go on and on. But thanks to the Democratic Party's bizarre rules, she didn't gain much ground on Sen....

schle: First lady experience doesn’t count for Clinton By Aaron Blake Posted: 03/09/08 01:41 PM [ET] Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) on Sunday questioned Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (N.Y.) pitching of herself as the most experienced candidate in the Democratic presidential race, suggesting her years as first lady do not add much to her foreign policy credentials. Speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press, Daschle, a supporter of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), pointed out that Obama has served in elective office longer than Clinton and suggested her time as first lady does not have much relevance to the office...

March 9, 2008 The Clintons, a horror film that never endsAndrew Sullivan It’s alive! We thought it might be over but some of us never dared fully believe it. Last week was like one of those moments in a horror movie when the worst terror recedes, the screen goes blank and then reopens on green fields or a lover’s tender embrace. Drained but still naive audiences breathe a collective sigh of relief. The plot twists have all been resolved; the threat is gone; the quiet spreads. And then . . . Put your own movie analogy in here. Glenn Close...

The real message of Tuesday’s primaries is not that Hillary won. It’s that she didn’t win by enough. The race is over. The results are already clear. Obama will go to the Democratic Convention with a lead of between 100 and 200 elected delegates. The remaining question is: What will the superdelegates do then? But is that really a question? Will the leaders of the Democratic Party be complicit in its destruction? Will they really kindle a civil war by denying the nomination to the man who won the most elected delegates? No way. They well understand that to do...

Hillary Clinton's campaign is casting her not-entirely-disastrous showing in the Wyoming caucuses as a victory. Clinton's campaign manager Maggie Williams said, "We are thrilled with this near split in delegates and are grateful to the people of Wyoming for their support. Although the Obama campaign predicted victory in Wyoming weeks ago, we worked hard to present Senator Clinton’s vision to the caucus-goers and we thank them for turning out today." Waitasec... I thought victories in red states, small-population states and caucus states were irrelevant...? I guess losses there somehow rock the house?

WELCOME TO HILLARY'S PLANTATION

A prolonged race may inspire voter hoopla but could floor the party's chances once a nominee is finally selected.What if the coronation that is the 2008 Democratic National Convention turns cutthroat? Could a presidential primary race so energizing that it has brought record numbers of voters to the polls and will result in the nomination of a historic candidate end in disillusionment, anger and feelings of betrayal? Top Democrats are beginning to resign themselves to the chance the party won't know who will win the presidential nomination until after delegates take the floor of the Pepsi Center in August. That...

In a shadowy White House briefing room hung with maps of the Persian Gulf, Senator John McCain is meeting a perfidious cabal of spies and businessmen, including the international financier George Soros, to plot regime change in Iran. Watch: The cartoon aired on Iranian television "Our military presence no longer has the impact it used to have," grumbles a CIA official. "This can be seen in Iraq and Afghanistan. We need to find alternative methods." The CIA's covert operations in the Middle East have not, sadly, been opened to public scrutiny. The conversation was in fact featured in an animated...

Last month, Bill Clinton announced for the umpteenth time that he was ‘staying out of the spotlight’ and was not going to be an attention-soaking news whore (as per usual) out of respect for his wife’s presidential campaign. This week, for the umpteenth time, Slick Willie Clinton has gone against his own promise and become an attention-soaking news whore.....

March 9, 2008 Former Clinton administraton State Department official and current Obama foreign policy advisor Susan Rice regarding the Clinton campaign's red phone ad: “Clinton hasn’t had to answer the phone at three o’clock in the morning and yet she attacked Barack Obama for not being ready,'’ Ms. Rice said. “They’re both not ready to have that 3 a.m. phone call.”

If the Democrats have some form of "do over" election for Florida and/or Michigan, it presents a problem. Although it can be said that since the first election votes didn't count, voting again isn't actually voting twice in the primaries. However, particularly in Michigan, Kos and others were actively pushing Democrats to cross over to sabotage the Republican process. Democrats who did cross over ALLREADY had their votes counted in a valid election. Will they now be allowed to vote a second time? This would violate the rules of both parties and establish a precedent for being able to vote...

Not only will Clinton likely get nominated, but she'd be a better candidate, too. Barack Obama's electoral flaws manifested themselves this week as he lost primaries in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island. By now, others have told you how "unstoppable" Obama is enough times that you should know better. Obama had a monthlong string of victories in states tailor-made for his campaign. He had a month of the most fawning and deferential media coverage imaginable. He had a month of presumed inevitability that saw many otherwise serious people calling for Clinton to leave the race. He had a month in...

Pennsylvania, the biggest remaining state in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, should be a safe win for Hillary Clinton but experts say there are pockets of vulnerability for Barack Obama to exploit. more stories like this "If the election were held today it would probably be Senator Clinton by 10 points, but seven weeks in this crazy race, anything can happen," said Clay Richards, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. Victories in Ohio and Texas last week allowed Clinton to brush off talk of her imminent political demise. But she still lags the Illinois senator in...

Breaking news: religion of peace practitioners are still trying to kill us. It's been relatively quiet on the homefront since 9-11. The media and the "America-loving" Democrats have been utterly and completely focused on making us lose the war on terror we're currently fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Most of the nation seems to have forgotten why exactly it is we're fighting over there. Yes, it's for our freedom; yes, it's to build a stable Iraq, thus giving us a second ally in the Middle East; yes, it's about eradicating Al Qaeda. There was also that one other thing. On...

God gave man a soul, a powerful, instinctual moral and intellectual True North compass, something that completely differentiates us from all other living creatures. Respecting the gift of life and the power of responsible choice, man can pursue complete happiness while being a positive force for all things. When man experiences personal benefits from wrong choices at the expense of others and the environment, he has lost his soul. His misdeeds will eventually catch up with him. In the meantime, the majority of good people will be forced to perform damage control. That is the feeble and pathetic condition of...

Rasmussen Reports finds most voters said John McCain is the person they’d most want to answer the phone in the White House when a foreign policy crisis arrived. Which candidate would be best President to answer a foreign policy crisis call? John McCain - 42% Hillary Clinton - 25% Barack Obama - 25% This is why Hillary's "experience" argument makes no sense. Senator McCain is by far the most experienced candidate, and the voters know it: Among Republicans, 79% named McCain while neither Democrat reached double digits. Among unaffiliated voters, 39% said McCain would be their top choice to handle...

Hillary Clinton’s 3 a.m. ad may have (or may not) have helped her win in Ohio. But it’s also backfiring in some quarters. Comic Larry David titles a Huffington Post piece on the subject “Does Anyone Want This Nut Answering the Phone?” I started rooting for her. It wasn’t that hard. Compromise comes easy to me. I was on board. And then I saw the ad. I watched, transfixed, as she took the 3 a.m. call…and I was afraid…very afraid. Suddenly, I realized the last thing this country needs is that woman anywhere near a phone. I don’t care if...

There seems to be an inherent inconsistency in how radio host Rush Limbaugh is analyzing Hillary Clinton's chances for election.On his radio show, he is urging his listeners to vote for her in tomorrow's primaries. Limbaugh claims to be doing this because he thinks that the longer Clinton stays in the race, the more she'll damage Obama and the party, thereby increasing the chances of a Republican victory in November.This, however, is contradicted by his statements about how resilient a candidate Mrs. Clinton would be. For example, today he stated that "these Clintons are like cockroaches. They'll be the last...

Hillary Clinton came out of the Potomac Primaries in roughly the same position as Mike Huckabee: needing a miracle. Unless she wins the Texas and Ohio primaries next week nothing short of divine intervention will deliver the nomination to her. After losing eleven straight primaries (even Democrats abroad don’t like her) she is down to a final roll of the dice on March 4. Polls show her with a small lead in Ohio and essentially tied in Texas, but slipping fast in both must win states. This week she turned up the heat on Barack Obama in a final attempt...

An anonymous reader writes: "In your column ("Soaring Democrats could fall with the leaves," Feb. 17 ) you state, 'The total Republican (presidential primary) vote was down nearly 25 percent from Gov. Sonny Perdue's 2006 high-water mark.' You seem to hold that as a hopeful sign that the Democrat Party is somehow making a comeback in Georgia. That's wishful thinking on your part, but what this 25 percent difference no doubt really indicates is the magnitude of Republican voters who crossed over in the primary in order to cast a vote against Mrs. Clinton. "I was one of those ABC...

RUSH: I checked the e-mail during the break. A lot of people, "Rush, why are you feeling so bad about Hillary going down the tubes?" Well, because I really think I started this snowball heading down the mountainside. I think I started this avalanche. Take you back, it was the day before, maybe it was the day of, I'm not sure, but they had a debate in Philadelphia, Drexel University, and that day there was a story in New York Newsday about what a nuclear issue driver's licenses for illegal aliens was in New York, and how Mrs. Clinton hadn't...

There was an extraordinary development at a hearing today in Los Angeles Superior Court in the Paul v Clinton et al civil fraud case against Bill and Hillary Clinton, prosecuted by Hillary’s largest donor Peter Paul. When Judge Munoz finally allowed Paul to commence discovery after a three year “appellate” hiatus, Hillary Clinton’s attorney declared that none of Hillary Clinton’s lawyers would accept a deposition subpoena on Hillary’s behalf. Hillary will be dodging process servers while she is campaigning for President of the United States around the nation!! The sworn testimony Paul is entitled to take from Hillary as a...

It's Texas or bust for Hillary Rodham Clinton, hubby Bill admitted..... "If she wins Texas and Ohio, I think she will be the nominee. If you don't, then I don't think she can," he told a crowd in Beaumont. Reuters/Zogby showed Obama with a hefty national lead over Clinton, 52 to 38%.....Harold Ickes, one of her top advisers, acknowledged Obama is now the front-runner. FEC filings show Clinton raised $20M last month, to Obama's $36M. She has raised $118M during the campaign. Obama's aides say he's raised an eye-popping $150M this campaign cycle. Roger Salazar, president of Clinton's new 527...

The morning after is never pretty. In the wake of defeat in the Iowa caucus, it was a sad and sorry Team Hillary that assembled for a conference call with the candidate. Campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle, in transit back to Washington, was absent. Top strategist Mark Penn was dazed and subdued, waiting for the candidate to come on the line. When she did, Hillary gave a brief greeting making clear that there would be no navel-gazing and that she was ready to look ahead, according to a participant in the call who was already on the ground in New...

When Hillary Clinton said, way back in New Hampshire, that Vladimir Putin "doesn't have a soul," I figured that would be the sort of thing the Russian wouldn't be pleased about. But when I called the foreign ministry the next day for comment, it was Orthodox Christmas, and I let it slide. He was asked about the remark at his press conference yesterday, however, and indeed wasn't pleased. The former KGB lieutenant colonel appeared to lash out at U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton — a leading Democratic candidate for president — when one reporter quoted her as saying that former KGB...

Clinton gets 'Obama-ed' TRIBUNE-REVIEW By Salena Zito Hillary Clinton did not look back in the rearview mirror tonight after getting “Obama-ed” in the "Potomac Primary." Instead, she did what she does best: move on and move forward to the next contest. Kicking off in El Paso in what has now become the most important phase of the primary campaign, she hit the border at the same time her campaign became more marginalized by stinging defeats to Barack Obama in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia.