Wed, January 23, 2008 - 12:05 PM

A note to members of Congress – Don’t be surprised if you see some familiar faces from back home walking around town.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors is holding its winter meeting today through Friday in Washington.

The conference will present an award tonight to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg for his leadership on global climate protection.

Bloomberg has said he is not a candidate for president. But there has been endless speculation about the possibility that he may launch an Independent candidacy for the White House.

No presidential candidates are scheduled to speak before the mayors. But who knows? Maybe Bloomberg will have something interesting to say to his fellow mayors tonight …

-- Amy Dominello

While you may not be able to see some of your favorite TV stars in anything but reruns these days, America Ferrera, of ABC’s hit “Ugly Betty,” stars in a new show on-line.

She won’t be winning any awards for this performance. It’s a pure campaign video for Hillary Clinton.

Ferrera, who endorsed Clinton for president earlier this month, is now featured on the campaign’s Web site.

The clip shows the award-winning actress speaking to a crowd, going door-to-door and talking “casually” while riding around Nevada in a van with Chelsea Clinton.

--Neil H. Simon

TAMPA -- Norman Schwarzkopf, the retired U.S. Army four-star general also known as "Stormin' Norman," has issued a statement today endorsing John McCain in the GOP presidential race.

Schwarzkopf, who lives in Avilla, Fla., notrth of Tampa, was the Commander-in-Chief of U.S. Central Command and also commander of the Coalition Forces in the Gulf War of 1991. Florida holds its primary on Tuesday.

"Senator John McCain has served our country with honor in war and in peace. He has demonstrated the type of courageous leadership our country sorely needs at this time. For that reason, he has my complete support."

-- Billy House

Tue, January 22, 2008 - 4:20 PM

Maybe he waited too long to get in. Maybe he seemed too aloof on major policy issues. Maybe Fred Thompson did not want it bad enough.

None of it matters now. The former Republican senator from Tennessee is out of the 2008 White House race.

“He was strong coming out of the gate, stumbled in the first turn, caught stride in December or January in South Carolina, but it was just a little late,” said Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., an early Thompson endorser.

Wamp and Thompson were elected on the same ballot in 1994. Wamp, in his Knoxville-based district, had a common political bond with Thompson. Both count themselves as constitutional conservatives with independent streaks. Now Wamp is not sure whom he will support for the nomination.

“I’m not going to support anybody today or tomorrow,” Wamp said. “With any of these big three [John McCain, Mike Huckabee, or Mitt Romney], if they win the nomination, Fred Thompson would add a whole lot to that ticket.”

Rep. David Davis, R-Tenn., another home state Thompson endorser, said he planned to wait until at least after the February 5 primaries to endorse anybody else, and he urged Thompson to do the same.

“If Fred were to ask his supporters to vote for John McCain, I’m not sure they would,” Davis said. “They’re going to wait for who is the most conservative candidate.”

Wamp conceded Thompson’s delay entering the race may have hurt him the most.

“He is not a political animal,” Wamp said. “And that may have been his problem.”

A Florida congressman is asking presidential candidates to comment in writing on whether they will support his national catastrophe bill to addess the skyrocketing homeowners' insurance costs in hurricane-prone areas, such as his state.

Boca Raton Democrat Ron Klein's effort to get all on-the-record comments from the Republicans and Democrats about the issue comes in the final week before Tuesday's Florida presidential primaries.

Klein’s measure, co-sponsored with fellow Florida Democratic Rep. Tim Mahoney, has already pass the House with bipartisan support. It would establish a catastrophe bond consortium, a lender of last resort facility, to expnad private industry's ability to provide such coverage and help states to better manage the risk.

In his letter to the candidates, Klein writes: “It is with this in mind that I ask whether you, as president, would commit to support the Homeowners' Defense Act. I am enclosing a copy for your review and comment.”

“I hope that your response, and the response of all candidates who have received this letter, both Democrat and Republican, will help to move this vital issue forward,” he adds.

Klein also writes that “with residents of Florida and other catastrophe-prone states struggling with skyrocketing insurance premiums, while at the same time dealing with the housing crisis and a declining economy, it is important that we come together to establish a solution that will provide homeowners with much-needed relief."

Several of the candidates already have stated public positions on the bill. Among Democrats, Hillary Clinton is a co-sponsor of a Senate version of the measure with Florida’s Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson. Barack Obama’s campaign has said he also would support such a measure.

Republican candidates Mitt Romney have said they will look into establishing such a fund, with Giuliani appointing a study panel to do so. John McCain has said that he would oppose such a measure.

-- Billy House

Fred Thompson has just dropped out of the presidential race.

Here's a statement put out by his campaign:

"Today I have withdrawn my candidacy for President of the United States. I hope that my country and my party have benefited from our having made this effort. Jeri (Thompson's wife) and I will always be grateful for the encouragement and friendship of so many wonderful people."

More details to come on the impact of this on the Republican primary contests.

-- Billy House

Like everybody else this morning, Mitt Romney was bracing for a rocky ride on Wall Street. Speaking in Boca Raton to the Republican Jewish Coalition of Florida as the financial markets opened -- and before word spread of the Federal Reserve's 3/4-point rate cut -- the wealthy presidential candidate said that, based on the overnight news from overseas markets, "My guess is our market is hitting the circuit brakers or will soon."

Romney said his investments are in a blind trust because of his candidacy, and he said he hoped he'd still have investments when the day ends. If he had access, Romney said, he'd take a few minutes and then ask himself, is this a buying opportunity?

He said his personal experience has proved that when it looks like stocks are "going down forever" is exactly the time they come back -- and that's the time to buy. He said that may be true for the financial sector now.

Romney also said the economy needs help from Washington. The United States faces unprecedented economic challenges from China, India and Russia.

While he didn't mention a rate cute, he said "The key point is to act. Perfection should not be the enemy of the good."

-- Marsha Mercer

Mon, January 21, 2008 - 8:02 PM

REFRESH THIS PAGE FOR THE LATEST UPDATES. NEWEST ENTRIES ON TOP.



***

And I'm off to the spin room. Good night, folks.

***

Last question. Blitzer asks all three candidates if Martin Luther King were alive today why he would endorse them.

Edwards says poverty and equality -- which he says are the two most important planks of his campaign -- were MLK's main issues.

Obama says King would not endorse anyone.

Clinton doesn't really answer the question, but she says she'll do whatever she can to make his legacy a reality.

***

Which candidate is best suited to beat a Republican in November. All three candidates say polls show that they are the one who can beat Sen. John McCain. They seem a little more certain that McCain will win the GOP nomination than, I'm guessing, McCain himself.

Clinton makes the argument that if the GOP candidate runs a nasty campaign, her years of battles with the GOP in the 90s have prepared her to win.
"If it's a classic Repulblican campaign, I've been there, done that."

***

Edwards turns to Hillary and asks if she will commit not to have corporate lobbyists working in her White House. Hillary says she'll get the best people for her White House.

Edwards: "Is that a no?"

Hillary: I don't know. Then she suggests that Edwards is being hypocritical attacking her for taking money from special interest groups like oil companies and drug companies while he has taken "tens of millions of dollars" from trial lawyers.

Edwards: that's not the same thing. Those guys expect me to stand up to the little guys, he says, and fight for jury trials. Drug companies expect you to do things that hurt middle class people, he says.

***

I don't know what those red chairs the candidates are sitting in are made of, but they are having an extremely calming effect on this debate. Perhaps they are massage chairs. Whatever they are, the tone has softened.

The issue turns to race, and the discussion that follows is one of the most thoughtful takes I've heard since the color and sex of the candidates became the dominant issue in this race over the last two weeks.

Obama starts. He says the focus on race in the campaign is largely because of the media's focus on the issue. When he talks with voters, he suggests, they don't care about color and gender as much as issues like lack of healthcare and poverty. "I'm convinced that people, white, black, latino, and asian want to move beyond our divisions."

He says he understands why the media is doing it, though. “In a race where you have an African-American, a woman," and here he paused for a beat and added, "John." And the audience busts up laughing. Edwards looks a bit miffed, though. Obama goes on: "There's no doubt it's peaked interest."

***

Next question, to Obama: "Do you think Bill Clinton was our first black president?"

Obama: well, um, I think, um, Bill Clinton does have an enormous affinity within the African-American community. He goes on to say that he's been inspired -- "this I'm serious about" he says before continuing; so, um, he, hasn't been serious about the other stuff he's said -- by young men (alluding to Edwards and Bill Clinton) who grew up in racially segregated southern states and fought for equality. "Bill Clinton embodies that, and I think he deserves credit for that," he says. But as to the question of his blackness? Obama punts. "I would have to investigate ... Bill's dancing capabilities, and some of this other stuff, before I can accurately judge whether or not he was a brother."

Big laughs. Clinton pipes up. "Well, I'm sure that can be arranged."

A private dance by Bill Clinton for Obama? Let's all pray that makes its way to YouTube.

The lovefest continues. "This campaign is obviously an incredible opportunity for so many people to become involved with making history. You have a son of the South, an African-American, a woman. What better way to celebrate the legacy of Dr. King than to look at this stage here tonight," Clinton says.

(Can someone explain to me why electing a white male from the South qualifies as historic? Somewhere, Jimmy Carter is confused).

***

And we're starting off too a fairly polite start. Clinton is smiling broadly at Obama. Edwards is laughing and joking.

Rep. Jim Clyburn, the dean of African-American pols in South Carolina, repeatedly called this week for a calm, civil debate. That's not what we got in the first half.

I have to wonder if Clyburn took the candidates backstage during the break and told them to cool it.

***

And we're back. I've had a bit of experience with liveblog, and I have to say, this is the toughest event to liveblog. So much crosstalk, so many fights, so many distortions. It makes for good television, but it's tough to sort the true from the false here.

And the candidates are sitting in chairs now. For some reason.

***

On Iraq, Edwards stakes a claim to the most dovish Democrat in the race on Iraq, saying he will pull all combat troops out within a year. He says, coyly, that he hasn't heard everything the other two have said about the war, so he wants to know whether they would make the same to commitment. Obviously, he knows their position.

Obama and Clinton both say they want to get troops out as fast as possible, but want to be cautious about doing it correctly, and do not take a firm position.

And we're finally at a commercial break.

Blitzer: "When we come back, we're going to discuss the issues in this campaign."

And more attacks, probably.

***
And Edwards keeps up the double team on Obama. He charges that only he and Clinton have plans that will offer truly universal health care, criticizing Obama's plan as not going far enough.

Any theories as to why Edwards is going so strongly after Obama? Comment below.

***

In past debates, it's been Edwards and Obama teaming up against Clinton. This time, we appear to be in the midst of a Clinton-Edwards double team against Obama. And Obama's looking a bit flustered.

It starts with Obama explaining his vote against a bill that would have capped credit card rates at 30 percent. Obama says he voted against it because he thought 30 percent was too high.

Edwards: wait a second. So, he says, a 30 percent cap is better than no cap at all? Edwards is going after Obama hard here, and scoring some points.

And just as Obama tries to recover, Clinton hits him back, saying it's hard to have a debate with him, because "you never take responsibility for any vote." She brings up the 130 times Obama voted "present" -- as opposed to up or down -- on bills in the Illinois legislature. "He voted on keeping sex shops away from schools. He voted present on limiting the rights of victims of sexual abuse...it's hard to get a straight answer" on why he did that, she says.

Obama: I voted 4,000 times in the legislature, and you are picking out ones that put me in the worst possible light. He tries to explain the present votes, saying that things work differently in Illinois. The answer is pretty confusing, though, and I'm guessing people at home are scratching their heads.

Edwards does not let up. He turns to Obama and demands to know why he voted present on all these votes. "What if I had just not shown up to vote on things that matter to this country?" Edwards asks Obama.

Whew. And Blitzer steps in, with a question on health care.

***

Blitzer comes back to the Clinton crack about a slum lord, asking Obama to respond. Obama suggests that Clinton was overemphasizing his involvement with the legal work for that slum lord. I'm not sure what to make of this. Here's a piece from the Chicago Sun-Times on the topic.

***

And the gloves come off. And Blitzer didn't even have to bait them into a fight. Whew. The attacks are coming so fast and furious, I can barely keep up.

Obama starts by going after President Clinton, saying the former prez was distorting his record on opposition to the Iraq war and a recent statement Obama made about Ronald Reagan.

They debate back and forth, then Obama levels a devastating line, saying he was organizing community activists in Chicago while "you were a corporate lawyer sitting on the board of Wal-Mart."

Clinton: "We're just getting warmed up."

Then she charges that Obama, as a lawyer, represented slumlords.

Folks, it is getting NASTY.

Blitzer, playing the role of an overwhelmed boxing ref at this point, turns to Edwards to stop the bleeding. Edwards: "Are there three people in this debate, not two?"

Edwards scores a point with his response: "This kind of squabbling, how many kids are going to get health care because of this...I respect both of my fellow candidates, but this is not about us personally, it's about what we're trying to do with our country."

He starts in on an answer, going on a bit, and Blitzer tries to cut him off: "Now let me finish, lord knows you let them go on long enough."

And he does finish. Edwards, getting back to earnest policy discussion, seems to have toned this debate down.

***

And NAFTA comes up, something many working class voters here blame for hastening the decline of the manufacturing industry in the state. Edwards attacks Clinton for saying in the past that NAFTA had positive benefits. Obama comes back hard at Edwards. "John, you voted for permanent trade relations with China," he says, pointing out, correctly, that the growth of manufacturing in that country, and trade deals, hurt many domestic manufacturing industries.

Edwards snaps back, pointing out that his dad, a former mill worker, is sitting in the audience. "No one needs to explain to me what these trade deals have done to South Carolina and North Carolina," he says.

***

The first question is about the sagging economy, which voters have identified as their top issue in this race. Clinton says a stimulus package should include a $650 tax refund. And immediately, Obama starts by contrasting himself with Clinton, suggesting that she is a latecomer to this idea of tax breaks. Edwards does not favor a stimulus package that includes tax rebates, and calls for a package that would pay for long term "green infrastructure" leading to long term growth.

Interesting take. While not all economists agree that stimulus packages do anything to help the economy, those who do say it's more important to inject money into the system right away, not in the long term.

***

You're looking LIVE at the inside of a Phillip's Seafood restaurant in Myrtle Beach. For some reason, that's where the organizers of tonight's Democratic debate in Myrtle Beach decided to stick the press, even though the debate is taking place approximately 130 miles away at the Palace Theatre, across the street. Okay, it's only a half mile, but it feels that far away.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards have just taken the stage. CNN Moderator Wolf Blitzer and his team -- the over-under on how many times Wolf Blitzer will throw out his trademark "Best Political Team on Television" is 37, so place your bets -- are laying out the ground rules. No buzzers, no timers, Blitzer says. We'll see how quickly this gets out of control. Today, the candidates we're all positive at a Martin Luther King day event in Columbia, but this race has gotten increasingly nasty over the last few days. Will the candidates play nice tonight?

And here we go...the first question is about the economy.

TAMPA -- Barack Obama’s presidential campaign says the Illinois senator is not violating a pledge to boycott campaigning in Florida, despite buying national cable-TV ads that are also running in that state.

But Hillary Clinton's campaign is crying foul over a new 60-second national cable-TV ads, running on CNN and spotted in Tampa and other Florida markets today.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign has issued a statement asserting the ads violate the pledge taken by Democratic candidates not to campaign in states that have violated the party’s primary calendar rules.

Florida violated those rules so by moving its primary date up to Jan. 29, angering traditional early primary states like South Carolina.

“There is no question that these ads are a clear and blatant violation of the early-state pledge that Senator Obama and the other leading Democratic candidates signed last year,” the Clinton campaign said in the statement.

The statement noted that, “among the list of prohibited activities are ‘electronic advertising that reaches a significant percentage of the voters in the aforementioned state’.”

The Clinton campaign also pointed out that, according to Nielsen, there are 6.6 million TV households in Florida that receive CNN through either local cable systems or satellite dishes. This represents 92 percent of all Florida TV households

“The Obama campaign knows this, but has chosen to violate the pledge regardless, the statement says.

But the Obama campaign responded that it had received advice from a surprising source that the cable-TV commercials would not be a violation.

“Both national cable networks told us it would be impossible for us to run advertising nationally that excluded only Florida,” said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

“For that reason we consulted with the South Carolina Democratic Party Chair Carol Fowler who told us unequivocally she did not consider this to be in violation of pledge made to the early states,” said Burton.

Will this cause the candidate boycott of Florida' primary to unravel in the next days? Stay tuned.

-- Billy House

The Jefferson-Jackson Dinner will be a hot ticket for Democrats in Georgia.

The state’s Democratic Party just confirmed John Edwards will attend the Jan. 30 dinner. Hillary Clinton is already committed to attending the $250-a-plate annual dinner as well.

The event, at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, is less than a week before Georgia’s primary on Feb. 5.

Can Barack Obama be far behind?

--Amy Dominello

Democratic Rep. Rick Boucher announced his endorsement of Barack Obama today, saying the senator from Illinois has the broadest appeal in the race for the presidency.

Boucher, D-9th, said Obama inspires hope in a way that can attract independents and Republicans like no other Democrat.

“I represent a rural district of 27 counties and cities in southwestern Virginia. George Bush received 60 percent of the vote in my district in 2004,” Boucher said in a statement. “I believe Senator Obama can carry it in 2008, and no other Democratic candidate can.”

--Neil Simon

Former President Bill Clinton “needs to chill a little bit," Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C. says.

Clyburn, who has not endorsed in the Democratic presidential contest, said in a CNN interview this morning that Bill Clinton should dial back his involvement in the primary battle.

Clyburn’s statement came after Barack Obama, speaking on ABC, said Bill Clinton has “taken his advocacy on behalf of his wife to a level that I think is pretty troubling.”

Bill Clinton had labeled Obama’s claim to have opposed the Iraq war from the start a “fairy tale” and added on other attacks since Iowa’s caucuses that have made the former president emerge as the attack dog for his wife’s campaign.

Clyburn, the house majority whip, and the leading voice of African-American democrats in South Carolina, said “[Bill Clinton] is revered in the African-American community. He can afford to tone it down.”

Without making a solid prediction for which candidate his state’s Democrats would support on Saturday, Clyburn called South Carolina’s black voters “more mature” than other states and offered this analysis: “Older African-Americans will reluctantly decide based on the record. The younger voters will break toward Obama.”

The Real Clear Politics average of recent polls shows Obama leading Hillary Clinton 43 percent to 32 percent, with 14 percent of likely voters favoring John Edwards.

--Neil H. Simon

We're liveblogging via Blackberry from the Martin Luther King day rally at the statehouse in Columbia, S.C.

All three candidates were supposed to be here this morning, but the event has started and only former Sen. John Edwards and Sen. Barack Obama are here. No sign of Sen. Hillary Clinton. It's freezing here, so maybe she's inside keeping warm.

Edwards and Obama are smiling, looking very friendly, standing close together. Could this be a preview of the general election if Obama (or less likely, Edwards) wins? Perhaps we're getting ahead of ourselves.

Before the rally, there was a march here from Zion Baptist Church a few blocks away. Only Obama marched, and it was chaos. For some reason, there is intense media interest in an African-American candidate marching on MLK day. Who knew? (Sarcasm alert).

Secret service agents, cops with bullhorns, and march organizers shouted at, jostled and generally pushed past reporters struggling to get close to Obama. I saw one cameraman from a Japanese TV station fall down and get trampled.

Anyway, Edwards, Obama and Clinton (if she gets here) are scheduled to speak soon. This is obviously an important day for African-American voters in the state (and whites, too). They are expected to account for half of all voters on Saturday, so every candidate here is looking for their votes.

Oh, and there's Clinton now.

More soon.

--Sean Mussenden

Nevada holds another lesson for us today when it comes to the politics of ethnicity.

Heading into caucuses there, Barack Obama held a prized endorsement of the heavily Latino casino workers union. But Hispanics strongly broke for Clinton on Saturday, according to CNN entrance polls.

Why? Hispanic voting expert Adam J. Segal points to confusion among the rank and file union members.

Segal, who runs the Hispanic Voter Project and The 2050 Group, a public relations firm with an ethnic marketing focus, was at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas in the final days before the caucus. Talking to one of the head groundskeepers, a Mexican-American with dual citizenship, Segal learned that many of the workers had been given cues weeks ago that the union would endorse Clinton.

Then, after Obama won Iowa, Segal says, the union leaders seemed to do a 180 to endorse Obama. Due to the earlier hints of a Clinton endorsement, Segal says the official endorsement could have seemed soft or backfired, as it may have looked like the union simply jumped on a frontrunner-of-the-moment bandwagon.

But there is another reason that Hispanic voters, who will play major roles in Florida and California in the coming weeks, went to Clinton by more than 60 percent.

Simply put, it is relationships. No matter how many people may vote for a candidate who looks like them or a candidate their union endorsed, it is hard to trump true-blue friendships that go beyond political IOUs.

After her Nevada victory, Clinton’s strength with big name Hispanics was front and center in Las Vegas’ Spanish-language newspaper, El Tiempo. There she was with her husband’s former housing secretary Henry Cisneros and her not so new friend, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, among other notable Hispanic leaders.

Viallaraigosa told the New Yorker magazine in early 2007, “I’m very much a relationship person. What kind of people they are is important to me. I make a lot of decisions from the heart. If you want to be president of the United States, you have to appeal to the heart.” The same profile mentioned the LA mayor was surprised by how much Clinton knew about him during their first encounter.

Now among blacks, it’s a different story. Obama won 83 percent of the black vote in Nevada, according to CNN entrance polls. And African-Americans will very much decide who wins the Democrats next contest in South Carolina.

--Neil H. Simon

Sun, January 20, 2008 - 11:19 AM

So, those polls that showed John Edwards poised for a strong showing in Nevada? Whoops.

Edwards was trounced in Nevada, failing to pick up significant support from union members that largely split between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Earlier in the week, polls there showed Edwards locked into a tight, three-way race with the two front-runners.

He ended up with four percent. It appears that a quirk of the Nevada democratic caucus rules ended up making his showing there appear worse. In entrance polls – interviews with voters as they headed into caucus sites – about nine percent of voters said they would vote for Edwards.

After the first round of voting at the caucus sites, Nevada Democratic Party “viability” rules say that if a candidate did not get a certain amount of votes – the threshold varies – then that candidate’s supporters must abandon their candidate and join groups supporting another group – in this case, Clinton or Obama.

Still, even nine percent is worse than polls heading into Nevada predicted Edwards would do. Unless he pulls of a big upset in South Carolina on Saturday, it’s likely he will face more questions about his continuation in the race.

--Sean Mussenden