Entries for February 2008

Senior Democratic strategists, many of whom had previously panned talk of a Clinton-Obama or Obama-Clinton ticket, are now talking up the idea of a ticket headed by Barack Obama with Hillary Clinton as his running mate.

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are pointing to record fundraising totals in February as evidence of the health of their respective presidential campaigns. Clinton announced on Thursday that her campaign raised $35 million in February—her best month so far. Obama has yet to release figures, but a spokesperson says his fundraising total will surpass that of his rival.

After a weeklong foray into the Kurdish region of Iraq, Turkish forces have now withdrawn and returned into the country's interior. The incursion, which reportedly killed at least 300 Kurds, was designed to target members of the Kurdistan Workers Party, which is fighting for an autonomous state and has recently launched attacks in the southern parts of Turkey.

Britain's Prince Harry, who had been serving in near secrecy with a British army unit in southwestern Afghanistan since mid-December, was pulled from the region today by the country's defense ministry after news of his presence was leaked this week by the Drudge Report.

The Committee for Justice, the conservative group that was instrumental in promoting the Supreme Court nominations of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, took aim this morning at Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama for comments he made during the justices' confirmation debates.

Taliban fighters in Afghanistan have managed to increase the number of their attacks every year since 2002, according to U.S. military figures. In 2007 alone, violence jumped 33 percent over the previous year. Part of that was because of a rise in suicide bombings, but small-arms attacks were up 47 percent.

Fuhgedaboudit. That's the official verdict this morning from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg about the possibility of a third-party presidential run. In an op-ed in the New York Times, Bloomberg writes: "I listened carefully to those who encouraged me to run, but I am not — and will not be -- a candidate for president. I have watched this campaign unfold, and I am hopeful that the current campaigns can rise to the challenge by offering truly independent leadership."

Hillary Clinton is expected to unveil a new multibillion-dollar child poverty plan at a speech today in Ohio. The plan will call for new initiatives to improve child nutrition, especially in schools, and will seek to cut the number of children living in poverty — currently 12 million — in half by 2020.

One more grim figure to add to the festering pile of economic bad news: In a new report, the Commerce Department finds that the U.S. economy was nearly stagnant at the end of last year. From October to December, the GDP rose just 0.6 percent, down from a rise of 4.9 percent in the previous three-month period.

Just days from its official fifth birthday on March 1, the Department of Homeland Security is crowing about its successes in establishing tighter security to thwart terrorism.

The Department of Homeland Security, currently building real and virtual fences on the nation's southern border, won't give in to local lawsuits or complaints from landowners because protecting the nation is a larger responsibility than protecting a landowner's property, according to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.