The Wall Street Journal reports that after Sen. Barack Obama's "race-relations speech this week," the remaining "fence-sitters" among the Democratic superdelegates are waiting to "see how their constituents react to his attempts to soothe racial tension." Superdelegates are "watching to see whether the senator's oratory will assuage white voters outraged at Internet videos showing the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. suggesting that America be damned for its treatment of blacks. Separately, many worry that black voters will be outraged by a sense that Sen. Obama is being unfairly judged."
The Washington Post reports the "question is which will last longer -- Obama's eloquent words about racial divisions and reconciliation or questions about his relationship with a man whose words have shocked the country." In his column in the Washington Post, Howard Kurtz says, "On the nightly newscasts and in the morning papers, many journalists did try to grapple with the complexity of Obama's Tuesday address about the roots of racial tension. But when the story hit the Cuisinart of talk-show debate, it got whipped into a single question: Did Obama adequately distance himself from the radioactive reverend? Not surprisingly, most liberals loved the speech and many conservatives -- though not all -- lambasted it."
Obama said on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, "In some ways, this controversy has actually shaken me up a little bit and gotten me back into remembering that the odds of me getting elected have always been lower than some of the other conventional candidates. And if I bring something to this conversation, it's going to be because I do what I did yesterday, which is hopefully open up a new conversation about a new direction in the country."
Republican Party officials, buoyed by the division in Democratic ranks over holding a do-over primary in Florida and new Sunshine State polls showing a surge of support for Sen. John McCain, are expressing new hope of winning the critical electoral-vote state in the fall, US News Political Bulletin hears. "Republicans are excited about McCain's prospects in Florida," said a GOP strategist on background. Republicans officials said that the Democratic fight and possibility that their delegates won't be seated at the convention in Denver is pushing voters their way. They also point to President Bush's $1.5 million take at two Republican National Committee fundraisers this week as evidence the state Republican Party is still strong. And GOP strategists today have been circulating two new polls of Florida voters showing a McCain victory over both Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
But McCain Draws Few Democrats The Miami Herald says McCain "has built a reputation of reaching across the aisle, but a new Miami Herald poll shows that most Florida Democrats aren't grabbing hold." Only "16 percent say they are likely to support the presumptive GOP nominee in November, according to the statewide survey of 600 Democrats."
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The AP reports that in a tour of the "war-battered town" of Sderot, Sen. John McCain "said Wednesday he understands Israel's tough response to Palestinian rocket fire, adding that there is no point in negotiating with the Gaza Strip's Islamic Hamas regime." While "billed as routine congressional business, the visit appeared to be aimed at burnishing McCain's leadership credentials and courting Jewish voters for the November election." The Washington Times reports McCain "expressed solidarity with the plight of local residents, and he backed Israel's right to retaliate."
NBC Nightly News reported, "McCain's visit to one of Judaism's most revered and usually solemn sights, the Wailing Wall, set off a commotion, a sign of intense interest in his visit. And the Iraq war was a focus during our interview." Sen. John McCain: "For nearly four years, we pursued a failed strategy. For the last year it has been a successful strategy."
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports Sen. Hillary Clinton "has extended her lead over Sen. Barack Obama among registered Democrats likely to vote in the Pennsylvania primary on April 22, a poll released today shows." Clinton leads Obama "by 16 percentage points -- 51 percent to 35 percent -- according to the Franklin & Marshall Poll conducted for the Tribune-Review, WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh and other news outlets."
The Washington Post /AP reports for "the first time in nearly six weeks, Hillary Rodham Clinton leads Barack Obama, 49 percent to 42 percent in daily tracking polling conducted this past Sunday to Tuesday." Her last lead was in the Feb. 7-9 polling, which was coming off the heels of her strong showing on Super Tuesday."
On its front page above the fold, under the headline "Clinton Facing Narrower Path to Nomination," the New York Times reports "Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton needs three breaks to wrest the Democratic presidential nomination from Senator Barack Obama in the view of her advisers." First, "She has to defeat Mr. Obama soundly in Pennsylvania next month to buttress her argument that she holds an advantage in big general election states." Second, she must lead "in the total popular vote after the primaries end." And finally, Clinton needs "some development to shake confidence in Mr. Obama so that superdelegates, Democratic Party leaders and elected officials who are free to decide which candidate to support overturn his lead among the pledged delegates from primaries and caucuses."
Clinton Pushes For Michigan Revote The New York Times reports, "With plans for new primaries in Florida and Michigan in limbo," Clinton "challenged...Obama on Wednesday to accept at least a new contest in Michigan, arguing that he should match his 'words with action' because a civil rights principle was at stake." The Washington Times reports Clinton's "campaign yesterday pointed to her rival's flattening poll numbers as evidence she has new momentum while she lobbied for a do-over primary in Michigan."
But the Grand Rapids Press reports, "Chances for a 'do-over' Michigan Democratic primary appear slim despite the urgent pleas today by New York Sen. Hillary Clinton." The Washington Post reports that Clinton's "decision to plant the flag in Michigan came amid ongoing wrangling between the Clinton campaign and state parties there and in Florida, another state with a disputed primary."
The Financial Times says Clinton warned that "the Democrats risked delivering voters to John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, if the party failed to give Michigan a voice in the nominating contest." McClatchy reports, "Trailing Democratic rival Barack Obama in delegates and running out of options, Hillary Clinton's campaign on Tuesday launched a two-pronged attack in Florida."
ABC World News reported that "the National Archives and the Clinton Presidential Library have released seventeen thousand pages of records today from Hillary Clinton's eight years as First Lady. They provide some insight into her activities on key dates during her husband's Administration. But do they say much about her qualification to be president?" ABC correspondent Brian Ross added, "In her campaign for president, Hillary Clinton has said her experience in the White House has equipped her for the 3:00am phone calls she talks about in her commercials. ... But the daily schedules released today of her time at the White House show many of her overseas trips were the standard first lady tourist fare, hospital visits and Blinis with caviar and lunch with prominent women on" a "1994 Russian trip with her husband."
The Washington Times reports that the documents show, among other things, that Hillary Clinton "helped her husband pass the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a deal she now routinely criticizes. The schedules show she held several meetings on NAFTA and health care, including one with her husband." The Wall Street Journal reports, "As first lady, Mrs. Clinton presided over meetings where Nafta was discussed, the schedules show. Her husband signed the accord."
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On the war's fifth anniversary, President Bush yesterday gave a speech defending the US military involvement in Iraq. Media coverage last night and this morning tends to cast a very skeptical eye on Bush's words. The CBS Evening News led its broadcast reporting, "The war in Iraq has just entered its sixth year with no end in sight, but despite the unpopularity of the war, despite the growing cost in lives and dollars," Bush "insisted today it was the right decision." On ABC World News, Bush was shown saying, "Five years into this battle, there's an understandable debate over whether the war was worth fighting, whether the fight is worth winning, and whether we can win it. The answers are clear to me, removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision. And this is a fight that America can and must win." After playing the same footage, NBC Nightly News asked, "But at what cost?" And the CBS Evening News went on to say "the true cost" of the war "isn't measured in dollars but in human lives. Lives lost and lives changed forever. Well over 3,000 American children have lost a mother or father in Iraq or Afghanistan."
On its front page, the Washington Post notes "Bush declared today that the United States is on the cusp of victory," in what amounted to "some of his boldest and most optimistic" rhetoric about Iraq "over the past two years." Bush's speech, adds the Post, "signaled a return to the optimistic rhetoric that the president and his aides had largely abandoned over the past two years as the war's violence increased and its popularity with the public plunged." Bush's speech "follows a series of similar assessments from Vice President Cheney, who said during a trip to Baghdad this week that the war had been 'a successful endeavor' that was 'well worth the effort.'" Moreover, in the interview with ABC's "Good Morning America," Cheney "compared the Bush administration to the government of Abraham Lincoln, who 'was willing to withstand the slings and arrows of the political wars' to win the Civil War." ABC World News last night played a snippet from Cheney's morning interview. One of the questions he faced was: "Don't you care what the American people think?"
McClatchy remarked on Bush's "rousing defense of the Iraq war," contrasting it to his "polite but restrained Pentagon audience." The President "refused to concede any setbacks in the war." The New York Times also says Bush "remained unwavering...in his insistence that the invasion of Iraq that began in March 2003 had made the world better and the United States safer," while the Los Angeles Times notes Bush acknowledged that "the gains made in Iraq 'are fragile and reversible,'" and "predicted 'tough fighting' in coming weeks in Mosul."
NYTimes Says Speech Was Shocking Under the headline "Mission Still Not Accomplished," the New York Times writes the war has provided "hard and very costly lessons" for the US, but "shockingly" Bush "seems to have learned none of them." Adds the Times, "All evidence to the contrary, Mr. Bush is still trying to make it seem as if Al Qaeda in Iraq was connected to the Al Qaeda that attacked America on Sept. 11, 2001. He tried to justify an unjustifiable war by ticking off benefits of deposing Saddam Hussein, but he somehow managed to forget the nonexistent weapons of mass destruction." Cheney "was equally deep in denial."
Poll: 49% Of Iraqis Now Support US Invasion. ABC World News reported, "We know from our new ABC News poll of Iraqis that today, 49% of the people in that country support the US invasion, up from 37% last summer. But the numbers hardly tell the story." ABC profiles three Iraqis as part of the piece, "three damaged survivors desperately seeking, like so many in Iraq, for a way to heal their country's wounds."
US News Political Bulletin has learned that Senate Democrats eager to reveal the divisions within the military and administration over the direction of the Iraq war are considering asking retired Adm. William Fallon, who quit as head of U.S. Central Command, to give his thoughts on the effort at an upcoming hearing. Under consideration by Democrats is having Fallon join Gen. David Petraeus, head of the war effort in Iraq, to testify this spring. Fallon announced plans to retire recently after reports flared that he had different views about how the war and region should be dealt with and that they clashed with those of President Bush and the Pentagon. The division was sparked by an Esquire article that portrayed Fallon as opposed to Bush's Iran policy. Meanwhile, military insiders tell the Bulletin that among those being considered for Fallon's post is Marine Gen. James Mattis, who commanded Marine Corps expeditions in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Washington Post reports now that the Federal Reserve "has pledged billions of dollars to rescue Wall Street bankers from possible default, lawmakers and regulators are turning their attention to helping average citizens -- from homeowners in danger of foreclosure to people who want to buy a home." But "unlike the Fed's rapid moves last week to stabilize financial markets, the consumer benefits are likely to progress slowly as they face resistance from the Bush administration on some broad issues and from special interests on some narrow ones." The House "plans to move within weeks to approve a multibillion-dollar program to prevent hundreds of thousands of home foreclosures." But the "outlook for the plan, the most ambitious of several proposals, is uncertain; President Bush continues to resist large-scale legislation to bail out homeowners in distress." Along similar lines, the Financial Times says that the "impression that" Bush "was out of touch with the economic challenges facing the US" has "hardened over recent weeks, as the president has repeatedly voiced confidence in the economy and dismissed calls for government intervention in the housing market, despite deepening financial turmoil and mounting fears of recession."
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Jay Leno: "According to a new CNN poll just out today, John McCain would win the presidential election if only beer drinkers voted. A Democrat, either Hillary or Barack, would win if only wine drinkers voted. But here's the interesting part: If we all got really drunk on tequila, Ralph Nader might actually have a shot."
Jay Leno: "Today marks the five-year anniversary of the war in Iraq, and President Bush said his decision to invade was 'remarkably effective.' Yeah, that's why we're still there after five years. Yeah, happy anniversary."
Jay Leno: "Bush also went on to say that Bear Stearns is just going through a tough time and victory's just around the corner."
Jay Leno: "Today, Barack Obama criticized John McCain for mistakenly saying that Iran was sending aid to Al Qaeda in Iraq, which is not true. And afterwards, President Bush told McCain, 'Don't worry about it. I didn't know that either.'"
David Letterman: "Are you folks excited about 'March Madness'? Here is how it works: We go from 65 to 32 then to 16 and then to eight and -- well, no, no, those are Hillary Clinton's superdelegates."
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