Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama addresses a primary campaign rally at the Toyota Center February 19, 2008 in Houston, Texas. Hillary Clinton licked her wounds Wednesday after her 10th successive electoral mauling by White House rival Obama, stressing experience over hype ahead of must-win battles in Texas and Ohio.
(AFP/GETTY IMAGES/Dave Einsel)
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., speaks at a rally Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2008, in Houston.
(AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)WASHINGTON - Barack Obama added Wisconsin and Hawaii to a primary season winning streak that now totals 10 and has put Hillary Rodham Clinton into a virtual must-win scenario in Democratic contests coming early next month in Texas and Ohio.
Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel laureate economist, speaks at La Defense during the World Business Districts Summit. Stiglitz declared himself "almost certain" Thursday that the next US president, whoever it turns out to be, will get tough on climate change.
(AFP/Pierre Verdy)"I don't want to be over confident, but I'm almost certain that the new president will come (through) on this issue," Stiglitz told a conference in Paris.
"All three of them are very committed to do something and it's a major change in the environmental landscape," he said, referring to White House hopefuls Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain.
Stiglitz, a 64-year-old winner of the Nobel economics prize in 2001 and a professor at Columbia University in New York, said he would be backing a Democrat, although he acknowledged climate change was also a big issue for McCain, the Republican Party's likely nominee.
"I'm going to support a Democrat candidate: the policies of the two candidates are not different, there are differences between their personalities but despite intense debates, in many ways they are very close," he said.
"McCain is very concerned too. He was on this issue when it was not a major issue," he added.
Stiglitz, known for his outspokenness and criticism of globalization, is also a former chief economist at the World Bank who resigned in 1999 after accusing rich countries of not doing enough to help the poor.
Republican presidential hopeful, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., left, shakes hands with Mitt Romney during a news conference in Boston, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2008, where Romney announced his endorsement of McCain.
(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)By Andy Sullivan 24 minutes ago
BOSTON (Reuters) - Former Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney endorsed erstwhile rival John McCain on Thursday and urged Republicans to unite behind him in a gesture that could help McCain with disgruntled conservatives.
In the Democratic race, Sen. Hillary Clinton scored a much-needed victory in New Mexico and accused surging opponent Barack Obama of lacking substance and experience as she fought for political traction in Ohio after a string of losses.
After a rough campaign battle between them to be the party's nominee in November's election, Romney offered conciliatory words to McCain a week after dropping out of the race, calling him an American hero.
"Even when the contest was close and our disagreements were debated, the caliber of the man was apparent," Romney said with McCain at his side. "This is a man capable of leading our country at a dangerous hour."
Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) arrives to greet supporters outside the Bangor Auditorium before a campaign rally in Bangor, Maine February 9, 2008.
(Carlos Barria/Reuters)
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., arrives for a news conference Wednesday, Feb 6, 2008, in Chicago. After his primaries and caucuses wins in 13 states in the biggest Super Tuesday primary election day in U.S. history, Obama dug in Wednesday for an extended battle for the Democratic presidential nomination.
(AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., arrives for a press conference Wednesday, Feb 6, 2008, in Chicago.
(AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., addresses the media at her national headquarters Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2008, in Arlington, Va. Clinton and Democratic presidential rival Barack Obama dug in Wednesday for an extended battle for the Democratic presidential nomination after splitting wins Tuesday in the biggest primary day in U.S. history.
(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)DENVER - Democrat John Edwards is exiting the presidential race Wednesday, ending a scrappy underdog bid in which he steered his rivals toward progressive ideals while grappling with family hardship that roused voters' sympathies, The Associated Press has learned.
MIAMI - Sen. John McCain won a breakthrough triumph in the Florida primary Tuesday night, seizing the upper hand in the Republican presidential race ahead of next week's coast-to-coast contests and lining up a quick endorsement from soon-to-be dropout Rudy Giuliani.
MIAMI - John McCain edged ahead of Mitt Romney in the Florida primary Tuesday night, a battle for the biggest delegate prize to date as well as precious campaign momentum heading into next week's competition across more than 20 states.
In this Jan. 23, 2007, file photo, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., left, and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. watch President Bush's State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington. Kennedy will endorse Obama for president, party officials confirmed on Sunday, Jan. 27, 2008.
(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama (D-IL) greets a kitchen worker during his visit to Harper's Restaurant in Columbia, South Carolina, January 26, 2008, the day of South Carolina's Presidential Primary.
(Jason Reed/Reuters)By CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press Writer
MACON, Ga. - Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts will endorse Senate colleague Barack Obama for president, party officials confirmed Sunday.
The endorsement will be announced Monday in Washington, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak for the record. An official close to the senator said the announcement will be made during an Obama campaign rally at American University, where he will be joined by Sen. Kennedy and his niece, Caroline Kennedy, who also has endorsed Obama.In a television interview Sunday, Obama would not answer questions about an endorsement from Kennedy.
Supporters for Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., celebrate his win in the South Carolina primary in Columbia, S.C., Saturday, Jan. 26, 2008.
(AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
Supporter Evelyn Golden of Atlanta, Georgia waits for Democratic presidential candidate US Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) at his South Carolina primary night rally in Columbia, South Carolina, January 26, 2008. REUTERS/Joshua Lott (UNITED STATES) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008
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Supporters of Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., celebrate his South Carolina primary victory over Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. and former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C. during a rally in Columbia, S.C., Saturday, Jan. 26, 2008.
(AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
By DAVID ESPO and CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press Writers
COLUMBIA, S.C. - Barack Obama routed Hillary Rodham Clinton in the racially charged South Carolina primary Saturday night, regaining campaign momentum in the prelude to a Feb. 5 coast-to-coast competition for more than 1,600 Democratic National Convention delegates.
"The choice in this election is not about regions or religions or genders," Obama said at a boisterous victory rally. "It's not about rich versus poor, young versus old and it's not about black versus white. It's about the past versus the future."The audience chanted "Race doesn't matter" as it awaited Obama to make his appearance after rolling up 55 percent of the vote in a three-way race.
But it did, in a primary that shattered turnout records.
Associated Press
NEW YORK - Scarlett Johansson returned from the Persian Gulf with a whole lot of soldiers' trinkets and a delusion of her own engagement ƒƒ‚‚ to Barack Obama.
"I am engaged ... to Barack Obama," Johansson joked in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday. "My heart belongs to Barack, and that is who I am currently, finally, engaged to. Yes."
Johansson, who showed her support for the Democratic presidential candidate at the Iowa caucus earlier this month, was really just deflecting a question about rumors she might be engaged (to actor-beau Ryan Reynolds).
The 23-year-old actress talked about the warm welcome she received while visiting troops stationed in the Persian Gulf last week. Johansson dropped by U.S. bases in Kuwait on Jan. 17 and Jan. 18 as part of a USO tour in which she met about 3,500 men and women in uniform.
"Everybody that I met there was so incredibly friendly and polite and genuine and generous," she said. "They were so, so sweet. I mean, I was just amazed."
Johansson said some people ripped patches off their jackets as gifts and handed her challenge coins from their military units. One Marine offered up his St. Christopher medal. Another starstruck guy gushed: "You made my whole deployment!"
Johansson has a full plate for 2008, with the release of films including "The Other Boleyn Girl" and "He's Just Not That Into You," as well as the arrival of her debut album on May 20.
The disc, called "Anywhere I Lay My Head," features Tom Waits cover songs and one original track. "It was a really, really sort of inspired process to make this CD, and it was something I'd never done before," said Johansson, who said the album has a dreamy, ethereal quality.
On a far more serious note: Johansson was still speechless Thursday over the death of fellow actor Heath Ledger, who was found dead Tuesday in his Manhattan apartment.
"I'm really just so very shocked," she said. "He was an incredibly sweet, kindhearted and enthusiastic person. And, you know, he loved his daughter ƒƒ‚‚ I mean, that was like the light of his life. It's just a terrible loss."
US presidential hopeful John McCain greets people during a campaign visit to Miami. Republicans were campaigning full-bore in Florida, which on January 29 will stage a four-way fight between new front-runner McCain, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney and Rudolph Giuliani
(AFP/Getty Images/Joe Raedle)By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent
BOCA RATON, Fla. - For Republican presidential contenders John McCain and Mitt Romney, Thursday's debate presented a chance to step out smartly in the struggle for victory in next week's Florida primary.
For Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee, it represented perhaps a last, best hope to shake up a statewide — and national — campaign that appears to be slowly leaving them behind.
Rep. Ron Paul, a libertarian-leaning Texan with a vocal following, also had a spot on the stage for the prime-time debate, broadcast on MSNBC, five days before the primary.
The Florida primary offers 57 Republican National Convention delegates to the winner. It is the first big state to vote in the nominating campaign, the first winner-take-all contest in terms of delegates, and the final election before a virtual national primary on Feb. 5.
The five contenders shared a stage as polls suggested Romney and McCain were co-frontrunners in the state. Both the former Massachusetts governor and the Arizona senator are campaigning aggressively and have sparred periodically over the economy and tax cuts.
Giuliani and Huckabee were well behind in the same surveys, and struggling.
Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, has little money and has campaigned sporadically so far. He has not yet begun to advertise on television in the state.
Giuliani, the former New York mayor broke off campaigning earlier this week to fly to his homestate briefly for fundraising. After abandoning a string of earlier states, he has spent two weeks campaigning in Florida, a state that amounts to a virtual must-win territory for him.
By The Associated Press
THE RACE: The presidential race for Democrats and Republicans in New York.
THE NUMBERS - DEMOCRATS
Hillary Rodham Clinton, 51 percent
Barack Obama, 25 percent
John Edwards, 11 percent
___
THE NUMBERS - REPUBLICANS
John McCain, 30 percent
Rudy Giuliani, 30 percent
Mitt Romney, 9 percent
Mike Huckabee, 8 percent
Fred Thompson, 8 percent
___
OF INTEREST:
The third poll released in two days finds McCain has pulled even with Giuliani in the former New York mayor's home state. Two polls on Monday had McCain leading by as much as 12 percent. Seventy-one percent of Giuliani's backers say they are "not too likely" or "not likely at all" to change their minds before the Feb. 5 primary. McCain gets that kind of loyalty from 46 percent.
Obama was the pick of 45 percent of the likely primary voters who are black, compared to 37 percent for Clinton. The senator from New York captured 54 percent of the women's vote, compared to 20 percent for Obama. Clinton's lead among men narrows somewhat, 47 percent to 32 percent for Obama, an Illinois senator.
___
The Quinnipiac University Polling Institute poll was conducted by phone from Jan. 14 to Jan 21. On the Republican side, it involved interviews with 331 likely primary voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus 5.4 percent. It also polled 544 likely Democratic primary voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.2 percent.
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. - Democratic presidential rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama accused each other of repeatedly and deliberately distorting the truth for political gain Monday night in a highly personal, finger-wagging debate that ranged from the war in Iraq to Bill Clinton's role in the campaign.
Moments later, Clinton said that she was fighting against misguided Republican policies "when you were practicing law and representing your contributor ... in his slum landlord business in inner city Chicago."
Obama seemed particularly irritated at the former president, whom he accused in absentia of uttering a series of distortions to aid his wife's presidential effort.
"I'm here. He's not," she snapped.
"Well, I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes," Obama countered.
The two rivals, joined by former Sen. John Edwards, debated at close quarters five days before the South Carolina primary — and 15 days before the equivalent of a nationwide primary across 20 states that will go a long way toward settling the battle for the party's nomination.
I'm The Winner.... From left Democratic presidential hopefuls, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., stand on the stage prior to a Democratic debate sponsored by CNN and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Monday, Jan. 21, 2008.
(AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain)
I'll Win... US Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) (left) welcomes US Democratic presidential candidates Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) (center) and Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) to the CNN/Congressional Black Caucus Institute Democratic Party presidential debate at the Palace Theatre in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina January 21, 2008.
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (UNITED STATES) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008
We'll See Who'll get the Hot Seat in United States... From left, Democratic presidential hopefuls Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., participate in a Democratic presidential debate in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Monday, Jan. 21, 2008. At right is CNN's Wolf Blitzer.
(AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain)
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., center, links arms with Rev. Raphael Warnock, left, and associate pastor Shanan Jones as they sing 'We Shall Overcome' during a church service at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Sunday, Jan. 20, 2008, in Atlanta.
(AP Photo/John Bazemore)
US Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) speaks at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, January 20, 2008. REUTERS/Tami Chappell (UNITED STATES) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008
(USA)
US Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), (R), speaks at Ebenezer Baptist Church as senior pastor Reverend Raphael Warnock listens in Atlanta, Georgia, January 20, 2008. REUTERS/Tami Chappell (UNITED STATES) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008
(USA)By Adam Tanner Sat Jan 19, 5:21 PM ET
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Amid plenty of shouting and confusion, Nevada voters expressed a preference on Saturday for Republican Mitt Romney and Democrat Hillary Clinton in an U.S. election process as quirky as Las Vegas itself.
Clinton, her husband former President Bill Clinton, and her rival Sen. Barack Obama made morning visits to casino workers in a final push for votes in the gambling capital, one of the world's best-known tourist destinations.
Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, headed to Florida, which holds the next Republican nominating contest on January 29.
Democrats and Republicans in Nevada, a state famous for gambling, easy divorce and America's only legalized prostitution, voted in nominating contests to choose candidates for the November presidential election.
For the Democratic contest, nine of Las Vegas's best-known casino hotels hosted balloting. At the upscale Wynn Hotel, several hundred workers divided themselves into groups supporting either Clinton or Obama, with many shouting out their support or booing rivals.
"It's a little crazy," said Sidrit Mulaj, an Albanian-born Clinton supporter.
Some nightclub employees stayed up all night; others were confused about the process and arrived too late.
One worker fretted as she had to stay longer than her hour-long lunch break. "They can't really fire me for this can they?" asked Tracy Ferguson, 44, a Clinton supporter who raced out of the room after the vote.
UNION IMPACT UNCERTAIN
The casino voting had been expected to boost Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, because casino workers are largely represented by a union that endorsed him.
But at the Wynn Hotel, Clinton edged out Obama by 185 to 181 after the first count, in what was clearly a split union.
Among Republicans, Romney and longshot candidate Rep. Ron Paul of Texas made the biggest effort in Nevada, where their party's voting drew less attention because of a Republican primary contest in South Carolina on the same day.
"We're going to make it loud and clear here in Nevada, hopefully across the country, that we want change in Washington," Romney said. Nearly 7 percent of Nevadans share Romney's Mormon faith.
As in Iowa earlier this month, the Nevada decisions were reached by dividing into small groups backing particular candidates, rather than the direct voting used in most other states. Republicans did not vote on the famed Las Vegas Strip, but only at schools and more traditional sites.
Supporters of Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) encourage supporters of former Senator John Edwards to come to their side at the Democratic caucus at Luxor hotel and casino in Las Vegas January 19, 2008.
(Rick Wilking/Reuters)
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., visits employees at the Mirage Casino Hotel before the start of the Nevada caucus in Las Vegas, Saturday, Jan. 19, 2008.
(AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) meets with Culinary Workers Union members in the kitchen area of the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas January 19, 2008. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith (UNITED STATES) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008
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