Politics

July 3, 2008

Conservative evangelicals discuss backing McCain

Conservative evangelical leaders met privately this week to discuss putting aside their misgivings about John McCain and coalescing around the Republican's presidential bid while urging him to consider social conservative favorite Mike Huckabee as a running mate.

About 90 of the movement's leading activists gathered Tuesday night in Denver for a meeting convened by Mathew Staver, who heads the Florida-based legal advocacy group Liberty Counsel.

Many evangelical leaders backed other GOP candidates early on and remain wary of McCain's commitment to their causes and his previous criticisms of movement leaders. But with the presidential field now set, many evangelical leaders are taking a more pragmatic view, realizing also that the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, is making a strong play for evangelical voters and talking freely about his faith.

"Our shared core values compel us to unite and choose the presidential candidate that best advances those values," said Staver, who previously backed Huckabee's bid. "That obvious choice is Sen. John McCain. I think people left the meeting in unity the likes of which have not been evident through the primaries."

The group also agreed to sign a letter urging the McCain campaign to consider Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and Southern Baptist minister, as his vice presidential choice, said another participant, Phil Burress. Burress, who heads an Ohio group that helped pass an anti-gay marriage measure in that state in 2004, was among a group of conservative Christian leaders who met with McCain last week.

Burress characterized the Huckabee overture as a "suggestion, not a demand."

"This is a man you don't threaten," Burress said of McCain. "His principles are his principles. The last thing you want to do is try to force him to do something he doesn't want to do because he'd probably do the opposite."

Burress said that while Huckabee is a favorite of Christian conservatives, the most important thing is that McCain's running mate be "pro-life and pro-family." Huckabee isn't a favorite of all evangelical leaders, either; some dislike his populist message, emphasis on the environment and economic positions.

The leaders meeting in Denver included Phyllis Schlafly, head of the Eagle Forum; "Left Behind" co-author Tim LaHaye and his wife, Beverly, founder of Concerned Women for America; David Barton, founder of WallBuilders; Rick Scarborough of Vision America; and Don Hodel, a former interior secretary and former president of Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family, according to Staver.

James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family and a fan of neither McCain nor Obama, did not attend. Dobson has been in California working on a new book, aides have said.

Time magazine first reported on the meeting on its Web site Wednesday.

Staver said the result will be more leaders "energizing their base" and targeted efforts in battleground states and states with anti-gay marriage ballot initiatives this fall such as Florida and California.

"Obama is a considerable threat to our values," Staver said. "At the same time, Sen. McCain recently has been reaching out to evangelicals and conservative voters that we represent."

Even so, Burress said that at this point, conservative Christians are motivated more out of opposition to Obama than enthusiasm for McCain.

"People are not saying, 'Let's all go out and support John McCain,'" Burress said. "It's more like, 'We have to do what we have to do for our country.' Basically, that boiled down to John McCain."

Although McCain opposes abortion rights, his support for embryonic stem cell research and opposition to a federal amendment prohibiting gay marriage clashes with the widely held social conservative view.

Obama this week called for expanding White House efforts to steer social service dollars to religious groups, and he has developed campaign events targeting religious voters. But the Democrat's support for abortion rights and gay rights calls into question how many evangelical votes he can win.

"The only evangelicals that will support Obama are the ones who haven't read their Bible," Burress said. "The more and more we learn about Obama, the closer and closer we get to McCain."

"We have agreed," he said, "that we'll be working hard the next few months."

(This version CORRECTS a word in quote to 'few months,' not 'two months.')

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ERIC GORSKI - AP | Thursday, July 3, 2008

 

The 'mushy middle' hard to reach for Obama, McCain

WASHINGTON (AP) - They're the most fickle voters, and potentially the most powerful. Thus, with party nominations secure, John McCain and Barack Obama now are pushing toward the center to win them over.

Meet the "mushy middle," a complex chunk of people likely to decide the presidential election but difficult to reach and hard to please.

"Yes, we can!" isn't floating their boat. Nothing much is, from either candidate.

They aren't uniformly conservative or liberal, and they don't fit strict Republican or Democratic orthodoxy. They aren't typically engaged in politics, and they don't much care about the campaign. And like so many others, they are extraordinarily pessimistic.

"To me, it's not about the party, it's about who is the best person for the job," says Pam Robinett, 47, from Wellington, Kan., who always votes. Then again, "they'll all lie, cheat and steal to get what they want."

Talk about a tough sell.

"The country's going to go to hell in a handbasket with this election," seethes James Nauman, 55, from Lutz, Fla. "I don't think Obama's qualified and McCain's another Bush. Neither of them really have impressed me."

Both will try.

A recent AP-Yahoo News poll finds that 15 percent call themselves moderates and aren't solidly supporting a candidate. More than half of this still-persuadable middle is made up of independents.

"The center always matters," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center. "It matters more this year. Both candidates were nominated because they appealed to independents and moderates, so how these voters make a choice between Obama and McCain will be even more decisive."

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For now, at least, the race is competitive and the rivals' bases are mostly intact.

The survey, conducted by Knowledge Networks, found that three in four Republicans and three in four conservatives are backing McCain, while Obama has nearly identical support among Democrats and liberals.

So, both are tacking away from their party's ideological ends to appeal to this unpredictable swath in between.

McCain is moving away from the unpopular President Bush if not from the Republican Party itself. He emphasizes bipartisanship while pressing two issues that resonate strongly with voters of all stripes.

He "stood up to the president and sounded the alarm on global warming," one McCain commercial says. Another promotes a "bipartisan plan to lower prices at the pump, reduce dependence on foreign oil through domestic drilling and champion energy alternatives."

Obama, for his part, broke from the left by backing new rules for the government's terrorist eavesdropping program, straddling a Supreme Court ruling striking down a gun ban and objecting to the justices' decision outlawing executions of child rapists. He even quoted conservative hero Ronald Reagan's "trust but verify" line in reacting to North Korea's latest agreement on nuclear weapons.

His leadoff campaign commercial cast him as the embodiment of the center and pitched family values, patriotism, "welfare to work" and lower taxes. It stressed "love of country" and "working hard without making excuses" - echoes of Bill Clinton.

McCain naturally may be better positioned to capture more of the middle; he came out of the GOP's center to dispatch liberal Rudy Giuliani on his left and conservative Mitt Romney and Christian evangelical Mike Huckabee on his right. Obama emerged from the party's left to topple the more centrist Hillary Rodham Clinton.

However, Obama and McCain both won their nominations with the support of independents, moderates and crossovers from the opposite party.

Some 39 percent of voters called themselves Democratic, 29 percent Republican, and 32 percent independent in the June 13-23 survey, part of an ongoing study tracking opinions of the same group of people over the election cycle. The overall margin of sampling error was plus or minus 2.3 percentage points.

That Democratic edge suggests Obama may be less dependent on votes in the middle than McCain.

Still, the likeliest path to the White House cuts through the center of the electorate.

"They're the kingmakers in American politics," said Matt Bennett, a Democratic operative at the centrist Third Way policy group. "They're the people who decide elections."

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Who exactly are these power-wielding voters?

They look much like the general population. They reflect the same frustration with the status quo. A significant majority has a low opinion of Bush and Congress. They have more favorable impressions of Democrats than Republicans. Many are feeling the economic pinch. They want troops to return from Iraq as soon as possible.

Like the broad electorate, they rank gas prices and the economy as their top concerns, followed by health care, Social Security, taxes and education. Terrorism and Iraq are lower.

But there are important differences.

Compared with far-right and far-left voters, this group tends to be more Hispanic, more Catholic than the left and more secular than the right. They are more likely to be married with children and live in far-flung suburbs or rural areas. They also tend to be less educated.

They are not nearly as motivated as those who identify with political parties or ideologies. Fewer are registered to vote.

"These are the most disengaged voters," said Ron Shaiko, a public policy specialist at Dartmouth College. "There's a point at which they're going to engage, and it's not clear who will win when they do."

Nearly half view McCain favorably, while slightly more than a third see Obama positively. Still, the candidates are little-known to a quarter, and many have little enthusiasm for either.

"I like McCain more because I'm concerned about Obama. I question his judgments," says Tony Miller, 39 and a left-leaning moderate from Springfield, Ill. Conversely, Susan Carroll, 43, a moderate Democrat from Garrettsville, Ohio, says Obama's "the better choice" because "I honestly think that McCain is anti-woman."

This voting group's views cross some of the usual lines.

For instance, they overwhelmingly favor abortion rights and legal rights for same-sex couples, typically Democratic and liberal positions. But they also overwhelmingly say cutting taxes should be a high priority, typically a Republican and conservative refrain.

These voters say they are far less interested in cultural issues and far more interested in bread-and-butter subjects like health care and Social Security.

"All are a few points from the ideological center of the country, and they tend to be fiscally conservative and socially tolerant," said Greg Strimple, a Republican pollster in New York.

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Take Jan Thomas.

"I'm liberal in some areas and I'm conservative in others," says the undecided moderate from Stevensville, Mont., who is 69 and shuns party labels.

Unlike the GOP, she supports abortion rights and declares "to each his own" on gay marriage. Splitting from the Democrats, she objects to "big government," costly entitlement programs that "lead to dependency" and universal health care proposals "that mean higher taxes."

She's unsettled about both candidates.

Obama's "inexperience and his voting record on gun control" bug her; she owns two handguns, a shotgun and a rifle and is still "a pretty good shot." She doesn't like McCain's "vacillating" or stances on the environment and comprehensive immigration reform. "I do not believe in global warming," she says. And "we've got to secure our borders."

David Donovan, 31, a GOP-leaning independent from Crystal River, Fla., also is "not exactly thrilled with either of them."

McCain on foreign policy "just doesn't make a lot of sense," but Obama's "abundance of gun control" irks this gun owner, as does the Democrats' education platform. And, he says, "I think taxes suck."

Not that he has time to follow the campaign closely; Donovan travels 150 miles roundtrip to build bridges for 14 hours a day. The commute costs his one-income household $50 in tolls and $220 in fuel each week. He and his wife haven't had health care coverage for two years. She's on disability after seven mild strokes. Her student loan debt is growing.

"There are some days where I'd vote for Mickey Mouse for president," Donovan said. "It's got to be better than this."

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Associated Press Director of Surveys Trevor Tompson and AP News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.

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LIZ SIDOTI - AP | Thursday, July 3, 2008

 

June 24, 2008

McCain veep helper is discreet lawyer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The choice for John McCain's running mate is such a mystery that few people even know who is helping in that search.

The Republican is leaning on a consummate behind-the-scenes player in Washington - attorney Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr. - for this maximum-discretion, minimal-disclosure assignment. In Culvahouse, a one-time White House counsel to President Reagan, McCain gets someone whose work mostly has been so obscure that he likely isn't recognized outside Washington's Beltway.

Culvahouse has been involved in vetting people for positions at all levels of government for three decades, roles he's gotten partly because of his reputation for under-the-radar maneuvering.

McCain has turned to him in recent weeks as he sorts through a list of some 20 or more would-be No. 2s - not that you'd know it. The Arizona senator, like every nominee-in-waiting, is demanding privacy and trying to keep the search under wraps, including the involvement of the man who goes by A.B.

McCain's advisers, the few in the know, are under strict orders not to even discuss the search. McCain, at times, has violated his own rule, including mentioning he wanted to consult with Culvahouse and disclosing he had a preliminary names list.

When word leaked that three potentials - former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist - were invited to McCain's estate Arizona for Memorial Day weekend, aides were furious and insisted it was a social affair.

Democrat Barack Obama, too, has advocated a private process but, so far, it's been fairly public. Obama, for example, announced that a former Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign manager would be chief of staff to his yet-to-be-chosen running mate.

Obama also named his search committee shortly after clinching the nomination - Jim Johnson, the former chairman of Fannie Mae (FNM), Eric Holder, a former deputy attorney general, and Caroline Kennedy. Within days, the committee went to Capitol Hill to consult with Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Under fire from Republicans and McCain, Johnson abruptly resigned after The Wall Street Journal reported he got home mortgages with help from the CEO of Countrywide Financial Corp. (CFC) Holder, too, has faced a barrage of GOP attacks; he was the former Justice Department official who vetted President Clinton's oft-criticized 2001 pardon of financier Marc Rich.

The third member of Obama's team has a larger-than-life name as the daughter of former President Kennedy.

Conversely, Culvahouse's role in McCain's search has been largely shrouded in secrecy.

McCain aides won't confirm his position, but it's an open secret in GOP circles that while McCain and campaign manager Rick Davis are running the show, Culvahouse is closely involved the process.

"From my understanding, he has been asked to take a look at the potential candidates for vice president, look at their background," said former Sen. Howard Baker of Tennessee, for whom Culvahouse was a top aide in the 1970s.

Baker called Culvahouse the perfect choice for such an assignment, saying: "He's smart. He's discreet. He doesn't seek out the press and a forum. He knows the system here in town; he's worked in it and understand it. He has no discernible ax to grind, and those things together make him enormously qualified and capable."

And, Baker said, he's not prone to leaking names: "You ain't going to get it from him, and that's one of his endearing qualities."

Aside from working for Baker, Culvahouse's other high-profile political post was as Reagan's counsel for nearly two years in the 1980s. During that time, Culvahouse vetted an estimated 200 nominees for various positions, including Robert Bork and Anthony Kennedy for the Supreme Court and Alan Greenspan for Federal Reserve chairman. He also advised the president on a range of matters, including the Iran-Contra investigations.

These days, Culvahouse, 59, is the chairman of O'Melveny & Myers, an international law firm where he has worked since 1976, save for a few years in the 1980s. His biography posted on his firm's Web site says he also has an "active corporate governance, internal investigations and compliance, and strategic counseling practice." Among his clients: the International Olympic Committee in the scandal surrounding the Salt Lake City games and Ford Motor Co. (F) in the Firestone tire investigations.

Lobbying is not listed as part of his role, and Republicans familiar with his work say that he isn't a lobbyist by trade and does not have a lobbying practice. Senate records show he was registered to lobby on behalf of Fannie Mae and Lockheed Martin in a couple of instances several years ago but his allies say those were rare occasions and he hasn't done any work requiring him to register with the Senate in five years. They call it "a stretch" to describe Culvahouse as a lobbyist, a description Democrats use for him.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton has called it "the height of hypocrisy" for McCain to choose someone to help him who had been registered to lobby for government-sponsored mortgage lender Fannie Mae, where Johnson was CEO, and whose firm's clients have included ExxonMobil Corp. and former Enron Corp. CEO Jeffrey Skilling.

A George W. Bush donor in 2000 and 2004, Culvahouse was in McCain's camp during the 2008 primary.

"John McCain is the only candidate who can rally the Reagan coalition of conservatives, independents and conservative Democrats needed to defeat the Democratic nominee," Culvahouse told The Washington Times in January. He praised McCain as like Reagan, saying that McCain is "motivated by obligation" and "sees government service as an honor and a privilege."

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Liz Sidoti - AP | Tuesday, June 24, 2008

 

McCain adviser apologizes for September 11 comment

FRESNO, California (Reuters) - A top adviser to Republican presidential candidate John McCain apologized on Monday after he was quoted as saying a September 11-type attack before the November election would benefit McCain.

The campaign of Democrat Barack Obama condemned the remark by McCain political adviser Charlie Black, calling it a "complete disgrace."

"I deeply regret the comments, they were inappropriate," Black said in a statement after McCain said that if Black had made such a comment, "I strenuously disagree" with it.

"I recognize that John McCain has devoted his entire adult life to protecting his country and placing its security before every other consideration," said Black, one of McCain's most trusted political advisers.

Fortune magazine said Black, in discussing how national security was McCain's strong suit, had said when asked about another terrorist attack on U.S. soil that "certainly it would be a big advantage to him."

Black's comment to Fortune was a distraction for McCain as he seeks to catch up to Obama in the polls, where Obama leads by about 6 percentage points.

"The fact that John McCain's top adviser says that a terrorist attack on American soil would be a 'big advantage' for their political campaign is a complete disgrace, and is exactly the kind of politics that needs to change," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said.

Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John Kerry, who lost to President George W. Bush in the 2004 election based largely on who would make the country safer, said Black's comment smacked of "the worst of the Rove-Bush fear playbook," a reference to Bush's former political adviser, Karl Rove.

A McCain campaign official said Black did not remember making the particular comment to Fortune but did not dispute the characterization.

The official said Black was speaking in the context that any day on the campaign trail that the theme was national security, was a good day for McCain.

McCain, asked about the magazine article at a news conference, distanced himself from the comment.

"I cannot imagine why he would say it. It's not true," McCain said, adding he had worked hard since the September 11 attack to prevent another such attack. (Additional reporting by Deborah Charles and Caren Bohan; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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Steve Holland - Reuters | Tuesday, June 24, 2008

 

June 22, 2008

The Other Bill Clinton

Not all the world hates the United States. Countries that make up the former Soviet empire have a great love of America, thanks to the U.S. commitment to ensuring their freedom and helping them join the EU and NATO. And in sub-Saharan Africa, the U.S.'s approval ratings are even stronger, including countries with mostly Muslim populations. In fact, George W. Bush's approval ratings on the continent are staggeringly high because of his commitment to AIDS and malaria funding, which has saved millions of lives.

Says who? Says none other than former President Bill Clinton, in a lecture at the legendary Radio City Music Hall in New York on Tuesday.

It wasn't a night of nonpartisanship, of course. Mr. Clinton railed against global-warming skeptics and those who would drill in the Arctic. He blamed Republican economic policies for growing inequality in the U.S. and compared American society – in which the richest 1% control 42% of the wealth – to South American dictatorships.

Nonetheless, Mr. Clinton's tone in general suggested his finger-wagging behavior on the campaign trail does not carry over when speaking in his capacity as elder statesman and philanthropist. Then, he's all about policy and problem solving. Also missing was any hint of the isolationism and protectionism that were his party's stock in trade during the recent primary race.

"Divorce from the rest of the world is not an option," Mr. Clinton said, generating awkward laughs from the audience. He was referring to his own party's antitrade posturing as much as Mr. Bush's refusal to sign the Kyoto climate treaty. Though frustratingly silent on Nafta, a signature achievement of his administration that recently was criticized on the campaign trail by another candidate named Clinton, Mr. Clinton did speak at length about the African Growth and Opportunity Act.

That law, which he signed in 2000, allows certain sub-Saharan countries – those that improve their labor laws and move toward a market-based economy – to export goods to America duty-free. The act, says Mr. Clinton, created hundreds of thousands of jobs and lifted hundreds of thousands of African families out of dire poverty. Hmmm. If free trade works for Africans, is Mr. Clinton saying it can work for others?

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Wall Street Journal | Sunday, June 22, 2008

 

Obama in fundraising free fall

Democrat Barack Obama raised $22 million in May for his presidential campaign, his weakest fundraising month this year, and ended the month with $43 million cash on hand, while former rival Hillary Rodham Clinton sank deeper in debt.

Obama, who has been the fundraising leader throughout the presidential contest, entered June on virtually the same financial footing as Republican rival John McCain — a level of parity that would have been unimaginable just a few months ago.

Details of the candidates' May fundraising, filed Friday in reports to the Federal Election Commission, came a day after Obama announced he would become the first major party candidate to forgo public financing in the general election. McCain has said he will accept the public funds, which will limit him to spending about $85 million from September until Election Day in November.

McCain raised $21 million in May and ended the month with $31.6 million in the bank. Of Obama's cash on hand, $10 million is available only for the general election, leaving him with about $33 million to use between now and the party conventions in late summer. Obama reported debts of $304,000; McCain had debts of $1.3 million.

Obama's decision to forgo public funds permits him to use leftover primary money in the general election. McCain cannot.

Clinton, who bowed out of the Democratic contest on June 7, reported a $22.5 million debt at the end of May, more than half of which came from personal loans to her presidential campaign. The former first lady lent her campaign nearly $2.2 million during the month, bringing her total personal investment in the campaign to $12.175 million. She had $3.4 million cash on hand left for primary
spending. She also had more than $23 million for the general election, money her campaign cannot use to pay off her debts.

Clinton campaigned actively through the last Democratic primaries on June 3 before succumbing to Obama and is expected to have even greater debt at the end of this month. In a call to
donors on Thursday, she said she would concentrate on paying off money owed to vendors, not her personal loans.

Obama reported spending $26.6 million in May. His heaviest spending was on advertising — he spent more than $4 million buying time for television commercials. Clinton reported total disbursements of $19.2 million for the month.

The two Democrats traded primary victories during the month but Obama continued to build his delegate advantage. He secured the nomination June 3, winning that day's Montana primary but losing to Clinton in South Dakota.

Obama's decision to forgo public money in the general election gives greater significance to his efforts to capitalize on Clinton's support for the general election. Her donors would be a
rich vein to tap.

First, however, Clinton needs substantial help retiring her debt. Many of her loyal donors have already contributed the maximum to her campaign, so she needs some new sources of money. That's
where Obama comes in — his donors help her out, her donors help him.

"It's far more productive for Obama to have Hillary 100 percent focused and engaged on campaigning and raising money for him in the fall rather than having to do fundraisers at the same time to
retire her debt," said Hassan Nemazee, a Clinton national finance chairman.

"It would clearly make life easier for those of us in the Clinton world who would like to help Senator Obama raise the types of moneys that are necessary from the Clinton world to be in a position to point out, 'Look what Senator Obama has done for Senator Clinton."'

Clinton and Obama will meet with her top fundraisers next Thursday in Washington, then both will campaign together Friday.

Obama said he is expecting McCain to have significant help from the Republican Party and from outside groups.

So far, though, few conservative outside groups have stepped into the presidential election and those that have have spent little money. In a news conference Friday, Obama defended his decision to go outside the public financing system.

"There are a lot of outside groups that are potentially going to be going after us hard," he said. He also pointed out that McCain advisers have made a point of featuring the RNC's financial advantage.

"So you know, this isn't speculative on my part," he said. "I think it's something that we've seen in the past and it's something that we continue to be concerned about."

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AP | Sunday, June 22, 2008

 

Mugabe's rival Tsvangirai pulls out of election

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of a run-off election against President Robert Mugabe on Sunday, saying a free and fair poll was impossible in the current climate of violence.

Speaking only hours after his opposition Movement for Democratic Change reported its rally had been broken up by pro-Mugabe youth militia, Tsvangirai called on the United Nations and the African Union to intervene to stop "genocide" in the former British colony.

"We in the MDC have resolved that we will no longer participate in this violent, illegitimate sham of an election process," he told reporters in Harare.

The MDC and Tsvangirai, who beat Mugabe in a March 29 vote but failed to win the absolute majority needed to avoid a second ballot, have repeatedly accused government security forces and militia of intimidation and strong-arm tactics to ensure a Mugabe victory in the June 27 poll.

Tsvangirai repeated this on Sunday, saying there was a state-sponsored plot to keep the 84-year-old Mugabe in power.

"We in the MDC cannot ask them (the voters) to cast their vote on June 27, when that vote could cost them their lives," he said.

Tsvangirai, who himself had been detained by police five times while campaigning, said 86 MDC supporters had been killed and 200,000 displaced from their homes.

Mugabe has repeatedly vowed never to turn over power to the opposition, which he brands a puppet of Britain and the United States.

Mugabe, who has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980, has blamed the political violence on the opposition and denies security forces have been responsible for brutal actions.

The veteran leader has presided over a ruinous slide in a once prosperous economy. Millions have fled the political and economic crisis to neighboring states.

The MDC earlier said that thousands of youth militia loyal to Mugabe poured into an MDC rally in Harare on Sunday armed with iron bars and sticks, beating journalists and forcing election observers to flee.

Police had banned the rally, which was to be the highlight of Tsvangirai's stormy election campaign, but a high court in Harare overturned the police ban on Saturday.

INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE

Tsvangirai said he won the March vote outright and only reluctantly agreed to a run-off. The state-run media has refused to run the opposition's political ads and police have blocked some of its rallies.

Tendai Biti, a top MDC official and lieutenant to Tsvangirai, is in custody on a treason charge and other offences that carry a possible death penalty. A magistrate has ordered him held until at least July 7.

There is, however, pressure on Mugabe's government to put an end to the violence.

A growing chorus of African leaders added their voices to concerns that the election will be illegitimate.

Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, a longtime Mugabe ally, on Friday urged the Zimbabwean leader to allow the election to proceed in a spirit of tolerance and with respect to democratic norms.

(Writing by Paul Simao; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

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Nelson Banya - Reuters | Sunday, June 22, 2008

 

June 18, 2008

Obama rebukes McCain camp on terrorism criticism

WASHINGTON (AP) - A defiant Barack Obama said Tuesday he would take no lectures from Republicans on which candidate would keep the U.S. safer, a sharp rebuke to John McCain's aides who said the Democrat had a naive, Sept. 10 mind-set toward terrorism.

"These are the same guys who helped to engineer the distraction of the war in Iraq at a time when we could have pinned down the people who actually committed 9/11," the presumed nominee told reporters aboard his campaign plane. "This is the same kind of fear-mongering that got us into Iraq ... and it's exactly that failed foreign policy I want to reverse."

The debate between the rival camps echoed the 2004 presidential campaign in which President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and other Republicans argued that Democratic nominee John Kerry was soft on terror, a claim that resonated with voters and helped propel Bush to re-election. Democrats complained that the GOP was using the politics of fear.

The Republican argument proved less effective in 2006 when then Bush adviser Karl Rove said the Democrats had a pre-Sept. 11 view of the world and Republicans had a post-Sept. 11 terror attacks perspective. In November of that year, Democrats captured enough congressional seats to seize control of the House and Senate.

On his campaign plane, Obama told reporters that Osama bin Laden is still at large in part because Bush's strategy toward fighting terror has not succeeded.

At issue were comments Obama made in an interview with ABC News Monday in which he spoke approvingly of the successful prosecution and imprisonment of those responsible for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Obama was asked how he could be sure the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policies are not crucial to protecting U.S. citizens.

Obama said the government can crack down on terrorists "within the constraints of our Constitution." He mentioned the indefinite detention of Guantanamo Bay detainees, contrasting their treatment with the prosecution of the 1993 World Trade Center bombings.

"And, you know, let's take the example of Guantanamo," Obama said. "What we know is that, in previous terrorist attacks - for example, the first attack against the World Trade Center - we were able to arrest those responsible, put them on trial. They are currently in U.S. prisons, incapacitated.

"And the fact that the administration has not tried to do that has created a situation where not only have we never actually put many of these folks on trial, but we have destroyed our credibility when it comes to rule of law all around the world, and given a huge boost to terrorist recruitment in countries that say, 'Look, this is how the United States treats Muslims. ...

"We could have done the exact same thing, but done it in a way that was consistent with our laws," Obama said.

Obama agreed with the Supreme Court ruling last week that detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have a constitutional right to challenge their indefinite imprisonment in U.S. civilian courts. McCain derided the ruling as "one of the worst decisions in the history of this country."

McCain aides criticized Obama for talking about using the criminal justice system to prosecute terrorists.

"Senator Obama is a perfect manifestation a September 10th mind-set ... He does not understand the nature of the enemies we face," McCain national security director Randy Scheunemann told reporters on a conference call.

Former CIA Director James Woolsey, who is advising the McCain campaign, concurred, saying Obama has "an extremely dangerous and extremely naive approach toward terrorism ... and toward dealing with prisoners captured overseas who have been engaged in terrorist attacks against the United States."

The Obama campaign countered with its own conference call in which Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Richard Clarke, a counterterrorism official in Republican and Democratic administrations, argued the McCain campaign was emulating Rove.

"I'm a little disgusted by the attempts of some of my friends on the McCain campaign to use the same old, tired tactics ... to drive a wedge between Americans for partisan advantage and to frankly frighten Americans," Clarke said.

Kerry accused McCain of "defending a policy that is indefensible" by siding with Bush's policies, particularly with respect to the Iraq war.

Obama said Republicans could be counted on to do "what they've done every election cycle, which is to use terrorism as club to make the American people afraid to win elections." He said he didn't think it would work this time.

Republicans criticized Obama last year when he said the United States should act on intelligence about top terrorist targets in Pakistan even if President Pervez Musharraf refuses.

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Beth Fouhy reported from New York.

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NEDRA PICKLER and BETH FOUHY - AP | Wednesday, June 18, 2008

 

Clinton asks top donors to meeting with Obama

Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton plan to meet with some of her top contributors next week in an effort to calm donors who remain frustrated with Obama's presidential campaign.

The meeting is set for June 26 at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, several top Clinton fundraisers said Tuesday. The former first lady will introduce Obama to her financial backers.

Jonathan Mantz, Clinton's national finance director, notified donors about the meeting by e-mail Tuesday and urged them to attend and to contribute to Obama, who clinched the Democratic Party's nomination on June 3.

Two people closely involved with Clinton's fundraising said the meeting had taken on added urgency after several of her money "bundlers" complained that they felt their concerns weren't heard during meetings last week with Obama campaign officials in New York and Washington.

Both individuals spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the meeting.

Among other things, the donors want to make sure Obama knows that in order to get their help he needs to help Clinton pay down her campaign debt. As of the end of April, Clinton had more than $20 million in debt, a figure that likely increased by the time she suspended her campaign June 7.

Obama cannot use his campaign money to help Clinton with her debt, which includes at least $11 million of her own money. But he can encourage his donors to contribute to her campaign.

The two fundraisers who discussed the meeting said many donors also are furious that Obama's campaign hired Patti Solis Doyle as chief of staff to Obama's eventual running mate, calling it a slap in the face to Clinton and an implicit acknowledgment that she would not be on the ticket with him.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton said no inference about the selection of a running mate should be made from Solis Doyle's hiring.

"This was a long and hotly contested fight, so obviously there are some strong feelings about how it turned out and what needs to happen moving forward," he said. "But we're confident that the Democrats are united in their desire to defeat (Republican) John McCain."

Clinton and Obama will meet with two different groups of donors at the Mayflower a week from Thursday. One larger group will include donors who raised $250,000 for Clinton's campaign. A more intimate session will be reserved for about 30 fundraisers who collected $1 million or more.

"The challenge is reaching out to donors to ask them for money for a candidate that they've been on the opposite side of for a year and a half," said Alexander Heckler, Clinton's Florida finance chairman. "However, we have to take a deep breath and realize that we need to all work together and have a Democratic president elected."

Another Clinton fundraiser suggested there was no rift, noting that a vigorous primary contest had just ended.

"The Obama campaign has reached out to the Clinton people," said Hassan Nemazee, Clinton's national finance co-chairman. "I think this is a process that is being undertaken and hopefully we will be in a position to assimilate the Clinton fundraising operation and the Obama fundraising operation together in the near future."

"The reality is that we're two weeks from the day that the last primary was held," he added. "It takes a little while for staff to talk to each other, for lay organizations to talk to one another. It's taken a while to get the candidates available."

Heckler said he has been working with Obama's camp and said he and Obama's Florida finance chairman, Kirk Wagar, have been speaking daily to discuss fundraising strategies.

Separately Tuesday, Obama met in Washington with most members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, many of whom had supported Clinton. Obama acknowledged that he still has work to do to win Hispanic votes.

All the caucus members who attended the meeting pledged to support Obama, according to several members who spoke privately afterward.

Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas said he told Obama he had worked his heart out for the former first lady and would work just as hard for Obama's election.

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Beth Fouhy reported from New York. Associated Press writer Suzanne Gamboa contributed to this report.

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JIM KUHNHENN and BETH FOUHY - AP | Wednesday, June 18, 2008

 

June 16, 2008

Black conservatives conflicted on Obama campaign

WASHINGTON (AP) - Black conservative talk show host Armstrong Williams has never voted for a Democrat for president. That could change this year with Barack Obama as the Democratic Party's nominee.

"I don't necessarily like his policies; I don't like much that he advocates, but for the first time in my life, history thrusts me to really seriously think about it," Williams said. "I can honestly say I have no idea who I'm going to pull that lever for in November. And to me, that's incredible."

Just as Obama has touched black Democratic voters, he has engendered conflicting emotions among black Republicans. They revel over the possibility of a black president but wrestle with the thought that the Illinois senator doesn't sit beside them ideologically.

"Among black conservatives," Williams said, "they tell me privately, it would be very hard to vote against him in November."

Perhaps sensing the possibility of such a shift, Republican presidential candidate John McCain has made some efforts to lure black voters. He recently told Essence magazine that he would attend the NAACP's annual convention next month, and he noted that he recently traveled to Selma, Ala., scene of seminal voting rights protests in the 1960s, and "talked about the need to include 'forgotten Americans.'"

Still, the Arizona senator has a tall order in winning black votes, no doubt made taller by running against a black opponent. In 2004, blacks chose Democrat John Kerry over President Bush by an 88 percent to 11 percent margin, according to exit polls.

J.C. Watts, a former Oklahoma congressman who once was part of the GOP House leadership, said he's thinking of voting for Obama. Watts said he's still a Republican, but he criticizes his party for neglecting the black community. Black Republicans, he said, have to concede that while they might not agree with Democrats on issues, at least that party reaches out to them.

"And Obama highlights that even more," Watts said, adding that he expects Obama to take on issues such as poverty and urban policy. "Republicans often seem indifferent to those things."

Likewise, retired Gen. Colin Powell, who became the country's first black secretary of state under President George W. Bush, said both candidates are qualified and that he will not necessarily vote for the Republican.

"I will vote for the individual I think that brings the best set of tools to the problems of 21st-century America and the 21st-century world regardless of party, regardless of anything else other than the most qualified candidate," Powell said Thursday in Vancouver in comments reported by The Globe and Mail in Toronto.

Writer and actor Joseph C. Phillips got so excited about Obama earlier this year that he started calling himself an "Obamacan" - Obama Republican. Phillips, who appeared on "The Cosby Show" as Denise Huxtable's husband, Navy Lt. Martin Kendall, said he has wavered since, but he is still thinking about voting for Obama.

"I am wondering if this is the time where we get over the hump, where an Obama victory will finally, at long last, move us beyond some of the old conversations about race," Phillips said. "That possibly, just possibly, this great country can finally be forgiven for its original sin, or find some absolution."

Yet Phillips, author of the book "He Talk Like a White Boy," realizes the irony of voting for a candidate based on race to get beyond race.

"We have to not judge him based on his race, but on his desirability as a political candidate," he said. "And based on that, I have a lot of disagreements with him on a lot of issues. I go back and forth."

Michael Steele, the Republican former lieutenant governor of Maryland who lost a Senate race there in 2006, said he is proud of Obama as a black man, but that "come November, I will do everything in my power to defeat him." Electing Obama, he said, would not automatically solve the woes of the black community.

"I think people who try to put this sort of messianic mantle on Barack's nomination are a little bit misguided," he said.

John McWhorter, a self-described political moderate who is a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute and a New York Sun columnist, said Obama's Democratic Party victory "proves that while there still is some racism in the United States, there is not enough to matter in any serious manner. This is a watershed moment."

"Obama is probably more to the left than I would prefer on a lot of issues," he adds. "But this issue of getting past race for real is such a wedge issue for me. And he is so intelligent, and I think he would be a perfectly competent president, that I'm for him. I want him to get in because, in a way, it will put me out of a job."

James T. Harris, a Milwaukee radio talk show host and public speaker, said he opposes Obama "with love in my heart."

"We are of the same generation. He's African American and I'm an American of African descent. We both have lovely wives and beautiful children," Harris said. "Other than that, we've got nothing in common. I hope he loses every state."

Moderate Republican Edward Brooke, who blazed his own trail in Massachusetts in 1966 as the first black popularly elected U.S. senator, said he is "extremely proud and confident and joyful" to see Obama ascend. Obama sent Brooke a signed copy of his book, inscribed, "Thank you for paving the way," and Brooke sent his own signed book to Obama, calling the presumed Democratic nominee "a worthy bearer of the torch."

Brooke, who now lives in Florida, won't say which candidate will get his endorsement, but he does say that race won't be a factor in his decision.

"This is the most important election in our history," Brooke said. "And with the world in the condition that it is, I think we've got to get the best person we can get."

Williams, the commentator, says his 82-year-old mother, who also hasn't voted for a Democratic presidential candidate, has already made up her mind.

"She is so proud of Senator Barack Obama, and she has made it clear to all of us that she's voting for him in November," Williams relates. "That is historic. Every time I call her, she asks, 'How's Obama doing?' They feel as if they are a part of this. Because she said, given the history of this country, she never thought she'd ever live to see this moment."

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FREDERIC J. FROMMER - AP | Monday, June 16, 2008