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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MJ who wrote (1564)	2/24/2007 10:59:33 PM
From: Glenn Petersen	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 149317

Replacements are generally appointed by the Governor of the state in which a vacancy occurs. There may be exceptions to this rule, but that is not the case in New York. In the event that Hillary wins the nomination and the general election, Spitzer would make the selection. If Hillary does win the nomination and there is any significant speculation about Bill Clinton being her replacement, that would be a distraction and I can guarantee that Bill Clinton would disavow any interest in the seat.

To: MJ who wrote (1564)	2/27/2007 10:51:11 AM
From: Glenn Petersen	Read Replies (6) \| Respond to of 149317

According to voters, being over the age of 72, a Mormon, twice divorced or a smoker all are bigger drags on a candidate's support than is gender or race. Poll: Age Important to Voters Candidate's Being Over Age 72 or a Smoker Are Bigger Detriments Than Gender or Race to Voters By Jon Cohen and Jennifer Agiesta Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, February 27, 2007; 9:26 AM Campaign 2008 has raised the question of whether voters will hesitate to back a major female or black presidential contender, but at this early stage voters seem to weigh other criteria more heavily in determining which candidate they might favor, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. According to voters, being over the age of 72, a Mormon, twice divorced or a smoker all are bigger drags on a candidate's support than is gender or race. In this poll, nearly six in 10 Americans said they would be less likely to vote for an older candidate, three in 10 less likely to vote for a Mormon, a quarter less likely to support a candidate with two divorces and 21 percent less likely to back someone who smokes cigarettes. And for each of these, those turned off by the attribute greatly outnumbered those who said they would be more likely to support such a candidate. For example, while 58 percent said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate older than 72, a scant 3 percent said they would be more likely to prefer such a candidate. By contrast, 13 percent of voters said the would be less likely to support a woman and 6 percent said they would be less likely to support a black -- numbers about equally offset by the percentages of people who said they would be more likely to support candidates with those attributes. While the current slate of 2008 candidates features someone with each of the attributes that appear on balance to make voters uneasy -- Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) turns 72 in 2008, former governor Mitt Romney (R-Mass.) is a member of the Mormon church, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) is married to his third wife and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is trying to kick a tobacco habit -- it is unclear how these factors will play out as the Democratic and Republican nomination campaigns progress. Issues may ultimately prove more important than these personal characteristics, and all elections in the end are match-ups between candidates who possess a range of characteristics, affiliations and experiences. As elsewhere, in politics much is relative. Also, public attitudes may evolve. Already, feelings toward a Mormon candidate have eased: In this poll, 29 percent said they would be less likely to support a Mormon candidate -- second only to age as a vote deterrent -- but that is down from 35 percent in December. While that might be good news for Romney, hesitation about a Mormon candidate is widely held, peaking at 38 percent among white evangelical Protestants, who are among the core Republican primary voters Romney has been courting. There may also be limits on how much can change: Most of those who said they would be less likely to vote for a Mormon also said there was "no chance" they would do so. Many who would be less apt to back a Mormon said they disagree with or are uncomfortable with the religion (39 percent), do not know enough about the religion (12 percent) and worry about the influence of the Mormon church (11 percent), the last echoing concerns expressed about papal influence on John F. Kennedy when he ran for president in 1960. Fewer said their reluctance to support a Mormon was because they are not "true Christians" (7 percent volunteered this in the open-ended question) or due to polygamy or Mormon conservatism (both 6 percent). This poll asked a similar open-ended question of those who said they would be less likely to vote for a woman as president, and 13 percent said they would. Of those people, 31 percent said they did not think a woman can do the job and 27 percent said a man would do better. The next most cited reason was a dislike of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), expressed by 15 percent of those less apt to support a female presidential candidate. These data come from a Post-ABC News poll conducted by telephone Feb. 22-25, among a random national sample of 1,082 adults. The results have a three-percentage-point error margin. Sampling, data collection and tabulation were done by TNS of Horsham, Pa. More from this Post-ABC News poll will be released today at 5 p.m. washingtonpost.com

To: MJ who wrote (1564)	3/2/2007 2:32:19 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 149317

The McCain Factor: Why Isn't He the Front-Runner? abcnews.go.com

To: MJ who wrote (1564)	3/4/2007 4:03:02 PM
From: ChinuSFO	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

My comment: The Obama factor in the Clinton equation. Growing larger by the day. ====================================== Obama laughs off 'politics of destruction' ALEX MASSIE IN WASHINGTON THE battle for the hearts, minds and votes of America's black voters begins in earnest this morning in Selma, Alabama, where Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will remember and salute the civil rights movement, giving simultaneous speeches at two churches no more than 300 yards apart. But the campaign for the Democratic nomination for president is already becoming unseemly as each of the leading candidates accuses the other of playing dirty. The Clinton campaign demanded that Obama disavow Hollywood billionaire David Geffen, who is raising money for the senator, after he complained that although "everybody in politics lies", the Clintons "do it with such ease, it's troubling". This, Clinton complained, was "the politics of personal destruction", prompting Obama to note that the Clintons had no problem with Geffen when he raised money for them. Obama laughed off the suggestion that he return Geffen's money, thus demonstrating for the first time that he was prepared to play hard ball with the Clintons. Last week rumours swept through Washington suggesting that James Carville, a former strategist for Bill Clinton, was deliberately talking up the prospect of an Al Gore candidacy to deflect attention away from Obama and quieten the buzz surrounding the Illinois senator. African-American voters are a vital and reliable Democratic constituency whose support Clinton had counted on as part of a smooth accession to the party's presidential nomination. Obama's declaration that he would seek the presidency himself, after serving just two years in the Senate, changed that calculation. Actor George Clooney told Newsweek magazine that Obama had the ability to offer a vision for America that was reminiscent of the Kennedys. Obama, Clooney said, is "as good as Bobby late in his career and Jack from early on". Obama has attracted extraordinary crowds - unprecedented in recent American political history - wherever he has travelled since announcing his candidacy: in Austin, Texas, last month more than 20,000 spectators came to see him speak. If Clinton is a celebrity, Obama is a rock star. As recently as January, a Washington Post poll found that Clinton had the support of 60% of black Democratic voters compared with just 20% for Obama. The Illinois senator's star power and impact on the race have been startling, however, and a new poll this week gave Obama an 11-point lead among black voters as his share of their vote has increased to 44%, while Clinton's has been almost halved to 33%. This is a troubling development for a Clinton campaign that had planned on steamrolling all her rivals by suggesting that opposition to the Clinton machine was futile since her triumph was "inevitable". Obama's rise utterly contradicts that proposition, ensuring that the contest for the party's nomination will be long, bitter and expensive. Clinton's hopes of emulating George W Bush's 2000 campaign, which also relied on the "inevitability" strategy, have not survived the winter. Although Clinton still leads among all Democratic voters, her lead has been halved from 24% to 12% in just a few weeks. Momentum is on Obama's side. Although he has been on the national stage for a matter of just a few months, 70% of black voters already have a favourable impression of Obama. The suggestion, happily spread by Clinton surrogates and supporters, that Obama "is not black enough" has failed to catch fire despite the best efforts of black activists such as Al Sharpton. That theory rested on the fact that since Obama's mother is white and his father was from Kenya, the senator's background is scarcely typical of the American black experience. And last night it emerged Obama's ancestors - albeit many generations distant - may have owned slaves. An amateur genealogical researcher traced Obama's great-great-great-great-grandfather and discovered he owned two slaves in Kentucky, according to reports. Undeterred, Obama will be the keynote speaker this morning at the Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma, where civil rights activists gathered in 1965 for a protest march to the Alabama state capital, Montgomery. The march became an iconic symbol of the civil rights struggle after the 600 marchers were attacked with clubs and tear gas by the police. At the same time as Obama speaks, Clinton will address worshippers at the First Baptist Church, just a few hundred yards away. Although the Clinton campaign denies trying to "bigfoot" Obama, the seriousness with which they are taking him is demonstrated by the fact that Bill Clinton will also be present. The former president made a last-minute change to his schedule to travel to Alabama, where he is to be inducted into the Hall of Fame at the National Voting Rights Museum. Bill Clinton remains enormously popular with African-American voters and may prove to be his wife's most effective spokesman among the black community. An Obama spokesman played down the significance of the Clinton campaign's attempt to steal Obama's thunder. "It's an important event," he said. "The more folks who commemorate and pay attention to it, the better." scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com