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Whistle Stop Clinton

March 28, 2008 4:36 PM

ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf Reports: When former President Clinton arrived at the train station in Salisbury, North Carolina, it was reminiscent of a whistle-stop campaign rally of yore.

Mr. Clinton arrived in latter day whistle stop fashion, with a train of  SUVs and a police escort. He spoke outside in the sun in front of the station with an American flag behind him.

The train station is the perfect spot for a campaign rally, restored, as it is, to its 1920s glory with gray brick and a red tile roof.

It's featured extensively in the upcoming George Clooney period football movie "Leatherheads" and anchors the downtown here.

But for its architectural beauty, the train station is still located next to the train tracks. And Mr. Clinton, famously late, cannot be counted on, like trains, to run on schedule.

He was an hour late for the event and an hour into his speech, segueing from an indictment of the way President Bush handled the Hurricane Katrina disaster to an impassioned plea with the several hundred Salisburians gathered about why his wife is the right candidate for president when the train whistles started in the distance.

But the train, unlike automobile traffic in small towns when the former President comes to town, did not stop. The din of the locomotive drowned out the former President out for a minute as it passed by thirty feet from his podium, though he barely budged from his speech.

He could, however, be heard to say, "Must be a Republican train."

March 28, 2008 in Bush, George W., Kucinich, Dennis, Tancredo, Tom | Permalink | User Comments (29)

McCain Kicks of Biographical Tour with New Ad

March 28, 2008 4:34 PM

ABC News' Bret Hovell Reports: The campaign of Senator John McCain has launched what it’s calling its first television advertisement of the general election, to coincide with a number of stops over the next week intended to introduce McCain to the general electorate.

Watch the ad HERE.

The ad, titled “624787,” which was McCain’s Navy serial number when he was shot down over Vietnam, runs 60 seconds long and is scheduled to first air statewide in New Mexico, which his expected to be a battleground state in the general election. The campaign says it will air in other states as well, but the decision as to when and where has not yet been made.

Though billed as the first ad of the general election, the ad is actually paid for with money for the primary. McCain does not officially accept the nomination of the Republican Party until the Republican National Convention in September.

The ad features images of McCain on the campaign trail, and concludes with video of McCain being interviewed as a prisoner of war.

At the end of the ad, a voice-over intones that John McCain is “the American president Americans have been waiting for.”

The Democratic National Committee released a statement from its chair, Howard Dean, on the ad.

“John McCain can try to reintroduce himself to the country, but he can't change the fact that he cast aside his principles to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with President Bush for the last seven years,” Dean’s statement read.

Over the next week, McCain, R-Ariz., will travel around the country on a “Service to America” tour, described by the campaign as an effort to introduce McCain to voters across the country.

The ad was produced by Foxhole Productions, led by McCain’s media advisor Mark McKinnon.

March 28, 2008 in Hunter, Duncan | Permalink | User Comments (5)

Obama: Primary 'A Good Movie That Lasted About A Half An Hour Too Long'

March 28, 2008 3:29 PM

ABC News' Sunlen Miller Reports: Calling it a lengthy primary season, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., offered a Pittsburgh, Pa. crowd an analogy on the Democratic primary race, saying it is like "a good movie that lasted about a half an hour too long."

Obama said he and Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., have been running in the Democratic primary so long that they could reverse roles and recite each others' lines without missing a beat.

"I think there are some people who felt like, 'God, when will this be over?'" he said.

Obama added that the lengthy campaign has been tough because both he and Clinton understand what's at stake during the campaign.

One of Obama's top supporters, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told a radio station today he thought Clinton should get out of the race.

Obama picked up an endorsement Friday from Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, who said he called Clinton last night to let her know. Casey said she was gracious with his decision to support Obama.

Casey told reporters that he didn’t quite agree with Leahy’s assertion that Clinton should withdraw, but did say he hopes the end of the primary draws near.

"I would hope that after Pennsylvania, then we got a couple more primaries, I would hope this wouldn’t go much further beyond the end of May," Casey said. "I think we would be better off having a nominee in the time period, certainly in late May or early June, that would be ideal. Because if you get too far into the summer, I think positions begin to harden and we lose time to not just unite and bring people together but we are also giving the Republican nominee more time to make the case against our nominees without having enough rebuttal."

Obama kicked off his six-day bus tour throughout Pennsylvania with former Pittsburgh Steeler Jerome Bettis, nicknamed "the bus" and Franco Harris, a retired Pittsburgh Steelers player in the football Hall of Fame.

Obama posed for pictures with the football players and waved a rally towel in the air above his head to fans in the streets before getting on the bus, off to the next campaign stop.

March 28, 2008 in Kucinich, Dennis, Tancredo, Tom | Permalink | User Comments (86)

Democrats Divided? Bill: 'That's a Bunch of Bull'

March 28, 2008 2:28 PM

ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf Reports: At a campaign stop for his wife in Kannapolis, North Carolina, former President Clinton weighed in on the protracted Democratic nomination fight.

Clinton dismissed talk about whether the nomination battle between Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is dividing Democrats.

"That's a bunch of bull," he said.

"I wasn't nominated until June 2nd, 1992," he argued, then said maybe it was June 3rd.

Watch the VIDEO HERE.

He told several hundred North Carolinians that the race should continue because, "you have a right for your votes to get counted."

March 28, 2008 in Bush, George W., Tancredo, Tom | Permalink | User Comments (83)

Obama's 'View'

March 28, 2008 12:33 PM

ABC News' Sunlen Miller Reports: Barack Obama cozied up on the couch with the women of ABC's "The View".

"I am surrounded by women, well you guys always surprise me, always something up your sleeve," the Senator remarked.

When questioned by co-host Joy Behar if he was tough enough to survive the attack machine in this race, Obama responded, "I'm skinny but I'm tough."

"There (have) been some tough punches thrown in this primary, it's not like I've been taking a cake walk though this primary," Obama said.

Obama said the best way to withstand the negative criticism is the let it roll off your sleeve, and realize that not everyone he says is going to make everybody happy. But the presidential candidate said not to expect him to be swiftboated, a la John Kerry in the 2004 election, saying he will respond faster if under a similar attack.

"I don't think it's gotten dirty," Obama said, in reference to his tight contest with Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.

Race was the predominant issue of the interview.

"I never heard him say some of the things that have people upset," Obama said in reference to the controversial remarks of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's pastor of 20 years. 

Rev. Wright, the retired pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, has a long history of what even Obama's campaign aides concede is "inflammatory rhetoric," including the assertion that the United States brought on the 9/11 attacks with its own "terrorism."

An ABC News review of dozens of the Rev. Wright's sermons, offered for sale by the church, found repeated denunciations of the United States based on what he described as his reading of the Gospels and the treatment of black Americans.

"The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people," he said in a 2003 sermon. "God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."

In addition to damning America, he told his congregation on the Sunday after Sept. 11, 2001, that the United States had brought on al Qaeda's attacks because of its own terrorism.

"I'm not vetting my pastor," Obama told "The View", "I didn't have a research team during the course of 20 years to go pull every sermon he's given and see if there's something offensive that he's said."

The senator agreed Wright's remarks are "rightly offensive" but described the Reverend who baptized his children and married he and his wife as a "brilliant man who was still stuck in a time warp."

"View" co-host Elisabeth Hasslebeck expressed concern that Obama's choice of pastor may show a lack of judgment.

The candidate explained, "Part of what my role in my politics is to get people who don't normally listen to each other to talk to each other, who [say] crazy things, who are offended by each other, for me to understand them and to maybe help them understand each other."

Obama said he talked to Wright after the controversy erupted.

"I think he's saddened by what's happened, and I told him I feel badly that he has been characterized just in this one way, and people haven't seen this broader aspect of him," Obama said.

On another subject, when asked for specifics by co-host and frequent critical Elisabeth Hasslebeck on his plan for the economy, Obama spoke about the need to roll back President Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

"You're in trouble, Barbara," co-host Sherri Shepherd interrupted, warning the renounced journalist as the audience rolled in laughter, "You're gonna be in trouble when he rolls back tax cuts!"

The Senator arrived about 20 minutes late from a lunch fundraiser at the Credit Suisse building in Manhatten to the Thursday taping of the episode which aired nationwide on Friday.

During the brief breaks for commercials, Obama whispered to Barbara Walters, each with their hand over their microphone to protect their conversation from being shared with the studio audience.

Obama greeted co-host Whoopi Goldberg's daughter and granddaughter, who sat front row in the audience.

"I want your vote," Obama said to the eighteen-year-old high school senior.

Actress Angela Bassett was also in the audience, prompting Obama to comment, "You got some fancy folks in the audience."

Barbara Walters, seen carrying Obama's book "Dreams of My Father" introduced the candidate to her two longtime friends who were also in the front row.

"They've never come before," Walters commented beforehand.

Joy Behar carried four books out to be signed by the Senator after the show, passing them off for to the staff.

Sherri Shepherd, who said she dressed up in there church outfit and "Obama-fit" before the show, was clad in a skinny black dress and white sweater overtop, and said the picture her and Obama took together during the commercial break was her prom picture.

Shepherd told Obama during the show that she was planning on voting for Hillary Clinton, but after his speech on race last Tuesday she switched and will be voting for him.

"I want to be leave "The View" to campaign for you," she joked.

Before the taping started, the predominantly female crowd, many sporting Obama buttons or shirts, were entertained by Maura McGinnis reading her poem entiteld "Obama for Rainbows", about the bridging of racial divides.

Walters graced the crowd before the taping, saying that it was a "historic day" for the show and assured the crowd they will also have Sen. Hillary Clinton on the show soon.

March 28, 2008 in Bush, George W., Kucinich, Dennis, Tancredo, Tom | Permalink | User Comments (108)

Bill Clinton: Caucuses 'Killing Us'

March 27, 2008 8:54 PM

ABC News' Teddy Davis, Sarah Amos, and Talal Al-Khatib Report: While speaking by phone Thursday to his wife's Texas supporters, former President Bill Clinton downplayed the importance of caucuses and argued that his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., would capture the Democratic presidential nomination by outperforming Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., in primary states.

"Right now, among all the primary states, believe it or not, Hillary's only 16 votes behind in pledged delegates," said Bill Clinton, "and she's gonna wind up with the lead in the popular vote in the primary states. She's gonna wind up with the lead in the delegates [from primary states]."

"It's the caucuses that have been killing us," he added.

Bill Clinton's decision to flatly predict that his wife will finish ahead of Obama in the pledged delegates and popular vote which come strictly from primary states comes as his wife's advisers concede that the former first lady will not be able to catch Obama in the total number of pledged delegates.

Obama's campaign has used his seemingly insurmountable pledged delegate lead to make the case to the party leaders and elected officials who will ultimately decide the Democratic presidential nod that to back Clinton would amount to overturning the will of the voters who participated in the 2008 Democratic nominating contests.

The former president's conference call comments to Sen. Clinton's precinct delegates in Texas were monitored by ABC News. He was urging them to turn out on Saturday when Texas Democrats hold state senate and county conventions in approximately 279 locations around the state.

Saturday's conventions are the second step in the Texas Democratic Party's process of selecting delegates to the Democratic National Convention.

The roughly 88,000 Texans who were chosen as either Clinton or Obama delegates at the precinct convention level will be winnowed down to just over 7,000 Clinton or Obama delegates who will get to attend the Texas Democratic Party's state convention, the third step in the process, which will be held June 6 - 7 in Austin.

Although Clinton won the March 4th Texas primary, Obama emerged ahead of the former first lady in the Texas caucuses based on a partial tally of precinct convention results compiled by the Texas Democratic Party.

According to an ABC News estimate of the Texas caucuses, Obama earned 33 delegates to Clinton's 24 with 10 still left to be allocated based on the presidential preferences stated in the next steps of the process.

The Texas Democratic Party will not declare a winner of the Texas caucuses until June 7, the second day of its state convention, since the state's Obama and Clinton delegates are free to change their presidential preference prior to the state party convention.

By contacting the caucus chairs in approximately 279 locations around the state, the Associated Press expects to be able to project a winner of the Texas caucuses by Saturday evening.

"We can still win this thing," said Bill Clinton, referring to his wife's bid to be the Democratic Party's presidential nominee. "She's running great in Pennsylvania, great in West Virginia, great in Kentucky, and she's got a real chance now to win Indiana."

March 27, 2008 in Tancredo, Tom | Permalink | User Comments (366)

Clinton Not Ready to Call it Quits, Urges Democrats Not to Choose McCain

March 27, 2008 8:04 PM

ABC News' Eloise Harper Reports: Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., addressed those who think she should get out of the race Thursday evening in Winston-Salem, North Carolina saying, "Some people have been saying we should just end these primaries we should just call it quits I that think a lot of people still want their voices heard and their votes counted." She added, "this is a very close election I think that is exciting because so many people have been brought into the process and there is a real anticipation about what we can do.

Mrs. Clinton, who was running about an hour and a half late, apologized to the crowd and said she knew that the UNC game was starting in thirty minutes and understood if they had to leave. Clinton later appealed to the residents of the Tar heel state saying "I am excited and I am really looking forward to crisscrossing North Carolina in the spring what could be better than that?’ Clinton asked.

Senator Clinton kicked off her "Solutions for the American Economy" tour across the state today, with a strong emphasis on the economy. Most of her digs were not focused towards her democratic rival, but instead to the republican presumed nominee Senator McCain.

In Fayetteville, NC, Clinton was asked what he should tell Democrats who are thinking for John McCain "Please think through this decision," Clinton said, laughing "It is not a wise decision for yourself or your country."

March 27, 2008 in Bush, George W. | Permalink | User Comments (77)

Clinton Praises "Moderate" McCain

March 27, 2008 7:30 PM

ABC's Z. Byron Wolf Reports: At a stop in rural Pennsylvania, over winding roads and through rolling hills in small Lewistown, PA, where people lined the streets to watch his motorcade approach, former President Bill Clinton had high praise for the man who has clinched the nomination for the other party.

Mr. Clinton said all three major candidates remaining in the race are talented and special people.

He did not go into detail on Sen. Barack Obama, the Illinois Senator still locked in political combat with Sen. Clinton's wife for the Democratic nomination. Their next battle takes place next month in Pennsylvania.

But McCain, who Mr. Clinton said is a "moderate", "has given about all you can give for this country without dyin' for it."

He said McCain was on the right side of issues like being against torture of enemy combatants and global warming, which "just about crosses the bridge for them (Republicans)."

The praise from Clinton comes as McCain, with the Republican nomination locked up and trying to rebrand his Maverick label, has tried to distance himself from President Bush, most notably on foreign policy. In a speech this week McCain talked about the need for more diplomacy.

But Clinton told the audience in the Lewistown High School auditorium - less partisan than his events in more populated areas if the man in the Huckabee shirt that Clinton pointed out is any indication - that the race should not be about the past, it is about who is going to do more for the country in the future. And that person, he said, is his wife Hillary.

March 27, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (113)

NY's Bloomberg (Heart) Obama?

March 27, 2008 12:22 PM

ABC News' Sunlen Miller Reports: Picking up tab at breakfast goes a long way, but will it be enough to impress the billionaire Mayor of New York City? Senator Barack Obama hopes so.

"As you know, I have not endorsed a candidate for president," Mayor Michael Bloomberg, I-New York City, teased when introducing Obama, D-Ill., to deliver an economic address at Cooper Union, site of then-presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln's famous 1860 anti-slavery address. 

"But I have been clear in my hope that all the candidates explain in great deal how they would handle the challenges of the country."

Bloomberg, after deciding not to run in his own presidential bid, said recently that he is looking at all the candidates as he decides where to throw his support.

The mayor jokingly reminded the New York crowd that Obama "picked up the check when we had breakfast together."

Watch the VIDEO HERE.

The political pair had breakfast at the New York Luncheonette, a diner in midtown Manhattan on December 1, 2007. Wisely, Obama picked up the $17.34 check and left a $10 tip.

At Cooper Union four months later, Obama called Bloomberg a "cheap date" and hinted that the he had a little more on his mind than just breakfast when eating with the Mayor.

"I have to tell you that the reason I bought breakfast is because I expect payback in something more expensive. . . I'm no dummy," joked Obama. "The mayor was a cheap date that morning and I figured there are some good steakhouses here in New York."

March 27, 2008 in Kucinich, Dennis, Tancredo, Tom | Permalink | User Comments (110)

Mitt Romney to Fundraise With John McCain

March 27, 2008 11:27 AM

ABC News' Bret Hovell reports: Sen. John McCain will be joined on the campaign trail by a sometimes contentious former rival Thursday for a fundraising swing through the mountain west.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, the onetime Republican presidential candidate, will join McCain to raise money in Salt Lake City and Denver.

Romney will meet McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, in Utah, and travel with him aboard his campaign plane to Denver.

The race between Romney and McCain was heated throughout the primary process, as the two battled for the Republican nomination. Romney dropped out of the race at the beginning of February, two days after the Super Tuesday primary, in which McCain pulled ahead of the field. Romney endorsed McCain one week later, on Valentine’s Day.

"Governor Romney is a very important leader in the Republican party," said Steve Schmidt, a senior advisor to McCain’s campaign. "Sen. McCain is thrilled that he’s going to be joining him on the campaign trail today."

McCain is in the early stages of a process to pick his vice presidential nominee. Romney, with his passionate supporters and deep pockets, is widely believed to be under consideration for that role.

March 27, 2008 in Hunter, Duncan, Palin, Sarah, Thompson, Fred | Permalink | User Comments (28)