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 Obama, McCain show cash on hand
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Barack Obama raised $41 million in March and had $42 million available to spend against debt-ridden Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton in April, campaign finance reports filed Sunday show.
Clinton reported raising $20 million in March and had $9 million for the primary available at the beginning of April. But she also reported debts of $10.3 million, putting her in the red.
Overall, Obama had $51 million in the bank at the end of March, with nearly $9 million of that available only for the general election.
The money positioned Obama to undertake an expensive April campaign in Pennsylvania, where he has outspent Clinton and cut into her lead. Pennsylvania votes on Tuesday.
Obama's fundraising in March led all candidates, but was still lower than the mark he set in February, when he raised more than $55 million. He has raised $235 million in his campaign.
Republican John McCain's report showed he raised $15.2 million and had $11.6 million in the bank. The Arizona senator's March figures were his best fundraising performance of the campaign.
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Clinton, Obama trade negative attacks days before Pa. vote
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama swapped some of the most negative attacks of the campaign two days before the Pennsylvania primary, each unleashing television ads Sunday that accused the other of maintaining ties to special interests they both claim to reject.
Obama also paid the Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting a backhanded compliment. "Either Democrat would be better than John McCain," he told an audience in Reading. "And all three of us would be better than George Bush."
That drew a rebuke from Clinton, who said, "We need a nominee who will take on John McCain, not cheer on John McCain."
With the Republican nomination long since secure, McCain reported his best fundraising month of the campaign, and criticized both Democrats for advocating higher taxes that he said would worsen any recession.
But he seemed more eager to criticize the front-runner, Obama, more than the former first lady. Obama's relationship with former 1960s radical William Ayers is "an open question," McCain said on ABC's "This Week." Without being asked, he said Obama had become friends with Ayers and "spent time with him while the guy was unrepentant over his activities as a member of a terrorist organization."
Ayers, an education professor, has been quoted in an interview as saying, "I don't regret setting bombs" decades ago. Obama has said Ayers lives in his Chicago neighborhood, but that they do not speak regularly.
Two days before the Pennsylvania primary with 158 delegates at stake, Obama and Clinton observed the rituals of Sunday campaigning: a visit to church, stops at restaurants catering to families, as many public events as possible.
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McCain: Cutting taxes more important than balanced budget
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republican John McCain said Sunday that cutting taxes and stimulating the economy are more important than balancing the budget, and accused both Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama of supporting tax hikes that would worsen the impact of a recession.
"The goal right now is to get the economy going again," the GOP presidential nominee-in-waiting said on ABC's "This Week," adding that he would put the country "on a path to a balanced budget" by attacking wasteful spending.
McCain conceded it was probably a mistake to seek and accept the endorsement of televangelist John Hagee, who has referred to the Roman Catholic Church as "the great whore" and called it a "false cult system."
The Arizona senator said he had condemned Hagee's remarks about Catholics, and said it was different than the way Obama has responded to questions about his own relationship with William Ayers, a 1960s-era radical who in an interview published on Sept. 11, 2001, said he didn't regret bombing government buildings.
"How can you countenance someone who was engaged in bombings which could have or did kill innocent people?" McCain asked, calling Ayers an "unrepentant terrorist."
Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton, in response, said McCain had "stooped to the same smear politics and low road that he denounced in 2000" by commenting on Ayers.
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THE DEMOCRATS
Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama campaign in Pennsylvania.
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THE REPUBLICANS
John McCain is in Alabama.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY: "I hope we don't get to a point where the superdelegates are deciding the election."
-- Rep. Harry Mitchell, a Democratic superdelegate from Arizona
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STAT OF THE DAY:
Pennsylvania has nearly 700,000 college students on more than 150 campuses
-- a group that exit polls indicate Democrat Barack Obama has an advantage with.
[Associated
Press]
Compiled by Ann Sanner and Ronald Powers.
Copyright 2008 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
