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 AP Poll: Obama catches Clinton across U.S.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Barack Obama has taken clear leads over Hillary Rodham Clinton among white men, middle-income earners and liberals, allowing him to catch his faltering rival in their race for the Democratic presidential nomination, a national poll showed Monday.
The Associated Press-Ipsos poll highlights how the bottom is falling out among some supporters of Clinton since the last survey two weeks ago. Since that poll, Obama has gained momentum by winning 11 consecutive primaries and caucuses while taking a small lead among delegates to the party's convention this summer.
Obama leads Clinton by 23 percentage points among white men and by 17 points among liberals
-- groups that were evenly divided between the two in early February. He has a similar advantage among people earning $50,000 to $100,000 annually
-- whom she led earlier by 13 points.
Clinton maintains robust leads among some groups that have been cornerstones of her candidacy, including those age 65 and up, white women and people earning under $50,000 annually.
Overall, Obama has 46 percent support to Clinton's 43 percent, a virtual tie. Clinton had a slight 5 point lead nationally in early February.
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Dodd to endorse Obama
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut plans to endorse former presidential rival Barack Obama.
Dodd will endorse his colleague, a senator from Illinois, in Cleveland on Tuesday, according to a Democratic official close to Dodd who requested anonymity because no formal announcement had been made.
Dodd's support, coupled with his liberal credentials, could provide a boost for Obama as major contests near in big states such as Ohio and Texas on March 4. Obama has won some key Democratic endorsements in recent weeks, including Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, a close friend of Dodd.
Obama and rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton had been vying for Dodd's support since he exited the presidential race after a poor showing in the Iowa caucus last month. Dodd, who won his Senate seat in 1980 and chaired the Democratic National Committee from 1995-1996, has long-standing ties to the Clintons.
Dodd is a "superdelegate," one of nearly 800 Democratic officeholders and party officials who automatically attend the national convention and can vote for whomever they choose. They have become an important force in the close race between Clinton and Obama, and both candidates are lobbying hard for their support.
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McCain says he could lose over war issue
ROCKY RIVER, Ohio (AP) -- John McCain said Monday that to win the White House he must convince a war-weary country that U.S. policy in Iraq is succeeding. If he can't, "then I lose. I lose," the likely Republican nominee said.
He quickly backed off that remark.
"Let me not put it that stark," McCain told reporters on his campaign bus. "Let me just put it this way: Americans will judge my candidacy first and foremost on how they believe I can lead the country both from our economy and for national security. Obviously, Iraq will play a role in their judgment of my ability to handle national security."
"If I may, I'd like to retract 'I'll lose.' But I don't think there's any doubt that how they judge Iraq will have a direct relation to their judgment of me, my support of the surge," he added. "Clearly, I am tied to it to a large degree."
The five-year-old Iraq conflict already is emerging as a fault line in the general election, with the Arizona senator calling for the U.S. military continuing its mission while his Democratic opponents urge quick withdrawal.
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Obama photo causes stir
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A photograph circulating on the Internet of Democrat Barack Obama dressed in traditional local garments during a visit to Kenya in 2006 is causing a dustup in the presidential campaign over what constitutes a smear.
The Associated Press photograph portrays Obama wearing a white turban and wraparound white robe presented to him by elders in Wajir, in northeastern Kenya. Obama's estranged late father was Kenyan and Obama visited the country in 2006, attracting thousands of well-wishers.
The gossip and news Web site The Drudge Report posted the photograph Monday and said it was being circulated by "Clinton staffers" and quoted an e-mail from an unidentified campaign aide. Drudge did not include proof of the e-mail in the report.
"I just want to make it very clear that we were not aware of it, the campaign didn't sanction it and don't know anything about it," Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said in a teleconference with reporters. "None of us have seen the e-mail in question. If anybody has independent reporting that they've done on it I would welcome it."
Obama, in an interview with WOAI radio in San Antonio, Texas, said voters are "saddened when they see these kind of politics."
"Everybody knows that whether it's me or Senator Clinton or Bill Clinton that when you travel to other countries they ask you to try on traditional garb that you have been given as a gift," he said. "The notion that the Clinton campaign would be trying to circulate this as a negative on the same day that Senator Clinton was giving a speech about how we repair our relationships around the world is sad."
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Clinton: Obama wavers on foreign policy
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hillary Rodham Clinton characterized rival Barack Obama on Monday as rash and inconsistent on foreign policy issues.
Shifting to foreign policy after two days of hammering the Illinois senator over their differences on health care, Clinton paired two of Obama's campaign statements to support her conclusion.
"He wavers from seeming to believe that mediation and meetings without preconditions can solve some of the world's most intractable problems to advocating rash, unilateral military action without the cooperation of our allies in the most sensitive part of the world," Clinton said in a speech at The George Washington University.
The former first lady has sharply criticized her rival for the Democratic presidential nomination for saying during a televised debate last summer that he would be willing as president to meet with the leaders of Cuba, Iran and other hostile nations without preconditions. He reiterated that willingness last week.
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McCain faces Democrats' complaint
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Democratic Party filed a complaint against John McCain on Monday, calling on campaign finance regulators to investigate the Republican presidential candidate's decision to withdraw from the primary election's public financing system.
In a letter to the Federal Election Commission, the Democratic National Committee contends McCain cannot reject the public funds
-- and the strict spending limits that come with it -- because he faces questions over the terms of a loan he obtained late last year.
McCain, who had been entitled to $5.8 million in federal matching funds for the primary, notified the commission early this month that he did not intend to accept the money. That would free him from spending caps that would have severely restricted his ability to campaign between now and the Republican National Convention in early September.
FEC Chairman David Mason, in a letter to McCain last week, said the senator must explain a $4 million line of credit he secured last year and must receive approval from four members of the six-member commission before withdrawing from the system.
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Clinton lead shrinks in Ohio, Texas
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hillary Rodham Clinton's lead over rival Barack Obama in Ohio has dropped 10 percentage points in recent days, according to a new survey of likely Democratic voters in the state. And in Texas, Obama has a slight edge, according to a second poll.
Clinton's 11-percentage-point lead in Ohio in a Quinnipiac University poll has fallen since a Valentine's Day survey by the same organization showed her ahead by 21 points. She has 51 percent support compared with Obama's 40 percent, according to the poll.
In Texas, Obama was ahead 50 percent to Clinton's 46 percent in the latest CNN-Opinion Research Corp. survey. But the difference, of 4 percentage points, was just outside the survey's margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. The two were about even a week ago in a survey by the same organizations.
Both states vote in primaries on March 4.
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THE DEMOCRATS
Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered a speech on foreign policy in the District of Columbia. Barack Obama held a round-table discussion on retirement security and a rally in Ohio.
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THE REPUBLICANS
John McCain campaigns in Ohio. Mike Huckabee visited a school and holds a rally in Rhode Island.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"All of us want out of Iraq, the question is how do we want out of Iraq."
-- Republican John McCain, in an interview Monday with The Associated Press.
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STAT OF THE DAY:
Ralph Nader garnered 9,159 votes as a write-in candidate in Texas in the 2004 presidential election.
[Associated
Press]
Compiled by Ann Sanner.
Copyright 2008 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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