Today on the Presidential Campaign Trail

[March 06, 2008]  (AP)  IN THE HEADLINES -- DNC won't pay for do-over contest in Michigan and Florida, Dean says ... Tiny and very Republican, Wyoming is a player in Democratic presidential race ... McCain risks taint of troubled White House from Bush endorsement.

DNC won't pay for Fla., Mich do-overs

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said Thursday the national party won't pay for do-over nominating contests in Florida and Michigan.

"We can't afford to do that. That's not our problem. We need our money to win the presidential race," Dean told CBS' "The Early Show" as he made a round of appearances on morning TV news shows.

Officials in Michigan and Florida are showing renewed interest in holding repeat presidential nominating contests so that their votes will count in the epic Democratic campaign.

The Michigan governor, along with top officials in Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign and Florida's state party chair, is now saying they would consider holding a sort of do-over contest by June. That's a change from their previous insistence that the primaries their states held in January should determine how the their delegates are allocated.

Clinton won both contests, but the results were meaningless because the elections violated national party rules.

The Democratic National Committee stripped both states of all delegates for holding the primaries too early, and all Democratic candidates -- including Clinton and rival Barack Obama -- agreed not to campaign in either state. Obama's name wasn't even on the Michigan ballot.

Florida and Michigan moved up their dates to protest the party's decision to allow Iowa and New Hampshire to go first, followed by South Carolina and Nevada, giving them a disproportionate influence on the presidential selection process.

But no one predicted the race would still be very close at this point in the year.

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Wyoming at last is a Democratic player

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) -- Not since 1960 have Wyoming Democrats felt so relevant.

That year, at the Democratic National Convention, the state's delegation cast 15 votes that pushed Sen. John F. Kennedy over the top and made him the party's nominee for president.

With this year's race for the Democratic nomination still unsettled after primaries this week, Wyoming Democrats are feeling relevant again as Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama focus on the 12 delegates at stake in Saturday's caucus.

Only in the last few weeks have the campaigns stepped up their presence in the state, opening offices and calling voters and sending mailers. The first visits come Thursday, when former President Clinton makes three appearances. Obama and Hillary Clinton follow, each scheduling two events on Friday.

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Bush endorsement could come with a price

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Beware, John McCain. The money comes with a price.

Sure, President Bush will raise millions of dollars for your Republican presidential campaign and GOP candidates. But he'll also give you the aura of a presidency tarnished by painful gasoline prices, a sagging economy, the threat of recession, a blemished U.S. reputation around the world, turbulence in the Middle East and many more problems.

There's also the unpopular war in Iraq -- although you already are closely associated with that.

How often to rub shoulders with an incumbent president -- or whether to appear with him at all -- is a delicate matter for presidential wannabes.

Al Gore's decision during his 2000 campaign against Bush not to embrace President Clinton was probably a gift to the GOP. Many people think that despite Clinton's personal troubles, Gore should have been standing shoulder to shoulder with Clinton, who had high approval ratings as he left office.

"McCain's got to make it very clear that this is not a third Bush term, but a John McCain presidency," said Republican pollster David Winston.

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THE DEMOCRATS

Hillary Rodham Clinton holds an event in the District of Columbia before attending a Democratic Party dinner in Mississippi. Barack Obama is in Chicago and holds no public events.

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THE REPUBLICANS

John McCain campaigns in Florida.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"I think there's a good chance of that. I think Democrats like both their candidates and I think whoever the nominee is is going to have to look at their primary opponent and give serious consideration to it." -- Democratic strategist and Clinton ally James Carville on the possibility of Clinton and Obama sharing the Democratic ticket on ABC's "Good Morning America."

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STAT OF THE DAY:

In the 1992 presidential election, Republican George H.W. Bush won Wyoming with more than 39 percent of the votes, compared with Democrat Bill Clinton's 34 percent.

[Associated Press; ldnauthor]

Compiled by Hope Yen.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.