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 Obama hopes for win in Mississippi
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) -- Mississippi Democrats are deciding the last in a series presidential contests between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton before the two rivals settle in for a six-week battle to win Pennsylvania.
Mississippi's large black electorate in Tuesday's voting makes it fertile ground for Obama, who has swept the other Deep South states and has pulled huge margins among black voters. Clinton, the New York senator and former first lady, campaigned in the state last week, but by Monday was in Pennsylvania, where the primary is April 22.
Obama, the first-term senator from Illinois, spent the day in Mississippi, drawing enthusiastic crowds in Columbus and Jackson, the capital. At stake are 33 delegates and another chance for Obama to ease the sting of last week's losses to Clinton in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island.
With Clinton's camp saying she has little chance in Mississippi, the campaigning here focused largely on national issues.
Obama used his Monday morning visit to Columbus to try to squelch speculation that he might accept the vice president's slot on a ticket headed by Clinton. He noted that he has won more delegates, states and votes than Clinton.
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McCain advisers lobbied for Airbus
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Top current advisers to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign last year lobbied for a European plane maker that beat Boeing to a $35 billion Air Force tanker contract, taking sides in a bidding fight that McCain has tried to referee for more than five years.
Two of the advisers gave up their lobbying work when they joined McCain's campaign. A third, former Texas Rep. Tom Loeffler, lobbied for the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. while serving as McCain's national finance chairman.
EADS is the parent company of Airbus, which teamed up with U.S.-based Northrop Grumman Corp. to win the lucrative aerial refueling contract on Feb. 29. Boeing Co. Chairman and CEO Jim McNerney said in a statement Monday that the Chicago-based aerospace company "found serious flaws in the process that we believe warrant appeal."
McCain, the Republican presidential nominee in waiting, has been a key figure in the Pentagon's yearslong attempt to complete a deal on the tanker. McCain helped block an earlier tanker contract with Boeing and prodded the Pentagon in 2006 to develop bidding procedures that did not exclude Airbus.
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Rep. King defends comments about Obama
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- An Iowa Republican congressman defends his prediction that terrorists would celebrate if Democrat Barack Obama were elected president, despite a rebuke from aides to John McCain, the GOP's apparent presidential nominee.
"(Obama will) certainly be viewed as a savior for them," Rep. Steve King told The Associated Press on Monday. "That's why you will see them supporting him, encouraging him."
King said his offices have been bombarded with calls -- positive and negative
-- since he said Friday that al-Qaida "would be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on September 11 because they would declare victory in this war on terror."
King cited Obama's pledge to pull U.S. troops from Iraq, his father's Muslim roots in Kenya and his middle name, Hussein, which King said has a meaning to terrorists.
Aides to McCain also disavowed King's comments.
"John McCain rejects the type of politics that degrades our civics ... and obviously that extends to Congressman King's statement," spokesman Brian Rogers told The Associated Press.
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THE DEMOCRATS
Hillary Rodham Clinton holds rallies in Pennsylvania. Barack Obama campaigns in Mississippi and Pennsylvania.
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THE REPUBLICANS
John McCain holds a town hall meeting in St. Louis.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"I think that Mr. King has it backwards. The fact that the continuation of a presence in Iraq as Senator McCain has suggested is exactly what, I think, will fan the flames of anti-American sentiment and make it more difficult for us to create a long-term and sustainable peace in the world."
-- Sen. Barack Obama, responding to a remark by Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, that terrorists would celebrate if Obama is elected president.
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STAT OF THE DAY:
Exit polls show black women favor Barack Obama over Hillary Rodham Clinton by about the same margin that black men do
-- eight in 10.
[Associated
Press]
Compiled by Ann Sanner and Jerry Estill.
Copyright 2008 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
