DefeatClinton2008.com

Here we go indeed. The McCain campaign has turned what looked to be a potentially devastating story into, what else, a fund-raising opportunity. In an appeal sent to supporters today, campaign manager Rick Davis writes:

“Well, here we go. We could expect attacks were coming; as soon as John McCain appeared to be locking up the Republican nomination, the liberal establishment and their allies at the New York Times have gone on the attack. Today’s front-page New York Times story is particularly disgusting - an un-sourced hit-and-run smear campaign designed to distract from the issues at stake in this election. With John McCain leading a number of general-election polls against Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the New York Times knew the time to attack was now, and they did. We will not allow their scurrilous attack against a great American hero to stand.”

Source: Horserace: CBSNews.com

Mitt Romney used the New York Times’ endorsement of John McCain last month as proof that the Arizona Senator was not a true conservative. Now that the paper has published it’s controversial story about his alleged relationship with a Washington lobbyist, it may be the push conservatives need to convince them he is. Or at the very least, begin the healing.

In his opening comments on his nationally syndicated radio show today Rush Limbaugh, a fierce McCain critic throughout the primaries, claimed vindication. Limbaugh noted he had long predicted that the media, who McCain has had an exceptionally close relationship to, would “turn” on him if he won the nomination. Limbaugh did not embrace McCain but offered that the episode offers an educational opportunity for the senator.

“They are what they are,” Limbaugh said of the paper. “A snake is a snake, a tiger is a tiger, the New York Times is the New York Times . the important question for John McCain today is, is he going to learn the right lesson from this? And what is the lesson? The lesson is, liberals are to be defeated. You cannot walk across the aisle with them, you cannot reach across the aisle, you cannot welcome their media members on your bus and get all cozy with them and expect eternal love from them. You are a Republican. Whether you are a conservative Republican or not, you are a Republican. And at some point, the people you cozy up to . are going to turn on you. . And if the right lesson is not learned from this, it will have proved to be of no value.”

Talk-show host Laura Ingraham, another McCain critic, likewise did not race to offer a defense of McCain but blamed the Times of hit-and-run-journalism. “You wait until it”s pretty much beyond a doubt that he”s going to be the Republican nominee, and then you let it drop ” drop some acid in the pool, contaminate the whole pool. That”s what The New York Times thinks,” Igraham said according to a report in the Politico.

Conservative talker Sean Hannity tolde viewers of his television show last night that the story was not believable. “I have read this New York Times piece now three times,” Hannity said according to Politico. “And what I see here is nothing but innuendo, rumor. They want the reader to draw conclusions.”

And GOP consultant Greg Mueller tells CBSNews.com that this will only help McCain among conservatives. “It was a poor and revealing attempt by the New York Times to try and smear McCain at a time when he is starting to define Obama as an inexperienced liberal, so the New York Times takes up for Obama’s defense,” Mueller said in an e-mail. “If anything, this helps energize conservatives to come to McCain’s aide in beating back attacks by The New York Times and other liberal media outlets.”

Source: Horserace: CBSNews.com

The New York Times dropped its long-rumored bombshell story alleging that a past relationship with a female lobbyist so worried advisers of his 2000 presidential campaign that they engineered an intervention of sorts to put an end to it.

The implications could not be more clearly stated in the second paragraph of the story: “Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself - instructing staff members to block the woman’s access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him.”

The story also suggests McCain may have done favors for the lobbyist, Vicki Iseman: “A champion of deregulation, Mr. McCain wrote letters in 1998 and 1999 to the Federal Communications Commission urging it to uphold marketing agreements allowing a television company to control two stations in the same city, a crucial issue for . one of Ms. Iseman’s clients.”

The story includes denials from both McCain and Iseman about the suggested romantic relationship and the campaign released a statement calling the story a “hit and run smear campaign.”

Politically speaking, the story is threatening to McCain on two fronts. First, with the nomination not yet completely in the grasp, it threatens to spark more concerns among a party he is trying to unite for the fall campaign. The reaction of those conservative agitators who have opposed McCain in the primary campaign will be telling to how harmful even the vague allegations raised by this story to his attempts at consolidating the GOP. There could be a “told-you-so” reaction but the fact this story is being leveled by a news organization that has been a longtime whipping post for conservatives may help McCain.

Possibly more harmful in the long run is any denting of McCain’s image as a crusader against special interests and the Washington establishment. The inference that a personal relationship (romantic or not) could have influenced him to do anything that even appear to have bent the rules could damage his appeal and blunt his attempts to broaden the base of his votes among independent voters.

McCain is scheduled to appear at a press availability this morning at 9:00am ET. This will be his first test as the presumptive nominee to demonstrate how he will perform under this kind of pressure. The “straight talk” he has long championed will be parsed a hundred different ways and compared to the story and the public record. How he handles the allegations raised could set the pattern for his general election campaign.

You can watch McCain’s press conference live on CBSNews.com at 9:00am ET.

Source: Horserace: CBSNews.com

With the Democratic race now coming down to March 4 contests in Ohio and Texas, outside groups are getting involved in hopes of having a say, reports CBS News senior political consultant Marc Ambinder. The most notable of those is the Teamsters union, which is set to endorse Barack Obama today.

The third largest union in the United States - the first, the Service Employees International Union, has endorsed Obama, while the National Education Association has remained neutral - the Teamsters were waiting until after Wisconsin’s primary to make their choice, Ambinder says in a blog post.

The union has 1.4 million members and its backing could be particularly useful in Ohio, a blue-collar battleground, and Pennsylvania on April 22, if the race is still competitive. The endorsement would be Obama’s second of the day from a labor union, after the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers.

But Clinton will get help in Ohio - as well as Texas and Pennsylvania - from an as-yet-unnamed 527 political group (named after the section of the tax code regulating such organizations). The group, Ambinder reports, is asking Clinton donors for pledges of up to $100,000, with a goal of raising $10 million by the end of next week. The law forbids 527 groups from coordinating with campaigns, but the effort appears to be an open secret among the former first lady’s donors.

Update: The Teamsters have now made their endorsement of Obama official. “Senator Obama understands the challenges working people face every day,” union President Jim Hoffa said in a statement. “He is the candidate in the best position to lead our movement to restore the American dream for working people in this country. Senator Obama will fight for better wages, real health care reform, stronger retirement security, fair trade and an end to the outsourcing of good jobs. He understands the importance of giving workers a voice at work and will fight for strong unions to help rebuild America”s middle class.”

The endorsement decision follows a meeting in Austin, Texas, between Hoffa and Obama, the statement said.

Source: Horserace: CBSNews.com

(AP)Today Barack Obama took to the editorial page of USA Today, laying out the conditions under which he would agree to accept public financing in the general election - an idea his campaign once embraced wholeheartedly, only to be seen as wavering in recent days.

While Obama reiterates his earlier promise to “aggressively pursue” a public financing agreement with the Republican nominee - likely John McCain - if he wins the Democratic nomination, Obama also says that such an agreement needs to go beyond accepting public funding: It also needs to include a promise by both candidates to “commit to discouraging cheating by their supporters; to refusing fundraising help to outside groups; and to limited their own parties to legal forms of involvement.”

Those conditions weren’t part of Obama’s original statement on accepting public financing in November 2007, when he said in a Midwest Democracy Network questionnaire, “I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.” Now, it appears Obama wants that publicly financed general election to be relatively free of outside influences as well.

Campaigning in Ohio, McCain signaled he’d make Obama’s financing an issue, particularly if the Illinois senator opts out of the public system. “We either keep our word or we don’t keep our word. I intend to keep my word to the American people,” he said, according to the Associated Press. “I think the American people would expect him to hold to that commitment, especially if we want to bring about change.”

If Obama were to accept public financing as the Democratic nominee, he would have more than $80 million at his disposal to spend over two months - more than enough, even by this race’s standards. But McCain would have the same amount, giving Obama no advantage for the final two months of the election. Still, Obama would be able to raise and spend money freely up until the moment he formally accepts the Democratic nomination, likely giving him an edge headed into what would be the campaign’s home stretch.

Source: Horserace: CBSNews.com

First, some straight-shootin’ for Texas, where’s “it’s better done than said”:

And a more generalized middle-class appeal:

Source: Horserace: CBSNews.com

This is awkward: The Hillary Clinton campaign has “barred” Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline - a former Clinton Rhode Island campaign chair - from the former first lady’s appearance in the state on Sunday, according to the Providence Journal.

Why? Because Cicilline doesn’t get along with the local firefighters’ union, and the Clinton campaign fears that if he shows up they will protest at the event.

Cicilline is no fan of Team Clinton’s decision.

“It”s obviously something for me to think about very carefully, because I am very disappointed in the decision of the Clinton campaign. I”m not prepared to say more than that today. I obviously have tremendous respect for Senator Clinton, but I”m very disappointed in the decision of her campaign today,” he said.

Rhode Island voters go to the polls on Tuesday, March 4th. There are 32 delegates at stake in the state, and a Brown University poll earlier this month showed Clinton with an eight point lead.

Source: Horserace: CBSNews.com

(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)If Hillary Clinton ends up with some time on her hands this summer to reflect on where her campaign went wrong (and it’s looking more and more likely she will), she may want to start at an unlikely place - her stunning and dramatic New Hampshire victory.

What at the time seemed like the makings of a comeback and provided evidence that her campaign structure had stabilized after the beating she too in Iowa turned out to be an illusion, one that may have prevented her from making the changes necessary to win the nomination.

Since New Hampshire, things have gone downhill for Clinton and they’re starting to pick up the kind of momentum that is impossible to reverse. We may have heard a hint of an acknowledgement from the candidate herself in last night’s debate when Clinton dropped the kind of light sniping has become part of her repertoire of late and instead gave a rhetorical bow to Barack Obama. “No matter what happens in this contest - and I am honored, I am honored to be here with Barack Obama . Whatever happens, we’re going
to be fine.”

Clinton passed up openings to go after Obama on readiness and experience in the debate, relying instead on her oft-repeated litany of attack on his words and their differences on health care mandates. Democratic voters in Texas and Ohio who just emerged from a coma in time to tune into the debate might have found something new and informational about the exchange. Unfortunately for Clinton, there almost certainly aren’t enough of those kinds of voters to help her out of the hole she’s dug for herself.

But that hole wasn’t dug in a day, it was done over a long period of time and it was done by repetitive motion, shovel full by shovel full. In retrospect, New Hampshire may have been the worst thing that could have happened to her once-certain campaign (outside of Barack Obama of course).

We know from previous reports about the campaign at the time that there was widespread dissatisfaction within the campaign after the debacle in Iowa, where Clinton finished third after dedicating so much effort and focus to a quick knock-out strategy. The comeback in New Hampshire, just five days later, seemed to right the ship but it was an illusion.

When the losses began piling up after a virtual draw on Super Tuesday, Clinton’s campaign manager was jettisoned, a nod that something had to change. But, as the campaign has done so often this year, the focus was all on process, not message. While they complained about caucuses being unrepresentative and pleaded their case to seat disputed delegates from Florida and Michigan, the candidate continued pushing the same message: experience over change, pragmatism over platitudes, safety over risk.

Source: Horserace: CBSNews.com

(AP)A wave of momentum has carried Barack Obama to big victories in every contest since Super Tuesday, and it now appears that wave is headed toward Texas, where a new poll shows Obama and Hillary Clinton in a statistical tie.

The ABC News/Washington Post poll of likely Democratic voters in Texas shows Clinton at 48 percent support, with Obama at 47 percent - a gap well within the survey’s 4 percent margin of error. The poll was conducted from Feb. 16-20, meaning most of its data comes from before Obama’s big win in Wisconsin’s Feb. 19 primary.

Ohio voters were also polled - here, Clinton’s lead is shrinking but still significant. In the Buckeye State, she leads Obama, 50 percent to 43 percent.

Both polls reflect the trend previously seen in other states: Clinton starts out with double-digit leads, sometimes more than 20 percentage points, only to see her advantage evaporate as the Obama campaign becomes active. Only a few days ago, polls in Texas showed her with an 8 percentage point lead over Obama. In Ohio, her lead was even bigger.

Early in the Democratic race, it appeared momentum wasn’t much of a factor, with Clinton and Obama virtually trading wins and fighting to a draw on Super Tuesday. But after a series of wins in states where Obama out-organized and out-spent Clinton, it appears the Illinois senator has become strong enough to eat into her leads even in states where, on paper, she should have a clear advantage.

Source: Horserace: CBSNews.com

(AP / CBS)Last weekend we gave you a peak at how Hawaii was revving up, or rather slowly mobilizing, for Tuesday’s caucuses. We got that courtesy of a first-hand look by CBS News’ director of surveys Kathy Frankovic. Fortunately for us (but perhaps not for her), Kathy was back in the New York nerve center for Tuesday’s events but her husband, Hal Glatzer was back on the Big Island and he gives us a report from his precinct, which Barack Obama won by a 867 to 292 margin:

Hilo, Hawaii — Everyone knew why they were there. But until the precinct officers unboxed the sign-in sheets and ballots, none of the 200 or so Democrats in this neighborhood knew how their caucus would be run. Three precincts were squeezed into a community center that, in an off-year, would be too big for even one of them. Confused and unsure about what to do, yet eager to do it, voters filled every chair; standees crowded shoulder-to-shoulder around them.

And still more people kept arriving; asking the ones in front of them what was going on inside. By 7 p.m., all the registered Democrats were logged in, all the new Party members were welcomed, and the ballots were distributed. (Printed weeks ahead, they still offered Kucinich and Edwards alongside Clinton and Obama.) Amazingly, no one did any electioneering; few caucus-goers sported candidates’ buttons, and there were no speeches at all.

Everyone knew who they had come to vote for, and did so quickly. But only after the first 50 or so of those inside had cast their ballots and left the building could the rest of the crowd come through the door, sign in, and vote.

Democracy was certainly a messy business, in Hawaii Tuesday night.

Source: Horserace: CBSNews.com