Niall Stanage

KISSIMMEE, Fla. – There was no talk of fairy tales, nor of Jesse Jackson’s long-ago presidential candidacy here yesterday, as Bill Clinton appeared at Barack Obama’s side before a huge crowd at a late-night rally.

Obama and Clinton came to the stage together shortly after 11 p.m., the Illinois senator’s arm draped supportively around the former president’s back. The tensions between the two men that lingered long after the Democratic primary ended were nowhere in evidence.

Clinton, cast in the recently unthinkable role of Obama’s warm-up speaker, seemed somber about the state of the country. “We can’t fool with this,” he said, referring to the presidential election.  read more »

Barack Obama's campaign just announced that he is canceling events in Des Moines and Madison scheduled for Thursday in order to be with his ailing grandmother.

He will go to Indianapolis Thursday and then leave for Hawaii in the early afternoon. He will be back on the trail Saturday. On the campaign plane, spokesman Robert Gibbs declined "for privacy reasons" to say anything about her condition other than saying it was "very serious...I think everyone understands that the decision Senator Obama is making to go to Hawaii underscores the seriousness of the situation."

Here's the official statement from Gibbs:

"Senator Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has always been one of the most important people in his life.  read more »

ORLANDO—Hillary Clinton was here to greet Barack Obama when his campaign plane touched down shortly after 5 p.m. The New York senator then ascended the steps as Obama was disembarking and greeted the man who defeated her in the Democratic primary with apparent warmth. Their brief conversation before they got into separate SUVs for the journey to their rally here this evening was inaudible to reporters.

Obama came over to the photographers gathered on the tarmac clutching a Mickey Mouse hat which had apparently been left on the seat of his vehicle. He asked the photogs how much they would pay him to put it on. When responses of "$2" and "$5" came back, Obama countered "not enough," and walked away smiling.

From Barack Obama just now, at his event in Tampa: "It's getting so bad that even Senator McCain's running mate denounced his tactics last night. As you know, you really have to work hard to violate Governor Palin's standards on negative campaigning."

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C.—Barack Obama's chief strategist David Axelrod said this afternoon that the endorsement of his candidate by Colin Powell had "slammed the door" on attempts by Republicans to suggest that there is something less than patriotic about the Democratic presidential contender.

Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin on Thursday referred to "pro-America areas" of the country, seeming to imply that the label was synonymous with political conservatism. The following day, Representative Michelle Bachmann asserted on MSNBC's Hardball that Obama "may have anti-American views."

Axelrod, who spoke to me as Obama addressed a crowd of approximately 10,000 at the Crown Center Coliseum here, asserted that Powell is "seen as an American statesman, and people understand that.  read more »

FREDERICKSBURG, Va.—Barack Obama seemed to be on the verge of paying for 12,000 rain-soaked people to have their clothes cleaned here last night—but he soon thought better of squandering his money that way.

“I’d like to cover everybody’s dry cleaning bill tonight, but I can’t cause I gotta use it on the campaign,” Obama told the huge crowd at the University of Mary Washington. “So consider it one more small contribution to our effort to change the country.”

The audience had been drenched by an earlier downpour and lighter but steady rain resumed minutes after Obama began speaking. University police meanwhile estimated that a total of 26,000 people had turned up for the event, 14,000 of whom had to be turned away.  read more »

DENVER—Joe Biden spoke, and it was a success. But the ghost of a balding Welshman could yet come to haunt the Democratic convention.

Neil Kinnock, the former leader of the British Labor Party, is best known in American circles as the man from whom Biden borrowed some rhetoric during his abortive bid for the presidency in 1988. Back then, Biden got caught adapting comments Kinnock had made about being the first member of his family to go to college. Although the Delaware senator had credited the British pol for the ideas in previous speeches, one occasion on which he did not do so proved disastrous for his White House hopes, leaving him open to the accusation of plagiarism.  read more »

Anyone who doubts the possibility of a landslide victory for Barack Obama in November probably didn't see John McCain on the stump this week.

The problem with Mr. McCain's appearances in Maine and New Hampshire on Monday and Tuesday was not merely that the crowds he attracted were smaller or less ardent than those who customarily flock to see Mr. Obama – though they were. Nor was it that asserting his opponent would "lose a war in order to win a political campaign" smacked of frustration – though it did.

The more fundamental weakness was Mr. McCain’s failure to answer a very basic question: Why does he want to be president? His stump speech provided no compelling rationale for his candidacy and no real road map for where he wants to lead the nation.  read more »

UNITY, N.H. – A remarkable event, and well-staged.

Hillary Clinton showed up in a blue pantsuit. Barack Obama was jacketless, with a blue tie.

Clinton was first to the mic, in front of a lively crowd of thousands gathered on gently sloping grass next to the local elementary school. A large old-style sign, perhaps 25 feet tall, spelled out "Unity" at one side of the arena --just in front of a huge, crane-hoisted American flag.

Unity, Clinton said, is not just a beautiful place but a "wonderful feeling.” She looked forward to Barack Obama taking the oath of office. He looked a bit bashful on his stool.  read more »

David Axelrod has appeared in the press enclosure here at the Unity event. He says Hillary will be a "huge force in bringing about the change we all want."

And her husband?

"We would welcome him. You know, there are only four living presidents and he has so much to offer here. We hope to establish a close relationship."

Axelrod also predicted his campaign would be accused of "inventing" the tie result here in the primary but "that was what happened."

And with that, there comes the sound of Obama and Clinton being introduced. No one can see them yet, though, and the crowd, which was cheering wildly, has gone quiet again.

A reporter says to none in particular that HRC might have decided to make a last round of superdelegate calls instead.

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Michelle Obama did her part for Democratic unity here today, referring to Hillary Clinton as an "extraordinary woman" at a round-table event with former New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen.

"Because of Hillary Clinton's work, the issues of importance to women and working families are more at the forefront than ever before," Obama said, the day before Barack Obama will appear with Clinton for the first time since the primary ended.

Naturally enough, she sought to portray herself and her husband as closely in tune with female concerns.

One of the first rounds of applause during her brief speech came when she paid tribute to her mother for resourcefulness.  read more »

RALEIGH, N.C. – Barack Obama, propelled to within touching distance of the Democratic nomination by an emphatic win in North Carolina and a stronger-than-expected showing in Indiana, made light of Hillary Clinton’s hopes for a “game-changing” result during his victory speech here last night.

“Today, what North Carolina decided is that the only game that needs changing is the one in Washington, D.C.,” Obama told a large crowd at NCSU’s Reynolds Coliseum.  read more »

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – In a long, impassioned speech last night, Michelle Obama tried one last time before the primary here to combat the idea that she and her husband were elitists, and excoriated Hillary Clinton for her gas-tax “holiday” proposal and her 2002 vote on Iraq.

The personal slights aimed at her family seemed to irk Ms. Obama most of all.

“See, there’s a whole lot of talk in this race about elitism and people being out of touch,” she told a crowd of approximately 1,500 in the Ovens auditorium.  read more »

HIGH POINT, N.C.—Sounding a sharply populist note the day before the North Carolina and Indiana primaries, Hillary Clinton tore into China, OPEC, oil companies, "Wall Street bankers" and predatory lenders during a 35-minute speech at the train station in this town of 100,000 around noon today.

In the process, she sought once again to portray Barack Obama as less knowledgeable about the problems of the less fortunate.  read more »

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Bill Clinton, making a late plea for votes on his wife's behalf here yesterday, asserted that "academic study after academic study" had shown the former first lady to be the victim of "the most slanted press coverage in American history" during this campaign.

Though it was not clear exactly what studies he was referring to, Clinton appeared especially irked by criticism of the senator's proposal to offer consumers a summer 'holiday' from gasoline taxes.  read more »

Superdelegates are generally seen as seasoned elected officials or as the kind of party apparatchiks whose natural habitat is the figurative smoke-filled room.

Not everyone fits the stereotype. Among those who will help decide the Democratic contest is a 51-year-old office administrator and piano teacher in Dublin, Ireland, who has not lived in the U.S. for more than two decades and follows the race in large part through coverage in the Irish and British media.
Liv Gibbons, a native of Los Angeles, will cast her vote at her party’s convention in Denver for Barack Obama.  read more »

STATE COLLEGE, Penn.—Hillary Clinton, speaking on the Penn State campus here on Sunday night, once again sought to exploit Barack Obama's declaration that John McCain would make a better president than George W Bush.

She was met with cheers when she told the crowd, "We need a nominee who is going to take on John McCain, not cheer him on."  read more »

Martin McGuinness, the onetime IRA commander who is now the Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, expressed his love for New York during his visit yesterday, shortly after a press conference at which city comptroller Bill Thompson announced a $150 million investment in the region's infrastructure.

McGuinness pronounced New York "one of the greatest cities on earth,” and said, “It is one of the most vibrant places you could ever hope to be. It is absolutely incredible to walk down any of the avenues, see the cosmopolitan nature of it and see everybody getting on well together."  read more »

A reflective and sometimes wistful-sounding Bill Clinton largely steered clear of campaign issues last night at a Manhattan event honoring him for his contribution to the Irish peace process.

Though he briefly thanked an introductory speaker for complimenting his wife's engagement with Irish issues, including the peace process, and made a glancing reference to her earlier appearance at the Irish American Presidential Forum, the former president made no other allusions to her candidacy.  read more »

Hillary Clinton basked in the obvious admiration of a group of influential Irish-Americans yesterday afternoon—even as she put forth a more humble account of her role in the Irish peace process than she has previously.

Her address to the Irish American Presidential Forum, held in midtown Manhattan, did not include any references to her being "instrumental" in the quest for peace—terminology she has deployed before.  read more »

Hillary Clinton barely lets a day pass without asserting that she is the more battle-hardened, experienced and reliable of the Democratic presidential candidates.

But the campaign she’s running continues to indicate otherwise.

The flap that culminated in the departure of Mark Penn as her chief strategist this week was notable mainly for the ineptitude it exposed: that the first lady had placed such trust in the judgment of a man who saw fit to work with a private client seeking to advance a position diametrically opposed to hers.  read more »

The first time I saw Hillary Clinton speak in person, she addressed about 80,000 people. But they hadn't come to see her.

The time was November 1995 and the place was the downtown area of my native Belfast. The Irish Republican Army had called a ceasefire a little over a year before and the sense was building that a real peace might take hold.  read more »

SAN ANTONIO, Texas—At the end of another day on which Barack Obama failed to deliver the coup de grace to Hillary Clinton’s White House hopes, the Illinois senator spoke to supporters here at an event that was notable mainly for its tepidity.

The crowd was startlingly small, numbering perhaps 1,500. Obama often attracts crowds 10 times as large. His speech was brief—it lasted barely 10 minutes—and featured few of the oratorical fireworks for which he is known.  read more »

AUSTIN, Texas—Could a primary campaign that has so far been memorable for the best of reasons end up becoming synonymous with the worst?

The reasons to love the Democratic contest to date are many and, for the most part, obvious: the evidence that a new generation of voters has become passionately engaged with public life; the presence of two formidable candidates, one female and one African-American; the promise of a restoration of American values after seven years during which a sepulchral darkness seemed to pervade the body politic.  read more »

AUSTIN, Texas—Last night, at her final pre-election rally here in Texas, Hillary Clinton once again invoked the prospect of a 3 a.m. call to the White House.

She told a crowd of around 3000 at the Burger Center sports facility that they should choose whichever candidate they would prefer to answer such a call.

Clinton also said that there was a big difference between “rhetoric and reality.”

Those isolated moments aside, however, she largely abjured the kind of full-frontal attack she has made on Obama elsewhere in recent days.  read more »

AUSTIN, Texas—Feminist icon Gloria Steinem took to the stump on Hillary Clinton’s behalf here last night and quickly proved that she has lost none of her taste for provocation.

From the stage, the 73-year-old seemed to denigrate the importance of John McCain’s time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. In an interview with The Observer afterward, she suggested that Barack Obama benefits—and Clinton suffers—because Americans view racism more seriously than sexism.

Steinem also told the crowd that one reason to back Clinton was because “she actually enjoys conflict.”

And she claimed that if Clinton’s experience as first lady were taken seriously in relation to her White House bid, people might “finally admit that, say, being a secretary is the best way to learn your boss’s job and take it over.”

Steinem raised McCain’s Vietnam imprisonment as she sought to highlight an alleged gender-based media bias against Clinton.  read more »

SAN ANTONIO, Texas—It was hardly the kind of symbolism an embattled candidate would hope for: appearing at an event within a stone’s throw of the Alamo last night, Hillary Clinton had only spoken for a few moments when the lights illuminating her on the open-air stage went out.

Clinton made no reference to the power failure and normal service was duly restored in time for her to launch her newly-sharpened attacks on Barack Obama.

Using the same concept as her controversial ‘telephone’ TV ad, Clinton asserted, “When the phone rings at 3 a.m. in the White House, there isn’t a time for speeches, there is no time for on-the-job training. You need someone with the strength and experience to make a decision.”  read more »

HOUSTON—Barack Obama, holding a Q-and-A session in an American Legion hall here, just criticized a new ad Hillary Clinton will reportedly begin running today.

Obama said that he understood the Clinton ad would ask, "Who do you want answering the phone in the White House at 3 a.m. when something is happening in the world?"

Obama called it an attempt to "play on people's fears" and asserted that it would "not work this time."  read more »

HOUSTON—Hillary Clinton contrasted herself with Barack Obama last night in a new way: she claimed to be more progressive on space exploration.

Houston is home to the Johnson Space Center, where NASA's manned spaceflight programs are based. And Clinton urged a large, fervent crowd at Delmar Fieldhouse to "be sure we have a president who wants to keep sending Americans into space so that we can continue to map the heavens."

"One of the differences" between her and Obama, Clinton said, is that she "want[s] Houston to remain the capital of the space race.”  read more »

AUSTIN, Texas—Bill Clinton told a crowd gathered in glorious sunshine here yesterday that his wife’s candidacy represented “change you can rely on.”

The former president also complained, as his wife started to fall behind in the polls, about the rules governing the Democratic contest in this state.

“The election process you’ve got takes the cake,” he told the crowd, citing the unusual combination of early voting, a primary and then caucuses on the evening of polling day.  read more »

SAN MARCOS, Texas—Barack Obama continued a sharp counter-offensive against John McCain on Wednesday night, bringing a day of intense campaigning to an end before a crowd of several thousand people here at Texas State University.

“There was no such thing as Al Qaeda in Iraq until he followed George Bush into war in Iraq,” Obama proclaimed. “All he’s done is follow George Bush into the quagmire.”

Obama’s comments came in response to remarks made earlier in the day by McCain, who had, in turn, been responding to something Obama had said during Tuesday’s MSNBC debate with Hillary Clinton. The Democratic front-runner had said then that he would, as president, reserve the right to reintroduce U.S. troops into Iraq, “if Al Qaeda is forming a base” there.

“I have some news,” McCain said sardonically in Tyler, east of Dallas, on Wednesday morning. “Al-Qaeda is in Iraq. Al Qaeda is called ‘Al Qaeda in Iraq’.”  read more »

AUSTIN, Texas—Before Bill Clinton proceeded to the serious business of making a pitch for his wife here at Austin Community College, he had to clear something up.

The man who introduced Clinton, former State Senator Gonzalo Barrientos, badly mangled a saying involving a rooster and the dawn.

His point appeared to have something to do with the dangers of investing too much hope in the rhetoric of certain unnamed politicians, but the convoluted aphorism drew only bemused looks and muted laughter among the crowd.

Clarification, however, was at hand.  read more »

The argument that the constant carping about Hillary Clinton’s campaign has been a function of an Obama-friendly, process-obsessed media is well and good. But how, then, to explain the deeply held dissatisfaction of an old Clinton loyalist like Leon Panetta?

In an interview with The Observer, Mr. Panetta compared Mrs. Clinton’s top strategist, Mark Penn, to Karl Rove, suggested that the Clinton campaign had totally underestimated Barack Obama’s appeal, and complained about the overall lack of planning that he said had characterized the former First Lady’s bid to return to the White House.

Mr. Panetta, who served as chief of staff in the White House from July 1994 to January 1997, and who has contributed $2000 to Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign, complained that Mr. Penn “is a political pollster from the past.”

”I never considered him someone who would run a national campaign for the presidency,” he said.  read more »

ALEXANDRIA, Va.—John McCain just rounded off his victory speech here by cheekily appropriating one of Barack Obama's signature lines.

"I promise you I am fired up and ready to go," he told a cheering crowd.

The Arizona senator's speech seemed to target Obama more than Clinton, in yet another sign of the shifting dynamics of the Democratic race.

At one point he suggested that Obama's candidacy offered "not a promise of hope but a platitude."  read more »

BALTIMORE—Since Barack Obama declared his candidacy just over a year ago, the overweening tendency—in the media and in the world beyond—has been to frame his battle with Hillary Clinton in terms of the tension between style and substance.

This idea has been expressed in two forms: doubts about whether Mr. Obama’s sheen of rhetorical prowess hides a lack of substantiality beneath, and assertions that the Democratic contest is being fought over essentially cosmetic differences.  read more »

FAIRFAX, Va.—Bill Clinton's address at George Mason University last night was preceded by a booming broadcast of Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer," and virtually the first words out of the former President's mouth were, "What a way to end this campaign, this is great!"

Presumably he was referring to the campaign in Virginia, which holds its primary today.

Clinton has been relatively muted on the campaign trail ever since his more aggressive tactics in South Carolina were seen to have helped Barack Obama to a big victory. He did, however, raise the subject of Barack Obama, albeit without naming him.  read more »

BALTIMORE—Surfing a wave of momentum, a visibly confident Barack Obama was received rapturously here by a capacity crowd at the 1st Mariner Arena late Monday afternoon.

Obama expressed his relish for a general election contest with John McCain and explicitly took on the arguments proffered against his candidacy by Hillary Clinton.  read more »

BALTIMORE—Barack Obama has just completed a 45-minute speech here to a capacity crowd at a huge downtown arena.

He used a little wry humor to mock those who suggest he is not tough enough to withstand what he called "the Republican attack machine."

"I have to explain to people: I'm skinny but I'm tough," Obama said. "I'm wiry! Don't mess with me. Let them bring it on. Who they got—John McCain?"  read more »

BALTIMORE—Barack Obama is due to speak here at the downtown 1st Mariner Arena shortly, and he has already succeeded in drawing yet another massive crowd.

The scene outside the venue at 2 p.m., 45 minutes before doors were due to open, was beyond anything I saw even in the feverish days before the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries. A line five– and six-people broad, shivering in the cold, was wending its way almost entirely around the arena.  read more »

COLUMBIA, S.C.—Barack Obama won a huge battle in South Carolina, and his speech tonight was the kind of ambitious speech that is meant to set the tone for the rest of his war for the Democratic nomination.

Obama told a crowd of several thousand cheering supporters in a convention center in downtown Columbia that "the cynics who said what began in the snows of Iowa was just an illusion were told a different story by the good people of South Carolina."

He also sought to frame his race with Hillary Clinton more starkly than ever before.  read more »

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Barack Obama raised the specter of his defeat in New Hampshire during his final pre-election speech to supporters here last night.

Obama finds himself, as he did in the Granite State, with a significant lead in the polls heading into Election Day. But a repeat of his traumatic loss in New Hampshire would deal his candidacy a potentially fatal blow.

Speaking to a capacity crowd at the Koger Center for the Arts shortly after 11 p.m. last night, Obama recalled that "everybody was so excited" after his win in the Iowa caucuses.

"I think people started thinking, 'This is not hard.' But you know that the status quo doesn't give up that easily…The status quo resists," he said.  read more »

ROCK HILL, S.C.—An otherwise raucously upbeat Hillary Clinton event was marred by its abrupt ending, when a man collapsed toward the back of the hall and the Senator left the stage.

After the man, still conscious, was helped to an exit by medical staff, Clinton continued to sign autographs and greet audience members.

Until then, Clinton had seemed confident and unusually relaxed. And, while it is always risky to extrapolate too much from the atmosphere at any single campaign stop, the conspicuous excitement with which she was received by a crowd of several hundred in this 50,000-strong town may augur well for her electoral fortunes in tomorrow's primary.  read more »

ROCK HILL, S.C.—Hillary Clinton gave a brief press conference after her public rally here.

She began by defending her campaign's decision to try to get delegates from Michigan and Florida seated at the national convention.

"I am not violating the pledge," she said, but added, "I think it's important that we send a message to the people of Florida and Michigan."  read more »

ROCK HILL, S.C. Hillary Clinton has just brought a premature end to an event here after an elderly man collapsed at the back of the hall.

Clinton was in the middle of a Q&A session when the man fell. As calls for water went up the Senator asked people to pass her bottle of water down from the stage. She then said "Let's leave it there," asked the crowd to give the man space, and exited.

Medical care is being administered to the man, who appears shaken but conscious.

BARNWELL, S.C.—Sparks flew only once as Bill Clinton brought a day of stumping for his wife to a close in this small town in the southwest of the state.

For the first time in awhile, neither Barack Obama nor the media were in the former President's line-of-fire.

Instead, when an audience member implied that there had been a cover-up of the events of September 11, Clinton almost lost his cool. (It's not the first time Clinton has tangled with the issue.)  read more »