Clinton expects decision of superdelegates soon

HELENA, Mont. — Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday she expects uncommitted superdelegates to begin making the choice that will decide her marathon Democratic primary race against Barack Obama soon after the Tuesday’s primaries.
In a conference call with Montana reporters, Clinton was asked about the effort by top Democratic leaders to push for a quick end to the fight for the presidential nomination after primaries in South Dakota and Montana next week. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said that he, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and party chairman Howard Dean will urge uncommitted delegates to choose sides.
Clinton said: “I think that after the final primaries, people are going to start making up their minds. I think that is the natural progression that one would expect.”
Clinton said superdelegates — the party and elected officials who can vote for whomever they choose regardless of what happens in the primaries and caucuses — will have to decide who is the stronger candidate in the fall to run against Republican John McCain.
“I think that people will have to ask themselves those questions, who would be the best president in terms of preparation and readiness and effectiveness, and who would be the stronger candidate. And I imagine that process will begin after the end of the last primaries,” Clinton said.
Last week, Clinton indicated that she might take the fight to the convention in August if Michigan and Florida want to challenge an unfavorable ruling on their delegates. The two states were stripped of their delegates for holding early primaries; a special Democratic National Committee panel meets Saturday to decide their fate.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Clinton was asked whether she would support the states if they appeal an unfavorable rules committee decision to the convention floor, the former first lady replied:
“Yes I will. I will, because I feel very strongly about this.”
“I will consult with Floridians and the voters in Michigan because it’s really their voices that are being ignored and their votes that are being discounted, and I’ll support whatever the elected officials and the voters in those two states want to do.”
Taking her battle to the convention would fly in the face of an increasing number of party leaders who say the contest needs to be wrapped up shortly after the last primary on June 3 to prepare adequately for the fall election.
Asked if she now envisioned the race extending beyond June 3, Clinton replied: “It could, I hope it doesn’t. I hope it’s resolved to everyone’s satisfaction by that date, because that’s what people are expecting, but we’ll have to see what happens.”

Clinton making potential last stand at DNC meeting

Hillary Clinton and her supporters are making what may be their last stand, at a Democratic Party meeting this weekend in Washington, D.C.
When a rules panel of the Democratic National Committee takes up the issue of disputed Michigan and Florida primaries Saturday morning, Clinton’s campaign will continue to argue that the delegations from both states should be seated in full.
The Florida-Michigan decision is practically her only remaining chance of securing a tidal wave of delegates. As of Friday, the New York senator was more than 200 delegates behind Barack Obama, and in the three primaries left to go she cannot win enough to make up that difference.
“We are hopeful and confident that after having a full-blown discussion … all the delegates will be seated, 100 percent, all of them will have a full vote,” Clinton adviser Harold Ickes said in a conference call with reporters Friday.
Clinton won both states, but their delegations were stripped for holding early primaries in violation of party rules. The options before the Rules and Bylaws Committee on Saturday are to restore the delegates in full, restore part of the delegation or uphold the original penalty.
Obama has said he’s willing to have some delegates seated, and party leaders have expressed hope that DNC Chairman Howard Dean can broker a compromise to ensure party unity come June.
Clinton’s campaign, though, is encouraging supporters to head to the meeting Saturday to protest.
“These people are coming. They’re going to speak. They’re going to peacefully say, ‘We support what’s going on in this room.’ … We want them to be part of the entire picture of the Democratic Party,” Clinton adviser Tina Flournoy said Friday, objecting to anybody who tries to describe the scene as “chaos” or a “circus.”
In a letter to the committee Friday, the campaign’s general counsel said the possibility of no delegates being seated is “an unacceptable outcome.”
The letter said that the campaign wants “all” delegates restored and disputed a DNC lawyer’s assessment that the committee is unable to restore more than half of the delegates.
“This conclusion is incorrect,” the letter said, arguing that the committee can “forgive violations” when “positive steps” have been taken to come into compliance.
The vexing question is how the delegates would be allocated even if they were counted.
Neither candidate campaigned in the states, and Obama was not even on the ballot in Michigan. Many Michigan voters who favored Obama registered their support by voting “uncommitted.”
A Florida proposal suggests reducing the state’s delegation by half, while Michigan Democrats have proposed splitting the delegates, giving Clinton 69 and Obama 59.
But the Clinton campaign says since not all “uncommitted” voters in Michigan wanted Obama, it would be arbitrary to execute such a plan.
DNC member Joel Ferguson, a Clinton supporter, also said that plan is “fatally flawed.”
“If you’re going to solve breaking rules, you can’t do it by having a new set of rules,” he told FOX News, adding that Obama shouldn’t get extra points for taking his name off the Michigan ballot.
Committee Co-Chairman James Roosevelt said it’s possible the issue could be appealed to the Credentials Committee if there’s no agreement this weekend.
But party officials already have said they will step in to prevent this fight from going to the August convention.
The Clinton campaign in its letter even stated that the rules committee should resolve the issue “promptly” and discussed the possibility of seating the delegations from both states with half-votes. That would be a compromise from the Clinton campaign.
Though she is pushing for a complete reversal of the original DNC decision on Michigan and Florida, that alone would not save her ailing campaign.
Even if all the two states’ 313 pledged delegates were allocated, with no votes for Obama from Michigan, Clinton would get 178 to Obama’s 67, closing the gap by 111 votes, according to The Associated Press.
Obama, with 1,984 delegates, is just 42 shy of the 2,026 it takes to clinch the nomination. Clinton is at 1,782.
The Obama campaign acknowledges that Saturday’s decision may increase the number of delegates it takes to win, but says the race will still be over soon.
Montana and South Dakota hold the final Democratic primaries in the country Tuesday, after Puerto Rico holds its contest Sunday.
“As long as by Tuesday Senator Obama’s campaign ends with more pledged delegates — and there’s no mathematical way that does not happen — he’s clearly gonna be the nominee by almost every measure,” said Chris Kofinis, former spokesman for Democratic candidate John Edwards. “And if that happens you’re gonna see a wave of superdelegates go his way.”

Obama ready to wrap up primary season

Barack Obama is looking at the general election map, traveling to “purple” states that could swing to either party in November, as his campaign prepares to capture the remaining delegates it needs to win the Democratic nomination for president.
Hillary Clinton is still in primary states, hitting Montana on Tuesday and South Dakota later this week. Although the math is against her, she hopes to finish strong in those states, which hold the final two primaries on June 3.
Obama needs just 48 delegates to seal the deal, having picked up 11 over the Memorial Day weekend and one more on Tuesday. Clinton has picked up none since last week, when she was harangued for noting the 1968 assassination of Robert Kennedy as evidence that primaries have lasted until June.
Obama chief strategist David Axelrod told The New York Daily News that the end is near.
“We’re very close now,” Axelrod told the newspaper. “When the primaries end, I think, we’ll be where we need to be. … We’ll be at the number we need to claim the nomination.”
Before Montana and South Dakota vote, Puerto Rico holds its election on Sunday. The territory is polling strong for Clinton, but could put Obama over the top or within a hair’ s breadth of it.
With Florida and Michigan counted — the Democratic Party’s rules committee meets Saturday to decide how to retract the penalty the states were given for voting early — the nomination could shake out by the weekend, but it will ultimately be done by Tuesday.
After that, Clinton may try to push forward anyway, or she may decide to end her campaign. The Obama campaign has made it clear to its supporters that it will leave it to Clinton to decide her timetable, means and method for exiting the race.

Tennessee woman dies in iron lung during outage

A woman who spent nearly 60 years of her life in an iron lung after being diagnosed with polio as a child died Wednesday after a power failure shut down the machine that kept her breathing, her family said.
Dianne Odell, 61, had been confined to the 7-foot-long machine since she was stricken by polio at 3 years old.
Family members were unable to get an emergency generator working for the iron lung after a power failure knocked out electricity to the Odell family's residence near Jackson, about 80 miles northeast of Memphis, brother-in-law Will Beyer said.
"We did everything we could do but we couldn't keep her breathing," said Beyer, who was called to the home shortly after the power failed. "Dianne had gotten a lot weaker over the past several months and she just didn't have the strength to keep going."
Capt. Jerry Elston of the Madison County Sheriff's Department said emergency crews were called to the scene, but could do little to help.
Odell was afflicted with "bulbo-spinal" polio three years before a polio vaccine was discovered and largely stopped the spread of the crippling childhood disease.
She spent her life in the iron lung, cared for by her parents and other family members. Though confined inside the 750-pound apparatus, Odell managed to get a high school diploma, take college courses and write a children's book.
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The iron lung that she used was a cylindrical chamber with a seal at the neck. She lay on her back in the device with only her head exposed, and made eye contact with visitors using an angled mirror above her head. The lung worked by producing positive and negative pressure on the lungs that caused them to expand and contract so that she could breathe.
Iron lungs were first used to sustain life in 1928, and were largely replaced by positive-pressure airway ventilators in the late 1950s. A spinal deformity from the polio made it impossible for Odell to wear a more modern, portable breathing apparatus, so she continued to use the older machine.
It is not known how many polio survivors still use iron lungs, but Odell was believed to have used it for longer than most.
Odell was determined to live a full life — she earned a diploma from Jackson High School as a home-bound student and an honorary degree from Freed-Hardeman College. A voice-activated computer allowed her to write a children's book, "Less Light," about Blinky, a tiny star who dreams of becoming a wishing star.
In a 2001 interview with The Associated Press, she said she wanted to show children, especially those with physical disabilities, that they should never give up.
"It's amazing what you can accomplish if you see someone do the same thing," she said.

Dean and DNC strive to unify party

Howard Dean’s drive toward party unity will be put to the test this weekend when the Democratic Party meets to hash out one of the most divisive wedges of the primary season.
A 30-member panel of the Democratic National Committee is set to consider the dispute over the discounted Michigan and Florida convention delegates Saturday.
The DNC chairman, who has staked his reputation on a political strategy that involves reaching out to every state to win elections, has said recently he’s committed to seating those delegations — which were stripped because the states held early primaries.
But it’s a sensitive matter, and the meeting’s outcome could make lasting impressions not just on the primary race, but on the Democratic ticket’s potency going into the fall election. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and party leaders in both states are all attempting to influence the process.
Handled incorrectly, Democratic leaders worry it could be the thread that teases the party loose come November. So they are hopeful Dean, along with the campaigns and panel members, are able to reach a compromise that bridges a party already hurting from a bitter and protracted primary campaign.
“What’s at stake is nothing less than the confidence of Florida voters going into the general election, and the presidency itself,” said Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
She faults Dean and DNC leadership for early on criticizing Florida and Michigan in TV interviews and fanning the “flames” of their decision, which she said was over the top.
Party rules automatically allowed for cutting the delegations in half, which is what the Republican Party did. The DNC stripped the entire delegations.
“They just went way overboard and cut off their nose to spite their face,” she said.
But she said Dean has recently moved to reconcile with the states and is hopeful the panel reaches a fair solution.

Bob Barr chossen as Libertarian canidate for 2008

(CNN) -- Former Georgia Rep. Bob Barr was officially nominated Sunday as the Libertarian candidate for president.

Former Georgia Rep. Bob Barr is the Libertarian candidate for president.

"We have only 163 days to win this election -- do not waste one single day," Barr told supporters at the Libertarian National Convention in Denver, Colorado.
Barr is best known for playing a prominent role in the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton.
His candidacy has attracted more attention to the Libertarian Party, with some GOP observers watching to see whether Barr will draw votes away from the presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, in the general election.
"We're not in this race to make a point, though a very important point will be made," Barr said.
On the sixth ballot at the convention, Barr won the nomination over research scientist Mary Ruwart. After going out on the fifth ballot, fellow candidate Wayne Allyn Root urged his supporters to back Barr and made his case to be Barr's vice presidential running mate.
Barr, 59, left the Republican Party in 2006, and announced in April that he would form a presidential exploratory committee. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1994 and represented a conservative district in the Atlanta suburbs for four terms.
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After the House impeached Clinton over his attempt to cover up his affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, Barr served as one of the "managers" who prosecuted the case in the Senate. Senators ultimately acquitted Clinton in 1999.
Clinton's wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, faces Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois for the 2008 Democratic nomination.
In his last term, Barr became an increasingly vocal critic of President Bush, particularly criticizing the administration's support of the anti-terrorist Patriot Act.
Like former Libertarian standard-bearer Ron Paul, the Texas congressman who sought the GOP presidential nomination this year, Barr supports a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.
Barr has said the 5-year-old war has resulted in "tremendous cost and only the most speculative of benefit."
He worked as an occasional contributor and analyst for CNN after leaving office.
The last two Libertarian candidates, Michael Badnarik in 2004 and Harry Browne in 2000, drew fewer than 400,000 votes each

McCain speaks about veterans aid package

Speaking in observance of Memorial Day Monday, Sen. John McCain praised the “brave and selfless patriots” serving in the armed forces, and defended his opposition to Senate-passed legislation that would provide additional college financial aid to veterans.

The issue has become a point of contention between the Republican nominee-in-waiting and Democratic rival Barack Obama, who supports the measure. The two have squared off from a distance in recent days, at times with heated words.

In his remarks Monday, McCain made no direct mention of Obama but seemed to poke at him nonetheless. McCain said his was the right position rather than the politically expedient one, suggesting Obama was on the wrong side of the measure sponsored by Democratic Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia.

Last week, the Democratic-controlled Senate approved the bill, which would substantially increase educational benefits for service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

In his speech Monday, McCain said Webb’s bill, which offers the same benefits to all servicemen regardless of the term of their service, would “encourage more people to leave the military after they have completed one enlistment.”

Sen. Barack Obama has criticized McCain for his opposition to Webb’s bill, accusing him of “partisan posturing.”

McCain touted his own bill, already blocked in the Senate, which he said offered a “sliding scale” that increased benefits “according to the veteran’s length of service.”

“It would be easier, much easier politically for me to have joined Senator Webb in offering his legislation,” McCain said, noting that assuming the presidency would require taking “politically unpopular positions at times and [disagreeing] with people for whom I have the highest respect and affection.”

“I take a back seat to no one in my affection, respect and devotion to veterans,” he said.
McCain spent the early part of the holiday weekend at his retreat in Sedona, Ariz., where he entertained some two dozen guests, including three fellow Republicans who have been mentioned as possible vice presidential candidates: Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Tornado hits town in Iowa

DES MOINES, Iowa — Half of this small town lay in ruins or heavily damaged Monday following a deadly tornado that ripped apart a stretch of northern Iowa.
The Sunday afternoon twister killed six people in Iowa, four of them in Parkersburg and two others in nearby New Hartford. In neighboring Minnesota, a child was killed by violent weather in a suburb of St. Paul.
"You really are overwhelmed when you see it," Iowa Gov. Chet Culver said at a news conference Monday after touring the Parkersburg area. "You can't imagine this kind of devastation, homes completely gone. And to see people trying to sort through their belongings is very difficult."
Crews were beginning to search Monday morning through the rubble left by tornadoes that tore through the United States' midsection, killing seven people.
Bob Haylock, mayor of Parkersburg, Iowa, said a Sunday afternoon tornado destroyed roughly one-third of his town of about 1,000 people. The number of dead and injured would have been higher if not for warning sirens that sounded early enough to give residents time to seek shelter.

"Without that, we would have a tremendous amount of injuries and loss of life," Haylock said. "People were down in their basements and waiting it out."
Haylock said most of those who died were in basements. All were adults, he said.
The number killed in Iowa, initially was reported as seven but was dropped to six Monday after a better accounting of residents, said Bret Voorhees, bureau chief of Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
Four of those killed were from Parkersburg and two were from the nearby town of New Hartford, Voorhees said. At least 50 injuries were reported.
Voorhees said about 200 people took shelter in an elementary school Sunday night. They were allowed to return to the town Monday morning but will have to leave by 8 p.m.

Top ten List to illeaglize gay marriage

Let me first say that the list below in no way reflects my opinion of gay marriage. I wanted to post it to show how insensitive people can be to those who dont think the way they do. I will be honest and say that i do have my reservations on the idea of gay marriage, but i could never be so ignorant of insensitive as the writer of this list or others can be:

Top Ten Reasons to Make Gay Marriage Illegal

01) Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.

02) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

03) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

04) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn’t changed at all like many of the principles on which this great country was founded; women are still property, blacks still can’t marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

05) Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of marriages like Britney Spears’ 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.


06) Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn’t be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren’t full yet, and the world needs more children.

07) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

08) Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That’s why we have only one religion in America.

09) Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That’s why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.

10) Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven’t adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.

Gas prices continue to rise

Drivers still aren't finding any bargains at pump, as gas prices continue to rise over the holiday weekend.
According to AAA, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline is now $3.93. That's up more than 71 cents from a year ago and more than 35 cents from just a month ago.
In 11 states and the District of Columbia, the average price of gas is more than $4. In the lower 48 states, drivers in Connecticut are paying the highest average price per gallon at nearly $4.18. In Alaska, gas averages almost $4.20 a gallon.
Gas on average is the cheapest in Wyoming at just more than $3.73 a gallon. (Associated Press May 25, 2008)