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.

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.