Post by radina on Dec 22, 2007 15:37:13 GMT -5
by Paul Handley
37 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Democratic rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama battled Saturday to lock in votes in key states for the 2008 presidential nominations before the Christmas-New Year holiday.
Braving snow and subfreezing temperatures in Iowa -- where Obama kept up a hectic schedule of appearances -- and in New Hampshire, where Clinton met with a group of women early Saturday -- both tried to win over voters one by one to gain an edge.
The two states will be the first to vote on who will be the Democratic party's presidential candidate next year.
Just 12 days before Iowa holds its caucuses and 17 before New Hampshire's primary vote, the two are neck and neck in each state, according to various polls.
But with Christmas and New Year falling during that period, and many voters shutting their doors to campaigns for the holidays, every minute counts over the weekend. A loss in both states could doom the campaign of either candidate.
In New Hampshire Clinton sought to boost her lead among women voters, talking about her experience as a working mother and how Republicans made it difficult to help out families.
"When I'm president, we're not going to have to work so hard to help families take care of their children and their parents while they work," she said.
Obama meanwhile raced across Iowa looking to cement the slight lead polls give him in that midwest farm state, with at least eight appearances scheduled this weekend.
He had to keep his eye meanwhile on Hillary Clinton's husband, former president Bill Clinton, who was also in Iowa campaigning for his wife.
The Des Moines Register reported that Bill Clinton pulled in about 600 enthusiastic supporters people to a rally Saturday at a school in West Des Moines.
"I must say you're like an early Christmas present for me -- there's so many here and you're in such good humor and it's so early in the morning," he said.
The two candidates' messages have gelled around the theme of experience (Clinton) versus change (Obama), with both now melding the themes to claim they would be the better president.
In a campaign ad released Thursday, Clinton says: "I have 35 years' experience making change ... This election isn't about choosing change over experience. Change only comes with experience."
Meanwhile Obama stressed he has in his political career the experience of making change happen.
"When people look at my track record, they realize that not only have I been willing to step out when others weren't willing to step out, but I've been able to actually attract those around an agenda for change," he told NBC television Friday.
While Clinton and Obama jousted with each other softly, in contrast sharp knives were out in the Republican campaign for Mike Huckabee, the former preacher who has surged from an also-ran two months ago to lead polls for the Iowa Republican caucuses.
While his top rival Mitt Romney took aim at his record as Arkansas governor in releasing convicted criminals from jail and raising taxes, in recent days the Washington Republican establishment has also fired a brutal volley at Huckabee.
Editor Rich Lowry of the conservative National Review warned Republicans against committing "Huckacide" by electing him and Washington Post columnist Robert Novak wrote that "serious Republicans know that he is a high-tax, protectionist advocate of big government and a strong hand in the Oval Office directing the lives of Americans."
And Friday even Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had sharp words for a Huckabee article that criticized the "arrogant bunker mentality" of the foreign policy of President George W. Bush.
"The idea that somehow this is a go-it-alone policy is just simply ludicrous," she said, not mentioning Huckabee by name.
37 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Democratic rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama battled Saturday to lock in votes in key states for the 2008 presidential nominations before the Christmas-New Year holiday.
Braving snow and subfreezing temperatures in Iowa -- where Obama kept up a hectic schedule of appearances -- and in New Hampshire, where Clinton met with a group of women early Saturday -- both tried to win over voters one by one to gain an edge.
The two states will be the first to vote on who will be the Democratic party's presidential candidate next year.
Just 12 days before Iowa holds its caucuses and 17 before New Hampshire's primary vote, the two are neck and neck in each state, according to various polls.
But with Christmas and New Year falling during that period, and many voters shutting their doors to campaigns for the holidays, every minute counts over the weekend. A loss in both states could doom the campaign of either candidate.
In New Hampshire Clinton sought to boost her lead among women voters, talking about her experience as a working mother and how Republicans made it difficult to help out families.
"When I'm president, we're not going to have to work so hard to help families take care of their children and their parents while they work," she said.
Obama meanwhile raced across Iowa looking to cement the slight lead polls give him in that midwest farm state, with at least eight appearances scheduled this weekend.
He had to keep his eye meanwhile on Hillary Clinton's husband, former president Bill Clinton, who was also in Iowa campaigning for his wife.
The Des Moines Register reported that Bill Clinton pulled in about 600 enthusiastic supporters people to a rally Saturday at a school in West Des Moines.
"I must say you're like an early Christmas present for me -- there's so many here and you're in such good humor and it's so early in the morning," he said.
The two candidates' messages have gelled around the theme of experience (Clinton) versus change (Obama), with both now melding the themes to claim they would be the better president.
In a campaign ad released Thursday, Clinton says: "I have 35 years' experience making change ... This election isn't about choosing change over experience. Change only comes with experience."
Meanwhile Obama stressed he has in his political career the experience of making change happen.
"When people look at my track record, they realize that not only have I been willing to step out when others weren't willing to step out, but I've been able to actually attract those around an agenda for change," he told NBC television Friday.
While Clinton and Obama jousted with each other softly, in contrast sharp knives were out in the Republican campaign for Mike Huckabee, the former preacher who has surged from an also-ran two months ago to lead polls for the Iowa Republican caucuses.
While his top rival Mitt Romney took aim at his record as Arkansas governor in releasing convicted criminals from jail and raising taxes, in recent days the Washington Republican establishment has also fired a brutal volley at Huckabee.
Editor Rich Lowry of the conservative National Review warned Republicans against committing "Huckacide" by electing him and Washington Post columnist Robert Novak wrote that "serious Republicans know that he is a high-tax, protectionist advocate of big government and a strong hand in the Oval Office directing the lives of Americans."
And Friday even Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had sharp words for a Huckabee article that criticized the "arrogant bunker mentality" of the foreign policy of President George W. Bush.
"The idea that somehow this is a go-it-alone policy is just simply ludicrous," she said, not mentioning Huckabee by name.