Democrat Barack Obama said on Saturday he had quit his long-time Chicago church after months of controversy over racially laced pulpit rhetoric that still threatens to tarnish his White House hopes. The Illinois senator said he and his wife, Michelle, were withdrawing from the 8 000-strong congregation of the Trinity United Church of Christ.
As the Democratic primary contest heads to its climax, the Republicans are firing the opening shots of an election barrage to come against their probable White House opponent, Barack Obama. Republican John McCain and his colleagues already see Hillary Clinton’s campaign as mortally wounded.
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton faced their latest day of destiny on Tuesday as Democrats in Indiana and North Carolina geared up to vote in the party’s electrifying presidential race. Opinion polls pointed to another messy draw on the biggest single day of voting left in the Democrats’ nominating epic.
Rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton stepped up their battle on Monday on the eve of the next primary showdown, as the Democratic Party head urged unity in the race to rout Republicans from the White House. ”It’s not about Hillary Clinton, it’s not about Barack Obama. It is about our country,” Democratic national committee chairperson Howard Dean said.
It looked like yet another jubilant Barack Obama rally. The cavernous Indiana University sports hall in Bloomington jammed with thousands of supporters who stood in their seats and cheered deafeningly loudly. Ever since Obama launched his bid to become America’s first ever black President 15 months ago, hundreds of cities and towns have seen the same huge rallies.
Hillary Clinton appeared on Wednesday to be gaining on Barack Obama in two key primary states, after her Democratic foe tried to quell another damaging uproar sparked by his fiery former pastor. The White House rivals fought another day of fierce turf battles in mid-western Indiana and North Carolina, which hold Democratic primaries on Tuesday.
Barack Obama’s fiery former minister thrust his way back into the United States presidential campaign on Monday, again placing the divisive issue of race at the heart of the Democratic White House tussle. An unapologetic Reverend Jeremiah Wright hit back at weeks of criticism over his incendiary comments.
When you actually see Barack Obama, it’s startling how slight he is and how young he looks. I watched him arrive for a meeting in Philadelphia this week, and he had an anxious, fretful little smile, as if it were his first campaign speech. His ears stick out and his clothes hang loose. Most successful American politicians look well-fed on endorsements, campaign contributions and chicken dinners.
Forty years after Martin Luther King Jr was shot to death, the civil rights leader is still roiling American politics. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican candidate John McCain have both come to Memphis to mark King’s April 4 1968, death and try to shore up support among black voters.
Democratic White House contender Barack Obama on Wednesday mocked rival Hillary Clinton’s claim to be a ”Rocky” fighter for the working classes, as polls suggested he is punching into her lead in gritty Pennsylvania. ”We all love Rocky, and last time I checked I was the underdog in this state,” Obama told trade unionists.
He sips beers, kisses babies, hangs out in bowling alleys and bottle feeds calves: Barack Obama is playing a ”regular guy” in a stealth attack on Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania. While best known for soaring rhetoric and rock star-style rallies, the pace-setting Democrat is adopting a more personal touch, turning on the charm on a six-day bus tour of the state.
The National Civil Rights Museum sits in what was the Lorraine Motel, just beyond the shadows of Memphis’s skyscrapers and the garish neon glow of Beale Street — the main drag made famous by the likes of BB King and James Baldwin. The first words of the first exhibit state: ”Protest against injustice is deeply rooted in the African-American experience.”
Barack Obama’s camp has accused Hillary Clinton of trying to divert attention from her exaggerated account of a 1996 trip to Bosnia after she revived a row over her rival’s fiery pastor. With Obama set to return to the campaign trail on Wednesday after a short Easter holiday, the Democratic White House foes were braced for more bitterness.
Contract workers for the United States State Department improperly viewed Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama’s passport records three times this year in what his campaign called ”an outrageous breach” of his privacy. The incidents, which occurred on January 9, February 21 and March 14, were quickly reported to lower-level State Department officials.
Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama on Wednesday admitted to being ”shaken” by a controversy over racial politics ignited by his pastor’s incendiary sermons. Obama, who gave a landmark speech about race in America on Tuesday, admitted in an interview with CNN that the matter had affected him personally.