It has been a busy week for United States President George Bush. He has shuttled across the country, faced a barrage of questions from a hounding press pack and made some tough spending decisions. But the focus of the action was not a bold new policy initiative. Instead, the dramatic upsurge of media interest has been because of the wedding of his daughter.
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 moved closer to sewing up the Democratic presidential nomination on Friday with more superdelegates rallying to his side, as rival Hillary Clinton fought on despite mounting odds against her. Clinton has vowed no surrender and plunged straight back into campaigning before the May 13 primary in West Virginia.
Barack Obama on Thursday gave the clearest hint yet that he may consider Hillary Clinton as his vice-presidential running mate in the November election for the White House. With the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination close to finished as a contest, Obama began looking beyond his battles with Clinton to the one with the Republican John McCain.
Democrat Hillary Clinton on Wednesday vowed she would not quit the party’s bitter White House race, but faced mounting pressure to step aside in favour of a resurgent Barack Obama. ”I am staying in this race until there is a nominee,” Clinton told reporters in West Virginia, which holds its presidential primary next Tuesday.
Hillary Clinton’s hopes of winning the race for the Democratic nomination for president are dwindling after she failed on Wednesday to close the gap on Barack Obama in two key primaries. She won the Indiana primary but saw that outweighed by his win in North Carolina.
In politics, as in life, chickens usually come home to roost. Fourteen years of failure in leadership and management at the Department of Home Affairs. Nine years of self-indulgent denialism in the Presidency. Six months of Umshini Wami and the violence and human rights promiscuity it implies — not to mention the failure in intelligence.
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.
With polls showing softening support for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton on Friday pursued her relentless quest for a comeback ahead of next week’s crunch White House nominating showdowns. Obama, reeling from days of uproar over his fiery former pastor, finally got a boost, as a high-profile former Democratic party chief ditched Clinton.
Hillary Clinton branded rhetoric by Barack Obama’s former pastor ”outrageous” on Wednesday as her Democratic foe tried to recover from his latest campaign crisis with two vital primaries looming. Clinton made her most expansive comments yet on the latest uproar sparked by the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
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.
United States President George Bush described his mood as ”a little wistful” on Saturday night as he attended his last White House correspondents’ dinner. The president, who is said by those around him to detest journalists, has given the impression down the years that he would rather be somewhere else.
Robert Kagan, author, essayist, former diplomat, pre-eminent thinker of what is called ”neoconservatism” — and now foreign policy adviser to Republican presidential nominee John McCain — would like it to be known that there are many things that he is not.
Democrat Barack Obama said on Friday he would fine-tune his United States presidential campaign and remind voters of his humble roots after a defeat in Pennsylvania fuelled in part by his failure to win over working-class voters. Obama leads the Democratic race but is in a gruelling battle with Hillary Clinton for the right to face Republican John McCain in November’s presidential election.
Barack Obama faced renewed questions on Wednesday about his ability to deliver a Democratic victory in November after his failure to knock out Hillary Clinton in Tuesday’s Pennsylvania primary. Clinton cast it as a turning point. ”The tide is turning,” she said in an email to supporters on Wednesday morning.
A victorious Hillary Clinton convincingly kept her White House quest alive on Tuesday, triumphing over Barack Obama in Pennsylvania’s rancorous Democratic primary. ”Today here in Pennsylvania, you made your voices heard and because of you, the tide is turning,” Clinton told jubilant supporters after early results showed the former first lady beating Obama.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton warned Tehran on Tuesday that if she were president, the United States could ”totally obliterate” Iran in retaliation for a nuclear strike against Israel. Clinton said she wanted to make clear to Tehran what she was prepared to do as president in hopes that this warning would deter any Iranian attack.
Fed up with the flaws of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain? Here’s your chance to set things right. An innovative website using Wikipedia-like collaborative software has given people around the world to design the perfect — if sadly fictional — candidate for the United States presidency.
United States Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton accused each other on Saturday of waging negative campaigns as they sped across Pennsylvania before next week’s potentially make-or-break primary election. Obama hopes an upset on Tuesday will hand him the nomination and knock Clinton out of the race.
The ”American dream” of unashamed wealth and the opportunity for all to acquire it has reached a crisis point before: in the Depression, the oil shock, in the ”greed is good” Eighties and the madness of the dotcom bubble. But America’s relationship with wealth — uncomfortable as it has sometimes been — has always been built on the same foundation.
Former United States president Jimmy Carter met Gaza-based leaders of Islamist Hamas in Cairo on Thursday, defying US and Israeli criticism that saw him barred from visiting the Palestinian territory. Nobel Peace Prize-winner Carter is considered to be the architect of the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty.
Democratic presidential rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton tried to explain recent controversial remarks during a tense debate on Wednesday, with Obama accusing Clinton of taking political advantage of his characterisation of small-town residents.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Tuesday embraced one of Tony Blair’s most controversial legacies when he cast himself as the leader best placed to bring Europe and the United States together after the bitter divisions over Iraq. As he prepared to fly to the US, Brown lavished praise on US leaders across the spectrum.
United States Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama spent a fourth day on Monday defending himself for calling people in small towns with economic blight ”bitter” in a controversy that rival Hillary Clinton is trying to use for a comeback. Republican John McCain also sought political gain from the flap.
Self-made billionaire Silvio Berslusconi looked set to secure a third term as Italian prime minister on Monday, with exit polls predicting a narrow win for his conservative coalition in general elections. The exit polls, which came moments after voting ended, predicted the 71-year-old media magnate’s centre-right coalition would win.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton blasted rival Barack Obama during a debate on Sunday, accusing him of being ”elitist” and ”patronising”. Clinton again seized on a controversy sparked off by Obama’s comments about working-class voters. Obama, she said, was ”elitist, out of touch, and frankly patronising”.
Hillary Clinton hit out at Democratic White House rival Barack Obama over Iraq on Wednesday, as a report by war commander General David Petraeus ignited new campaign brush fires. The New York senator questioned whether Obama could live up to his pledge to bring United States troops home and lashed out at Republican nominee John McCain.
The top United States commander in Iraq told Congress on Tuesday he plans to stop US troop withdrawals in July due to fragile security gains and heard appeals for quicker action to find a way to end the war. Appearances by General David Petraeus and the US ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, drew US presidential candidates.
The top United States general and diplomat in Iraq testify in politically charged hearings in Congress on Tuesday, and face a grilling from three senators vying to inherit the war as the next US president. General David Petraeus and ambassador to Baghdad Ryan Crocker will appear to update progress in the war.