GOOD CAMPAIGN SUMMARY

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TIMES, UK - Former senator Bill Bradley, who is a leading supporter of
Obama and ran for president in 2000, accused the Clintons of "lying" in
pursuit of victory. "The bigger the lie, the better the chance they
think they've got. That's been their whole approach," he said. "She's
going to lose a whole generation of people who got involved in politics
believing it could be something different." Bradley believes that
Clinton will stop at nothing to tear down Obama even if it boosts John
McCain, who was confirmed last week as the Republican nominee: "The
Clintons do not do long-term planning. They're total tacticians and
right now their focus is on Obama, not McCain.". . .

Clinton's team is divided by backbiting over how to confront the
difficulties ahead. No sooner had victory been declared in Ohio, Texas
and Rhode Island than officials resumed rubbishing Mark Penn, the chief
strategist, for her flawed performance. "A lot of people would still
like to see him go," a senior adviser told The Washington Post. Top
aides such as Penn, Mandy Grunwald, Harold Ickes and Howard Wolfson have
such combustible egos, according to one close observer, that "it's like
caging wild beasts together".

The explosive subject of race is not far from the surface. The internet
is buzzing with accusations that Clinton's team made Obama's face look
blacker on a recent television advertisement challenging his foreign
policy credentials.

Clinton mucked in by denying rumors that Obama was a Muslim - then
adding the rider, "as far as I know". . .

Clinton was the star guest at the Democratic party's annual dinner in
Canton, Mississippi, but the hall was barely half-full. Underscoring the
importance of race and gender in this contest, white women tended to be
for Clinton, while African-Americans of both sexes were solidly for
Obama. Clinton earned credit for turning up at all - Obama arrives in
the state for just one day of campaigning tomorrow - and went on to
pledge in a contrived southern drawl that no matter who won Mississippi,
"I'll be there for you". . .

Ed Rendell, the governor of Pennsylvania who has thrown his support
behind Clinton, believes racial issues could affect the vote in his
state. "You've got conservative whites here and I think there are some
whites who are probably not ready to vote for an African-American
candidate," he said last month.

Obama cannot publicly blame racism for the slowing of his momentum,
although his team has little doubt in private that it was a factor in
Ohio last week. "He has to take a good hard look at why he failed to
connect with so many working-class voters," said Galston. Closing the
gap with working-class voters is essential to persuading super delegates
that Obama is capable of going head-to-head with McCain, he added:
"McCain is the quintessential 'white' candidate - so white that he gets
melanoma if he stays in the sun.". . .

The question for Clinton is whether the white working-class voters will
desert her for McCain in the general election, even if she is basking in
their support for now. . .

The biggest challenge for Obama is to go on the attack without
forfeiting his claim to represent a new kind of politics. . .

Bradley believes that Obama should keep his hands clean but is willing
to throw some heavy punches on his behalf. The Clintons have long
delayed releasing their tax returns and have refused to name the donors
to the William J Clinton Foundation in Arkansas. Archivists are also
blocking the release of hundreds of federal papers on White House
pardons. "We need to know whether there were favours attached to
$500,000 contributions, such as the granting of pardons, squelching an
investigation, awarding a contract or deferring a regulation," Bradley
said. "The Democratic party has got to be in dreamland if they think the
Republicans are going to let these matters go."

Benefactors hoping to be rewarded by Clinton need not despair if she
does not make it this year. Some cynics believe that she is willing to
undermine Obama sufficiently for him to lose to McCain in November,
freeing her to take another shot at the presidency in 2012.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article3511833.ece


GOP CONGRESSMAN: TERRORISTS WOULD DANCE IN THE STREET IF OBAMA WINS

AP - An Iowa Republican congressman said that terrorists would be
"dancing in the streets" if Democratic candidate Barack Obama were to
win the presidency.
Rep. Steve King based his prediction on Obama's pledge to pull troops
out of Iraq, his Kenyan heritage and his middle name, Hussein.

"The radical Islamists, the al-Qaida ... would be dancing in the streets
in greater numbers than they did on Sept. 11 because they would declare
victory in this war on terror," King said in an interview with the Daily
Reporter in Spencer.

King said his comments were not meant to demean Obama but to warn how an
Obama presidency would look to the world. "His middle name does matter,"
King said. "It matters because they read a meaning into that."

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iNm4SMXcUGBoGLsr1C_q-1y61oWgD8V90JF80

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