The Match-Up: McCain vs Obama/Clinton

MSNBC Interview with Mark Blumenthal, Pollster.Com

Time Poll Here

Update: MSNBC anchor quoted Peggy Noonan's editorial today “Mrs. Clinton is losing this thing. It's not one big primary, it's a rolling loss, a daily one, an inch-by-inch deflation” as a question when introducing a segment on the new Time poll.

Take the time to read Peggy's editorial "Can Mrs. Clinton Lose?" Here

Provisional Ballots to Decide New Mexico Winner

Heather Clark, Huffington Post

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Democrats prepared Wednesday to examine nearly 17,000 provisional ballots that will determine a winner in New Mexico's tightly contested presidential caucus.

With 183 of 184 of precincts reporting, Hillary Rodham Clinton held a lead of 1,092 votes _ 67,921 votes compared to 66,829 for Barack Obama, according to preliminary results.

New Mexico is the only one of 22 states that held Democratic primaries and caucuses on Super Tuesday yet to report a winner.

The examination of the provisional ballots, expected to begin Thursday, will be closed to the news media but will be attended by representatives from both the Obama and Clinton campaigns, party officials said.

Provisional ballots are given to voters who show up to the wrong site, whose names are not on registered voter lists provided by the state or who requested an absentee ballot but signed an affidavit saying they did not return it.

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Clinton Claps, Obama Refrains, When Bush Says Al Qaeda "On The Run" In Iraq

From the Washington Times:

When Mr. Bush entered the House chamber at 9:05, Mrs. Clinton stopped clapping after a few moments. Mr. Obama, however, clapped for almost the entire four minutes that Mr. Bush took to walk down the aisle.

One of the few policy lines on which the two senators differed came when Mr. Bush said that Al Qaeda is "on the run" in Iraq. Mrs. Clinton stood and clapped, while Mr. Obama did not.

On his way out of the chamber after his speech, Mr. Bush shook Mr. Obama's hand and then Mr. Kennedy's, and made a few quick remarks to both, drawing a smile from Mr. Obama.

The Hill highlighted the same moment:

Clinton and Obama's divergent views on the troop surge in Iraq, however, were plainly visible.

When Bush proclaimed, "Ladies and gentlemen, some may deny the surge is working, but among terrorists there is no doubt," Clinton sprang to her feet in applause but Obama remained firmly seated. The president's line divided most of the Democratic audience, with nearly half standing to applaud and the other half sitting in stony silence.

In one instance Clinton appeared to gauge Obama's response before showing her own.

The politics of clapping seemed to split both ways. A CNN analyst commented last night, "I saw at one moment, it appeared that Barack Obama was peering over at one moment to see if Senator Clinton had stood to applaud for something. You know there's always this politics of who stands up."

The Hill adds this color: "After his speech, Bush sought out Kennedy, his former partner in education reform, to exchange greetings. He also shook Obama's hand and said hello in typical Bush fashion: 'Hey buddy, how's it going,' he said, according to Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), who also sat next to Obama for the speech."

Ted Endorse...Bill Talks

By: Mike Allen and Carrie Budoff Brown , Politico

.....The Clinton campaign launched a last-ditch effort over the last few days to stop Kennedy's move, orchestrating a flood of phone calls to Kennedy from sources ranging from union chiefs to his Massachusetts constituents. The former president also called Kennedy in a vain attempt to keep him out of the race, a source familiar with the conversation said.

During his two terms in the White House, President Clinton made repeated overtures to the Kennedy family. So the senator’s rejection of his wife is at least as embarrassing as her 28-point loss in the South Carolina primary on Saturday......

....The Kennedy endorsement is likely to give Obama a lift among Hispanic voters because of Kennedy's passionate advocacy of immigration legislation. The Obama campaign, which lags far behind Clinton among Hispanic voters in national polls, is likely to prominently display the endorsements by both Kennedys in Latino communities.

The disclosure also comes the same weekend that the House's highest-ranking Latino, California Rep. Xavier Becerra, also announced that he is backing Obama.......

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Reagan Advisers See A Bit Of Their Former Boss In Obama

By Sam Stein, Huffington Post

Barack Obama found himself under fire on Thursday for having compared his candidacy to Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential run.

"I don't want to present myself as some sort of singular figure," he told the Reno Journal Gazette editorial board earlier this week. "I think part of what is different is the times. I do think that, for example, the 1980 election was different. I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not."

The remark did not go over well in progressive circles. On Thursday, Sen. John Edwards, Obama's opponent for the Democratic nomination, ripped into him for the analogy, saying, "I can promise you this: this president will never use Ronald Reagan as an example for change."

But while Obama has felt the heat from within his own party, several former Reagan officials and even his son suggest that there are elements of historical truth to the comparison.

"If I understand what he was saying I can't entirely disagree with it. They both came along at times when society was on the cusp of change and they are both agents of change," Ron Reagan Jr, told the Huffington Post. "As far as Barack Obama being a similar agent of change, that remains to be seen. But what I do see him saying is that we are in a historical moment right now like the 60s and 80s. And I think he's right. We are overdue for a cultural shift."

Other Reagan aides grabbed onto the comparison, drawing historical similarities between the end of the Carter administration and the contemporary political landscape. The economic malaise and hangover from Vietnam of the late 1970s, they argued, are analogous in some ways to the middle class unrest and backlash to neo-conservatism today. And yet, for several Reaganites, it was the tone and tenor of Obama that best echoed the image of their former boss.

"Ronald Reagan was an inspirational leader who also was a uniter. There was never any vindictive stuff to the other side," said Lawrence Korb, a former Reagan aide and current Obama supporter who serves as a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. "In 1983, when you had the commission to fix Social Security, which basically gave us 20 more years with the program, after it was over Reagan would not campaign against any [Democrat] who supported that. And the harshest thing he said against [Walter] Mondale was that he was too young. There was never any of this vindictiveness... I think Obama is trying to get us back to that pleasantness."

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(You can watch the full video: here)

MTP: In Defending War Vote, Clinton Contradict Record

In Defending War Vote, Clintons Contradict Record

By ERIC LIPTON, NYT

WASHINGTON — Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton have repeatedly invoked the name of Senator Chuck Hagel, a longtime critic of the Iraq war, as they defend Mrs. Clinton’s 2002 vote to authorize the war.

In interviews and at a recent campaign event, they have said that Mr. Hagel, Republican of Nebraska, helped draft the resolution, which they said was proof that the measure was more about urging Saddam Hussein to comply with weapons inspections, instead of authorizing combat.

Mrs. Clinton repeated the claim Sunday during an interview on “Meet the Press,” saying “Chuck Hagel, who helped to draft the resolution, said it was not a vote for war.”

“It was a vote to use the threat of force against Saddam Hussein, who never did anything without being made to do so,” Mrs. Clinton said.

But the talking point appears to misconstrue the facts.

In October 2002, Mr. Hagel had in fact been working with Senators Joseph R. Biden Jr., Democrat of Delaware, and Richard G. Lugar, Republican of Indiana, on drafting a resolution that would have authorized the war.

But while those negotiations were under way, to the disappointment of some Congressional Democrats, the Bush administration circumvented their effort and reached a separate agreement with Representative Richard A. Gephardt, Democrat of Missouri, then the House minority leader.

That agreement resulted in a bill, sponsored in the Senate by Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, now an independent, which was slightly less restrictive than the proposal that Mr. Hagel had been helping to develop.

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Tim Russert: Analysis New Hampshire Primany-Bill Clinton

Tim Russert Interviews, David Brooks,
Susan Page and Chuck Todd

Obama Wins Endorsement Of SEIU Nevada

By KATHLEEN HENNESSEY Associated Press Writer

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has won the endorsement of the Nevada chapter of the Service Employees International Union, union officials said. The influential union claims to represent 17,500 health care and county workers in Nevada. Its executive board approved the decision in a conference call Tuesday night, shortly after the Illinois senator finished a close second behind Hillary Rodham Clinton in the New Hampshire primary. SEIU President Vicky Hedderman said she believes Obama is a candidate "who could take the campaign all the way through November." Nevada's Jan. 19 caucus is the next major Democratic nomination contest. Under union rules, the endorsement allows SEIU locals in other states to lend resources and volunteers to its Nevada counterpart on behalf Obama. Obama has won the support of SEIU locals and state councils in five states, including his home state.

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Obama's Iowa Bounce

Gen. Colin Powell on the early sucess of Obama