Clintons stump for BO

WASHINGTON – Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, ahead in the polls since the financial crisis broke, was expected to get a boost yesterday when former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Senator Hillary Clinton, were to make joint campaign appearances on his behalf.

The nation’s best known and most powerful Democrats for nearly two decades will be on the road for Obama. They were to appear with Obama’s running mate, Joe Biden, at a rally yesterday in the working-class town of Scranton, Pennsylvania.The location is meaningful because Biden was born in Scranton and lived there for several years as a child, while Hillary Clinton’s father grew up in the town and is buried there.The former first couple later will follow separate itineraries, also campaigning for House and Senate candidates.On Saturday, McCain kept his speech at a rally in Davenport, Iowa, focused on the economy and his policies, a change from just days ago when his campaign redoubled its challenge to Obama over his association with a former 1960s radical.McCain also claimed that American voters did not really know Obama and his “radical” views.During the past week, angry Republicans had shouted “terrorist” and “off with his head” at the mention of Obama’s connections to former Weather Underground member William Ayers, whose group bombed federal buildings in protest of the Vietnam War.Obama and Ayers have longstanding ties and had worked together on community projects in Chicago.On Friday during a town hall-style meeting in Lakeville, Minnesota, a supporter told McCain that he feared what would happen if Obama were elected.McCain drew boos when he defended his rival as a “decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared of as president of the United States”.ACORN ANGST * The New York Post has the latest on electoral high jinks in Ohio: A man at the centre of a voter-registration scandal told The Post he was given cash and cigarettes by aggressive Acorn activists in exchange for registering an astonishing 72 times, in apparent violation of Ohio laws.”Sometimes, they come up and bribe me with a cigarette, or they’ll give me a dollar to sign up,” said Freddie Johnson (19), who filled out 72 separate voter-registration cards over an 18-month period at the behest of the left-leaning Association of Community Organisations for Reform Now.”The Acorn people are everywhere, looking to sign people up.I tell them I am already registered.The girl said, ‘You are?’ I say, ‘Yup,’ and then they say, ‘Can you just sign up again?’” he said.Obama has “strong ties” to Acorn, serving in the past as an attorney and “leadership trainer” for the group and the group has been actively throwing its efforts behind his presidential campaign.WHERE THERE WAS NONE? * A finding that Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin allegedly unlawfully abused her power as governor by allegedly trying to have her former brother-in-law fired as a state police officer is being disputed.The chief investigator of an Alaska legislative pane found Palin in violation of a state ethics law that prohibits public officials “from using their office for personal gain”.The inquiry looked into her dismissal of Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan, who claimed he lost his job because he resisted pressure to fire a state police officer involved in a bitter divorce and custody battle with the governor’s sister.The report found that Monegan’s firing was lawful and that he was dismissed as part of a legitimate budget dispute.Lawyers and political analysts have however raised questions about the finding, and the timing.Palin attorney Thomas Van Flein disagreed with Branchflower’s conclusions.”In order to violate the ethics law, there has to be some personal gain, usually financial,” he said.None was found.Commenting on CNN’s ‘Larry King Live’ show on Friday, Jonah Goldberg, editor-at-large of the National Review On-Line, dismissed the inquiry as politically motivated.”It sounds to me that this was a political enterprise that came up with a compromise where they basically said, ‘She broke no laws but they don’t want to seem like a whitewash, because we have Obama supporters on the investigating parties.’ So what we’re going to do is say she did something wrong, even though she broke no law,” said Goldberg.The nearly 300-page report does not recommend sanctions or a criminal investigation.The panel also did not vote on whether to endorse its findings.- Nampa-AP-AFP-WSJ-VOAThey were to appear with Obama’s running mate, Joe Biden, at a rally yesterday in the working-class town of Scranton, Pennsylvania.The location is meaningful because Biden was born in Scranton and lived there for several years as a child, while Hillary Clinton’s father grew up in the town and is buried there.The former first couple later will follow separate itineraries, also campaigning for House and Senate candidates.On Saturday, McCain kept his speech at a rally in Davenport, Iowa, focused on the economy and his policies, a change from just days ago when his campaign redoubled its challenge to Obama over his association with a former 1960s radical.McCain also claimed that American voters did not really know Obama and his “radical” views.During the past week, angry Republicans had shouted “terrorist” and “off with his head” at the mention of Obama’s connections to former Weather Underground member William Ayers, whose group bombed federal buildings in protest of the Vietnam War.Obama and Ayers have longstanding ties and had worked together on community projects in Chicago.On Friday during a town hall-style meeting in Lakeville, Minnesota, a supporter told McCain that he feared what would happen if Obama were elected.McCain drew boos when he defended his rival as a “decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared of as president of the United States”.ACORN ANGST * The New York Post has the latest on electoral high jinks in Ohio: A man at the centre of a voter-registration scandal told The Post he was given cash and cigarettes by aggressive Acorn activists in exchange for registering an astonishing 72 times, in apparent violation of Ohio laws.”Sometimes, they come up and bribe me with a cigarette, or they’ll give me a dollar to sign up,” said Freddie Johnson (19), who filled out 72 separate voter-registration cards over an 18-month period at the behest of the left-leaning Association of Community Organisations for Reform Now.”The Acorn people are everywhere, looking to sign people up.I tell them I am already registered.The girl said, ‘You are?’ I say, ‘Yup,’ and then they say, ‘Can you just sign up again?’” he said.Obama has “strong ties” to Acorn, serving in the past as an attorney and “leadership trainer” for the group and the group has been actively throwing its efforts behind his presidential campaign. WHERE THERE WAS NONE? * A finding that Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin allegedly unlawfully abused her power as governor by allegedly trying to have her former brother-in-law fired as a state police officer is being disputed.The chief investigator of an Alaska legislative pane found Palin in violation of a state ethics law that prohibits public officials “from using their office for personal gain”.The inquiry looked into her dismissal of Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan, who claimed he lost his job because he resisted pressure to fire a state police officer involved in a bitter divorce and custody battle with the governor’s sister.The report found that Monegan’s firing was lawful and that he was dismissed as part of a legitimate budget dispute.Lawyers and political analysts have however raised questions about the finding, and the timing.Palin attorney Thomas Van Flein disagreed with Branchflower’s conclusions.”In order to violate the ethics law, there has to be some personal gain, usually financial,” he said.None was found.Commenting on CNN’s ‘Larry King Live’ show on Friday, Jonah Goldberg, editor-at-large of the National Review On-Line, dismissed the inquiry as politically motivated.”It sounds to me that this was a political enterprise that cam
e up with a compromise where they basically said, ‘She broke no laws but they don’t want to seem like a whitewash, because we have Obama supporters on the investigating parties.’ So what we’re going to do is say she did something wrong, even though she broke no law,” said Goldberg.The nearly 300-page report does not recommend sanctions or a criminal investigation.The panel also did not vote on whether to endorse its findings.- Nampa-AP-AFP-WSJ-VOA