Romney sees spirit of Halloween in Clinton run
The Republican presidential candidates keep saying that America should be afraid, very afraid of putting Hillary Clinton back in the White House.
Yesterday, Mitt Romney took it one step farther, suggesting a haunted house full of reasons to fear the Democratic candidate.
At a town meeting in West Des Moines a man said he was trying to organize a Halloween-themed event to "educate voters about the liberal agenda."
"You know, that's a great idea," Romney replied, in a moment captured by ABC News. "What do you think about Hillary's House of Horrors? All right? And we'd have . . . the 'raise your tax' room. We'd have the 'weaker military' room. We'd have the 'family values in shambles' room. . . . It'd be a pretty frightful place. And frankly what the Democrats are selling is really quite frightening these days as we approach Halloween."
The Clinton campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
FOON RHEE
The presidential candidate said his plan would also restore retirement security for the middle class through tax overhauls and savings help, allowing more people to put aside money and purchase stock from companies. He said those companies would perform better for regular workers under his proposed corporate changes.
Edwards said that a culture of greed has taken over and that while profits are skyrocketing on Wall Street, "Main Street is drowning under a sea of costs and debt."
"Instead of protecting the compact of equal opportunity and shared prosperity, Washington protects corporate profits and hoards prosperity of the few," he told a crowd in downtown Des Moines. "This is wrong, it is shameful, and it is bad for our economy to boot."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In the past two weeks, the Republican presidential candidate has spent nearly $500,000 on radio advertisements in four early-primary states, the first major media investment of his campaign. And on Monday, a campaign spokesman said, he will roll out his first major television advertising campaign, spending $1.1 million on five commercials to be shown in the New Hampshire market the next six weeks.
Paul's commercials are intended to introduce him to voters in New Hampshire, where independents can vote in either primary and where a libertarian streak could give Paul a chance to translate his quirky popularity into votes.
Though Paul barely registers in the polls, he had $5.4 million on hand at the end of last month. "It's time to spend it," said spokesman Jesse Benton.
NEWS SERVICE
Bob Farmer, who was a top fund-raiser for several past Democratic presidential candidates, had served on Obama's national finance committee.
"He didn't raise any money for us, but we wish him well," said Bill Burton, Obama spokesman.
Farmer's defection to Clinton is occurring as her presidential campaign builds steam. She holds a double-digit lead in most national polls and recently edged past Obama in the money race.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
C.A. "Charlie" Tuggle, an associate professor at the school, said the Edwards campaign contacted the reporter, Carla Babb, a graduate student, asking for a video of her report to be removed from the Internet.
When that failed, the campaign demanded in three calls to Tuggle that the TV report be killed, he said.
Tuggle said the campaign contended that the reporter misrepresented the report she had planned.
He also said the Edwards campaign warned that relations with the school could be jeopardized.
The Edwards campaign had no comment on the professor's specific contentions. More generally, spokeswoman Colleen Murray said: "This is silly. We love all reporters; the problem is the feeling isn't always mutual."
ASSOCIATED PRESS 