Fred Thompson, a GOP presidential candidate, at a stop yesterday in Orange City, Iowa. He said he will have "a quiet Thanksgiving" with his wife, Jeri, and their two children. "I'm really looking forward to it, a full day with them, and seeing if Jeri still remembers how to cook turkey," he said.
(Charlie Neibergall/associated press)
Campaign Notebook
Latest Clinton television ad takes on 'Republican Attack Machine'
Fred Thompson, a GOP presidential candidate, at a stop yesterday in Orange City, Iowa. He said he will have "a quiet Thanksgiving" with his wife, Jeri, and their two children. "I'm really looking forward to it, a full day with them, and seeing if Jeri still remembers how to cook turkey," he said.
(Charlie Neibergall/associated press)
Hillary Clinton takes a whack at Republicans to solicit support from Democrats in her latest TV advertisement.
The 30-second spot, which began airing yesterday in New Hampshire, opens with images of television ads from Republican presidential hopefuls John McCain and Mitt Romney that attacked Clinton under the heading "The Republican Attack Machine."
McCain's ad hit her on her support for federal funding of a museum commemorating the 1969 Woodstock concert, and Romney's criticized her as lacking executive experience. "Here they go again - the same old Republican attack machine is back. Why?" the announcer asks.
As a series of images of Clinton with voters plays, the announcer answers his own question, saying Republicans know that Clinton is the one Democratic candidate who can get the United States out of Iraq, end corporate tax giveaways, solve the budget deficit, and help the middle class. "The strength to fight, the experience to lead," the announcer concludes.
The Romney campaign quickly tried to turn Clinton's ad to its advantage, saying it shows she is worried about running against him.
"Governor Romney also has a record of, and reputation for, actually getting things done," spokesman Kevin Madden said in a statement. "Senator Clinton has a reputation for one thing: partisanship. Extreme partisanship."
FOON RHEE
Mich. clerks say it's too late
LANSING, Mich. - Michigan's county clerks said yesterday that it is too late to guarantee that absentee voters will have enough time to apply for ballots and return them on time for a Jan. 15 primary and that they want to pull the plug."Unless Santa and his reindeer are prepared to deliver the ballots, it will be virtually impossible to get absentee ballots to everyone who requests one for the Jan. 15 primary," Saginaw County Clerk Sue Kaltenbach, incoming president of the Michigan Association of County Clerks, said in a statement.
State officials want the state Supreme Court to rule on the primary by noon today so clerks can start preparing for the election over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
New Hampshire's secretary of state, Bill Gardner, said he won't set the date of his state's primary until it's clear what's going to happen in Michigan.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Obama remarks rapped
SHENANDOAH, Iowa - Hillary Clinton criticized Democratic rival Barack Obama yesterday for his contention that living in a foreign country as a child helped give him a better understanding of foreign policy challenges."Voters will have to judge if living in a foreign country at the age of 10 prepares one to face the big, complex international challenges the next president will face," Clinton said.
"I think we need a president with more experience than that, someone the rest of the world knows, looks up to, and has confidence in."
Aides said she made more than 70 overseas trips when her husband was president, was actively involved in policy during his administration, and has been involved in foreign policy during her Senate tenure.
On Monday, Obama said his childhood experience in Asia and having relatives in Kenya give him a greater foreign policy understanding than politicians who merely studied foreign affairs or took junkets to other countries.
In response to Clinton's slap, Obama said in Conway, N.H.: "I was wondering which world leader told her that we needed to invade Iraq."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
At home, abroad for holiday
WASHINGTON - Mitt Romney is packing boxes of food for the needy today and then preparing the stuffing and mashed potatoes for his own family's big dinner on Thanksgiving. Chris Dodd is serving meals and distributing box lunches in three Iowa cities.For many presidential candidates, the holiday, about six weeks before the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses, offers a chance to put policy speeches aside and spend part of the day with the underprivileged they speak about on the campaign trail.
One candidate will be a world away. Senator John McCain, who has made his support of the troop increase in Iraq a central theme of his White House bid, is spending Thanksgiving in Iraq.
Hillary Clinton planned to spend today and tomorrow at home in Chappaqua, N.Y., after making a food delivery last night to Central Iowa Shelter and Services in Des Moines.
Barack Obama planned on packing and loading food today at New Horizons for New Hampshire Inc., a food pantry, soup kitchen, and shelter in Manchester. Democrat John Edwards plans to drop off food there Monday.
The former North Carolina senator counts his blessings in a new TV ad that will begin airing today in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.
In the ad, he says he's thankful for his family and "for the hopes and determination of a nation filled with the most optimistic people on earth."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
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