Is Democrat John Edwards's presidential bid withering? Not so fast, his campaign says.
In a memo to reporters yesterday entitled, "Still not a two-person race," the Edwards camp argued that the primary lesson out of Iowa and New Hampshire is that both front-runners, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, are "deeply flawed."
Clinton, who won in New Hampshire, is "plagued with questions over electability and continues to defend the status quo in Washington," while Obama, who won Iowa, is "too weak to stand up to Republicans."
"In Iowa we saw that America is ready for change and prepared to reject the status quo that Senator Clinton defends," the memo said. "In New Hampshire we saw the fatal flaw in Senator Obama's approach - if you don't fight for change, you can't win."
To bolster their point, Edwards aides pointed to a new Nevada poll by the Reno Gazette-Journal showing a tight three-way race. The poll has Obama at 32 percent, Clinton at 30 percent, and Edwards at 27 percent. Nevada's caucuses are Saturday. But a new Rasmussen poll in South Carolina showed Edwards, who won the state in 2004, in a distant third with 17 percent, while Obama narrowly led Clinton, 38 percent to 33 percent.
And a new poll released yesterday found Edwards well behind in California, the biggest prize on Super Tuesday, Feb. 5. The CNN/Los Angeles Times/Politico survey showed Clinton with 47 percent, Obama with 31 percent, and Edwards with 10 percent.
SCOTT HELMAN
Nevada judge says Kucinich must be in tonight's debate
LAS VEGAS - A Nevada judge ruled yesterday Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich must be included in tonight's candidates' debate in Nevada.
Senior Clark County District Court Judge Charles Thompson said that if Kucinich is excluded, he'll issue an injunction stopping the televised debate. The judge sided with a lawyer for the Ohio congressman, who says debate host MSNBC at first invited Kucinich to take part and then told him last week he couldn't.
A lawyer for the network said MSNBC decided to go with the top three candidates after the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries. The judge called it a matter of fairness and said Nevada voters will benefit if they hear from more than just Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
McCain, Romney camps in a tiff over mailer
The campaigns of John McCain and Mitt Romney squabbled yesterday over a McCain mailer that went out in South Carolina, where Republicans vote on Saturday.
The mailer mostly lauds McCain's record of fighting wasteful federal spending. But part of it also hits Romney for raising $700 million in taxes and fees as governor in Massachusetts and for signing a healthcare bill that provided taxpayer funding for abortions.
Romney's campaign said he managed to close a huge budget deficit without a general tax increase and that court decisions required the subsidies for abortion.
GLOBE STAFF, AP
