Leahy, Dodd join push to end Democratic contest
While some Democratic leaders say they would be satisfied if the nomination were settled in June, two New England senators who back Barack Obama are pressuring for an earlier resolution.
Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont went the furthest, declaring yesterday that Obama has an insurmountable lead and that Hillary Clinton should consider dropping out. "Senator Clinton has every right, but not a very good reason, to remain a candidate for as long as she wants to," he said.
Leahy was more direct in an interview Thursday on Vermont Public Radio, saying Clinton "ought to withdraw." In that interview, he said he was "very concerned" about the tone and trajectory of the race. "John McCain, who has been making one gaffe after another, is getting a free ride on it because Senator Obama and Senator Clinton have to fight with each other," he said. "I think that her criticism is hurting him more than anything John McCain has said."
Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut told National Journal on Thursday that he would prefer that the nominee is decided after the North Carolina and Indiana primaries on May 6 rather than wait until June, because a protracted battle would be "devastating."
But Clinton is giving no indication that she's thinking of throwing in the towel. Campaigning in Indiana yesterday, she cited a poll that suggested 6 in 10 Democrats want the race to continue. She also sent out a fund-raising appeal that said in part, "Those anxious to force us to the sidelines aren't doing it because they think we're going to lose . . . they know we're in a position to win."
Several Democrats, most prominently Governor Phil Bredesen of Tennessee, are calling for a primary of the 795 superdelegates - soon after the last primaries on June 3 - to put a candidate over the top.
Howard Dean, Democratic National Committee chairman, making the rounds of the morning TV news shows yesterday, said it would be good if the superdelegates decided the nominee before July 1. He also said he has urged the Clinton and Obama campaigns to cool it on the personal attacks, warning that they could demoralize the party's base.
FOON RHEE
Obama suggests he would have left Chicago church
Senator Barack Obama, using a daytime talk show as his latest forum to quell any remaining controversy, suggested yesterday that he would have left his Chicago church if his former pastor had not retired.
Obama also said that the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. is saddened by what has happened, and the senator seemed to suggest that Wright had acknowledged that some of his remarks were inappropriate, though he apparently has not done so publicly.
On ABC's "The View," Obama said his campaign did not vet Wright or scrub his 30 years of sermons at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Snippets of sermons, including inflammatory remarks about the US government's treatment of African-Americans and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, became daily fodder on television.
Obama also described his former pastor as a "brilliant man who was still caught in a time warp" of the 1950s and 1960s - similar to the description in Obama's speech on race relations last week in which he sought to explain the anger of African-Americans of Wright's generation who had been discriminated against and in which he faulted Wright for not recognizing the racial progress the country has made.
FOON RHEE
McCain TV ad plays up 'American hero' persona
More than seven months before Election Day, John McCain launched yesterday his first TV ad for the general election campaign, a heavily biographical spot that plays up his "American hero" persona.
The ad, which will air in the swing state of New Mexico, opens with McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, giving a campaign speech where he declares, "We're Americans. And we'll never surrender."
Then approving newspaper headlines scroll across the screen about McCain's tax relief plan and his readiness to be commander in chief, among other things. The announcer, actor Powers Boothe, follows with a series of questions:
"What must a president believe about us? About America? That she is worth protecting? That liberty is priceless? Our people honorable? Our future prosperous, remarkable, and free? And, what must we believe about that president? What does he think? Where has he been? Has he walked the walk?"
The ad ends with the much-played grainy black-and-white footage of McCain, during his 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war during Vietnam, in bed and answering an interrogator's question.
"What is your rank?"
"Lieutenant commander in the Navy," McCain answers.
"And your official number?"
"624787," McCain replies.
"John McCain," the announcer says. "The American president Americans have been waiting for."
FOON RHEE 