Richardson ad cites Iraqi polling in call to remove US troops
WASHINGTON -- Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico aired a new advertisement in Iowa and New Hampshire yesterday, demanding that all US troops leave Iraq and calling on Congress "to stand up to this president."
The ad opened as Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic plan that would have required troops to begin coming home within 120 days, with a complete pullout by April 20, 2008.
"Our troops have done everything we've asked, and I don't want to see any more die," Richardson says in the ad, as he walks through the foothills of his home state.
Richardson asserts in the ad that "the one thing the Iraqis agree on is they want us to leave." As supporting evidence, the campaign cited data from WorldPublicOpinion.org where 71 percent of Iraqis say they would like the Iraqi government to ask for US-led forces to be withdrawn within a year or less.
Another poll in March, however, was not as definitive. The poll, conducted for ABC News, USA Today, and other news organizations, found that 35 percent of the Iraqis polled wanted troops to "leave now" and 38 percent wanted troops to "remain until security is restored." Twenty-five percent said they wanted troops to remain until the Iraqi government was stronger or until Iraqi forces could operate independently.
Marlys Popma resigned from the campaign Monday but reconsidered after speaking with McCain and others.
"I got skittish about their commitment to Iowa," Popma said yesterday. "I decided to leave them before they left us."
Popma had joined a string of consultants and staff members who left McCain's Iowa campaign, including consultants Ed Failor Jr. and Karen Slifka and communications director Tim Miller.
McCain supporters have said he'll campaign for this winter's Iowa caucuses with a staff of about a half-dozen. (AP)
The lawsuit, filed Monday in US District Court for the District of Columbia against the National Archives, contends the archives has a legal obligation to demand the records from the Clinton presidential library in Little Rock, Ark., and to make them publicly available, according to a Judicial Watch statement.
The group is seeking the Democratic presidential candidate's calendar, daily office diary, telephone logbook, and chronological file for those eight years .
The group filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the archives on April 5, 2006, for the materials, but never received a reply, the statement said.
Judicial Watch, founded in 1994, has filed about 80 lawsuits against the Clintons over the years, including one on behalf of Gennifer Flowers, who said she had had an affair with President Clinton. (AP)
Elizabeth Edwards, who makes frequent campaign stops in early-voting states for her husband, appears in an ad the campaign hopes will highlight the couple's marriage.
"I have been blessed for the last 30 years to be married to the most optimistic person that I have ever met," she says as photographs from the campaign fade in and out. "But at the same time he has an unbelievable toughness, particularly about other people, and that is his ability to fight for them."
John Edwards, the former North Carolina senator and 2004 vice presidential nominee, was wrapping up an antipoverty tour through eight states yesterday.
"You're not going to outsmart him. He works harder than any human being that I know, always has," Elizabeth Edwards says.
The ad will run through Sunday. It cost more than $80,000 to air, according to figures obtained from a rival campaign.
Elizabeth Edwards announced in March that her breast cancer had returned and spread to bone. During her first battle with cancer, she was treated with surgery and several months of radiation and chemotherapy. (AP) 