(CNN) - It was a gaffe that caused the Clinton campaign a serious headache two weeks ago, but in an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno Thursday night, the New York senator was all smiles about it.
As she walked out on stage, Clinton told Leno she almost didn't make the interview.
"I was pinned down by sniper fire at the Burbank airport," Clinton said laughing.
The comments were in reference to the recent revelation that Clinton was not forced to make a dangerous landing and cover herself from sniper fire during a 1996 trip to Bosnia, despite her repeated claims to the contrary.
"You know this has been such a mismatch of words and actions," Clinton also told Leno. "I was thinking about it, because obviously I've been so privileged to represent our country in, gosh, more than 80 other countries, lots of war zones and all the rest of it - I wrote about this in my book and obviously I just had a lapse."
The New York senator also took aim at her husband in the interview, telling Leno that “He's doing a great job for me but he does get a little carried away sometimes."
And when Leno asked what she thought of her daughter, Chelsea, telling crowds on the campaign trail that she thinks her mother would be a better president than her father, Clinton responded, “Oh, you know, she’s such a smart young woman.”
(CNN) – Conservative leader Paul Weyrich – who endorsed Mitt Romney’s presidential bid – has signed on to an open letter from more than two dozen movement activists to John McCain warning him not to select the former Massachusetts governor as his VP pick if he expects their support.
"If Governor Romney is on your ticket, many social conservative voters will consider their values repudiated by the Republican Party and either stay away from the polls this November or only vote down the ticket,” they write in a message posted online by a political action committee called “Government is Not God.”
The letter – topped by the headline “NO Mitt” - will run as a print ad in cities visited by McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, beginning with his Arizona stop this weekend.
The group includes supporters of Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee like activists Gary Glenn and Janet Folger, along with conservatives who have long criticized Romney for his past stands on issues like abortion.
Weyrich endorsed Huckabee after Romney left the race. The activist’s opposition to the former governor marks a complete reversal from his position as recently as last month, when he told the National Journal that McCain was unlikely to select Romney as his running mate – but that he should.
"If he selects somebody bad from our point of view, it's going to be very difficult," he told the magazine. "It will reinforce prejudice against him. If he selects somebody pretty good, it'll be moderately helpful.... It would help if he selected Mitt Romney, but he won't."
(CNN) – Hillary Clinton’s campaign unveiled a Pennsylvania fundraising drive Friday that will allow donors to let the campaign know exactly how their money should be spent.
Supporters can decide to direct their donations to one of six categories, according to a campaign memo: “TV airtime; online ads; radio spots; signs; vans; and door hangers.
“Supporters can mix and match how much they want to put towards each item and then ‘check out’ like an online wedding registry.”
The Clinton campaign has restructured spending after donor outrage over a New York Times report several weeks ago, which revealed that thousands of dollars had been spent on party platters and luxury hotel rooms in January, and top consultants had collected roughly $5 million that month.
(CNN)—Sen. Barack Obama said Friday he is still paying tribute to the late Martin Luther King despite his absence from Memphis, Tennessee where Sens. Clinton and McCain are marking the 40th anniversary of the civil rights leader’s assassination.
Obama told reporters he was not worried about how his absence would be perceived. “I spoke at Dr. King’s church on his birthday. I gave a fairly fulsome speech on the state of race relations just two weeks ago, and I think it’s important to spread the message that Dr. King’s work is unfinished in places like Indiana and North Dakota,” he said.
Obama is marking the anniversary of the civil rights leader’s death in Indiana, where Robert Kennedy broke the news of King’s assassination to a campaign trail gathering in a landmark 1968 speech.
“And in few places was the pain more pronounced than in Indianapolis, where Robert Kennedy happened to be campaigning,” Obama told an Indiana crowd Friday. “And it fell to him to inform a crowded park that Dr. King had been killed. And as the shock turned toward anger, Kennedy reminded them of Dr. King’s compassion, and his love. And on a night when cities across the nation were alight with violence, all was quiet in Indianapolis.”
Related: Watch Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton disscuss the 40th Anniversary of Martin Luther King's assassination.
During her speech in Memphis later Friday, Hillary Clinton will announce the creation of a new cabinet position if she becomes president to deal with poverty.
The cabinet member will be called the "Poverty Czar."
(CNN) – The liberal radio network Air America suspended one if its most popular radio talk show hosts Thursday after a video clip surfaced on the Internet in which she used derogatory language to describe Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro.
The comments came during a San Francisco appearance in late march sponsored by a local Air America affiliate. During the event, Randi Rhodes referred to both Clinton and Ferraro as "f-ing whores."
Video of the comments surfaced earlier this week. Air America issued a statement Thursday saying it had suspended Rhodes for "abusive language."
"Air America encourages strong opinions about public affairs, but does not condone such abusive, ad hominem language by our hosts," the statement said.
Speaking with the liberal Web site Huffingtonpost.com, Rhodes said she is upset with the radio network.
"They are in breach of my contract and have damaged my hard won excellent reputation in the broadcast industry..." she said. Rhodes also said she had originally received praise from representatives of the network for her appearance at the event.
(CNN) – A Clinton campaign spokesman said Friday senior adviser Mark Penn's recent meeting with the Colombian ambassador to discuss a free-trade deal does not reflect Hillary Clinton's staunch opposition to the proposal.
"She remains steadfast against the Colombian Trade Bill," said spokesman Mo Elleithee, adding that the meeting was "not in any way done on behalf of the campaign."
The meeting, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, occurred Monday. Penn appears to have been acting in his role as chief executive of the international communications and lobbying firm, Burson-Marsteller Worldwide. The Colombian Embassy hired the firm to help achieve congressional approval of the trade deal.
Clinton has said she is against the trade bill, and has sharply criticized America's free trade agreements as she campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination.
(CNN) —A new statewide poll in Indiana shows a statistical dead heat between Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama ahead of the state’s May 6 primary.
The poll, conducted from March 31 through April 2 by Research 2000, shows 49 percent of the likely Democratic voters would favor Clinton and 46 percent would favor Obama if the states primary were held today. With the polls margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points, the two candidates are statistically tied.
Indiana voters are particularly divided among age: Obama beats Clinton 63-36 percent among 18 and 29 year-olds while those 60 and older favored Clinton, 60-34 percent.
Should Clinton win the April 22 Pennsylvania primary, Indiana is expected to become the next decisive battleground in the fight for the Democratic nomination.
Both candidates have strong endorsements coming from the state. Sen. Evan Bayh and former Representative John Brademas have both put their weight behind the New York senator. Earlier this week, Obama won the endorsement of two leading former Indiana congressmen; Lee Hamilton and Tim Roemer. Both hold significant foreign affairs and national security credentials.
Obama, who is the only presidential contender with an ad airing in Indiana, is expected to be introduced by Robert F. Kennedy’s widow, Ethel, at a speech today in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Sen. Robert Kennedy carried the state by a small margin in the 1968 elections.
(CNN) – In a campaign season growing more heated by the day, one word keeps making an appearance: chill.
This morning, Sen. Tom Harkin - an undeclared superdelegate - became the latest politician to call for a cooldown, telling reporters on a conference call reported by Radio Iowa that former President Bill Clinton needs to “chill out.”
A local journalist asked about a report of an alleged Clinton “meltdown” during a private meeting with California superdelegates, and asked whether he was doing his wife Hillary Clinton's campaign more harm than good.
"I'm not going to judge that," responded Harkin. "I did say before he ought to chill out a little bit and from what I've seen I think he has, but again this recent thing in California, I don't know."
Harkin isn't the first congressional Democrat to call for a freeze on tough trail talk. Shortly before the Super Tuesday primary contests, Rep. James Clyburn told CNN the former president should lower the temperature on his campaign rhetoric.
(CNN) - The same day Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts said Arizona Sen. John McCain’s military service didn’t mean he was qualified to be commander-in-chief, another prominent Democratic veteran and former presidential candidate – former Gen. Wesley Clark – sent supporters a message accusing the presumptive Republican nominee of failing recent veterans.
An e-mail sent from Clark’s political action committee WesPAC, and co-signed by the former general, takes aim at the GOP senator, asking “Why Won’t McCain Support Our Vets?”
The message urges individuals to sign a petition calling on McCain to back a veterans benefit bill co-sponsored by Democratic Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia and Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, and criticizes him for not yet pledging his support for the measure.
“So far, John McCain has refused. The same McCain who insists he supports our troops. The same McCain who is voting lockstep with the Bush administration (who has also resisted this bill),” reads the e-mail.
It adds that a young Iraq and Afghanistan vet “thinks John McCain ought to stand in his shoes to know how difficult it is to be a vet and have to pay staggering education costs. THIS is your call to arms. …”
Clark, a supporter of New York Sen. Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid, has attacked McCain several times this year, focusing his fire on the national security and foreign policy credentials that have been at the heart of the Republican's White House bid.
From CNN Politics
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