NASHVILLE, Tennessee (CNN) – During a town hall meeting on Monday afternoon in the historical home of the Grand Ole Opry, John McCain attacked Barack Obama on no less than six different topics, ranging from the Illinois senator’s single visit to Iraq in early 2006 to not supporting the nominations of Supreme Court justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito.
However, McCain had nothing but kind words for Hillary Clinton whose candidacy has been declared all but dead.
“I have known Senator Clinton, I admire her and I respect her,” said McCain in response to a questioner who noted that Clinton is still in the race. “She has inspired generations of American women to believe that they can reach the highest office in this nation.”
“I admire the campaign that she has run, she deserves a great deal of credit,” he added. “A few of us who have been around politics for a while learned a lesson way back in 1992 that you better never count a Clinton out of any race.”
McCain said that they have had their differences on the Senate floor, but drew applause from the Nashville crowd for emphasizing his respect for Clinton.
Clinton has insisted that if she fails to win the Democratic nomination, she would work with Obama to unite the party ahead of November’s election. But there is no doubt that if her campaign fails, McCain will – and may already – be targeting her white, working class and older voters Obama has had trouble winning over.
(CNN) - Could this be Bill Clinton's last day on the stump this campaign season? The former president seemed to signal that his time on the trail was drawing to a close at a campaign event in South Dakota Monday.
"This may be the last day I'm ever involved in a campaign of this kind," he said.
The comment comes one day before South Dakota and Montana hold the primary season's final two contests. Barack Obama is expected to hold the advantage over Hillary Clinton in both states.
"I thought I was out of politics, until Hillary decided to run. But it has been one of the greatest honors of my life to go around and campaign for her for president," Clinton also said.
The comments seem to suggest the former president believes his wife's campaign is coming to a close, though she has given no signs she is ready to end her run.
Earlier Monday, a Clinton spokesman denied reports the campaign is cutting members of it's advance team. And on Sunday, Clinton launched an new ad stressing she is the winner of the popular vote. She also argued to reporters that the party's superdelegates have the right to change their mind until the party's convention in late August.
YANKTON, South Dakota (CNN) – Clinton aides said they do not expect there to be a Democratic nominee Tuesday evening when the final polls close in the 2008 primary season.
“Until there is a nominee, we are still working to become that nominee,” said campaign spokesman Mo Elleithee.
It remains unclear how the Clinton campaign will respond should Obama amass the 2,118 delegates needed to clinch the nomination. Elleithee told reporters the campaign would “cross that bridge” if they came to it and suggested if the campaign challenged the allocation of Michigan delegates the number of delegates needed to secure the nomination might change.
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Federal election monitors are being dispatched to South Dakota to protect Native American voting rights on Tuesday, the final day of primary elections in the Democratic presidential nomination race.
Officials in the Justice Department's civil rights division announced they would send an unspecified number of observers "to watch and record activities during voting hours at polling locations" in Todd, Shannon, Bennett, Jackson, and Mellette counties in South Dakota.
Native Americans comprise more than 94 percent of the population in Shannon County, and 85 percent of the population in Todd County. More than 40 percent of residents in the two counties live below the poverty line.
Native Americans make up more than 8 percent of the state's population, making them the largest minority group in South Dakota.
If you’re looking for clues, try this one: Hillary Clinton will give her post-primary speech in New York tomorrow night. The thing is: New York is not voting, Montana and South Dakota are.
Campaign aides say staffers who worked for Clinton in those two states and Puerto Rico have been invited to attend the event or go home and await further instructions. Here’s another clue: it’s being reported that the campaign’s finance department is asking Clinton staffers to turn in their outstanding expenses by the end of the week.
Clinton has also has planned a rally with her husband and daughter in South Dakota tonight, the kind of reunion she usually saves for election nights. Meanwhile, former President Bill Clinton said that today may be his last day campaigning for his wife.
All this would seem to indicate that the end is near. The news comes on the heels of a weekend where Clinton swept up in Puerto Rico, yet was frustrated by the decision of the rules committee. With just two contests to go, Clinton continues to trail Barack Obama in the ever-important categories of pledged delegates and superdelegates.
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