Ballot Bowl Highlights
(CNN) – The race for the White House fans out to Michigan, South Carolina, Nevada, and Florida now that Iowa's caucuses and New Hampshire's primaries are over. CNN continues to provide complete coverage of the presidential hopefuls as they battle for their party's nomination. If you missed any of CNN's Ballot Bowl programming Saturday, you can catch the highlights here:
Video: Clinton: 'We need a change of heart'
Video: McCain: 'We can create jobs here'
Video: Giuliani on tax reform
Video: Huckabee: 'We value life'
Video: Obama: 'Yes we can'
Video: Edwards: Value U.S. workers
Video: Romney: 'Washington is broken'
Video: Thompson: 'What you see is what you get'
Video: Poll: McCain a threat to Dems
- CNN Associate Producer Martina Stewart
Two polls show tight race in Michigan
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Republicans John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Mike Huckabee are in a three-way battle for the top spot in Michigan, two new polls out Saturday suggest.
According to a just released Detroit News poll, McCain holds a statistically insignificant 1 point lead over Mitt Romney there, 27 percent to 26 percent. Huckabee is close behind with 19 percent.
Meanwhile, a new American Research Group poll shows McCain with a 7 point lead over Romney, 34 percent to 27 percent. Huckabee stands at 15 percent in that poll.
Both polls carry a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
- CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney
Poll: Approval of war in Iraq, Bush remain low
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Americans' opinion on the Iraq war and of President Bush has remained stable - and fairly negative - over the past few weeks, a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll out Saturday evening suggests.
Only 33 percent of Americans favor the war in Iraq, according to a just released poll. In a similar poll taken in December, that number stood at 31 percent.
The poll also suggests only 32 percent of Americans approve of how Bush is handling his job as president. That number is the same as it was last month.
The poll, conducted on January 9-10, interviewed 1,033 Americans and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
McCain gets big South Carolina endorsement
McCain won the backing of South Carolina's largest newspaper Saturday. (Photo Credit: AP)
WASHINGTON (CNN) - John McCain won the endorsement of South Carolina's largest newspaper Saturday, a major boost to the Arizona senator one week before this southern state’s Republican presidential primary.
In an editorial posted on The State's Web site, McCain is praised for "integrity and independence," and his ability to reach across partisan divides.
"He is a slave to no ideology or faction. Not only will he work with anyone who wants to do the right thing anytime, he is usually the driving force at the head of coalitions to get the job done — from the Gang of 14 that broke Senate gridlock and paved the way for the confirmation of conservative judges to his principled leadership on campaign finance reform," the editorial board wrote.
The paper's editorial board also lauded McCain for his political courage, writing he "is almost unique in his determination to do what is right, whatever the cost."
Mike Huckabee was also considered, according to the editorial, and hailed as an "exciting newcomer who shows a wonderful ability to connect with voters’ concerns." But the editorial board ultimately concluded the former Arkansas governor's "utter lack of knowledge of foreign affairs is unsettling."
As for the other GOP candidates, the editorial board discounted Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani for pulling much of their resources from the state, dismissed Ron Paul as a serious contender for the Republican nomination, and said Fred Thompson - who is betting his entire presidential bid on a win there - "seems to be running in this first-in-the-South primary just to say he did."
The paper backed then-Texas Gov. George Bush over McCain in 2000.
"At long last, eight years later than we should have, we are endorsing John McCain of Arizona," Brad Warthen, the State's editorial page director and a longtime supporter of McCain wrote on his blog Saturday. "This makes me a lot happier than I was this time in 2000. This time, we've done the right thing."
- CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney
Bill Clinton on Obama: ‘He might win.’
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Bill Clinton said Friday that Barack Obama’s campaign was very impressive, and the Democratic presidential candidate “might win.”
“He’s put together a great campaign. It’s clearly not a fairy tale, it’s real,” Clinton said. “He might win.”
Clinton had called into activist Al Sharpton's radio show to try to address the controversy over his remarks just before the New Hampshire primary that seemed to say the Illinois senator’s campaign was a “fairy tale.”
On Friday, he said that reference was meant to describe news coverage of Obama's war vote, and of his campaign, and not the viability of his presidential run.
“I was addressing a specific argument. That doesn’t have anything to do with my respect for him as a person or as a political figure,” said the former president.
But he said black voters should support his wife Hillary Clinton over Obama because “You know where her heart and where her life has been.”
–CNN Associate Political Editor Rebecca Sinderbrand
Poll: McCain poses greatest threat to Democrats
WASHINGTON (CNN) - The Republican presidential field will face a tough general election fight from the Democrats, according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Saturday.
According to the survey, either of the Democratic frontrunners, Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York or Barack Obama of Illinois, hold mostly double-digit – and statistically identical - advantages over Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee, drawing more than 50 percent support in each hypothetical matchup.
The Republican candidate who gives Clinton and Obama the closest race in the new poll is Arizona Sen. John McCain, who is essentially tied with both: he draws the support of 48 percent of those surveyed to both Clinton's 50 percent and Obama's 49 percent.
Huckabee mobilizes Michigan ministers
GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan (CNN) - Mike Huckabee urged more than 100 pastors in Western Michigan to "take a stand" and organize evangelicals to vote in next week's Republican primary here.
The ordained Baptist minister told the pastors Saturday to "mobilize in every way possible every single friend you know" in advance of next Tuesday's vote.
"I am not going to ask for you to endorse from the pulpit," he said at a campaign breakfast. But he implored the faith leaders to work their personal mailing lists and phone directories of "like-minded folks" in their spare time.
Roughly one in three Republican primary voters in Michigan is a self-identified evangelical.
Huckabee, as he often does, declared that he will not run from his faith if he is elected president.
"This country needs to regain its soul," he said. "For a long time, those of us are people of faith were asked to support candidates who would come and talk to us. But rarely has there been one who has come from us."
Huckabee, who spent a good portion of his remarks criticizing abortion and same-sex marriage, also repeated his pledge he would never attempt to impose his own religious beliefs on the country if elected president.
- CNN Political Producer Peter Hamby
Obama ads hit Super Tuesday states
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Democrat Barack Obama’s campaign has hit the air in two February 5 states.
In Arizona, a state with a large retirement population, Obama’s new television ad relates a story he tells often on the campaign trail, about his mother’s battle with cancer and mounting medical bills.
“My mother died of cancer at 53. In those last painful months, she was more worried about paying her medical bills than getting well. I hear stories like hers everyday,” says the Illinois senator in the 30-second spot, titled “Mother.”
“For 20 years, Washington has talked about health care reform and reformed nothing. I've got a plan to cut costs and cover everyone. But unless we stop the bickering and the lobbyists we will be in the same place twenty years from now. I'm Barack Obama and I approve this message because to fix health care we have to fix Washington.”
On Friday, the campaign announced the endorsement of Janet Napolitano, the state's popular Democratic governor.
In “Quiet,” Obama points to oil as both an environmental and a national security issue, and stresses his straight-talking credentials.
“I don't accept that we should be still sending eight hundred million dollars a day, part to hostile nations because of our addiction to foreign oil,” says Obama in the new 30-second ad, airing in California. “And in the bargain we're melting the polar ice caps.
“I went to Detroit to insist that we have to increase fuel efficiency standards. Now, I have to admit, the room got kind of quiet. We can't just tell people what they want to hear. We need to tell them what they need to hear. We need to tell them the truth.”
The ads are Obama’s first in states set to vote on February 5, the so-called Super Tuesday contests.
–CNN Associate Political Editor Rebecca Sinderbrand
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