Spurred by gas tax debate, Clinton goes on offensive
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/05/03/art.clintonwagon.ap.jpg caption="Sen. Hillary Clinton stumps in a pickup truck in North Carolina, Saturday."]
GASTONIA, North Carolina (CNN) - Three days before the North Carolina and Indiana primaries, Hillary Clinton laid out the differences between herself and Barack Obama, attacking his voting record and his rejection of her proposed "gas tax holiday."
"I understand my opponent disagrees with me, he doesn't want to give you a gas holiday, he doesn't want to go after the oil companies. He wouldn't vote against them with the 2005 Dick Cheney energy bill and I did," Clinton told supporters.
"Sen. Clinton's been using this issue to make the argument that I'm somehow out of touch," Obama said earlier Saturday at a rally in Indianapolis. "Only in Washington can you get away with calling someone out of touch when you're the one who thinks that thirty cents a day is enough to help people who are struggling in this economy."
Obama has seized on the issue, pointing to analysts who say the legislation to tax oil companies' record profits is flawed. They argue that it would either have little impact or it would have a negative effect by either causing drivers to drive more or oil companies to
simply raise their prices.
Obama also made fun of the questions surrounding Clinton's plan, saying she could only find an oil lobbyist to go out and support it.
"The Obama campaign must be bitter about sliding in the polls and is clinging to these gas tax attacks out of frustration," Clinton spokesman Doug Hattaway responded.
Clinton said that her biggest difference with Obama is over health care, arguing that his plan isn't universal and leaves 15 million people uncovered. She also took him to task for not supporting her efforts to place a moratorium on home foreclosures.
"We've seen this from him before," Clinton said in Moorseville, North Carolina, about the candidates' division over the gas tax legislation, "instead of attacking the problem, he attacks my solutions."
Bill Clinton going to church with superdelegate Shuler
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/05/04/art.schuler.ap.jpg caption="Schuler is a first term Democrat."]WASHINGTON (CNN) –- Former President Bill Clinton will attend Sunday church services with North Carolina Congressman and uncommitted Democratic superdelegate Heath Shuler in his district, CNN has learned.
Shuler, a freshman congressman, is expected to announce Monday that he will pledge his support to whichever Democratic candidate wins his district in Tuesday’s primary.
The former NFL quarterback represents North Carolina’s 11th congressional district, which encompasses Asheville and the rural areas west to the border with Tennessee.
Given the demographics of Shuler’s district, Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) is predicted to win there on Tuesday. Shuler was heavily courted by President Clinton over the last several weeks. He also attended a meet and greet session at the Clintons’ Washington home earlier this spring.
Obama edges Clinton in island squeaker
(CNN) — Barack Obama has won the Guam Democratic caucuses by a margin of 7 votes.
With all of Guam’s precincts reporting, Obama won 2,264 votes (50.1 percent) to 2,257 votes (49.9 percent) for Hillary Clinton, his sole remaining rival for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Obama led the vote count throughout the day and had a 52.7 percent to 47.3 percent advantage over Clinton by late afternoon. Clinton then won the sole remaining precinct - Guam’s largest village of Dededo - by a 61.9 percent to 38.1 percent margin, which brought her to within 7 votes of Obama in the overall tally.
Polls closed at 6 a.m. eastern time Saturday, but vote counting on the U.S. territory took over 13 hours to finalize.
Obama and Clinton will split the U.S. territory's four pledged delegate votes evenly, with two apiece.
The win gives Obama his 31st victory of the campaign, including his win in the Texas caucuses in March. Clinton has won 16 contests, including the Texas primary.
The battle for the Democratic nomination next heads to Indiana and North Carolina, which both will hold primaries on Tuesday.
Obama wins Guam by 7 votes
(CNN) - Barack Obama has won the Guam Democratic caucuses by a margin of 7 votes. Obama and Hillary Clinton will split the U.S. territory's four pledged delegate votes evenly, with two apiece.
More to come.
Showdown in Dededo
(CNN) - The outcome of the Guam Democratic presidential caucuses will come down to the votes of one village, Dededo, the territory's largest voting precinct.
With 20 of 21 precincts reporting, Barack Obama leads the contest with 1,951 votes (52.7 percent), compared to 1,748 votes (47.2 percent) for Hillary Clinton.
Roughly 1,400 votes remain to be tallied in Dededo, about 27 percent of all votes cast in this party-run primary.
At stake are Guam's four pledged delegate votes, which will be allocated to the candidates in proportion to the percentage of the vote won once all the votes are counted.
Obama ahead in Guam with 3 precincts to go
(CNN) — With 86 percent of precincts reporting, Barack Obama leads the vote count from the Guam Democratic presidential caucuses with 1,720 votes (53.3 percent). Hillary Clinton has 1,509 votes (46.7 percent).
Roughly 1,400 ballots from Guam’s largest village, Dededo, have not yet been counted. An estimated 500 votes remain to be counted in two remaining villages: Agat and Yona.
The presidential candidates are battling for Guam's four pledged delegate votes. A total of eight delegates will be elected, each with half a vote at the Democratic National Convention in Denver this summer.
Obama to sell campaign in new two-minute ads
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/05/03/art.obamaad.jpg caption="Sen. Obama's new ad campaign "Minute."]
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Barack Obama’s campaign said Saturday that new two-minute TV ads will blanket Indiana and North Carolina ahead of both states’ pivotal contests this Tuesday.
The ads, dubbed “Minute,” will begin airing in some markets on Sunday night, with the bulk of the spots appearing during Monday evening’s news in both states.
According to the campaign, the Illinois senator makes his “closing argument to Indiana and North Carolina voters, outlining his plans to put an end to the divisive, calculated politics in Washington.”
Obama also speaks out against the gas tax holiday - a plan being supported by rival Democrat Sen. Hillary Clinton and presumptive GOP nominee John McCain.
Click HERE to watch the Indiana version.
Click HERE to watch the North Carolina version.
Analysis: The Wright effect on presidential race
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i.l.cnn.net/cnn/2008/POLITICS/05/03/wright.fallout/art.wright.npc.ap.jpg caption="The Rev. Jeremiah Wright."]
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Politics is a business of numbers, and the numbers favor Sen. Barack Obama. But they are changing in ways that give Sen. Hillary Clinton some hope, and have dramatically changed how Republicans look at the presidential election.
In a world of so many polls and findings within those polls, a few stand out:
- Six in 10 Americans have an unfavorable opinion of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's former pastor, according to the latest CNN Opinion Research Corp. survey.
- Nearly four in 10 Americans (38 percent) have an unfavorable opinion of Obama in the latest CNN polling - up 10 percentage points from the beginning of the year.
- Half of Americans think a John McCain presidency would bring different policies than the Bush administration.
And in a new Pew Research Center national survey, Clinton's lead among whites who didn't attend college has increased to 40 percentage points from 10 in March.
Latest Guam presidential results
(CNN) — With 15 out of 19 villages reporting, Obama leads the vote count from the Guam Democratic presidential caucuses with 1,393 votes (53.3 percent). Hillary Clinton has 1,222 votes (46.7 percent).
An estimated 1,400 ballots from Guam’s largest village, Dededo, have not yet been counted.
The presidential candidates are battling for Guam's four pledged delegate votes. A total of eight delegates will be elected, each with half a vote at the Democratic National Convention in Denver this summer.
Obama holds Guam lead with largest precincts still to be tallied
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/04/04/art.candid.gi.jpg caption=" Barack Obama leads Hillary Clinton in Guam."]
(CNN) - Barack Obama leads Hillary Clinton in Guam's Democratic presidential caucuses with votes from the largest of the island's 19 villages still to be counted, according to a Guam election official.
With 12 out of 19 villages reporting, Obama has 899 votes (53.9 percent) compared to 769 votes (46.1 percent) for Clinton.
The presidential candidates are battling for Guam's four pledged delegate votes. A total of eight delegates will be elected, each with half a vote at the Democratic National Convention in Denver this summer.
Also on the ballot Saturday was the race for chairman and vice chairman of the U.S. territory's Democratic party. The winners of that race will serve as superdelegates. According to the election official, the slate of Pilar Lujan and Jaime Paulino currently leads the slate of Joseph Artero Cameron and Arlen Bordallo. Lujan remains uncommitted in the race for president while running-mate Paulino has endorsed Obama. Both Cameron and Bordallo have endorsed Clinton. Incumbent chairman Tony Charfauros and running-mate Mary Ann Cabrera are currently in third place. Neither has endorsed a presidential candidate.
Although called “caucuses,” Saturday’s event in Guam functions more like a party-run primary. Voters cast secret ballots in polling places, as opposed to publicly aligning themselves in presidential candidate preference groups which occurs in more traditional caucuses, such as in Iowa and Nevada.
Polls closed in Guam at 6am eastern time, and vote-counting is expected to continue well into the afternoon. Guam is 14 hours ahead of eastern time.
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