[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i.l.cnn.net/cnn/2008/images/01/22/art.elexex.cnn.jpg caption=" The CNN Election Express is heading across the country."] (CNN) – The country is at war, the economy is stalling, and the presidential contenders are fighting over everything from energy policy to the Iraq war. John McCain and Barack Obama are locked in a tight race in most national polls – but who’s got the edge in the all-important swing states?
CNN Election Center: View the latest state polls
Over the next two weeks we’ll try to find the answer, and provide Americans an opportunity to say what’s on their minds as the CNN Election Express motors from the Pennsylvania countryside to the site of the Democratic convention in Denver – making its way across the crucial battleground and tossup states that could make the difference on Election Day.
We are going to make stops in little towns and big cities, truck stops and diners. When we pull over, CNN’s Tom Foreman will be jumping off the bus to hear what’s on voters’ minds.
Tomorrow, we’ll move from Pennsylvania to Ohio, the state that effectively decided the last presidential bout. We’ll end up in Colorado – a formerly-red state that may be in play this cycle. The lives and stories of millions of Americans lie in-between.
So tune into CNN and The Ticker throughout the day and night for the latest from the road.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/08/11/art.clinton0811.ap.jpg caption="Clinton is stumping for Obama – but aides still wonder what might have been."]
(CNN) - If reporters had nabbed former presidential candidate John Edwards lying about his extramarital affair, Hillary Clinton would have captured the Democratic presidential nomination, her former communications director said.
"I believe we would have won Iowa, and Clinton today would therefore have been the nominee," Howard Wolfson told ABCNews.com in an interview released Monday, because internal campaign polling showed "our voters and Edwards voters were the same people. They were older, pro-union. Not all, but maybe two-thirds of them would have been for us and we would have barely beaten Obama."
iReport.com: Share your thoughts on the Edwards scandal
Two months after Edwards first denied rumors of the affair, Barack Obama's win in the Iowa caucuses - and Clinton's third-place showing behind Edwards - fundamentally altered the shape of the race.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/08/11/art.edwards.ring.ap.jpg caption="Is the sanctity of marriage lost on political office?"]
John Edwards is the latest in a long line of politicians who cheated on their wives – and without exception, they all thought they could get away with it.
Edwards' behavior is particularly offensive for a couple of reasons. His wife has incurable cancer. And when Bill Clinton got caught with Monica Lewinsky, Mr. Edwards couldn't wait, Clinton "has shown a remarkable disrespect for his office, for the moral dimensions of leadership, for his friends, his wife and his daughter." Edwards is the consummate phony.
To read more and contribute to the Cafferty File discussion click here
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i.l.cnn.net/cnn/2008/POLITICS/04/06/clinton.campaign/art.penn.gi.jpg caption="Mark Penn was Hillary Clinton's chief strategist."]
WASHINGTON (CNN) – Sen. Hillary Clinton’s chief strategist wanted to attack Sen. Barack Obama for lacking “American roots” during the Democratic primary battle, according to a magazine article set to come out next week.
“All of these articles about his boyhood in Indonesia and his life in Hawaii are geared towards showing his background is diverse, multicultural and putting that in a new light. Save it for 2050,” Mark Penn, then Clinton’s chief campaign strategist, wrote in a memo written in March 2007, according to an article to be published in The Atlantic magazine.
“It also exposes a very strong weakness for him – his roots to basic American values and culture are at best limited. I cannot image America electing a president during a time of war who is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and in his values,” Penn wrote, according to the article written by Joshua Green.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/08/11/art.ridge.mccain.jpg caption="McCain and Gov. Ridge took part in a National Security roundtable in January."]
ERIE, Pennsylvania (CNN) – Tom Ridge might be a long-shot in the vice presidential sweepstakes, but John McCain certainly holds him in high esteem.
The presumptive GOP nominee, who refuses to discuss the vetting process for potential running mates, heaped praise on his friend and adviser on Monday in Ridge’s hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania.
At one point, a GE employee at a brief town hall meeting here asked McCain what his plans would be for his first 90 days in office.
“Call Tom Ridge to Washington from whatever vacation he is taking and get him to work,” McCain answered, to much applause.
Selecting Ridge, a Catholic and former two-term governor of Pennsylvania, could boost McCain’s chances in this swing state. But Ridge also supports abortion rights, a factor that would likely turn off segments of the Republican base.
Recent Comments