CHARLESTON, W.Va. - For many U.S. sports fans, March is the time to obsess over men’s college basketball and the science of “bracketology,” in which fans predict the winner of each game in the 64-team, end-of-season tournament. 

For others, of course, bracketology remains a mystery.
U.S. Sen. Barack Obama released his “brackets” on Thursday, reinforcing his credentials as a regular, sports-lovin’ guy who shoots hoops in his spare time on the campaign trail as he runs for the Democratic nomination for U.S. president.

According to Obama, expect North Carolina, Kansas, Pittsburgh and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), to reach the final four as semi-finalists.

Team Obama even put his complete picks on its Web site.

Students of politics and sport might note that two of the teams Obama selected are in states yet to vote and polls put him slightly ahead of his rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, in North Carolina, the team he picked to beat UCLA in the final.

But there’s another set of brackets in which Obama has an interest.

The Democratic nominee will face presumptive Republican nominee John McCain in November’s general election and at a sports bar in Charleston, West Virginia, Obama outlined a potential November match-up on a supporter’s bracketology card.

“I put McCain on one side, Obama on the other in the final,” he said, adding: “Obama wins it.”

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- Photo credit: Reuters/John Sommers II (Obama speaks to supporters during a  campaign stop in Charleston, West Virginia)

NEW YORK - While  not exactly the epic Star Wars battle between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, the heated contest for the Democratic nomination for U.S. president is spawning its own cadre of action figures that can debate right in your living room.

Novelty action-figure companies are scrambling to get ready for the November election and the figures are already starting to pop up on campaign trails.

This week a supporter handed presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain a Hillary Clinton figure at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. According to The Lighter Side Co., which ships the figure, she is wearing pearls, a 3-piece suit, and will dance to a modified version of “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.”

Novelty gag gifts like this are popular with U.S. college students, their makers say, so there should be no surprise that Sen. Barack Obama figures are seeing a spike in popularity.

“He makes a good action figure,” said Jason Feinberg of Jailbreaktoys.com, which will begin taking orders for its Obama figure (right) next month. “He has a little bit of the superhero thing that’s associated with action figures — the slender build, a hopeful message,” Feinberg said.

For those hoping Clinton and Obama will work out their differences,  Herobuilders.com offers “Obama and Hillary Dream Team” action figures (below).  And if you want to use the action figures as an informal polling device, individual Obama figure sales have been outpacing Hillary sales for the past three months,  according to Herobuilders.com President Emil Vicale.

“We typically know what’s going to happen in advance,”  said Vicale, whose site will start shipping a plush “Obamakinz” doll next week as well. “Last time we pretty much had to give away the (John) Kerry action figures whenever we sold a (George W. ) Bush figurine.” 

While a Hillary pet chew toy and nutcracker have also been floating around this year, oddly, we couldn’t find any action figures for McCain, a former Navy pilot and prisoner of war in Vietnam.  Not to worry though, the senator from Arizona does have a mask and bobblehead doll coming soon. 

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Photo credit: Reuters/Tim Shaffer (Sen. John McCain hands a Hillary Clinton doll that was given to him by a supporter to an aide during a town meeting event at the Springfield Country Club in Springfield, Pennsylvania, March 14, 2008.)

WESTCHESTER, New York - Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has made a last-minute change to her campaign schedule, adding a stop in Michigan on Wednesday to push lawmakers to organize a re-do of the state’s primary election.

The New York senator’s campaign decided late on Tuesday to add a stop in Michigan so she can push for the re-run, a move that could help her presidential bid.

Michigan Democratic Party leaders said earlier a proposal to redo the primary in June was stalled and unlikely to be approved before a deadline this week.

Opposition from lawmakers backing Illinois Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign seemed certain to scuttle any proposal.

So Clinton is going to Detroit, where she will hold a morning event to draw attention to the cause.

“She wants to press the case that every vote should count, that the people of Michigan should be a part of this process, that no one should be disenfranchised,” a spokesman said.

“Senator Obama is standing in the way of that opportunity,” he said.

Clinton won Michigan’s Jan. 15 primary, which had been moved up earlier in the year despite party rules forbidding the early date.

Obama removed his name from the ballot and neither candidate actively campaigned in the state.

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Rebecca Cook (Supporters for both candidates rally in Detroit last year.)

SCRANTON, Pa. - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama joined in some classic Irish-American pastimes on St. Patrick’s Day but he initially forgot one important tradition: wearing green.

Obama headed out to Pennsylvania — a state with a sizable number of voters with Irish heritage — wearing a light blue tie.

Because of St. Patrick’s Day festivities over the weekend, including a big parade in Chicago, Obama said he had “sort of lost track” that Monday was the actual holiday.

As he stopped by a pub in Scranton, he said he planned to change into a green tie later.

“I confiscated one from one of my staffers,” Obama said.

By evening, as he spoke at an Irish Women’s Society dinner, he was sporting a mint-green tie. And as many politicians do on St. Patrick’s Day, he also touted his ties to Ireland, talking of a great grandfather who came from the Emerald Isle and settled in Ohio.

“It never hurts to be a little Irish in you when you’re running for office in the United States,” Obama said.

His rival for the Democratic nomination to run in November’s presidential election, Sen. Hillary Clinton, hit the campaign trail on Monday wearing a silk scarf with green on it.

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SCRANTON, Pa. - Barack Obama will discuss the issue of race in the U.S. presidential campaign in a speech on Tuesday in Philadelphia, while also trying to quell a controversy over inflammatory rhetoric by the pastor at his Chicago church.

Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, is vying for the Democratic nomination against Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, who would be the first woman president.

Racially charged comments such as Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s contention that the United States believes in “white supremacy and black inferiority” put Obama on the defensive.

The Illinois senator, whose speech is scheduled for 10:15 a.m. EDT (1415 GMT) on Tuesday, has attended Wright’s church for 20 years.

“I am going to be talking about not just Reverend Wright but the larger issue of race in this campaign,” Obama told reporters on Monday while campaigning in Pennsylvania, which holds its important primary contest on April 22.

As Obama stopped by a Scranton sports bar for the taping of an MTV roundtable with military veterans, a handful of protesters held up signs with pictures of Obama standing next to the pastor.

“Wright Is Wrong And So Is Obama,” some of the placards read.

A central message of Obama’s campaign is a promise of trying to transcend divisions, including those involving race.

The Clinton and Obama camps have accused each other of injecting race into the campaign last week after remarks from a Clinton supporter, Geraldine Ferraro, were viewed as racially insensitive.

Ferraro, a former vice presidential candidate, attributed Obama’s lead in the Democratic race to his being black. Clinton has repudiated Ferraro’s comments.

Some African Americans took offense when her husband, former President Bill Clinton, in January compared Obama’s victory in the South Carolina primary to success there by Jesse Jackson, a black candidate who ran for president in 1984 and 1988.  Some saw the remarks as a bid to marginalize Obama as a candidate of only black America.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Cohn (Sen. Barack Obama speaks during a town hall meeting at the Community College of Beaver County in Monaca, Pennsylvania, on March 17)

NEW YORK - When Elton John plays a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton on April 9 in New York, he may want to choose his song list carefully.

Clinton knows as well as anybody the importance of a song in politics.

Last May, she used videos posted on the YouTube Web site to ask viewers to vote for a campaign song. The winning anthem was Celine Dion’s “You and I.”

Songs played repeatedly at her rallies include Tom Petty’s “American Girl,” Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5,” and Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s “Takin’ Care of Business.”

Songs Elton John might want to avoid: “Rocket Man,” “The Bitch is Back,” “I Guess That’s Why They Call it the Blues,” and “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me.”

Songs with the right message: “I’m Still Standing,” “It’s Me That You Need” and “Can You Feel the Love Tonight.”

Tickets will cost from $125 to $250 for the fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall.

“I’m not a politician but I believe in the work that Hillary Clinton does,” John said in a statement issued by the Clinton campaign. “I’m excited to support Hillary by performing at what will be a truly memorable night.”

PICTURE: REUTERS/ Jumana El Heloueh (British musician Elton John smiles as he performs during the “Elton & Band” concert in Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi January 22, 2008.)

WASHINGTON - New York Senator Hillary Clinton and her campaign will throw their support behind rival Senator Barack Obama of Illinois if he “for whatever reason” should win the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, a top aide to the former first lady said on Sunday.

“If for whatever reason Senator Obama is the nominee, everyone in this campaign including Senator Clinton will support him enthusiastically,” communications director Howard Wolfson told a conference call.

But Clinton would be the better commander-in-chief and had good chances in the upcoming state-by-state battles to determine who will lead the party’s ticket Wolfson said.

Some observers have expressed concern that the tough campaign between the two historic candidates would divide the party, but Wolfson said members would coalesce around the winner in order to defeat Republican John McCain.

That rare expression of support aside, Wolfson said he did not believe Obama would end up with the lead in the popular vote after the nominating contests were over and he reiterated his position that Obama had not proven he would be the best person to lead the nation.

“We do not believe that he has passed the commander-in-chief test,” Wolfson said.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Cohn (Clinton marches in St. Patrick’s Day parade in Pittsburgh)

CHICAGO - Is White House hopeful Barack Obama ready to be the U.S. commander in chief?

His rival, Hillary Clinton, insists he is not. But a key supporter says “No Drama Obama” has a steady demeanor that would equip him well in any foreign policy crisis.

“It’s this matter of temperament,” said Gen. Merrill “Tony” McPeak, who has been campaigning for the Illinois senator for months and labeled him “steady, reliable, ‘No Shock Barack,’ ‘No Drama Obama.’”

It was the latest in the back-and-forth between Obama and Clinton, a New York senator and former first lady, who have been sparring over who is most qualified to take charge of U.S. foreign policy. The two are locked in a fight to become the Democratic nominee to vie in November against Republican John McCain.

McCain has joined Clinton in arguing that the first-term Illinois senator lacks enough seasoning in world affairs.

Clinton’s campaign has run a television commercial depicting sleeping children and a ringing telephone at the White House to raise doubts about Obama’s credentials to handle a “3 a.m.” crisis phone call.

McPeak, who was chief of the U.S. Air Force during the first Gulf War in 1991, touted Obama’s foreign policy abilities at a news conference in Chicago where the candidate was flanked by several generals and admirals who support him.

McPeak drew from the experiences of the campaign trail to make his point that Obama would be a steady hand in a crisis.

“We’ve seen this so often in this campaign — good news and bad — when Senator Obama was up Iowa but not so up in New Hampshire, he was the same Barack Obama on the one day as the other,” McPeak said. “Whenever that phone rings at 3 a.m. you want a guy with this kind of temperament to answer that.”

Clinton, who has also been holding events with top U.S. military officials to suggest she has gravitas on foreign policy, says her time in the White House as wife to former President Bill Clinton has given her understanding of diplomacy and what it takes to manage a crisis.

Asked if he thought Clinton was experienced enough to answer that 3 a.m. phone call, Obama replied: “Yes, as I believe Senator McCain is, and as I believe I am.”

Photo credit: Reuters/Frank Polich (Obama delivers a speech at the Chicago History Museum)

DALLAS - The Pew Research Center reported on Wednesday that the U.S. public’s awareness of the number of American military fatalities in Iraq has fallen sharply over the last few months, underscoring the waning interest in the war ahead of November’s presidential election.

Only 28 percent of adults now can correctly say that approximately 4,000 Americans have died in the Iraq war, the nonprofit research group said.

That’s down from August 2007, when 54 percent of those surveyed correctly identified the fatality level at that time — about 3,500 deaths.

The nationwide poll of 1,003 adults taken from Feb 28 to March 2 also found that more respondents underestimated than overestimated the number of fatalities. A plurality of 35 percent said there had been about 3,000 troop deaths, while another 11 percent said they thought just 2,000 have died. Around 23 percent put the number closer to 5,000.

Pew noted that the fall in fatality awareness comes as news coverage of the conflict diminishes.

Pew reported in late February that public attitudes toward the war in Iraq had turned more positive as the security situation there seemed to improve.

The polling group said this was a favorable development for expected Republican nominee John McCain, who is an unflinching backer of the war effort and was an early supporter of the “troop surge” there.

Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both say they will begin withdrawing troops quickly if either wins the November election.

In a race where every vote for the Democratic nomination for president counts, Hillary Clinton lost one on Wednesday when New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned amid media reports linking him to a prostitution ring.

Spitzer, who The New York Times said was caught on a federal wiretap arranging to meet a prostitute at a Washington hotel last month, was a superdelegate committed to the senator from New York.

Each Democratic governor is given superdelegate status automatically, meaning they can make their own choices about which candidate to support at the Democratic National Convention in August.

But the status is awarded to the governor, not the individual who holds the post. The Democratic National Committee said earlier this week that Spitzer would no longer serve as a superdelegate if he stepped down.

Lieutenant Gov. David Paterson will replace Spitzer as governor on Monday, but he already holds superdelegate status as a member-at-large. Paterson, who spoke at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, is also committed to Clinton, but he only gets one vote.

Maybe the real question is: Will one vote still matter come August?

Photo credit: Reuters/Mike Segar. Spitzer celebrates with Clinton after the New York State midterm elections in New York on November 7, 2006.