DALLAS - Another day, another video showing Sarah Palin in church.

The latest Palin You Tube video to show up on the Internet features grainy footage of John McCain’s vice presidential running mate receiving a blessing against witchcraft in a Pentecostal church in her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska.

You can see the video here. Palin says nothing in it and keeps her head bowed throughout the blessing that was reportedly given by a Kenyan pastor and witch hunter.

The video, like a previous one in which Palin tells a congregation that U.S. troops in Iraq were on a “task from God,”  has been widely reported and commented on. It reportedly was made in 2005 before she was elected governor of Alaska. It began circulating on the Internet this week.

Palin is an evangelical who has ignited the Republican Party’s conservative Christian base. But incidents such as this one have raised eyebrows in some quarters, especially among foreign media covering the U.S. campaign in the run-up to the Nov. 4 election between McCain/Palin and Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

The online edition of Britain’s Telegraph newspaper said the incident recalled the damaging reports that Obama faced over his links to pastor Jeremiah Wright, who made stridently anti-American sermons.

To see some domestic media criticism, click here.

Some U.S. evangelicals will see nothing strange in a Pentecostal service evoking witchcraft. And many others will no doubt say what a candidate does in a church is nobody else’s business. 

Are candidates, their pastors and what they do in church fair game in this election year? Or not?

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

Photo credit: REUTERS/Brian Snyder  (Palin listens to McCain at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting in New York on Sept. 25, 2008)

WASHINGTON - Given the rise of Sarah Palin’s political star, is Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama regretting his decision not to choose Hillary Clinton as his running mate?

Palin, the Republican vice presidential running mate to White House hopeful John McCain, thinks so and even Obama’s running mate wondered whether Clinton would have been a better choice instead of Joe Biden. But what about Clinton herself?

“We have a great Democratic vice-presidential candidate,” Clinton said when asked about Palin’s comment in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that will air on Tuesday.

Clinton praised her “friend” Biden as a strong leader who understands the big issues the United States faces at home and abroad.

“So I’m very happy going out campaigning as hard as I can for both Barack and Joe,” Clinton said.

Palin told ABC’s World News Tonight anchor Charlie Gibson on Friday she believed Obama regretted not picking Clinton, his chief rival for the Democratic nomination, as his No. 2.

“I think he’s regretting not picking her now, I do. What, what determination, and grit, and even grace through some tough shots that were fired her way — she handled those well,” Palin said.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

- Photo credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder (Biden on stage at the Democratic National Convention with an image of Clinton on the screen behind him.)

ROME - Dick Cheney, considered one of the most powerful vice presidents in U.S. history, said Sarah Palin, a newcomer to the national political stage, was a good candidate and can be an effective vice president.
 
Republican John McCain’s surprise choice of the virtually unknown Alaska governor as his running mate in the contest for the White House has raised questions about whether she has the experience for an office that is next in line to be president.
 
“I think she’s a good candidate and I don’t see any reason why she can’t be an effective vice president,” Cheney told reporters travelling with him on a trip to Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine and Italy.
 
Cheney, 67, a former congressman and energy executive, is considered to have wielded greater power as vice president than previous holders of that office. He was deeply involved in decision making on the Iraq war and has been one of the harshest critics of Russia in the Republican administration of President George W. Bush.
 
Palin, 44, a self-described “hockey mom,” is a first-term governor of Alaska and prior to that was mayor of Wasilla, a small town in that state.
 
In a fiery speech at the Republican convention last week, Palin touted her small-town roots and attacked her critics as out-of-touch elitists who do not understand everyday life in America.
 
McCain and Palin, the first female Republican vice presidential nominee, are running against Democrats Barack Obama, the first black presidential nominee, and Joe Biden, a Senate veteran, in the race for the White House that will be decided in the Nov. 4 election.
 
“We’ve had all kinds of vice presidents over the years and everybody brings a different set of experiences to the office and also a different kind of understanding with whoever the president is,” Cheney said.
 
“Each administration’s different and there’s no reason why Sarah Palin can’t be a successful vice president in a McCain administration,” he said.
 
“I thought her appearance at the convention was superb. I watched that with great interest. I loved some of her lines - what was the difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull? It’s lipstick,” Cheney said with a laugh. 

Photo credit: REUTERS/Konstantin Chernichkin  U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney arrives at Kiev’s airport, Sept. 4, 2008.

Click  here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage

The online prediction market Intrade sees a 12 percent chance that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will be withdrawn as the Republican vice presidential nominee before the U.S. presidential election on November 4.

Intrade accepts trades on the probability of events such as whether there will be a recession, whether the U.S. Congress will lift the ban on offshore drilling or whether the United States or Israel will launch a military strike on Iran. It opened the Palin betting market on Tuesday morning after a series of revelations about the Alaska governor whom Sen. John McCain chose as his running mate, including that her 17-year-old daughter was pregnant.

The market opened at 3 percent that she would have to withdraw as McCain’s running mate and climbed as high as 18 percent before settling down to 12 percent on 632 trades as of noon EDT. The markets are priced from zero to 100, with zero meaning investors see no chance an event will happen and 100 meaning it already has happened.

Separately on Hubdub.com , which offers virtual cash in exchange for correct predictions, various wagers were made , from the chance of Palin stepping down as the VP nominee (currently a 19 percent chance) to whether her biography video would mention her NRA membership (80 percent).

What do you think the chances are that Palin will withdraw? Put your prediction — from 0 percent to 100 percent — in comments. Read the full Reuters story.

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta)

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

SAN DIEGO, Calif. - Republican presidential candidate John McCain had kind words for two of his possible vice presidential picks in recent days but dropped nothing more than hints about his eventual choice.

With the Republican convention starting next Monday, McCain is expected to name his running mate in the coming days — possibly at a rally in the swing state of Ohio on Friday, his 72nd birthday.

At a fundraising event in San Diego on Tuesday evening, he praised Mitt Romney , once a bitter rival for the Republican nomination who has now become a strong advocate for McCain on cable news shows.

“He does better on television for me than he did for himself,” McCain joked, reviving a line he has used before to acknowledge Romney’s efforts.

On NBC’s Tonight show on Monday, he lauded Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty when host Jay Leno mentioned him.

“He’s a great young man,” McCain said. “He’s a great governor of his state, and he’s done a great job, and he was reelected in 2006. It was a tough year for Republicans.”

Leno suggested Pawlenty could get “eaten alive” in a vice presidential debate with Sen. Joe Biden, the foreign policy heavyweight chosen by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama as his running mate.

McCain did not agree and joked that the real difficulty would be Biden’s propensity for verbosity.

“The problem for any of them might be getting a word in edgewise,” he said. 

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

SPRINGFIELD, Illinois - Of all the gaffes Democratic White house hopeful Barack Obama probably hoped to avoid, he accidentally introduced Joe Biden as the presidential candidate rather than the No. 2 man on the ticket.

He quickly corrected himself but the McCain campaign quickly pounced on the mistake to suggest that Biden, a veteran Delaware senator, might wield the real power in an Obama administration.

As Biden stepped to the podium at his first joint rally with Obama, the Democratic White House candidate said, “Let me introduce to you, the next president — the next vice president of the United States of America: Joe Biden.”

Known as a leading expert on foreign affairs, Biden, 65, has served in the Senate for 35 years and is expected to bring considerable heft to the Democratic ticket in a key area.

Polls show Obama lags well behind his Republican rival John McCain in polls on voter confidence on his readiness to handle international affairs. Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, could help close that gap for Obama.

But Republicans hope Biden’s foreign policy gravitas, rather than boosting Obama, will highlight his thinner resume and they used the verbal gaffe to press that point.

“Barack Obama sounded as though he turned over the top spot on the ticket today to his new mentor, when he introduced Joe Biden as the next president,” said McCain spokesman Ben Porritt, adding that Obama was “not ready to lead.”

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

- Photo credit: Reuters/Kamil Krzaczynski (Obama and Biden at their first rally together as the Democratic ticket.)

WASHINGTON - With campaign observers in a frenzy awaiting the impending results of the 2008 vice presidential sweepstakes, filmmaker Michael Moore has stepped up with a provocative plea to an advisor to Barack Obama: “Caroline, Pull a Cheney!”

That would be Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy, and the head of the group searching to find a running mate for the Democratic nominee.

“I cannot think of a more winning ticket than one that reads: “OBAMA-KENNEDY,” Moore wrote in an open letter to Kennedy posted on his Web site.

Moore, whose documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11” went after President George W. Bush’s administration, apparently is discouraged by the fact that Kennedy’s name has not come up in discussions of vice presidential candidates.

“What Obama needs is a vice presidential candidate who is NOT a professional politician but someone who is well-known and beloved by people across the political spectrum,” Moore wrote.

“This is the moment, Caroline. Seize it!” the writer-director says urging Kennedy to take a cue from the current vice president.

Dick Cheney was heading Bush’s vice presidential search committee in 2000 before he became the candidate’s choice to fill the No. 2 slot on the Republican ticket.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

 - Photo credit, right: Reuters/ Brian Snyder (Kennedy speaks at the 2008 Profile in Courage Award ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston in May 2008..)

RALEIGH, North Carolina - Barack Obama won’t say yet who his running mate will be but on Tuesday he did describe the qualities he wants in a vice president.

Briefly put: “he” will be the opposite of Dick Cheney, the man who currently holds the office.

“My vice president will be a member of the executive branch, he won’t be one of these fourth branches of government where he thinks he’s above the law,” Obama told a crowd in North Carolina.

Note the choice of pronoun. An Obama spokeswoman said not to read into that word choice but Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton — two women said to be on the Illinois senator’s list — may want to take note.

Obama went on to describe what he was NOT looking for in a running mate, painting a stark contrast with Cheney, who spearheaded President George W. Bush’s energy task force, influences White House foreign policy, including the Iraq war, and has claimed to be a member of the legislative branch because of his tie-breaking role in the U.S. Senate.

“I won’t hand over my energy policy to my vice president,” Obama said. “I won’t have my vice president engineering my foreign policy for me.”

Moving on to the qualities he did want, Obama said, “I want somebody who has integrity, who’s in politics for the right reasons. I want somebody who is … independent, somebody who is able to say to me, ‘You know what, Mr. President? I think you’re wrong on this and here’s why.’”

Cheney, considered a nemeses by many Democrats, has been described as one of the most powerful vice presidents in U.S. history.

Obama is expected to announce his choice for vice president in the next few days.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

 - Photo credit, left: Reuters/Jim Young (Obama and Clinton prepare to board a plane in June after she dropped out of the Democratic presidential race.)

 - Photo credit, right: Reuters/ Jason Reed (Obama embraces Sebelius after she endorsed him in January.)

WASHINGTON - With the expectation that Democratic and Republican presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and John McCain will announce their vice presidential running mates any day (or hour) now, rumors are flying fast, many of them contradictory.

Taegan Goddard over at Political Wire has a good summation of who is saying what on the VP hunt, while the candidates themselves are keeping their lips sealed.

The Palmetto Scoop (from South Carolina) is citing a source saying that Virginia officials were called into an emergency meeting to discuss a line of succession for possible Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine if he’s picked.

Meanwhile, MSNBC’s Howard Fineman reports that after talking to two of the finalists for Obama and other sources, he believes it will be Delaware Sen. Joe Biden unless something surprising happens at the last minute.

On the Republican side, Time magazine’s Mark Halperin says former Pennsylvania Tom Ridge, who supports abortion rights, is no longer in contention to be McCain’s No. 2.

He also reports that top McCain officials are sounding out Republicans on a VP who might support abortion rights, but Halperin questions whether that’s a head-fake to energize party conservatives. And Politico suggests Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman may still be under consideration.

As for the truth, only a handful of people know and the question remains open whether voters will vote for someone based on a VP candidate. Will they?

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

- Photo credit: Reuters/Mark Avery (McCain and Obama briefly share the stage last weekend at Saddleback Church.)

WASHINGTON - Pundits see Hillary Clinton fading as a possible running mate for Democrat Barack Obama. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday referred to her as “the big name” who “would make a great vice president.”

In an interview with Reuters on a range of political and legislative topics (as well as her new book “Know Your Power, A Message to America’s Daughters”), Pelosi said there was a deep bench Obama could choose from in rounding out the Democratic ticket.

Pelosi was asked whether the Obama campaign had signaled Clinton was out of the running because the New York senator and ex-presidential candidate has been slotted to speak on the Tuesday of the Aug 25-28 Democratic convention. The vice presidential nominee traditionally addresses the convention on Wednesday while Obama will speak on the final evening — Thursday.

“I think convention schedules can be changed,” said Pelosi, who will chair the Minnesota convention.

Pelosi was quick to add that she does not have “the faintest idea” who Obama will pick. “I think the only person who knows maybe is Barack Obama himself and Michelle Obama.”

- Photo credit: Reuters/Joshua Roberts (Pelosi with Obama last month)