COLUMBUS, Ohio - Republican presidential candidate John McCain says he knows he has some work to do to repair his party’s image with U.S. voters and he wants to start by pushing his pledge to rein in government spending.

McCain told reporters on Wednesday there was no doubt the Republican brand had fallen out of favor and said a series of special election defeats for the party recently underscored that.

“We have to re-energize our base,” the Arizona senator told reporters during a visit to a recycling plant near Columbus.

McCain said a key priority will be to show voters that he is committed to lean budgets. McCain is also trying to court independent voters by pushing more moderate policies than President George W. Bush on some issues such as the environment.

“We need to most of all … stop the out-of-control spending, be committed again to being careful stewards of the American people’s tax dollars,” McCain said. A run-up in spending on Bush’s watch is one of the reasons the president has lost some support among Republicans. Bush’s approval rating is at roughly 30 percent in many surveys, close to an all-time low.

On Tuesday, Democrat Travis Childers won a U.S. House of Representatives seat in Mississippi, in an election that was seen as a warning sign for Republicans that the unpopularity of Bush and the Iraq war may pose difficulties for the party in November, both in the presidential race and in congressional elections.

Childers defeated Greg Davis in a run-off to fill a vacant seat in Mississippi’s first congressional district. Vice President Dick Cheney had campaigned against Childers and Republican ads tried to link him to Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama, viewed by many Mississippians as too liberal.

(Rep. Thomas Davis of Virginia, former chairman of the House Republican  campaign committee, wrote in a letter to House Republican leaders after the Mississippi loss, “The Republican brand is in the trash can.”)

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” McCain said. “I have a lot of work to do. I understand the challenge. I’m confident at the end of the day that my vision and plan for action for this nation will gain a majority of the votes. But I have no illusions.” 
 
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Photo: Reuters/Richard Clement - Republican presidential candidate Sen.John McCain addresses employees at the Vestas Wind Technology plant in Portland, Oregon May 12, 2008.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - John Edwards may have endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president on Wednesday, but the former North Carolina senator saved his most gushing praise for the likely loser in the White House nominating race: Hillary Clinton.

“It is very, very hard to get up every day and do what she’s done. It is hard to go out there and fight and speak up when the odds turn against you,” he said.

Edwards, a former North Carolina senator and vice presidential candidate, told Clinton on Tuesday that he intended to endorse Obama.

Which he did — to applause from the crowd of some 12,000. But a good portion of his words focused on the former first lady.

“She’s a leader in this country not because of her husband, but because of what she has done,” Edwards said, referring to former President Bill Clinton.

“We are a stronger party because Hillary Clinton is a Democrat.”

Whew. Clinton’s campaign brushed off the endorsement, which she had also sought. Edwards’ wife, Elizabeth, who has praised Clinton’s health care plan, was not present and has not backed a candidate.

Obama, who introduced Edwards and took the stage again when he was done, included Clinton in his words, too, and said the election was not about him, her, or Edwards. 

“John Edwards and I believe in a different America. Hillary Clinton believes in a different America. The Democratic Party believes in a different America,” he said.

Perhaps he’s paving the way for her endorsement once he has wrapped up the nomination for good?

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Photo: Reuters/Jeff Haynes - Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama shakes hands with former Democratic challenger John Edwards at a rally with supporters in Grand Rapids, Michigan on May 14.

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Illinois Sen. Barack Obama sidestepped the Dream Team question on Tuesday when asked whether he would make rival Hillary Clinton his running mate if he beats her for the Democratic White House nomination. 

“Sen. Clinton is still competing. We haven’t resolved this nomination. I haven’t won the nomination yet,” Obama said, after jokinginly asking the audience member who asked the question whether he was a reporter.

“It would be presumptuous of me to pretend like I’ve already won and start talking about who my vice president’s going to be. I still have some more work to do.”

Presumptuous? Maybe. But he’s not exactly pretending. Obama, who has a nearly insurmountable lead over the New York senator in their race for the nomination, went to Missouri on Tuesday and campaigns in Michigan on Wednesday.

Both states have already voted in the primaries and will be crucial to him in a general election against Republican John McCain.

Photo Credit: Reuters/John Gress

WASHINGTON - Democrats captured another Republican seat in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday night during a special election in Mississippi, the third such victory this election cycle.

Yet another loss will likely strike fear in the hearts of many Republicans who are worried that it could have even bigger ramifications this November as they try to claw their way back to a majority.

In the race to represent northern Mississippi, Republican Greg Davis lost to Travis Childers despite a last-minute effort by Vice President Dick Cheney to woo voters at a campaign fundraiser for Davis on Monday. Childers will have to run again in November, this time for a full two-year term.

He will fill a seat vacated by Rep. Roger Wicker who was appointed to fill Sen. Trent Lott’s seat and expands the Democratic House majority to 236-199.

“His victory has sent a thunderbolt across America tonight,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat who is chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Van Hollen also tried to broaden the meaning of the victory, arguing it was not only a setback for House Republicans but also “the Bush administration’s misguided policies and John McCain’s campaign for a third Bush term,” referring to the presumed Republican presidential nominee.

And a top House Republican appeared similarly grim in his assessment of the loss.

“The results … should serve as a wake-up call to Republican candidates nationwide,” said House Republican Leader John Boehner, an Ohio Republican. “As I’ve said before, this is a change election, and if we want Americans to vote for us we have to convince them that we can fix Washington.”

Earlier this year, Democrats won the Illinois seat held by the previous Republican House Speaker, Dennis Hastert, and captured the Louisiana seat held by departing Republican Richard Baker.

Are voters sending Republicans a message or are these isolated victories for Democrats?

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young (Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi takes the podium for the first time in January in her new position)

CHARLESTON - While Democrats fret over the lengthy nomination battle and pundits wring their hands over whether Sen. Hillary Clinton should pull out, the candidate is out campaigning as if all those political storm clouds were not hanging over her head.

On Tuesday, as West Virginia voters headed to the polls, Clinton stopped to greet people at an outdoor flower market in Charleston. She was met with enthusiasm, especially from older, white women who have proven to be a pillar of her support.

“West Virginia is behind you, darling,” one woman shouted.

Clinton shook hands, posed for pictures and cooed over babies as shoppers lined up to meet her. Shouts of “She’s here, she’s here” rippled through the market.

“I’m so excited. I just voted and here you are,” Julie Watkins squealed to the candidate. The 42-year-old social worker said she had to rush off to take her grandmother to vote.

Another supporter, Mary Lou White, cupped a lit cigar in her hand as she met the former first lady.

“I told her to keep fighting. That’s what you do,” said the 69-year-old plant vendor from Kenna, West Virginia, afterward.

Clinton stopped to eat a cup of Espresso Oreo ice cream from Ellen’s Homemade Ice Cream stand.

“I’m an equal opportunity ice cream eater,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve ever eaten ice cream I didn’t like.”

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CHARLESTON, W.Va. - We’ve seen him play basketball, he has been teased mercilessly about his dismal bowling skills and he even pretended to take part in a 400-meter hurdles race at a track meet last week. But pool?

Barack Obama loves it. And he decided to spend part of a 6-hour campaign stop in West Virginia — just one day before the primary election there — playing pool.

“The sign of a misspent youth,” Obama joked as he walked around and eyed the table in the smoky Schultzie’s Billiards in South Charleston.

“Obviously I wasn’t doing wholesome things like bowling,” Obama added to laughter, referring to a horrible showing in the bowling alley during a stop in Pennsylvania a few weeks ago.

The days of his youth came back quickly in the game against against Paul Scott, a local army veteran of the Iraq war. From the opening break, Obama sank several good shots — drawing some shouts of ‘whoa’ from the steadily growing crowd.

“Oh, it worked,” he said after he made one particularly tricky shot that sunk a ball into the opposite corner pocket. He also hammed it up for the crowd of photographers: contorting himself as he played with the idea of a behind-the-back shot.

The men played a gentleman’s game of pool, continuing on even though Obama sank the 8-ball early on. ”That’s what you’re supposed to do with a senator,” he said to his opponent as they kept playing.

After Scott sank his final ball with one of Obama’s remaining, the presidential candidate shook his hand and patted him on the back.

“I didn’t embarrass myself,” Obama said, then went on to the business of campaigning during his final minutes in the state.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (Obama plays basketball during a campaign stop in Indiana on May 4) 

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - As Barack Obama gains momentum in his battle with Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party’s 2008 presidential nomination, there are signs that the scrappy New York senator’s inner fighter may be giving way to the uniter who will knit the fractured party back together once the bruising nomination process ends. 

But parsing her recent campaign speeches from West Virginia and South Dakota to Oregon and Kentucky, Clinton does not appear ready to give up the fight just yet.  

At a speech late on Friday here, Clinton appeared initially to aim for a conciliatory tone toward Obama, only mentioning her challenger to draw comparisons between women and blacks — two groups that she said had suffered greatly under the original U.S. Constitution written by America’s founders. 

“Neither Senator Obama nor I nor many of you were fully included in the vision of our founders,” Clinton said.

“We’re here for one reason - to make sure the next president is a Democrat,” Clinton told the dinner held by the Kentucky Democratic Party. “Once we have a nominee I know in my heart we will come together as a party.”

But later in the speech she used very specific pronouns: calling for “a Democratic president who will roll up her sleeves and get to work for all of you.”

A day earlier in Charleston, West Virginia, Clinton had dismissed calls for her to drop out of the race as “déjà vu all over again,”  and recalled similar entreaties before she won the Pennsylvania Democratic primary. 

“There are people who said we need to end this before we get to West Virginia. Well, I don’t think so,” Clinton said. “I was never supposed to win Indiana.” 

Clinton has vowed to continue running until the voting concludes on June 3, but she and campaign aides have hinted she would step aside if it is clear that Obama will be the nominee. 

So which is it? Hillary the Fighter or Hillary the Uniter? Time will tell.

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Chris Baltimore (A Clinton supporter holds up boxing gloves at fundraiser in New York City.)

JERSEY CITY, N.J. - Is Republican John McCain’s age an issue? Only if the American public want to make it one, the senior Arizona senator told reporters on Friday.
 
“I don’t take offense to it … If that’s what the American people want to discuss, that’s fine,” said McCain, who turns 72 in August and would be the oldest first-term president ever.
 
“I will continue to introduce them to my 96-year-old mother and display the same vigor and energy that I have been able to display throughout this campaign which allowed me to win the nomination of my party.”
 
To that end, the campaign is launching a television commercial on Mother’s Day on Sunday, showing McCain with his still vigorous mother, Roberta.
 
The commercial, dubbed “Johnny’s Mom,” shows mother and son chatting about his birth at a U.S. Navy base in Panama, where his father served as an officer.
 
“I’m told that on the table were 27 bottles of scotch, all presents to Johnny,” she said.
 
The issue of the Arizona senator’s age is a sensitive one for the campaign.
 
It sparked a dust-up this week after Democratic rival Barack Obama suggested McCain had “lost his bearings” after commenting that Islamist Palestinian group Hamas favors Obama for president.
    
A McCain adviser accused Obama, 46, of trying to raise the Republican candidate’s age as an issue, a charge denied by Obama’s campaign.
    
McCain revisited the issue on Friday. Hamas’ apparent favor for Obama was also of interest to American voters, he said.
 
“I think that’s of interest to the American people and that is something that needs to be discussed — why his policies should meet the approval of a spokesperson for Hamas. I believe it’s a legitimate point of discussion.”

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Photo credit: Reuters/Chris Keane (McCain speaks at a campaign event in Charlotte, N.C., May 5, 2008) 

BEAVERTON, Oregon (Reuters) - The battle for the Democratic nomination has been long and tiring. So much so that Democratic frontrunner Barack Obama seemed to forget how many states were in the United States.

“Over the last fifteen months, we’ve travelled to every corner of the United States,” the Illinois senator said during a campaign event in Beaverton, Oregon.

“I’ve now been in 57 states, I think — one left to go,” Obama said. “Alaska and Hawaii I was not allowed to go to … my staff could not justify it,” he added after hearing laughter from the audience.

Obama apparently did not realize that he had said 57, instead of 47, states visited so far.

“It sure seems like there are 57 states,” a travel-weary campaign aide said after the event. 

Obama has actually been to 46 U.S. states so far during the campaign. He has not visited South Dakota, Arkansas, Alaska or Hawaii, an aide said.

The Illinois senator and his rival, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, have criss-crossed the country as they vie for the Democratic presidential nomination. The winner will face Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain in November’s general election.

Photo credit: Reuters/Steve Dipaola (Obama speaks about economy in Beaverton, Oregon) 

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WASHINGTON - Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are often described by many in the party as the dream team to recapture the White House in 2008 regardless who is atop the ticket. 

Clinton, whose presidential bid has been faltering in recent weeks, had previously hinted that she was open to the idea.  And now as Obama closes in on winning the party’s presidential nomination, he has not closed the door on Clinton as his vice presidential running mate.

If Clinton fails to mount a come-from-behind win, will her supporters be satisfied with the No. 2 spot and will Obama’s backers fear that she could hurt his chances of capturing the White House or possibly upstage him?

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