KANSAS CITY, Mo., May 22 - A Missouri car dealer has a message for Democratic presidential frontrunner Barack Obama: Midwesterners love their guns.

Mark Muller, the owner of Max Motors in Butler, Missouri south of Kansas City, on Thursday said sales have soared at his auto and truck business since launching a promotion this week that promises buyers a $250 credit for a handgun or a $250 gas card with every purchase.

Every buyer so far “except one guy from Canada and one old guy” has elected to take the gun, Muller said in an interview with Reuters. He recommends his customers select a Kel-Tec .380 pistol. 

“It’s a nice little handgun that fits in your pocket,” he said. 

Muller said he came up with the promotion after stewing over comments made last month by Obama at a fundraiser for his presidential campaign in San Francisco. The Illinois senator, who narrowly defeated Democratic rival Sen. Hillary Clinton in Missouri’s primary, said that small-town Americans bitter over hard economic times sometimes “cling to guns and religion.”

“We did it because of Barack Obama. He said all those people in the Midwest, you’ve got to have compassion for them because they’re clinging to their guns and their Bibles. I found that quite offensive,” said Muller.

“We all go to church on Sunday and we all carry guns,” Muller said in the interview. “I’ve got a gun in my pocket right now. I have a rifle in my truck. We’ve got to shoot the coyotes out here, they’re attacking our cows, our chickens. We’re not clinging to nothing. We’re just damn glad to live in a free country where you can have a gun if you want. This is the way it ought to be.”

Muller said the dealership, which has as its logo a grimacing cowboy wielding a pistol, has sold more than 30 cars and trucks in the last three days, far more than its normal volume. Phone calls and inquiries on car purchases from people around the country have poured in, Muller said.

He’s also had six protesters show up outside his business.

There may be more on the way because Muller said his next promotion is going to be a King James Bible for any car-buying Muslim. 

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

- Photo credit: Reuters/John Gress (Obama speaks to supporters in Iowa); Max Motors (Mark Muller)

LEAWOOD, Kan. - Freezing drizzle in this Kansas City suburb did not deter thousands of voters from waiting in long lines to attend a Democratic caucus in a middle school gym and choose between Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
 
The turnout was so much bigger than expected that overwhelmed caucus workers scrambled to make room, and predicted the process would run hours longer than planned. Polls in Kansas, a state where Obama has family ties, were expected to close at 9:30 p.m. Central time.
 
The line of independents and Republicans looking to register as Democrats was longer than Democratic line itself.  Caucus organizers were having trouble figuring out how to count the thousands crammed into the gym and cafeteria.
 
Steve Gaffen, 56, of Leawood, Kan. said: “It is impressive to see how many independents and Republicans who were crossing over.”
 
Gaffen and his wife said they were backing Clinton because “she has more experience and hopefully can get the economy back in line.”

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

KANSAS CITY, Mo.- A group of Democratic leaders in Missouri on Monday said they were forming a “truth squad” to protect Sen. Barack Obama from attacks they anticipate coming from rival Hillary Clinton’s campaign and other Obama opponents ahead of the Feb. 5 Democratic primary here.  

The move is similar to one Obama backers made in South Carolina ahead of that state’s primary on Saturday, which Obama won handily.

Missouri state auditor Susan Montee and former Missouri Democratic Party Chair Joe Carmichael told reporters in a conference call that they and other state Democrats were issuing a challenge to the “false and negative campaigning” seen lately from the Clinton campaign.

The group said it wanted to counter in Missouri allegations that Obama does not truly support abortion rights, that he was supportive of a range of Republican policies dating from the Reagan era and former President Bill Clinton’s assertion that Obama had gotten away with a “fairy tale” about his opposition to the war in Iraq. They also said another one by groups apart from the Clinton campaign that Obama was falsely presenting himself as Christian would be challenged if it resurfaced.

“Our primary goal is to make sure it doesn’t happen here. The voters need to participate in this election based on the facts not based on negative attacks,” said Carmichael. “That’s why we’re out front early… to say ‘No’ to the Clintons. Don’t do it here, because we’re ready.”

Not to be outdone, the Clinton campaign on Monday announced its own effort to keep campaigning honest.

The “Rapid Responders,” is a “national group of truth tellers who will respond to inaccurate or misleading attacks” directed at Hillary Clinton and her husband. The Rapid Responders will operate in all of the 22 states that will hold caucuses or primaries on February 5th.

Wherever and whenever her opponents misrepresent Hillary’s positions in their states, the Rapid Responders will set the record straight, said Maricopa County (AZ) Supervisor Mary Rose Garrido Wilcox.

 A Jan 25. Rasmussen poll pegged Clinton with a 19 point lead over Barack Obama ahead of Missouri’s Feb. 5 primary contest. The telephone survey showed Clinton earning 43 percent of the vote to Obama’s 24 percent. 

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

 - Photo credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst (Clinton and Obama during a debate in South Carolina.)

FORT MADISON, Iowa – Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s campaign rolled out a new television ad on Saturday dubbed “Hope,”  emphasizing the Illinois senator’s pledge to fight against special interest influence in Washington, improve America’s reputation abroad, and “bring a fractured people together.”
 
The theme was pushed heavily not only by the candidate in his weekend stumping but also by Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick, who joined Obama on Saturday to tell would-be voters his presidency would be “game-changing.”
 
“We have an opportunity as a generation not just to restore American prestige and confidence but to take it to a whole new level,” the governor told reporters while traveling on a bus through Iowa from one Obama campaign event to another. 
 
“He and I really believe in the power of hope,” the governor said. “That is a thing that people build lives on.” 
 
Obama, who has been dogged by concerns about his electability and relatively short stint of experience in government, fought back against those criticisms Saturday, saying he was the only Democrat that could beat any Republican next November. He said that while he may have less government experience than some of his rivals, he had the right kind of “life” experience to offer Americans hope for improvements in a range of social programs. 
 
He also offered a light-hearted spin. “I’m a black guy running for president named Barack Obama,” he told a crowd in Fort Madison. “I  must be hopeful. I must have hope.” 
 
The message seemed to resonate. One woman was overheard remarking to a friend afterward:  “I don’t care how big his ears are, I think he’d make a great president.”

– Photo credit: Reuters/Keith Bedford

CLINTON, Iowa- Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama was feeling good after a day of non-stop campaigning across rural Iowa on Friday.

“It’s all going well, don’t you think?” Obama asked a group of traveling journalists after he drew repeated cheers at an evening rally here for his proposals to end the war in Iraq and improve the U.S. education system.

But some of those attending the rally were not so happy afterwards. While they were listening to Obama speak inside a local school, their cars were towed away.

According to a representative from the sheriff’s department, there was confusion over a city snow ordinance that prohibits parking in certain areas before they are adequately plowed. Parts of the state were blanketed with snow over the last 24 hours.

For Wanda Hardwick, who brought her daughter to see Obama speak but ended up struggling to find a ride to pick up her car at an impound lot, the events turned an otherwise upbeat experience into a big disappointment.

“This was a big event. You think they (the police) would make an exception,” she said. “This is just spiteful.”

– Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young

CORALVILLE, Iowa — Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama on Friday launched a fresh assault against rival John Edwards over questions about campaign funding from corporate lobbyists, rolling out a new television advertisement on the issue.
 
“I am in this race to tell the corporate lobbyists that their days of setting the agenda in Washington are over,” Obama says in the television spot.

The message dovetails with the Obama campaign’s release of a letter from eight Iowans who said they supported John Edwards in the 2004 caucuses but are now supporting Obama because they’re unhappy with multi-million-dollar ads supporting Edwards funded by what they described as “Washington lobbyists”.  
 
Edwards has demanded one outside group tied to a former campaign manager, Alliance for a New America, not run $750,000 worth of ads supporting his presidential bid. But the Obama supporters argued that more than $2 million was being spent to help Edwards from outside groups.

But the Edwards campaign shot back with its own letter from three supporters who said they initially backed Obama but switched. “We were disappointed to learn that Senator Obama took $1.5 million from PACs and Washington lobbyists — and only stopped taking their money days before entering the presidential race,” they said.

Obama also leveled fresh criticism both at Pakistan’s leader Pervez Musharraf and the Bush administration in the aftermath of the assassination of that country’s former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, saying the United States had to reassess its policies toward Pakistan.
 
“We have poured billions of dollars in support to President Musharraf… and he has not focused on dealing with the terrorist threat that is growing. That is where Al Qaeda is now,” Obama told a crowd gathered in a school gymnasium in Willamsburg, Iowa. “I’ve insisted for many months that we should tell the government of Pakistan that No. 1 that they have to observe democratic practices. And No. 2 they have to get serious about going after Al Qaeda.” 

– Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young

TOLEDO, Iowa — Some voters in this presidential caucus-crazy state show their support with yard signs, lapel pins and bumper stickers. And then some use dairy products.

Norma Lyon, a 78-year-old dairy farmer from Toledo, Iowa, chose to show her support for Sen. Barack Obama, who is seeking to become the first black U.S. president, by sculpting a likeness of his head with 23 pounds of butter.

The butter bust was displayed Thursday night at an Obama campaign event in a Toledo, Iowa, middle school auditorium, melting only a little under the heat of overhead lights.

Lyon said she made the butter Obama about two weeks ago and has been keeping it fresh in a deep freeze in anticipation of showing it off to Obama. 

She plans to haul it out again on Jan. 3 and take it with her to the caucuses, which help determine the Democratic and Republican nominees for the November presidential election. For 46 years, Lyon sculpted the full-size butter cow at the annual Iowa State Fair but she retired in 2006.

Obama thanked Lyon for her support and gave her a hug following a speech in which he pledged to end the war in Iraq, strengthen Social Security and reform the U.S. health-care system.

The senator fretted only slightly over whether or not the sculpture made his ears too big. Lyon said that as much as she liked Obama, she had to be honest in her art.  

– Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young

DES MOINES — The love was flowing Thursday morning as Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama told a packed meeting hall that he wanted to bring a “new kind of politics” to Washington.
 
As Obama spoke about working to cross partisan lines,  someone from the crowd interrupted with a shouted “Love you Obama.” And no, it wasn’t the woman who was made famous for the video “I Got a Crush … on Obama” (4.2 million views and still counting). 

“Love you back!” Obama quickly responded, drawing laughter and cheers from a meeting hall that was so packed with onlookers that campaign workers were forced to turn people away.
 
Outside, novelty salesman Jeremy Beggun did brisk business selling pins and t-shirts supporting Obama, including some with the message: “Hot chicks dig Obama.” 
 
But the best seller was less about the Illinois senator, according to Beggun, and instead was a button bearing the likeness of President George Bush and the message “Good Riddance.”

– Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young

A month ahead of the Iowa caucus, presidential candidates Mike Huckabee on the Republican side and Democrat Bill Richardson are shaping up as the most friendly to Iowa farmers, according to a voters’ guide released Tuesday by the Iowa Corn Growers Association, a lobbying organization that represents about 6,000 farm families.

The growers’ group polled all the candidates on their positions on 12 different agriculture and trade-related policies, which includes a strong farm bill safety net and maximum funding for an alternate fuels program.

Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, and Richardson, governor of New Mexico, were given good marks on all 12, while Democratic candidate Barack Obama scored well on 11 out of 12. Rivals Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton lined up with growers interests on only 2 points, and John Edwards only 1. The candidate given the worst grade: Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul.

“This has good value for our members in helping them understand where the candidates stand,” said Don Elsbernd, treasurer of the corn group.

The guide will be promoted to the national corn growers group and shared with farmers across the country before they go to the polls to choose their presidential nominee.

– Photo credit: Reuters/Joshua Lott (Richardson in Iowa in September)

It’s hard to get away from the corn when you’re in Iowa. 

That was clear on Monday when former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who is emerging as a favorite among Iowa Republicans according to some polls, made a campaign stop at Pioneer Hi-Bred International, an agricultural products company with a large interest in corn seed. 

Huckabee and his wife Janet were short on time but spent part of their day in the No. 1 U.S. corn-growing state taking in a quick lecture on the benefits of Pioneer’s biotech corn seed.  

As Janet fingered leafy green stalks of real corn plants on display near a corporate breakroom, Huckabee quizzed company executives on work by the agriculture industry to turn straw and other crop residues into alternative fuel, and asked about progress on developing drought-tolerant crops. 

Huckabee then moved on to make his pitch to about 300 of the company’s employees. Huckabee told the group about his humble background and “barely” getting by as he grew up. He spoke of protecting freedom, families and cheap food.

Many in the crowd applauded the former governor’s comments and some said afterward they planned to support his candidacy, but others found Huckabee’s folksy demeanor a bit too, well, corny: 

“I think he probably will get the nomination,” said 43-year-old Christine Hartline. “But I just don’t like him.”

– Photo credit: Reuters/Carey Gillam