NEW YORK - Michelle Obama won a standing ovation on Thursday when she paid a campaign visit to gay and lesbian Democratic activists to promote her husband Barack Obama’s presidential quest.

Obama, appearing at a dinner meeting of the Gay & Lesbian Leadership Council of the Democratic National Committee, cited her husband’s efforts to fight discrimination and promote equal rights for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered people.

She said he supported a complete repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, which only recognizes marriages between men and women and upholds states’ rights not to honor same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. He also opposes a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy toward gays in the U.S. military and was against a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, she added.

He supports full family and adoption rights for gay and lesbian couples and believes the federal government should not stand in the way of states that opt for domestic partnerships, civil unions or civil marriage, she said. The Illinois senator opposes same-sex marriage.

“Barack believes that we must fight for the world as it should be, a world where together we work to reverse discriminatory laws like DOMA and ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’” she said. “The world as it is should be one that rejects discrimination of all kinds.”

Her husband also has called for a renewed effort to fight HIV and AIDS and has said the African-American community should overcome homophobia, she said.

“Nothing we have to do over the next four or eight years is going to be easy. There will be powerful forces who believe that things should stay just as they are, that everything is fine, and that’s where you all come in,” she said.

“Your voices of truth and hope and of possibility have got to drown out the skeptics and the cynics,” she said.

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Photo Credit: Reuters/Yuri Gripas (Michelle Obama at campaign event this week in Washington)

NEW YORK - Barack Obama is hot, John McCain is not.

So go the results of a “Hot or Not” online survey that shows the Democratic presidential candidate with a 9.5 rating and the Republican presidential candidate trailing at 5.2.

Online “Hot or Not” voters, who tend to range from age 18 to 30, can participate by going to the “Hot or Not” Web site and making their selection, a spokeswoman said. They also can rate celebrities and people who post photos on the social networking and dating site, she said.

Obama, with his high score, ranks on “Hot or Not” with the likes of ”High School Musical” star Vanessa Hudgens and Playboy’s 2008 Playmate of the Year Jayde Nicole.

Those in McCain’s range include pop star Madonna, “American Idol” star Simon Cowell and porn actress Jenna Jameson.

The votes for each candidate came from more than 4,000 participants, who rated them on a scale of one to 10. Most gave Obama an eight and McCain a five.

The poll will be open through Election Day in November, the company said.

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Photo Credit: Reuters/Mario Anzuoni (Hudgens)

Photo Credit: Reuters/Benoit Tessier (Madonna)

NEW YORK - One thing seems certain in the race for the White House — the debate that the campaigns have sparked on sexism, racism and ageism in the United States is nowhere near resolved.

The media’s handling of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain – each running a groundbreaking campaign — has drawn attention to the way women, blacks and older people are seen in America, according to a panel of experts that met on Tuesday at the Paley Center for Media.

 ”I think it’s time for journalists to stop and look back at what they did and not say, ‘Well, we’re not covering Hillary Clinton any more so gender is no longer an issue,’” said panelist Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

“I’d say to reporters, ‘Let’s think about all of those kinds of questions about gender and then let’s ask the same kinds of questions about race,’” she said. She also added age to the list.

If elected, Obama would be the nation’s first black president and McCain would be the oldest to take office. Clinton would have been the first woman. Discussion about bias and stereotyping has been extensive, especially since Clinton dropped out of the race and her loss disappointed many female supporters.

The panel on “Bias, Punditry and the Press in the 2008 Election,” which also included political columnists Courtney Martin of The American Prospect Online, Patricia Williams of The Nation and Juan Gonzalez of New York’s Daily News, noted what panelists saw as sexism toward Clinton.

Examples included the extensive coverage of her laugh, praise for certain of her speeches as “charming” and criticism that she was “strident” — none of which would have been leveled against a male candidate, they said.  That doesn’t even include rude and insulting remarks that can be found on the Internet, where people are more free to be harsh in their tone thanks to the Web’s anonymity, they said.

“It is so insulting, it is so unacceptable and, to think that in this country which claims to be the bastion of democracy and freedom and tries to take this around the world, that there is no accountablity for dissing a woman, I find that really appalling,” said panelist Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s chief international correspondent. 
      
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Photo credit: Reuters/Rebecca Cook (Obama)

Photo credit: Reuters/Lee Celano (McCain)

Photo credit: Reuters/Ana Martinez (Clinton)

 NEW YORK  - As presidential contenders John McCain and Barack Obama sparred over competing tax proposals on Tuesday, their top economic advisers debated similar issues of  what changes in fiscal policy will help boost the U. S. economy.

Taxes took center stage as Doug Holtz-Eakin, senior policy adviser to McCain, and Dan Tarullo, economic adviser to Obama, compared their candidates’ platforms at a Deals & DealMakers executive conference sponsored by The Wall Street Journal.

Their remarks came as their respective Republican and Democrat presidential candidates staked out starkly opposing stances on taxes, with McCain promising corporate tax breaks and Obama pledging tax increases for many.

Obama, in a television interview, said he would increase taxes on the wealthy and on stock profits to pay for a middle-class tax cut of $1,000 a year.  He said he would raise taxes on Americans making $250,000 a year or more and raise the capital gains tax for those in higher income brackets while exempting small investors.

McCain vowed to maintain President George W. Bush’s tax cuts, lower corporate tax rates from 35 percent to 25 percent, allow companies to expense new equipment and technology in their first year and keep capital gains taxes as they are now.

While McCain said he would cut government spending, Democrats argue not enough cuts could be made to pay for his plans, which Obama said would total $300 billion.

Obama thinks it is important “to explain where he would get the revenues to do the things that he thinks need to be done in this country,” Tarullo told the conference.

“Whether you are a person in the middle class or a bond trader, you don’t want to be contemplating a very big corporate tax cut and a very big personal tax cut for upper income people and hoping against past experience that this produces the kind of growth that’s going to more than compensate for a massive federal deficit,” he said.

McCain sees easing tax pressure as a means to promote jobs creation among small businesses, in research and development and on the corporate level, Holtz-Eakin responded.

Hand-in-hand with lower taxes is reining in federal spending, the McCain adviser said.

“He’s committed to changing the culture in Washington so we don’t spend a lot more,” he said. “We actually review programs say no to things that don’t make sense and address the real issues on the spending side, which is where our problems lie.”

“No one has paid attention to what we spend on, and that’s going to change,” he said.

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Photo credit: Reuters/ Lee Celano (McCain); Jason Reed (Obama)

WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Clinton, who plans to end her presidential bid and throw her support behind Democrat Sen. Barack Obama, sent a letter overnight thanking supporters and congratulating her longtime rival.

Here’s what it said: 

I wanted you to be one of the first to know: On Saturday, I will hold an event in Washington D.C. to thank everyone who has supported my campaign. Over the course of the last 16 months, I have been privileged and touched to witness the incredible dedication and sacrifice of so many people working for our campaign. Every minute you put into helping us win, every dollar you gave to keep up the fight meant more to me than I can ever possibly tell you.

On Saturday, I will extend my congratulations to Senator Obama and my support for his candidacy. This has been a long and hard-fought campaign, but as I have always said, my differences with Senator Obama are small compared to the differences we have with Senator McCain and the Republicans.

I have said throughout the campaign that I would strongly support Senator Obama if he were the Democratic Party’s nominee, and I intend to deliver on that promise.

When I decided to run for president, I knew exactly why I was getting into this race: to work hard every day for the millions of Americans who need a voice in the White House.
I made you — and everyone who supported me — a promise: to stand up for our shared values and to never back down. I’m going to keep that promise today, tomorrow and for the rest of my life.

I will be speaking on Saturday about how together we can rally the party behind Senator Obama. The stakes are too high and the task before us too important to do otherwise.

I know as I continue my lifelong work for a stronger America and a better world, I will turn to you for the support, the strength, and the commitment that you have shown me in the past 16 months. And I will always keep faith with the issues and causes that are important to you.

In the past few days, you have shown that support once again with hundreds of thousands of messages to the campaign, and again, I am touched by your thoughtfulness and kindness.

I can never possibly express my gratitude, so let me say simply, thank you.

Sincerely,

Hillary Rodham Clinton 

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Photo credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque (Clinton appears in Washington) 

 NEW YORK -  Barack Obama  had trouble reaching Hillary Clinton  on Tuesday night to offer congratulations on her South Dakota win and renew his offer to meet with her now that the Democratic voting contests are over.

Obama won Tuesday’s primary in Montana and earned enough delegates to clinch the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.

The two campaigns offered differing versions of the attempts to connect. Linda Douglass, a senior adviser for the Obama campaign, said Obama left Clinton two voicemails and that she returned the call a little over an hour after the first voicemail.

The Clinton campaign said that in the initial call,  the two candidates spoke briefly but lost the connection.

Obama communications director Robert Gibbs said that when the candidates did speak, Obama gave his congratulations on South Dakota and told Clinton he would like to “sit down when it makes sense for you.”

The Clinton campaign blamed the telephone woes on the less-than desirable technical conditions in the Baruch College building where the New York senator held her primary night celebration.

Due to firewalls built into the school’s communications system, there was no cellular telephone service and Internet access was spotty at best, conditions that also caused technical headaches for many of the hundreds of media on hand for the event.

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-Photo credit: Reuters/Brendan McDermid (Clinton attends her rally in New York)

RAPID CITY, S.D. - While pundits pondered the intricacies of how Hillary Clinton might drop out of the presidential race, voters in South Dakota greeted the candidate on Monday in a traditional style by talking about issues that affect their lives.

As she campaigned in a Rapid City diner, Clinton chatted with a nurse who asked about improving health care and a woman who wanted to talk about veterans’ care.

A few feet away, a young woman described a friend paralyzed in a wrestling accident and implored Clinton to support stem cell research.

Stardust Red Bow, 27, told Clinton she owed $90,000 in student loans after earning her master’s degree in social work.

“There are people with the same problems all around our nation,” Red Bow said after talking to Clinton. ”Even if she doesn’t win, I’m sure she will still be active in politics and can still sponsor bills.”

At another table, Joseph Bryant, 19, asked Clinton her views on women in combat and the New York senator talked about the support and medical roles women fill in Iraq and elsewhere.

“I thought it was a great answer,” Bryant said as she moved on.

Margaret Dimock, 38, burst into tears as she told Clinton she works three jobs and
has no health insurance because she has had seizures since childhood.

Clinton asked her staff to take down Dimock’s name and address to help her find assistance. 

“Don’t get discouraged. Keep the faith,” Clinton told her. ”We’ll follow
through.”

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Photo credit: Reuters/Rick Wilking (Clinton campaigns in Rapid City, South Dakota) 

GUAYNABO, Puerto Rico – Miles from the Democratic Party’s machinations to decide whether she will get her votes counted in the disputed primaries of Florida and Michigan, Hillary Clinton on Saturday smiled and clapped her way through the streets and small towns of Puerto Rico.

Clinton, who trails front-runner Barack Obama by what most consider an insurmountable gap in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, waved from a campaign truck at bystanders who gathered in the steamy afternoon heat to cheer her on.

Accompanied by loudspeakers blaring “Hillary Clinton, La Proxima Presidenta,” pounding music and trucks carrying photographers, television crews and reporters, Clinton cruised the palm tree-lined streets in towns around San Juan for hours past fruit vendors and fisherman who paused to point and smile.

Supporters honked car horns and waved banners while small children jumped up and down. One woman rushed up to Clinton and presented her with a giant bouquet of flowers.

“Si, si, si,” exclaimed Blanca Rivera, 69, standing by the side of the road in Guaynabo, when asked if she planned to vote for the New York senator in Sunday’s primary. “Si, si, si.”

Clinton is heavily favored to win Puerto Rico’s primary, although the result is not expected to make a significant dent in Obama’s lead among delegates to the party’s nominating convention.

Clinton remained well out of questioning range of reporters who might have asked her about the Democratic Party’s rules committee, meeting in Washington to decide the future of the primary results in Florida and Michigan. Clinton won both primaries, but the contests were held earlier than party rules allowed and the results were invalidated.

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Photo: REUTERS/Ana Martinez (Clinton appears at a rally in Puerto Rico)

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky - Democrats are acting more like Republicans by not counting the results of the Florida and Michigan primaries and by not seating those states’ party delegates, former President Bill Clinton said on Tuesday.

“The Republicans are supposed to be the people that don’t count votes in Florida, not Democrats,” said Clinton, campaigning with his wife Sen. Hillary Clinton at Lynn’s Paradise Cafe, where she chatted with voters and he held an impromptu news conference.

The January votes in Michigan and Florida were deemed invalid by the national Democratic Party because both states moved their election dates forward in defiance of party rules.

“The Democrats said, ‘We’re going to decapitate them, smudge them, step on them, act like they never existed, act like they never voted,’” the former president said. “It’s very strange that the Democrats would be more authoritarian and more hostile to the voters.

Many Democrats, like Clinton apparently, believe the 2000 election recount in Florida unfairly favored the Republican Party. The dispute was resolved by the Supreme Court, giving Republican George W. Bush the victory and Democrat Al Gore the loss.

Hillary Clinton won Michigan’s Jan. 15 primary, which did not include Obama’s name on the ballot. She also won Florida and  is seeking to have the votes counted and the more than 350 delegates reinstated. The party’s rules committee meets next week in an effort to resolve the dispute.

Republicans were less harsh toward states that moved their contests early and stripped them of just half their delegates.

“Do the right and decent thing by Florida and Michigan. Don’t let the Republicans look more enlightened than us, which they do today. It’s unbelievable. I  never thought I’d see that,” Bill Clinton said.

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Photo: Reuters/John Sommers II (Hillary and Bill Clinton campaigning in Louisville)

BOWLING GREEN, Kentucky - Katelyn Jenkins got a surprise visit from Sen. Hillary Clinton on one of the biggest days of her life so far. But odds are, she didn’t even notice.

The eight-week-old girl was getting baptised on Sunday morning at the State Street United Methodist Church, where the Democratic presidential contender paused in her campaigning to attend services.

At the sight of the former first lady, the baby’s father said: “I was pleasantly surprised and amazed.”

As for the red-haired baby in her father’s arms, she slept a bit, looked around a bit and fussed a bit.

“She just knew there was a big crowd, and everyone was looking at her,” said the baby’s father, adding that he was ”possibly” a Clinton supporter. The candidate briefly chatted with the baby’s parents after the service ended.

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Photo credit:  Reuters/Jason Reed (Clinton speaks at her West Virginia Presidential Primary night rally in Charleston, West Virginia on May 13, 2008)