ALBUQUERQUE - It is no secret that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will be hitting the campaign trail together on Friday.

The Obama campaign announced last week that the two former rivals would appear in public for the first time since the Illinois senator captured the Democratic presidential nomination on June 3.

But the campaign kept the location of the joint appearance under wraps. Until now.

Their rally will take place in Unity, New Hampshire, a small town near the Vermont border where each candidate received 107 votes in the primary.

Clinton threw her support behind Obama at a rally in Washington on June 7, where she announced she was suspending her campaign and urged her supporters to back Obama.

The community’s name underlines the message of party unity the two are trying to promote after their bitter nomination struggle.

In a cliff-hanger vote, Clinton won the Jan 8 New Hampshire primary, edging out Obama who had been expected to prevail.

The Granite state will be a battleground in the general election. Though it has leaned Democratic in the past few years, Republican John McCain has a long history there which could help him.

New Hampshire launched McCain’s ascent to victory in his party’s minating race this year. The state also backed him for the Republican nomination in 2000 when he ran against President George W. Bush, but the Arizona senator stumbled in later races.

Obama has gone to lengths recently to try to court Clinton’s disappointed supporters and to promote the party unity message.

Last week, he convened national security meetings that included several high-profile Clinton advisers, such as former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and retired Gen. Wesley Clark. Obama and Clinton will also meet on Thursday with her financial donors at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington.

Visiting New Mexico on Monday, Obama held a town hall with women workers and was introduced by the state’s Lt. Gov. Diane Denish.

In his discussion with the women, Obama talked of growing up as the son of a single mother and told of his grandmother who went to work in a bomber factory during World War II and later became the “financial rock” of his family as he emphasized his support for equal pay for women workers.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed. Sen. Hillary Clinton speaks at the National Building Museum in Washington June 7, 2008.

Barack Obama’s White House bid could depend on guys like Allen Boyd.
 
To be sure, this 63-year-old white, Florida farmer is not the protoypical supporter of the drive by the 46-year-old liberal to become the first black U.S. president.
 
But Boyd, who also happens to be a Democratic congressman, seems to be edging in Obama’s direction, citing economic and foreign policy reasons.
 
Obama “adheres to fiscal responsibility,” Boyd says and on foreign policy he’s “sort of out front on that about how we change the direction of this country.”
 
At the same time, Boyd says Obama likely has an uphill battle to win Florida, a likely crucial battleground.
 
“I would say if you look at the history of the last few presidential elections, it would be very difficult for him (Obama) to win,” Boyd said. He added, “Obama has a very tough bore in districts like the one I represent” in Florida’s panhandle.
 
In an interview taped on Friday for C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers,” Boyd, a six-term lawmaker, said he has no plans to endorse Obama, explaining he never endorses presidential candidates.
 
But when asked if there was any chance he would end up supporting Republican presidential candidate John McCain, Boyd said, “From what I see right now from a policy perspective, I’d say no.”
 
Boyd is a leading member of a group in the U.S. House of Representatives known as “Blue Dogs,” lawmakers who think government spending is out-of-control. They’re known for their independent streak within the Democratic Party and for holding  up legislation, such as an Iraq war spending bill, to insist that popular add-ons costing billions of dollars be paid for.
 
Given the difficulty pigeonholing these lawmakers, it’s been an open question if they — and voters in the conservative districts many of them represent — will back Obama.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Bourg (Barack Obama at Washington news conference June 18)
 

WASHINGTON — Barack Obama touts hard work and “heartland values” in his first TV ad of the general election, which will air in several Republican-leaning states.

“America is a country of strong families and strong values. My life’s been blessed by both,” the Democratic says in this one-minute spot, which emphasizes his humble roots.

Like Republican rival John McCain ’s first national ad, it’s a soft-focus introduction for voters who may not be familiar with his background.

It will air in 18 states, including many that haven’t voted Republican in recent presidential elections — Alaska, Indiana, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota and Virginia.

WASHINGTON - Americans are hearing a lot more about Michelle Obama than Cindy McCain, but the news they get about the Democratic presidential candidate’s wife is far more negative than what they hear about the spouse of the Republican candidate, according to a study.
 
The study by the Pew Research Center for People and the Press found that 30 percent of Americans said they had heard a lot about the wife of Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama, while only 9 percent reported hearing a lot about Cindy McCain, the spouse of Republican candidate John McCain.
 
Seventy-eight percent said they had heard at least a little about Michelle Obama, while only 54 percent reported hearing at least a little about Cindy McCain, the study found.
 
Michelle Obama has been more heavily covered by the news media than Cindy McCain. Between Jan. 1 and June 15, Obama has been a significant newsmaker in 102 stories, while McCain has appeared in just 28 stories, according to the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism.
 
In evaluating the coverage of the two candidates’ wives, about half of those questioned said the news had been a mixture of positive and negative.
 
But people were much more likely to say the news they had been hearing about Michelle Obama was mostly negative. About 26 percent said Obama’s coverage had been mostly negative, while 21 percent said it had been mostly positive.
 
Thirty-one percent said the news about Cindy McCain had been mostly positive, while only 7 percent said it had been mostly negative.
 
Republicans were much more likely to say the news about Obama had been mostly negative. Thirty-three percent found that to be the case, while only 10 percent of Republicans said coverage of the Democratic candidate’s wife had been mostly positive.

What do you think — has Michelle Obama been getting rougher treatment from the news media than Cindy McCain? Or are they being treated equally?

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Photo credit:  Top: Reuters/Chris Keane (Barack and Michelle Obama in Raleigh May 6); Bottom: Reuters/Mike Stone (John and Cindy McCain in Dallas March 4)

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)

WASHINGTON — Republican candidate John McCain touts his independence from President George W. Bush and his plan to fight global warming in a new TV ad.

Two liberal groups, meanwhile, are slamming McCain’s support for the Iraq war in an ad of their own.

McCain’s ad, highlighting an issue important to many independent voters, will run on local TV in 11 battleground states, as well as national cable channels like Fox News and CNN. An aide said the ad buy would be “substantial,” but declined to provide a figure.

“John McCain stood up to the president and sounded the alarm on global warming,” the ad’s narrator says.

It’s the second national TV ad for McCain.

Some of those same viewers might see this ad by MoveOn.org and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. An actress portraying a mother holds up her child and asks McCain: “When you said you would stay in Iraq for 100 years, were you counting on Alex? Because if you were, you can’t have him.”

The two groups say they plan to spend $540,000 to air the ad in three battleground states — Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin — and nationally on cable.

What about Obama? His campaign isn’t buying any national TV ads yet, though they were sitting on a much larger pile of cash at the end of April ($47 million vs. McCain’s $22 million, according to the latest FEC filings).

FLINT, Mich.  - Former Vice President Al Gore, a highly respected figure in the U.S. Democratic party, was set on Monday to appear at a Detroit rally with presidential candidate Barack Obama, where he will pledge to do all he can to help Obama win the White House.

“Over the past 18 months, Barack Obama has united a movement. He knows change does not come from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue or Capitol Hill. It begins when people stand up and take action,” Gore said in a letter to his supporters, asking them to help him raise money for Obama.

“From now through Election Day, I intend to do whatever I can to make sure (Obama) is elected president of the United States,” Gore said in the letter, which was made available to reporters by the Obama campaign.

The letter marked the first time that Gore has said publicly he was supporting Obama. 

The former vice president, who served with former President Bill Clinton, remained neutral as Clinton’s wife, Hillary Clinton, and Obama battled for the Democratic nomination. 

Since losing his own bid for the White House to President George W. Bush amid the disputed Florida voting in 2000, Gore has become a hero to many in his party. He has been a vocal advocate of actions to combat global warming and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in that area.

Obama said in April that he consulted regularly with Gore and also said he would strongly consider inviting the former vice president to serve in his administration should he win the White House.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Denis Balibouse  (Al Gore at news conference in Geneva, March 11, 2008)

CHICAGO - Democratic Party presidential candidate Barack Obama went to church on Sunday and joked about being “too black.”
 
In a Father’s Day speech to several thousand people at the predominantly black Apostolic Church of God, Obama talked about how people need to have high expectations for themselves then shared a few anecdotes about running for president.
 
“You remember at the beginning, people were wondering — how come he doesn’t have all the support in the African American community. You remember that?” he said to shouts of “oh yeah.”
 
“That was when I wasn’t black enough. Now I’m too black,” he said to laughter and applause.
 
Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president if elected in November, is the son of a Kenyan father and a white mother from Kansas.

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Photo credit: Reuters/John Gress (Obama speaks at the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago on June 15, 2008)

 WASHINGTON - Republican presidential candidate John McCain admitted on Saturday it can be difficult at times to be proud of the United States.
 
“I’ll admit to you … that it’s tough in some respects,” McCain said when asked by a questioner at a town hall meeting how to be proud of the country.
 
“We have not always done things right and we mismanaged the war in Iraq very badly for nearly four years.”
 
McCain’s wife, Cindy, pounced on Michelle Obama, the wife of presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama, for saying in February that she was proud of her country “for the first time in my adult life.”
 
The Arizona senator said it was important for the United States to be more humble and inclusive.
 
“I think we can be proud of America because of what we’ve achieved and accomplished in this world,” he said.
 
“What we have to do is tell our friends around the world that we will be proud of America because of what we’re going to do.”

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 - Photo credit: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton (McCain speaks during a town hall meeting at Federal Hall in New York on June 12). 

PHILADELPHIA - Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, who regularly uses language to reinforce his modern-guy credentials, seems to have set  that aside when he explained how he won’t be cowed by Republican attacks.
 
“If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,” Obama said at a fund-raiser in Philadelphia on Friday, employing a phrase that could have been lifted from a gangster movie.
 
“Because from what I understand, folks in Philly like a good brawl. I’ve seen Eagles fans,” he said, referring to the city’s  football team.
 
The Republican Party quickly responded that the comment undermined Obama’s claim to represent change.
 
“Why is Barack Obama so negative? In the last 24 hours, he’s completely abandoned his campaign’s call for ‘new politics’, equating the election to a ‘brawl’ and promising to ‘bring a gun’,” said Republican National Committee spokesman Alex Conant.
 
“It’s clear Obama is going on the attack to distract from the fact that since winning the nomination, his friend and fund-raiser, Tony Rezko, was convicted, and his vice presidential vetter, Jim Johnson, was forced to resign,” Conant said.
 
The punch and counterpunch suggest another tough-guy phrase that has slipped into the political dialogue: “Bring ‘em on.”

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Photo credit: Reuters /Luke MacGregor (Knives are on display at New Scotland Yard in London on May 29, 2008)