PHILADELPHIA - One of the most ardent supporters of Hillary Clinton’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination has disclosed the secret behind his now public support of Barack Obama: he drank the Kool-Aid.
 
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, who often accused reporters of having “drunk the Obama Kool-Aid” during the nominating process, said he now has had some of the sweet drink himself.
 
At a fund-raising event on Friday, just a week after Clinton pulled out of the Democratic race, Rendell said that Obama supporters had brought him a big carton of Kool-Aid and told him to “drink up” when Obama became the nominee.
 
“I gave Senator Clinton $1,500 in the primary so I thought just for old-time sake I’d give Senator Obama $1,499,” Rendell said, sparking scattered boos from the crowd.
 
Rendell calmed them by saying “that was before I drank the Kool-Aid.” He said he has a check for $2,300 to give to the Obama campaign. 

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Photo credit: Reuters/Tim Shaffer (Clinton and Rendell share a laugh during a campaign event in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in March)

WASHINGTON - Republican presidential candidate John McCain spent a marathon day raising money on Monday, and it went well: after events in Virginia and Washington, D.C., the campaign and the Republican Party pulled in more than $2 million.
 
“We won’t raise as much money as our opponent but we certainly will raise (a) sufficient amount of money to win this election,” the Arizona senator told a gathering at a Ritz Carlton hotel in Northern Virginia.
 
His opponent, of course, is Democrat Barack Obama, who has consistently broken records with his fundraising in the primary contests.
 
McCain congratulated Obama on his victory over rival Hillary Clinton in the Democratic nominating battle but needled the Illinois senator for a lack of experience by saying the White House was not a place for on-the-job training.
 
McCain was certainly on the job bringing in cash. One event included tickets to a “victory dinner” and two receptions for a contribution — raised or donated — of $50,000. Whew.
 
And even those lobbyists out there got a thank-you.
 
“I’m going to thank some corrupt unscrupulous lobbyists that are destroying America as we speak, everything we stand for and believe in,” McCain joked at one fundraiser. 
 
Right.
 
Finally, there was praise for his opponent-turned-supporter, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
 
“There’s nobody who represents me better today than Mitt Romney,” McCain said.
 
Are you listening, governor? That could be the sound of a vice presidential offer coming down the road …

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Photo credit: Reuters/Carlos Barria. McCain talks at a news conference after visiting the Everglades Safari Park in Miami, Florida, June 6, 2008.

Michelle Obama has a new defender from those who say she isn’t patriotic enough — First Lady Laura Bush. In an interview with ABC News, Bush said that Obama’s February remark that she was proud of the United States “for the first time in my adult life” was misconstrued.

“I think she probably meant ‘I’m more proud.’ That’s what she really meant,” Bush said from Afghanistan.

“You have to be really careful in what you say because everything you say is looked at and in many cases misconstrued,” she said.

Some commentators have said the remarks show that Obama, wife of likely Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama, does not love her country.

Bush also praised her White House predecessor, Hillary Clinton, who formally ended her bid to be the first female president on Saturday.

“Well of course, I want the woman president to be a Republican woman,” Bush said, when asked whether she was sorry to see Clinton’s campaign end.

“But I will say I watched the campaign and I admired Hillary’s grit and strength,” she said.

“I have to say I had a lot of admiration for her endurance,” she added.

Bush, who has endured five political campaigns with her husband dating back to the 1970s, said she would not run for office herself.

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Photo credit: Top: Reuters/Jason Reed (Barack and Michelle Obama board plane in Chicago recently); Bottom: Reuters/Larry Downing (Laura Bush visits Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan)

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - It’s June. The U.S. presidential  election is in November. So does it pay to be the front-runner now — or the underdog?

Republican John McCain has gone with underdog, declaring himself just that in an interview with ABC News’ Charles Gibson on Thursday, two days after Illinois Sen. Barack Obama became the presumptive Democratic nominee.

“Are you the underdog?” Gibson asked, according to a transcript of the interview.
“Oh, yes, I think so. I think so,” McCain replied.

“I think — I’m surprised, frankly, to see the polls as close as they are, given our brand problems in the Republican Party. I’m pleased where we are.”

Sometimes you don’t want to be the favorite.

Hillary Clinton, who is set to end her campaign for the Democratic nomination this week, was the clear front-runner last year before she lost to Obama in January in Iowa, the first state to hold a nominating contest.

McCain does have some obstacles. He has to compete with the historic nature of his opponent’s bid — Obama would be the first black U.S. president — and the unpopular Republican president, George W. Bush, whom both hope to succeed.

McCain played down the role of race at an event in Florida and is already working to gather some of the attention that has been showered on his Democratic rivals — and to find a style that suits him.

After his speech on Tuesday night was panned for poor delivery, the Arizona senator ditched his teleprompter on Thursday and spoke from the cuff, looking more natural and more comfortable.

He’ll have several more months to perfect his style if he wants to give up the underdog mantle.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young. McCain points to the audience as he arrives to speak before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington on June, 2008.

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) 

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who aims most of his attacks at Democrat Barack Obama these days, noted Monday that Hillary Clinton was still in the race — and praised her for being a role model to women.

“Yes, Sen. Clinton is still in the race,” McCain said in response to a questioner, adding that people should not underestimate the former first lady or her husband, President Bill Clinton.

McCain, an Arizona senator who has wrapped up his party’s presidential nomination, reminded an audience in Nashville that he had many differences with the New York senator.

But like Obama, the Illinois senator who is close to clinching the Democratic White House nomination, McCain slipped into the past tense when describing Clinton and her historic campaign.

“She has inspired generations of American women to believe that they can reach the highest office in this nation,” McCain said.

“I respect the campaign that she has run.”

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Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young (McCain at AIPAC meeting in Washington Tuesday)

WATERFORD, Mich. - Barack Obama praised rival Hillary Clinton as “an outstanding public servant” and said he hopes to meet with her sometime after the final Democratic presidential nomination contests take place on Tuesday.
 
Speaking to reporters outside a Rite-Aid distribution center in Waterford, Michigan, the Illinois senator gave more details about a conversation he had with Clinton when he called her on Sunday to congratulate her on her win in Puerto Rico.
 
“There aren’t many people who understand exactly how hard she’s been working. I’m one of them,” Obama said of their hard-fought race.
 
“I told her that once the dust has settled, I was looking forward to meeting with her at a time and place of her choosing,” he said.
 
Obama, who hopes he will rack up enough delegates this week to clinch the Democratic nomination, has been making a point of publicly praising the New York senator. His hope is to ease divisions that have opened up in the party during the months of campaigning.
 
Some Democrats worry the rift among Democratic voters may put the party at a disadvantage in the November election against Republican Sen. John McCain.
 
At a raucus gathering over the weekend, the Democratic party’s rules committee backed a compromise unfavorable to Clinton for the seating of disputed Michigan and Florida delegations at the party’s August convention.
 
The decision fanned anger on the part of some Clinton supporters. The committee rejected a Clinton-backed proposal to seat all the Florida delegates at full strength, then backed compromises seating both the Michigan and Florida delegations while cutting their voting power.
 
Clinton’s supporters were particularly angry about the decision to award Obama delegates in Michigan, where he did not even appear on the ballot.

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REUTERS/Jason Reed (Sen. Barack Obama speaks in Detroit, Michigan, June 2, 2008)

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama’s almost insurmountable lead in the race for the Democratic party presidential nomination is mainly the result of a two-week period in February when he outspent rival Hillary Clinton 3-to-1 on advertising while winning nine straight state races, according to a new analysis released Monday.

Obama beat Clinton in states ranging from Maryland to Nebraska to Hawaii between Feb. 6 and Feb. 19, winning 281 delegates to 163 for Clinton for a net gain of 118, said the study by the University of Wisconsin Advertising Project.
 
Democratic candidates need the votes of 2,118 delegates to the party’s convention in August to seize the nomination. Obama currently leads Clinton in the race for elected delegates 1,729 to 1,625, a margin of 104, according to a count by MSNBC. When the votes of party leaders and others who have declared their support are factored in, Obama’s lead grows to 2,076 to 1,918, MSNBC says.

The advertising advantage alone does not explain Obama’s February winning streak, but it was likely a factor. The study found that in the nine states he won during that two-week period, Obama was on the air first and had the paid media airwaves to himself for a significant part of the time. During a nine-day advertising battle in Nebraska, for example, Obama was alone on the air for six days unchallenged by Clinton.

“Unbalanced flows of paid information in a generally positive free media environment have the greatest potential to move numbers and influence races,” said Ken Goldstein, a professor who directs the advertising project. “This was the environment between Feb. 5 and Feb. 19 and that is what won Barack Obama the Democratic nomination.”
 
The study found candidates for the U.S. presidency have spent nearly $200 million on advertising so far during the 2008 election campaign, with Obama leading the pack at nearly $75 million.
 
Obama has spent nearly $30 million more than Clinton, who has paid $46 million, and almost $20 million more than all the Republicans combined, the study found.
 
The Illinois senator has spent nearly seven times as much on advertising as the Republican presidential nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain, who has paid $11 million.
 
Obama and Clinton spent about the same amount on advertising through the Super Tuesday contests on Feb. 5, when nearly half the country voted for presidential nominees.
 
But Obama outspent Clinton on advertising 3-to-1 over the following two weeks — Feb. 6 to Feb. 19 — and has outspent her 2-to-1 since that time, the study said.

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Photo credit: Top: Reuters/Jason Reed (Obama campaigns in Detroit Monday); Bottom: Reuters/Rick Wilking (Clinton campaigns in South Dakota Monday)

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)

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - As a Democratic presidential candidate, New York senator and former first lady, Hillary Clinton has had her share of media scrutiny. Still, she says the news media should become a more aggressive public watchdog.

“I really do. I really do,” Clinton told reporters when asked if she sincerely favors greater press scrutiny. 

“On the right things. On things that are important to the future of our country. On things that actually matter. I would love that,” said Clinton, long hounded by the press as one of the nation’s most popular yet polarizing figures.

Clinton made the remarks to reporters on her campaign plane on Wednesday night in wake of the new book by former White House spokesman Scott McClellan, who says the Bush administration manipulated information to lead the U.S. into the Iraq war.

“What I hope is that the press and the public and the political class will be much more vigorous and skeptical than everybody was,” Clinton said.

“Everyone, you know, in his or her own way, basically let the administration get away with it. And they got away with it. They got re-elected and here we are,” she said.

Referring to McClellan’s book as well as ones by other former administration officials, Clinton said, “Unfortunately, there were a lot of people in a position to know much more than most of us who went along.

“I find that very sad.”