Print | Close this window Clinton's top strategist quits Sun Apr 6, 2008 11:30pm EDT By David Wiessler WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's chief political strategist, Mark Penn, stepped aside on Sunday after news that he lobbied for a free trade treaty with Colombia that Clinton opposes. A meeting between Penn and Colombia's U.S. ambassador over the trade deal posed political problems for the campaign of the New York senator, who is vying with Illinois Sen. Barack Obama to become the Democratic nominee in the November election. "After the events of the last few days, Mark Penn has asked to give up his role as chief strategist of the Clinton campaign," the campaign manager, Maggie Williams, said in a statement. Anxiety about free trade is widespread among the working-class voters Clinton and Obama are courting and both candidates oppose the deal with Colombia. Penn apologized for the March 31 meeting with the Colombian envoy, which he said was held in his separate role as CEO of Burson-Marsteller Worldwide, a lobbying firm hired by Colombia to promote a U.S. trade deal with the South American country. John McCain, who has already won enough votes to secure the Republican nomination, took a break from campaigning but outlined plans to pursue voters often ignored by his party, which had focused on getting conservatives to the polls. "We need to go all over America ... (and) compete hard in every section of the country," McCain said on "Fox News Sunday" in an interview taped on Friday. Although he still has not won over many conservatives, McCain made clear he planned a broader campaign than those run by President George W. Bush when he faces either Obama or Clinton as the Democratic candidate in the November election. The Arizona senator said he would go after votes of blacks and Hispanics, two traditionally strong Democratic blocs, as well as independents and young voters who have been attracted to the Democratic campaigns this year. RED AND BLUE "I'm not sure that the old red state, blue state scenario that prevailed for the last several elections works," McCain said, referring to the way television networks depict Republican states as red and Democratic states as blue. "I think most of these states that we have either red or blue are going to be up for grabs." Before Democrats can start concentrating on the November election they must pick a nominee. Clinton and Obama have two more months of nomination contests to go. The next battleground is in Pennsylvania on April 22 but this weekend they were in Montana, a large, sparsely-populated state that rarely gets any political notice. In a race where every delegate to the party convention that picks the nominee is fought over, Montana's contest on the last primary day of the year, June 3, has taken on unexpected importance. In recent elections, the party's nominee has been chosen by states holding early contests. "I, for one, am pretty pleased that Montana is going to have the last say in who we're going to nominate for the presidency of the United States," Clinton said during a campaign stop in Missoula, Montana. All three candidates return to the U.S. Senate this week where the Iraq war will be center stage when Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander on the ground, testifies before Congress. Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, is leading the race for the 2,024 delegates for the nomination but will not be able to reach that figure when all the primaries are over and in fact trails in polls in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a Clinton supporter, predicted on NBC's "Meet the Press" that she would win by five to 10 percentage points. The state's Democratic senator, Robert Casey, an Obama backer, agreed "It's going to be tough." Some Democrats worry a prolonged fight will split the party into two camps, alienate voters and strengthen McCain. (Additional reporting by Thomas Ferraro and Ellen Wulfhorst, editing by Chris Wilson) (To read more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online here) © Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world. Reuters journalists are subject to the Reuters Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.
Clinton drops hospital story from stump speech (CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton will stop telling an emotional story about a uninsured pregnant woman who died after being denied medical care, Clinton's campaign said. Sen. Hillary Clinton was repeating a story she heard from someone on the campaign trail. A hospital has raised questions over the accuracy of the story, and Clinton's campaign has said although they had no reason to doubt the story, they were unable to confirm the details. link
she told that story several times.. each time with new embellishments. the family of the woman in the story was furious and i dont blame them. hillary is done... and i love it. some one call ZZZzzzenu's therapist.. she is going to need 10 <s>sessions</s> audits.
Ya know what is amazing? Here are the rich and powerrful Clinton Political machines at work.....and literally, they have gotten spanked at every corner by Obama.....if you look at the whole campaign...Obama has acted and run like he was a 30 year veteran of political elections...even when confronted with the Rev. Wright hype....he handled it well...he confronted it, took the heat for a week and then moved on....Hillary? she keeps saying " who do you want to take that call at 3:00 am"???? ...well, with the way she fibs, she might nuke a country because she heard something or interpreted the 'call' the wrong way....i mean...who the f#ck is advising her??? what are they thinking?...you would expect this from a newcomer like Obama but instead the savvy veteran is actign like its her first time in the limelight and just coming un glued!
TM.... now you understand why people like me hated Hillary since 92. the clinton's have gotten a free ride from the press this whole time.... i said hillary couldn't survive a YouTube candidacy, she is a congenital liar. i dislike most of Obama's positions but i agree with your statement, he has handled himself well. all of these stories exposing hillary, hit the internet first... and it usually took days before the mainstream media would allow coverage.. finally the dam burst and they said.. what the hell.
Im not sure the press has given the clintons a free ride...I mean...the blue dress? LOL...on the other hand, I do think out of the two Hillary generally got the softer ride....Im still not sure how she avoided the logical follow up questions when she said that " if rev. white made those comments while I was there I would have left the church".....how about " Sen . Clinton you husband puliccally lied and sexually harrassed women and was having sex with an intern and you knew about it but never left the white house...why is this any different?
you just proved my point. bill commits rape and you don't cite it.. you cite the blue dress. the media let 90% of the crap go... that is a free ride. hillary threatened the victim of bill's rape.. the mainstream media barely touched it. the public knows nothing. come on people... this stuff is too easy. drudge reported the blue dress.... newsweek had already spiked the story. they(powers that be) had recorded bill's phone calls.. he was being blackmailed. they didn't want it coming out when it did.
I cited theblue dress as a way to sum up the whole fiasco...the guy was impeached for christs sake....and the conservative radio and Fox boys were relentless on him...hell,,,,Billy boy helped make Fox news!