John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, gave Barack Obama a timely endorsement Thursday, snubbing Hillary Rodham Clinton as well as his own vice presidential running mate.
Kerry came to South Carolina to embrace Obama, two weeks before the state’s primary and with Obama needing a boost after Clinton’s emotional victory over him in New Hampshire.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson ended his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday after poor finishes in the first two contests in Iowa and New Hampshire.
He praised all of his Democratic rivals but endorsed no one. He encouraged voters to “take a long and thoughtful look” at all of them.
Richardson said that although his support at the polls lagged the front-runners, many of his leading rivals had moved closer to his positions on such issues as the war in Iraq and educating young Americans at home.
Former President Clinton has become a central player in his wife’s presidential campaign. Yet as Hillary Rodham Clinton seeks to build upon her New Hampshire comeback momentum, that role is evolving and coming under new scrutiny.
His recent sharp comments about chief rival Barack Obama, including accusing the Illinois senator of engaging in a “fairy tale” on Iraq, could alienate some Democratic voters. However his popularity among Democrats remains high, a blessing that could cut both ways.
The voters of New Hampshire and the caucus goers of Iowa have spoken and their verdict: Hillary is no longer inevitable. Obama is no longer anointed. And McCain is no longer dead.
Hillary Rodham Clinton rebounded in New Hampshire from a near-death experience, confounding the pollsters, pundits and over-caffeinated cable hosts by edging out the predicted winner, Barack Obama, 39 percent to 37 percent. John Edwards finished with a disappointing 17 percent.
The Iowa caucuses, followed now rapidly by New Hampshire and many other primaries, might have resulted in a leading presidential contender sewing up the nomination early. So far, that is not the case.
The Iowa victors, Republican Mike Huckabee and Democrat Barack Obama, have received intense nonstop coverage in the few days since the caucuses, but neither has vaulted into a commanding lead. The much-headlined “Obama surge” in attention and public enthusiasm did not prevent a New Hampshire victory by Hillary Rodham Clinton.
While everybody else is writing about the results of the New Hampshire primary, I can only follow my contrary nature and write about the forgotten man of American politics.
Because of a self-imposed Christmas truce, I have not written about him for several weeks. So much time has passed, I now find that I can barely remember his name. This strikes me as very good, although admittedly it could be a sign that my mind has closed down out of respect for my recent 60th birthday.
Recession, like menopause, is a retrospective diagnosis. You don’t know you’re in one until you’ve been in it for at least two quarters (referring to a recession) or a year (for menopause). The question for me is not: Are we hitting a recession in 2008? It is: What has made the economy so buoyant that we didn’t submerge into a recession several years ago?
This modern opera debuted in San Francisco in 2005. It now comes to Chicago. I suspect that some wished that it had stayed put on the left coast.
Composer Adams, who previously collaborated with Peter Sellars on the surprisingly pleasing “Nixon in China”, joined him again to recreate the famous Trinity story. No, not about the three part god that created this flat earth 6,018 years ago. Rather, the story set in New Mexico, circa 1945, when mortal man strove to play god with neutrons and protons.