[tsumetomo]

Ralph Nader to run for president

Ralph Nader has announced plans to run again for the US presidency.
The anti-establishment consumer advocate made the announcement in a televised interview on Sunday.

Mr Nader was accused by many Democrats of handing the presidency to George W Bush in the November 2000 elections. He ran again unsuccessfully in 2004.

Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are vying for the Democratic ticket. Senator John McCain is almost certain to run for the Republicans.

Nearly three million Americans - more than 2% of the vote - backed Mr Nader when he stood as the Green Party candidate in the 2000 presidential election.

That election was so close that a small proportion of those votes - particularly in the key state of Florida - would have put Al Gore in the White House.

Disenchanted

"I'm running for president," Mr Nader said as he announced the move on NBC's Meet the Press.

He said most Americans were disenchanted with the Democratic and Republican parties - who were not discussing the urgent issues facing American voters

People, he said, felt "locked out, shut out, marginalised and disrespected".

He called Washington DC "corporate-occupied territory" that turns the government against the interest of its own people.

Mr Nader denied he was seeking to be a spoiler candidate - and accused the main parties of "political bigotry".

Referring to the three main contenders in the race so far, he questioned: "Do they have the moral courage, do they have the fortitude to stand up to corporate powers and get things done for the American people?"

"We have to shift the power from the few to the many."

Consumer agenda

Mr Nader, 73, was born in Connecticut in 1934 and was educated at Princeton and Harvard universities.

He has spent most of his life fighting for consumers and workers against corporations.

In the 1960s his work on car safety led directly to seat belts and shatter-resistant glass being fitted in every American car.

From the 1970s he built a reputation for dealing with issues including workers' rights, public safety, the environment and the influence of corporations.

He founded a number of groups including Public Citizen, which in recent years has been active in organising protests against the World Trade Organization and World Bank/IMF.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7261670.stm

[P44]

já cá faltava esse, deve ser toupeira dos republicanos, em 2000 custou a eleição ao Al Gore

[tsumetomo]

Robed Obama picture ignites row


The photo of Barack Obama was taken during a 2006 trip

US Democratic front-runners Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have traded accusations over a photo of Mr Obama circulating on the internet.

The picture, sent to the Drudge Report website, shows Mr Obama wearing traditional African dress during a visit to Kenya in 2006.

The Obama camp said it was circulated by Mrs Clinton's staff as a smear. Mrs Clinton's team denied the accusation.

The row comes as the rivals campaign for two crucial primaries next week.

Analysts say Mrs Clinton needs to win the contests, in Texas and Ohio, to remain in the race to choose the Democratic candidate for November's presidential election.

'Fear-mongering'

The photograph shows Mr Obama - whose father came from Kenya - wearing a white turban and a white robe presented to him by elders in the north-east of the country.

   
Her campaign has engaged in the most shameful, offensive fear-mongering we've seen from either party in this election
David Plouffe, Obama campaign chief, accusing the Clinton camp
According to the Drudge Report, which published the photograph on Monday, it was circulated by "Clinton staffers".

Some Clinton aides have tried in the past to suggest to Democrats that Barack Obama's background might be off-putting to mainstream voters.

A campaign volunteer was sacked last year after circulating an email suggesting, falsely, that Mr Obama was a Muslim.

But the BBC Justin Webb in Ohio says the photograph - coming at this pivotal moment in the campaign - is being seen by the Obama team as particularly offensive.

His campaign manager, David Plouffe, accused Mrs Clinton's aides of "the most shameful, offensive fear-mongering we've seen from either party in this election".

The accusation was dismissed by Mrs Clinton's campaign manager Maggie Williams.

"If Barack Obama's campaign wants to suggest that a photo of him wearing traditional Somali clothing is divisive, they should be ashamed," she said.

"Hillary Clinton has worn the traditional clothing of countries she has visited and had those photos published widely."

Mrs Williams did not address the question of whether staffers circulated the photo.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7263783.stm

[P44]

esqueceram-se de pôr a AK-47 e a foto do bin ladas na parede por detrás dele....

realmente muitos "interesses" sentem-se ameaçados....

[André]

Clinton luta pela sobrevivência, super delegados podem decidir

Quando os eleitores norte-americanos do Partido Democrático forem às urnas em quatro eleições primárias na próxima terça-feira (04 de Março), Hillary Clinton estará a lutar pela sua sobrevivência política.
Com efeito, análises dos resultados das primárias realizadas até agora indicam que caso Clinton não vença convincentemente nesse dia no Texas (228 delegados em disputa) e Ohio (161 delegados), as possibilidades de ir à convenção do partido, em Agosto, com a maioria dos delegados serão praticamente nulas.

Na mesma data, realizam-se também eleições em Rhode Island (32 delegados) e Vermont (23).

A campanha de Clinton aposta em vitórias no Texas e Ohio e, a 22 de Abril, na Pensilvânia (188 delegados em jogo) para manter a sua viabilidade como aquela com mais delegados a seu favor quando se iniciar a convenção democrata em Denver.

Contudo, analistas do complicado processo eleitoral do Partido Democrático indicam que as possibilidades de Clinton ultrapassar Barack Obama no número de delegados são agora mínimas.

Análises publicadas em diversos jornais norte-americanos indicam que, para poder ultrapassar Obama, Clinton terá que vencer com 57 a 60 por cento dos votos nesses estados, o que parece impossível. No Texas, por exemplo, as últimas sondagens indicam os dois candidatos praticamente empatados.

Mas Chuck Todd, director de questões políticas na redacção da cadeia de televisão NBC, disse que, para Clinton, a situação é bem pior do que essas projecções.

Essas análises são «hipóteses» isoladas que não têm em conta a realidade de que Obama é favorito para vencer em estados como Vermont, Mississipi, Carolina do Norte e Oregon.

Se isso se confirmar, disse Todd ao Washington Post, então Clinton terá que ganhar Ohio, Texas e Pensilvânia com 65 por cento dos votos.

Diário Digital / Lusa

[tsumetomo]

New National Polls: Obama gaining ground


Two new national polls show Barack Obama surging against Hillary Clinton in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

In a New York Times-CBS News poll, 54 percent of Democratic primary voters say they would prefer the party to nominate Barack Obama while 38 percent prefer Hillary Clinton. That is a sharp shift in Obama's favor from the previous poll in late January, when voters were split evenly, 41 percent each for Obama and Clinton.

The poll found similar swings in Obama's favor on other questions. For example, asked how they would vote if the race were between Obama and Republican John McCain, 50 percent said they would support Obama to 38 percent for McCain, while respondents were split evenly, at 46 percent each, when the choice was between McCain and Clinton. Obama gained ground within nearly every sector, the poll found.

In a new Associated Press-Ipsos poll, Obama leads Clinton by a narrow margin, 46 percent to 43 percent, whereas Clinton had had a 5-point lead among Democratic primary voters in early February. Obama achieved that swing by advancing on Clinton in several demographic sectors, including white men, liberals and middle-income earners, the AP reported.

The AP poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, and the Times poll 3 percentage points. Those margins increased to about 5 percentage points when questions were asked of Democrats or Republicans only.

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/02/new_national_po_1.html

[P44]

Se a Hillary fôr a escolhida, quase de certeza que o McCain ganha as presidenciais!

Os Democratas têm de pensar muito bem no que vão fazer...

[tsumetomo]

Obama Backers Urge Clinton to Exit if She Loses

WASHINGTON — Top supporters of Senator Barack Obama, joined by at least one prominent Democrat yet to endorse a candidate, put pressure on Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on Sunday to bow out of the presidential race unless she scores clear victories in the crucial big-state primary contests on Tuesday.

“I just think that D-Day is Tuesday,” said Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, a former Democratic presidential candidate who has yet to throw his support behind either candidate.

And two Obama supporters, Senators John Kerry and Dick Durbin, pushed for Mrs. Clinton to withdraw if she does poorly at the polls on Tuesday.

Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont hold primary contests that day, and the Clinton campaign, trailing in the delegates needed for nomination and having lost the last 11 straight contests, has acknowledged that the New York senator needs to win at least Ohio or Texas. Both candidates were campaigning Sunday in Ohio.

With Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, able to profit from the Democrats’ infighting, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Howard Dean, leveled unusually tough attacks against Mr. McCain on Sunday.

“He runs on his integrity, but he doesn’t seem to have any,” Mr. Dean said on CNN. “John McCain has a history of doing what it takes, regardless of what the ethics are. I think he’s going to be a flawed candidate.” He also called the Arizona senator a “situational ethicist.”

Dean appeared to be referring to reports, including one in The New York Times, that suggested that McCain sometimes applied tougher ethical standards to others than to himself — a charge Mr. McCain has spiritedly denied.

Mr. Richardson, saying that it was vital to Democrats’ hopes in the general election in November to mount a positive, unifying campaign, said on the CBS News program “Face the Nation” that “whoever has the most delegates after Tuesday, a clear lead, should be, in my judgment, the nominee.”

For that to be Mrs. Clinton, she would have to significantly exceed the results predicted by polls, which now show Texas a virtual toss-up, while Ohio voters narrowly favor her. In the smaller states, Mrs. Clinton holds a lead in Rhode Island while Mr. Obama has the edge in Vermont.

Howard Wolfson, the communications director of the Clinton campaign, offered no hint on Sunday that Mrs. Clinton was considering whether to drop out of the race if she did not win on Tuesday. He argued again that Mrs. Clinton had shown her ability to win the big states that would be needed for a Democratic victory in November. “Our coalition of states is broad, it’s diverse,” he said on the ABC News program “This Week.” And Mrs. Clinton, he added, had “a very strong case to make” that she would be the stronger Democrat candidate against Mr. McCain.

And a Clinton supporter, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, said on “Fox News Sunday” that Mrs. Clinton should ignore the pressure to bow out and decide for herself what is best. “Hillary Clinton is a major candidate,” Ms. Feinstein said. “She has every right to stay in the race if she chooses to do so.”

Still, some senior Democrats who have endorsed Mr. Obama stepped up the pressure on Mrs. Clinton on Sunday.

Senator Kerry of Massachusetts, the unsuccessful Democratic presidential candidate in 2004, said Mrs. Clinton would need more than narrow victories to remain a viable candidate.

“Hillary Clinton has to win a big victory in both Ohio and Texas,” he said on the CNN program “Late Edition.”

“It’s not just winning a little bit,” he said. “In order to close the gap on pledged delegates, she’s got to win a very significant victory.”

And Mr. Durbin, Mr. Obama’s fellow Democratic senator from Illinois, said the mathematics of the electoral calendar would make it very difficult for Mrs. Clinton to win the nomination even if she broke even with Mr. Obama in the delegates allotted Tuesday.

“If, in fact, there is no measurable change on Tuesday,” he said on Fox, Mrs. Clinton would need “extraordinary percentages” in the remaining contests — averaging 62 percent of the delegates yet to be decided, by his calculation, to go on to victory.

“I hope ultimately she makes an honest appraisal of her chances,” Mr. Durbin said. “I hope after Tuesday her decision is made on the basis of the unity of the party.”

By The Associated Press’s count, Mrs. Clinton trails Mr. Obama by 109 delegates, with 2,025 needed for nomination. The four states voting Tuesday will award a total of 444 delegates.

But Karl Rove, the former senior political adviser to President Bush and architect of his presidential election victories, said such calls from Democrats for Mrs. Clinton’s withdrawal were unwise and unbecoming.

“I think it’s a mistake for his campaign to be calling for her to drop out,” Mr. Rove said on Fox. That would be seen as “rubbing her nose” in the fact that she is trailing, he said. “It’s up to the delegates at the convention to decide who wins and loses,” he added.

While there has been a growing expectation that Mrs. Clinton would drop out if she did poorly on Tuesday, it is less clear what lesson she might draw from a mixed result. She could, for example, win the popular vote in Texas but lose narrowly in the delegate battle, since Texas has a mixed primary-and-caucus system and Mr. Obama has regularly outperformed her in caucuses.

And some political analysts said that Mrs. Clinton — who has clearly sharpened her attacks on Obama, even as he has been outspending her — appeared to have made some headway in recent days in raising doubts about his experience and readiness to be commander in chief.

If Mrs. Clinton does stay in the race, the next big contest is not until April 22, in Pennsylvania. Mrs. Clinton holds a strong lead in polls there, but many Democrats fear continued negativity over that extended period between her and Mr. Obama could seriously damage the party, giving Mr. McCain vital time to mend divisions in the Republican Party between him and some conservatives.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/us/politics/02cnd-campaign.html?em&ex=1204606800&en=3d94e0454285b044&ei=5087%0A

[P44]

"O derrotado do Texas e Ohio vai ser pressionado a desistir"

HELENA TECEDEIRO
Entrevista com John Mercurio, ex-editor de política da CNN e director do diário 'online' Hotline

Se Hillary Clinton perder as primárias de terça-feira no Texas e Ohio, é o fim da sua campanha?

Diria que sim. Ela precisa não só de vencer ambos, mas vencer por uma grande margem. Bill Clinton disse isso mesmo no Texas. Ela precisa de ganhar, não só por causa dos delegados em jogo, mas porque os democratas começam a ficar muito nervosos por o partido ainda estar tão dividido quando os republicanos se começam a unir em volta de John McCain. Começam a pensar que uma eleição que parecia fácil de vencer há alguns meses revelam-se agora muito competitivas.

Hillary pode esperar ou é a única hipótese de ser presidente?

Eu diria que ela terá a opção de voltar a apresentar-se, mas se Barack Obama chegar à presidência, é pouco provável que o faça contra ele. Se o próximo presidente for republicano, então sim, os democratas irão procurá-la. Mas existe a ideia de que este é o ano em que Hillary tinha a melhor hipótese. Além de que, se ela for candidata dentro de quatro anos, terá de abandonar o lugar no Senado, uma vez que estaria a concorrer nessa altura a um novo mandato.

Se Obama chegar à convenção com mais delegados eleitos, os superdelegados terão coragem de nomear Hillary?

Mesmo se os democratas ainda estão divididos entre Hillary e Obama, o único assunto em que são unânimes é que não querem que sejam os superdelegados a escolher o nomeado. Depois das primárias do Texas e Ohio, haverá muita pressão sobre o derrotado para desistir da corrida de forma a unir o partido. Ninguém quer que seja um pequeno grupo de responsáveis partidários a decidir quem é o vencedor, porque no dia seguinte, John McCain viria dizer: "o meu adversário não é a escolha dos eleitores".

Mc Cain parece já ter escolhido o adversário. Tem atacado Obama por ser mais fácil de vencer?

Se olharmos para as sondagens, Obama obtém melhores resultados face a McCain do que Hillary. Mas este é um ano favorável aos democratas: um presidente muito impopular, a guerra no Iraque, a economia a caminhar para a recessão. A participação nas primárias democratas tem sido quatro ou cinco vezes maior do que nas republicanas. Além disso, Obama atrai muito mais os eleitores independentes, apolíticos, do que Hillary. Por outro lado, esta tem armas contra McCain que Obama não tem. Já provou saber como vencer. É uma lutadora.

Obama está preparado para ser o alvo de todos os ataques?

Já começou a ser. E as coisas vão ficar mais feias. Vai ser uma campanha brutal. Ambos os candidatos vão parecer pessoas totalmente diferentes no dia das eleições. A questão é: Será que Obama está preparado? É suficientemente forte para ripostar? Nestas primárias, o senador do Ilinóis já provou que sabe enfrentar ataques. Conseguir derrotar a máquina política dos Clinton - que é impressionante - é um feito. Especialmente da parte de uma pessoa que surgiu do nada e há quatro anos não era ninguém.

Se vencer em Novembro, Obama estará preparado?

É impossível saber o que vai acontecer numa presidência. Por isso é difícil saber se alguém está preparado antes de ver como é que o mundo vai estar dentro de um ano. Não me parece que George W. Bush estivesse preparado para os atentados de 11 de Setembro.

Que consequências pode ter a candidatura de Ralph Nader?

Não muitas. Nader teve um bom resultado em 2000, mas recandidatou-se em, 2004 e obteve apenas 0,3% dos votos. O seu maior desafio é aparecer nos boletins de voto, uma vez que cada estado tem as suas regras de inscrição.

Hillary queixa-se que os media preferem Obama. É verdade?

Sim. Mas isso está a mudar à medida que ele se torna no favorito. E aconteceu porque durante muito tempo, todos tinham a certeza que Hillary seria a nomeada. E afinal, os jornalistas preferem o candidato que tem a melhor história e Obama é uma óptima história. O que seria interessante numas eleições entre Obama e McCain é que ambos gozam da simpatia dos media.

DN

[André]

Empate??
Luís Delgado

Por extraordinário que pareça, e que seja, as primárias de amanhã no Texas, Ohio, Vermont e Rhode Island não deverão decidir grande coisa entre Hillary e Obama.

De acordo com as sondagens, o Texas pode inclinar-se para Obama, mas Hillary contará com muitos delegados na sua coluna (a distribuição é proporcional, ao contrário das eleições), e o Ohio está, aparentemente, do lado de senhora Clinton. Vermont vai para Obama e Rhode Island para a sua adversária.

Tudo somado, e tendo em conta que a vantagem de Obama, nesta altura, é de apenas 100 delegados, com uma grande desvantagem nos superdelagados, estas primárias podem acabar em mais um empate, ficando tudo para decidir na Convenção de Denver.

É certo que ainda faltam alguns estados importantes, como a Pennsilvânia, mas com esta destribuição equilibrada entre os dois tudo vai continuar em aberto no campo democrata, e isso só favorece McCain. Que será formalmente o candidato republicano já amanhã.

Diário Digital

[tsumetomo]

McCain clinches GOP nomination, CNN projects


Sen. John McCain swept all four nominating contests on Tuesday to become the Republican presidential nominee.

McCain won primaries in Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island, giving him more than the 1,191 delegates needed to clinch the GOP nomination.

On the Democratic side, Sen. Hillary Clinton was projected to break Barack Obama's 12-contest winning streak with a victory in Rhode Island.

Obama was projected to take Vermont, but the contests in Ohio and Texas were too close to call.

Mike Huckabee dropped out of the Republican race after the results came in.

McCain is slated to go to the White House on Wednesday to receive the endorsement of President Bush, according to two Republican sources.

The Arizona senator's campaign -- his second run for the White House -- was largely written off for dead last summer amid outspoken opposition from the party's conservative base, a major staff shakeup and disappointing fundraising.

But McCain said earlier Tuesday that he was confident he would emerge as the presumptive nominee by the end of the night.

McCain overwhelmingly won moderates and conservatives in Ohio, but he lost the evangelical vote to Mike Huckabee, according to exit polls.

Obama's campaign pressed to extend voting by one hour in two Ohio counties. See county-by-county results in Ohio

"Due to reports of ballot shortages in Cuyahoga and Franklin counties, we requested a voting extension in those counties," said Obama spokesman Bill Burton.

A judge ruled to keep parts of Cuyahoga county open until 9 p.m. ET.

Ohio, along with Texas, could make or break Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign.

"If Obama wins Texas and Ohio, it's game over," said CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider.

In Texas, Clinton holds a two-to-one advantage over Obama with Hispanic voters, while Obama has the overwhelming advantage with black voters in the state's Democratic primary, according to CNN's exit poll.

These early surveys provide a snapshot of the race, but are not conclusive on who will win the critical contest.

Eighty-three percent of blacks voted for Obama, while 16 percent supported Clinton, according to the exit poll.

Meanwhile, 64 percent of Hispanics backed Clinton, while 32 percent went for Obama.

Early exit polls indicate a distinct "age gap" in both states.

Obama appeals most strongly to younger voters while older voters favor Clinton. Among Ohio Democratic primary voters aged 17 to 29, 65 percent went for Obama, and 34 percent went for Clinton. Among those age 60 and older, Clinton leads Obama 67-31 percent.

The same pattern holds true in early exit polling from the Texas Democratic primary. Among voters aged 18 to 29, Obama leads Clinton 61-39 percent, and among voters 60 and older, Clinton leads Obama 63- 36 percent.

Steady streams of people cast ballots in Tuesday's contests, and officials in the delegate-rich states of Ohio and Texas said they expect record turnouts.

Despite freezing rain in northern Ohio and bad weather elsewhere in the state, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner estimated that as many as 52 percent of registered voters might go to the polls, 15 percentage points higher than the average of past presidential primaries.

Three polling stations in Jefferson County in eastern Ohio were relocated Tuesday because of flooding that could have prevented people from voting, election officials said.

County residents unable to get to their designated polling places because of bad weather were given the option of casting provisional ballots Tuesday in Steubenville, the county seat, at the offices of the Board of Elections, officials said. The board has to verify those ballots by March 25. Photo See scenes from Tuesday's voting »

I-Reporter Bruce Goldberg reported long lines at the polls in Grapevine, Texas. When he voted at 7:20 a.m., he said 70 people had already voted in the Democratic primary.

"There's usually a big line of Republicans and nobody at the Democratic table at the primary," he said. "When I walked in this morning, there were a lot of cars out, and it was the complete opposite."

Poll workers in Collin County, near Dallas, also reported high turnout for the Democratic primary. The Dallas Morning News called Collin one of the most Republican counties in the state.

Poll workers there estimated that nearly three-quarters of the Democratic voters would participate in the Democratic caucuses to be held after the polls close.

In an unusual system, the 193 delegates that Texas will send to the Democratic National Convention will be split between Obama and Clinton according to the results of both the primary and the caucuses.

State party officials say the dual primary/caucus system promotes participation in the party. Both Clinton and Obama have encouraged supporters to do the "Texas two-step" and vote in both events.

Obama comes into the day with momentum on his side. He has 1,378 pledged delegates and superdelegates to Clinton's 1,269.

Neither candidate is close to the 2,025 needed to win the Democratic nomination. Clinton and Obama will be competing for 370 delegates Tuesday. Texas and Ohio, which has 141 delegates, will be the biggest prizes. Allocate delegates yourself and see how the numbers add up »

Former President Bill Clinton said in February that if his wife wins Ohio and Texas, she'll go on to win the nomination. Whether she will drop out of the race if she doesn't win either of those states is another question.

While visiting a polling station in the mostly-Latino east end of Houston on Tuesday morning, Clinton said she felt "really good about" Tuesday's elections and was expecting "tremendous" turnout across Texas.

Clinton did not make a prediction about the outcome of Tuesday's races, but her campaign chairman, Terry McAuliffe, was not so guarded Tuesday morning. He predicted Clinton wins in both Texas and Ohio.
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"I've said this for a long time. These are two big states," he told CNN. "There's a lot of big issues: national security, the issues on the economy. Those are Hillary's issues. She's been out front in the polling data on all of those."

CNN's poll of polls, an averaging of the most recent surveys in each state, suggests the race is extremely tight, with Obama ahead by 2 points in Texas and Clinton ahead by 5 in Ohio. But the polls also indicate there are still many undecided voters in both states.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/04/march.4.contests/index.html

[P44]

[P44]

Luta entre Hillary e Obama esgota produtos de 'merchandising'

HELENA TECEDEIRO
DONNA MCWILLIAM-AP
"Tentaram tirar-me o chapéu da cabeça", lamentava-se há dias Korlin Grays, agarrada ao seu boné de Barack Obama. De facto, a luta entre o senador do Ilinóis e Hillary Clinton pela nomeação democrata à Casa Branca tem sido tão intensa que até as lojas onde se vendem produtos que exploram a imagem dos dois candidatos esgotaram os estoques.

As bandeiras, T-shirts e cartazes com os nomes e cores dos candidatos são fundamentais em qualquer campanha eleitoral. O Texas, que ontem foi a votos tal como o Ohio, Vermont e Rhode Island não foi excepção. Mas a duração destas primárias democratas - que todos pensaram estar decididas a 5 de Fevereiro, na superterça-feira - tem feito as delícias dos produtores e vendedores de merchandising.

Todas esta parafernália - oferecida pelas equipas dos candidatos nos comícios ou nas ruas, vendida em lojas ou através da Internet, seja oficial ou não - dinamizou a campanha e contribuiu para a recolha de fundos.

Um porta-voz da campanha de Obama garantiu ao New York Times que as vendas de merchandising através do site do candidato (www.barackobama.com) renderam 1,5 milhões de dólares (perto de um milhão de euros) só em Janeiro. A equipa de Hillary recusou divulgar os valores das vendas no site www.hillaryclinton.com. Mas a verdade é que há dias um voluntário da sua campanha lamentava ao mesmo diário de Nova Iorque o facto de só já ter 300 cartazes na sede do Ohio.

"Ninguém antecipou a procura que estes produtos iam ter", admitiu ao New York Times Tony Baltes. O presidente da Tigereye Design, que vende merchandising democratas há 30 anos, garantiu que a campanha para as presidenciais de Novembro já aumentou as suas vendas em 50%. E os últimos três meses foram os melhores da Tigereye Design.

Baltes afirmou ter vendido oito milhões de pins de Obama em 2007 e já ir nos dois milhões desde o início deste ano. Um número muito superior aos cinco milhões de uma campanha típica. Alguns produtos têm tanta procura que os compradores têm de esperar três semanas para os receber.

Mais procura significa aumento do preço. Por exemplo, uma edição limitada de uma T-shirt de Obama com a palavra Hope ("Esperança") que começou por ser vendida por 25 dólares acabou leiloada por 1500 dólares do site E-Bay.|

DN

[tsumetomo]

Big Wins for Clinton in Texas and Ohio; McCain Is In as G.O.P. Choice


 Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton defeated Senator Barack Obama in the Ohio and Texas primaries on Tuesday, ending a string of defeats and allowing her to soldier on in a Democratic presidential nomination race that now seems unlikely to end any time soon.

Mrs. Clinton also won Rhode Island, while Mr. Obama won in Vermont. But the results mean that Mrs. Clinton won the two states she most needed to keep her candidacy alive. Her victory in Texas was razor thin and came early Wednesday morning after most Americans had gone to bed. But by winning decisively in Ohio earlier in the night, Mrs. Clinton was able to deliver a televised victory speech in time for the late-night news. And the result there allowed her to cast Tuesday as the beginning of a comeback even though she stood a good chance of gaining no ground against Mr. Obama in the hunt for delegates.

“No candidate in recent history — Democratic or Republican — has won the White House without winning the Ohio primary,” Mrs. Clinton, of New York, said at a rally in Columbus, Ohio. “We all know that if we want a Democratic president, we need a Democratic nominee who can win Democratic states just like Ohio.”

Although Mrs. Clinton won the popular vote in Texas, her hunt for delegates was complicated by the state’s peculiar nominating process, which includes a separate caucus that awards 35 percent of the state’s delegates, irrespective of the primary results. Mr. Obama held a slight lead in that contest with less than half of precincts reporting, but the outcome is likely to stay up in the air until later on Wednesday.

The Associated Press reported that all told, Mr. Obama retains his lead in the delegate count, with 1,477 pledged delegates compared to Mrs. Clinton’s 1,391. The A.P. said that 170 delegates from Tuesday’s contests have yet to be assigned, many from the Texas caucuses.

On the Republican side, Senator John McCain swept to victory in Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas and Vermont and claimed his party’s nomination, capping a remarkable comeback in his second bid for the presidency.

Mr. McCain’s main remaining rival, Mike Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas, announced he was dropping out minutes after the polls closed and pledged his cooperation to Mr. McCain. Aides to Mr. McCain said he would head Wednesday morning to Washington to go to the White House and accept the endorsement of President Bush, his one-time foe, and begin gathering his party around him.

Mr. McCain, of Arizona, delivered his victory speech in subdued tones to a boisterous crowd of supporters in Dallas.

“Now, we begin the most important part of our campaign,” he said, “to make a respectful, determined and convincing case to the American people that our campaign and my election as president, given the alternatives presented by our friends in the other party, are in the best interests of the country we love.”

Mr. McCain proceeded to offer a preview of attacks for his Democratic rival. “I will leave it to my opponent to propose returning to the failed, big-government mandates of the ’60s and ’70s to address problems such as the lack of health care insurance for some Americans,” he said. “I will campaign to make health care more accessible to more Americans with reforms that will bring down costs in the health care industry without ruining the quality of the world’s best medical care.”

Mrs. Clinton’s twin victories in Ohio and Texas gave her, at the least, a psychological boost after a tough month in which she watched Mr. Obama, of Illinois, roll up victory after victory and build a lead in delegates. There was virtually no chance that Mrs. Clinton could have survived had she lost Ohio and Texas; her husband, former President Bill Clinton, said last month that his wife needed to win both states.

Mrs. Clinton is already planning ways to capitalize on her performance; she is scheduled to appear Wednesday on all the morning news programs. But she will continue to find herself in a difficult position mathematically. Given the way the Democratic Party allocates delegates, it remained unclear whether Mrs. Clinton would close Mr. Obama’s lead on that front.

Even before the polls closed, Mr. Obama’s aides said that given their lead in delegates over Mrs. Clinton, it was not possible for her to catch up in the few remaining contests.

Mr. Obama came out shortly before midnight to speak to a crowd in San Antonio, and laid out the argument his campaign would make in the days ahead.

“No matter what happens tonight,” he said, “we have nearly the same delegate lead that we did this morning, and we are on our way to winning this nomination.”

But Mrs. Clinton’s supporters, exultant over the victory, tried to cast the results in Ohio and Texas as a turning point.

Mrs. Clinton took the stage in Columbus before a sea of waving white-and-blue “Hillary” signs and immediately portrayed her victory in Ohio as an indication of her electability in a general election. And she reprised a line of criticism against Mr. Obama that appeared to have gained her some traction in this contest.

“Americans don’t need more promises,” she said. “They’ve heard plenty of speeches. They deserve solutions, and they deserve them now.”

As she spoke, the crowd responded with chants of “Yes, she will!” — apparently an orchestrated response to Mr. Obama’s trademark “Yes, we can!”

Turning one of Mr. Obama’s themes against him, she said, “Together, we will turn promises into action, words into solutions and hope into reality.”

The results left the two parties at very different stages of the race. Mr. McCain’s nomination has been all but assured for almost a month. His campaign looked to the results on Tuesday as an opportunity to begin framing the contest ahead. In contrast to his previous victory speeches, Mr. McCain made no mention of Mr. Obama, presumably because the result when he spoke was hardly clear.

Nonetheless, Mr. Obama called Mr. McCain at 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday from his hotel room in San Antonio to congratulate him and to say he looked forward to running against him, said Mr. Obama’s press secretary, Robert Gibbs. Mrs. Clinton said much the same in her speech.

The voting proceeded on a day of problems at the polls in both states, in part because of a recurrence of the huge turnouts that almost every contest to date has experienced. In Ohio, the Obama campaign asked a judge on Tuesday to keep polls open longer in Cuyahoga County because of paper ballot shortages.

The Texas vote was actually two contests: a primary, where two-thirds of the delegates were selected, followed by a caucus, where the remaining one-third were selected. The Clinton campaign claimed irregularities by Mr. Obama’s supporters who, Mrs. Clinton’s aides said, sought to gain improper advantage in the caucuses.

In an illustration of the tension between the two campaigns, Bob Bauer, an election lawyer for Mr. Obama, called into a conference call arranged by the Clinton campaign. The call had been set up to discuss the Texas caucuses, and Mr. Bauer challenged the assertions being made by Howard Wolfson, Mrs. Clinton’s communications director. The men, referring to each other by first names, engaged in a testy seven-minute exchange.

For Democrats, and particularly for Mrs. Clinton, the contests were as consequential as any to date. To that end, Mrs. Clinton delivered some of the toughest attacks of her campaign over the weekend, including a television advertisement in Texas that challenged Mr. Obama’s national security credentials and attacks on Mr. Obama in Ohio over free trade and a meeting his economic adviser had with a Canadian diplomat about the North American Free Trade Agreement.

There was evidence that the attacks had some effects. Mrs. Clinton did well among the 20 percent of voters in both states who said they made their decision in the last three days. She won about 60 percent of those voters in Texas and about 55 percent of those who voted in Ohio, according to exit polls conducted statewide by Edison/Mitofsky for the National Election Pool.

Surveys of voters leaving the polls showed Mrs. Clinton doing well among Hispanics in Texas, a major target for her there, as well as among lower-income voters and women in Ohio, suggesting that she was reassembling the coalition that had broken down in her losing 11 straight state contests to Mr. Obama over the past month. Mr. Obama was showing strength among black voters who made up 20 percent of the Democratic electorate in both states.

In Ohio, Mrs. Clinton’s emphasis on economic issues helped her to some extent. Three-quarters of respondents said they were concerned about their families’ financial situation, and more than half of those voted for Mrs. Clinton. She also won a majority of union households in Ohio and, in a reversal of her standing in early races, won decisively among white men.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/us/politics/05cnd-primary.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1204718643-DuAxNBUA5+RxsxLo0KZu/Q

[André]

Republicano Mike Huckabee abandona a corrida

O candidato republicano Mike Huckabee anunciou hoje a sua retirada da corrida às eleições presidenciais, depois de o seu rival John McCain ter conquistado os 1.191 delegados necessários para a nomeação.
John McCain conseguiu vencer nos quatro estados que votaram nesta terça-feira: Vermont, Ohio, Rhode Island e Texas.

Mike Huckabee, antigo pastor da Igreja Baptista e ex-governador do estado do Arkansas, reconheceu que o seu rival conseguiu conquistar so 1.191 delegados necessários «para se tornar no candidato republicano no nosso partido».

«Envio-lhe não só felicitações, mas também o meu compromisso, a ele e ao partido, de fazer tudo o que for possível para unir o partido, mas acima de tudo unir o nosso país, para que seja o melhor país possível, não só para nós, mas também para as gerações futuras», disse Huckabee aos seus apoiantes em Dallas, no Texas.~

Diário Digital / Lusa