Hillary Clinton made her first trip to Oregon, speaking to a packed high school gym just outside of Portland. While they acknowledge that her rival Barack Obama is favored here, the Clinton campaign is playing hard — naming a state director and what the campaign calls a “very active” steering committee, ramping up field staff and opening a state headquarters in Portland next week and satellite offices in every congressional district.
They’re also tailoring their strategy around Oregon’s unique mail-in primary system; ballots will be mailed out on April 28th, and the majority of voters are expected to submit ballots through the post.
“I’m here to meet with you and talk with you and hopefully make my case to you,” she told the voters of Hillsboro, OR. “This is my first trip in a campaign of firsts, and I’m glad to be able to blaze a home in the land of the Trailblazers.”
But even in the Beaver State, she was focused on Michigan and Florida. She’s long argued that their delegates should count, but today she claimed their popular votes should count as well — a move that would put her much closer to Obama in that metric.
Mitt Romney was welcomed to Colorado by the endorsement of the Denver Post and several hundred enthusiastic supporters at a Ford dealership today. The crowd chanted, “We want Mitt, we want Mitt!” Romney answered the boisterous crowd, “You are getting the full Monty. Don’t worry.”
After the event, Romney went outside for a press conference where a shouting war began between supporters and anti-abortion protestors. Romney previously supported abortion rights when he ran for governor in 2002, but changed his mind during his term
and now says he is staunchly anti-abortion rights.
“I have been so wrong in predicting what would happen. I mean, I thought I would win Iowa, New Hampshire and Mayor Giuliani would be almost an impregnable force in Florida. And all three of those things ended up being wrong. This race has been so much more fluid then we would have expected that it’s really hard to predict what’ll happen,” Romney told reporters, “I really thought it would all be over, you know, early in January. And now we’re going to go into February, and I just can’t predict what’s going to happen in February, so you know, we’ll see what happens. I can’t predict the outcome.”
Primaries after February 5th that the campaign could focus on include Kansas, Virginia, Ohio, and Texas. But, the presidential hopeful wouldn’t let on where the campaign is eyeing next:
“I have to be honest, I’m not sure what states I’m going to focus on. Prior to February 5th, my campaign team and I looked at the map of the country. We are looking at where I’ve got the greatest support. Where I have the best chances of picking up delegates and adjusting the schedule,” Romney said, “So after February 5th what the schedule at that point will look like will surely depend on what happens on February 5th and what the lay of the political landscape is then.”
California’s movie-star Governor Arnold Scwharzenegger is throwing his support behind John McCain—giving the Senator his second major endorsement in less than 24 hours.
On Wednesday, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani dropped out of the race and endorsed McCain. Both Rudy and Ah-nuld accompanied McCain on a tour of a Los Angeles solar technology company Thursday. Afterward, a reporter asked whether the support of the governor and mayor do anything to help the Senator with the conservative wing of the Republican party.
Gov. Schwarzenegger explained why he decided to endorse McCain, when just days ago he said he was staying out of it.
The endorsement was McCain’s only public event of the day. That means he spent almost two days in California, and never held a campaign event where he actually met voters face to face. A McCain aide said the only thing the campaign wanted circulated Thursday was the image of the Senator with the governor.
Fox News has learned that Rudy Giuliani will be dropping out of the race and will be endorsing GOP frontrunner John McCain. According to a long time senior insider with John McCain, Rudy Giuliani will endorse John McCain, as early as today.” We are still working out the details,” The staffer said. Read Carl Cameron’s Report and McCain Embed Producer, Malini Bawa’s Report on this breaking news.
Tonight, John McCain claimed victory in the Florida primary.
Numerous reports say rival Rudy Giuliani will drop out of the race tomorrow and endorse the Senator. No one from the McCain campaign will confirm it. But McCain made a special point of thanking Giuliani in his victory speech:
“I want to thank my dear friend, Rudy Giuliani, who invested his heart and soul in this primary, and who conducted himself with all the qualities of the exceptional American leader he truly is. Thank you, for all you have added to this race, and for being an inspiration to me and millions of Americans.”
Word is Giuliani may announce the endorsement tomorrow, at a joint press conference with McCain in the Los Angeles area.
With 97 percent of Florida precincts reporting, McCain had 36 percent of the vote, compared to Romney’s 31 percent.
FNC analysts are predicting a tough, close finish today in Florida. Readers: Who will be the victor? Mac or Mitt? Polls showing a battle for 3rd between Rudy and Huck, are there only 2 tickets out of Florida? How significant will the bounce be for the Florida winner in the upcoming SUPER Tuesday election next week? Post Comments, thoughts etc.
Pompano Beach, FL — One of the bright spots on the Giuliani campaign trail during the last week has been the omnipresent and always upbeat Jon Voight.
The award winning actor from “Deliverance” and “Midnight Cowboy” joined Giuliani on the trail two weeks ago and has been warming up audiences for him at almost every stop and spends a great deal of time joking around with the press corps.
But is Giuliani using Voight to his full potential? While much has been made of the tough guy endorsements on the GOP side—Chuck Norris (Huckabee) and Sly Stallone (McCain)—Voight’s performance in the 2004 lesser known flick, “Karate Dog,” shows that the 69-year old actor can hold his own–at least against an animated dog.
We asked him about the movie today as Voight threw a nerf football around with senior campaign adviser Tony Carbonetti at Giuliani’s Broward County headquarters. While Voight loses the fight with Karate Dog, the actor defended his abilities by noting that he was facing a “super dog.”
The actor, who also has a penchant for drawing metaphors between the campaign and his movies, said the lesson the Giuliani campaign can draw from Karate Dog, is “we’re in a battle, we have to be alert and we have got to stay away from dogs.”
Miami, FL — As he sat down for a quick breakfast on the Tuesday morning at the Rascal House Diner, Rudy Giuliani said he is taking the election one day at a time. He is concentrating on today’s must-win Florida primary.
“We are concentrated on today, today alone. I am not gonna deal with any hypothetical questions (about February 5). It would be counterproductive to do that. We’re gonna win, were gonna win today. That is our answer,” Giuliani said after greeting patrons at the Miami diner and sitting down at the counter to eat a bowl of Raisin Bran. “Were gonna win today, that is our objective. And we are headed to California tomorrow to continue to campaign.”
He also continued his call for Floridians to defy polls which show him nearly 20 points down to John McCain and Mitt Romney.
“Now we want people to come out and vote, not to be influenced one way or the other by any polls, any predictions. Polls and predictions have been wrong as often as they have been right,” he said. “And the way you prove them wrong is you go out and vote.”
Clearwater, FL — Rudy Giuliani is facing a major uphill climb as he conducts a last-ditch, one-day plane tour to five Florida cities Monday. The latest Quinnipiac poll shows that the former NYC mayor has lost 50 percent of his support in the last month in his must-win state and is now down nearly 20 points to both Mitt Romney and John McCain.
LIKELY REPUBLICAN PRIMARY VOTERS
1/28 1/14 12/20/07
Giuliani 14 20 28
Huckabee 13 19 21
McCain 32 22 13
Romney 31 19 20
What makes the drop even more stunning is that it has taken place as the mayor dropped more than $6 million campaigning in Florida, put up nearly a dozen television ads and spent the last 20 days straight in the Sunshine State.
But, Giuliani often touts on the stump that he pulled off the “impossible” in New York, and told a Tampa audience in December, “I just don’t pray for miracles, I just don’t hope for miracles, I expect miracles.” On the first flight this morning from Orlando to Clearwater, I asked him whether he is holding true to his philosophy to always “underpromise and overdeliver,” by repeatedly stating that he will win Florida. Giuliani didn’t flinch. “We’re gonna deliver Florida,” he said. (video above)
Bush: Saudi Oil Boost ‘Doesn’t Solve Our Problem’ President Bush on Saturday said Saudi Arabia’s increase of 300,000 barrels a day is ’something’ but the Saudi king should be concerned that energy prices are hurting oil customers.
Hillary: I’m Still Here Clinton eyes upcoming primaries, tries to muscle her way back into political dialogue after being yanked off stage • BRIEFING BOOK: Kentucky and Oregon (pdf)• GOP Unleashes on Obama Over Foreign Policy Views• Men’s Fitness: Obama One of 25 ‘Fittest Guys’
Congress Fears Electronic Passports a Security Risk Electronic passports for U.S. travelers frequenting Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean soon will replace the old-style paper identification, but some think the cards could fall prey to counterfeiters, The Washington Post reported.
