Indianapolis, IN — Indiana Senator Evan Bayh called on Democratic superdelegates and primary voters to consider the potential fallout from Obama’s remarks during the general election, arguing that it provides “fodder” for the GOP.

“I think it’s a real potential political problem and its something for superdelegates and voters to think about,” Bayh told reporters after Clinton’s first speech this morning in Indianapolis. “The far right wing has a very good track record of using things like this relentlessly against our candidate, whether its Al Gore or John Kerry and I’m afraid this is the kind of fodder they might use to really harm him with.”

While he noted that he does not believe that Obama is an “elitist,” he said the remarks can be interpreted that way–putting the IL Democrat on “dangerous ground.”

“(The Republicans are going to say) that we are cultural elitists, that’s what they are going to say about us regardless of who our candidate is. The question is have we given them some hope to hang their hat on to make that argument. These comments… might be that hook that they use,” he said. “There’s this cultural divide that exists…I think it’s an issue the Democratic party is potentially vulnerable on and has to address.”

Bayh is campaigning with Clinton throughout the Hoosier State Saturday.

Indianapolis, IN - Sen. Clinton stepped her attacks on Obama Saturday seizing on his remarks about small town American resentment as “demeaning” and “elitist,” during a speech at a manufacturing plant in the Hoosier state.

“I was taken aback by the demeaning remarks Senator Obama made about people in small town America. Senator Obama’s remarks are elitist and they are out of touch. They are not reflective of the values and beliefs of Americans. Certainly not the Americans that I know - not the Americans I grew up with, not the Americans I lived with in Arkansas or represent in New York,” she told a group of factory workers at a transmission plant in the key May 6 primary state.

She relentlessly attacked Obama’s original remarks point by point today for nearly five minutes (VIDEO above), as the NY Senator seeks to reinforce the argument that her Democratic rival is out of touch with average Americans.

“You know, Americans who believe in the Second Amendment believe it’s a matter of Constitutional rights. Americans who believe in God believe it is a matter of personal faith. Americans who believe in protecting good American jobs believe it is a matter of the American Dream,” Clinton said. “The people of faith I know don’t “cling to” religion because they’re bitter. People embrace faith not because they are materially poor, but because they are spiritually rich…people of all walks of life hunt, and they enjoy doing so because it’s an important part of their life, not because they are bitter.”

The Clinton campaign sees the Obama statement as a major gaffe which they will seize on in the runup to the PA, NC and IN primaries as they attempt to strike at the heart of Obama’s message of unity.

“If we are striving to bring people together - and I believe we should be - I don’t think it helps to divide our country into one America that is enlightened and one that is not,” she said. “People don’t need a president who looks down on them; they need a president who stands up for them. And that is exactly what I will do as your president. Because I believe if you want to be the president of all Americans, you need to respect all Americans. And that starts with respecting our hard working Americans”

Pittsburgh, PA — Speaking to a group of Pennsylvania Democrats on the home turf of the Pittsburgh Steelers Thursday night, Sen. Hillary Clinton got into the mood and broke out some of her best metaphors from the gridiron.

“I want to tell you that I will be the best quarterback I can be for our country to take us to the future,” she said to a group of Allegheny Country Democrats at their annual Jefferson Jackson dinner held at Heinz Field. “We’re gonna start calling some new plays. And we’re gonna go on offense as well as have a good defense. We’re going to have a new approach to bringing jobs back to Western Pennsylvania, to creating an economy that works for everybody to move us toward the goal line of Universal health care. We are gonna get across that.”

But after Clinton played with language (though one might add that she is actually making a defensive goal line stand of her own in the Keystone state), she took aim at an Obama ad in which the IL Democrat declares himself free of oil company money.

“I know that my opponent has been running an ad recently across Pennsylvania very forcefully saying that he doesn’t take money from oil companies,” she said. “Nobody takes money from oil companies. It’s illegal to take money from oil companies…but more than that–we both had a chance in 2005 to stand up and be counted–not just what we say when we are on the campaign trail but how we act when it matters. And we had a chance to vote yes or no on Dick Cheney’s energy bill which gave billions more in tax breaks to the oil companies. I voted no, he voted yes and we’re going to take that message across Pennsylvania. If you want somebody who is strong enough to take on the special interests and mean what I say and deliver results than I’m your candidate.”

While the Obama ad, which currently runs in PA, has been the subject of some back and forth between the campaigns during the last few days Camp Hillary seems to have the edge on this one with the independent website, factcheck.org calling the ad “a little too slick.”

Pittsburgh, PA — Sen. Hillary Clinton used some of her most direct language yet Thursday as she attacked Sen. Barack Obama for what she sees is his non-effort to resolve the Florida and Michigan primary conundrum.

“He doesn’t want the votes to count, lets not mince words here. Senator Obama has been very, very clear ‘do not count those votes, or come up with some kind of resolution that disenfranchises people by taking away their right to have voted for whom they have voted for and neither of those is acceptable to Michigan and Florida voters and I wouldn’t agree with that either,” she said during a media availability Thursday. “I did agree with a total re-vote and just throw it up in the air and see what happens and he wouldn’t do that.”

Asked if she planned to propose her own solution for ensuring that Florida and Michigan Democrats have a role in determining the ultimate Democratic nominee she said her campaign does not intend to offer a plan–outlining a potential battle at the Democratic Convention this summer.

“If it has to go to a credentials committee, then it has to go to a credentials committee, that’s what they are there for, you know, they’ve had to resolve credentialing and rules fights in the past and they will have to resolve this one,” she said.

The DNC stripped Florida and Michigan of their convention delegates last year after both states moved up their primaries and conflicted with the planned party voting schedule. Clinton won both state primaries (though she was the only major candidate on the MI ballot and no campaigning took place in FL) giving the Democratic underdog an opportunity to have a chance at catching up in the popular vote and delegate battle if she wins the fight to have both states represented at the summer convention.

During her press conference today, she couched the vote counting battle in language that slammed her own party for what she sees as a lackadaisical effort to resolve the primary dispute.

“I really don’t understand why the Republican party very clearly decided what they were going to do and the Democratic party can’t decide. I also don’t understand how you can disenfranchise voters in two states you have to try to win. I don’t think that is smart for the Democratic party,” she said. “This continuing call on my part (to count the votes) ….is in the best interest of the Democratic party.”

Phoenix, AZ — McCain campaign officials are calling on Sen. Obama to condemn remarks made by an introductory speaker who personally attacked Sen. McCain as “a warmonger” at one of the Democrat’s events Friday.

While he warmed up the crowd at a Grand Forks, ND campaign stop, local liberal radio talk show host Ed Schultz referred to Sen. McCain as “a warmonger” prior to Obama’s arrival at a North Dakota Democratic party event.

During his remarks to a crowd of several hundred Democrats, the Illinois Senator thanked Schultz and called him the “voice of progressive radio.”

“Senator Obama has repeatedly said that words matter, they do, and for him to stand on stage and thank someone who just minutes before used hate filled and inflammatory language to describe John McCain, someone who has served his nation in and out of uniform for over 30 years, shows Obama’s true colors, liberal Chicago-style politics as usual,” said McCain campaign spokesman Jeff Sadosky. “Americans want more, they deserve better.”

The controversy arises about six weeks after McCain condemned conservative radio talk show host Bill Cunningham for launching a personal attack on Obama during one of the GOPer’s campaign events. Prior to McCain’s arrival at a Feb. 26 Cincinnati, OH town hall meeting, Cunningham repeatedly invoked Obama’s middle name, “Hussein,” and mocked him as a “hack” during his own introductory remarks.

After learning about Cunningham’s incendiary comments from advisers immediately after the event, McCain condemned and disassociated himself with the talk show host minutes later at a press conference. The presumptive GOP nominee has vowed repeatedly to run a “respectful” race and campaign officials are attempting to draw a contrast between the McCain’s quick condemnation of Cunningham’s remarks and Obama’s lack of reaction thus far.

Note: More details and context may become available from Schultz’s remarks in the coming days since the event was open only to pooled media, meaning most of Obama’s traveling press corps were not able to attend the event and have to base reporting on the event on limited sources.

Memphis, TN — Sen. John McCain may face questions about his civil rights record as he visits Memphis Friday to participate in a number of events commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination.

Scheduled to address the Southern Christian Leadership Conference–which King headed up for more than a decade–as well as lay a wreath at the National Civil Rights Museum, McCain’s initial opposition to a holiday commemorating the slain civil rights leader could be among the issues that come up during his trip.

In his first year in the U.S. House, McCain voted with the minority and opposed the 1983 law creating the national holiday to honor King, but reversed his decision around 1990 after he says he “learned” more about King’s achievements. As he fought for an Arizona state ballot measure to recognize MLK Day in 1990, McCain successfully pushed former President Reagan to endorse the referendum.

McCain has said on a number of occasions that he regrets his original 1983 vote and told reporters this week that he is “very proud” of his record of support for King.

“I voted in my…first year in Congress against it and then I began to learn and I studied and people talked to me. And I not only supported it but I fought very hard in my home state of Arizona for recognition against a governor who was of my own party,” McCain said during a media availability aboard his plane Monday (video above). “I had not been involved in the issue. I had come from being in the military to running for Congress in a state that did not have a very large African American population and it had not been in issue. It just simply had not been.”

In a February 2000 interview with ABC News, McCain said his initial opposition to a holiday was based on his belief that “it was not necessary to have another federal holiday, that it cost too much money, that other presidents were not recognized.”

Asked on Monday why he shifted his position and later supported a state measure creating a holiday, McCain told reporters that he “learned (that King) was a transcendent figure in American history. He deserved to be honored and that I thought it was appropriate to do so.”

(more…)

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean is calling on Democrats to donate cash in order to ensure Sen. John McCain “doesn’t get a free ride,” in an email sent out to supporters Friday.

As the two Democrats continue to battle for the nomination, Dean tells supporters that they “can’t be complacent,” warning that “every day that goes by where we don’t answer John McCain’s attacks means another opportunity missed, and it erases the work we’ve done so far.” At the start of the month, the DNC trailed their Republican counterparts by more than $20 million in cash on hand.

“We can’t allow John McCain to crisscross the country, fooling the American people with his ‘more of the same’ agenda,” Dean wrote in the email.

Full email…

(more…)

San Antonio, TX –Sen. John McCain continued to hammer Obama for his comments at last night’s at an afternoon town hall in San Antonio today.

“If we do what Senator Obama wants to do, and that’s immediate withdrwal, that would mean surrender in Iraq. So I guess that means he would surrender and then go back,” McCain said.

The two have been tussling all day over the war in Iraq. See McCain’s first strike and then Obama’s response.

Tyler, TX — Sen. John McCain slammed Sen. Barack Obama for suggesting during last night’s debate that while he would begin to withdraw troops from Iraq upon taking office, he would potentially return troops to the country if “al Qaeda is forming a base.”

“I have some news–al Qaeda is in Iraq. It’s called al Qaeda in Iraq,” McCain said at a town hall meeting. “If we left, they wouldn’t be establishing a base, they wouldn’t be establishing a base. They would be taking a country. And I’m not going to allow that to happen, my friends. I will not surrender to al Qaeda.”

During a media availability after the event, McCain added that if the U.S. was to proceed with Obama’s plan for a gradual withdrawal, it would enable al Qaeda to strengthen it’s position in the country.

“(I) question as strongly as possible the premise that somehow you could leave Iraq and defeat the entire purpose of the strategy we are now employing…and then say that you will go back in,” he said. “I am convinced (that would) be a far larger sacrifice of American blood and treasure if you allow al Qaeda to control Iraq.”

Washington, DC — Arguing that Sen. McCain is engaged in the “height of hypocrisy” by reversing his decision to take public financing during the primary season, Democratic National Committee officials said they plan to file a complaint Monday with the Federal Election Commission.

The McCain campaign applied for federal matching funds last year but never received any FEC cash and maintains that they were on firm legal ground when they decided to withdraw from the system earlier this month. FEC spending limits would severely hamstring McCain until the RNC convention compared with Sen. Clinton or Sen. Obama–neither of whom is taking public money.

However, the DNC announced that they intend to ask the FEC to investigate whether the campaign is violating any laws by opting out of the system.

“The crucial issue here is John McCain’s integrity. John McCain poses as a reformer but seems to think reforms apply to everyone but him,” DNC Chairman Howard Dean said on a media conference call Sunday. “He used taxpayer money to guarantee a loan so he could raise money from lobbyists and special interests - it’s the height of hypocrisy. This is just the latest example of his do as I say, not as I do double standard, and it’s unlikely to be the last. McCain financially benefited from this legally binding contract - he got free ballot access, saving him millions of dollars, and he secured a $4 million line of credit to keep his campaign afloat by using public financing as collateral. He should follow the law.”

In response, the McCain campaign is calling Dean’s criticism as “absurd,” arguing there is precedent for their decision and also disputing his assertion that they used their existing request for FEC funds as collateral for a loan. See Letter E of their loan request.

The campaign is also pointing out what they call “Howard’s Hypocrisy,” noting that Dean also pulled out of the FEC system after initially applying for public funds during his 2004 presidential bid. (See McCain campaign research after jump)

“Howard Dean’s hypocrisy is breathtaking given that in 2003 he withdrew from the matching funds system in exactly the same way that John McCain is doing today,” McCain Spokesman Brian Rogers said in a statement.

(more…)