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ROCHESTER, MI — Asked about his infamous temper today, John McCain delivered a rousing response, exclaiming that he is just as angry as the rest of America with the corruption and wasteful spending in Washington.

“I will confess to you my friend that I get angry…I get angry when I see corruption to the point where we have former members of Congress residing in federal prison,” McCain said at a townhall meeting Wednesday, sounding at times like the Howard Beale character from the film “Network.” “And you know something? The American people are angry too and they’re not going to take it anymore. And that’s why they want change. And they’re mad and they’ve lost their temper. You know? These townhall meetings, ask them if they’re not mad! Ask ‘em. Ask ‘em the way their tax dollars and spending has gone completely out of control.”

Though journalists frequently ask McCain about his temperament, the question rarely come sup at townhall meetings. The questioner, a self-described Republican man said McCain’s temper was a “concern” before going on to quote Sen. Thad Cochran’s statement that McCain is too “erratic” and “hotheaded” to be President.

McCain initially joked with him, responding “how dare you ask that question? Take that microphone away from him,” drawing laughter from the crowd.

McCain went on to add, “I get angry when I saw a guy named Abramoff that ripped off Native Americans for millions and millions and millions of dollars and people ended up, including him, in federal prison. I get angry when I see 233 million of your tax dollars going to…a bridge to an island with 50 people on it. And that’s your dollars.”

Here is the scene from “Network:”

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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.”

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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.

(more…)

Returning to Los Angeles for a fundraiser in Beverly Hills that capped off a 24 hour million-dollar West Coast swing, Hillary Clinton made it clear that she’s not going away any time soon. After thanking a children’s choir that sang about soldiering on, Clinton said “I loved their inspirational song. We are going to keep going and we are going to keep going and keep going and keep going and keep going.”

But the New York Senator made it clear how important two states that have already voted are to her nomination hopes. “I’m staying in this until Michigan and Florida have a chance to be heard,” she said. “Those votes should go right now into the popular vote, and those delegates need to be counted.”

“Neither Barack or I have the delegates we need. This idea that one of us does and one of us doesn’t, is not the case,” she argued. “This is a neck and neck close race in delegates and votes. And if we acted like Democrats and figured out how we were going to honor the efforts made by these 2.3 million voters to make sure that they were part of this process, it would be more clear that we have to keep going.”

Though the people in the room had already helped with donations and delivering their state for Senator Clinton, she told them she needs more help from California to bring home the nomination — asking donors to go to her website to contribute and get involved, and to bring their friends. “I’m being outspent in every contest,” she said. “I will be outspent in these next contests, but if we have enough money we are going to do just fine.”

Clinton was joined on stage by Hollywood actors and Clinton backers Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, Daphne Zuniga and Fran Drescher,  while Hollywood director and Hillary supporter Rob Reiner emceed the event — and singled out one particular participant. “There is an uncommitted superdelegate in this room,” he told the crowd, “and I’m going to help them out.” Making Clinton’s case to this anonymous individual, Reiner joked “I’m talking to the superdelegate now, the rest of you can talk amongst yourselves.”

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TERRE HAUTE, IN — Hillary Clinton is turning up the heat on Barack Obama in the battle to hold a re-vote in the state of Michigan — calling him out for being scared of another election.

“For the life of me, I don’t understand why Senator Obama seems to be afraid of letting there be a revote in Michigan,” she said. “It’s going to hurt our party and our chances in November.”

Senator Clinton ridiculed a memo from the Obama campaign’s attorney Bob Bauer outlining the reasons for his opposition to the revote, saying “He comes up with all these legalistic answers.”

She also laid the blame for Michigan’ failure to come to a conensus on the issue squarely at Obama’s feet.”The people of Michigan and their legislature made it very clear that they would proceed with a revote. Unfortunately, Senator Obama’s campaign said no,” she said.

“So you’ll have to ask him what he’s afraid of.”

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Senator Clinton took her case for a re-vote directly to the people of Michigan at a union hall in Detroit today, telling voters “I am here for one simple reason: to make sure Michigan’s votes are counted, and your voices are heard in this election.”

The campaign has accused Senator Obama of standing in the way of draft legislation for a revote with a series of legal objections; the Obama campaign says it’s the Clinton camp that’s playing politics with the issue.

Senator Clinton insisted instead that, for her, the issue is one of basic American rights. “I will always defend your right to vote, no matter who you choose to vote for in the end,” she said.

And while the Obama campaign points out that she said in January that the Michigan results didn’t count for anything, Clinton claims she’s always cared about the voters in the Wolverine State.

“I’ve been saying for some time that the people of Michigan and Florida must have a voice in selecting our nominee for president,” she said. “When others made the decision to remove their names from the ballot, I didn’t, because I believe your voices and your votes should count.”

As spokesman Phil Singer accused the Obama campaign on a conference call of pursuing an obstructionist agenda designed to disenfranchise voters, Senator Clinton appealed directly to her Democratic opponent in a subtler manner – while still managing to throw in a standard barbs attacking him as the candidate of rhetoric.

“Senator Obama speaks passionately on the campaign trail about empowering the American people,” she said. “Today I’m urging him to match those words with actions, to make sure the people of Michigan and Florida have a voice and a vote in this election.”

“This is a crucial test: does he mean what he says or not?”

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In a last minute schedule change, Hillary Clinton’s campaign announced that the Senator will hold a 9am event in Detroit, MI — where she’ll accuse Senator Obama of obstructing a re-vote in the state.

“She’ll make the case that every vote should count, that the people of Michigan should not be disenfranchised, and that snubbing Michigan is going to hurt Democrats in the general election,” says campaign spokesman Mo Elleithee. “We have an opportunity to prevent that; Senator Obama is standing in the way. So she wants to go to Michigan to press that case herself.”

Democratic governor Jennifer Granholm (a Clinton supporter) has legislation for a new primary ready to go — legislation Clinton herself supports — and campaign aides say Obama’s campaign is raising objection after objection in order to stymie a re-vote in a state she’s likely to win.

Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor fires back that the Clinton campaign is the one playing politics with Michigan. “We understand that when it comes to counting votes, the Clinton campaign favors whatever they think will benefit them,” he said in a statement. “But on a day when Michigan legislators themselves have indicated that there isn’t enough legislative support for a re-vote — and when Senator Clinton’s own Michigan co-chair said that a re-vote ‘wouldn’t make much difference’ — it doesn’t make any sense for them to point fingers at our campaign.”

“As others in Michigan have pointed out,” he says, “there are valid concerns about the proposal currently being discussed.”

The Obama camp says it netted more pledged delegates by winning yesterday’s Mississippi primary than Hillary Clinton got by winning the big contests in Texas and Ohio. The Obama campaign has downplayed Clinton’s wins in these so-called “big states” - stressing the path to the nomination comes down to simple math.

Obama has done well by handily winning in states like Georgia and Mississippi - and by remaining competitive in the big states that Clinton has won.  It’s a blueprint that has Obama up in the pledged delegate count - 1411 to Clinton’s 1250 (according to the Obama campaign).

But with 10 contests left and 566 pledged delegates to be awarded, no candidate can reach the 2,025 needed to secure the nomination, which would throw the nomination to the superdelegates.

Of course, Florida and Michigan’s contests have not been resolved by the DNC and their combined 313 pledged delegates are yet to be awarded. The Obama campaign has said it will not accept the results based on the January contest results, as Obama’s name was not on the ballot in Michigan, and he did not campaign in the Sunshine State.

Today Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said caucuses were an option as were new primaries, but cautioned the latter method would be expensive. He has “deep concerns” with a mail-in revote, saying “To try to put to something that took the state of Oregon 10 years to get comfortable with at the statewide level is problematic.”

So what’s the best option? “It seems that the easiest solution here would be some kind of fair seating of the delegations that is not reflective of this contest in January, that allows these states to participate in Denver, but does not advantage Sen Clinton unfairly,” Plouffe said. It’s unclear how this seating would be decided.

Just to be sure voters in Michigan and Florida don’t equate Clinton’s concern for the states’ delegates with making sure their voices are heard in this nomination process, Plouffe noted, “We do not think the Clinton campaign’s approach here is based on benevolence towards Florida and Michigan - it’s based on increasingly desperate, self serving stretching for whatever they think might help them secure the nomination.”

Pennsylvania is widely considered the next (and third) “Super Tuesday” coming up on April 22nd, but the Obama campaign today said Clinton will likely win the state. “They should win by a healthy margin, given where they start,” Plouffe said. “We will campaign hard there, we will try to get as many votes and delegates as we can, but our campaign will not be defined by Pennsylvania. We will be campaigning in all the rest of the states.”

Obama will campaign this weekend in Indiana, and will focus time and energy in North Carolina as well the other upcoming states, while the Clinton campaign focuses on Pennsylvania. Should the nomination come down to supedelegates, the Obama campaign will argue he is the candidate with more pledged delegates, more states, and more of the nation’s popular vote.

 According to an article in today’s Detroit Free Press, the Obama campaign nixed a Michigan do-over - in what’s been called a “firehouse primary.”

[If you recall, Senator Obama signed a pledge not to campaign in Michigan when the state moved its primary earlier than the Democratic National Committee permitted. As a result, the DNC stripped the state of its 156 delegates and rendered the primary moot. The name Barack Obama did not appear on the ballot, and Senator Clinton walked away with 55% of the vote. Clinton has expressed interest of seating the delegates at this summer's Democratic Convention, but the Obama campaign has maintained this is unfair for obvious reasons. The issue has yet to be resolved, as is the case with the Florida primary results.]

On a conference call today, Obama Campaign Manager David Plouffe said the report that indicated the campaign would not go for the revote was “not accurate.”

“What we have said we have abided by the DNC rules to this date and we’ll continue to abide by them. If there is a remedy that the DNC and state parties agree to, that meets the rules, we will abide by those. We do not think it’s the place of the two campaigns where we’re in heated contest here, to negotiate this,” he explained.

Plouffe also noted that Hillary Clinton has been “changing the rules midstream” by agreeing to the DNC pledge that the delegates would not count and then seeking to get the delegates seated. This, Plouffe said, “is the kind of politics people are tired of.” He continued, “We’re not going to pick and choose what kind of contest is  appropriate to us. We would like resolution to this and we would like resolution to this quickly. I think everybody would, so that we have some certainty what the nomination fight is going to look like.”

Meanwhile, the Obama campaign has declared victory in Wyoming, where they netted two pledged delegates. This isn’t a huge coup, but as Plouffe noted, ” is a third of her net from those big contests on March 4th.” The Obama campaign has estimated Clinton netted six delegates from her wins in Ohio, Texas, and Rhode Island.

Hillary Clinton told reporters she’s still committed to seating the delegations from Florida and Michigan at the Democratic convention in August — but that she’s “watching with great interest to see what the leadership in both states puts forth.”

“I’m going to let the leadership of both states see what they think is the best approach. I think that it would be a grave disservice to the voters of Florida and Michigan to adopt any process that would disenfranchise anyone,” she said.

FL sen Bill Nelson has asked the DNC to pony up $18million to fund a new primary election, in part because the national committee was too harsh on the state for what was essentially the GOP-controlled state government’s decision to move the primary to Jan 29. Sen Clinton agrees with that assessment. “If you look at what happened in Florida, the Republican governor, the Republican legislature called the shots, set the time. The Democrats really had no choice. And I don’t think they should be punished because of that.”

Clinton addressed the Florida issue in a cabinet meeting-style sitdown with 12 military officials and senior foreign policy types to talk about Afghanistan — laying out her plan to add more international troops through NATO. Much like those cabinet meetings, she addressed the press at the top then kicked us out to continue the session in private.

Before that happened, however, reporters asked whether she agreed with her communications director Howard Wolfson’s comparison of the Obama to Clinton investgator Ken Starr — after his campaign threatened to start raising past Clinton controversies. “I’m not going to respond to that,” she said dimissively, asking the next reporter “what’s your question?”