Huckabee says Obama's former pastor needs him to lose

Former Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee said Wednesday Barack Obama's bid for the White House is not being derailed because he is black, but because his former pastor does not want him to show the country's race relations have progressed.

Obama, a Democrat, has struggled in recent weeks to distance himself from incendiary comments made by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

"His (Obama's) campaign is not being derailed by his race, it's being derailed by a person who doesn't want him to prove that we have made great advances in this country," Huckabee told reporters.

Wright has claimed AIDS was created by the U.S. government to kill "people of color" and that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were spurred by the United State's "terrorism" against minorities at home and abroad.

"Jeremiah Wright needs for Obama to lose so he can justify his anger, his hostile bitterness against the United States of America," Huckabee said.

Obama Denounces Pastor Wright (April 29, 2008)

An Angry Obama Renounces Ties to His Ex-Pastor

Senator Barack Obama broke forcefully on Tuesday with his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., in an effort to curtail a drama of race, values, patriotism and betrayal that has enveloped his presidential candidacy at a critical juncture.

At a news conference here, Mr. Obama denounced remarks Mr. Wright made in a series of televised appearances over the last several days. In the appearances, Mr. Wright has suggested that the United States was attacked because it engaged in terrorism on other people and that the government was capable of having used the AIDS virus to commit genocide against minorities. His remarks also cast Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, in a positive light.

In tones sharply different from those Mr. Obama used on Monday, when he blamed the news media and his rivals for focusing on Mr. Wright, and far harsher than those he used in his speech on race in Philadelphia last month, Mr. Obama tried to cut all his ties to — and to discredit — Mr. Wright, the man who presided at Mr. Obama’s wedding and baptized his two daughters.“His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate, and I believe that they do not portray accurately the perspective of the black church,” Mr. Obama said, his voice welling with anger. “They certainly don’t portray accurately my values and beliefs.”

One week before Democratic primaries in Indiana and North Carolina, contests that party officials are watching as they try to gauge whether Mr. Obama or Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton would be the stronger nominee, the controversy surrounding Mr. Wright again erupted into a threat to Mr. Obama’s ability to show that he could unify the Democratic Party and bring the nominating contest to a quick and clean end. With Mrs. Clinton having shown particular strength among working-class white voters in recent big-state primaries, the racial overtones of Mr. Obama’s links with Mr. Wright have been especially troublesome for the Obama campaign.

Asked how the controversy would affect voters, Mr. Obama said: “We’ll find out.”

At a minimum, the spectacle of Mr. Wright’s multiday media tour and Mr. Obama’s rolling response grabbed the attention of the most important constituency in politics now: the uncommitted superdelegates — party officials and elected Democrats — who hold the balance of power in the nominating battle.

Eileen Macoll, a Democratic county chairman from Washington State who has not chosen a candidate, said she was stunned at the extent of national attention the episode has drawn, and she said she believed it would give superdelegates pause.

“I’m a little surprised at how much traction it is getting, and I do believe it is beginning to reflect negatively on Senator Obama’s campaign,” Ms. Macoll said. “I think he’s handling it very well, but I think it’s almost impossible to make people feel comfortable about this.”

It was the second straight day that Mr. Obama had responded to Mr. Wright, a former pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago whose derisive comments about the United States government have become a fixture of cable television. Saying that he had not seen or read Mr. Wright’s remarks when he responded to them on Monday, Mr. Obama said he was “shocked and surprised” when he later read the transcripts and watched the broadcasts, and he felt compelled to respond more forcefully.

“I’m outraged by the comments that were made and saddened over the spectacle that we saw yesterday,” Mr. Obama said. He added: “I find these comments appalling. It contradicts everything that I’m about and who I am.”

The press conference came in what may well be the toughest stretch of Mr. Obama’s campaign as he grapples with questions about Mr. Wright as well as the fallout from his defeat last week in Pennsylvania. He set out this week to reintroduce himself but instead found himself competing for airtime with Mr. Wright and trying to bat away suggestions that he shared or tolerated Mr. Wright’s views.

As he answered question after question here, Mr. Obama appeared downcast and subdued as he tried to explain why he had decided to categorically denounce his minister of 20 years. His decision to address reporters not only stretched the Wright story into another day but also marked at least the third time he has sought to deal with the issue, including his well-received speech on race last month in Philadelphia.

Jeremiah Wright - Hillary Supporter?

No sane man, who is an Obama supporter, would do what Jeremiah Wright has done in the last week. Many pundits are saying he's an ego maniac, he's been swept up, he's trying to pay for his new house, blah, blah. After thinking about it, I disagree. This was deliberate, planned and timed to inflict maximum damage to Obama. Think about it. What could Wright do to get maximum attention? Answer: speak at the National Press Club, with a large group of supporters present, and with Nation of Islam security on stage with you. Make inflammatory statements, dredging up every outrageous thing you've ever said, and inflating them even more. Be cocky, arrogant, and rude. Make sure that the Nation of Islam guy is in the background of every shot. Scare people to death.

Wright's not crazy. He supports Hillary. It is well known that Wright knows the Clintons. He went to the White House during the Clinton administration. I now believe that he is a Hillary supporter and either did this on his own or was goaded into acting by a supporter. I don't know if he's in communication with the Clinton campaign itself, but I wouldn't be surprised.

This was intentional to hurt Obama, and it sure is working.

McCain launches healthcare ad

John McCain, in general election mode, unveiled a new TV ad in a key swing state on an issue on which Democrats believe they have the upper hand: healthcare.

"The problem with healthcare in America is not the quality of health care, it's the availability and the affordability. And that has to do with the dramatic increase in the cost of healthcare," McCain says directly to the camera in the 60-second spot that declares it will give "straight talk" on the issue.

"Let's give every American family a $5,000 refundable tax credit so that they can go out across state lines and get the insurance policy that suits them best," McCain continues. "I can characterize my approach on health care by choice and competition, affordability and availability. We need community health centers. We need walk-in clinics. We understand that emergency room care is the most expensive in America.

"There's many, many solutions to this problem," the presumptive Republican nominee concludes. "I think we can address them. The fundamental problem is not the quality of health care; it's the cost of health care. So health care must be made affordable and available."

The Arizona senator is airing the ad in Iowa, which appears to be a toss-up state in November. In 2004, President Bush defeated Senator John F. Kerry 50 percent to 49 percent, but in 2000, Vice President Al Gore beat Bush 49 percent to 48 percent.

McCain's approach on healthcare is significantly different and far less government oriented than Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, who both pledge to get to universal coverage. Clinton would require individuals to obtain insurance and provide government subsidies to those who can't afford policies. Obama would focus more on making healthcare affordable, arguing that if it isn't, people would flout the mandate.

McCain, who is giving a series of healthcare speeches this week, is also hitting back against the Service Employees International Union, which supports Obama and is running an ad in Ohio saying that McCain's proposal wouldn't lower healthcare costs.

Bush to address Americans' financial fears

Americans are "understandably anxious" about issues affecting their pocketbook, President Bush said Tuesday. Bush said people are looking to leaders in Congress to take action, but "all they are getting is delay."

Speaking from the Rose Garden, Bush blasted Congress for not doing enough to address Americans' financial fears.

"I repeatedly submitted proposal to help address the problems. Time after time, Congress chose to block them," he said.

Bush called on Congress to send him sensible and effective bills to keep the country moving forward before taking questions from reporters.

Asked if he was premature in saying the economy is not in a recession, Bush said "the average person doesn't really care what we call it."

"The average person wants to know whether or not we know that they're paying higher gasoline prices and they're worried about staying in their homes," he said.

Bush asked Congress to focus on four areas: energy, food prices, mortgage payments and student loans. The president urged Congress to pass legislation that would lead to more affordable and reliable energy at home.

He also called for a fiscally responsible bill that would reform farm programs without putting new burdens on consumers. He blasted Congress for "considering a massive, bloated farm bill that would do little to solve the problem."

"America's farm economy is thriving. The value of farmland is skyrocketing. And this is the right time to reform our nation's farm policies by reducing unnecessary subsidies," he said.

In his eight-minute opening remarks, Bush urged Congress to pass specific legislation that will help more families stay in their homes and give the federal government more authority to purchase federal student loans

Barack Obama's Story

Bronx students say " yes we can "

Debate over debates

Get ready to hear the numbers 21 and 4 over and over again during the next few days.

Twenty-one is the total of Democratic presidential debates over the past year -- and Barack Obama says that is plenty.

He says he's not ducking another debate and has not closed the door to one after the Indiana and North Carolina primaries on May 6. But he and his campaign say they want to spend the next nine days talking directly to the voters of the two states.

Four is the number of head-to-head debates between Obama and Hillary Clinton since the rest of the field fell away for the nomination -- and Clinton says that is not enough.

She is challenging Obama to face off before May 6 anytime, anywhere and one-on-one without any moderators. She says voters in Indiana and North Carolina deserve their own debates.

The last debate, April 16 in Philadelphia, was also the most watched, drawing nearly 11 million viewers to the first aired on a broadcast network during weeknight primetime. Critics, including Obama and his supporters, said the debate focused far too much on the controversies of the moment and far too little on substantive issues.

Party Leaders Concerned Voters Will Not Unify After Nominee is Chosen

In the race to the Democratic nomination, tensions between the campaigns of rival Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., are so uncomfortable some party leaders are openly concerned Democratic voters will not unify after a nominee is chosen.
Much of the tension is based at least in part on racial divisions -- and into the dynamic walked the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's controversial former pastor.

Speaking the National Press Club in Washington on Monday, Wright called the recent criticism surrounding his sermons "an attack on the black church" explaining his emergence before a national audience, regardless of what harm it might do to the candidacy of Obama.
This is not about Obama, McCain, Hillary, Bill or Chelsea, this is about the black church," Wright said, speaking before the Washington press corps and an enthusiastic audience of black church leaders at the onset of a two-day symposium.

Obama's controversial former pastor was defiant as he spoke to a room packed with non-journalistic supporters, defending himself, dismissing Obama's criticism of him as mere political expedience, and jokingly offering himself as a vice presidential prospect. He clearly was not doing Obama any favors, not only by reappearing before a ravenous media thus distracting from Obama's attempt to relate better to white working class voters in Indiana and North Carolina, but by implying Obama's condemnation of some of his sermons was not sincere.

"Politicians say what they say and do what they do because of electability," Wright said, arguing that Obama had not seen the sermons played in the media that Obama has called "offensive." "He had to distance himself because he's a politician...Whether he gets elected or not, I'm still going to have to be answerable to God."

Obama agrees to finally go on Fox News Sunday,

McCain Slams Federal Response to Katrina

McCain Tells News Orleans Residents Federal Response to '05 Hurricane Was Disgraceful Under a sweltering spring sun, Sen John McCain, R-Ariz., strolled a desolate thoroughfare today in this city's still-devastated Ninth Ward. His guides were the state's new governor, Republican Bobby Jindal, often named as a possible running mate, and several African-American community leaders.

Photographers, camera people and reporters packed onto two flatbed National Guard trucks that led the way were there to bear witness to spectacle: a Republican running for president in an overwhelmingly Democratic, black neighborhood.

After walking four blocks, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee stood outside a church and proceeded to criticize President Bush, a fellow Republican, for the federal response to Hurricane Katrina.

"Never again will a disaster of this nature be handled in the terrible and disgraceful way it was handled," McCain said. "It will never, ever happen again."

Black leader in the House sharply criticizes Bill Clinton

Black Americans just now coming to the shocked realization that Bill Clinton never really cared about them and was just using them to get votes.

One of the nation's most influential African-American political leaders sharply criticized former President Bill Clinton on Thursday afternoon for what he called his "bizarre" conduct during the Democratic primary campaign.

The black leader, Representative James Clyburn, an undeclared superdelegate from South Carolina and the third-ranking Democrat in the House, said "black people are incensed over all of this," referring to statements Clinton has made in the course of the heated race between Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.

Black leaders widely criticized Bill Clinton after he equated the eventual victory of Obama in the South Carolina primary in January to that of the Rev. Jesse Jackson in the 1988 primary, a parallel that many took as an effort to diminish Obama's success in the campaign.

In a radio interview in Philadelphia on Monday, Clinton defended his remarks and said the Obama campaign had "played the race card on me" by making an issue of them.

In an interview with The New York Times late Thursday, Clyburn said Clinton's conduct in this campaign had caused what might be an irreparable breach between Clinton and an African-American constituency that once revered him.

"When he was going through his impeachment problems, it was the black community that bellied up to the bar," Clyburn said. "I think black folks feel strongly that this is a strange way for President Clinton to show his appreciation."

Clyburn added that there appeared to be an almost unanimous view among African-Americans that Bill and Hillary Clinton were committed to doing everything they possibly could to damage Obama to a point that he could never win in the general election.

Both campaigns courted Clyburn before South Carolina's primary. He stayed neutral, however, and continues to, vowing that he would not say or do anything that might influence the outcome of the race. He said he remained officially uncommitted as a superdelegate and had no immediate plans to endorse either candidate.

At one point before the South Carolina primary, Clyburn urged Bill Clinton "to chill a little bit."

Asked Thursday whether the former president had heeded his advice, Clyburn said: "Yeah, for three or four weeks or so. Or maybe three or four days."

Clyburn's latest remarks come less than two weeks before the May 6 primary in North Carolina, where the Obama campaign is hoping that a strong black turnout will mean victory.

Hillary was running the "vast, right-wing conspiracy" all along. What a twist

It is abundantly clear that the Clintons, working with FOX News and manipulating old Clinton staffers like George Stephanopoulos, are trying, at least unconsciously, to so damage Barack Obama that he will be perceived as "unelectable" to Democratic superdelegates. It is also clear that the campaign of defamation against Obama has resulted in higher negative ratings for Hillary Clinton. She therefore is threatening the Democratic Party's chances for the White House, whether or not she is the nominee.

Hillary sees her shadow in Pennsylvania. We can expect six more weeks of tired, pathetic campaigning

Why Barack Obama is the best candidate

Obama is flush, Clinton in debt

Barack Obama has $51 million in the bank, John McCain $11 million. Hillary Clinton? Let's just say she's gonna have to send the kids to live with her sister up in Buffalo

Pay up or risk long battle, Obama told

Barack Obama has been warned that his refusal to pay the traditional "street money" to local operatives to help get the vote out in Philadelphia today could cost him the crucial percentage points needed to knock Hillary Clinton out of the race for the White House.

In many of the city's poorer wards, the recipients look forward to these bonuses from Democratic officials - a hangover from the days of the party's old-fashioned machine politics - even though the amounts are relatively small, ranging from $50 to $400.

But as in other contests, Obama is relying on his own army of unpaid
volunteers to get the vote out. The Clinton team, meanwhile, is not saying whether it will pay out "street money".

There are 69 wards in Philadelphia and estimates suggest it would cost Obama $400,000-$500,000 to pay the 14,000 people normally required to help get the vote out.

Carol Ann Campbell, an integral part of the city machine, said she expected Obama to win the city, but his failure to pay could cost him the crucial margin needed to force Clinton out of the race for the presidential nomination.

In an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer last week, Campbell defended the practice of "street money", saying: "We are a machine town." She added that there was nothing dirty about it. "The committee people and the ward leaders have to buy lunch for hundreds of people, otherwise they won't have good workers. They have to buy coffee, orange juice and doughnuts. That's just the way it is."

Since the start of the primary campaign last year, Obama has avoided using the Democratic machine, on the assumption that it had already been tied up by the Clintons, and instead built up his own volunteer network. He has encouraged his supporters to be self-sufficient, with volunteers bringing dishes into campaign headquarters rather than sending out for meals.

The different approaches have produced a clash of cultures in Philadelphia. Obama's team on the ground is being supplemented by thousands of young supporters who have travelled from Washington, New York and other neighbouring conurbations, watched warily by the locals, some of them resentful about being denied the "street money".

Jeremy Bird, Obama's Pennsylvania field director, told the Los Angeles Times that the campaign had faced a similar predicament in South Carolina over the traditional distribution of money: "We always said that we're not going to do politics the way it's always been done because it's always been done that way."

Ed Rendell, Clinton Surrogate, Passionately Praised Farrakhan In 1997

At last Tuesday's Democratic debate, Sen. Hillary Clinton drew out her objections to Sen. Barack Obama's relationship with his former pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright, saying that what troubled her was not just Wright's incendiary language, but his past praise for Louis Farrakhan, the controversial head of the Nation of Islam.

"It is clear that, as leaders, we have a choice who we associate with and who we apparently give some kind of seal of approval to," said Clinton. "And I think that it wasn't only the specific remarks but some of the relationships with Reverend Farrakhan, with giving the church bulletin over to the leader of Hamas, to put a message in."

But if an association to Farrakhan troubles Clinton, she may need to focus her attention and criticisms on one of her most prominent Pennsylvania supporters.

In April 1997, Ed Rendell -- then the mayor of Philadelphia and currently the governor of Pennsylvania and a major Clinton surrogate -- delivered a passion-filled speech lauding the work of Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam.

"I would like to thank the Nation of Islam here in Philadelphia," Rendell said to the crowd, as Farrakhan looked on approvingly. "To thank you for what you stand for and what you stand for all the good it does to so many people in Philadelphia. And if there is anybody out here... who doesn't know, this is a faith that has as its principles, the family. This is a faith that doesn't just talk about family values, it lives family values. This is a faith where men respect their women and children and they manifest that faith by staying in the home with them. This is a faith that doesn't just talk about being against drugs but is out there every single day and night fighting against drugs. This is a faith that just doesn't talk about the value of education, it imbues in their children and schools that education is the way to opportunity."

Those words strike a similar tone to the compliments that Wright himself bestowed upon Farrakhan in a Trumpet Magazine article in November and December of 2007.

"When Minister Farrakhan speaks, Black America listens," said the Reverend. "Everybody may not agree with him, but they listen ... His depth on analysis when it comes to the racial ills of this nation is astounding and eye opening. He brings a perspective that is helpful and honest... Minister Farrakhan will be remembered as one of the 20th and 21st century giants of the African American religious experience."

Of course, Clinton's issue with Farrakhan is not merely that the Nation of Islam leader has a relationship to Obama's old pastor and church. It's that Farrakhan himself has publicly praised the Illinois Democrat. But when Clinton held this over Obama's head during a late February Democratic debate, she again used words and phrasing that could very well apply to Rendell.

"There's a difference between denouncing and rejecting," she said. "And I think when it comes to this sort of, you know, inflammatory -- I have no doubt that everything that Barack just said is absolutely sincere. But I just think, we've got to be even stronger. We cannot let anyone in any way say these things because of the implications that they have, which can be so far reaching."

At issue is Farrakhan past remarks which have been widely criticized as anti-Semitic, including calling Judaism a "gutter religion." Obama has both "denounced and rejected" Farrakhan's praise for his candidacy. While, in contrast, Rendell, back in 1997, touted the need to reach out to the Nation of Islam so as to bridge the cultural and racial divides within cities.

"There were many people," Rendell proclaimed, "who [said] we were running a great risk by sharing this platform with the National of Islam. But you know, I know and everyone here knows the terrible toll that racism has taken in our city. And we know that the real risk is not being able to talk about our differences and try and make progress. And if everyone cares about ending racism and I believe they do, if anyone cares they should have been here. They should have been ready to talk and they should have been read to listen."

Hillary stop sipping the haterade

McCain to launch tour at Pettus Bridge

ohn McCain begins today's tour of the Alabama "Black Belt" at a mecca of the 1960s voting rights movement that realigned Southern politics.

The 1965 assault on marchers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., helped produce the federal Voting Rights Act. Four decades later, the South is predominantly Republican, and African-Americans are the Democratic Party's most loyal constituency.

McCain's remarks at the Pettus Bridge will begin what he calls the "It's Time for Action Tour," spotlighting "forgotten Americans," who include steelworkers in Youngstown, Ohio, the rural poor in the Appalachia region of Kentucky, and Hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans.

"We will travel to areas of this country that in many ways have been forgotten and left behind," McCain senior adviser Steve Schmidt said.

McCain's efforts to attract black voters face historic hurdles, in addition to the prospect that Barack Obama could become the first African-American nominee of a major party.

"The Republican Party has not played fairly with us in the past," said Patrycya Lowery Tucker, a college administrator in Montgomery. She spoke after attending Sunday services at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr., served as pastor in the 1950s and launched his career in the civil rights movement.

Tucker called McCain's visit to Selma "a good gesture." She disagrees with the Arizona senator's support for the Iraq war and opposition to a national health care plan.

Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., one of the marchers attacked in Selma in 1965, said in a telephone interview that it's good for McCain "to get out and feel the pulse of the country," but African-Americans and other voters are "tired" of Republican economic policies. "People are hurting," he said.

Tucker and Lewis added that McCain has a very good chance to win the state of Alabama, which has become heavily Republican in recent elections.

McCain plans to praise the courage of Lewis and other marchers during his remarks in Selma.

The state and the region are shadowed by the events of "Bloody Sunday" on the Pettus Bridge. On March 7, 1965, Alabama troopers used tear gas and billy clubs after the marchers crossed into Montgomery.

National broadcasts of the attack — and the subsequent 54-mile march from Selma to the statehouse in Montgomery — led to a historic political migration. African-Americans who for decades after the Civil War had been loyal to Republicans as the "Party of Lincoln" turned instead to the Democrats.

White Southerners, once a Democratic mainstay, tilt heavily to the Republicans. President Bush swept the region in his two election victories, including 62% in Alabama in 2004.

Bush carried 11% of the black vote nationally in 2004, according to exit polls.

David Bositis, senior political analyst with the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a black think tank in Washington, said racial polarization makes it hard for McCain and other Republicans to reach minority voters. "The core of the Republican Party has become conservative white Southerners," Bositis said. "There is no group that African-Americans trust less than conservative white Southerners."

It's still "the economy, stupid" in Pennsylvania- Bill Clinton

In 1992, Bill Clinton used the phrase "it's the economy, stupid" to win the White House amid a recession. Sixteen years later, his wife Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are fighting for the Democratic presidential nomination by promising relief from more hard times.

Clinton and Obama served up economic messages this week in Pittsburgh, a steelmaking center in Pennsylvania, whose April 22 primary is the next stop in the Democratic contest to face Republican John McCain in November's presidential election.

Appealing for labor backing from unionized steelworkers, Clinton promised to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement and to get tough with China over counterfeiting and currency and industrial policies she said were the cause of trade deficits and U.S. job losses.

Obama also offered tough talk on NAFTA and China, railed against lobbyists and chief executives who took home huge pay packages while cutting jobs, and told steelworkers he had witnessed 1980s mill closures in Chicago and understood their plight.

These pitches went down well among more than 2,000 United Steelworkers unionists who were bused in from the many distressed mill towns around Pittsburgh.

"Once you start taking the jobs away and closing them down, it affects everything. It all just rolls downhill," said electrician Shelia Williams.

Williams, a member of the "Women of Steel" committee of her union, joined scores of unionists who chanted "no, no" to shut down Clinton when she raised Obama's controversial remarks that small-town Americans were clinging to religion and guns in bitterness over their economic troubles. We feel more that he is the people," she said of Obama. "He hasn't been there long enough to have done things against us."

A Franklin & Marshall College poll published on April 15 showed that 43 percent of Pennsylvania Democrats cited the ailing economy as the most important issue in the race, up from 29 percent in January. Twenty-three percent cited the Iraq war.

"We're in a battle here," said Susan Nicholas, a chemical recovery technician at a Pittsburgh area mill.

"It's very important that our jobs stay here in Pennsylvania, because we are a depressed area," she added.

Pittsburgh gleams and bustles as a center of high-technology and medical research. But the main streets of nearby Monongahela River steel towns like Braddock and Homestead are riddled with empty and abandoned storefronts.

The Alliance for American Manufacturing says Pennsylvania has lost more than 207,400 manufacturing jobs -- a quarter of its total -- since 2000. The group says NAFTA cost 4,016 jobs a year while trade with China took away 15,640 annually.

"Cheap goods have a very expensive price," said Holly Hart, legislative director for United Steelworkers.

"We've lost jobs. We've got declining benefits. We have limited retirement security, disinvestment in our infrastructure and outsourcing," she said.

Michael Langley, chief executive of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, says his regional business promotion group empathizes with distressed workers, but he describes Pittsburgh as the "poster child for reincarnation."

Places Rated Almanac has twice named Pittsburgh "America's Most Livable City" and the region now has 70,000 more jobs than in the 1980s peak of steel employment, with the same population, he said.

Pittsburgh's prowess in metallurgy and advanced material sciences has won it a share in fast-growing markets like China that helps "those dollars come back here," Langley told Reuters after a McCain speech at Carnegie Mellon University.

"The back-office jobs, the headquarters jobs, the IT jobs -- those jobs are growing in Pittsburgh as a result of our companies being involved in the global market," said Langley.

Pennsylvania's 4.2 million registered Democrats, out of an electorate of 8.3 million that narrowly favored Democrat John Kerry in 2004, are a coveted prize in the close Clinton-Obama race.

A diverse mix of old and new industries makes Pennsylvania "extraordinarily representative" of the whole country, says University of Maryland economist Peter Morici. He suggests today's economic complexities should give Illinois Sen. Obama an advantage over New York Sen. Clinton.

"Obama represents opportunities, whereas Clinton represents redressing social injustices that no longer exist in the same quantity as they once did," said Morici.

An April 16-17 Zogby poll of registered Democrats in Pennsylvania gave Clinton a 47 percent to 43 lead over Obama, with 10 percent either undecided or supporting someone else.

Celebrities that have endorsed Barack Obama

George Clooney, Oprah Winfrey, Edward Norton, Will Smith, Rob Reiner, Laurence Fishburne, Warren Buffet, Ethel Kennedy, Kristen Chenoweth, Steven D. Levitt, Matt Damon, Rap Artist Nas, Emilio Estevez, Sharon Stone, Stephen Colbert, Rap artist Common, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Halle Berry, Dreamworks Hollywood Studio, Ariana Huffington, Ari Emanuel, Ben Affleck, Wyclef Jean, Charles Barkley, Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen Endorses Obama: "He speaks to the America I've envisioned in my music for the past 35 years"

Dear Friends and Fans:

Like most of you, I've been following the campaign and I have now seen and heard enough to know where I stand. Senator Obama, in my view, is head and shoulders above the rest.

He has the depth, the reflectiveness, and the resilience to be our next President. He speaks to the America I've envisioned in my music for the past 35 years, a generous nation with a citizenry willing to tackle nuanced and complex problems, a country that's interested in its collective destiny and in the potential of its gathered spirit. A place where "...nobody crowds you, and nobody goes it alone."

At the moment, critics have tried to diminish Senator Obama through the exaggeration of certain of his comments and relationships. While these matters are worthy of some discussion, they have been ripped out of the context and fabric of the man's life and vision, so well described in his excellent book, Dreams of My Father, often in order to distract us from discussing the real issues: war and peace, the fight for economic and racial justice, reaffirming our Constitution, and the protection and enhancement of our environment.

After the terrible damage done over the past eight years, a great American reclamation project needs to be undertaken. I believe that Senator Obama is the best candidate to lead that project and to lead us into the 21st Century with a renewed sense of moral purpose and of ourselves as Americans.

Over here on E Street, we're proud to support Obama for President.

Cindy McCain To Co-Host "The View"

Cindy McCain is joining the ladies on "The View" - at least for a day.

Republican candidate John McCain's wife will be a co-host on the ABC daytime chat show Monday, April 21. She'll give conservative host Elisabeth Hasselbeck a rare ally in the show's political conversations.

McCain's husband has been on "The View" four times, most recently last week.

There's no word on whether she'll be bringing any recipes to share. Her husband's campaign had a mild embarrassment this week when an intern posted recipes on its Web site lifted from the Food Network and Rachel Ray and falsely passed them off as Cindy McCain's.

My view on Hillary Clinton's Debate last night

Hillary Clinton was so directly making her argument to superdelegates.

More so than to voters, quite often.

Call it the Samsonite argument.

"I've been in this arena for a long time. I have a lot of baggage, and everybody has rummaged through it for years," she said. Therefore, she argued, "I will be able to withstand whatever the Republican sends our way."

But it wasn't enough for her to say that -- Clinton pointed out all of Sen. Barack Obama's relatively unrummaged-through luggage. Including some misrepresentations of that baggage.

Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos brought up a number of issues that Obama's opponents have been making hay over -- and Clinton consistently added and elaborated about them.

Polls indicate that 72% of Democrats believe Obama has successfully distanced himself from Rev. Jeremiah Wright, but Clinton is apparently not among them.

"It is something that I think deserves further exploration," she said of the controversy. "For Pastor Wright to have given his first sermon after 9/11 and to have blamed the United States for the attack, which happened, would have been intolerable for me. ….. And I think that it wasn't only the specific remarks, but some of the relationships , with giving the church bulletin over to the leader of Hamas to put a message in. You know, these are problems, and they raise questions in people's minds. And so this is a legitimate area, as everything is when we run for office, for people to be exploring and trying to find answers."

(For the record, "giving the church bulletin over to the leader of Hamas" is a reference to the church bulletin running an oped by the deputy of the political bureau of Hamas that had appeared in the Los Angeles Times.)

After Stephanopoulos asked Obama about his relationship with William Ayres, a former member of the Weather Underground with whom he is, according to his campaign, "friendly," Obama said "this kind of game, in which anybody who I know, regardless of how flimsy the relationship is, is somehow -- somehow their ideas could be attributed to me -- I think the American people are smarter than that. They're not going to suggest somehow that that is reflective of my views, because it obviously isn't."

Clinton immediately jumped in to point out that it wasn't just that Obama and Ayres were friendly, but that "Senator Obama served on a board with Mr. Ayers for a period of time, the Woods Foundation, which was a paid directorship position."

She then made quite a leap, tying a quote of Ayres that appeared in the New York Times Arts section on 9/11 with 9/11.

"If I'm not mistaken, that relationship with Mr. Ayers on this board continued after 9/11 and after his reported comments, which were deeply hurtful to people in New York, and I would hope to every American, because they were published on 9/11 and he said that he was just sorry they hadn't done more. And what they did was set bombs and in some instances people died."

Obama said that "by Senator Clinton's own vetting standards, I don't think she would make it, since President Clinton pardoned or commuted the sentences of two members of the Weather Underground, which I think is a slightly more significant act than me serving on a board with somebody."

His general reaction was to reject this kind of politics.

"I recall when back in 1992, when she made a statement about how, what do you expect, should I be at home baking cookies?" he said. "And people attacked her for being elitist and this and that. And I remember watching that on TV and saying, well, that's not who she is; that's not what she believes; that's not what she meant. And I'm sure that that's how she felt as well. But the problem is that that's the kind of politics that we've been accustomed to. And I think Senator Clinton learned the wrong lesson from it, because she's adopting the same tactics."

Obama, Clinton face off in what could be their last debate

After weeks of sniping at each other from a distance, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama meet face to face tonight in what could be their last debate.

The showdown, at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, will be televised from 8 to 9:30 EDT on ABC. ABC News anchors Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos will moderate.
Tonight's clash comes at a crucial time, with Obama still the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination but trailing Clinton in opinion polls in Pennsylvania, which holds its primary next Tuesday. Obama also is facing new questions about how thoroughly he's been vetted and the debate is likely to include some of the flash points and revelations that have dominated the increasingly nasty campaign in recent weeks.

Among them: Obama's remarks that working-class Pennsylvanians were clinging to religion and guns out of bitterness about their economic standing, his relationship with a pastor seen in videotapes damning the United States and Clinton's efforts to capitalize on both to revive her campaign.

After gaining on Clinton in Pennsylvania, where a come-from-behind win would create enormous pressure on her to quit the race, polls suggest that Obama has stalled there.

"There is pressure on him to rebound," said Larry Rasky, a veteran Democratic strategist.

Obama's key challenge tonight is to connect with working-class voters, particularly white working-class voters.

He's long had a hard time winning them away from Clinton, and he's been newly hammered for his comments that critics charged linked such voters' embrace of religion and guns to such negative values as xenophobia.

While Obama tried photo ops such as bowling — Clinton tried a shot and a beer — he needs to make a more substantive connection with a populist economic message, more John Edwards than Adlai Stevenson, Rasky argued.

"He needs to step up and show he's on their side," Rasky said.

A new poll of likely primary voters by Quinnipiac University found Clinton stopping Obama's gains on her and holding on to a lead of 50-44 percent, but it also indicated that she hadn't gained anything from her effort to portray Obama as an out-of-touch elitist. The poll of 2,103 likely voters conducted over the weekend had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.

"She seems to have halted the erosion of whites and white women in particular," said Clay Richards, the assistant director of the Polling Institute at the Connecticut university.

"She even gained back some ground in the Philadelphia suburbs, the area where elections are won and lost in the Keystone State."

Watch for both candidates to be asked about guns, an issue they've largely avoided so far.

Democrats generally have shied away from the issue of gun control for several years, seeing it as a political loser. Clinton and Obama also have shied away from talking about a big Supreme Court case on gun control in Washington, D.C.

The issue could be even riskier in Pennsylvania, home to nearly 1 million licensed hunters. The politically active National Rifle Association has 250,000 members in Pennsylvania, more than in any other state.

But Obama's remarks could force the issue into the debate, especially on the one-year anniversary of the massacre at Virginia Tech university and in a city whose violence has earned it the unflattering nickname "Killadelphia."

Clinton faces challenges as well.

First, the New York senator has to press her case against Obama without inviting a backlash from Democrats weary of fighting. She was hissed at in Pittsburgh this week when she ripped the Illinois senator, though it isn't known whether that came from her supporters, neutral Democrats or Obama supporters.

Also, she'll probably be pressed to explain her story about landing in Bosnia under sniper fire, which proved to be untrue. She said she misspoke. Her husband said last week that she'd said it one time late at night, though McClatchy reported that she'd said it repeatedly, day and night.

It will be the 21st time that Clinton and Obama have debated over the yearlong campaign but the first time they've faced each other since a debate Feb. 26 in Cleveland.

It also could be the last.

While Clinton — still the underdog for the nomination — readily accepted another debate proposed for April 27 in North Carolina, Obama hasn't yet committed. Aides say that he wants to wait to see what happens with the Pennsylvania primary next week before agreeing.

Obama's controversial comment, from the Web site Huffington Post:

"You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

A young Barack Obama

McCain proposes gas tax holiday

John McCain called today for a federal gasoline tax holiday this summer, his latest proposal to shore up the faltering economy and show he is in touch with struggling Americans.

The suspension of the 18.4-cent federal gas tax and 24.4-cent levy on diesel fuel would go from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Gas prices are headed to record highs this summer approaching $3.50 a gallon for regular unleaded.

"The effect will be an immediate economic stimulus -- taking a few dollars off the price of a tank of gas every time a family, a farmer, or trucker stops to fill up," he said in prepared remarks. "And because the cost of gas affects the price of food, packaging, and just about everything else, these immediate steps will help to spread relief across the American economy."

Speaking at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama pledged Monday to manufacturers that they will be tough on trade deals to protect American workers, McCain also warned that the Democrats' proposals to let President Bush's tax cuts end would amount to a huge tax hike. He also proposes a complete phase-out of the Alternative Minimum Tax that is hitting a growing number of middle-class families.

Clinton and Obama say they would let the tax cuts for wealthier Americans sunset and use the money to fund healthcare, among other programs. McCain initially voted against the tax cuts, saying they weren't accompanied by spending cuts, but now supports keeping them in place.

While McCain hit the Democrats, he also hit a theme that Obama highlighted last week -- the growing gap between the pay of workers and corporate executives.

"Americans are also right to be offended when the extravagant salaries and severance deals of CEOs -- in some cases, the very same CEOs who helped to bring on these market troubles -- bear no relation to the success of the company or the wishes of shareholders," McCain said in prepared remarks provided by his campaign.

And the presumptive Republican nominee also has his share of criticism for the GOP, saying it has become too free-spending in Congress.

"In so many ways, we need to make a clean break from the worst excesses of both political parties. For Republicans, it starts with reclaiming our good name as the party of spending restraint. Somewhere along the way, too many Republicans in Congress became indistinguishable from the big-spending Democrats they used to oppose," he said.

McCain vows to veto excessive spending and to order a top-to-bottom review of the federal budget, with a one-year moratorium in increases in discretionary spending during the review.

"In my administration there will be no more subsidies for special pleaders, no more corporate welfare, no more throwing around billions of dollars of the people's money on pet projects, while the people themselves are struggling to afford their homes, groceries, and gas," McCain adds. "We are going to get our priorities straight in Washington -- a clean break from years of squandered wealth and wasted chances."

Gallup Daily: Obama Numbers Holding Strong

Barack Obama, who has come under attack by his presidential rivals for describing small-town voters as "bitter," seems to be weathering the storm to this point as far as voters are concerned. He maintains a 10 percentage point lead over Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, 50% to 40%, according to the latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking.
That 10-point lead matches Obama's best of the campaign, and even as the controversy has dominated the political airwaves, Obama's support remained strong in tracking interviews conducted on Saturday and Sunday. It is likely Clinton and Republican John McCain will continue to remind voters of the remarks, and the possibility remains that it could affect voters in the coming days, but so far they seem unaffected by the controversy.

Obama has now held a significant lead over Clinton in Democratic voters' nomination preferences for the last eight days, averaging roughly an 8-point lead, compared with the current 10-point spread. During this time, 50% of Democratic voters have supported him on average, matching the latest figure for interviewing conducted April 11-13. (To view the complete trend since Jan. 3, 2008, click here.)

In the general election trial heat match up versus McCain, 46% of registered voters prefer Obama, the same as in the past four days' releases and equal to Obama's high-water mark since Gallup began tracking general election preferences in March. McCain is the choice of 44% of registered voters, which is a percentage point better than in the prior three days' releases.

For the Gallup Poll Daily tracking survey, Gallup is interviewing no fewer than 1,000 U.S. adults nationwide each day during 2008.

The Democratic nomination results are based on combined data from April 11-13, 2008. For results based on this sample of 1,271 Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters, the maximum margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points.

The general election results are based on combined data from April 9-13, 2008. For results based on this sample of 4,415 registered voters, the maximum margin of sampling error is ±2 percentage points.

In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

To receive Gallup Poll Daily tracking reports each day as soon as they are published.

Carter and Gore to end Clinton bid

DEMOCRAT grandees Jimmy Carter and Al Gore are being lined-up to deliver the coup de grâce to Hillary Clinton and end her campaign to become president.
Falling poll numbers and a string of high-profile blunders have convinced party elders that she must now bow out of the primary race.

Former president Carter and former vice-president Gore have already held high-level discussions about delivering the message that she must stand down for the good of the Democrats.

"They're in discussions," a source close to Carter told Scotland on Sunday. "Carter has been talking to Gore. They will act, possibly together, or in sequence."

An appeal by both men for Democrats to unite behind Clinton's rival, Barack Obama, would have a powerful effect, and insiders say it is a question of when, rather than if, they act.

Obama has an almost unassailable lead in the battle for nomination delegates, and is closing the gap with Clinton in her last stronghold, Pennsylvania, which votes on April 22.

Clinton remains publicly defiant, insisting she will continue the battle with Obama all the way to the Democratic convention in August – when superdelegates, or party top brass, will have the chance to add their weight to primary votes.

But the party's top brass have concluded her further participation in the race can only harm the party as Republican nominee John McCain strives to take advantage of her increasingly bitter battle with Obama.

Both Carter and Gore occupy the rarefied position of elder statesmen – in addition to their White House past, both are winners of the Nobel Peace Prize, giving them additional gravitas to carry the party with them.

Neither of them is likely to object to the role of bringing down the curtain on Clinton. While neither man has formally endorsed either her or Obama, both have clashed in the past with the Clintons.

Gore blames his loss to George Bush in the 2000 presidential election on the impeachment of Clinton triggered by his White House affair with Monica Lewinsky.

Carter, who has carved out a successful career as an international mediator, is believed to detest the flashy style of the Clintons. He recently told an interviewer that his entire family are committed Obama supporters.

A number of options are being considered by the higher echelons of the Democrats, but they fall roughly into two categories. One is for Carter and Gore to go to Clinton privately and ask her to step down. The other is for both men to appear in public and endorse Obama – a move which would see a majority of superdelegates go with them.

The campaign to force Clinton to make an early exit is being masterminded in Congress, home to the most influential of the superdelegates. Senate Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have called on superdelegates to hold an unofficial congress in early June to anoint a winner, rather than waiting for the convention in Denver.

Pelosi has drawn withering fire from the Clinton camp for saying that these superdelegates must follow the national vote, with Clinton insisting that they should "vote with their conscience".

Yet some in the Democratic elite are wary of moving too soon. Polls show that 30% of Clinton's supporters would vote for McCain if she fails to become the nominee. To close off Clinton's bid before millions have had the chance to vote risks causing the very split that officials are desperate to avoid.

But a loss to Obama, or even a single-digit victory, in Pennsylvania will seal Clinton's fate. Pennsylvania is the last big state left in the race, and the last chance for Clinton to claw back Obama's delegate lead. "If he (Obama] wins (Pennsylvania] flat out, I think the big foot will come down," a source said.

Anything less than a resounding victory by her will probably see the race choked off ahead of the final primaries on June 3.

In the 10 remaining primaries, only a catastrophic loss of support by Obama will see Clinton overcome his lead of 160 delegates.

She admits she has little chance of winning the public vote, and is basing her strategy on convincing party-appointed superdelegates that she is, in her own words, the more "electable" of the two candidates.

Clinton enjoys strong support among superdelegates, many from a party elite who worked for her husband Bill during his years in the White House. There are more than 350 superdelegates who have yet to show a preference, potentially enough to rub out Obama's lead and give the presidency to Clinton.

But historically, superdelegates have never gone against the public vote, and party insiders say they would face a revolt, or even riots, if they were to do so now.

Obama's campaign has been a phenomenon in American politics, bringing in record numbers of new voters and record funding, and few think the superdelegates would dare deny him victory if he wins the popular vote.

It would also invite the unedifying spectacle of a mostly white elite denying an African American candidate a chance for the presidency. "It would cause a scandal to do that," says one party official. "To turn around to the black community and say, 'You got the most votes, but no'? Unlikely."

Clinton insists she will see her campaign through to the final primaries in June, and then on to the national convention, where her supporters have powerful lobbies in the organising committees.

But a chain of events in the past two weeks has worked to undermine this strategy, pulling the rug from under her claim to be more experienced and better organised than Obama.

It began with her extraordinary suggestion that she braved sniper fire during a trip to Bosnia in 1996, a statement contradicted by TV footage showing the event was peaceful.

There are suggestions that the long list of wealthy benefactors may be expecting favours to be returned once Hillary is in the White House, suggestions sharpened by the Clinton's refusal to release the list of donors to the William J. Clinton Presidential Library.

Such conflict-of-interest issues came into the open last week when it emerged that Clinton's chief campaign strategist, Mark Penn, was lobbying for the Colombian government to secure a free trade agreement with America, despite Clinton's public opposition to such a deal. Penn stepped down, the second high-profile sacking of a campaign manager this year.

Together with reports that Clinton's money troubles have left her unable to pay event organisers and even the health insurance of her staff, the impression is of a campaign in trouble.

These issues have undermined Clinton's claim to be more "electable", with her own stormy campaign contrasting with the disciplined control of Obama's organisation.

Obama himself has refrained from criticism on these issues, his staff keen to portray their candidate as "presidential" and above the fray.

Conspiracy theorists among her opponents claim Clinton is prolonging the race not because she hopes to win, but to inflict such damage on the party that a weakened Obama loses to John McCain in November, allowing Clinton to have a second tilt at the nomination in four years' time.

For Clinton, defeat in the nomination process would mean consignment to the political wilderness.

Losing nominees rarely get a second chance to run, and although Clinton's seat as a New York senator seems safe, failure in the nomination process leaves her politically neutered.

Talk of a possible consolation prize, in awarding her the job of Senate Majority leader, has petered out with several more senior senators also coveting the job.

Meanwhile, Clinton's poll numbers continue to slide. Obama now leads her nationally by about 10 points, and a CNN poll in Pennsylvania showed him closing the once-yawning gap to just three points.

Should Clinton lose Pennsylvania, the defection of growing numbers of superdelegates from her to Obama could become a flood.

After Pennsylvania

Head Strong: Why the GOP lost its grip on Phila. suburbs

Blue is not only the political color of the Commonwealth - it's also the mood of suburban Republicans. They're wondering what enabled the Democratic Party to take the lead in registration in both Bucks and Montgomery Counties, and to possess a majority when combined with independents in Chester and Delaware Counties.

Theories abound. One holds that it's simply the old story of voters' leaving Philadelphia for suburbia and taking their registration with them. I don't buy it. That was a partial explanation for some shifting patterns from the end of World War II until the 1970s, but not now.

According to U.S. Census statistics, Philadelphia's population slide began in the 1950s, and the city lost almost 123,000 residents between 1950 and 1970. In those 20 years, the four suburban counties (Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery) added a combined 846,138 residents - a 79 percent increase - obviously consisting of far more than displaced city-dwellers. That flight grew in the 1970s, when more than 260,000 left the city.

But by the '90s, the city's losses began to slow. Between 2000 and 2006, Philadelphia lost 69,156 residents. The four suburban counties, meanwhile, added just 104,904 - an increase of 4.5 percent. Bottom line: Since the 1970s, the city has lost progressively fewer residents with each passing decade. And while the suburbs continued to grow through the 1980s and 1990s, the rate slowed almost by half between 2000 and 2006. So there must be a more complete explanation of the GOP decline outside the city.

GOP ideologues are arguing that the registration loss in the suburbs is attributable to the party's straying from its conservative principles. "We must return to our roots," I have already heard from more than one. But I discount this theory, too. George W. Bush ran on a distinctly conservative platform in 2000 and 2004, but did not carry the suburbs in either cycle, and consequently, he lost the state. No recent candidate could embody purely conservative principles more than former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, but he was defeated decisively by Bob Casey Jr. in 2006.

It's not that the party isn't conservative enough to win the suburbs; it is that the party is too conservative and has lost touch with a suburban constituency.

Fault for that lies in the party's national image. Impressions of political parties are established nationally. People don't usually join a political organization based on their sense of the county commissioners, the competence of the row officers, or the performance of the borough council. They choose the party whose platform, they believe, most closely resembles their general views. And those platforms flow from the federal level. They are personified by national players.

In Washington, the GOP has been on the wrong side of many hot-button issues. As these issues have unfolded - the war in Iraq, Terri Schiavo, global warming, stem-cell research, and the ever-present issue of reproductive choice - the Democratic Party has made strides in the suburbs. Instead of listening to its more-moderate voices, the GOP has instead concentrated on stoking its hard-core base - a minority of Americans - by taking time out of the legislative schedule to posture on issues such as same-sex relationships.

That may play in Lititz, but it doesn't wash in Lower Merion.

That's why Al Gore and John Kerry did so well along the Blue Route, just across City Avenue, or north of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, in traditionally Republican strongholds. Some Republican suburbanites have been alienated and have left the party. Others who might have joined are not doing so.

There is evidence of a similar shift among local politicos. Last week, the state House of Representatives voted on a measure that would require handgun owners to report missing or stolen weapons, and nine suburban legislators defied the NRA by supporting it. In November, Democrats captured five of nine Montco row offices. These things would have been unheard of just 20 years ago.

And the situation could grow worse for the GOP. Take the case of U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, who barely survived a primary challenge on the right from Pat Toomey in 2004. Specter has already announced his intention to seek an unprecedented sixth term in 2010. If he needs to fend off another primary challenge in that cycle, he will have to do it with far fewer moderate Republicans in the Philadelphia suburbs, a key constituency for him in years past. Many of those who enabled him to defeat Toomey are now Democrats. They were his margin of victory. And these changes could make it difficult for the next generation of moderates to emerge.

As Specter's son and adviser, Shanin, told me: "The national Republicans have spent too much time pumping the base, while the Democrats talk to the country. People notice. And with 81 percent of the nation saying we're on the wrong track, it'd be hard to find a county in Pennsylvania where people are happy with the national Republican Party."