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McCain’s Victory Speech

Clinton on Her Win in Nevada

Romney Celebrates Nevada Win in the Clouds

Elizabeth Holmes reports from Jacksonville, Fla., on the presidential race. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney learned of his victory in today’s Nevada caucus while flying over Arizona, en route from Nevada to Jacksonville, Fla. Romney’s wife, Ann, got on the intercom while he was giving a cramped press conference about the economic stimulus plan his campaign released earlier today. Although he initially waved off his wife’s interruption, she persisted, announcing the victory as Romney’s face broke out into a wide smile and his staff cheered from the front of the plane. Â“That’s great news, alright, alright,Â” Romney said, letting it soak in. Â“We won Nevada. That’s good news.Â”Romney, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, benefited from a large turnout of Mormons. Nearly a quarter of the Republican caucus attendees were Mormons, according to reports by the Associated Press. About half of Romney’s votes came from Mormons. He tried to downplay their significance when talking to reporters in Jacksonville and boasted about his support from other voting blocs, including Hispanics. He added that an aide ran some numbers and found that Romney would’ve won even without the Mormon turnout. (Washington Wire hasn’t been able to confirm that claim.) At one point, a loud clap of thunder interrupted Romney’s answer. Â“Wow. See, see?Â” he said, pointing a finger upwards. Â“Maybe he wants to say something.Â”Before he landed in Jacksonville, Romney had already reflected on his Nevada win. When asked whether the lack of competition in the Silver State lessened the weight of his victory, Romney reiterated his campaign strategy: a long and methodical focus on a wide range of states. 'I’m not looking just to get a couple of high profile victories,” he said. 'I want to get delegates and I want to win this nomination.” Romney also suggested that his opponents’ snub of Nevada could hurt them in a general election race. The state is expected to be a key battleground state this November and the Republican nominee will need the support of its residents, Romney said.Romney pitched the conversation forward to the next contest taking place there on Jan. 29. 'Right now, it looks like how Florida goes is anybody’s guess,” he said, referring to the race that he said is shaking up to be between himself, Sen. John McCain, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who has campaigned almost exclusively in the state in recent weeks. 'But I’m gonna be working the hardest, as usual,” he laughed.

Faith and Politics Meet in South Carolina

Susan Davis reports from Columbia, S.C., on the presidential race. Despite the breakneck schedule of this campaign season, for Democratic presidential candidates and their surrogates in South Carolina, there’s always time for church. The ease with which politics and faith blend in the Palmetto State was on display today at the 9,000-member congregation of the Bible Way Church of Atlas Road in Columbia, S.C. Seated in the crowd to the right of the pastor’s lectern was the wife of Sen. Barack Obama, Michelle. Across the room was Sen. Hillary Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea, accompanied by Clinton pals Vernon and Ann Jordan. Campaign aides also filled out the packed house, with Obama’s South Carolina political director - and congregation member - Anton Gunn accompanying Michelle, and Clinton senior adviser for faith outreach, Burns Strider, seated in a pew across the room. Chelsea Clinton, center, daughter of New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, holds hands with Vernon Jordan, left, and Jannie R. Jackson, right, while attending Bible Way Church of Atlas Road in Columbia, S.C., Sunday.Even the popular head pastor, Darrell Jackson Sr., is heavily steeped in state politics as both an elected state senator and the head of a consulting business, Sunrise Enterprise, that raised some eyebrows last year when it was revealed that his consulting firm is on the Clinton payroll. Jackson endorsed Clinton last year after being heavily courted by all the Democratic campaigns. While this may be unusual in other states, this is how it’s done in South Carolina, where the church plays an integral organizing role in Democratic politics. While the pastors don’t preach politics from the pulpit, there was urgency in their sermon today for their congregants to get out and vote in this Saturday’s Democratic primary. Â“We encourage all of you to exercise your right to vote,Â” said, Associate Pastor Randall 'Mack” Jackson, noting that the church will run vans to the polls on Saturday for congregants who can’t get their on their own. Jackson introduced Michelle, Chelsea, and the Jordans to the congregation, all to standing ovations. 'What’s important is we vote, we are known as a voting church,” added Darrell Jackson, who didn’ tip his hand to Clinton, although everyone in the room knows where their pastor stands. 'Regardless of the outcome, we will all be together one day,” he said to 'Amens” from the crowd. African-American voters are expected to account for about half of the votes cast in the Jan. 26 primary. Some 294,000 votes were cast in the 2004 Democratic primary. South Carolina is also the first early state with a sizeable African-American constituency. Black voters here sway heavily Democratic, and one of the most watched statistics to come out of next Saturday’s contest will be where the black vote comes down between Obama and Clinton. Many voters at the Bible Way Church said they remain undecided. 'I’m torn between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and I’ll tell you I probably won’t make that decision until I get in the voting booth,” said Josephine Simmons, 58 years old, of Columbia.

Read more : 21.01.2008 00:00:00

Fred Thompson: In or Out?

Susan Davis reports from Columbia, S.C. on the presidential race.Following his disappointing finish in the South Carolina primary on Saturday, it looks like former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson could be thinking about dropping his presidential bid. ThompsonThe state was widely viewed as a make-or-break contest for him after he largely avoided the earlier contests in Iowa and New Hampshire to focus his efforts here, in the first contest held in his home region. While Thompson offered some of his most energetic campaign performances on the trail here, he finished in a distant third-place with 16% of the vote. Arizona Sen. John McCain defeated former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, 33%-30%. While the rest of the Republican field continues to campaign in the South in anticipation of the next contest - the Jan. 29 Florida primary â€“ Thompson has returned to his home in Virginia and has no public events scheduled today. His campaign has also gone silent, issuing no emails to reporters or press releases since his Saturday loss. The last email Washington Wire received from his campaign was on Saturday morning from campaign manager Bill Lacy just as voting began. Â“Today is Fred’s big day - and the signs are good,Â” he wrote then.Asked if Thompson was deciding whether or not to stay in the race, a campaign spokesman said it was unclear. Â“No decisions have been made and there are currently no plans one way or the other,Â” said Todd Harris in an email. Stay tuned.

Read more : 21.01.2008 00:00:00

And Then There Were Three

Kara Scannell reports on the SEC.The Securities and Exchange Commission is down to its final three decision makers - all Republicans - now that Democrat Commissioner Annette Nazareth made it official Friday that she would leave at the end of the month. Her departure could stymie future rule-making on controversial issues, as a Democrat-controlled Congress would likely take the agency to task for moving ahead without a full compliment of commissioners. The SEC has carried on with thin ranks in the past and did pass at least one controversial rule in 2000. Then, four commissioners approved Regulation Fair Disclosure, aimed at ensuring that all investors received market-moving information at the same time.But with two potential replacements idling on the sidelines the agency, led by Republican Chairman Christopher Cox, may not want to move forward on hotly contested issues. The Senate majority recommended two Democrats - one regulator and one private lawyer - to fill the slots vacated by Nazareth and Democrat Roel Campos, who left in September. While Federal Bureau of Investigation background checks are underway, the timing of Bush’s nomination, and subsequent Senate approval, is unclear. That could logjam the agency in what is likely to be the final year of Cox’s term. Nazareth, a Wall Street veteran, sent a letter to President Bush Friday announcing that she would leave Jan. 31. She is taking a few months off before accepting another position. Click here for the full text of her letter:

Read more : 21.01.2008 00:00:00

Chuck Norris Raises Bucks for Huck

June Kronholz reports from Navasota, Texas.Norris and Huckabee at the ranch If you couldn’t make it to Chuck Norris’s 700-acre Navasota, Texas, ranch Sunday for his $1,000-a-head barbecue for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, the TV tough guy has a $1 alternative. Pledge that much or more and Norris is offering a Â“personal guidedÂ” Internet tour of the Lone Wolf Ranch, complete with a virtual visit to Norris’s game room and white-carpeted gym. Norris’s Â“Raise Big Bucks for HuckÂ” fund-raiser drew 200 people to the ranch for barbecued chicken and beef brisket and a set by Huckabee’s band, Capitol Offense. With Huckabee on base guitar, the band drew a hand early into its lead-off song, Â“Only in America.Â” Only in America, the song marvels, Â“One [kid] could end up going to prison/ One just might be president.Â”Online contributors could watch the party in real time, starting with a three-hour tour of the ranch, its six guest houses and the gym where Norris says he exercises three or four times a week on the Total Gym workout machine that he pushes on late-night cable television. But even those busy with football Sunday can still tune into the archived tour at www.chuck4huckbbq.com after making a pledge to the campaign. Money will be one of Huckabee’s biggest challenges as his campaign moves toward the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday primaries against better-funded rivals John McCain and Mitt Romney. In a tacit admission that his campaign is stretched, the former governor compared himself and his surprise win in the Iowa caucuses to Â“the dog that catches the bus: Now, what does he do with it?Â”The Norris fund-raiser came a day after Huckabee’s second-place finish in the South Carolina primary, but even that didn’t seem to dim the day. Â“We did not lose. We just didn’t come in first,Â” he told donors in boots and cowboy hats. He predicted that the South Carolina results will weed out other candidatesthat would be Fred Thompsonand leave him with no rivals for the southern vote.With the potentially pivotal Jan. 29 Florida primary up next, Huckabee will spend Tuesday and Wednesday fundraising in Atlanta and Gainesville, Fla., his campaign said. And Norris, who has been campaigning for Huckabee for months? Â“Our next secretary of defense,Â” Huckabee told donors.

Read more : 21.01.2008 00:00:00

Romney Honors MLK Day

Elizabeth Holmes reports from Jacksonville, Fla., on the presidential race. Joseph Haynes, front left, grabs a sticker from a member of Mitt Romney’s staff. (Elizabeth Holmes)Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney paid tribute to the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. today, hoping to honor the civil-rights hero without dredging up the semantics argument that beleaguered him a month ago. During a visit to Gate Petroleum, a Jacksonville-based company, Romney praised King as an example of the power of an individual. Â“Sometimes you think problems are huge and they’re beyond the scope of anyone’s being able to deal with them,Â” he said. Â“But an individual of passion and courage and faith and character can help change an entire nation as he did.Â” On more than one occasion, Romney has said he Â“sawÂ” his father, George Romney, appear with King in a civil-rights march when the elder Romney was governor of Michigan. Reports surfaced disputing the claim and immediately put Romney on the defensive. Â“If you look at the literature or the dictionary the term Â‘saw’ includes being aware of in the sense I have described,Â” he told reporters in Fort Dodge, Iowa, on Dec. 20. Â“I did not see it with my own eyes, but I saw him in the sense of being aware of his participation in that great effort.” On Monday, Romney’s staff made sure he saw plenty, planning a 400-mile bus trip down the eastern coast of Florida. Following his morning stump, Romney rode in the Mitt Mobile to a Jacksonville parade in King’s honor. The campaign Winnebago pulled into the area where the parade participants were lining up, dropping Romney off right in front of a dozen Cub Scouts and their troop leaders. After getting stickers and key chains, the rambunctious boys started screaming about Â“Mitt RomeneyÂ” (pronounced: Rom-eh-knee).Joseph Haynes, 9 years old, only knew that Romney was running for president but the rambunctious third-grader had plenty to say about King. Â“He tried to get the white people and the black people together,Â” he said. Â“And then he got shot!Â” yelled Joseph’s brother, David, also 9 years old. Romney, wearing shirt sleeves and a tie, stood out among the predominantly black crowd. He spent about half an hour working his way around the parking lot, shaking hands and posing for photos. Â“Who let the dogs out?Â” he said while standing with one group of teens, referring to a 2000 hit pop song. Â“Who? Who?Â” he barked. Betty Bullock, a history teacher with Success Academy Christian School, was impressed by his appearance. Â“It takes a lot of guts to come to a Martin Luther King parade,Â” said Bullock, an undecided Democrat. The 56-year-old Jacksonville native said he showed respect for black voters, and added, Â“That’s somebody that really wants to meet the people. I admire the fact that he was here.Â”

Read more : 21.01.2008 00:00:00

Obama, Clinton Trade Jabs

Susan Davis reports from Myrtle Beach, S.C., on the Democratic debate.In less than 30 minutes from the start of tonight’s Democratic presidential debate, the conversation quickly deteriorated into a tit-for-tat of personal attacks between Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. The evening took an antagonistic turn after Obama was asked to respond to a recent charge by Clinton that he has proposed $50 billion in programs but has not said how he will pay for them. Â“What she said wasn’t true,Â” Obama said, Â“Now, you know, this, I think, is one of the things that’s happened during the course of this campaign, that there is a set of assertions made by Sen. Clinton, as well as her husband, that are not factually accurate.Â” Obama said. The Illinois senator said earlier Monday that both Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, continue to make untruthful assertions about his record, and that he would have to fight back more aggressively. Tonight, Obama made good on that promise. 'So when Sen. Clinton or President Clinton says that I wasn’t opposed to the war from the start or says it’s a fairy tale that I opposed the war, that is simply not true. When Sen. Clinton or President Clinton asserts that I said that the Republicans had had better economic policies since 1980, that is not the case.Â” Clinton fully engaged in the dispute, raising questions on everything from Obama’s record on the war, to his present votes in the Illinois State Legislature, to his legislative record in the Senate. Â“But I do think that your record and what you say does matter,Â” Clinton said, Â“And when it comes to a lot of the issues that are important in this race, it is sometimes difficult to understand what Sen. Obama has said, because as soon as he is confronted on it, he says that’s not what he meant.Â” Clinton also raised questions about Obama’s recent comments on former President Ronald Reagan (You can watch them here.) that raised eyebrows in some Democratic circles. Obama pushed back hard, in one of his most direct personal attacks on Clinton this cycle. 'What I said is that Ronald Reagan was a transformative public figure because he was able to get Democrats to vote against their economic interests to form a majority to push through their agenda, an agenda that I objected to, because while I was working on those streets, watching those folks see their jobs shift overseas, you were a corporate lawyer sitting on the board of Wal-Mart.” Clinton retorted: 'Well, it certainly - it certainly came across, in the way that it was presented, as though the Republicans had been standing up against the conventional wisdom with their ideas. I’m just reacting to the fact, yes, they did have ideas, and they were bad ideas - bad for America. And I was fighting against those ideas when you were practicing law and representing your contributor, Rezko, in his slum landlord business in inner-city Chicago.Â”The biggest benefactor of the fight might be former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards who is fighting to regain a foothold in this race. Edwards has repeatedly been given the opportunity to take the higher ground as the two frontrunners throw insults. 'I also want to know on behalf of voters here in South Carolina, this kind of squabbling, how many children is this going to get health care?Â” Edwards said to applause. Â“How many people are going to get an education from this? How many kids are going to be able to go to college because of this? We have got to understand - you know, and I respect both of these - my fellow candidates, but we have got to understand this is not about us personally. It is about what we are trying to do for this country and what we believe in.”

Romney, Giuliani Unveil Spanish Language Ads in Florida

Elizabeth Holmes reports from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on the presidential race.Mitt Romney’s latest television spot airing in Florida ends in a way both familiar and foreign. Â“Soy Mitt Romney y apruebo este mensaje,Â” he says. Translation: Â“I’m Mitt Romney and I approved this message.Â”The shift in focus in the Republican race to Florida has candidates taking to the air with Spanish-language ads - even though many of them, including Romney, talk about the need to teach public school students in English and promote policies that would require immigrants to learn English. The shift is an attempt to reach the state’s 4.3 million residents who, according to the 2006 American Community Survey from the Census Bureau, speak a language other than English at home.Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who has bet his candidacy on a strong showing in Florida, also released a Spanish-language ad titled Â“Un Plan.Â” His spot focuses on the high cost of property insurance and his national relief plan, the only one of its kind. Like Romney, Giuliani’s voice chimes in at the end of the 30 seconds to deliver the approval message in Spanish.Romney had some help on his ad from his youngest son, Craig. The 26 year old served his Mormon mission in Chile and is fluent in Spanish. Craig voices the spot, titled Â“Mi Padre.Â” It gives a quick rundown of Romney’s rÃ©sumÃ© with emphasis on his family values.