Stories related to: Barack Obama

As Barack Obama continues to bask in the glow of a string of impressive primary victories, Team Clinton is pulling out the stops to capture important wins in Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania. Clinton advisers have hardly given up hope. They're optimistic Hillary can accomplish the latest victory blueprint: nail pending debates against Barack, exploit the extra time to convincingly re-present her appeal to voters, and win over the super delegates they believe will ultimately determine the Democratic nomination. More »

The latest indication Barack Obama is one of a kind: Saturday Night Live can’t find an actor to impersonate the Democratic presidential candidate. Show mastermind Lorne Michaels says mimicking any celeb's “mildly irritating” minor tics is crucial to any impersonation. The show, returning Saturday from the writers' strike, could have a new cast member portraying the Illinois senator, the New York Post reports. More »

Political surrogates often get stuck with the dirty work, but one Clinton-backing union leader came “close to redefining the genre” last night, the New York Times ’ John M. Broder reports: R. Thomas Buffenbarger called Barack Obama a “silver-tongued warrior with a microphone…dancing to the tune of billionaires.” The Clinton camp reserved comment, voicing only pride in “the support of the machinists." More »

The Teamsters union endorsed Barack Obama today, giving him a chance to make further inroads into Hillary Clinton's base of blue-collar workers. Obama met with Teamsters chief Jim Hoffa today, who afterward gave Obama the backing of the 1.4-million-member union, the Chicago Tribune reports. The move could help in Ohio and Pennsylvania, two big upcoming primaries. More »

More than ever, Barack Obama looks the Democratic front-runner—and pundits are focusing on chinks in his armor: After much difficulty working policy into his “soaring oratory,” the New Republic' s Jonathan Cohn writes, Obama recently found the right balance—but now “he may be getting a little too wonky.” He’s likely packing in the positions to deflect charges he lacks substance, but Cohn felt himself nodding off last night during Obama's speech. More »

Barack Obama vastly outpaced his rivals in January fundraising, scoring $36 million to Hillary Clinton’s $13.5 million and John McCain’s $11.6 million. The Democratic front-runner drew $28 million online, with 90% of donations at or below $100. Obama is now on the spot over a 2007 pledge to accept public financing; the fundraising-averse McCain campaign has lambasted Obama’s “backpedaling and waffling." More »

With Hillary Clinton’s campaign down to its last moves, her advisers are duking it out over how negative the candidate should go, MSNBC reports. Pollster Mark Penn wants to go ahead full throttle, while communications director Howard Wolfson and ad guru Mandy Grunwald are concerned that Hillary might damage her future—including a potential White House run in 2012. John Heilemann notes in New York that the lopsided defeat in Wisconsin can be interpreted as a rejection of the negative messages she deployed there. More »

Perhaps the super-long primary season has made candidates forgetful, but the Democrats were not at their most courteous last night, as Hillary Clinton failed to congratulate Barack Obama on his Wisconsin victory, and Obama took the stage in Texas while Clinton was still speaking in Ohio. No rules govern either issue, CNN allows, but both snubs were significant breaches of protocol. More »

Barack Obama's low support among Asian-Americans is sparking cries of racism, Time reports. "On a gut level my reaction is that at least some Asian-Americans are uncomfortable voting for a black candidate," one analyst said. But some Asians resent the charge: A recent CNN show on the topic was blasted by an Asian PAC, which backs Clinton, and Asian bloggers, who seem to prefer Obama. More »

Barack Obama's 17-point victory in Wisconsin contains a major warning for Hillary Clinton: not only did the Illinois senator win among his usual coalition of well-educated, young and black voters, but he also captured the vote of the working class, particularly men. The "durable coalition" that Clinton strategist Mark Penn thought would sweep her to victory doesn't seem so impregnable after all, writes Slate. More »

Barack Obama made it a clean sweep yesterday when he nailed a big victory in Hawaii on top of Wisconsin, tallying ten wins in a row, AP reports. Voters turned out in record numbers for the state's Democratic caucuses and early returns show that more than three-quarters of them favored native son Obama. The victories deal fresh blows to Hillary Clinton's White House hopes. More »

Barack Obama won the Wisconsin primary tonight to continue his impressive streak over Hillary Clinton, NBC reports. Obama has now won nine consecutive political contests, and early results suggest he's going to win his native Hawaii too. In Wisconsin, he led 56% to 43% with nearly all results in, and he made big inroads into Clinton's base of white voters, women, and blue-collar workers. More »

With the days when 23 delegates were no big deal a distant memory, Hillary Clinton isn't conceding Vermont to Barack Obama, the Burlington Free Press reports. She has sent three staffers to open a field office in a state where her opponent has seven paid workers, four offices, and the backing of the co-founders of Ben & Jerry's. More »

With Wisconsin voting winding down, "it's anybody’s state,” says Slate’s Chadwick Maltin. Here are five reasons Clinton could win. (Obama's follow): The demographics are perfect: 90% are white, and most are lower-income moderates. Polls here are seesawing, and they’re due to swing in Hillary’s favor. Attacks on Obama’s refusal to debate and plagiarism may have curbed his support. More »

The days when drug use could derail a Supreme Court nomination or make a hairsplitting presidential candidate look ridiculous are long gone, Hendrik Hertzberg writes in the New Yorker, and Barack Obama has broken yet another barrier: He is apparently "marginally less of a pothead than he has made himself out to be." More »

Hillary Clinton’s African-American supporters may once have thought they were making the safe choice, but now that the black community is rallying behind Barack Obama, her boosters' instincts and loyalty are being questioned, the Washington Post reports. The heat is so high that 25 senior boosters had a conference Friday to rally against what one called an effort to “pester, intimidate, question our blackness.” More »

Barack Obama may be generating excitement across America, but so did tech stocks during the late-'90s bubble, writes Der Spiegel ’s Gabor Steingart. "The rhetoric all sounds strangely familiar," he warns, comparing Obama’s campaign to that absurd era in the market’s history. Just as the bubble stocks had no use for pesky balance sheets, Obama sees little need for policy specifics. More »

It's caucus day in the Aloha state, and Hawaiian election officials are expecting a record turnout, writes the Honolulu Advertiser —due in part to interest in native son Barack Obama, as well as the competitiveness of the race for the nomination. Neither candidate left wintry Wisconsin, which also votes today, but Obama's sister and Chelsea Clinton made the rounds in their steads. More »

Hillary Clinton accused Barack Obama of plagiarism today over a speech he gave two nights ago, the Swamp blog reports. Obama retaliated by hitting Hillary with five instances of her robbing his words, including "Yes, we can" and "Bring this country together." But the Illinois senator later admitted to lifting phrases from a 2006 speech by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. More »

Tomorrow's primary in Wisconsin won’t decide the Democratic nomination, but Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are fighting tooth and nail anyway, Politico reports, airing their first negative ads of the campaign and taking shots at each other through aides. At stake is momentum: Obama doesn’t want to break his winning streak, and Clinton wants to prevent another Potomac-level blowout. More »