Romney goes after McCain in New Hampshire ad campaign
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By LIZ SIDOTI
Associated Press Writer

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Mitt Romney takes GOP presidential rival John McCain to task on taxes and immigration in a new advertising push in New Hampshire as he seeks to fend off the Arizona senator’s challenge. Countering, McCain claimed the criticism proves Romney’s bid is in trouble.
“John McCain, an honorable man. But is he the right Republican for the future?” an announcer asks in the ad airing Friday in New Hampshire, which holds the nation’s first presidential primary Jan. 8. “McCain opposes repeal of the death tax. And voted against the Bush tax cuts — twice. McCain pushed to let every illegal immigrant stay here permanently. Even voted to allow illegals to collect Social Security.”
For his part, McCain has a fresh commercial in New Hampshire that takes the high road. It doesn’t mention Romney. Rather, it highlights the 20 newspapers in the state that have endorsed McCain and quotes their words of praise, including “McCain campaigns with decency.”
Romney’s ad assailing McCain — aides call it a “contrast” ad — comes as the race between the two men tightens in New Hampshire. The ad is in the same vein as spots Romney has been airing in Iowa against Mike Huckabee, casting him as soft on immigration and crime in an effort to retake the lead for the state’s Jan. 3 caucuses.
“I’m familiar with tailspins and I think he’s in one,” McCain responded Friday on Fox News Channel. He also took a swipe at Romney’s equivocations on various issues, saying: “I don’t know how to respond to a lot of his charges because tomorrow he may have a different position.”
The former Massachusetts governor’s willingness to go after his opponents — and risk the ire of voters who could punish him for negative campaigning — underscores the high stakes of the contests in both states as well as the tenuous state of his own bid.
Romney’s strategy hinges on using momentum from back-to-back wins in those states to make him unstoppable in battlegrounds beyond. He once led by large margins in the first two states but now finds himself threatened on both fronts.
Polls show Huckabee’s advantage in Iowa narrowing in the past few weeks as Romney has gone on the attack and as Huckabee has made a few unforced errors. Romney’s aides suspect Huckabee’s support in Iowa may have peaked, and they argue that their campaign’s superior get-out-the-vote operation might be able to close the gap and help Romney prevail next week.
In Pella, Iowa, Huckabee said he doesn’t plan to go negative against Romney but acknowledged the unanswered critical ads may be hurting him. “I’m always concerned, sure,” he told reporters. “I’ll find out next Thursday just how much impact it’s had.”
While Romney has battled Huckabee in Iowa, McCain has gained ground in New Hampshire and benefited from former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s slippage in polls here. McCain won the Northeastern state in 2000, and still is beloved by a large contingent of die-hard backers. He is putting almost all of his resources into the state and essentially camping out there as he seeks a repeat win — and a comeback after a near campaign implosion during the summer.
It’s little surprise Romney is taking his criticism of McCain to the airwaves; he used the same approach against Huckabee in Iowa.
As McCain has moved up in polls, Romney has sharpened his rhetoric against him. In recent days, Romney has accused McCain of “failing Reagan 101” by twice voting against major Bush administration tax cuts. He also has suggested the Arizona senator supported amnesty for illegal immigrants, although McCain has said he wants them to register with the government.
After laying the groundwork through the “earned media” of news coverage, Romney now is trying to spread that message through paid media in hopes of undercutting McCain.
The ad shows pictures of McCain and Romney and says: “There is a difference.” It eviscerates McCain on taxes and immigration only to praise Romney’s record on taxes and spending as Massachusetts governor and argue that he “opposes amnesty for illegals.”
Taxes and immigration are trouble spots for McCain.
Some Republicans view him skeptically for breaking with Bush on taxes; he now says he supports extending the tax cuts because doing otherwise would amount to a tax increase. McCain also has been dogged by his support for comprehensive immigration reform that includes an eventual path to citizenship for many illegal immigrants; he now tells voters that he got the message earlier this year when one such bill failed in Congress and that the borders must be secured first.

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By BETH FOUHY

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Joe Biden's aides call it "Mo-Joe" — a last-minute surge of momentum and good luck they hope could power the Delaware senator into a better-than-expected showing in Iowa's leadoff caucuses.

"There's a fingertip instinct that tells me something is going on. I feel like I'm still in the game," Biden said in a telephone interview as he traveled to a campaign event in Cedar Rapids.

Aides acknowledge it remains an uphill trudge for Biden, a Democrat whose distinguished 35-year Senate career has been eclipsed by the star power of rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.

But with all eyes on those two candidates and former Sen. John Edwards as they compete for the lead in Iowa, Biden is on a high-energy sprint across the state hoping to catch on with enough voters to make a difference.

He draws enthusiastic crowds to his events and last week began his first sustained TV ad campaign. He was approved for $857,000 in matching funds this week by the Federal Election Commission, helping to ease the financial pressure on his cash-strapped campaign.

Operatives for rival candidates say privately they've detected substantial pockets of support for Biden in some rural areas and in the ethnic, heavily Catholic industrial towns along the Mississippi River in eastern Iowa. Complicated caucus rules mean those pockets could produce enough delegates for Biden to have an impact.

With polls showing Bill Richardson's support appearing to fade and Chris Dodd still struggling to catch on, Biden's advisers are hoping for a strong fourth-place finish and say they can even envision coming in third. Their outside hope is for Biden somehow to overtake Edwards, who draws much of his support from the same blue-collar and rural voters Biden is trying to woo.

While it sounds like a long-shot scenario — Edwards has a strong organization in Iowa that he began building in his 2004 presidential effort — the Biden team suggests Edwards could stall before caucus night as voters consider which candidate is best prepared to deal with national security issues such as Iran and Iraq.

"Authenticity and electability matter," Biden Communications Director Larry Rasky said.

However, Edwards' spokeswoman, Colleen Murray, said the former North Carolina senator has strong momentum in the state and is the most electable Democrat in the general election.

"As Iowans are making up their minds, they know that John Edwards can beat the Republicans," she said.

Should Biden get any sort of bounce out of Iowa, his team believes he would fare well in other early voting states such as Nevada, where he would benefit from long ties to organized labor, and South Carolina, where he has the support of several black legislators and community leaders.

It's been a bumpy road for Biden, who spent much of the early part of his campaign explaining why he had called Obama "clean" and "articulate" in a newspaper interview and has often had to fight for air time in nationally televised debates. Still, the debates have generally served him well, allowing him to show off his sense of humor and expertise on national security issues.

He's also thrown a few memorable zingers, like saying the only words Republican Rudy Giuliani uses in a sentence are "A noun, and a verb and 9/11."

Biden said that no matter what happens Jan. 3, he's glad he undertook the adventure.

"I feel more passionately about issues now than when I entered politics," he said. "I'm going out, saying what I believe, laying out what I think should be done, and the response is good. There are an awful lot of people coming to take a look

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KUCINICH CAMPAIGN PRESS RELEASE

'Long shot' Kucinich buries Democratic rivals in nationwide poll among independent voters

For Immediate Release - Friday, December 21, 2007

WASHINGTON, DC - Democratic Presidential Candidate Dennis Kucinich, who has been the runaway winner in polls of the Party's progressive, grassroots base in recent weeks, scored another huge win yesterday by capturing almost 77% of the vote in a nationwide poll sponsored by a coalition of Independent voting groups across the country.

Of the more than 80,000 votes cast for Democratic candidates at
http://www.independentprimary.com by self-described independent voters, the Ohio Congressman received 61,477, burying second place finisher, former Senator John Edwards, who received only 7,614 votes, or 9.5 percent.

Nationally, more than 40 percent of voters are not aligned with any political party, and, in 29 states, including New Hampshire, "Independents" have the option to select either the Republican or the Democratic ballot in a Presidential primary. In Iowa, only Democrats can vote in the Jan. 3 Democratic caucuses, and the total turnout there is expected to be less than 10% of the eligible voters statewide (Washington Post).

This is the latest in a string of exceptionally strong finishes by Kucinich in national on-line polls. Last month, he topped all other candidates in 47 of 50 states in a poll sponsored by Democracy for America (DFA), in which he received almost 32% of the 150,000-plus votes cast -- more than Edwards and Senator Barack Obama combined. In that poll, Kucinich won both Iowa and New Hampshire. In a survey by the 90,000-member Progressive Democrats of America, Kucinich took 41% of the vote nationwide. And, in a poll conducted by the progressive The Nation magazine, he won with 35% of the vote. Obama came in second with 24%, and Edwards was third with 13%.

The creators of IndependentPrimary.com said their poll was designed to measure the impact of independent-minded voters on the Presidential election and was "part of a movement bringing together ordinary Americans who think that the good of the country is more important than the good of the political parties."

In many national polls, Kucinich is running ahead of senators Joe Biden and Chris Dodd, and is in a statistical tie with New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. And, his poll numbers in New Hampshire are strong and growing.

In Iowa, however, Kucinich has been purposefully excluded from several Presidential debates and Party-sponsored events, leading political observers to wonder whether the "game" in Iowa is rigged against him.

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BIDEN DISCUSSES PLAN TO IMPROVE STUDENT PERFORMANCE

“In The 21st Century, Education Has Become A Critical National Security Issue”

Fort Dodge, IA (December 19, 2007): Today at the Fort Dodge Public Library in Fort Dodge, Iowa, Sen. Joe Biden responded to new international test results showing that U.S. students lag behind their peers in other countries.

America's 15 year-olds recently ranked 25th in mathematics and 21st in science among the 30 member countries that make up the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Just 70 percent of American high school students reach graduation day. The United States now ranks 17th in the world in high-school graduation rates and 14th in college graduation rates.

"I want to make something very clear," said Sen. Biden. "It is not our students who failed these tests - it is our policies that are failing our students."

Sen. Biden called for an overhaul of No Child Left Behind and comprehensive education reform including: universal preschool, more time spent on learning, putting a well-paid effective teacher in every classroom, expanding service opportunities for middle and high school students and providing a minimum of two years of higher education for every student.

"Education is more than just math, science, and reading. Our focus on multiple choice tests has narrowed the curriculum and the ability of teachers to innovate," said Sen. Biden. "And that shows - not just in the math and science test scores - but in the basic education our students are missing: American history and training in how our government works."

Sen. Biden noted that in the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress test on civics education, only half of 8th graders were able to link religious freedom to the Bill of Rights and only half of 12th graders were able to identify the President's role in foreign policy. Only 47 percent of high school seniors have mastered a minimum level of U.S. history. Only half of U.S. high school students knew that the sentence "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal" is in the Declaration of Independence.

"Too many students are simply not getting a basic education in how democracy works," said Sen. Biden. "That's a crisis at a time when our civil liberties are under assault by an administration that has ignored basic protections such as habeas corpus, disregarded the balance of power and secretly authorized torture."

Sen. Biden announced that he would invest in grants to develop civics curriculums for use in schools. He called for providing service opportunities through programs such as Americorps for middle and high school students and rewarding national service with help for college.

"My mother has an expression: 'children tend to become that which you expect of them. I want a country where we expect much from America's children," said Sen. Biden. "As President, I assure you: education will always be my top domestic priority because I believe in the next generation. I believe that they will solve climate change, make us energy independent, and bring peace to the Middle East. But we need to give them the foundation to do it."

Several members of the Delaware State Educators Association, which recently endorsed Sen. Biden for president, were in attendance at today’s event.

Mike Hoffman, DSEA Treasurer said, “I support Sen. Biden because he’s always come to the teachers to get their input. I appreciate that he recognizes that No Child Left Behind needs to be scrapped and that unfunded mandates are wrong. Teachers want to be held accountable but we need to have a fair measure of our students. When Joe Biden talks about making real education reform, I know he means what he says.”

Mary Jo Faust, NEA Director for the Delaware State Education Association and a 2nd grade teacher in the Capital School District, added, “I support Joe Biden because he understands my needs as a teacher. He knows that No Child Left Behind is too prescriptive, that kids need to be in school earlier and longer, and that I teach best when I have small class sizes. And he also understands that we need a professional level starting salary to retain and attract teachers in the classroom.”

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Analysis: Clinton and Romney shift course in White House race

By DAVID ESPO
AP Special Correspondent
WASHINGTON (AP) — For at least a year, Mitt Romney worked to keep his Mormon faith away from the center of his campaign for the White House. And for months, Hillary Rodham Clinton largely steered clear of criticizing her Democratic rivals.
No longer.
Now, locked in unpredictable, tight races in the leadoff Iowa caucuses, both the Democratic senator from New York and the Republican former governor of Massachusetts are shifting course. Clinton’s decision to assail Sen. Barack Obama and Romney’s speech Thursday on religious faith are seen by pros in both parties as signs that the status quo carried potential dangers.
“It was Napoleon who said, ’No plan has ever survived contact with the enemy,’” said Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster who is not affiliated with any candidate in the 2008 race. “The truth is these campaigns are really for the first time coming into contact with the enemy. And so they’ve got to change plans.”
“Clearly Romney changed his position in terms of delivering a major speech,” said David Winston, a Republican pollster not aligned with any of the candidates. “I think part of what’s going on is there must be an internal assessment that the campaign is having some difficulty and they’ve decided that this is the explanation that’s required to get him back on track.”
Winston and Mellman said that while the decisions carry risks, they are outweighed by the potential danger of doing nothing for Clinton, the national front-runner for months, as well as Romney, who until recently appeared to hold comfortable leads in Iowa.
Speaking of the Democratic race, Mellman added: “When you go on the attack you don’t know who you’re going to help.” It’s possible a third or fourth candidate could benefit, he added, meaning that Obama and Clinton could both suffer, and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards gain.
Romney, in his speech Thursday, sought to ease skeptics’ concerns about electing a Mormon president.
“I believe in my Mormon faith and I endeavor to live by it,” Romney said at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, Texas. However, he said, “I do not define my candidacy by my religion.” He added: “If I am fortunate to become your president, I will serve no one religion, no one group, no one cause and no one interest. A president must serve only the common cause of the people of the United States.”
In purely political terms, Romney’s Mormon faith has been an impediment from the start. A Pew Research Center poll in September found a quarter of all Republicans — including 36 percent of white evangelical Protestants — said they would be less likely to vote for a Mormon.
Even though the topic was discussed at several points, Romney did not decide until recently to give a speech on religious faith, according to several individuals familiar with his campaign.
“Times have changed and particularly in a state like Iowa, there’s been interest in religion generally, and I think religion does have a very important role in our society and therefore it’s important to talk about our religious heritage,” Romney said recently.
At the same time, his once solid lead in the Iowa polls has vanished as evangelical voters have coalesced behind former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Baptist minister. Huckabee’s ascent began last summer when he eclipsed Sen. Sam Brownback for second place in a straw poll at the Iowa State Fair. Former Sen. Fred Thompson’s entrance into the race was another obstacle to be overcome. But Brownback departed the race in October and Thompson’s support has gradually slipped. Huckabee has pulled even or slightly ahead despite a low-budget campaign in a state where Romney has spent millions.
Then, there are the scurrilous attacks.
One e-mail making the rounds purports to be from Romney himself, and consists of an invitation to Iowa voters to “join me, a born-Mormon, and a growing number of disenchanted Christians in believing the following tenets of the Mormon religion.” It lists several, each one likely more objectionable to Christian conservative caucus-goers than the last.
“Mormon men can have multiple wives in heaven — eternal polygamy,” says one tenet, while another claims that “God the father had sex with Mary to conceive Jesus, who is the half brother of Lucifer.”
As nationwide front-runner, Clinton had largely shrugged off attacks from Obama, Edwards and others. As recently as Nov. 10, at a high-profile dinner attended by all the Democratic contenders, she told an Iowa audience, “I’m not interested in attacking my opponents. I’m interested in attacking the problems of America.”
But she had turned in an admittedly sub-par debate performance 10 days earlier, and now it was Obama who came away from the Jefferson-Jackson dinner with glowing reviews.
By the night of a Nov. 15 debate, Clinton shelved whatever reluctance she had about responding to her attackers. She accused Edwards of slinging mud “right out of the Republican playbook” and said Obama supported a health care plan that left out 15 million Americans.
“When your opponents attack, you need to respond and Senator Clinton is doing just that,” spokesman Phil Singer said on Wednesday.
In the days since, she and her campaign have refined their strategy — leaving Edwards largely alone while hitting Obama incessantly on health care, accusing him of failing to be sufficiently supportive of abortion rights while in the Illinois Legislature and more.
Last week, en route from South Carolina to Texas, her plane put down in Iowa, where she suggested the health care issue stood for something more fundamental. “If anything, Democrats should stand for universal health care,” she said last week. “That distinguishes us from the Republicans. The Republicans don’t believe in it. Democrats do and we should fight for it.”
Over the weekend, her aides depicted Obama as a lifelong politician. As evidence, they cited an essay he wrote in kindergarten titled, “I want to become president.”
At the same time, Clinton’s television commercials take a different approach.
Her latest Iowa ad shows retired Gen. Wesley Clark saying, “I see that Hillary’s opponents have started attacking her. That’s politics.”
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EDITOR’S NOTE — David Espo has covered politics for the Associated Press since 1980.

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Romney rebuts Giuliani criticism with ex-Massachusetts governor

By GLEN JOHNSON
Associated Press Writer

WINDHAM (AP) — Republican Mitt Romney sought to deflect Rudy Giuliani’s criticism of his economic record Tuesday with a two-fer — a former Massachusetts governor now living in New York.
William F. Weld, who started a 16-year run of GOP rule in liberal Massachusetts that ended in January when Romney’s term finished, said his running mate and successor, former Gov. Paul Cellucci, was mistaken last week when he assailed Romney over tax cuts and spending during a rally in front of the Massachusetts Statehouse.
“He’s a true-blue fiscal conservative and he’s spelled out exactly how he’s going to hold down spending in Washington,” Weld said as he accompanied Romney on the first of his four public stops, a visit to the Windham Junction country store.
“I believe there were 19 tax cuts when Governor Romney was in office. That’s just a fact. And what he’s proposed for Washington is the most developed of any of the candidates.”
Weld singled out Romney’s pledge to veto any spending spending in excess of inflation, minus 1 percent.
As for Cellucci’s increasingly public criticism of Romney, the Harvard-educated Weld broke into French to say, “Each to his own.”
Romney’s decision to have Weld campaign with him reflected his interest in rebutting the criticism of Giuliani surrogates from Massachusetts, including Cellucci and former Treasurer Joe Malone.
Joined by several Republican state legislators, they announced last week they would travel the country, questioning why Romney was unable to lower the state’s income tax rate to 5 percent — as pledged — while Giuliani presided over 23 tax cuts as mayor of New York.
Weld’s blend of liberal social views and conservative fiscal positions, as well as a plunge into Boston’s Charles River to celebrate an environmental compact, endeared him to Massachusetts voters during the six years he was in office.
Many New Hampshire residents, especially those in the vote-rich southern tier of the state, are relocated from Massachusetts. The crowd inside the country store reminisced with Weld about his tenure as governor from 1991 to 1997. Romney relished the help, calling the red-headed Weld “Big Red.”
Weld moved to New York after resigning as governor amid a failed bid to become U.S. ambassador to Mexico. Cellucci, at the time lieutenant governor, served as acting governor before being elected in his own right in 1998. Last year, Weld mounted a campaign for New York governor, but retreated amid criticism from conservatives.

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