Analysis: How McCain Could Still Win

Analysis: How McCain Could Still Win

A year ago, he was the odds-on favorite to be the Republican presidential nominee in 2008. Today, he's considered a long shot.

His campaign has rebounded from a near implosion in the summer, but in these crucial weeks before the first balloting in January in Iowa, John McCain has been eclipsed by the emergence of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as a serious contender, the Mitt Romney religion speech and recent Romney-Rudy Giuliani verbal fracas. Yet political analysts say do not count the Arizona senator out yet.

"If that's how Republicans decide, they may come back to him and decide 'Well, I rejected him six months ago, but he looks like the best of the lot now.'"

It will not be easy for McCain to pull off, but there are scenarios — for McCain a "perfect storm" of events breaking his way, according to some pundits — in which he could still wrest the GOP nomination away from his rivals.

One of them goes something like this: Huckabee wins the Iowa caucus Jan. 3 and Romney finishes second. McCain is running far behind in Iowa and barely campaigning there.

A Romney win could propel him to victory in New Hampshire where he now leads McCain in the polls, so, for McCain, it is critical that Romney be stopped in Iowa. A Huckabee win in Iowa would be a huge setback for Romney, who has invested time and money — lots of money — into winning there followed by New Hampshire for an early one-two punch that would ignite his campaign.

Meanwhile, McCain has been concentrating instead on New Hampshire, which holds the first primary five days after Iowa.

Personally i think he has no chance of coming because of his attitude. People will not vote for a jerk. Thats what I think

Hillary Clinton gets personal as Barack Obama inches ahead

Hillary Clinton gets personal as Barack Obama inches ahead

Hillary Clinton has been forced to take the biggest gamble of her presidential campaign by launching personal attacks on her main rival, Barack Obama, in Iowa, a state famous for its dislike of negative tactics.

With less than a month before the crucial first nominating contest in Iowa, Mrs Clinton has dramatically changed course against a resurgent Mr Obama by questioning his character and honesty, a new strategy that rival campaigns believe could backfire.

A series of recent polls in Iowa show Mr Obama gaining momentum in the state and for the first time opening up a small lead over Mrs Clinton. He has also erased her once-clear advantage among women voters and blue-collar households and is exploiting lingering doubts that Mrs Clinton is too polarising a figure to win a general election.

Mrs Clinton said that after being criticised for weeks by Mr Obama and John Edwards, the other strong challenger in Iowa, “you cannot just absorb it”. She added later: “We’re into the last month and we’re going to start drawing a contrast.” On the campaign trail in Iowa over the past 48 hours she has accused Mr Obama of offering “false hopes” and of not telling the truth about his health insurance plan.

Asked if she was raising questions about his character, she replied: “It’s beginning to look a lot like that. It really is.” Last night her campaign accused Mr Obama’s staff of dirty tricks in Iowa by directing people to bogus locations for the January 3 caucuses. Bill Burton, Mr Obama’s spokesman, said: “This flat-out falsehood is the latest attack in a silly season where our opponents have promised to stop at nothing in an effort to tarnish Barack Obama’s character.”

It's unfair to criticize a person about their personal life. Leave them alone it's their life and it's none of your business. As long as they do a good job in office and get what needs to get done get off their back.

STREISAND SUPPORTS HILLARY CLINTON

STREISAND SUPPORTS HILLARY CLINTON

(AGI) - New York, 29 Nov. - Barbra Streisand has spoken publicly about her support for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. The singer confirmed her commitment the day after appearing on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Last month Streisand gave an endowment to all three of the main candidates for the American elections - Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards - but has said that her support is solely for the wife of the former US president. "Hillary Clinton has already proved to a generation of women that there are no limits to success.
She is an important voice for change in America, and we find ourselves at a crossroads. Under her leadership our country will regain the respect of the international community."

I think it is great that the candidates are getting support for other celebrities. Anything to get to more votes is awesome. POWER TO THE CELEBRITIES!

Oprah to campaign for Obama

Oprah to campaign for Obama

The Obama campaign has announced that the talk-show host and media icon will campaign with the presidential hopeful in the all important primary elections in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina next month.

But while increasing the sales of a book might be easy, the verdict is not out on whether Oprah's magic touch extends to politics. ''It is not going to affect my vote. I love Oprah but it is not going to affect my vote,'' says a resident of the Lower East Side in Manhattan. However, other New Yorkers disagree.

According to a resident of Queens ''A lot of people listen to Oprah and they listen to her opinions so it is very possibly that she could sway women voters away from Hillary''.

The media mogul has twice topped Forbes's annual most powerful celebrity list. The Oprah Winfrey Show reaches almost 9 million Americans everyday and is syndicated to 135 foreign countries. Then there's O, her magazine, her website and her philanthropy that has made her one of the few persons in America who is recogonised by just one name.

In September, Oprah hosted a star-studded fundraiser for Obama, which raised about $3 million for the White House hopeful.

According to a poll by the Pew research centre taken shortly after, 69 per cent of respondents said they would not be influenced by Winfrey's endorsement of a political candidate but 60 per cent believed her support would help Senator Obama.

I think that is is great the Oprah is helping Barack Obama in his presidential campaign. I also think it is a great idea to get votes to.

Edwards Offers Heating Plan

Edwards Offers Heating Plan

Former Senator John Edwards outlined a proposal yesterday in New Hampshire to lower the cost of heating oil, increase regulation of oil companies and promote energy efficiency.

Speaking at a town hall-style campaign event in Meredith, N.H., Mr. Edwards said home heating oil in the state had risen sharply to about $3 a gallon, nearly triple the cost in 2000.

To ease the financial burden for low-income families, Mr. Edwards, a Democrat from North Carolina, said Congress should tap into its heating and oil reserves and increase subsidies to the federal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which he said President Bush had unfairly scaled back. In February, Mr. Bush proposed an 18 percent cut in the program, which provides $2.2 billion this year to help people pay heating bills.

He proposed increasing financial assistance for a program to winterize homes, putting it on a $500 million annual budget, and supporting emergency loans for families to pay heating bills.

John Edwards