Political

Watch Obama talk tough, and try comedy in Las Vegas.

(CNN) — Democrat Barack Obama launched sharp — and at times bitingly sarcastic — attacks at presidential rivals Hillary Clinton and John Edwards in Nevada Friday.

In comments he first introduced on the trail Thursday night, Obama chastised Clinton for trying to make an issue of the fact he admitted at a recent debate he is at times disorganized, and mocked both Clinton and John Edwards for what they offered as their "weaknesses."

"I said, 'Well, I don't hang on to paper really well. My desk is a mess, so you know I need people to help me filing and keeping on schedule and things like that,'" he told a raucous crowd in Las Vegas. "And so my two colleagues — Sen. Edwards says um, 'My biggest weakness is I'm just so passionate about poor people and helping them,' and then Hillary says, ‘My biggest weakness is I'm so impatient to bring about real change in America.'"

"Now, I didn't, nobody had clued me in, that ya know, see, if I had gone last I would have said 'My biggest weakness? I like to help old ladies across the street," Obama deadpanned to laughter.

"I didn't understand the question," he said, laughing. "But this is what I mean. This is political speak. This is what you learn in Washington from all those years of experience — it's funny, except its sad, because it means that the American people are constantly having to sort out ‘what do people really mean?’"

Obama also went after Clinton for saying in the recent debate she was pleased a bankruptcy bill she voted for in 2001 failed to become law, and suggested it fits into a larger pattern of the New York senator often not being upfront.

"She said she voted for it, uh, but she hoped that the bill would die," he said. "Anybody remember that? Think about that. She voted for it even though she hoped it wouldn't pass."

"I've been less worried about making political points on these things, but getting them right," Obama continued. "That's the kind of leadership that I intend to offer as President of the United States. Somebody who will be straight with you and get it right the first time."

Obama's tough talk is a departure from how the Illinois senator campaigned in Iowa — a state where voters are often turned off by negative campaigning — and in New Hampshire, where polls suggested he would easily cruise to victory. Recent polls out of Nevada suggest all three Democrats are in a tight battle for the top spot ahead of Saturday's caucus.

– CNN's Alexander Mooney and Chris Welch

ELKO, Nevada (CNN) – Hillary Clinton expressed concern that undue union pressure might play a role in Saturday’s Nevada caucuses, saying that some members are being told they should either caucus for a particular candidate, or just stay home.

“I have some concerns about the process, and I want to be really clear about this to everyone. I am afraid that some people may feel that they can't come, or they shouldn't come, or they can't support the candidate of their choice,” Clinton said at an Elko, Nevada campaign event Friday.

“We know that there are some unions in the south that are telling people who to caucus for… so I am calling on all the candidates and all of the unions to make it clear to their supporters and members that people in Nevada — a free and independent state with a very independent people — are free to stand up for the candidate of their choice,” she said, adding that “There should be no interference with anybody's right to caucus.'

Clinton has been endorsed by twice as many Nevada unions as John Edwards, and more than twice as many as Barack Obama. But the 60,000-member Culinary Workers Union, which has endorsed Obama, dwarfs the others combined in size.

Some of Clinton’s supporters recently filed an unsuccessful lawsuit over caucus voting at casino sites, where many Culinary Workers Union members are employed.

–CNN Senior Political Producer Mike Roselli

Watch Michelle Obama have trouble pronouncing Nevada.

RENO, Nevada (AP) — Gambling and prostitution are nothing here — Michelle Obama committed the real local sin by mispronouncing the name of the state.

She was introducing her husband, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, by saying how happy she was to be in
Nuh-VAH-duh. The crowd at the University of Nevada Reno immediately burst into heckles.

Locals don't like it when visitors pronounced the state by using a soft a, like in "baccarat." The correct pronunciation in these parts is Nuh-VAD-uh, with a hard a, like in "craps" or "blackjack."

Michelle Obama immediately realized her mistake. "Nuh-VAD-uh! Oh, no," she said, putting her head in her hands in recognition of her blunder.

"I've been in South Carolina too long!" she said, a reference to her campaigning the primary state that comes next after Nevada's caucus Saturday.

"It's nice to be here Nuh-VAD-uh! Nevada, Nevada, Nevada!" she said, making the politically correct pronunciation over and over again to applause from the crowd. "I know how to bounce back from my mistakes."

President Reagan is causing a debate in the Democratic presidential race. (Photo Credit: Getty Images/AFP)

(CNN) — Republican presidential candidates often battle to outdo each other on who can invoke Ronald Reagan most often — but the former president's name is not nearly as welcome on the Democratic side.

Campaigning in union-heavy Nevada Thursday, John Edwards took direct aim at Barack Obama for "using Ronald Reagan as an example of change," and said he himself would never praise the Republican icon that way.

“He was openly — openly — intolerant of unions and the right to organize. He openly fought against the union and the organized labor movement in this country," Edwards said during a campaign event in Henderson, Nevada. "He openly did extraordinary damage to the middle class and working people, created a tax structure that favored the very wealthiest Americans and caused the middle class and working people to struggle every single day. The destruction of the environment, you know, eliminating regulation of companies that were polluting and doing extraordinary damage to the environment.”

“I can promise you this: this president will never use Ronald Reagan as an example for change," he added.

Obama told the editorial board of the Reno-Journal Gazette Monday he didn't view himself as the transformative figure Ronald Reagan was.

"I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not," Obama said. "He put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it. I think they felt like with all the excesses of the 1960s and 1970s and government had grown and grown but there wasn't much sense of accountability in terms of how it was operating. I think people, he just tapped into what people were already feeling, which was we want clarity we want optimism, we want a return to that sense of dynamism and entrepreneurship that had been missing."

Obama's campaign has said the Illinois senator disagrees with much of what Reagan did, and he was merely pointing out that the former president changed the political landscape.

Edwards' comments come as he battles to win support from union members in Nevada who will heavily influence the Democratic caucuses this Saturday. Recent polls suggest all three Democrats are in a tight race there.

While Reagan had a rocky relationship at best with the major unions during his presidency, he once actually led a union himself. The onetime actor was the president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1947-52 and again in 1959.

– CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney

Sen. Barack Obama has the support of a majority of black Democrats, a poll found.

(CNN) — Sen. Hillary Clinton has lost a large amount of support among African-Americans, with a majority of black Democrats now supporting Sen. Barack Obama, according to a new poll out Friday.

In a national survey by CNN/Opinion Research Corp., 59 percent of black Democrats backed Obama, an Illinois Democrat, for their party's presidential nomination, with 31 percent supporting Clinton, the senator from New York.

The 28 point lead for Obama is a major reversal from October, when Clinton held a 24 point lead among black Democrats.

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FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:

You know things are really getting ugly out there on the campaign trail when the candidates start going after the media. And that's exactly what's happening now.

First, there was that heated exchange between Bill Clinton and a local TV reporter in California. The former president got visibly annoyed when the reporter asked him about the decision to allow caucuses in the Las Vegas casinos where a lot of Barack Obama's supporters work.

Enter Republican candidate Mitt Romney. When he was asked about the role of lobbyists in his campaign by an AP reporter yesterday, he became defensive. Said he doesn't have no stinkin' lobbyists running his campaign. What he does have is a high-level adviser who is also the chairman of a large communications firm. Oh.

And John Edwards is whining about the media, too. His campaign is launching a full-on assault on the media for what they claim is inadequate and unfair press coverage.

To read more and contribute to the Cafferty File discussion click here

Edwards is criticizing Obama for ads run on his behalf.

(CNN) — John Edwards said Friday that Barack Obama needs to “speak up, if he really means what he says” about ending divisive politics and denounce a Nevada ad funded by an independent group that supports the Illinois senator’s presidential bid.

The spot, running on Spanish-language radio in the state, criticizes Hillary Clinton for a lawsuit filed by some of her Nevada supporters that had sought new restrictions workplace caucus sites this Saturday. The buy is funded by the Unite Here Campaign Committee on behalf of the Culinary Workers Union, which has endorsed Obama.

"Everyone pledged that this kind of divisive politics that divides the Democratic Party, and could divide America, would come to an end. Sen. Obama made that pledge, I was sitting five feet from him when he made it," Edwards told the crowd at a Nevada campaign event.

“And now it turns out that in the last 24 hours there's a radio ad, a malicious radio ad, attacking Sen. Clinton. That is exactly the kind of divisive politics. It's being run right here, in Las Vegas. I denounce it. This kind of ad, I don't care who's doing it — in this case it's Sen. Obama's supporters — but this sort of thing needs to stop.

“And from what I've seen, Sen. Obama has not said a single word about this. Nothing. When two days ago, three days ago, he said on a stage in front of America and said, 'This kind of politics has no place in America,’” said Edwards.

“He should speak up, if he really means what he says, and this is not just talk, he should speak up and denounce this type of divisive politics.”

John Edwards was criticized by Obama in Iowa for not calling an independent group that supported the former North Carolina senator to demand they pull ads they were running in support of his candidacy.

The Obama campaign has not yet responded to Friday’s remarks from Edwards.

On Thursday, the Clinton and Edwards campaigns both took aim at Obama over the ad, which refers to the recent lawsuit over casino caucus sites by supporters of the New York senator’s presidential bid, saying it shows that “Hillary Clinton does not respect our people. …Hillary Clinton is shameless. Hillary Clinton should not allow her friends to attack our people’s right to vote this Saturday.”

The spot also praises Obama, saying that “Sen. Obama is defending our right to vote. … He respects our votes, our community, and our people.”

The Clinton campaign has expressed frustration with the fact that the spots are continuing to run, even though a judge ruled against the suit.

Image from the new Giuliani ad airing in Florida.

(CNN) – Rudy Giuliani’s campaign released a new ad in Florida Friday that uses footage and photographs of 9/11 and the ruins of the World Trade Center to emphasize his leadership as New York City mayor.

“When corruption ruled, he challenged it. When welfare failed, he changed it. When crime thrived, he fought it. When government broke, he fixed it,” says the announcer in “It Matters,” over images of criminals in handcuffs and the exteriors of porn shops.

“And when the world wavered, and history hesitated, he never did,” he continues, over images and footage of people running from the site of the Trade Center attacks, and the former New York mayor embracing rescue workers. “Rudy Giuliani. Leadership. When it matters most.”

The campaign said the ad is airing in West Palm Beach, an area that is home to a large population of transplanted New Yorkers. Florida voters head to the polls January 29.

–CNN Associate Political Editor Rebecca Sinderbrand

New McCain Web ad uses Huckabee footage.

(CNN) — Mike Huckabee has largely avoided criticizing Republican rival John McCain this primary season. On Friday, the Arizona senator’s campaign used that cordial campaign trail language in a Web ad promoting McCain’s White House bid.

“Supporters of Mike Huckabee are attacking John McCain,” reads the screen at the start of the 30-second spot. “What does Mike Huckabee say about John McCain?”

Then footage of Mike Huckabee himself is shown: “Sen. McCain, no matter what anyone may say, is a genuine conservative. … John McCain is a hero in this country. He's a hero to me.

If you look at his record, he's got a solid record on things that really matter. He's pro-life, he's strong for our country's defense and security…. John McCain is a true, honest-to-God American hero.”

“If you want the truth about John McCain,” reads the screen, “just ask Mike Huckabee.”

The campaign says “Trust Huckabee” is a response to the wave of robo-calls from pro-Huckabee group Common Sense Issues, which says it is planning to make a million calls to South Carolina voters before Saturday’s primary that attack McCain on abortion and immigration.

–CNN Associate Political Editor Rebecca Sinderbrand

McCain has taken heat from Confederate flag supporters.

(CNN) – An independent group that supports the public display of the Confederate flag is running ads in South Carolina through Saturday’s Republican primary that praise Mike Huckabee for his stand on the issue and attack his main rivals in the state, John McCain and Mitt Romney.

“Gov. Huckabee understands that all the average guy with a Confederate flag on his pickup truck is saying is, he’s proud to be a Southerner,” says the announcer in one of the one-minute spots, paid for by Americans for the Preservation of American Culture.

“Mike Huckabee understands we value our heritage, and why. He says it’s up to us to decide how. Sen. McCain may have decided that his ancestors, as he puts it, ‘were on the wrong side of history when they wore gray.’ But in South Carolina, we’re proud to be Southerners.”

The Arizona senator’s stand on the Confederate flag helped derail his 2000 presidential bid in South Carolina, and he has criticized it as a "racist symbol." McCain has said on the trail this week that he is "proud" of South Carolinians for removing the flag from atop the State House.

Another one-minute spot takes aim at Romney. “Waving a Confederate battle flag in front of Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney turns out to be like waving a red flag in front of a bull. He charges,” says the announcer, citing Romney’s remarks during the CNN/YouTube debate criticizing public display of the flag.

“Gov. Huckabee’s a Southerner, who understands why Southerners value our heritage. That honoring the flag is part of honoring our heritage. And he says it’s our issue. It should be up to us to decide. We’ve got a message for Mitt Romney: in South Carolina, we’re proud to be Southerners."

Romney spokesman Kevin Madden told CNN that “Gov. Romney believes that the issue was settled by the people of South Carolina with the compromise in 2000.”

The one-minute ads will be running on South Carolina conservative talk radio stations in Charleston, Columbia, Florence, and Greenville.

On Thursday, Huckabee told voters at a Myrtle Beach campaign event that “You don’t like people from outside the state coming in and telling you what to do with your flag. In fact, if somebody came to Arkansas and told us what to do with our flag, we’d tell them what to do with the pole.”

The Huckabee campaign has not yet responded to a CNN request for comment.

–CNN Associate Political Editor Rebecca Sinderbrand

Huckabee is campaigning in South Carolina ahead of Saturday's primary there.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Republican Mike Huckabee is taking heat from some members of the gay community over recent comments that appeared to equate gay marriage with bestiality.

In an interview with the religious Web site beliefnet.com, Huckabee pushes back on recent critics who have called some of his positions "radical."

"I think the radical view is to say that we're going to change the definition of marriage so that it can mean two men, two women, a man and three women, a man and a child, a man and animal," he said in the interview, published on the Web site Wednesday. "Again, once we change the definition, the door is open to change it again."

David Smith of the Human Rights Campaign told CNN Huckabee's comments make clear the former Arkansas governor stance is "out of the mainstream of American thought."

"I think he's equating a loving marriage between two people of the same sex with some form of bestiality," he said. " I think that's really out of the mainstream of American thought, and most people will find that offensive."

Huckabee has previously come under fire for past comments on homosexuality. In his 1998 book "Kids Who Kill," the onetime Baptist minister seemed to link homosexuality with sexually deviant and criminal behavior.

"It is now difficult to keep track of the vast array of publicly endorsed and institutionally supported aberrations — from homosexuality and pedophilia to sadomasochism and necrophilia," he wrote.

Responding to that passage, Huckabee said on ‘Meet the Press’ last month he was not linking the three, but rather pointing out all are deviations from the "traditional concept of sexual behavior."

Huckabee's campaign told CNN the candidate is not equating gay marriage with bestiality, but rather he simply saying that he believes marriage should be between a man and a woman. The campaign also said gay rights groups are trying to pick a fight.

Related: Huckabee touts conservative views to woo Carolina voters

– CNN’s Brian Todd contributed to this report

Bill and Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail. (Photo credit: Getty Images)

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) – While Sen. Hillary Clinton is trying to soften her image on the campaign, she is allowing her pit bull — Bill Clinton — to go on the attack.

In a version of "good cop/bad cop" the couple has gone after the senator's closest rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama.

The former president aggressively interjected himself into a debate Wednesday when he became visibly combative with a reporter after being questioned about a lawsuit in Nevada that sought to ban caucus meetings in nine casinos on the Las Vegas strip.

Full story

Obama campaigned in Nevada Thursday.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The White House campaign has brought a new act to Vegas.

Barack Obama has stepped up his campaign against Hillary Rodham Clinton, and he's trying to use humor to bring her down before this weekend's Democratic presidential caucus.

His argument is starkly different from the "Iowa nice" approach he used in recent weeks when campaigning in the first caucus state. Candidates who go negative there have a history of
turning off voters, so Obama rarely criticized Clinton directly in Iowa — instead he made veiled references to "some of my opponents" — and he won the state.

But there's nothing subtle about Las Vegas. With a high-stake match on the line Saturday, Obama embraced local traditions by debuting a biting political standup routine Thursday night that mocked his rival.

Obama began by recalling a moment in Tuesday night's debate when he and his rivals were asked to name their biggest weakness. Obama answered first, saying he has a messy desk and needs help managing paperwork — something his opponents have since used to suggest he's not up to managing the country. Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards said his biggest weakness is that he has a powerful response to seeing pain in others, and Clinton said she gets impatient to bring change to America.

Read the rest of this entry »

Watch Romney get upset with a reporter Thursday.

(CNN) — Republican Mitt Romney and Associated Press reporter Glen Johnson got into a verbal scuffle Thursday over the presidential candidate's claim that no Washington lobbyists are running his campaign.

Edwards is taking aim at the media for acting as if there are only two Democratic candidates running. (Photo Credit: Getty Images.)

WASHINGTON (CNN) — John Edwards' campaign is launching a full-on assault on the media for what they claim is inadequate and unfair press coverage of the former North Carolina senator's presidential bid.

"For the better part of a year the media has focused on two celebrity candidates,” Edwards Communications Director Chris Kofinis said Thursday. “And they continue to act as if there were only two candidates in the race, even after John Edwards beat Senator Clinton in Iowa and poll after poll show competitive races in Nevada, South Carolina and other key states."

On Thursday, the campaign went live with a Web site that sites several recent news headlines that only include Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. It also includes recent statistics from the Project for Excellence in Journalism that indicate that from January 6-11, Edwards received just a fraction of the news coverage allotted to his two rivals.

The campaign has even produced a Web video, "What about John Edwards?", that scrolls through several clips of media pundits discussing only Clinton and Obama, and ends with the results of a focus group that suggested Edwards won the most recent debate in Las Vegas.

And on Wednesday, Edwards' spokesman Eric Schultz sent out an e-mail that suggested the senator's low poll numbers nationally are directly linked to his limited media coverage.

The candidate himself has brought up the issue repeatedly on the trail of late, and on Thursday one town-hall supporter urged the crowd to directly complain to media outlets about the lack of coverage. Edwards said he agreed, and that it was time to speak out.

– CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The presidential candidates and their surrogates took a brief break from attacking each other Thursday to beat up on the media instead.

Bill Clinton, campaigning on his wife’s behalf in California, had a testy San Francisco face-off with a reporter he barely knew. Mitt Romney tangled with a reporter – the AP’s Glen Johnson, late of the Boston Globe – he knows all too well. And John Edwards’ campaign took on the entire press corps, blasting the media for allegedly ignoring the former North Carolina senator this cycle in favor of the flashier Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama duel (and prompting a reprise of the eternal chicken-or-the-egg dilemma of trail reporting: which comes first, the poll numbers or the press coverage?)

It’s roughly an East-West divide again today – Democrats trying their luck in and around Las Vegas, Republicans stumping in South Carolina – with the exception of Mitt Romney, who may benefit from Nevada’s sizeable Mormon minority in the state’s mostly-neglected GOP caucuses this Saturday.

Meanwhile: the “Common Sense Issues” robo-call marathon on his behalf may be winding down in South Carolina, but Mike Huckabee has even more intimidating allies on his side there this week.

The former Arkansas governor seems to be running neck-and-neck with John McCain in the state as that race draws to a close, but if 12-year-old boys could vote, it wouldn’t even be close: martial arts star Chuck Norris, who has spent much of the primary season stumping for the former Arkansas governor, has been joined on the Huckabee campaign trail this week by WWE star Ric Flair.

That combination of push poll madness and high-profile muscle backing Huckabee should be enough to strike fear in the heart of any Republican rival. But none of them may be much help when it comes to battling the man who looks, at least this week, to be Huckabee’s biggest enemy: the candidate himself.

So far this week, the former governor has: said the Constitution should be amended to comply with divine mandates; created a stir when his damage control involved telling FOX he wasn’t “suggesting that we re-write the constitution to reflect tithing or Sunday school attendance”; become the first presidential candidate to sign a controversial, headline-grabbing anti-immigration pledge; and told a Southern crowd that when it came to the Stars and Bars, if outsiders “want to come tell us what to do with the flag, we'd tell them what to do with the pole.”

Those comments might play well with some of South Carolina's Republicans – but what are they going to say when he gets to L.A.? Saturday’s vote may dominate the conversation this week, but the February 5 contests loom ever larger.

– CNN Associate Political Editor Rebecca Sinderbrand

Compiled by Jonathan Helman
CNN Washington Bureau

USA Today: S.C. Primary May Yield GOP Front-Runner, Answers
After three different winners in three major contests, Republicans look south this weekend in search of a presidential front-runner.

USA Today: Democrats Skirmish For Support In Nevada
The three top Democratic presidential candidates have competed full-out to win the Nevada caucuses here Saturday in a tumultuous atmosphere marked by legal challenges and uncertainty about an untested process.

Washington Times: McCain Rallies S.C. Supporters
It was almost as if Sen. John McCain wanted to overwhelm his supporters with firepower: 40 minutes of endorsement speeches here yesterday from the Republican Party's top spending-cuts advocate, a leading tax-cuts advocate and a who's who of South Carolina leaders.

NY Times: Romney Leaves South Carolina to Focus on Nevada Caucus
The next big Republican presidential contest is Saturday in South Carolina. So what did Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, the winner of the Michigan primary this week, do on Thursday morning? He hopped a plane from South Carolina to Nevada, with no plans to return.

NY Times: Southern Blacks Are Split on Clinton vs. Obama
Across the South, a fierce competition is afoot for black voters, who are expected to constitute 20 percent to 50 percent of voters in the South Carolina Democratic primary on Jan. 26 and in the four Southern states with primaries on Feb. 5: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Tennessee.

Read the rest of this entry »

Compiled by Lauren Kornreich, CNN Washington Bureau

* Hillary Clinton is in Nevada, where she hosts an economic roundtable in Las Vegas, rallies in Elko, Reno and Henderson.

* John Edwards holds an event at his campaign headquarters in Las Vegas, Nevada, and at the Teamsters local in Oklahoma City.

* Rudy Giuliani is in Florida, where he holds a space policy roundtable in Cape Canaveral, and attends a rally in Titusville.

* Mike Huckabee is in South Carolina, where he meets with voters in Bluffton, attends rallies in Aiken, Greenville, Spartanburg, Rock Hill and Columbia.

* John McCain is in South Carolina, where he hosts a campaign event in Florence, campaign events and media availabilities in Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head Island, and holds a rally in Mount Pleasant.

* Barack Obama is in Nevada, where he holds town halls in Reno and Elko, and attends a rally and a Martin Luther King Jr. banquet in Las Vegas.

* Mitt Romney is in Nevada, where he holds "Change Begins With Us" rallies in Elko and Reno.

* Fred Thompson is in South Carolina, where he participates in a radio town hall in Seneca, tours downtown Pickens, meets with voters in Spartanburg, and tours downtown Greenville before attending a pre-election rally there.

* The Senate Radio-Television Correspondents' Gallery Daybook:

* The House Radio-Television Correspondents' Gallery Daybook:

CNN=Politics Daily is The Best Political Podcast from the Best Political Team.

(CNN) — Former President Bill Clinton has become a regular fixture on the campaign trail as his wife mounts her own campaign for the White House.

In the latest episode of CNN=Politics Daily, Senior Political Correspondent Candy Crowley takes a look at the Clinton's tag-team campaign style.

Wolf Blitzer also speaks with Clinton backer Bob Johnson about his apology to Sen. Barack Obama.

South Carolina's GOP primary is January 19 and the Best Political Team has the southern state covered. Dana Bash reports on Sen. John McCain's new economic plan announced in Columbia, South Carolina Thursday.

Chief National Correspondent John King is also on the trail in South Carolina and takes a look at Fred Thompson's effort to win the important GOP primary.

Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider reports on the string of endorsements Sen. Barack Obama recently received from Democratic insiders.

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