Senate Continues Debate on Iraq Pullout

2 Bills Unlikely to Pass, but Both Parties Square Off With Eye Toward Elections

The Senate yesterday continued a heated but largely theatrical debate on a bill to start withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq within 120 days and began considering another that would require the Bush administration to develop a new strategy against terrorism.
Republicans relished the opportunity to joust over war policy, confident in their political standing because of security gains in Iraq since President Bush's troop buildup took hold there last year. But Democrats said the debate offers them a new chance to highlight Republican support for a still unpopular war, setting the stage for them to run a general-election campaign this fall largely against Bush's policies in Iraq.
Under the complicated rules set up for the congressional debate, however, it is all but certain that neither bill introduced by Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) would be approved. It is possible that neither would even approach a final vote, despite knotting up the chamber in as many as three days of floor debate.
Rather than distancing themselves from Bush's Iraq policy, Republicans embraced the improvements on the ground since the president sent an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Iraq last year, and they criticized Democrats for wanting to change course.
"The surge has worked. This is coming from someone who was a cynic," Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) said during the floor debate. Brownback had criticized Bush's policies in Iraq last year.
"The Democrats are sort of in denial. It's almost as if they're sorry things have gotten better," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a brief interview.
Democrats used the debate to test their emerging line of political attack on Bush's war policy, contending that the mounting cost of the conflict in Iraq is stealing resources from domestic priorities that could help prop up the sagging economy.
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) called the Iraq war the "$800 billion gorilla in the room" that is diverting funds that could be used to address the subprime mortgage crisis in the housing market.
"The spending issue is becoming a new dynamic here," Schumer, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said in an interview. "They are misreading public opinion dramatically. The closer we get to November, the more apparent that will be," he added, referring to Republicans.
Schumer, who also chairs Congress's Joint Economic Committee, is holding a hearing today that he said will demonstrate how funding for Iraq displaces federal spending on economic recovery programs.
"The world should understand America has done its share," Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said, closing the debate before a second procedural vote on the Feingold measures. "When is enough going to be enough?"
The debate in the past two days centered on Feingold's bill to begin troop withdrawals within 120 days of its passage and, at that point, to prohibit expenditures not meant for running counterterrorism operations, protecting the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad or training Iraqi forces. The second bill would require the administration to draw up a new strategy on the battle against al-Qaeda and to present it to Congress within 60 days.
Arranging a pair of votes on preliminary motions that they expected Republicans to block, Democrats did not expect to have a lengthy debate on either measure. Reid had already scheduled a Tuesday-afternoon debate on a package of bills dealing with the housing crisis.
But, in a surprise move on Tuesday, most Republicans supported opening the debate on the first Iraq measure, even though not a single one had backed five previous bids to take up Feingold's withdrawal bills. Yesterday, 42 Republicans voted with 45 Democrats and two independents to begin a debate on Feingold's second measure.
The complicated parliamentary procedure used to bring the Feingold bills to the floor makes it likely that the bills would simply be withdrawn sometime today. Rather than hold a final vote on either measure, the Senate could just shift its attention to the housing legislation.



Em destaque: Senado americano discute a continuidade da Guerra no Iraque tendo em vista as próximas eleições.
Fonte: The Washington Post
Publicação: 28 de fevereiro 2008
Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/27/AR2008022703382.html?wpisrc=newsletter

Clash on Iraq Could Be McCain-Obama Preview

TYLER, Tex., Feb. 27 -- Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) accused Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) of making ill-informed comments about Iraq and al-Qaeda in Tuesday night's Democratic presidential debate, signaling that a general-election brawl between the colleagues would center in part on who has the foreign policy experience to lead a country at war.
Despite McCain's war-hero status and years of foreign policy experience, Obama made it clear that he will not back down from such a fight, issuing a quick rebuke of McCain that linked him to President Bush and the war in Iraq.
The spat began when McCain seized on a comment by Obama that he would reserve the right to return to Iraq after withdrawing troops "if al-Qaeda is forming a base in Iraq."
"I have some news," McCain told voters at a rally here Wednesday morning. "Al-Qaeda is in Iraq. Al-Qaeda is called 'al-Qaeda in Iraq.' My friends, if we left, they wouldn't be establishing a base. . . . they would be taking a country. I will not allow that to happen, my friends. I will not surrender."
McCain has pledged to keep U.S. forces in Iraq as long as it takes to create stability, form a unified government and defeat terrorist groups. He favors adding more troops, if necessary, to achieve those goals.
Obama, who opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq, has said that there is no military solution to the conflict and that he would start bringing troops home after becoming president to force Iraqi factions to resolve their differences. Obama said he would withdraw about one to two combat brigades a month, with the goal of having all of them out within 16 months.
For McCain, the decision to pick a fight with Obama helps keep the presumptive GOP nominee from being overshadowed by the battle between Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) for the Democratic presidential nomination. It also gives him a chance to undermine confidence in Obama's foreign policy experience before the Democrat can turn full attention to the general election.
But even as he focuses on a potentially decisive showdown with Clinton in four contests next Tuesday, Obama has made it clear he won't ignore the attacks from McCain. Generating headlines about an Obama-McCain showdown could also benefit Obama by creating the sense among Democratic primary voters that he is on the verge of becoming their party's nominee and also that he can hold his own against the Republicans.
Speaking to 7,000 voters at Ohio State University on Wednesday, Obama answered McCain's mocking tone with his own.
"McCain thought that he could make a clever point by saying, 'Well let me give you some news, Barack, al-Qaeda is in Iraq.' Like I wasn't reading the papers, like I didn't know what was going on. I said, 'Well, first of all, I do know that al-Qaeda is in Iraq; that's why I've said we should continue to strike al-Qaeda targets.
"I have some news for John McCain, and that is that there was no such thing as al-Qaeda in Iraq until George Bush and John McCain decided to invade Iraq." The crowd roared its approval. "I've got some news for John McCain. He took us into a war along with George Bush that should have never been authorized and should have never been waged. They took their eye off the people who were responsible for 9/11, and that would be al-Qaeda in Afghanistan that is stronger now than at any time since 2001.
"So John McCain may like to say he wants to follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell, but so far all he's done is follow George Bush into a misguided war in Iraq that's cost us thousands of lives and billions of dollars."
"As commander in chief, I will always reserve the right to make sure that we are looking out for American interests," Obama said in the debate. "And if al-Qaeda is forming a base in Iraq, then we will have to act in a way that secures the American homeland and our interests abroad."
McCain seized on those words, saying they showed a lack of understanding of the terrorist group's activities in the country.
The Sunni extremist group al-Qaeda in Iraq was formed in response to the U.S. presence in Iraq. The U.S. military thinks that the group's activities -- such as large-scale car bombings of Shiite gathering places -- peaked in 2006 and that American forces destroyed much of the organization in a series of raids last year.
The group is "frustrated" but "not defeated," Maj. Gen. Jeffrey W. Hammond, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, said in an interview last month. U.S. officials say that coalition forces have pushed the group largely out of Baghdad and Anbar province, but that it remains active in the upper Tigris River valley.
McCain's attack on Obama's answer is the latest attempt by the Republican to cast Obama as inexperienced on foreign policy. Several months ago, McCain criticized Obama for suggesting that he would bomb al-Qaeda targets in Pakistan without that country's approval.
"The best idea is to not broadcast what you are going to do. That's naive," McCain said earlier this month. "You make plans and you work with the other country that is your ally and friend, which Pakistan is. You don't broadcast and say you are going to bomb the country without their permission or without consulting them. This is the fundamentals of the conduct of national security policy."


Em destaque: Artigo ressalta as diferenças entre Obama e McCain sobre a condução da política externa americana e o Iraque.
Fonte: Washington Post
Autor: Michael D. Shear and Shailagh Murray
Publicação: 28 de fevereiro 2008
Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/27/AR2008022703826_2.html?wpisrc=newsletter&sid=ST2008022703886

McCain Dominates Big States

Huckabee, Romney Stay Alive As They Score Wins in the South and West

By Michael D. Shear and Peter Baker

Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, February 6, 2008; 3:40 AM

Sen. John McCain surged closer toward the Republican nomination yesterday by capturing the biggest Super Tuesday states, including California, but failed to knock out his rivals, who deprived him of victories across GOP strongholds in the South and West.

As millions of Republicans went to the polls in 21 states, the senator from Arizona racked up hundreds of delegates on the strength of winner-take-all primaries in the Northeast and elsewhere. But his inability to win in more than half of the states voting yesterday complicated his hopes of rallying the party behind his candidacy.

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee scored a surprising sweep of his native South, while former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney picked up a number of states in the West but fell short in critical battlegrounds that would have established him as McCain's primary challenger. Huckabee and Romney vowed last night to stay in the race as it moves to Virginia, Maryland and the District on Tuesday.

The multiple-front clash represented a virtual national primary as Republicans voted to choose a standard-bearer, with more states voting at once than in any other GOP nomination battle. McCain appeared poised to emerge with roughly half of the 1,191 delegates he needs to clinch the nomination, a huge one-day take after an epic, year-long fight to define the Republican Party in a post-George W. Bush era.

McCain easily captured New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, after being endorsed by former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, a defeated rival. McCain also won Missouri, Arizona, Illinois, Oklahoma and Delaware. His victory in California appeared to be by a large margin, though Romney will probably collect a sizable share of the state's delegates because they are apportioned by congressional district.

Speaking to supporters in Phoenix even before California's results were announced, McCain said, "We won some of the biggest states in the country," and added, "Tonight, I think we must get used to the idea that we are the Republican Party front-runner for the nomination of president of the United States." He paused before adding, "And I don't really mind it one bit."

McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam who has carved out a career as a blunt-talking maverick on Capitol Hill, moved closer to the presidential prize he has been seeking for more than a decade by earning support across the country. But the voting made clear that serious challenges remain for McCain: to clear the field of rivals who question his commitment to conservative ideology, and to consolidate a fractured party.

Romney and Huckabee together kept at least 11 states out of McCain's column, and each claimed to be the alternative to the front-runner, who struggled throughout the day to appeal to conservatives. "Over the past few days, a lot of people have been saying this is a two-man race," Huckabee told supporters last night in Little Rock. "And you know what? It is. And we're in it."

Beside his home state of Arkansas, Huckabee prevailed in Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia. He also emerged victorious at a West Virginia convention with the help of McCain supporters, who on a second ballot threw their support to the former Arkansas governor to block a victory by Romney.

After surging into the top tier of candidates by winning the Iowa caucuses last month, Huckabee had struggled to win elsewhere. But his campaign was energized yesterday by the same evangelical voters who supported him in the Hawkeye State. Still, his path to the nomination appeared difficult once the campaign leaves the Deep South.

"Huck obviously has had a big night," said Steve Schmidt, a top adviser to McCain, who has largely viewed Romney as his chief competition for the past month. "Mitt had a very bad night. You can't say you're 'Mr. Conservative' and not win the South."

Romney won his home state of Massachusetts, as well as Utah -- home to his Mormon Church -- Minnesota, Montana, Colorado, North Dakota and Alaska. But despite late polls that had suggested a close race in California and a last-minute campaign trip there, Romney did not win in the most populous state.

Speaking before the results in California had come in, Romney told supporters in Boston that "the one thing that is clear is that this campaign is going on." He said that "there are some people who thought it was all going to be done tonight," but he pledged to "go all the way to the convention, and we're going to win this thing."

With a little more than half of the delegates allocated after midnight, McCain had collected 420 delegates, compared with 130 for Romney, 99 for Huckabee and 5 for Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.), according to an Associated Press count. Once delegates from California and other states that had not completely reported are included, Republican strategists expected McCain will easily top 500. He entered yesterday's contests with 102 delegates from previous victories.

But even if he can ultimately dispatch Romney and Huckabee in the coming weeks, McCain still has a difficult task persuading core Republican voters to stand with him. Many conservative leaders and talk-show hosts remain angered by McCain's 2000 denunciation of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, his votes against Bush's tax cuts and his attempts to liberalize immigration laws.

Among self-described conservatives voting yesterday, exit polling showed that McCain lost to Romney or Huckabee in many states, a sign that the anger and mistrust vented on talk shows in recent days is shared by many of the party faithful. In California, Romney held a double-digit lead over McCain among conservative voters. Romney even won conservative voters in McCain's home state of Arizona.

"He's got to come out of this feeling good, but I'm sure he can't feel that the cat's in the bag," former House majority leader Richard K. Armey (R-Tex.) said of McCain.

"Like everything else in his life, John McCain continues to do things the hard way," said former Republican National Committee chairman Rich Bond, a McCain supporter. The victory in California, Bond added, makes it hard for Romney to catch McCain now. Without it, "he's got Mission Impossible in front of him."

Romney did better among late-deciding voters than he did among those who had made up their minds before the past few days, a sign that his relentless attacks leading to Super Tuesday may have succeeded in painting McCain as a liberal on immigration, campaign finance, taxes and energy policy. Exit polls showed that Romney swamped McCain among voters who consider illegal immigration the most important issue.

Romney spokesman Kevin Madden said that the campaign has had "robust fundraising" in the past week, and that that after yesterday's blitz of primary and caucus votes, the calendar favors his candidate. Campaign officials planned to meet tomorrow to map a strategy for the primaries in Virginia, Maryland and the District.

But the voting did not appear to indicate much support for the principal argument advanced by Romney's campaign in recent weeks -- that a former venture capitalist is better equipped to steer the country away from a possible recession. McCain came out on top among voters most worried about the economy, as well as with those who said Iraq and terrorism are their top concerns.

McCain and Romney have clashed for weeks over foreign policy and the economy as other rivals dropped out and the race narrowed. McCain has argued that his decades of experience in foreign policy qualify him as a wartime president. Romney seized on the nation's worsening economy as proof that his experience in the business world is what the country needs.

A multimillionaire, Romney has spent more than $35 million of his fortune in pursuing the presidency. But his long-planned strategy to win early-voting states fizzled, with Huckabee winning the Iowa caucuses and McCain the New Hampshire primary. Romney refused to concede the nomination to McCain as the acrimonious campaign continued into South Carolina and Florida.

Even before voting began, Romney's campaign vowed to continue on, saying the candidate will attend an annual conference of GOP conservatives this week in Washington -- a venue that aides said he will use to highlight McCain's struggles with the party base.

Huckabee vaulted from obscurity to the top tier with his surprise victory in Iowa a month ago but had struggled to replicate that success. He showed yesterday that he continues to attract a lot of support from evangelicals.

But Huckabee's continued presence also served to split the anti-McCain vote, frustrating Romney, who has tried to turn the campaign into a one-on-one confrontation with the longtime senator from Arizona. GOP strategists think much of Huckabee's support would have gone to Romney had Huckabee not remained in contention.

"Huckabee is preventing Romney from winning enough delegates to be competitive," said Sara M. Taylor, a former Bush White House political director who is neutral in the race. "He's only cemented McCain's front-runner status."

Hoping for some early momentum on Super Tuesday, Romney flew through the night Monday to arrive in Charleston, W.Va., to appear at the state's GOP convention. "I am the only candidate who can stop John McCain," Romney said at a breakfast meeting with West Virginia Republicans.

Romney went on to win 41 percent of votes at the convention, followed by Huckabee with 33 percent and McCain with 15 percent, but fell short of the majority required for victory. On the second ballot, McCain's supporters threw their support to Huckabee, giving him the victory and denying Romney the 18 delegates at stake.

Romney campaign manager Beth Myers denounced the outcome: "Unfortunately, this is what Senator McCain's inside-Washington ways look like: He cut a backroom deal with the tax-and-spend candidate he thought could best stop Governor Romney's campaign of conservative change."

McCain and Huckabee dismissed the complaint as sour grapes. "Well, yesterday, he was chiding me. He said not to whine," Huckabee said. "Today, he's changed his position on whining, and today he's for whining. So once again, Mitt has been able to take both sides of all issues, including whining."

That tone was reflected in the last 24 hours, in which McCain and Romney launched harsh television and Internet ads accusing each other of being closet liberals. The two also quarreled over comments by Romney that McCain said disparaged former senator Robert J. Dole (R-Kan.).

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Em destaque: O resultado da Super Terça para os candidatos republicanos

Fonte: The Washington Post
Publicação: 6 de fevereiro 2008
Autores: Michael D. Shear e Peter Baker
Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/06/AR2008020600763.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter&sid=ST2008020601339

Clinton and Obama Trade Victories

N.Y. Senator Withstands Push By Surging Rival in Key Battlegrounds

By Dan Balz and Anne E. KornblutWashington Post Staff Writers Wednesday, February 6, 2008; Page A01

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton won victories over Sen. Barack Obama in California, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York last night, giving her presidential campaign a crucial boost. But Obama countered by winning of a string of states, including the general election battleground of Missouri, in the seesaw race for the Democratic nomination.
The results ensured that the fierce contest for delegates will continue into critical primaries in Texas and Ohio on March 4, and possibly beyond, in what has become the party's most competitive race in at least a quarter of a century.
Clinton claimed four of the five biggest prizes in Super Tuesday's 22-state Democratic competition. She also captured Arizona, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Tennessee. Those victories helped stem what appeared to be gathering momentum around Obama's candidacy since he won in South Carolina on Jan. 26.
But Obama won in more places than his New York rival, racking up victories in his home state of Illinois, as well as Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, North Dakota and Utah. His narrow victory in Missouri came after Clinton appeared on the brink of winning there. Only the outcome in New Mexico remained unresolved early this morning.
In many of the states Clinton won, Obama had surged from far behind to narrow the gap in the days before Super Tuesday. Her ability to hold off his charge brought a sense of relief to her campaign advisers, but the likelihood that neither would emerge with a significant advantage in delegates was a sign that their roller-coaster competition would continue.
Clinton appeared before supporters in New York shortly before the polls closed in California, thanking her supporters for voting "not just to make history, but to remake America." Saying that Republicans want "eight more years of the same," she added, "They've got until January 20th, 2009, and not one day more." She also presented herself as a candidate who "won't let anyone Swift-boat this country's future."
Obama, who was in Chicago, came out later and, while congratulating Clinton on her successes, drew a contrast with his rival, saying voters in November deserve a clear choice between the Republican and Democratic nominees.
"It's a choice between going into this election with Republicans and independents already united against us, or going against their nominee with a campaign that has united Americans of all parties, from all backgrounds, from all races, from all religions, around a common purpose," he said. "It's a choice between having a debate with the other party about who has the most experience in Washington, or having one about who is most likely to change Washington, because that's a debate that we can win."
Clinton and Obama were fighting not just for state-by-state victories but also for an advantage in the nearly 1,700 delegates up for grabs yesterday. Aides to both candidates said that, regardless of how the two carved up the states, neither would emerge with enough of an edge to claim a substantial advantage.
Delegate tallies lagged well behind the state-by-state results, given the complex formulas the Democrats use to determine the allocation.
Clinton's victory in Massachusetts was especially sweet for her campaign, coming despite endorsements of Obama by Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kerry and Gov. Deval L. Patrick that gave him hope for substantial momentum heading into yesterday's primaries.
Her advisers called it "the biggest surprise of the night." Obama advisers had warned that Clinton's lead may be too large to overcome, but the loss was nonetheless a disappointment to his campaign.
Though the Clinton team immediately hailed Massachusetts as an upset, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino said in an interview just after the race was called that he was "not surprised at all" by her win in the state. Clinton won the Bay State largely on the strength of her support from women, who made up more than half the electorate from coast to coast.

Exit polls from the National Election Pool showed Clinton with a double-digit lead among women in the state, where she attended college as an undergraduate. She also won among self-identified independents, normally a solid constituency for Obama.
"We feel quite good about how those returns have come in," Mark Penn, the chief strategist for Clinton, said in a conference call with reporters shortly after 10 p.m. As he spoke, cheers erupted in the background at the campaign's headquarters in Arlington.
Penn argued that people who made up their minds late were trending toward Clinton, though early exit data suggested there was an even split between the two.
In a race that will come down to delegates, Clinton officials said they will wait to see results from all the states before declaring a delegate count -- but predicted she would ultimately be ahead.
"By the end of today, with pledged delegates and superdelegates, we expect to be ahead of Senator Obama in overall delegates," said Guy Cecil, Clinton's field director.
In the South, Clinton more than held her own. She lost Georgia -- one of only a few states where she lost among women; the same was true in Illinois -- but triumphed in Arkansas, her former home state, and Oklahoma and Tennessee. And the race continued to split along racial lines, as Obama won about eight in 10 African Americans, a trend that put him over the top in Georgia and Alabama.
Still, he won nearly four in 10 white voters in Georgia and fared better among white men there than he had in an earlier racially polarized race in South Carolina, giving his campaign a chance to claim that he had broadened his support in the intervening weeks. Victories in Connecticut and North Dakota bolstered that claim.
The race in Missouri remained close even as other states were called; an early tally in Clinton's favor proved premature as the night wore on. But the state reflected a wider sweep for Obama among African Americans: He won more than three-fourths of the state's black voters, while Clinton beat him among senior citizens by a margin of 2 to 1.
The demographics of the Democratic race suggested a contest that is dividing along racial and gender lines, as Clinton won 7 in 10 white women in New Jersey, as well as three-quarters of Hispanic women.
The candidates divided men in New Jersey evenly. In Tennessee, Clinton won white voters of all ages; Obama won blacks across the board. Similar splits occurred in California, where black voters chose Obama 5 to 1. But the two split the white vote in California, where Clinton made up the difference by winning Hispanics 2 to 1.
Twenty-two states held Democratic contests yesterday, with 1,681 pledged delegates to the party's national convention in Denver at stake. The 22 states account for 52 percent of all pledged delegates awarded during the nomination battle.
There will be 4,049 delegates attending the national convention; a candidate needs 2,025 to secure the nomination. Of that total, 3,253 are pledged delegates, which means their votes are determined by the caucus or primary results in their state. The remainder are superdelegates, who are free to vote for whomever they prefer.

Going into yesterday's balloting, Obama had 63 delegates to Clinton's 48 in the first four party-sanctioned contests of the year -- Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. Clinton held a lead among superdelegates. Various news organizations count the distribution of superdelegates differently, but Clinton is widely agreed to lead Obama by a margin of about 90.
Clinton voted in New York yesterday morning and spent most of the day conducting interviews, her voice on the verge of vanishing after days of cross-country campaigning. "The stakes are huge," she said as she cast her ballot at an elementary school near her Chappaqua home.
Obama voted in his home town of Chicago, at an elementary school in the Hyde Park neighborhood.
Throughout the day, Clinton advisers worked to play down expectations. Even before any polling stations were closed, Penn and senior adviser Howard Wolfson held a conference call with reporters to announce that Clinton had agreed to a series of debates between now and the March 4 primaries and invited Obama to join her. Doubting that they would be able to pull off a decisive victory yesterday -- and with a slate of races in the weeks ahead that they believe will skew in Obama's favor -- the Clinton campaign is now banking on doing well in Texas and Ohio on March 4. Penn said Clinton would participate in an ABC News debate Sunday, a Fox News debate Monday in Washington, a Feb. 27 CNN debate in Ohio and a Feb. 28 MSNBC debate in Houston.
"The campaign believes it's critically important that we continue the debates between Senator Obama and Senator Clinton," Penn said. "We think it's critically important that people get to see the candidates face to face."
Obama advisers declined to commit to a new round of debates. The next important competitive contests will be next Tuesday, when Maryland, Virginia and the District will hold primaries.
Staff writers Perry Bacon Jr., with Clinton, and Shailagh Murray, with Obama, and polling director Jon Cohen polling analyst Jennifer Agiesta and research director Lucy Shackelford in Washington contributed to this report.

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Em destaque: O resultado da Super Terça para os candidatos democratas

Fonte: The Washington Post
Publicação: 6 de fevereiro 2008
Autores: Dan Balz e Anne E. Kornblut
Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/05/AR2008020502368.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wedted811_http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/0http://www.washingtonpost.com:80/ac2/wp-dyn?node=admin/registration/register&sub=AR&sid=ST2008020600567

Primaries and Caucuses

O jornal The Washington Post possui uma página onde, a partir de um mapa dos Estados Unidos, podemos acompanhar a vitória dos candidatos democratas e republicanos na SuperTerça assim como anda a competição entre eles no quadro geral americano.

Aqui o link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/interactives/campaign08/primaries/?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter

A página é constantemente atualizada, não possuindo uma data de publicação precisa.

Choose your Candidate

O site do jornal norte-americano The Washington Post possui uma ferramenta interessante para ajudar os eleitores a escolher seu candidato.

Através de um quiz, o internauta deve responder a algumas questões sobre sua posição em relação a política que o governo deve tomar para, por exemplo, a Segurança Nacional americana, a Guerra do Iraque, o Aborto, o Controle de Armas entre civis, o Casamento Gay e etc. As opções dadas como resposta para o quiz, por sua vez, são as posições dos candidatos norte-americanos àquelas questões (no caso, existe um quiz para os candidatos democratas e outro para os candidatos republicanos).

Assim, após responder para qual posição o leitor é mais pendente, ele também tem a possibilidade de assinalar o quanto aquela questão pesa para a escolha de seu candidato.

A partir disso o site calcula qual é o candidato com quem suas idéias pessoais mais combinam, também mostrando o número de pontos que cada um deles angariou em seu quiz, especificando os assuntos em que houve a concordância de sua posição pessoal com a do candidato.

Aqui o link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/interactives/candidatequiz/