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By William Hershey
| Thursday, May 15, 2008, 10:14 AM
Republican John McCain gazed into a political crystal ball and envisioned a victory in the Iraq war and the death or capture of Osama bin Laden and his chief al Qaeda lieutenants.
Those were among the accomplishments McCain hopes to achieve by the end of a first term as president, he told an audience on Thursday, May 15 in Columbus.
“There is no longer any place in the world al Qaeda can consider a safe haven,” McCain said. “Increased cooperation between the United States and its allies in the concerted use of military, diplomatic and economic power and reforms in the intelligence capabilities of the United States has disrupted terrorist networks around the world.
McCain also said that he would hold weekly press conferences and that he would ask Congress to let him appear both the House and Senate to take questions, as the prime minister of Great Britain does in appearances before the House of Commons.
Even before McCain spoke, Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean blasted him.
“The reality behind Sen. McCain’s new rhetoric is that his plans either ignore the problems he identifies or actually makes them worse,” Dean said in a prepared statement.
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By William Hershey
| Thursday, May 15, 2008, 09:21 AM
Democrat Hillary Clinton’s supporters in Ohio and three other crucial swing states in the presidential election - Pennsylvania, Florida and Michigan - have organized to protest what they consider to be her unfair treatment, particularly from the Democratic Party.
The group, “Clinton Supporters Count Too”,held a press conference on Thursday, May 15, in downtown Columbus.
“We are a grassroots group of mostly women, all races, all demographics, that have reached the boiling point and have decided we cannot stand by and watch the huge amount of sexism and misogyny go unremarked,” Cynthia Ruccia of Bexley, a Columbus suburb, who’s part of the group in Ohio, said before the press conference.
The group has no connection to the Clinton campaign, said Ruccia.
At the press conference, the group will announce plans to campaign through the four swing states against the Democratic candidate for president if it’s not Clinton, a press release said.
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By Jessica Wehrman
| Tuesday, May 13, 2008, 11:20 AM
COLUMBUS, Ohio (ASSOCIATED PRESS) - The number of Republicans who switched sides to vote for
Democrats in Ohio’s March 4 presidential primary easily eclipsed President
Bush’s 120,000-vote margin of victory in the state that decided the
presidency four years ago, documents released Monday show.
Although a small portion of total voters, the 173,000 people who previously
voted Republican but voted Democratic in the primary could be an important
group in the November election, when Ohio is again expected to be crucial.
The party-switching in 85 of Ohio’s 88 counties with data available could be
a sign of excitement about Democratic candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and
Barack Obama. But not all of these voters can be counted on to again vote
Democratic against presumptive Republican nominee U.S. Sen. John McCain.
Continue reading "AP: Tons of Republicans switched sides in March"...
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By William Hershey
| Monday, May 12, 2008, 03:30 PM
John McCain, the all-but-certain Republican candidate for president, is expected in Columbus on Wednesday, May 14, for a fundraiser and on Thursday, May 15 for a speech.
The speech is expected to lay out policy proposals “across the spectrum of issues to put forth a vision of what a future McCain administration will look like,” his campaign said.
The AFL-CIO is getting ready to give McCain, an Arizona senator, an unfriendly welcome.
Ohio AFL-CIO President Joe Rugola plans a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, May 13, to denounce McCain trade policies.
Also, on Saturday, May 17, an estimated 1,000 union volunteers plan to visit 25,000 Ohio home to “make sure that union families know that Sen. McCain’s record on issues like trade is not in line with working people’s priorities,” a statement from the AFL-CIO said.
Jeff Sadosky, McCain campaign spokesman, said that Ohioans know the AFL-CIO’s attacks on McCain are about partisan politics, not protecting the middle class.
“Ohio’s families are hurting and they need a candidate with the toughness and credibility to bring about the changes our economy needs to get back on the right track, not empty promises and partisan politics from third party special interest groups and their candidates,” Sadosky said in an email.
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By Jessica Wehrman
| Saturday, May 10, 2008, 08:29 PM
Barack Obama Saturday scored endorsements from superdelegates in Ohio, Utah and Arizona, putting him in the lead among superdelegates for the first time, according to the Associated Press.
Among the superdelegates he gained was Dave Regan, a labor leader from Ohio who was selected as a superdelegate Saturday.
Here’s the story.
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By Anthony Shoemaker
| Saturday, May 10, 2008, 03:23 PM
U.S. Rep. John Boehner, R-West Chester, said the continuing fight for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination is good for Republican John McCain.
“The longer they fight … that’s fine with me,” the House minority leader told a crowd at the Butler County Lincoln Day dinner on Friday night.
Boehner (right) said the damage that U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama are doing to each other is “serious.”
“McCain is in a solid position to win this year’s election,” Boehner said.
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By William Hershey
| Saturday, May 10, 2008, 11:36 AM
The Ohio Democratic Party doesn’t want anything to do with Marc Dann (pictured), the embattled Ohio attorney general who was elected in 2006 with the party’s endorsement.
The party made that official on Saturday, May 10, as the executive committee, by a voice vote, adopted a resolution that says “the Ohio Democratic Party no longer recognizes Marc Dann as an endorsed Democratic Statewide officeholder.”
The resolution also kicked Dann off the executive committee and called on him to resign as attorney general.
Dann got some support from the Youngstown area, where he lives. Dorothy McLaughlin, an 85-year-old retired sheriff’s deputy from Struthers, a Youngstown suburb, shouted out the only “no” when a voice vote on the resolution was taken.
The vote came a day after Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, and Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland, announced that next week the legislature will authorize Inspector General Tom Charles to launch an independent investigation of the scandals that have rocked the attorney general’s office.
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Still no evidence. Just Republican rhetoric. Kind of like the old Nixon lies. If BinLadin exists,