Clinton spends Mothers Day campaigning in W.Va.

By Elise Amendola (AP)

Hillary Rodham Clinton began her presidential quest armed with talent, tenacity, fame, money, connections and a team that knew how to win. Many people believed her victory in the Democratic nomination was a sure thing. Her ultimate failing may have been in believing it, too.

Clinton had one big problem out of the gate: 40 percent or more of Americans said they\'d never vote for her. She was too polarizing. It\'s love her or hate her.

Clinton powered through that hurdle in state after state, showing grit that earned her the valuable political currency of being merely...

By Jae C. Hong (AP)

Barack Obama began sketching the outlines of his expected presidential contest against Republican John McCain on Saturday, saying the fall election will be more about specific plans and priorities than about questions of political ideology or who is more patriotic.

Barely mentioning Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama said he was open to campaigning with McCain in \"town hall\" events. But he also warned that controversial issues such as McCain\'s ties to the Keating Five savings and loan scandal are fair game, and he called McCain\'s proposal for a temporary halt in the...

By Jae C. Hong (AP)

Barack Obama began sketching the outlines of his expected presidential contest against Republican John McCain on Saturday, saying the fall election will be more about specific plans and priorities than about questions of political ideology or who is more patriotic.

Barely mentioning Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama said he was open to campaigning with McCain in \"town hall\" events. But he also warned that controversial issues such as McCain\'s ties to the Keating Five savings and loan scandal are fair game, and he called McCain\'s proposal for a temporary halt in the...

By Jake Roth (AP)

Guest lineup for the Sunday TV news shows:

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ABC\'s \"This Week\" _ Sens. Jim Webb, D-Va., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean.

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CBS\' \"Face the Nation\" _ Howard Dean.

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NBC\'s \"Meet the Press\" _ Sen. Bob Casey Jr., D-Pa.; Gov. Ed Rendell, D-Pa.; Michael Eric Dyson, author of a book on Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. ; Andrew Young, former Atlanta mayor and an aide to King during the civil rights movement.

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CNN\'s \"Late Edition\" _ Martin Luther King III; Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa.;...

By Jae C. Hong (AP)

With the racially tinged Democratic race drawing to an awkward close, Barack Obama and John McCain face the challenge of winning over \"Hillary Democrats\" _ the white, working-class voters who favored the former first lady over Obama\'s historic candidacy.

Obama and McCain clearly have set their sights on each other, a recognition of the long odds Clinton faces in trying to capture the Democratic presidential nomination. The McCain campaign figures some of her supporters might be up for grabs and won\'t necessarily vote Democratic in the general election in November.

\"I\'ve...

By Jae C. Hong (AP)

Campaigning a few miles from each other Friday, Barack Obama trained his eye on November and the GOP, while Hillary Rodham Clinton battled for her political life, trying to hang on a few more weeks or even days in hopes of denying him the Democratic presidential nomination.

Obama, increasingly confident that Clinton cannot overtake his lead, ignored her in his prepared remarks at a Portland-area workplace. Instead he pointedly criticized Republican Sen. John McCain\'s economic, health and Iraq policies, saying the probable GOP nominee would continue failed Bush administration...

By Jeff Chiu (AP)

Republican John McCain on Friday disputed blogger Arianna Huffington\'s contention that she heard him say he voted against President Bush in 2000.

In a report, Huffington insisted she heard McCain say, at a Los Angeles dinner party after the 2000 election, he had not voted for Bush.

Two other guests at the party, former \"West Wing\" actors Bradley Whitford and Richard Schiff, said they heard McCain say the same thing; they were asked by Huffington to speak Thursday to The New York Times and The Washington Post.

McCain\'s campaign said Thursday she was making up the...

By Pablo Martinez Monsivais (AP)

Barack Obama\'s sprint to the Democratic nomination received another boost Friday as two more superdelegates pledged their support, including one who dropped his backing for Hillary Rodham Clinton\'s faltering White House bid.

The two Democrats have been lobbying superdelegates _ who are not bound by state results _ to line up behind them in the final push for the nomination. While Obama has presented himself, albeit subtly, as the inevitable candidate, Clinton\'s efforts have been to ward off further defections and convince the crucial voting block that her candidacy still...

By Pablo Martinez Monsivais (AP)

Hillary Rodham Clinton, defying electoral math stacked against her, is urging supporters to ignore predictions that her White House bid was over. Barack Obama, meanwhile, was reaching out to top Democrats who could help seal a historic nomination well within his grasp.

Clinton spent some of Thursday in West Virginia _ the next battleground and where she is favored to win _ telling supporters that she had faced similar pressure to withdraw before she went on to win New Hampshire, Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania\'s primaries.

\"I\'m running to be president of all 50 states,\" said...

By Jae C. Hong (AP)

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Thursday that Republican John McCain was \"losing his bearings\" for repeatedly suggesting the Islamic terrorist group Hamas preferred Obama for president.

That brought an angry response from McCain\'s campaign, which accused Obama of trying to make an issue of McCain\'s age.

Age is a touchy subject for McCain, who turns 72 in August and would be the oldest person to be sworn in as president if elected.

The two senators have focused more intently on one another in recent weeks as Obama has moved closer to becoming the...

By Jeff Chiu (AP)

Organized labor is paying more attention to Republican John McCain as Democrat Barack Obama solidifies his status as the front-runner in the Democratic contest against Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The AFL-CIO, which has not endorsed anyone in the Democratic primary, announced Wednesday that it is sending more than 6,000 of its people to more than 22 states during the next two weekends to talk to more than 200,000 union voters about McCain.

\"Senator McCain\'s economic path would lead to disaster for America\'s working families,\" said John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, the...

By Susan Walsh (AP)

Sen. Barack Obama got a front-runner\'s welcome back at the Capitol Thursday, pressing congressional \"superdelegates\" to support him in a visit that had the look and feel of a campaign victory lap.

On the House floor, he was quickly surrounded by well-wishers calling him, \"Mr. President\" and reaching out to pat him on the back or shake his hand. The glad-handers included a few Republicans and supporters of his Democratic presidential rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

He picked up the superdelegate support of at least two lawmakers: Rep. Brad Miller of North Carolina, where...

By Charles Dharapak (AP)

Sen. Barack Obama got a front-runner\'s welcome back at the Capitol Thursday, pressing congressional \"superdelegates\" to support him in a visit that had the look and feel of a campaign victory lap.

On the House floor, he was quickly surrounded by well-wishers calling him, \"Mr. President\" and reaching out to pat him on the back or shake his hand. The glad-handers included a few Republicans and supporters of his Democratic presidential rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

He picked up the superdelegate support of at least two lawmakers: Rep. Brad Miller of North Carolina, where...

By Jeff Chiu (AP)

John McCain offered to hand out a few New York slices as he visited a fire station on a light day of campaigning Thursday.

\"Can I distribute?\" the expected Republican presidential nominee asked the firefighter holding a stack of pizza boxes at the midtown Manhattan station.

McCain also paused in front of a memorial to firefighters who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

He sat down for a brief chat in the station\'s break room, asking a rapid-fire succession of questions: \"What do you need, some equipment? What have you got? So what else do you need? Newer...

By Peter Kramer (AP)

A journalism think tank studying \"The Daily Show\" doesn\'t believe many people get their news from Jon Stewart _ because otherwise they wouldn\'t get the jokes.

The Project for Excellence in Journalism also said it was surprised at how much the Comedy Central late-night program resembles \"The O\'Reilly Factor,\" \"Hardball\" and other cable news shows in content.

The Washington-based organization asked its researchers to study a year\'s worth of \"The Daily Show\" tapes _ hardly a grim assignment _ after hearing the frequent claim that many young people learn about the...

By Randy Snyder (AP)

Kriss Riggs isn\'t one to spend her money on politicians.

\"Even the place you can donate a dollar on your taxes, I refuse to do it,\" says the 60-year-old photographer from Blue River, Ore.

Likewise for Kate Schwartz, a 24-year-old marketing expert from Chicago. Past elections, she says, always seemed far removed from young people.

\"A lot of people felt like it wasn\'t happening in my demographic,\" Schwartz said.

Not this time.

Riggs and Schwartz are foot soldiers in Barack Obama\'s 1.5-million-strong army of campaign contributors. Dozens of Associated...

By Jerry S. Mendoza (AP)

Cindy McCain says she will never make her tax returns public even if her husband wins the White House and she becomes the first lady.

\"You know, my husband and I have been married 28 years and we have filed separate tax returns for 28 years. This is a privacy issue. My husband is the candidate,\" Cindy McCain, wife of Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting John McCain, said in an interview aired on NBC\'s \"Today\" on Thursday.

Asked if she would release her tax returns if she was first lady, Cindy McCain said: \"No.\"

The Arizona senator released his tax return...

By Elise Amendola (AP)

Her voice raspy, her tone determined, Hillary Rodham Clinton urged cheering supporters on Thursday to ignore the political pundits who have declared her toast.

The former first lady declared she would move forward with her campaign and insisted anew that she, not rival Barack Obama, would be the stronger Democratic candidate to face Republican John McCain in November.

At a rally under the dome of the West Virginia Capitol, Clinton dismissed calls for her to drop out, calling the situation \"deja vu.\" She said she had faced similar pressure before going on to win New...

By J. Scott Applewhite (AP)

Prominent evangelicals urged Christian conservatives Wednesday to support \"an expansion of our concerns beyond single-issue politics,\" angering some leaders on the religious right who have been closely allied with the Republican Party.

In a 19-page document called \"An Evangelical Manifesto,\" more than 70 theologians, pastors and others said faith and politics have been too closely mixed. They warned against Christians adopting any one political view.

\"That way faith loses its independence, Christians become \'useful idiots\' for one political party or another, and the...

By Jeff Chiu (AP)

Of the Democratic presidential candidates, would Republican John McCain rather take on Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton?

\"You know, Ron Paul is still in the race,\" McCain joked Wednesday during a taping of Comedy Central\'s \"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.\"

McCain deadpanned about the marathon race between the Democrats: \"I hate to watch it. It\'s terrible. My heart goes out to them.\"

During the taping, McCain pretended to walk off the set when Stewart pressed him on whether President Bush is more of a liability for him than the Rev. Jeremiah Wright is for...

By Elise Amendola (AP)

Hillary Clinton is pushing on in her race for the Democratic White House bid, despite calls to drop out. She has events scheduled today in the upcoming primary states of Oregon, South Dakota and West Virginia. Barack Obama will be in Washington today.

With her money drained and her options dwindling, a resolute Hillary Rodham Clinton vowed to press on with her presidential bid even as she and top advisers were hard-pressed to describe a realistic path for her to wrest the nomination from Barack Obama.

After a wrenching primary outcome Tuesday in which she was routed in North...

By Jeff Chiu (AP)

IN THE HEADLINES

Evidence scant that Wright did much damage to Obama in Ind., N.C. primaries ... Michigan Dems agree to ask DNC committee to split delegates 69-59 between Clinton, Obama ... McCain\'s Navy record and medals chronicle the career, heroism of a pilot and POW

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Evidence scant that Wright hurt Obama much in Ind., N.C.

WASHINGTON (AP) _ The reaction _ or lack of it _ by Indiana and North Carolina voters to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright\'s incendiary comments emphasizes how deeply entrenched the racial lines of support are for the two Democratic presidential...

By Jeff Chiu (AP)

From his five years in a North Vietnamese prison camp to his tenure as the Navy\'s liaison to the Senate, John McCain\'s Navy record boils down to a series of unadorned paragraphs that bestow upon him some of the nation\'s top military honors.

The Navy recently released McCain\'s military record _ most of it citations for medals during his Navy career _ after a Freedom of Information Act request by The Associated Press.

McCain was awarded a Silver Star Medal for resisting \"extreme mental and physical cruelties\" inflicted upon him by his captors from late October to early...