Friday On The Campaign Trails

I went to several stories and have put together a compilation of what has been happening with the political candidates of both parties today, and a very busy day it was, from a top adviser resigning to a show of McCains famous Temper:

Obama adviser resigns after calling Clinton a 'monster' ... McCain repeatedly cuts off reporter in testy exchange ... Clinton, in Mississippi, again raises possibility of ticket with Obama ... McCain calls for tax cuts, job training to lift the faltering economy ... RNC names team to help elect McCain, other Republicans in fall.
Obama camp rejects adviser's comments
An adviser to Barack Obama resigned Friday after calling rival Hillary Rodham Clinton "a monster" and saying that Obama may not be able to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq within a year as he has promised.
Samantha Power, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, made the comments in two separate interviews with foreign media while promoting her latest book. The "monster" comment, which led to her resignation, came in an interview with The Scotsman. She immediately tried to keep it from appearing in print. "She is a monster, too — that is off the record — she is stooping to anything," The Scotsman quoted Power as saying. A few hours after the comments were published, Power, an unpaid adviser and Harvard professor, resigned. "I made inexcusable remarks that are at marked variance from my oft-stated admiration for Senator Clinton and from the spirit, tenor and purpose of the Obama campaign," she said in a statement distributed by the Obama campaign. Power told RTE, Ireland's public broadcast service, that she spoke with Obama by phone Friday. "He made it absolutely clear that we just couldn't make comments like this in his campaign. I really hope I haven't done him any harm because I know he's been trying to run such a clean campaign," she said.

Power's comments about Iraq came in an interview with the BBC. She said Obama's position is that withdrawing all U.S. troops within 16 months is a "best-case scenario" that he will revisit if he becomes president. Obama has actually shortened his original 16-month commitment to say he'll end the war in 2009. Obama advisers say President Bush's plan to draw troops down to 15 brigades this year means Obama could complete the removal in a year.
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McCain flashes temper at reporter
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Republican Sen. John McCain, showing a flash of the temper he is known for, repeatedly cut off a reporter Friday when asked whether he had spoken to Democratic Sen. John Kerry about being his vice president in 2004. "Everybody knows that I had a private conversation. Everybody knows that, that I had a conversation," McCain told the reporter. "And you know it, too. No. You know it, too. No. You do know. You do know."

The reporter, Elisabeth Bumiller of The New York Times, was following up on a question McCain had answered at a campaign event Friday morning in Atlanta. Asked if he might consider Kerry as a running mate, since Kerry asked him in 2004, McCain said no. Afterward, on a campaign flight, Bumiller said she looked in the Times' archives and that McCain had denied talking with Kerry in a May 2004 story. McCain interrupted, saying that everyone knew he had a private conversation, and he kept interrupting as she tried to follow up. McCain clearly was irate. "I don't know what you read or heard of, and I don't know the circumstances," McCain said. "Maybe in May of '04 I hadn't had a conversation."
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Clinton again raises running with Obama
Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday again raised the possibility that she might run with rival Barack Obama on the Democratic presidential ticket. Speaking to voters in Mississippi, Clinton said: "I've had people say, 'Well, I wish I could vote for both of you.' Well, that might be possible someday. But first I need your vote on Tuesday." It is the second time this week that she has hinted at a joint ticket with the Illinois senator; he has not ruled it out but says it is premature to be having those discussions.

The town hall meeting at a train depot in Hattiesburg was Clinton's second appearance in Mississippi, where 33 delegates will be allocated in its Democratic presidential primary Tuesday. Clinton has already sought to lower expectations in the state, where Obama is expected to do well, largely because of his increasing appeal among black voters. Mississippi's population is 37 percent black. "I know that I may have an uphill battle here in the state, I appreciate that," Clinton said.
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McCain calls for tax cuts, job training
Republican John McCain, who has said economics isn't his strong suit, said Friday that tax cuts and job training are needed to lift an economy that is either in recession or headed toward one.

McCain was responding to a report showing widespread job losses amid the housing and credit crisis. The Labor Department said employers cut jobs by 63,000 in February, the most in five years. "I think the fact of the matter is, many American families are hurting very badly, particularly those in states like Ohio, Michigan, parts of Illinois, those states that really relied on manufacturing jobs and saw those jobs leave," McCain told employees of Chick-fil-A Inc. at a town hall-style meeting in Atlanta. "And we as a nation have not done enough to help those workers find new employment, new training, new education," he said.

The Arizona senator said President Bush's tax cuts, passed by Congress over McCain's objections, should be made permanent so that families and companies do not see tax increases when the cuts expire in 2010. And he called for slashing corporate taxes and repealing the alternative minimum tax, which was originally aimed at the wealthy but threatens to hit millions in the middle class unless Congress continues to provide annual adjustments to it.
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RNC joins forces with McCain campaign
The Republican National Committee on Friday named four people who will help build support for the party's presidential nominee-in-waiting, John McCain, and other Republicans in the general election.

Frank Donatelli will serve as the RNC's deputy chairman and work as the liaison between the McCain campaign and the committee. Lew Eisenberg will lead the fundraising efforts, and Mike DuHaime will act as senior adviser for political operations. DuHaime served as Rudy Giuliani's campaign manager before the former New York mayor ended his bid for the White House. As "victory chairman," Carly Fiorina said she will promote McCain's business and economic policies on the campaign trail and remind voters why the Arizona senator is the best candidate for president. "This is a principled pragmatist," Fiorina said at a news conference where RNC Chairman Mike Duncan announced the positions. "He knows that to solve problems you have to reach across the aisle."
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THE DEMOCRATS
Hillary Rodham Clinton held a town-hall style meeting in Hattiesburg, Miss., before holding town-hall style meetings in Cheyenne and Casper, Wyo. Barack Obama also holds a town-hall style meeting in Casper, then a rally in Laramie, Wyo.
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THE REPUBLICANS
John McCain holds a town-hall style meeting in Atlanta and gives a speech in New Orleans.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"She is a monster, too — that is off the record — she is stooping to anything." — Samantha Power, adviser to Democrat Barack Obama. She resigned Friday after the comment about rival Hillary Rodham Clinton was published in The Scotsman.
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STAT OF THE DAY:
Only two Democratic presidential candidates have won Wyoming in a general election in the last 60 years — Harry Truman in 1948 and Lyndon Johnson in 1964

Have A Great Weekend!!