The newest polls show that Senator Hillary Clinton is the strongest democratic candidate to take on John McCain in November, winning by 10 points.

Over the past two weeks since the Pennsylvania primary, there has been a dynamic shift in opinion on who would be the strongest democratic candidate against McCain in the general election, said Geoff Garin, chief strategist for the Clinton Campaign in a conference call today. Clinton has a comfortable lead on McCain in key swing states like Ohio and Florida, which is not the case for Obama.

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A confident, focused Hillary Clinton took the stage as the last of the three presidential candidates to speak at the annual Associated Press luncheon this afternoon. Clinton focused on promoting the initiatives she supports and, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, avoided slamming her Democratic adversary Barack Obama and Republican opponent, John McCain.

The introduction to Clinton’s speech was similar to McCain’s, in that it discussed her support of a “shield law” to a crowd composed of mainly journalists, whom she thanked for their “courage” to report the news.

Clinton, like Obama’s speech did Monday afternoon, discussed the “power of the presidency” that she claimed has been abused under the Bush Administration. Clinton noted her intention to eliminate the “imperial” presidency Bush operates under. She criticized the current administration for “ignoring” and “rewriting” laws as they see fit.

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Senior adviser Steve Schmidt and senior policy adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin for Sen. McCain’s presidential campaign discuss McCain’s economic plan during a conference call today. They say McCain’s vision is to help the American worker through an alternative tax system and a temporary summer gas tax holiday, and to promote economic growth by reducing corporate tax rates. (32:00)

 

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Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign held a conference call with senior adviser Steve Schmidt and senior policy adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin to discuss McCain’s remarks in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania on the economy. Schmidt began however by mentioning presidential candidate Sen. Obama’s comment on bitterness influencing voter actions and beliefs, and he said this has become an important and defining moment of the race because it shows how Obama feels toward people in the country.

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The building Trade National Legislative Conference celebrated its 100 Year Anniversary with an appearance by Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama (D-IL).

U.S. Senator Claire C. McCaskill introduced the candidate. In her presentation, she emphasized on the advantages of Obama being a president. In her opinion Obama will be “the best President the U.S. has seen.” Criticism on the present administration was also addressed by Sen. McCaskill such as “our president has messed this country.”

Senator Obama started off by raising some questions that the people have been thinking about lately. Questions like the future of the next generation, the economy and so forth. He said “These are the same kinds of questions I heard over two decades ago after I turned down a job on Wall Street and went to work as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago.” He then continued his speech by saying he is aware of all the difficulties, complications and challenges that a working family undergoes, since he went to college on loans and saw his mother scared of getting sick, because of a chance of not being able to pay her bills.

He also talked about his support of the unions and how he would help the people to reorganize and make unions. The current administration, he said, not only has not fought for the working families, has even “tried to stop you (the workers) fighting for yourselves.” His plan is not only to “end the failed policies of the Bush administration”, but to “end the failed system in Washington that produces those policies.”

The senator made a comment on the Republican Presidential candidate John McCain’s policies and how this country does not need another 4 years of Bush administration. He added that Senator McCain used to oppose tax cuts, “but somewhere along the way to the Republican nomination, I guess he figured that he had to stop speaking his mind and start towing the line.”

He promised to invest in future jobs, in helping the people who have served the country, in job trainings, in health care. The essential part is to invest in this country and not overseas, promote job creations and not only job-training and so forth.

He exited the room by “we are going to save this country; we are going to save this world.”

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A conference call with presidential candidate Sen. Clinton’s communication directors Howard Wolfson and Phil Singer and policy director Neera Tandan discusses the importance of the Pennsylvania primary and Sen. Obama’s remarks regarding Pennsylvania voters. They also comment on Obama’s spending in Pennsylvania and Sen. McCain’s economic plan. The directors say they believe democratic voters will unite behind their party’s nominee in November, but they remain hopeful Clinton will get the party nomination for president. (43:00)

 

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Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s communication directors Howard Wolfson and Phil Singer and policy director Neera Tandan held a conference call to discuss the state of the race. In response to Sen. Obama’s remarks on Pennsylvania voters, Singer said what ultimately matters is the substance of the comment, and that Obama has not spent enough time in Pennsylvania to get to know the communities.

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Presidential hopeful Barack Obama addressed the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the Newspaper Association of America at the Associated Press annual luncheon. Obama’s speech took full advantage of his trademark public speaking skills. More critical of his democratic opponent Hillary Clinton in his opening statement than attendees of the luncheon might have expected, Obama talked about how he was not born into any amount of wealth and understood what it took for an American to work hard to succeed.

Obama was critical of the Bush Administration’s tax cuts for the wealthy. Addressing the issue of Republican presidential candidate John McCain saying he was “out of touch” with the American people, Obama said that McCain was using his words against him and that he would “like to have” a debate with McCain over who was better able to relate to the American people.

Far and away, the most surprising moment of the luncheon came when the speech moderator accidentally referred to Osama bin Laden as “Obama bin Laden.” Addressing a sincerely shocked audience, Obama coolly

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Presidential hopeful John McCain (R-AZ) spoke at the Associated Press Annual Meeting today, answering a wide variety of questions concerning everything from his relationship with the press to his stances on the war and ideas about restoring the sagging American economy.

McCain talked about how he hoped to build a strong relationship with the press, who he said often misinterpret his statements. Regarding the Shield Law, McCain said he felt the public should know what goes on behind “closed doors” by government officials, but at the same time laws and courts should outline what information can and cannot be released. Speaking to a group of reporters obviously concerned about such free- speech issues, the Senator said anything that could potentially allow Islamic radicals to have an advantage against us should be questioned.

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The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) is meeting in Washington, D.C. this week for their 2008 Legislative Conference. They held an education policy discussion this morning with the presidential campaigns. Catherine Brown from Sen. Clinton’s campaign, Phil Handy from Sen. McCain’s campaign, and Steve Robinson from Sen. Obama’s campaign each spoke on their candidate’s top issues for education.

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