Democrat presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama extended his front-running campaign into West Virginia, a bastion of white, middle-class voters and confidently broached the subject of victory in a presidential contest playing out on Republican turf.
Republican rival Senator John McCain found himself looking for a break as he was largely forced to defend his standing in states that US President George W. Bush won four years ago.
“We are now 19 days not from the end but from the beginning,” Obama told the crowd at a New York fundraiser on Thursday, a day after the final presidential debate.
PHOTO: AFP
He noted the “extraordinary” work ahead for the next president.
Still, the Democrat warned against getting “giddy or cocky,” reminding supporters with two words: “New Hampshire” — reminding supporters of his loss in that state early in the primary season after winning the first contest in Iowa.
“You know, I’ve been in these positions before where we were favored and the press starts getting carried away and we end up getting spanked,” he said.
A day after the fierce and personal live presidential debate, Obama and McCain were on the same platform again, probably for the last time in the campaign, helping raise charity funds in New York City at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner by exchanging wittier jibes.
Obama facetiously told the audience that his own “greatest strength would be my humility.”
Said Obama: “Contrary to the rumors you have heard, I was not born in a manger. I was actually born on Krypton and sent here by my father, Jor-el, to save the planet Earth,” a reference to Superman.
McCain joked that Obama “is ready for any contingency, even the possibility of a sudden and dramatic market rebound. I’m told that at the first sign of a recovery, he will suspend his campaign and fly immediately to Washington to address the crisis,” said the Republican, who drew criticism when he suspended his campaign a few weeks ago and flew to Washington during the crisis.
Obama’s West Virginia foray may signal that financial concerns are trumping any prejudices among white working-class voters. A recent AP-GfK poll showed that Obama, who would be the country’s first black president, has inched up among whites with no college education while McCain has lost significant ground.
Obama lost West Virginia’s Democratic primary to Clinton by 41 percentage points last May as he struggled to win over working-class whites. But Democrats familiar with the strategy say the economic turmoil in the hard-hit state and TV ads meant for neighboring Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia that have spilled over onto West Virginia televisions have made the state competitive. The last Democrat to win there was former president Bill Clinton in 1996.
These Democrats say Obama’s campaign also is considering pouring money into reliably Republican Kentucky and may yet return to the airwaves in North Dakota and Georgia.
McCain is trying to change the dynamics and beat the odds, but even Republicans acknowledge it’s largely out of McCain’s hands.
“It appears Obama is trying to build a mandate,” said Steve Lombardo, a Republican pollster in Washington. “Can McCain do anything to turn it around? Doubtful.”
Obama’s lead appears to be more pronounced in the state races. An Associated Press analysis shows Obama with the advantage in states representing 264 electoral votes — just shy of the 270 needed for victory. McCain is favored in states representing 185 votes, with six states totaling 80 electoral votes up in the air.
Also See: Presidential election practically over for McCain, pollsters say
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing