A poll published yesterday established Hillary Clinton as the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, 25 hours after she declared her intention to seek to become the first woman to take the office. An ABC-Washington Post poll gave her 41 percent support among Democrats or Democrat-leaning voters, with the party's fast-rising star Barack Obama, who declared last week, on only 17 percent.
John Edwards, who is fighting on an anti-poverty and strong anti- war ticket, is in third place with 11 percent and Al Gore, the former vice-president who continues to insist he will not stand, is on 10 percent
Senator Clinton ended years of speculation on Saturday with a video announcement that she was setting up an exploratory committee, the first step to formally declaring her intention to join the race.
Although the ABC-Washington Post poll inserts a note of caution into the media frenzy over the charismatic Senator Obama, who would be the first black president, the nomination campaign still has 18 volatile months to run. Mrs Clinton's lead is much smaller, and she is even in second-place, in recent polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, two of the early states hosting Democratic primaries next January.
Mrs Clinton, who said on her video "I'm in and I'm in to win," is to visit Iowa and New Hampshire next weekend. Today, tomorrow and Wednesday she is to try to counter her image as distant by engaging in a series of internet chats.
A Newsweek poll published yesterday showed public support continuing to move towards the Democrats after their mid-term Congressional victory two months ago. Asked how they would vote in a presidential election, 49 percent said Democrat and 28 percent Republican.
The same poll suggested that opposition to Mr Bush's Iraq policy continues to grow, with 70 percent expressing disapproval with the president's handling of the war. Tomorrow Mr. Bush will try to win over the US public with his annual State of the Union speech setting out plans for domestic and foreign policy.
The already crowded and diverse field of candidates for the democrat nomination grew again yesterday when Bill Richardson, the governor of New Mexico, also announced his intention to seek to become the first Hispanic president.
He said: "Our reputation in the world is diminished, our economy has languished, and civility and common decency in government has perished after six years of president George Bush."
A plus for Mrs. Clinton in the ABC-Washington Post poll was that she enjoyed greater support among women (49 percent) than men (30 percent). She had a 76 percent favorable rating even among Democrats opposed to the Iraq war, the issue on which she is perceived to be vulnerable. She voted in the Senate for the invasion in 2002, but is now shifting to an anti-war position.
But a sign that Mr. Obama is still building up momentum came with the disclosure yesterday that the billionaire philanthropist George Soros is backing him, and celebrities such as the filmmaker Steven Spielberg are planning a fundraising event for him.
The announcement by both to set up committees to explore support for a presidential run allows them formally to begin seeking funds. Mrs. Clinton has already raised US$14 million for her run.
The Republican field is expanding too. Sam Brownback, the Republican senator, announced his candidature on Saturday. The son of a rural Kansas farmer who has become a leader among religious conservatives in Congress, he said he had decided "to take the first steps on the yellow brick road to the White House."
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS