California Takes Center Stage in White House Race
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California Takes Center Stage in White House Race
By Rob Woolard
Agence France-Presse
Saturday 02 February 2008
Los Angeles - For years little more than a lucrative afterthought in the race for the White House, California has emerged as a key battleground in the 2008 presidential campaign.
The decision to give California an earlier slot in the primary calendar has led to frenzied campaigning by Republican and Democratic candidates, hungry to snap up the hundreds of delegates on offer in the most populous US state.
"California is the biggest prize there is in this country and if you can get a big share of it, it puts you that much closer to the nomination," said Kareem Crayton, a political scientist at the University of Southern California (USC).
USC politics professor Sherry Bebitch-Jeffe said California's earlier position in the primary season had given the state a say in the presidential selection process after years of being viewed as little more than a cash-cow.
"California is a microcosm of the nation, period. If we were a nation we'd have something like the eighth largest economy in the world - and that's why we've been so angry at not having a voice before," she said.
"Previously, candidates would just steal into the state, raid the ATMs and then quietly steal out again. Now they're here and they're doing public events with a frequency that we haven't seen for many, many years."
With the slew of state nominating votes on "Super Tuesday" looming on February 5, including California, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican front-runner John McCain have both opened up commanding leads in recent opinion polls.
Clinton, who has traversed California regularly over the past year in an effort to shore up support and raise millions of dollars for campaign coffers, enjoys solid support from women and the state's Latino population.
The Hispanic vote is a key demographic, where roughly one third of California's population is Latino.
A recent California Field Poll gave the former first lady a 59 percent to 19 percent lead over Barack Obama among Latinos.
Clinton has secured the endorsement of several prominent Latino leaders, most notably Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the influential veteran union activist Dolores Huerta.
A traditional liberal bastion, California's huge harvest of electoral votes is a cornerstone of any Democratic White House hopeful's strategy.
Yet its political heritage is a diverse as its geography of mountains, sprawling cities, coastlines and deserts. California lauched conservative icon Ronald Reagan and was home to disgraced Republican president Richard Nixon.
It is also the fiefdom of Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former film star who belied a monosyballic tough-guy image to forge a brand of "post partisan" politics that saw him re-elected with a landslide in 2006.
Had the Austrian-born action hero been a US native, many analysts believe he might have had the star power lacking from the current 2008 Republican field.
Even so, Schwarzenegger is wielding considerable clout in the 2008 race, having given his endorsement to Arizona senator McCain this week after previously declining to indicate a preference.
Crayton said that because the primary in California was restricted to registered Republicans - therefore excluding independents targeted by McCain - the effect of Schwarzenegger's endorsement next Tuesday would be limited.
"But it does give McCain momentum for a nationwide campaign, and it gives him the kind of national exposure he needs, not to mention a high-profile popular surrogate who can go out and campaign on his behalf," he said.
Schwarzenegger and California's prominence in the race has also helped shape some of the key election issues, notably the environment and immigration.
McCain on Wednesday said he supported California's demands to be allowed to set its own emissions standards, a policy that has brought Schwarzenegger into open conflict with the administration of President George W. Bush.
"It is a huge move for a Republican front-runner to acknowledge the problem (the environment) in such clear terms, and at least support the notion that something has to be done," Crayton said of McCain's comments.
Jonathan Wilcox, a former Republican party strategist who is now an analyst with the USC Annenberg School of Communications, meanwhile describes California as a "bellwether for causes and issues."
"Issues that California tackles often become national issues," he told AFP, adding that next Tuesday's primary could be a "stranglehold for McCain and a firewall for Clinton."
"Victory will help seal the deal for McCain, and it will steady the Hillary Express," he said.
Barack Obama for Democratic Nominee
The Los Angeles Times | Endorsement
Sunday 03 February 2008
Democrats preparing to vote in Tuesday's California primary can mark their ballots with confidence, knowing that either candidate would make a strong nominee and, if elected, a groundbreaking leader and capable president. But just because the ballot features two strong candidates does not mean that it is difficult to choose between them. We urge voters to make the most of this historic moment by choosing the Democrat most focused on steering the nation toward constructive change: We strongly endorse Barack Obama.
The U.S. senator from Illinois distinguishes himself as an inspiring leader who cuts through typical internecine campaign bickering and appeals to Americans long weary of divisive and destructive politics. He electrifies young voters, not because he is young but because he embodies the desire to move to the next chapter of the American story. He brings with him deep knowledge of foreign relations and of this nation's particular struggles with identity and opportunity. His flair for expression, both in print and on the stump, too easily leads observers to forget that Obama is a man not just of style but of substance. He's a thoughtful student of the Constitution and an experienced lawmaker in his home state and, for the last three years, in the Senate.
On policy, Obama and his rival Democratic candidate, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, are a hairsbreadth apart. Both vow to pull troops from Iraq. Both are committed to healthcare reform. Both offer candid critiques of the failed George W. Bush presidency, its blustering adventurism, its alienating stance toward other countries and its cavalier disregard for sacred American values such as individual liberty and due process of law.
With two candidates so closely aligned on the issues, we look to their abilities and potential as leaders, and their record of action in service of their stated ideals. Clinton is an accomplished public servant whose election would provide familiarity and, most important, competence in the White House, when for seven years it has been lacking. But experience has value only if it is accompanied by courage and leads to judgment.
Nowhere was that judgment more needed than in 2003, when Congress was called upon to accept or reject the disastrous Iraq invasion. Clinton faced a test and failed, joining the stampede as Congress voted to authorize war. At last week's debate and in previous such sessions, Clinton blamed Bush for abusing the authority she helped to give him, and she has made much of the fact that Obama was not yet in the Senate and didn't face the same test. But Obama was in public life, saw the danger of the invasion and the consequences of occupation, and he said so. He was right.
Obama demonstrates as well that he is open-eyed about the terrorist threat posed to the nation, and would not shrink from military action where it is warranted. He does not oppose all wars, he has famously stated, but rather "dumb wars." He also has the edge in economic policy, less because of particular planks in his platform than because of his understanding that some liberal orthodoxies developed during the last 40 years have been overtaken by history. He offers leadership on education, technology policy and environmental protection unfettered by the positions of previous administrations.
By contrast, Clinton's return to the White House that she occupied for eight years as first lady would resurrect some of the triumph and argument of that era. Yes, Bill Clinton's presidency was a period of growth and opportunity, and Democrats are justly nostalgic for it. But it also was a time of withering political fire, as the former president's recent comments on the campaign trail reminded the nation. Hillary Clinton's election also would drag into a third decade the post-Reagan political duel between two families, the Bushes and the Clintons. Obama is correct: It is time to turn the page.
An Obama presidency would present, as a distinctly American face, a man of African descent, born in the nation's youngest state, with a childhood spent partly in Asia, among Muslims. No public relations campaign could do more than Obama's mere presence in the White House to defuse anti-American passion around the world, nor could any political experience surpass Obama's life story in preparing a president to understand the American character. His candidacy offers Democrats the best hope of leading America into the future, and gives Californians the opportunity to cast their most exciting and consequential ballot in a generation.
In the language of metaphor, Clinton is an essay, solid and reasoned; Obama is a poem, lyric and filled with possibility. Clinton would be a valuable and competent executive, but Obama matches her in substance and adds something that the nation has been missing far too long - a sense of aspiration.
Why I'm Backing Obama
By Susan Eisenhower
The Washington Post
Saturday 02 February 2008
Forty-seven years ago, my grandfather Dwight D. Eisenhower bid farewell to a nation he had served for more than five decades. In his televised address, Ike famously coined the term "military-industrial complex," and he offered advice that is still relevant today. "As we peer into society's future," he said, we "must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow."
Today we are engaged in a debate about these very issues. Deep in America's heart, I believe, is the nagging fear that our best years as a nation may be over. We are disliked overseas and feel insecure at home. We watch as our federal budget hemorrhages red ink and our civil liberties are eroded. Crises in energy, health care and education threaten our way of life and our ability to compete internationally. There are also the issues of a costly, unpopular war; a long-neglected infrastructure; and an aging and increasingly needy population.
I am not alone in worrying that my generation will fail to do what my grandfather's did so well: Leave America a better, stronger place than the one it found.
Given the magnitude of these issues and the cost of addressing them, our next president must be able to bring about a sense of national unity and change. As we no longer have the financial resources to address all these problems comprehensively and simultaneously, setting priorities will be essential. With hard work, much can be done.
The biggest barrier to rolling up our sleeves and preparing for a better future is our own apathy, fear or immobility. We have been living in a zero-sum political environment where all heads have been lowered to avert being lopped off by angry, noisy extremists. I am convinced that Barack Obama is the one presidential candidate today who can encourage ordinary Americans to stand straight again; he is a man who can salve our national wounds and both inspire and pursue genuine bipartisan cooperation. Just as important, Obama can assure the world and Americans that this great nation's impulses are still free, open, fair and broad-minded.
No measures to avert the serious, looming consequences can be taken without this sense of renewal. Uncommon political courage will be required. Yet this courage can be summoned only if something profoundly different transpires. Putting America first - ahead of our own selfish interests - must be our national priority if we are to retain our capacity to lead.
The last time the United States had an open election was 1952. My grandfather was pursued by both political parties and eventually became the Republican nominee. Despite being a charismatic war hero, he did not have an easy ride to the nomination. He went on to win the presidency - with the indispensable help of a "Democrats for Eisenhower" movement. These crossover voters were attracted by his pledge to bring change to Washington and by the prospect that he would unify the nation.
It is in this great tradition of crossover voters that I support Barack Obama's candidacy for president. If the Democratic Party chooses Obama as its candidate, this lifelong Republican will work to get him elected and encourage him to seek strategic solutions to meet America's greatest challenges. To be successful, our president will need bipartisan help.
Given Obama's support among young people, I believe that he will be most invested in defending the interests of these rising generations and, therefore, the long-term interests of this nation as a whole. Without his leadership, our children and grandchildren are at risk of growing older in a marginalized country that is left to its anger and divisions. Such an outcome would be an unacceptable legacy for any great nation.
Susan Eisenhower, a business consultant, is the author of four books, most recently "Partners in Space: US-Russian Cooperation After the Cold War."
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