Newest polls show Clinton is the strongest candidate to take on McCain in November

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.

According to the newest polls, Clinton is gaining more ground with blue collar voters as well as independent and swing state voters, which were previously for Obama.

“There is a dominant issue in the election – who had the knowledge and the leadership to turn this economy around,” Garin said. Clinton has been doing progressively well and voters believe she is the stronger candidate to fixing the problem of the economy.

Hillary hangs tough- doesn’t trade punches with Obama, criticizes “imperial” presidency

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.

Clinton forecast a multitude of challenges the incoming administration will have to face (fixing the economy, maintaining national security, and solving the crisis in Iraq), as she painted a portrait of herself as a leader, and longtime advocate of programs focused on helping all Americans, such as universal health care.

While Obama’s speech opened by discussing how the struggles he faced growing up have helped him understand how to relate to “everyday” Americans, Clinton modestly mentioned that she understood she was “blessed” to grow up in a middle-class household and, with government aid, fund a law-school education.

Clinton described her presidency as one that would restore the “evidence based decision making” that the Bush Administration, she argued, has strayed away from. Clinton called for an “immediate freeze on housing foreclosures” and, when asked about the role played by race in the election, said she wanted voters to base their decisions on the candidates based on their policy views, not gender or skin color.

As Clinton’s speech came to a close, she mentioning the tremendous economic success America achieved under her husband, Bill Clinton, and the lessons she learned watching him build an American powerhouse.

McCain campaign addresses economic plan to help the American worker and control government spending

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.

Schmidt also summarized McCain’s economic policy, starting with cleaning up “out of control” government spending, reducing corporate taxes, and creating plans to grow the economy, which will spur innovation and investments by the people. He also said McCain believes people are over taxed.

Holtz-Eakin said McCain’s plans have the vision to help the American worker and their family, and to clean up spending. He said McCain is proposing to eliminate the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), and offer an alternative tax system that is simpler and more transparent. He also said that the proposal for a temporary summer gas tax holiday is part of the short-tem plan to get the economy going and to look at what is hitting people in the pocket now, such as high gas and food prices.

Holtz-Eakin said the long-term plan is to promote economic growth. He said McCain’s plan includes reducing corporate tax rates so the United States is no longer uncompetitive, pursuing ways to broaden the tax base, and having a balanced budget by the time he leaves office.

Obama: “We are going to save this country; we are going to save the world."

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.”

Clinton campaign holds conference call on the state of the race, primarily in Pennsylvania

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.

Wolfson said that Clinton understands that it is unwise and inappropriate to “talk down to voters about their values and beliefs” which he said is what many believe Obama did. They said during the call that this has become an important issue in the race, and is of “tremendous importance” to voters in Pennsylvania.

Wolfson also said Obama is outspending Clinton two to one in Pennsylvania this week. He said if Obama fails to win the Pennsylvania primary it will be another sign that he is unable to win in the large states that a candidate on the Democratic ticket would need to win in November. He said the Clinton campaign believes “the road to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue runs through Pennsylvania.”

Singer discussed Obama’s refusal to release tax returns from 1997, 1998, and 1999, and said Clinton has over 20 years of tax returns in the public domain. He also said that the campaign remains confidant that there will be a resolution so that votes from the Florida and Michigan primaries will be counted.

Tandan said the economic plan that presidential candidate Sen. McCain is presenting today is a plan that American’s can not afford, and that Clinton’s economic vision is to restore the American middle class, and focuses on the middle class rather than corporate interest. She also said Clinton is laying out an agenda to ensure that a manufacturing base is maintained in the United States.

The conference call participants said they are hopeful that Clinton will get the party nomination for president, but Howard said regardless of the outcome he believes voters will unite to support the party’s candidate against McCain.