Elections

MIAMI - A man is being held in Florida by federal authorities on charges of threatening to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

LIMA, Ohio - Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who has contended that Barack Obama is willing to lose in Iraq to win the election, on Thursday said his rival would forfeit the war as part of an agenda that also promotes big government and high taxes.

CHICAGO - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Thursday dismissed suggestions that the nominating convention could be marred by tensions between his supporters and the die-hard backers of Hillary Rodham Clinton.

John McCain's campaign is considering a series of tactics intended to focus attention on the Republican's effort to address the economy, including a jobs-oriented tour of targeted states, an economic summit and family roundtable events "heavily tilted towards women," according to an internal memo.

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Pancakes to go?

HONOLULU - The diverse culture of the nation's 50th state — and the island nature of Hawaii itself — shaped Barack Obama's view of the world and the politics he would practice.

WASHINGTON - To understand why Barack Obama and John McCain are emphasizing solutions to the country's energy woes and have scrambled to change their positions, look no further than the voters' distress over $4-a-gallon gasoline and its wide ripple effect.

DENVER - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is seeking a way for her delegates to be heard at the Democratic National Convention, telling supporters such a step will help unify a party that split between her and Sen. Barack Obama during their hard-fought nominating contest.

Obama doubts tensions with Clinton backers will disrupt Democratic National Convention ... McCain to discuss potential job losses in Ohio from corporate merger aided by campaign manager ... Hawaii and its multiracial society influenced Obama's view of the world and politics

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Millionaire socialite Paris Hilton has jumped into the U.S. election campaign, calling Republican candidate John McCain a "wrinkly white-haired guy" and offering her own energy policy.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Hillary Clinton said Thursday she remained a wholehearted backer of Barack Obama's presidential run as her disappointed supporters refused to cede the party nomination to her fellow Democrat.

LIMA, Ohio (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain poured scorn on his Democratic rival Barack Obama on Thursday for failing to match his commitment to drilling off U.S. coasts for oil and natural gas.

One of the Democratic Party's leading electoral street fighters, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, said that Barack Obama should respond to John McCain's personal attacks with an equally personal slap.

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry blasted presumed Republican presidential nominee John McCain for using video clips of Democrats' past praise of McCain in a web-only campaign commercial released Thursday morning.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Hillary Clinton's virulent attacks on Barack Obama during their primary epic returned to haunt her Thursday as Republican White House hopeful John McCain stepped up an anti-Obama advertising blitz.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Americans are deeply dissatisfied with their health care choices and want the 2008 presidential candidates to put health care reform high on their campaign agenda, according to a poll released Thursday.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Hillary Clinton's critics said her strident attacks on Barack Obama would return as Republican fodder, and it came to pass Thursday as she made her debut in an ad for White House hopeful John McCain.

With Hillary Clinton scheduled to make her first solo campaign appearance for Barack Obama this Friday, more than seven out of 10 Democrats (72%) rate her conduct as good or excellent since dropping out of the presidential race. Sixty percent (60%) of all voters agree.

LONDON (AFP) - An ancestor of US presidential hopeful Barack Obama was embroiled in Irish politics in the 1750s and fought an attempt to rig an election, according to new genealogical research published Thursday.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Political logic augurs a Democratic triumph in looming US elections but Barack Obama's White House duel with John McCain is still a statistical tie, prompting some to wonder why he is yet to break away.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the nation would be safe under a Barack Obama presidency and that she is ruling out a shot at the vice presidency under either Obama or Republican John McCain.

NEW YORK - Pop culture sure moves quickly. Just last week, Paris Hilton was so 20 minutes ago. And John McCain was drawing snickers from pop culture aficionados for choosing her and another relative has-been, Britney Spears, in his attack ad against Barack Obama.

America loves nominating war veterans for president.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she understands some of the questions Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) raised about the surge policy in Iraq, but she says today's conditions in the war zone would be only "wishful thinking" without it.

Aug. 7 (Bloomberg) -- On June 10, John McCain lambasted Barack Obama for advocating a new Social Security payroll tax on the wealthy.

Aug. 7 (Bloomberg) -- An election-year standstill in Senate confirmation of George W. Bush's judicial nominees will give the next president a chance to tip the ideological balance of U.S. appeals courts that decide such issues as job discrimination, national security and pollution-cleanup disputes.

ARLINGTON, Va. - Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, often mentioned as a possible running mate for Republican presidential candidate John McCain, said Wednesday GOP candidates would do well to adopt a positive tone like that of McCain's Democratic rival, Barack Obama.

WASHINGTON, (AFP) - White House hopeful John McCain called for a policy "surge" to right the teetering US economy, but was scorned by his Democratic rival Barack Obama as a creature of Washington.

DENVER - A federal judge declined Wednesday to change security restrictions for protesters at the Democratic National Convention, concluding that parade routes and a demonstration zone established by the city don't infringe on their free speech rights.