May 6, 2008
It's Primary Day - Time for Obama
Now this makes me proud to be an American! This endorsement by actor, Tom Hanks, says it best -
zjm
May 5, 2008
'Hillary Clinton a Purveyor of Snake Oil'
A Nancy Pelosi Confidant Hits Hard at Hillary Clinton's Gas-tax Gambit
Because Miller is the longtime friend and ally of the highest ranking Democrat in the land, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (who is second in the presidential succession line). Pelosi has chosen not to officially make a pick yet between Obama and Clinton. But when Miller came out for Obama back in early January, it was widely assumed he did so with Pelosi's tacit approval.NBC Deputy Political Director Mark Murray wrote at the time: "This is perhaps the closest thing to getting a Nancy Pelosi endorsement as you can come without actually getting it. Miller is incredibly close with her politically. He wouldn't be doing this without her consent of sorts."
We wonder if Pelosi also was nodding her head over the release from Miller (a one-time chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee) that lambasts the call by Clinton (as well as John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee) for suspending the federal gasoline tax through the summer.
Miller's comments are notable not only for the blunt criticism one Democrat directs at another party member -- he in so many words, he calls Clinton a purveyor of snake oil, but for the intimidation charge ... he broaches at the end of the release. Here are the quotes Miller sent out in the missive:
“The call by Sens. Clinton and McCain to temporarily suspend the federal tax on gasoline is a short-sighted stunt that will hurt consumers and do nothing to reduce the price of gas.
“American consumers and our economy need a real solution to the energy crisis, not an empty trick. You can run cars on a lot of different fuels, but snake oil isn’t one of them.
“In the hopes of winning votes, the Senators are preying on consumers’ justified anxiety about the economy without offering a solution to their real problems. There’s nothing in our history to indicate that oil companies will pass on any savings to the consumer. So despite the McCain and Clinton gas tax holiday, the price at the pump will continue to rise and oil companies will take even more of the profit.
“My constituents are reeling from the highest gas prices in the country. But they understand that we can only break the oil chokehold and bring prices down by investing in highways and mass transit, new technology, renewable energy, and energy efficiency.
“Siphoning off the political energy from these necessary steps to focus instead on a plan that some political consultants favor is cynical politics. Taking a break from the federal gas tax and the hundreds of thousands of jobs it produces is harmful to the long-term economic well-being of our country.
“Sen. Clinton knows it is not easy to pass a windfall profits tax on oil companies. We have been trying to rein in record oil profits for years, and the House has repeatedly passed legislation to roll unjustified federal oil subsidies and invest instead in renewable energy – but President Bush and Senate Republicans have blocked us. Some of the subsidies we are trying to eliminate started under President Bill Clinton’s administration.
“Sen. Clinton is trying to intimidate members of Congress into validating her bad policy prescriptions. Congress should reject her and Sen. McCain’s idea. Relief from soaring gas prices will only come from smart investments and real change in our energy policy.”
Obama Lines Up Two More Maryland Superdelegates!
Monday, May 5, 2008
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) -- Barack Obama is picking up at least two new Maryland superdelegates.
Michael Cryor, who is the state's Democratic Party chairman, is scheduled to announce his support for the Illinois senator Monday afternoon. Lauren Glover, another Maryland superdelegate, also is scheduled to pledge her support.
Obama Visits Elkart, Indiana - First Candidate Visit Since RFK in 68
By Shailagh Murray|Washington PostELKHART, Ind. -- The event was billed as "door knocking," but that was just the tip of the iceberg.
Early Sunday afternoon, the Barack Obama motorcade pulled to a stop at the corner of Bank St. and Superior St. in a tidy, working-class neighborhood near downtown here. Several neighbors had already gathered on the sidewalk, and they cheered when Obama stepped off the bus with wife Michelle and daughters Malia and Sasha. "Hey guys, how are you?" Obama called out.
He approached Rose Bias, 44, who lives two blocks away and had heard from another neighbor about a Secret Service sighting. Obama commented on the harness her son Trenton was wearing. (Bias said she had him on a leash because the toddler was apt to run off.) "Be on the lookout, you might be on the news," Obama warned her. He greeted David Romberger, 44, who is unemployed. "I'm voting for you sir," Romberger told Obama, citing the senator's "principled" opposition to the gas-tax holiday that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has proposed.
By now a few neighbors had become a small crowd. Word that Obama had arrived in Elkhart was traveling from pew to pew in local churches (more on this later), and people had begun streaming down the sidewalks. Obama joked to an aspiring dental hygeinist, "Let's see your teeth." Jarrett Himebaugh, 9, introduced himself to Obama and stated "I know why John Edwards dropped out. He got less votes than you and Hillary."
"A political scientist," Obama laughed, making his way across the intersection.
The Obamas finally made it to a few front porches. At 241 Bank St., Jody Coleman, a 33-year-old factory worker, had come outside to investigate the commotion. "I was sitting at home, online, trying to deal with a new pet, and I was like, I think Barack Obama is on my street corner," he said. Coleman told Obama that the cost of filling up his GMC Sonoma truck had jumped from $25 to $65. He isn't buying the gas-tax holiday either. "What's it going to do for one day?" he said. "That's all it would help me."
Mike and Kim Konecny greeted the Obamas at 233 Bank St. and talked about the local economy. Both are in the recreational vehicles business, a major local industry and are worried about layoffs. Obama pitched his $1,000 middle-class tax cut as a better deal. Mike, wearing a Notre Dame cap and t-shirt, said he had been undecided, "but I'm not now," he asserted.
After Michelle and the girls broke off, heading to a local park, Obama finally made it halfway down the block. The swarm had grown to around 200 people. They lined the sidewalk, creating an informal rope line, waving pens and snapping camera phones. "I don't get this response when I canvas," deadpanned Stacy McColly, a local volunteer who doorknocks for Obama almost every day. One girl, trembling, handed her phone to Obama to say hello to her friend "Hillary."
"Hi Hillary!" Obama said with a big grin. "And she supports me," he relayed to reporters standing nearby. "Oh, this isn't Hillary Clinton? Oh, Hillary Van Dyke. Nice to meet you! Thanks for your support."
Another woman handed him a phone and Obama said hello to "Grandpa Dick." At this point an hour had passed, and the candidate still had a mob waiting to greet him. "Yes! He's right here by Simpson Street! For real!" one woman yelled into her phone. "Mama, calm down. Hurry up and get down here!"
It was nearly 40 years to the day - May 2, 1968 - when the last presidential candidate came through Elkhart. That was Bobby Kennedy, of course, and he drew 3,000 people. Judging from the response on Bank St., one wonders what size crowd Obama could have gathered, had the campaign provided more than 15 minutes notice of his arrival.
Finally, Obama boarded the bus, and the motorcade traveled a mile or so to Riverview School, where Michelle and the girls were hanging out at the playground. A small mob had already gathered to see the Obama women, but when the senator showed up, it grew some more. Obama posed with babies and signed autographs. "I think we can carry Elkhart with your help," he announced. Then he agreed to shoot a few baskets.
A few baskets turned into another game of P-I-G, and this time Obama's opponents were Anthony Nowacyk, a local 14-year-old, and Rod Roberson, another neighbor, who happens to be president of the Elkhart City Council and a former Northwestern University basketball player. Roberson also knows Michelle's brother, Craig Robinson, from his Northwestern coaching days. He's the one who heard about the Obama visit while he was in church.
Obama and Roberson chatted and talked a little trash, but the candidate held his own, sinking a few impressive three-point shots (and only one air ball). "Under pressure!" Obama said, as one shot sailed through the basket. "I'm a pressure player." Soon the score was P-I for each, but then Obama missed. "I was robbed on that last one," he said, after losing the game. Nowacyk, who doesn't play on a team but was an impressive, if quiet, opponent, offered this assessment of Obama's playing abilities: "He's alright."
Another Super: Native American Leader, Kalyn Free, Endorses Obama
Kalyn Free, a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, is the founder and President of INDN's List. The Indigenous Democratic Network, INDN's List, is the only political organization that recruits, trains, and funds Indian candidates and staff and mobilizes the Indian Vote throughout America. Kalyn is honored to serve on the Democratic National Committee, having been appointed by the DNC Chairman, Governor Howard Dean.“Today, I am casting my support for a new kind of leadership and a new possibility of what America can be. Barack Obama is a once-in-a-generation kind of leader and the best hope the American people have to rebuild the erosion our collective foundation has endured the last eight years. In 2008, we must elect a President who will restore our faith in the possibilities of each and every American, including the First Americans.
“As a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, I am proud of what it means to be an American Indian. I am proud Barack Obama is committed to our unique issues and willing to tackle our toughest problems, from historical inequities and injustices to contemporary issues, like protection of our right to tribal self-determination, access to health care for our elders, and education for our children. Despite the threats that have faced our culture and our people, hope has lifted Indian people through the most difficult times. Because we remain connected to our past, our culture and our communities, we never gave up that hope. American Indians need not just progressive ideas but new and visionary leadership that inspire us to build a better future for all Americans. No President alone can rebuild the American public after eight years of George Bush’s disastrous policies and poisonous politics. I support Senator Obama because I believe the only way to rebuild America is to rebuild what makes us great – the hope and drive of the American people.
“Senator Obama is committed to bringing American Indians into the national discussion and into the political process as voters, organizers, and leaders. He will start a two-way dialogue with Tribes by coming to Indian Country to seek solutions for our unique issues and by bringing Indians into his administration.
“For centuries the First Americans have had politicians talk to them, not with them. That kind of politics-as-usual leadership hasn’t worked for Indian Country, and it isn’t working for America. Senator Obama will forge a new era for the First Americans by looking for answers in Indian Country, not from Washington lobbyists.
“I am proud to stand in solidarity with another DNC Indian superdelegates Frank LaMere (Winnebago) in support of America’s best hope for a better tomorrow, Senator Barack Obama.”
May 4, 2008
Guam Superdelegate Endorses Obama!
Jaime Paulino, a superdelegate and Vice Chair of the Guam Democratic Party, endorsed Barack Obama today: "Having grown up in Hawaii, Barack Obama understands the culture and challenges of growing up in the Pacific Islands. I feel Barack will make sure our voices and concerns are finally taken seriously in Washington. We've been looking for a leader with the character to be honest with us about the issues we face and the courage to make real change, and that's why I am proudly supporting Barack Obama for President."
This brings the total number of superdelegates to endorse Barack Obama to 257. Senator Obama is 275 delegates away from securing the Democratic nomination.Two More Key Indiana Newspapers Endorse Obama
After Much Discussion, We Like Barack ObamaThe United States is as polarized as it has ever been in its 232-year history. From the Oval Office all the way to Main Street, the division has paralyzed the country. Obama has demonstrated a unique ability to unite Americans of all ages, race and gender and has the best chance to end the culture war at home. He also could unify a country that that needs to pull together, not apart, if it expects to keep its position as world leader and restore its moral authority.
Restoring America's moral authority means finding a way to end the war in Iraq, which a majority of Americans now believe was a mistake. Obama, who opposed the war from the start, was right when he said at a Muncie appearance that if the Iraqis had not found a way to take control of their own country during the past five years, it was not likely to happen in the foreseeable future. The U.S. must find a way out of the Iraqi morass, and at the same time open a dialogue with other countries, particularly those in the Middle East, on stabilizing the region.
The fact that venerable former Indiana congressman and foreign policy expert Lee Hamilton, who was vice chairman of the Sept. 11 commission, has endorsed Obama should not be dismissed lightly."Barack Obama has the best opportunity to create a new sense of national unity and to transcend divisions within this country, not by ignoring them or smoothing them over, but by working together with candor and civility to meet our challenges," Hamilton said in a statement.
Obama has breathed new life into the Democratic party, helping to rebuild it into a 50-state party through his appeal to important and previously disaffected young voters. Youth are the future of our country, but both parties have either ignored or been unable to reach them for generations. The fact that many are paying attention now, thanks to Obama, bodes well for the future.
The Star Press Editorial Board does not ordinarily endorse candidates in primary races for a variety of reasons. The importance of the 2008 Democratic race and the fact that for the first time in 40 years Hoosier votes might actually make a difference in the outcome are why we are making an exception to this policy.
It was not an easy decision, nor was it unanimous. The opinions and political passions of our board members (whose names appear above) reflect those of Indiana as a whole. The Obama endorsement was the result of several volatile and, above all, fascinating discussions held over a period of about a month. At the beginning, there were more members undecided than espousing either candidate. In the final decision, as in the voting booth, undecided was not an option. Members selected who they would vote for if the election were held that day.
Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are extremely smart, and it is obvious that both are more than capable of running this country. The differences in their positions on major issues are slim. But, we've had a preview of what a Hillary Clinton administration would probably look like, and while it might be an improvement over the present one, it would still reek of old, partisan politics.
Obama represents our best hope for a different kind of presidency with a different attitude that could lead to a better America. Change is a word that has become the key -- and the most overused -- word in this campaign. The truth is, however, a real change in the leadership style at the top could lead to change all the way down to Main Street. We need someone who will inspire us to be better as a people and as a country -- to change. Barack Obama is that person.
from the Gary Post-Tribune
Obama Represents Best Hope For ChangeThe buzz word in the race for the Democratic nomination for president has been “change” — change from the failed policies of President Bush, who has little positive to hold on to as he approaches the end of his presidency.
Barack Obama has taken the crusade for change a step further, calling for a change in the politics and policies of Washington and the country as a whole.
We recommend a vote for Obama because he potentially represents more of what is new than Hillary Clinton, who is part of the inside crowd in Washington.
While Obama and Clinton have very similar views on many of the key issues — health care, tax revision and ending the war in Iraq — true change and government reform can be brought about only through the unity of Republicans and Democrats across the country, but particularly on Capitol Hill.
Obama, in part because of his newness, represents the best hope for change. Should he be the nominee, Obama’s first task will be to unite the Democratic Party, fractured by many months of acrimonious campaigning. Should he succeed, it bodes well for what he could do for the country, bruised by the economy and the war, and left lacking in confidence of the government.
Obama, too, has pledged to take back Washington from the corporate PACs that he says made $470 million in political contributions to those in Washington during the last election cycle. We also are impressed that Obama largely has kept his campaign focused on the future and what he wants to accomplish, rather than attacking Clinton.
While Obama still needs to spell out more of the particulars for his plan for change, we see him as his party’s choice to do so. Still, should he not unite the party, then the voters likely won’t give him a chance to lead the country.
Time For a Change: Charlotte Observer Endorses Obama
Do the Democrats need a restoration of the past, or is it time for a change? We think it's time for a change. We recommend a vote for Barack Obama in Tuesday's primary.The choice between Sen. Obama and Hillary Clinton is not easy. She is indeed ready to be president on day one. After two terms with her husband in the White House and almost eight years in the Senate, she knows how things work. Smart and tenacious, she offers a progressive agenda. There are many reasons to think she'd be a good president.
There are arguments against her as well. For example, many Democrats won't forgive her for voting to authorize President Bush to use force against Iraq. We don't fault her on that. She understood the need for firmness to force Saddam Hussein to admit UN inspectors to ensure Iraq wasn't building weapons of mass destruction. She received assurances that force would be used only as a last resort. She isn't responsible for the debacle in Iraq; President Bush is.
Concerns about Clinton
Yet we're troubled by, to cite a few examples, these aspects of her presidential campaign:• Many of her supporters seem intent on depicting Sen. Obama as the Jesse Jackson of 2008, a leader who appeals to an ethnic minority but not to the broader electorate needed to win.
• She sometimes exaggerates her influence and experiences, as when she claimed she "helped to bring peace to Northern Ireland" and said she ducked under sniper fire in Bosnia.
• Florida and Michigan were stripped of national convention delegates after breaking party rules by scheduling their primaries too early. The candidates didn't campaign in them. Yet after Sen. Clinton did well in those states, she pushed to change the rules and count the votes. That's a cynical, self-serving effort to corrupt the selection process.
• Her tendency to tell voters what they want to hear is disturbing. Her proposal to suspend the federal tax on gasoline this summer is campaign gimmickry, not leadership. Her assertion that she was a critic of NAFTA from the beginning is simply unbelievable. The record shows she was an ardent advocate of the trade deal.
Some Democrats accept that as just the way the political game always has been played. Perhaps it is. But is that the best Americans can expect? We think not.
Is Obama ready for the job?
As to Sen. Obama, he's one of the most powerful, effective speakers to seek the presidency in years. He offers a different vision of politics. Is he ready for to be president? His relative inexperience is reason for concern. He has been a U.S. senator for three years, an Illinois state senator for eight. He has no executive experience.
Experience is important, but it's no substitute for good judgment and the ability to assemble and wisely use capable advisers. George W. Bush had six years' experience as governor of a big, complex state, yet his administration has made some of the worst decisions in recent history.
Sen. Obama is a man of uncommon intelligence. He's a graduate of Columbia University with a law degree from Harvard, where he was editor of the law review. He bypassed lucrative job opportunities to become a community organizer with a church-based group seeking to improve living conditions in poor Chicago neighborhoods plagued with crime and joblessness.
In 2004, he became the third African American since Reconstruction to win a Senate seat. His record there is not extensive. It is impressive.
His first law -- cosponsored with Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. -- ensured greater citizen access to information by creating a searchable online database on federal spending.
Early in his term he attracted the attention of Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., who at the time chaired the Foreign Relations Committee. Sen. Lugar invited him on a trip through the former Soviet Union, inspecting projects to decommission Cold War-era weapons. The two worked together to pass legislation to control the spread of weapons. Sen. Lugar later observed that Sen. Obama has "a sense of idealism and principled leadership, a vision of the future. At certain points in history, certain people are the ones that are most likely to have the vision or imagination or be able to identify talent and to manage other people's ideas. And I think he does this well."
Sen. Obama's legislative achievements are few, but that's no surprise. He's near the bottom in seniority. Republicans ran the Senate his first two years there, so Democratic proposals rarely went anywhere. Nevertheless he has helped shape the national debate on immigration, energy and some other important issues. He sponsored or co-sponsored the bills that made up what the Washington Post called "the strongest ethics legislation to emerge from Congress yet."
A change for the better
He has made missteps in his first national campaign, such as failing to quickly and firmly reject radical statements by his former pastor. But in the campaign, as in the Senate, he has shown the ability to learn.
Nominating Sen. Obama would send a powerful message to the world. He's the son of a white mother from Kansas and an absent father from Kenya. His personal story would make it plain that America is changing for the better. His appreciation of the need for international cooperation is a welcome change from the Bush administration's know-it-all, go-it-alone tendencies.
Many N.C. Democratic leaders recognize his strengths. State Treasurer Richard Moore and Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue, the party's leading candidates for governor, have endorsed him. So have U.S. Reps. David Price, Mel Watt and G.K. Butterfield as well as Harvey Gantt, a former Charlotte mayor; Jim Phillips Jr., a Greensboro lawyer who chairs the UNC Board of Governors; and state Senate majority leader Tony Rand of Fayetteville.
Early in the campaign, Sen. Obama said, "We want a politics that reflects our best values. We want a politics that reflects our core decency, a politics that is based on a simple premise that we stand and fall together."
Yes, we do.
From a Friend Who Grew Up With Him: "Obama has the stuff to back up his hope and inspiration"
In those weekly conversations we discussed the social climate on our cosmopolitan campus (whether any of the non-black girls would date us black guys). We talked about sports and religion (I was a Christian; Rik and Barry were agnostics). We talked about our classes and the charges that a black person with a book was "acting white." We talked about the social issues of the day and whether we would see a black U.S. president in our lifetime.
We discussed our vocational choices. I was going to be a lawyer (I'm not one). Fourteen-year-old Barry wanted to be a basketball player. He even jokingly wrote in my yearbook that when I'm a bigshot lawyer and he's a basketball star, I could negotiate his NBA contracts.
We held these discussions sometime before the adolescent angst that Obama records in his memoir, Dreams From My Father.
I went off to college the next year so I never heard the agony and never knew the regrettable choices he reveals in that text, but I believe him. The seeds of the agony were in our conversations. The forces of puberty and the depth of Barack's mind surely drove the issues deeper. But neither am I surprised by Barack's subsequent ability to rise above the agony and poor choices. It is no surprise that he graduated from an Ivy League university, that he went on to devote his life to service, that at Harvard Law School he was the popular editor of Harvard Law Review and that he moved on to teach constitutional law and to serve in elective office for these 11 years.
I, like most of the country, was taken aback by the soaring rhetoric first displayed nationally at the 2004 Democratic Convention. I have been unpleasantly surprised by the suggestion that because he gives a good speech, he is somehow shallow -- as if the gifts of speaking and leading are mutually exclusive. His leadership record and his policies are readily available from his Web site and from his campaign headquarters. His "Blueprint for Change" is comprehensive, well thought out, and available for perusal and discussion.
What impresses me most about Barack is not simply that he has the stuff to back up his hope and inspiration. His approach to the presidency is one of deep thoughtfulness. He exhibits quick judgment when necessary; and when issues require deeper thought, he reflects and finds the way to solve problems.
Punahou is an incredible school that taught us to think, to pursue excellence in all areas, and to serve the world. His Illinois state record and his U.S. Senate record reflect this same thoughtfulness, excellence and service.
TONY PETERSON
Nashville, Tenn
Louisville Courier-Journal Endorses Obama for BOTH the Indiana and Kentucky Primaries
Many Democrats have taken to worrying that the protracted and excruciatingly close battle for their party's presidential nomination may divide their ranks and diminish their chances of victory in November. But that's a glass-half-empty view. A more positive outlook is that at a time when the departing administration has steered the nation severely off course, Democrats are blessed with two candidates of intelligence, vision and vigor.
And Americans have responded, with a surge in voting and registration.
Sen. Barack Obama referred to that excitement in a teleconference interview last week with this newspaper's editorial board. "We were always the longshot," he said. "The fact we've done so well speaks to the hunger of the American people for a different message and a different direction."
We agree, and we also believe that Sen. Obama is the Democratic candidate better equipped to restore Americans' hope for the future and to bring change to Washington.For that reason, we endorse Sen. Obama in Tuesday's Indiana primary and in the May 20 contest in Kentucky.
Both Sen. Obama and his rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, offer aggressive, detailed platforms. Many positions are virtually identical, others diverge on some points. But there is no ideological gulf, and both candidates' views down the line are superior to those of the presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain.
Each candidate outlines a plan for a gradual, orderly withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from Iraq beginning soon after taking office but taking many months to accomplish.
Sen. Obama stresses that such a timetable would give Iraqis ample time to take control of their security and affairs.
Sen. Clinton, who met separately in person with the editorial board, argues persuasively that removal of the American "security blanket" is the only way to compel Iraqis to resolve political differences.
Equally important, Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton make the strong case for a more expansive view of American interests.
Sen. Obama rightly criticizes President Bush's focus on Islamic terrorism as "too cramped a vision." He emphasizes the importance of hunting down and fighting al-Qaida, but he also notes the security dangers of nuclear proliferation, rogue states, energy shortages and a weakening American economy.
Sen. Clinton adds the importance of winning the war in Afghanistan while America ends the war in Iraq.
While both candidates talk of offering encouragement and real aid to working- and middle-class Americans, there are differences in approach.
On health care, for example, we lean toward Sen. Clinton's insistence on mandating universal care. Sen. Obama, who focuses on reducing costs, is right that such a mandate would be costly and difficult to enforce, but too many people inevitably would fall between cracks and wind up uninsured.
On the other hand, we applaud Sen. Obama's opposition to a suspension of the federal gasoline tax, which Sen. Clinton favors. He is right that the move would save consumers little money, might be negated if oil companies raise prices and would encourage gasoline consumption instead of conservation.
Still, the differences are sufficiently minor that the key point becomes one that Sen. Obama stresses: Who is best able to actually accomplish new directions?
Sen. Obama's relentless focus on change, and the hordes of new voters he draws to the polls, would make it hard for his victory to be read as anything other than a mandate for changing how Washington works.
Sen. Clinton actually has engaged in more collaborative efforts with Republicans than she is given credit for. But she is battle-scarred, widely viewed as divisive and, we believe, would face a harder time enacting her program.
It's a difficult choice, but the better pick for Hoosier and Kentucky voters is Sen. Obama.
Obama: "If you want to know who I am..."
With two days to go until the Indiana and North Carolina primaries, all of us will do well to reflect, deeply, upon these words - and then embrace the opportunity that presents itself in Barack Obama.zjm
May 3, 2008
Obama Wins Guam!
8:50 a.m. — When all of the ballots were finally counted -- a process that lasted through the night until well after the sun was up -- Sen. Barack Obama had the most votes from Guam Democrats in the party’s caucus held yesterday.Obama finished with 2,264 votes to Sen. Hillary Clinton’s 2,257 votes – a 7-point difference. Obama never trailed from the first vote count on.
