Revote donors linked to Clinton

Ten wealthy Democrats have offered to pay for a new presidential primary in Michigan — all with ties to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who showed up in the state Wednesday seeking a revote.

Five of the donors are listed on Clinton’s campaign website as among her major fundraisers. All 10 have contributed to Clinton’s presidential or Senate campaigns or the races run by former president Bill Clinton, according to federal data compiled by the non-profit Center for Responsive Politics.

The Michigan revote donors — including New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos and financier Roger Altman — have offered to put up $12 million to pay for a new election in June.

Corzine and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, both Clinton backers, released the donors’ names in a letter to Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm. The letter was aimed at demonstrating support for a do-over, so the state’s voters could have a say in the hotly contested nomination battle. Barack Obama’s supporters in the state have raised questions about logistics and costs.

Michigan Democrats held a primary Jan. 15, but no convention delegates were awarded because the date violated national party rules. Clinton won that vote. Obama took his name off the ballot in deference to the national party and other states that did not schedule early primaries.

Clinton changed her schedule to fly to Detroit Wednesday and challenged Obama to support a do-over. He “speaks passionately on the campaign trail about empowering the American people,” Clinton said. “I’m urging him to match those words with actions.”

Clinton spokesman Phil Singer said any notion that potential Michigan donors sought to help Clinton was “absurd.”

MICHIGAN: Democratic rivals duel over do-over

“Of course, only Clinton people have come forward to say they are willing to finance it because Obama is opposing it,” he said. “We would be thrilled if Sen. Obama would direct some of his supporters” to help.

Obama, who leads Clinton in delegates, has not said whether he will back a new Michigan primary.

Wealthy individuals can legally contribute unlimited sums to state political efforts but can’t give more than $4,600 to federal candidates for primary and general elections. Obama spokesman Bill Burton said the donor list is “even more evidence that Clinton is willing to do absolutely anything to get elected.”

Billionaire financier George Soros, an Obama supporter, declined Rendell’s request to help foot the bill for a Michigan revote.

Soros “does not support holding another primary in Michigan,” spokesman Michael Vachon said.

Obama: Count on me to end Iraq war

Sen. Barack Obama suggested Wednesday that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton could not be trusted to end the Iraq war because she only started opposing it when she began her bid for president.

In a speech not far from North Carolina’s Fort Bragg military base, the Democratic presidential hopeful told military families and local officials that the war has emboldened al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Iran and North Korea.

“Ask yourself,” Obama told the crowd, “Who do you trust to end a war: someone who opposed the war from the beginning, or someone who started opposing it when they started preparing a run for president?”

Obama used the five-year anniversary of the Iraq invasion to again cast himself as the only true anti-war candidate, one who openly opposed the invasion as a state lawmaker. He renewed criticism of Clinton for voting to authorize the use of force against Iraq.

Clinton campaign spokesman Phil Singer responded: “The reality is that Senator Obama took practically no action to end the war until he started his White House run while Senator Clinton has been a consistent critic of Iraq for many years.”
Obama also teased likely Republican nominee John McCain for a foreign policy gaffe Tuesday in which McCain, touring the Middle East, said several times that Iran was training al-Qaeda in Iraq. Iran is a predominantly Shiite Muslim country and has been at pains to close its borders to al-Qaeda fighters of the rival Sunni sect. After another senator on the trip, Joe Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, whispered in his ear, McCain corrected himself to say Iran was training Shiite militants.

“Maybe that is why he voted to go to war with a country that had no al-Qaeda ties,” Obama said to laughter and applause. “Maybe that is why he completely fails to understand that the war in Iraq has done more to embolden America’s enemies than any strategic choice that we have made in decades.”

In the days before she won primaries in Texas and Ohio, Clinton argued that she was better prepared to be commander in chief and broadcast a television ad that asked who could handle a middle-of-the-night crisis. Obama countered that Clinton had bungled her crisis moment when she voted to authorize military force to oust Saddam Hussein.

Obama alluded to that ad in his speech.

“What we need in our next commander in chief is not a stubborn refusal to acknowledge reality or empty rhetoric about 3 a.m. phone calls,” he said. “What we need is a pragmatic strategy that focuses on fighting our real enemies, rebuilding alliances and renewing our engagement with the world’s people.”

He said Clinton and McCain talk tough on national security yet make decisions that leave the country less secure.

“This is why the judgment that matters most on Iraq — and on any decision to deploy military force — is the judgment made first,” Obama said.

Special forces from Fort Bragg were among the first soldiers in Iraq during the 2003 invasion and its paratroopers led last year’s troop increase. President Bush visited the base to deliver his 2005 Independence Day speech, in which he warned that setting a timetable to withdraw from Iraq would only embolden terrorists.

McCain has issued similar remarks and Obama squarely rejected them.

“These are the mistaken and misleading arguments we hear from those who have failed to demonstrate how the war in Iraq has made us safer,” Obama said.

Mark Salter, a senior adviser to McCain, responded: “John McCain wants American forces to come home when our clear and serious interests at stake in Iraq, which nearly 4,000 Americans have given their lives to secure, are truly safe, when al-Qaeda is defeated; Iran’s influence is contained, and the potential for a truly cataclysmic civil war in Iraq is remote. That, I think, is what is called ‘making us safer.”‘

Obama also defended his contention that the United States should act on intelligence about top terrorist targets in Pakistan even if President Pervez Musharraf refuses — a statement last year that drew criticism from Republicans.

“We have a security gap when candidates say they will follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell, but refuse to follow him where he actually goes,” Obama said, referring to McCain’s vow to chase down bin Laden.

North Carolina holds its primary May 6. Obama traveled to Charlotte on Wednesday evening for a town-hall meeting and a fundraiser.