Bhutto supporters pin hopes on son and heir
December 31, 2007
Simon Gardner, Reuters
There is an eerie quiet at Benazir Bhutto’s Karachi home-cum-campaign headquarters where grief is giving way to hope that her legacy will live on through her son and heir.
Crowned her political successor on Sunday, Bhutto’s 19-year-old son Bilawal will not be eligible to run for parliament for another six years, but banker and party stalwart Haseeb Ala can wait.
Deadly Rioting Over Kenyan Election Results
December 31, 2007
DANA HUGHES, ABC News
Thousands of angry Kenyans waving branches and weilding machetes battled police and marched in the streets of the capital and other cities today to protest what they claim was a rigged election giving President Mwai Kibaki a second term.
The protests threatened to erupt in wide spread tribal violence and neither side was backing down.
Kibaki’s challenger, Raila Odinga, is refusing to concede the election. He stated yesterday that he would be conducting a shadow inauguration today in Uhuru park in downtown Nairobi, but canceled those plans after the government declared that it would be tantamount to a coup. Odinga announced instead that he would lead a million people in a mass, peaceful demonstration on Thursday.
With New Poll Results, Candidates Scramble for Edge in Caucuses
December 31, 2007
PATRICK HEALY and JULIE BOSMAN, New York Times
The presidential candidates spent the last Sunday before the Iowa caucuses attending church services, staging big rallies and sniping at one another as new polls suggested tightening races in both the Democratic and Republican fields.
With three Democrats scrambling for the lead in Iowa heading into the voting on Thursday, the candidates tried to paint their opponents as inadequate for the challenges facing the nation. Former Senator John Edwards, in particular, continued that line of attack against Senator Barack Obama, suggesting that he was too “nice” to fight and win against special interests and big corporations.
Obama Tries New Tactics To Get Out Vote in Iowa
December 31, 2007
Peter Slevin and Jose Antonio Vargas, Washington Post
In Sen. Barack Obama’s Iowa headquarters, young staff members sit at computers, analyzing online voter data and targeting potential backers. They zip one e-mail to an undecided voter and zap a different message to a firm supporter.
Depending on the voter, they follow with Facebook reminders, telephone calls, text messages and, most important, house visits. The effort will culminate in what state director Steve Hildebrand calls “the largest grass-roots volunteer operation that Iowa has ever seen.”
Activist fails to rally blacks on illegal-immigration issue
December 31, 2007
Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times
The forum seemed tailor-made for Ted Hayes, the Los Angeles activist for the homeless who has become one of the nation’s most visible African Americans raising a ruckus about illegal immigration.
A mostly black crowd had gathered at Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Los Angeles for a feisty debate about illegal immigration’s effects on the African American community. When Minister Tony Muhammad of the Nation of Islam and others called for black-brown unity, they drew boos and yells of dissent.
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