Washington Post: Hillary Clinton's Lead Holds

Hillary's Leads

Among Democrats, Clinton led in the survey with 37 percent support, to 20 percent for Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.). Former vice president Al Gore, who has said he has no plans to run, had the support of 17 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents; former senator John Edwards (N.C.) stood at 14 percent. No other Democrat received more than 3 percent.

In late February, Clinton led with 36 percent to Obama's 24 percent. Since then, Obama has not maintained the momentum he had shown in attracting black support. In the new poll, 43 percent of blacks preferred Clinton for the Democratic nomination and 34 percent preferred Obama.

Democrats remained far more satisfied with their field of candidates than did Republicans. Fully 80 percent of Democrats said they were very or somewhat satisfied with their choices; 65 percent of Republicans were satisfied with GOP candidates. Republican unrest has only increased in the past two months, providing a push to Thompson's possible candidacy.

Beyond the primaries, the survey paints the portrait of an electorate still evenly and deeply divided. Four of the six major candidates -- McCain, Clinton, Giuliani and Romney -- are considered unacceptable by at least 40 percent of all Americans.

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley Leaning towards endorsing Hillary

Martin O'Malley backing Hillary

By Annapolis Notebook

Saturday, March 31, 2007; Page B02

Washington Post

It was just short of an endorsement, but Gov. Martin O'Malley left little doubt yesterday about which Democrat he plans to back for president in 2008.

O'Malley (D) said that he is "very much inclined to support" Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) during a noon appearance on "The Politics Program with Mark Plotkin" on Washington Post Radio.

"I think she'd make a great president of the United States," O'Malley said of Clinton, whose homeland security credentials he praised.

In past discussions of the subject, O'Malley has noted that he was grateful for the support Hillary and Bill Clinton offered during his run for governor last year. The former president cut a TV ad in the closing days of the race asking voters to support O'Malley.

During yesterday's radio appearance, O'Malley tried to deflect questions about whether he would be accept an offer to be Clinton's running mate in 2008. "I have no interest in being vice president," he eventually allowed.

Later in the show, O'Malley said -- perhaps in jest, perhaps not -- that he would jump at a chance to join U2, a rock band from Ireland. For years, O'Malley fronted a Celtic band, O'Malley's March, which reunited to play at his inaugural gala in January.

-- John Wagner

Washington Post: Hillary's New Hampshire CM Wants to Contribute to ME Peace

Bill Shaheen: Brokering Middle East Peace?

The Post's Anne E. Kornblut filed this dispatch for The Fix:

If Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) is elected president, will she make Bill Shaheen her special envoy to the Middle East?

Doubtful. Nevertheless, Shaheen said that in exchange for his recent endorsement of Clinton's campaign -- a major "get" in New Hampshire politics -- he asked Clinton to send him over to negotiate with the Israelis and Palestinians if she wins the White House.

"I think I've got something to offer," Shaheen said in a phone interview on Monday, after he was quoted in a New Hampshire blog as saying the senator had promised him a slot on the peace team.

In the interview, he said it wasn't exactly a quid pro quo. "It wasn't a promise promise," he said, "I told her I feel strongly about it." Clinton, he said, told him: "I'm sure it's going to be a huge process."

Shaheen, the husband of former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen and a second-generation Lebanese American, said he had worked alongside former President Jimmy Carter as an elections monitor in the Palestinian territories.

Does he agree with Carter's controversial characterization of the Israeli occupation as amounting to "apartheid"?

No, Shaheen said. His description of the Middle East: "I think there are people who are not being treated very nicely. They want their own freedom."

Wise words from a would-be diplomat.

Hillary and Obama's Campaign Advisors Spar Over Iraq

Clinton, Obama Camps Spar on War

By Dan Balz

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, March 20, 2007; Page A06

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 19 -- A brewing argument over Iraq between the presidential campaigns of Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama broke into public view here Monday night when Clinton's chief strategist challenged Obama's credentials as a consistent opponent of the war.

Mark Penn and Obama strategist David Axelrod engaged in a pointed and occasionally heated exchange during a public forum at Harvard University over the issue that has become the central point of dispute between the two leading candidates for the 2008 Democratic nomination.

"Do you think Hillary Clinton is the kind of person who if she were president would have started the Iraq war?" Penn asked. "No." As his exchange with Axelrod continued, he raised the question that many Clinton advisers see as critical: "Is this election going to turn about what happened in 2002 or what's going to happen in the future?"

Dana Milbank:Candidate Clinton, Embracing the Trite and the True

Candidate Clinton

Dana Milbank

Washington Post

Are you in it to win? Would you regard civil rights as the gift that keeps on giving? Do you believe in the American Dream, stupid?

If you answered yes to any of the above, you might consider supporting Hillary Clinton, the person to send to the White House when you care enough to send the very best. More than any other candidate, Clinton has brought the sensibility of Hallmark greeting cards to the 2008 presidential race.

Continued