Jeff Chiu, AP A Minnesota poll shows that Republican nominee Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., trails either Democrat in head-to-head matchups in the state.

By RICK MONTGOMERY Political polls and the pundits who preach them say working-class whites are uncomfortable with Democrat Barack Obama.

Barack Obama is like a shot of Botox. Support him, and you take 10 years off your face. You join the cool crowd. You become one with idealistic kids and Hollywood glitterati.
Clinton Democrats can't compete. They're on the outside looking in. They used to be hip. They were the bad boys, who scoffed at finger-wagging conservatives. Now, they have traded in their saxophones for a pantsuit.
isn't fair.

by Aaron Bruns FRANKFORT, KY – With the Democratic nomination all but wrapped up, Barack Obama has moved past his primary battle with Hillary Clinton,

I had one thing on my mind when I went to vote in the Pennsylvania Primary: Who can beat McCain more easily!!! The answer is Clinton!! If Obama was considered the stronger candidate and it was proven in all the polls I would have picked him. I am a Clinton fan to begin with, but I really want a Democrat in office and my personal bias toward Clinton did not affect how I voted. We simply need a Democrat in office.
I am astonished at how the media and the supporters of Barack Obama are disregarding the whole rust belt working class argument of the swing states. How can a 41 point win in WV be overlooked? Before I go on, I must state that I am a loyal democrat and will vote

ROSEBURG - Visiting a traditional Republican stronghold, Democratic frontrunner Barack Obama leveled harsh criticism at President Bush and took aim at likely GOP opponent John McCain, saying a vote for the candidate would be asking for four more years of Bush’s policy.
Standing before a crowd of about 1,500 that packed the Roseburg High School cafeteria, Obama focused on health care before fielding questions from the audience.
ainst making them affordable.

FRANKFORT, Kentucky (CNN) – After first targeting television pundits on Saturday for counting her out, Clinton zeroed in on John McCain and his economic

By KATE ZERNIKE Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton may or may not become the first female president of the United States, but if fate and voters deny her the

By Jim Tankersley | Tribune correspondent ROSEBURG, Ore. - Barack Obama opened a new front in his escalating verbal battle with Republican rival Sen. John McCain on Saturday, and his campaign sent another signal that it has shifted focus from the Democratic primary to the general election.
The Illinois senator, who leads Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York in the delegate race for the Democratic nomination, linked McCain to President George W. Bush for a second straight day, this time on health care. He told a crowd in a high school cafeteria here that the presumptive Republican nominee "wants to give you the failed Bush health-care policies for another four years."
nd their

by Howard Berkes In head-to-head match-ups, the rural voters surveyed split evenly between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican McCain.

By Heidi Przybyla and Indira Lakshmanan May 17 (Bloomberg) - Barack Obama intensified his criticism of presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain with the approach of the May 20 Democratic presidential primaries that may allow him to claim he's locked up a majority of delegates picked by voters.
Campaigning in Oregon today and South Dakota yesterday, Obama linked McCain, 71, to President George W. Bush's record on everything from gasoline prices and the war in Iraq to tax cuts for the wealthy ``that never trickle down to you.''
at stake. Obama is leading in Oregon, which has 52. Obama is likely to take away more than the 23 he needs to claim a majority of pledged delegates under the party's apportionment rules.

By Karen E. Crummy Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., waves towards supporters at a town hall-style meeting in Roseburg, Ore.,

The burning question is who close-to-presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama will pick as his running mate. The question is better asked of his GOP foe John McCain. His vice presidential pick is far more crucial than who Obama picks. Obama is pretty much a solo act on the campaign circuit. He's firmed up his rock solid core of black voters, students, and college educated businesspersons and professionals, with his rock star allure, fresh face, soaring rhetoric, inspiring and catchy message of hope and change.
If he can convince a reasonable number of blue collar white Democrats that are racially doubtful about him that he can do more to soothe their economic

ABC News' Eloise Harper reports: Reading from a lectern in Frankfurt, Ky., Sen. Hillary Clinton made attacks against the presumptive Republican nominee, point by point. Clinton glanced back and forth between her notes as she slammed Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for his plan concerning the home foreclosure crisis and his economic plan as a whole.
"In the end, Sen. McCain’s economic policy boils down to this: Don’t just continue driving our nation in the wrong direction. Put your foot on the accelerator and gun it."
n a year we had to try to find a solution to the home mortgage crisis."

ROSEBURG, OR - During a campaign stop here today, Obama said McCain and President Bush donât understand foreign policy and urged voters to support McCain if they want to continue the Bush Administrationâs approach to diplomacy and health care.
Both Democratic candidates and the Democratic National Committee have sought to link McCain to the president -- and his historically low approval ratings -- in votersâ minds.
ith John F. Kennedy, because thatâs what he did with Khrushchev. Or Ronald Reagan, 'cause thatâs what he did with Gorbachev. Or Richard Nixon 'cause thatâs what they did with Mao. Thatâs exactly the kind of diplomacy we need to keep us safe.â

by FOXNews.com Barack Obama may still be campaigning in primary states, but his campaign is shifting full gear into general election mode.

McCain can embrace or push away from Bush - but in any case, he's got an anchor, not a life preserver.
May 17, 2008
self and a president whose approval ratings have gone lower than Richard M. Nixon's at his nadir, he can't possibly abandon the core GOP principles that won Bush two terms in office -- not least because McCain personally shares most of them and has been backing them in the Senate for decades. That puts him in a very tight spot.

By Ariel Alexovich John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, is cleaning up some ethical entanglements after news outlets questioned his campaign’s