Biden Brownback Clinton Dodd Edwards Gilmore Giulani Huckabee Hunter Kucinich McCain Obama Paul Richardson Romney Tancredo Thompson Vilsack

Tuesday - October 2, 2007 - WASHINGTON - Barack Obama raised more than $19 million this past summer for the presidential primaries. Obama is still holding a lead in the race for campaign cash, but trails Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton in national polls. Sunday - June 10, 2007 - WASHINGTON - Speaking on CNN's "Late Edition."Sunday, Democratic presidential hopeful Bill Richardson said he wanted a total withdrawal of U.S. forces in Iraq. Tuesday - May 15, 2007 - NEW YORK - David Gergen, political consultant and former presidential advisor during the Republican administrations of Nixon, Ford, and Reagan, says the democratic candidates are the ones to beat. Gergen says whether or not Barack Obama will continue to grow in support will determine if former vice-president Al Gore will jump in. Gergen suggests that Gore must seriously consider by fall whether to answer calls against Hillary Clinton. Meanwhile, Maya Soetoro-Ng, debuted Saturday as an enthusiastic campaigner for her brother Barack Obama, recalling that he could be "bossy" but was never mean to his little sister. Yahoo Election 2008 Full Coverage Barrister's Special Election 2008 Section. White House at Law: Presidential Election 2008 FULL COVERAGE Wednesday - April 4, 2007 - WASHINGTON - Barack Obama reportedly brought in 20 million dollars in the first three months of the 2008 race, compared to 26 million dollars for Hillary Clinton. Yahoo NEWS Barrister's Special Election 2008 Section. Monday - March 26, 2007 - NEW YORK - John Edwards appeared on CBS's 60-Minutes Sunday with his wife Elizabeth. Edwards says he will stay in the presidential race, and reassured voters that he can handle the dual pressure of the campaign and his wife's cancer diagnosis. Yahoo NEWS Wednesday - March 21, 2007 - NEW YORK - Internet social network, MySpace, said Sunday it was launching a politics channel ahead of the 2008 U.S. presidential elections. The News Corp.-owned website's politics site, called the Impact Channel, features links to the profiles of 10 U.S. Presidential candidates, five Democrats and five Republicans. Currently, the site is at impact.myspace.com. Yahoo NEWS Friday - March 16, 2007 - SACRAMENTO, California - Yesterday, California advanced its 2008 presidential primary elections to February 5, 2008. The change will likely alter the dynamics of the race for the White House. Selection of candidates will be virtually compressed to just a few months in early 2008. Twenty-two other states are also adopting or considering February 5 for their own primaries. Yahoo NEWS Monday - March 12, 2007 - OMAHA, Nebraska - On Monday, Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, a Vietnam War veteran and critic of the Iraq War, said he would delay a decision on whether to become a candidate for the 2008 presidential election until later this year. Yahoo NEWS Wednesday - March 7, 2007 - WASHINGTON - Presidential candidate Barack Obama came under fire for purported investment activities in companies that had received federal funding or benefits. The facts indicated that Obama did nothing to aid either company, and rather took a net $13K loss in the overall investment. He lost about $15,000 on Skyterra and earned a profit of about $2,000 on AVI. Obama ended the blind trust and sold the stocks when he found out about the investments. Yahoo NEWS Tuesday - March 6, 2007 - WASHINGTON - Presidential candidate John Edwards is still capitalizing on a slur last Friday, by conservative commentator Ann Coulter. A writer and columnist known for her provocative remarks, Coulter used the word "faggot" in remarks about Edwards to an audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. On March 5, 2007, CNN reported that Verizon, Sallie Mae, and Netbank had pulled their ads from her website due to complaints received. Yahoo NEWS Friday - March 2, 2007 - SELMA, Alabama - The two leading Democratic 2008 contenders, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, are scheduled to speak at churches just half a block apart from each other in Selma, Alabama, on Sunday. The events are to commemorate the anniversary of the Selma civil rights marches in 1965. Alabama is just one of several states with large black populations that could influence the nomination race. Law-Notes: The Selma to Montgomery marches, which included Bloody Sunday, were three marches that marked the political and emotional peak of the American civil rights movement. They were the culmination of the movement in Selma, Alabama for voting rights, launched by Amelia Boynton Robinson and her husband, who brought many prominent leaders of the American Civil Rights Movement to Selma, including Martin Luther King Jr., Jim Bevel, and Hosea Williams. "Bloody Sunday" occurred on March 7, 1965, when 600 civil rights marchers were attacked by state and local police with billy clubs and tear gas. Only the third, and last, march successfully made it into Montgomery. The route is memorialized as the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail. Yahoo NEWS
Thursday - March 1, 2007 - WASHINGTON - After a prominent appearance at the Academy Awards on Sunday night, former Vice-President Al Gore drew increasing speculation early this week about a potential 2008 bid. Gore is seen as potentially stepping in if any of the other major candidates were to withdraw. Meanwhile, Gore was continuing to promote action on the environment, particularly global warming. However, Gore came under fire Tuesday from the Tennessee Center for Policy Research. Drew Johnson, president of TCPR, says Gore needs to practice what he preaches. Their study shows that Gore using 20 time the annual electricity of a normal or average household. Al Gore’s global-warming documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, collected an Oscar for best documentary feature, but the Tennessee Center says he is "guzzling" electricty. Gore supporters were quick to explain the discrepancy, saying Gore merely leads a "carbon neutral life". What this really means is that Gore and others on the environmental path "buy carbon offsets" to make up for their luxurious lifestyle. Law-Notes: A carbon offset is a service that tries to reduce the net carbon emissions of individuals or organizations indirectly, through proxies who reduce their emissions and/or increase their absorption of greenhouse gases. A wide variety of offset actions are available; tree planting is the most common. Renewable energy and energy conservation offsets are also popular, including emissions trading credits. The intended goal of carbon offsets is to combat global warming. The appeal of becoming "carbon neutral" has contributed to the growth of voluntary offsets, which often are a more cost-effective alternative to reducing one's own fossil-fuel consumption, and useful for those who personally have a high load on the planet. Due to their indirect nature, many types of offset are difficult to verify. Some providers obtain certification that their offsets are accurately measured, to distance themselves from potentially fraudulent competitors. Certified offsets may be purchased from commercial or non-profit organizations for US $5–30 per ton of CO2, while uncertified offsets are often much lower in price. Annual carbon dioxide emissions in developed countries range from 6 to 23 tons per capita. Accounting systems differ on what constitutes a valid offset for voluntary reduction systems and for mandatory reduction systems. Formal standards for quantification of offsets are not in place; differences of opinion between emitters, regulators, environmentalists, and project developers have yet to be resolved. Well, if we could all afford to buy 23 tons a year a year, that would be about $690 or less apiece. Yahoo NEWS Friday - February 23, 2007 - WASHINGTON - Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, who was the first Democrat to enter the race for president in 2008, became the first candidate to withdraw on Friday. Vilsack said he simply couldn't raise enough money. Vilsack was one of eight Democratic candidates who participated in the initial 2008 presidential forum on February 21, 2007, in Carson City, Nevada. Yahoo NEWS Wednesday - February 21, 2007 - WASHINGTON - If the latest polls are any indication, Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton will face Republican hopeful Rudy Giuliani in the 2008 election. However, a majority of Democrats polled still expect their party will field a male candidate when the time comes. Yahoo NEWS Monday - February 12, 2007 - WASHINGTON - On Sunday, presidential candidate Barack Obama headed up CBS's 60 Minutes news show. Obama was born in Hawaii, lived in Muslim Indonesia with his mother and stepfather from 1967 to 1971, and then subsequently returned to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents. Obama formally announced his candidacy in Illinois on Saturday in the legacy of Abraham Lincoln. Yahoo NEWS Sunday - February 4, 2007 - WASHINGTON - On Sunday, former presidential candidate and the lawyer and consumer activist Ralph Nader kept the door open for a possible White House bid in 2008. Nader ran for president as an independent in 2004 and as the Green Party candidate in 2000 and 1996. Some Democrats have claimed Nader took away votes from Al Gore in the close 2000 election, helping George W. Bush to claim victory. Nader was asked on CNN's Late Edition news program Sunday if he would run in 2008, but said it was too early to say. Nader threw criticism at Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton. Over the years, Nader has promoted various liberal causes including consumer rights, feminism, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government. Nader has also been a critic of U.S. foreigh policy which he has said approaches imperialism. Most famously, in 1965 Nader released Unsafe at Any Speed, a study that purported to demonstrate unsafe engineering of many American automobiles, especially the Chevrolet Corvair and General Motors. GM tried to discredit Nader, hiring private detectives to tap his phones, investigate his past, and hiring prostitutes to trap him in a compromising situation. GM failed to turn up any wrongdoing. Hundreds of young activists, inspired by Nader's work, came to Washington DC to help him with other projects. They came to be known as "Nader's Raiders" and, led by Nader investigated corruption throughout government, publishing dozens of books with their results. Yahoo NEWS Tuesday - January 30, 2007 - MANCHESTER, New Hampshire - Former New York Republican Governor George Pataki told supporters in the first primary state he is not ready to jump into the presidential race. Pataki also said he won't object if they get behind other candidates. Pataki stepped down as New York governor this month, and spoke at a private dinner Tuesday in Manchester. He had no public stops during the one-day visit. Monday - January 29, 2007 - WASHINGTON - Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee filed papers to form an exploratory committee. Huckabee said on Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" he would take the first step toward a longshot campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. Huckabee may be best known for dieting and exercising his way to a 110-pound weight loss. Wednesday - January 24, 2007 - WASHINGTON - Senator John Kerry announced he will not launch a new bid for the White House. Kerry was the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, who narrowly lost to Republican President George W. Bush. Tuesday - January 23, 2007 - WASHINGTON - The rapidly expanding field of 2008 presidential contenders will battle for all-important campaign donations. According to Michael Toner, Chairman of the Federal Election Commission, campaign spending will likely approach the one billion dollar mark in 2008, despite recent attempts to limit expenditures. In the 2004 campaign, Bush raised 274.7 million dollars, while Kerry raised 253 million dollars. Saturday - January 20, 2007 - NEW YORK - Democratic Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton launched a campaign for the White House on Saturday, as the former first lady moved to become the first female president. Senator Clinton, 59, said: "I'm in, and I'm in to win." In a videotaped message posted on her campaign website, Mrs. Clinton said she was eager to start a dialogue with voters about challenges she hoped to tackle as president, including affordable health care, deficit reduction and bringing an end to the Iraq war. Clinton supported the 2002 resolution authorizing military intervention in Iraq. She has refused to recant her vote or call for a deadline for the removal of troops. She has announced her opposition to President Bush's troop increase in Iraq and has introduced legislation capping troop levels. She promised a three-day series of Web chats with voters beginning Monday and prepared a campaign swing late this coming week through the early voting state of Iowa, while a visit to New Hampshire was in the works. On Sunday, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is also set to enter the Democratic field; if elected, he would be the first Hispanic president. Thursday - January 18, 2007 - HOUSTON, Texas - While the election news seems to focus on the front runners, today we look at two of the lesser known candidates. Texas Congressman Ron Paul took the first step last week Thursday toward launching his second presidential bid. A Republican, Paul has represented Texas' 14th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1997, and had previously served as the representative from Texas's 22nd district in 1976 and from 1979 to 1985. Paul was the Libertarian Party nominee for president in the 1988 election. After his failed presidential bid, Paul returned to Congress in 1997 again elected as a Republican. Congressman Paul advocates a strict non-interventionist foreign policy. He voted against the Iraq War Resolution and continues to criticize the US presence in Iraq. Another longshot runner is California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter. Hunter is the recent past chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and is well known in national security circles. However, he is known to few voters outside his San Diego area 52nd District. He has never run statewide in populous California, much less in a high national profile. In 1980, Hunter was recruited to run for Congress in what was then the 42nd District against 18-year incumbent Democrat Lionel Van Deerlin. Hunter was initially a decided underdog, but his attacks on Van Deerlin's record on defense gained surprising traction in a district dominated by military bases and personnel. Van Deerlin did not respond quickly enough, and Hunter narrowly defeated him. He was one of many Republicans swept into office from historically Democratic districts as a result of Reagan's coattails; Van Deerlin had been the district's only congressman since its creation in 1963. Wednesday - January 17, 2007 - WASHINGTON - With the entry of Illinois Senator Barack Obama in the presidential campaign Tuesday, he is expected to join the Democratic top tier with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and former Senator John Edwards. Clinton could enter the race within days and remains a front-runner. She already has more than $14 million in funds, with a large base of supporters. Clinton also brings an experienced advisory team, that includes her husband, former two-term President Bill Clinton. Unencumbered by the Senate, Edwards has extra time to campaign and challenge his Democratic opponents. Tuesday - January 16, 2007 - WASHINGTON - Illinois Senator Barack Obama launched his expected campaign Tuesday. Obama filed paperwork forming a presidential exploratory committee that allows him to raise money and put together a campaign structure. He is expected to announce a full-fledged candidacy on February 10, 2007, in Springfield, Illinois, in the legacy of Abraham Lincoln. Colorado Republican Representative Tom Tancredo, an opponent of illegal immigration, also said Tuesday he will form an exploratory committee for a possible presidential campaign. Sunday - January 14, 2007 - KABUL, Afghanistan - U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton led a bipartisan delegation to Afghanistan on Sunday for a meeting with President Hamid Karzai and a visit with American troops. Clinton, a Democrat from New York who is considering running for president, is traveling with U.S. Senator Evan Bayh (D-Indiana), and U.S. Representative John McHugh, a Republican from upstate New York. All three are members of armed services committees. During their brief stay they met with soldiers at Bagram, the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan, and then made a trip to Kabul for meetings with Afghan and U.S. officials and officers in the country. The delegation's trip to Kabul came a day after their visit to Iraq, where Senator Clinton expressed doubt that Iraq's government would follow through with its promises to secure Baghdad. It was the third trip to Iraq for Clinton, and comes amid opposition from the Democratic-controlled Congress to President Bush's plans to send in 21,500 more troops to stop the rampant violence. After Afghanistan, Senator Hillary Clinton and her delegation also visited Pakistan for talks with President Pervez Musharraf on Afghanistan and other regional issues. Thursday - January 11, 2007 - DENVER - On Thursday, Democrats selected Denver to host their 2008 presidential convention, with The Pepsi Center, the home of the Denver Nuggets and the Colorado Avalanche, as the main site used for the Democratic Convention in 2008. Denver last hosted the Democratic National Convention in 1908, when Democrats nominated William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska in his third unsuccessful effort as the party's candidate. The convention expects to attract 35,000, including 4,950 delegates and alternates, and will be held from August 25-28, 2008, right after the Summer Olympics in Beijing. The Republican National Convention will start just 4 days later, on September 1, 2008, in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. In September 2006, Republicans picked the Twin Cities over three other cities. Thursday - January 11, 2007 - EAST HADDAM, Connecticut - Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd, a 26-year Senate veteran from Connecticut, will formally announce his bid for the presidency in an interview Thursday morning on the "Imus in the Morning" radio show. Dodd will travel late Thursday to Iowa, which will host the first presidential nominating caucus next January. Then he heads on to South Carolina, an early primary state, on Sunday. Dodd enters a growing Democratic field overshadowed by two other likely candidates, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Senator Barack Obama of Illinois. Outgoing Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack has already announced his candidacy, as have former North Carolina Senator John Edwards and Ohio Represenative Dennis Kucinich. Senator Christopher Dodd was born in Willimantic, Connecticut to Irish-American parents, Senator Thomas Joseph Dodd and Grace Murphy Dodd. Dodd attended Georgetown Preparatory School, a prestigious Jesuit boys school in Bethesda, Maryland. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in English Literature from Providence College in 1966, Dodd served as a Peace Corps volunteer in a small rural town in the Dominican Republic until 1968. After leaving the Peace Corps, Dodd joined U.S. Army Reserve, where he would stay until 1975. In 1972, Dodd graduated from law school at the University of Louisville. The following year, he was admitted to Connecticut bar, and began practicing law in New London. Dodd married Jackie Marie Clegg in June 1999 (his second marriage). Tuesday - January 9, 2007 - RICHMOND, Virginia - On Tuesday, Virginia's former tax-slashing Republican governor, Jim Gilmore, took the first step in a long-shot bid for the presidency. Gilmore filed papers with the Federal Election Commission to form an exploratory committee. Gilmore becomes the sixth Republican to form an exploratory committee for 2008. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, Arizona Senator John McCain, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson and Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas also have taken the initial step. Sunday - January 7, 2007 - Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware became the fourth Democrat to formally announce plans to run for president in 2008, making his announcement on Sunday's "Meet the Press" on NBC. Biden is considered one of his party's most experienced spokesmen on international affairs, and is the new chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Since the end of his 2004 campaign, Biden has been on the list of potential Democratic candidates in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, and has repeatedly expressed his intention to become a candidate. Friday - January 5, 2007 - CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina - After his official candidacy announcement in New Orleans December 28, 2006, former North Carolina Senator John Edwards has continued to tour the nation with a message that he calls the great issue of our time: combating poverty. He hopes that the issue will earn him significant support within the party’s traditional base of liberal activists, and more general support among voters in a nation where, statistics show, the gap between the wealthiest and least affluent Americans is growing. Edwards is independently wealthy from his past career as a successful trial lawyer, and his official occupation as he entered the presidential race was head of a recently established center on poverty issues at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he attended law school. Thursday - January 4, 2007 - BOSTON - Republican Governor Mitt Romney submitted the necessary paperwork Wednesday to form a presidential exploratory committee. He had waited until after funeral services for former President Gerald R. Ford concluded. Romney is the current Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and did not seek re-election in 2006. His term in office concludes today, January 4, 2007. Romney had said that he will announce his intent to run in January 2007 after he leaves the governor's office on January 4. Romney is the son of George Romney, a 1968 presidential candidate and the former governor of Michigan. He is expected to be a youthful alternative to McCain and a more conservative candidate than Giuliani. If successful, Romney would become the first Mormon elected president.The United States monitors North Korea by satellite and by spyplanes that fly along the fringes of the reclusive communist state's airspace for suspicious movements.

The Executive Branch of the United States of America consists of the President of the United States and his delegates. The President is both the head of state and head of government, as well as the commander-in-chief of the military, and the chief diplomat. The President, according to the Constitution, must "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." To carry out this responsibility, he presides over the executive branch of the federal government, a vast organization numbering about 4 million people, including 1 million active-duty military personnel. In addition, the President has important legislative and judicial powers. Within the executive branch itself, the President has broad constitutional powers to manage national affairs and the workings of the federal government, and may issue executive orders to affect internal policies. The President may sign or veto legislation passed by Congress. He may be impeached by a majority in the House and removed from office by a two-thirds majority in the Senate for "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors." The President may not dissolve Congress or call special elections, but does have the power to pardon criminals convicted of federal offenses (though not crimes against a state), give executive orders, and (with the consent of the Senate) appoint Supreme Court justices and federal judges. All executive power in the federal government is vested in the President of the United States, although power is often delegated to his/her Cabinet members and other officials. The President and Vice President are elected as "running mates" for four-year terms by the Electoral College, for which each state, as well as the District of Columbia, is allocated a number of seats based on its representation (or ostensible representation, in the case of D.C.) in both houses of Congress.