CAMPAIGN ROUNDUP

CAMPAIGN ROUNDUP

Latest developments

Democrat Barack Obama told young voters Saturday his multicultural background lets him “see through the eyes of other people” abroad in ways another president could not. Closer to home — and student pocketbooks — rival Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke of aggressive steps to make college affordable. The two Democrats and Republicans Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul joined in a youth-oriented forum in New York sponsored by MTV, The Associated Press and MySpace, each fielding questions separately by satellite. In perhaps a sign of Obama’s strength with young people, both Clinton and Huckabee were asked not just about themselves, but about him.

Mitt Romney celebrated a caucus victory in Maine and told reporters he plans to do well Tuesday, “planning on getting the kind of delegates and support that shows that my effort is succeeding, and taking that across the nation. ... I am encouraged by the support which I’m seeing grow for me.”

Sen. John McCain barnstormed through a skeptical South on Saturday, campaigning for a Super Tuesday knockout in the Republican presidential race. Democratic rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton worked the West on the final weekend before primaries and caucuses in more than 20 states. “I assume that I will get the nomination of the party,” McCain told reporters, the front-runner so confident that he decided to challenge rival Mitt Romney in his home state of Massachusetts. Romney, on the other hand, told reporters he plans to do well Tuesday, “planning on getting the kind of delegates and support that shows that my effort is succeeding, and taking that across the nation. ... I am encouraged by the support which I’m seeing grow for me.”

Clinton stressed pocketbook issues, the home mortgage crisis in a discussion with voters in a working class neighborhood, and health care at a noisy rally in California attended by former Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Earvin “Magic” Johnson. “This is a cause that is the central passion of my public life,” she said, and jabbed at Obama on the issue. “My opponent will not commit to universal health care. I do not believe we should nominate any Democrat who will not stand here proudly today and commit to universal health care,” she said in the continuation of a monthslong debate over which candidate’s plan would result in wider coverage among the millions who now lack it.

Obama stopped in Idaho, where caucuses offer a mere 18 delegates on Tuesday, and he worked to reassure Westerners on two fronts.

In Santa Fe, N.M., former President Clinton will watch the Super Bowl today with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who recently dropped out of the Democratic presidential contest and whose backing Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama have actively sought. The former president and Richardson planned to watch the game together at a private residence in Red River. Richardson, a Hispanic, is widely popular in his home state, one of 22 holding Democratic nominating contests on Super Tuesday, Feb. 5. Both the Obama and Clinton camps have courted his endorsement, but Richardson has so far not indicated whether he will tip his hand before Tuesday. Richardson held two posts in Clinton’s cabinet — as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in 1997 and as Energy secretary from 1998-2001. Clinton also visited Richardson last Thursday to discuss a possible endorsement of the former first lady. The former president has actively campaigned this week for his wife, a New York senator, in several Feb. 5 states.

Associated Press