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Democrats in dead heat going into Super Tuesday

(CNN) — With a new poll showing their race to be in a virtual dead heat nationally, the Democratic presidential candidates are making their final pitches Monday to voters before Super Tuesday.

Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama made campaign swings in the Northeast as nearly two dozen states get ready to hold contests in what will virtually be a national primary.

At a roundtable discussion in New Haven, Connecticut, Clinton returned to two issues she repeatedly has touched on, health care and the economic concerns of the middle class.

Most Americans are in-between people, she said. You know, the middle class is under tremendous pressure. It is everything. The cost of everything is going up. And even if you make what used to be considered good wages, they don’t cover the increase in costs, in everything from energy to health care. Watch Clinton stump for votes

Obama on Monday emphasized his ability to attract independents and Republicans in an appearance in East Rutherford, New Jersey, home of the new Super Bowl champions the New York Giants.

Obama was introduced by actor Robert De Niro and joined on stage by Sen. Edward Kennedy. Kennedy is a Massachusetts Democrat and a fan of the New England Patriots, the team the Giants beat Sunday night.

I have said repeatedly that this campaign is about bringing people together. And for me to be able to bring a Patriots fan to the Meadowlands the day after the Super Bowl is like bringing the lion and the lamb together, Obama said. We can bridge all gaps and all divisions in this country.

The senator from Illinois also said he would be the best candidate to beat Sen. John McCain, the emerging front-runner in the GOP presidential race, due to his early opposition to the Iraq war.

Obama has criticized Clinton for voting for the 2002 resolution that authorized President Bush to use force against Iraq to enforce U.N. sanctions.

When I’m debating John McCain, he won’t be able to say, ‘Well, you supported the war, too’ because I didn’t, Obama said.

As the candidates made a last-minute push, a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll out Monday showed Obama erasing Clinton’s lead among Democrats nationally. The two are in a virtual tie, with Obama at 49 percent and Clinton at 46 percent, the poll found. View poll results

With a sampling error of 4.5 percentage points, that margin is too close to say which Democrat is leading.

The survey represents a dramatic turnaround in the race from a few months ago when Clinton had a significant edge over Obama.

In a January 14-17 CNN/Opinion Research poll, Clinton led Obama 42 percent to 33 percent. That poll also had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

A national poll of polls calculated by CNN that averages five national polls finds Clinton ahead of Obama by two percentage points — 45 percent to 43 percent. Those five surveys were done by CNN/Opinion Research, Gallup, Pew, ABC and CBS.

These findings come a day before 22 states and American Samoa hold Democratic primaries or caucuses, including large states such as California, New York and Illinois. Voters will determine how more than 40 percent of the national convention delegates, 1,681, will be allocated. That figure is less than 400 shy of the 2,025 needed to clinch the nomination. Watch how the delegates will be assigned

It’s huge because there’s never been this many delegates at stake, and it’s coast to coast, said Time magazine’s Mark Halperin. You’ve got a contest in Alaska. You’ve got a contest in Georgia. The candidates can’t even go to every state that’s voting, let alone spend the kind of quality time they’d like to. View what is at stake on Super Tuesday

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, national co-chair of Obama’s campaign, said Monday his candidate would benefit from an extended primary fight and is ready to compete in the primaries after Tuesday.

The longer this goes, we think the better it serves our campaign, Daschle said. We can’t wait for the primaries of Maryland, Virginia [and Washington, D.C]. We look forward to the primary in Texas as well as in Ohio.

Obama has not only caught up to Clinton in national surveys but also in California, the most populous state.

A Field Research Corp. poll released Sunday shows Clinton with a statistically insignificant lead of two percentage points over Obama, 36 percent to 34 percent, in the state. Eighteen percent of California Democrats have yet to make up their minds, the survey found.

Most polls two weeks ago showed Clinton with a double-digit lead there. The latest poll’s margin of error is 4.5 percentage points. Watch how California could sway the race

Obama’s California campaign received a boost Sunday when the state’s first lady, Maria Shriver, endorsed the Illinois Democrat. Shriver’s husband, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, is backing McCain in the GOP race.

Shriver’s uncle, Sen. Kennedy, and Caroline Kennedy, President Kennedy’s daughter, both made highly publicized endorsements of Obama last week.

Coming out of his overwhelming victory in South Carolina and followed quickly by his Kennedy family endorsements, Obama clearly has the momentum in this campaign, said Bill Schneider, CNN’s senior political analyst.

With voters going to the polls across the country Tuesday, the Democratic candidates are pouring millions into television advertising.

The Campaign Media Analysis Group estimates that $20 million will go toward TV advertising in Super Tuesday states, with Democrats spending 90 percent.

As part of its advertising blitz, the Obama campaign ran a commercial during Sunday night’s Super Bowl emphasizing a message of change.

Later Monday, Clinton headed to Worcester, Massachusetts. In New York, she’ll participate in a town hall sponsored by the Hallmark Channel and also is expected to appear Monday evening on the Late Show With David Letterman.

Obama is attending a rally in Hartford, Connecticut, before ending with another one in Boston, Massachusetts.

The candidates’ spouses will be in the West. Former President Clinton will hold three events in California, while Michelle Obama will attend a rally Monday night in Tucson, Arizona.
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President Lincoln’s summer home to open to public

WASHINGTON (AP) — Until now, a summer cottage three miles from the White House where Abraham Lincoln paced the floors, contemplating the end of slavery, was largely unknown to the public.

Few locals knew it was still standing on the grounds of the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington, and tourists searching for Lincoln sites in the nation’s capital were far more likely to stop by the Lincoln Memorial or Ford’s Theatre, where the 16th president was assassinated.

But in the late 1990s, the house was rediscovered by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and, in 2000, declared a national monument by President Clinton. Now, after a seven-year, $15 million restoration, President Lincoln’s Cottage at the Soldier’s Home is set to open to the public for the first time — on President’s Day, February 18.

This is one of those places that is kind of hidden in plain sight, and yet it’s one of the most significant historic sites, said Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Like other Lincoln enthusiasts, Moe had heard of the president’s summer wartime retreat — the Camp David of its day, mentioned in a few history books — but thought it was long gone. Then a friend showed him the home in 1998. It was structurally sound and had housed administrative offices for the veterans’ home.

Lincoln’s cottage had been located on a sprawling property landscaped with trees from around the world and surrounded by farms. It was a modest, four-bedroom, two-story home, made of brick, covered with stucco. Historians say the Lincoln family used the summer home for several years of the presidency, including during the Civil War.

But until recently, little was known about what took place inside the home due to sparse information in government records. Instead, much of the available history has been pieced together from diaries, letters and newspaper accounts. Many of these details have been compiled in a 2003 book, Lincoln’s Sanctuary: Abraham Lincoln and the Soldiers’ Home, by historian Matthew Pinsker.

Also missing were actual furnishings from the home — or even interior pictures that would have helped curators recreate most of the 1860s decor for visitors. So curators had to make do with the few details they had, which allowed them to recreate curtains, carpet and other items. They secured some furnishings from the Civil War era and a replica of Lincoln’s desk, based on the original kept at the White House.

This is a different kind of historic house, said Frank Milligan, director of the new museum. Don’t go in there looking for the bed that Lincoln slept in.

Instead, visitors will get to know who he was as a person, Milligan said. Audio and video of actors portraying the president, first lady Mary Lincoln and their associates will recreate stories from the cottage.

The decision to emancipate the slaves is the most prominent theme at Lincoln’s retreat. Some historians believe Lincoln may have written the Emancipation Proclamation here, though there’s still debate.

Our position is that he may well have written it here, but he surely thought it through here, Milligan said. He paced these floors thinking about the right direction to go.

Lincoln’s cabinet was divided on emancipation. Some advisers thought courts would decide it was unconstitutional. They debated back and forth, and political opponents met with Lincoln in private at the cottage, Milligan said.

The president ultimately pursued emancipation as a military strategy to help end the war, but he was fully aware of its significance.

If my name ever goes into history, it will be for this act, and my whole soul is in it, Lincoln said at the document signing.

A signed copy of the document, from a private collection in New York, will be on view at the museum’s opening through April.

Students and other visitors can play the roles of rival cabinet secretaries and debate emancipation through the museum’s unique multimedia room. Individual computer screens show the diaries, pictures, letters and arguments of individual secretaries to help spur the discussion, and a moderator can work with teachers to link the debate to classroom studies.

They’re getting multiple perspectives because the cabinet members really did represent all views, said Jill Sanderson, curator of education.

Lincoln lived at the cottage with wife Mary and son Tad from summer through fall from 1862 to 1864. Lincoln’s older son, Robert, was away at college much of the time. Other presidents used the retreat, which was built in 1842, but usually only for a few weeks at a time.

In part, the Lincolns were seeking privacy to grieve after the death of 12-year-old son Willie, who probably had suffered from typhoid fever, Pinsker writes. It also was an escape from the hot, swampy humidity of the National Mall. The cottage, on one of the highest points in Washington, received cool breezes and provided the family with a view of the city and the Capitol dome under construction.

I’m convinced personally that he would have stayed here year-round if he could have, Milligan said. He didn’t like the White House. We do know that. He called it the damned old house at one point.

According to Pinsker, Lincoln preferred to conduct his business at the White House — and leave it there. Unfortunately for Lincoln, the visitors found him at the cottage retreat. And the president, who was under enormous stress, lost his temper with one visitor who intruded on his personal space. But true to his nature, he apologized the next day.

Other exhibits on the hour-long guided tour at the cottage will recount the family life of the home and Lincoln’s hiring of an ex-slave, Mary Dines, as a domestic — or servant — as well as Lincoln’s daily commute on horseback to the White House, tipping his hat to poet and city resident Walt Whitman regularly as he passed by.

The commute was a risky proposition. At first Lincoln insisted on riding alone through Washington’s streets and up present-day Georgia Avenue into the country to the privacy of the cottage. It’s amazing to think that a wartime president would take the same commute route every day. In retrospect, it’s mind-boggling, Milligan said.

Later, Lincoln’s advisers insisted on sending a guard regiment with him, according to Pinsker. About 180 troops also were assigned to guard the cottage grounds as well. The president often wandered over to the soldiers’ camp on the property for long chats. Milligan says some believe he preferred their coffee to his wife’s.

Despite the added security, someone shot at the president during his commute in 1864, and aides found a bullet hole through his top hat, according to Pinsker. Private John Nicholas recalled that the president wanted the incident kept quiet, the author wrote.

Confederate leaders knew of Lincoln’s route. And Lincoln’s eventual assassin, John Wilkes Booth, had planned an abduction, but it was never carried out.

Curators are expecting plenty of Lincoln enthusiasts to make their way to the home, and they’re hoping more documents and details about the home will be uncovered as more people hear about the site. The museum is budgeting for 45,000 visitors in its first year. Tour guides will be trained for all age levels and will be prepared to discuss the sometimes conflicting views of the Civil War.

What we’ve learned to do in this business is to tell history as it happened, Moe said. It’s not always pleasant.

Prominent Lincoln historians, including Allen Guelzo, Doris Kearns Goodwin and Douglas Wilson have consulted on the project.

The goal is to eventually create a Center for the Study of the Lincoln Presidency at the site to support further research and scholarship in conjunction with sites like Ford’s Theatre and the Lincoln Presidential Library in Illinois. Their first challenge, though, is to draw people to the cottage, nestled on the grounds of the veterans home in a northwest Washington neighborhood. It’s a hike from the city’s popular museums and memorials.

It is off the beaten path, but I think that’s one of the real values to it, Moe said. It gets people off the National Mall … and that’s what Lincoln did. I think it will be a real destination.
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FIA warning after Hamilton racially abused

LONDON, England — The racist abuse meted out to Lewis Hamilton at Formula One testing in Barcelona could lead to Spain being stripped of its grand prix if repeated, motor racing authorities warned.

The McLaren star was jeered and insulted when he moved between the McLaren motorhome and the team’s garage at the Circuit de Catalunya on Saturday and world governing body, the FIA, has condemned the behavior of the fans.

FIA are surprised and disappointed at the abuse directed at Lewis Hamilton.

An act of this kind is a clear breach of the principles enshrined in the FIA statutes, and any repetition will result in sanctions, said a spokesman.

The Circuit de Catalunya is scheduled to stage the Spanish GP in May with Valencia due to host the European Grand Prix three months later.

Circuit de Catalunya director Ramon Pradera was quick to warn spectators about any repetition.

We would like to make a plea to the fans to behave correctly. No type of offensive behavior can be tolerated, he said.

Pictures taken at the circuit showed some spectators aiming abusive gestures and mocking Hamilton by wearing wigs and dark make-up.

It is thought the abuse stems from Hamilton’s rivalry last season with former teammate Fernando Alonso, the Spanish two-time world champion, who is now at Renault.

McLaren played down the incidents in an official team statement.

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes have raced and tested on Spanish circuits for many years, and everyone connected with the team regards Spain and the Spanish people with great affection, it read.

But test team manager Indy Tull was less circumspect in reported remarks in the Sun newspaper.

It is not right the way Lewis is being treated, he said.

Former British sports minister Richard Caborn has also spoken of his disgust at the incidents in Spain and made reference to the racist chanting which marred an England football friendly against Spain in Madrid in 2004.

Caborn said: This is totally unacceptable. I spoke to the Spanish sports minister when England players were abused a few years ago.

It is disgusting behavior and has no place in sport.

Hamilton, 23, is F1’s first black driver and was pipped to the world championship by Ferrari’s Kimi Raikonnen in the final race of his 2007 debut season.

He was expected to play second fiddle to then reigning champion Alonso but as the season progressed outperformed the Spaniard. E-mail to a friend

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Video: Suspect says Holloway’s body dumped ‘like an old rag’

(CNN) — An investigative judge said Sunday that sufficient reason exists to reopen the inquiry against Joran van der Sloot, a suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway from the island of Aruba.

The announcement came shortly after Dutch television aired a program in which Van der Sloot told a man he considered to be his friend that he was with the 18-year-old on a beach near her hotel when she died, and that he arranged for a friend to take her body to sea and dump it.

He went out to sea and then he threw her out, like an old rag, he told Aruban businessman Patrick van der Eem on January 16.

Van der Eem recorded their conversations on hidden cameras installed in the Range Rover he was driving, according to the report that aired Sunday night.

Van der Sloot has acknowledged making the remarks, but told an interviewer last week that he was lying.

Aruba’s chief prosecutor, Hans Mos, described the account that aired Sunday night as very impressive, and announced that he was reopening the investigation. Watch CNN’s Frederik Pleitgen report on the new video

But the judge denied a prosecution request that van der Sloot, the son of a lawyer and judge in training, be detained in the Netherlands, where he is a student.

In a written statement, the Office of the Public Prosecutor said Sunday that it will appeal the judge’s decision barring van der Sloot’s arrest, but cautioned that the report does not necessarily solve the case.

There is a big difference between the reality of a courtroom and the reality of a television screen, it said.

On the program, van der Sloot tells the informant that Holloway and her friends had begged him to go out with them the night of May 29, 2005. So the Dutch student said he and two friends — brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe — met the women at a bar in Oranjestad. When they arrived, he said, the women appeared to have been drinking heavily and some of them were doing cocaine.

Holloway was on the island with about 100 classmates celebrating their graduation from Mountain Brook High School in suburban Birmingham, Alabama.

After declining an invitation from Holloway to dance on stage with her, he accepted an invitation from her to drink a shot of liquor from her navel as she lay on the bar, he said.

At about 1 a.m. on May 30, he said, she agreed to leave the bar with him and the Kalpoe brothers, telling her friends that she would meet them back at the Marriott Hotel prior to their planned return flight the next day to the United States, he said.

She never arrived.

The three men had previously told authorities that they then drove to the beach with Holloway, leaving her there when she told them she wanted to stay.

But Van der Sloot gave a different account in the hidden-camera footage. He said he wanted to have sex with Holloway, but she told him she did not want to go to her hotel. Instead, she said, she wanted to see sharks, he told the informant.

The two brothers then used their car to drive Van der Sloot and Holloway to the beach by the hotel and left them, Van der Sloot said.

He and Holloway then had sex, he said. But as they were caressing each other, she started shaking, then said nothing, he said.

All of a sudden, what she did was like in a movie, he said. She was shaking, it was awful … I prodded her, there was nothing.

He said he panicked and, when she did not appear to be alive, shook her but was unable to resuscitate her. He said he carried her body to a stand of trees, walked to a pay phone near the pool of the hotel and, instead of using his cell phone, called a friend who owned a boat that was tied up at a nearby dock.

Upon the friend’s arrival, the two men carried Holloway’s body to the boat, and the friend told Van der Sloot to go home, he said. The student then walked back to his house, where his father was asleep when he arrived about 15 minutes later, he recounted. He estimated the time at 2:30 a.m. or 3 a.m.

Van der Sloot said his friend showed up at his house later in the morning and told him he had carried the body out less than a mile from land and dumped it overboard.

He added that the incident with Holloway, whom he knew for only about two hours, has not bothered him.

I didn’t lose a minute of sleep over it, he said.

Last week, Van der Sloot called the Dutch television program Pauw Witteman and acknowledged having made the comments, but said they were lies.

That is what he wanted to hear, so I told him what he wanted to hear, Van der Sloot said. He said he held no ill will toward the reporter, Peter R. de Vries, who worked with the informant to record his conversations.

He is just doing his job, he said.
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Giants upset Patriots to win Super Bowl XLII

GLENDALE, Arizona (AP) — The Giants had the perfect answer for the suddenly imperfect Patriots: a big, bad defense and an improbable comeback led by their own Mr. Cool quarterback, Eli Manning.

In one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history, New York shattered New England’s unbeaten season 17-14 Sunday night as Manning hit Plaxico Burress on a 13-yard fade with 35 seconds left. It was the Giants’ 11th straight victory on the road and the first time the Patriots tasted defeat in more than a year.

It was the most bitter of losses, too, because New England (18-1) was one play from winning and getting the ultimate revenge for being penalized for illegally taping opponents’ defensive signals in the season-opener against the New York Jets.

But its defense couldn’t stop a final, frantic 12-play, 83-yard drive that featured a spectacular leaping catch by David Tyree, who had scored New York’s first touchdown on the opening drive of the fourth quarter.

It’s the greatest feeling in professional sports, Burress said before bursting into tears.

The Patriots were done in not so much by the pressure of the first unbeaten season in 35 years as by the pressure of a smothering Giants pass rush. Tom Brady, the league’s Most Valuable Player and winner of his first three Super Bowl, was sacked five times, hurried a dozen more and at one point wound up on his knees, his hands on his hips following one of many poor throws.

Hardly a familiar position for the record-setting quarterback. And a totally strange outcome for a team that seemed destined for historic glory.

Oddly, it was a loss to the Patriots that sparked New York’s stunning run to its third Super Bowl and sixth NFL title. New England won 38-35 in Week 17 as the Patriots became the first team since the 1972 Miami Dolphins to go spotless through the regular season. But by playing hard in a meaningless game for them, the Giants (14-6) gained something of a swagger and Manning cast off older brother Peyton’s shadow and found his footing.

Their growing confidence carried them through playoff victories at Tampa, Dallas and Green Bay, and then past the mightiest opponent of all.

Not that the Patriots were very mighty this day. They even conceded with 1 second on the clock as coach Bill Belichick ran across the field to shake the hand of jubilant Giants coach Tom Coughlin, then headed to the locker room, ignoring the final kneeldown.

That it was Manning taking that knee was stunning. Peyton’s kid brother not only matched his sibling’s achievement of last year with the Indianapolis Colts, but he showed the brilliant precision late in the game usually associated with, well, Brady.

Peyton Manning was seen in a luxury box jumping up and pumping both fists when Burress, who didn’t practice all week because of injuries, caught the winning score.

The upset could also be viewed as a source of revenge not only for the Giants, but for the other NFL teams over Spygate back in September. That cheating scandal made headlines again late in Super Bowl week, and could have placed an infinite cloud over New England’s perfection.

The Giants became the first NFC wild card team to win a Super Bowl; four AFC teams have done it. They also are the second team in three years to play nothing but away games and come away with the big prize; Pittsburgh did after the 2005 season. E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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