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Analysis: Clinton crushes Obama across the board

(CNN) — After enduring a week of political obituaries, Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign proved Tuesday that it still has some life.

Clinton, as expected, trounced Democratic front-runner Sen. Barack Obama in the West Virginia primary. In the process, she underscored Obama’s weakness with blue-collar, working-class white voters — a segment of the electorate that may prove pivotal in November.

Buoyed by her landslide margin, Clinton vowed to continue what has become a longshot campaign, telling supporters at a Charleston rally that she is more determined than ever to carry on this campaign until everyone has had a chance to make their voices heard.

Clinton’s victory in West Virginia was decisive. She won men and women. She carried a majority of voters in every age group. She captured liberals, moderates, and conservatives. She took a majority in every income bracket.

Clinton’s largest margins, as expected, were registered among voters at the lower end of the socioeconomic ladder. Among white voters without a college degree, Clinton defeated Obama by 50 points. Among white voters making less than $30,000 a year, Clinton’s margin of victory was more than 60 points.

Older voters and white women — part of Clinton’s core constituency — also rallied strongly to her beleaguered campaign. Voters age 65 and older supported her by a 38-point margin. White women backed her by 51 points.

Clinton’s proposal to suspend the 18.4-cent-per-gallon federal gasoline tax for the summer — an idea belittled by most economists and rejected by Obama as a political gimmick — proved to be a winner in West Virginia. Voters supported the gas tax suspension by an almost 2-to-1 margin. Those voters who supported suspending the gas tax broke for Clinton, 74 to 19 percent.

One major warning sign for Democrats could be found in the percentage of Obama and Clinton supporters apparently unwilling to support the opposing candidate. Only 38 percent of Clinton’s voters said they would vote for Obama in a general election matchup against presumptive GOP nominee Sen. John McCain. A bare majority (54 percent) of Obama’s voters said they would vote for Clinton against McCain.

While Clinton registered an impressive margin of victory in West Virginia, there are serious questions as to whether her victory there will do much to diminish Obama’s aura of inevitability. The Illinois senator has benefited from a steady stream of superdelegate endorsements since his win in North Carolina last week. He is edging steadily closer to the 2,025-delegate threshold needed to claim the Democratic nomination.

The Clinton camp is nevertheless likely to seize upon the West Virginia results to press her argument to the dwindling pool of uncommitted superdelegates that she would be the stronger Democratic candidate against McCain in the fall.

Over the past week, Clinton has highlighted the fact that white, working-class West Virginia was once a Democratic stronghold. In fact, no Democrat has captured the White House without West Virginia since Woodrow Wilson won a second term in 1916. President Bush was able to win the socially conservative state twice largely on the basis of hot button issues such as abortion, gay rights and gun control.

Similarly, it has been 48 years since a Democrat won without Kentucky, which holds its primary next week. The latest polling there shows Clinton leading Obama by more than 25 points. Kentucky has a number of similarities with West Virginia in terms of the overall demographic composition of its electorate.

Looking ahead to the final five primaries through June 3 (in Kentucky, Oregon, Puerto Rico, South Dakota, and Montana), Clinton will have to balance a number of political and financial calculations if she does in fact remain in the race. While most senior Democrats are not openly pushing for her to withdraw, they have sent signals that she should not damage Obama’s candidacy by launching new negative attacks. Clinton also needs to determine how much more debt she is willing to add to a campaign that is already more than $20 million in the red.

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Myanmar allows more U.S. aid flights

PATTAYA, Thailand (CNN) — The government of Myanmar authorized five more U.S. flights to land in the country with needed aid for survivors of last week’s cyclone, a U.S. Marine spokesman told CNN.

Lt. Col. Jeffrey Blau said Tuesday that the planes would leave Thailand’s U-Tapao airfield within 24 hours.

Two other flights departed Tuesday and another departed Monday carrying food, mosquito netting and plastic tarpaulins to the disaster zone.

Meanwhile, the USS Essex, USS Juneau and USS Harpers Ferry were in international waters off the coast of Myanmar laden with more than 14,000 containers of fresh water and other aid and awaiting orders to deliver by air or landing craft, Pentagon officials said.

On Tuesday, a U.S. military commander said Myanmar’s government seemed unaware of the scope of the death and destruction Cyclone Nargis wrought on the country.

Adm. Timothy Keating, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, was on the first of three U.S. aid flights allowed into Myanmar this week. He described meeting with a Myanmar three-star general who opened up a map of the country and pointed to the areas worst-hit by the cyclone.

[He] characterized activity there as returning back to normal — his words, Keating said. [He said] people are coming back to their villages, they’re planting their crops for the summer season, the monsoon will come and wash all the saltwater out of the ponds.

His manner, his demeanor, his attitude indicated something less than very serious concern.

The United Nations estimates that between 63,000 and 100,000 people died as a result of Cyclone Nargis. Children may account for one-third of the dead in Myanmar

The United States has pledged $16.25 million in aid to the country.

The two U.S. aid flights that arrived Tuesday carried water, blankets, plastic sheets, mosquito nets and other relief supplies, the U.S. military said. Together with a third flight that arrived in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, on Monday, the planes carried 70,000 pounds of supplies.

Government forces took possession of the aid shipment on the tarmac, transferring it from a C-130 U.S. transport plane onto helicopters, said Ky Luu, the director of foreign disaster assistance for the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Keating said he offered Myanmar the assistance of thousands of U.S. sailors and Marines, plus U.S. military aircraft.

The Burmese were cordial; they acknowledged our offers of assistance, but we got no firm decisions from them, Keating said.

The Burmese simply said, ‘We will take these matters under consideration; we will have to discuss them with the prime minister, and we will get back to you when we have a decision,’ he said. It may be days; it may be longer.

The cyclone hit Myanmar on the night of May 2, but junta leaders have been reluctant to allow foreign aid workers into the country.

The delay has caused concern among aid agencies and foreign governments and sparked unusually strong remarks from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who blasted the junta’s unacceptably slow response.

The U.N. said the World Food Programme was getting in only 20 percent of the food needed because of logistical problems and government restrictions, The Associated Press reported Tuesday.

There is obviously still a lot of frustration that this aid effort hasn’t picked up pace, spokesman Richard Horsey told AP.

There was also concern Tuesday about the quality of relief supplies reaching storm victims.

CARE Australia staff have found rotting rice being distributed to people in the worst-hit Irrawaddy Delta, its director in Myanmar, Brian Agland, told AP.

I have a small sample in my pocket, and it’s some of the poorest quality rice we’ve seen, he said. It’s affected by saltwater, and it’s very old.

A former Yangon resident now living in Thailand told AP that angry government officials told him that high-energy biscuits rushed into Myanmar on the World Food Program’s first flights were sent to a military warehouse.

Speaking on condition of anonymity over fears for his safety, he told AP that the biscuits were exchanged for what officials said were tasteless and low-quality biscuits produced by the Industry Ministry.

Victims in outlying areas are now arriving in towns and cities to seek the assistance they haven’t received, said Bridget Gardner, a spokeswoman for the Red Cross delegation in Myanmar.

We can see that some of the major needs are related to water and sanitation, Gardner said. Watch survivors await relief supplies

If junta leaders are unaware of the extent of the disaster, however, local leaders and medical officers know all too well, Gardner said.

They’re very aware of the issues they’re facing in their townships, she said, adding that local Red Cross volunteers have actively been providing assistance with existing supplies.

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CNN Student News Transcript: May 14, 2008

(CNN Student News) — May 14, 2008

Quick Guide

America Votes 2008 - Hear how West Virginia’s primary could affect the Democratic nomination.

Powerful Quake in China - Learn how China’s government is responding to a devastating earthquake.

Giving While Learning - See how an online vocabulary game is providing food to people in need.

Transcript

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: It’s Wednesday, and we’ve hit the halfway mark of the week. Hello everyone. Thanks for spending some time with CNN Student News. From the CNN Center, I’m Carl Azuz.

First Up: America Votes 2008

AZUZ: First up, a face-off in West Virginia between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. These Democratic candidates are locked in the closest primary race in recent history. Obama has won more contests, more pledged delegates and more superdelegates. But Clinton has come out ahead in Ohio and Pennsylvania. These are places that are expected to be very competitive between both parties in the general election. West Virginia is another of these so-called battleground states. John Lorinc fills us in on yesterday’s results there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN LORINC, CNN REPORTER: Senator Hillary Clinton wins the West Virginia Democratic primary by a wide margin, beating out Senator Barack Obama.

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, like the song says, it’s almost heaven. And I am so grateful for this overwhelming vote of confidence.

LORINC: But is it too little too late? Should she call it quits? Camp Clinton says no way.

TERRY MCAULIFFE, CLINTON CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN: Hillary’s on a roll.

LORINC: But a new USA Today/Gallup poll shows 35 percent of Democrats surveyed believe Clinton should get out of the race, an increase of 12 percentage points in a week.

MARK HALPERIN, POLITICAL ANALYST: Given the overwhelming press coverage suggesting Hillary Clinton should end the race, it’s amazing to me that many Democrats think she should keep going, and not at all a surprise that more Democrats think she should end her bid.

LORINC: But Clinton says she’s the one who can defeat Senator John McCain come November. Barack Obama spoke before the polls closed in West Virginia.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: John McCain has decided that he is running for George Bush’s third term in office. We need a new direction in Washington, and that’s what we’ve been offering throughout this campaign.

LORINC: Voters in Kentucky and Oregon go to the polls next week. For CNN Student News, I’m John Lorinc.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Is this Legit?

ANDY ROSE, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Is this Legit? West Virginia was originally part of Virginia. Totally true! The Mountain State broke away from Virginia in 1861 and became its own state two years later.

America Votes 2008

AZUZ: So, that covers the Democrats. On the other side, John McCain wrapped up the Republican Party’s nomination a while ago. That’s why we call him The presumptive nominee. He’s out on the campaign trail, working towards the general election in November. On Tuesday, McCain was talking in Washington about the environment, part of his week-long focus on the issue as he tours across the country.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I see environment, national security, our economy all coming together. Perhaps that’s gonna spark in this nation an incredible impetus for us to sit down together, Republican and Democrat, environmentalists and business, and banker and retailer, all together and address this problem.

Powerful Quake in China

AZUZ: In China, hundreds of soldiers and rescue workers have made it to the area where Monday’s deadly earthquake started. They’re working to reach the victims, sometimes digging through the rubble with just their hands. Officials now report that more than 12,000 people have been killed by the 7.9-magnitude quake. Its epicenter was located in the Sichuan province, about 950 miles away from the capital of Beijing. But tremors were felt in cities across the Asian country and even in other countries. Roads were damaged, bridges collapsed, and according to soldiers in the town where the earthquake occurred, only 25 percent of the 12,000 residents survived the quake. One official in Sichuan province said about 3.5 million homes were destroyed there. But he added that many survivors are doing all they can to help each other.

They aren’t the only ones. International organizations are already providing aid. And U.S. officials announced that the country has contributed $500,000 for relief efforts and is prepared to do more. Chinese authorities say they’re planning to get the money and materials to the victims as soon as they possibly can. Paula Hancocks looks at how the Chinese government is responding to this natural disaster.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN REPORTER: China’s Prime Minister Wen Jiabao stands on the rubble of a building and reassures those trapped below. He tells them, You will be rescued. He spoke to survivors and rescuers in some of the badly hit areas. His visit to the city of Shifang Tuesday was played heavily on state television in an attempt to reassure the country the government was doing all it could. The prime minister shouts the transportation of food must be faster; children are short of food.

China is no stranger to natural disasters. The worst earthquake in a century was in China in 1976, killing more than a quarter of a million. But experts say Chinese authorities are learning to be more open after each disaster, a lesson learned after the outbreak of respiratory illness SARS in 2002.

GARETH LEATHER, ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT: The government was very, very secretive about it, which in turn allowed the disease to spread across China and Asia a lot quicker than it otherwise would have done. This time they have been very open about it, which I think is maybe showing signs that lessons have been learned.

HANCOCKS: The government is vocally open to offers of international help.

ZHEN YAO WANG, DEPUTY, CIVIL ADMIN. DEPARTMENT (TRANSLATED): We express our thanks for international assistance. We accept the timely way that money and materials are donated, and we will make efforts to ensure that these materials and money will reach the disaster-hit area as early as possible.

HANCOCKS: The ruling party, through the state media, updates casualty figures frequently, a transparency not often seen. And deploying thousands of troops to the worst hit areas, saying if they cannot get through by road, they will continue on foot. The hope being there have been so many smaller natural disasters in China, reaction by the response teams and the ruling party should by now be fairly well oiled. Paula Hancocks, CNN, London.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Impact Your World

AZUZ: If you want to be part of the relief efforts, go to CNN.com and Impact Your World! China is welcoming donations of money and materials, and every bit helps. That’s at CNN.com/impact.

Giving While Learning

AZUZ: Lots of people impact their world by providing food to those who need it. Well, one online game lets you donate rice by showing off your skill with synonyms, words that have similar meanings. The idea is simple: Every time you make a match, you’re giving some grains of rice. Josh Levs talks to a teacher who’s letting his students have plenty of time to play.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH LEVS, CNN REPORTER: It’s not your usual Internet game and not your usual winning outcome. Free Rice is a vocabulary game that helps deliver rice to countries in need. It’s caught on with Atlanta teacher David Millians and his students; he even allows it to be played in his classroom.

DAVID MILLIANS, PAIDEIA SCHOOL TEACHER: Feeding people has been an important issue that we’ve discussed all year. And when we found Free Rice, we had a wonderful vocabulary tool that also produces food for people who need it, and so it was both fun and educational and important.

LEVS: For each correct word chosen in the multiple choice game, sponsors donate twenty grains of rice to combat world hunger through the World Food Programme.

BETTINA LUESCHER, WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME: World hunger is a huge and important issue. We think this year we need $3.4 billion alone, as the World Food Programme, to feed some, you know, 73 million people or so. And as you mentioned, with the high wheat and rice prices, the price has gone up so much; an extra half a billion dollars, just because of the price rises.

LEVS: Students find the game fun and educational. They’ve even created a new word to describe it.

STUDENT: It’s funducational!

STUDENT: Since I read a lot, I guess, learning new words so that I understand the reading better, and finding words and helping people.

STUDENT: It’s fun.

STUDENT: Yea, and it’s a good feeling to know that you’re giving rice to people around the world.

LEVS: And with so many benefits, Millians feels good about encouraging students to play the game as time allows.

MILLIANS: We give them time to play before school, during breaks, if they have a free period. And some people play it every day more than once, and some students more intermittently. It’s not just another vocabulary game. It delivers rice to people who need it, so it serves several purposes at once, and I think it feels more important to me, but also more important to my students.

LEVS: Josh Levs, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Shoutout

ROSE: Time for the Shoutout! Which of these words is a synonym for synonym? If you think you know it, shout it out! Is it: A) Antonym, B) Homonym, C) Pseudonym or D) Falsonym? You’ve got three seconds — GO! Trick question! According to several dictionaries we looked at, there’s no word with the same meaning as synonym. That’s your answer and that’s your synonymous Shoutout!

Before We Go

AZUZ: And finally, what’s a synonym for a strip of hook-and-loop tape? Velcro! The sticky substance with its signature sound has stuck around for 50 years! And it’s not just for those of us too lazy to tie our shoes. The product’s been used on everything from baby diapers to body armor. It’s even traveled into space on astronaut equipment. With an item that useful, we can probably expect it to hang around for another 50 years.

found here.

Soldiers press search for quake survivors

(CNN) — China’s deadly earthquake killed more than 7,700 people in the town of Yingxiu — about three-quarters of everyone who lived there, state media reported.

The grim news about Yingxiu, a town in Sichuan province, came as rescuers struggled to reach some of the hardest-hit areas of southwestern China two days after a massive earthquake that has pushed the death toll so far to well above 12,000.

Rescuers found at least 500 dead in the Chinese district at the epicenter of the magnitude 7.9 earthquake Tuesday, while heavy rain, collapsed bridges and damaged roads complicated efforts to get troops and aid workers to the worst-hit towns. The rain drove some people back inside homes even as more aftershocks rattled the region, witnesses reported.

The Monday afternoon quake’s epicenter was in the county of Wenchuan, Sichuan province, about 1,500 km (960 miles) southwest of Beijing.

The state-run news agency Xinhua reported the death toll at more than 12,100 before Tuesday’s latest reports, with more than 26,000 injured, 7,800 missing and more than 9,400 trapped beneath debris.

During a visit to a school in Shifang, where more than 100 children were trapped beneath rubble, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao promised that saving lives was a top priority. Look at photos of China confronting the quake devastation

We will put our best efforts forward to save all those alive who can be saved, he said. This disaster has all tested us. We all have to band together and have confidence and push forward.

Wen also visited a stadium in the city of Mianyang, where more than 10,000 earthquake victims have been temporarily resettled, Xinhua reported.

The transportation of food must be faster, the news agency quoted him as telling government officials. Children are short of food.

Hundreds of soldiers and disaster workers descended on Wenchuan, many of them digging by hand, according to the disaster relief headquarters of the Chengdu Military Area Command. Soldiers said only 3,000 of the town’s 12,000 residents survived the quake. Watch as dazed, bruised survivors battle the elements

More than 70 percent of the town’s roads were damaged, and almost all bridges had collapsed, the soldiers reported.

China is no stranger to natural disasters: A 1976 earthquake here killed more than 250,000 people. But analysts said the Chinese response to Monday’s quake has been the most transparent of any disaster, with state media frequently updating casualty tolls and deploying troops rapidly to the worst-hit areas.

Gareth Leather, an analyst for The Economist magazine, said the communist government was criticized for its response to the 2002 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2002.

The government was very secretive about it, which in turn allowed the disease the spread across China and Asia a lot quicker than it otherwise would have done, Leather told CNN. This time they have been very open about it, which I think is maybe showing signs that lessons have been learned. Watch quake victims pulled out of rubble

Li Chengyun, vice governor of Sichuan, said about 3.5 million homes were destroyed in the province. David Jones, an English teacher in the city of Chengdu, said residents were camping out on riverbanks, in parking lots and other open spaces, despite terrible weather.

People are doing everything they can to stay outside, he said. In a lot of cases, they can’t return to their buildings.

He said survivors were lining up to donate blood and remained calm, though appeared extremely tired. Grief is spreading as the scope of the disaster is realized

The people here have been really helpful to each other, making sure everybody has supplies, he said. I haven’t seen any price-gouging. The mood here has gone from shock, fear, to tiredness. Look at a photo wall of the destruction and rescue efforts

Wenchuan is the refuge for much of China’s panda population, and the State Forestry Administration said the 67 captive pandas among the more than 130 pandas in the Wolong Giant Panda Reserve were unhurt. However, the pandas’ caregivers were worried about their bamboo leaf supply, their main source of food.

In other developments Tuesday:

U.S. White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said President Bush had spoken with China’s President Hu Jintao in the morning. He expressed his condolences on the earthquake and reiterated his offer to assist in any way possible, she said.

found here.