Bill Clinton

BETHLEHEM, Pa. -- Campaigning for his wife ahead of next month's primary in this state, Bill Clinton was hardly subtle. "I want you to run up her vote here in Pennsylvania," he told hundreds of supporters last week at the Hotel Bethlehem, some of whom waited hours in the rain to see him. Barack Obama leads in the delegate count, and his campaign continues to emphasize piling up delegates, but Hillary Clinton is attempting to create a new battleground in...

NEW PHILADELPHIA, Ohio -- After contests in more than 30 states, Hillary Clinton's teetering presidential hopes may depend on just one: Ohio. Barack Obama has erased Clinton's double-digit lead in this state heading into Tuesday's crucial primary. But no one is predicting an Obama blowout. "Ohio is different," said Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, the most prominent Clinton backer in the state. Exactly how different won't be clear until the votes are counted here, and in Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont on the same day, which could decide the Democratic nomination.

With Sen. Barack Obama looking to sweep tomorrow's Potomac primaries, Sen. Hillary Clinton unleashed powerful allies in Maryland yesterday for a strategic push aimed at traditional Democratic groups who have helped her in other states. Former President Bill Clinton crisscrossed Maryland, calling his wife "the best change-maker I ever saw" during a speech at the Charlestown Retirement Community in Catonsville. Daughter Chelsea Clinton made appearances in Baltimore's Belvedere Square shopping district and later went to the University of Maryland, College Park.

BOWIE -- "Sometimes," former President Bill Clinton told the congregation at the Greater Mt. Nebo African Methodist Episcopal Church yesterday, "God gives us interesting tests." All his life, Clinton told the worshipers, he has wanted to be able to vote for a woman to be president, because his mother was a widow who worked to give him a better life. And all his life, he said, he has wanted to be able to vote for a black to be president, because he came of political age during the civil rights movement in the segregated South.

The halls of the Baltimore City schools headquarters vibrated with election chatter last week. When would Sen. Barack Obama appear in Baltimore? Was Sen. Hillary Clinton stronger on issues? "We've been talking about it all day ... the possibility of having an African-American or a woman in the White House," said Arthur Moore, 52, a schools administrator. "I'm excited, because it's a new day for us." In offices, coffee joints, barber shops and college dormitories across the state, discussion has raged in the past week about one of the most compelling elections in decades.

When Gov. Martin O'Malley endorsed Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary nearly a year ago, he was throwing his support behind the presumptive front-runner and building on a long-standing relationship with her and her husband's political machine. Moreover, the risk seemed small. Three years earlier, O'Malley had backed Howard Dean, who dropped out of the race, and still landed a coveted speaking role at the Democratic National Convention. But in recent weeks the dynamics of this year's presidential primaries have changed.

Late on Sept. 6, 2005, a private plane carrying the Canadian mining financier Frank Giustra touched down in Almaty, a ruggedly picturesque city in southeast Kazakhstan. Several hundred miles to the west a fortune awaited: deposits of uranium that could fuel nuclear reactors. And Giustra was in hot pursuit of an exclusive deal to tap them. Giustra was a newcomer to uranium mining in Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic. But what his fledgling company lacked in experience, it made up for in connections.

The country watches - some admiring, some aghast, many simply agog - at Bill Clinton's omnipresence on Hillary's campaign. His husbandly defense of her has opened up a huge can of waggish worms. Among them is the suggestion that the famous Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein song from Show Boat, "Bill," will be Senator Clinton's swan song, if she doesn't get a grip on him. I think it's time for former President Clinton to rejoin with former President George H.W. Bush and ... go to Kenya or something.

WASHINGTON -- Declaring that "it is time for a new generation of leadership" in America, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for president yesterday, wrapping the young politician in the mantle of America's best-known political dynasty. He was joined at American University by his famous niece Caroline Kennedy and his son, Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy of Rhode Island, both of whom also threw their support behind the youthful Illinois senator, likening Obama to their widely beloved relative, President John F. Kennedy.

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- He's scrapping with reporters. Pushing his wife's candidacy. Lashing out at her top rival in the Democratic presidential race. Former President Bill Clinton's recent aggressive tactics in the 2008 campaign have propelled him squarely to center stage - to the dismay of some prominent Democrats who fear he might be damaging the party's prospects for November. The vocal role he is carving out also might be a preview, should Hillary Rodham Clinton win in the fall, of how the White House would operate under the unprecedented scenario of a president being married to an ex-president.