Obama Takes Lead in Senate Endorsements

Wasn't Hillary supposed to be very popular among her Senate colleagues:

Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) is now a more popular choice among his Democratic Senate colleagues than rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.).

Obama, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, received the backing of New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman on Monday, and now leads Clinton with 14 endorsements to 13. In addition, Bingaman is the latest in a string of committee chairmen to support the Illinois senator.

While only two of Clinton’s 13 backers chair Senate committees, eight of Obama’s supporters head a panel.

“To make progress, we must rise above the partisanship and the issues that divide us to find common ground. We must move the country in a dramatically new direction,” Bingaman stated. “I strongly believe Barack Obama is best positioned to lead the nation in that new direction.”

Obama is pledging a positive campaign despite the constant attacks from the Clinton mob:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, attempting to regain his momentum after losing the Pennsylvania primary, promised to shun negative campaigning as his race drags on against Hillary Clinton.

Obama, 46, an Illinois senator, began his drive for the nomination with a message of unity and the pledge that he wouldn't run a typical political campaign. Today, Obama said he realized his campaign had strayed in recent weeks.

``I told this to my team, you know, we are starting to sound like other folks, we are starting to run the same negative stuff,'' Obama told a crowd of about 5,000 in Wilmington, North Carolina. ``It shows that none of us are immune from this kind of politics. But the problem is that it doesn't help you.''

Obama and Clinton are campaigning in North Carolina today ahead of the state's May 6 primary. Indiana voters also go to the polls that day, and Obama said he expects to win both contests. While he continues to lead Clinton in delegates needed for the nomination, the next round of voting has taken on renewed importance since his April 22 loss to Clinton in Pennsylvania.

During the 1 1/2 hour town hall, Obama adopted a relaxed pose, shirt sleeves rolled up and a hand in one pocket for much of the time. He addressed concerns by some Democrats that the prolonged race would hurt the party in November, saying he had no doubt that the party would be united.

We need less negative campaigning more on the issues:

Differences With McCain

Both Obama and Clinton today emphasized their differences with presumed Republican nominee John McCain. Obama said he considers McCain, a former prisoner of war, a ``hero'' yet said, ``I differ with him profoundly when it comes to identifying what the country needs right now.''

Clinton criticized McCain and Obama as she proposed a windfall profits tax on oil companies to pay for a suspension of the federal tax on gasoline.

Clinton said the money from taxing oil-company profits ``would help to pay for what we need to do to continue to repair and modernize and rebuild our roads,'' while a moratorium on fuel-tax collections ``would give people during the peak driving months of the summer some temporary relief.''

She noted that Obama opposes suspending the 18.4 cents a gallon federal levy on gasoline and McCain, who proposed shelving the tax during the summer driving season, would use general revenue to replace money lost from the highway fund.

``That's a mistake,'' she said.

The economy, with the loss of a quarter-million jobs so far this year, has moved to the forefront of the presidential campaign as rising fuel costs add to pressure on consumers. The national average price of a gallon of gasoline is $3.60, up 66 cents since last year, and diesel prices average $4.24 a gallon, up from $2.92 a year ago, according to a survey by AAA.

Suspending fuel taxes would require congressional action before lawmakers take their summer recess, and previous attempts to pass a tax moratorium have failed.

McCain, 71, an Arizona senator, proposed in an April 15 economic speech a ``gas-tax holiday,'' from the May 26 Memorial Day holiday to Labor Day, which falls on Sept. 1. He also would lift the 24.4 cents a gallon tax on diesel fuel.

Obama says a fuel-tax moratorium would take money away from highway and bridge construction that the U.S. needs to spend while saving most people about $25 over the summer.