Campaigning for her mother, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton answers lots of questions from potential voters at campaign events but never from reporters.

But in Indianapolis on Tuesday, Clinton brushed aside a question from an individual in the crowd who asked for her take on her mother’s handling of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, WISH-TV reported.

“Wow, you’re the first person actually that’s ever asked me that question in the, I don’t know, 70 college campuses that I’ve now been to and I do not think that’s any of your business,” Clinton responded according to the station.

The crowd at the student union at Butler University applauded, WISH said.That was supposed to be the last question, but Clinton insisted on taking one more question, the report said.

When it was revealed in 1998 that President Bill Clinton had had an affair with Lewinsky, the news set off a protracted drama that led to his impeachment and a failed attempt to remove him from office.

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- Photo Credit: Reuters/Jessica Rinaldi (Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton applauds as her daughter Chelsea takes the stage at a rally in Austin, Texas on March 3)

UNIONTOWN, Pennsylvania - U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton wants voters to see the Democratic nomination race as an interview, and she says her resume of experience means she’s the right person for the job.

But the New York senator made light of the length of that interview process in her race against rival Barack Obama and said sometimes people make their decisions based on silly things — like hair.

“Consider this a job interview,” Clinton told a rally in Pennsylvania on Monday evening.

“If it’s a job interview, which I think it is — it’s one of the longest job interviews on record … you have to ask yourself, who would I hire?”

The New York senator’s preferred answer, of course: Hillary Clinton. But one thing she doesn’t want you to take into account is her haircut.

“If they don’t particularly like your hair style, they can vote for you or against you,” she remarked about job interviews in general, saying sometimes selections were based on fickle criteria.

Clinton was famous for changing her haircut during her years as first lady but has kept a fairly consistent style since joining the Senate and, more recently, running for president.

The race between Clinton and Obama, a senator from Illinois who wears his hair short, is likely to go on through at least June when the final state-by-state nominating contests are held.

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-Photo credit: Reuters/Tim Shaffer (Clinton speaks at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia)

SALEM, Ore. - Conventional wisdom suggests New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson’s endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama ’s bid for the Democratic nomination matters most among Hispanic voters where, as a Hispanic himself, Richardson could have most influence.

Following that logic, the endorsement would have made more impact before Texas primary on March 5 or, even better, before Super Tuesday’s primary in California. Sen. Hillary Clinton won the big Hispanic vote in both states handily.
The point was made by Clinton’s campaign strategist Mark Penn.

“You know, I think New Mexico is a state that, actually, we won,” he said. “And if Senator Obama’s campaign wanted to follow what they tell everyone, they certainly would be telling Governor Richardson to be casting his pledged delegate to us.

“But I think that, you know, perhaps the time when he could have been most effective has long since passed and — long since passed.”

But Richardson, who had been in the Democratic presidential race until dropping out in January , told a news conference that point of view was “unfortunate” and reflective of an outmoded politics of ethnic identification that he said Obama opposes.

President Bill Clinton appointed Richardson energy secretary and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and the Clintons had courted his endorsement assiduously.

Richardson called Sen. Clinton on Friday to explain why he was supporting her opponent and it was a difficult phone call.

“Let me say we have had better conversations,” he said.

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Richard Clement (Obama (left) and Richardson wave to the crowd at a rally in Portland, Ore., March 21 after the New Mexico governor endorseed Obama’s presidential campaign.)

  CHARLESTON, W.Va. - For many U.S. sports fans, March is the time to obsess over men’s college basketball and the science of “bracketology,” in which fans predict the winner of each game in the 64-team, end-of-season tournament. 

For others, of course, bracketology remains a mystery.
U.S. Sen. Barack Obama released his “brackets” on Thursday, reinforcing his credentials as a regular, sports-lovin’ guy who shoots hoops in his spare time on the campaign trail as he runs for the Democratic nomination for U.S. president.

According to Obama, expect North Carolina, Kansas, Pittsburgh and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), to reach the final four as semi-finalists.

Team Obama even put his complete picks on its Web site.

Students of politics and sport might note that two of the teams Obama selected are in states yet to vote and polls put him slightly ahead of his rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, in North Carolina, the team he picked to beat UCLA in the final.

But there’s another set of brackets in which Obama has an interest.

The Democratic nominee will face presumptive Republican nominee John McCain in November’s general election and at a sports bar in Charleston, West Virginia, Obama outlined a potential November match-up on a supporter’s bracketology card.

“I put McCain on one side, Obama on the other in the final,” he said, adding: “Obama wins it.”

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- Photo credit: Reuters/John Sommers II (Obama speaks to supporters during a  campaign stop in Charleston, West Virginia)

NEW YORK - While not exactly the epic Star Wars battle between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, the heated contest for theDemocratic nomination for U.S. president is spawning its own cadre of action figures that can debate right in your living room.

Novelty action-figure companies are scrambling to getready for the November election and the figures are already starting to pop up on campaign trails.

This weeka supporter handed presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain a Hillary Clintonfigureat a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. According to The Lighter Side Co., which shipsthefigure, sheis wearing pearls, a 3-piece suit, and will dance to a modified version of “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.”

Novelty gag gifts like this are popular with U.S. college students, their makers say, so there should be no surprise that Sen. Barack Obama figures are seeinga spike in popularity.

“He makes a good action figure,” said Jason Feinberg of Jailbreaktoys.com, which will begin taking orders forits Obama figure(right) next month. “He hasa little bit of the superhero thing that’s associated with action figures — the slender build, a hopeful message,”Feinberg said.

For those hopingClinton and Obama will work out their differences, Herobuilders.comoffers “Obama and Hillary Dream Team” action figures (below). And if you want to use theaction figures as an informal polling device, individual Obama figure sales have been outpacing Hillary sales for the past three months,according to Herobuilders.com President Emil Vicale.

“We typically know what’s going to happen in advance,” said Vicale, whose site will start shipping a plush “Obamakinz” doll next week as well. “Last time we pretty much had to give away the (John) Kerry action figures whenever we sold a (George W. ) Bush figurine.”

While aHillary pet chew toy and nutcrackerhave also been floating around this year, oddly, we couldn’t find any action figures forMcCain, a former Navy pilot and prisoner of war in Vietnam.Not to worry though, the senator from Arizonadoes havea mask and bobblehead doll coming soon.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Tim Shaffer (Sen. John McCain hands a Hillary Clinton doll that was given to him by a supporter to an aide during a town meeting event at the Springfield Country Club in Springfield, Pennsylvania, March 14, 2008.)

WESTCHESTER, New York - Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has made a last-minute change to her campaign schedule, adding a stop in Michigan on Wednesday to push lawmakers to organize a re-do of the state’s primary election.

The New York senator’s campaign decided late on Tuesday to add a stop in Michigan so she can push for the re-run, a move that could help her presidential bid.

Michigan Democratic Party leaders said earlier a proposal to redo the primary in June was stalled and unlikely to be approved before a deadline this week.

Opposition from lawmakers backing Illinois Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign seemed certain to scuttle any proposal.

So Clinton is going to Detroit, where she will hold a morning event to draw attention to the cause.

“She wants to press the case that every vote should count, that the people of Michigan should be a part of this process, that no one should be disenfranchised,” a spokesman said.

“Senator Obama is standing in the way of that opportunity,” he said.

Clinton won Michigan’s Jan. 15 primary, which had been moved up earlier in the year despite party rules forbidding the early date.

Obama removed his name from the ballot and neither candidate actively campaigned in the state.

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Rebecca Cook (Supporters for both candidates rally in Detroit last year.)

SCRANTON, Pa. - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama joined in some classic Irish-American pastimes on St. Patrick’s Day but he initially forgot one important tradition: wearing green.

Obama headed out to Pennsylvania — a state with a sizable number of voters with Irish heritage — wearing a light blue tie.

Because of St. Patrick’s Day festivities over the weekend, including a big parade in Chicago, Obama said he had “sort of lost track” that Monday was the actual holiday.

As he stopped by a pub in Scranton, he said he planned to change into a green tie later.

“I confiscated one from one of my staffers,” Obama said.

By evening, as he spoke at an Irish Women’s Society dinner, he was sporting a mint-green tie. And as many politicians do on St. Patrick’s Day, he also touted his ties to Ireland, talking of a great grandfather who came from the Emerald Isle and settled in Ohio.

“It never hurts to be a little Irish in you when you’re running for office in the United States,” Obama said.

His rival for the Democratic nomination to run in November’s presidential election, Sen. Hillary Clinton, hit the campaign trail on Monday wearing a silk scarf with green on it.

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SCRANTON, Pa. - Barack Obama will discuss the issue of race in the U.S. presidential campaign in a speech on Tuesday in Philadelphia, while also trying to quell a controversy over inflammatory rhetoric by the pastor at his Chicago church.

Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, is vying for the Democratic nomination against Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, who would be the first woman president.

Racially charged comments such as Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s contention that the United States believes in “white supremacy and black inferiority” put Obama on the defensive.

The Illinois senator, whose speech is scheduled for 10:15 a.m. EDT (1415 GMT) on Tuesday, has attended Wright’s church for 20 years.

“I am going to be talking about not just Reverend Wright but the larger issue of race in this campaign,” Obama told reporters on Monday while campaigning in Pennsylvania, which holds its important primary contest on April 22.

As Obama stopped by a Scranton sports bar for the taping of an MTV roundtable with military veterans, a handful of protesters held up signs with pictures of Obama standing next to the pastor.

“Wright Is Wrong And So Is Obama,” some of the placards read.

A central message of Obama’s campaign is a promise of trying to transcend divisions, including those involving race.

The Clinton and Obama camps have accused each other of injecting race into the campaign last week after remarks from a Clinton supporter, Geraldine Ferraro, were viewed as racially insensitive.

Ferraro, a former vice presidential candidate, attributed Obama’s lead in the Democratic race to his being black. Clinton has repudiated Ferraro’s comments.

Some African Americans took offense when her husband, former President Bill Clinton, in January compared Obama’s victory in the South Carolina primary to success there by Jesse Jackson, a black candidate who ran for president in 1984 and 1988.  Some saw the remarks as a bid to marginalize Obama as a candidate of only black America.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Cohn (Sen. Barack Obama speaks during a town hall meeting at the Community College of Beaver County in Monaca, Pennsylvania, on March 17)

NEW YORK - When Elton John plays a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton on April 9 in New York, he may want to choose his song list carefully.

Clinton knows as well as anybody the importance of a song in politics.

Last May, she used videos posted on the YouTube Web site to ask viewers to vote for a campaign song. The winning anthem was Celine Dion’s “You and I.”

Songs played repeatedly at her rallies include Tom Petty’s “American Girl,” Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5,” and Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s “Takin’ Care of Business.”

Songs Elton John might want to avoid: “Rocket Man,” “The Bitch is Back,” “I Guess That’s Why They Call it the Blues,” and “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me.”

Songs with the right message: “I’m Still Standing,” “It’s Me That You Need” and “Can You Feel the Love Tonight.”

Tickets will cost from $125 to $250 for the fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall.

“I’m not a politician but I believe in the work that Hillary Clinton does,” John said in a statement issued by the Clinton campaign. “I’m excited to support Hillary by performing at what will be a truly memorable night.”

PICTURE: REUTERS/ Jumana El Heloueh (British musician Elton John smiles as he performs during the “Elton & Band” concert in Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi January 22, 2008.)

WASHINGTON - New York Senator Hillary Clinton and her campaign will throw their support behind rival Senator Barack Obama of Illinois if he “for whatever reason” should win the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, a top aide to the former first lady said on Sunday.

“If for whatever reason Senator Obama is the nominee, everyone in this campaign including Senator Clinton will support him enthusiastically,” communications director Howard Wolfson told a conference call.

But Clinton would be the better commander-in-chief and had good chances in the upcoming state-by-state battles to determine who will lead the party’s ticket Wolfson said.

Some observers have expressed concern that the tough campaign between the two historic candidates would divide the party, but Wolfson said members would coalesce around the winner in order to defeat Republican John McCain.

That rare expression of support aside, Wolfson said he did not believe Obama would end up with the lead in the popular vote after the nominating contests were over and he reiterated his position that Obama had not proven he would be the best person to lead the nation.

“We do not believe that he has passed the commander-in-chief test,” Wolfson said.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Cohn (Clinton marches in St. Patrick’s Day parade in Pittsburgh)