By LIBBY QUAID
The Associated Press
Monday, May 14, 2007; 10:05 PM
WASHINGTON -- Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Monday there is a very good chance he'll get into the race for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, but he won't decide until after September.
"I think right now that it is a great possibility," Gingrich said. "I don't want to get into all this stuff. I want to focus on what we have to do to make America successful."
Gingrich said he plans to hold a workshop on solutions facing the country in September, after which he'll make a decision on whether to launch a presidential bid.
He made the comments Monday on ABC's "Good Morning America."
Gingrich left Congress when Republicans lost seats in the 1998 elections after a campaign that highlighted then-President Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky.
Asked about former first lady and Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton's White House prospects, Gingrich said: "I think she has a very good chance of winning the presidency. ... I think unless Republicans are as committed to very fundamental change in Washington that they will almost certainly lose the election."
Gingrich was promoting his new historical novel, "Pearl Harbor." In the book, written with historian William R. Forstchen, the Japanese attack on the U.S. Pacific fleet is far more devastating than it actually was.
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WASHINGTON (AP) _ Sen. Chris Dodd, in a first for a Democratic presidential candidate, will begin airing a television commercial that criticizes his Democratic rivals for not embracing a plan to cut off money for the war in Iraq.
"I'm fighting for the only responsible measure in Congress that would take away the president's blank check and set a timetable to bring our troops home," Dodd says in the ad. "Unfortunately, my colleagues running for president have not joined me."
Dodd's ad refers to his support for legislation offered by Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin. The bill would stop paying for the war and withdraw virtually all U.S. troops by March 31, 2008.
Until now, candidates have avoided public confrontations with contenders from the same party, emphasizing instead their personal biographies. But Iraq is the leading issue in the campaign, particularly in the Democratic contest.
Dodd, a senator from Connecticut, is spending more than $120,000 in the ad campaign, which will air in Iowa, New Hampshire and on national cable. Though the ad does not mention his rivals by name, it is designed to compare his stand on Iraq with that of Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden and former Sen. John Edwards.
Clinton supports a measure with Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., that would repeal the authority Congress gave Bush to use force against Iraq. Edwards has called for the immediate withdrawal of 40,000-50,000 troops from Iraq and a complete pullout of combat troops within 12 to 18 months.
Obama and Biden have called for the withdrawal of most troops by March of 2008 or earlier but they have opposed an outright shutoff of money. Biden also has called for partitioning Iraq into Kurd, Sunni and Shiite regions.
Dodd, Clinton, Edwards and Biden all voted for the 2002 resolution giving Bush authority to use force in Iraq. Obama was not in the Senate then and has said he would have opposed it.
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TETERBORO, N.J. (AP) _ Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Monday he won't take the black vote for granted, especially since rival Hillary Rodham Clinton and her husband, former President Clinton, have established strong ties with the community.
"I expect to have to earn it," said Obama, who also accepted the endorsements of two mayors. "I think that the African-American community is sophisticated, like any group of voters, and they're going to make up their minds based on whether they think I have the leadership capacity and the agenda that's going to make their lives better."
Obama received the backing Monday of Newark Mayor Cory Booker and Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy.
The Newark mayor said over the weekend that he also would be part of Obama's campaign leadership in New Jersey. Booker has been linked with Obama as part of a new generation of black leaders.
"It's time that we have a national leader that's going to raise us around our highest common ideals and remind us that we have more in common as a people than we do that divides us," Booker said Saturday.
Later, at a rally in Trenton, N.J., Obama drew cheers from union workers when he repeated his campaign pledge to make health insurance available to all Americans by the end of his first term.
"We can have universal health care by the end of the next president's first term, by the end of my first term," Obama said, bringing 600 union workers to their feet during a question-and-answer session with members of AFL-CIO affiliated unions. The appearance was part of the labor organizations' presidential endorsement process.
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ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) _ Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton picked up the endorsements of New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and other home-state Democrats on Monday.
Spitzer, who said Clinton had the guts needed for the job, officially delivered his blessing on the steps of the statehouse, where he was joined by Lt. Gov. David Paterson, state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, among others.
"Let's put America in a New York state of mind," Silver suggested.
At the end of her speech, Clinton told supporters to pull out their cell phones as she unveiled a new way to communicate with her campaign _ text messaging.
"If it's new to you, ask for help from somebody, especially a young person who's nearby," she suggested.
Rival John Edwards started text messaging in December.
State Sen. Ruben Diaz, a Bronx Democrat, had urged fellow Hispanic elected officials to boycott the Clinton event, saying she and other presidential candidates aren't paying enough attention to the Hispanic community.
"We can no longer be expected to energize our base if our leaders and issues are being ignored," Diaz said in a statement.
The Clinton camp noted that plenty of Hispanic leaders have already lined up with Clinton, including Rep. Jose E. Serrano of the Bronx and his son, state Sen. Jose M. Serrano, and California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez.
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BOSTON (AP) _ While Republican Mitt Romney is hawkish on the presidential campaign trail, none of his five sons has served in the military. One of them says that troubles him.
"I feel guilty not having done it," Josh Romney, the 31-year-old middle son, said amid a profile of his father broadcast Sunday on the CBS News program "60 Minutes."
Matt Romney, at 35 the second eldest son, also told interviewer Mike Wallace, "I hope to be able to make a sacrifice of that caliber at some point in my life."
Ben Romney, 28, the second youngest, said, "I've seen a lot and read a lot that has made me say, `My goodness, I hope I never have to do that.'"
All five of the Romney sons, who now range in age from 26 to 37, served two years as Mormon missionaries.
Mitt Romney himself also served as a Mormon missionary, which enabled him to receive a draft deferment from the Vietnam War. In addition, he received a college deferment. When he finally was draft-eligible, he received a high lottery number and never was drafted.
On the stump, Romney argues for a robust national defense. He says he wants to add 100,000 troops to the U.S. military and commit 4 percent of the gross domestic product to funding the armed forces.
He also has defended the current all-volunteer military, saying he doesn't envision the need to return to a Vietnam-style draft.
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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) _ John McCain is the target of an ad that a veterans group plans to run on Fox News Channel immediately following the second GOP presidential debate Tuesday.
VoteVets.org's commercial features retired Maj. Gen. John Batiste, who commanded the First U.S. Infantry Division in Iraq. The ad is a version of others running in targeted House and Senate districts. In them, Batiste says the president's Iraq policies endanger U.S. security.
"Senator McCain, protect America, not George Bush," the ad that will run after the debate says. The group says it is spending $25,000 to run it.
The four-term Arizona senator has staunchly supported President Bush's troop buildup, and has said failure in Iraq would be catastrophic.
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Associated Press writers Glen Johnson in Boston, Marc Humbert in Albany, Jim Kuhnhenn in Washington, Janet Frankston Lorin in Teterboro, Tom Hester Jr. in Trenton and Liz Sidoti in Columbia contributed to this report.