Obama Starts Search for a Running Mate

WASHINGTON – Likely Democratic nominee Barack Obama has begun a top-secret search for a running mate, fresh signs that the general election campaign is well underway and the primary race against Hillary Rodham Clinton is basically over.

Obama has asked former Fannie Mae CEO Jim Johnson to begin vetting potential vice presidential picks, Democratic officials said Thursday. Johnson did the same job for Democratic nominees John Kerry in 2004 and Walter Mondale in 1984.

Obama refused to acknowledge Johnson’s role when The Associated Press asked the Illinois senator about it in the Capitol Thursday.

"I haven’t hired him. He’s not on retainer. I’m not paying him any money. He is a friend of mine. I know him," Obama said. "I am not commenting on vice presidential matters because I have not won this nomination."

The Democratic officials spoke on a condition of anonymity about a process that the campaign wants to keep quiet.

Vice presidential searches are usually closely held secrets, but Obama campaign officials say the effort is being handled by a particularly tight circle of advisers.

Campaign officials did not want to discuss the effort because they are still engaged in a fading primary campaign against Hillary Rodham Clinton, with three primaries left in Puerto Rico, South Dakota and Montana. The voting ends June 3. Obama has repeatedly declined to discuss possible running mates while the primary is ongoing.

McCain rejects pastor’s endorsement

UNION CITY, Calif. – Republican John McCain has rejected the endorsement of an influential Texas televangelist criticized for his anti-Catholic views.

John Hagee, the Texas preacher, withdrew his endorsement at the same time.

McCain issued a statement after audio surfaced in which Hagee said God sent Adolf Hitler to help Jews reach the Promised Land.

McCain said in a statement: "Obviously, I find these remarks and others deeply offensive and indefensible, and I repudiate them. I did not know of them before Reverend Hagee’s endorsement, and I feel I must reject his endorsement as well."

Hagee also issued a statement saying he was tired of baseless attacks and he was removing himself from any active role in the 2008 campaign.

Clinton sees party from inside, now out

WASHINGTON – After more than a decade as the ultimate Democratic Party insider, Hillary Rodham Clinton finds herself in a strange place: on the outside looking in, beseeching party leaders to help keep her White House bid alive.

In campaign appearances through south Florida, Clinton called out her own party’s leadership, urging them to restore national convention delegates to Florida and Michigan. These delegates were stripped from the two states for jumping ahead in the line of primaries in violation of party rules that all the candidates, including Clinton, agreed to before she won the two January contests.

"We’re asking the Democratic National Committee to make sure they count all of your votes," she said at a Miami rally Wednesday night.

In years past, the Clintons didn’t have to ask the DNC for anything; they just told the committee what to do.

Her husband, after all, was the president. She worked in the White House. Her current campaign chairman, Terry McAuliffe, is an old Clinton friend and fundraiser who once ran the DNC.

Now, her campaign is pushing party leaders to fully count the delegates for the two disputed states, even though none of the candidates campaigned in the two states because of the rules violation and Barack Obama even had his name taken off the Michigan ballot. Seating both groups in the way most favorable to her would still leave her trailing Obama in the delegate count.

McCain, Obama spar on GI bill

UNION CITY, Calif. – Republican John McCain said Thursday that Democrat Barack Obama had no right to criticize McCain’s position on military scholarships because the Illinois senator did not serve in uniform.

"And I will not accept from Senator Obama, who did not feel it was his responsibility to serve our country in uniform, any lectures on my regard for those who did," the Arizona senator said in a harshly worded statement issued Thursday.

McCain lashed out at Obama’s personal history despite Obama’s repeated praise of McCain’s military service. As Obama said Tuesday night in Des Moines, Iowa: "We face an opponent, John McCain, who arrived in Washington nearly three decades ago as a Vietnam War hero, and earned an admirable reputation for straight talk and occasional independence from his party."

McCain was a Navy fighter pilot who was shot down and spent nearly six years as a Vietnam prisoner of war. At age 46, Obama is too young to have been drafted or fought in Vietnam. The direct U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War officially ended in 1973, the same year the military draft was ended and replaced by an all- volunteer military.

The candidates’ criticism of each other has grown increasingly acrimonious in recent weeks, a sign of things to come in the general election campaign.

Obama to stand in for Kennedy at Wesleyan

BOSTON – Barack Obama has agreed to deliver the commencement address at Wesleyan University in place of Sen. Edward Kennedy, who pulled out Thursday after being diagnosed with brain cancer.

Kennedy, 76, had planned to speak at the Sunday ceremony in Middletown, Conn., where his stepdaughter will be among the graduates. The commencement exercises also coincide with 25th reunion festivities for his son Edward Kennedy Jr.

Obama said he and Kennedy had talked earlier in the week about Obama’s doing the speech.

"Considering what he’s done for me and for our country, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for him," Obama said in a statement. "So I’m looking forward to standing in his place on Sunday even though I know I won’t be able to fill his shoes."

Kennedy was diagnosed this week with a malignant brain tumor, which was discovered after he had a seizure at his home last Saturday. He was released Wednesday from Massachusetts General Hospital and has been recovering from his biopsy at the Kennedy family compound on Cape Cod.

Daily track

Barack Obama holds an 11-point lead nationally over Hillary Rodham Clinton, 53 percent to 42 percent, in the Democratic presidential race, according to the latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking update.

Delegate breakdown

Barack Obama: 1,965

Hillary Rodham Clinton: 1,780

Quote of the day

"I think it’s a very intelligent campaign tactic. Obviously the president’s popularity and approval ratings are low. So I think it’s a pretty good tactic." – Republican John McCain, when asked on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" about Democrat Barack Obama linking him with President Bush.