BOONE, Iowa — Twenty years ago, when a black man was running for president and a woman was considering it, the two were viewed mainly through the prism of identity politics: What would Jesse Jackson's campaign mean to black political ascendancy? What did Pat Schroeder mean to the women's movement?

Neither really expected to win; both were most valuable as spot checks for the state of the American psyche when it came to minorities and political power. Schroeder's testing of the waters is remembered chiefly for the tears she cried when she announced she wouldn't run.

Now, the two top candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination are a woman, Hillary Clinton, and a black man, Barack Obama. Both fully expect to win. Both embrace their identities, but that's hardly the driving force of either candidacy. » read more

GREENVILLE, S.C. — The ice cream was cold but the rhetoric was hot at the Spill the Beans coffee house and sweet shop on Thursday as former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani poked fun at Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton's health care and economic proposals, calling them preludes to a massive tax increase.

But when the Republican was asked whether his stances on hot-button social issues such as abortion, gun control, civil unions between same-sex partners and immigration will ruin his drive for the White House in a state that considers itself the conservative buckle of the Bible Belt, he turned serious.

"I think people are surprised, maybe, about how strong a candidate I am in South Carolina," he told a small but supportive crowd that packed into the coffeehouse. ". . . Maybe there's a different story there than the one that you're looking for." » read more

WASHINGTON — Could Iran be the chink in Hillary Clinton's armor her opponents have been seeking?

As the New York senator and former first lady expands her lead for the Democratic nomination, her two closest rivals, Barack Obama and John Edwards, see an opportunity to erode her support among anti-war activists.

Their argument: that Clinton's recent positions on Iran show how she wants to be all things to all voters, leaving no one knowing where she really stands and giving President Bush leverage to start a new war in the Middle East. » read more