综合一区欧美国产,99国产麻豆免费精品,九九精品黄色录像,亚洲激情青青草,久久亚洲熟妇熟,中文字幕av在线播放,国产一区二区卡,九九久久国产精品,久久精品视频免费

   

Iraq casts shadow on US election

(AP)
Updated: 2006-11-07 06:43

WASHINGTON: With today's US national election overshadowed by discontent and division over the Iraq War, Republicans and Democrats sent thousands of volunteers to states with the most contested Congressional races to work phone banks and canvass neighborhoods to turn out voters.

President George W. Bush spent Monday urging Republicans in Southern states to get out and vote.


A Palestinian girl holds a poster during a rally in support of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in the West Bank town of Jenin Monday, November 6, 2006. [Reuters]

Republicans repeated their assertion that Democrats would prematurely pull out of Iraq and raise taxes if they controlled Congress. Democrats pressed their case for change, arguing that Republicans on Capitol Hill have blindly followed Bush's "failed policy."

Iraq has dominated the campaign season, and Republicans and Democrats sparred over the war again following Saddam Hussein's conviction for crimes against humanity. On Sunday, he was sentenced to death by hanging; an appeal is planned.

White House spokesman Tony Snow on Sunday decried as "absolutely crazy" any notion that Saddam's death sentence was timed to produce positive news on the divisive, unpopular war two days before the US elections.

The United States has always denied direct involvement in the Iraqi trial, though suspicions persisted.

Bush hailed the Saddam verdict.

"My decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision and the world is better off for it," he said while campaigning.

He called the judgment "a milestone in the Iraqi people's effort to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law."

"To pull out, to withdraw from this war is losing. The Democrats appear to be content with losing," said Senator Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina, who leads the Senate Republican campaign efforts.

Representative Rahm Emanuel, the Democrat in charge of the party's House campaign, shot back, "We want to win and we want a new direction to Iraq."

The greatest obstacle for both parties is the historical tendency for voter turnout to be mediocre in off-year elections. For those who do vote, both parties have put together legal teams for possible challenges.

Polls showed a mixed picture of the electorate. A CNN poll released yesterday said 58 per cent of likely voters would cast their ballots for Democrats running for Congress and 38 per cent for Republicans. A Pew survey put the split at four percentage points.

Up for grabs are 435 House seats, 33 Senate seats, governorships in 36 states, and thousands of state legislative and local races. In 37 states, voters also will determine the fate of ballot initiatives, including whether to ban gay marriage, raise the minimum wage, endorse expanded embryonic stem cell research and in South Dakota impose the country's most stringent abortion restrictions.

Democratic Representative Nancy Pelosi, hoping to become the first female House speaker, campaigned for Democratic challengers in the Northeast on Sunday.

She was cautiously optimistic about her party's chances in today's election. "We are thankful for where we are today, to be poised for success," she said in Colchester, Connecticut.

Her party appears increasingly confident it can ride a wave of public disenchantment with the Bush administration and Congress to victory in the House and, possibly, the Senate.

The number of ballots cast historically is low in nonpresidential year elections, with only about 40 per cent of US citizens of voting age population going to the polls.



Top World News  
Today's Top News  
Most Commented/Read Stories in 48 Hours
克什克腾旗| 峨山| 高青县| 韩城市| 甘肃省| 黑河市| 肇东市| 郁南县| 长乐市| 抚松县| 务川| 永德县| 山东| 璧山县| 彰化县| 新泰市| 金川县| 上高县| 河池市| 南乐县| 永嘉县| 巴青县| 隆化县| 集安市| 新巴尔虎左旗| 奈曼旗| 西平县| 措美县| 确山县| 沙河市| 桦川县| 朝阳市| 卫辉市| 新安县| 河津市| 彭州市| 铜梁县| 九寨沟县| 原阳县| 大石桥市| 原平市|