Today on the presidential campaign trail

IN THE HEADLINES



Most Clinton supporters in poll back Obama ... McCain welcomes Supreme Court gun ruling; Obama seeks middle ground ... Obama and McCain react cautiously to North Korean moves ... AFL-CIO endorsement unites labor behind Obama ... McCain plans to visit Mexico City during trip to South America



___



Poll: Most Clinton supporters back Obama



WASHINGTON (AP) — Barack Obama has won over more than half of Hillary Rodham Clinton's former supporters, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll that finds party loyalty trumping hard feelings less than three weeks after their bruising Democratic presidential contest ended.



The poll suggests time is beginning to heal some rifts from the primary campaign and that the New York senator's endorsement of Obama carried weight. The poll was taken in the days after Clinton suspended her campaign and said she was supporting her rival.



Obama's progress with Clinton supporters is marked, yet far from complete. More than one in five who had backed the New York senator now plan to support Republican John McCain in the fall, a boost for McCain if those opinions hold.



"We still have work to do," Obama campaign manager David Plouffe told reporters in a strategy briefing.



___



Gun ruling reverberates in presidential campaign



WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican John McCain welcomed a Supreme Court decision invalidating a District of Columbia handgun ban. Democrat Barack Obama sought to straddle the subject by saying he favors an individual's right to bear firearms as well as a government's right to regulate them.



The hotly contentious issue surfaced in the presidential campaign Thursday after the Supreme Court ruled that Americans have a constitutional right to own guns and struck down the city's thirty-two-year-old ban.



McCain heralded the justices' action as "a landmark victory for Second Amendment freedom."



Voicing a stance that could help him woo conservatives and libertarians, McCain said, "This ruling does not mark the end of our struggle against those who seek to limit the rights of law-abiding citizens. We must always remain vigilant in defense of our freedoms."



Obama issued a more carefully worded statement apparently aimed at both moderate voters and his liberal base. The statement from Obama, who has long said local governments should be able to regulate guns, did not specifically say whether Obama agreed with o

Subscribe to Alerts