| Obama Attracts Celebrities and Cash
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Checks from Hollywood's A-list stars such as George Clooney, Eddie Murphy and Barbra Streisand added up to a one-night take of $1.3 million for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Obama spoke to a star-studded audience at a closed-door fundraiser in Beverly Hills arranged by three of the industry's biggest names - DreamWorks studio founders Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. He told an audience that included Spielberg, Oscar nominee Eddie Murphy, actress Jennifer Anniston and singer Jackson Browne that they have "enormous power" that comes with "enormous responsibility" because of their impact on American culture. "Don't sell yourselves short," he said in a 25-minute address. "You are the storytellers of our age." Tickets were $2,300, the maximum individual donation to a federal campaign, or $4,600 for a couple.
Wilder praises Obama strategy
RICHMOND -- Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder says Sen. Barack Obama's strategy of relying less on the black leaders of the civil rights era and more on a message of unity gives him the best chance of becoming the first Democrat in 44 years to win the state's electoral votes in a presidential election.
"The civil rights movement was over 50-something years ago," Mr. Wilder, a Democrat and the country's first elected black governor, told The Washington Times. "Many people know nothing of it other than a recitation [during Black History] month. People are tired of that. They want to see more relatively.
"The worst mistake one can make, in my judgment, is to try to tailor a message to a group and to say: 'I am the person for your group.' He should be the person for the American people," he said.
The Obama effect
Sen. Barack Obama is going to be taking a tour through Texas over the next few days - he'll be in Houston on Thursday - and he's already having an effect on politics here and elsewhere. [Former Dallas Mayor and 2002 Senate candidate Ron] Kirk's endorsement of Mr. Obama, so early in the fight for the presidency, signals a growing campaign within the campaign. Before Mr. Obama of Illinois entered the presidential contest, black voters were expected to favor the candidacy of New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose husband, former President Bill Clinton, remains popular with the Democratic Party's most loyal base. In Texas, leaders also were pondering whether to support John Edwards, the 2004 vice presidential nominee who has the most entrenched Lone Star campaign. But now that Mr.
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