MANCHESTER, N.H. – Sen. Barack Obama sparked an early frenzy Sunday during his initial visit to the nation’s first presidential primary state, but said he still hasn’t decided whether to run and questioned whether all the hype was just part of his “15 minutes of fame.”
The Illinois senator said he is still “running things through the traps” as he considers whether to join a field of Democrats that’s expected to include front-runner Sen. Hillary Clinton and several other more experienced political hands.
“This is an office you can’t run for just on the basis of ambition,” Obama told reporters at a news conference between packed events. “You have to feel deep in your gut that you have a vision for the country that is sufficiently important that it needs to be out there.”
Florida: Assassination call denied
A congresswoman says a video clip showing her calling for Fidel Castro’s assassination is fake. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., appears in the 28-second clip made available on the Internet by the makers of a new British documentary, “638 Ways to Kill Castro.” In it, she says: “I welcome the opportunity of having anyone assassinate Fidel Castro and any leader who is oppressing the people.” However, the Havana-born lawmaker, recently tapped to become the top Republican on the House International Relations Committee, says the filmmakers spliced clips together to make the sound bite. The film’s director, Dolan Cannell, stood by the authenticity of the footage. “I can assure you categorically and completely that there has been no distortion of what she said,” Cannell said on Sunday.
N.Y.: Trans-fat ban draws pledge
City officials are promising to be gentle when it comes to enforcing the first-in-the-nation ban on trans fats, which restaurants will have more than a year to rid from their food. City officials strongly deny inspectors will start snooping through pantry shelves simply to run up fines. The health department is pledging “technical support” to cooks before the first part of the ban takes effect next summer.
N.J.: Ex-archbishop unrepentant
An excommunicated Roman Catholic archbishop continued to defy the Vatican on Sunday when he installed two married men as priests. In front of a sea of reporters and photographers, Raymond Grosswirth of Rochester, N.Y., and Dominic Riccio of the Newark Archdiocese were installed by Zambian Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo at the Trinity Reformed Church. The ceremony concluded a two-day convention of Milingo’s advocacy group, Married Priests Now. In a visible break from tradition, the wives of both men helped their husbands on with their vestments before each man was anointed.
From Herald news services
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