Washington, Aug. 12 : New York’s junior senator and one-time Democrat presidential contestant Hillary Clinton was urged by her chief strategist to targetrival Barack Obama’s "lack of American roots".

According to an inside-the-bunker article published in The Atlantic, key adviser Mark Penn ridiculed Obama''s "boyhood in Indonesia and his life in Hawaii," arguing Obama''s multicultural diversity could be exploited.

New York, Aug. 12 : A Harlem-based political consultant, Kevin Wardally, has expressed the view that racism will not be a factor in the November presidential contest between Senators Barack Obama and John McCain, though there have been reports of fevered insinuations about racism and race-card-playing.

"It is just overblown and over-thought," claimed Wardally, 35, an African-American whose political journey has run from City Council precincts to Hillary Clinton''s campaign for president.

London, August 12 : Barack Obama’s campaign has revealed that the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee will unveil his choice for his potential vice president in an email and text message to supporters as soon as the decision is taken.

His campaign manager David Plouffe himself sent emails to supporters to inform them about this plan.

“Barack Obama is about to make one of the most important decisions of this campaign - choosing a running mate,” British tabloid The Sun quoted him as writing in the email.

Washington, August 11 : A strategist has said that he expects US presidential candidate Barack Obama would choose a running mate for the post of Vice-President based on political calculations, not the person’s readiness for the job.

This was said by Republican strategist Karl Rove on Face The Nation on CBS News on August 11.

“I think he’s going to make an intensely political choice, not a governing choice,” said Rove. “He’s going to view this through the prism of a candidate, not through the prism of president,” he added.

Edinburgh, August 11 : American law enforcement agencies have expressed fear that US presidential candidate Barack Obama will be the target of a violent attack by white supremacists at the Democratic convention in Denver this month.

According to a report in the Scotsman, the concern for Obama''s security is because of racist threats made against him by neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and similar groups, since the Senator for Illinois emerged as the likely Democratic presidential candidate.

New York, Aug 9 : Republican presidential candidate John McCain stole a page from Hillary Clinton’s playbook, recycling her greatest primary hits against Democratic nominee Barack Obama.

In a new ad titled “Praising McCain,” his team ran clips of Democrats lauding the Arizona senator’s maverick independence - topped by this classic Clinton punch from March 3: “I think that I have a lifetime of experience that I will bring to the White House. I know Senator McCain has a lifetime of experience that he will bring to the White House. And Obama has a speech he gave in 2002.”