On the Trail: Feb. 28
Obama hangs with the big league; Republicans slug it out.
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While President Obama raises money and focuses on honing his message and his agenda to shore up his re-election bid, the Republican presidential hopefuls continue their long journey to a nomination that may not end until their party’s convention. —By Joyce Jones
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Barack Obama - Dallas Maverick Vince Carter hosted a fundraiser at his Orlando, Florida, home for President Obama, an avid basketball fan and player. Guests included basketball greats Magic Johnson, Alonzo Mourning, Chris Paul, NBA commissioner David Stern and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who all paid $30,000 each to attend the event. The president thanked Stern for settling the lockout, "Because I don't know what I would be doing with myself if I didn't at least have some basketball games around," he joked.(Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)
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Rick Santorum - An emboldened Rick Santorum, who will on Tuesday begin getting Secret Service protection, has been kowtowing to the blue-collar crowd by calling President Obama a snob for encouraging higher education, raising concern on the left and the right about whether he’s too extreme. Santorum also said in an ABC News interview that a speech by the late President John F. Kennedy, also a Catholic, calling for the separation of church and state made him want to “throw up.”(Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)
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Mitt Romney - At a NASCAR event Monday, Mitt Romney said to a group of racing fans wearing plastic ponchos, “I like those fancy raincoats you bought. Really sprung for the big bucks.” And when asked by a reporter if he follows NASCAR, he said not closely, “But I have some great friends who are NASCAR team owners.”(Photo: John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR)
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Newt Gingrich - Newt Gingrich has set his sights on the South, where he’ll compete with Santorum for the same conservative, evangelical base. During a visit to Tennessee, he called the former Pennsylvania senator a “big labor Republican” and predicted that Santorum’s surge will soon end. But since opting to not compete in Michigan and Arizona, Gingrich has been polling in single and low double digits.(Photo: AP Photo/Erik Schelzig)
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