Special Report: U.S. presidential election 2008

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama speaks during an appearance at the 38th constitutional convention of the Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania April 2, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    WASHINGTON, April 2 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama suggested on Wednesday that he would consider offering former Vice President Al Gore a cabinet-level post should he be elected president.

    His Republican counterpart, John McCain, said that he has concluded a list of potential running mates with nearly 20 names, and would narrow it down in the next "weeks if not months."

    "It's not an unusual thing," the 71-year-old Arizona Senator said. "You put the list together and then you just could do a cursory kind of a look that I guess you could do on Google."

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore waves to journalists as he arrives at the side event of the U.N. Climate Change Conference 2007 in Nusa Dua, on Bali island, December 13, 2007. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    McCain said that he would not rush the process to avoid repeating the mistakes made by several past nominees, but he hopes the name would be released before the party's convention in early September.

    Asked by a female attendee to a campaign rally in Pennsylvania whether he would recruit Gore in his administration, Illinois Senator Obama said that he would tap the vice president who narrowly lost the 2000 presidential race to George W. Bush for his cabinet or even higher level office to address the global warming issue.

    "Not only will I, but I will make a commitment that Al Gore will be at the table and play a central part in us figuring out how we solve this problem," he said, adding he consulted with Gore on a regular basis.

    Gore, who has refused to come back to the presidential race, committed to the climate change course that earned him a Nobel Prize in 2007. So far, he has not officially endorsed any Democratic presidential candidate.    

Obama narrows Clinton's lead in Pennsylvania poll 

    WASHINGTON, April 2 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has managed to narrow his rival Hillary Rodham Clinton's lead in Pennsylvania, the next key state to hold the primary, according to a poll released on Wednesday.

    The poll conducted by the Quinnipiac University from March 24 to 31 shows that Clinton beat Obama by 50 percent to 41 percent in the state, eroding from two-digit-percentage lead last month. Full story

Democratic leaders leave Obama, Clinton to decide on Florida convention delegates

    WASHINGTON, April 2 (Xinhua) -- It would be up to two Democratic presidential candidates whether Florida could seat their delegates at the party's nomination convention, the Democratic National Committee announced on Wednesday.

    The chairman, Howard Dean, said that he met with the state's lawmakers in a discussion on ways of allocating delegates to Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, who are currently tied in a close presidential nomination race.  Full story