First thoughts
Posted: Wednesday, August 22, 2007 9:10 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
First Thoughts
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro
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The Best Analogy? Two days after Clinton and McCain spoke to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Kansas City, and a day after Obama and Thompson did the same, President Bush addresses the group this morning. Per excerpts released by the White House, Bush will say that the surge is working and that withdrawal from Iraq could lead to the same killing of innocent lives like we saw after leaving Vietnam. “One unmistakable legacy of Vietnam is that the price of America’s withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms like ‘boat people,’ ‘re-education camps,’ and ‘killing fields,’” the president is expected to say. Yet not only does such a comparison invite Bush to being asked about the tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians who have already died since the war began, it also raises this question: Does Bush really want to compare Iraq to Vietnam? "Does he think we should have stayed in Vietnam?" Vietnam historian Stanley Karnow says in
USA Today.
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Coming Soon To A TV Screen Near You: Also, don’t miss the news that a conservative group -- whose spokesman is former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer -- is going up today with a $15 million advertising campaign arguing that the troop surge is working. Those ads will compete against ones that antiwar groups (like Americans Against Escalation in Iraq and Americans United for Change) are/will be airing. The battle to define Petraeus’ September report is already beginning.
*** The Real Political Fight Going On: Giuliani’s campaign yesterday decided to respond to the veiled attacks coming from the Romney and Thompson camps. While not attacking Giuliani by name, they certainly attacked "New York City" on the issues of immigration and guns. Here’s Giuliani spokesperson Katie Levinson responding directly to Thompson's blog post on New York City's gun policies: "Those who live in New York in the real world -- not on TV -- know that Rudy Giuliani's record of making the city safe for families speaks for itself. No amount of political theater will change that." Bottom line, folks: The media may care more about Clinton vs. Obama right now, but Giuliani vs. Thompson/Romney is where the real action has been this week.
VIDEO: NBC's Political Director Chuck Todd offers his first read on Mitt Romney's and Fred Thompson's attacks on Republican presidential frontrunner Rudy Giuliani.
*** A Chain Reaction? As we reported last week, Michigan is working to move up its primary to January 15, leapfrogging it -- for now -- past New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina (although New Hampshire will obviously move up to remain the nation’s first primary). In response to Michigan’s move, Biden released this statement yesterday: “Powerful interests are trying to change the Democratic nomination for President into a game of Monopoly, replacing the retail politics of Iowa, Nevada and New Hampshire with a process in which the only credential necessary to be President is to be the wealthiest candidate.” He then called on his Dem rivals to join him to ensure those states’ primacy on the nominating calendar. Will this lead to the candidates promising to skip Michigan? Which Democrats will join Biden’s call? Remember, this Michigan legislation isn't a done deal yet, so maybe the state legislators will compromise to end up on January 22 instead of the 15th, which would potentially preserve (at a minimum) the influence of Iowa and New Hampshire.
*** Bayou bashing: Although the presidential race is dominating most of the nation’s political talk, things are getting downright ugly in this year’s Louisiana gubernatorial contest. The state Democratic Party there is running a TV ad blasting front-runner Bobby Jindal (R), a Catholic, for writing an article back in the 1990s comparing Catholicism with Protestantism. The ad, which is airing in the Protestant-heavy north part of the state, goes: "He wrote articles that insulted thousands of Louisiana Protestants. He has referred to Protestant religions as scandalous, depraved, selfish, and heretical." Jindal, the overwhelming favorite to be the state’s next governor, has called the accusations false. With the election 59 days away, will the ad hurt him, possibly keeping him below the 50% needed to avoid a run-off? Or will it produce backlash on the Dems? One thing’s for sure: Nonpartisan political analyst Stu Rothenberg is calling it one of the “hardest hitting” -- and possibly even the “dirtiest” ad -- in history.
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On The Trail: Biden and Richardson participate in a Brookings Institution/University of Nevada, Reno forum on education. Before that, they address the Nevada AFL-CIO convention. Elsewhere, Giuliani rallies with supporters in Del Mar, CA; Huckabee continues to campaign in South Carolina; Hunter holds a press conference in Texas; Obama raises money in New Hampshire, campaigns in New York, and then appears on Comedy Central’s Daily Show; and Romney visits Jackson Hole, WY.
Countdown to MA-05 Special Election: 12 days
Countdown to LA GOV election: 59 days
Countdown to Election Day 2007: 76 days
Countdown to LA GOV run-off (if necessary): 87 days
Countdown to Iowa: 144 days
Countdown to Tsunami Tuesday: 166 days
Countdown to Election Day 2008: 440 days
Countdown to Inauguration Day 2009: 517 days
