Oh-eight (R): Saying no to Tavis
Posted: Friday, September 14, 2007 9:08 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
Republicans
Tavis Smiley, who is supposed to moderate the next GOP debate, says that three of the top four Republicans (Giuliani, McCain, and Romney)
have turned down his 9/27 invite, and he accused them of ignoring minority voters.
It also looks like Thompson will also take a pass on the PBS-Smiley debate.
Giuliani leads Thompson and McCain 24-19-15 in an AP poll out today.
GIULIANI: The campaign today runs its own print ad in the New York Times (on A9 in our Washington edition), which defends Petraeus and targets both MoveOn and Clinton. The campaign says it received the same ad as MoveOn did.
HUCKABEE: The ex-governor drew a crowd of about 75 while campaigning in the Iowa side of the Quad Cities.
MCCAIN: Manager Rick Davis told the Arizona Republic yesterday that the campaign is getting closer to operating in the black. “‘We've gotten rid of a bunch of debt, and we've had very good cash flow for July and August,’ said … Davis, who made finances a priority upon taking over as McCain's national campaign manager.”
ROMNEY: NBC/NJ's Erin McPike reports on a new staff hire. Steve Britt, who reported directly to Karl Rove at the White House, started on Monday as a regional political director.
THOMPSON: While campaigning in Florida yesterday, Thompson -- who is trying to rally conservatives to his cause -- told local reporters that he didn't "know enough about efforts by President Bush and Congress to keep Terri Schiavo alive to have an opinion on the right-to-die case that stirred national debate."
"I can't pass judgment on it. I know that good people were doing what they thought was best," Thompson said. "That's going back in history. I don't remember the details of it."
NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy notes that Thompson will be doing a radio interview tomorrow morning on Radio Mambi, one of the top two Cuban radio stations in Miami. He then will go to a Cuban restaurant called Versailles in Miami before traveling to Cape Coral for a town hall event. And then he wraps up the day by delivering remarks at the Pasco County Reagan Day Dinner.
On Saturday, Aigner-Treworgy adds, he will be attending a gun show in Lakeland before tailgating outside the Tennessee vs. Florida football game in Gainesville. And then he will fly back to Lawrenceburg, TN for his big homecoming event.
In fact, the Nashville Tennessean curtain-raises the preparations taking place for Thompson's Saturday night rally in his hometown of Lawrenceburg, TN. "For Lawrenceburg, Saturday's rally will be the culmination of months of planning, preparation and reshuffled municipal maintenance schedules in anticipation of Thompson's announcement.”
