Oh-eight (R): The GOP staffer gap
Posted: Thursday, October 11, 2007 9:05 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
Republicans, 2008
The Politico's Martin looks at large discrepancy between the number of staffers the leading Dems have in Iowa and New Hampshire versus the leading Republican candidates. In fact, Martin finds the second-tier Democratic candidates have more staffers on the ground in the early states than all of the LEADING GOP candidates. (By the way, considering how little of an organizational advantage Romney may actually have in the first two states, does that mean Thompson can get up to speed in Iowa faster than some believe?)
Writing about Tuesday’s GOP debate, the Washington Post's David Broder notes, "But what was striking about the performance of the leading Republicans was the absence of fresh policy ideas. A listener satisfied with President Bush's economic policies would be safe to assume their continuation -- if any of them wins. But given the economic travail in Michigan, such complacency seemed more than a little odd."
The Boston Globe reports that Giuliani and Romney are treating the campaign as a two-person race because it may best serve both of their agendas. Yesterday, Giuliani "ridiculed Romney for saying during a debate Tuesday that he would consult with lawyers before deciding whether he would need congressional approval to take military action against Iran over its suspected nuclear weapons program. Giuliani's campaign called it a ‘lawyer's test’ for national security, and sought to saddle Romney with a comparison to a former presidential candidate from Massachusetts, Democrat John F. Kerry… Romney's campaign responded by saying Giuliani gave the ‘most muddled and puzzling answer’ to the question of whether a president needs the blessing of Congress when Giuliani said during the debate, ‘it really depends on exigency of the circumstances and how legitimate it is.’”
The AP's Sidoti also writes on the Rudy-Romney spat.
The Los Angeles Times looks at whether the line-item veto fight between the two men is a worthy one. "Some voters may see the fight as turning on an arcane point of budgeting, but among the Republican faithful, the veto power is seen by many as a litmus test for candidates' commitment to smaller government."
BROWNBACK: “Brownback said Wednesday he will drop out of the race for president if he finishes lower than fourth place in the Iowa caucuses,” the AP writes. “The Kansas senator had previously said he would consider ending his campaign for the GOP nomination if he could not finish in the top four. Brownback made the comments while fielding questions in a live Internet discussion on washingtonpost.com.”
GIULIANI: Is Giuliani a conservative or a centrist? A former aide to Giuliani (and Bill Clinton in '96), John Avlon, claims in his book "Independent Nation" that Giuliani is a centrist governing figure similar to Clinton. Avlon does work on Giuliani's campaign now. "A Giuliani campaign spokeswoman stressed that Avlon's book doesn't reflect the campaign's views or the candidate's."
The campaign is up with a new radio ad in Iowa, with Giuliani saying: “Democrats want to move in the direction of much bigger government, socialized medicine, increasing government regulation, much higher taxes. They are making the promise to raise taxes, the only thing I can tell you in addition to that is that they’ll raise taxes even more then they promised. They want to take more of the people’s money. I want to give the people back more of their own money, because I know that’s going to create more jobs for us.”
MCCAIN: Per excerpts his campaign provided, McCain will say this when unveiling his health-care plan today: “Has any candidate insisted that genuine and effective health care reform requires accountability from everyone: drug companies, insurance companies, doctors, hospitals, the government and patients? Democratic presidential candidates are not telling you these truths. They offer their usual default position: If the government would only pay for insurance everything would be fine. They promise universal coverage, whatever its cost, and the massive tax increases, mandates and government regulation that it imposes. I offer a genuinely conservative vision for health care reform, which preserves the most essential value of American lives -- freedom.”
More from McCain: “We must reform the health care system to make it responsive to the needs of American families. Not the government. Not the insurance companies. Not tort lawyers. Not even the doctors and hospitals.”
The New York Times adds, “Like other Republican presidential candidates this year, Mr. McCain is focusing on market-based solutions for problems in the health care industry. But he is also placing a much greater emphasis than any of his opponents on judging the performance of doctors. Measuring such performance could prove controversial, which Mr. McCain acknowledged. But he said that without measuring their performance, particularly in treating chronic ailments like diabetes and heart disease, it would be impossible to cut wasteful spending.”
McCain pre-taped with Iowa Press yesterday. Asked about Iran, he said that some experts predict the rogue nation could reach "a tipping point" to go nuclear in a mere two years. "If that's the case, it could trigger scenarios which could be very dangerous. And I'm not predicting military action on the part of the Israelis or the United States of America, but what I am saying is that this administration's policy, and I agree with it, that it is unacceptable for the Iranians to have a nuclear weapon. And the Israelis have stated basically the same thing." Read local guru Kay Henderson's blog about it here.
ROMNEY: Per the New York Times, "A prominent evangelical supporter of Mitt Romney has written a memorandum to 150 conservative Christian leaders, warning of the prospect of Rudolph W. Giuliani or Hillary Rodham Clinton in the White House and making the case to rally around Mr. Romney. The writer, Mark DeMoss, a publicity agent whose clients include the Rev. Franklin Graham, wrote the five-page letter, urging the recipients to ‘galvanize support around Mitt Romney, so Mr. Giuliani isn’t the unintended beneficiary of our divided support among several candidates.’ … The letter is arriving in mailboxes as clashes between Mr. Romney and Mr. Giuliani have stepped up."
NBC/NJ's Memoli notes that Ann Romney seemed to take personally Thompson’s "actor" barb in Tuesday’s GOP debate, in which the former "Law & Order" star responded to a joke by Mitt Romney by hinting that he has not been a reliable conservative. "And to think, I thought I was going to be the best actor on this stage," Thompson said. In an interview Wednesday, Ann Romney called that idea "just utterly false." "He is a man of such principle and such conviction," Romney said. "It's ironic to me too because he was always personally pro-life. ... And so for people to say he's acting on those things is ridiculous."
Romney’s “trooper,” Jay Garrity, is safe from a New Hampshire investigation.
THOMPSON: The campaign cited personal reasons for cancelling a trip to New Hampshire this week.
But the decision is likely to spark speculation that Thompson may end up downplaying his chances in the Granite State and instead focus on Iowa and South Carolina.
Bloomberg News reports, “Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson reported assets worth as much as $8.6 million as well as millions more in salaries and residual payments last year from acting jobs including his role on television's ‘Law and Order.’”
Per NBC/NJ’s Adam Aigner-Treworgy, Thompson picked up two new congressional endorsements yesterday from Oklahoma’s Sen. James Inhofe and Rep. John Sullivan. The Thompson campaign was quick to point out that Oklahoma will be one of more than 20 states voting on February 5.
