Oh-eight (D): 'Turn the page'?
Posted: Monday, October 29, 2007 9:08 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
Democrats
“In a reversal from past election cycles, Democratic candidates for president are outpacing Republicans in donations from the health care industry, even as the leading Democrats in the field offer proposals that have caused deep anxiety in some of its sectors,” the New York Times front-pages.
CLINTON: Something that may sound good to Democrats in a focus group may have gotten Clinton some unneeded bad press. The
Des Moines Register gets scholars and experts to critique Clinton on her promise to begin sending distinguished Americans around the world, even before she's inaugurated -- which some argue could undermine the sitting US president. (After all, Clinton -- more than any other potential president -- knows better than most of the potential for one president to handoff an international crisis to another. Did someone say Somalia?)
By the way, check out this quote Clinton gave to the Des Moines Register: "Obviously, these are somewhat unusual times," Clinton said in a Des Moines Register interview. "The country is ready to turn the page on the failed policies of the Bush administration. The world is anxious for that to occur."
"Turn the page"? Wonder what Camp Obama thinks about that!
The Concord Monitor: Madeleine Albright tells the editorial board that when a new president takes office, “any international leaders will be rooting for the restoration of America's credibility.” And she “offered a spirited defense” of Clinton’s ’02 Iraq vote.
From her stop in Harlem, the New York Daily News has this headline, “Hillary Clinton shines at Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church.” “[I]t was the boost she got from her husband, former President Bill Clinton, that seemed to wow the crowd” as they “packed the famed church, a venue long considered a can't-miss stop for pols hoping to win black support.”
Apparently, Gerald Ford believed Bill Clinton is/was a sex addict, the New York Daily News reports. "‘He's sick -- he's got an addiction. He needs treatment,’ Ford told Daily News Washington Bureau Chief Thomas M. DeFrank, author of ‘Write It When I'm Gone: Remarkable Off-the-Record Conversations with Gerald R. Ford.’” And Betty Ford told DeFrank in 1999 that Clinton was “in denial.”
DODD: With four sitting senators running for the Democratic nomination, it's always interesting when a key litmus test vote comes up. The Mukasey confirmation vote strikes us as an interesting test now, even though it didn't seem so at first, since Mukasey was someone Chuck Schumer recommended. On Meet the Press yesterday, Dodd became the first of the four presidential-running Democratic senators
to come out against him. This should play well in the blogosphere, since the most noise Mukasey's confirmation hearings made were on the issue of defining torture. Now, what will Clinton do since her fellow New York senator is such a Mukasey fan? Obama? Biden?
A Clinton spokesperson says no decision has been made but notes, she has said that she has concerns with some of the answers he gave during his testimony.
Here’s the transcript of Dodd’s interview on Meet.
EDWARDS: In his speech today in New Hampshire, Edwards will say, per excerpts the campaign gave First Read: "It's time to tell the truth. And the truth is the system in Washington is corrupt. It is rigged by the powerful special interests to benefit they very few at the expense of the many. And, as a result, the American people have lost faith in our broken system in Washington, and believe it no longer works for ordinary Americans. They're right.” More: “I believe you cannot be for change and take money from the lobbyists who prevent change. You cannot take on the entrenched interests in Washington if you choose to defend the broken system. It will not work. And I believe that, if Americans have a choice, any candidate who takes their money - Democrat or Republican - will lose this election.”
The Washington Post has a "no respect"-like profile of Edwards and his campaign in Iowa. This graph stood out to us: "Edwards has been coming on tougher in debates, [Iowa supporter Leslie] Pomerantz says, but maybe people can't tell when those moderators direct so many questions to Clinton and Obama."
The Portsmouth Herald: “Elizabeth Edwards told a room of supporters at a house party Friday afternoon that the prognosis for her cancer is positive and not a campaign issue.”
The AP: Edwards wants drug companies to have to wait two years to advertise new drugs.
The Edwards campaign does a good job of getting guerilla-type media. For instance, they picked a fight with Stephen Colbert about who is the REAL South Carolina native.
GORE:
Bloomberg's Al Hunt has a great Al Gore column today. "Al Gore won't run for president this time. Still, whoever does assume the office in less than 15 months will face the presence, the shadow, of the former vice president immediately. If it's a Republican, then the Democrats, having snatched defeat from the jaws of near-certain victory, will have two options: suffer a nervous breakdown or turn to Gore as a savior. A Democrat, especially front-runner Hillary Clinton, whose sibling rivalry with Gore during the Clinton presidency endures, will confront Gore as a watchdog on national security, foreign policy and energy and environmental matters. It may be the most intriguing intra-party dynamic since Senator Robert F. Kennedy and President Lyndon Johnson four decades ago."
KUCINICH: The congressman used his New Hampshire filing
press avail to hit his foes on the war. "If you really oppose something, do you fund it, give it hundreds of billions of dollars? You see, he cannot square that and he'll never be able to square that and this is the difficulty he has with his candidacy," Kucinich said of Obama.
OBAMA: In an interview with the
Des Moines Register, Obama "seized on the increasingly pointed debate about U.S. policy toward Iran to suggest that restraint should be the preferred diplomatic tool. “‘Typically, we have made our biggest blunders when we overreached militarily,’ the Illinois senator said… ‘And we have had our greatest foreign policy successes … where we showed restraint,’ he said, referring to the 1962 Cuban missile crisis and the 1991 Persian Gulf War. ‘And I think that is important as we consider how we approach problems ranging from Iraq to Iran.’”
Today, Obama will participate in a town hall at Cedar Rapids and then in the MTV/MySpace forum.
The Washington Post's Pappu writes on Obama’s gospel tour and the bigger effort the campaign is making to reach out to religious Democrats. "The events themselves seem to straddle a strange line between political pep rally and old-school revival. At the first two concerts, Obama appears by video offering his regrets for his non-attendance and thanking those who've come. At the Greenwood event, a video is shown that begins with Obama's convention speech in 2004 and then retells his life story. In North Charleston, a video display of a speech given by Michelle Obama in Iowa gives rise to calls of ‘You go, girl!’”
The Boston Globe’s Helman looks at the role Michelle Obama plays on the trail. The Washington Post's Pappu writes on Obama’s gospel tour and the bigger effort the campaign is making to reach out to religious Democrats. "The events themselves seem to straddle a strange line between political pep rally and old-school revival. At the first two concerts, Obama appears by video offering his regrets for his non-attendance and thanking those who've come. At the Greenwood event, a video is shown that begins with Obama's convention speech in 2004 and then retells his life story. In North Charleston, a video display of a speech given by Michelle Obama in Iowa gives rise to calls of ‘You go, girl!’”
