Oh-eight (D): Add it up

Posted: Thursday, November 15, 2007 9:09 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under: Democrats

Bloomberg News has a spending fact-check story on the leading Dem candidates. It notes the Big Three "are promising new domestic programs, tax cuts for the middle class and a return to balanced budgets. One problem: Their numbers don't add up. ... All propose more than $150 billion a year in tax breaks for middle- income earners and new federal spending on health care, energy and education. They also pledge ‘fiscal responsibility,' a phrase Clinton used seven times during an Oct. 30 debate."

This story will be fodder for the RNC; expect to see this clip come up again and again -- no matter who is the nominee.

David Broder looks at two issues which could derail the Dems: immigration and the shadow of Bill Clinton (assuming Hillary Clinton is the nominee).

The campaign tries to get into the "memo" game. Today’s memo, penned by campaign manager Luis Navarro, makes the case for Biden on the experience front.

CLINTON: Newsweek's Howard Fineman writes, "Heading into yet another TV debate, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton faces a potent enemy-not onstage, but in her own mind. She has a lifelong obsession with seeking out, and trying to control, unruly events and people. She often fails, and harms herself trying. If she doesn't ease up, she risks losing the race. Brainy women don't frighten voters; control freaks do."

With her “I will not support driver's licenses for undocumented people” remark -- after Spitzer scrapped the plan -- the New York Daily News writes, “She delivered her first unequivocal statement on the issue after Gov. Spitzer dropped the idea Wednesday, a day before today's Democratic showdown in Las Vegas, where she hopes to get her front-runner's groove back.” 
 
Under the headline, “Hill’s Stand? Well, today is Thursday…” The New York Post writes, “That's a far cry from her statements during the debate two weeks ago, when Clinton would not take a position, first saying that Spitzer's plan "makes a lot of sense" given the federal government's failure on immigration reform but then stressing her comments didn't mean she supports the plan.” 
 
The Boston Globe: “After two weeks of contorted statements about Governor Eliot Spitzer's proposal to give driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York yesterday said she supported his decision to abandon the plan and would not back such a measure if elected president.”

On the Spitzer license flap and press conference yesterday, MSNBC.com’s Tom Curry writes, “It was a revealing focus group of politicians who seemed angry and somewhat nervous about how illegal immigration will affect next year’s races. Almost all of the dozen Democrats from the New York City metropolitan area standing behind Spitzer at the Capitol have utterly safe seats; several will face only token opposition or none at all. But there are a couple of upstate New York freshmen Democrats, who will face competitive races next year and who opposed the Spitzer plan.”

ABC also has interesting report on Clinton.

EDWARDS: The Boston Globe runs its Edwards profile today, and the piece opens with the diagnosis of Elizabeth’s cancer. "Few dispute that he became a less sunny version of the man who had told the Democratic Convention just several months earlier: ‘You can reject the tired, old, hateful, negative politics of the past. And instead you can embrace the politics of hope, the politics of what's possible, because this is America, where everything is possible.’”

“Now, three years later, Edwards, 54, is the attacker in the Democratic primaries - the candidate most unstinting in his opposition to the Bush administration and most willing to turn his fire on rivals from his own party. Hillary Clinton has borne the brunt of Edwards's attacks, which he portrays as a matter of principle - his belief that Clinton is too tolerant of special-interest politics and too accepting of Bush's aggressive posture in the Middle East."

Edwards' parents have joined their son on the campaign trail in Iowa.

OBAMA: The New Yorker pre-releases Ryan Lizza's latest piece which focuses on the "relaunch" of Obama's campaign.

Obama took his turn at Google's HQ. The company has hosted a slew of presidential candidates this year. Obama "highlighted his claim as the generational ‘change candidate’ of the 2008 presidential race on Wednesday by telling a youthful crowd at Google Inc. that ‘if I waited 10 years (to run), I'd still be younger than most of the other candidates.’”

“In little more than 24 hours in the Bay Area, the Illinois senator also hit four major fundraisers: two Tuesday events in San Francisco, a Wednesday morning stop in Marin County, and - prior to his Civic Center rally - a party for 300 supporters, most of whom donated the maximum $2,300 to the primary and general election campaign, in the Atherton home of former state Controller Steve Westly, a high-tech investor and major Obama fundraiser.

The NY Sun was also at Google and reports Obama hit Clinton over secrecy during her attempt to reform the health care system. “‘I would do it entirely differently,’ Mr. Obama said, vowing that the health care proposal he will put forward as president would be crafted and debated entirely in public. ‘We are going to have a big table, and everybody's going to be invited,’ the Illinois senator said. ‘It will be on C-SPAN. It will be streaming over the net.’” 
 
The AP: “Democrat Barack Obama opposes a bill that would change the nation's 135-year-old mining law -- the same stance as mining industry executives who employ a Nevada-based lobbyist advising the presidential candidate. The Obama campaign and Billy Vassiliadis, a longtime Nevada power broker, contend there is no connection, saying they have never discussed Obama's position on the mining bill.”

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