August 2008 - Posts
From NBC/NJ's Matthew E. Berger Sarah Palin gave essentially the same speech today as she has twice before, one big thing was missing -- any reference to Hillary Clinton .
Palin, the presumptive Republican vice presidential nominee, spoke alongside McCain and two former Republican presidential challengers -- Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney -- at a minor league baseball stadium here.
She began her speech by talking about her trip to Mississippi earlier in the day, and calling on people in the Gulf region to obey warnings to evacuation.
“To the citizens of the Gulf Coast area, your lives and many others are in balance,” she said. “And success of law enforcement and emergency workers and our great National Guard depends on your cooperation.”
After that, she went back to the stump speech she delivered on Friday and Saturday. But she skipped the entire section in which she highlighted the achievement of having a woman on the ticket -- as well as her praise for those who came before her, Geraldine Ferraro and Hillary Clinton. Yesterday, when campaigning in Pennsylvania, she received some boos from the audience when Clinton’s name was mentioned.
It is unclear why the campaign cut the paragraphs, which were widely praised Friday for appealing to Clinton supporters who may feel disenfranchised by the Obama campaign, especially after Clinton was passed over for the vice presidential nomination.
From NBC's Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro
There were the initial Iowa and New Hampshire contests. Then Nevada and South Carolina. Super Tuesday. Chesapeake Tuesday. Wisconsin. Junior Super Tuesday (Ohio, Texas). Pennsylvania. Indiana and North Carolina. West Virginia. Kentucky and Oregon. Puerto Rico! And finally Montana and South Dakota.
That long -- and exhausting -- nominating process enabled Obama to win a majority of pledged delegates, then more superdelegates, and finally the nomination.
But during Wednesday's roll-call vote at the Democratic convention, which was capped when Clinton moved to nominate Obama by acclamation, this thought came to mind: None of those contests actually mattered, at least when it came to the eventual numbers.
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From NBC's Domenico Montanaro McCain on Nightly News tonight if Palin was the best choice given that he's a 72-year-old cancer survivor.
McCain defended the choice, citing Palin's experience, including being a governor, mayor and even working on the PTA.
“Facts are funny things,” McCain said, adding that she's “been in office longer than” Obama .
He added, in fact, it's “almost ludicrous to compare her experience with his -- it's no contest.”
Williams followed up and asked, though, if she was the best choice.
“Oh sure,” McCain said, “in every way.” He went on to again cite her “executive experience.”
“Frankly, it inspires me,” he said.
From NBC's Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro The Republicans have canceled most activities for tomorrow, the first day of its national convention, because of the approaching Hurricane Gustav -- expected to hit the Gulf region tomorrow.
Republicans will hold only a procedural session from 4 p.m. ET to about 6:30 pm ET to call the convention to order and also vote on rules and the platform.
All speeches are canceled and campaign manager Rick Davis called for a halt on political rhetoric.
McCain spoke via satellite to a packed room of reporters at the Republican National Convention. He encouraged Republicans to take off their “Republican hats” and put on their “American hats.”
The activities that will occur tomorrow:
All else -- what happens on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday; whether McCain and Palin will be present to accept their nominations; who might speak on the remaining days; is all still to be determined, Davis said.
The storm, its strength and its aftermath will dictate what the Republicans do.
Davis said in the news conference that he is encouraging Republican donors present at convention to contribute to to-be-determined Gulf charities and wants all delegations to be respectful and sensitive to the situation.
From NBC's Ben Weltman and Domenico Montanaro
The most obvious thing when walking in the hall -- after the giant screen waving American flag on stage -- are the plethora of “Country First” slogans engulfing the arena.
In fact, “Country First” appears prominently in 23 places around the arena at varying sizes and on LCD screens.
There are two American flags draped from high podiums that are about 20-feet long, and there are seven waving ones on LCD screens, including the huge one on stage, which is about 30-feet high.
The seating is perhaps a window into the states the McCain campaign thinks are important. Hint: It's not Guam or the Northern Marianas Islands. They are way in the back and the Northern Marianas sign is barely legible and covered over by a black drape.
The states with preferential seating -- front and center: Ohio, Pennsylvania and Colorado; on either side of the stage: Arizona (McCain's home state), and battlegrounds New Hampshire, Missouri, Michigan, Virginia, Nevada, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Minnesota.
And interestingly, we did not see anything that said Palin on it, except for a few stickers you could count on one hand.
From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli Biden is already conceding one thing to Sarah Palin .
“Well, there's obvious differences,” he joked during a roundtable discussion on the economy this afternoon. “She's good looking.”
Biden was trying to make a serious point about the different perspective he said each ticket has on the economy, but the crowd began to chuckle when he said there was a “gigantic” difference between Obama and McCain and himself and “my vice presidential opponent.” After complimenting Palin's looks, someone in the crowd shouted back that Biden was “gorgeous.”
“Oh, I tell you what! Would you make sure Jill hears that?” he replied. “I haven't heard that in a long, long, long time.”
He added that hanging out with a “lean, young-looking” Obama was starting to make him “feel pretty old.” But he continued on with his intended message, which was that the Democratic team would work to give the middle class a “fighting chance.”
“John McCain looks to the past,” he said, saying he'd give tax breaks for corporations and oil interest instead of working people. “John McCain's proposal -- he leaves out 100 million American families without a single red cent,” he said. “Barack Obama's going to give 95 percent of the American people a tax cut.”
“These folks have been through, you know, they've been through hell, and pray God this Gustav decides to take a turn or something, but it doesn't look real good now,” he said.
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones TOLEDO, Ohio -- At an economy town hall here Sunday afternoon, Obama said his rival's pick for vice president was against equal pay for equal work.
“We're gonna make sure that equal pay for equal work is a reality in this country,” he said. “You know, John McCain 's new VP nominee seems like a very engaging person, a nice person, but I've got to say, she's opposed like John McCain is to equal pay for equal work. That doesn't make much sense to me.”
When asked what Obama was basing that line on, campaign spokesperson Jen Psaki linked Palin to McCain's agenda.
"Sen. McCain has a clear record of opposing equal pay and as his running mate Gov. Palin is tasked with promoting his agenda,” she said.
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From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones Obama kept the focus on Hurricane Gustav during a brief press conference here, telling reporters he was prepared to mobilize a network of volunteers to help the victims of the storm once it was clear what kind of aid was needed.
“I think we can get tons of volunteers to travel down there if it becomes necessary,” he told said, according to a pool report. “So it becomes a question of what people on the ground need and once we determine that then we can activate our email list of a couple of million people who want to give back."
Obama said he was monitoring the situation and that officials in the area were doing everything they could “to execute a effective evacuation, but we need people’s cooperation so that’s the message I’m going to be sending throughout the day.”
He said donations from his millions-strong email list of volunteers and donors could include cash, and he responded to the news that John McCain , his wife Cindy , and his running mate Sarah Palin were traveling to Mississippi today at the invitation of Gov. Haley Barbour .
"A big storm like this raises bipartisan concerns, and I think for John to want to find out what's going on is fine,” he said. "The thing that I always am concerned about in the middle of a storm is whether we're drawing resources away from folks on the ground because the Secret Service and various security requirements sometimes it pulls police, fire ,and other departments away from concentrating on the job. I'm assuming that where he went that wasn't an issue. We’re going to try to stay clear of the area until things have settled down and then we'll probably try to figure out how we can be as helpful as possible."
Vice presidential nominee Joe Biden went to a Catholic Church, St. Brendan’s in Hilliard. The two were set to meet up in Toledo to host a discussion on the economy.
From NBC's Kelly O'Donnell McCain said that with Hurricane Gustav bearing down on the Gulf Coast, the GOP convention will change from a party to a call for action, according to the pool report.
“We must redirect our efforts from the really celebratory event of the nomination of president and vice president of our party to acting as all Americans," McCain said. "We’ll change our program and I’ll be announcing details of it in the next few hours. But there’s very little doubt that we have to go from a party event to a call to the nation for action, action to help our fellow citizens in this time of tragedy and disaster, action in the form of volunteering, donations, reaching out our hands and our hearts and our wallets to the people who are under such great threat from this great natural disaster. I pledge that tomorrow night, and if necessary, throughout our convention if necessary, to act as Americans not Republicans, because America needs us now no matter whether we are Republican or Democrat."
From NBC's Kelly O'Donnell McCain advisors say the senior officials are hunkered down working on plans to determine what is "most appropriate" for this week.
They expect Rick Davis to provide details some time this afternoon.
It is expected that Cindy McCain will still travel to St. Paul today.
Her schedule for tomorrow is in flux.
There are plans for Gov. Palin to go home to Alaska briefly -- she only packed for a couple days last week. Her schedule may change too.
After they settle on an initial plan, they expect to reach out to party leaders and donors as well.
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones
Wrights spoke glowingly of Obama while preaching at Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, as part of a message that God takes "the ordinary and turns it into the extraordinary."
The former pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, whose sermons created a political firestorm around Obama during the primary season, struck a conciliatory tone, as he talked about the Democratic nominee's achievement in a riff that included references to the racial injustice that has been a part of America's history.
"Twenty years ago, a scrawny little kid with a pointed nose and big ears -- mama from Kansas and daddy from Kenya," he began. "An ordinary black boy raised in a single-parent home. The boy walked into my office 20 years ago to talk about his dream for a community that concentrated on things that we could achieve in common, things that united us rather than to focus on all the problems and the issues in the community about which we disagree or the things that divided us."
CONTINUED >>
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro ***
A split-screen convention: As the day wears on, we should be getting more detail on what the GOP convention will look like tomorrow with Hurricane Gustav approaching the Gulf Coast. Already this morning, we have confirmation that President Bush will most likely not be attending. Now that doesn't mean he won't address the gathering; it just means he's not coming to Minnesota in person. McCain and Palin are headed to Jackson, MS, at the invitation of Gov. Barbour, giving McCain another opportunity to not look like Bush. In many ways, while some may think Gustav is some sort of bad GOP omen, it's also an opportunity for McCain to show himself to be more attentive to a situation like this than Bush was during Katrina. The McCain camp knows they have a fine line to walk, needing to show compassion and leadership while also not trying to look like they are taking some political advantage. The fact is, the GOP convention is going to get some attention and the attention they get will likely be focused on recovery efforts and that could go a long way to healing the wounds caused by Bush during the Katrina fiasco.
***
Off the radar: While many folks are wondering how the GOP ticket is going to break through Gustav, it appears they'll get more attention than Obama-Biden right now. Attention to the Dem ticket is nearly nil. They are getting plenty of local coverage during their initial tour and will get some major play on "60 Minutes" tonight. But since the announcement of Palin and the strengthening of Gustav, coverage of Obama-Biden has slowed to a trickle. What this means for any convention bounce is unclear. There was always going to be a weird vibe to the post-convention trip for Obama-Biden simply because attention was going to go to McCain so quickly. With the naming of Palin, it accelerated the drying up of Obama-Biden national coverage.
***
So why Palin? Neil Newhouse, the GOP half of the NBC/WSJ poll, has put together some interesting charts that may clue folks in as to why McCain had to pick a woman. Among white women in the August NBC/WSJ poll, Obama led McCain 43%-42%. Four years ago, Bush won white women over Kerry, 55%-44%. Clearly, McCain is underperforming among white women right now. More than one in three of the undecided voters in our last poll were white women. In addition, the enthusiasm gap between base Obama supporters and base McCain supporters has been cavernous. Anecdotally, the GOP is seeing an excitement in the last 48 hours over Palin -- particularly among social conservatives -- that has them believing they may just yet get close to equally the grass-roots activism they propelled Bush to a second term in 2004. By the way, Palin, speaking in Pennsylvania yesterday, was booed when she mentioned Hillary by name. Maybe that was a good thing to say during the announcement speech but maybe mentioning Ferraro and Clinton in the stump ought to end.
***
McCain's decision-making process: With the news that McCain met Palin once before making the decision to tap her as his No.2, it's bringing a new focus on McCain's decision-making. Clearly, as he's written, he makes many decisions from the gut, and this one is no different. But can the Obama campaign turn how McCain made this decision against him, while not looking like they are pouncing on Palin? It may be the best way the Obama camp can go after this pick. In addition, it's hard to figure out what this pick means when it comes to figuring out how McCain will govern. Does it mean he'll always be a president who makes gut decisions? (Just think again back to that Sunday New York Times piece on McCain’s reaction to 9/11.) It's certainly a counter to how Obama went about his vetting process.
***
Palin's previous presidential support: There's been a lot of speculation, fueled by Pat Buchanan, that Palin was a supporter of Buchanan's in 1996 or in 2000. In '99, she was photographed at a Buchanan even in Wasilla, wearing a Buchanan button. Well, here's a letter to the editor Palin wrote that year after that photo appeared. Palin: "As mayor of Wasilla, I am proud to welcome all presidential candidates to our city. This is true regardless of their party, or the latest odds of their winning. When presidential candidates visit our community, I am always happy to meet them. I'll even put on their button when handed one as a polite gesture of respect. Though no reporter interviewed me for the Associated Press article on the recent visit by a presidential candidate, the article may have left your readers with the perception that I am endorsing this candidate, as opposed to welcoming his visit to Wasilla. As mayor, I will welcome all the candidates in Wasilla."
***
On the trail: McCain and Palin go to Mississippi before campaigning in O’Fallon, MO. Obama and Biden begin their day with a discussion on the economy in Toledo, OH and later hold a rally in Battle Creek, MI.
Countdown to GOP convention: 1 day
Countdown to Election Day 2008: 65 days
Countdown to Inauguration Day 2009: 142 days
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Advisers say McCain will go to Mississippi today at the invitation of the governor to be briefed on plans for Gustav, NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell reports. These advisers say McCain has talked to Secretary Chertoff and governors Barbour, Riley, Jindal, and Crist. They also say amid contingency planning for the convention, "the gavel will come down" and "business will be done" but "we are not having a party."
Per NBC/NJ’s Mike Memoli, Obama yesterday called the threat posed by Hurricane Gustav “a very serious situation,” and Joe Biden warned that the storm could be worse than Katrina, as the two running mates warned residents of the Gulf Coast to heed all warnings. “Even if you’ve ridden out this storm before, even if you think that it may pass over, even if you think that you can wait until last minute, this is going to be, potentially, very, very serious,” Obama told reporters after a campaign event in Dublin, OH. “For your own safety and your family’s safety, people have to follow the instructions of the officials there to make sure that this evacuation is going smoothly.”
Obama said he and Biden had spoken with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, FEMA director Hank Paulson, Sen. Mary Landrieu, and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. Biden said that because the eastern, more powerful half of the storm may pass over New Orleans, the impact could be more severe than Katrina’s. “Those folks who rode out, do not ride out again -- ride out of town,” he said. “
With the storm forecast showing it could make landfall just as the Republican National Convention is set to begin, Obama was asked if he thought President Bush should still attend. He said he didn’t “want to weigh into the White House decision-making,” and said the priority has to be on monitoring efforts on the ground closely. He also said he did not want to be a “distraction” himself when asked if he would visit the region. “I will do whatever is required that is useful but right now the main thing that's useful us letting everyone evacuate out there now; please evacuate the area,” he said.
The
Los Angeles Times says Gustav “is predicted to make landfall west of New Orleans as early as Monday, just days after the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. But National Weather Service officials cautioned that the hurricane's path could shift and that it could strike anywhere from Texas to Florida in the next few days. Apart from humanitarian concerns, the GOP's image-makers are mindful of the public relations and political cost if the party appears to be partying in Minnesota while Americans are battling to survive a devastating hurricane.”
CONTINUED >>
Per a new
USA Today/Gallup poll , 51% say they have never heard of Sarah Palin, while 22% have a favorable impression of her and 7% have a negative one. “There is also wide uncertainty about whether she's qualified to be president. In the poll, taken Friday, 39% say she is ready to serve as president if needed, 33% say she isn't, and 29% have no opinion. That's the lowest vote of confidence in a running mate since the elder George Bush chose then-Indiana senator Dan Quayle to join his ticket in 1988. In comparison, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden was seen as qualified by 57%-18% after Democrat Barack Obama chose him as a running mate last week.”
That said, the Palin pick has “electrified conservative activists,” the
Politico’s Martin writes. “By tapping the anti-abortion and pro-gun Alaska governor just ahead of his convention, which is set to start here Monday, McCain hasn’t just won approval from a skeptical Republican base -- he’s ignited a wave of elation and emotion that has led some grassroots activists to weep with joy.”
Maureen Dowd writes, “The legacy of Geraldine Ferraro was supposed to be that no one would ever go on a blind date with history again. But that crazy maverick and gambler McCain does it, and conservatives and evangelicals rally around him in admiration of his refreshingly cynical choice of Sarah, an evangelical Protestant and anti-abortion crusader who became a hero when she decided to have her baby, who has Down syndrome, and when she urged schools to debate creationism as well as that stuffy old evolution thing.”
The
New York Times notes that McCain’s choice of Palin has forced both campaigns to recalibrate their messages and electoral strategies. “Mr. Obama’s campaign does not plan to go directly after Ms. Palin in the days ahead. Instead, it is planning to increase its attacks on Mr. McCain for his opposition to pay equity legislation and abortion rights - two issues of paramount concern to many women - as it tries to head off his effort to use Ms. Palin to draw Democratic and independent women who had supported Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.”
“Mr. McCain’s advisers said that rallying wavering women would be one of Ms. Palin’s main jobs in the weeks ahead. They said her campaign schedule would take her to areas in swing states like Ohio and Pennsylvania where there were pockets of women who had supported Mrs. Clinton in the primaries.”
CONTINUED >>
The
Boston Globe focuses on McCain circa 1975 to 1977. "Elements of the John McCain voters know today were evident during his command of the unit, a shore-based squadron known as VA-174 that trained pilots and maintained roughly 50 A-7 Corsair II attack jets. He answered to his own code of morality and justice. He showed empathy for people's hardships and personal failings. He was warm toward Navy men and women on his good side, and could explode at those who weren't. In many cases, his creative approach to solving problems paid dividends; but his volatile personality, and his freewheeling social life, rubbed some people the wrong way."
From one football stadium to another… Two days after Obama and his running mate Joe Biden spoke before a crowd of some 85,000 people at the home of the Denver Broncos -- and a television audience of more than 38 million -- they brought their ticket yesterday to a high school football stadium in Dublin, OH, NBC/NJ’s Athena Jones reports.
The Bidens and the Obamas were on the second day of a bus tour through battleground states, after which the senators will split up to campaign separately. They are working to win over voters in states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan -- all places where Obama lost to Clinton in the primary season - with their focus on kitchen-table issues and an appeal to middle and working class voters. Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, Sen. Sherrod Brown and former Sen. John Glenn each gave brief remarks at the event.
While Brown said John McCain’s pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin showed poor judgment, Obama made no direct mention of the governor, instead speaking about a state his campaign had hoped to make competitive and focusing on what he saw as his own running mate's strengths. “After 19 months of traversing this country, traveling to every state except Alaska, which now that I think about it, I’m gonna have to go up there now," he said, sparking laughter. "In the remainder of this journey, I am gonna have with me one of the great statesmen, a man who knows how to talk to world leaders, but also knows how to treat the conductors on the Amtrak train that he takes home every night."
From NBC's Patti Culhame The White House has confirmed the speculation that President Bush is unlikely to go to the RNC convo. Tthey are working on alternative plans but don't have anything to announce yet. Expect details mid-morning.
From NBC/NJ's Matthew Berger WASHINGTON, Pa. – Palin’s nod to Hillary Clinton may not go over well everywhere, because at a rally Saturday, the mere mention of her name brought a chorus of boos.
Palin was lauded for speaking of Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro in her speech Friday in Dayton, acknowledging the role their candidacies had played for other women, including herself. It was seen as a smart political gesture toward winning over some of the Clinton supporters who feel disenfranchised and may not vote for Obama in November.
She gave essentially the same speech today at a minor league baseball stadium outside of Pittsburgh. But when she said Saturday that Clinton “showed determination and grace in her own campaign,” there were an audible boos smattered amid the cheers. Palin ignored the boos and continued on with her speech.
McCain and Palin were joined there by former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, who was himself a vice presidential prospect. Palin acknowledged Ridge, whom she said she hadn't met but was a fan of.
From NBC's Kelly O'Donnell McCain advisors say meetings have been underway to consider options for the RNC program due to Hurricane Gustav.
Advisors say no decisions have been made.
Sources say options could include changes to the speakers schedule and/or the addition of "service projects" to assist those affected by the storm. One idea being floated is turning the convention into a hurricane telethon.
The campaign points out that Senator McCain spoke to this concern today saying it would be "inappropriate" to have "festivities" if the situation is as dire as forecasts suggest.
For the purposes of getting McCain's name and Palin's name on the ballot, the convention must take place this week; lots of ballot deadlines hit very soon.
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro *** The case for Palin : For McCain, the biggest thing Sarah Palin brings is buzz. It's something the campaign has been seeking for some time. In fact, it has bothered Team McCain that it doesn’t get the same "gee whiz" kind of coverage that Obama gets. Palin changes that discrepancy -- for now. She also helps McCain re-introduce himself as a change-reform candidate. Palin's whole shtick in Alaska is reformer; it's what got her into the governors mansion. Indeed, the Palin pick may signal that the McCain folks have concluded that "experience" as a message isn't a winning one, even though they spent the entire summer developing that argument. So they are hoping Palin helps redefine GOP ticket as change. What's more, she brings a historical first to the McCain campaign. And finally, there's Palin's gender, which the McCain folks hope reopens some of the Clinton-Obama wounds that the Dem convention seemed to heal.
*** The case against Palin . The biggest negative about the pick is that on its face, it looks like a political gimmick, a political calculation. And McCain's supposed to be anything but a calculating or gimmicky pol. Indeed, as the Los Angeles Times wonders, isn’t McCain supposed to be the guy putting “country first” and not playing politics? The fact that McCain doesn't know Palin and spent all but a couple of hours getting to know her before making his pick is going to invite A LOT of judgment criticism. The perception is going to be that McCain panicked and wanted to do something radical to shake up the race. Well, he may have shaken up the race, but at the cost of undermining his best asset: that he was ready to lead. This decision doesn't look like it was well thought out, even as Palin has made a tremendous first impression.
*** The vetting question . Just how well was she vetted? There's going to be a race to define Palin, and while the McCain has bought time by shocking the world with the pick, there's going to be a lot of interest by the press to dig around in Alaska. And this “Troopergate” story is perhaps just the beginning. What's more, since she isn't well know, any little thing could get blown up pretty quickly.
*** The age factor : Did anyone notice that there were more mentions of McCain's age yesterday than we've seen in months? Sure, yesterday was his birthday, and the VP pick was always going to serve as a reminder that McCain was seeking to become the oldest first-term president in history. But McCain's age has been an under-the-radar negative for him for some time (just check out any recent poll on the topic). Palin -- being an absolute unknown -- is going to get put through the "is she ready to be commander in chief?" test a little bit more than your average VP pick, simply because of McCain's age. And the more focus there is on McCain's age, the more political danger the campaign faces.
*** The bottom line: Palin has made a good first impression. She appears to be very engaging and has a great story to tell. But her pick signals that the McCain camp wasn't happy where things stood with this race, despite their public posture and their standing in the polls. And they felt the need to throw the long ball. The good news for McCain: Palin will have low bars for every moment she's on center stage (her speech yesterday, her convention speech on Wednesday, and her debate with Biden). But wow -- is this a gamble! Then again, McCain loves to gamble, he's actually someone very fond of dice games, and there's no doubt he's rolling the dice with Palin. A word of warning to Dems, courtesy of Peter Hart: Don't get overly gleeful about all the downsides of this pick. If anything, realize McCain may be falling in a 20-year pattern of shocking picks that end up not backfiring, like Spiro Agnew in '68 or Quayle in '88. Palin may actually be the GOP's destiny. Go figure.
*** Obama’s response ad : The Obama camp is up with a TV ad arguing that while Palin might be McCain’s VP pick, McCain’s real running mate is President Bush. The ad goes: “Well, he's made his choice. But, for the rest of us … there's still no change. McCain doesn't get it, calling this broken economy ‘strong.’ Wants to keep spending ten-billion-a-month in Iraq. And votes with George Bush 90% of the time. So, while this may be his running-mate … America knows this is John McCain's agenda. And we can't afford four more years of the same.” On the trail: McCain and Palin head to a rally in Washington, PA. Meanwhile, in Ohio, Obama and Biden attend a memorial service for Stephanie Tubbs Jones in Cleveland and later do a rally in Dublin.Click here to sign up for First Read emails .
The New York Times’ analysis points out that McCain “spent the summer arguing that a 40-something candidate with four years in major office and no significant foreign policy experience was not ready to be president. And then on Friday he picked as his running mate a 40-something candidate with two years in major office and no significant foreign policy experience.”
“‘The question is,’ [GOP lobbyist Ed] Rogers continued, ‘what does it do to the argument that Obama’s not ready?’ The question is particularly acute for Mr. McCain, who turned 72 on Friday and would be the oldest person elected to a first term as president if he won in November. His campaign now needs to convince the public that it can imagine in the Oval Office a candidate who has spent just two years as governor of a state with a quarter of the population of Brooklyn.” LA Times : “Though John McCain clearly concluded that Palin could attract female voters and grab his campaign some Barack Obama-style media buzz, he also is taking a risk that in elevating a largely unknown figure, he undermines the central theme of his candidacy that he puts ‘country first,’ above political calculations.”
“For a candidate known to possess a quick temper and an unpredictable political streak, the decision raises questions about how McCain would lead -- whether his decisions would flow from careful deliberations or gut checks in which short-term considerations or feelings outweigh the long view.”
CONTINUED >>
The Washington Post reports, “Republican presidential candidate John McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, is an ethics reformer under an ethics investigation that is plowing through private domestic matters. Palin is under investigation to determine whether she pressured and then fired the state police chief in July because he refused to dismiss her former brother-in-law. At the time, the governor's younger sister was involved in a bitter divorce and child custody dispute with the man, a state trooper. A bipartisan committee of the state legislature voted unanimously to hire a retired prosecutor to investigate. His report is due in October.”
More: “Gov. Palin's husband, Todd Palin, met with Monegan [the fired state police chief] in January 2007, a month after his wife took office, to say that the trooper was unfit for the force. Monegan also said the governor sent him e-mails, but Monegan declined to disclose them, saying he planned to give them to the independent prosecutor. Palin initially denied that she or anyone in her administration had ever pressured Monegan to fire Wooten. She said she had raised the matter with Monegan just once, relaying the allegation that Wooten made a death threat against her father. But this summer, Palin acknowledged that a half-dozen members of her administration had made more than two dozen calls on the matter to various state officials
And: “Monegan, 57, a former chief of the Anchorage Police Department, said in an interview Friday that during his 19 months on the job the governor repeatedly mentioned Wooten but ‘never directly asked me to fire him.’ Monegan said Todd Palin told him that Wooten ‘shouldn't be a trooper.’ ‘I've tried to explain to him,’ Monegan said, ‘You can't head-hunt like this. What you need to do is back off, because if the trooper does make a mistake, and it is a terminable offense, it can look like political interference. I think he's emotionally committed in trying to see that his former brother-in-law is punished.’”
“Since long before she became Alaska's youngest -- and first female -- governor 20 months ago, Sarah Louise Heath Palin has been making her mark as an unlikely upstart,” the Washington Post writes. “Yesterday, she did it again, accepting Sen. John McCain's surprise offer to be his running mate. Palin, a 44-year-old mother of five who hunts caribou and was once a beauty queen, rose to the statehouse by challenging the corruption that has become endemic in Alaska, even if it meant taking on the Republican establishment there, including the former governor and the state's congressional delegation.”
The New York Times : “Though indisputably Alaskan, she rose to prominence by bucking the state’s rigid Republican hierarchy, impressing voters more with gumption, warmth and charm than an established record in government.”
USA Today focuses on her decision to have a child with Down Syndrome.
And here’s an October 2006 Anchorage Daily News profile.
"38 million turn TVs to Democratic convention for Obama's acceptance speech." "Nielsen Media Research said more people watched Obama speak Thursday night than watched the Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing, the final "American Idol," or the Academy Awards this year. Obama talked before a live audience of more than 84,000 people in Denver."
The New York Times covers Obama and Biden stumping in western Pennsylvania yesterday. “As the glow of their nominating convention was quickly overtaken by the announcement of the new Republican ticket, the two Democrats stayed purposely low key. They toured a biodiesel plant, stopped for ice cream and staged only one public event on their first day together as they returned to their task of trying to persuade voters beyond the Democratic activists in Denver to support their campaign.”
“One day after Mr. Obama spoke before 80,000 at the stadium, and a television audience of at least 40 million, the ticket’s arrival here was considerably different from recent postconvention trips. There was no Mississippi River boat tour that Al Gore conducted eight years ago, and the bus tour was far shorter than Senator John Kerry’s bus tour four years ago.”
From NBC's Chris Donovan Before exiting Invesco Field Thursday night, Oprah Winfrey stopped and answered a few questions from reporters.
She said the night was extraordinary and explained, "I have never experienced anything like that."
She said she had re-read Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech in the morning and referencing King's line about making real "the promise of democracy," she said that tonight "that promise was fulfilled."
Before leaving with an entourage that included Gayle King and Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker, she said she hoped Americans would "rise to the moment" and support Obama.
From NBC's Mark Murray and NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy McCain camp has just released a tick-tock of how the Palin pick came to be. And according to it, McCain had met her just one time prior to yesterday.
The tick-tock from McCain communications director Jill Hazelbaker:
"Later that morning, John McCain departed for Phoenix and Governor Palin departed with staff to Flagstaff, Arizona. Governor Palin, Kris Perry, Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter proceeded to the Manchester Inn and Conference Center in Middleton, Ohio. They were checked into the hotel as the Upton Family. While there, Governor Palin’s children, who had been told they were going to Ohio to celebrate their parents’ wedding anniversary, were told for the first time that their mother would be a nominee for Vice President of the United States of America."
"Today, John McCain was proud to announce that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, a proven-reformer, will share a partnership with him to shake things up in Washington and to make government more effective for American families."
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones Obama reacted to his rival's pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as a running mate and walked back a statement put out by his campaign that called the governor inexperienced.
"I haven't met her before. She seems like a compelling person, obviously a terrific story, personal story. And you know, I'm sure that she will help make the case for the Republicans," he told a small group of reporters on Friday. "Unfortunately, the case is more of the same. And so ultimately John McCain is at top of ticket. As I indicated in my speech last night, I think that he wants to take the country in the wrong direction. I'm assuming Gov. Palin agrees with him in in his policies."
He said the fact that a woman had been chosen as the vice presidential candidate of a major party "is one more hit against that glass ceiling."
"I congratulate her and look forward to a vigorous debate," he said. "I'm pleased with my choice for vice president Joe Biden . I think he's the man who can help me guide this country in a better direction and help working families."
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Doug Adams Ted
Stevens , the grand-daddy of Alaskan politics, has a wary relationship with the new Republican VP pick -- Alaska Gov. Sarah
Palin .
When Palin was running for governor in 2006, she ousted long time Alaska fixture Frank
Murkowski in a hard fought primary. Stevens and Murkowski are long time friends and Palin was able to defeat the sitting governor by running on ethics and clean government reformist platform.
Stevens ultimately came to endorse Palin, but it was late in the game. He endorsed her less than three weeks before the general election, although he did cut a television advertisement for her.
In July of last year, Palin shocked and angered Stevens by publicly criticizing him for his role in the VECO scandal and called for him to speak out about it.
"I think I join others in wanting to know of the senator's innocence," Palin said. "Right now, we're not hearing anything."
When Stevens was indicted last month for month on corruption charges, Palin said the indictment "rocks the foundation of the state" and added that she shares with others "dismay" and concern.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski, Courtney Kube Gov. Sarah
Palin 's son, Track, enlisted in the Army on Sept. 11, 2007, and is now stationed at Fort Wainwright, Alaska.
Private First Class Track Palin is an infantry soldier, assigned to the 1-1 Bravo Company, 52nd Infantry Regiment. (We are checking whether PFC Palin's company is deploying to Iraq later this fall with the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division out of Fort Wainwright.)
Joe
Biden’s son, Beau, is also scheduled to be heading to Iraq before the end of the year.
NBC’s Carol Eggers adds that the
LA Times points out: “When prenatal genetic testing of their fifth child showed he had Down syndrome last spring, the couple went ahead with the birth in May and now talk of him as the joy of their life. … One of ...... their other four children entered the Army and deploys to Iraq next month."
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro Earlier this month, Gov.
Palin praised parts of
Obama 's energy plan. The
link to the press release was not working as of 12:30 p.m. ET. But
Google saves everything .
Includes Alaska's Natural Gas Reserves Print Now Printer Friendly
No. 08-135
August 4, 2008, Fairbanks, Alaska - Governor Sarah Palin today responded to the energy plan put forward by the presumptive Democratic nominee for President, Illinois Senator Barack Obama.
"I am pleased to see Senator Obama acknowledge the huge potential Alaska's natural gas reserves represent in terms of clean energy and sound jobs, " Governor Palin said. "The steps taken by the Alaska State Legislature this past week demonstrate that we are ready, willing and able to supply the energy our nation needs."
In a speech given in Lansing, Michigan, Senator Obama called for the completion of the Alaska natural gas pipeline, stating, "Over the next five years, we should also lease more of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska for oil and gas production. And we should also tap more of our substantial natural gas reserves and work with the Canadian government to finally build the Alaska natural gas pipeline, delivering clean natural gas and creating good jobs in the process."
Governor Palin also acknowledged the Senator's proposal to offer $1,000 rebates to those struggling with the high cost of energy. "We in Alaska feel that crunch and are taking steps to address it right here at home," Governor Palin said. "This is a tool that must be on the table to buy us time until our long-term energy plans can be put into place. We have already enjoyed the support of Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, and it is gratifying to see Senator Obama get on board." The Governor did question the means to pay for Obama's proposed rebate - a windfall profits tax on oil companies. In Alaska, the state's resource valuation system, ACES, provides strong incentives for companies to re-invest their profits in new production.
"Windfall profits taxes alone prevent additional investment in domestic production. Without new supplies from American reserves, our dependency and addiction to foreign sources of oil will continue," Governor Palin said.
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
The
McCain campaign’s release on Palin:
"U.S. Senator John McCain today announced that he has selected Alaska
Governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate and to serve as his vice
president. Governor Palin is a tough executive who has demonstrated
during her time in office that she is ready to be president. She has
brought Republicans and Democrats together within her Administration
and has a record of delivering on the change and reform that we need in
Washington. Governor Palin has challenged the influence of the big oil
companies while fighting for the development of new energy resources.
She leads a state that matters to every one of us -- Alaska has
significant energy resources and she has been a leader in the fight to
make America energy independent.
"In Alaska, Governor Palin challenged a corrupt system and passed a
landmark ethics reform bill. She has actually used her veto and cut
budgetary spending. She put a stop to the 'bridge to nowhere' that
would have cost taxpayers $400 million dollars.
As the head of Alaska's National Guard and as the mother of a soldier
herself, Governor Palin understands what it takes to lead our nation
and she understands the importance of supporting our troops.
"Governor Palin has the record of reform and bipartisanship that others
can only speak of. Her experience in shaking up the status quo is
exactly what is needed in Washington today."
The Obama campaign’s response:
"Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero
foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency.
Governor Palin shares John McCain's commitment to overturning Roe v.
Wade, the agenda of Big Oil and continuing George Bush's failed
economic policies -- that's not the change we need, it's just more of
the same," said Bill Burton, Obama Campaign Spokesman.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
The pick of
Sarah Palin caught almost everyone by surprise. Most signs
last night seemed to point to
Pawlenty , but the McCain camp proved it can
keep a secret REALLY well.
This was a bold move in this historic election, and a
play for those Clinton supporters. Palin is a social conservative, and
her views on abortion won't play well with most Democratic women. But
this election has been a case study in identity politics. We'll see if
she peels away some women.
The potential to grab some of those women voters is perhaps the best
asset Palin brings to a
McCain ticket. She also reinforces McCain's
maverick image. She bucked her own party, launching an
ethics investigation into the state party chairman with regard to his
dealings with oil companies in the state. And being from Alaska, she's
the
ultimate outsider. She also reinforces McCain's drilling message -- though she's for drilling in ANWR; McCain is not. She also represents the next
generation of Republican leaders -- she's a fresh face.
But there are some potential pitfalls as well. Palin is currently under legislative investigation herself,
accused of firing the state's public safety
commissioner for not firing her former brother-in-law.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Kelly O'Donnell
Senior source involved in the process tells NBC Senator McCain has selected Alaska governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate.
NBC's David Gregory also confirms from a senior person in McCain camp.
More to come...
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro DENVER -- John McCain's done it. He's got the political world buzzing like crazy about a surprise VP choice. Here's what we know: Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney and Joe Lieberman all appear to be out of the running. Of course, these three candidates were the short list, remember? Shows how well the McCain campaign is keeping secrets. The hot name of the morning is Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, someone who has been governor less than two years. The pros of her candidacy: conservatives love her and she's known as a hard-core reformer, defeating ethically challenged GOP Gov. Frank Murkowski in '06. She is WILDLY popular in Alaska. The Cons: Does she pass the commander in chief test? Perhaps Palin is a head fake yet again and we should be looking at folks like Tom Ridge or Rob Portman or even Meg Whitman. Bottom line: maybe the Obama campaign should have put the McCain campaign in charge of their VP rollout since they can keep a secret a lot better than Team Obama.
***
Obama punches back: After the first three days of the Democratic convention, there were two things that some Democrats thought were missing: substance and punch. While it was obvious to most, Obama would handle the substance in last night’s acceptance speech, it was surprising that Obama decided to add so much punch. He went after McCain by tying him to Bush, bringing up Phil Gramm, arguing that he’s out of touch (“he doesn’t get it”), contending that he hasn’t done the right things to bring justice to Osama bin Laden, and even using the word “temperament.” In short, Obama wanted to convince Democrats that he was no Michael Dukakis, Al Gore, of John Kerry -- he was going to be a fighter in his campaign against McCain and the Republican Party. The speech also served to inoculate Obama as much as possible from next week’s GOP convention, where he will become the obvious punching bag. Four years ago, the Democrats holding their convention first turned into a disadvantage when John Kerry played nice while the GOP followed by playing tough. But this time around, with as aggressive as Obama was, could going first be an advantage?
***
A disjointed response: The McCain response seemed disjointed. "Americans witnessed a misleading speech that was so fundamentally at odds with the meager record of Barack Obama. When the temple comes down, the fireworks end, and the words are over, the facts remain: Sen. Obama still has no record of bipartisanship, still opposes offshore drilling, still voted to raise taxes on those making just $42,000 per year, and still voted against funds for American troops in harm's way. The fact remains: Barack Obama is still not ready to be President." Considering how aggressive the campaign was all week before Obama’s speech -- unveiling a new attack ad almost every day except yesterday -- to see the campaign left almost speechless shows that they know on this one night they were topped.
***
Blurring the lines: From the policy proposals to the McCain attacks chronicled above, there was something for almost everyone in Obama’s speech without it getting too cluncked up. But to us, what also stuck out was the issue blurring for social conservatives who might be ready to vote Dem on economic issues. He talked about the need to keep unwanted pregnancies down, as well as upholding “the 2nd Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals.”
***
Over to you, GOP: As we mentioned at the start of the convention, Obama and the Democrats had three goals, and it appears they met them all. Sell Obama and his family to voters, check. Help unite the party, check. And draw clear contrasts with McCain, check. Indeed, after the speeches by Michelle, Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, and Obama - as well as the mesmerizing roll call vote -- this week’s Democratic convention might prove to be a hard act to follow. So how does the GOP respond? They'll probably continue to push the fluff argument, as it's worked this summer. And they will obviously play up McCain’s maverick credentials and military heroism. But it will be a big challenge for the GOP to match the speeches, the enthusiasm, and theatrics of the past four days.
***
On the trail: McCain holds a rally with (most likely) his new running mate in Dayton, OH. Meanwhile, Obama and Biden (as well as their wives0 campaign in Beaver, PA.
Countdown to GOP convention: 3 days
Countdown to Election Day 2008: 67 days
Countdown to Inauguration Day 2009: 144 days
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The
New York Times’ Nagourney and Zeleny : “The speech by Senator Obama, in front of an audience of nearly 80,000 people on a warm night in a football stadium refashioned into a vast political stage for television viewers, left little doubt how he intended to press his campaign against Mr. McCain this fall.
In cutting language, and to cheers that echoed across the stadium, he linked Mr. McCain to what he described as the ‘failed presidency of George W. Bush’ and - reflecting what has been a central theme of his campaign since he entered the race - “the broken politics in Washington.”
The
New York Times’ Healy : “Mr. Obama showed real fire, and directed memorable fire at his opponent, even on Mr. McCain’s signature issue, national security.”
NYT’s Leibovich : “The occasion was part coronation, part organizing meeting, part Woodstock. Inside the stadium, the home of the Broncos, chants of “Eight is enough,” referring to President Bush’s tenure, broke out, and big delegate hats outnumbered face paint (usually preferred at a football game). To some extent, the event resembled a Broncos game, though without beer sales, no discernible opposition and Mr. Obama in the spotlight role of John Elway (the Hall of Fame Broncos quarterback).”
The
Washington Post’s Balz’s lead: “Barack Obama's speech accepting the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday night was what many nervous Democrats were hoping for: a forceful challenge to John McCain and the Republicans, and a restatement of the message to change Washington and the nation that propelled him to the nomination.”
The
Washington Post : “In a speech filled with policy specifics and some of the toughest swipes he has taken at his opponent in the campaign, Obama took on the sharp criticisms the GOP has leveled against him in recent months and at the same time exhorted the nation to look beyond politics as usual.”
CONTINUED >>
"Addressing tens of thousands at Invesco Field, Gore said that when he ran against Bush, some people saw
little difference between them and thought the outcome wouldn't matter much. 'But here we all are in 2008 and I doubt anyone would argue now that election didn't matter.'"
The Minneapolis Star Tribune : "The Republican vice presidential watch picked up ever-more intensity Thursday, with Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty right in the middle of it. As reports swirled that John McCain would appear with his choice for a running mate at a rally today, Pawlenty, who had been in Denver to help deliver the GOP response during the Democratic National Convention, canceled interviews Thursday and returned home."
The
NY Times : “Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota said in a radio interview on Friday morning that he planned to be at the Minnesota state fair on Friday, not here in Dayton with Senator John McCain.”
Talking Points Memo reports that the Obama campaign’s response ad is overwhelming the American Issues Project’s Bill Ayers hit. “On August 26th -- the last date for which info is available -- the American Issues Project, the group behind the spot tying Obama to the former Weatherman, ran the ad 304 times in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Virginia. On that same day, the Obama campaign aired its response ad some 550 times -- nearly twice as many times -- in those same four states.”
From NBC's Mark Murray Hillary Clinton's statement: "Barack Obama’s speech tonight laid out his specific, bold solutions and optimistic vision for our nation and our children's future.
“His speech crystallized the clear choice between he and Senator McCain . Four more years of the same failed policies or a leader who can tackle the great challenges we face: revitalizing our economy and restoring our standing in the world. I am proud to support Senator Obama, our next President of the United States and Joe Biden , our next Vice President of the United States."
From NBC's Mark Murray Said
McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds in a statement: "Tonight, Americans witnessed a misleading speech that was so fundamentally at odds with the meager record of
Barack Obama . When the temple comes down, the fireworks end, and the words are over, the facts remain: Senator Obama still has no record of bipartisanship, still opposes offshore drilling, still voted to raise taxes on those making just $42,000 per year, and still voted against funds for American troops in harm's way. The fact remains: Barack Obama is still not ready to be President."
From NBC's Mark Murray Obama discussed specifics about his economic policies. And he talked plenty about change and bringing Americans today. But what Obama's acceptance speech will be remembered for were the strong words he delivered at McCain .
This is on the conservative side, but I counted at least eight tough lines directed at McCain, according to the prepared remarks. So much for that Monday-night criticism from some pundits that the Dem convention wasn't tough enough against McCain and the Republicans...
1) TIES TO BUSH . "John McCain has voted with George Bush ninety percent of the time. Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than ninety percent of the time? I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to take a ten percent chance on change."
2) PHIL GRAMM . "He said that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. And when one of his chief advisors - the man who wrote his economic plan - was talking about the anxiety Americans are feeling, he said that we were just suffering from a "mental recession," and that we've become, and I quote, "a nation of whiners."
3) DOESN'T GET IT . "It's not because John McCain doesn't care. It's because John McCain doesn't get it."
4) TEMPERMENT : "If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next Commander-in-Chief, that's a debate I'm ready to have."
5) BIN LADEN . "John McCain likes to say that he'll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell - but he won't even go to the cave where he lives."
6) IRAQ . "And today, as my call for a time frame to remove our troops from Iraq has been echoed by the Iraqi government and even the Bush Administration, even after we learned that Iraq has a $79 billion surplus while we're wallowing in deficits, John McCain stands alone in his stubborn refusal to end a misguided war."
7) MORE BUSH . "If John McCain wants to follow George Bush with more tough talk and bad strategy, that is his choice - but it is not the change we need."
8) WE ALL PUT COUNTRY FIRST . "So I've got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first."
From NBC's Mark Murray Obama's speech tonight. In it, he will talk about the challenges facing the nation: “Tonight, more Americans are out of work and more are working harder for less. More of you have lost your homes and more are watching your home values plummet. More of you have cars you can’t afford to drive, credit card bills you can’t afford to pay and tuition that is beyond your reach. These challenges are not all of government’s making. But the failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed presidency of George W. Bush."
"America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this.”
He will draw contrasts with McCain: “Now let there be no doubt. The Republican nominee, John McCain, has worn the uniform of our country with bravery and distinction, and for that we owe him our gratitude and respect. And next week, we’ll also hear about those occasions when he’s broken with his party as evidence that he can deliver the change that we need. But the record’s clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush 90% of the time. Sen. McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush was right more than 905 of the time? I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to take a ten percent chance on change.”
He will lay out his economic agenda: “Unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship our jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America. I will eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses and the start-ups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow. I will cut taxes – cut taxes – for 95% of all working families. Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle-class. And for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as President: in ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East."
And he say this on foreign affairs: “We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don’t tell me that Democrats won’t defend this country. Don’t tell me that Democrats won’t keep us safe. The Bush-McCain foreign policy has squandered the legacy that generations of Americans -- Democrats and Republicans – have built, and we are to restore that legacy."
“As Commander-in-Chief, I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I will only send our troops into harm’s way with a clear mission and a sacred commitment to give them the equipment they need in battle and the care and benefits they deserve when they come home."
From NBC's Mark Murray McCain announces his VP pick -- much of the political press corps will depart here to Minneapolis-St. Paul for next week's GOP convention.
And to get reporters ready for Minnesota, the Democratic National Committee yesterday passed around a travel kit containing a few gags targeted at McCain and the GOP. For starters, there's a button that reads, "Ask Me How Many Houses I Own." There's also a press credential featuring McCain's now-famous embrace of Bush ("More of the same," it says). And there are two candy bars -- 100 Grand and Pay Day -- obviously reminders of the folks who will be attending the GOP convention.
This is the latest gag that the political parties have sent reporters. A few weeks ago, the Republican National Committee mailed tire gauges to the press corps to poke fun at Obama. The DNC also sent "Exxon-McCain '08" paraphernalia to reporters.
*** UPDATE ***
From NBC's Mark Murray McCain camp has been hyping a new TV ad all day. On MSNBC's Morning Joe, communications director Jill Hazelbaker told Mika Brzezinski: "Well, Mika, this is a historic ad. I think this is the first of its kind. Sen. McCain is going to speak direct to camera to Barack Obama . I’m not going to give away many more details than that. But suffice to say it’s going to be a very exciting ad, and I think it’s going to get a lot of attention."
Would McCain attack Obama in the ad? Would he announce his veep pick?
Well, we finally saw the ad. And in it -- drum roll, please -- McCain congratulates Obama. "Sen. Obama, this is truly a good day for America. Too often the achievements of our opponents go unnoticed," McCain says to the camera. "So I wanted to stop and say, congratulations. How perfect that your nomination would come on this historic day. Tomorrow, we'll be back at it. But tonight senator, job well done."
The McCain camp says the TV ad will run on national cable and in "key states."
From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli
“He’s a real hero,” the Delaware senator told members of National Guard units stationed outside of Invesco Field. “We’re going to have our disagreements, we’re going to have our disagreements on policy. The one thing that we kind of disagree on, that is, what do we do now for you to be able to do the job we’re asking you to do.”
He praised the work of guardsmen who have encountered more in recent years than the probably bargained for, saying, “This isn’t your father’s National Guard.” He also noted that his own son, Beau, is going to be deployed to Iraq soon, and asked the group to keep an eye out for him if they returned.
“He’ll keep an eye out for you guys,” he added. “Keep the faith, go get ‘em.”
Biden also spoke to a group of firefighters at the site, talking about his great personal affection for the bravest who helped save the lives of his two sons, and his own when he suffered an aneurism.
“Look us over,” he urged the group. “If you don’t like what we’re doing, pick up the phone and holler at my campaign.”
Biden spent about 15 minutes meeting with the two groups, shaking hands and posing for pictures as well. As one guardsman asked for a photo, he gladly obliged.
“If I had your hair I’d be president, you know what I mean?” he told him. “I wouldn’t be screwing around with this job.”
From NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann DENVER -- Where in the world is Tim Pawlenty ?
With the Minnesota governor in Denver to continue his role as a GOP surrogate during the Democratic convention here, reporters were bent on determining where he stands -- or rather where he'll be standing tomorrow morning.
Pawlenty, a much talked-about vice presidential prospect, said that he is "scheduled to be and plans to be" doing a weekly scheduled radio show from the Minnesota State Fair tomorrow morning at 9:00 am. He told reporters that he will be leaving Denver this afternoon, bound for his home state.
The interest in Pawlenty's whereabouts comes amidst news that McCain will debut his vice presidential pick in Dayton, OH tomorrow.
The Minnesota governor would not answer any questions about the vice presidential process, including a volley of queries about how recently he has spoken with his party's presidential nominee. "I refrain from answering any questions relating to the VP selection process," he said. "We're going to allow Sen. McCain to make that announcement."
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli Joe Biden made light of Obama’s relative youth as he joked about his own early start in politics.
Biden said that after he was picked as Obama’s running mate, he asked his staff to look up the speech he made when he announced his candidacy for the Senate in 1972. And reading it, he found great similarity between his message than and Obama’s today.
“The truth of the matter, it’s a natural fit,” Biden said. “Barack Obama could have made that speech were he alive in 1972.”
He laughed, and quickly clarified that Obama was, in fact, alive at the time.
“By the way, if I hear one more time he was 11 years old when I went to the Senate, I’m going to smack somebody,” he continued.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Cherelle Kantey Hillary’s advice would be to her delegates. As a delegate from a district where a majority of her constituents voted for Clinton, she came to the “Friends of Hillary Delegates Reception” yesterday at the Colorado Convention Center looking for guidance.
“I came to the convention ready to follow her lead,” said Crouch. “And now I think I can vote the Democratic ticket with confidence.”
She says hearing Sen. Clinton tell her delegates to vote their conscience and ultimately releasing them was a courageous move that would bring unity to a divided party. “I respect her so much,” said Crouch. “On the national level, she’s done so much trailblazing for women. To tell people to vote their heart will bring the party out of here united.
The crowded room filled with Hillary supporters flocked to get a peek at the former first lady as she exited the stage, while a few Obama supporters lingered toward the back of the room.
Christopher Stampolis, 42, is a superdelegate from Santa Clara, California who today threw his support to Sen. Obama. Even with the divisions created with an extended primary, he says voting for a Democratic president is in the best interest of the nation.
From NBC's Chris Donovan After weeks of media speculation about potential drama at the convention, the only soap opera that was evident inside the Pepsi Center Wednesday night was the appearance of longtime "Days of Our Lives" actress Deidre Hall (aka Dr. Marlena Evans). Hall, attending her first convention, was sitting with the California delegation, cheering on Biden, and chanting "
John McCain , more of the same." She said she wholeheartedly supports
Obama . And when asked how long she's been an Obama supporter she said, "Once I heard
Michelle speak at UCLA, I knew she was the woman I wanted in the White House."
from NBC's Luke Russert Three young Muslim Democrats who support Barack Obama talk about how they feel about the political process.
WATCH VIDEO
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro
*** The Clintons owned the Pepsi Center : Well, for the part of the convention that took place in the Pepsi Center, the Clintons arguably gave the two best speeches, with Michelle Obama and Ted Kennedy both deserving of the top two spots as well. There were a couple of others that stood out, including the stem-winder delivered by Brian Schweitzer on Tuesday night. All of this is another way of saying, the bar is not too high for Obama tonight. But it's also another way of saying that Biden speech fell a tad short of expectations. (You could tell that having just three or four days to prepare for a big convention speech was a tall order. But the Obama folks don't expect him to deliver big speeches. They expect him to deliver on the stump.) In short, the Clintons owned the Pepsi Center; it's now up to Obama to own Invesco.
*** A split-screen day? Drudge was the first yesterday to shout this news: “McCain has decided on his running mate" and will unveil that choice tomorrow. Other news organizations soon followed. Indeed, it could be a split-screen news day with half the press corps desperately trying to break the McCain VP news before tomorrow. Just like last week, there's a contingent of the press corps that believes the short list of Pawlenty, Lieberman, and Romney may NOT be the end of the list. Speculation that a woman is being considered has created separate credible rumors today about Kay Bailey Hutchison, Sarah Palin, and Meg Whitman. McCain is more capable of a surprise than Obama. Then again, McCain wants to be respectful of the short list, since he spent his fair share of time on it in '88, '96 and even '00. The general consensus today seems to be that Romney's stock is down; Pawlenty's is steady; and Lieberman's up.
*** Mother Nature against the GOP? As if the Republican Party didn't have enough going against them, Mother Nature does not look like a political ally as the possibility of a serious hurricane bearing down on the US coast during the GOP convention. There's no way of speculating about what it means other than to say -- it is what it is, and nobody can do anything about it other than prepare citizens for the storm. But the last thing McCain needs is a reminder of Hurricane Katrina, whose three-year anniversary comes tomorrow.
*** Today’s convention schedule : Thursday’s theme is “Change You Can Believe In.” The featured speaker, of course, is Obama. Other notable speakers include (in order): Gov. Bill Ritter and the Colorado congressional delegation, Howard Dean, Rep. John Lewis (as part of a tribute to the 45th anniversary of MLK’s “I have a dream speech), Gov. Bill Richardson, Gov. Tim Kaine, Al Gore, and then Sen. Dick Durbin, who introduces Obama. Also, Jennifer Hudson sings the National Anthem and Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson gives the Pledge of Allegiance.
*** The RNC’s response : Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Sen. Jon Kyl, former US Treasurer Rosario Marin, and Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams hold an RNC-sponsored press conference to argue that Obama is wrong on national security.
*** Also in Denver : There’s a unity breakfast with civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King III and Al Sharpton, to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the "I Have A Dream" speech, at 9:30 am ET at the Colorado Convention Center.
*** On the trail : McCain arrives in Vandalia, OH in advance of his big rally tomorrow in Dayton. Obama delivers his address accepting the Democratic nomination.Click here to sign up for First Read emails .
The New York Times looks at some of the potential risks of tonight’s speech before 75,000 at Invesco Field. “With daunting challenges of logistics, style and substance, the plan was hatched before the Republicans began a concerted drive to paint Mr. Obama as a media sensation lacking the résumé to be president. Now Obama aides are feeling all the more pressure to bring a lofty candidacy to ground level, showing that Mr. Obama grasps the concerns of everyday Americans.”
“On Wednesday, workers were still making changes to Invesco Field, home to the Denver Broncos, so it would feel more intimate, less like the boisterous rallies that served Mr. Obama so well early in the primaries, but also created the celebrity image that dogs him. They were still testing camera angles, so Mr. Obama would appear among the giant crowd, not above it. They took steps to reduce the echo effect, familiar to football fans, of speaking in such a cavernous space. Planners scrapped their idea to turn the audience of 75,000 into a giant phone bank, in response to fears that the cellphone system would crash (people will instead be asked to text-message friends and neighbors to support the campaign, program aides said would be effective nonetheless.)”
A Democratic senator told MSNBC’s David Shuster that Obama's speech tonight might be a bit different than what some may be expecting in a big stadium. Per this senator, Obama himself said the speech will not have the kind of soaring rhetoric some may be expecting.
The New York Post goes to the extreme with Obama's speech set up for tonight, which has some Roman columns. Its cover: " 'O' my God." But as Politico's Ben Smith points out, "Republicans who are mocking Obama's appearance haven't mentioned it, but George W. Bush accepted his own nomination in 2004 on a set with a similar neoclassical theme, with columns rising on either side of him… Indeed, the Bush set and the Obama sets currently look strikingly similar, with the podium set well in front of the columns, and connected by a path."
CONTINUED >>
The Washington Post’s lead story: “Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois completed an improbable and historic journey here Wednesday when he was nominated by acclamation as the Democratic candidate for president, becoming the first African American to lead a major political party into a general-election campaign. Obama, who just eight years ago attended his first Democratic National Convention and who four years later shot to national prominence with an electrifying keynote address at the gathering in Boston, was given a final symbolic boost Wednesday by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who moved from the convention floor to suspend the roll call of the states and formalize her former rival's nomination by acclamation.”
The New York Times says that Obama’s nomination “brought to an end an often-bitter two-year political struggle for the nomination with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, who, standing on a packed convention floor electric with anticipation, moved to halt the roll call in progress so that the convention could nominate Mr. Obama by acclamation. That it did with a succession of loud roars, followed by a swirl of dancing, embracing, high-fiving and chants of ‘Yes, we can.’”
However, it’s worth pointing out that Obama will officially be the "nominee" until the conclusion of his acceptance speech," per the language of the Democrats' "Call to Convention.”
Clinton biographer David Maraniss of the Washington Post says that Bill Clinton’s speech last night “framed the case for Sen. Barack Obama and against the Republicans in a way that no one at this convention had done before. Only a day earlier, when there was some unease among Clinton's associates about whether he was being straitjacketed in what he could say in his speech, Obama tried to defuse the situation by saying Clinton could say whatever he wanted. Good call, as it turned out.”
“Perhaps not even Obama himself could have conjured up an oration so powerful on his behalf. Not only did Clinton utter the words ‘Barack Obama’ 15 times, they came in his first sentence and his last, and there were long riffs about the candidate in between.”
CONTINUED >>
The New York Times reports that McCain “has decided on his running mate, two Republican strategists in contact with Mr. McCain’s campaign said Wednesday. He is expected to reveal his choice at 11 a.m. Friday at a rally at a basketball arena in Dayton, Ohio… Republicans close to the campaign said that the top contenders remained the same three men who have been the source of speculation for weeks: former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and, possibly, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut.”
Speaking of Lieberman, Politico’s Martin writes that Karl Rove called the Connecticut senator to urge him to withdraw his name from VP consideration. “Lieberman dismissed the request… Lieberman ‘laughed at the suggestion and certainly did not call [McCain] on it,” said one source familiar with the details. ‘Rove called Lieberman,’ recounted a second source. ‘Lieberman told him he would NOT make that call.’”
NBC/NJ’s Matthew E. Berger yesterday wondered if McCain’s three-day VP swing (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) actually rules out Lieberman since he famously doesn’t campaign on the Sabbath. Yet Berger notes that the McCain schedule has the campaign leaving Dayton en route to Pittsburgh by bus on Friday beginning at 2:00 p.m. It is a four-and-a-half hour drive, so they would be able to arrive in Pittsburgh before Shabbat begins at 7:38 p.m., according to chabad.org, if they leave close to on time.
The McCain campaign released a Web video hit against Obama that’s reminiscent of one he unveiled against Romney before the New Hampshire primary. It contains images of violence and terrorism and questions Obama’s ability to lead.
From NBC's Luke Russert While Joe Biden's speech was no doubt important, Bill Clinton was once again the story of the night. Greeted by throngs of boisterous supporters who did not stop clapping for five minutes, Clinton delivered a speech that many felt he was incapable of giving, a speech praising his wife's former opponent Barack Obama.
The most significant line of the night was: "Sixteen years ago . . . we prevailed in a campaign in which the Republicans said I was too young and too inexperienced to be Commander-in-Chief." By directly comparing himself to Obama, he reversed the past seventeen months of casting doubt on Obama's readiness to lead. Personally, Clinton amazes me. No matter what he does or whom he upsets, he always manages to come back and be accepted. By ripping Obama for the past seventeen months, Clinton had burned many bridges. Amazingly they were rebuilt tonight.
On to Biden. To me, the speech sounded like an intervention. My colleague Domenico Montanaro gave me the title, "an intervention for the country." And that is what the speech was. It wasn't fiery or loud. It was calm, cool and almost pleaded for a Republican-free America.
The star of the night was Beau Biden . Maybe I'm biased towards sons who talk about their fathers, but Beau Biden straight dominated and owned the room. He was personable, authentic and came across as a leader. I'll say tonight: Beau Biden just launched his 2014 Senate campaign. Obama came out at the end and looked hip with the mike in his hand and not speaking behind the podium. Obama gave a little teaser to the adoring crowd but clearly all was saved for tomorrow's performance.
Well, I got up at 3:15am this morning to do the Today show, so I am checking out. I'll be back tomorrow, live from Invesco Field for one of the most highly anticipated speeches of the 21st century.
REGISTER TO VOTE IF YOU ARE 18.
You can see more of Luke's reporting on the iCue Web site.
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones Barack Obama surprised the crowd in the convention hall Wednesday night, appearing on stage after running mate Joe Biden's speech.
"Hello, Democrats!" he shouted to applause. "I want everybody to now understand that I am so proud to have Joe Biden and Jill Biden and Beau Biden and Mama Biden and the while Biden family with me on this journey to take America back."
He praised the Delaware senator for his speech and again complimented his wife and his former rival Hillary Clinton, as well as Bill Clinton, who spoke earlier in the night
"I think Pres. Bill Clinton reminded us of what it's like when you've got a president who actually puts people first," he said. "Thank you Pres. Clinton."
Obama closed by saying the convention was moving to Mile High Stadium to "make sure that everybody who wants to come can join in the party and join in the effort to take America back."
Afterwards, "We are Family" played as Biden's family joined Obama and Biden on the stage.
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones Axelrod gave reporters a preview of the speech Obama will give Thursday night at Invesco Field.
"The speech is substantially written but as with all Obama speeches, he'll be refining it and buffing it up and working on it, I'm sure, right until the very end," Axelrod said during a briefing near the end of the flight from Montana to Denver today.
Obama began thinking about tomorrow's speech during his vacation in Hawaii, and had been the chief writer, crafting a first draft and then working with others, including speechwriter Jon Favreau.
"[Obama's] the best speechwriter in the group, and he knows what he wants to say and he feels strongly about that," said Axelrod, who explained that the senator usually writes a draft in long-hand and then types it into his computer.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones FROM THE FLOOR Clinton's speech and spoke emotionally about her love of the former president and his wife.
"The Clintons are superb people," she gushed.
Eve, who said she was more than 70-years old, said she had voted for Hillary Clinton in the primary but was getting behind Barack Obama .
"We have to," she said. "We have to."
NBC's Mara Schiavocampo went to the floor of the Democratic National Convention and got reaction from delegates and attendees on Clinton's speech last night.
And what are bloggers like the Daily Kos' Markos Moulitsas and even Darryl Hannah up to?
From MSNBC.com's Tom Curry Shaheen said her opponent, first-term Republican Sen. John Sununu was until last week the Senate’s most endangered Republican.
“But when Ted Stevens got indicted I think that maybe” put Alaskan Stevens at the top of the endangered list, she noted.
“We’re hoping for an indictment against Sununu, but it hasn’t happened yet,” she told the crowd.
When I asked her as she was exiting the donors’ event what she meant by the “hoping for an indictment” comment, Shaheen got flustered and said, “Oh no, I was kidding. So I should probably not have said that. I was just -- trying to be funny.”
Sununu defeated Shaheen in 2002.
She said her comment was not intended to be an allusion to the 2002 phone-jamming case in which three Republican operatives were found guilty of violating federal communications law by arranging for the flooding of Democratic and union phone lines -- disrupting Democratic get-out-the-vote efforts and perhaps helping elect Sununu.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Matthew E. Berger The
McCain campaign reportedly plans to roll out its vice presidential choice throughout the weekend with rallies at sports arenas in Ohio on Friday, Pennsylvania on Saturday, and Missouri on Sunday.
If the plans are to be believed, it may very well rule out the potential for Sen.
Joe Lieberman to be McCain's running mate. Lieberman
, a religious Jew, does not campaign on Saturdays and most likely would not drive in the bus that is transporting McCain and his new VP. Lieberman was known to even skip his official Senate nomination at the Connecticut Democratic convention because it was held on a Saturday, and he adhered to the Sabbath while running with Al Gore in 2000 as well. He does vote when the Senate is in session on Saturdays, but walks to the Capitol.
Certainly, Lieberman could skip the Saturday event and rejoin McCain on Sunday outside of St. Louis. But it would be an awkward way to roll out an already controversial running mate.
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones Obama told a group of veterans and military families here today that McCain’s long career of service was not enough to earn their votes, arguing the Arizona senator would not fight for ordinary Americans.
“I honor John McCain’s service to our country, You know, he served in uniform with honor and distinction,” he said. “We owe him gratitude for that. But we don’t owe him our vote."
He then laid out what he said would be the choice in this election, saying McCain’s tax policies and his plans for the economy would leave average families out.
“Do we have a president who gets that people are struggling everyday, who gets that veterans are struggling everyday? Or do we have somebody who doesn’t get it?,” he asked. “Who wants to give more tax cuts to the big corporations including Exxon-Mobil? $300 billion worth, while leave 100 million people without any tax relief whatsoever?”
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Katie Primm Hillary Clinton walked out on stage to begin her speech, only three people were leaning over from their barstools listening at the Avenue Grill here in downtown Denver. But by the time she finished, a crowd of people burst into applause.
The clientele at the Avenue Grill was a mixed bag. Some had supported Hillary from the beginning, even going out to caucus for her in February. Others had been anxiously awaiting her departure from the race so Obama could become the nominee.
But as Clinton spoke, the reactions were the same -- nodding heads, laughter, applause, and the repeated phrase “She nailed it.”
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Matthew E. Berger Obamas and the Bidens will take their show on the road beginning Friday, with a bus tour that will start in Pennsylvania -- and will later head to Ohio and Michigan. The tour, entitled “On the Road to Change,” will be the first campaign appearances for both candidates since formally accepting the Democratic Party nomination and will include both Michelle Obama and Jill Biden.
Details for the events have not been finalized. An Obama campaign press release said the tour would focus on economic issues. It will serve as counterprogramming as the Republian convention kicks off in Minnesota.
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro
VIDEO: Clinton urges her supporters to back Obama. NBC's David Gregory Reports. ***
When your staff doesn’t do you any favors: All that said, who in Hillaryland thought it was a good idea to step on the best speech of her political career by giving blind quotes about a future presidential campaign? She got tremendous accolades from Team Obama, but some Clinton staffer had to spill beans about the speech's motivation to the
New York Times . “Mrs. Clinton is almost certain to run for president in 2012 if Mr. Obama fails this time, several Clinton advisers said Tuesday, and any such plan could possibly founder if the Clintons’ negative feelings show through this year.” It's actually a good example of how no good deed goes unpunished by her staff, and it’s another reminder of how undisciplined her campaign would be right now had she won the Dem nomination. It's no wonder there's so little trust between the candidates when staff -- particularly hers, in this case -- undermines her unity efforts.
VIDEO: NBC's Andrea Mitchell and Chuck Todd weign in on Clinton's DNC speech and her husband's upcoming speech. ***
Just askin’: Did anyone else notice those “Hillary” signs that had the “hillaryclinton.com” address at the bottom? Always be debt retiring! Indeed, immediately after her speech, her folks sent out an email to contribute money.
***
The gloves come off: After last night’s round of speeches, we don’t think anyone is now going to wonder whether the Democratic convention is going too soft on McCain. In speech after speech, Democrats unloaded on the Arizona senator. They brought up his multiple houses, pointed out that he has said he doesn’t understand the economy, and (of course) tied him to President Bush at every opportunity. Beyond those attacks, though, they hit him hard in two ways that could end up proving especially damaging -- because McCain’s campaign doesn’t seem to have a clear response to them. The first was Mark Warner’s future-vs.-the past hit. “The race for the future is on,” he said, “And it won't be won with a president who is stuck in the past.” The McCain camp issued this tepid response to defend a candidate who admits he’s not a big computer user: “Whether it’s been rooting out corruption in politics, fighting global climate change or calling for a new strategy in Iraq John McCain has a record of making bipartisan change, and Barack Obama does not.” The second hard hit came with this line by Hillary: “[McCain] still thinks it's okay when women don't earn equal pay for equal work.” How does a candidate losing women by double digits respond? We’ll find out next week…
***
Schweitzer’s stem-winders: By the way, last night's keynote was supposed to be Mark Warner, but the governor with unlimited ambition who lit up the hall was Montana's Brian Schweitzer. Who knew he could give the rah-rah stem-winder? While he didn't get much attention from the networks, he was on in the 10:00 pm hour, and he got the crowd so worked up, the anchors had to take notice. One of the few surprises so far…
***
Biden's big moment: Now we turn to tonight’s program… Before last Thursday, it appeared Joe Biden would never get a moment like this. He wanted it, ran for president twice to get it, but it seemed the dream was going to die. And then, Obama gave Biden political redemption. The Delaware senator has been preparing for this moment for half his life. He's been a senator for more than half his life. As he likes to point out, he was the Obama of the '88 campaign. Biden may have the unenviable task of having to follow Bill Clinton tonight, but if anyone is up to the task, it's him. Ask any union member about Biden's ability to bring down a house. He's got it in him; let's see if he can pull it off.
***
Elvis is in the building: We swear that tonight's featured speech is Joe Biden, seriously, it is. But it's not the speech that's getting the early buzz -- that belongs to the anticipated remarks of Bill Clinton. What will he say? How will he say it? Will he make an Obama pitch or a generic argument for the Democratic way of governing? Our sense: Bill's a competitive guy, he wants to show Obama why he'd be an asset and why he might be better suited at making the case against McCain. The one thing that would surprise us: If someone ends up describing the speech as unremarkable.
VIDEO: Romney appears on Morning Joe, handicapping Biden as a VP contender. ***
No rest for the weary: Politico reports that McCain’s pick is coming Friday, and the CW is back pointing in Romney's direction, who happens to be in Denver. He was pretty solid today on Morning Joe, talking up the need for McCain to carry Michigan. He sounded like a guy ready for the call.
***
A good day for the DSCC, a bad day (maybe) for the DCCC: Alaska held its primaries last night, offering the possibility that the state’s longest-serving Republicans -- Ted Stevens and Don Young, both whom face legal/ethical troubles -- could go down to defeat. Well, it turns out that one may. Per the Anchorage Daily News, Young trails GOP challenger Sean Parnell by fewer than 200 votes. A Parnell win would complicate the Democrats’ chances of winning the seat. Somewhat surprisingly, however, Stevens -- who is indicted and faces a trial on corruption charges in the fall -- easily won his primary. And that’s good news for Democratic challenger Mark Begich, who now seems even more in the driver’s seat in that contest. [
***UPDATE*** Young is actually
now ahead by 145 votes with 429 of 438 precincts reporting. Democrats are gearing up either way, believing that Parnell's inability to pull away from a candidate under investigation by the FBI, signifies, one strategist said, "the more Alaskans saw of Parnell, the less they liked him."]
***
Today’s convention schedule: Wednesday’s theme is Securing America’s Future (a focus on foreign affairs, as well as a tribute to veterans, active duty military, and military families). The marquee speakers are Bill Clinton and Joe Biden. Also speaking: Sen. Evan Bayh, Sen. Jack Reed, former Sen. Tom Daschle, Sen. John Kerry, Gov. Bill Richardson, Rep. Chet Edwards, and ex-congressional candidate Tammy Duckworth. Also, the formal roll-call vote takes place in the afternoon.
***
The RNC’s response: Rudy Giuliani, former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, and former Treasury Secretary Rosario Marin hold a press conference in Denver to rebut the Democrats on the issue of national security.
***
Also in Denver: Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer and Dem Senate candidates hold a press conference at 1:15 pm ET at the Colorado Convention Center to discuss the upcoming Senate races, 1:15 pm ET... Officials with the Western Majority Project discuss energy issues at 4:30 pm ET at the Colorado Convention Center.
***
On the trail: McCain is in Arizona, where he does some filming for his campaign. Obama holds a discussion with military families in Billings, MT.
Countdown to GOP convention: 5 days
Countdown to Election Day 2008: 69 days
Countdown to Inauguration Day 2009: 146 days
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Washington Post’s Balz writes, "Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton roused the Democratic National Convention here Tuesday night with sharp criticism of Sen. John McCain and a full-throated endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama ... urging Democrats to put the long and bitter primary battle behind them and unite to take back the White House in November.
But
you think this will make some in the Obama campaign happy ? “At the same time, advisers said, Mrs. Clinton wanted to ensure that her star turn at the convention could never be portrayed as insufficiently enthusiastic, should Mr. Obama lose the election in part because swaths of her supporters ultimately did not vote for him. Mrs. Clinton is almost certain to run for president in 2012 if Mr. Obama fails this time, several Clinton advisers said Tuesday, and any such plan could possibly founder if the Clintons’ negative feelings show through this year.”
The AP’s Ron Fournier writes, “By the time she was done, Sen. Clinton had delivered a strong, convincing affirmation of Obama and, just as importantly, a thumping of McCain. She did her part. Her husband takes the stage Wednesday and then Obama must make his case to the American people that he will be ready on Day One.” More: “Clinton seemed to say, even if Obama is everything she said during the campaign, he's still a better man than McCain. The speech was as much of an attack on McCain as it was an embrace of Obama. ‘We don't need four more years of the last eight years,’ she said.”
The
Boston Globe calls Clinton's speech an "impassioned call for unity." "In an address closely scrutinized for perceived slights against Obama, Clinton threw herself fully behind the man she battled and often criticized during a long and at times bitter primary campaign."
Peter Canellos : "This was a Clinton speech that didn't require any parsing of words. In a fiery call to arms last night, Hillary Clinton tried to clear up the one thing that hadn't been clear before: Her level of enthusiasm for making Barack Obama president. In past speeches, she has offered sincere endorsements of Obama, but then gone on to extol the accomplishments of her own campaign. This time, perhaps sensing a greater urgency, she offered repeated appeals on Obama's behalf."
CONTINUED >>
Pegged to the foreign policy night of Obama’s convention, the McCain camp says it’s up with a
new TV ad -- to air in key states (read: not it’s regular battleground buy) -- that hits Obama on the issue of Iran. It goes, “Iran. Radical Islamic government. Known sponsors of terrorism. Developing nuclear capabilities to "generate power" but threatening to eliminate Israel. Obama says Iran is a "tiny" country, "doesn't pose a serious threat.” Terrorism, destroying Israel, those aren't "serious threats"? Obama -- dangerously unprepared to be president.
Some nuggets on tonight’s big speakers: Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE, Obama’s vice presidential pick)
-- Delaware's longest-serving senator. He was first elected to the Senate when he was 29; five weeks later, his wife and infant daughter were killed in a car accident.
-- Currently chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; also chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominees Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas.
-- A son of Scranton, as the Obama campaign is emphasizing, his grandfather was a state senator in battleground Pennsylvania.
-- Ran for president in 1988, but bowed out after he was accused of plagiarizing a speech from a British politician.
-- Suffered a brain aneurysm in 1988.
-- Son Beau Biden was elected Delaware attorney general in 2006. He is also going to be deployed to Iraq in October as a member of the National Guard.
-- Advocate of Amtrak -- commutes to 80 minutes each way daily to DC from Wilmington; he's come to know the Amtrak crew workers personally and hosts an annual Christmas dinner for them.
-- Used against him by the right, this quote defending Obama's belief that Afghanistan is the central front on the war on terrorism: "If John wants to know where the bad guys live, come back with me to Afghanistan," Biden said. "We know where they reside. And it's not in Iraq."
-- Affectionately called "
The Champ " by his father, a car dealership manager.
-- The gregarious Biden who famously answered, "Yes," in an NBC News debate about whether or not he could keep his gaffes to himself, actually suffered from a stutter as a child.
-- Named his dog, "Senator" when he was in college.
-- What’s with Joe Biden and root canals? In 1991, during Clarence Thomas' hearings -- while he was chair of the judiciary committee -- Biden had to go to the dentist twice in the middle of the night for a root canal, so he wouldn’t miss any hearings. Ironically, he found out about being selected by Obama as his vice presidential pick when he was with his wife at the dentist, where she was getting a root canal.
Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) -- The 2004 Democratic nominee
endorsed Obama Jan. 10 -- after Hillary Clinton’s New Hampshire primary victory.
-- Volunteer on Ted Kennedy's first Senate campaign in 1962
-- In 1972, he was the only Democratic candidate for Congress to lose a district that George McGovern won.
-- Facing first primary challenger in his 24-year Senate career, long-shot Ed O'Reilly
-- Criticized Bill Clinton's rhetoric leading up to the South Carolina primary: "I mean, being an ex-president does not give you license to abuse the truth, and I think that over the last days it's been over the top."
Bill Clinton -- The former president is a New York superdelegate. No word on if he, like his wife, will cast his roll call vote for Obama. And it’s unclear if he will attend Obama’s speech at Invesco.
-- Compared Barack Obama's win in South Carolina to Jesse Jackson's, inciting charges of inserting race into the campaign: "Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in '84 and '88. Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here."
-- In the wake of the primary campaign, in which some thought he crossed a line in his criticism of Barack Obama, he's sought to repair his image, telling ABC News from Rwanda in the beginning of August: "There are things I wish I'd urged her to do, things I wish I had said, things I wish I hadn't said. But I am not a racist, I never made a racist comment, and I didn't attack him personally."
-- In the same interview, he also appeared reluctant to give a full defense of Obama's readiness to be president: "You can argue that nobody is ready to be president. I certainly learned a lot about the job in the first year, He clearly can inspire and motivate people and energize them which is a very important part of being president. And he's smart as a whip so there's nothing he can't learn."
-- As recently as Tuesday,
The Hill reported Bill Clinton seemed to question whether Democrats were making the right decision in nominating Obama, posing a hypothetical question to a group of foreign dignitaries in Denver: "Suppose for example you're a voter. And you've got candidate X and candidate Y. Candidate X agrees with you on everything, but you don't think that person can deliver on anything. Candidate Y disagrees with you on half the issues, but you believe that on the other half, the candidate will be able to deliver. For whom would you vote?" He added, "This has nothing to do with what's going on now."
From NBC's Luke Russert Another busy day today but the night was capped with an unbelievable story. I rush to the Pepsi Center and get in the doors just before Senator Clinton’s speech. After the speech, the press scopes out the second floor to see President Clinton and try to get a comment from him.
After about 15 minutes of waiting, I see the trademark white hair and President Clinton walking down the hallway flanked by at least a dozen Secret Service guards. I quickly jockey for position on the left side of the hallway and avoid the Secret Service’s attempt to move me out of the way. I catch Clinton’s eye and promptly put out my hand. Not only does he shake it, he gives me a big bear hug.
He stops in his tracks while a blitzkrieg of flash bulbs go off and asks me, “How’d my girl do?” I respond, “Well, Mr. President. Judging from the crowd’s reaction, pretty good.” He then says, “She did great, I’m so proud of her. She hit a home run. Home run. Home run.”
I walk with the president and long-time Clinton friend and trusted advisor, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee Terry McAuliffe. We board the elevator with a dozen Secret Service agents and proceed to exit the building. On the ride down I mention to McAuliffe that Senator Clinton seemed sad at the end speech and ask if her speech would give her closure. He responds, “She was over this a month ago.”
A little while later, President Clinton’s communications director Matt McKenna says the rest of the ride is “off the record.” We exit the elevator and President Clinton enters his SUV, after taking a picture with some admirers. He then gets out of the car and goes to another part of the Pepsi Center.
It was an incredible experience and one that I will not soon forget.
CONTINUED >>
There was lots of focus on Hillary, but Mark Warner was last night's keynoter: "Warner
rebuked President Bush and GOP nominee-to-be John McCain, but his address was hardly a summons to political arms against them. He mentioned McCain's name only twice, and he said he'd learned in the cell phone business that made him millions that a strategy of tearing down the competition doesn't suffice."
The
New York Daily News' Hinckley : "Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, the keynote speaker at a Democratic convention that has so far come down to two glowing stars, one revered warhorse and a lot of single-battery flashlights, exuded the quiet confidence of a man who wouldn't be surprised to find himself back at the same podium someday in a different situation."
Warner is the top story of the
Richmond Times-Dispatch .
The
Boston Globe's editorial board goes after cable news: "The best way to watch a political convention is on C-Span. That way Americans can make their own judgments unfiltered, without being told what to think by the nattering nabobs of TV commentary. The latest 'narrative' making its way around the Democratic convention here is that the Obama campaign hasn't learned the lesson of John Kerry's 2004 convention, in which the nominee failed to directly attack President Bush. CNN commentator Soledad O'Brien even asked late Monday night whether Michelle Obama's introductory speech shouldn't have been tougher on the Republicans. Of course, if the early days of the convention had presented a more negative tone, the talking heads would be complaining that the Democrats can only say what they are against, not what they are for."
The McCain campaign may contend that Obama is the "biggest celebrity" in the presidential race, NBC/NJ’s Adam Aigner-Treworgy notes, but its candidate has spent most of this week hobnobbing with as many GOP celebrities as his campaign can find.
On Monday, McCain kicked off the Democratic Convention with an endorsement from Puerto Rican Reggaeton star Daddy Yankee. He then hopped on a plane to fly up north for a fundraiser in Sacramento with Patricia Heaton (from “Everybody Loves Raymond”) and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Heaton then traveled to Burbank, CA on McCain's Straight Talk Jet Monday afternoon to attend a fundraiser at the Beverly Hilton featuring stars from both big and small screens. Those in attendance included Robert Duvall, Gary Sinise, Stephen Baldwin, Craig T. Nelson, Dean Cain (Lois and Clark), Jon Cryer, and long-time McCain supporter Wilford Brimley.
Then on Tuesday, McCain raised money in his hometown of Phoenix and was introduced by TV and movie star Angie Harmon and her husband, long time NY Giants defensive back Jason Sehorn. Capping off the star-studded start to the week, McCain took a brief afternoon trip to San Diego yesterday, making a surprise appearance at a fundraiser hosted by John Voigt.
Politico reports that McCain “is planning to rollout his vice-presidential nominee in three battleground states this weekend, with large-scale rallies planned for Ohio, Pennsylvania and Missouri, according to aides and advisers. The GOP nominee-in-waiting will move to immediately change the campaign conversation from Barack Obama’s football stadium acceptance speech Thursday to the new Republican ticket, to be revealed at a noontime Friday rally in a Dayton, Ohio, basketball arena. McCain and his running mate will then travel by bus to Pennsylvania, where they’ll hold an outdoor event at a minor league baseball stadium in Washington County, just southwest of Pittsburgh. On Sunday, the duo will head to suburban St. Louis for another event to be held at a minor league baseball stadium, this one in O’Fallon, Mo.”
CONTINUED >>
Senator Barack Obama's campaign has been
aggressively fighting back against an independent advocacy group's TV ad linking the Democratic nominee with Ayers… The advocacy group's main benefactor is a Texas billionaire who has given money to John McCain and other Republicans and who was also one of the main funders of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which went after Kerry.
Obama's "campaign has warned TV station managers not to run the ad and has asked the US Department of Justice to intervene. The Obama camp argued that the organization, the American Issues Project, is violating the law. Fox News and CNN have declined to air the anti-Obama ad, the AP says. But by Monday afternoon, the ad had run about 150 times in local markets in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia and Michigan, according to TNS Media Intelligence/Campaign Media Analysis Group, an ad tracking firm."
From NBC's Lauren Appelbaum McCain and linking him to President Bush .
Pennsylvania on the attack Clinton won Pennsylvania during the primaries and Gov. Ed Rendell enthusiastically supported the New York senator, both Rendell and Sen. Bob Casey took a lead in attacks with forceful language. Rendell went after the lobbyists working for McCain's campaign. as mentioned earlier , called McCain Bush's sidekick. "The people of Pennsylvania can't afford four more years of Bush-Cheney economics, and you know what -- with John McCain, that's exactly what we'd get. John McCain calls himself a maverick, but he votes with George Bush over 90 percent of the time. That's not a maverick. That's a sidekick."
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann DENVER, Colo. -- On the night of a powerful message of unity delivered by a resolute Hillary
Clinton , you'd think that the New York senator's former staff members would be uplifted, inspired, and energized.
Not so much.
"Where's the nearest river I can throw myself in?" asked one forlorn former aide exiting the Pepsi Center.
"I might cry," said another.
"Let's drink."
Former staffers agreed that Hillary Clinton's speech was on-point, effective and exquisitely delivered. But their frustration over her endorsement of Obama, rather than the nominating speech for which they long worked in vain, was palpable.
Some said they might not attend
Obama's Invesco Field speech on Thursday at all.
From NBC's Mark Hudspeth Obama campaign adviser Robert Gibbs said in a statement to the traveling press corps: "After leaving the house party, Sen. Obama called and talked for several minutes with Sen. Hillary Clinton , saying how grateful he was for her support, that she gave a terrific speech, and that all those he watched with in Billings, MT were moved by her video and introduction from Chelsea . Also said he loved her line 'No way, no how, no McCain.'"
"Sen. Obama also called and spoke with President Bill Clinton for several minutes, saying Sen. Clinton could not have been better and made the case for change. Obama said he knew how proud he must have been watching as he was last night watching Michelle speak and how grateful he was for their support."
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro Richardson took a bit of a swipe at Bill Clinton after Hillary Clinton's rousing speech.
She was "sending a signal to her supporters -- and maybe her husband -- that they should go all out for Barack Obama," Richardson told NBC's David Gregory from the convention floor.
There was friction between Clinton and Richardson during the primary season after Richardson, who served in the Clinton cabinet, came out in support of Obama. Richardson even watched the Super Bowl with Bill Clinton -- as the former president was courting his support. When Richardson threw his support to Obama, former Clinton adviser James Carville went so far as to call the New Mexico governor, "Judas."
NBC News has confirmed that Hillary Clinton will be at Obama's Invesco speech. Bill Clinton's plans, however, remain unclear.
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro Clinton kicked off her much-anticipated speech here at the Democratic National Convention with a call for unity and some sharp words for John McCain .Obama ," Clinton began.
"I haven't spent the past 35 years in the trenches advocating for children, campaigning for universal health care, helping parents balance work and family, and fighting for women's rights at home and around the world . . . to see another Republican in the White House squander the promise of our country and the hopes of our people.
"No way. No how. No McCain.
"Barack Obama is my candidate. And he must be our President."
*** UPDATE ***
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Abigail Williams
Never failing to provide a good show, Dennis Kucinch did not disappoint tonight. He gave what may be the most lively performance yet at this year's Democratic National Convention.
Dedicating his speech to Stephanie Tubbs Jones , Kucinich started with a heavy attack on the current administration that only became more blunt as the speech continued.
"Tens of billions of dollars in cash and weapons disappeared into thin air at the cost of the lives of our troops and innocent Iraqis while all of the president's oil men are maneuvering to grab Iraq's oil."
Lines like, "money to start a hot war with Iran, now we have another cold war with Russia," left far more of the audience in laughter than serious contemplation, but that did not stop Kucinich from continuing his rampage.
CONTINUED >>
From MSNBC.com's Tom Curry Carper of Delaware was settled in a banquette, receiving friends and allies late Tuesday afternoon. The place was jammed with Democratic financiers and friends of the party, the same people you see at every Democratic convention every four years.
The new era may give you “change you can believe in,” but one thing that is not likely to change is the power of the trial lawyers within the Democratic Party.
The American Association of Trial Lawyers of America -- rechristened as the American Association for Justice -- had a very well-attended reception Tuesday evening downstairs at the Monaco.
In our 10 minutes mingling with guests, we spotted eight House members, including Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers and Judiciary Committee members Betty Sutton , Steve Cohen and Adam Schiff .
We also saw three senators, Ron Wyden of Oregon, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Sherrod Brown of Ohio, as well as former New Hampshire governor and current Senate candidate Jeanne Shaheen , and Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland.
We asked one Democratic House member from Connecticut, who was in attendance but asked to not be quoted by name, whether he would be flying to the Twin Cities to represent the Democrats at the Republican convention.
“No,” he laughed, “Connecticut will already be well represented there!” That led to a spirited debate on sidewalk outside the Monaco the question of whether John McCain really would pick Joe Lieberman as his running mate. Consensus: no, he just couldn’t.
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro and Mark Murray Casey went right after John McCain and unveiled a new line of attack, sure to be repated -- and already used by keynoter Mark Warner .
"Four more months" may become a new mantra in Campaign '08 for the Democrats.
"The people of Pennsylvania can't afford four more years of Bush -Cheney economics, and with John McCain, that's exactly what we'd get," Casey said. "John McCain calls himself a maverick, but he votes with George Bush 90 percent of the time. That's not a maverick. That's a sidekick."
And later: "The Bush-McCain Republicans inherited the strongest economy in history and drove it into a ditch. They cut taxes on the wealthiest of us and passed on the pain to the least of us. They ran up the debt, gave huge subsidies to big oil companies, and now they're asking for four more years. How 'bout four more months? We can't afford four more years of deficit and debt, drift and desperation. Not four more years. Four more months."
CONTINUED >>
Per NBC/NJ's Athena Jones BILLINGS, Mont. -- Obama will watch Hillary Clinton's convention speech with a local family here, the campaign said.
He watched keynoter Mark Warner's speech from his hotel.
Obama last night watched wife Michelle's speech with a family in Kansas City, Mo. Might we see another cameo?
From NBC's Savannah Guthrie DENVER --
Live from the floor... Spotted: Patti Solis Doyle and Howard Wolfson exchanging enthusiastic waves across the floor. Guess no heard feelings...
From MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski Obama campaign Chief Strategist David Axelrod insisted in a brief phone interview with NBC News that all this talk of friction with Clintons is "B.S."
He says the Clintons have been completely open and on board with full support for Obama. Hillary Clinton is giving the campaign full access to what she plans to say, Axelrod said, adding that they will not be surprised by her speech.
Asked if Bill Clinton's is showing them his speech as well, Axelrod said it's not written yet.
Asked if they were worried that there was not more of a gap in the polls, he said he does not care about the Daily Gallup Tracking poll -- that have their own data and are happy with what they see.
From NBC's Pete Williams
"These were hateful, bigoted threats but made by meth heads, abusers, all of whom were impaired at the time and cannot be corroborated," said U.S. Attorney Troy Eid. There's a difference, he said, "between a true threat and the racist rantings of drug abusers."
Court documents say the first report of a threat came from a girlfriend of one of the men who attended a meth party in a Denver hotel room, the Hyatt Regency Tech Center. One of the men told her (erroneously) that "Obama had a suite on the third floor of the hotel."
One person present talked about trying to hide a gun in a camera. There were references to a "grassy knoll." And while one of them has admitted to investigators that he made threatening statements about Obama in the past, investigators are not certain that the effects of the meth the men were taking had even yet fully worn off.
Investigators also say they have found no evidence of any plot -- no maps, no documents, no lists. One official says a laptop computer was found in a search belonging to one of the men, but it contained no such evidence, either.
For now, prosecutors say they're "keeping an open mind" about the case but have yet to find any credible evidence of a threat.
From NBC's Cherelle Kantey Obama and Clinton supporters, the Republican National Committee held a "Happy Hour for Hillary,"
About 75 people floated in and out of the hip Paramount Café here to share drinks and trade viewpoints. The mostly female crowd of Hillary supporters flanked in Hillary buttons and “Nobama” stickers were willing to share their woes with all who would listen.
“We worked hard together,” said Kathy Archuleta, who recalled making numerous phone calls as a volunteer and loaning the campaign money. “It couldn’t have been very easy for her to just drop it.”
Wearing a brown T-shirt with "Hillary" written across it in blue, Archuleta said she was outraged that Sen. Clinton’s historic run for the presidency ended in heartbreak. “Women are realizing we’re not being recognized. We’re being treated like second-class citizens.”
Among the crowd of middle-aged women stood Wayne Singleton, an African-American male, who said he can’t throw his support behind Sen. Obama because of flaws in the nominating system. Singleton, an organizer for People of Color PUMAS, said that since Obama didn’t win the popular vote during the primary season, he is prepared to protest the DNC’s decision by voting for John McCain . (Actually, Obama won the popular vote by almost every metric, except for the one that counted Hillary Clinton's vote in Michigan, where Obama wasn't on the ballot.)
CONTINUED >>
From MSNBC.com's Lauren Vicary Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama ran into each other backstage at the Emily's list event this afternoon.
Chelsea was with Hillary, and the three of them chatted for about five minutes until HRC was pulled away to give her speech.
From NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann DENVER, CO -- Anna Burger is on her fourth draft in six days.
Burger, the secretary-general of the influential Service Employees International Union, is scheduled to make a primetime address tonight in front of an audience of thousands at the Democratic National Convention. She's had a week to prepare her remarks, which will focus on the efforts of labor groups like SEIU to ease the economic strain of working families.
It's a lot to fit in to the three minutes allotted for the speech, she admits. "But I think I've got it down."
Writing a successful convention speech is hardly a walk in the rhetorical park. The delegates on the floor can be antsy, noisy, and inattentive. (Those funny hats and Sly and the Family Stone dance party intermissions hardly make for spellbound audiences.). And delegates are sure to be particularly chatty tonight during the run-up to Hillary Clinton's much-awaited remarks to supporters still not sold on Obama .
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro Clinton supporters who are not exactly happy with Obama -- they're the loudest and most colorful.
One such individual, who could certainly be described as a PUMA, was unabashed in her criticism of the presumptive Democratic nominee.
Jeamour Matthew, who apparently has a blog profile here , shouted blatant falsehoods from a 16th St. sidewalk about Obama's youth and policies, threw out inflammatory language like “racist,” “liar” and “cheater” to describe the Illinois senator and handed out bright, yellow flyers promoting Hillary Clinton. She described herself as an ardent Clinton supporter and volunteer and said she would never vote for Obama. She would rather vote for McCain , “a real American,” she said.
But this sentiment isn't exactly overwhelming, however. Most ignored the woman and some even politely attempted to engage her in a policy debate and correct her “facts” -- unsuccessfully -- before walking away.
“I'm very pragmatic about this process,” said Misha Houser, a Clinton pledged delegate from California. “Internal fighting doesn't do us any good.”
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli Biden surprised a crowd here as he joined Michelle Obama and female governors for a roundtable discussion of women’s issues. Amid continued chatter that former Hillary Clinton supporters are not fully on board with the Democratic ticket, the Delaware senator made a direct pitch to a mostly female audience.
“You know, I know my role,” Biden joked as he looked around the stage full of women. “I have been surrounded my whole life by very strong, strong women. … I mean this sincerely: I think you can tell the comfort a man has with women and whether or not he gets it or not by the women, if the women around him are strong.”
Relating to some of the stories of the women invited to join the discussion, Biden noted that for a time he was a single parent. And later, after panelists recounted personal battles that involved health care, education and the economy, Biden challenged Republicans to show how they could call themselves a party of values.
“What is the greater obligation of the country -- to give some very, very wealthy people who are good people an additional hundred billion dollars in tax cuts, or provide healthcare for every American, solve every story you've heard up here?” he asked. “I really think you've got to let this sink in, Democrats. This is not something that's beyond our reach. It's all about what your priorities are.”
Michelle Obama introduced Biden by calling him a “man who knows firsthand how hard it can be to balance work and family.” She also said he led Congress in the fight against domestic violence, and has always been “fighting for us.”
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy and NBC's Mark Murray PHOENIX, AZ -- Speaking before the American Legion National Convention here today, McCain said that it fell upon him to officially welcome the 89-year-old group to his home state.
“Our governor is out of town, up in Denver for some big party they're throwing there,” McCain said, jokingly referring to the Democrat’s convention. “I guess my invitation got lost in the mail.”
Although the group will hear a video from Obama tomorrow, McCain used his speech today to criticize his opponent’s stance on America’s role as a superpower. Referring to Obama’s speech in Berlin, McCain said that he had a “chance to express such confidence in America” -- but passed it up.
“He was the picture of confidence, but in some ways the confidence in one's self and confidence in one's country are not the same,” McCain said.
In fact, in that Berlin speech, Obama expressed plenty of confidence in America. "I also know how much I love America," the Illinois senator said that day. "I know that for more than two centuries, we have strived -- at great cost and great sacrifice -- to form a more perfect union; to seek, with other nations, a more hopeful world... What has always united us -- what has always driven our people; what drew my father to America’s shores -- is a set of ideals that speak to aspirations shared by all people: that we can live free from fear and free from want; that we can speak our minds and assemble with whomever we choose and worship as we please."
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones Obama continued to polish his anti-McCain argument here, boiling it down to one simple idea.
"I don't think he realizes what ordinary American families are going through," he said at a town hall at a town hall of about 250 airplane maintenance workers and party activists. "I don't think the Bush Administration understands what ordinary Americans are going through, but I do and that's why I'm running for president of the United States of America."
The event, at a maintenance facility for American Airlines that has lost jobs in recent years, was focused on Obama's plans for the economy and energy. The senator opened by praising his wife Michelle's Monday night convention speech before going on to talk about the challenges families are facing with rising fuel prices and home foreclosures and declining home values.
In Michelle's address last night, as well as in recent remarks by Obama and running mate Joe Biden , the campaign has increasingly sought to portray the first-term senator as a man of the people who will be a fighter for hard-working families and listen to their voices -- an argument that is likely to be part of his acceptance speech on Thursday.
"Who is gonna be listening to you? Who has been for the last 20 years standing side by side with you? Making sure that unions can organize, making sure that people who don't have health insurance are getting health insurance, making sure that kids can go to college who couldn't go before?," Obama asked. "Who has a track record of fighting for you? 'Cause that's what you need -- you need somebody who every single day gets it."
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli Joe Biden told members of his home-state delegation this morning the honor of being tapped as the vice presidential nominee “pales in comparison” to the feelings he has for the people of Delaware.
Biden noted that most of his life has been lived in the public arena, since “y’all got me started so young,” and thanked the small contingent of delegates for helping him and his family through tragedy.
“I wish we could have done this in private, because you know, I don’t know whether I would have made it through a lot of the tough times in my life without you guys,” he said. “You’re a big deal. The Democratic Party’s been my home. The Delaware Democratic Party has been my family.”
In brief remarks, Biden also joked that the only reason he accepted the VP nod was “so the Delaware delegation could be moved up front.” He said he’s used to operating as a “one-man band,” but that he was happy to be part of a team, praising the Obamas for the welcome they’ve felt. In particular, Biden said that Michelle Obama’s speech last night would be remembered years from now as a turning point in the campaign.
“Not Barack Obama , not Joe Biden, not Ted Kennedy , but Michelle Obama's speech,” he said. “She gave a window to the American people into who she is and what she is and what really goes through her brain. And it was absolutely just incredible and I promise you, it's real.”
From NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann
Tonight, Clinton happened to be referring to a reception for a women's organization called "Count Me In for Women's Economic Independence," a group that grants support to female-owned microbusinesses.
But the irony was not lost on the senator from New York.
Noting her banter earlier in the day with a colleague who asked about her plans for the first night of the convention, Clinton said that she replied, "I'm going to count me in!"
Per Clinton's story, the friend replied incredulously, "Are you talking about the roll call?"
The joke, which wasn't followed up with a particularly vehement denial from the smiling senator, was met with cheers and giggles from the crowd of several hundred -- mostly women -- who clamored for a glimpse of Clinton at the nighttime event at the Denver Art Museum.
(Yet as the AP reported last night, the Clinton and Obama camps have agreed to limit the roll call vote. "The deal would allow some states to cast votes for both Obama and Clinton before ending the roll call in acclamation for the Illinois senator. Clinton herself may cut off the vote and recommend unanimous nomination of Obama, according to Democratic officials involved in the negotiations.")
Despite the reference to the possible lingering intraparty tensions signaled by the Clinton upcoming roll call vote, the former presidential candidate offered up words of praise both for both a newly-minted political rival and for the wife of one-time opponent Barack Obama. Clinton lauded Obama endorser Senator Ted Kennedy's "fighting spirit" after his surprise appearance at the DNC despite a dehabilitating brain tumor. "And didn't Michelle Obama do a wonderful job tonight as well?" she added.
Without mentioning the name of her former rival and his new vice presidential pick, Clinton also noted the support that the Democratic ticket would have for programs like "Count Me In."
"It's very exciting that we have a chance to elect a president and a vice president who will help us make the dreams of so many Americans come true again," she said.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Mike Levine Michelle Obama popped up at an Irish pub in downtown Denver. Some 200 convention-goers, media folks, and political heavyweights were mingling outside Fado Irish Pub, waiting for the famed Second City comedy clan to perform as part of a "Chicago Night in Denver," hosted by Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel and Sen. Dick Durbin . But Michelle Obama stole the show before Second City even got on stage. The crowd roared with applause when Emanuel and Durbin introduced the special guest.
Reflecting on her speech just hours before, Michelle told the crowd, "This was a great night, not only for the Obama campaign, but for our nation." She added, "Barack and I are going to work hard to make you proud... He is more than ready to be commander-in-chief." But, she told the crowd, "We have to do our part. We need to register voters." She promised that the campaign would push hard in Ohio, Iowa, Minnesota, and other swing states, saying that "when people know who Barack Obama is ... when they know what our family stands for" they'll support him. After only a few minutes on stage, she thanked the crowd and left the party.
The Second City comedians were up next, but Michelle Obama was a hard act to follow. Their half-hour set took aim at a wide swath of targets (the GOP Convention in Minneapolis, site of Larry Craig's dalliance with a police officer, bloggers, immigration opponents, John McCain's Iraq policy, Al Gore ), but the set fell flat with most of the crowd, which talked right through it.
CONTINUED >>
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro
*** Up-Hil night: The Washington Post's Cocco may have nailed tonight better than anyone today: Hillary can't win. She may not be able to find her Goldilocks moment and strike a "just right" balance tonight of both advancing her own political future and proving that she really does want Obama to win and that she really does believe Obama can be president. Everything in Clinton's speech will be parsed, and not just the words, but her body language. The good news for her, the expectations are very low in this sense. No one expects her to be able to pull this off convincingly. Of course, this isn't the only Clinton night and one wonders given all the Bill drama that's bubbled up over the last 24 hours (particularly over the content of his speech), why Obama chose to give the Clintons two convention nights. Shouldn't Obama have gotten all of this Clinton stuff out of the way tonight? By the way, there is another speech on the docket tonight that is technically labeled the "keynote." Mark Warner, a candidate for US Senate in the swing state of Virginia, has the unenviable task of speaking not just on Hillary night but also having to follow Barack Obama in a sense since Obama was the LAST keynote speaker. In an interview on MSNBC, Warner seemed to hint that his speech would be more in line with Obama's (at least in tone) than, say, an Ann Richards from 1988.
*** McCain survives night one: As we've noted before, Obama has three goals at this convention: 1) making contrasts with McCain, 2) filling in his biography, and 3) uniting the party. Last night, the convention attempted to begin dealing with all three issues. Early in the evening, viewers were treated to a taste of some anti-McCain speeches; of course, only C-SPAN viewers may have received the full impact of those diatribes. As for the other two goals, between Kennedy and Michelle, the campaign can claim it made progress on unity (don't the Clinton-Obama rifts seem petty after seeing Teddy?) and on biography (Michelle O. was as pitch perfect as she can be in presenting her story, but if there's one critique of her speech is that it was more about her than Barack, but maybe that was the point.) As for the attempts to contrast with McCain, the GOP campaign and other strategists we've communicated with believe McCain went a lot more unscathed than, say, Obama will be after Night One of the Republican convention. Then again, with Michelle as the marquee speaker, the Dems were never going to go guns blazing the first night. Expect that tonight (which is focused on the economy) and tomorrow (foreign affairs).
*** Stoking the flames: The McCain camp has done an excellent job stoking the Clinton-Obama feud narrative. This morning, the camp is releasing another ad that is supposedly airing in "key states" (translation: maybe it gets a rotation on the noon news today in Denver). Regardless, the aggressiveness the McCain camp is showing against Obama during his convention week is notable. And speaking of the McCain camp, remember when one-time Bush media guru and McCain champion Mark McKinnon decided to step away from the '08 campaign once it became clear Obama would be the Dem nominee? Well, he's back -- sort of. Per NBC's Kelly O'Donnell, McKinnon's helping Cindy McCain with her convention week prep, including a family video. When pressed, the campaign acknowledged that while McKinnon is largely on the strategic sidelines, he does provide occasional advice on the campaign ad efforts.
*** Today’s convention schedule: Tuesday’s convention theme is Renewing America’s Promise, and it has a focus on the economy and energy. Hillary Clinton gives the primetime speech, and former Virginia Gov. (and current Senate candidate) Mark Warner delivers the keynote address. Check out some of the additional speakers, a slew of folks who aren't afraid of showing off their sharp tongues (yes, Rahm and Eddie, we mean you): Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, Rep. Rahm Emanuel, Rep. Steny Hoyer, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, former Energy and Transportation Secretary Federico Pena, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey Jr., Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, and Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer.
*** The RNC’s response: Mitt Romney and Reps. Eric Cantor, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, and Marsha Blackburn hold a press conference at the RNC’s Denver headquarters at 3:15 pm ET to counter Obama on the economy.
*** Also in Denver: Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, and Michelle Obama attend an Emily’s List gala at 4:300 pm ET… Pelosi and Reps. Steny Hoyer, James Clyburn, and Rahm Emanuel talk energy independence at Union Station at 1:00 pm ET… Bill Richardson discusses the Hispanic vote at the Colorado Convention Center at 4:30 pm ET
*** On the trail: McCain begins his day in Phoenix, where he addresses the American Legion and raises money. After that, he heads to a fundraiser in San Diego with the actor Jon Voight. Obama, meanwhile, campaigns in Kansas City, MO. Click here to sign up for First Read emails.
With Hillary Clinton giving tonight’s primetime speech, today’s coverage is dominated by Clinton-Obama rift stories. The Los Angeles Times : "The big question of the presidential election, says L. Douglas Wilder, the nation's first elected black governor, is not whether America is ready for a black president. Rather, he asks, ‘Are the Clintons ready?’
More: "Instead, in interviews with delegates and aides to the rival camps, it was clear Monday that tensions have only swelled since the heat of a primary competition fraught with racial, gender and generational differences. Obama backers are frustrated that the Clintons do not seem willing to let go of their 16-year dominance of the Democratic Party, while Clinton aides complained privately that the young presumed nominee is not paying them proper respect -- a tension heightened by the revelation that Obama never seriously considered his rival as a running mate."
But the Washington Post’s Ann Kornblut writes that Clinton knew she wasn’t being seriously considered for the No.2 slot. “In a private meeting with Sen. Barack Obama after she conceded the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton made a request: that he consider her for his vice presidential running mate, but not put her through the charade of being vetted if he was not serious. Obama told Clinton then it was unlikely he would choose her, people familiar with the conversation said. Obama did not want to lead her on and, after campaigning against her for more than a year, already had a sense that their pairing would not be the right fit.”
The New York Times’ Healy compares the struggles facing the Kennedy family (personal) vs. the Clinton family (political). "As one political dynasty was celebrating its legacy and ceding the political stage on Monday night, the other dominant family of the Democratic Party was struggling to protect its legacy and accept its own exit from the spotlight. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bill Clinton had once hoped this convention would be theirs, an exultation of past and future Clinton White Houses. Instead, they were coming face to face with shrunken, supporting roles."
CONTINUED >>
The New York Times : “Senator Edward M. Kennedy, struggling with brain cancer, arrived on Monday night at the Democratic National Convention in a triumphant appearance that evoked 50 years of party history as Democrats gathered to nominate Senator Barack Obama for president. Mr. Kennedy’s appearance wiped away, at least for the evening, some of the tension that continued to plague the party in the wake of the primary fight between Mr. Obama and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. It also represented an effort by the Obama campaign to claim the Kennedy mantle, and it set the stage for the second part of what was designed to be an emotionally powerful two-act evening: an appearance later by Michelle Obama, who began a weeklong effort to present her husband - and his entire family - as embodiments of the American dream.”
The Washington Post : After an emotional speech by an ailing Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the face of the Democratic Party shifted on Monday night to a new generation of leaders, as Michelle Obama opened the Democratic National Convention with a tribute to her husband and a call to the country to listen ‘to our hopes instead of our fears,’ and ‘to stop doubting and to start dreaming.’”
USA Today has more on Michelle’s speech: “Michelle Obama, whose husband calls her ‘the star’ of their family, introduced herself Monday to the Democratic convention in a heartfelt speech invoking the dreams of her father and the hopes of her husband for the nation. ‘Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you're going to do,’ Obama said. ‘You treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don't know them, and even if you don't agree with them.”
The Los Angeles Times' Z. Barabak : "For all of the upbeat talk, tensions continued to stir between supporters of the Illinois senator and Hillary Rodham Clinton, threatening the unity that Democrats desperately seek as they face a rugged fight against Republican John McCain. None of that friction was visible, however, during the official program beamed worldwide from the star-spangled inside of Denver's Pepsi Center sports arena. The agenda was clear and two-pronged: Build an image of Obama as an everyman and start ripping McCain apart."
Ted Kennedy and Michelle Obama are six columns wide on the Boston Globe's cover . Headline: "Democrats share their dreams."
CONTINUED >>
There hasn't been much of a problem with protestors, but last night there was some violence . "Police in riot gear clashed last night with about 300 protesters about a mile from the site of the Democratic National Convention, and some of the demonstrators were hit with pepper spray." In fact, one of us spoke briefly with one bloodied and bruised teenager on the streets, and he was proud of his wounds -- almost a Fight Club mentality. He wasn't even sure what his cause was, and was seemingly still looking for a fight.
Also in Denver, "Federal authorities are looking into reports that a man arrested with rifles, ammunition, and drugs in his truck may have made threats against Barack Obama, officials said yesterday."
"More details emerging from Denver as we write this in the predawn hours on the now suspected plot to assassinate Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama with a high-powered rifle on national television during his outdoor acceptance speech at Invesco Field Thursday night," the LA Times reports. "Authorities have reported a fourth arrest in the unfolding plot that The Ticket first wrote about here a few hours ago at the end of Monday night's Democratic National Convention events at the Pepsi Center."
Police pulled over a pickup truck for swerving, "But in the rented vehicle of Tharin Gartrell, a 28-year-old convicted felon (see photo), they found two high-powered scoped rifles, ammunition, sighting scopes, radios, a cellphone, a bulletproof vest, wigs, drugs and fake IDs. According to Brian Masss of Denver's KCNC Channel 4, under questioning Gartrell implicated two other men -- Nathan Johnson, who is 32, and Shawn Adolph, who is 33 -- and Johnson's girlfriend, Natasha Gromack. Johnson also reportedly confirmed the plot to FBI and Secret Service interrogators."
According to a new round of Quinnipiac polls, McCain is up by four points in Florida (47%-43%) after trailing in the state last month; Obama is up one in Ohio (44%-43%); and Obama is up seven points in Pennsylvania (49%-42%). These surveys were conducted from August 17-24 - before the start of the Democratic convention.
Per NBC/NJ’s Adam Aigner-Treworgy, McCain said this on Leno last night in response to the flap over how many homes he and Cindy own. “You know, could I just mention to you, Jay, and a moment of seriousness. I spent five and a half years in a prison cell, without-I didn’t have a house, I didn’t have a kitchen table, I didn’t have a table, I didn’t have a chair. And I spent those five and a half years, because-not because I wanted to get a house when I got out. And you know, I’m very proud of Cindy’s father, he was a guy that barely got out of high school, fought in World War II in the Army Air Corps, came home and made a business and made the American dream.”
Also yesterday, McCain accepted the endorsement of Puerto Rican rapper "Daddy Yankee," the Los Angeles Times reports. "McCain built up the suspense by withholding the guest's name at first, but then gave it away, saying, 'One of his most famous songs, I know you're very familiar with: 'Gasolina' ' -- drawing gasps of surprise from the crowd -- and then finally said, 'Well, here he is, Daddy Yankee.' Though McCain has sometimes shown surprising familiarity with rap stars and pop culture references because of the musical tastes of his daughters, it is unlikely that the conservative Republican would have made a point of mentioning the song had he known that the 'Gasolina' lyrics are loaded with sexual references. Although there's some debate about what the word 'gasolina' means in this context, one thing is certain: It's not a petroleum product." And it has nothing to do with off-shore drilling.
NBC's Kelly O'Donnell reports on the return of Mark McKinnon to the McCain fold (at least for McCain week). He's helping Cindy McCain with her convention speech, which will occur on the third night of the convention. "Finishing touches" on the speech have been in the works for a couple of weeks. McKinnon describes Cindy McCain as "the best asset (for the campaign) I knew the least about."
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones Obama kept it short tonight, laying out her husband’s goals for the future while speaking personally and sometimes emotionally about her parents, her daughters, and her relationship with the man who hopes to become the next president. As she talked about the working class the parents who made it possible for her to go to college and law school and the future she wanted for her children, the subtle undercurrent was a message that her family was like other ordinary American families, with shared values and shared hopes.
She tied her story and her husband’s story to the American story and to highlight the importance of hard work -- a word she sprinkled throughout her 20-minute speech -- all part of an effort to introduce Barack Obama, still a relative newcomer to the national stage, to people who are not familiar with him or who may doubt his ability to relate to their concerns.
“What struck me when I first met Barack was that even though he had this funny name and even though he'd grown up all the way across the continent in Hawaii, his family was so much like mine,” she said. “He was raised by grandparents who were working class folks just like my parents, and by a single mother who struggled to pay the bills just like we did. And like my family, they scrimped and saved so that he could have opportunities they never had themselves.”
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy McCain taped an interview with Jay Leno this afternoon, which will air later this evening on The Tonight Show. Per a conference call provided for members of the press to listen in on the interview, McCain told a couple of new jokes, and had some very kind words for Hillary Clinton -- although nothing too new.
In an apparent reference to a joke that Leno made in the monologue, McCain came out and thanked the host for mentioning his “heroism” in saving Washington.
“A lot of people think I shouldn’t have, in fact a lot of people,” McCain said. “Also, you forgot to mention when I warned the people about the British coming.”
The two spoke briefly about McCain’s birthday this week and the number of jokes made about McCain’s age. “We were gonna have a cake, but the fire marshal said, that many candles!” Leno said.
“I’ve got one,” McCain joked. “My Social Security number is eight.”
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Bill Hatfield DENVER -- If Obama wins this November, he may want to send thank-you cards to the nation's Democratic governors for laying the groundwork for his victory.
That, at least, was today's message from the top three members of the Democratic Governors Association -- West Virginia's Joe Manchin , Montana's Brian Schweitzer , and Maryland's Martin O'Malley . The governors met with reporters today to offer bullish assessments of Democratic governors' races in 2008, as well as in 2010. But they spent much of the news conference arguing that they helped paved the way for Obama, linking their styles of bipartisan, problem-solving governance to Illinois Democrat's prospects in November.
Manchin, the DGA chair, tied the Democratic governors' expanded ranks since 2000 to Obama's strong performance in reliably Republican states. "Who would have thought in 2004 or 2000 that a Democrat would be competitive in Montana ... or Colorado?" Manchin observed. Schweitzer agreed, declaring that governors can move elections. "If Ted Strickland had been governor of Ohio four years ago, George Bush wouldn't be president of the United States right now."
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Mark Murray Obama campaign has released the excerpts of Michelle Obama's speech tonight.
"But each of us also comes here tonight by way of our own improbable journey. I come here tonight as a sister, blessed with a brother who is my mentor, my protector and my lifelong friend. I come here as a wife who loves my husband and believes he will be an extraordinary president. I come here as a Mom whose girls are the heart of my heart and the center of my world - they're the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning, and the last thing I think about when I go to bed at night. Their future - and all our children's future - is my stake in this election.
"And I come here as a daughter - raised on the South Side of Chicago by a father who was a blue collar city worker, and a mother who stayed at home with my brother and me. My mother's love has always been a sustaining force for our family, and one of my greatest joys is seeing her integrity, her compassion, and her intelligence reflected in my own daughters."
More: "And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you're going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don't know them, and even if you don't agree with them."
"And in the end, after all that's happened these past 19 months, the Barack Obama I know today is the same man I fell in love with 19 years ago. He's the same man who drove me and our new baby daughter home from the hospital ten years ago this summer, inching along at a snail's pace, peering anxiously at us in the rearview mirror, feeling the whole weight of her future in his hands, determined to give her everything he'd struggled so hard for himself, determined to give her what he never had: the affirming embrace of a father's love."
From NBC's Mark Murray
On the reporters in the room: "It is very difficult to fake what you do."
On which candidate would be the better source of laughs for the next four to eight years: "Mr. T."
And on which candidate is funnier: "Neither," he answered. "You know who makes me laugh? Chris Rock. But I don't want him as president."
Yet not everything was a joking matter for Stewart, whose Daily Show is here covering the Democratic convention and will report on the GOP one in Minnesota next week.
In his roundtable with reporters, he criticized the way the presidential race has been covered, especially on 24-hour cable news. He said cable had dumbed-down politics, comparing it to gerbils racing on a wheel. He even drew upon the Steinbeck story "Of Mice and Men" to emphasize that point.
"'Hey, Lenny, why don't you be the leader?'"
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones DAVENPORT, Iowa -- As the Democratic convention kicked off in Denver on Monday, Barack Obama told a group of undecided voters that he and Joe Biden understood the problems of ordinary Americans.
It’s an argument that we can expect to see more of this week and in the closing months of the election, as the pair try to show they will do more to help hard-working and middle-class families than will John McCain . Today's event with about 250 people was billed as a “One Nation” town hall -- the same theme of opening night in Denver tonight.
Obama talked about Biden’s foreign policy expertise and his work on the 1994 crime bill, but said the most important thing about him was that he never forgot where he came from.
"He's from a working-class family, that he still takes the train back every night to Delaware to spend it with his family," he said. "Joe Biden understands what you're going through because he's gone through it."
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli Biden promised to "give them hell" as he made his first public appearance in the Mile High City.Obama's VP pick greeted a crowd outside of Boney’s Smokehouse in Writer’s Square, fielding words of encouragement from Obama supporters but also questions about who he was from surprised local residents.
As he continued working the crowd, another woman said, “Go get ’em, Joseph.”
He replied, “We’re going to give them the devil!”
As staff tried to control a growing crowd and aggressive members of the press, Biden calmly worked his way to the small hut to get a pulled pork sandwich. One reporter asked Biden if he was surprised that Obama picked him.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Katie Primm There are hundreds of DC insiders wandering the streets of Denver today before attending the first night of the convention -- senators, governors, delegates, and even Abe Lincoln. Well, a Lincoln impersonator with a full beard and stovepipe hat to complete the costume.
Streets of swag
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Katie Primm
Colorado, the host state, and Illinois, home of Barack Obama , are front and center on the floor -- best seats in the house.
For the rest of the open floor seats, any number of factors could come into play. A strong Democratic state, New York, has a place on the floor; it can't hurt to placate some Hillary Clinton supporters as well.
A battleground state, Ohio, also has a floor position. Perhaps trying to win over disgruntled primary voters (see the reinstatement of their full delegate votes), some of whom never saw the candidates during the five-month primary season, Florida and Michigan also have coveted spots.
During set up in the Pepsi Center on Friday and Saturday, the Delaware delegation was more than a dozen rows back in the stands, off the floor and all the way to the side. Yesterday Delaware moved up front next to Illinois in honor of VP pick, Sen. Joe Biden , who is expected to be in attendance at the convention before his speech on Wednesday night.
And who took Delaware's original place up and in the corner? Delegates from American Samoa (no electoral votes) and, perennial small-state competitor, Rhode Island (four electoral votes).
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
She unequivocally said she is behind Barack Obama and urged her home-state delegation to wholeheartedly do the same.
She also made it a point to respond to the Republican National Committee using her own primary words against her in TV ads. not approve that message," she said to big applause and a standing ovation at her home-state's delegation breakfast meeting.
"Make no mistake. We are united. We are united for change. Of course, we are Democrats, so it may take -- a while. We're not the fall-in line party. We are diverse...many voices, but make no mistake we are united."
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy McCain made a push for the youth vote with an endorsement from Puerto Rican Reggaeton star Daddy Yankee, whose real name is Ramon Ayala. The campaign called a "press conference" in the Central High School library where Yankee -- who McCain called Ramon -- announced his support for McCain.
"I'm here endorsing Sen. McCain because I believe in his ideas and his proposal to lead this nation," he said, as high school girls swooned on a riser behind him. "And like I said before, he's been a fighter for the Hispanic community and I know that me personally, I choose him as the best candidate because he's a fighter for the immigration issue. So for me he's the best guy to lead this nation."
Yankee is most famous for his song "Gasolina," which translates to "gasoline" -- but has nothing to do with offshore drilling or McCain's energy policy mantra "drill here, drill now."
A rough translation of the song's chorus, "A ella le gusta la gasoline -- dame mas gasoline," shows that Yankee might be singing about a different kind of "gasoline" than McCain talks about on the stump. The singer proclaims, "My babe doesn't stop from hanging out because she likes gasoline," to which a female singer echoes, "give me more gasoline."
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann Michelle Obama was not planning on taking any questions. But during this morning's walkthrough in front of the podium where she will speak tonight, a few reporters sent the softballs sailing anyway.
"Michelle, do you have any words for the Swedish women?" asked a thickly accented Scandinavian voice from amidst the gaggle of reporters assembled to watch Mrs. Obama's practice run. "They really admire you!"
As handlers on the floor harshly whispered their reminders that Mrs. Obama would not be taking questions from the press gathered on the convention floor, the aspiring first lady seemed caught off guard. "Tell them thank you," she responded politely.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Mark Murray Hillary Clinton's tough words during the primaries that elevated McCain and diminished Obama by saying that all he brings to the table is an antiwar speech he gave in 2002.
Unlike the McCain camp ads on Hillary and that Hillary supporter now backing McCain, we know for sure this is a significant buy.
In response, Clinton gave these remarks today: “Every one of us could stand up and recite all the reasons why we must elect Barack. The Supreme Court is at stake; our educational system needs the right kind of change. We’ve got to become energy independent; we have to create millions of new green collar jobs. We’ve got so much work to do around the world."
"None of that will happen if John McCain is in the White House. I just want to make it absolutely clear we cannot afford four more years of George W. Bush’s failed policies in America and that’s what we would get with John McCain."
“Now I understand that the McCain campaign is running ads trying to divide us and let me state what I think about their tactics and these ads: I am Hillary Clinton and I do not approve that message."
Script of the RNC ad: ANNCR: Who has the experience to govern our nation?
From NBC's Mark Murray Obama campaign has a new TV ad mocking McCain for once saying that "economics is not something I've understood as well as I should."
Per the campaign, the ad will air on national cable and in battleground states beginning today.
Script: I'm not up on the economy
Of course, the McCain camp and RNC are running TV ads during Obama's convention. And once again, Obama's tax plan raises taxes only on families that make more than $250,000 a year, and it provides a bigger tax cut than McCain's does to those making less than that amount.
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro
*** Obama’s three challenges : The candidate has to do three things with this convention, which arguably might be one too many items on his agenda. One, he needs to fill in the gaps of his biography for the largest audience of voters who haven't yet tuned into the race. Two, he needs to take on McCain more forcefully; there's no doubt the Republicans will use their St. Paul airtime to go after Obama -- big time. Obama chief strategist David Axelrod has made it clear he thought Kerry made a mistake four years ago by ignoring Bush. And three, Obama needs to unify the party. All three agenda items are doable by themselves, but can all three be done in a four-day period? It's a big challenge.
*** What PUMA-on-the-Street interviews might not tell you : Speaking of that last challenge… With so many of Hillary Clinton’s most ardent supporters in Denver, is the political press corps here in danger of over-hyping Obama’s problem with Hillary backers? Yes, our most recent NBC/WSJ poll showed that Obama has yet to win some of them over, and that (in part) explains why he hasn’t pulled away from McCain. But a brand-new Washington Post/ABC poll also had Obama getting more Clinton support than he’s ever received since she dropped out of the race back in June. No doubt Obama still has some work to do, and he has two-plus months -- including this convention -- to make the sale. But the point we’re trying to make is that perhaps the Dem Party is more unified than PUMA-on-the-street interviews might suggest. Indeed, today’s New York Times/CBS poll of Dem convention delegates probably has it right: 60% of Hillary’s delegates enthusiastically support Obama, 31% support him with reservations or because he’s the nominee, and 5% don’t support him at all. But the Clinton folks will have an impact on the media narrative this week. In fact, they already they have -- see Ed Rendell at the media confab yesterday and today's Politico piece by Harris and Allen.
*** What to watch for tonight : Things could start off with a bang. Tonight’s primetime speaker is Michelle Obama, who will be tasked to sell her husband to the public. She was one of Obama’s best surrogates during the Dem primaries, but Republicans and even some Democrats believe she won’t sell with swing voters. So definitely pay attention to her remarks. Also on tap for tonight is a video tribute to Ted Kennedy, but NBC’s Ann Curry reported on TODAY that Kennedy is in Denver and might make an appearance at the convention. That could be a nice moment for the Democrats that has nothing to do with Obama or Clinton. Two other speakers to watch tonight: former GOP Rep. Jim Leach of Iowa and Sen. Claire McCaskill, who might have been the single-best surrogate Obama had during the primaries. By the way, where are the Olympians? Didn't the Dems find any Gold medalist to trot out?What if Obama loses? In the latest issue of Newsweek , Slate editor Jacob Weisberg raises a provocative point that’s likely to drive the conservative blogosphere bonkers: An Obama loss -- especially in this anti-GOP climate -- will reflect poorly on America, so he believes. “If Obama loses, our children will grow up thinking of equal opportunity as a myth,” he writes. “His defeat would say that when handed a perfect opportunity to put the worst part of our history behind us, we chose not to. In this event, the world's judgment will be severe and inescapable: the United States had its day, but in the end couldn't put its own self-interest ahead of its crazy irrationality over race.” We know this reflects what many in the opinion corps of the left are thinking, but it’s the exact WRONG message Democrats should send in campaigning for Obama. In fact, it's this line of thinking that has the McCain campaign believing the press is against them -- and that has rallied the establishment conservatives around McCain, even as they are holding their noses about the GOP nominee. To put it simply, people don’t want to be told that casting a vote for the other guy makes us bad. This is how Democrats blow elections, when they talk down to voters, and if the McCain campaign can tap into any resentment that builds over being told that history somehow demands the country elect Obama, we in the press will discover a new silent majority. Of course, McCain doesn't want to win this way, because if he only wins based on backlash, then he may have trouble governing.
*** Today’s convention schedule : Monday’s convention theme is “One Nation,” and it will include stories about Obama’s life. Some of the more notable speakers: Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former President Jimmy Carter (via video), Obama sister Maya Soetoro-Ng, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., former GOP Rep. Jim Leach, and Sen. Claire McCaskill. The primetime speaker in the 11:00 pm ET hour is Michelle Obama. Barack Obama himself will make a video appearance from Kansas City that’s tied to his wife’s speech.
*** The RNC’s response : Carly Fiorina, former Democratic Rep. Tim Penny, and former Wisconsin Hillary Clinton delegate Debra Bartoshevich hold a press conference at the RNC’s Denver headquarters to highlight McCain’s support among Democrats and independents. The presser takes place at noon ET. Bartoshevich, in fact, is featured in a brand-new McCain TV ad. See below for more on that.
*** Also in Denver: The Democratic state delegations hold their meetings beginning at 9:00 am ET… The Obama camp and the Dem convention hold a press briefing at the Colorado Convention Center at 11:15 am ET… The Democratic Governors Association has a media roundtable at the Colorado Convention Center at 1:00 pm ET… And Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar, and others hold a briefing at 4:00 pm ET on the West and what they consider McCain’s vulnerabilities in the region.
*** On the trail : McCain begins his day with a press conference in Phoenix, then heads to a fundraiser in Sacramento, and finally travels to Los Angeles to tape the Tonight Show and raise money. Obama holds a town hall in Davenport, IA. Click here to sign up for First Read emails .
The Obama campaign and convention officials held a briefing yesterday with NBC News to discuss the convention and what to expect. Some highlights:
Regarding that first point, the New York Times writes: “Mr. Obama’s aides said they had learned from what they described as the mistake of the 2004 Democratic convention - when aides to Senator John Kerry’s campaign sought to forbid convention speakers from going after President Bush - and would use their time to draw contrasts with Senator John McCain, particularly on the economy and his opposition to abortion rights. ‘The stakes of this election will be made very clear,’ said David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s chief strategist. ‘We are going to define the choice.’”
“At the same time, acknowledging persistent unease with Mr. Obama among a significant segment of voters, his aides said they would use speeches and presentations during the next four days, including having Al Gore introduce Mr. Obama for his acceptance speech Thursday night, to offer a fuller biography and a more detailed plan of what he would do as president.”
So how divided is the Democratic Party? Maybe not as much as you think, according to this New York Times/CBS poll . “More than half of the delegates that Mrs. Clinton won in the primaries now say they are enthusiastic supporters of Mr. Obama, and they also believe he will win the presidential election in November, the poll found. Three in 10 say they support Mr. Obama but have reservations about him or they support him only because he is the party’s nominee. Five percent say they do not support him yet.”
CONTINUED >>
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CA-8, Elected June 1987, 10th term)
Maya Soetoro-Ng (Obama's half-sister. They share a mother. Her father was Indonesian.)
Aboard her plane en route to Israel today, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had positive words for Obama’s new running mate, NBC’s Libby Leist reports. Despite his often-harsh criticism of the Bush Administration's foreign policy, Rice called Biden "a very fine statesman" and "a true patriot. "She said she would not comment on the "politics" of the selection, but told reporters: "I've known him for a long time. He's been a really very supportive committee chair and before that ranking chair for the State Department and for our diplomatic efforts."
Per the New York Times , the Obama camp has two tasks for Biden: to campaign in the Industrial Midwest and to whack McCain. “[C]ampaign advisers said Sunday that they were certain Mr. Biden would spend considerable time campaigning through Election Day in four swing states: Florida, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.” More: “A task for Mr. Biden, the advisers said, will be to doggedly portray the presumptive Republican nominee … as a handmaiden for President Bush who would continue his policies. In the words of one adviser, Mr. Biden can be an artful critic because he knows ‘chapter and verse’ about Mr. McCain’s Senate votes and controversial positions after serving with him for two decades.”
If you want proof as to why the Obama campaign thought waiting until the very last minute to name a VP, look no further than this other New York Times story about Biden's lobbyist son. Imagine how high up the media food chain this story would be if this weren't the first day of the convention? “During the years that … Biden was helping the credit card industry win passage of a law making it harder for consumers to file for bankruptcy protection, his son had a consulting agreement that lasted five years with one of the largest companies pushing for the changes, aides to Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign acknowledged Sunday… Campaign officials acknowledged that the connection between the Bidens and MBNA, the enormous financial services company then based in their home state of Delaware, was one of the most sensitive issues they examined while vetting the senator for a spot on the ticket.”
The New York Times’ Bill Kristol believes the Biden pick does "complicate" McCain's selection process (though he does quote from McCain folks saying they believe it was a pick of "weakness."). He dismisses both Pawlenty (will not match up well with Biden) and Romney (thank you house gaffe), and ends up making the conservative case for Lieberman.
"A Lieberman pick should help with ticket splitters. But can such a ticket hold the support of pro-lifers, conservatives and Republicans? If you’re conscientiously pro-life, you will have reservations about a pro-abortion-rights V.P. If you’re a proud conservative, Lieberman hasn’t been one. If you’re a loyal Republican, you’d much prefer someone from within the ranks. But if you’re pro-life, conservative and/or Republican, you certainly don’t want Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid running the country. If a McCain-Lieberman ticket is the best way to thwart that prospect, you could probably learn to live with it - even perhaps to like it.”
The Boston Globe points out: "Thus, the McCain campaign has raised the question: Would McCain want to pick a vice presidential candidate who was perhaps his toughest critic in the primaries, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney?… If McCain picks Romney, the Democrats doubtless would remind voters of the McCain-Romney feud." AP writes. "The Republican could use his own pugnacious No. 2 to deliver attack lines and a solid debate performance."
CONTINUED >>
Lots of news organizations kicked off convention week with Obama retrospectives. Bloomberg News looks at Obama's "coolness" what he needs to do. "For the Illinois senator, cool can be complicated. It helps him maintain composure as he bursts through the barriers of race and politics; it also creates about him an aura of detachment. It fuels his boldness as well as his caution, the inspiration and the calculation, the intelligence and the ambition that will make him this week the first black presidential nominee of a major U.S. party."
More: "Obama so far has picked his battles carefully, choosing most often to focus on winning converts. ‘One of the dangers here is that in the effort to constantly adjust his position, people then begin to wonder where his bottom line is,'’ says Leon Panetta, President Clinton's former chief of staff. ‘He's got to show that he's got a bottom line and that he's willing to fight for it.’”
Also, check out this endorsement to someone who came from the Jim Baker world. ‘I've been in meetings with at least three different presidents,' says Dennis Ross, the former Middle East envoy for Presidents George H.W. Bush and Clinton. ‘He wasn't just up to the level, he was superior.'”
Politico's Roger Simon has a tour de force of a behind-the-scenes, how-did-it-happen? piece on the Dem primary. It opens with some great nuggets about how close Clinton came to hiring Axelrod and Hildebrand.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Making its presence felt in Denver, the Mile High City and site of the Democratic National Convention, the Republican National Committee has crafted a new slogan to greet the Democratic presumptive nominee: “A Mile High, An Inch Deep.”
That slogan is the kicker to hundreds of posters in the newly minted Republican National Committee headquarters at Denver. The poster, which actually - unlike that fake Obama-Bayh bumper sticker - looks like it could have been created by the Obama campaign.
A Warhol-esque Obama image stands smiling amid the Rockies, stars coming off his finger tip. But right below the Rockies in large font: “Not Ready 08.” Below it, “A mile high, an inch deep.” And on the side, as if to measure Obama's import, a ruler amounting to 1” -- though the Obama figure is actually about six inches high on the poster.
In tandem with the slogan, the RNC has launched a Web site: www.NotReady08.com , and will be holding daily press conferences with prominent Republicans, including Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and Tim Pawlenty.
The effort is another attempt define Obama - to dismiss him as a star/celebrity, who is not qualified to be president.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann
The year was 1936.
Then the 10-year-old daughter of a Democratic state representative from Delaware, Hadfield wanted to see what all the fuss was about in Philadephia, where Franklin D. Roosevelt was poised to accept his party's nomination as its nominee. The trouble was that her dad was short one of the three extra seats he wanted in the first row of history; he hoped to bring along Hadfield, her 8-year-old sister, and their 11-year-old cousin to watch the goings-on.
They pulled it off.
"We had just been in a play at school," Hadfield recalls. So her enterprising dad dressed the children in their theatrical costumes -- as old-time Quaker kids.
The trick worked like a charm. Organizers whisked the kids to the center of the action, no questions asked.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones Obama told a crowd of supporters at a BBQ here today that the Democratic convention, which begins tomorrow in Denver, would show that he is just like them and understands their concerns.
He also declared his introduction of running mate Joe Biden a success. "We’re going to be going to the convention this week, and if you’re paying attention, you’ll have a sense of who I am," he told a crowd of about 300 people at Rod and Gun Park.
"My wife Michelle speaks tomorrow night and you’ll have a sense of who she is, and what our values are, and how we’re raising our kids. And I think what you’ll conclude is he’s sort of like us. He comes from a middle-class background. He went to school on scholarships; he had to pay off student loans; he and his wife had to worry about child care; we had to figure out, you know, how to start a college fund for their kids."
Obama used the same lines against McCain he has used all week -- making references to a McCain adviser's remarks about America being a "nation of whiners," bringing up the Arizona senator's quip during the Saddleback Forum about $5 million being "rich," and his inability to remember the number of homes he owns -- to paint him as out of touch. He said Democrats would look out for middle-class concerns, not Republicans.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Mark Murray Clinton spokeswoman Kathleen Strand issued this statement regarding the McCain TV ad , which includes quotes from Hillary whacking Obama during the primary season.
"Hillary Clinton's support of Barack Obama is clear. She has said repeatedly that Barack Obama and she share a commitment to changing the direction of the country, getting us out of Iraq, and expanding access to health care. John McCain doesn't. It's interesting how those remarks didn't make it into his ad."
From NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann Michelle Obama , accompanied by daughters Malia and Sasha, touched down in Denver this afternoon. Upon arrival at the airport, the aspiring First Lady was greeted by Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter and First Lady Jeannie Ritter. Also awaiting her on the tarmac was a group of supporters made up of Colorado service group members and first-time delegates to the Democratic convention.
Mrs. Obama was also accompanied by her mother, 71-year-old Marian Robinson.
Michelle wore a white button-down blouse, black capri pants, and red flat shoes. Malia and Sasha dutifully greeted supporters with the group, sticking close to mom and grandma.
Mrs. Obama received lengthy hugs from the supporters assembled to greet her, including from 82-year-old Ann Hadfield, a first-time delegate from Pennsylvania.
The Obama family spent about 15 minutes greeting the supporters under a hot blue sky before piling in to the motorcade.
From NBC/NJ's Athena JonesObama spoke for about a minute and a half on tarmac here today, but did not take questions.
As the plane engines roared, the senator talked about Biden's strengths and about looking forward to his wife's convention speech and how he's still working on his own.
On Biden: "I just wanted to say I am thrilled with Joe Biden as my VP, the conversations we've been having the last couple of days make me absolutely convinced he's the right man for the job. He's got the passion to lift up middle-class Americans ... hasn't forgotten his working class roots. He's got the expertise that will make him a great counselor on international crises that may come up. More importantly, I think he can help shape a long-term strategy to make America more secure and move us out of the disastrous economic and foreign policy that have characterized the last eight years."
On the Democratic convention: "I am very excited about the convention. I can't wait to hear Michelle speak tomorrow. I will tell you that I did get a little preview of the video they did of her, and she was extraordinary. And I think you guys will enjoy it very much. And I'm still tooling around with my speech a little bit. It may not be as good as the other headliners the first three nights, but hopefully it'll make clear the choice that the American people are gonna face in November."
The last time the traveling press were able to ask questions of the senator was Aug. 7, on a flight from Minneapolis to Chicago, the day before he departed for a week-long vacation in Hawaii.
From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli Obama's vice presidential pick, Joe Biden plans to spend a quiet day at home, with his only public appearance likely being this morning's trip to his nearby parish for Sunday mass.
Monsignor Joseph Rebman said he was pleased to see a member of his flock on the ticket, but said that Biden “can't guarantee the Catholic vote” for the Democrats.
“They don't vote as a block anymore,” he said, speaking to NBC News at St. Joseph of the Brandywine church, where Biden attended mass. “And as you know, the senator has some positions that don't go along with the Catholic Church.”
Rebman said he understood Biden to be personally opposed to abortion, but that he “doesn't want to impose” his views on others and often has voted with abortion rights supporters. He added that some of the other parish priests and the bishop of the diocese have spoken with him about his pro-choice votes, but that they have never refused him Communion, as some other dioceses have done.
“The bishop's conference has left it to the individual bishops to decide how they want to handle it,” he said.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones Reporting from the road with the Obama campaign…
PRESS INTERACTION: Obama has not held a press conference this week. In fact, it has been 17 days since the candidate has done so -- on Thursday, Aug. 7 on the plane from Minneapolis to Chicago before Obama departed for Hawaii.
The press corps was told there would likely be one this morning, but later we were told that we should get one tomorrow and that the issue is working out the timing and whether it will be on the ground or on the plane.
The only interaction Obama has had with the traveling press is shouted questions from the pool during his comings and goings, which he alternately answers and ignores.
Access seems to be declining more and more. Because NBC's press pool days have not included any local stops, the first time this week I have been closer than 15 feet from the candidate was when deplaning here in Wisconsin earlier today.
It's noteworthy that the first group interview with the Obamas and the Bidens was with People Magazine. It was ostensibly a photo shoot, but the magazine's correspondent asked questions here and there throughout. Only the wives were quoted in the story, but there is surely more to come.
CROWDS/VOTERS: Generally speaking, the events this week seemed to be populated by mostly by supporters. The crowds in Raleigh, NC, and Lynchburg and Chesapeake, VA, were especially enthusiastic. At a smaller at a community college in Martinsville, VA - about 350 people - I spoke with several white women ranging in age from their 30s to their 50s just before the event.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Kelly O'Donnell Reporting on the road with the McCain campaign...
The "Biden" ad: Advisors say that spot has been ready for "a couple days." The McCain team says they assessed that Kaine "utterly disqualified himself" on the basis of the experience question and asserted that Obama does not particularly like Evan Bayh. "Who did that leave?" So they had the Biden spot ready to go.
"Passed Over" ad: McCain advisors say they assesd the 3 a.m. Obama text as an "avoidable" slight to Sen. Clinton and a belated elbow for the primary season 3 a.m. call spot. As First Read mentioned in First Thoughts, the campaign featured Hillary Clinton's words as an attack on Obama in the latest "Passed Over" ad.
Reaction to Biden selection: McCain advisors say Biden's career has not been covered in the Pennsylvania media market. They acknowledge his Scranton, blue-collar roots, but suggest Delaware, with a very small media market, does not have the kind of bleed over seen in New Jersey where NY politicians/issues are saturated. Biden "will fire up conservatives," they claim, because of his positions and conduct on the Judiciary Committee. "That gives us license there," advisors say. Think Roberts, Alito and Clarence Thomas.
The JUDGMENT question: McCain advisors say Obama has waged his candidacy on his "superior judgment" and they point out that Biden supported the Iraq war vote, then advocated partitioning of Iraq which McCain folks call "a terrible idea." Obviously, they will press on the readiness factor, saying Biden has "strongly and consistently" criticized Obama's readiness to be president while Biden "spoke glowingly about McCain on a number of issues."
CONTINUED >>
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro
*** Not everyone’s on message: Not surprisingly, Obama’s pick of Biden and their event together in Illinois are dominating today’s political headlines. But to us, the most interesting news wasn’t Biden’s tough words about McCain, Obama’s emphasis of his new running mate’s working-class appeal and Catholic faith, the McCain camp’s rapid-response TV ad, or even the fact that Biden got the VP call while at the dentist. Rather, it was the words of praise that the pick got from key Republicans. Here was Dick Lugar’s statement: "I congratulate Sen. Barack Obama on his selection of my friend, Sen. Joe Biden, to be his vice-presidential running mate. I have enjoyed for many years the opportunity to work with Joe Biden to bring strong bipartisan support to United States foreign policy.” And here’s Chuck Hagel’s: “An Obama-Biden ticket is a very impressive and strong team. Biden's selection is good news for Obama and America.” Wow, talk about the GOP not necessarily being on message. In fact, we think it’s safe to say that we won’t see a single Democrat senator praise Romney, Palwenty, or even Lieberman if McCain picks either man as his running mate.
*** Joe’s lockdown: Obama campaigns today in Wisconsin, tomorrow in Iowa, Tuesday in Missouri, and Montana on Wednesday -- all without Biden. In short, they won’t stump together again until after convention. While that move seems surprising at first glance, think about it this way: The images we saw yesterday of Obama and Biden together in Springfield (with their sleeves rolled up, one wearing a blue tie, the other wearing a red one) will be the only images we’ll see of the duo until Thursday. It's all about message and image control -- something the Obama campaign has prided itself on these past 18 months.
*** Playing The Hillary Card: In the middle of the night -- at 3:00 am ET again! -- the McCain campaign unveiled a new TV ad to air in “key states” (read: we’re not so sure how big the buy is) that hits Obama for not picking Hillary as his VP. “She won millions of votes,” the ad goes. “But isn't on his ticket. Why? For speaking the truth.” It then shows Hillary whacking Obama over his policies, Rezko, and some of Obama's negative attacks. Just asking again... Does this mean that McCain WON’T be picking Romney as his veep, because the two men certainly disagreed on many issues during the primaries. Or does it mean that he WILL pick him, because Romney won a lot of votes through Super Tuesday? Nevertheless, with Hillary speaking on Tuesday and PUMAs on the prowl here in Denver, if there was a week when McCain and the Republicans would play up the Hillary-Obama split, it would be this week.
*** Today’s convention schedule: Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, and Texas State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte hold a press conference at noon ET at the Colorado Convention Center… The DNC holds its Credentials Committee meeting at 1:30 pm ET at the Colorado Convention Center… The Western Majority Project has a media stakeout with Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar, and others beginning at 2:30 pm ET.
*** The RNC’s response: Republican National Committee chairman Mike Duncan holds walkthroughs for the TV media (at 4:00 pm ET) and print media (at 6:00 pm ET) at its response center in Denver.
*** On the trail: McCain remains on vacation in Sedona, AZ. Obama is in Eau Claire, WI, where he begins his day attending church services and then holds a BBQ.
Countdown to Dem convention: 1 dayClick here to sign up for First Read emails.
The New York Times notes that Obama wasn’t originally sold on Biden. “Over the course of two months, as the dynamics of the presidential campaign and world events shifted quickly, Mr. Biden’s stock rose through one of the most rigorous vice-presidential vetting processes that Democrats could recall… And it ended Thursday with a phone call from Mr. Obama, who reached Mr. Biden as he was at a dentist’s office where he had taken his wife to have a root canal.”
“Mr. Obama reached the decision about 10 days ago while on a weeklong vacation to Hawaii. That week, Mr. Biden’s strengths in foreign policy were highlighted by the conflict between Russia and Georgia, giving his prospects a further boost. Associates of the other main possibility on Mr. Obama’s list, Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, said Mr. Obama cited the situation in Georgia in breaking the news to Mr. Bayh late last week that he had chosen Mr. Biden. But people involved in the process said it was not just foreign policy that tilted the balance. They said Mr. Obama’s decision had as much to do with Mr. Biden’s appeal among white working-class voters and compelling personal story, and his conclusion that the Delaware senator was ‘a worker.’”
The AP : "Biden was quick to attack. McCain will have to "figure out which of the seven kitchen tables to sit at" when considering his own economic future, Biden said. It was a reference to McCain's recent inartful admission -- in a time of economic uncertainty -- that he was not sure how many homes he owns. … In an interview with CBS News, McCain called Biden a 'wise selection' who will be formidable. But McCain remained critical of the Obama-Biden ticket on foreign policy, citing disagreements with Biden's decision to vote against the first Gulf War as well as his position that Iraq should be divided 'into three different countries.'"
The Boston Globe : "Obama's selection of Joe Biden as his running mate pleased many Democrats who are concerned about Obama's perceived shortcomings in foreign affairs, but it worried others who fear the pick reinforces Republican attacks on Obama's experience and Biden's past negative comments about Obama will be used against the Democratic ticket."
The Globe also profiles Biden. "If Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama intends to ride in and clean up the political culture of Washington, he's chosen a gray eminence, instead of a fresh face, to ride shotgun," the paper writes. "Compared with Obama, who is often characterized as cool and cerebral, Biden is direct and earthy. In May, when President Bush, addressing the Israeli Knesset, suggested that Obama was willing to appease terrorists, Biden offered a raw, profane retort followed by, 'This is malarkey.'"
The New York Daily News : "Bam's new Moe Joe" is written across a full page photo of Obama and Biden on stage in Springfield, Ill.
The New York Post : "JOEBAMA!"
The Detroit Free Press : "Dems have a team." (But notice the story on the right side: "Michigan voters a bit wary of Obama.")
The RNC launched a “Biden Gaffe Clock.”
A new Washington Post/ABC poll has Obama leading McCain by six points nationally among registered voters (49%-43%) and four points among likely voters (49%-45%). “The focus on foreign policy crises over the past month, including the Russian invasion of Georgia, has played to McCain's perceived strengths among the electorate. He holds 2 to 1 leads over Obama in the new poll as the candidate with better knowledge of world affairs and the one who would make a better commander in chief. He is also regarded as superior to Obama in combating international terrorism and has a slender advantage on international affairs generally… But on the question of who is better equipped to deal with specific foreign policy problems, McCain's advantages are less apparent. Voters rate McCain and Obama evenly on handling the situation in Iraq, and McCain has a negligible advantage in dealing with U.S. relations with Russia.”
Other nuggets: “Obama's selection of Biden is unlikely to shake up the race in the short term. Three-quarters of registered voters said Obama's choice of Biden … would not sway their votes in either direction. And among those who said the selection would make a difference, about as many said they were more likely to support Obama with Biden on the ticket as said they would be less likely to do so.”
And: 70% of Hillary Clinton supporters “back Obama -- the highest level since she suspended her campaign in June.”
And here are the new state polls we mentioned above:ARIZONA: McCain leads 47%-41%. COLORADO: Obama leads 46%-43%. NEVADA: McCain leads 46%-39%. NEW MEXICO: McCain leads 45%-41%.UTAH/WYOMING: McCain, as expected, leads by wide margins in both states -- up 62%-23% in Utah and 62%-25% in Wyoming.
Meanwhile, a new Quinnipiac poll shows McCain up one point in Colorado, 47%-46%. In July, McCain was up two points in the state, 46%-44%.
Maureen Dowd criticizes the McCain campaign for playing the POW card a little too much lately. ‘His campaign is cheapening his greatest strength - and making a mockery of his already dubious claim that he’s reticent to talk about his P.O.W. experience - by flashing the P.O.W. card to rebut any criticism, no matter how unrelated. The captivity is already amply displayed in posters and TV advertisements.”
“The Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, the pastor who married Jenna Bush and who is part of a new Christian-based political action committee supporting Obama, recently criticized the joke McCain made at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally encouraging Cindy to enter the topless Miss Buffalo Chip contest. The McCain spokesman Brian Rogers brought out the bottomless excuse, responding with asperity that McCain’s character had been ‘tested and forged in ways few can fathom.’”
“When the Obama crowd was miffed to learn that McCain was in a motorcade rather than in a ‘cone of silence’ while Obama was being questioned by Rick Warren, Nicolle Wallace of the McCain camp retorted, ‘The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous.’”
“When Obama chaffed McCain for forgetting how many houses he owns, Rogers huffed, ‘This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years - in prison.’”
"But outside the convention arena in Denver, some of Hillary Clinton's supporters plan to air their grievances against Obama, the party's leadership, and the national media, whose coverage of the primary battle they considered sexist. Hundreds of disaffected Democrats from around the country plan to converge in the Mile High City to hold news conferences, protests, and vigils, threatening the party's ability to present a united front against Republican John McCain."
The Denver Post has an interview with Obama. In it, Obama acknowledges a reluctance to go on the attack, but implies a forced hand after McCain went negative: "Going on the attack when running a campaign for change is risky, Obama acknowledges. 'It's something I worry about and wrestle with all the time. I really prefer having a debate about issues,' he said. But the contrasts he's drawing with McCain, he said, are about issues, not the type of personal attack being waged against him."
Democrats met yesterday to reform their confusing primary process. The first four states appear they will keep their status, but "more pressing, Democrats said Saturday, is to review the role of superdelegates… The reform commission's language includes a pledge to reduce the number of superdelegates… The commission will also review caucuses, which were deftly maneuvered by Obama this year to counter large-state victories by Clinton."
But Democrats decided not to debate how to change anything, only to agree to start talking about it. Some rules are expected to be proposed by 2010 for the 2012 nominating process.
by NBC's Luke Russert I just got to Denver after a fantastically efficient 3 hour and 40 minute plane ride from New York. The city is buzzing with convention fever and I feel it as soon as I step into the baggage claim of the airport. Dozens of people hold signs representing different news organizations, interest groups and state delegations. My hotel is about 30 minutes away from the Pepsi Center (home to the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche) so the daily trek will definitely be interesting.
Upon getting to the Pepsi Center, I am greeted by a line six blocks long to get through security. It looks like a line to buy Pearl Jam tickets. Security, as one might expect, is extremely tight. Bomb-sniffing dogs accompany secret service agents with bulletproof vests and machine guns. Agents pat you down as you enter and make you turn on all your electronics to prove they aren’t bombs.
Once I get through security, an NBC runner in a golf cart picks me up. “Runners” are young people between 19-22 who help out in all things production. If you have free time next time there is a big event (Olympics, Convention etc), apply to be a runner. I’m now in the NBC production tent and it’s the size of those you see at the circus. It’s a war room. There are tables of phones, computers, cameras and dozens and dozens of people trying their best to look important and busy.
So now that I got the play-by-play out of the way, let’s get to the business of the day and maybe eat some hay. I just may lie by the bay - ok that stunk.
The big news of the day is that Senator Obama picked Delaware Senator Joe Biden to be his running mate. There are a few reasons why Obama did this. By adding Biden to the ticket, Obama is able to counter criticism that he lacks foreign policy experience. Senator Biden is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and is widely considered to be one of smartest government officials in regard to foreign affairs.
Secondly, Biden has been in the Senate since 1972, so he gives the ticket Washington experience. Some of you might ask: if Obama’s campaign is about “change”, why have a running mate who’s been in Washington for 36 years? The answer is quite simply that Obama has been dogged by negative attacks from John McCain, who’s questioned whether or not he is ready to lead. Having Biden on the ticket brings a sense of leadership that Obama does not have after only serving in the Senate for three years.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones and NBC's Domenico Montanaro Obama , a first-term senator, announced his bid for the presidency and his vision for a new kind of politics -- to bring people together and end the partisan bickering in Washington.
Saturday, he returned to the Old State Capitol where Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous "House Divided" speech in 1858, to introduce Delaware Sen. Joe Biden , a six-term senator, as his pick for running mate.
“Joe Biden is that rare mix -- for decades, he has brought change to Washington, but Washington hasn't changed him,” Obama told a crowd the campaign put at 35,000 people standing in the hot sun. “He's an expert on foreign policy whose heart and values are rooted firmly in the middle class.”
In his speech, Biden used the imagery of Lincoln to bookend his first speech as Obama's vice presidential candidate.
“I know I am in the right place, and I stand firm with Barack Obama,” he said, echoing a quote of Lincoln's. He ended by saying this election is time to “put our feet” in the right place, adding that this might be the “last chance to restore America's soul.”
Biden hit some hopeful notes and also offered perhaps a preview of his attacks on John McCain , who he called a “genuine friend.” But with a smile, added that he's been “disappointed” in his “friend” for “giving into the right wing of his party.” He even questioned McCain's “character,” saying that Obama was the only one with the character to lead.
“The American Dream under Bush and McCain is slipping away,” he said, adding that America “cannot afford four more years of this.”
He also hit McCain on his recent housing gaffe, saying this election is about kitchen table issues, but that McCain “doesn't know how many kitchen tables he has.”
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Chuck Todd Biden was picked to fill Obama's experience gap and that may very well have been among the reasons. But after watching the unveiling of the ticket, it's clear Obama hired Biden to accomplish three things:
1) Connect the ticket with blue-collar voters. Notice, Biden led his remarks with the economy.
2) Sell Obama's story. Biden owned Obama's biography in a way we've yet to see from the candidate himself.
3) Credibly attack John McCain . Biden didn't mince words about his old "friend"
All in all, if you believe, as I do, that the VP candidates matters most on three days, the first day, debate day and election day, then the Obama campaign has to be ecstatic about today. One goal down, two to go.
From NBC's Mark Murray Howard Dean : "Sen. Obama has made an outstanding selection in Joe Biden . Joe Biden is a strong leader, fierce advocate, and devoted family man with values rooted in the best of what America stands for. He will be a strong partner with Barack Obama in bringing the change America wants and needs."
John Kerry : "From his championship of families hit hardest by a failing economy to his dedication to ending the misguided war in Iraq, Joe Biden is ready to help Barack Obama provide Americans with change we can truly believe in... Barack’s vision for a better future for America is reflected in Joe’s commitment to middle class issues, understanding of international relations, and duty to country. I look forward to doing all I can to help elect Barack Obama and Joe Biden as the next President and Vice President of the United States.”
Sam Nunn : "I believe that Joe Biden is an excellent choice. He is a man of experience and high integrity. He will be a valuable running mate to Senator Obama."
Bill Richardson : "Joe Biden brings seasoned judgment, foreign policy expertise, and a great sense of humor to the ticket. Joe has paid his dues as a public servant and the vice presidential spot is a deserved capstone to a great career. Barack Obama has shown solid judgment by selecting Joe Biden as his running mate. Joe is someone that Senator Obama and our country can trust."
*** UPDATE *** Evan Bayh (per NBC's Ken Strickland): "Joe Biden is an outstanding public servant with deep experience and a fighting spirit. These qualities will make him a great asset in the White House and on the campaign trail this fall. Indiana and America face challenging times. We are a nation at war with an economy on the rocks. In his most important decision to date, Barack Obama demonstrated the judgment to choose a governing partner who is wise and strong and will help him deliver change to a country yearning for it. I enthusiastically support the selection of Senator Biden.
"It was an honor to be considered, and I hope it reflects well on the state of Indiana that a Hoosier was in the running. I am proud to serve in the United States Senate and will continue to work each day to make a difference in the lives of the people of my state."
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones Obama and Biden will not campaign together when Obama heads to Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, and Montana over the next four days.
So that means that after today, their next appearance together will be after the convention.
From NBC's Kelly O'Donnell Advisers say
McCain made a "brief" phone call to
Biden a short time ago and offered his congratulations and passed on good wishes from Mrs. McCain as well.
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro www.BarackObama.com . Spread the word!” A 3:00 am wake-up call, you just can’t make this stuff up. And there were two collective sounds you could hear over the beeping cellphones and the buzzing blackberries. On the Democratic side, it was a collective "phew." As the days got nearer for the pick, it was hard to find a Democrat -- even savvy Clintonites -- who weren't hoping it would be Biden. Only the most strident Hillary supporters appear to be upset this morning. On the GOP side, the sound you heard was disappointed silence. Of everyone on the short list, the candidate many Republicans least wanted to see Obama pick was Biden. Sure, they've already trotted out their talking points. And the McCain camp even produced a rapid-response TV ad highlighting some unkind words Biden said about Obama during the primaries. (We assume this now means McCain won’t be picking Romney, right? And doesn't the McCain ad actually send the message to swing voters that Obama's willing to surround himself with critics?) But there are too many intellectual conservatives (see David Brooks) who believe Biden's the most qualified guy Obama could have realistically picked.
*** Joe’s strengths… : As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he has plenty of foreign policy experience -- something viewed as a weakness for Obama. Also, Biden’s most recent presidential bid raised his national profile, making him a politico whom most Americans know, which could help reassure some voters who have doubts about Obama. In addition, whether it has been in recent speeches or on Meet the Press, Biden has showed that he’s up to this veep responsibility: whacking the opposition. What’s more, during his presidential bid in ’07-’08, Biden demonstrated that he’s a very good debater, a quality the Democrats might want to showcase during the vice presidential debate scheduled for October 2. And electorally, Biden could help lock down Pennsylvania, as well as connect better than Obama has in blue-collar Michigan and the "U" of Ohio (Toledo to Youngstown). A few more thoughts… Biden is someone that will play well with older white voters, a demographic group Obama's struggled with, and he’s very popular with labor and trial lawyers, which while helpful financially for Obama and in the Rust Belt, could fire up the business community even more for McCain.
*** … And his weaknesses : Obama has railed against Washington and Washington insiders during his campaign, but few people are more inside Washington than Biden, who has served in the Senate for 36 years (by comparison, McCain has been in the Senate for 22 years). Furthermore, Biden often has been a gaffe machine -- whether it was calling Obama "clean" and "articulate" (news that marred his presidential announcement in 2007) or stating in 2006, "You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.” And there was that plagiarism scandal that knocked him out of the 1988 presidential race. Perhaps the biggest question: Just how well will Obama and Biden mesh? Has Biden been anybody's No. 2, ever? He's run for president TWICE for a reason (the first time Biden ran, Obama was just starting law school, by the way). Biden has an actual "boss" for the first time in his political career. Is he ready to ride shotgun? And is it a problem that Obama-Biden is a mirror image of Bush-Cheney from 2000? A charismatic, inexperienced nominee taps a more experienced, dare we say, arrogant No.2? In fact, there are a lot of Republicans who believe they can sell Obama-Biden as "the Audacity of Arrogance times two."
*** Back to Springfield : When Obama and Biden appear together this afternoon at the Old State Capitol in Springfield, IL, it will come just more than 18 months after Obama officially launched his presidential bid from that historical venue. (It’s where Lincoln gave his famous 1858 “House Divided” speech, in which he railed against slavery and how it had torn the nation into two. “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”) While today’s event will be a bit warmer than it was on that February 2007 day -- it was close to 10 degrees! -- that announcement back then was the first sign that there was something to Obama’s candidacy. Despite the frigid weather, close to 20,000 showed up on that day, and the crowds at his rallies only grew. Now, with the polls tightening, Obama needs to draw on some of that Springfield magic. Can he deliver?
*** The big bounce? Now for some non-VP news… Yesterday, the McCain campaign released a memo saying that Obama should receive a 15-point (!!!) bounce from his convention. But here’s a big caveat: We haven’t had a back-to-back convention schedule in a very long time, so it may make historical comparisons moot. But let's crunch some numbers from the Gallup chart McCain's campaign sent around. The average Dem convention bounce since '64 is 6.2 points. The average GOP convention bounce since '64 is 5.3 points. The average FIRST convention bounce: 6.3 points. The average SECOND convention bounce is: 5.2 points. With just three instances since '64 of open-seat presidential elections, it's useless to attempt an average if you did this average based on Olympic score (tossing the high and the low), the average convention bounce would be 5.6 points, which feels about the right bar for expectations. The Clinton example the McCain folks are using -- 16 points after the '92 Dem convention! -- is really a reach considering that Ross Perot (who was the front-runner the week before the Dem convo) dropped out the week of the Dem convo. So toss the Clinton bounce out any analysis window.
*** Saying goodbye to those red states? In addition to that memo, the McCain campaign yesterday furiously pounced on a report that Team Obama was pulling its advertising in red states -- like Alaska, Indiana, Montana, North Carolina, and North Dakota -- suggesting that the Obama camp was abandoning its (almost) 50-state strategy. But as Lee Corso might say, “Not so fast, my friend.” A senior Obama campaign source told First Read that the campaign wasn’t planning to be on TV next week during their convention, but the McCain is up with negative spots in 11 states, and they wanted to match them in those 11 (which doesn't include any of those ruby-red states). Moreover, the source assures us that the campaign will resume its larger TV buy once the convention ends.
*** On the trail : McCain is down in Sedona, AZ. Obama holds his rally in Springfield at the Old State Capitol. Click here to sign up for First Read emails .
The Boston Globe’s front page : "Biden is Obama's VP choice." Subhead: "Foreign policy credentials boost ticket."
Per NBC/NJ’s Mike Memoli, two big black SUVs just arrived outside of Biden’s home. It would appear a lot of the family will be part of the motorcade to the airport.
The New York Times says the pick “reflected a critical strategic choice by Mr. Obama: To go with a running mate who could reassure voters about gaps in his résumé, rather than to pick someone who could deliver a state or reinforce Mr. Obama’s message of change.”
"Biden, who has twice sought the White House, is a Catholic with blue-collar roots, a generally liberal voting record, and a reputation as a long-winded orator," the AP writes. "Across more than 30 years in the Senate, he has served at various times not only as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, but also as head of the Judiciary Committee, with its jurisdiction over anticrime legislation and constitutional issues."
The Washington Post : “On a day in which speculation about Obama's choice reached a fever pitch, reporters culled every source for news of the pick, even tracing the tail numbers on private planes scheduled to head from the home states of some of the contenders to Chicago on Saturday morning. A Kansas City television station reported that ‘Obama-Bayh '08’ stickers were being mass-produced at a local factory. The scheduled appearances on Sunday's morning talk shows offered other potential clues: Kaine is slotted to appear on "Fox News Sunday." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top booster of the idea of adding [Chet] Edwards to the ticket, will appear on ‘Meet the Press.’”
CONTINUED >>
In a statement, Hillary Clinton said, "In naming my colleague and friend Sen. Joe Biden to be the Vice Presidential nominee, Sen. Obama has continued in the best traditions for the Vice Presidency by selecting an exceptionally strong, experienced leader and devoted public servant. Sen. Biden will be a purposeful and dynamic Vice President who will help Senator Obama both win the Presidency and govern this great country."
According to NBC's Kelly O'Donnell, advisers say John McCain is expected to phone Biden later today to offer congratulations.
And here’s even a statement from GOP Sen. Dick Lugar on his way to Tbilisi, Georgia:
The AP’s Fournier : “The candidate of change went with the status quo. In picking Sen. Joe Biden to be his running mate, Barack Obama sought to shore up his weakness - inexperience in office and on foreign policy - rather than underscore his strength as a new-generation candidate defying political conventions.”
More: “[T]he question is whether Biden's depth counters Obama's inexperience - or highlights it?”
And don't miss this: "A senior Obama adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity, said his boss has expressed impatience with what he calls a 'reverence' inside his campaign for his message of change and new politics. In other words, Obama is willing - even eager - to risk what got him this far if it gets him to the White House."
This would be bad news for McCain if The Governator felt he couldn't go to the convo because of the budget standoff in the state.
"But with the McCains' money in Cindy McCain's name, as dictated by a prenuptial agreement, the senator's finances are more difficult to assess and scrutinize than those of many other political candidates," the New York Times writes. "But the Hensley family wealth, from its rough-and-tumble origins to prominence in Arizona's corporate world, is also the fortune that propelled John McCain into national politics. A clearer picture of that fortune emerges from a review of public records and interviews with employees, business associates, friends, and relatives." was charged on Friday with sending a threatening letter laced with white powder to U.S. presidential candidate John McCain, triggering a security scare at his Colorado campaign office… Within hours, the U.S. Secret Service said the letter had been traced to a Colorado jail inmate with a history of making such threats, and tests of the envelope and its contents turned up negative for hazardous materials. The precise composition of the powder in the envelope had yet to be determined, officials said."
CONTINUED >>
Politico writes, “The spokesman for the American Issues Project the independent group whose ad is the most negative of the cycle and links Obama to terrorism, says the group just filed a report naming its sole donor. The donor, spokesman Christian Pinkston said, is Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons, who made his first fortune in chain pharmacies and is now listed as the 73rd richest person in the world, with a net worth estimated by Forbes at $2.1 billion.”
“Simmons, a major Republican donor, gave maximum $2,300 contributions to Senator John McCain last year, as well as to former Governor Mitt Romney and to former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. He's listed as a bundler for the McCain campaign on McCain's website, which says he's raised between $50,000 and $100,000 for the Republican candidate. He's also contributed to Rep. Chet Edwards, the Texas Democrat who has been mentioned as a possible Obama running mate.”
“He's also a backer of a controversial plan to store nuclear waste in West Texas, which his waste management company would administer.”
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro Obama picked Delaware Sen. Joe Biden to be his vice presidential running mate. The campaign sent out a text message at 3:09 a.m. ET that read:
"Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee. Watch the first Obama-Biden rally live at 3pmET on www.BarackObama.com. Spread the word!"
The campaign also sent an e-mail to supporters, in which Obama said he's "excited about hitting the campaign trail with Joe, but the two of us can't do this alone."
For its part, once the news broke early this morning, the McCain campaign sent out a
prepared ad hit on Obama selecting Biden. It uses a quote from Biden, who was critical of Obama during a presidential debate this cycle, saying that he stood by a statement that Obama was not "ready." The ad also uses a quote from Biden praising McCain that is years old. When the quote was used in a McCain Web ad, Biden and other Democrats brutally dismissed it, asking, What's happened to John McCain?
*** UPDATE *** Despite the ad, NBC's Kelly O'Donnell reports, McCain is expected to call Biden later today to offer his congratulations, advisers said.
From NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann Tim Kaine's communications director, Delacey Skinner, confirms that Kaine arrived in Denver, CO, tonight.
From NBC's Chuck Todd and Mark Murray
First Read has learned that, during the Dem convention, the RNC will be up on the air with a significant TV buy on broadcast and cable in the battleground states of Colorado, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Our sources wouldn't tell us what the content of the ad would be, but we assume it won't be a McCain bio spot...
From NBC's Andrea Mitchell Bayh and Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine , according to sources, were told they're out of the running.
From the First Read team, just asking, so which news organization is going to irresponsibly go with Biden without confirmation from Biden or the Obama campaign -- even though they all have the same information we do? Some news org who loves credit and hits has to be itchin'...
From NBC's Lauren Appelbaum Chet
Edwards has remained under the radar for a long time, but today his name is being resurfaced as a possible choice for
Obama's VP.
"We've all been pretty successful at keeping this a secret for the last two-and-a-half months, so I didn't necessarily expect my name floated out there today," Edwards told reporters outside his house in Waco, Texas, of reports that he was vetted by Obama camp. "But, again, I just consider it a deep privilege through this process to have been considered by Sen. Obama, and whatever decision he makes, I'm going to enthusiastically support him and the ticket."
Edwards declined to answer other questions about his chances, but said he has been vetted. "I can say that, yes, I have been considered by the Obama campaign," he said, "but there is only one person who's going to make this decision. And that's Senator Obama and I want to respect that fact."
Edwards contends Obama could make Texas competitive. "It's going to be surprising to people how competitive Texas will be with Obama at the top of the ticket," he said.
Not to be outdone by front-runner Biden, Edwards offered to get those staking him out some lunch. "Biden can provide the meals. The least I can do is offer you Chick-Fil-A."
From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli
Miller started walking down the driveway to Biden's house, but was stopped by the county police officer stationed beyond the gate. After determining that no one inside had placed the order, the officer placed a call to "Chris," whose name was on the tag.
"It's a prank?!" the officer asked incredulously.
He then walked out of range of reporters to get some information from the pizza villain. There was a credit number on file, but no telling if it was valid. Or why anyone would target the Delaware senator at this time.
The Biden home has seen occasional visitors today, including his state director and daughter. We have not seen the senator or his wife, leading some to wonder if he may have snuck out overnight.
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro DENVER -- On the ride over to the Pepsi Center on the free 16th Street bus here, a salient political issue in Colorado and the West was nakedly clear.
A man stood just feet away, wearing nothing but boxers and a big orange sign that read, "Water: Use what you need."
Barely covered men apparently can be spotted around town as part of a Denver Water conservation push.
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro Countdown to the opening ceremonies : Tomorrow's official unveiling of the Democratic ticket has the feel of an opening ceremonies to what will be an unprecedented two-week, two-convention political Olympics. If this is like the actual Olympics, then having the first week of this two-week convention marathon might be the better get. If the old rules apply, then having the last convention will be the advantage. But realize this: The old rules on conventions just may no longer apply. We have a new calendar, and there are just 74 days to go. The next 14 days will give us two VPs and two conventions. Then we'll have a three-week gap until the first debate. And then we'll have four debates in three weeks, followed by a 20-day sprint to Election Day. That’s it, folks. Let us know if you have any advice about when we should squeeze in a night of sleep.
*** Emptying the arsenal : Wow, yesterday was quite the day of attacks. Amidst all the VP buzz was one of the harshest exchanges to date on the campaign trail. McCain stepped into it with his Politico interview on Wednesday, when he perhaps committed a gaffe that will go down as either a "grocery scanner" moment or the "I was for it before I was against it" by saying he couldn't answer the question about how many houses/properties he and his wife own. No doubt, he's got a good answer now if he's asked ("I have one home and we own a few investment properties" probably would have sufficed). But that wasn't the answer he gave, and the DNC/Obama folks were downright RNC-esque in their organized effort to amplify this gaffe. Obama's desperately needed a moment to look more in touch with people than McCain, and he may have found it. What’s more, the hit provided Democrats with a psychological boost as the polls show the race to be tightening as we head into the conventions. Clearly, Team McCain and its GOP allies were spooked as they unloaded their Rezko/Ayres oppo in one-fell swoop. It felt like an oppo-dump that was probably off the schedule they had in their heads about when they'd unveil these various hits. And if Rezko gets legs, then expect the Dems to fire back with Keating. It's turning into one ugly start to the Political Olympics.
*** Smitten? Thanks to a definitive sounding reporting from Time's Mark Halperin, lots of folks will be chasing Romney-as-McCain-veep rumors today. Moreover, the reporting will lead to plenty of speculation about whether this is a good idea or not. It does seem a little early for this kind of confidence on the pick, but whatever the case is, the McCain folks have been very good this week at keeping the VP buzz a split-screen story. Obama speculation has not dominated the week like many might have thought. For a campaign that worries so much about winning daily and weekly news cycles, that's going to be make folks in Crystal City smile. As for the Romney idea itself… Before Time's reporting, we were going to ask if McCain's house gaffe was the final nail in the Romney VP coffin. Considering how much the Democrats are fired up about the McCain-house gaffe, wouldn't it be odd for McCain to pick the richest guy on his short list as his VP? Wouldn't a McCain-Romney ticket be playing into the Democrats' hands at this point? Tim "Sam's Club" Pawlenty looks more palatable every day, right?
*** How Mitt might fit : But if Romney’s the choice, here’s a quick rundown of his strengths and weaknesses as McCain’s VP. On the plus side, his business and managerial experience could benefit a candidate who once said “economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should"; Romney could also help McCain in Michigan, given that his father was the former governor of the state; and the former Massachusetts governor could assist McCain in the competitive Mountain West states, which have strong Mormon populations (for example, 7% of Nevada’s population is Mormon). Among the minuses, McCain and Romney disagreed on several issues during the primaries (like immigration campaign finance reform); there were numerous reports that McCain didn’t personally like Romney (in fact, one McCain ad -- quoting the Concord Monitor -- called Romney a “phony"; then there are Romney’s highly publicized flip-flops (as a McCain Web ad back in January put it, “Mitt Romney’s flip-flops truly are masterpieces"); despite his good looks and impeccable appearance, Romney was never a natural campaigner on the stump; and there were plenty of polls suggesting that Romney’s Mormon faith was an obstacle with some voters.
*** All's fair in secret keeping? OK, today's the day of ultimate paranoia in the press corps. Today's the day we second-guess our sources and ourselves, rationalizing potential head fakes by wondering: "Will the public care that they misled the big, bad press corps?" And so it goes today and tonight as no one will get any sleep waiting for that text message or that promised call or email. If this isn't a massive head fake and the big bad media is basically right in the three Dems we've all been staking out, then it still appears that Biden is giving off the most confident "I'm the guy" vibe. Yesterday, he was acting like a guy who might be preparing to be away from home for 70 days. Remember, Biden is home more than any other sitting senator. In fact, for a guy who's been in Washington since 1972, he's probably spent fewer nights in the city than the average first-term senator. Evan Bayh is keeping the lowest profile. Either he knows he's not the guy or he's earning big-time chits with the super secretive David-squared folks in Chicago. As for Kaine, he's supposed to be in Denver on Saturday, as is Kathleen Sebelius. Guess we ought to double-check that they actually get on Denver flights, right?
*** Just askin’ : Why haven’t we heard much from the campaigns yet about the news that the US “has agreed to remove combat troops from Iraq cities by next June and from the rest of the country by the end of 2011 if conditions in Iraq remain relatively stable?” This is a timetable for withdrawal, no…?
*** Tepid support? Given some of the numbers from our most recent NBC/WSJ poll, about the last thing the Obama campaign needed this morning was the story in today's New York Times about a "tepid" Hillary Clinton. Her head might say, "Campaign hard for Obama" -- but her heart just isn't in it. The fact is, think back to 2000: It took McCain a VERY long time to get his heart into campaigning for Bush. And even when he did, it seemed forced. It really wasn't until 2004 when McCain looked comfortable supporting Bush. These things do take time for losing candidates. And maybe it is asking too much by the Obama campaign to get her to campaign vigorously for him. And if every story about Clinton stumping for Obama is going to have the word "tepid" in it, is it even worth sending her out?
*** On the trail : Both candidates are down… McCain is in Sedona, AZ, and Obama is in Chicago. Note to our readers : The three of us will be traveling to Denver today, so please be patient with the posting of your comments. Thanks!Click here to sign up for First Read emails .
The Washington Post front-pages that McCain’s “inability to recall the number of homes he owns during an interview yesterday jeopardized his campaign's carefully constructed strategy to frame Democratic rival Barack Obama as an out-of-touch elitist and inspired a round of attacks that once again ratcheted up the negative tone of the race for the White House.” More: “For a Democratic candidate suffering from a barrage of attacks on his ‘celebrity,’ McCain's inability to recall the scope of his family holdings was a timely break.”
The Los Angeles Times : “For Democrats, the kerfuffle carried a clear whiff of payback. Four years ago, Republicans turned a harsh spotlight on the five homes owned by the Democratic nominee, Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry, and his heiress wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry. For Republicans, it was deja vu of another kind. Last month, one of McCain's top economic advisors, former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, was forced to resign from the campaign after he told a newspaper that the United States was "a nation of whiners" who were suffering a "mental recession" over the economy.”
Last night, the McCain campaign released a response ad that played the Tony Rezko card. “Barack Obama knows a lot about housing problems. One of his ‘biggest fundraisers’ helped him buy his million-dollar mansion. Purchasing part of the property he couldn't afford.”
The DNC, meanwhile, pounces yet again on McCain’s multiple houses with a Web video that contains man-on-the-street interviews with people who all know how many homes they own.
CONTINUED >>
While Obama says he has made up his mind (and we’re just waiting for the announcement of his pick), the New York Times reports that McCain advisers saying that McCain has narrowed his pick to someone who opposes abortion rights. “Former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota are the top candidates as Mr. McCain and his advisers gather over the next several days at Mr. McCain’s cabin near Sedona, they said.”
Time reported last night that Romney may very well be the guy (although he’s a relatively recent convert in opposing abortion rights). “2 Republican sources say McCain has apparently settled on Romney as his pick, but no offer has been made.”
The AP lists where the potential veeps are -- or at least supposed to be -- today. New York Daily News editorial page pushes Hillary for Obama’s VP. (Think they just want something to cover?)
"McCain supporters attribute the campaign's summertime transformation - which has been accompanied by small but steady gains in polls - to a more direct and disciplined operation, thanks in part to the newly promoted Steve Schmidt, an unapologetically ruthless veteran of the 2004 Bush campaign," the Boston Globe writes. "Since then, however, new focus is evident in a campaign that previously reflected McCain's instinct for improvisation. Public appearances been more ambitiously conceived and staged. The candidate and surrogates have been given instructions not only what to say, but also what not to do each day, according to a campaign adviser. Even the luggage handling is smoother, those who travel with McCain say."
"Bush's 'third term' has become a favorite attack line for Democrats, repeated almost daily by the candidate and his surrogates. They argue that McCain favors failed Bush administration economic policies and would keep U.S. troops in Iraq for the foreseeable future," the AP writes: adding, "Although he almost always supported Bush's positions in Congress, McCain has done his best on the campaign trail to shun the widely unpopular Republican president, whose job approval rating sunk to a record low 28 percent in AP-Ipsos polls in April and July… So far McCain's strategy hasn't convinced the public." Peggy Noonan writes that voters are just starting to pay attention, and that might be the reason for the narrowing race. “Why is it a real race now, with John McCain rising in the polls and Barack Obama falling? There are many answers, but here I think is an essential one: The American people have begun paying attention. It's hard for our political class to remember that Mr. Obama has been famous in America only since the winter of '08. America met him barely six months ago! The political class first interviewed him, or read the interview, in 2003 or '04, when he was a rising star. They know him. Everyone else is still absorbing.”
“This is what they see: An attractive, intelligent man, interesting, but—he's hard to categorize. Is he Gen. Obama? No, no military background. Brilliant Businessman Obama? No, he never worked in business. Famous Name Obama? No, it's a new name, an unusual one. Longtime Southern Governor Obama? No. He's a community organizer (what's that?), then a lawyer (boo), then a state legislator (so what, so's my cousin), then U.S. senator (less than four years!).
And over there is Mr. McCain, and—well, we know him. He's POW/senator/prickly, irritating John McCain.” (Of course, Frank Rich School of Thought disagrees that we know McCain…)
An conservative group, the American Issues Project, announced it will be airing TV ads highlighting Obama’s (tenuous) ties to former ‘60s radical William Ayers, the New York Times writes. “One of [the group’s] founders, Ed Failor Jr., is the executive vice president of Iowans for Tax Relief and worked for Senator McCain’s Iowa campaign committee in 2007, before leaving that summer, when Mr. McCain pared back operations. Records show Mr. Failor’s firm earned $50,000 from the McCain campaign. A spokesman, Christian Pinkston, said Mr. Failor had not coordinated with the campaign, adding, ‘He has not been with the campaign since July of 2007.’”
More: “(Mr. Pinkston’s firm, the Pinkston Group, had worked for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group that ran advertisements against Senator John Kerry when he ran for president in 2004.)”
And: “Fox News Channel said Thursday night that it would not accept the advertisement amid questions about its legality. That raised the possibility that other stations and networks could have similar issues, but Mr. Pinkston said he was confident the advertisement would have healthy exposure in the two states. CNN also said it turned the group down, citing a ban on negative advertisements from outside groups during the party conventions.”
In a lengthy front-page piece, the Washington Post reports on the University of Chicago Medical Center where Michelle Obama worked as an executive, noting that an initiative at the center “provides a window into the close relationship between the Obamas, their associates at the University of Chicago and Axelrod, the strategist most central to Barack Obama's rise. It also illustrates how that circle, and particularly Michelle, dealt with an intractable social problem that confronts many urban areas: How much care should large, nonprofit hospitals offer the poor in return for tax-exempt status?”
Republicans highlight this excerpt from the story: “Center executives said the initiative, on which they spent $2 million last year, could be a national model. Critics, however, describe the program as an attempt to ensure that the hospital retains only affluent patients with insurance… Edward Novak, president of Chicago's Sacred Heart Hospital, declined to discuss the center's initiative in particular but dismissed as ‘bull’ attempts to justify such programs as good for patients. ‘What they're really saying is, “Don't use our emergency room because it will cost us money, and we don't want the public-aid population,”’ Novak said.”
MICHIGAN : A new Detroit Free Press poll has Obama leading McCain, 46%-39%. “Independents, women and Wayne County voters helped boost Democrat Barack Obama to a 7-point lead over Republican John McCain in the presidential race in Michigan, according to a Detroit Free Press-Local 4 Michigan Poll conducted this week. Obama's 46% to 39% statewide advantage is especially aided by his bulge of 39 percentage points among voters in Wayne County, including Detroit.”
More: “Still, the numbers could move. Nearly one-third -- 31% -- of those questioned in the Free Press-Local 4 poll said they could be persuaded to change their minds by Election Day on Nov. 4.”
And: “• Obama leads 80%-13% among Detroit voters.
The AP : "It was a coup for Democrats: An emerging young evangelical voice, a registered Republican no less, accepted their invitation to deliver a prayer at next week's Democratic National Convention. But Cameron Strang, the 32-year-old editor of edgy and hip Relevant Magazine, had second thoughts and pulled out of delivering the benediction on the convention's first night, Monday. Citing fears that his bridge-building gesture would be wrongly construed as an endorsement, Strang said he instead hopes to take a lower-profile role, participating in a convention caucus meeting on religion later in the week." AP .Monday , Tuesday and Wednesday .
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro answered "Yes" when a reporter from USA Today asked if he'd made up his mind on his VP choice. He didn't say who, and he demurred when asked if he'd told the individual.
"Uh, that's all I'm going to comment on," he said, according to audio on USA Today's Web site.
Earlier today, Obama campaigned with thought-to-be veep finalist Tim Kaine in Virginia. He also met with him beforehand.
Today, Joe Biden is back to silence .
And nary a mention in the news today of Evan Bayh .
*** UPDATE ***
From Mike Memoli and Carrie Dann WILMINGTON, Del. -- The Joe Biden of stakeouts past -- the one who handed out bagels and willingly stopped for quick chats -- is gone. A man who seemed to relish the attention of the press during the first two days of the veep vigil is now all business and acting, dare we say, more vice presidential.
News crews have had only brief sightings of the Delaware senator today. Instead of driving his pickup truck, Biden rode shotgun as he left his house in the car of a staffer this morning. Seen in more formal attire, Biden headed downtown to seemingly run errands, talking often on the phone as he went.
Biden also stopped in at a local cafe, but the potential VP pick managed to sneak out a different exit. Asked if the senator went out the front door or a back door, a waitress smiled and said, "He's avoiding you guys. Stop following him."
By this time, Biden had returned at his home, called the "Lake House" in Biden Land. Eventually his wife, Jill, and son, Beau, also arrived. But less than an hour passed before Biden left again, this time driving in a silver SUV with his wife, with nary a whisper -- or some munchables for the press.
A Biden spokesperson said he had no events on the public schedule today. At the nearest airport, no signs of an impending departure. And still no text message from the Obama campaign announcing a selection.
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones CHESTER, VA -- In another effort to show that McCain doesn't get middle-class concerns, Obama joked about the interview his rival gave yesterday in which the Arizona senator could not recall the number of houses he owns.
Obama, who is fighting to win over voters that are struggling economically, has consistently sought to show that he would be a better steward of the economy than his GOP rival. In nearly every speech in recent days, he has argued that McCain doesn’t get what ordinary American are facing, reminding people of McCain advisor Phil Gramm’s comment about America being a “nation of whiners” and about McCain’s Saddleback quip defining rich as an income of $5 million.
“Yesterday, [McCain] was asked again, what do you think about the economy? He says, Well, I think the economy is fundamentally strong; said the economy is fundamentally strong,” he told a crowd of about 250 people.
The presumptive Democratic nominee said he had been puzzled by the remark until he heard about an interview in which McCain asked the publication to check with his staff on the number of homes he owned.
“So they asked his staff and he said, at least four. At least four. Now think about that. I guess if you think that being rich means you gotta make $5 million, and if you don’t know how many houses you have, then it’s not surprising that you might think the economy is fundamentally strong!” he said incredulously. “But if you’re like me and you’ve got one house or you were like the millions of people who are struggling right now to keep up with their mortgage so that they don’t lose their home, you might have a different perspective.”
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones Obama campaign announces that he's chosen Hillary Clinton as his running mate.
Don't bet on it.
Obama spokesperson Jen Psaki scoffed that she had received a hoax text saying the Illinois Democrat had chosen Suri Cruise -- the much-photographed 2-year-old daughter of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes -- but otherwise would not comment.
There's still no official word on when supporters (and reporters) can expect to receive Obama's real veep announcement.
From NBC's Jeannie Ohm Joe Biden's son, Beau, to Iraq: This will be his first deployment to Iraq and the first with the Army National Guard, which he joined in 2003. Moreover, he's going with the 261st Signal brigade, which is part of the brigade headquarters.
They leave for Ft. Bliss, Texas in early October and will undergo training there for a month or. An official says it's safe to say that the brigade will be in Iraq before the end of the year. The length of deployment will be one year. No word yet where they will be in Iraq and which division they will fall under.
From NBC's Mark Murray Obama camp is already up with a TV ad hitting McCain for his admission that he doesn't know how many homes he and wife Cindy own. (Hat tip: Ambinder and Ben Smith .)
McCain spokesman Brian Rogers has emailed this response to the coordinated Dem attack on McCain's homes: “Does a guy who made more than $4 million last year, just got back from vacation on a private beach in Hawaii and bought his own million-dollar mansion with the help of a convicted felon really want to get into a debate about houses? Does a guy who worries about the price of arugula and thinks regular people 'cling' to guns and religion in the face of economic hardship really want to have a debate about who’s in touch with regular Americans?"
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro All about Hillary : Even after she ended her presidential bid back in June, perhaps we should have guessed that this presidential contest (or at least the convention) was still going to be about the Clintons. And our new NBC/WSJ poll is the latest evidence to back this up. In the survey, Obama leads McCain by three points, 45%-42%, which is down from his six-point advantage last month. Our pollsters identified a few factors behind the tightening race -- the Russia-Georgia conflict, McCain’s negative ads, and lingering doubts about Obama -- but the biggest reason why this race remains close in this Dem-leaning political environment is because of Obama’s inability to close the deal with some of Clinton’s supporters. According to the poll, 52% of them say they will vote for the presumptive Democratic nominee, but 21% are backing McCain and an additional 27% are either undecided or want to vote for someone else. For that reason, NBC/WSJ co-pollster Peter Hart (D) says Clinton’s convention speech on Tuesday, as well as when her name is put in nomination, will be significant. “The Democratic convention is more than a coronation,” Hart explains. “It is an event where the words of Hillary Clinton are probably going to be exceptionally important.”
*** More on the Clinton factor: To take Obama's problem with some Clinton voters a step further, our pollsters looked at those HRC backers who aren't voting for Obama. They made up 11% of the survey, and they tend to lean Democratic: They disapprove of Bush's job, believe the country is on the wrong track, and slightly favor Dems on a generic ballot. But -- and this is a big but -- they have a much better impression of McCain than they do of Obama. Among this group, Obama's fav/unfav is 24%-50% (McCain's is 43%-20%); 55% say they don't identify with Obama's values and background (just 18% of them say that about McCain); and 65% say they are uncomfortable with Obama as president (only 36% believe that about McCain). Considering how important former Clinton primary voters seem to be in our NBC/WSJ poll, it might be worth keeping a closer eye on Clinton's stumping trip for Obama in Florida today. She'll be campaigning for a demographic that hasn't been one Obama's stronger voting groups: older white women in Palm Beach County
*** McCain’s weaknesses : While McCain has cut Obama’s lead in half, the Arizona senator still faces some steep challenges -- challenges that his campaign has yet to address. For one thing, 77% believe that McCain would closely follow President Bush’s policies, which is unchanged since March. NBC/WSJ co-pollster Neil Newhouse (R) says that if one of the McCain camp’s goals this summer was to distance McCain from Bush, “that wasn’t achieved.” In addition, November is still shaping up to be a change election (60% say they want a president who will focus on progress and moving America forward, versus 35% who want the next president to focus on protecting what has made America great), and yet McCain has to seize the “change” mantle or even try to. One of the most striking things in this current tightening of the race is that it’s come without McCain addressing his own weaknesses. To use a tennis analogy, it’s like a player advancing to center court without working on his backhand. It’s an impressive feat, but it also increases the likelihood of that weakness being exploited in the biggest game of his life. Then again, it may be why the Lieberman-for-VP chatter is more serious than some think. In one fell swoop, McCain could lower that following-Bush's-policies number by quite a bit if he picked just one of the two sitting senators who actually ran against Bush as a Democrat. Lieberman, however, backs much of Bush’s foreign policy.
*** Coming home : But McCain does have something going for him that he didn’t have a few months ago: Republican voters are coming home. In June's NBC/WSJ poll, a generic Democratic presidential candidate held a 16-point advantage over a generic GOP one (51%-35%). In July, it was a 12-point margin (48%-36%). And now, it's just nine points (46%-37%). What’s more, the generic congressional ballot test is closer than it has been since the fall of 2006. Yet even though Republicans appear to be coming home, McCain is still facing a tremendous enthusiasm gap. In the poll, 46% of Obama voters say they are excited about voting for him. Just 12% of McCain voters say that about him. In a close race -- if the Clinton voters don’t come home for Obama -- that could be a HUGE factor. By the way, don't miss the fact that McCain has slightly more Republicans supporting him (85%) than Obama has Democrats for him (79%). McCain leads among indies, but it's within the margin (42%-38%). Also, the party ID split in this poll between Dems and GOPers was just nine points, a low for the last year.
*** Talkin’ ‘bout my generation : Here’s another noteworthy finding in the NBC/WSJ poll: Obama holds a humongous 55%-37% lead among voters 18 to 34. But among all voters 35 and older, McCain has a one-point lead. How many young voters turn out to vote in November, as well as their margin for Obama, could be the single biggest thing to watch on in the exit polls on Election Night.
*** Veep watch : Nobody has any news... the rumors are as crazy as we said they would be on Monday. But the tea leaves are around us, and when the pick's made we'll all be able to say, "Well, sure, of course it was X, when the two met at such-and-such, it was obvious!" Seriously, it is interesting to see the body language of the supposed final three Dems. Biden's downright cocky about his chances, the pick-up truck trips are a nice touch (even Chicago must be smiling) and the winning over of the stakeout crews with coffee and bagels. Bayh's been more reclusive and Kaine's got the "I'm just happy to be considered" swagger about him. On the GOP side, there isn't the same intense focus by the media just yet since we may hours away from a Dem pick. But many conservatives are nervous that two of the supposed leading candidates to be McCain's running mate -- Romney and Pawlenty -- are being dispatched to Denver. Would the eventual running mate really be on convention surrogate duty just days before he was to be the pick? Also, Obama stumps with Tim Kaine today in Chester, VA.
*** Lobbyist rant : Both candidates are asking for lots of ridiculous hypocrite-type "gotcha" coverage on this lobbyist issue, because there are so many examples where the campaigns don't appear to be practicing what the candidate preaches. Yesterday, McCain unloaded on lobbyists, claiming they never get anything from him, etc. But his campaign is littered with ex-lobbyists. Not to be outdone, Obama talks a lot about cleansing Washington from the ills lobbyists and yet he, too, regularly keeps lobbyists in his campaign. Sometimes, the campaign argues that so-and-so isn't a "current" lobbyist, or they'll argue that the person is an unpaid adviser. Bottom line: The candidates may truly believe that lobbyists are part of the problem in Washington, but they both have exposed themselves to major cynicism by the press -- and eventually by the voters -- because of how frequent lobbyists pop up on behalf of both candidates.
*** On the trail : McCain is on vacation in Sedona, AZ though the weekend. Obama, in Virginia, stumps in Chester and Chesapeake. And Clinton campaigns for Obama in Florida. Click here to sign up for First Read emails .
The Wall Street Journal writes up the NBC/WSJ poll, which has Obama leading 45%-42%. “Sen. John McCain has all but closed the gap with Sen. Barack Obama, underscoring how international crises -- and some well-placed negative ads -- have boosted the prospects of the Republican presidential candidate.” The poll “also points to a big challenge for Sen. Obama as his party gathers in Denver next week for its convention: rallying Sen. Hillary Clinton's supporters to his cause. Only half of those who voted for Sen. Clinton in the primaries say they are now supporting Sen. Obama. One in five is supporting Sen. McCain. The Republican has reached out to Clinton supporters by offering steady praise for the former first lady and hinting that he'd be open to a running mate who supports abortion rights.”
“The poll has some cautionary notes for Sen. McCain as well. It shows that his supporters are much less enthusiastic than Sen. Obama's, and finds widespread concern among voters about his age.”
Here’s MSNBC.com’s write-up.
The latest New York Times/CBS poll also has the race at 45%-42%. “The poll suggested that victory remains very much within the grasp of both men as the marathon presidential race enters its most decisive period… Still, the poll showed troubling signs for Mr. McCain, who continues to suffer from a wide gap in enthusiasm. Mr. Obama’s supporters were twice as likely to describe themselves as enthusiastic as Mr. McCain’s were. Only 24 percent of Mr. McCain’s supporters called themselves enthusiastic; 28 percent said that they were supporting him only because he was the Republican Party’s probable nominee, or because they disliked Mr. Obama.”
More: “There were indications that the more negative tone Mr. McCain adopted this summer could prove risky. Efforts by Republicans and Mr. McCain’s campaign to cast his opponent as elitist or out of touch do not seem to have moved popular opinion much against Mr. Obama, but they appear to have led more voters to view Mr. McCain as a negative campaigner.”
The tightening race is the cover of the New York Post . "McSurge." Subhead: "Poll roll blows away O lead."
The Boston Globe sums up the enigma of Joe Lieberman. "Lieberman, the Connecticut independent, sits in a position of extraordinary power in the presidential campaign, simultaneously courted and detested by members of both political parties." said “there are consequences” for Lieberman speaking at the Republican convention.
The AP uses the Biden speculation to write about Obama's resume gaps. "Obama is keeping his decision quiet, but his staff in Chicago and party activists are buzzing about Biden, in large part because he can address two of Obama's biggest weaknesses - his lack of experience, especially on world affairs, and his reluctance to attack his opponent."
More compiled by NBC/NJ’s Matthew E. Berger…DEMOCRATS : Biden went to the dump Wednesday but wouldn’t comment on anything, including his recent trip to Georgia. “I have not had another single thing I can tell you,” he said. Lots of buzz that Obama would be heading to Indianapolis on Saturday, raising the stakes of Sen. Evan Bayh as veep. But the Obama campaign shot the report down. And in DC, Bayh dragged a gym bag behind his car for about a block Wednesday after leaving his garage. He opened his passenger door to free the bag but drove off without it. Reporters staking out his Washington home returned it to his front door and he later retrieved it.
CONTINUED >>
Did McCain just hand the Dems something to hammer him on regarding his own "celebrity"? In an interview with Politico , he couldn't correctly answer the question of how many homes he owns. (A Dem source emails First Read that McCain has 10 homes.) *** UPDATE *** Our friends at Politifact note that McCain owns seven homes.
Also in the interview, McCain flatly ruled out a one-term pledge ...
In our latest NBC/WSJ poll, the issue didn't test well at all. More than 80% said McCain pledging just one term wouldn't make any difference in their vote.
Speaking of those McCain homes, the New Republic writes a long piece about Cindy McCain’s father, her college days, and her marriage to John McCain.
The Washington Post runs a very flattering profile of Steve Schmidt. Also, don't miss the shot at pundits in general, but David Gergen individually. "Nonetheless, Schmidt says he won't allow the campaign to get thrown off by momentary distractions and pundits shooting from the hip. To that end, he and his colleagues have developed what they jokingly call the ‘Dave Gergen theory of the campaign’ -- a metaphor for all talking heads.” Gergen, a veteran of four presidential administrations, is a frequent pundit on cable news. If senior members of the campaign disagree on a strategic move, they watch what Gergen has to say. They then do the opposite."
Stumping in Virginia, "Obama pledged yesterday to create millions of union jobs in alternative energy and to end tax breaks for companies that move jobs overseas, using tough new populist language to persuade voters that he, not Republican rival John McCain, is best positioned to lift the limping US economy," the Boston Globe writes. Washington Post : “Obama came to economically distressed Southside alongside Mark R. Warner, a popular former governor who seven years ago made the strongest electoral showing in rural Virginia of any statewide Democratic candidate in a generation. Warner is running for U.S. Senate, and Democrats hope he can help Obama snare Virginia's 13 electoral votes. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee spoke to workers laid off from nearby factories at a packed town hall meeting in a cavernous warehouse here used by Patrick Henry Community College to train workers in the auto-racing industry. U.S. flags and race cars surrounded the stage.”
In fact, Obama's trip to Virginia and focus on the economy lands him on the front page of several Virginia papers. See here , here , here , here , here , here , here , and here . in full conspiracy mode . Apparently the University of Illinois “has refused to release records related to the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee's past service for a nonprofit educational project that put him in contact with activist [William] Ayers, a 1960s-era radical who helped found an organization advocating violence for political change. Ayers is now an education professor at the school. The university's Chicago campus maintains that the donor of the records that document the work of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge has not officially handed over ownership rights and, therefore, the school cannot open the documents to public inspection."
The AP curtain-raises what it dubs the "Great Lakes" region. "The GOP presidential candidate is mounting strong challenges to Democratic rival Barack Obama in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, and eyeing Minnesota -- four states that have thwarted Republicans in at least four straight elections. The Arizona senator is also fighting to hang on to Ohio, a bellwether that President Bush won twice." Meanwhile, Obama is fighting to turn Indiana.New York Times interviews voters in rural Pennsylvania, who have doubts about Obama and also McCain. “From the desolation of Aliquippa — where the Jones & Laughlin steel mill loomed at the foot of the main boulevard — to the fading beauty of Beaver Falls to the neatly tended homes of retired steel workers in Hopewell, one hears much hesitating talk about Mr. Obama, some simply quizzical or skeptically political, and some not-so-subtly racial.”
Also: “This said, Mr. McCain quickens few pulses. Vietnam, where he served in the military and was held captive for more than five years, seems distant. And not all laugh at his commercials poking fun at Mr. Obama’s ‘celebrity’ status.”
Apparently, the Clinton campaign is dispatching a whip team to try and quell protests of Obama from their most supportive delegates. But isn't it possible that the presence of the whip team could actually inadvertently encourage hijinks? dropped plans to top the holding cells in place for use during next week's Democratic convention with razor wire after some groups started comparing the site to the detention facility for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba." New York Daily News breaks down some Democratic convention procedures and speakers.New York Daily News also profiles Mark Warner, the convention's keynote.
From NBC's Alex Wall Manchin (D) said he predicts that Gov. Tim Kaine (D-VA) will be Obama's No. 2.
Speaking to a reporter from WSAZ in Charleston, W.V., Manchin made the case for his "dear friend."
From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy and NBC's Aram Roston and NBC/NJ's Athena Jones On a conference call intended to discuss recent reports that a foreign policy advisor for the Obama campaign met with Syria’s foreign minister last month in Damascus, McCain senior foreign policy advisor Randy Scheunemann and Rudy Giuliani were instead peppered with questions about their personal histories and McCain’s VP selection process.
The call began with the two surrogates railing against Daniel Kurtzer , an advisor to the Obama campaign and a former American ambassador to Israel under the Bush administration and Egypt in both the Clinton and Bush administrations. The McCain campaign charged that Kurtzer should have disclosed the meeting earlier and seized on a New York Sun quote, in which Kurtzer, reportedly said, "None of us thought we were being used or abused, but we will see over time."
The Obama campaign said Kurtzer was attending a conference as a "private citizen" and was not sent by Obama.
The first question came from Ron Kampeas from the JTA, a Jewish news wire service, who asked if there was an “imbalance” on the call due to both participants foreign lobbying and legal involvement. First Kampeas asked about Giuliani’s legal dealings with Citgo, the Chavez government and the Saudis -- all of which Giuliani said were “factually inaccurate.”
Then the he began to ask about Scheunemann’s extensive lobbying involvement with the country of Georgia when he was abruptly disconnected. Scheunemann nonetheless addressed a portion of his question, saying he “got the gist of his statement if not his question.”
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones Obama surrogates Susan Rice and Richard Clarke held a conference call this afternoon to talk about recent remarks by McCain about Obama's judgment and patriotism.
Rice, Obama's senior foreign policy adviser, said it was McCain was practicing Karl Rove-style "do anything, say anything", "gutter" politics to hide what she called his bad policy judgment. She pointed to Sunday's New York Times article about McCain's early support for invading Iraq after 9/11.
Rice repeated Obama's argument that McCain had shown bad judgment in his approach to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan -- and said he had made "flip comments" about Iran, referring to his "bomb, bomb Iran" comments last year.
Clarke compared McCain to "extreme neo-conservative" policy types because of his early support for the Iraq war and suggested he was "reckless" and "trigger happy."
From NBC's Mark Murray Obama campaign has announced it will begin airing a new ad in Georgia that links McCain to Ralph Reed , the former business partner of Jack Abramoff who helped raise money for McCain (but was a no-show at a recent Atlanta fundraiser).
Reed lost a GOP primary for lieutenant governor of Georgia in large part because of his ties to Abramoff.
The script: "It was one of Washington’s biggest scandals. And the Republican power broker Ralph Reed was in the middle of it. In deep with convicted felon and lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
“But when the Senate investigated, the senator in charge never even called Reed to testify... And that senator? John McCain. And who’s now raising money for McCain’s campaign? Ralph Reed. For 26 years in Washington, John McCain’s played the same old games. We just can’t afford more of the same.”
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
"John McCain’s tax plan: For big corporations -- $200 billion in new tax breaks," an announcers says. "Oil companies -- $4 billion. Companies shipping jobs overseas keep their tax giveaways. While 100 million Americans get no tax relief at all."
The McCain campaign has run several ads knocking Obama on taxes -- misleadingly -- with the demographic.
The Obama campaign says the ad, entitled "Three Times," will run in the battlegrounds of Colorado, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Virginia.
The title reflects that Obama has proposed a tax cut for the middle class that is three times what McCain's plan calls for.
By the way, the ad's tag line: "Barack Obama. President." Does that remind anyone else of this ?
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Chris Donovan If McCain decides to buck conservative critics and choose Joe Lieberman as his running mate, Lieberman will again make vice presidential candidate history. In 2000 he became the first Jewish-American to serve as a vice presidential candidate (or to be on a major political party's presidential ticket for that matter), and if he joins McCain on this year's Republican ticket he will be the first man to serve as the vice presidential nominee for two different major political parties. Tilden ), Democrat Thomas Hendricks was successful in becoming vice president eight years later in 1884 (when Grover Cleveland was elected). King was not so lucky. He ran unsucessfully as Charles Pinckney's running mate twice: in 1804 and then again in 1808 -- 200 years ago.
NOTE: Whig John Tyler was one of a few unsuccessful vice presidential candidates for several Whig presidential candidates in 1836 -- they didn't settle on one nominee -- and then went on to win the vice presidency in 1840.
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- As Obama has focused on the economy almost exclusively on the campaign trail in recent days, he has begun to sound more and more like his former rival Hillary Clinton , co-opting her rhetoric on being a “fighter” for ordinary Americans.McCain's policies favor big corporations and the rich, he will look out for the middle class.
This election is about “deciding right here and right now that we are gonna fight to make government accountable to the American people to make sure that the special interests aren’t dominating Washington,” Obama told the crowd of about 350 here at a community college in the southern part of the state.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli Biden is doing his best to hold his tongue.
Now dealing with constant surveillance, the could-be VP is deflecting questions about his status, one day after he raised eyebrows after professing not to be “the guy” (then later claimed to know nothing more than we did). Instead, he is presenting a picture of himself as an every-day Joe Sixpack, heading off from time to time in his pickup truck and offering some of the casual conversation the loquacious senator is known for.
“A successful dump,” he shouted from his car window when asked if he had anything to report. Earlier, he had left with a pile of logs in the back of his truck. “I got a second load, guys, anybody wants to help me, let me know,” he said, also introducing his baseball-playing nephew in the passenger seat.
When a reporter asked if he had any reaction to the announcement that his caucus-mate Joe Lieberman would speak at the Republican National Convention, Biden said, “I have not had another single thing I can tell you,” Biden said.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro Obama's newly named senior adviser and Jewish outreach coordinator, who joined Obama on his trip to Israel, lobbied on behalf of the American Petroleum Institute , according to the Senate Office of Public Records Lobbying Disclosure Act database.
The entries, from February to August of this year, show Timmons & Co. was paid $660,000 by API for the instances in which Shapiro helped lobby. Since 1998, Timmons & Co. has collected more than $3.6 million from API, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.Center for Responsive Politics has a “Revolving Door” profile of him. Martin Paone , the former secretary of the U.S. Senate. That job is now Nancy Erickson's . McCain campaign has several lobbyists working for it, but Obama has vowed to not to have federal lobbyists involved with his campaign or allow them in an Obama administration.
The Obama campaign has not yet given a response on the news of Shapiro’s lobbying past.
*** UPDATE *** The Obama campaign's response. The Obama campaign tells First Read that Shapiro de-registered as a federal lobbyist on Aug. 11, and is therefore not in violation of any standard the campaign has set, spokesman Hari Sevugan said. Prior to Aug. 11, Shapiro was an unpaid adviser.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Chuck Todd Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani will keynote the Republican National Convention. One-time Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Lieberman will also speak at the Republican convention.
Full list/schedule (Central Time) below:Overall Theme: Country First Mon -- Service Day Tues -- Reform Day Wed -- Prosperity Day Thurs --
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro Biden walks it back: Yesterday, all the signs pointed to the fact that Biden was emerging Obama’s likely VP pick -- until the Delaware senator quickly seemed to dash that speculation yesterday. “You guys have better things to do,” Biden told the reporters staking him out, as he was leaving his home in Delaware to play golf. "I'm not the guy." But upon his return, he appeared to walk back that denial. "I promise, I don't know anything, have no idea, have spoken to no one,” Biden said. Then asked whether he thinks he’s still being considered, he answered: "I have no idea. You guys know as well as I do. See ya, fellas." A Biden source told us not to read too much into his "I’m-not-the-guy" statement, saying he was pretending not to be Biden -- rather than stating he wasn’t going to be Obama’s VP. Also, does anyone think Biden would have been out golfing and smiling had he found out he wasn't the guy?
*** McCain’s pro-choice head fake? The McCain campaign has very adroit of late of inserting itself into the media narrative at times when the assumption that Obama was going to own a week. And with Obama’s VP selection coming up, this is one of those weeks. The focus is supposed to be ALL on Obama. Yet instead, it's become a true split-screen story now that McCain's camp is purportedly considering Lieberman or Ridge for the No. 2 slot. Could it be that McCain has no interest in picking Ridge or Lieberman, but wants the country and swing voters to think they might? Nothing like having Limbaugh and other conservatives issuing warning shots in public on this to bolster McCain's independent status. Then again, the risk of playing this game is that if McCain ends up picking Pawlenty or Romney, the spin could be he blinked in the face of conservative attacks. Still, this week, McCain's camp has once again showed how effective it is in creating just as much buzz on a story that many thought Obama would dominate by himself.
*** Just askin’: Considering how important Virginia is to Obama and his electoral strategy, does anyone think he'll step on his bus tour in the state by announcing his running mate while he’s there today and tomorrow? Wouldn’t that create havoc with his trip and allowing the VP craziness to step on his appearances with Warner (today’s companion) and Kaine (tomorrow’s)?
*** The narrowing race: Yesterday morning, Quinnipiac came out with a poll showing that McCain had cut Obama’s lead from nine points (50%-41%) to five (47%-42%). And that was followed by an LA Times/Bloomberg survey showing that Obama’s advantage had been reduced from 12 points (49% to 37%) to just two (45%-43%). There are a couple of ways to look at these numbers. The obvious one is that McCain’s negative onslaught, combined with the Russia-Georgia conflict, as well as Obama’s weeklong vacation, has narrowed this race considerably. In short, McCain has had a very good last two weeks. On the other hand, despite it all, McCain’s still behind and unable to get out of the low 40s; Obama’s numbers have gone down, but McCain’s really haven’t gone up. Nevertheless, there is no longer this widespread belief among the wise guys and gals of both parties that we're all just sitting around waiting for this race to break in Obama's direction. The polls -- as well as the money race -- suggest otherwise. The political fundamentals (the mood of the country, the enthusiasm gap, Bush’s approval rating) still favor Obama. But something has changed where (1) Obama can’t make many more mistakes and expect to win and (2) the McCain camp thinks it can win. That wasn’t the case a few months ago.
*** Poll tease time: And by the way, the national poll of record -- the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll -- comes out tonight at 6:30 pm ET. Will the numbers show a similar tightening? Something different? And just how important will Hillary Clinton’s supporters be to Obama’s success in the fall? Tune into NBC Nightly News or log on to MSNBC.com.
*** On the trail: McCain holds a town hall in Las Cruces, NM before leaving for his vacation in Sedona, AZ. Obama, in Virginia, holds economic town hall meetings in Martinsville and Lynchburg.
Countdown to Dem convention: 5 daysClick here to sign up for First Read emails.
Conservatives spent much of yesterday warning McCain (not so quietly) against picking either Tom Ridge or Joe Lieberman. The Washington Times : "Republican Party officials in several states are in a frenzy over how to persuade Sen. John McCain not to invite pro-choice Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman to be the Arizona senator's running mate. One of the state GOP officials said he talked with two ‘high-level’ Mr. McCain campaign officials who said that ‘Lieberman is a very real possibility.’”
But others in the McCain camp seemed to shoot down the prospect. The New York Times : “‘I think there’s such sufficient understanding at the most senior levels of this campaign of the importance of the pro-family constituency that I’m very comfortable with how the selection process is proceeding,’ one Republican strategist close to the campaign said. ‘I think social conservatives will be fine.’”
More: "Such a formulation would be unlikely to satisfy Rush Limbaugh, the conservative radio talk show host and longtime McCain nemesis, who on Tuesday sounded a siren for his listeners. ‘If he picks a pro-choice running mate, it’s not going to be pretty,’ Mr. Limbaugh warned, adding that Mr. McCain would have ‘effectively destroyed the Republican Party and pushed the conservative movement into the bleachers.’”
“Republicans said Mr. Romney remained a contender, although the two were bitter rivals in the primary campaign and do not have strong chemistry. In addition, Mr. Romney, a Mormon, could be a difficult sell to Christian conservatives. A person associated with Mr. Romney said Tuesday that he had detected no strong interest from the McCain campaign in recent weeks. Republicans said Mr. Pawlenty, an evangelical Christian, was also a strong possibility. His main drawback is that he has little name recognition outside of Minnesota."
Does it sound like Biden here? The Chicago Tribune : "Obama said he was looking for a running mate who is independent and has 'integrity' and got into politics 'for the right reasons.' 'I want somebody who is mad right now that people are losing their jobs and is mad right now that people are seeing their incomes decline,' Obama said. 'That's the kind of person that I want, somebody who in their gut knows … that we have to grow this country from the bottom up.'"
The New York Times profiles Kathleen Sebelius.
Another national poll -- Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg -- shows the race tightening. “John McCain has begun rallying dispirited Republicans behind him, while Democratic rival Barack Obama has made scant progress building new support, leaving the presidential race statistically tied… The survey highlights Obama's vulnerability on the question of his readiness to lead the nation. Less than half of the registered voters polled think the first-term Illinois senator has the ‘right’ experience to be president, while 80% believe McCain, a four-term senator, does. The poll also illustrates some racial undercurrents that confront Obama as he strives to become the first African American president. Nine percent of voters say they would feel uncomfortable voting for a black candidate. Most voters say they know people who feel that way. About one in six say the country is not ready to elect a black president.”
“For now, voters favor Obama on the economy, the issue they rank as most important. Also, independents, a crucial swing bloc, are leaning toward Obama. And Obama's supporters remain more enthusiastic than McCain's, a sign that the Democratic candidate may be able to turn out more voters.”
The Washington Post wonders if both Obama and McCain have caused themselves a little heartburn on the contentious issue of abortion. "Obama's hesitant statement at the forum that defining the beginning of life is ‘above my pay grade’ took even some supporters by surprise. Since then, the National Right to Life Committee has challenged him on an obscure law that protects babies born alive after failed abortions, saying that his opposition to the measure in the Illinois state legislature proves he is an extremist.”
“McCain's performance at the forum seemed to hearten many conservatives, not only because of his firm, uncompromising stand against abortion but his broader appeals on global warming, genocide and the embrace of causes greater than self. But the clarity that McCain exhibited at Saddleback has been somewhat diminished with his suggestion that his running mate might favor abortion rights."
The New York Times fact-checks that charge from the National Right to Life Committee that Obama somehow supports infanticide. “In 2002, President Bush signed a federal ‘born alive’ law. The measure passed by sweeping majorities in Congress, with the support of many legislators who usually vote against legislation favored by groups seeking to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. Even organizations like the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, now known as Naral Pro-Choice America, did not oppose the bill. Mr. Obama has repeatedly said that he would have been willing to vote for such a measure in Illinois had it been identical to the federal statute. But ‘that was not the bill that was presented at the state level,’ he said Saturday. ‘What that bill also was doing was trying to undermine Roe v. Wade.’”
CONTINUED >>
McCain went to an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico yesterday to drill home his energy policy -- and bash Democratic rival Barack Obama. "Senator Obama opposes new drilling," McCain said. "He has said it will not 'solve our problem' and that 'it's not real.' He's wrong, and the American people know it."… [McCain] and his aides believe the pocketbook approach can connect with voters -- and, in turn, suggest that Obama wants people to pay more for gas, food, and heating."
The New York Times : “Despite the urgency that Mr. McCain attached to the [energy] problem, Democrats noted that he had missed every vote on a 2007 energy bill that increased fuel economy standards for the first time in three decades. Mr. McCain also missed all eight votes on a renewable energy bill that was defeated last month.”
Maureen Dowd writes of a scripted (fictional?) conversation between McCain and Hillary -- who supposedly are conspiring to defeat Obama.
The New York Times picks up on the fact that the Obama campaign has been running a lot of negative ads in some key states. "Obama has begun the drive with little fanfare, often eschewing the modern campaign technique of unveiling new spots for the news media before they run in an effort to win added (free) attention. Mr. Obama, whose candidacy has been built in part on a promise to transcend traditional politics, is running the negative commercials on local stations even as he runs generally positive spots nationally, during prime-time coverage of the Olympics.”
“The negative spots reflect the sharper tone Mr. Obama has struck in recent days on the stump as he heads into his party’s nominating convention in Denver next week, and seem to address the anxiety among some Democrats that Mr. Obama has not answered a volley of attacks by Mr. McCain with enough force."
The Los Angeles Times also picks up on the Obama negative TV ad strategy. "The Obama campaign, which would not release details about the ad buys, has kept relatively quiet about the advertising, eschewing the now-standard practice of touting new ads to reporters in hopes of getting free coverage. The ads are not posted on Obama's website.”
ARIZONA: McCain leads by 10 points, 40%-30%, in his home state, according to an Arizona State University poll . Twenty-eight percent said they were undecided. The poll showed the same spread in June with more undecided then.
NORTH CAROLINA: "This was Obama's second post-primary stop in North Carolina. Both were in Raleigh, where Obama hopes to reach high-tech workers and transplants. Obama said the Bush administration has been ‘anti-science.’”
“Obama has also been reaching out to more rural voters, talking about McCain's opposition to the farm bill that recently passed Congress. Obama had hoped to make a bus tour of Eastern North Carolina on Tuesday, wending his way to Raleigh. But the plan was scratched when Obama's plane had difficulty leaving Orlando, Fla., because of Tropical Storm Fay."
Romney "is
to speak Tuesday at a counter-rally organized by Republicans in Denver near where Democrats will be gathered."
The
AP : "Business and labor interests have donated millions to the Democratic and Republican convention host committees in exchange for premium seats and special access. Many institutions will also hold parties and receptions where lawmakers can get an earful -- though not more than a mouthful -- from lobbyists and their clients. New ethics restrictions have changed the comfort level for convention parties and receptions. The rules permit food and refreshment of a nominal value, but not a meal. That limitation has turned questions once left to the kitchen, such as when finger food is more than just an hors d'oeuvre, into head-scratching legal issues."
A
little Illinois drama for "No Drama Obama"... "Democratic National Committee officials delivered a high-profile snub to Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Tuesday, announcing that three of his biggest potential rivals for re-election would be given speaking roles on the opening night of the party's nominating convention. But the beleaguered two-term governor, whose administration faces multiple federal investigations involving jobs, contracts and fundraising, is not scheduled to speak at the convention. DNC officials said state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, a longtime loyalist of Sen. Barack Obama, will be among the opening night speakers. Also on stage that night will be Comptroller Dan Hynes and Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan."
From NBC/NJ's Matthew Berger THE SHORT LIST: NBC/NJ’s Mike Memoli asked Sen. Joe Biden where he’d be Saturday, and he pointed to his Delaware driveway and said “Here.” He later told reporters, “I’m not the guy.” on the rise ? GOP officials may be looking at whether he can legally be on the Republican ballot, since he isn’t a party member. confirmed plans for a major event in Springfield, Illinois Saturday, but isn’t confirming that Obama’s veep will be there or whether the announcement will come that day.
ON THE RECORD: Obama praised Biden Tuesday, calling him a “friend” and echoing his call for $1 billion in reconstruction assistance for Georgia. crap .” He said doing so would have “effectively destroyed the Republican Party and pushed the conservative movement into the bleachers.” said little at the Richmond governor’s mansion today: “The campaign is in control of all the announcements, and I’m not going to talk about my conversations with the campaign.”
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Lauren Appelbaum While walking to the governor's mansion for lunch, Virginia Gov. Tim
Kaine told reporters he is still flattered to be mentioned as an Obama VP prospect, but said he is focused on helping
Obama win his typically red state.
"My main focus is Virginia, both governing, but also the fact that for the first time in so many years we have a presidential race that's truly competitive here," Kaine said in Richmond, Va., to NBC affiliate WWBT. "It's just a great thing."
Kaine would not commit to if he would be appearing with Obama in his state tomorrow or any time this week. The Virginia governor also would not say if he talked with Obama today.
"The campaign is in control of all the announcements, and I'm not going to talk about my conversations with the campaign," Kaine said. "But we're thrilled that he's going to be in Virginia tomorrow for these events in Martinsville and Lynchburg. And it's just proof of the fact that Virginia is very much in play in this November cycle, which is really exciting."
From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli
Biden replied, "Here" and pointed down to his driveway.
As he pulled out of the driveway in the driver's seat of his car he then said to the press gathered near his gate, "You guys have better things to do. I'm not the guy."
From NBC's Mark Murray Chicago Sun-Times' Lynn Sweet reports -- and First Read confirms -- that the Obama campaign has booked an event in Springfield, IL on Saturday. Springfield, of course, is the same place where Obama launched his presidential bid back in February 2007.
More from Sweet: "State of Illinois authorities have been asked permission by Obama folks to reserve the historic spot at noon. This does not mean that this is the time and place where Obama announces his running mate; that could happen any time from Wednesday morning on. Obama's time frame is shrinking, so the announcement is coming soon. The new vice presidential contender will jump on the road with Obama to showcase the new partnership. Springfield is a leg on the Obama roots tour." *** UPDATE ***
From NBC/NJ's Matthew Berger Warner's speech next Tuesday night will almost certainly be second fiddle to the highly anticipated words of Sen. Hillary Clinton.
And, he’s penciled in for the same speech that Obama used four years ago to vault him to the Democratic nomination.
For Warner, the keynote address comes with a bit of risk, an advisor to the Senate candidate said recently. He is decisively ahead of former Gov. James Gilmore in the polls, and a bad speech could cost him some ground, though likely not the election.
And he’ll be speaking to a partisan audience while running in Virginia as someone who can cross party lines.
“To have him stand in front of 20,000 activists on the partisan side when he’s the bipartisan guy is an issue,” said the advisor, speaking on condition of anonymity. “That’s just something we’ll finesse.”
Warner will likely tout his bipartisanship and bring a message that appeals both to the Democratic base as well as independents. It is what has made him immensely popular in a traditionally Republican state. And the post-partisan message worked for Obama four years ago.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones ORLANDO, FL -- A day after
John McCain told the Veterans of Foreign Wars that
Barack Obama would "choose the path of retreat and failure for America" regarding the conflict in Iraq,
the Illinois senator demanded before the same group today that McCain not question his patriotism .
"I have never suggested that Sen. McCain picks his positions on national security based on politics or personal ambition. I have not suggested it, because I believe that he genuinely wants to serve America’s national interest. Now it’s time for him to acknowledge that I want to do the same," Obama declared in a roughly 30-minute speech to an audience of 3,000 here.
"Let me be clear: I will let no one question my love of this country. I love America, so do you, and so does John McCain. When I look out at this audience, I see people of different political views. You are Democrats and Republicans and independents. But you all served together, and fought together, and bled together under the same proud flag. You did not serve a Red America or a Blue America -- you served the United States of America.
Obama drew applause when he said the candidates should instead focus on the issues. “Let’s have a serious debate, and let’s debate our disagreements on the merits of policy -- not on personal attacks,” he said. “No matter how heated it gets or what kind of campaign he chooses to run, I will honor Sen. McCain’s service, just like I honor the service of every veteran in this room, and every American who has worn the uniform of the United States of America.”
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Mark Murray
As previously announced, Sens.
Joe Lieberman and
Lindsey Graham -- both strong allies of
McCain -- are heading to Georgia, Poland, and Ukraine. They depart today, and they follow
Joe Biden , who just returned from the region.
"We are going to Tbilisi, Warsaw, and Kyiv to meet with the leaders of these important American allies and to discuss the Russian invasion of Georgia," Lieberman said in a statement. "This is a moment in history when it is vital for the world's democracies to stand in solidarity."
Added Graham: "It's important that members of the United States Congress show support and solidarity for these young democracies, particularly in light of the recent aggression against Georgia. I believe it is in our own national security interests to stop Russia from continuing its aggressive actions against Georgia or threatening other countries in the region."
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro Veep madness : As we warned yesterday, it's silly rumor week when it comes to the VP speculation. From rumors about Obama naming his 'mate in hours to McCain picking his location to unveil his choice, both campaigns spent last night shooting down reports about who, when, and where. However, the Obama camp was more emphatic about shooting down the New York Times report (which said that an announcement could come as soon as tomorrow) than the McCain camp was about the Politico story (which noted that the Arizona senator’s pick will come on August 29, the Friday after the Dem convention).
VIDEO: With less than a week to go until the Democratic Convention, Barack Obama is expected to announce his running mate in the next few days. NBC’s Chuck Todd discusses possible choices. By the way, there are three reasons why an August 29 VP announcement for McCain could be a problem: 1) it will come as nearly every political reporter -- save those actually following McCain -- is headed on a flight from Denver to the Twin Cities; 2) it occurs at the start of the Labor Day weekend, when many Americans are probably headed to the nearest beach or lake; and 3) it’s the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Still, the upsides of picking that day: 1) it immediately forces the national press corps to turn its attention away from Obama and to McCain; 2) it steps on McCain's 72nd birthday a tad; and 3) it creates a little buzz going into the weekend of what could be one of those bad press weeks for the Republican Party, as many media outlets focus on all the Republicans NOT showing up to the convention and the Bush-Cheney opening night potential dud.
*** Things that make you go, hmmmm : Here’s a VP nugget courtesy of Politico's Mike Allen, who notes National Review’s Rich Lowry speculating that McCain's emphatic pro-life statements to Rick Warren on Saturday were about shoring up the base and preparing them for the Tom Ridge pick. It’s not a bad theory. The growing Republican CW is twofold. One, Pawlenty appears to be the safest pick, given that one no one is vetoing him. And two, McCain is more likely than Obama to upend the CW with his decision. Here’s another VP nugget: We now know that Obama had one of his last face-to-face meetings with Biden before he left for Hawaii. And don’t miss this: The AP reports that Bob Woodward’s next book on the Bush Administration is scheduled to come out right after the GOP convention. That timing could step on McCain's post-convo bounce. McCain is trying to step on Obama, and Woodward may be stepping on McCain.
*** The back-and-forth : Many folks following Obama -- and not wanting to simply ask too much about the VP pick -- noticed he had a feistier tone in his stump yesterday. Of course, many used the Sunday New York Times piece about Democrats complaining about Obama's failure to define "hope" as an impetus for this "get tougher" mindset. As for McCain, there really is a difference when the issue focus shifts away from the domestic. Can you just see the bounce in McCain's step now that the issue terrain is all international? There really is a difference in candidate McCain when he is forced to stump on domestic issues and candidate McCain when he's in his international comfort zone. Yesterday's speech to the VFW was a good example.
*** The Clinton restoration project : Just as another article wonders why Obama isn’t picking Hillary Clinton as his running mate comes the news that Bill Clinton praised McCain on energy policy and climate change. Was Bill Clinton playing mind games or simply stating the obvious? Conspiracy theorists will have a field day with this…
*** There Will Be Oil : Today, McCain visits an oil rig platform in New Orleans, where he will promote his energy policies. (Certainly saying “Drill here and drill now” will make a bit more sense today than he when he said it a motorcycle rally in South Dakota.) This comes after McCain had to scrap an earlier oil rig stop in the Big Easy last month. The campaign said the reason for the cancellation was Hurricane Dolly. But as the Washington Post also noted at the time: “It may not have helped things that a 600-foot tanker loaded with oil and a barge collided Wednesday in the Mississippi River in New Orleans, leaving a 12-mile long oil slick in the river and closing a 29-mile stretch of the river. Television stations reported the stench of diesel fuel wafting across the French Quarter.” Obama’s turn before the VFW : Before McCain’s oil rig visit, Obama addresses the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Orlando, FL -- a day after McCain told the group about Obama’s “ambition to be president” and declared that “both candidates in this election pledge to end this war and bring our troops home. The great difference is that I intend to win it first.” Per the campaign, Obama “will discuss his veterans policies and his commitment to continuing support for America’s service men and women after their deployments have ended.” (Of course, whether Floridians will notice Obama in the state due to preparations for Fay is another story.) After that, he embarks on a two-and-a-half day economic bus tour through North Carolina and then Virginia.
*** Downballot spotlight : NBC/NJ’s Carrie Dann looks at the Senate race in North Carolina. When state Sen. Kay Hagan was battling through primary season against fellow Democrat Jim Neal, some observers joked that the race was generating a lot of hot air just to select a doormat for incumbent GOP Sen. Elizabeth Dole to step on in November. But since buckling in for the general election, Hagan has shown that she's not taking this one lying down. Her campaign went up with ads last week, and the DSCC is already pumping cash into TV buys attacking Dole as a status-quo Bush Republican. (The most recent DSCC ad, in which two grizzled men in rocking chairs debate whether Dole is "92" or "93" -- a reference, respectively, to her voting record with Bush and to her effectiveness ranking in the Senate -- caused a stir for its perceived potshot at the age of the 72-year-old Dole.)A strong Dem ticket? Dole remains a force to be reckoned with in the Tar Heel State, Dann adds. Polls show her up by a small (but significant) margin, and her name recognition is sky-high in comparison to the relatively unknown Hagan, who was not the first pick of Democrats who tried in vain to recruit a more popular candidates like outgoing Gov. Mike Easley. But there's definitely a sense of vulnerability in Dole's poll numbers. Hagan hopes to benefit from skyrocketing voter registration numbers in the hard-fought presidential primary state. And it doesn't hurt that she rounds out a Democratic ticket that includes Obama (who’s a magnet for young and minority voters) and Bev Perdue (a strong female candidate for North Carolina governor). Keep an eye on this race for a reality check on how long Obama's coattails may be, and the degree to which this year's dismal approval ratings for Congress have turned "incumbent" into a dirty word. Also, talk about a glass ceiling test -- the top three candidates on the North Carolina Dem ballot are a black man and two white women.
*** On the trail : McCain tours an oil rig in New Orleans, LA and then holds meetings in the Big Easy. Obama addresses the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Orlando, FL, speaks via satellite to United Food and Commercial Workers Conference in Canada, and then heads to Raleigh, NC for a town hall.
Countdown to Dem convention: 6 daysClick here to sign up for First Read emails .
The New York Times triggered yesterday’s VP madness with this article: Obama
More: “Mr. Obama had not notified his choice — or any of those not selected — of his decision as of late Monday, advisers said. Going into the final days, Mr. Obama was said to be focused mainly on three candidates: Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware.”
Soon after came this Politico article: “Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) plans to celebrate his 72nd birthday on Aug. 29 by naming his running mate at a huge rally in the battleground state of Ohio, Republican sources said. That’s a week from this Friday, and the day after Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) accepts the Democratic nomination at a 70,000-person spectacular in a Denver stadium. The campaign has begun building a crowd of 10,000 for Dayton, Ohio, according to an organizer. McCain is scheduled to appear with his running mate at a large-scale event in Pennsylvania shortly thereafter.”
“Senior Republicans are in the dark about who he’ll name, although they say former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty are prime contenders after a trial balloon by McCain gave him very negative feedback about the idea of picking a pro-choice running mate like former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge.”
Per NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, a McCain campaign official says "no final decision" has been made about rolling out McCain's running mate on August 29 in Ohio. BUT this isn’t a hard denial.
CONTINUED >>
Covering McCain’s VFW speech yesterday, the New York Times writes that the GOP candidate “began a hard-hitting political attack on … Obama’s national security credentials … and stepped up his rhetoric against the Russian presence in Georgia in remarks intended to showcase his ability to be commander in chief… Mr. McCain criticized what he called Mr. Obama’s ‘shifting positions’ on the troop reinforcements, or surge, in Iraq, and said that when his rival voted against financing the troops in a single vote in 2007, he tried to ‘legislate’ failure.”
“Mr. Obama, campaigning at a town-hall-style meeting in Albuquerque, did not directly counter Mr. McCain’s remarks, but criticized his opponent as supporting a ‘war of choice’ that had cost a trillion dollars and thousands of lives but had not made the nation safer… ‘Our troops have performed magnificently, and violence is genuinely down,’ Mr. Obama told a crowd of about 1,500 at Rio Grande High School. ‘But listen, if you drive a bus into a ditch and then after five years and a trillion dollars and 4,000 lives lost, you are getting the bus halfway out of the ditch, it doesn’t mean you made a good decision driving the bus off the road in the first place.’”
“But Obama leads 53 – 39 percent among women, compared to 55 – 36 percent last month, and 94 – 4 percent among black voters. The Democrat leads 55 – 36 percent among voters 18 to 34 years old, compared to 63 – 31 percent last month. Obama’s strength among voters 35 to 54 is up from 48 – 44 percent to 49 – 41 percent. McCain leads 47 – 40 percent among voters over 55, compared to a 45 – 44 percent split July 15. Independent voters shift from a 44 – 44 percent split to a 45 – 39 percent Democratic tilt.”
"McCain raised more than $1.75 million for Republicans Monday at a fundraiser that became high profile after a political operative connected to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff promoted it. The event was promoted by Ralph Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition… Reed was not seen inside the hotel ballroom; a McCain campaign spokeswoman said he did not attend. But Democrat Barack Obama's rival presidential campaign sought to make him an issue, asking how much Reed-linked money was raised or would be kept by McCain's campaign.
With McCain visiting an oil rig in New Orleans today, the DNC also has distributed an Exxon-McCain ’08 kit to reporters. Per the DNC, the kit includes “a limited edition Exxon-McCain ’08 stress ball in the shape of an oil drum (to help alleviate the stress of no longer getting access to the candidate) along with campaign buttons and bumper stickers.”
Yesterday at a town hall in New Mexico, NBC/NJ’s Athena Jones reports, Obama continued a line of attack he used over the weekend, arguing his economic plan would not lead to disaster. Instead, he said that disaster is already here because of Bush Administration policies that John McCain would continue.
Obama also reprised and refined a line he used for the first time earlier in the day. “We were in a forum the other day and Rick Warren ask [McCain] ‘Well, what do you consider rich?’ -- John McCain ‘Oh, I don’t know maybe $5 million -- so I guess it is ok.’ This explains why his tax plan gives hundreds of thousands of tax dollars and tax breaks to people making more $2.5 million, because I guess they’re middle class,” he said. “So I want to see a show of hands everybody making more than $2.5 million raise your hand -- you should, you know, you might want to think about voting for John McCain, because he is going to be looking out for them but he is not looking out for most of the people in this auditorium. That is what is at stake in this election.”
The DNC is up with a new Web video whacking McCain for his $5-million-is-rich answer at the Saddleback forum.
Also in New Mexico yesterday, Obama highlighted his support and proposals for equal pay and economic security for working women. The Democrat has pledged to increase civil rights enforcement, raise the minimum wage, and push paid leave and flexible work schedules. noticed a feistier Obama yesterday.
More Obama yesterday : "Everywhere I go, people have told me, 'I'm getting nervous. The Republicans, they're so mean. They're going to Swift-boat you. They're doing things to you. What are you going to do?'" Obama said. "I have to just remind people that it is true that, just as John McCain has embraced George Bush's policies, he's embraced his politics. And the same people who brought you George Bush are now trying to package John McCain."
The Washington Times looks at Obama's attempts to put Southern states like Georgia in play.
NEW HAMPSHIRE : Check out all the local NH coverage Obama's little 2 millionth-donor stunt got when they claimed it was this NH man... Just curious, had the 2-millionth donor come from Vermont, would we have heard about it or did they wait for a swing state donor to come through?New York Daily News takes the trip out to the Keystone State and writes, "When the national conventions begin next week, Barack Obama and John McCain will be fighting for blue-collar Democrats who wanted Hillary Clinton. McCain looks like the tougher sell, based on the resistance he encountered on a recent trip to battleground Pennsylvania."
Considering the perceived help Obama needs with Hispanics (not born out in the polls), it's mildly surprising he didn't find a role for LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at his convention . Then again, the mayor's personal issues may be the reason.
Older white woman. Catholic. From Ohio. Perfect. "An 86-year-old nun from Cleveland who works for a Catholic anti-poverty lobbying group has been selected to deliver the closing prayers one night during the Democratic National Convention."Boston Globe's convention news site .
From NBC's Alex Wall Obama campaign announced a veterans group designed to tout their candidates’ judgment on military issues.
Phillip Carter, the campaign's veterans director, said in a conference call that the group -- called Next Generation Veterans for Obama -- will be involved in activities at the Democratic convention, as well as in grassroots organizing and speaking to veterans and non-veterans across the country.
While several veterans on the call expressed respect for McCain’s military service, the group stressed Obama’s superior ability to tackle issues in the 21st century. Drew Sloan, a veteran Army infantry captain in Iraq and Afghanistan, argued that the “threats this country faces” were “too complex for a Cold War mentality” and praised Obama’s recognition that there must be “a plan to win the war” and “a plan to win the peace.”
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones ALBUQUERQUE, NM -- During a roundtable discussion with a few dozen women here today,
Obama used
McCain’s recent quip about rich people being those with an income of $5 million to try to paint the Arizona Republican as out of touch with ordinary Americans.
"[McCain] was in a panel the other day with me, Rick Warren, some of you may have seen it -- and Rick Warren asked him -- how do you define rich? He said, maybe he was joking, he said, “$5 million.” Obama added, "Which I guess if you're making $3 million a year, you’re middle class. But that’s reflected in his policies -- where, you know, for people making more than $2.5 million, he’s giving folks a $500,000 tax break. And so this is a fundamental difference in this election. What I've said is we're gonna give 95% of working families a tax break, but it's gonna be ordinary folks."
[*** UPDATE:
Both sides have consistently tried to paint the other as out of touch with middle-class concerns. The McCain campaign has portrayed Obama as a tax-and-spend liberal, while Obama says McCain's policies would favor the rich and big businesses.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ’s Adam Aigner-Treworgy and NBC’s Domenico Montanaro ORLANDO, Fla. -- McCain defended his call for a Veterans’ Care Access Card in his speech at the VFW Convention here today by saying that it was an “expansion” of the VA not a “privatization” as some have claimed.
VIDEO: Speaking at the VFW Convention in Orlando, Fl., Presidential candidate John McCain throws his support behind Georgia, and other emerging democracies around the world. McCain predicted that his opponent would probably try attack him by politicizing this issue and “misrepresenting” his proposals as a form of privatization.CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro we mentioned last week , eight Republican senators now have decided to skip their party's convention.
And it would be nine -- if it weren't in Minneapolis. Check out what Norm Coleman, locked in a tight re-election bid, told Minnesota Public Radio :
"So I think those who come here will have an extraordinary time. But theIf the convention wasn't in St. Paul, I wouldn't be at the ," Coleman said.
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro Channeling Jon Lovitz: Is Obama having a Jon Lovitz-as-Dukakis SNL moment: "I can't believe I'm losing to this guy"? Well, Obama isn’t losing -- he still has a small single-digit lead in most national polls, and he’s ahead narrowly in current electoral-vote projections. But his tone changed a bit campaigning in Reno yesterday, his first full day on the campaign trail since his vacation. To put it simply, he was much more aggressive on the attack. As the AP writes, “So much for hugging in church… [A]fter praising the Arizona senator as a ‘genuine American patriot,’ the Democratic presidential hopeful got back to business -- methodically tearing into McCain's health care, tax and energy policies and criticizing his advisers. More: "The Illinois senator also criticized McCain's advisers as ‘the same old folks that brought you George W. Bush. The same team.’ He noted many had been lobbyists in Washington before McCain asked them to sever all lobbying ties." We've been hearing for a few weeks that the Obama campaign believes it hasn’t been tough enough on McCain. Might we have seen a preview of a rougher treatment of McCain from Obama at his Reno stop yesterday? And does this mean the convention week will be tougher on McCain than either Gore or Kerry were on Bush?
*** Back in the Saddle(back): We seriously underestimated how Saturday’s religious forum was made to order for McCain, despite the perceptions that McCain rarely talks openly about his faith. On all the questions regarding hot-button social issues, the Arizona senator didn’t have to depart from GOP orthodoxy one bit, except on stem cells. To put it another way, the reverse for McCain would have been him -- in an effort to win over union members -- addressing a forum sponsored by the Teamsters. Still, McCain performed very well, and the reviews seem to back that up. Obama also did well given the venue and much of the subject matter. (Although his “above my pay grade” answer on life begins has generated a lot of discussion, how else was a pro-choice politician going to respond to this?). Nevertheless, Obama spent more time trying to impress moderator Rick Warren (or not to offend him), while McCain seemingly ignored Warren and decided he was talking to folks watching on TV. The McCain way of handling this forum is usually the winning way. Obama may have had more authentic moments but McCain was impressively on message. And McCain being on message should quiet many critics on the right who wanted to pounce on him over his hint about a pro-choice running mate. McCain didn't sound like a Republican who was going to cave on some of these important social conservative issues.
*** Practice and blog fodder: Overall, Saturday’s forum was a fascinating event because the contrast between the two candidates was so clear. Obama better be thankful for the timing -- he seemed a little rusty and clearly has some work to do before he meets McCain face-to-face on September 26, the night of the first presidential debate in Oxford, MS. If there is an upside for Obama, it’s that he might now enter the first debate with slightly lower expectations than McCain. One other thing: The fact that McCain wasn’t in a “cone of silence” during Obama’s portion of the forum -- as the New York Times reports today -- is going to be some interesting blog fodder…
*** Veep watch: According to the CW, Joe Biden -- who’s the subject of a New York Times profile and who also is in Georgia (the country, not the state) -- has seen his veep buzz increase. Meanwhile, Romney’s stock appears down, after numerous pieces about conservative unease about the former Massachusetts governor. Yesterday was also a big VP day on the Sunday shows: Kaine and Jindal were on Meet, Bayh and Pawlenty were on Face, and Ridge was on FOX. A few things to think about this week as we dive into the deep end of VP speculation: Does either candidate believe they need a Hail Mary type pick? With the race so close right now, doesn't this guarantee that both Obama and McCain seek out the candidate who presents the least amount of risk or the most amount of spinning? If this thinking is true, then this would mean bad news for Kaine, Sebelius, Romney, Lieberman, and Ridge. Who does that leave? Biden, Bayh, and Pawlenty. Just sayin'... One other thing: Get ready for the ultimate silly season week. Rumors will be rampant about airplane logos, Web site addresses, Secret Service spottages, signs, you name it. Some of these rumors may prove out to be true, but it's going to be a pain to track them all down. Get ready for the wild ride.
*** License and registration, please: Don’t miss today’s fascinating Washington Post piece, which notes that Virginia has added nearly 250,000 new voters since 2004, many of them in the affluent suburbs in Northern Virginia. “New voters alone won't win Virginia for Obama, Democrats say, but they are a central reason Obama has decided to put so many resources into a state that last went for a Democratic presidential nominee in 1964. Pennsylvania, historically a battleground state, has just 45,000 more registered voters than it did in 2004.” Many polls that are using a 2004 weighting of the campaign show Obama with a ceiling of 47-48% in some of these states; this is why he has to change the landscape to find 50%. And in Virginia, at least (as well as in North Carolina) he's having good luck changing the electorate. The question is whether he can really make up 4-6 points in those two states just with voter registration and turnout efforts.
*** Just askin’: Will Ralph Reed actually show up at today’s McCain fundraiser in Atlanta? We said it last week and we’ll say it again: Given the fact that McCain’s Senate Indian Affairs Committee helped uncover the Abramoff scandal and given that McCain has railed against Abramoff on the campaign trail, it’s striking 1) that Reed -- Abramoff’s former business partner -- has helped to raise money for today’s event and 2) that the McCain camp didn’t disassociate themselves from Reed’s participation.
*** Downballot spotlight: NBC/NJ’s Carrie Dann says Oregon may provide one of the nation's best thermometers for taking Republicans' temperature in the fall. Two-term GOP Sen. Gordon Smith is maintaining an edge in the polls over Democratic challenger and House Speaker Jeff Merkley, but he's not thanking the “R” next to his name for the lead. Merkley, aided by a DSCC that sees Smith as vulnerable in light-blue Oregon, hopes to paint Smith as a partisan water-carrier for the Bush Administration. But Smith has made waves during this cycle's reelection battle for touting his bipartisan collaborations with Barack Obama and John Kerry. Moreover, he doesn't have an official title within McCain's state organization, and he won't be attending the Republican National Convention in September. "If this were an election in a neutral environment, Gordon Smith would probably win fairly easily, but it's just very toxic for Republicans," this year, says Nathan Gonzales of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report. Unlike other states like North Carolina and Virginia, where Democrats have high expectations for downballot candidates as a result of the presidential race, the Smith-Merkley match-up may be more of a referendum on the current administration than on a future one. "If Merkley wins," says Gonzales, "it will have more to do with the shadow of President Bush than the coattails of Barack Obama."
*** On the trail: McCain, in Florida, speaks to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Orlando and then holds a business roundtable meeting in Cocoa Beach. After that, he heads to a fundraiser in Atlanta. Obama has two events in Albuquerque, NM -- a discussion on the economy with local women and then an economic town hall. He later raises money in San Francisco.
Countdown to Dem convention: 7 daysClick here to sign up for First Read emails.
The New York Times reports that McCain wasn’t in a “cone of silence” during Obama’s portion of the forum. “Members of the McCain campaign staff, who flew here Sunday from California, said Mr. McCain was in his motorcade on the way to the church as Mr. Obama was being interviewed by the Rev. Rick Warren… Nicolle Wallace, a spokeswoman for Mr. McCain, said on Sunday night that Mr. McCain had not heard the broadcast of the event while in his motorcade and heard none of the questions.”
More: “Interviewed Sunday on CNN, Mr. Warren seemed surprised to learn that Mr. McCain was not in the building during the Obama interview.”
The Wall Street Journal sees Saddleback as a debate preview. "In what served as a preview for the fall debates, Mr. Warren questioned each man separately at his Saddleback Valley Community Church, which is one of the largest in the nation, with 22,000 members. Mr. Warren asked each candidate the same questions. Sen. McCain, who appeared second, promised not to monitor Sen. Obama's appearance, and an aide said he didn't.”
“Sen. McCain's press secretary, Brooke Buchanan, said he prepared for the event much like he would prepare for a debate, with briefing books and practice questions. ‘It was a good warm up’ for the fall, she said. A spokeswoman for Sen. Obama said the candidate reviewed with advisers topics that might be raised, but didn't do a full debate preparation."
CBN's Brody notes the two different goals each candidate had at the forum: "By watching Obama and McCain go back to back tonight, I think it offered a stark contrast on how they both approach the hot button social issues. But Obama has very little chance with die-hard pro-lifers anyway. Instead, Obama’s goal is to come across as a caring family man who takes his faith and set of values very seriously. That plays to the broader audience. A forum like this only helps him in that regard."
Dan Gilgoff interviewed Warren after the forum. On the candidates’ performances: “My gut reaction when it was over was that Obama will pick up probably some younger votes and McCain will probably pick up some older votes and it might come down to which group winds up showing up that the polls.”
On Obama’s above-my-pay-grade answer on abortion: “I think he needed to be more specific on that. I happen to disagree with Barack on that.”
On Sunday, the New York Times front-paged a profile of McCain’s response to 9/11: to retaliate not only against Al Qaeda -- but also Iraq, Iran, and Syria. “Now, as Mr. McCain prepares to accept the Republican presidential nomination, his response to the attacks of Sept. 11 opens a window onto how he might approach the gravest responsibilities of a potential commander in chief. Like many, he immediately recalibrated his assessment of the unseen risks to America’s security. But he also began to suggest that he saw a new ‘opportunity’ to deter other potential foes by punishing not only Al Qaeda but also Iraq.”
“To his admirers, Mr. McCain’s tough response to Sept. 11 is at the heart of his appeal. They argue that he displayed the same decisiveness again last week in his swift calls to penalize Russia for its incursion into Georgia, in part by sending peacekeepers to police its border. His critics charge that the emotion of Sept. 11 overwhelmed his former cool-eyed caution about deploying American troops without a clear national interest and a well-defined exit, turning him into a tool of the Bush administration in its push for a war to transform the region. ‘He has the personality of a fighter pilot: when somebody stings you, you want to strike out,’ said retired Gen. John H. Johns, a former friend and supporter of Mr. McCain who turned against him over the Iraq war. ‘Just like the American people, his reaction was: show me somebody to hit.’”
The Los Angeles Times does the Randy Scheunemann-as-Georgia-lobbyist story.
So does USA Today . "McCain told USA TODAY on Sunday that he has no problem with his top foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann's past lobbying work." More: "McCain said he found it interesting that Barack Obama's campaign called him ‘confrontational’ with Russia. Yet ‘rather than worry about the people of Georgia,’ McCain said, his Democratic rival "worried about whether someone on my staff had supported Georgia or not."
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution notes that much of Georgia’s congressional delegation probably won’t be in attendance at today’s McCain fundraiser in Atlanta.
CONTINUED >>
Sunday's New York Times story on Dems’ backseat driving Obama show that the August nervousness has gotten to the party elders -- big time. The money quotes from folks who did NOT endorse Obama during the primaries: “‘I particularly hope he strengthens his economic message — even Senator Obama can speak more clearly and specifically about the kitchen-table, bread-and-butter issues like high energy costs,’ said Gov. Ted Strickland of Ohio. ‘It’s fine to tell people about hope and change, but you have to have plenty of concrete, pragmatic ideas that bring hope and change to life.’”
“Or, in the blunter words of Gov. Phil Bredesen, Democrat of Tennessee: “Instead of giving big speeches at big stadiums, he needs to give straight-up 10-word answers to people at Wal-Mart about how he would improve their lives.’”
Obama met with T. Boone Pickens yesterday. punted when it came to a question of Pickens' financing of the Swift Boats ads against John Kerry in 2004. "You know, he's got a longer track record than that," Obama told reporters when asked about Pickens' association with the ads by a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. "One of the things I think we have to unify the country around is having an intelligent energy policy. ... That's what we're going to be talking about."raised $51 million in July. Chicago Tribune has a good graphic breaking down Obama's spending, which outpaced what he raised in July.
Obama alluded to the anti-Obama book “The Obama Nation” by Jerome Corsi for the first time Sunday afternoon at a fundraiser in San Francisco, NBC/NJ’s Athena Jones reports. The event brought in $7.8 million for the campaign and the Democratic Party, according to a pool report.
The Illinois senator called the book another example of his rivals seeking to obscure the issues and make the election about him. “They want to talk Britney. They want to talk about Paris. They’ve got a whole machinery that there cranking out. They’ve got a book on me, you know, that just kinda sprung full blown out of this guy’s head,” he said to laughter from the crowd of donors. “They’ve got, they’ve got talk radio hosts and they’ve got television hosts and you’ve got, John McCain, all he wants to do is spend time talking about me because they know they can’t win on the issues, so what they’ll do is they’ll try to scare people.”
All the CW buzz seems to be pointing in Biden’s direction right now. The New York Times profiles him today. “Mr. Biden’s strengths and weaknesses as a vice-presidential nominee are glaringly obvious and in many cases overlap. At age 65, he would bring heft, knowledge and nearly four decades of experience in Washington to a ticket headed by a relative political newcomer. But that experience -- he was first elected to the Senate at age 29 and has served for nearly four decades -- would undercut Mr. Obama’s image as an agent of change.”
"Mr. Biden is among the best-informed lawmakers on international affairs, a gap in Mr. Obama’s résumé. But Mr. Biden’s broad knowledge, his committee chairmanship and his longtime membership in the most exclusive debating club in the nation also feed his biggest flaw: a verbosity and love of his own voice that drive many, including, by some accounts, Mr. Obama, nuts.”
Meanwhile, Romney’s buzz appears to be waning . "An apparent effort by former presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee to diminish the chances of former rival Mitt Romney becoming the Republican vice presidential nominee is reviving questions about whether Romney's prospects are being damaged by opposition from evangelicals and religious conservatives. Gary Bauer, an evangelical leader who is an informal adviser to John McCain's campaign, said in an interview yesterday that evangelicals are divided, but discounted the idea there is an organized effort to stop McCain from picking Romney.”
“Bauer said he personally believes that Romney ‘would be a great running mate’ and said he has conveyed that message personally to Romney. Bauer, chairman of the Campaign for Working Families political action committee, said he was not allowed to say whether he advised McCain to pick Romney."
Several potential veeps made the Sunday show rounds . "Ridge said yesterday he thinks Republicans would accept a vice presidential candidate who supports abortion rights. But, he said, whomever John McCain picks as a running mate should defer to McCain on the issue." Bill Richardson, Tim Kaine and Bobby Jindal all made the rounds as well.
CONTINUED >>
COLORADO: A new Rocky Mountain News poll shows McCain up 44%-41%. may turn on the Centennial State results. "I think he [Obama] is going to win the election because of Colorado," he said this weekend. "I think it is going to be a swing state, and it is going to be important at the end of the day."
NEVADA: The Silver State's electoral votes may be decided in some off-the-beaten-path regions of the state. "Nevada has emerged as a key battleground state, and although the bulk of the state's population is firmly in Southern Nevada, the North, some think, will be a key to victory. Republicans have relied on strong margins in places such as Elko and Hawthorne and, to a lesser extent, Washoe County, to make up for the Democratic leanings of Las Vegas. For Democrats, it has been a place where candidates have spent time and money, only to see strong Republican numbers on Election Day."
NORTH CAROLINA: The Raleigh News & Observer takes a look at all the outside Dem money that's made its way into the state already. "Though outside spending is nothing new in North Carolina, the amount of money involved is higher than in past years. The early appearance of negative ads has already put some candidates on the defensive on such issues as campaign contributions, tax breaks for oil companies and the minimum wage.”
“Experts say the deluge of out-of-state money is due to several factors: closer-than-usual races in North Carolina, strong Democratic fundraising nationally and the confluence of big-ticket races for president, governor and senator on the same ballot."
VIRGINIA: The Washington Post looks at Obama's attempts to change the electorate in the state with a massive voter registration effort. Already, the state's added some 250,000 new voters since 2004. "New voters alone won't win Virginia for Obama, Democrats say, but they are a central reason Obama has decided to put so many resources into a state that last went for a Democratic presidential nominee in 1964. Pennsylvania, historically a battleground state, has just 45,000 more registered voters than it did in 2004."
The New York Times writes about Michelle Obama being the primetime speaker for the first night of the Democratic convention. “Democrats face a number of imperatives at their convention, none trickier than making more voters comfortable with the prospect of putting a candidate with a most unusual background -- the son of a black Kenyan father and a white Kansan mother, who grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia -- and his family in the White House. No one, his advisers believe, makes the case better for Senator Barack Obama of Illinois than his wife, who will expand her profile by delivering one of the marquee speeches carried by television networks.”
“The introduction of a candidate is a task facing every presidential campaign, but one that carries unique challenges for Mr. Obama because of his race and questions about his patriotism, values and faith that Republicans have already vigorously sought to raise and exploit.”
More schedule : Pelosi and Jesse Jackson Jr. will speak opening night. Then, Aug. 26, Rahm Emanuel, Steny Hoyer, Nydia Velazquez, Linda Sanchez, Tammy Baldwin, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Mike Honda, Xavier Becerra and Chris Van Hollen take the stage. will be processed at an industrial warehouse with chain-link cells topped by razor wire, a facility some have compared to the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay. Groups planning marches, concerts and other events during the Aug. 25-28 convention dub the center "Gitmo on the Platte," for the nearby South Platte River. The Denver sheriff's office, which operates city and county jails, insists anyone taken to the center will be there only a few hours while they're fingerprinted, issued a court date and released after posting bail. Others will be transferred to facilities designed for longer detentions."
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones Obama was back on the campaign trail today -- and back on the message he hopes will help him defeat his GOP rival: the economy.
Obama held a town hall and gave brief remarks on his economic plans. And used every opportunity to draw contrasts with McCain on tax policy, health care and energy, hitting the Arizona senator for running negative ads and repeatedly saying that he had not been truthful about issues ranging from dealing with high fuel costs to his support for alternative energy.
"John McCain and I fundamentally disagree on how we are gonna move this country forward. He ran a negative ad -- which is most of the ads he runs -- he ran a negative ad that claimed all my economic plan was was higher taxes and that it would lead to economic disaster," Obama said, before going on to tell the audience that his tax policy would benefit the middle class more than McCain's. "I've got news for John McCain: My plan's not gonna bring about economic disaster. We already have economic disaster from John McCain's president George W. Bush , and we can't afford another four years or eight years of George W. Bush policies and that's why we're gonna beat John McCain in this election to put America on a new path."
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy McCain also participated in Pastor Rick Warren's Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency here last evening. Appearing after Obama , McCain responded to the same set of questions, plus a few more due to his brevity. Mostly, McCain was short and to the point, although he told a few of his favorite stories to illustrate his points.
Interestingly, when asked for an example of his greatest moral failure he cited the dissolution of his first marriage. Although that was as detailed as he got, the fact that he mentioned it at all -- especially while current wife Cindy was sitting in the first row -- is notable.
"My greatest moral failing, and I have been a very imperfect person, is the failure of my first marriage. It's my greatest moral failure."
When asked for an example of a gut-wrenching decision he has had to make and how he made it, McCain cited the decision to remain in prison camp despite being offered early release. He said that his poor health at the time had made that decision very tough, but he made it with "a lot of prayer."
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones LAKE FOREST, CA -- Obama talked about Iraq, abortion, the Supreme Court, and his greatest moral failure during an hour-long televised talk on faith and politics with pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren here at Saddleback Church.
McCain also attended the event, but he spoke with Warren separately. After Obama’s hour was over, the presumptive Republican nominee came on stage and greeted his rival. The two men shook hands and gave each other a pat on the back as the crowd applauded.
“We believe in the separation of church and state, but we do not believe in the separation of faith and politics, because faith is just a worldview and everybody has some kind of worldview and it’s important to know what they are,” said Warren, the author of the mega-hit book “A Purpose Driven Life,” at the opening of the forum.
The diverse crowd, which the church said reached 2,200 people in the sanctuary and another 4,200 watching from satellite locations, applauded throughout the forum and laughed frequently as Obama tackled questions from identifying his biggest moral failure and a time he broke with his party to achieve something for the common good -- he cited his work with McCain on ethics reform -- to his views on marriage, evil, and how to tackle global problems like genocide and human trafficking. Notably, both men were tieless.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Chuck Todd
Normally, on a night like tonight, we here at First Read would have
been liveblogging every moment of Rick Warren's presidential forum. But
with the Olympics and the fact this is THE Saturday Michael Phelps will
be making history, we kept our liveblogging in check.
It turns out, actually, we should have been because this was a pretty
good scrimmage and there's a lot to learn from these back-to-back
appearances by John McCain and Barack Obama.
Quick first impressions: Obama spent more time trying to impress Warren
(or to put another away) not offend Warren while McCain seemingly
ignored Warren and decided he was talking to folks watching on TV. The
McCain way of handling this forum is usually the winning way. Obama may
have had more authentic moments but McCain was impressively on message.
This was a mistake Obama made a few times during the primary season. On one hand, it can make a moderator feel good when their subject actually tries to answer every question and take into account their opinions on a particular topic. And Obama's supporters will email me tonight and say this is what they love about him.
And yet, this reminded me of the many comparisons we made between Obama and Hillary Clinton. She was much more effective at answering questions in 90 seconds and always staying on message while Obama too easily allowed himself to get knocked off his talking points. Remember, Obama doesn't need to win over his supporters, he needs folks who are just now tuning in.
Take the VERY first question Warren posed to both candidates: who are three people you'll depend on for wisdom in the presidency. Obama seemed to answer this in a very personal way, talking about his wife and grandmother. McCain went right to this message, checking boxes on Iraq (Patraeus) and the economy (Whitman) for instance. Now, I'm betting Obama's answer came across as more authentic but McCain's was probably more effective with undecided swing voters.
The two answered the Supreme Court justice question VERY differently, with Obama seemingly trying to say a nice thing or two about justices he disagreed with, while McCain went right to pander mode in his answer. And yet, McCain's straightforward answer easily penetrated while Obama's did not.
Every Obama answer was certainly thoughtful enough but he seemed to want to explain himself too much and went out of his way not to offend folks who disagree with him.
Don't get me wrong, this will play well with some but McCain's directness and snappy answers that were on message allowed him to look commanding on that stage.
Warren may come away from this experience liking Obama more and respecting the fact that he seemed to take pains to not offend him and respect their disagreements. But I'm betting that if a focus group of undecided voters were watching this, they'd come away having a clearer understanding of McCain's beliefs.
Overall, this was a fascinating event because the contrast between the two candidates was so clear. The quesitons were made to order of McCain in the early going and that allowed him to get comfortable quickly. This was always going to be a tough venue for any Democrat, including one who is as comfortable talking about his faith as Obama is.
Obama better be thankful for the timing of this; he seemed a little rusty and clearly has some work to do before he meets McCain face-to-face on Sept. 26, the night of the first presidential debate in Oxford, MS.
From NBC's Mark Murray McCain camp announced its airing a new advertisement in Ohio that counters Obama's DHL attack .
"Maybe the applause has gone to his head," an announcer says in the ad. "Saying John McCain cost Ohio jobs, though it's just not true. It's Obama's taxes that will hurt Ohio families. Higher taxes on your paycheck, your life savings, your electric bills."
But as we've pointed out numerous times, that McCain counterattack is misleading. Only families that earn more than $250,000 per year will see their taxes increase under Obama's tax plan; in fact, Obama's plan provides a bigger tax cut for middle-class families than McCain's does.
From NBC's Abby Livingston and Mark Murray Obama religious group announced today that will air a TV ad during the forum's broadcast that emphasizes Obama's faith, his family, and his marriage.
The group, called the Matthew 25 Network, has placed an emphasis on social justice and it’s founder, Mara Vanderslice, was John Kerry's religious outreach director in 2004.
On a conference call unveiling the ad, Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell -- who appears in the ad and officiated Jenna Bush's wedding -- said: "I think it's important for us to just celebrate the fact that Sen. Obama is an outstanding, fabulous family man... I really wanna stand from the highest rooftop and say, 'He's a wonderful husband and a great dad.' His daughters adore him, and in times like these, when the institution of marriage is obviously under attack, for us to have a person running for the highest office in the land who has such a sterling reputation as a family man, I think this speaks volumes."
"You can determine a lot about a person's character by how he or she treats his family," Kirbyjon added. "And I'm glad that Sen. Obama is running for president. I think he would be a fabulous president. He has stood by families. I think he'll stand by families here in this country, and that's a great thing."
When a reporter pressed Caldwell whether he was alluding to McCain and his previous divorce, Caldwell replied, "Well, I don't know a lot about John McCain's family history. I do know that, however, as recently as last week, I think it was, the senator made a comment in South Dakota regarding his wife entering some Buffalo Chips contest, which is a topless deal -- if she were to enter she would probably win it. And my personal opinion and based on my understanding of the Christian faith, that's not, N-O-T, the type of expression that a presidential candidate or anyone, for that matter who espouses the Christian faith ought to make. so I ... don't know if that's perfect case in point, but it sure does help to juxtapose the DNA of Sen. Obama, if you would, versus the DNA of Sen. McCain."
Vanderslice then jumped in. "I would just add that ... our intent with this ad is to be a positive, a positive bio piece on Sen. Obama -- sort of recognizing that many are still trying to better understand his background." But, she continued, "Many in the Christian community have not forgotten, you know, what happened with Sen McCain, you know, marrying his second wife one month after leaving his second wife, you know, after a disfiguring car accident."
CBN's Brody weighs in on the ad, calling it "extremely effective because it highlights one of Obama's strengths and that is his family. The Republican Party wants to demonize the guy as a crazy liberal (a la John Kerry) but the problem is that unlike Kerry, Obama has the straight laced family narrative. You couldn't run a syrupy gushy pro-family ad like this with Kerry because he didn't have the cute little kids and he was on his second marriage."
"With Obama, he has the wholesome family image going for him. That is a big time strength and the folks over at Matthew 25 are astute enough to understand that."
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro Obama radio ad on the DHL Air Park jobs losses, which has become a salient local issue. That ad hit McCain and campaign manager Rick Davis for their roles in helping foreign-owned DHL buy the space.
Now the Obama campaign has polished it up and put it to pictures with a TV ad. The effectiveness of this ad is in putting locals' voices behind the blame, instead of an announcer.
But the ad holds the same basic premise, so we point you back to our analysis of the radio ad :
"It's true that, as the Cleveland Plain Dealer pointed out..., 'In 2003, Davis lobbied the Senate to accept the proposal by DHL to buy Airborne Express for $1.05 billion. Airborne Express at the time ran the airport and package-sorting facility in Wilmington.'
"But is that a smoking gun? Not exactly. The Plain Dealer also pointed out that the acquisition 'resulted in expansion, not retraction' and 'several Wilmington civic leaders said that what happened in 2003 created an economic gain for their community, lasting several years.'" ...
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro McCain ad hitting Obama on taxes. And to the McCain campaign's credit, as we noted earlier, it has been much more likely that it releases its negative ads to the press than the Obama campaign. Taxman ,” is another example of that, and it paints -- yet again -- a bleak picture of Obama’s tax plan and what his plan would mean for families.
“Obama’s new taxes could break your family budget,” an announcer says as a mother hugs her child. And, even worse, Obama's plan would mean “economic disaster.”Tax Policy Center’s analysis .
The wealthiest in the country would benefit most from McCain’s tax cuts and would be hurt most by Obama's plan.
Families/individuals making more than six figures certainly may be concerned about their family budgets, but those who are at the breaking point -- those on the brink of “economic disaster” -- are not those making six- or seven-figure salaries.
In that upper echelon, those making an average of $2.9 million -- the top 0.1% -- would get a whopping tax break of $269,000 from McCain. Under Obama’s plan, the millionaires would take a serious hit, their pockets lightened by $702,000 on average. For those making $2.9 million-plus a year, perhaps that would constitute an “economic disaster,” but then the image in the ad should probably be of an anguished CEO clutching his Mercedes key chain not a middle-class mother clutching her child.
Also, Republicans have been critical of Obama crediting a liberal group in his ads -- and he does credit the Center for American progress more than once -- yet the citations in this McCain ad warrant similar scrutiny.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro McCain campaign announced it raised a campaign record $27 million in July, campaign manager Rick Davis said on a conference call with reporters. While the figure is a campaign record, it is less than half of Obama's biggest one-month haul -- $55 million in February of this year, which helped finance his primary battle with Hillary Clinton .
The McCain campaign added that it had $21.4 million cash on hand through the end of July.
The RNC raised an $26 million in July and has has $75 million cash on hand for a combined $96.4 million cash on hand, Davis said.
Davis also claimed 600,000 donors and 1.5 million total donors combined with the RNC. The Obama campaign currently celebrates more than two million donors with a congratulatory screen on its campaign Web site .
Because the McCain campaign has opted to take public funds, it will have to spend its cash on hand by Aug. 31.
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro Losing my religion? On Saturday night, McCain and Obama appear at their first forum together when they speak at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church in California. And it’s another excellent peg to look at the religious vote in this presidential campaign. According to the polls, McCain is faring well among evangelicals. In last month’s NBC/WSJ survey, he had a 64%-24% lead over Obama with this group, and a recent Barna Group poll had him up 61%-17%. But when it comes to religion, McCain isn’t George W. Bush, and he has two challenges. One, do these evangelicals come out in same numbers and with the intensity that they did in 2004 (and if not, how does he make up the difference)? And two, is Obama able to peel off enough of them (especially those under 40) to make the difference in key states? This is a HUGE opportunity for Obama. Time and again, he has been more open to talking about his relationship with God, while McCain has been more reticent on the topic. But, to put on our NBC-Universal hats again, who's going to be watching? Saturday is the night Michael Phelps will be potentially swimming for his eighth, record-breaking gold medal. Just sayin'… Still, a big performance by Obama in front of an evangelical crowd could resonate longer than McCain doing well.
*** Popping the trial balloon : That thud you just heard was the Ridge/Lieberman VP trial balloon that social conservative activists quickly popped. They couldn't find reporters fast enough to denounce the prospect of McCain adding a pro-choice pol to his ticket. “It absolutely floored me,” Phil Burress, head of the Ohio-based Citizens for Community Values, told the Politico’s Jonathan Martin . “It would doom him in Ohio.” Home School Legal Defense Association President Mike Farris said to the Washington Times : “If Tom Ridge is on the ticket, I will not be voting Republican.” Then again, if this was a trial balloon, wasn’t this the response McCain is looking for?
*** Obama’s stealth ad campaign : Over the past week, we've gotten our hands on a number of negative TV ads Obama's been running against McCain in key states like Ohio and Michigan. This is in addition to the tough spot, uncovered by Politico [*** UPDATE *** Washington Times' Christina Bellantoni , who reported on it yesterday and was linked to by Politico] , that Obama's airing in Indiana. Clearly, the Obama campaign isn't interested in telling the media about every single McCain attack ad they’re running. Perhaps this is because Obama's brand can't afford to be tarnished too much if he's seen as constantly running negative TV ads. So the campaign simply puts them on the air in key markets, doesn't tell the press about them, and layers those ads with positive ones being run nationally during the Olympics. Also, by not releasing to the media, it forces the McCain camp to wait a day or two before they see the ad. McCain's camp is much more comfortable unveiling their negative ads, perhaps because they want the free press that comes with them. But make no mistake, Obama’s running plenty of negative TV ads, particularly in the industrial Midwestern states. In fact, one of Obama's biggest candidate strengths -- which doesn't get the attention it deserves -- is that he plays political hardball as well as his opponents; he just sometimes does it under the radar.
*** Georgia on McCain's mind : McCain has dominated the week on the Georgia-Russia issue, but the Washington Post today wonders if he's been too aggressive here. In one of our classic double-standard alerts, ask yourself how outraged the RNC and McCain's camp would be if Obama were "dispatching" senators to the region…
*** Release the numbers! We just received an email that McCain campaign manager Rick Davis will hold a conference call at 9:30 am ET to discuss his campaign’s fundraising. We assume we'll see the campaign’s July numbers, which don’t have to be filed with the FEC until August 20. *** UPDATE *** AP . We'll have more on this later today...
*** Downballot spotlight : Per NBC/NJ’s Carrie Dann, the question isn’t whether Mark Warner will win his upcoming Senate race in Virginia -- the question is by how much. Indeed, polls show him skating towards a 20-point win in a state that’s at the top of Obama’s battleground list, and he’s just been recruited to deliver this year's keynote convention speech -- the same primetime platform that launched Obama into a glittering national spotlight. But how much can the massively popular king of the Old Dominion (he left office with an 80% approval rating) transfer his NASCAR appeal to Obama in the red-leaning counties where the Democratic nominee must outperform predecessors dating back to 1964? “It would be a big feather in [Warner's] cap if Obama carried Virginia,” says UVA political analyst Larry Sabato, who notes that Warner may end up being owed more credit if the state goes blue than current governor and veep potential Tim Kaine. Sabato acknowledges that Warner could risk losing a few points of support if he pushes hard in rural areas for Obama. “But,” he adds, “he can certainly afford it.” If Warner touts his support for Obama in the state’s rural Southwest, Sabato says, “you’re talking about a couple of points. But this is very, very close. Potentially, that’s the election.”
*** On the trail : McCain remains in Colorado, where he holds campaign meetings and then a "campaign filming day. Obama ends his vacation in Hawaii and returns to the US mainland, and his campaign unveils the 10 winners of the “Backstage with Barack” contest for the Dem convention. Yesterday, NBC/NJ’s Matthew E. Berger profiled one of these winners: Eric Melder.
Countdown to Dem convention: 10 daysClick here to sign up for First Read emails .
USA Today has a good preview piece of tomorrow night's forum hosted by Rick Warren.
In an interview with CBN , Warren implies that he's going to ask McCain and Obama about their past personal live issues each has had to battle. Does this mean he's going to ask about McCain's first marriage? About Obama's teenage drug use?
In addition, expect Warren to bring up gay marriage and abortion .
The Washington Post writes that young evangelicals might not be as loyal to the GOP as their parents have been. “The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that while a majority of young white evangelicals describe themselves as conservative on social issues, slightly more identified this year as either independents or Democrats than as Republicans. In 2001, about the time that Merritt was working as precinct captain for the Republican Party, an overwhelming majority of young evangelicals identified with the GOP.”
Matthew 25, a liberal-leaning PAC headed by the woman who directed John Kerry’s religious outreach in 2004, holds a conference call this morning to discuss a new TV ad it will run pegged to Warren’s conference and to contrast the religious outreach efforts between the Obama and McCain campaigns.
McCain gives an in-depth interview on faith to the Chicago Tribune . The story opens with stories about how McCain relied on his faith during the POW years. "Although polling suggests voters view faith as an essential ingredient in a president, McCain has never been a candidate to invoke God or dwell on religion. ‘In our case, faith is private,’ said his wife, Cindy, adding that once voters get to know him, ‘they will know he is a man of faith.’”
CONTINUED >>
McCain has had the week -- and the specific issue of Georgia -- all to himself, the New York Times writes. "Only once, at the beginning of the week, did Mr. Obama discuss the fighting in public, when he emerged from his beachfront rental home to condemn Russia’s escalation, in a way that seemed timed for the evening television news. He took no questions whose answers might demonstrate command of the issue. Mr. McCain and his surrogates, however, have discussed the situation nearly every day on the campaign trail, often taking a hard line against Russia to the point of his declaring the other day, ‘We are all Georgians.’”
Interesting issue on the "presumptive" front. McCain's dispatching Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham to go to the region. Imagine the "audacity" emails that would be dispatched by the RNC if Obama made it clear he was "dispatching" two of his closest senate friends…
Actually, speaking of "audacity," check out this lead in the Washington Post this morning. "Standing behind a lectern in Michigan this week, with two trusted senators ready to do his bidding, John McCain seemed to forget for a moment that he was only running for president."
"Asked about his tough rhetoric on the ongoing conflict in Georgia, McCain began: ‘If I may be so bold, there was another president…’ He caught himself and started again: ‘At one time, there was a president named Ronald Reagan who spoke very strongly about America's advocacy for democracy and freedom.’”
“With his Democratic opponent on vacation in Hawaii, the senator from Arizona has been doing all he can in recent days to look like President McCain, particularly when it comes to the ongoing international crisis in Georgia. ‘We talk about how there's only one president at a time, so the idea that you would send your own emissaries and really interfere with the process is remarkable,’ said Lawrence Korb, a Reagan Defense Department official who now acts as an informal adviser to the Obama campaign. ‘It's very risky and can send mixed messages to foreign governments… They accused Obama of being presumptuous, but he didn't do anything close to this."
CONTINUED >>
The Obama campaign decided to release the specifics of its tax plan , including the size of the hike in cap gains tax rates and a hike in payroll taxes. "Sen. Obama outlined a plan Thursday to raise tax rates on capital gains and dividend income from 15% to 20% for individuals and families making more than $200,000 and $250,000, respectively. He also detailed a plan to levy payroll taxes on earnings above $250,000 at a rate between 2% and 4%, though that increase wouldn't occur for at least a decade. Right now, payroll taxes, used to fund retirement benefits, are levied on income up to $102,000.”
“Jason Furman, Sen. Obama's economic-policy director, said the plan would cut taxes to less than 18.2% of gross domestic product. ‘That's lower than the level of taxes when Ronald Reagan was president,’ he said. The proposed rates are below the levels many had expected, given Sen. Obama's campaign rhetoric. Nonetheless, critics said the plan would exacerbate an economic downturn and harm workers."
Obama's campaign announced that he has surpassed the two million-donor mark. By the way, we'll get July fundraising numbers next week.
"Obama has collected $335,536 from 859 enlisted men and women, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. McCain -- a decorated former Vietnam POW -- has received $280,513 from 558 military personnel. And the gap is especially pronounced among members of the military stationed abroad, including in Iraq. Obama got $60,642 from 134 troops there, compared to McCain's $10,665 from 26 troops -- a 6-to-1 edge." about photos of Obama body surfing in Hawaii . But John Kerry this ain't. He simply looks like someone swimming in the ocean.
CONTINUED >>
Politico's Martin checks in with key social conservative leaders to get their reaction to McCain's trial balloon of possibly picking a pro-choice running mate. Needless to say, these conservative leaders are not happy. “‘It absolutely floored me,’ said Phil Burress, head of the Ohio-based Citizens for Community Values. ‘It would doom him in Ohio.’ Burress emailed about a dozen ‘pro-family leaders’ he knows outside Ohio and forwarded it to three McCain aides tasked with Christian conservative outreach. ‘That choice will end his bid for the presidency and spell defeat for other Republican candidates,’ Burress wrote in the message.”
“He and other Ohio conservatives met privately with McCain in June, and while the nominee didn’t promise them an anti-abortion rights running mate, his staff said they could ‘almost guarantee’ that would be the case, Burress recalled."
What was McCain up to by pro-actively mentioning Ridge? Was it a trial balloon? The Washington Times notes: "Some analysts dismissed that explanation, saying the McCain organization has several experienced operatives who are themselves evangelicals or Catholics and strongly pro-life, and so it already knew what the reaction would be. But if it was a trial balloon, Team McCain got the answer loud and clear Thursday: Responses from leading political evangelicals ranged from outrage to thundering outrage.
“‘If Tom Ridge is on the ticket, I will not be voting Republican,’ Home School Legal Defense Association President Mike Farris said told The Washington Times. He thought for a moment, then added: ‘I won't be voting Democratic either.’”
More compiled by Matthew Berger, Carrie Dann, and Athena Jones…
DEMOCRATS : More Democratic veep shortlist members get speaking assignments: Sens. Joe Biden, Evan Bayh and Gov. Bill Richardson will all speak Wednesday night. Convention aides say not to read too much into the speaking list or assume those already on the program are not veep candidates.
CONTINUED >>
ALASKA : An Alaska poll shows Obama up 45%-40% in the state.
COLORADO : RealClearPolitics has an analysis of Colorado. Where can both sides reliably mine their base, and what regions and groups in the state are up for grabs. FLORIDA: Obama's campaign manager holds a press conference today in Florida to discuss the campaign's strategy there. MICHIGAN : Embattled Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick may not be able to attend the DNC later this month after all . A judge stiffened his travel restrictions, and that's probably just fine with Team Obama, which says it would like the Denver focus to be bigger than "a distraction involving the troubles of one individual."
VIRGINIA : McCain's chief state strategist Mike DuHaime acknowledged that Virginia is going to be tough state to defend but he believes they'll defend it successfully . "DuHaime's comments about the state of the race in Virginia stand in stark contrast to a strategy briefing released in June by Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager. In that PowerPoint presentation, which was posted on the Arizona senator's Web site, Virginia was listed as one of 17 ‘solidly Republican’ states."
The New York Times attempts to untangle the lawyer wall around Edwards and notes that the lawyers for Rielle Hunter and Andrew Young both have close ties to Edwards' close political friend, Fred Baron. "After initially saying that he did not know how the lawyers were chosen to represent Ms. Hunter and Mr. Young, Mr. Baron acknowledged that he might have played a role.”
“The revelations of ties among the lawyers emerged through public records and interviews with people close to Mr. Edwards and Ms. Hunter, which suggested that their affair went on longer than Mr. Edwards admitted and that the effort to conceal it by Mr. Edwards’s inner circle was much more extensive than has been reported. The review found that Mr. Edwards’s political action committee went to unusual lengths to make a final $14,000 payment to Ms. Hunter’s film company months after its contract with the committee had ended. The payment was issued while the committee was short on cash and could pay its bills only after receiving thousands of dollars from Mr. Edwards’s presidential campaign and donations from four people, including Mr. Baron’s wife."
“More importantly in this piece, the New York Times seems to find a specific $14,000 payment from the Edwards presidential campaign to the PAC that coincided with the final payment to Hunter.
From NBC's Mark Murray Obama campaign has released a 40-page rebuttal to Jerome Corsi's new attack book on the Illinois senator -- "Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality -- which will be No. 1 on the New York Times' best-seller list for non-fiction hardcovers.
The Obama camp rebuttal is entitled "Unfit for Publication," a play on Corsi's "Unfit for Command" book that launched the Swift Boat attacks on John Kerry in 2004. And the rebuttal comes as Democrats wondered how aggressively the Obama campaign would respond to the book's charges.
"Jerome Corsi is a discredited liar who is peddling another piece of garbage in order to continue the Bush-Cheney politics he helped perpetuate four years ago," said Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor. "His is one of what will likely be many lie-filled books rushed to print this election cycle that are cobbled together from debunked internet sources to make money and advance a partisan agenda. We will forcefully respond to these smears with all means at our disposal."
The rebuttal is currently an Adobe Acrobat attachment, but it will soon be posted on this campaign Web site .
From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy Former Sen.
Phil Gramm -- the beleaguered
McCain campaign surrogate who infamously called America a nation of "whiners" and the current economic crisis a "mental recession" -- is in attendance at McCain's event today at the Aspen Institute.
From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy McCain surrogates repeated many of the campaign’s attacks on Obama’s tax plan, including his pledge to raise taxes and his history of voting for tax increases in the Senate. The campaign criticized Obama's op-ed published today in the Wall Street Journal, saying that it is just more evidence of the Democratic candidate's "shifting" language on taxes.
There wasn’t much new information on this call, but one questioner did challenge the McCain campaign’s claim that their tax plan would be more beneficial to the middle class.
Obama’s campaign has said that their plan provides tax cuts to lower-income individuals, an assertion that the McCain campaign didn’t directly refute. In response, senior policy adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin said that the key to John McCain’s middle-class proposals is allowing people employment opportunities, which in turn ensures that they have the opportunity to benefit from lower taxes.
“In order to pay taxes and have the opportunity to have lower taxes, you have to have a job, and John McCain’s plan is a plan which is dedicated to preserving the small businesses that have created 283,000 jobs in an economy that is struggling,” Holtz-Eakin said. “Barack Obama’s plans are plans which would damage small business in ways that are quite dramatic.”
Carly Fiorina, a McCain economic adviser and head of his Victory Fund, said that Obama’s campaign was simply being disingenuous. “Obama has also said that all of his government-mandated programs are paid for. That doesn’t make it true.”
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones and NBC's Alex Wall Obama campaign held a conference call today to draw attention the Illinois senator’s tax plan and to “set the record straight” regarding what it called false, misleading, and inaccurate representations about his proposals by his rival.
Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, economic policy director Jason Furman, and senior economic adviser Austan Goolsbee (who sparked controversy last spring, when reports surfaced that he had downplayed Obama’s plans to renegotiate NAFTA), took part in the roughly half hour call, which revealed new details on capital gains and dividend tax rates for the wealthy.
Furman and Goolsbee published an op-ed on Obama’s plan in today’s Wall Street Journal , which sought to communicate a message the campaign has repeated over and over again -- that Obama’s plan is better for middle-class families, while McCain’s favors big corporations and the wealthy. The campaign launched a new Web site today with details of the plan, comparisons with McCain’s proposals, and rebuttals to what the site calls the “baseless claims” that the presumptive Democratic nominee would dramatically raise tax rates.
While McCain's campaign has said that an Obama Administration would mean higher taxes, Furman said that Obama's plan would amount to an overall net tax decrease and would reduce taxes for middle-class families to a level that is lower than it was during the Reagan Administration. Obama would pay for it by cutting spending -- by ending the Iraq war, limiting payments for high-income farmers, and eliminating other wasteful and unnecessary programs and payments. Furman said that by the fourth year of an Obama Administration, their “very conservative” budget projection shows savings of $90 billion from ending the war in Iraq.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Matthew E. Berger Mike Huckabee might not be exactly who the Obama campaign initially wanted filling the seats of Invesco Field later this month for the Democratic National Convention’s acceptance speech. But now they're welcoming Eric Melder with open arms -- and a ticket backstage.
Melder, a 59-year-old counselor for at-risk youth from Carlisle, PA, was one of 10 people the campaign chose to fly to Denver, hear Obama accept the Democratic nomination, and meet the candidate backstage. He said he initially was supporting Huckabee in the Republican primaries. But he began giving money to Obama, drawn out of concern for single-parent families and others at risk.
“I like how he commands respect,” he said. “I think Barack Obama has that unique influence to get people on the same page and moving in the same direction.”
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Mark Murray On Social Security's 73rd birthday, the AFL-CIO has announced it's sending
a mailing -- at first to 50,000 targeted swing-vote seniors living in Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania -- that hits
McCain on his wealth and his past support for partially privatizing Social Security. The flier also mentions that McCain, who is 71, has already been receiving Social Security benefits.
The flier begins: "McCain's worth over $100 million... He owns 10 houses... He flies around on a $12.6 million corporate jet... He walks around in $520 loafers. If John McCain lost his Social Security, he'd get by just fine. Would you?"
More: "John McCain wants to gamble with our Social Security... John McCain started receiving Social Security when he turned 65. But now he has a risky scheme to privatize Social Security -- threatening our benefits."
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro Gore won New Mexico by 366 votes. George Bush won it by 5,988. It is sure to be close again, and Republicans have launched an offensive in the state, attacking Obama on energy and tying in his "bitter" comments.
"What's Barack Obama's energy solution? Nothing but a bunch of hot air -- really," an announcer mockingly says in a radio ad paid for by the New Mexico Republican Party and running in mostly rural counties, per Politico's Martin . "Barack Obama wants you to inflate your car tires. Yes, that's right. Inflate your tires. That's Barack Obama's solution to the high gas prices we pay in New Mexico every day."
Not exactly. As has been noted (by First Read and others), inflating tires is certainly not the extent of Obama's energy plan , but it is one conservation method promoted by the U.S. government and, yes, even John McCain.
The ad then makes the leap of connecting tire inflation to Obama's "bitter" comments.
"This is the same Barack Obama who told a crowd of wealthy San Francisco liberals that people who live in small towns cling to their religion and guns because they're bitter," the announcer says. "Now he opposes producing more oil and gas here at home and opposes lowering your gas tax this summer."
One doesn't necessarily equal the other, but the goal is to continue to paint Obama as "out of touch" and another chapter in the battle of who most "feels your pain."
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Mark Murray Obama and Clinton camps have agreed to have Hillary Clinton's name placed in nomination for the roll-call vote at the Democratic convention, according to a source familiar with the discussions.
The source adds that the mechanics of this are still being worked out, but it's "likely" that Clinton will release her delegates to vote for Obama after her name is submitted. Clinton -- who is a superdelegate -- will cast her delegate vote for Obama.
The source also notes that, contrary to previous speculation, these Clinton-Obama discussions haven't been acrimonious at all. This was a joint decision, "and both sides were open to this, and pleased with the outcome."
This news was first reported by the Atlantic's Marc Ambinder .
*** UPDATE ***
"Senator Obama’s campaign encouraged Senator Clinton's name to be placed in nomination as a show of unity and in recognition of the historic race she ran and the fact that she was the first woman to compete in all of our nation’s primary contests."
"'With every voice heard and the Party strongly united, we will elect Senator Obama President of the United States and put our nation on the path to peace and prosperity once again,' said Senator Hillary Clinton."
"Senator Obama and Senator Clinton are looking forward to a convention unified behind Barack Obama as the Party’s nominee and to victory this fall for America."
From NBC's Mark Murray Obama campaign will air during the Olympics. It will begin running on Monday in all 50 states.
Script: It begins with a plan.
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro Abortion Politics: Who would have guessed that the Democratic Party in 2008 would write a platform that was somewhat open to pro-lifers? The platform says the Democratic Party backs Roe v. Wade, but it also notes that the party "strongly" supports a woman's decision to carry a pregnancy to term. And this comes after the Dems announced that Bob Casey Jr. will speak on the Tuesday night of the convention; his father famously was denied a speaking slot at the ’92 Dem convention because of his pro-life views. So here's the $64,000 question: Are the Dems more open to pro-lifers than the GOP is to pro-choicers? The answer is yes if you read the platforms. But if you look at the presidential running mates, you might side with the GOP -- especially after McCain told the Weekly Standard that he would be open to selecting the pro-choice Tom Ridge as his running mate. (Let’s not forgot that Joe Lieberman is pro-choice as well). Planned Parenthood yesterday applauded the Dem platform on abortion and Casey’s speaking role, but what makes us think that National Right to Life and the Family Research Council won’t take too kindly as Ridge as the GOP running mate?
*** Enough time to complain? However, has anyone noticed the biggest upside to both Obama and McCain waiting so long to name their 'mates? It means less time for the media and activists to second-guess their choices. By the time any handwringing over the running mate hit critical mass, the story will be the conventions, the start of the fall campaign, or the debates -- but not the VP’s background. Of course, if interest groups cry loud enough, that could be enough to break through the clutter.
*** Social Security politics: Abortion isn’t the only issue on our radar screen… Today happens to be Social Security’s 73rd birthday, and both political parties are using the occasion to whack the other side, as well as discuss an issue that (so far) hasn’t received that much attention in this presidential race. The DNC has unveiled a new Web video featuring Franklin Roosevelt’s grandson that hits McCain for supporting past efforts to privatize Social Security and for calling the system “a disgrace” while on the stump. The video ends, “Keep your hands off our Social Security.” The RNC, meanwhile, issued a press release yesterday highlighting some of Obama’s shifting views on increasing payroll taxes. But let’s face it: Social Security has been a winning issue for Democrats in past elections, and Bush’s failed effort in 2005 to partially privatize it -- which McCain supported -- marked the beginning of the White House’s and the GOP's current political woes.
*** Olympic ad watch: As good NBC-Universal employees, we continue to watch the Olympics (and lose sleep in the process, given those primetime 11:00 pm to midnight ET events). And while watching, we noticed that McCain seems to have changed his Olympic ad traffic -- replacing the “celebrity” hit on Obama with the more positive “Washington is broken” ad. While “Washington is broken” is all about McCain, it’s still somewhat dark. Meanwhile, the Obama campaign says it will unveil a new Olympics TV ad today that “highlights Obama’s “plan to put the middle class first.”
*** Downballot spotlight: It's a good year to be a Democratic Senate candidate with the last name "Udall," NBC/NJ’s Carrie Dann notes. In New Mexico, just south of the state where Rep. Mark Udall hopes to win back the seat vacated by retiring Colorado GOP Sen. Wayne Allard, cousin Tom Udall is winning by double digits in the contest to replace retiring Republican Sen. Pete Domenici. Udall's GOP opponent, Rep. Steve Pearce, survived a bruising primary against Heather Wilson (whom Domenici endorsed), while Udall cruised unopposed to the Democratic nomination. Pearce -- a conservative whose reputation for sticking to his guns helped him squeak by Wilson -- now may skew too far to the right in bluish New Mexico. "Pearce doesn't have a clear path to victory here," says New Mexico political analyst Heath Haussamen. "A lot of Republicans have already given up on this seat." Udall's hefty financial and polling advantage will be tough to overcome, but Pearce could gain some ground by following the Republican roadmap of slamming Dems on energy; he is already up with ads accusing Udall of blocking new nuclear power and oil drilling. But a weak showing for the downballot Republican could cause some consternation among national Republicans, who hope that turnout in Pearce's conservative home district could boost McCain's chances in this battleground state.
*** On the trail: McCain is in Colorado, where he raises money in Edwards, participates in an Aspen Institute conversation with Walter Isaacson in Aspen, and later fundraises in Aspen. Obama spends his last full day on vacation in Hawaii.
Countdown to Dem convention: 11 daysClick here to sign up for First Read emails.
So was Sarkozy's role in the so-called peace negotiations a disastrous failure? So reports the New York Times . "It soon became clear that the six-point deal not only failed to slow the Russian advance, but it also allowed Russia to claim that it could push deeper into Georgia as part of so-called additional security measures it was granted in the agreement. Mr. Sarkozy, according to a senior Georgian official who witnessed the negotiations, also failed to persuade the Russians to agree to any time limit on their military action.”
“By mid-morning, European officials were warning of the risks of appeasing Russian aggression, while Georgian officials lamented the West’s weak leverage. ‘I’m talking about the impotence and inability of both Europe and the United States to be unified and to exert leverage, and to comprehend the level of the threat,’ said the senior Georgian official, who had sat in on the talks between Mr. Sarkozy and Georgia’s president, Mikheil Saakashvili. The senior Georgian official later made a copy of the deal available to The New York Times with what he said were notes marking changes the Georgians had asked for but failed to attain."
The US is sending troops to Georgia to oversee the humanitarian efforts. "The decision to send the American military, even on a humanitarian mission, deepened the United States’ commitment to Georgia and America’s allies in the former Soviet sphere, just as Russia has been determined to reassert its control in the area. On a day the White House evoked emotional memories of the cold war, a senior Pentagon official said the relief effort was intended ‘to show to Russia that we can come to the aid of a European ally, and that we can do it at will, whenever and wherever we want.’ At a minimum, American forces in Georgia will test Russia’s pledge to allow relief supplies into the country; they could also deter further Russian attacks, though at the risk of a potential military confrontation."
Is this yet another war for oil ? "When the main pipeline that carries oil through Georgia was completed in 2005, it was hailed as a major success in the United States policy to diversify its energy supply. Not only did the pipeline transport oil produced in Central Asia, helping move the West away from its dependence on the Middle East, but it also accomplished another American goal: it bypassed Russia.”
“American policy makers hoped that diverting oil around Russia would keep the country from reasserting control over Central Asia and its enormous oil and gas wealth and would provide a safer alternative to Moscow’s control over export routes that it had inherited from Soviet days. The tug-of-war with Moscow was the latest version of the Great Game, the 19th-century contest for dominance in the region."
CONTINUED >>
A Pew poll yesterday found Obama leading McCain by just three points -- 46%-43%. It’s a downward trend in the poll for the presumptive Democratic nominee, who led McCain by eight points in June and five in July.
The New York Times checks out how both McCain and Obama seem to be willing to talk about Social Security reform.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi is considering softening her stance against additional offshore oil drilling. "One proposal under consideration would let states decide whether to permit new energy exploration off their coasts while possibly maintaining the drilling ban off the Pacific Coast, according to a House leadership aide who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of ongoing negotiations. Pelosi has long opposed lifting the drilling ban but has come under pressure from members of her own party -- including freshmen in tough reelection campaigns -- to allow a vote on offshore drilling. Adding to that, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama recently said that he would be open to limited offshore drilling if it was part of a broader energy compromise."
Karl Rove identifies his four key battleground states: Virginia, Colorado, Ohio, and Michigan. He believes Obama's best chance out of Virginia and Colorado is Colorado. “Denver hosts the Democratic convention at the end of this month. And a quartet of local millionaires (mini-George Soroses) have spent lavishly to boost Democrats. They have succeeded at shrinking the Republican advantage among registered voters. The GOP now has just 68,507 more voters on the rolls in Colorado than Democrats, down from a 176,572 edge four years ago.”
FLORIDA: "Here's the math. Since the start of the general-election season, Obama has dropped $6.51 million -- a full 18 percent of his overall ad spending, and by the largest chunk of change allotted to any one state -- to broadcast 10,000 commercials on Florida television," Newsweek's Romano writes. "McCain's total disbursement? $0, zero ads. Meanwhile, Chicago has sent more than 200 full-time staffers and signed up at least 150,000 online volunteers to man the state's 35 field offices--the most of any battleground. McCain's local staff is a quarter of the size, and much of it is shared with the state party."MICHIGAN: McCain touted Michigan's importance in November, telling voters near Detroit that he'd come to "a swing county in a swing state, so let's have no doubt that this will be a battleground state."
CONTINUED >>
Texas Monthly profiles ex-McCain adviser John Weaver, who continues to speak candidly about the state of McCain’s campaign. “[I]n our conversation, he made no effort to conceal his disagreement with the current strategy of attacking Obama. ‘They want to get Obama’s negatives up, but the country doesn’t want to hear it,’ Weaver said. ‘If we run that kind of campaign, Obama could win by a landslide.’ Indeed, McCain’s recent ‘celebrity’ television ad, which featured shots of controversial celebrities Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, turned out to be a hanging curve for Obama, who responded immediately: ‘You’d think we’d be having a serious debate. But so far, all we’ve been hearing about is Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. I do have to ask my opponent: Is that the best you can come up with? Is that really what this election is about? Is that what is worthy of the American people?’”
“In contrast, Weaver told me, ‘I would go another month without mentioning Obama’s name. The bigness in John McCain is his best quality. This election is ideally suited to him. He won the nomination because he was the right Republican at the right time. He is the one guy who will take on spending and mean it. He should honor Obama as the first African American nominee, not attack him, except on policy differences.’”
Just how did Ralph Reed get even remotely involved in a fundraising event for McCain that’s set for next week in Georgia? It appears McCain's GA finance operation asked him to get involved, but no one's talking and the McCain national campaign is noting that Reed has no role in the campaign or the event. Per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution : “All this creates an electoral minefield for McCain. Having Reed's support could bolster his campaign with still-skeptical evangelicals. Should McCain criticize Reed's actions on his behalf, he risks angering the evangelical voters he needs as part of the traditional Republican base. Reed's presence also leaves McCain open to criticism, since he uses his work against Abramoff to boost his reputation as a reformer.”
Cindy McCain sustained a minor sprain to her hand after shaking hands with a supporter, the campaign said.
Politico writes that the author behind the best-selling book that skewers Obama has “left a trail of wild theories, vitriol and dogma that have called into question his credibility. Jerome Corsi, who rose to prominence as the co-author of a book attacking 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, penned another tome asserting oil is a nearly infinite resource that continues to generate naturally, and posted a series of online comments through 2004, including suggestions that Hillary Rodham Clinton is a lesbian and Muslims worship Satan. In an interview with Politico, Corsi pointed out that he’s apologized for Internet postings ripping Muslims and Catholics, and said they don’t undermine the integrity of his new book.”
Another Politico piece notes that John Kerry “launched a website Wednesday, Truth Fights Back, challenging the assertions in Corsi’s book. Kerry sent an e-mail to his former supporters headlined, ‘Book on Obama Hopes to Repeat Anti-Kerry Feat.’ Former Kerry campaign advisers believe Obama's senior aides must figure out how to effectively and directly respond to the book. Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said the campaign is speaking to reporters to directly challenge the merits of the book.”
“When Obama is home in Chicago, he tries to squeeze moments of real life between the marathon meetings and travel that consume the time of the Democratic presidential candidate,” the AP says. “But real life for Obama isn't what it used to be. When he ditches his work clothes for flip-flops and jeans to go to a city park to watch his oldest daughter play soccer, Secret Service agents come along. A haircut at his neighborhood joint requires a five-car motorcade that disrupts traffic and attracts gawkers. And a walk to a neighbor's house for a barbecue includes a pack of reporters trailing close behind. The Illinois senator is followed nearly all day, including during down time, by a pool of reporters who don't leave until he's tucked inside his home for the night.”
Bloomberg News reports on the Dem platform that appears to woo those opposed to abortion. "The party's platform supports the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling that made abortion legal and adds a twist, saying the party ‘strongly’ backs a woman's decision to carry a pregnancy to term. The compromise language is the result of behind-the-scenes negotiations with abortion-rights groups and religious leaders on both sides of the issue. The idea is to frame abortion as less of an either-or issue by discussing both the need to keep abortion legal and the desire to provide programs for expectant and new mothers. It may help Democrats woo evangelical Christians, a core Republican constituency that backed President George W. Bush by a margin of 77 percent in 2004."
"Democratic officials [said] that the video preceding Hillary's Aug. 26 prime-talk talk will be produced by Arkansas pals Harry Thomason and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, best known for creating the TV sitcom 'Designing Women,' the NY Daily News reports. "These officials said that while many other convention speakers will also rate videos, Clinton negotiators insisted on Hillary having her own video team instead of letting Barack Obama's convention planners handle the production." And just who's footing the bill?
Local Virginia reporters are speculating that Mark Warner's selection as the Dem keynote speaker means Kaine's fallen down the short list.
But Kaine gets some VP profile love in today’s New York Times . "While running mates typically complement the presidential candidate, Mr. Kaine, 50, more replicates Mr. Obama. He is an inspiring speaker, a Harvard-trained lawyer who spurned corporate work for civil rights. He eludes ideological labels -- a Roman Catholic, he opposes both the death penalty and abortion, yet has allowed several executions during his tenure as governor and says he does not think abortion should be criminalized. He describes himself as pragmatic, not partisan -- a bridge builder."
Some prominent Michigan Republicans are asking McCain to pick Romney.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “responded to a caller who asked what could be done to keep Lieberman from undermining Obama's bid for the White House. ‘You are right. Joe Lieberman has said things that are totally irresponsible when it comes to Barack Obama,’ Pelosi said. ‘Here we have a leader for the future, really a great leader for the future and one that comes along only every now and then, and they know it so they have to undermine him. And one of their best weapons, of course, is someone who is considered by some to be a Democrat.’
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro McCain campaign seized on Obama foreign policy adviser Susan Rice's comments on MSNBC's Hardball last night
Rice was responding to a clip of McCain overtly siding with Georgia, having told the Georgian President, "I know I speak for every American when I say to him, today, we are all Georgians."
McCain camp's Tucker Bounds offered this affront: “During an international crisis when bipartisanship is needed most, it’s disappointing that the Obama campaign has chosen to launch inflammatory and baseless political attacks.”
Obama camp took issue.
“It is the absolute height of hypocrisy for the McCain campaign to play the victim after launching attack after attack on Barack Obama for his strong and appropriate response to the conflict in Georgia, but it’s characteristic of the old Washington tactics that have failed the American people," Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan writes. "Empty words about bipartisanship mean nothing just days after the McCain campaign accused Barack Obama of being ‘in sync with Moscow’ and not putting his country first. Senator Obama is focused on what the United States and the international community must do to resolve this crisis, not on the tired political games that have stood in the way of progress.”
McCain and his surrogates haven't exactly been pure. There have been several instances of criticism of Obama's judgment, readiness and leadership potential with regard to the Georgia situation.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Jim Miklaszewski U.S. officials tell NBC News that between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. ET today, there was a movement of Russian Forces from Ossetia toward the vicinity of Gori, but no indication of any engagement with Georgian military or civilians.
"We were trying to figure out what they [Russians] were up to, and still havent," one official said.
The officials could not immediately confirm reports the Russians had turned back north to Ossetia. At this hour, the officials see no evidence of any Russian offensive operations anywhere inside Georgia.
As of early this morning, U.S. military and intelligence officials reported that Russian forces had withdrawn back into Ossetia, there were no Russians in the vicinity of Gori and no Russian warplanes engaged in any bombing strikes.
Humanitarian aid
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Doug Adams Roberts (KS) is now the eighth Republican senator to announce that they will not attend the GOP Convention in St. Paul, Minn., next month.
Roberts spokeswoman told the Topeka Capital Journal today that Roberts will be campaigning that week, finishing up his 105 county statewide tour during the convention week.
Four others who've announced they won't be attending are -- Ted Stevens (AK), Elizabeth Dole (NC), Gordon Smith (OR), and Susan Collins (ME). All are running for re-election and are in close races. (Collins may have the easiest race, but she's never been a close ally of McCain .)
Three other GOP senators who are retiring this year have also said they'll skip the St. Paul festivities -- Larry Craig (ID), Chuck Hagel (NE) and Wayne Allard (CO).
And the list could grow. Two more GOP senators locked in tough re-election races -- John Sununu (NH) and Roger Wicker (MS) are still undecided about attending.
From NBC's Mark Murray Obama campaign has announced it will begin airing a new TV ad tomorrow that hits McCain on the economy and compares him -- once again -- to Bush.
The ad will air in 16 battleground states: Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Script: "I'm Barack Obama and I approved this message."
*** UPDATE *** The McCain campaign responds:
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro I am the key(note) master : The Obama campaign has announced that former Virginia Gov. -- and current Senate candidate -- Mark Warner will deliver the keynote address on the Tuesday of the Democratic convention. This will continue the tradition of one-time (or once-thought-to-be) presidential candidates (Bradley, Obama) getting their first audition chances as a keynoter. Also, is Obama paying it forward here by picking someone who is a candidate for Senate on his way to a blowout victory? And by the way, doesn't this bode ill for Tim Kaine’s veep chances? It’s hard to imagine there would be Virginians on two straight nights dominating prime time. Just asking: Did the unveiling of the "security" theme for the Wednesday VP night also send a signal that Kaine, Sebelius, and perhaps Bayh were falling on the list? That reminds us: We haven’t heard much from Biden lately. Has he passed the "can you keep it quiet for a few weeks" test?
*** Talk about an odd couple : How shocking is it that Ralph Reed -- the former GOP boy wonder who was Jack Abramoff’s business partner (“I need to start humping in corporate accounts,” Reed once emailed Abramoff) -- is helping to raise money for McCain for a fundraiser next week in Atlanta? Consider that: 1) McCain used his perch on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee to hit Abramoff and Reed; 2) McCain has railed against Abramoff on the campaign trail (“I led in the Abramoff hearings in the -- in the obscure Indian Affairs Committee, for which people are still testifying and going to jail,” he said at a GOP debate in 2007); and 3) some McCain loyalists have blamed Reed for launching the now-infamous whisper campaign against McCain in the 2000 South Carolina primary. McCain made it part of his life’s mission to hammer Abramoff and Reed, and now he’s getting help from the Christian Coalition boy wonder? It's amazing marriage of convenience -- one that some in McCain world may believe is a step too far. In fact, what are the odds that Reed actually shows up to this McCain event?
*** Pulling a Zell : It was two years ago this month that Joe Lieberman lost his Dem primary, and now he's on McCain's short list for VP. By the way, is Lieberman trying to force Democrats to expel him from their caucus if they pick up Senate seats in November? Yesterday, campaigning for McCain in Pennsylvania, the Connecticut senator suggested that Obama doesn’t put his country first. "In my opinion, the choice could not be more clear: between one candidate, John McCain, who's had experience, been tested in war and tried in peace, another candidate who has not,'' Lieberman said. "Between one candidate, John McCain, who has always put the country first, worked across party lines to get things done, and one candidate who has not." Lieberman, who will campaign again with McCain today, has definitely upped his rhetoric, which is why his name continues to stay on the short list. And Lieberman himself doesn't seem to do a lot to discourage the talk. In fact, longtime Lieberman watchers will probably wonder why the one-time Dem VP nominee wasn't this good of an attack dog when he was Al Gore's running mate. Obama may have some Republicans in his camp, but they aren't doing attack-dog politics like Lieberman's doing for McCain.
*** If it was Tuesday… : …somebody was voting somewhere. Primaries took place yesterday in two battleground states -- Colorado and Nevada -- as well as in Connecticut. The big upset was in the CO-2 Dem primary, in which a self-funder defeated state Senate president Joan Fitz-Gerald (a disappointing defeat for an Emily’s List candidate) in the race to succeed Mark Udall. Yet beyond that surprise, yesterday was really about showcasing some candidates who will be in tough House races in Nevada (two of the three are being targeted) and in Colorado, where at least one will get lots of national attention in addition to the senate race between Udall and Republican Bob Schaffer.
*** Downballot spotlight : NBC/NJ’s Carrie Dann looks at the Shaheen-Sununu rematch in New Hampshire. In 2002, an unexpected four-point Senate victory in New Hampshire seemed like a landslide for John Sununu (R), whom many predicted would watch Gov. Jeanne Shaheen (D) squeak by him at the 11th hour. Six years later, pundits are cautiously wondering how the political winds will blow in the Granite State rematch and one of the tightest races of the cycle. Down by as many as 16 points a year ago, when he was weighed down by the bitter unpopularity of the Iraq war, Sununu appears to be pulling even with Shaheen as the war's importance in voter surveys drops from the top concern in favor of gas prices and the economy. The University of New Hampshire's latest poll shows Sununu at 42% to Shaheen's 46% -- grim numbers for an incumbent, but still a dramatic improvement for the Republican since last year's slump.
*** “Tight until the end” : Both candidates are both hardened veterans and cautious campaigners who have run strong ground games in the state before. Shaheen will likely benefit from the state's changing electorate, which has seen a substantial drop in registered Republicans since the 2002 contest. But Sununu, who revels in last-minute ad pushes, has an as-yet untouched $5 million war chest. And McCain's appeal to New Hampshire's moderate Republicans could offer long coattails to his Republican Senate colleague. "If it had been any other Republican [presidential] candidate other than McCain, Sununu might have had no chance of winning this race," says pollster Andy Smith of the UNH Survey Center. But assuming that McCain draws out Republicans in big numbers, Smith adds that "it looks like this race will be tight until the very end."
*** On the trail : McCain campaigns in Michigan, hitting a fundraiser in West Bloomfield; touring Beaver Aerospace & Defense in Livonia; and holding a media avail and raising money in Birmingham. Obama remains on his vacation in Hawaii, but his campaign says it will announce today a new TV ad -- focused on the economy -- that will begin to air Thursday in battleground states.
Countdown to Dem convention: 12 daysClick here to sign up for First Read emails .
A new poll by the Barna Group shows Obama leading McCain among all faith groups – except for evangelicals. “For the most part, the various faith communities of the U.S. currently support Sen. Obama for the presidency. Among the 19 faith segments that The Barna Group tracks, evangelicals were the only segment to throw its support to Sen. McCain. Among the larger faith niches to support Sen. Obama are non-evangelical born again Christians (43% to 31%); notional Christians (44% to 28%); people aligned with faiths other than Christianity (56% to 24%); atheists and agnostics (55% to 17%); Catholics (39% vs. 29%); and Protestants (43% to 34%). In fact, if the current preferences stand pat, this would mark the first time in more than two decades that the born again vote has swung toward the Democratic candidate.”
More: “During the past two months, Sen. Obama’s lead has eroded substantially among non-evangelical born again Christians (a decline of nine points); active Christians (a 20-point drop); Protestants (down 13 points); and Catholics (down 11 points). While some Christian voters seem to be questioning their early support for Obama, the McCain candidacy does not seem to be gaining momentum among evangelicals. Since June, the current level of support Sen. McCain has among evangelical voters has declined significantly (dropping from 78% to 61%).
Speaking of, Obama and McCain will be making a joint appearance this weekend with evangelist Rick Warren. The Los Angeles Times previews the event. "Warren has been called perhaps ‘America's most influential pastor,’ an evangelical megastar who leads the nation's fourth-largest church, reaches thousands of ministers through the Internet and crusades against poverty and AIDS. That globe-trotting work -- and his phenomenally successful book, ‘The Purpose Driven Life’ -- have propelled him into the vanguard of a movement that inspires young and socially conscious Christians.”
CONTINUED >>
Maureen Dowd skewers Bill and Hillary in her column today. "Obama also allowed Hillary supporters to insert an absurd statement into the platform suggesting that media sexism spurred her loss and that ‘demeaning portrayals of women ... dampen the dreams of our daughters.’ This, even though postmortems, including the new raft of campaign memos leaked by Clintonistas to The Atlantic — another move that undercuts Obama — finger Hillary’s horrendous management skills.”
“Besides the crashing egos and screeching factions working at cross purposes, Joshua Green writes in the magazine, Hillary’s ‘hesitancy and habit of avoiding hard choices ‘exacted a price that eventually sank her chances at the presidency.’ It would have been better to put this language in the platform: ‘A woman who wildly mismanages and bankrupts a quarter-of-a-billion-dollar campaign operation, and then blames sexism in society, will dampen the dreams of our daughters.’”
The Washington Post's Balz examines the Atlantic-Clinton memos and wonders what McCain could learn. "McCain's campaign appears to have less hesitation than Clinton's did in going after Obama. For the past few weeks, it has run a series of negative ads -- some humorous, some not so -- that portray Obama as a famous but empty suit who is wrong on many of the issues Americans care most about. The ads, at a minimum, may be getting under Obama's skin. It's possible they are doing real damage. Penn seems to believe that, based on what he wrote for the Politico. ‘Fair or not, as advertising it did its job,’ he said.”
“Just how far McCain's campaign will pursue this strategy isn't clear. There are risks for him, just as there were for Clinton. Obama has proven over this long campaign to be a difficult target to hit -- at least on anything more than an occasional basis. So the mileage may be limited long term. More fundamentally, McCain risks damaging his reputation as a politician who has eschewed the politics of negativity. But what was considered out of bounds in a Democratic primary campaign may be less so in a general-election race, in which other voters come into play. McCain will have to make some difficult judgments about this in the final 82 days."
The McCain campaign is going to hit Obama today on this being the one-year anniversary of his comments accusing our troops of killing civilians in Afghanistan. From the McCain folks: "One year ago today, Barack Obama accused our men and women in Afghanistan of 'just air-raiding villages and killing civilians' in this country's fight against radical Islamic extremism. Whether those words were a product of inexperience or just bad judgment, they were not the kind of words we expect from any candidate for our nation's highest office."
The campaign’s research: “One Year Ago Today On August 13, 2007, Barack Obama Said American Troops Were ‘Just Air-Raiding Villages And Killing Civilians.’ Obama: ‘We've got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough troops so that we're not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous problems there.’ (Nedra Pickler, "Obama's Statement On Civilian Deaths In Afghanistan," The Associated Press, 8/14/07)
But we point you to this fact-check (by the AP’s Pickler a year ago): "A check of the facts shows that Western forces have been killing civilians at a faster rate than the insurgents have been killing civilians. The U.S. and NATO say they don't have civilian casualty figures, but The Associated Press has been keeping count based on figures from Afghan and international officials. As of Aug. 1, the AP count shows that while militants killed 231 civilians in attacks in 2007, Western forces killed 286. Another 20 were killed in crossfire that can't be attributed to one party. Afghan President Hamid Karzai expressed his concern about the civilian deaths during a meeting last week with President Bush. 'The president rightly expressed his concerns about civilian casualty,' Bush said of Karzai. 'And I assured him that we share those concerns.'"
CONTINUED >>
The conservative book-buying world is easily one of the more powerful movements in media. And the New York Times front-pages the new attack book on Obama by Swift Boat author Jerome Corsi, and the paper writes that the book will debut No. 1 on the NYT hardcover list. "Significant parts of the book, whose subtitle is ‘Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality,’ have already been challenged as misleading or false in the days since its debut on Aug. 1. Nonetheless, it is to make its first appearance on The New York Times best-seller list for nonfiction hardcovers this Sunday — at No. 1. The book is being pushed along by a large volume of bulk sales, intense voter interest in Mr. Obama and a broad marketing campaign that has already included 100 author interviews with talk radio hosts across the country, like Sean Hannity and G. Gordon Liddy, Mr. Corsi said on Tuesday."
More: "The publisher is Threshold Editions, a division of Simon & Schuster whose chief editor is Mary Matalin, the former Republican operative turned publisher-pundit. And it is a significant, early success for Ms. Matalin’s three-year-old imprint, which is also planning to publish the memoirs of Karl Rove, President Bush’s longtime political guru. Threshold says it has undertaken an extensive printing effort for anticipated demand, with 475,000 copies of ‘The Obama Nation’ produced so far.”
“‘The goal is to defeat Obama,’ Mr. Corsi said in a telephone interview. ‘I don’t want Obama to be in office.’”
CONTINUED >>
MINNESOTA : Obama’s state director notes that 20% of the state's electorate is undecided. He told reporters yesterday that his 1,500 volunteers in the state will knock on those fence-sitters' doors "as many times as it takes to move them."
*** UPDATE ***
OHIO : Here’s another story about Obama promising to campaign and organize in the rural parts of the state, especially Ohio’s "U" portion (from Toledo to Youngstown).
Compiled by NBC/NJ's Matthew Berger, Carrie Dann, and Athena Jones:he isn’t basing his veep timing on when Obama announces. “I'm not driven by Sen. Obama's schedule, but it's a very tough thing to do," McCain said on Fox News. “I'm working hard at it.” He said he wants to reach a decision soon. will face off this Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” DEMOCRATS : The Nation's Nichols writes that the conflict in Georgia creates a crystal-clear focus on the veep picks that Obama should consider, with Biden chief among them. Biden, he writes, would be “what Barack Obama needs at this point, a running-mate who can play not just on the stage of a swing state but who on the global stage where the next administration will be required to perform immediately.” pardoned a local mother facing deportation for a decade-old case of minor credit card fraud. REPUBLICANS: Former Rep. Rob Portman says he hasn’t been asked by McCain to turn over financial documents . “I'm happy to help him, here in Indiana and around the country, but he's got a lot of great choices," he said.
CONTINUED >>
As mentioned above, Mark Warner will keynote the Democratic National Convention. He'll speak August 26, the same night Hillary Clinton will speak. The AP: "The focus on Warner could help boost his prospects in Virginia, where he is trying to win an open Senate seat and Obama is also campaigning hard."
"In an attempt to address the moral convictions of evangelical Christians and Roman Catholics, the Democratic Party has proposed a platform that speaks a new language on abortion rights, featuring a focus on reducing the number of abortions," the Chicago Tribune reports. Here's the updated, proposed language -- certainly stronger than the 2004 version:
From NBC's Libby Leist
"Russia is going to have to ensure its integration into the WTO and the OECD and the G8 and institutions like that," the official added. "I think the entire Medvedev agenda is at stake here."
More: "I don't think that there is any doubt that this action that Russia has taken, and the way in which they have taken it will have an impact on how Russia is viewed. But I don't want to get ahead of ourselves."
From NBC/NJ’s Adam Aigner-Treworgy
"And he wanted me to say thank you to you, to give you his heartfelt thanks for the support of the American people for this tiny little democracy far away from the United States of America," McCain said of his conversation with Saakashvili. "And I told him that I know I speak for every American when I say to him, 'Today we are all Georgians.'"
"In 2006, I visited Senaki and reviewed the Georgian troops who had served with honor beside American soldiers in Iraq," McCain said, emphasizing his familiarity with the region. Adding later, "Two years ago, I traveled to South Ossetia my friends."
If there was any doubt that the McCain campaign would try to use this week to emphasize McCain's foreign policy credentials in light of the current conflict in Georgia then today's town hall put those to bed.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones and NBC's Alex Wall Obama campaign hopes to attract hundreds of thousands of Republicans to support the Democratic candidate in November, said three GOPers who hosted a conference call this morning.
The three Republicans -- former Iowa Rep. Jim Leach (who formally endorsed Obama today), former Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee , and former White House intelligence advisor Rita E. Hauser -- announced the formation of "Republicans for Obama," which will launch a Web site in the coming days that will be a clearinghouse of information for Republicans who want to learn more about the Illinois Democrat. The site will highlight the differences between Obama and McCain on the issues and let them know where they can go to see the candidate and how they can help in his election effort.
"From my perspective, this is simply not a time for politics as usual," said Leach, arguing that the portfolio of issues that will be passed on to the next president would be as daunting as any since World War II and would therefore require "inspiring, new, political leadership" and the kind of change he believes Obama's platform offers.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner Treworgy and Domenico Montanaro First, there was the
Frenchman , then
Reno and
here's another classic McCain campaign press credential -- this one from a stop in York, Pa. And it has a York Peppermint Patty on it. Get
it ?
It also reminded us of
this 80s classic ...
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro McCain , right (as evidenced by his stop at Sturgis)? The Obama campaign wants those riders -- and American workers -- to reconsider.
In a new radio ad, called "Motorcycle," Obama camp asserts that despite his Sturgis speech, McCain doesn't care about Harleys or American manufacturers.
"But when it comes to his record, American-made motorcycles like Harleys don’t matter to John McCain," a somber announcer says. "Back in Washington, McCain opposed a requirement that the government buy American -- made motorcycles."
The ad takes it a step further... "And he said all Buy American provisions were quote 'disgraceful.' Surprised? You shouldn’t be. This is the same John McCain who supported billions in tax breaks for companies who ship American jobs overseas."
Hard to tell the truthfulness. It'll have the fact checkers working.*** UPDATE ***
This is one of several examples the campaign passes along of McCain being against "Buy American" provisions:
The Obama camp also backs up its claim that McCain "supported billions in tax breaks for companies who ship American jobs overseas" with the following:
CONTINUED >>
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro Problems in HillaryLand: Summer doldrums? Then spend the day clicking and reading Josh Green’s Atlantic Monthly piece on the Clinton campaign, as well as all the campaign memos and emails he obtained. It's not a pretty picture of Team Clinton. The memos paint a picture of Mark Penn as someone who just doesn't seem human. They also show Hillary Clinton as shockingly paralyzed; the person who ran on her experience to do the job couldn't make an executive decision in a timely fashion -- or if she did, she wasn't listened to. Bill Clinton was one of the powers behind the scenes, providing the backbone Mark Penn was looking for inside the campaign. The article, as well the memos and emails, is a severe blow to the Clinton Restoration Project -- just as her supporters are trying to get her name onto the convention ballot.
*** It’s the management, stupid: With the news about Edwards’ affair, there has been a lot of revisionist history coming from Clinton circles that, with Edwards out of the race, Clinton would have won the Iowa caucuses and the Dem nomination. Maybe, maybe not. (The Iowa entrance polls showed that Obama beat Clinton 2-to-1 as the second choice among Edwards’ backers.) But as Green’s piece makes clear, Clinton’s management problems would have become an issue -- either in the primary season (sans Edwards) or the general election. “Clinton ran on the basis of managerial competence… In fact, she never behaved like a chief executive, and her own staff proved to be her Achilles’ heel,” Green writes. “What is clear from the internal documents is that Clinton’s loss derived not from any specific decision she made but rather from the preponderance of the many she did not make. Her hesitancy and habit of avoiding hard choices exacted a price that eventually sank her chances at the presidency.” As one prominent Clinton supporter is arguing about the release of these memos, the one person they’re going to damage the most is Clinton herself.
*** Bushwhacked? Yesterday, we mentioned that President Bush’s relatively passive approach to the conflict in Georgia wasn’t doing McCain any favors, because Bush -- attending swimming events at the Olympics, playing beach volleyball -- seemed more disengaged than Obama was in Hawaii. In fact, every time McCain has appeared to have traction on an issue, Bush hasn’t helped. As one Republican reader recalls, the president totally stepped on McCain’s “I will end the Iraq war by 2013” message when he gave his Nazi appeasers speech at the Israeli Knesset. Moreover, when McCain was calling Congress to come back to work on the energy bill, Bush didn’t bother to use his bully pulpit to reiterate that call. And the White House’s support for a general “time horizon” for withdrawal from Iraq -- combined with Maliki’s endorsement of Obama’s 16-month timeline -- seemed to leave McCain all by himself on the withdrawal issue. It's hard enough for McCain to lug around the baggage that is Bush's job rating. But does he actually pro-actively have to find ways to hurt him too?
*** Time for another sit-down interview? WashingtonPost.com reports that Rielle Hunter was WITH Edwards on his presidential announcement tour in late December 2006 -- and it has photos to prove it -- even though Edwards said the affair had ended before he made his presidential announced. Are we really expected to believe that if Elizabeth Edwards knew about her husband’s affair in 2006, she'd allow Hunter to be on the campaign trail?
*** Big think time: There are a few interesting macro-political stories out today. The Los Angeles Times looks at McCain’s potential problem with exurban voters, a demographic Bush won big in 2004. The Washington Post writes about Obama’s troubles with voters 65 and older. And the Wall Street Journal reports on how Republicans -- concerned about all the new voter registration -- are contemplating playing the fraud card. The premise of that WSJ piece, in fact, is going to make Dems nuts and make Republicans very happy. Democrats believe Republicans are cynical about any new voter registrations, and GOPers believe Dems overlook the rules to register voters. The bottom line: The GOP looks like it’s on the side of keeping voter rolls down, which isn't always the best place to be.
*** The one-term pledge: One topic we didn't get to yesterday was the news that McCain either had -- or has -- been thinking about making a one-term pledge. The two biggest issues McCain has to deal with among swing voters are his age and the (R) next to his name. In addition, the one thing that's holding back a slice of voters from going to Obama is his inexperience. Well, there's a school of thought that McCain could offer voters the best of both worlds if he somehow convinces them that he'll be a one-term president, while allowing Obama to season himself up for another four years. There are some Republican strategists who we've talked to who believe that if voters thought they could get Obama as president EVENTUALLY, they'd pick McCain for four years and take Obama after that. The problem is -- How do you sell this now. Will enough voters buy into the idea that a politician will keep his word on a one-term pledge? There's a lot of cynicism about politicians these days (thank you, John Edwards). Also, a one-term pledge certainly raises the stakes for McCain VP pick -- then again, it might give McCain leeway to pick someone he believes needs a little seasoning. The political reality of a one-term pledge is that it could make a President McCain an immediate lame-duck; of course, if he argues he'll take the politics out of the presidency it might allow him to govern as he wants and not feel the need to answer to any one constituency group. And that fact could actually scare conservatives who would worry what havoc a one-term McCain presidency could create on the conservative movement. It's a gamble. But what we know about McCain, he loves to gamble.
*** Downballot spotlight: NBC/NJ’s Carrie Dann notes that Democrats are looking for a hat trick this November in Colorado, aiming to make a Senate win for Rep. Mark Udall their third statewide victory in as many election cycles -- after sending Ken Salazar to the Senate in ‘04 and Bill Ritter to the governor’s mansion in ’06. Udall’s campaign has given them a lot to smile about. He’s got a substantial advantage in fundraising and polling over GOP opponent Bob Schaffer. His reputation as a champion of the environment is worth substantial traction in the Rocky Mountain state, and his high-profile family name doesn’t hurt, either. But Schaffer, Dann adds, continues to hold his own, most recently hammering Udall for reneging on his promise to support a measure that would have kept the US House in session to address offshore drilling. (Udall was fundraising and didn't make it back to DC in time for the vote.) “Schaffer hasn’t really gotten many breaks in this race,” says Jennifer Duffy of the Cook Political Report. “And yet he’s still in the game.” Duffy points out that Schaffer has also been working to paint his opponent as an out-of-touch “Boulder liberal” -- not exactly the kind of centrist Dem that usually does well in the state. If Udall can win despite being tagged as a "Boulder liberal," it will be a reminder of the sea change that could be taking place in this state politically.
*** On the trail: McCain remains in Pennsylvania, holding a town hall in York and conducting interviews in Lancaster. He later heads to a fundraiser in Teaneck, NJ. Obama is still in Hawaii, but his campaign will launch its “Republicans for Obama” effort with a conference call by former US Rep. Jim Leach (R).
Countdown to Dem convention: 13 daysClick here to sign up for First Read emails.
Russia announced early today that it has halted military operations in Georgia, but it didn’t say whether it would withdraw its troops.
Want to know why neither McCain nor Obama knows what to say beyond their statements on Georgia? The New York Times : "Even as President Bush denounced the Russian actions in the strongest terms to date, the United States and its European allies faced tough choices over how to push back. They seemed uncertain how to adjust to a new geopolitical game that threatened to undermine two decades of democratic gains in countries that were once part of the Soviet sphere."
More: "Administration officials said military options were almost certainly off the table, but the United States did airlift Georgian troops stationed in Iraq back home, answering a plea from the Georgian government and prompting a sharp response from Russia. Washington could also press to ostracize Moscow on the international stage, perhaps by kicking it out of the Group of 8 industrialized nations. Yet there was no immediate indication that Western powers could exercise much leverage over Russia if it chose to ignore their warnings."
The Los Angeles Times gets at the challenges for McCain and Obama. "For McCain and Obama, the war in Georgia has forced a pivot in a campaign where the foreign policy debate has focused primarily on the Middle East and terrorism. The issue poses challenges for both as they balance the need to condemn Russia's actions while addressing the reality that the next administration will need Moscow's assistance in confronting potential nuclear threats from Iran and North Korea.”
For McCain: “McCain had sought to highlight his support for U.S.-Russia cooperation on nuclear security issues, delivering a major address in May in which he declared that ‘Russia and the United States are no longer mortal enemies.’ McCain used that address as a public break from Bush's unpopular foreign policy, embracing a new treaty with Russia and other efforts to reduce the number of nuclear weapons. But in recent days McCain has signaled that he intends to focus more on hard-line criticism of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin and his government.”
CONTINUED >>
The New York Times covers the Atlantic Monthly story about the Clinton campaign. "While Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton campaigned for president by offering herself as a sure-handed, competent successor to President Bush, her campaign team of highly paid advisers was riven by back-biting, poor management and conflicting strategies that contributed to her loss to Senator Barack Obama, according to a magazine report released Monday."
More from the Atlantic piece: "Clinton's top campaign strategist advised her to cast presidential rival Barack Obama as having questionable ‘roots to basic American values and culture’ and use the theme to counter the image that his background is diverse and multicultural. 'I cannot imagine America electing a president during a time of war who is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and in his values,' Mark Penn wrote in a March 2007 memo to Clinton."
Just as the Atlantic writes up those memos, Mark Penn has an op-ed in The Politico defending negative ads. Penn seems unimpressed with Obama's campaign so far. "So far in the 2008 contest, neither candidate has connected with any ads that explosive. But fresh information about their past views in their own words could shake up the race. Obama’s commercials so far have been very positive. He has used advertising mostly to amplify his speeches and some of his programs. And he has a Rubicon to cross: He has presented himself as representing a new politics -- uplifting, inspiring and not negatively driven -- though he has been willing to go after his opponents sharply on the stump."
More Clinton and Penn : "… Hillary Clinton has been privately enumerating her doubts about Obama to supporters, according to people who have spoken with her. Clinton’s pollster Mark Penn recently unveiled a PowerPoint presentation red-flagging Obama’s lukewarm leads among white female voters and Hispanics -- while predicting a five-point swing could turn a presumed Obama win into a McCain landslide."
The San Francisco Chronicle looks at the push to get Clinton's name officially nominated at the convention.
WashingtonPost.com reports : “Photographs distributed by wire services and posted online by technology blogger Robert Scoble show that former North Carolina senator John Edwards took his mistress Rielle Hunter with him on the plane during his late 2006 presidential campaign announcement tour. As can be seen in this Dec. 28, 2006 photo (that's Hunter in the jeans and jester hat, as can be seen more clearly in this side-profile photo), Hunter stood off to the side of the national press corps filming Edwards as the former Democratic vice presidential nominee announced his second bid for the presidency in New Orleans.”
Some of the photos here .
The Wall Street Journal takes a look at the voter-registration expansion happening in some battleground states, as well as how the GOP is moving to examine these surges in the voting rolls. "Republicans are moving to examine surges in voter registrations in some states. A Republican lawyers group held a national training session on election law over the weekend that included campaign attorneys for Sen. John McCain and other Republican leaders. One session discussed how party operatives can identify and respond to instances of voter fraud.”
“Republicans said they are particularly worried about prospects for fraud in Virginia and Pennsylvania, and are beginning to comb thousands of new registrations in those states for ineligible applicants. In some cases the huge numbers threaten to swamp their efforts -- and those of state and local governments to verify and process applications.
Election officials in Virginia and other states say there is no evidence of widespread fraud so far. Numerous studies have found fraud and other voting irregularities in past elections to be infrequent and generally not prevalent enough to influence the outcomes of most contests. Some Republican lawyers say that despite the huge numbers of new registrations in some areas, this year's problems could be fewer compared to prior years, because of improved procedures and tougher rules."
Speaking of voter registration, the Miami Herald takes a look at the massive increase in Dem voters in Florida since the primary -- nearly 300,000 new Democrats. "Regardless of how the voters got on the rolls, Johnson said the sheer number of Democrats is a concern this year -- as is the fact that more Hispanics are now registered Democrats. About 455,000 Hispanics are now in the Democratic Party, which only this year surpassed Republicans, who count 425,000 in their ranks. Compared to the last presidential election, the numbers are even more dramatic for African-Americans. More than 207,000 have joined the Democratic Party since 2004, accounting for 44 percent of the new-voter growth."
CONTINUED >>
The DNC is up with a new Web video -- “Exxon John ” -- which mimics that widely panned “Big John” ad by Texas Sen. John Cornyn. The DNC says it will play this video at its Exxon-McCain National Day of Action events across the country this week.
But as the Center for Responsive Politics pointed out last week, while McCain has received nearly three times the amount of money from the oil and gas industry that Obama has, Obama actually has received more contributions from Exxon than his GOP rival has. *** UPDATE ***
The McCain camp, meanwhile, has its own new Web video , which tries to make fun of Obama supporters.
By the way, does McCain's Web ad that mocks Barack Obama as ‘The One’ have a darker design ? "Outraged Christian supporters of Obama say it does -- that it is intended to further Internet-fueled rumors that Obama is the antichrist. Deconstructing and analyzing the ad, they say the images and language play into apocalyptic themes, including those featured in the best-selling ‘Left Behind’ series, fictionalized accounts of the end of the world. … In the ‘Left Behind’ series, the antichrist is a charismatic young political leader who is founder of The One World religion and promises to heal the world.”
The New York Times front-pages Bayh’s VP prospects. "Bayh’s support of authorizing force in Iraq stands in sharp contrast to Mr. Obama’s oft-stated view that he showed the good judgment to oppose the conflict from the start. After his vote, Mr. Bayh in early 2003 joined Mr. McCain as an honorary co-chairman of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, which made regime change in Iraq its central cause.”
“‘He was not only wrong, he was aggressively wrong,’ said Tom Andrews, national director of the Win Without War coalition, referring to Mr. Bayh. ‘In my view, he would contradict if not undermine the Obama message of change, turning a new page on foreign policy and national security.’”
One thing we forget is how McCain is experienced at the VP-vetting process from the prospect end, which may be why he's been so good about keeping leaks to a minimum.
More compiled by NBC/NJ’s Matthew Berger, Carrie Dann, and Athena Jones…Swamp's Mark Silva notes Gallup polling that indicates, “On average, the announcements of running mates have given presidential candidates about a five percentage point bounce in their standing in the polls immediately after the news breaks.”
DEMOCRATS: A hard-driving book publisher interviewed by the Politico singles out Bayh as someone too boring to sell his memoirs. “Look, he's a top contender for vice president and he's a U.S senator, but does he have anything good to say? No,” the agent said. “The last thing the world needs is another forgettable lawmaker. It's the equivalent of a speech on C-SPAN.”
CONTINUED >>
From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy McCain -Ridge ticket may no longer be a possibility.
After visiting a GE locomotive plant here today with Tom Ridge, the state's former governor, McCain took questions from some of the plant's employees -- one of which was about what his plans were for his first 90 days in office.
"To call Tom Ridge to Washington from whatever vacation he is taking and get him down there and get him to work," McCain joked, subtly suggesting that Ridge wouldn't be his running mate in November.
For the first time in recent memory, McCain avoided all talk of Obama during his remarks today, instead focusing on the need for more green technology like the hybrid train engines being developed in Erie by General Electric, the parent company of NBC. Yet he did allude to his opponent's months-old "bitter" comment about small-town Pennsylvanian voters.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC’s Libby Leist
"We want to see the Russians stand down and to stop attacks on Georgia,” spokesman Robert Wood told reporters. “Most importantly, we want to see an immediate ceasefire. I understand that the Georgians have offered to be party to a ceasefire, the Russians have not responded."
Wood defended Rice for not flying to the region to personally intervene in the crisis by saying she has been working through the weekend and has all the modern technology available to mediate from afar.
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Mark Murray and NBC/NJ's Matthew E. Berger Michelle Obama .
Tuesday, August 26 - "Renewing America's Promise"Hillary Clinton will be the headline prime-time speaker on Tuesday night.
Wednesday, August 27 -- "Securing America's Future"
Thursday, August 28 - "Change You Can Believe In"Obama's acceptance speech
Just asking: Should we read anything into Wednesday's theme about Obama's veep pick? Hmmmmm.... On a conference call announcing these themes, however, Democrats said that night would be a salute to veterans.
*** UPDATE ***
Citizens will be able to ask questions online or through “open calls” at eight swing-state cities that will be answered live at the convention.
On Monday night, the convention will kick off showcasing Obama as a “new leader ready to serve as president of the United States," Sebelius said. Michelle Obama was previously announced as the keynote speaker that night.
The focus will shift to economic challenges on Tuesday night, with Hillary Clinton as the keynote speaker. Media reports have suggested she will be introduced by her daughter, Chelsea.
Wednesday night will center around the contributions of veterans and foreign policy issues, raising the prospect that Obama’s vice presidential nominee will have a foreign policy background. Obama campaign adviser Anita Dunn said “anyone who Sen. Obama picks as vice president will be more than prepared to address those issues.”
Obama will officially accept the nomination at Invesco Field at Mile High on Thursday night.
Convention officials are expected to announce more details throughout the week, including when former President Bill Clinton will speak.
Dunn also confirmed that neither John Edwards nor his wife Elizabeth will address delegates in Denver.
From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy and NBC's Chuck Todd McCain read a statement (i.e., took no questions) regarding the situation in Georgia. Once again, he condemned Russia's actions in harsh language, and called on the US to begin sending economic and humanitarian aid to Georgia to mitigate the effects of "Russian aggression." And he called on the secretary of state to travel to Europe and outline a "common Euro-Atlantic position" on how to proceed.
"Russian President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin must understand the severe, long-term negative consequences that their government's actions will have for Russia's relationship with the U.S. and Europe. It is time we moved forward with a number of steps."
"The United States and our allies should continue efforts to bring a resolution before the UN Security Council condemning Russian aggression, noting the withdrawal of Georgian troops from South Ossetia, and calling for an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgian territory. We should move ahead with the resolution despite Russian veto threats, and submit Russia to the court of world public opinion."
But if McCain is trying to own this issue while Obama is away on vacation, why isn't he taking questions from this press? Is he afraid of making policy on the fly if reporters press him on what those "negative consequences" for Russia would be?
Below is McCain's full statement...
CONTINUED >>
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro The Georgia test : Russia’s assault on the sovereign nation of Georgia has become a 3:00 am moment of sorts in this presidential election. And so far, President Bush -- who was in Beijing watching the Olympics -- appears to be as frozen on how to respond as either McCain or Obama would be. This is Russia, not Iraq, and it's not like a military reaction (or a threat of one, i.e. symbolic movement of troops or ships) is the easiest answer. Indeed, instead of a 3:00 am moment, perhaps it’s better to describe this as a Cuban Missile Crisis moment, when we have to weigh long-term interests against a short-term problem. McCain tries to drive the issue today by making a statement at 9:00 am ET. Yet the Arizona senator is going to have a hard time making the case that Obama has a deer-in-the-headlights look when the Bush Administration appears to be acting more paralyzed than either candidate. Can McCain continue to be more hawkish on backseat driving Bush on this? Is it in McCain's best interests to have Bush and Obama being closer on this issue? Some key folks in Georgia appear to be disappointed in the US response so far, but will anything short of sending military assistance be acceptable to these folks? By the way, could Bush have looked any less comfortable having to answer questions about Russia-Georgia with NBC's Bob Costas? How disengaged is he from his job? OK, we know he's not disengaged, but he's certainly giving off that vibe. Finally, just asking: Did Joe Biden's stock just go through the roof with the Georgia crisis? Is Sam Nunn suddenly back on the short list?
*** McCain a celebrity, too? If you live in or near a battleground state, chances are you’ve heard the following McCain campaign line on your TV dozens of times: Barack Obama “is the biggest celebrity in the world.” Indeed, at a fundraiser last week, McCain even declared, “He is a celebrity and I am not.” But the truth is, up until this presidential contest, McCain has been one of America’s biggest celebrity-politicians. After all, he’s appeared on Saturday Night Live, had cameos in “24” and “Wedding Crashers,” and was the basis for the made-for-TV movie on McCain’s book, “Faith of My Fathers.” And now, the Obama campaign is counterpunching with a new TV ad (to begin running Tuesday on national cable) that highlights McCain’s own celebrity, including his appearances on SNL, Letterman, Leno, and The View. “For decades, he's been Washington's biggest celebrity. John McCain,” the ad says. Clearly, this celebrity stuff has gotten under Obama's skin, and that's why the campaign is fighting back a tad on this front. But how serious is this buy? It's cable-only for now so maybe it's designed solely for the cable chattering class.
*** Tone deaf? By the way, like good NBC-Universal employees, we spent much of the weekend watching the Olympics. And during the commercial breaks, we saw plenty of those Obama-is-the-biggest-celebrity-in-world TV ads hitting the presumptive Democratic nominee. But almost every other TV ad we saw -- whether it was from Audi, Coke, or the now foreign-owned Anheuser-Busch -- was positive and upbeat. Just asking: Are McCain’s ads tonally off for the Olympics? They stuck out because they were darker than every other ad. The good news: The ads stuck out. The bad news: The ads stuck out. It's a gamble. The message will get across, as all messages from constant negative TV ads do. But will McCain's own favorable ratings pay a price as well?
*** Lots of unanswered questions : The good news for Edwards is that many in the national press corps just don't have the resources to tackle this story at this time in the campaign. That said, there are a lot of inviting gaps in Edwards' story that will keep some journalists sniffing around this story for some time. For instance… Why did one day after Hunter's sister challenge Edwards to a paternity test did the woman suddenly decide she wouldn't let her baby be tested? Why the change of heart? Was there a quid pro quo? If Edwards told his wife about the affair when he said he did, why was Hunter still with the PAC and campaign? Why didn't Edwards apologize to Hunter in his interview? We could go on, but the Edwards response to everything these last 72 hours will probably be seen as the beginning of this story -- not the end. By the way, anyone trying to “war game” the Iowa caucuses without John Edwards and simply wonder if Obama would have still won need to remember there were a bunch of other candidates still in the race (Biden, Dodd, Richardson) and Clinton had some serious characteristic problems/challenges in the Hawkeye State. Remember, those Edwards voters were voting for change, something Clinton hadn’t figured out how to sell by January 3.
*** Veep watch : Former Pennsylvania Gov. (and Homeland Security head) Tom Ridge campaigns today with McCain in Ridge’s hometown of Erie, PA. Is Ridge a real possibility, despite his pro-choice views on abortion? Or is this a shiny metal object for us to ponder during this Olympics lull?
VIDEO: McCain and Obama must pick their running mates soon. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports. ***
Downballot spotlight : With Obama in Hawaii and the Olympics going on, we’re going to spend this week looking at some of the more compelling downballot races this cycle. And today, we’ll start by noting all the Senate contests taking place in presidential battleground states. In Colorado, Mark Udall (D) faces off against Bob Schaffer (R); in New Mexico, it’s Tom Udall (D) against Steve Pearce (R); in New Hampshire, Jeanne Shaheen (D) gets her rematch against Sen. John Sununu (R); and in Virginia, Mark Warner (D) takes on Jim Gilmore (R). All of these states are toss-up states in the presidential race, and Democrats appear to have the edge in all four Senate contests -- especially Virginia, which is looking like a blowout win for Warner. How will these downballot races impact the presidential contests in these states? Also, don’t forget about the competitive gubernatorial race in Missouri between Jay Nixon (D) and Kenny Hulshof (R) or the potentially competitive GOV race in Indiana, a state that could end up in the toss-up battleground by October.
***
On the trail : McCain begins his day in Erie, PA, where he tours a GE plant with Tom Ridge and then holds an employee town hall there. Later, he heads to Harrisburg, PA. Obama remains on his vacation in Hawaii.
Countdown to Dem convention: 14 daysClick here to sign up for First Read emails .
The New York Times : "Russia escalated its assault on Sunday despite strong diplomatic warnings from Mr. Bush and European leaders, underscoring the limits of Western influence over Russia at a time when the rest of Europe depends heavily on Russia for natural gas and the United States needs Moscow’s cooperation if it hopes to curtail what it believes is a nuclear weapons threat from Iran."
More: Earlier, Vice President Dick Cheney expressed a strong warning for Russia. In a telephone conversation with the Georgian president, he said ‘that Russian aggression must not go unanswered, and that its continuation would have serious consequences for its relations with the United States, as well as the broader international community,’ a spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride, said in a statement released by the White House.”
From the New York Times’ news analysis of the situation: "As a column of soldiers passed through Gori, a black-robed priest came out of his church and made the sign of the cross again and again. One soldier, his face a mask of exhaustion, cradled a Kalashnikov. ‘We killed as many of them as we could,’ he said. ‘But where are our friends?’”
“It was the question of the day. As Russian forces massed Sunday on two fronts, Georgians were heading south with whatever they could carry. When they met Western journalists, they all said the same thing: Where is the United States? When is NATO coming?”
CONTINUED >>
On Friday, Edwards admitted to an affair with a filmmaker his PAC hired in 2006. The Boston Globe : “The surprise admission by Edwards, prompted initially by reports on the affair in the National Enquirer, severely damages his political future, perhaps irreparably, according to analysts and former associates.”
One of the mysterious players in this saga is a guy named Bob McGovern, the person John Edwards thought he was meeting at the Beverly Hilton. The New York Times attempts to profile him, but doesn't get much as he was unavailable for an interview. Newsweek's Darman on his encounters with the woman. His lead: "The first time I laid eyes on Rielle Hunter, I could tell she was a story. She had frizzy blond hair with DARK roots, wore bright nail polish and moved like someone who knew how to work a room. She was on a cramped commuter flight and she was flirting with a candidate for president of the United States."
Would Hillary have won? Former Clinton aide Howard Wolfson says we'd be speculating about Hillary's veep if the mainstream media had exposed Edwards' affair before the Iowa caucuses . "I believe we would have won Iowa, and Clinton today would therefore have been the nominee." And: "Our voters and Edwards' voters were the same people. They were older, pro-union. Not all, but maybe two-thirds of them would have been for us and we would have barely beaten Obama."
Sunday’s New York Times looked at McCain’s management style. “Out of his hearing, Mr. McCain is called the White Tornado by some people who have worked for him over the years. Throughout his presidential campaign, he has been the overseer of a kingdom of dissenting camps, unclear lines of command and an unsettled atmosphere that keeps aides constantly on edge. Even now, after a shake-up that aides said had brought an unusual degree of order to Mr. McCain’s disorderly world in the last month, two of his pollsters are at odds over parts of the campaign’s message, while past and current aides have been trading snippy exchanges debating the wisdom of attack advertisements he has aimed at Mr. Obama.”
“In an interview, Mr. McCain said he believed an organization consisting of sometimes colliding centers of power made sure that a candidate, or a president, reached fully informed decisions. ‘You’ve got to have competing opinions,’ he said. ‘I think a certain amount of tension is very healthy, and a certain amount of different views,” he said. “Because of the bubble that a president is in, and the bubble that a candidate is in, sometimes you find out afterwards something that — “Oh boy, I wish I had heard thus and such and so and so.” So I appreciate and want some of the tension; I don’t want too much of it, obviously, because we have to have certain efficiencies. But I think there is a balance there.’”
The New York Times also notes how McCain has the week to himself, and the piece gets into the weariness issue. “‘I think if you were going to take a week off, this is probably an intelligent time to do it,’ Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, told a small group of reporters on his campaign plane in a brief session on Friday night. As for himself, ‘what we do is try to take a day or two down, but it seems when I do that they fill it up with briefings and prep and issues and meetings.’”
“What makes the difference, Mr. McCain said, is getting enough rest. ‘If I can sleep in until about 7:30 or 8, then it really helps me,’ he said. ‘I think when I get up real early, like 5:30 or 6, and don’t go to bed until 10, 10:30 or 11, it seems to help me get up a little later in the morning.’”
CONTINUED >>
The New York Times looks at the ballot initiatives on social issues in some key battleground states. "Divisive social issues will be on the ballot in several states in November, including constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage in Arizona, California and Florida, and limitations on abortion in California, Colorado and South Dakota.”
“Although research indicates that ballot measures do not drastically alter voter turnout, they have begun attracting the attention of both presidential campaigns. Unlike 2004, when same-sex marriage bans were considered in 11 states, no single issue will dominate statewide ballots."
A pro-Obama indie group, PowerPac (a 501c4 non-profit) plans to spend some $10 million to help on the voter registration front in some Southern states.
The Washington Post has a good piece on the issue of restoring voting rights to ex-convicts.
INDIANA : McCain's Indiana co-chair sums up the differences in state organization between the two campaigns: "What we're trying to communicate is that a lot of this ribbon-cutting and office openings (for Obama) has been establishing an infrastructure that already exists in the Republican Party in this state, so we will be working through these county operations just as we have in the past." (The state party has about a dozen offices staffed full-time; Obama's campaign has 18 new field offices.)
CONTINUED >>
A little after 6:00 pm ET last night, NBC’s Lauren Appelbaum reports that this message went out from Obama’s text-messaging service: "Barack will announce his VP candidate choice through txt msg between now & the Conv. Tell everyone to text VP to 62262 to be the first to know! Please forward."
Per NBC/NJ’s Mike Memoli, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs says this does NOT mean Obama has made his pick -- only that when he does he will announce via text.
USA Today has some pretty good vetting-problem bullet points on a few candidates, including Kaine, Bayh, Pawlenty and Cantor.
McCain "loves Lieberman . And he is on the [short]list because Lieberman has never embarrassed anyone, never misspoken. The first rule is, don't take someone who costs you votes," an adviser told The Financial Times. "Conservatives would be p---ed as hell - I think you would have a revolt, but sometimes John does what John wants to do." More compiled by NBC/NJ's Matthew Berger and Carrie Dann...REPUBLICANS : Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge and McCain will campaign together today and tomorrow, after dining together Sunday night. McCain even landed at “Ridge Field” in Erie, Pa., the former governor’s hometown.
CONTINUED >>
The Obama campaign has announced its primetime speakers for the Democratic convention.will speak on the first night .
Hillary Clinton will headline the second night of the convention; Chelsea is slated to introduce her mom. “The former first lady will speak on … Tuesday, Aug. 26 -- the 88th anniversary of the women's right to vote.”
The third night will feature Obama’s veep; Bill Clinton will also speak that evening.
And Obama speaks from Invesco Field on Thursday.
The Obama campaign, along with Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, holds a conference call at 10:00 am ET to discuss the nightly themes for the Democratic convention.
M.E. Sprengelmeyer has a 10-part convention series in the Rocky Mountain News called "Unconventional Wisdom."
From NBC's Chuck Todd and Jim Popkin Edwards' campaign finance chairman and longtime confidante, told NBC News in telephone interviews, he has been providing financial assistance to both Andrew Young and Rielle Hunter.
Young is the married Edwards campaign staffer who has admitted to fathering Hunter's child. Earlier today, Edwards admitted to also having an affair with Hunter.
Baron said he was personally upset with how the National Enquirer was harassing the two and helped them relocate out of North Carolina. He has continued to help them with their overhead.
Baron insisted Edwards never knew what Baron did for Young and Hunter; he believes Edwards didn't even have an inkling that Baron was doing this.
He added that he provided Hunter and Young "with the means" to move away from North Carolina and the tabs' prying eyes.
"My role is to be supportive of these two families," he said.
Hush money? "Of course it wasn't hush money!"
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Chuck Todd and Domenico Montanaro John Edwards admitted in a statement that he had an affair and that he "made a serious error in judgment" but denied he fathered a child or that he'd paid her off. In fact, Edwards went further, saying, "I am and have been willing to take any test necessary to establish the fact that I am not the father of any baby, and I am truly hopeful that a test will be done so this fact can be definitively established. I only know that the apparent father has said publicly that he is the father of the baby."
Full statement below:
In 2006, I made a serious error in judgment and conducted myself in a way that was disloyal to my family and to my core beliefs. I recognized my mistake and I told my wife that I had a liaison with another woman, and I asked for her forgiveness. Although I was honest in every painful detail with my family, I did not tell the public. When a supermarket tabloid told a version of the story, I used the fact that the story contained many falsities to deny it. But being 99% honest is no longer enough.
I was and am ashamed of my conduct and choices, and I had hoped that it would never become public. With my family, I took responsibility for my actions in 2006 and today I take full responsibility publicly. But that misconduct took place for a short period in 2006. It ended then. I am and have been willing to take any test necessary to establish the fact that I am not the father of any baby, and I am truly hopeful that a test will be done so this fact can be definitively established. I only know that the apparent father has said publicly that he is the father of the baby. I also have not been engaged in any activity of any description that requested, agreed to or supported payments of any kind to the woman or to the apparent father of the baby.
It is inadequate to say to the people who believed in me that I am sorry, as it is inadequate to say to the people who love me that I am sorry. In the course of several campaigns, I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic. If you want to beat me up -- feel free. You cannot beat me up more than I have already beaten up myself. I have been stripped bare and will now work with everything I have to help my family and others who need my help.
I have given a complete interview on this matter and having done so, will have nothing more to say.
From NBC's Chuck Todd Edwards admitted to having an affair with Rielle Hunter in an interview at his home in Chapel Hill, N.C., a senior Edwards adviser who was briefed on the interview with ABC said.
Edwards said he went to the Beverly Hilton, where the National Enquirer claims to have photographed him, to meet not with Hunter, but Bob McGovern, a friend of Hunter's, the source said, adding that this was part of Edwards' effort to keep the affair secret.
From NBC's Mark Murray and Lauren Appelbaum October 10, 2007 : The National Enquirer first reports on an alleged affair between Edwards and Hunter.
October 11, 2007 : Hunter denies the affair through a statement on the liberal blog, MyDD :
October 11, 2007 : Speaking to reporters in Summerton, SC, Edwards denies the affair . "I've been in love with the same woman for 30-plus years and, as anybody who's been around us knows, she's an extraordinary human being, warm, loving, beautiful, sexy and as good a person as I have ever known," Edwards said. "So the story's just false."
December 19, 2007 : National Enquirer reports that Hunter is pregnant and Edwards is the father of the child.
December 19, 2007 : An ex-Edwards aide, Andrew Young, admits that he is the father of Hunter's child through attorney Pamela J. Marple: "As confirmed by Ms. Hunter, Andrew Young is the father of her unborn child. Senator Edwards knew nothing about the relationship between these former co-workers, which began when they worked together in 2006. As a private citizen who no longer works for the campaign, Mr. Young asks that the media respect his privacy while he works to make amends with his family."
July 22, 2008 : National Enquirer reports that it caught Edwards visiting Hunter at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles, CA. July 23, 2008 : At an ACORN press conference in Houston, Edwards said "the tabloid trash is full of lies."
August 6, 2008 : National Enquirer publishes photos of Edwards with Hunter.
From NBC's Mark Murray ABC reports: "In an interview for broadcast tonight on Nightline, Edwards told ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff he did have an affair with 44-year old Rielle Hunter, but said that he did not love her."
"Edwards also denied he was the father of Hunter's baby girl, Frances Quinn, although the one-time Democratic Presidential candidate said he has not taken a paternity test."
"Edwards said he knew he was not the father based on timing of the baby's birth on February 27, 2008. He said his affair ended too soon for him to have been the father."
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro McCain met behind closed doors with a group of Wilmington residents at Wilmington College to discuss the situation at the DHL Air Park.
Now the Obama campaign is seizing on McCain's and Campaign Manager Rick Davis' role in helping foreign-owned DHL acquire the space in 2003 with a radio ad running in the crucial swing state of Ohio.
"It was McCain who used his influence in the Senate to help foreign-owned DHL buy a U.S. company and gain control over the jobs that are now on the chopping block in Ohio," an announcer says.
But is this a fair hit? It's true that, as the Cleveland Plain Dealer pointed out on Tuesday, "In 2003, Davis lobbied the Senate to accept the proposal by DHL to buy Airborne Express for $1.05 billion. Airborne Express at the time ran the airport and package-sorting facility in Wilmington."
But is that a smoking gun? Not exactly. The Plain Dealer also pointed out that the acquisition "resulted in expansion, not retraction" and "several Wilmington civic leaders said that what happened in 2003 created an economic gain for their community, lasting several years."
The president of the Ohio AFL-CIO, a union that has endorsed Obama, places the blame squarely on Mccain and Davis. "Those jobs are on the chopping block because Sen. McCain and his campaign were involved in a deal that resulted in control of those positions being shifted to a foreign corporation, and there's no getting around that," Joe Rugola told the Plain-Dealer.
But can McCain and Davis really be held responsible for job cuts five years later after the initial acquisition created growth for the town? And would an American company really have acted any differently if it found a way to cut cost to keep steady or increase profit?
Here's the script:
CONTINUED >>
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro claims in an ad released today that "Obama voted to raise taxes on people making just $42,000. He promises more taxes on small business, seniors, your life savings, your family."
But when it comes to promises, it's worth pointing out that, according to the non-partisan Tax Policy Center's analysis of both candidates' proposed plans, Obama would cut taxes for those making in the range of $38,000 to $66,000 three to almost eight times more than McCain would.
Under Obama's plan, according to the center, by 2009, those making $37,595 would see an average increase in their income of 3.6%, or a tax cut of $892; those making an average of $66,354 would see an increase in their income of 2.4%, or a tax cut of $1,042.
On the other hand, Under McCain's plan, those making $37,595 would see an increase in their income of only about 0.5%, or $113 tax cut; those making $66,354 would see only an increase of 0.7% in their income, or a tax break of $319.
From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy and Domenico Montanaro After deplaning in Des Moines, Iowa, McCain spoke with reporters on the tarmac to discuss the current situation in Georgia . He called for the U.S. to immediately convene an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council and to work with the EU and NATO to create a neutral peacekeeping force to ensure Georgia's security.
Obama's campaign released the following statement on the situation:
Here's McCain's statement: "[T]he news reports indicate that Russian military forces crossed an internationally recognized border into the sovereign territory of Georgia. Russia should immediately and unconditionally cease its military operations and withdraw all forces from sovereign Georgian territory. What is most critical now is to avoid further confrontation between Russian and Georgian military forces. The consequences of Euro-Atlantic stability and security are grave. The government of Georgia has called for a ceasefire and for a resumption of direct talks on South Ossetia with international mediators. The U.S. should immediately convene an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council to call on Russia to reverse course. The U.S. should immediately work with the EU and the OSCE to put diplomatic pressure on Russia to reverse this perilous course that it has chosen.
"I repeat, the government of Georgia has called for a ceasefire and for a resumption of direct talks on South Ossetia with international mediators. The United States should immediately convene an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council and to call on Russia to reverse course. The U.S. should immediately work with the EU and the OSCE to put diplomatic pressure on Russia to reverse this perilous course that it has chosen. We should immediately call a meeting of the North Atlantic Council to asses Georgia's security and review measures NATO can take to contribute to stabilizing this very dangerous situation. Finally, the international community needs to establish a truly independent and neutral peacekeeping force in South Ossetia."
NBC's Jeannie Ohm reports White House Press Secretary Dana Perino made this comment to reporters off-camera about the situation in Georgia: "We urge restraint on all sides - that violence would be curtailed and that direct dialogue could ensue in order to help resolve their differences. We will continue to be engaged."
President Bush did speak with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin about the issue earlier in the day at a luncheon in China. Please note they spoke several hours before these latest developments.
From NBC's Jeannie Ohm Dick Cheney would NOT appear at the Republican convention, Cheney's office just confirmed that he WILL attend and will speak.
Said Cheney's spokeswoman, Megan Mitchell: "The Vice President looks forward to participating in the Republican National Convention and continuing to work for the election of Sen. McCain and other Republican candidates in the coming months."
Mitchell says details are still being worked out regarding which night Cheney will speak.
*** UPDATE ***
From NBC's Mark Murray McCain campaign has announced it's running yet another TV ad hitting Obama for his "celebrity" and for wanting to raise taxes.
The campaign says the ad is being cycled into its buy in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia (Northern Virginia), and Wisconsin.
But the ad makes some dubious claims:Obama voted "to raise taxes on people making just $42,000," that was on a non-binding budget resolution vote that didn't actually raise or lower taxes. From Factcheck.org : "The resolution does not contain a specific provision to raise tax rates, but rather assumes that most of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts expire as scheduled in 2011."
2) According to Obama's economic plan, he would raise taxes only on those making more than $250,000 per year, and would provide tax cuts to those making less than that. Factcheck.org: "Obama has stated repeatedly that his plan would increase taxes only for those making more than $250,000 per year."
The script: ANNCR: Life in the spotlight must be grand, but for the rest of us times are tough. Obama voted to raise taxes on people making just $42,000.
*** UPDATE ***
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro The Olympics lull : Now we’ve entered the real lull in the presidential race. Not only is it August, but the Olympics officially start today and Obama begins a weeklong vacation to Hawaii. But, as you’ve probably guessed, the race won’t completely come to a standstill. For one thing, McCain will campaign today in Iowa, and Hillary Clinton picks up the slack for the vacationing Obama by stumping in battleground Nevada, a contest she won back in January. And both McCain and Obama will be running TV ads on the Olympics. Here’s Obama’s ad , which focuses on the economy and energy (and has background music reminding us of his Super Bowl ad): “The hands that built this nation can build a new economy. The hands that harvest crops can also harvest the wind. The hands that install roofs can also install solar panels. The hands that build today's cars can build the
