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Just a short quick update on this crucial Paris Hilton political business so that the half of the globe now in darkness can go to bed in peace and the light of wisdom. And we can all get on with Friday come daylight. Late word Thursday night -- not surprising but late nonetheless -- that the Hilton family is rather unhappy with the campaign of Sen. John McCain for including its scion, P.H., in its controversial and therefore successful political campaign ad somehow attempting to link two famous or infamous female celebrities (Britney Spears is the other) with a certain Democratic presidential nominee-to-be.
If you need a refresher, you can watch the new McCain ad below. But watch quickly because the two young ladies who are famous for being famous appear only briefly.
As The Ticket noted previously, P.H.'s ma and pa, Kathleen and Richard Hilton, have donated the $2,300 maximum to the McCain operation. But there's a lot more Hiltons around apparently, including Gramps Hilton (William B.), who is the vast hotel empire's co-chair. And according to Martin Eisenstadt's blog, he's been quite the generous donor to the tune of more than $50Gs to Republican campaign operations.
Not only that, he reports, but members of the Blackstone Group, the private equity group that bought into Hilton Hotels last year, have also been generous GOP donors. And Marty says they've expressed themselves angrily to McCain representatives in recent hours.
Ever the political maverick, McCain will no doubt cite such commercial insults to benefactors as proof that he's not beholden to rich corporate types. So if you give money to his Republican campaign, you too can have your children and grandchildren linked to something as blatantly nefarious as a Democrat's campaign to show himself as beloved by Europeans who can't vote here on Nov. 4. Take that!
--Andrew Malcolm Photo credit: French Bureau of Tourism
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This'll be the first time for Pamela Anderson.
The actress, who is most famous for her film role not acting, will be casting her initial ballot as a U.S. citizen this November. You're right, she doesn't look very Canadian. But she used to be one.
She's now officially endorsed Barack Obama, who isn't Canadian either.
She did it on national TV -- twice. Most recently on "The View," when she said, "Yes, I can vote. First time. Obama!" And then she flashed a thumbs up, which is Canadian for "No more snow for me."
It was an exciting moment on daytime television. As usual, our sister blogger, the inevitable or inimitable -- we always confuse those words -- Elizabeth Snead, has some more of the celebrity details over here on the Dish Rag.
Meanwhile, so you'll recognize her when you get there, here's a before-voting photograph of Pamela Anderson with her large pair of sunglasses. No doubt a discreet way of hiding her identity on the streets of New York. No one would ever recognize her disguised this way. We'll try to remember to publish an after-vote shot come November.
--Andrew Malcolm
Photo credit: WireImage
John McCain has provocatively asserted that Barack Obama, in his policy toward Iraq, is willing to lose a war in order to win a presidential campaign.
Given the harsh edge to this critique and recent ads the McCain team has directed at Obama, the question comes to mind: Is the presumptive Republican nominee willing to lose his good reputation within media circles and among some fellow politicos in order to win the election?
As McCain and his campaign have escalated the attacks on Obama, various voices have disputed the propriety of the efforts.
For instance, McCain's charge -- which he has steadfastly stood by -- that Obama is guided solely by political self-interest in his views on Iraq sparked a rebuke from Chuck Hagel, a fellow Vietnam veteran and a GOP Senate colleague.
Hagel, a McCain ally in the past who split with him over the war in Iraq, accompanied Obama on the latter's high-profile stop in that country. During an appearance Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation," Hagel scolded McCain: "I think John is treading on some very thin ground here when he impugns motives, and when we start to get into 'You're less patriotic than me, I'm more patriotic.' ... John's better than that."
A controversial ad the McCain forces unveiled over the weekend, which asserted that Obama cancelled a planned visit with wounded troops while he was in Germany during his recent overseas trip because the media could not accompany him, earned a scathing rebuke from the Washingon Post. The lead to the front-page piece said bluntly that McCain and his allies had pressed that case "despite no evidence that the charge is true."
The even-more controversial ad for the Republican's campaign that connected Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton spurred pointed remarks from several journalists and commentators.
On NBC's "Today" show, host Matt Lauer had a sharp retort ...
Read more As John McCain attacks, will he pay a price? »
So apparently it was a really good thing that Sen. Hillary Clinton lost her 18-m onth, $212-million campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.
We learned that today in an e-mail from her hubby, Bill. He reveals that during the campaign, he and Hillary didn't have much chance to eat meals together because they were usually campaigning in different states.
"Of all the people I've had the privilege to break bread with," the ex-president states, "the person I most enjoy is still Hillary."
Of course, now that he's got us all feeling mushy, he sets the hook.
"Now you have a chance to have dinner with her. And if you contribute even as little as $5 today, you can help Hillary retire that pesky campaign debt, and you and a guest might be sitting down to dinner with her soon."
That "pesky campaign debt" is, of course, the $25.2 million that she still owes people all over the country (as of June 30), $13 million of it to herself.
"Trust me on this one," Bill Clinton says. "If you're the lucky winner, it will be a night to remember and one you'll really enjoy."
--Andrew Malcolm
We've paid a lot of attention to Gallup polls this week, in the wake of seemingly contradictory results by the most-famed brand name in gauging public opinion. By one Gallup measure, John McCain was up; Barack Obama had a solid lead in a different survey by the company and a narrower advantage among a third sample group.
Today, the Gallup daily tracking poll -- the rolling average of voter interviews conducted, in this case, on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (correction: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday) -- shows the race at almost a dead heat. Obama had a statistically insignificant one-percentage-point lead over McCain, 45% to 44%.
A week ago, in the midst of his much-heralded overseas trip, Obama began a spurt in the tracking polls -- on Sunday, he reached his peak with a nine-point margin, 49% to 40%. But since then, his edge has steadily declined.
Writes Gallup editor Frank Newport: "The story of the election through the summer months has been a close race that simply does not seem to want to change. Obama has generally been in the lead, and it is significant that McCain has never held even a 1-point lead among registered voters in Gallup Poll Daily tracking since Obama clinched the Democratic nomination in early June.
Still, the relative stability of the race, even in the aftermath of such a high-visibility event as Obama's foreign trip (coupled, of course, with the McCain campaign's vigorous efforts to defuse its impact) continues to suggest that it may be the conventions in late August and early September that will offer the next potential timeframe for significant and/or sustained change."
Perhaps, but the Ticket and others will be watching the track closely over the next couple of days to see if what may end up as the most-discussed ad of recent vintage -- the McCain camp's spot tying, improbably to many, Obama with Paris Hilton and Britney Spears -- has a clear effect on either candidate's standing.
-- Don Frederick
Read more Gallup Poll update: Barack Obama and John McCain essentially dead even »
If a certain heir to a hotel-based fortune is rethinking his support of John McCain, it will be understandable.
Contributors to McCain's campaign for the Republican presidential nomination included Rick Hilton. In fact, Hilton was so enthusiastic about his candidate of choice that, The Times' Tina Daunt reports, federal records show he donated twice as much as the law allows (the campaign returned the excess).
Now, of course, daughter Paris Hilton is the costar (along with Britney Spears) in a controversial new McCain ad aimed at ridiculing Barack Obama.
No word yet on how the elder Hilton is reacting to the new ad, but Daunt will have details on how it's playing in Hollywood in a story that will post later today on The Times' website. [UPDATE: Daunt's piece has been posted].
Here's a preview: She notes that eight years ago, when he vied with George W. Bush for the GOP nomination, McCain garnered money from a fair number of entertainment industry figures, including such traditionally fervent Democratic backers as Norman Lear. The producer's reaction to the new McCain commercial: "I didn’t think McCain could look silly. But that ad diminishes him and makes him look silly.”
McCain stood foursquare behind the spot today, The Times' Nicholas Riccardi reports.
Asked at a town hall meeting (what else) in Racine, Wis., if comparing Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears was a flip-flop on his pledge to conduct a high-minded, respectful campaign, McCain replied: "There are differences and we are drawing those differences."
He continued: "I’m proud of the campaign we have run, I’m proud of the issues we are trying to address with the American people. We’re proud of that commercial."
-- Don Frederick
The Connecticut-based Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, which is focusing on several of the states that presumably will tell the tale of this year's presidential race, is out with results from three of those locales that can be spun positively by either campaign -- though John McCain's camp can make a better case than Barack Obama's.
Surveys of voters in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida show Obama ahead in each -- though by margins so negligible in the latter two that the contests there, as gauged by the Quinnipiac polls, are essentially tossups.
And in all three states, the trend -- compared to polls by the group a month ago -- favored McCain.
Here are the new results, compared to the previous ones: Florida: Obama 46%, McCain 44% (in June, Obama 47%, McCain 43%).
Ohio: Obama 46%, McCain 44% (in June, Obama 48%, McCain 42%).
Pennsylvania: Obama 49%, McCain 42% (in June, Obama 52%, McCain 40%).
The movement toward McCain is in line with recent polling by Quinnipiac in four other key states: Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin (as The Ticket reported last week).
The solace for Obama in today's polls (elaborated on by assistant survey director in this Quinnipiac release) is that his lead in Pennsylvania -- a must-win for him -- remains outside the margin of error.
Also, if Obama can snatch either Ohio or Florida from the Republican column -- and that's obviously doable, based on the news polls -- it's hard to see how McCain can amass the 270 electoral votes needed for the White House.
-- Don Frederick
Perhaps it's the summer heat. Whatever, the churlish aura increasingly enveloping the presidential campaign showed no sign of abating today.
The cause celebre of the moment involves a comment Barack Obama made Wednesday as he campaigned in Missouri. As John McCain's campaign unveiled its fourth straight attack ad -- the "Celebs" spot that lumps Obama with lightweight (and scandal-plagued) favorites of the paparazzi Paris Hilton and Britney Spears -- the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee had this to say (as related in a Times campaign story): "The only way they figure they're going to win this election is if they make you scared of me. 'He's new. He doesn't look like the other presidents on the dollar bills. He's got a funny name. . . .' The argument is that I'm too risky."
Obama has invoked the "doesn't look like other presidents" line in the past, but usually in a positive context -- as in, how his ability to attract support across various demographic groups signifies, among many voters, a "post-racial" approach to politics.
The context of the remark in Missouri, of course, was much different -- implying that the GOP was seeking to call attention to his biracial heritage.
The McCain forces today made clear they would have none of that. Campaign manager Rick Davis fired off a terse, two-sentence statement: “Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck. It’s divisive, negative, shameful and wrong.”
Asked about his comment just moments ago on MSNBC, Davis stressed that he took great umbrage at Obama's inference that any aspect of the campaign's recent offensive against Obama had racial overtones.
Davis also was pressed by the cable network's Andrea Mitchell to defend the Obama-Hilton-Spears linkage. He insisted it was fair because all three have great name recognition and lots of fans. He added that "the really important thing" -- what the ad was attempting to drive home -- was that just because Obama is "a great celebrity doesn't mean he's ready to lead the country."
-- Don Frederick
[UPDATE: Here's the lengthy exchange on MSNBC between Davis and Mitchell, who as the interview proceeds struggles to get a word in edgewise against the fired-up campaign aide].
Something's going on. Or some things.
A new CNN/Opinion Research poll out Wednesday shows that despite nine solid days of blanket media coverage from overseas with Barack Obama cheered by adoring throngs of Germans and parlez-vousing with the French, making a three-point shot in the Middle East and standing outside No. 10 Downing Street, the freshman Illinois  senator is stuck right where he was in the polls before he left.
No bounce. Not even a roll.
He still leads Republican Sen. John McCain 51% to 44%. But it's the same 51-44 as last time.
A CNN poll average shows an even slimmer 48-45 Obama lead, dangerously close for an experienced opponent who relishes being the underdog.
"Obama has not picked up any ground against McCain on foreign issues," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "And some 52% think McCain would do a better job than Obama on the war in Iraq -- virtually the same number who felt that way in April."
Other polls show the same stubborn one-digit lead holding for the Democratic nominee-to-be with only 96 days left until the general election. Some crucial state polls even show McCain gaining.
Obama seems to have everything going for him. A fresh face. A smooth, cadenced speaking style suited for TV. A message of change at a time when Americans historically favor change, after one party holds the White House for two terms. And after several convictions of GOP legislators.
Obama's got tons of money. An attractive family. Energized followers. A media that's curious about the new guy and tired of ...
Read more Where did Barack Obama's mojo go? »
OK, we're getting pretty close on the presidential running mate situation.
Barack Obama's been meeting with his selection people the last couple of days. John McCain's been thinking about it, though neither one is talking about any names. Except, for unity's sake, Obama's got to say Hillary Clinton is on his shortlist even though she's probably not.
You can't blame them for not talking. That's about the only element of mystery left after, what, 19 months of campaigning with three more to go.
Here in midsummer with only 14 Americans actually following the presidential race -- and one of them, Obama, is going on vacation too quite soon -- the only things left to chew over are the pluses and minuses of a whole bunch of folks, two of whom we'll come to know much better in these 97 stretch days to Nov. 4.
This website is actually run by a whole lot of skilled people you don't see very much about. And a talented pack of them came together in recent days to construct a special veep package for LATimes.com readers. So you can learn all about the potential candidates in the talking mix at the moment.
It was unveiled today.
The Ticket wants to highly recommend that VP package available here.
And we want to thank Christine Kang, Tenny Tatusian, Diana Swartz and Kate Linthicum for their behind-the-scenes labors (labours, if you're reading this in Canada or the U.K.).
-- Andrew Malcolm
All right, now we're getting somewhere.
In the middle of the summer presidential doldrums just when the meaningless premature polls are jumping all over the place and we're all confronted with possibly having to think about Social Security policies, along comes the John McCain campaign with a refreshing breeze.
It's just issued a new ad called "Celebs" and it's designed to link what's-his-name the global god on the other side with that vacuous Hollywood crowd that comes out at night to do strange things for the papparazzi.
Hey, if you're not glamorous, make fun of those who are.
McCain's new ad actually contains Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. It's just a cameo role for both (and doesn't mention P.H.'s new line of shoes just unveiled). But it's a whole lot better in July than two professional pols jawing. "He's the biggest celebrity in the world," says the ad, showing adoring throngs of Germans who can't vote in the U.S. "But is he ready to lead?"
Sure, there's plenty of political stuff in there about Obama opposing offshore drilling to counter dependence on foreign oil and allegedly in favor of higher taxes on electricity.
"Higher taxes, more foreign oil, that's the real Obama." And you'll never guess who approved that message.
In a separate e-mail message to supporters, Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager, adds an underline: "As you and I know, simply attracting large crowds of fans with empty rhetoric doesn't prepare a person to lead a country. The more we get to know the real Barack Obama, the more he shows that he is not ready to lead our country."
(But, oops, hat tip to TMZ.com confirmed by The Times' Dan Morain, you better be careful who you make fun of. Paris' Mommy and Daddy, Richard and Kathleen Hilton, have each given $2,300 to the McCain campaign.)
Now, we'll wait for Obama to counter with a John Mellencamp song. No, wait, that was John Edwards. How about Joan Baez singing songs from the 60s that McCain didn't hear because he was in prison at the time?
Oh, wait again. As our pal Susan points out over at WakeUpAmerica, the rapper Ludacris has already done a pro-Obama song that urges blacks to "get off their ass" and vote for Obama and adds about Obama's former Democratic presidential rival, Hillary Clinton:
"Hillary hated on you, so that bitch is irrelevant."
An Obama spokesman called the lyrics "outrageously offensive."
(UPDATE: Late Wednesday the Obama campaign released a counter ad, charging the Arizona senator with taking the "low road" and "practicing the politics of the past." A McCain spokesman responded, "Pointing out your opponent’s worldwide celebrity is not the ‘low road,' and neither is pointing out that he opposes oil drilling and supports higher taxes.”)
--Andrew Malcolm
Barack Obama has gotten a lot of mileage in his stump speeches making light of the ancestral intersection of his and Dick Cheney's family lines. A little bit ago in Springfield, Mo., Obama claimed another possible limb on the tree -- Wild Bill Hickok, reports our colleague Steve Braun on the Obama cam paign bus. Said Obama: "So if Senator McCain wants to debate taxes, then I'm ready. I was just reading, I was just reading that Wild Bill Hickok, he had the first duel in the town square here in Springfield. And I don't know if people are aware of the fact -- I have not done all the full research on this, but the family legend is that Wild Bill Hickok, he's a distant cousin of mine ... I'm serious... This is part of the family legend. I don't know if it's true, but that's the legend. So we're going to research that 'cause I'm ready to duel John McCain on taxes. Right now, right here. I'm a quick draw."
Note that, at least according to this short bio, Hickok and Cheney share something else: Both shot a friend accidentally. Given that gene pool, Obama might want to leave the quick draws to another family.
-- Scott Martelle
Bill Richardson just announced he plans to hold two fundraising events in New Mexico next month to help Hillary Clinton retire some of her presidential campaign debt -- much of it, of course, owed to herself.
The details in the full release are after the jump but the curious thing is it doesn't appear that Richardson plans to be at the fundraisers himself.
[UPDATE: Pahl Shipley, Richardson's spokesman, said the governor will be there, though that wasn't clear in the release. And Clinton will be at both events, he reports -- also left out of the release.]
The first event will be hosted in Santa Fe by Dave Contarino, Richardson's former chief of staff in the New Mexico governor's office (and key figure in his failed presidential run), and the second will be hosted in Albuquerque by Paul Blanchard, a big Richardson supporter out there in the desert.
As for Richardson himself? "Gov. Richardson and Lt. Gov. Diane Denish will serve as the overall hosts for the day." Overall hosts. Yeah. That sounds a lot like, "He'll be there in name, but not spirit."
The release also quotes Barack Obama spokesman Bill Burton: "Gov. Richardson's efforts reinforce Sen. Obama's commitment to unifying the Democratic Party and assisting Sen. Clinton's effort to retire her campaign debt."
And the most awkward phone conversation of that whole setup had to be the one with Clinton. "Richardson wants to help NOW? Where was he when I needed him?" The unspoken answer: Trolling for an appointment as vice president or secretary of state.
Of course, the release ends with the line that the events are invitation only. Figure maybe Clinton said to keep Richardson off the list?
-- Scott Martelle
Read more Hillary Clinton, Bill Richardson to kiss and make up »
Coming to a state fair midway booth near you -- "Hit the milk bottles -- win an Obama Llama!"
-- Scott Martelle
Well, there's one Rust Belt industry doing all right these days: television advertising, judging by the record spending by Barack Obama, John McCain and the Republican National Committee.
A new report by the folks at the University of Wisconsin Advertising Project says the campaigns and the RNC aired more than 100,000 ads from June 3 to July 26, far outpacing the 77,000 ads John Kerry and George Bush put up over a similar period four years ago. The report says McCain's ads have been a bit nastier than Obama's, and that the Democratic National Committee -- which hasn't had nearly the fundraising success as the RNC -- so far has sat this one out.
And the significant nugget is where the ads have been airing. Here's the top 10 list, as tallied by TNS Media Intelligence/CMAG, and analyzed by the Wisconsin Advertising Project: Pennsylvania $10,319,000
Ohio 6,399,000
Michigan 6,009,000
Florida 5,028,000
Virginia 4,359,000
Wisconsin 3,244,000
Missouri 2,846,000
Colorado 1,914,000
Georgia 1,824,000
Nevada 1,767,000
Note how heavily weighted the list is to the Midwest. In its analysis, the report says Democrats have the advantage this year, given how low Bush's approval ratings have sunk (think whale dung, and keep dropping). But to make it work, Obama has to impress upon voters that he is a credible candidate. McCain, conversely, has to persuade voters that Obama is not -- which helps explain the negative tilt in the tone of McCain's ads.
Interestingly, at this point, the report says, Obama is on the air alone in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Indiana, Montana and Arkansas -- all red states. And with Florida fourth on the total spending list -- all of it in Obama dollars -- he's making his biggest push there. But he's alone in many local markets, too. "To date, Senator Obama is airing ads in 37 markets where McCain has not aired a single ad, while McCain is advertising in only two markets where Obama is not."
And another bit of good news for Democrats with whom the 2004 loss still echoes -- Obama ain't no Kerry (flashback offered at the end of the post). "Barack Obama has exhibited much greater overall message discipline in his campaign than John Kerry did in 2004. One of the biggest critiques of the way John Kerry ran his campaign was that he dealt with too many different issues in his television ads. Barack Obama, by contrast, is dealing with fewer issues in each ad, presenting a clearer, more consistent message to the voting public. In 2004, Kerry talked about 25 different issues between June 3rd and July 26th, while during a comparable period Obama has only mentioned 14 issues."
Now, before the Democrats begin counting their chickens, they need to think back to what the presumptive lay of the land was three months before the start of the primary and caucus season. Remember Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani?
-- Scott Martelle
Scott McClellan, former White House press secretary and author of the disputed tell-all book about the Bush White House's misleading ways, seems to have been misleading some recent viewers himself.
McClellan is still traipsing around the cable TV circuit peddling his book. Last week on MSNBC's "Hardball" he was asked if the White House saw Fox News as a "tool" for getting President Bush's message out.
"I make a distinction between the journalists and ... the commentators," McClellan said. "There were commentators and other pundits of Fox News that were helpful to the White House.... Certainly we got talking points to those people."
He mentioned Bill O'Reilly in the mix.
Oh, boy, McClellan didn't factor in O'Reilly's response.
"I never once received a talking point from the White House, so McClellan is not telling the truth about me," O'Reilly responded on his own "O'Reilly Factor" on Fox. "Should I be angry? Naaah. But I have to call a lie a lie."
Then O'Reilly got McClellan on his radio show, "The Radio Factor": "The truth is, I messed up," McClellan hastily explained to his host. "I was specifically not trying to single anyone out, including you."
Our Swamp friend Mark Silva has the rest of McClellan's yarn here.
-- Andrew Malcolm
Photo credit: Richard Drew / Associated Press
Perhaps the most improbable pairing to emerge so far in the vice presidential guessing game -- the bizarre prospect floated in recent days that Barack Obama would tap former Bush administration Cabinet member Ann Veneman as his running mate -- apparently can be put out to a well-deserved pasture.
The Fresno Bee -- dutifully following up on a recent, and utterly hard-to-fathom, report that Veneman (raised in nearby Modesto) was a possibility for the second spot on Obama's ticket -- has thrown cold water on a matchup that never was going to happen anyway.
Michael Doyle blogs for the Bee that a spokesman for UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency Veneman has headed since 2005, informed him that she "has not been contacted by the [Obama] campaign and is solely focused on her current travels."
Veneman was in Africa when Politico.com posted a story Friday evening reporting that, according to two anonymous Democrats, Obama's veep vetters had bandied her name about on Capitol Hill.
The piece insisted that Veneman "has a biography that could be suited to Obama's unifying message. A Republican raised on a California peach farm, she rose to become the nation’s first female agriculture secretary. In 2002 she was diagnosed with breast cancer, which was treated successfully."
A brief buzz resulted -- mainly the sound of progressives gnashing their teeth.
The Nation, for instance, termed Veneman a "uniquely awful choice" for Obama. Among the most basic problems, the magazine noted, was that the onetime corporate lawyer "was known to organized labor as one the most militant advocates for free trade in a militantly pro-free trade Bush administration."
There also is the small matter of the lack of any discernible asset Veneman would have offered to allay concerns some have about Obama's readiness for the White House.
To return to reality, the hardening consensus among pundits as Obama's choice nears is that it will be one of these three (listed alphabetically): Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, or Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine.
-- Don Frederick
Photo credit: Associated Press
Barack Obama is supposed to have something like, what, 300 economic advisors. But as yet his family doesn't have one single pet.
Unlike two out of three American households, there's no dog or cat or other living creature in the Obama home. Nothing. As Hillary Rodham Clinton knew, having a dog is an integral part of the commander-in-chief test. No dog? Likely no White House.
Obama says he has promised his two daughters a dog after the election. And there's been all kinds of speculation and on-line voting about what kind of freaky-looking purebred they might get.
Well, today PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) offered itself as advisor to the Obamas on what kind of pet to get. Even though no one remembers asking.
In a letter to the couple at the Federal Building in Chicago, PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said: "No one needs to tell you that this country is proud to be a melting pot and that there is something deeply wrong and elitist about wanting only a purebred dog. Millions of great American mutts -- the dog that should be our national dog -- are set to die in our nation’s extremely overcrowded pounds and shelters for lack of good homes.
"Compassionate people nationwide are choosing to adopt a homeless pound puppy -- a grateful refugee from a society that has not always treated the true 'underdog' kindly -- rather than cater to special interests who do not have dogs' interests at heart.
"Adopting an animal not only saves a life but demonstrates compassion, and the companion-animal overpopulation crisis deserves attention from all Americans.
"Every animal purchased from a breeder or a pet shop takes a home away from a needy animal at an animal shelter, waiting and hoping for a chance at the American dream of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
All right, that last paragraph is gonna cost Obama the Westminster and American kennel club votes and the support of all those puppy farms in the Midwest.
But it's a very good point. Why not give a new home to a homeless critter? Set an example for other families. Talk about the American dream. And, like gas, those purebred-pup prices have gotten way out of control anyway.
John McCain, the Republican nominee-to-be, doesn't have to worry about such selections. As The Ticket recently reported, even before running for the White House, he had three mutts, a cat, two turtles, three parakeets and a ferret sharing his Arizona home. As one result, a recent poll shows the Navy veteran leading, 47% to 32%, among pet owners.
What do you think -- purebred or mutt for the Obamas?
-- Andrew Malcolm
Photo credit: Stephan Savoia / Associated Press
John McCain came face to face Tuesday with the "passion gap" in this year's presidential race. It came in the form of Doug Englekirk, a wiry 46-year-old contractor from the Lake Tahoe area.
Repeated polls have shown great gusto among Democrats excited about November’s election and the prospect of voting for the party’s presumptive nominee, Barack Obama. For many Republicans who are pondering their choice ... well, not so much.
 Or, as Englekirk told McCain at a town hall session in Sparks, Nev.: “I speak for a lot of conservatives. I’m not very excited about this election.”
To a smattering of applause, Englekirk asked McCain what he might do or say to kindle a bit more enthusiasm from the right.
The Arizona senator responded with a question of his own: What (in so many words) was Englekirk’s beef?
He responded with a litany: McCain’s stance on illegal immigration -- which Englekirk dubbed “amnesty” -– his support for campaign finance reform, his opposition to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, his running with “the global-warming crowd” and his membership in the Senate’s so-called “Gang of 14.”
McCain addressed two of the complaints, starting with the “gang” -- a bipartisan group of senators who worked in 2006 to avoid a legislative meltdown over the appointment of federal judges.
McCain noted that he has voted for plenty of conservatives judges, including Supreme Court Justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito, and said he would appoint to the bench only judges “who will strictly interpret the Constitution.”
McCain also said “global warming is real” and needs to be seriously addressed -- a position he staked out early in this campaign and one widely seen as an effort to distance himself from President Bush.
Wrapping up his response to Englekirk, McCain said: “I’m a conservative. Unabashed conservative. But I also believe I am in keeping with the vision of one Ronald Reagan. It’s healthy to have disagreements.”
Afterward, Englekirk said McCain had sold him -- up to a point.
He appreciated the candidate's answer about the Gang of 14, but worried the federal government would just use the global warming issue as an excuse to pick taxpayer pockets.
“I can’t vote for Obama,” Englekirk said, a baseball cap pulled low on his brow. “I’m going to vote for McCain. I’d just like to be excited about it.”
-- Mark Z. Barabak
Photo credit: Bloomberg News
A war of words over media bias in the presidential race has become, at least at the moment, at least as fierce as the debate between the candidates themselves.
An "On the Media" column Sunday in the L.A. Times on a new study concluding that, since early June, Barack Obama has drawn tougher network television coverage than John McCain, met with a predictable response -- applause from the left and skepticism from the right.
Robert Lichter, director of the Center for Media and Politics, has been scrambling from interview to interview to explain and defend his research, which showed that the three broadcast networks -- ABC, CBS and NBC -- and the Fox Special Report made more negative statements about Obama than about McCain from June 8 through July 21.
Bill O’Reilly was among many who wanted to talk to Lichter about his research. And the Fox News Channel host did not seem embarrassed about a change in his attitude toward the media analyst.
In the past, O'Reilly embraced Lichter's research showing a liberal bias by network news programs. He welcomed Lichter as a truth-teller, for instance, when the communications professor at Virginia's George Mason University -- using the same methodology -- said Democrats were getting more favorable network TV coverage than Republicans in the walk-up to the 2006 midterm election.
But Monday, after The Times reported Lichter’s latest findings and the apparent tilt against Obama, O’Reilly told his radio listeners the research was “misleading” and an “enormous mistake.”
O’Reilly’s complaint was that Lichter coded statements as negative that were, he asserted, neutral -- such as merely repeating poll results.
The irony of defending himself on the O'Reilly show, where he has previously been a hero, did not seem lost on Lichter. “I think the answer to that is you can take all my studies or none of my studies,” Lichter told O’Reilly.
Commentators on the left also jumped into the fray.
Launching a counterattack against claims that the media is pro-Obama, the liberal watchdog group Media Matters on Tuesday released a new ad -- to air in New York and Washington, where many big media organizations are based -- that features on-air paeans to McCain to make its case that he is the true media darling.
-- James Rainey
Gee, thanks, Phil.
They keep coming, these dubious endorsements. But, hey, any publicity in a political campaign -- except crooked friends, ind ictments, spousal abuse, etc.
Today The Times' eagle-eyed Harriet Ryan spotted Phil Spector, the famous rock entrepreneur and infamous date, showing up for a court hearing in Los Angeles wearing a very obvious "Barack Obama Rocks" pin.
Spector, you may recall, has some continuing legal troubles having to do with an actress, Lana Clarkson, turning up dead in his house after a date five years ago.
Spector says she shot herself. The prosecution suggests otherwise. A jury could not decide.
So a second second-degree murder trial is set to begin on Sept. 29, pending a higher court ruling on the presiding judge. Meanwhile, Spector and every one of those "hairs" on his head is behind Barack.
Last week in Mississippi, as The Ticket noted, 34-year-old Dale Lee Bishop, who was a participant in the 1998 claw-hammer homicide of an acquaintance, endorsed Obama just before he was executed. Bishop was under the impression that Obama opposes the death penalty, which he does much of the time but not always.
And in April actress Jane Fonda, who has now infuriated two generations of military veterans by her manning of an anti-aircraft gun battery against U.S. planes over Hanoi during the Vietnam War, volunteered to a TMZ cameraman that she too was going to vote for Obama.
Of course, Obama also got the backing of notorious good guy Tom Hanks, among other Hollywood types. So that really helps.
-- Andrew Malcolm
Photo credit: Nick Ut / Associated Press
For those keeping score (and in the political world, who isn't?), the day after a Gallup poll caused a stir by showing John McCain leading Barack Obama in a sample of likely voters nationwide, the separate daily tracking poll by the same outfit continued to show the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee ahead among registered voters.
The updated tracking poll, which averaged the results of surveys conducted Saturday, Sunday and Monday, gave Obama a 6-percentage-point advantage, 47% to 41%. That's down from Obama's peak lead in the poll of late -- a 9-point margin reported Sunday.
But, as Gallup editor Frank Newport writes today, "Obama has generally led McCain by a consistent, but small, margin for much of the summer. There have been the expected daily fluctuations in the size of that margin, including Obama's recent gain, but nothing so far to suggest any lasting disruption in the structure of the race."
Many of us might be forgiven if we assumed otherwise, based on the distinct poll that Gallup conducted in conjunction with USA Today and released Monday. That was the one showing, among the participants deemed likely voters, that McCain led Obama by 4 points, 49% to 45%.
To add to the potential confusion, among the larger sample of registered voters in the above poll, Obama was ahead, 47% to 44%.
The gap between the two candidates in all of these surveys is within the margin of error for each -- a reminder that in a country that has seen two consecutive presidential races that were barnburners, this one also might remain tight up to election day.
Then there's this useful caveat, courtesy of MSNBC's daily First Read political note: "It's results like these that should remind us that even good pollsters are struggling to poll this year. This isn't an easy time for a pollster. The Gallup folks are in the charge of the best brand there is in public opinion research. So if they are getting screwy results, that should make you suspect of a lot of results you see, particularly on the state level by folks who claim to be pollsters but haven't been doing this for very long."
Obama offered his own horse-race assessment ...
Read more Dueling Gallup polls, Part II, in the Obama-McCain race »
Sorry Sarah Jessica Parker. Move over Angelina Jolie.
The winner of Vanity Fair's 2008 International Best Dressed List isn't a Hollywood hottie, it's possible future First Lady Michelle Obama.
In a just-released slide show of the winners, the magazine's editors praised Barack Obama's wife's sleek style, calling her "our commander-in-sheath."
It's not the first time Obama has been lauded for her fashion sense, but writer Amy Fine Collins says that her spot on the top of a list usually dominated by Hollywood celebrities is unprecedented.
"It's an election year so it’s very interesting that a lot of political figures have surfaced on this list," she said. "Politics are on people's minds as much as fashion."
Also on the list: Fellow political wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, James Bond actor Daniel Craig and British soccer star David Beckham.
Elizabeth Snead has a full analysis of the winners -- and the losers -- over at our Dish Rag blog.
-- Kate Linthicum
Led by the ever-feisty Sen. Chuck Schumer, the New Yorker who heads the committee devoted to electing more and more Democrats to the Senate, party chieftains had been insisting that Alaska -- normally a solid Republican state -- was a prime pickup possibility for them this year.
That obviously became the case today, with the federal indictment on corruption charges of the venerable Ted Stevens, the Republican who first assumed his Senate seat by appointment in December, 1968 and quickly became politically invincible. See news video below.
Not to make too fine a point of it, but this whole investigation actually resulted from a Times investigative story by Chuck Neubauer and Richard Cooper back in 2003.
Stevens' standing has suffered over the last couple of years, however, as he became ensnared in an ongoing and exhaustive federal probe of wrongdoing by a raft of Alaskan politicians (detailed in this overview by the Anchorage Daily News).
Nationally, he also was targeted for criticism from government watchdog groups and others for his advocacy of federal funding for what was known as the "bridge to nowhere" -- a proposed project in his home state that, as CNN noted, emerged as a "symbol of federal pork-barrel spending."
If the 84-year-old Stevens persists in trying to hold onto his political career, his immediate challenge will be winning the GOP Senate primary on Aug. 26 -- a contest that in the past has been a mere formality for him.
Now, he'll be fighting the gale winds of an extensive Department of Justice probe that concluded, as the Associated Press reports, that during the last several years, he illegally concealed “his continuing receipt of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of things of value from a private corporation.”
The Associated Press story said the items included home improvements to his vacation home in Alaska, "including a new first floor, garage, wraparound deck, plumbing, electrical wiring." Our colleagues over at the Swamp have their own take here.
In short, the type of perks and privileges that won't sit well with the average voter.
Whoever triumphs in next month's primary will face -- for Alaska -- an unusually strong Democratic challenger, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich.
The last Democrat to represent Alaska in the Senate (from either party, the state's total number of senators since it joined the union in 1959 is only six), was the fellow who in this campaign cycle tried unsuccessfully to roil the Democratic presidential primary -- Mike Gravel.
-- Don Frederick
Photo credit: Getty Images | |
with Friday come daylight.
