What Sarah Palin's gonna say in Thursday's VP debate with Biden

Alaska Gov. and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is going through three days of debate prep in rural Arizona. On Thursday she'll face the Democratic VP nominee, Sen. Joe Biden, who's no doubt doing his own prep for prime time.

But Palin took a little time off Tuesday to practice some of her speaking points in a surprise phone-radio interview with the popular Hugh Hewitt that gives us an advance glimpse into Palin's parlance.

Hewitt was an ardent supporter of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney during the primary season.

But he'd be delighted to get Palin on air for his generally conservative audience and, as John McCain's campaign well knows, would not try what they call any gotcha questions.

Not if he ever wants another national radio scoop like this.

Hewitt and Palin talked about why so many critics seem to despise her, about her family's sometimes strained expenses, her faith and her professed puzzlement over why critics would mock her faith or beliefs if she isn't mocking theirs.

Hewitt first asked the 44-year-old mother of five if she could explain the derision, even hate, directed toward her in recent days.

"Oh, I think they’re just not used to someone coming in from the outside," she replied, "saying, 'You know what? It's time that . . .

Conservative vets group goes after Barack Obama in California

California hasn't been in play in a presidential election for 20 years. Barack Obama almost surely will capture the trove of 55 electoral votes Nov. 4.

But that's not stopping the conservative Vets for Freedom, which claims to be the largest group representing Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, from stirring things up. Bolstered by $2.2 million, the group plans to air television ads starting today across California -- the Bay Area excluded -- denouncing Obama on national security issues.

Former Gov. Pete Wilson, who is involved in the effort, said the ad is not specifically aimed at helping Republican John McCain. But "if people are persuaded by the ads, it can only help -- not just Sen. McCain but anyone else who shares this view," he said.

The so-called issue advocacy commercial, which doesn't mention McCain, opens with Obama smiling and reclining in an office chair. A voice intones:

"Barack Obama skipped 45% of Senate votes but did manage to show up to vote against emergency funding for our troops. . . .

"Obama was chairman of the committee overseeing the fight against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan but never held a single hearing. . . .

"Obama found time to make 45 trips to Iowa but only two trips to Iraq."

The ad urges viewers to tell Obama to support a Senate resolution commending the U.S. and its troops for undertaking the surge in Iraq, saying the gains are significant but not yet permanent. Lawmakers who favor a more rapid withdrawal from Iraq oppose the resolution.

Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt called the ad "a despicable distortion" of Obama’s record, adding that the Democratic nominee "has been a forceful advocate for our service members, passing legislation that ensured our wounded warriors receive the care and treatment they deserve."

Vets for Freedom refuses to identify those who gave the $2.2 million for the ad buy. Because it is a nonprofit corporation, Vets for Freedom is not required to disclose its donors. Nor is it required to disclose its 2008 spending until it files its tax returns next year, long after the Nov. 4 election.

-- Dan Morain

Don't forget to register at Twitter here to get instant alerts of all new Ticket items flashed straight to your cell.

Photo credit: Alex Brandon/AP

John McCain's Iowa stop: Smart move or odd detour?

A mere five weeks from now, as night sweeps across the continent on Nov. 4, the 2008 presidential campaign presumably will be decided by the results in a handful of key states.

Iowa doesn't seem likely to be one of those. So we were left puzzled by a John McCain itinerary that found him spending a good part of Monday and much of Tuesday in that locale.

We can only assume that he and his political advisers know something that the polls of that state's voters aren't detecting. They better, because with one exception, several surveys in Iowa over the last month have shown Barack Obama solidly ahead in the fight for its 7 electoral votes.

If McCain and his camp don't have good reason to dispute these findings, it's hard not to view the roughly 24 hours he just spent in Des Moines and vicinity as a waste of time at this point in the White House race.

No doubt McCain would love to keep Iowa -- which President Bush narrowly carried four years ago -- in the Republican column. He, along with running mate Sarah Palin, held a rally in the state two weeks ago. But not only does winning it loom as a difficult challenge for the Republican ticket, it's hardly key to its path to victory.

Obama began with a big advantage in the state over McCain. The 2006 midterm elections showed a drift toward Democrats there. And in early 2007, with an eye on a strong showing in Iowa's Democratic caucuses, Obama began organizing his support among Iowans.

His victory in the caucuses early this year showed how successful his efforts were -- and ensured that a ground-level operation was in place that could then focus on the general election.

McCain, by contrast, did not invest much time or energy in the state's GOP caucuses -- and was rewarded with a fourth-place finish. Competing hard in Iowa made little sense for him; his path to the Republican nomination lay elsewhere. But it meant that once he locked up the nod, he lacked ...

Gwen Ifill to play hurt in Thursday's VP debate

On Thursday, Gwen Ifill will reprise her 2004 role as moderator for the debate between the major-party vice presidential candidates by posing the questions for this year's pair of running mates. But when the veteran PBS journalist convenes the nationally televised encounter, she will do so in hobbled condition.

Ifill broke one of her ankles last week while navigating a staircase. The mishap was debate-related; she was toting research material for it when she missed a step. But the injury won't keep her from traveling to St. Louis for the faceoff between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden.

Ifill recently talked with the Associated Press about the challenge awaiting her. The story took note of the unprecedented interest in the debate, spurred both by Palin's newness to the national scene and questions about how she'll perform.

Here's the lead to the AP piece:

Being selected the moderator for a vice presidential debate is something like opening a suitcase on "Deal or No Deal" and finding $1,000. Nice prize, but it's no jackpot.

Not this year. The Oct. 2 showdown between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin will likely put Gwen Ifill before the biggest TV audience of her life.

Indeed, the political world (that includes us) would be shocked if the viewership doesn't easily exceed the somewhat paltry numbers for Friday's initial debate between John McCain and Barack Obama.

-- Don Frederick

Photo credit: Associated Press

Bill Clinton featured in new John McCain ad

This can hardly be coincidental.

On Wednesday, Bill Clinton makes his long-delayed -- and sure to be closely watched -- foray onto the campaign trail for Barack Obama, visiting the battleground state of Florida on his behalf.

Today, though, Clinton's visage appears in a television ad ... for John McCain.

The 60-second spot (a virtual discourse, by today's standards) depicts McCain as ahead of the curve in seeking regulation that might have avoided the current financial crisis and asserts that Democrats -- with Obama acquiescing through silence -- "blocked the reforms."

A recent sound bite from Clinton is used to back up the criticism of Democrats (though not Obama in particular.

As usual in a political ad, regardless of which candidate or party it comes from, some crucial context is missing. A broader take on Clinton's view of how the current mess evolved -- and his focus on deflecting blame from himself -- was provided late last week by The Hill newspaper.

The ex-president is the second member of his family to surface in a McCain ad. Wife Hillary Clinton was the star of a spot released in August.

--Don Frederick

Don't forget to register at Twitter here to get instant alerts of all new Ticket items flashed straight to your cell.

Sarah Palin on the court: competitive, smart, a bit 'foul-prone'

So what can we learn about Sarah Palin from her days as a high school basketball player in Wasilla, Alaska?

The Times' Peter Nicholas was curious about that, so he tracked down her former coach, Don Teeguarden (who now plies his trade at a high school in Washington state).

He recalls a starting guard on the 1982 championship team who was eager to show her skills -- and not always happy about the supporting role she was occasionally assigned.

Nicholas relates that Teeguarden said that year's team had strong "post" players whom he wanted to consistently set up for shots near the basket. His instructions were for Palin and the other guards patrolling the perimeter to make sure those players touched the ball before launching a jump shot.

Great for the girls taking the shot; a bit disappointing for the ball-handlers who wanted to prove they could score too. Said Teeguarden: “From the guards’ point of view, when you throw it in there it’s not coming back. So I understand exactly how they felt about that."

Palin, the coach said, had other ideas about how to run the offense -– and she let him know. But Teeguarden said he very much appreciated the way she handled the strategic conflict.

“There were times when she needed to be convinced that things needed to be done a certain way," he said. “But she wasn’t belligerent. She just wanted to know why we were doing things this way.... She didn’t make scenes in practice, but she was inquisitive about the way things needed to be done. Once she understood, she was on board."

Evaluating the player he coached for four years, Teeguarden said she was “excellent’’ on defense, a strong free-throw shooter and ...

In his own words: Bill Clinton on McCain, Obama, Palin and Biden

As loyal Ticket readers know, and as all you newcomers will quickly discover, from time to time here we publish a lengthy statement, speech or interview in its entirety to allow readers the full context of the political person's remarks.

This morning we're doing that again with ex-President Bill Clinton, as he prepares to return to the presidential stump tomorrow noon, but this time not for his wife.

Apparently Clinton has finally arranged his schedule and finished several weeks of packing to go out on the campaign trail, as promised, for the man who defeated his wife, Hillary Clinton, during the hardfought, even at times bitter, Democratic Party presidential nomination.

Tomorrow, a long month after the convention speech when he promised to help with everything he's asked to do, Clinton will appear at two rallies for Obama in Florida -- Orlando and Fort Pierce.

There has been some talk, here and elsewhere, about B. Clinton and B. Obama not being the best of friends, which the former president confirms here in his typically smooth, deflecting way.

It's also refreshing, we thought, in this period of overheated campaign rhetoric to find someone speaking more moderately than many about both sides in this historic election, firmly backing his party but feeling no need this time to denigrate the opposition in the process. In fact, he praises them.

It could be a kind of return to ex-presidential statesmanship that....

After Sarah Palin VP debate, Joe Biden to step aside for Hillary Clinton?

It's been one of the most persistent rumors on the internet since John McCain smartly snuffed Barack Obama's convention afterglow by doing what the Democrat considered and rejected: naming a woman as his vice presidential partner.

Within 10 hours of Obama's Greek-columned stadium speech in Denver, McCain shocked most of the political world by naming Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, as his vice presidential running mate.

And the 44-year-old mother of five and hockey mom with a union husband quickly became a "palinomenon."

Obama had decided against taking on any Clinton complexities and gone for the safe, predictable choice of Sen. Joe Biden as his VP.

True, Biden's 36-year Washington residency in the same Delaware Senate seat since Obama was a sixth-grader goes against Obama's agent of change argument.

But as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, the Pennsylvania native might bolster the foreign/national security credentials of the state senator from Springfield. And help win the crucial Keystone State.

However, there's been a persistent e-mail (see text below, along with Biden video) making the rounds of inboxes all month. It's titled "Rumor Has It?" And according to this unsigned e-mail, Biden will step aside as No. 2 on the Democratic ticket shortly after....

Chris Matthews interviews students, neglects to ID one: his daughter

Last Friday Chris Matthews, the talkative political loudmouth of MSNBC who has a thing for college campuses, was at the University of Mississippi in Oxford for the first presidential debate between Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama. (Bob Barr was not invited.)

Matthews, you may recall from past Ticket items, is under fire from a women's group, the New Agenda, which feels his style of punditry is "misogynsistic journalism."

Matthews is currently on a tear though against the financial institution bailout package that failed in Washington today and he says he's especially concerned about what it would do to the nation's deficit that would have way too many zeros in his opinion.

The TV host found an eager group of professed nonpartisan college students in prison suits called CYA (No, not that one) -- Concerned Youth of America.

So he interviewed several and they all seemed to agree with Matthews about this horrible looming federal deficit thing; see the deficit would "sentence" their generation to pay it off, just like being in prison except without all the murders, beatings and other institutional mayhem. Hence, the symbolic striped costumes.

Anyway, one of the students, an obviously bright young woman and apparent group leader, was very talkative and very assertive, just like her interviewer.

But she's not identified -- not until just before the end of this video clip, which comes to us from the amazing, all-seeing, all-knowing folks over at MediaBistro.com. (Watch the video, then keep reading below.)   

Turns out, as Matthews tells us, that young woman's name is Caroline. He doesn't reveal her last name.

Also turns out, according to MediaBistro, that's because the young woman's name is the same as his. Matthews was interviewing his own daughter on national TV without identifying her.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Don't forget to register at Twitter here to get instant alerts of all new Ticket items flashed straight to your cell.

Round two for Sarah Palin and Katie Couric (only this time John McCain comes along)

Sarah Palin and John McCain sat down with CBS' Katie Couric for their first joint interview on Monday, less than one week after Palin's solo interview with Couric, which was widely panned.

In tonight's segment, which aired on the CBS Evening News, Couric asked the Alaskan governor what she thought of criticism that she was "not ready for prime time."

Palin answered gracefully, if predictably ("Well, not only am I ready but willing and able to serve as vice president with Sen. McCain if Americans so bless us and privilege us with the opportunity of serving").

Then her running mate came to her defense, as he did this weekend, this time with a surprising comparison. "President Clinton was a governor of a very small state that had "no experience" either," the Arizona Republican told Couric.

You can watch that and other exchanges for yourself here. And be sure to watch for the interesting back-and-forth over gotcha journalism.

--Kate Linthicum

Don't forget to register at Twitter here to get instant alerts of all new Ticket items flashed straight to your cell.