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Well, one sure way to get "NASCAR Dads" to pay attention to your political campaign is get your name on one of the cars.
The Swamp tipped us to an item that Sports Illustrated is reporting: Barack Obama is on the verge of sponsoring a car at a race in August. The metaphor potential is huge -- everything from leading pole-to-pole to hitting a wall and not finishing.
Obama earlier was flirting with campaigning at a NASCAR event, but this takes it one step better. Though there are pitfalls. The car, BAM 39, reportedly is a Toyota, which likely won't sit well with the United Auto Workers.
An announcement is expected within a couple of weeks, SI reports, though in keeping with a practiced political observer's skepticism, believe it when it happens.
(UPDATE: The announcement came sooner than two weeks and SI was wrong. Obama spokesman Bill Burton said Friday evening the campaign won't be sponsoring a NASCAR entry. "The Obama campaign will not be sponsoring a car in the Sprint Cup series," Burton said, "though we will continue to look for ways to reach out to voters and convey Senator Obama’s message of change.” And he didn't mean tires.)
-- Scott Martelle
* With apologies to The O'Jays.
John McCain did OK in the fundraising department in June, our colleague Dan Morain reports, though at this point, without Barack Obama's fundraising numbers, it's hard to say what that means. But we do like writing about money around here.
The McCain campaign says he raised $22 million in June, up slightly from the $21 million he raised in May. And the Republican National Committee added $26 million itself, money that can be used to buttress McCain's spending against Obama, who has been raising money like he owns the mint.
As Morain reports, Obama has raised $287 million to McCain's $133 million, which includes the June contributions for McCain but not, obviously, for Obama. Obama has sworn off federal funds -- after suggesting he'd do otherwise -- while McCain is taking the federal money, and its spending limits.
But with the RNC spinning off its own independent expenditure committee, the 527s on both sides and the rest of the cash flow that floods through campaign season, it will keep these folks very busy trying to make sense of it all.
-- Scott Martelle
This is a new Ticket experiment. We're going to try this from time to time until Nov. 4 with new ads from the presidential campaigns -- maybe even ads for other offices, if they're interesting.
But instead of us writing on what these television commercials are about, we're asking you to tell us and the thousands of other daily Ticket readers what they're about. Why waste time talking back to your television screen?
You, the voters, tell us right here right now what you see in them that you like, didn't know, didn't like, whatever. It's your turn to blog about the campaigns.
This one is from Sen. John McCain's campaign.
Tell us what it's about and what you think in the Comments below. And since this isn't a pep rally for or against anyone, try to be open-minded, regardless of whom you may be currently supporting. We'll have other candidate ads posted here in coming weeks.
-- Andrew Malcolm
By all expectations, Rep. David Dreier shouldn't have a political care in the world. Even in this tough year for Republicans.
First elected in 1980, the GOP congressman has used the power of congressional incumbency to amass a campaign account bulging with $1.85 million. His Democratic foe, Russ Warner, has barely $104,000.
Dreier’s district, which covers parts of Los Angeles Cou nty out to San Bernardino County, was tailor-made to ensure Republican victory.
But a California-based independent campaign group, Courage Campaign, is targeting Dreier, seeking to tie him to President George W. Bush. An ad intended for cable TV, but so far only on the Internet, calls him a “Bush rubber stamp.”
Rick Jacobs, the group’s founder, is seeking to undermine Dreier’s reputation as a political moderate. Convinced that Dreier could lose, he said: “This is going to be a huge change year.”
In an interview Dreier spokeswoman Jo Maney called the ad an “amateurish smear job.”
Political consultant Allan Hoffenblum, who tracks California campaigns in his Target Book, said Dreier should have little to fear: “If Republicans start losing seats like Dreier’s, they’re in deep trouble.”
As of its last report, Courage Campaign had $36,000 in the bank. But its backers include major Democratic donors. Silicon Valley entrepreneur Mark Gorenberg, and Pacific Palisades investor Thomas Unterman each gave him $5,000.
In recent months, Courage Campaign has mounted a vocal campaign to block a training facility in San Diego County developed by Blackwater, the private security firm, and has also criticized Sen. Dianne Feinstein over some of her votes.
--Dan Morain
Photo credit: Office of Rep. David Dreier
The Republican National Committee is spending $3.4 million on television ads in four swing states blasting Barack Obama’s energy policy, according to a campaign finance report filed Monday.
The 30-second ad is part of an independent campaign on behalf of Sen. John McCain. It says McCain is “pushing his own party to face climate change,” and contrasts the presumptive GOP nominee’s energy stand against Obama’s.
McCain supports “alternative energy, conservation, suspending the gas tax, and more production here at home.” The reference to more production presumably is a reference at least in part to McCain’s recent call for offshore oil drilling, made shortly before he went to a fundraiser in Santa Barbara.
Obama, the spot says, opposes lower gasoline taxes, nuclear power and more drilling. “Just the party line,” says the ad.
The ad -- view it below -- is airing in at least Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Brad Todd, of the firm, OnMessage Inc., created the spot, and said it was expected to air through next week. In a statement, Todd explained the theme by saying energy security “is emerging as a defining difference in the race for president."
Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan slapped back, telling The Times' Dan Morain that McCain promises to “continue the Bush approach of trying to drill our way out of our energy crisis.” Obama is offering “historic investment in alternative energy development,” he added.
The $3.4-million buy is substantial. But it is likely only the ante for the RNC and the Democratic National Committee. The DNC alone spent more than $100 million in 2004 on behalf of Sen. John Kerry’s presidential run.
--Andrew Malcolm
The Republican National Committee has spun off its own independent expenditure committee and plans an initial $3 million ad buy targeting Barack Obama in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Politico reports.
Why the separate group?
Brad Todd, who will run the effort, blamed Obama in a statement to Politico: "Following Barack Obama's decision to become the only major party presidential candidate in history to not adhere to campaign spending caps, the Republican National Committee has begun an independent expenditure campaign in accordance with FEC regulations."
Under federal law there are no limits on how much the group can spend, though it cannot coordinate efforts with John McCain's campaign or the RNC. Still, both have helped to raise some of the funds that will launch the new effort.
So now we know where the RNC will be funneling some of its cash advantage over the Democratic National Committee to try to compensate for the record-breaking fundraising Obama has enjoyed. And the decision to target those Rust-Belt states underscores the GOP view that Obama is vulnerable in that part of the nation. Three of the four -- Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin -- went Democratic in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections.
Lot of white working-class men and women in those states, which account for 68 electoral votes.
-- Scott Martelle
Funny how things go around and come around.
In his initial run for the U.S. Senate in 2004, this fellow Barack Obama, who we seem to be hearing a lot about these days, was on e of the very first beneficiaries of the so-called millionaire’s amendment that the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Thursday.
Obama’s main Democratic primary foe that year was Blair Hull, a wealthy investor who poured $28 million of his own money into the campaign.
But under that same national campaign finance law, Hull’s immense personal spending on himself released Obama from the $2,100 per donor cap then in effect.
And it allowed him to raise his own campaign money in increments up to $12,000 per donor.
That national campaign finance law was co-written by another now familiar name, John McCain, the senator from Arizona.
Now, McCain is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee who will face Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, on Nov. 4 to become president of these United States. Talk about unintended consequences.
Some analysts believe that Obama might well have lost that crucial first step onto the national political stage without the financial boost he received from McCain's law allowing him to gather....
Read more Sen. Obama might be just Obama without law written by Sen. McCain »
Much attention, understandably, is being paid to the notes Barack Obama sounds in his first general election television ad, which starts running Friday and can be viewed here.
Its emphasis on family values, self reliance and patriotism would have made Ronald Reagan's media shop proud. And in case anyone misses the point, the spot's title -- "Country I Love" -- says it all.
What really grabs us, however, is where the ad will appear (and, in one case, where it won't).
For the most part, the 18-state list is predictable. It includes the battlegrounds, large and small, that political analysts expect to watch through election day: Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Iowa, New Hampshire and New Mexico among them.
But the list also includes a handful of reliably Republican places where Obama aides have been saying they believe he can compete, based on strength he showed among certain voting blocs during the primary season.
The states in this category are Georgia, Indiana, Montana, North Carolina and Virginia.
And then there are two states -- Alaska and North Dakota -- where the airing of the Obama ad demonstrates that:
A) His campaign knows something about these GOP redoubts that the rest of us doesn't;
B) When you're riding herd over an organization that raises massive amounts of cash seemingly without breaking a sweat -- and just today announced it was breaking free of the restraints imposed by the campaign finance system, as our friends at The Swamp write about here -- you can afford to take a flier on a couple of longshots, especially when the media markets are inexpensive;
C) It's always fun, when the November election still seems a long way off, to play in a few of your rival's backyards, if for no other reason than to cause some headaches on the other side.
Probably some combination of A, B and C explains the decision to advertise in Alaska (which President Bush carried with 61% of the vote in 2004) and North Dakota (which Bush won with 63% of the vote four years ago).
Looking at all seven states where the Obama ad buy raises eyebrows, here are some of the daunting historical facts ...
Read more Barack Obama ad targets include some shockers »
Weeks after his presumptive Republican presidential competitor, Sen. Barack Obama is launching his first general election national television ad. And the subject -- patriotism -- shows where his campaign may feel he's weak right now.
It's a 60-second biographical spot that will run in 18 states. Candidates like to start off with bio ads so they're setting the stage with their own narrative, not responding to someone else's versions.
The ad, entitled "Country I Love," seeks to highlight Obama's biography and patriotism. Without military service, he stresses the upbringing of his family in the Kansas heartland and the values of working hard taught in his single-parent home and by his grandparents. He does not mention his life in Hawaii or Indonesia.
His campaign said it will start running the commercials Friday in Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Virginia.
"America is a country of strong families and strong values," the ad begins. "My life's been blessed by both.
"I was raised by a single mom and my grandparents. We didn't have much money, but they taught me values straight from the Kansas heartland where they grew up. Accountability and self-reliance. Love of country. Working hard without making excuses."
Our colleague John McCormick over at the Swamp has the ad's complete text.
--Andrew Malcolm
On this, the first anniversary of our Top of the Ticket blog, we are reminded of the mercurial, unpredictable nature of U.S. politics -- part of what makes what we do so fascinating.
Our goal -- one of us on the East Coast and the other on the far more important or at least less humid West Coast -- was to write about Campaign '08 virtually around the clock.
Our second-ever posting, 12 months ago today, previewed an upcoming L.A. Times/Bloomberg Poll; later in the day, we detailed the results of the nationwide survey. The findings were in line with other polls of the time.
In the Republican presidential race, which then seemed the most likely to last deep into the primary season, Rudy Giuliani was perched in first place. His lead wasn't overwhelming, but it was strong enough that he appeared certain to remain a major contender.
His liberal record on social issues loomed as an obvious liability within his party, but his tough-on-terrorism message was attracting substantial support from moderates and GOP-leaning independents.
His major headache among rivals last June was an as-yet-undeclared candidate who was riding a wave as the great conservative hope -- Fred Thompson. He ran a strong second in the poll.
Lagging far behind were John McCain and Mitt Romney, each barely with double-digit support. In our preview posting, we were especially scornful of McCain, noting sarcastically (and foolishly, as it turned out) that in the poll, he found himself "in heated competition with the 'Don't Know' category."
Meriting no mention from us was Mike Huckabee, one of several back-of-the-pack candidates barely earning any support across the country.
The Democratic race, at that point, seemed so much more cut-and-dried.
Hillary Clinton was the clear front-runner; Barack Obama was just as clearly ...
Read more Top of the Ticket, the start of Year Two »
Most everyone in the field of politics and those of us watching from the grandstands have focused on the Democratic family soap opera in recent days and weeks. And we've anticipated the compelling season finale that will unfold before our televised eyes in Washington this morning.
There, Sen. Hillary Clinton will officially admit defeat -- well, maybe she won't go quite that far.
But she will, as promised, appear to graciously and heartily endorse this upstart freshman senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, whose eloquence, quick learning and charisma prevented her from gaining her rightful White House political inheritance -- this time.
And if, God forbid or at least look the other way, Obama should not win the White House Nov. 4, her dutiful campaigning for the party ticket starting today won't hurt her chances come 2012. God help us, we're typing that date already.
Many of us have been debating Clinton's Tuesday night non-concession speech that was nearly downright defiant and if, when or how she'd accept the No. 2 spot or if it will even be offered (of course not).
Meanwhile, that wily old-timer from Arizona, who last summer said he'd "out-campaign" all his better-funded Republican rivals and then did just that, has been very busy.
Campaign sources tell The Times' political finance expert Dan Morain that Sen. John McCain had the best fundraising ...
Read more As Clinton, Obama end primary wars, McCain launches fall ad, raises nearly $22 million »
John McCain, campaigning in Louisiana, simultaneously is making a play for Latino voters in Nevada and New Mexico -- likely battleground states in the fall. The campaign just released a Spanish-language radio ad to air in both states.
What's interesting that while his national focus seems to be national security, the targeted ads are all economy -- which he has acknowledged isn't exactly his strong suit. Here's the ad in Spanish, and the campaign-provided English translation is below: "ANNOUNCER: When we are buying groceries, we don't have a political party. When we are filling up the gas tank, we are not Republicans, Democrats or Independents. We are Hispanics, and we all are hurting together in this uncertain economic time. We need someone that has a good economic plan, and that is John McCain. His plan is a realistic plan, not a political one, and it will help jump-start the local and national economies.
"He proposed to Congress a federal gas-tax holiday for the summer months. He wants middle-class families to pay less taxes so we can have more money in our pocket and less in Washington. And he wants to help families hurt by the housing crisis under his HOME Plan.
"He is optimistic and knows that we all, 'unidos,' together, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, can find a better way to fill up our tanks, our shopping carts, and our dreams.
"That's why in (Nevada/New Mexico), 'Estamos Unidos con John McCain.'
"JOHN MCCAIN: I'm John McCain and I approve this message."
-- Scott Martelle
Photo credit: Mark Boster/ Los Angeles Times
One special interest -- television stations -- profited mightily from the prolonged nature of the Democratic presidential battle.
A study released today found that close to $200 million has been spent so far on televised ads by White  House candidates in both parties -- with more than two-thirds of that figure accounted for by Democrats.
Indeed, the almost $75 million disbursed by Barack Obama's campaign on TV ads easily surpassed the roughly $58 million in total spending by all Republican contenders. (The leading spender in the GOP race -- by a sizable margin -- remains Mitt Romney, who folded his campaign in early February.)
A spending chart -- so comprehensive it includes the handful of spots aired by obscure Republican aspirant Hugh Cort, plus the four ads that plugged the little noticed candidacy of Democrat Dal LaMagna -- can be studied here.
Deep in the report, Ken Goldstein, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin, offers some noteworthy observations ...
Read more Television stations are big winners in the '08 campaign »
Rep. Ron Paul, the rebel Republican who's defying his party, its nominee and common political sense, is still campaigning, not so much for his party's nomination, which Sen. John McCain has locked up, but to change the direc tion of the party from within and to organize for future reform of the GOP, which has gone soft on him.
According to new campaign finance reports filed Tuesday by Paul forces and pored over by Times campaign finance expert Dan Morain, the strict constitutionalist Paul continues to campaign and spend. He spent $406,836 last month, about half of it ($207,000) on radio advertisements.
Tapping his loyalists for another $70,293 in contributions, Paul ended April with $4.71 million in the bank, his filed campaign finance report shows.
He has raised about $34.9 million during his 14-month presidential quest. The 72-year-old Texas representative, who's even older than McCain, spent $30.2 million on his GOP presidential effort. And, true to conservative form, he maintains absolutely zero campaign debt. Contrast that with Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton who, The Ticket misreported earlier today, raised $21 million last month and now still has almost $31 million in debt. (Her debt is actually closer to $21 million.)
CNN pegs Paul’s delegate count at 26.
One-time Republican presidential front-runner Rudolph Giuliani spent $65.3 million on his campaign and won only one single delegate, who has since been released.
Giuliani tapped himself last month, using $500,000 of his own money to help pay off his presidential campaign bills. He still owes $3.628 million. Among Giuliani’s lingering debts is $118,744 to AT&T; $295,093 to Verizon Wireless; and $451,736 to a New York charter air carrier. He continues to owe two of his companies a combined $217,000 for rent and security services.
-- Andrew Malcolm
Mark McKinnon, the advertising wizard who helped shape George W. Bush's two w inning presidential bids and helped steer Arizona Sen. John McCain from political oblivion last summer to the Republican nomination, is bowing out of the current campaign.
Last summer McKinnon, who lives in Austin, announced he would leave the McCain effort if it was going up against Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.
As noted by The Times' Maeve Reston, McKinnon and his lucky black hat (that's not the lucky one in the picture) have been a fixture in the former POW's comeback campaign and part of the five-man strategy team including Rick Davis, Mark Salter, Charlie Black and Steve Schmidt.
But he's sticking by his vow that if the Democratic candidate was Obama, he would step off the McCain ad team because Obama's election "would send a great message to the country and the world."
The transition will occur over the next few weeks. He will, however, continue as an informal advisor. "I'm just getting off the front line making ads," he said.
--Andrew Malcolm
To be sure, the ultimate purpose of the new website is ultimately to sell a book that won't be published for a few months -- "Barack Obama Is Your New Bicycle."
But for a few months we can overlook the upcoming commercial aspect. And go here for dozens upon dozens of sayings about your guy, Sen. Barack Obama.
Yes, many of them are quizzical -- "Barack Obama parsed your error," "Barack Obama warmed up your car for you," "Barack Obama followed you on Twitter."
But that's what makes it mild fun to browse through by just clicking on the screen.
Or, if you're a fan of Sen. Hillary Clinton, and sneaked into this item despite the warning at the top, you cannot do it. Just click here or on her name here and see a whole bunch of other articles about her.
-- Andrew Malcolm
As most probably know by now, Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy was rushed to the hospital earlier today after suffering what was described as a seizure.
Recent tabloid photos of the 76-year-old well-respected, liberal lion showed him to be grossly overweight, so that can't help his condition as doctors diagnose what's wrong.
But The Ticket isn't a medical blog. It's a politics blog. So what's the political effect? First, his illness and a presumed recovery will keep Kennedy sidelined from the campaign trail on Obama's behalf, although other than publicity that hasn't seemed to prove all that helpful anyway.
Despite the slim Democratic majority in the Senate, probably not much effect there. Even if a replacement senator had to be named by the governor, he's a Democrat too. So the party seat balance won't change.
Inside the Senate, Kennedy is well-respected as a hardworking, effective legislator, who can deal with all sides, as he did, for instance, with President Bush on compromise education legislation.
Outside the Senate, the influence of the veteran senator, who overcame the Chappaquiddick scandal, seems to have waned as a vote generator. Despite lingering affection for his famous Democratic family name and....
Read more The political impact of Kennedy's seizure: Obama, Clinton and McCain »
Just in time for next week's Kentucky and Oregon Democratic primaries -- what do you want to bet they each win one? -- the campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton has a new poster to play with.
Who could quit with this hanging around?
It's heroic, don't you think? Chairman Hillary. Like what's-his-name, the little guy with the crew cut who runs North Korea, and his dead father who had that immense goiter that everyone pretended not to see to avoid execution. Their grand portraits like this are everywhere, usually several stories tall.
We can see these everywhere. And you can read more about them in an entertaining piece by James Oliphant right here.
-- Andrew Malcolm 
It's almost like they had Friday planned out as "Second Amendment Day" on the campaign trail.
Barack Obama started the day in Watertown, S.D., where he wrangled with John McCain and President Bush over foreign policy and appeasement. But he also talked about guns -- just hours before McCain was to address the National Rifle Assn. convention in Louisville, Ky. And the focus made it clear that McCain hopes, if Obama is the Democratic nominee, to exploit Obama's electoral weakness with white, working-class men.
Our colleague Nicholas Riccardi is with Obama and reports that the Illinois senator staked out his turf early today -- seemingly anticipating both McCain and the Republican National Committee, which launched a Web ad today on Obama and guns. Said Obama: "There are a lot of Republicans who are mainly Republicans because they're worried the Democrats are going to take away their guns. In Chicago, we've had a lot of deaths as a consequence of illegal guns and gang shootings. In a lot of the country you've got a lot of illegal guns falling into the hands of criminals and gangbangers and people with mental problems. I want to restrict their access to guns. But I will never take away the rights of lawful gun owners to hunt, to sport-shooting, to protect their family."
Then came McCain. Our colleague Noam Levey is with him, and his story on McCain and the NRA will be in Saturday's paper and available online later tonight. Levey reports McCain mocked Obama before the gun enthusiasts: "It seems every election, politicians who support restrictions on the Second Amendment dress up in camouflage and pose with guns to demonstrate they care about hunters, even though few gun owners fall for such obvious political theater. After Sen. Obama made his unfortunate comment -- an inaccurate and wrong comment -- that Pennsylvanians 'cling to guns and religion' out of bitterness, Sen. Clinton quickly affirmed her support for the Second Amendment. That drew Senator Obama's derision. 'She's running around talking about how this is an insult to sportsmen, how she values the Second Amendment,' he said. 'Like she's on the duck blind every Sunday, packin' a six-shooter!' Someone should tell Sen. Obama that ducks are usually hunted with shotguns."
Which brings us to the RNC and its new web ad.
-- Scott Martelle
"Colorado is my life," Republican candidate Bob Schaffer assured the state's voters this week in his inaugural television ad in what likely will be one of the nation's key Senate races. Striding toward the camera in the creatively produced spot, he proudly noted that he proposed to his wife "on top of Pike's Peak."
 Just one problem. The landscape looming behind him was Alaska's Mt. McKinley (at left, as photographed by Ansel Adams).
The website ColoradoPols.com (where the ad can be viewed) broke the news of the foulup on Wednesday. And other Colorado media outlets quickly jumped into the fray.
The Denver Post's political blog, in an item headlined "Name that mountain," reported that a "frustrated Dick Wadhams, Schaffer's campaign manager, conceded the mistake and said the ad would be pulled and re-edited with Colorado mountains."
The Rocky Mountain News wrote about it in a story headlined, "Schaffer's ad moved mountains." And the piece in the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel was topped: "Schaffer might have an early climb in race after ad goof."
Some folks -- including operatives at the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee in Washington, who get paid to exaggerate -- have called the mishap Schaffer's "Mt. Macaca Moment," a reference to ...
Read more A Colorado Republican mistakenly touts an Alaskan landmark »
Amid minor movement today among Democratic superdelegates -- so far, Barack Obama has picked up 2 1/2 votes [UPDATE: make that 3 1/2] and Hillary Clinton, one -- Obama scored a coup with an endorsement from the nation's foremost abortion rights advocacy group.
In a news release, the political action committee for NARAL Pro-Choice America had kind words for Clinton but annoounded its backing for Obama, citing its reading of the status of the Democratic presidential race.
"Today, we are proud to put our organization's grass-roots and political support behind the pro-choice candidate whom we believe will secure the Democratic nomination and advance to the general election," NARAL's president said in the release. "That candidate is Sen. Obama.
Read more Barack Obama wins the nod from NARAL »
Forget West Virginia. The election that pros in both parties were watching tonight was a special House faceoff in Mississippi -- and the results could not be worse for the GOP.
For the third time during the last few months, a Democrat triumphed in a House district that long had been solidly Republican.
In this case -- Mississippi's 1st congressional district -- Travis Childers bucked last-minute intervention by Vice President Dick Cheney to win a seat the GOP had held, easily, since 1994.
Cheney personally stumped on behalf of the Republican candidate, Greg Davis, on Monday. Davis and his allies also sought, in television ads, to undercut Childers by tying him to Barack Obama. But with most of the vote counted, Childers led, 52% to 48%, and was declared the victor.
Earlier this month, a Democrat won a Louisiana House seat that had been occupied by Republicans for more than 30 years. And in early March, in an especially sweet win for the Democrats, they took over the district that retired former House Speaker Dennis Hastert had represented since the mid-1980s.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi quickly trumpeted ...
Read more BREAKING NEWS: Democrats win again in a Republican stronghold »
Another ad is making a splash in North Carolina (though perhaps mainly among aging baby  boomers there).
Beverly Perdue -- one of the two Democratic gubernatorial candidates who, in the political equivalent of a carom shot, state Republican officials are trying to link to Rev. Jeremiah Wright -- is up with an ad in which she's endorsed by Andy Griffith (a native of Mount Airy, N.C.).
"Oh, you're going to be a goooood governor," Griffith says to Perdue in the spot, and anyone who grew up watching him keep law and order (and raise Opie) in Mayberry, N.C., won't have to actually see it to know exactly how that line sounds.
As detailed in this story in the Raleigh News & Observer, a Griffith endorsement is nothing to scoff at in his home state. And for more on the hard-fought battle for the Democratic gubernatorial battle -- and Barack Obama's role in it -- go here.
-- Don Frederick
Photo credit: Ken Hively/L.A. Times
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean is calling out John McCain on the controversial North Carolina GOP ad which, in one fell swoop, uses Barack Obama's controversial ex-minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, to try to sully two Democratic candidates in the state.
Dean is framing McCain's suggestion that the North Carolina Republicans do not air the ad as a test of his leadership, basically saying that if he can't get party minions to take his advice, how can he run the country?
So far, the state officials have declined to change course.
Here's the DNC release: "According to reports, the chair of the state Republican Party in North Carolina is planning to move forward with its plans to air its racially divisive campaign ad despite John McCain's emailed complaints. While the McCain campaign made a show of protesting the ad, McCain made no mention of the fact that key officials in the North Carolina GOP are members of McCain's state steering committee and McCain donors.
"Nor did he mention the fact that the state chair who is bucking his leadership is a member of the arrangements committee of the Republican National Convention. Given his ties to state Republican leaders, if McCain is serious about making sure this ad never airs, he should have no trouble making it happen. If not, McCain should return their contributions, remove them from his campaign committees, and strip the state chair from her role on the GOP's convention committee.
"Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean today issued the following statement calling on McCain to exercise real leadership and pull the plug on this ad:
'This is a test of leadership for John McCain. If he can't pick up the phone and make members of his own party stop airing a television ad he claims to oppose, how can he lead our country through an economic crisis or the war in Iraq? After shifting his positions on gun control, immigration and tax cuts throughout this campaign, McCain should not equivocate on this issue. Making a show of releasing your emails to the press is not leadership. If he is serious, he will get this ad pulled.' "
-- Frank James
Frank James writes for the Swamp of the Chicago Tribune's Washington bureau.
Photo credit: Associated Press
Well, gee what are you going to do, eh? States are states and so are state parties.
And so the North Carolina Republican Party has decided for its own internal reasons to defy its presumptive presidential nominee and run an anti-Obama ad -- or at least say it's going to run the ad so the news media will run it endlessly for them for free-- that Sen. John McCain and RNC head Mike Duncan say should be killed.
They've both said they sent messages to the state party chair Linda Daves, a little old lady also shown in the ad who looks like she's sitting in a rocker about to serve tea instead of ignite a political controversy.
The 30-second ad is really a two-bank shot for state consumption aimed at the two Democrats vying for their party's gubernatorial nomination on May 6.
As The Ticket has noted previously, both Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue and state Treasurer Richard Moore have endorsed Barack Obama who has a militant minister, therefore, according to the ad, they're not good. It doesn't involve McCain, who's says he hasn't seen the commercial but heard enough to dislike it.
It pictures, as shown here, Obama with his preacher of 20 years, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, with one clip of a now familiar infamous rant, saying, "No! No! No! Not God bless America. God bleep America!"
Referring to Perdue and Moore, it says, "They should know better. He's just too extreme for North Carolina." (Obama, not Wright.)
You can watch the ad here if you really must. McCain and Duncan obviously feel the ad is too extreme for them.
But if the Democrats can't yet figure out who their nominee's gonna be come November, it looks like the little old lady chair of the North Carolina Republican Party thinks she has.
--Andrew Malcolm
Photo Credit: Trinity United Church of Christ
Thanks to a Hillary Clinton "bio" ad shown endlessly on local television screens, hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians now know Scranton less as a town whose best days were in the 19th century and more as the site of her bucolic childhood summer vacations. (We wonder if tourism will increase there this July and August?)
Meanwhile, in Johnstown, Pa., what must be a perennial preoccupation -- how to fill up spare time during the weekend -- was easily answered this Sunday: Attend a Clinton rally!
Across the state in Philadelphia, chances are that many of those among the more than 35,000 people who thronged into downtown Friday night to hear Barack Obama speak -- and then joined in an impromptu parade through city streets -- will be talking about the communal occasion for months to come.
And it's likely to be years before the denizens of such out-of-the-way* burgs as Moon Township, Lock Haven, Clearfield and Connellsville forget what they now have in common: destinations on the itinerary of a certain former president willing to go the extra mile (or two, or 10, or 100) to help his wife win the Pennsylvania primary.
In material terms, it doesn't get much better than to have been a TV ad executive over the last month and a half or so in the Keystone State. Not much call for long hours the rest of the year --- not with Obama reportedly spending more than $9 million to make his case on the airwaves, and Clinton close to $4 million.
Our point is this:
Read more As Pennsylvania yields the spotlight, how badly will it want it back? »
Fridays have many good qualities. Normal people with normal jobs get to look forward to two days off. Payday for a lot of folks. Happy hour. Remember, the phrase is NOT "Thank God It's Tuesday." But it's also the day that Joshua Levy over at techPresident posts his favorite YouTube videos of the week.
Which means you get to save a lot of surfing time during the week looking at political videos and let Levy do the heavy lifting for you. Our fave from today's list: Leave Ralph Nader Alone, (see below) which is fascinating in a "the metal-punk band just moved in next door" kind of way. And it also reminds us of this classic ad.
-- Scott Martelle
New York magazine reports this morning that another former member of Bill Clinton's cabinet plans to announce his endorsement of Barack Obama today, joining Bill Richardson on the list of high-profile defections among the Clintons' longtime personal and political friends.
This time it's Robert Reich, Bill Clinton's former Labor secretary, current Berkeley professor and self-described friend of the Clintons for 40 years. Reich, who has been critical of the Clintons before, despite the friendship, reportedly will announce the endorsement at 10 a.m. PDT on his blog (cue James Carville).
Reich told reporter John Heilemann that he initially intended to stay out of the fray, primarily out of loyalty to the long friendship. But Clinton's post-"bitter" ads in Pennsylvania moved him to action. "I've come to the point, after seeing those ads, where I can't in good conscience not say out loud what I believe about who should be president. Those ads are nothing but Republicanism. They're lending legitimacy to a Republican message that's wrong to begin with, and they harken back to the past 20 years of demagoguery on guns and religion. It's old politics at its worst — and old Republican politics, not even old Democratic politics. It's just so deeply cynical."
-- Scott Martelle
Barack Obama can take some solace out of Hillary Clinton’s latest television ad in Pennsylvania. At least one of those featured in the spot hammering Obama for his recent -- and controversial -- critique of bitter small town America isn’t registered to vote in Pennsylvania.
Clyde Thomas, the goateed fellow in the ad who says, “the good people of Pennsylvania deserve a lot better than what Barack Obama said,” is actually registered in New Jersey. He voted there for Clinton Feb. 5. He only recently moved to Bethlehem, Pa.
“It shouldn’t be a big deal. I explained it to the campaign,” Thomas said in an interview. “I see Pennsylvanians for what they are. I grew up with the values of Pennsylvanians.”
Thomas said he was born in Scranton, but until recently had lived his entire life in Somerville, N.J. He is a 46-year-old unemployed environmental engineer.
He said he has been volunteering for the Clinton campaign in recent weeks, handing out literature and making phone calls. He said the campaign approached him about appearing in the ad, which was filmed in Bethlehem, a city of about 72,000 residents in eastern Pennsylvania where Bethlehem Steel once stood tall.
Thomas added that he plans to get on Pennsylvania's voting rolls ahead of the November election.
-- Josh Drobnyk
Josh Drobnyk writes for the Swamp of the Chicago Tribune's Washington Bureau.
An organization backed by billionaire George Soros and other wealthy liberals spread $5.2 million to an array of left-leaning groups in the first quarter of the year, a campaign finance report filed today shows.
The Fund for America, an independent campaign group created by Soros, San Franciscan Rob McKay (a Taco Bell heir), and the Service Emplo yees International Union, raised $4.1 million in the first 90 days of the year, pushing the total money harvest since its creation late last year to $10.8 million.
Soros gave $1 million to the group in February after giving $2.5 million in December. Los Angeles producer Stephen Bing chipped in $2.5 million in January, and Lee Fikes of Bonanza Oil Co., in Dallas, gave a measly $300,000, according to the report filed with the Internal Revenue Service, which oversees so-called 527 campaign organizations.
The Fund for America, in turn, donated money to an array of liberal and antiwar groups including $1.5 million to the Campaign to Defend America, $500,000 to America Votes; $200,000 to ACORN; and $100,000 to VoteVets.org.
It gave lesser amounts to organizations in several states including Michigan, Ohio and Minnesota, all of which could be important swing states in the November general election.
A conservative organization, Freedom’s Watch, had used Soros’ involvement in Internet-based fundraising in its own appeals earlier this year. Freedom’s Watch was created last year as a conservative answer to such groups.
At that time the New York Times reported that Freedom’s Watch would be funded with as much as $200 million. But the same newspaper recently said the group had fallen far short of its goals. Haven't we all?
“I had heard they were going to spend $100 million," a Republican consultant told The Times' Dan Morain the other day, "but I haven’t seen them spend 25 cents.”
--Andrew Malcolm
The first fresh poll results from Pennsylvania are in since Barack Obama's "bitter" comments about people in small towns exploded as a news story, and the findings could hardly be worse for the Democratic presidential contender.
Intriguingly, the man in charge of the survey said interviews with voters indicate Obama's tumble in the state has more to do with what the candidate himself has said were ill-chosen words than anything else.
The new poll by American Research Group -- conducted Friday, Saturday and Sunday -- gave Clinton 57% and Obama 37% (based on interviews with 600 Democrats, the survey has an error margin of plus-or-minus 4 percentage points). The 20-point margin is all the more dramatic because, just the week before, an ARG poll found the pair in a flat-out tie in Pennsylvania, each with 45%.
The previous findings had put the race closer than any others. And perhaps the new one exaggerates the bounce Clinton has gotten from the storm over Obama's remarks at a San Francisco fund-raiser. Other pollsters are in the field in Pennsylvania, and we eagerly await their results (an L.A. Times/Bloomberg poll of Democrats in the Keystone State -- as well as in North Carolina and Indiana -- will be ready mid-week).
Regardless, the New Hamphire-based ARG poll, may have identified a tactical worry for the Obama camp above and beyond the current controversy. Dick Bennett, head of the poll, told us today that even before the furor erupted, it appeared many Pennsylvania Democrats began to turn against Obama because they are simply sick and tired of seeing and hearing his ads.
Much as campaign consultants would be loath to agree, Bennett opined that a candidate "can spend too much money" on an ad campaign, and the saturation of Obama spots ...
Read more New poll shows Barack Obama tanking in Pennsylvania »
Well, you better be enjoying all this presidential political theatre because it's costing America way, way more than any Hollywood blockbuster dud.
According to new tallies by the Campaign Finance Institute, the Center for Responsive Politics and the watchdog group Democracy 21, federal presidential and congressional candidates, the national parties, and the unaffiliated 527 groups have raised $1.71 billion during this election cycle.
And that was just as of Jan. 31.
That ensuing month Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama put....
Read more '08 Campaign costs nearing $2 Billion. Is it worth it? »
Our international colleagues over on La Plaza have stirred up a hornet's nest with a posting about a vodka company ad running in Mexico that puts the U.S.-Mexican border in an "Absolut World" at about the Washington-Oregon border .
Never mind the impact on the Pac-10 sports schedule -- who would UCLA and USC play, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico? -- what would the impact be on the presidential campaign? You know, just hypothetically speaking, over a glass of vodka on a Friday afternoon.
Well, Hillary Clinton would be out -- the Latino vote in the current Southwest would be voting in Mexico -- so you gotta figure Barack Obama facing off against John McCain in the general (assuming McCain moves from Arizona).
And without all the wild-eyed liberals out here in California voting, that leaves the northern tier, the Midwest, the Deep South and the Northeast. Advantage: McCain?
You know, if it was an Absolut World. But what we're having the most trouble envisioning is that border fence along the Columbia River.
-- Scott Martelle
A story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette tells us that Ron Paul's 2008 presidential campaign is still puffing along ahead of the April 22 primary there, even though John McCain is already getting fitted for the coronation cape and crown at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn. Paul spoke Thursday before a crowd of about 500 people at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and didn't make any news -- other than the fact that he's still campaigning in a Republican nomination fight that is long over.
The Paulistas like to argue that the reason Paul never caught fire is because the mainstream media (that would be us) froze him out. But with more than $30 million raised and a skeletal sta ff -- which means limited overhead -- Paul had plenty of cash to buy airtime in meaningful places to get his message out. In fact, he raised about half of what McCain raised.
And the Paulistas' savvy use of the Internet gave him yet another avenue to proselytize his political beliefs of a minimal, non-interventionist government. But those arguments just didn't resonate with enough Republican voters to get him the nomination -- Mike Huckabee, with half of Paul's cash, won 270 delegates to 14 for Paul. So why do people still flock to hear Paul? Well, that's the interesting question. Judging by the comments lodged on this and other blogs, there's a fervent belief that Paul alone among the presidential candidates understands that something like U.S. disengagement from world conflicts, and the U.S. government's disengagement from the economy, is the only way to avoid economic disaster.
But there's also a touch of personality cult to it all -- similar to what we hear from fervent Barack Obama supporters. As Paul told the Pittsburgh paper, "steady determination" has marked his character over the years. "I think, if I should be compared to somebody," Paul said, "it might be called a true believer."
Maybe. But so are the supporters, many of whom use similar phrasing to talk about their embrace of Paul and the Ron Paul Revolution. The question is, where will these voters be in the fall?
-- Scott Martelle
Coming soon: a quickie John McCain response ad to the spot Hillary Clinton's campaign unveiled earlier today that, using the 3 a.m. phone-call motif that served her well a month ago against Barack Obama, targeted the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
The first ad in this back-and-forth -- which presumably helped Clinton win the Ohio and Texas primaries -- aimed to raise questions about Obama's readiness to serve as commander in chief. The new one -- the first by either Democrat to drop McCain's name -- takes him to task on the domestic front.
The pesky early morning ringing at the White House this time concerns an economic crisis, the Clinton spot posits. To wit: "Home foreclosures mounting, markets teetering.
"John McCain just said the government shouldn’t take any real action on the housing crisis, he’d let the phone keep ringing.
"Hillary Clinton has a plan to protect our homes, create jobs.
"It’s 3 a.m., time for a president who’s ready."
The Times' Maeve Reston, traveling with McCain and his entourage, e-mailed from the campaign plane that, although the final script for the response ad still was being refined, its thrust would be: “It’s 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep and this time the crisis is economic
"Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama just said they’d solve the problem by raising your taxes. More money out of your pocket
"John McCain has a better plan … grow jobs, grow the economy
"It’s 3 a.m., time for a president who’s ready."
Clearly, whoever ultimately claims the presidency better rest up before Inauguration Day.
Initially, the McCain campaign ...
Read more Hillary Clinton, John McCain battle via 3 a.m. calls »
He may be lagging in Pennsylvania polls, but Sen. Barack Obama is outspending Sen. Hillary Clinton by about three-to-one in the statewide television advertising campaign, according to an independent analyst . Even if Obama can't overcome Clinton’s apparent voter advantage in that April 22 primary, Obama plans to make Clinton pay for the fight and draw down her more limited resources for the ongoing struggle elsewhere.
"He has dropped a couple million bucks in his first week on the air there," says Evan Tracey, chief operating officer for Campaign Media Analysis, a TNS company, an independent analyst of campaign media advertising. "If you judged it against Clinton’s, in a basketball game, it would be a rout."
The Obama campaign is spending about $150,000 a day now on TV advertising in Pennsylvania, Tracey said in an interview, compared to about $50,000 for the Clinton camp.
Since Obama turned on his TV campaign in the Keystone State on March 21, Tracey said, he's spent about $2 million. Since Clinton started her ads there on the 25th, she's spent about $440,000.
"Part of it is putting his fundraising advantage to work," Tracey said. “If he spends a lot there, she has to spend a lot to keep up with him…. He is buying at high levels, a strategy to bring her into a war of attrition she can’t afford.''
"Strategically there is no downside to it," Tracey added. Obama "is not going to burn through his cash… He floods the state with a couple weeks of ads… If he doesn’t see any noticeable tick in the polls he might pull back… But any dollar she spends in Pennsylvania is a dollar she can’t spend in Indiana or North Carolina…Tactically, you're forcing her to get into a fight."
With a half-dozen media markets in Pennsylvania, the biggest and costliest are Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
By one media account, Obama is purchasing close to 2,000 "gross ratings points" of advertising in these markets – enough for the typical viewer to see an an ad 20 times during a cycle of ads. But the quality of those points is also critical –- with news programs and prime-time TV costing more money. He's also bought a lot of prime-time TV, putting close to 40 percent of his money there, Tracey says. That’s a good way to "expand your coalition," he notes.
-- Mark Silva
Mark Silva writes for the Swamp of the Chicago Tribune's Washington bureau.
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