The Democrats have Vice President Joe Biden for gaffe laughs. Now the Republicans in Colorado have a candidate wrestling with an all-too-familiar PR scandal in his scenic home state: not being able to recognize his own state's mountains.
It's the sort of gaffe possibly unique to a state with more than a dozen distinct mountain ranges. First it was former congressman Bob Schaffer, whose initial ad in an unsuccessful U.S. Senate race last year touted his Colorado loyalty by noting that he proposed to his wife atop Pikes Peak.
The problem: The ad flashed an image of Alaska's Mt. McKinley.
Now it's former congressman Scott McInnis, who hopes to become the GOP's gubernatorial nominee next year. His Web page debuted with a striking image of snow-capped peaks. Problem is, the peaks look like none in Colorado. The slip-up was unearthed by the political junkies at ColoradoPols.com (who, like many Coloradans, seem to be a bit mountain-mad as well).
They determined the image is actually of the Canadian Rockies. The McInnis campaign swiftly replaced it with a photo of the Flatirons, iconic peaks that loom over the left-leaning town of Boulder. Blame Google Images, said spokesman Mike Hesse.
Getting a mountain photo wrong isn't really all that hard to do. See more not-Colorado mountains in photo above.
A young McInnis volunteer searched the Web for "Colorado Rockies" and got the Canadian image instead.
Staffers had been warned to make sure all images were 100% Colorado. "We're aware this had happened before and we told them to be very careful of that," Hesse said. "It was a hiccup. Overall I'm delighted with the website and we're moving forward."
“Appalled” and “disappointed” are among the words — at least the published ones — officials at the Washington Post are using today to describe actions by, well, the Washington Post. As the paper reports:
Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth today canceled plans for a series of policy dinners at her home after learning that marketing fliers offered lobbyists access to Obama administration officials, members of Congress and Post journalists in exchange for payments as high as $250,000.
Weymouth is quoted as being “disappointed,” and Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli is the one who is “appalled.” The salon plan was reported today by Politico.
In its own story, the Post says:
Two Post executives familiar with the planning, who declined to be identified discussing internal planning, said the fliers appear to be the product of overzealous marketing executives. The fliers were overseen by Charles Pelton, a Post executive hired this year as a conference organizer. He was not immediately available for comment.
White House communications director Anita Dunn said today that The Post Co. had approached officials at the Health and Human Services Department to participate in a Weymouth dinner later this month. But, she said, "no senior Obama administration officials had accepted any invitation for the 'salon.' "
The paper’s ombudsman, Andrew Alexander, says in a commentary, "For a storied newspaper that cherishes its reputation for ethical purity, this comes pretty close to a public relations disaster."
(UPDATE: 12:24 p.m. July 2. New information has been added below.)
My, O my, now we're witnessing partisan fights over letters of the alphabet. It must be summer.
There's a Republican in Maine -- more than one, actually -- who's pondering a campaign for governor.
His name is Les Otten.
There's a Democrat in Maine named Arden Manning. In fact, he's the executive director of the Maine Democratic Party.
No doubt in the interests of bipartisanship, Manning decided to give Otten's 3-day-old candidacy exploration a gift of priceless publicity internationally in the already crowded 10-candidate field for Maine's gubernatorial primaries in 11 months.
Manning's already called attention to -- well, he objected to, would be more accurate -- Otten's possible campaign logo on his possible campaign website. (See top image.)
Manning claims the red-white-and-blue-and-green logo bears a remarkable resemblance to the campaign logo of one Barack Obama (see image at right), who raised $750 million with it to win the White House last November.
And still uses the red-white-and-blue O to rouse support for the new president's ambitious programs and to pressure members in Congress through Organizing for America.
When yOu think abOut it, O is really a pretty cOmmOn letter.
But then Manning appears to shOOt his own argument in the fOOt by saying, "Barack Obama was not elected president because he had a snazzy graphic and well-designed website."
Otten, a businessman and former minority owner of the Boston Red Sox, needlessly nOtes that his last name also begins with a capital O and says the lOgO was designed frOm scratch lOcally.
AnOther similarity in the Obama and Otten websites is they bOth prOminently seek dOnatiOns.
Otten's campaign alsO pOints Out the Obama lOgO bears a remarkable resemblance tO the Pepsi lOgO (see image at left), which has been arOund even lOnger than any Of them.
And contains no letter O.
(UPDATE: The Maine O has added an updated message to his page now:
The highly partisan elements of the Maine Democratic Party didn't waste much
time before they began running a negative campaign against us. I guess it shows
how concerned they are about the positive reforms we're going to bring to
Augusta.
Our campaign is going to focus on solving Maine's problems like how we
create new jobs and solve Maine's energy problems. If you're tired of politics
as usual, please donate here today so we can tell others about our positive
agenda. Thanks for visiting. And I look forward to seeing you on the campaign
trail.-- Les)
And Les suggests you honor this promise by donating now.
President Barack Obama may be obsessed with the critical coverage of Fox News, as often reported. But the cable news channel sure must love him.
Latest ratings out for the second quarter of 2009 show the top-rated FNC having one of the best quarters in its entire history with prime-time ratings jumping an astounding 34%, not all of them Obama fans. That 8-11 p.m. slot is crucial for viewers -- and ad dollars -- which includes Fox's showcase "The O'Reilly Factor."
Throughout the viewing day, Fox News did even better with its 1.2 million viewers, on average, more than doubling CNN's 598,000 and more than tripling third-place trailer MSNBC's average audience of 392,000.
Loyal Ticket readers will recall back in May White House official Kareem Dale revealed in a speech that MSNBC was the Obama administration's favorite TV channel. (Also see C-SPAN video below, at the 1:51 mark.)
And that liberal affection seems to have rubbed off on Obama backers, helping the NBC outlet to barely squeak past CNN in weekday prime-time average audience, 946,000 to 939,000.
Our blogging colleague Scott Collins has more on these numbers over at Show Tracker.
Sort of dueling autopsies on opposite sides of the country today: One case in LA possibly involving OxyContin and that famous singer what's-his-name, who died at 50 last week, and the other in Tampa involving OxiClean spokesman Billy Mays, who also died at 50. Hmmm.
And we affectionately celebrated his big presence and big voice and big heart. Turns out today's autopsy results indicate it was that big heart that gave out.
The Hillsborough County Medical Examiner reports the exuberant TV pitchman died quietly in his sleep from hypertensive heart disease -- the left ventricle was enlarged, a key symptom.
The M.E. also said there was no evidence of head trauma. So the heart rate of U.S. Airways lawyers' is slowing down now. During a rough landing Saturday, something fell out of an overhead bin and hit Mays on the head, raising speculation of one of those silent brain injuries without symptoms that claimed Natasha Richardson after a skiing accident left her feeling fine for several hours.
The stocky Mays was taking painkillers for a bad hip, but the M.E. found the dosage was appropriate.
OK, here's the connection. Politicians sell stuff. So did Billy Mays. Like it or lump it.
Regular Ticket readers will already know we love Billy Mays. (And not just because he was a reader.) He died today. Almost 51. Only the latest of numerous recent celebrities to depart -- Ed McMahon, Farrah, MJ, Natasha Richardson, who felt fine after bumping her head skiing. No doubt others. (And we've got a special Billy video tribute below too.)
Billy had a really rough landing on a commercial flight back home to Tampa yesterday. He said he felt fine after being hit on the head by something falling. Then, wasn't feeling well last night. No one knows yet what happened to one of the world's most famous, most successful pitchmen, straight out of the original Atlantic City Boardwalk School of Salesmanship.
Billy was the American insomniac's best friend. Always there late at night or early in the morning. Always happy to see you. Giving you that old thumbs-up sign of Mays approval. Always selling something terrifically wonderful, so much so that even folks with graduate degrees found themselves grabbing their credit card and reaching for the phone to beat that phony "Next 10 minutes" deadline.
In fact, he didn't put insomniacs to sleep. How could anyone sleep around Billy's obviously genuine enthusiasm and energy? He just kept us -- that is, our friends -- company while we -- they -- worked through the long night or waited for dawn to arrive.
He was no doubt sound asleep himself somewhere else. But through the magic of video Billy was right there in our living rooms showing us a mop that could not only clean all pet hairs off the floor but probably off the dog too.
Here's the deal: Billy was real. He would only sell products that passed his test, that worked and that he himself used at home. He even handed out samples to guests.
You don't see that much elsewhere in American society today, especially in politicians. For instance, if Billy was, say, president and trying to sell us all on a massive national public education reform program costing billions of dollars, you just know he'd have his kids in those very same public schools, not off safely in some fancy private place.
If Billy set his mind to closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, he was so good at selling that he'd have towns clamoring to take not just one, not just two, but three suspected terrorists for local incarceration. Count on it.
And his Oval Office desk wouldn't be all bare, shiny and sterile for bill signings. It'd be covered with his favorite programs/products to get them some TV time.
But there's more to Billy: You really believed him. If he'd been in politics, he could sell fiscal responsibility to a Democrat. He'd have those stubborn deficit stains outta there in just five minutes or less. Five!
Get Billy selling cars and you don't need the government to own GM. If he'd been one of the country's 1,417 surviving Republicans today -- well, he'd have to lose the black beard first -- but if he'd been a Republican, he could -- what? -- well, maybe sell party members on stopping the internal knife fights.
Anyway, another special thing about Billy Mays that is also rare among today's U.S. politicians: He could genuinely make fun of himself. Not with some obviously made-up line about his kid taking him down a notch. Har-har-har.
But by joking about his own distinctive gung-ho style. Pointing the finger directly at himself, not someone else pointing at him. Real genuine self-deprecation, which they must not teach in Campaign School anymore.
That's why, as a special bonus for Ticket readers today ONLY, we're adding this wonderful video below. The real Billy Mays mocking the real Billy Mays, captured on tape ordering at a McDonald's drive-thru in his very own inimitable late-night TV style. No extra charge.
Enjoy.
And may God bless our Billy up on the Ultimate Boardwalk.
Vice President Joe Biden interrupted a series of private meetings today to go over to a Washington hotel and talk enthusiastically and volubly to a crowd of Democrat donors for the party's Senatorial and Congressional Campaign Committees getting ready for next year's electoral struggles.
Because as the Obama-Biden ticket demonstrated last year with its amazing $750 million in donations, you can never have too much political money, even in these days of Republican Party disarray. And the president speaks at another Democratic money convention this evening where most of the 187 donors will pay even more than the $5,000 they shelled out for lunch with a hurried Joe.
The VP is clearly at home among the backslapping, concealed weapon congressional crowd, having served in the Senate for nearly four decades even before his new boss set his sights on the White House in law school.
Look, on the surface, Biden's 18-minute speech seems like a good-natured, rah-rah celebration of seizing power on both sides of the Hill and in the White House and a recitation of achievements already underway thanks to those victories that would have been impossible without the audience's past money-giving and an unspoken demonstration of the kind of access to officialdom that their future donations can purchase.
Harry Reid, the Democratic Majority Leader in the Senate who's up for reelection next year with impressive unpopularity ratings back in Nevada, could probably have done without Biden's joke pointing out to the economically struggling world that Reid has a free car and driver standing by at all times. But the luncheon didn't allow TV cameras, so there will be no troublesome video of that for anyone to use against the senator back home.
Joe also loved the job Nancy Pelosi is doing, "an incredible, incredible job," given the circumstances she inherited as House speaker, although she's actually been there a few years. And nevermind ...
Maybe it's just the tempting ratings window of no longer going up against NBC's Juggernaut Jay and being the also-ran of late-night television.
But CBS' David Letterman told a real howler on nationwide TV Monday night that drew gasps from some parents and now a scathing rebuttal from the nation's most famous pitbull hockey mom -- and dad.
Noting that Alaska's Republican Gov.Sarah Palin and her daughter attended a New York Yankees game over the weekend with famous Yankee fan Rudy Giuliani, Letterman said:
One awkward moment for Sarah Palin at the Yankee game, during the seventh inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez.
Letterman, until recently an unwed father, has often made his disdain clear for the former GOP VP nominee, who had several damaging interviews with CBS during the general election campaign last September.
But this is the first time in memory he's taken on the teenage daughter of the governor, on the left in the above photo.
In a statement to Fox News, Palin called the comments "inappropriate" and "sexually perverted" and ones Letterman would not "dare make" about anyone else's daughter.
The governor added:
"Acceptance of inappropriate sexual comments about an underage girl, who could be anyone's daughter, contributes to the atrociously high rate of sexual exploitation of minors by older men who use and abuse others."
Willow's father, Todd, added his thoughts:
Any ‘jokes’ about raping my 14-year-old are despicable. Alaskans know it, and I believe the rest of the world knows it, too.
So far, the "Late Show" has declined comment -- or even another joke. (UPDATE: 5:06 p.m.Pacific Taping tonight's program in New York, Letterman made for him a lengthy explanation or clarification, though no apology. He said that his "joke" Monday about Palin's (unnamed) daughter getting "knocked up" by a professional baseball player was aimed at Palin's daughter, Bristol, who is 18, not Willow, who is 14 and attended the baseball game. "I would never, never make jokes about raping or having sex with a 14-year-old girl...Am I guilty of poor taste? Yes."
(He then invited Palin on his program. Which might really help Letterman's ratings, at least that night, against his new late-night competition, Conan O'Brien. Oh, come to think of it: That's where Palin should really go for a celebrated chat -- over to NBC. Not that ratings revenge would ever cross the mind of the governor, a former TV reporter.) (2d UPDATE: 7:05 p.m. Pacific "The Late Show" just e-mailed The Ticket a longer set of excerpts from tonight's program, which we are publishing below in their entirety.)
Photo credit: Office of the Alaska Governor; CBS (2008)
Excerpts from "The Late Show with David Letterman" June 10, 2009:
“We were, as we often do, making jokes about people in the news and we made some jokes about Sarah Palin and her daughter, the 18-year-old girl, who is – her name is Bristol, that’s right, and so, then, now they’re upset with me…”
“These are not jokes made about her 14-year-old daughter. I would never, never make jokes about raping or having sex of any description with a 14-year-old girl. I mean, look at my record. It has never happened. I don’t think it’s funny. I would never think it was funny. I wouldn’t put it in a joke…”
“…Governor Palin, if you’re watching, I would like you to consider coming to New York City – you and Todd as my guests, or leave Todd at home – I’d love to have you on the show. It’d be exciting…”
“All right, so there, I hope I’ve cleared part of this up. Am I guilty of poor taste? Yes. Did I suggest that it was okay for her 14-year-old daughter to be having promiscuous sex? No.”
Presiding from his throne-like chair in a City Hall office stuffed with more Vegas trinkets than a casino gift shop, Mayor Oscar Goodman held court this afternoon on the Democratic president's remarks about his city, as posted on The Ticket earlier.
Goodman, who acts as subtly as his notoriously understated city, was disappointed that Obama didn't say the "magic words" -- Las Vegas is a great place for conventions!
(Nor did either suggest: When your meetings are done, stay for the weekend. Gamble some. Buy a $200 bottle of Grey Goose. I've heard that what happens here, stays here ...)
The mayor did concede the president demonstrated the Strip's value as a business destination.
"He took a break, came to Las Vegas and he did serious business," Goodman told reporters. And raised serious millions for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid at Caesars Palace, as also described here this morning.
Last weekend, Goodman said, he got a phone call from White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel indicating the president would seek to soothe any hurt civic feelings.
Unlike Nevada's Republican governor, Jim Gibbons, Goodman accepted Obama's invitation to greet him at the airport Tuesday. "It would have been rude and disrespectful of me ... to decline an invitation from the president," the mayor said.
Goodman said he reminded Obama twice on Tuesday to champion the tourist destination. If Obama had asked Goodman today how he did, "I would have said ... you ran 95 yards and you ran out of gas."
After the 10-minute press conference, a reporter suggested that Goodman might have been more successful had he greeted Obama with a showgirl on each arm.
If you feel the continent tilting a little toward the left these days, it's because two of the nation's top political heavyweights -- President Joe Biden and his vice president, Barack Obama, or the other way around -- are both out West.
One -- Obama -- raked in a couple million for troubled Harry Reid Tuesday evening at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, where only bankers apparently are not supposed to spend taxpayers' money.
Despite a ticket snafu disappointing hundreds who wanted to see Biden, he presided successfully over another middle-class meeting of the governing class task force, or the other way around, in Denver Tuesday. We have his very full remarks here, although the $500 million in green jobs stuff to train poor people to weatherize homes came later.
Later at M&D's Cafe (BBQ) Phyllis Taylor of South Bend, Ind., was surprised to look up and see Biden stroll in. Taylor, who was in Denver for a Church of God in Christ convention, called her husband. Biden took the phone and told Mr. Taylor he was having lunch with his beautiful wife.
Tuesday night, Biden attended a Democratic National Committee fundraiser at a private Denver home and got going about the horrible economy the administration inherited from you-know-who, which the current VP said was not going to turn around in two years, and he also got into his own biography. He claimed to have served under seven presidents since entering the Senate at 29, which was when Obama was a youngster.
"You know," Biden admitted, "only 17 people have served in the Senate longer than me."
Today, while Obama heads to Los Angeles for a DNC fundraiser at the Beverly Hilton, Biden goes down to Colorado Springs to preside over the class of 2009 graduating from the Air Force Academy. Hats flying, flyovers, the whole deal.
But we've kept you waiting long enough. Here are Joe's casual, chatty remarks in which he seems to introduce just about everyone in the audience. He says the U.S. is "on the edge of very big stuff." Also, Biden gaffe alert: Warning for Lakers fans: The VP expresses mock sympathy for the L.A. team to Denverites:
-- Andrew Malcolm
Remarks by Vice President Biden at a Middle Class Task Force Meeting, Denver Museum of Science and Nature
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. How are you? (Applause.) What a crowd. (Applause.) Where's Gary Hart? Hey, Gare. (Applause.) Thank you so much. Gare, thanks for the passport. It's good to see you all.
Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Joe Biden, and I brought along my special assistant, this beautiful redhead child here. It looks like she's this many, is that right -- 2, almost?
PARTICIPANT: 3.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Will be 3, excuse me -- will be 3, and her mom said, she only....
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Our Bloggers
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the Countdown to Crawford blog here at The Times.
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