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Recently, it seems, voter referendums are used increasingly not so much to put in the hands of citizens crucial decisions on important issues of public policy. But they're being used as a more compelling excuse to get certain voter groups out to the polls on election day than simply electing candidates.
Think marriage amendment and the 2004 presidential election in such places as Ohio.
Well, a new measure has now qualified for the November ballot in San Francisco. And it'll likely help draw out city voters from the Democratic and from the Republican party, all three of them there.
It's the measure to rename the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant, which treats waste water from San Francisco's west side, the George W. Bush Sewage Plant in an effort to embarrass the president for actions such as the Iraq war.
When the president becomes the former president in January, he'll be returning to his isolated Texas ranch near Crawford, which likely has a septic tank. So he won't notice the change if it passes.
-- Andrew Malcolm
For those still harboring hopes that California will be hotly contested in the November presidential election, it’s time for a pity party.
The latest statewide poll, conducted by the Field organization, shows Democrat Barack Obama extending his lead in the state and now trouncing Republican John McCain by 24 points, 54% to 30%. In May, Obama’s lead was a smaller 17 points, and in January, an even slighter 7 points.
The Field poll, conducted July 8-14, also demonstrated an enthusiasm gap in California: 51% of Obama’s supporters said they were very enthusiastic about him, whereas only 17% of McCain’s made the same claim.
Obama led strongly among Democrats, and McCain held a less-dominant lead among Republicans. But among the nonpartisan voters highly coveted by candidates, Obama led 64% to 18%.
McCain has repeatedly stated that he will contest the state in the general election. But most political observers believe that vow reflects a desire to keep voters and donors happy rather than any serious intention to compete in California, where running statewide ads costs millions of dollars per week that can be more optimistically spent elsewhere. Only 32.5% of the state’s voters are registered as Republicans, according to the most recent voter statistics.
Until 1992, California was reliably Republican in presidential contests. Bill Clinton that year became the first Democrat to win the state since Lyndon Johnson in 1964. But changes in the state’s voting pool, including a rise in moderate voters that coincided with a conservative streak in GOP nominees, turned the state toward the Democrats.
In 2004, Democrat John Kerry beat George W. Bush by 10 points.
The state is hardly homogeneous, however, as the Field poll showed again. Coastal voters, for example, favored Obama 62% to 24%, whereas inland residents backed McCain by a 44%-35% margin. Unfortunately for McCain, inland voters make up less than one-third of the electorate.
Still, Obama won almost all demographic groups, including 51% of men to McCain’s 35%, and 56% of women to McCain’s 27%. He won overwhelming margins among Asian, black and Latino voters, and won white voters by 47% to 37%. Women and Latinos had powered Hillary Clinton's victory over Obama in the February California presidential primary.
-- Cathleen Decker
An interesting and surprising little thing happened Sunday while Barack Obama was speaking (in English) to the National Council of La Raza in San Diego.
It was, according to The Times' Louise Roug, a fairly standard Obama stump speech before the crowd of more than 2,000 members in the Convention Center, where the Republican Party nominated Sen. Bob Dole 12 years ago.
Obama said the gorgeous weather reminded him of his native Hawaii. He criticized the current stand on immigration reform of his Republican opponent, John McCain, who gets his chance to address the group Monday morning when he will stress his economic growth proposals, especially for small businesses, and criticize Obama's plans to raise taxes.
The crowd was very respectful of the Democratic nominee-to-be, who easily leads among Latinos, according to polls. And Obama also talked about giving tax credits to small businesses that provide health insurance for employees.
It was then that the crowd erupted in enthusiastic applause and warm cheers. But not over Obama's policy proposal.
What ignited that outburst was the mere mention by Obama of the name Hillary Clinton, his vanquished party opponent.
She wasn't there, of course. But in absentia the Democratic Party's loser got a noticeably warmer response than the winner, perhaps a reflection of that lingering party unity thing that was taken care of up in Unity.
Or maybe they were just being spontaneously friendly.
-- Andrew Malcolm
Photo credit: Jae C. Hong / Associated Press
As if he's not got enough to worry about with helpers like Phil Gramm, John McCain is learning the hard way that having the Gubernator on the stump for you can be a gamble.
The California governor appeared by tape on ABC’s "This Week" today intended, everybody thought, to give a boost to the Arizona senator's Republican candidacy for the White House.
But instead, when asked, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger seemed to suggest he would have no qualms about joining an administration run by someone called Barack Obama -- who, if memory serves, is the Democrat actually opposing the Republican man the Republican Schwarzenegger endorsed for president.
The show's host, George Stephanopoulos, questioned the governor about a report in Newsweek that the Democratic senator, if elected president, might ask the Republican governor to serve in an Obama Cabinet post, as something like an energy czar. Which is Russian for big kahuna, but you get the point.
The immediate answer from most any other McCain surrogate would be: "Are you serious?" "What are you drinking from that cup, George?" "Of course not." "Absolutely not." "No." An outburst of laughter combined with a shaking head. Or perhaps a cackle.
Everyone understands Schwarzenegger's got to live with his wife, Maria Shriver, who's a Democrat. And she's endorsed the other guy. Fine.
But instead of full support, what the McCain camp got was their surrogate nibbling at the Democratic bait.
Stephanopoulos: “If he were president and he called, you would at least take that call?”
Schwarzenegger: “I would take his call now, I will take his call when he's President. Any time. Remember, no matter who is president, I don't see this as a political thing, I see this as we always have to help no matter what the administration is.”
"When" Obama's president?
The governor might try to "clarify" Monday. But with friends like these ...
(UPDATE: Sure enough, as predicted the Governor made a clarifying statement Monday saying, among other things, "I have no interest in leaving the state of California until my mission is finished.")
-- Evan Halper
In politics, "flip-flop" is considered the equivalent of two four-letter words -- but not by Arnold Schwarzenegger. If anything, the California governor says, politicians should flip-flop more frequently.
"Flip-flopping is getting a bad rap, because I think it is great," he said during an interview taped last week and broadcast Sunday on ABC's "This Week." "Someone has made a mistake. I mean, someone has, for 20 or 30 years, been in the wrong place with his idea and with his ideology and says, 'You know something? I changed my mind. I am now for this.'
"As long as he's honest or she's honest, I think that is a wonderful thing. You can change your mind," he said. "I have changed my mind on things, and there is nothing wrong with it."
As a politician, Schwarzenegger has tried to avoid hard-line positions on the right or the left, but he noted that winning presidential primaries -- appealing to a party's core voters, in other words -- may require candidates to veer to the extreme.
But now that he has enough delegates to become the GOP nominee, John McCain "hopefully" will "wander a little more to the left," Schwarzenegger said. As for McCain's Democratic counterpart, Barack Obama, "what he has done consistently has been very much to the left, and he's now more and more going to the right."
"You think that's smart," said host George Stephanopoulos.
"That's what they have to do," Schwarzenegger replied.
-- Leslie Hoffecker
Perhaps inadvertently, Sen. Barack Obama tonight lifted a bit of the secrecy surrounding his upcoming trip overseas, telling reporters aboard his campaign plane that Sen. Jack Reed might accompany him to Iraq along with sometimes Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel.
When a reporter asked what might make Sen. Joe Biden and Hagel good traveling companions to Iraq, Obama made a very revealing correction:“It’s actually Sen. Hagel and Sen. Reed who may be coming with us.”
Well, now! So Biden, who says he doesn't work for anybody else, is not going with Obama? What's that do to the guessing game about the freshman Illinois senator's vice presidential pick, which had previously focused on Biden's foreign policy experience and his reported upcoming travels with Obama?
And does this put Reed of Rhode Island, a three-term ex-House member, two-term senator and ex-Army Ranger, into the VP mix?
Obama's comments came during an infrequent 20-minute exchange with reporters at the back of his plane en route from Chicago to San Diego, a late-night media availability which will help keep him in the news on an otherwise quiet news weekend when his opponent, Republican John McCain, is inactive.
Obama is scheduled to speak to Latino voters in San Diego on Sunday. He also was asked about recent fundraising figures and a crude comment made about him.
Obama went on to say that both Reed and Hagel are foreign affairs experts who “reflect a traditional bipartisan wisdom when it comes to foreign policy.”
“Neither are ideologues," he added, "but try to get the facts right and make a determination of what is best for U.S. interests.”
Then he added: “And they are good guys.”
Obama didn’t want to confirm a trip to Afghanistan, where....
Read more Obama reveals Biden not going overseas with him; it's Hagel, Reed »
Peering into its secret crystal blog ball, The Ticket confidently predicts that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will criticize the Bush administration Sunday during his appearance on "This Week With George Stephanopolous."
He'll probably say something like: "This administration did not believe in global warming. They just didn't believe in it or they didn't believe that they should do anything about it, since China is no t doing anything about it and since India is not willing to do the same thing, so why should we do the same thing?"
"We don't wait for other countries to do the same thing," Schwarzenegger is almost certain to add. "That's what makes America No. 1."
No doubt George will ask Arnold's reaction to the recent decision by the Environmental Protection Agency to sit back on new moves against global warming before the end of Bush's presidency.
"Well, to be honest with you," the California governor is likely to respond, "if they would have done something this year, I would have thought it was bogus anyway. Because you don't change global warming and you don't really have an effect by doing something six months before you leave office."
See the extra value you get by reading The Ticket?
Actually, ABC released excerpts of the interview, which was taped Friday morning, no doubt because the governor didn't want to get up early Sunday.
And now you don't have to either.
-- Andrew Malcolm
Mike Murphy, the garrulous Republican political strategist who helped Sen. John McCain dump the Karl Rove-led George W. Bush candidacy on its butt in the 2000 New Hampshire primary, is joining NBC News in an expanded role as political pundit.
In the past 48 hours Murphy, who remains a close confidante of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has been the subject of much speculation in the East Coast press.
The New York Times' columnist Bill Kristol indicated Monday that Murphy would soon join the rebuilt McCain campaign team with newcomers Steve Schmidt and Mike DuHaime. Not everyone in the McCain camp would be joyful over Murphy's addition.
But just now, Murphy told The Times' Dan Morain, that ain't gonna happen. Instead, Murphy said he intended to head to NBC News where he will expand his role as a political pundit and commentator on this year's dramatic unfolding general election campaign.
He'll appear on the network's "Nightly News" and "Meet the Press" as well as on several of NBC’s cable shows.
“I don’t intend to join the campaign,” Murphy said, adding that further details would be announced in coming days.
Murphy was McCain’s top strategist in his 2000 campaign, which faded in South Carolina after the dramatic 19-point upset of the Texas governor in the Granite State.
In conversations, McCain has made clear that he remains fond of Murphy. Murphy was also top campaign strategist to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in his 2002 gubernatorial contest.
His lasting friendship with both McCain and Romney caused the 46-year-old Murphy to sit out this election cycle's Republican primary contests.
In addition to his punditry for NBC, Murphy heads an influential lobby-consulting firm, Navigators, with offices in Washington, Sacramento and elsewhere. He also is involved in Hollywood projects.
--Andrew Malcolm
Photo credit: Getty Images
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
Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon, a potentially endangered Republican in November's election, raised many an eyebrow recently with an ad that included an unexpected cameo.
"Who says Gordon Smith helped lead the fight for better gas mileage and a cleaner environment?" asks a narrator. "Barack Obama."
TV viewers in the Beaver state then saw a flash of Obama's face and his campaign Web site as the ad went on to say the two lawmakers had teamed up "and broke through a 20-year deadlock to pass new laws that increase gas mileage for automobiles."
 Despite Smith's effort to scramble the partisan divide, it's comforting to know that in some cases, the old rules still apply -- such as a conservative Republican from Texas invoking a tried and true symbol of California liberalism, Sen. Barbara Boxer, as a way to raise money.
Boxer did her part to rate such a mention. On the Web site for a political action committee she set up, she recently conducted an online "Choose a Challenger" contest. Participants were given a list of various Democrats challengers trying to win GOP-held Senate seats this year and asked to vote on which one should be singled out for fundraising help by the PAC.
Down in the Lone Star State, Democrat Rick Noriega launched an effort to stack the deck. As part of his longshot bid to topple GOP Sen. John Cornyn, he urged backers to cast ballots for him in Boxer's tourney; a win, he said in an e-mail, could funnel "tens of thousands of dollars" into his coffers.
Not surprisingly, the Cornyn camp got wind of this and sought, in turn, to use it for its own financial advantage.
A solicitation to potential donors notified them that Noriega "is enlisting California Liberal (sic) Barbara Boxer’s help to raise money. The note continued: "Barbara Boxer, the one who opposed Chief Justice Roberts' nomination to the Supreme Court and verbally assaulted Justice Alito during his confirmation process."
"But it gets worse. You know what Senator Boxer is up to now? To quote her own website: 'I want you to know that I won't give up in our fight to stop the drilling…'
"Gas is approaching $4.10 a gallon with no end in sight and Rick Noriega is asking for help from Barbara Boxer, who is leading the charge to stop domestic drilling making us even more dependent on foreign oil?"
"While Rick Noriega is counting on Californians to help his campaign, John Cornyn is counting on Texans just like you."
Sounds like Cornyn would be loathe to get caught in the same elevator with Boxer.
But here's another side of Washington. Cornyn is the vice chair of the Senate Ethics Committee that Boxer heads. And about a week after the missive excoriating her, Cornyn's Capitol Hill office issued a release touting an amendment they were jointly offering to require members of Congress to publicly disclose their residential mortgages (a touchy topic these days in the Senate).
The release included both of their names in its headline, provided quotes from each promoting their mutual cause and offered nary a hint of discord between the two.
Noriega, by the way, triumphed in Boxer's contest (for the results, go here).
--Don Frederick
It worked once before -- why not try it again? As our colleagues Maeve Reston and Mark Z. Barabak report elsewhere on the website, John McCain is shaking up his staff again. The winner: Karl Rove protege and former White House point man Steve Schmidt, known to Californians for his work running Arnold Schwarzenegger's reelection campaign.
The story notes that "the changes took place amid continuing concern in Republican ranks about the direction of McCain's campaign and the seeming inconsistency of his message. The Arizona senator has alternated between appeals to independents and Democrats, who flocked in large numbers to his 2000 campaign, and appeals to the Republican right."
Schmidt takes over day-to-day operations and Rick Davis moves to what seems to be "CEO/campaign manager" status overseeing the general operations and focusing on fundraising, the convention, and that pesky decision on who gets to share a bumper sticker with McCain in the fall. Word is Schmidt will report to Davis and that the changes came at Davis' request and with his blessing.
-- Scott Martelle
Some Democrats have been known to complain that the party's last two vice presidential nominees -- Joe Lieberman in 2000 and John Edwards in 2004 -- shied away from the "attack dog" role often assumed by the politician holding down the second spot on a party's national ticket.
If Barack Obama is looking for combativeness in his pick, retired Gen. Wesley Clark signaled today that he's up to the task. Then again, Clark may have pursued a critique of John McCain that Obama and his aides would just as soon stay away from.
Appearing on the CBS chat show "Face the Nation," Clark -- who has rated prominent mention as a veep prospect both because he was a strong Hillary Clinton supporter and his credentials on the national security front -- backed off not one bit from his previous characterization of McCain as "untested and untried" as an executive leader.
Pressed on that quote by moderator Bob Schieffer, Clark said that "in the matters of national security policy making, it's a matter of understanding risk, it's a matter of gauging your opponents and it's a matter of being held accountable. John McCain's never done any of that in his official positions. ... He hasn't held executive responsibility. That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded wasn't a wartime squadron. He hasn't been there and ordered the bombs to fall. ..."
Pressed further by Schieffer, Clark then delivered perhaps the day's marquee quote: "I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president."
The McCain campaign responded quickly, teeing up Clark as a surrogate for the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and blasting away: "If Barack Obama's campaign wants to question John McCain's military service, that's their right. But let's please drop the pretense that Barack Obama stands for a new type of politics. The reality is he's proving to be a typical politician who is willing to say anything to get elected, including allowing his campaign surrogates to demean and attack John McCain's military service record."
For a wrapup of some of the other back-and-forth on the Sunday shows -- including independent White House contender Ralph Nader pressing the assault he unleashed last week on Obama -- see this posting on the Chicago Tribune's Swamp blog.
And The Times' Evan Halper recounts the needling California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger took from NBC's Tom Brokaw during a "Meet the Press'" appearance. As Halper notes in his story, Schwarzenegger generally gets fawned over by the national media, but that wasn't the case in this encounter.
-- Don Frederick
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain traveled around California in recent days, campaigning for votes and money.
The Times' Dan Morain checked recent campaign finance reports filed as required with the Federal Election Commission. And he found that McCain in May swept up $881,362 from the Golden State, usually the largest donating state for many candidates.
And McCain raked in another $1,763,826 from Californians back in April.
The Republican National Committee, whose spending this fall will also benefit McCain, has raised $6.9 million in California since January until the end of May.
--Andrew Malcolm
ABC's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos": Supreme Court decisions, presidential politics: Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.); Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-Minn.), independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader. Panel: Arianna Huffington, the Huffington Post; Byron York, the National Review; Hugh Hewitt, townhall.com; Katrina vanden Heuvel, the Nation. 8 a.m.
CBS' "Face the Nation": Campaign 2008, North Korea: McCain supporter Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), Obama supporter retired Gen. Wesley Clark; David Sanger, the New York Times. Moderator Bob Schieffer. 8:30 a.m.
CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer": Iraq: Ryan Crocker, U.S. ambassador to Iraq; oil and the economy: Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Obama supporter Gov. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.), McCain supporter Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La.), pictured; the Clinton role in the election: Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe. Panel: Ed Henry, Amy Walter, Kate Bolduan. Guest moderator: Candy Crowley. 8 a.m.
"Fox News Sunday With Chris Wallace": Politics: Gov. Edward G. Rendell (D-Pa.), former U.S. Rep. Rob Portman (R-Ohio); effect of third-party candidates on the election: Bob Barr, Libertarian Party presidential candidate; Carol Joynt, Nathans Restaurant and Q&A Cafe. Panel: Brit Hume, Mara Liasson, Bill Kristol, Juan Williams. 8 a.m.
NBC's "Meet the Press": presidential politics: Govs. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-Calif.), Dave Freudenthal (D-Wyo.) and Bill Ritter Jr. (D-Colo.). Political analysis: Chuck Todd. Moderator: Tom Brokaw. 8 a.m. Rebroadcast on MSNBC at 3 and 11 p.m.
--Andrew Malcolm
Photo credit: Office of the Louisiana governor
Jason Burnett has made a lot of news lately, criticizing the Bush administration for rejecting California’s request for a federal waiver that would allow the state to enforce greenhouse gas restrictions.
Burnett, until recently the associate deputy administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, last month testified before a congressional panel about the possible White House role in overruling the EPA staff’s recommendation of the waiver. Since then, Burnett has given numerous interviews on the issue.
Now Burnett is using his checkbook to do his talking. After quitting the administration last month, he donated $3,600 to Democrat Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. That came on top of a $1,000 contribution he made to Obama before joining the EPA.
A Stanford-trained economist and a Democrat, Burnett, 31, said in an interview that he is moving back to Northern California to campaign for Obama and Democratic Rep. Sam Farr of Carmel. He's counting on them to support more efforts to curb greenhouse gases.
“Climate change endangers health and welfare," Burnett said. "The EPA is required to use existing law to reduce greenhouse gases. The sooner we begin addressing it in earnest, the better off we’ll be.”
Burnett predicted that California will get its waiver, either by court order or after the next president--Obama or his Republican opponent, John McCain--takes office.
--Dan Morain
And for vice president? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi continues to tout Edwards.
"I've always tried to encourage Mr. Edwards to run for leadership or something," Pelos i told reporters Thursday. "I think he's an extraordinarily talented person."
Wait a moment. Didn't former Sen. John Edwards run for leadership or something four years ago? When he sought the Democratic nomination for president and ended up the vice presidential nominee with John Kerry? And again, earlier this year, when Edwards tried again for his own nomination?
"We're talking about Chet Edwards, a member of Congress from Texas, who represents Waco," Pelosi clarified.
In fact, the nine-term Democrat also represents Crawford, which makes him President Bush's congressman. Pelosi sent reporters a-Googling earlier this week when she mentioned the Texan as a possible running mate for Barack Obama. She was asked about the choice again during her weekly news conference.
"He is really one of the finest people I've ever served with, and he demands the respect of his colleagues, I could say, on both sides of the aisle," she said.
Matthew Hay Brown has the rest of this intriguing tale over at the Swamp.
-- Andrew Malcolm
Photo credit: Office of Rep. Chet Edwards
Yeah, OK, so we're a little late. Hey, there's 40-some blogs around this website now and it's hard to keep up with everything fun to read.
Over in The Guide at Soundboard, the music blog, Ann Powers writes about the BET Awards, which she approached crazily thinking it was an awards ceremony.
How ridiculous was that?
According to Ann, the ceremony -- and even much of the clothing -- turned the evening into pretty much a pep rally for Barack Obama, the Democrats' presumptive presidential nominee. Another stunner!
-- Andrew Malcolm
"Star Wars" creator George Lucas was on Capitol Hill in Washington this week to testify on something or other and when there's no news to be heard, reporters start asking the silly questions.
They wanted him to liken modern politicians to his movie characters. Like, was Darth Vader based on Vice President Dick Cheney? Or something like that.
Anyway, Lucas, who's also responsible for harnessing the Force, played it cagey. Until he was asked if Sen. Barack Obama would be a Jedi knight.
Maybe the answer you think you know.
But over to Elizabeth Snead's Dish Rag blog you'll have to click to be sure.
-- Andrew Malcolm
Sen. John McCain stood up at a fundraiser late last evening at the oceanfront home of former ambassador George Argyros in Newport Beach. There were probably 80 people there. They dined on filet mignon, which cost $25,000 a couple.
McCain held his arms in that stiff bent way that he always does, a result of his nearly six years of POW imprisonment in Vietnam. The Republican nominee-to-be looked out at the guests and he told the truth:
"My friends," he said, "this is a tough race. We are behind. We are the underdog."
And then he uttered another truth that McCain's competitors ignore at their peril, "That's what I like to be."
He says it all the time. But that's no canned stump speech. The Ticket's been publishing a multipart video conversation in recent days with Matt Welch about the man in his new book, "McCain: The Myth of a Maverick." We'll publish the eighth and final episode later Wednesday.
But in Part V, Welch described how McCain's literary heroes are those who disregard the odds and how integral being an....
Read more Inside John McCain's game plan: 'It's not supposed to be easy' »
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco never officially chose sides in the Hillary Clinton/Barack Obama battle for the Democratic presidential nomination. But most of those reading tea leaves assumed her heart was with the eventual winner. 
A clear sign to many came when her longtime friend and ally, Rep. George Miller of the Bay Area, endorsed Obama in early January -- a time when the race was still completely up for grabs. Then, as Obama was winning contest after contest in February, Pelosi began stressing that the party's superdelegates would be ill-advised to overturn the will of primary and caucus voters -- comments widely interpreted as a nod toward the senator from Illinois.
Regardless, Pelosi today gave a nod to the senator from New York, agreeing with the widespread perception among many Clinton supporters that her White House bid was hindered by pervasive sexism.
"Yes, there was sexism," Pelosi said at a Washington breakfast with reporters. But, the Baltimore Sun's Paul West reports, the speaker stopped short of singling out such bias as the main reason for Clinton's candidacy falling by the wayside.
West's full report on Pelosi's comments on this and other political matters can be read here on the Chicago Tribune's Swamp blog.
-- Don Frederick
Photo credit: Associated Press
Sen. John McCain campaigned in California Monday evening and spent much of his time at a fundraiser in Santa Barbara where, not surprisingly, the locally sensitive subject of offshore oil drilling came up.
Moments after McCain made a lengthy presentation on how Republicans cannot afford to write off California to the Democrats in the general election, which the GOP hasn't won in a presidential race in many cycles, the Arizona senator was asked about his position on offshore drilling.
According to the pool report provided to The Ticket by The Times' Maeve Reston, D an Secord made a statement to McCain and then asked his question:
"Santa Barbara has among other things a great natural beauty -- one of our great natural beauties lies before you out there to the south. We're really kind of goosey here about oil spills. And we're goosey here about federal drilling and oil lands, which are abundant offshore.
"So we ask you to look out there to the south and the southeast and remember the greatest environmental catastrophe that's hit this state and then balance that with the notion of winning California. This is a vibrating blue city and a vibrating state, and it’s gonna be a tough haul.”
“This gathering is adjourned,” McCain promptly quipped.
He noted that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger disagrees with him on the offshore drilling issue, but that Florida Gov. Charlie Crist now agrees with the presumptive Republican nominee.
McCain stressed that he believes in states' rights. As he did campaigning earlier in the day, McCain cited the successful examples of Louisiana and Texas, noting they have allowed drilling and weathered two devastating hurricanes with minimal or no oil spills.
“I think the environmental situation is today -- that we could probably do that,” McCain said. “But I don’t want to override the state of California.”
Then the candidate added, "I want the states to decide."
--Andrew Malcolm
Photo credit: Chris Gardner / Getty Images
Charlie Black has had his moment of straight talk ... and chances are he's not going to let it happen again.
 A recent Washington Post piece on Black aptly described him as "John McCain's man in Washington," a "longtime uber-lobbyist" and "political maestro" who hopes "to guide his friend, the senator from Arizona, to the presidency this November."
Now comes a Fortune magazine article that, even more aptly, notes the "startling candor" with which Black discussed how a spotlight on national security would serve McCain's political purposes.
First, he provided some background.
The assassination of Pakistani political leader Benazir Bhutto in late December was an "unfortunate event," Black told Fortune, but it boosted McCain's stock in the fast-approaching New Hampshire Republican primary that he absolutely, positively had to win. The candidate's "knowledge and ability to talk about it reemphasized that this is the guy who's ready to be commander in chief. And it helped us," Black said.
Then, the longtime political pro got a bit too honest. Asked about the political impact of another terrorist attack on U.S. soil, Black replied: "Certainly it would be a big advantage to him."
Black may be correct, but he's not supposed to be quite so blunt in coldly calculating the upside for McCain of harm coming to Americans. Others -- unconnected with the campaign -- could offer such an assessment, but he should have dodged the question.
He knows it, and The Times' Maeve Reston reports that outside a McCain fundraiser today in Fresno, Black said: “I deeply regret the comments — they were inappropriate. I recognize that John McCain has devoted his entire adult life to protecting his country and placing its security before every other consideration."
McCain, for his part, did what he's supposed to do -- stressing his lifelong commitment to protecting America and flat out disputing Black's premise. "It's not true," he said when asked in Fresno about his aide's remark.
Barack Obama's campaign played its role, taking great umbrage to Black's comment while using it to stress one of its talking points.
Spokesman Bill Burton said, "The fact that John McCain's top advisor says that a terrorist attack on American soil would be a 'big advantage' for their political campaign is a complete disgrace, and is exactly the kind of politics that needs to change."
But Burton also said Obama "welcomes a debate about terrorism with John McCain, who has fully supported the Bush policies that have taken our eye off of Al Qaeda, failed to bring Osama bin Laden to justice, and made us less safe."
The Fortune article that sparked the flap (and in which Black is tangential) can be read here. Our colleague Jill Zuckman over at the Swamp has her take on the incident here.
-- Don Frederick
Photo credit: Associated Press
O.K., it's the first day of summer. There's still something like 134 days until The Election. No tornadoes in sight. The annual hurricane controversies have yet to form wherever they start. Lots of lakes and sunshine outdoors. And blizzards of blabber on TV.
Hope the traffic wasn't too bad getting home. Here's a reverse birthday gift from The Ticket: What you didn't miss today:
SO MUCH FOR SUMMER IN MONTANA: Tom Brokaw will pause in writing his next book on our grandfathers and take over moderating "Meet the Press" through the election. Not Tim Russert, of course, but wise and he won't talk about the Bills who are hopeless until poor Jim Kelly returns. (See video below.)
If NBC is not going the blonde-in-short-skirt route like over at Fox and since Bob Schieffer is under contract elsewhere, our top permanent nominee is Chuck Todd, (not pictured here) who clearly knows everything about politics and says it succinctly. Seriously.
WHY NOT JUST ARM EVERYBODY ON AIRPLANES? Our blogging colleague James Oliphant over at the Swamp has joined the periodic chorus wondering about Virginia Sen. James Webb as the running mate for Barack Obama.
Webb, you'll remember, is the guy who packs personal heat everywhere, which does tend to diminish disagreements on the street. Obama does need a military mate because he's talked so much about opposing war and the simple peacemaking power of sitdowns with dictators. Also, he seems unlikely to pick Geraldine Ferraro.
Being a turncoat Republican and former Reaganite will surely....
Read more Ticket Takings: A Sunday full of Richardson, Webb, Daschle, Fiorina and Richardson »
Enjoy it. Talk up a storm on the road. You've got only a few days left to use cellphones in your hand while driving.
Then, ring-a-ding, the new California law takes effect requiring that you shut the heck up or use a hands-free phone thingy. The cops don't need any other excuse to stop you, no cocaine blowing out the back window, nothing but holding that hand suspiciously up by your ear. (So no ear-picking -- too risky.)
And there are no warnings for first-time offenders. Just tickets.
Politicians in Sacramento, who live by the cellphone themselves, realized they could get a lot of publicity by championing this restriction, claiming that thousands, probably millions, maybe even billions of drivers were driving on California's crumbling highways distracted by conversations on cellphones and causing a gazillion accidents.
Who hasn't seen an accident or near-accident with (always) a woman talking on her cellphone?
So no doubt, starting July 2 the number of traffic accidents in California will plummet to near-zero and our collision insurance premiums will too.
Or not.
That's because these same underemployed lawmakers did not ban such things as cup holders, Big Macs on your thigh, dripping mustard, too many radio commercials on one station, nagging spouses, CD players, children squabbling in the backseat or dogs sitting in drivers' laps to enjoy the breezes.
That's still all A-OK. So The Times' famed videographer Jeff Amlotte and Pulitzer Prize-winning automotive writer Dan Neil creatively collaborated on this hilarious video to instruct California drivers on exactly what is still legal for them to do while driving after June 30.
Be sure to watch this video while driving. That's still legal too. Oh, and e-mail this link to everyone on your contact list, one by one. That's legal too.
Just don't phone them about it.
--Andrew Malcolm
John McCain, fresh from a Canadian swing, is planning a couple days of campaigning and fundraising in California next week. And he's hitting the predictable hotspots -- Fresno, Riverside and Newport Beach.
And who can blame him? He's already picked up more than $10 million from supporters in the state, part of the $93 million that Californians have donated to presidential candidates in this cycle (Barack Obama picked up nearly $30 million). That total is by far the largest amount by any state. New York comes in second at $79 million followed by Texas at $39 million. The smallest amount? North Dakota at $210,000.
And this on the heels of a very good month for McCain.
-- Scott Martelle
Last summer at a labor forum in Chicago, Sen. Barack Obama, going after the anti-free-trade union vote, promised that as president he would take up numerous serious treaty issues with the president of Canada.
Alas for the freshman senator, as much as many Americans think that Canada is so much like the United States (and feel that's a compliment to say), Canada does not have a president. It has a prime minister. (By the way, what's his name?*)
President. Prime minister. What's the difference, right, in the world's largest bilateral trading relationship? A little more than a billion dollars a day going back and forth.
This morning the Republican Party's presidential nominee-to-be, Sen. John McCain, travels to the capital of Canada (no, it's not Toronto).
So The Ticket decided to explore a number of other things that Americans don't know about Canada, like so many of these familiar faces on TV, the big screen, the radio.
Thanks to our industrious colleague Patrick Day, we've assembled a photo gallery here of a few folks you probably didn't know were Canadian -- and some secrets about their politics. (Even though they're not U.S. citizens, it's really illegal for them to donate to American politicians.)
So many people in American society, especially around Los Angeles, are famous but not as being Canadian. Many of them are pretty funny folks. (They also spell and talk funny, like humour and rumour, and people being in hospital. Their Thanksgiving is in October, if you can believe that. They can only afford three downs in football up there. And how long has it been since a Canadian NHL team won the Stanley Cup?)
OK, here's a few northern names for breakfast: Michael J. Fox, Matthew Perry, Andrea Martin, Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy, Leslie Nielsen, Mike Myers, Lorne Michaels -- who invented and still runs "Saturday Night Live" -- that bald weird guy Paul Shaffer ,who leads Letterman's band, and that other bald guy who gives away millions in briefcases, Howie Mandel. Speaking of giving stuff away, Alex Trebek on "Jeopardy!" and Monty Hall from "Let's Make a Deal." All Canucks.
Keifer Sutherland (Dad Donald too), Keanu Reeves, John Candy, Peter Jennings, Christopher Plummer, Paul Anka, Norman Jewison, Ivan Reitman. Brendan Fraser and Margaret Atwood. For old-timers, Raymond Burr, Walter Pidgeon, Raymond Massey, Lorne Greene, Rod Cameron, Mack Sennett, Jack Warner, Louis B. Mayer, Jay Silverheels and Chief Dan George. Canadians all.
The original America's Sweetheart, Gloria Pickford, was actually Canadian, as was Superman's girlfriend (Margot Kidder), the original King Kong's love (Fay Wray) and James Bond's forever-thwarted love, Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell).
So the countries have been bound closely together by culture as well as geography and history. (Americans remember the British burning Washington and the White House in the War of 1812, but they forget that was in retaliation for the Americans sacking Toronto, then called York.)
Since 9/11, Canadians have quietly paid a dear price in terms of lives lost for fighting next to their next-door neighbors -- or neighbours -- in Afghanistan, something few Americans realize and McCain, the former POW, must surely appreciate in his speech today. Outside of the grand old Chateau Laurier hotel in downtown Ottawa, McCain won't see much of Canada, which is 10% larger than the United States with but 10% of the population.
But what likely matters invisibly in the Canadian mind today will be the nonpolitical fact that while the younger U.S. presidential candidate who perhaps most Canadians would intuitively favor for president considers visiting a faraway place like Iraq for the first time in a few years, the older would-be president from Arizona pays at least a day's worth of attention and respect to the nation that has and will continue to play a far larger role in American life. Even if like so many of its famous citizens, it's not all that famous as Canadian, eh?
Allright now, click on the photo of who-is-that-anyway and take The Ticket's little photo tour of the politics of some other famous unknown Canadians.
--Andrew Malcolm
(* Canada's prime minister is Stephen Harper.)
Already wallowing in money, and thus having decided he can afford to break his promise to take public funds for this fall's presidential campaign, Sen. Barack Obama's aides were huddled in Chicago today with some of the top fundraisers for what's-her-name, the New York senator who came oh-so-close to winning the Democratic nod herself.
Obama made the announcement this morning in a video sent to supporters. It makes him the first major party candidate in some 30 years to forgo public funds for the campaig n period between his convention (in late August) and the November election (Nov. 4).
A half-dozen of Hillary Clinton's major contributors, each of them a convert to Obama's cause at her urging, met in the Palmer House in Chicago's Loop today, carefully tracked by The Times' campaign finance guru, Dan Morain. As a bonus gift, the candidate himself showed up for some brief remarks.
Some of those in attendance were John B. Emerson of Capital Guardian Trust Company in Los Angeles, Thomas F. Steyer of Farallon Capital Management in San Francisco and Gary Gensler, who was Treasury undersecretary under President Clinton.
Also attendance were Maureen White, formerly the top fund-raiser for the Democratic National Committee, and Michael Coles, who ran for the U.S. Senate from Georgia and is chief executive officer of Caribou Coffee.
Sen. Clinton, meanwhile, has called on 100 of her top bundlers of campaign contributions to meet with her and Obama on June 26 next week at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C.
It’s part of a precise political minuet, in which Clinton seeks to demonstrate to Obama and the party faithful that she is working on behalf of the Illinois senator's campaign to help Democrats, and Obama is simultaneously trying to woo Clinton’s core backers, some of whom still hold hard feelings about the loss by the first serious female candidate for the White House.
In fact, as Morain found out, not all of her supporters are going along with the Obama campaign.
"I have talked to Hillary three times since the Montana election," said Texas attorney Garry Mauro, a long-time friend of the Clintons, who will be attending the capital gathering. "She is totally upbeat. She says our No. 1 objective is to beat John McCain. There is no feeling sorry. There is no second-guessing."
But Morain has discovered not all Clinton donors have found it so easy to change political allegiances this quickly or easily. And they intend to skip the event, the first time the new Democratic champion and the woman he vanquished will appear together in public since Clinton surrendered in a speech to her supporters nearly two weeks ago.
In an e-mail exchange, Hollywood billionaire investor Haim Saban, who heads the Spanish language Univision network and has been a long-time, big-time supporter of Clinton's (see photo), was asked if he would be traveling to Washington for the event next week.
His terse reply: "No."
-- Andrew Malcolm
Photo Credit: Newsday
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 »
California's Orange County is proving a tough venue for out-of-town Republican politicians trying to elevate their national profile.
Former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee laid an egg there last year. And late last week, so did Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (at right), at least in one local columnist's view.
Thirteen months ago, when the buzz was at its loudest that Thompson was perfectly primed to swoop into what many saw as a lackluster GOP presidential field and emerge as the nominee, he traveled to Newport Beach for a much-heralded speech to the Lincoln Club of Orange County.
Also in the audience was Robert Novak, and the nationally syndicated columnist was less than impressed. In a column that gained a fair amount of attention at the time , Novak wrote that Thompson's appearance proved "a letdown for the packed audience of conservative Republicans."
Reactions he quoted included: "It was not Reaganesque;" "No red meat;" "Too low key."
Novak himself noted that "surprisingly for such an experienced performer ...Thompson had trouble with the podium microphone as his low, conversational tones faded in and out."
In retrospect, of course, these problems and more marked Thompson's eventual candidacy, which never came close to catching fire.
Crist, a hot prospect in the vice presidential guessing game for John McCain's ticket, could be found Friday in Irvine, headlining a Republican Party dinner. The upshot -- a column a few days later by the Orange County Register's Frank Mickadeit headlined, "We know who McCain shouldn't pick."
Mickadeit gave the governor a rave for his appearance: "silver hair, warm smile, great tan, perfectly tailored suit of clothes, decent teeth."
But, the columnist added: "It's when he uses his facial musculature to try and form cogent sound that he falls apart."
One of Crist's miscues occurred when, in making the required mention ...
Read more Charlie Crist gets panned in Orange County »
Yes, allright the Lakers are in something of a hole here against those other guys.
But there's Hope. For Sunday. And beyond. Thanks to political history.
Yes, fans, in the last nearly six decades of professional bouncing basketballs, the Lakers have played in the league Finals eight times during presidential election years.
This year is No. 9.
The good news is they've won five of those eight times.
The bad news is they've lost three times -- to Detroit 4-1 during the most recent presidential election and to these same Mas sachusetts guys 4-3 in 1984 and 4-2 exactly 40 years ago.
The Lakers beat the Pacers 4-2 in 2000, the Pistons 4-3 in 1988, the 76ers 4-2 in 1980 with Magic at the MVP podium, the Knicks 4-1 in 1972 with Wilt Chamberlin as MVP and the Knicks again 4-3 as the Minneapolis Lakers in 1952.
Interestingly, win or lose, every time L.A. plays in the Finals during presidential leap years, the Republican candidate wins -- Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon twice, Ronald Reagan twice, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush twice.
So it's safe to say that instead of the predictable Navy baseball cap, Sen. John McCain, who is a real basketball fan (he did his own NCAA brackets online this March) who doesn't like to lose. As anyone can see from his game face here.
So McCain really oughta be wearing a Lakers cap and two Lakers shirts, plus a Lakers jacket and several pennants on his cars.
Until he returns home to Arizona.
Now you can see the take of our two Lakers bloggers -- Andrew and Brian Kamenetzky -- on our take on their team by going here. But please come back.
(UPDATE: Obviously, totally due to this blog item the Lakers came storming back Sunday. A belated thanks to loyal Ticket reader John and K.C. for their help with this. Now, if you're a Lakers fan, you must click dozens of times on this item for ongoing good luck. :-) )
--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.
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