You can tell a lot about any political campaign by how it invests its most precious resource: the 1,440 minutes in each candidate's day.
UPDATE: An earlier version of this item had an hour-by-hour schedule that was provided to the media for planning purposes and not intended for publication. But even if you examine the broad current schedule for John McCain's campaign, you'll still notice something very revealing:
Yesterday morning the presumptive presidential nominee of the Republican Party flew from Omaha to Kansas City, Mo., for a town hall meeting at Union Station in late morning, and a series of local media interviews, of course, and he left Kansas City right after lunch for -- where else? -- Muskegon, Mich.
No, really. Muskegon, Mich.
At dinnertime he arrived near there in Ferrysburg, Mich., for a 105-minute fundraiser before flying to Detroit to sleep.
Today, he'll visit a General Motors technical center there for a tour and another town hall meeting with employees to be captured for eternity on camera, more local media interviews, of course, and a lunchtime fundraiser before flying out to New York to do another media interview.
And then comes the day's publicity moment, the Big Event, the taping of a priceless national TV interview for "Late Night With Conan O'Brien," the next Jay Leno, if there can be such a thing. An opportunity to be good-natured for a lot of younger voters.
Tomorrow, in New York City, McCain will do more media interviews before ...
We were somewhat chagrined to learn that The Ticket is not among John McCain's regular stops on the Internet. Then again, virtually no website is.
Indeed, his wife Cindy was completely chagrined that in detailing the very few blogs that his aides direct him to, McCain neglected to mention the one written by their daughter, Meghan.
That would be McCainblogette.com, for those who spend more time on a computer than the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, who is 71. And that category would be just about anyone with access to one.
In his wide-ranging interview published Sunday in the New York Times, he elaborated on his previous self-characterization as computer "illiterate." His wife and close associates “go on for me. I am learning to get online myself, and I will have that down fairly soon, getting on myself."
Once he masters that skill, he'll resist the next step -- "I don't expect to set up my own blog," he said.
Which is too bad, because that would be the perfect venue for him to one day reveal the jest that was on the tip of his tongue when he was asked if it was more difficult to battle Barack Obama for the presidency "because of the sensitivities of race."
McCain, the article reported, "responded wryly: 'I’d like to make a joke, but I can’t.' "
We doubt we are alone in being more than a bit curious just what that joke would be.
There wasn't much new in Obama's rhetoric on the subject, but there was one moment that jumped out, and reminded us of earlier speeches in which Obama used the same tactic. It points up a problem facing McCain, who has nurtured an image as a maverick despite spending the last quarter-century -- longer than his military service -- in Congress, first in the House and now in the Senate.
Obama's tactic is to wait for McCain to throw a rock at how Washington works, and the failed policies, and then chain McCain to his own political history. This is how it played out this morning:
"Now, a few days ago, Sen. McCain said, and I'm quoting, 'Our dangerous dependence on foreign oil has been 30 years in the making, and was caused by the failure of politicians in Washington to think long-term about the future of the country.' I couldn't agree more. John McCain is exactly right. The only problem is that out of those 30 years of inaction, John McCain was one of the most powerful [men] in Washington for twenty-six of them. And in that time he has achieved little to help reduce our dependence on foreign oil. He voted against raising our fuel mileage standards when it could have made such a difference over the last decades and joined George Bush in opposing legislation twice in the last year that included tax credits for more efficient cars.'
McCain, Obama said, also "voted against alternative sources of energy. Against clean biofuels. Against solar power. Against wind power. Against an energy bill that represented the largest investment in renewable sources of energy in the history of this country."
You get the idea. Obama slides into the rhythm that sets him up for the insertion of the rhetorical blade (which may be what got us conjuring up images of a bullfight): "When John McCain talks about the failure of politicians in Washington to do anything about our energy crisis, understand that John McCain should look in the mirror because he has been a part of that failure."
As we've pointed out before, having a relatively limited voting record can be a good thing in the presidential bullring.
(UPDATE: No campaign utterance comes without pushback, in this case somewhat tangential to the point of the post, Obama's tactic of using McCain's statements to propel a counter-offensive. From McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds: "Barack Obama is the quintessential definition of what's wrong with Washington. Today Barack Obama claimed to be for change, while touting his own vote for the Bush-Cheney energy bill, that's just the type of Washington-style spin and empty rhetoric that John McCain has fought against his whole career.")
The John McCain "Straight Talk Express" rolled into Hudson, Wis., this morning for a town hall session on women in business. But the conversation wasn't all business, as the attendees also got a prescription from Cindy McCain on weight loss, our colleague Maeve Reston reports.
These kinds of events usually feature two or three introductory speakers, and first up this morning was J&L Steel Erectors Chief Executive LouAnne Reger. She told the crowd of more than 500 people -- mostly women -- about her two divorces, losing weight and a recent Nordstrom shopping trip. Cindy McCain then followed with her own weight-loss experience.
The best way to lose 30 pounds, she said, was to get out on the campaign trail. As proof: The white pants she was wearing were two sizes too big, she said. This, as Reston points out, comes from a woman who told Vogue that she wears size 0 Lucky Jeans. Not the kind of detail that's likely to strike a chord of empathy. Or, for that matter, the kind of experience the women in the crowd -- any crowd -- could replicate. How many will have a chance to hit the presidential campaign trail, as spouses or candidates?
Before the session began, the attendees were sung to by a barbershop quintet wearing American flag ties. The song list? "Let Me Call You Sweetheart," "A Bicycle Built for Two" and "You Raise Me Up" (dedicated to the women in the crowd who have been "touched by cancer").
By the time it was candidate McCain's turn, Reston reports, he looked very relieved to get the mic.
Here's something fresh -- a politician rendered speechless, at least momentarily. Of course, few campaign conversations that involve Viagra and birth control can go anywhere good for a candidate.
In this video below, the questioner is our own Maeve Reston. The questionee -- John McCain, whom Reston asked for a reaction to a comment by McCain supporter-advisor Carly Fiorina about insurance companies that cover Viagra but not birth control. (And, yes, the image of a deer in the headlights comes to mind.)
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.
This will be way past most of our bedtimes, but John McCain plans to test out the wee hours of campaigning next week with an appearance on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien." The Swamp points out that McCain was the first sitting U.S. senator to appear on "Saturday Night Live," whose producer Lorne Michaels also is the executive producer of the O'Brien show.
McCain has been on O'Brien's show before, but this apparently is the first appearance since he became the presumptive Republican nominee (we don't know if that means the band has to kick up a trumpet fanfare when he walks out or what).
And what better time to revisit some of O'Brien's previous barbs about McCain? With a rim shot on the snare drum to About.Com (to get the true spirit, click here after each joke):
Now that Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee, Americans are going to have to choose between the 46-year-old Obama and the 71-year-old John McCain. That's the choice. In other words, it's a choice between the Hillary-defeater or the Wal-Mart greeter.
Barack Obama said today that he is going to fight for votes in all 50 states. Yeah. That's what he said. Meanwhile, John McCain said he's going to fight for votes in all 13 colonies.
This week, Barack Obama, true story, campaigned on an Indian reservation and the tribal chief adopted him. Yeah, the Indians actually prefer Obama to John McCain, because they still remember when McCain took their land.
Earlier today, John McCain released 1,200 pages of his medical records. Or, as his doctor calls it, Chapter One.
Barack Obama's staff and John McCain's staff are busy now negotiating when the presidential debates will take place. That's good, yeah. Yeah, Obama wants them to be in September, and McCain wants them to be after his nap, but before "Wheel of Fortune."
Below is a video of one of McCain's earlier appearances.
But there's an interesting tidbit buried deep within the poll results that should have some bells going off inside McCain headquarters. Or maybe they were already going off, and that's part of the reason Rick Davisceded some campaign turf to Steve Schmidt.
The finding has to do with measuring how the candidates are making the sale. Obama -- doing all right. McCain -- well, let's let the Pew folks tell it:
A solid majority (56%) give the Obama campaign letter grades of A or B for the job he is doing to convince the American public to vote for him, while only 32% say the same of the McCain campaign. More than a third (35%) offer a grade of C to McCain's campaign so far, and nearly as many (30%) say the campaign has earned a D or F.
The grades voters give to the Obama campaign for the job it is doing convincing them to vote for him are the highest measured for any candidate over the past four election cycles. In June 2004, for example, just 39% gave Bush's efforts an A or B; even fewer gave high grades to Kerry's campaign (31%). In contrast, McCain's middling grades are slightly lower than those awarded to Bush in both 2000 and 2004. McCain's campaign does garner higher grades than the 1996 Dole campaign, which only 22% graded highly.
In this regard, the 2008 campaign has the largest disparity in high grades for the Democratic and Republican candidates over the past four election cycles (24 points). The gap between the grades for Obama and McCain is even larger than for Bill Clinton and Bob Dole in July 1996; at that time, 37% gave Clinton an A or B, while just 22% gave top grades to Dole.
The differences in the ratings of the two presidential campaigns are reflected in the opinions of their partisans. Nearly eight-in-ten Democratic voters (79%) give the Obama campaign letter grades of A or B for the job he is doing to convince the American public to vote for him, and a smaller majority of Republican voters (54%) give high marks to the McCain campaign. More independents give A or B grades to the Obama campaign than to the McCain campaign (49% v. 31%). In addition, while more than a third of Republicans (35%) give high grades to Obama, just 16% of Democrats give high grades to McCain.
McCain was asked about the poll Thursday -- specifically the bit about voters being more excited about Obama at this stage than they are about him. His response goes a long way toward explaining another finding from that poll: "Relatively few voters" think the candidates have been too negative. But at the same time, McCain's comment indicates that his focus is on the war in Iraq and national security when polls show most of the country is more concerned with the economy -- whining or not.
Said McCain: "I admire and respect the campaign that Sen. Obama has run. He has done
a fine job in motivating many, many people. I am confident that as we
go through this campaign that I will convince the majority of voters in
this country that I am the person to lead this nation through very
difficult times. ... Sen. Obama didn’t support the surge, wanted
us to pull out, said that it would fail. I supported it when it was the
toughest thing to do. I believe that my record on national security and
keeping this country safe is there, and the American people will
examine our records, and I believe that I will win."
-- Scott Martelle
Top photo: Democrat Barack Obama. Credit: Jae C. Hong / Associated Press
This weekend, just a few minutes from where Barack Obama lives, a new challenger will emerge to his White House bid (as well as John McCain's).
The Green Party -- which with Ralph Nader as its standard-bearer played a major role in the 2000 election (and then, with little-known David Cobb as its candidate, had virtually no impact on the 2004 vote) -- opened its national convention today at the ornate Palmer House Hilton in downtown Chicago. On Saturday afternoon, it will choose its nominee for this year's presidential race (with the acceptance speech to follow).
The odds-on favorite to claim the nod is Cynthia McKinney, who represented a Georgia House district for five terms, surprisingly got knocked off in the 2002 primary, reclaimed the seat in 2004 and then lost the primary two years later -- in part because of the furor over a scuffle she had with a Capitol policeman.
If she triumphs in the delegate balloting over three rivals, McKinney would be the first black and the first woman picked for president by the Greens. That's not quite as impressive as what Obama is in line to achieve and what Hillary Clinton came close to -- the party, dedicated to environmentalism and nonviolence, only began running a national ticket in 1996 (with Nader heading it).
In his consequential 2000 showing, Nader won almost 2.9 million votes nationwide and -- Democrats forever will be convinced -- cost Al Gore the White House by siphoning enough support to keep him from carrying Florida and New Hampshire (carrying with one would have won Gore the presidency).
Cobb won all of 119,859 votes four years ago ... and did not affect the outcome in a single state.
Given that McKinney has a degree of national name recognition, she ought to be able to surpass Cobb's total vote. But as of now, it's hard to imagine she'll sway the outcome in a particular state.
The surprises in the list of locales where Barack Obama's campaign broadcast its first general election ad included Alaska, which in the 12 presidential elections its participated in since joining the union in 1959 has gone Democratic exactly once -- in Lyndon Johnson's 1964 rout of Barry Goldwater.
But does Obama's decision to at least give the appearance of competing for Alaska's three electoral votes portend a visit by the candidate?
His organizers there, bouyed by a Rasmussen poll in June indicating that race might be close, are hopeful. Kat Pustay, the campaign's Alaska director recently told the Anchorage Daily News, "That is the plan -- we are pretty sure he's going to come at the end of the summer."
But Obama has thrown some cold water on that prospect.
At the end of Jeff Zeleny's nicely done New York Times piece today on how Obama's White House quest has given him his first opportunity to travel throughout the nation, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee says that "I’ve had a chance now to campaign in 49 states. The only place that I have not been yet is Alaska."
Obama added: "I will make it to Alaska at some point, but maybe after I’m president. I can’t wait."
Perhaps its an awareness of political history that led Obama to decline making a commitment to stump in the Land of the Midnight Sun. Richard Nixon, in general terms, did just that in his speech accepting the 1960 Republican presidential nomination, telling his listeners: "I announce to you tonight, and I pledge to you, that I, personally, will carry this campaign into every one of the 50 states of this nation between now and November the 8th."
That was in late July. As his hard-fought battle with John Kennedy proceeded into its final days, Nixon had made it to every state ... save Alaska. In a tactical move that has come to be second-guessed whenever that famed campaign is revisited, Nixon lived up to his pledge. And, as historian Richard Norton Smith recounted on a PBS program four years ago, "that meant on the Saturday before the election, when he should have been in Illinois or Texas, he was on a plane headed for Alaska, which in those days, that was a lot more remote a destination than it is today."
As Smith put it, Nixon "paid a high price on Election Day" -- he lost both Illinois and Texas by small margins and, with those defeats, lost the White House. (He did, however, squeak out a victory in Alaska.)
-- Don Frederick
Photo: Lyndon Johnson / LBJ Library / Frank Wolfe; Richard Nixon / Associated Press
Eighteen months into a 22-month presidential campaign, actually his second time around, some might think presumptive Republican nominee John McCain would have learned to knock off the Iran jokes.
The Arizona senator got abundant grief last year for turning the words from the Beach Boys' tune “Barbara Ann” into “Bomb Iran,” and singing the altered chorus in response to a question from a man in South Carolina, who'd asked when the U.S. was going to send an “airmail message” to Iran.
But it seems the straight-talking Arizona senator can’t help himself.
Tuesday while waiting with his wife Cindy for cheesesteaks during a trip to Pittsburgh’s Primanti Bros., a restaurant famous for its thick sandwiches piled high with French fries, an Associated Press reporter asked McCain for comment on the news organization’s report that U.S. exports to Iran increased tenfold during the last seven years — with cigarettes ranking as the top export to Iran.
"Maybe that’s a way of killing them,” McCain responded. He quickly followed up: “I meant that as a joke, as a person who hasn’t had a cigarette in 28 years.”
After his wife corrected him –- it’s actually been 29 years since the veteran's last smoke -- McCain said he’d like to look into the Iran export issue more thoroughly and might have a better answer later.
-- Maeve Reston
Photo credit: Hasan Sarbakhshian / Associated Press
You have done that, haven't you? Because every concerned voter says they want more information on the candidates, at least until they get it. And then maybe it's a little too deep for summer reading.
This is July, after all. A perfect time for lighter fare when the two major candidates, under the direction of their professionally plotting campaign staffs, try to slip in some more easily digestible personal info on themselves and their families. And if voters come to Labor Day finding a candidate a tad more likable, well, the campaigns will just have to live with that.
It's a very interesting competition this time, the likability contest. Because each candidate has the mirror problem of the....
Our colleague Peter Nicholas, trailing along after Barack Obama in Fargo, N.D., reports that Obama seemed just now to signal a softened position on his time line for withdrawing troops from Iraq.
On the campaign website, Obama says he would "immediately" begin withdrawing troops from Iraq and would have "all of our combat troops out of Iraq within 16 months." But at a news conference, he was asked about concerns by some that he was backing off on that timetable.
Obama responded that he is planning a trip to Iraq to do "a thorough assessment" and consult with "commanders on the ground." Key, he said, is to not jeopardize U.S. national security interests. But he did not say that he was still committed to the 16-month timetable, and he has previously seemed to give himself a little wiggle room on the time line.
This is Obama's full response:
"These critics haven't based their comments on anything I've said or anything my campaign has said. It's pure speculation. We're planning to visit Iraq. I'm going to do a thorough assessment when I'm there. I have been consistent throughout this process that I believe the war in Iraq was a mistake, that we need to bring this war to a responsible end.
"I continue to believe that it is a strategic error for us to maintain a long-term occupation in Iraq at a time when the conditions in Afghanistan are worsening, Al Qaeda has been able to establish bases in the areas of northwest Pakistan, resources there are severely ...
Might David Vitter belong to that rare breed of politicians who survive the type of scandal that sink most others (see Spitzer, Eliot, and Fossella, Vito)?
Chances are we won't know for sure until 2010, when the Republican senator from Louisiana is up for re-election. But based on a new poll by the Baton Rouge-based Southern Media & Opinion Research firm, Vitter has reason for optimism that he will keep his job.
When we last left Vitter -- almost exactly a year ago -- he was confessing, vaguely, to a "very serious sin" that involved his association with a D.C.-based prostitution ring. Then a New Orleans-based prostitute alleged that she and the senator had once been especially good friends (a connection Vitter denied).
Perhaps the best-remembered moment stemming from the scandal occurred when Vitter held a news conference in Metairie, La., to try to put it behind him (fat chance) and was joined at the podium by his wife, Wendy -- whose pained expression said it all (he didn't look especially happy, either).
In Washington, Vitter has kept a mostly low profile since then. But he's kept going about his senatorial business and, in Louisiana, his standing appears about the same as it was before the commotion erupted.
The new survey of the state's voters found that 55% view him favorably, 38% unfavorably. In April of 2007, a poll by Southern Media put his numbers at 52% favorable, 32% unfavorable.
One of the firm's pollsters, Bernie Pinsonat, told us Vitter has benefited from a reservoir of goodwill he could draw upon. For instance, many voters well remember that as a state legislator several years ago, he led the charge for highly popular term limits.
Nor has he lost that sense of what the public wants.
Part of every presidential campaign is the post-primary shuffle. That's when the Republican nominee tries to show centrist voters that he isn't really as conservative as he made himself out to be to win his party's base, and the presumptive Democratic nominee similarly tries to pull himself in from the left.
The Swamp notes this morning that the perception among some progressives that Barack Obama is leaving the left for the center has given rise to an unusual way of tethering the candidate to their issues. They're putting their money on the table, hoping to raise $1 million in an "escrow" fund that Obama can't tap until he displays "progressive leadership" on issues.
The issue that sparked the mini-revolt was Obama's support for giving wiretapping immunity to the phone companies under the recent FISA vote, something he had earlier said he would oppose. In a memo to fellow progressives, Bob Fertik, president of Democrats.com, said he still backs Obama but thinks the candidate could use a little wake-up call from the folks who played a significant role in securing him the nomination.
We're asking you to put some of the money you plan to give Obama "in escrow" until he demonstrates progressive leadership on the issues we care about, like warrantless wiretapping.
We are absolutely not trying to hurt Obama -- we'll give him our money at some point. We're just asking for a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T like Aretha Franklin sang about.
We can get Obama's respect because needs our money -- he turned down $85 million in taxpayer dollars because he believes small donors like us will contribute $300 million. And now is the best time to use our modest leverage, before the campaign goes all-out after the convention.
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.
We've known for a while that Lindsey Graham and John McCain are something of political soul mates, as well as Senate colleagues. But a one-liner from Graham a little while ago makes us wonder (not too seriously, or deeply) whether he harbors secret ambitions.
Graham and Joe Lieberman are traveling with McCain on his two-country tour of Latin America, but this morning were shunted to the press boat (think of kids and the small table at Thanksgiving) for a tour by the entourage of the Port of Cartagena. McCain was in another vessel -- a faster, drug-interdiction speedboat called the Midnight Express (which for the moment could have been called the Straight Talk at Midnight Express).
The press boat chugged alongside McCain's boat for about 10 minutes as the presidential candidate and his wife, Cindy McCain, were briefed by port officials. Then both boats cruised out to open water, where they separated a bit. Graham, hopefully out of earshot of the Secret Service detail, pointed across the waves to McCain's craft and said, "Sink that boat!"
He then added: "I could get the nomination if you sink that boat."
A reporter asked if the comment was on the record, and Graham said no (sorry, senator, but nothing is off the record with pool reporters along). Graham also suggested the two boats play a little chicken.
Lieberman? Not so quippy -- he just occasionally waved at McCain during the 15 minutes at sea.
With friends like these, why do rivals bother with opposition researchers? Rudy Giuliani was on CNN Tuesday talking about John McCain and the presidential campaign, and said that he still thinks he was the best choice to be president. Giuliani was there to buff up McCain and his foreign policy credentials in the wake of the rock Wesley Clarktossed the other day.
When asked by interviewer John Roberts whether he thought he was better qualified than McCain to run the country, Giuliani said, "I thought I was best-qualified to be president." (The video is here, and this exchange comes around the 3:12 mark).
Now not many politicians would leave a race as Giuliani did and say later, "You know, the voters were right, I wasn't the best choice." Political egos don't cut that way. But the McCain camp had to wince, assuming they're getting CNN down there in Colombia. The idea behind sending surrogates out is to have them make you look good, not make you look like a consolation prize.
Throughout the interview, Giuliani sounded as much like a candidate as a surrogate, talking up his own political resume in a session that had a peculiar deja vu feeling to it. But Giuliani assured Roberts, "I'm not a candidate. I'm not a choice." Not at the moment, no, but ...
Well, we'll admit it, we're suckers for polls, and a recent one that our cousins at The Swamp tipped us to is interesting -- showing that Barack Obama is tapping a potentially rich vein in trying to tie John McCain to George Bush.
The Gallup/USA Today poll found that 68% of voters said they were concerned when asked whether they thought McCain would pursue "policies that are too similar to what George W. Bush has pursued." Of those polled, 49% said they were "very concerned."
As the poll analysis points out: "It is clearly a delicate balancing act for McCain, as Bush remains relatively popular with the Republican base. While only 28% of Americans approve of the job Bush is doing as president, a majority of Republicans (60%) still do. Bush's approval rating among current McCain supporters is slightly lower, at 55%."
Dive deeper into the poll and something else interesting emerges -- people aren't all that keen on change, either. Some 49% said they were concerned when asked whether "Obama would go too far in changing the policies that George W. Bush pursued." Of those polled, 30% said they were "very concerned."
So the advantage for the moment goes to change -- in moderation. Which might help explain Obama's embrace Tuesday of the concept behind the Bush administration's faith-based initiative program.
Our colleague Noam Levey has a story today weighing John McCain's voting history and public stances on a wide range of energy issues. It's a mixed bag, Levey reports:
"At times he has backed measures to ease restrictions on oil drilling off the coast and in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Other times he has voted to keep them.
"He has championed standards to require that automakers make vehicles more fuel-efficient, yet opposed standards to require that utilities use less fossil fuel by generating more power from renewable sources, such as wind and solar.
"McCain has rejected federal tax breaks for renewable energy producers, but backs billions of dollars in subsidies for the nuclear industry.
"He has criticized corn-based ethanol for doing 'nothing to increase our energy independence.' Yet while campaigning in 2006 in the Midwest corn belt, McCain called ethanol a 'vital, vital alternative energy source.'
"Senior McCain policy advisor Douglas Holtz-Eakin said McCain's positions reflected a pragmatic approach to governing. 'Sen. McCain is interested in getting results,' he said."
Beyond the policy confusion this can engender (and we'll leave that for others to dissect), it points up the inherent problem any legislator faces in running for president: The longer the service, the bigger the pool for opposition researchers to swim in.
So in an odd bit of political irony, here Barack Obama's relative lack of legislative experience could be an advantage -- fewer votes, fewer points of exposure.
Clark took a lot of heat for the comments -- and a veiled rebuke from Obama Monday -- and today added a little context: "I served 38 years in uniform. I'm proud of my service and I was asked to give my opinion about professional qualifications based on my experience." Clark said that as both a wounded combat vet and a high military officer "I have some appreciation for both levels of command and the qualities it takes at the top. I simply say it's a matter of judgment — experience, yes, it's important. It shows character and courage, but on the other hand there are other ways to show character and courage."
Clark didn't back down but said he respected McCain and his service, and was "very sorry this has distracted from the message of patriotism that Sen. Obama wants to put out."
UPDATE: The McCain surrogates are having none of it, describing Obama's relationship with comments by Clark and others as a "wink and a nod game." But shouldn't that presumption cut both ways? To paraphrase an old axiom, live by the surrogate ...
UPDATE (3:53 p.m. PDT): Obama addressed the issue with reporters in Ohio today and said his comments in Missouri Monday were not intended as a rebuke to Clark, despite the timing: "Sen. McCain deserves the utmost honor and respect for his service to our country. I’ve said that repeatedly, I’ve said it all the time. I notice that in at least one publication it was reported that my comments yesterday on Sen. McCain were in response to Gen. Clark. I think my staff will confirm that was in a draft of a speech I’d written two months ago."
Well, this has got to have some effect on the national political prospects for Bobby Jindal, the rising star from Louisiana. (Can a star rise from the South?) Jindal, the Louisiana governor, on Monday vetoed, after promising not to, a pay raise that the state Legislature had voted for itself.
We're not exactly talking big bucks here. The current base pay for legislators is $16,800, and the Legislature wanted to more than double it to $37,500.
Why does this matter? Well, voters tend to hone in on "flip flops" -- note the baggage Mitt Romney carries (see the comments on this post). So the specifics of whether Jindal should or should not have vetoed the measure Monday is less important than the fact that he was tacking like, well, John Kerry out windsurfing.
Why Jindal's change? An uprising among voters, in the form of a recall petition. The Times-Picayune sums up the brief history: "Jindal was widely criticized for failing to stop the raise before it was passed and his initial refusal to veto it. He said he had promised lawmakers that he would not use his veto, but he also pledged during his gubernatorial campaign last year to prohibit an immediate legislative pay raise."
So to recap, first Jindal promised to stop the pay raise, then told legislators he wouldn't stop the pay raise, then -- looking at his own political mortality -- reversed direction again and stopped the pay raise. Jindal fell on the sword Monday, thanking "the people for their voice and their attention" -- that would be the recall petition -- and added: "The voters have demanded change. ... I made a mistake by staying out of it."
But you have to wonder what the odds table says now about Jindal's chances for the co-pilot seat on the Straight Talk Express.
We all remember John McCain's "bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran" mini-aria, and many of us have caught McCain during his late-night talk show appearances. He can be funny (though the laughs at his reworking the Beach Boys' "Barbara Ann" were far fewer than he may have anticipated). But can comedy kill the campaign?
Gawker has a piece (which includes some language inappropriate for this blog and which we want to warn readers about) on McCain's sense of humor and parallels to Ronald Reagan. It concludes McCain is no Gipper.
What strikes us as interesting is the issue of timing the piece raises. McCain made his "bomb Iran" joke more than a year ago -- before before his spectacular political collapse and resurrection. In many ways, McCain got a pass then. There was some backlash from people who likely wouldn't support McCain anyway, but the feeling was his campaign was moribund anyway, and the mini-flap quickly faded.
But what would happen if McCain cracked that joke now? Would that kind of stumble derail him? Or would it just further separate the pro-war from the antiwar votes?
Aboard the 'Straight Talk Express' -- No one cracked a bottle of Champagne on its nose. No one cut a ribbon. Perhaps that was because the maiden voyage of John McCain’s new campaign plane was missing one vital ingredient: the senator himself.
McCain's new 95-seat Boeing 737-400 left Washington this morning carrying journalists and staffers to Harrisburg, Pa., where McCain had spent the night. The plane, paid for by the campaign (media riders reimburse the campaign for their shares), had been refurbished to re-create an airborne version of the Straight Talk Express bus, McCain's signature campaign vehicle, and replaced a plane leased from Jet Blue.
As always, press rides in the back, Secret Service agents in the middle cabin, and the candidate in first class. To replicate the horseshoe shaped banquette of the bus, where the candidate engages in free-wheeling discussions with reporters, one of the forward cabins has been modified to include a captain’s chair for McCain and a straight banquette for the press. FAA regulations require clear aisles, so a curved bench was out.
The plane's outer shell was repainted, as well, with McCain’s motto "Reform, Prosperity, Peace" on the side and the campaign's Web address -- www.johnmccain.com -- on the blue-and-gold tail. McCain got his first ride for the short hop from Harrisburg to Allentown, Pa., and apparently missed some of the most salient exterior décor.
"I thought it just says 'Straight Talk Express,' " he told reporters who asked how it felt to see his name emblazoned on the tail. "Whoops. I feel wonderful ... Maybe it’s a little added free publicity, I don’t know, at various airports."
There is one thing he’ll miss about his old Jet Blue-leased plane, though, and he’ll be feeling the loss starting Tuesday, when he is scheduled to fly from Indianapolis to Cartagena, Colombia, for a trip that will include a stop in Mexico.
"In interest of full disclosure," said McCain, "you know we used to have television sets on Jet Blue, and I miss out on my fix."
Well this was a little long in the coming but it finally happened -- Barack Obama and Bill Clinton shared a little quality phone time earlier today. Obama communications director Robert Gibbs said Obama made the call and the two men talked for about 20 minutes as Obama rode from Kansas City, Mo., to Independence.
Obama asked Clinton to campaign with him, and for him, and Clinton agreed, though spokesmen for the men didn't break out who spoke for how long during those 20 minutes. The Swamp has a bit of it here too.
Clinton's communications director, Matt McKenna, described the call as "a very good conversation" and said Clinton "renewed his offer to do whatever he can to ensure Sen. Obama is our next president. President Clinton continues to be impressed by Senator Obama and the campaign he has run, and looks forward to campaigning for and with him in the months to come."
Added Obama spokesman Bill Burton: "Senator Obama had a terrific conversation with President Clinton and is honored to have his support in this campaign. He has always believed that Bill Clinton is one of this nation's great leaders and most brilliant minds, and looks forward to seeing him on the campaign trail and receiving his counsel in the months to come."
So what's that you see in the rearview mirror? Looks like South Carolina.
Obama, of course, has made a splash by raising a boatload of money from individual donors while professing to eschew cash from the "politics as usual" crowd. Clinton was less discriminating in her cash sources. But how does Obama heal the party and move forward if he winds up telling big Clinton supporters such as Sant Chatwal that he might not want his money? As the Swamp put it:
"Obama's in an awkward spot. At the moment anyway, he doesn't need Clinton's money -- though campaign money is like good pitching in baseball: You can never, ever have enough. But Obama does need the goodwill of the Clinton faction of the Democratic Party and that means ego massages for Chatwal and company. How Obama handles this kind of, what some would regard as, compromising outreach could help voters decide if indeed he represents 'change we can believe in.' "
Neither John McCain norBarack Obama will be inclined to dwell on this, but different as they are in so many obvious ways, similarities between the two are beginning to stack up.
Both are left-handed (indeed, as the New York Sun's Russell Bermanrecently detailed, it now appears certain that for the fifth time in the last 35 years, a southpaw will be president).
Both swear by the Ernest Hemingway novel in which the flawed American hero volunteers to fight in the Spanish Civil War, "For Whom the Bells Tolls." [Thanks, commenters, for correcting the title. Mea culpa, mea culpa.]
And both have an affinity for lucky charms.
McCain's superstitious nature long has been remarked upon; The Washington Post's Dana Milbank wrote this piece about it during the 2000 Republican primary race.
Obama's comparable proclivity gained attention last week, when while campaigning in New Mexico he pulled out a pocketful of trinkets to show some voters. In doing so, he struck an international chord.
Obama's tokens included a small monkey king replica, and in India they took notice. As a Sunday post in the Chicago Tribune's Swamp blog noted, "the charm is presumed to be an image of Hanuman, Hinduism's popular monkey god."
Nor does the tale end there, as the item relates; check it out here.
Don't you hate it when old Navy guys just can't get along? John McCain took a swipe at Jimmy Carter the other day in an interview, with the transcript getting posted over at the Las Vegas Sun earlier today. As the folks at CNN's Politicker point out, it's not just a gratuitous political shot, since McCain has been trying to tie Obama to Carter, generally considered by the right (and quite a few centrists) to have been an ineffectual president.
But the comments are a bit jarring. McCain was asked by interviewer Jon Ralston, a Nevada political observer and blogger, about Yucca Mountain and nuclear waste and Carter's decision to end reprocessing, which McCain held up as a possible solution to the nuke waste problem.
"Q: You know why he did that then? "A: Yes, because Carter was a lousy president .... This is the same guy who kissed Brezhnev ...."
Ralston also asked McCain whether his call for a gas tax holiday for the summer amounted to pandering. "I don’t think so. When I meet a guy who owns two trucks that run on diesel, who says he's going out of business, but may not have to if he is spared the 24-and-half-cent tax, which goes to things like a bridge to nowhere in Alaska." Ralston pointed out a Republican (actually it was two, Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young) proposed that bridge. "As you know," McCain replied, "I've taken on Republicans and Democrats. Some of them dislike me intensely and some of them still won't endorse me."
Among the concerns some of Hillary Clinton female backers have with Barack Obama is the perception that he can slide into misogynist comments at the blink of an eye. And as we mentioned in an earlier post today, he made an odd, unplanned comment about women and heels during his Unity moment of rapprochement with Clinton. (The Swamp looks at Obama and John McCain on women's rights.)
This is from the transcript of the appearance: "[B]ecause of the campaign that Hillary Clinton waged, my daughters and all of your daughters will forever know that there is no barrier to who they are and what they can be in the United States of America. They can take for granted that women can do anything that the boys can do (cheers begin) -- and do it better, and do it in heels. I still (Obama laughs) -- I still don't know how she does it in heels."
Clinton laughed with him, but for a guy with some pretty good political instincts -- or who has at least hired people with good political instincts -- it was an odd verbal cul de sac to turn into. Remember, Obama caught some serious flak a few weeks back by dismissing a Michigan television reporter with a "sweetie." And he was criticized during a debate performance for another off-the-cuff comment about Clinton being "likable enough." Now he falls into the faux-joke of expressing amazement that a woman can outperform a man despite wearing heels.
UPDATE: Tommy Vietor, Obama spokesman, says via e-mail that although Obama didn't cite Ann Richards, that was the genesis of his comment: "Sen. Obama was referencing Ann Richards' famous quote: 'Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels.' Certainly Gov. Richards didn't mean [to] make that comment, as you described, as a 'faux-joke of expressing amazement that a woman can outperform a man despite wearing heels,' and it's disappointing that you'd draw that cynical conclusion."
Fair enough. But Vietor -- like many posters below -- missed the point of the blog item. For a candidate with past troubles with off-the-cuff comments on gender, it struck us as an odd comment. Some took offense; many did not (read the comments for a rather scathing discussion). Remember, this is a political blog, where we write about the political implications of campaign events and appearances.
Well, they did it, though it would have been quite the surprise if they hadn't after all the build up. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton shared the stage in Unity, New Hampshire, a few minutes ago and sought to put their often contentious pasts behind them and focus their supporters on the general election. (See video below.)
Given the goal of the day -- unity -- it wasn't a time to break out new policy, and Obama didn't. They essentially made nice, smiled a lot, sang each other's praises and then tried to rally the troops (The Swamp has a take on this, too).
And the coziness of the day began before they even left Washington, reports our colleague Noam Levey, who traveled with them. Obama and Clinton shared a half-embrace on the tarmac at Washingto
current schedule for John McCain's campaign, you'll still notice something very revealing:
Graham and 
