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.
We've got about seven weeks to go until the Democrats' nominating convention and eight until the GOP's -- and in politics years (sort of like dog years), that's a lifetime. That's an endless summer of stump speeches by the candidates, not to mention even more opportunities for those off-the-cuff comments by the candidates' surrogates that can cause the political equivalent of a fender-bender that ends up clogging the 405 for miles.
Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard chairwoman who is a top advisor to (and surrogate for) GOP presumptive nominee John McCain, attempted to engage in a little damage control today ...
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....
This is another in The Ticket's continuing series of items called In His/Her Own Words, in which we dedicate the entire story to the full text of someone's remarks in politics.
This one is the complete text of Sen. McCain's first weekly radio address today, intended as a regular feature of his general election campaign to become president -- and to get the chance to give his own weekly presidential radio addresses that not that many people actually listen to but that have become a regular PR tool for White House residents for putting out a particular message they want to be seen/heard talking about.
Here's the text of today's McCain radio remarks:
"Good morning. I'm John McCain, and this week I've been on the road in Colorado, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. I've been holding town hall meetings to talk over the subject on most everyone's minds these days -- our slowing economy.
"More than 400,000 Americans have lost their jobs since December, and the rate of new job creation has fallen sharply. Americans are worried about the security of their current job, and they're worried that they, their kids and their neighbors may not find good jobs and new opportunities in the future.
"It's a big problem when gasoline, food and other necessities of life carry the price tag of luxury goods, and that's what it feels like to millions of Americans.
"I have a plan to grow this economy, and it starts with getting a handle on the cost of gasoline and regaining America's energy ...
Ticket readers no doubt remember our item the other day about German Chancellor Angela Merkel sending out a spokesman to express "great skepticism as to whether it is appropriate to bring an election campaign being fought not in Germany but in the United States to the Brandenburg Gate."
It's a really nice-looking gate all right, not in the Wyoming sense, but in that monolithic, stone European horses-and-chariots sense. In fact, the Brandenburg has horses on top.
It would make a terrific backdrop for some freshman senator from Illinois with not that much foreign affairs experience to be seen giving a speech on, say, foreign affairs.
Ronald Reagan, who was also from Illinois, spoke there as a sitting president, not someone running for it. And when he went against his advisors' urgings and called on Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall, the gate was a symbol of the Cold War.
Today, it's a symbol of German unity. But to Americans, it just looks really foreign -- in large part because nothing in the United States would be allowed to stand like that for 219 years.
Not without being rezoned for lofts.
Foreign-looking is all an American candidate really needs anyway.
Friday, just two days after the Germans seemed to ...
Well, one sure way to get "NASCAR Dads" to pay attention to your political campaign is get your name on one of the cars.
The Swamp tipped us to an item that Sports Illustrated is reporting:Barack Obama is on the verge of sponsoring a car at a race in August. The metaphor potential is huge -- everything from leading pole-to-pole to hitting a wall and not finishing.
Obama earlier was flirting with campaigning at a NASCAR event, but this takes it one step better. Though there are pitfalls. The car, BAM 39, reportedly is a Toyota, which likely won't sit well with the United Auto Workers.
An announcement is expected within a couple of weeks, SI reports, though in keeping with a practiced political observer's skepticism, believe it when it happens.
(UPDATE: The announcement came sooner than two weeks and SI was wrong. Obama spokesman Bill Burton said Friday evening the campaign won't be sponsoring a NASCAR entry. "The Obama campaign will not be sponsoring a car in the Sprint Cup series," Burton said, "though we will continue to look for ways to reach out to voters and convey Senator Obama’s message of change.” And he didn't mean tires.)
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.)
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
Of course, there's a little more space between them on what to do about it.
Reporters asked McCain about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during a Thursday avail in Belleville, Mich., west of Detroit, and he repeated his belief that "they must not fail." But a federal bailout? Not so fast: "I will be looking at all the options ... and at this time I don’t think that there is a requirement for a government bailout. So we will have to discuss the options that are available in order to keep it viable. And that’s what I would hope that we could do with various experts and people of knowledge throughout the country."
Obama, whose theme Thursday was the women's vote -- including an appearance with Hillary Clinton -- didn't get that question from his traveling press crew. That's primarily because he didn't take any questions from his traveling press crew (those pesky reporters -- they keep wanting to ask about things that aren't on the daily script).
But Obama advisor Jason Furmanissued a statement that Obama believes "the challenges facing Fannie and Freddie are part of the broader weakness in our economy." He blamed President Bush, saying "willful neglect" by the White House of trouble in the housing market and other sectors of the economy let the problems fester to crisis stage. Then he pushed Obama's call for immediate congressional action to help homeowners caught in the bind, and at risk of foreclosure.
But a government bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? A little closer than McCain -- maybe. "Obama believes we must maintain the flow of capital for mortgages and protect homeowners from foreclosure," Furman said.
Whatever that means. We asked the campaign if Obama thinks a bailout should be in the cards. We'll update when we hear back. And meanwhile, The Swamp takes a look at the foibles of Fannie and Freddie, too. And here are some details on exactly what Fannie and Freddie do.
UPDATE: Obama spokesman Bill Burton just released this statement, which essentially repeats Furman's comment and doesn't address the issue of federal intervention: "Sen. Obama has long believed we should take all necessary steps to ensure affordable home ownership for millions of American families, and that includes an essential role for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Nearly a year ago, Sen. Obama called for a major response to the housing crisis and significant relief for struggling homeowners. It took Sen. McCain three different tries to figure out a real response to the housing crisis, and his current plan does nothing to help more than two million homeowners who are facing foreclosure."
That Barack Obama jog toward the political center now that he's won the Democratic nomination appears to have turned into a full-fledged dash today. And there's a lot of folks on the left side of his party that are unhappy.
But, to be Chicago kind of candid, whatcha gonna do about it?
Today, the freshman senator from Illinois voted in favor of the FISA bill that provides retroactive legal protection to cooperating telecom companies that helped the feds eavesdrop on overseas calls. Up until a few weeks ago -- let's see, that would be shortly after the last primaries settled the Democratic nomination and terminated what's-her-name's once frontrunning campaign -- Obama adamantly opposed the bill. "Unequivocally" was the word his people used.
"Barack will support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said last fall. In December, as ABC's Jake Tapper notes, Obama's office said: “Sen. Obama unequivocally opposes giving retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies and has cosponsored Sen. Dodd's efforts to remove that provision from the FISA bill."
In February, Obama voted for an amendment to carve the retroactive immunity out of the measure. And he said: "I am proud to stand with Sen. Dodd, Sen.Feingold and a grass-roots movement of Americans who are refusing to let President Bush put protections for special interests ahead of our security and our liberty. There is no reason why telephone companies should be given blanket immunity to cover violations of the rights of the American people."
Let's see, those statements were all made during that endless Democratic primary season.
After June 4, Obama said: "It is a close call for me, but I think the current legislation with exclusivity provision that says that a president -- whether George Bush, myself or John McCain -- can’t make up rationales for getting around FISA court, can’t suggest that somehow that there is some law that stands above the laws passed by Congress in engaging in warrantless wiretaps."
Never mind that it's confusing. It's supposed to be. Yes, he's usually a real good talker. But he wanted to avoid providing a clear-cut quote for future use against himself. Bottom line, today Obama voted for the measure he has so long opposed. So he was against the bill before he was for the bill.
And guess what? His primary primary opponent,Hillary Clinton from the Empire State, the one who got ditched by much of the Democratic left in favor of this new guy from Illinois who had no visible warts, she voted against the bill. Talk about retroactive regret by some.
"It's ironic so far, I suppose," one commentor wrote on OpenLeft today, "that Clinton is of late a more reliable ally than Obama." Over at Wake up America they provided a detailed accounting of the excoriating of Obama by alleged supporters on the candidate's own website.
With his vote unnecessary for victory, Sen. McCain spent the day in Ohio, of all places, which just happens to be the state that Republicans do not win the White House without. If you get our drift.
On Tuesday night, "Access Hollywood" broadcast the firsttwo segments of its four-part interview with Barack Obama and his family, taped on July 4 during a campaign stop in Butte, Mont. Parts 3 and 4 will air today and Thursday.
As we noted here and here, the Illinois senator and his wife, Michelle, have -- for the most part -- kept daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, away from photographers' lenses and reporters' tape recorders, but they agreed to the girls' on-camera appearance on the syndicated gossip show.
Now, on CBS' "Early Show" this morning, Dad looks like he's having second thoughts.
Russ Mitchell, "Early Show" co-host: Senator, on another note, we're seeing your kids out on the campaign trail more, we've seen them on television as well. Will we see them more as the campaign moves forward?
Obama: No, I don't think so. You know, we had a unique situation in Montana where it was Malia's birthday, and all of us, I think, got caught up in the festivities, and so they had a chance to be their adorable selves on TV, but generally, we've been very protective of them. You know, in retrospect, I think, you know, if you'd asked me, we probably wouldn't have done it then, we wouldn't do it again.
Why not? Maybe it was Sasha's revelation, when told they'd be getting ice cream after the interview, that "my dad doesn't like sweets." (To which the Democratic presidential candidate -- mindful, perhaps, of not alienating a vast majority of the American public -- quickly responded: "I like pie.")
Update: The topic came up on all three network morning shows. Asked by Diane Sawyer of ABC's "Good Morning America" if he was sorry he and his wife agreed to the interview, Obama replied: "A little bit of a pause, Michelle and I, particularly given the way that it sort of went around the cable stations. I don't think it's healthy, and it's something that we'll be avoiding in the future." And on NBC's "Today" show, which has the same corporate parent (NBC Universal) as "Access Hollywood," Obama told Matt Lauer: "We wouldn't do it again, and we won't be doing it again."
Every day, the presidential candidates face probing questions about their plans and policies from the reporters who travel almost everywhere with them. On the weekends, they're grilled by the moderators of the Sunday talk shows. So it must have been a real change of pace for Barack Obama when he sat down in Butte, Mont., over the Fourth of July weekend with “Access Hollywood.”
Yes, the syndicated gossip show that normally brings you the latest in the tabloid-friendly lives of Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spearsis presenting an interview with the Democrats' nominee-in-waiting and his wife, Michelle, along with their children, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7.
The Obamas have kept the girls out of the media spotlight, but Associated Press reports that they allowed "Access Hollywood" to talk with Malia and Sasha. Perhaps it's because interviewer Maria Menounos is no Tim Russert. If the excerpts sent out by the show are any guide, forget any talk of troop drawdowns or sky-high gas prices. Instead, think fashion and fun and Barack's old slacks.
On his newfound status as a style icon, the Illinois senator says: “I’m baffled by this whole thing myself, because I hate to shop.” (That's true, daughter Malia tells Menounos; on one shopping trip, her father "bought three pairs of black pants and the same jacket in green, brown and black.")
Michelle Obama says she keeps the romance alive in their 15-year marriage by telling her husband that she is proud of him. Sasha and Malia like it, she says, when "Mommy and Daddy hold hands." (Awwww.)
And Malia offers a suggestion to the candidate for wooing young people. After he greeted one of her friends with a formal handshake, she says, she told her dad: "You really don't shake kids' hands that much. ... You just wave or say hi."
The four-part interview -- an excerpt is here -- will be broadcast over three nights this week starting Tuesday.
-- Leslie Hoffecker
Photo credit: "Access Hollywood"; Maria Menounos (second from right) with Malia (left), Sasha, Michelle and Barack Obama
Libertarian Party presidential nominee Bob Barr is making the rounds of the Sunday talk shows (last week it was "Fox News Sunday"; today it was ABC's "This Week"), hoping his anti-big-government message will resonate with voters fed up with what he calls "the nanny state."
And just what is the nanny state? "It is a federal government that has become so big that it has stifled individual liberty and freedom in this country," he told ABC's George Stephanopoulos. "And Americans realize that."
Barr, who was elected to Congress in the "Republican Revolution" of 1994, came to national prominence 10 years ago ...
Yesterday, we noted the suggestion, by the Baltimore Sun's Paul West, that Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island would be a strong vice presidential pick for Sen. Barack Obama.
Today, perhaps coincidentally (and perhaps not), Reed -- whose national profile until now has been equal to the position of his home state as the smallest in the U.S. -- appeared on ABC's "This Week" as a surrogate for the Democrats' presumptive nominee.
Well, now he'll have a date for the inaugural ball -- though there are still a few hurdles left to getting an invitation. But Charlie Crist, Florida governor and a high entry on most lists of potential Republican veep contenders, is getting married.
Our cousins at The Swamp and the Central Florida Political Pulse have the details. The
bride-to-be and
Crist's flame of the past nine months is Carole Rome, 38, president of her family's century-old costume business, where some of the costumes are of the variety not likely to go over well with the Christian right (may we direct you to Devilicious and Marie Antoinette). Rome and ex-husband, Todd Rome, CEO of Blue Star Jets, have two children, ages 11 and 9. Crist, 51, was married briefly in his early 20s and has no children.
Crist says they're planning a fall wedding in St. Petersburg, where he lives, though that calendar could get awfully crowded if John McCain taps him. And if the Republicans believe Crist on the ticket can land them Florida, you can bet they'll be lobbying hard, though the last word was that Mitt Romney was topping the contender list.
Crist, you'll remember on this day set aside for barbecuing, was one of the trio that McCain invited to his Arizona spread on Memorial Day weekend, the launch of barbecue season, for a little R&R and presumed political talk. Romney and Bobby Jindal were the other two touted guests, all considered to be under consideration by McCain as possible running mates.
-- Scott Martelle
Photo: Carole Rome with Charlie Crist; credit: Associated Press
On the Fourth of July, our thoughts naturally turn to those words penned by Thomas Jefferson and first read aloud on the square behind Independence Hall in Philadelphia 232 years ago today:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
So what would Jefferson, a noted slave-owner, have thought about the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama?
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 ...
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.
New job numbers out today evidence more pain -- some of it to be felt around here -- with companies cutting 62,000 payroll slots in June, the sixth consecutive month the economy has shed jobs. The cuts were slightly more than the 60,000 economists had expected, and the unemployment rate held steady at 5.5 %.
The Labor Department announcement elicited dueling statements from John McCain and Barack Obama, pasted in full after the jump. But in a nutshell, McCain says the federal government must "enact policies to create jobs today. To get our economy back on track, we must enact a jobs-first economic plan that supports job creation, provide immediate tax relief for families, enact a plan to help those facing foreclosure, lower health care costs, invest in innovation, move toward strategic energy independence and open more foreign markets to our goods."
Obama cited the 438,000 jobs lost this year and similarly called for immediate action, but a different prescription: "I'm calling on Congress and the President to enact real, immediate relief with energy rebates for working families this summer, a fund to help families avoid foreclosure, extended benefits for the long-term jobless, and assistance to states that have been hard-hit by the economic downturn."
McCain is in Mexico today, and apparently will be unveiling a new "Jobs First" agenda in Denver on Monday, an ironic confluence the Democrats have been working hard to spotlight,including an email from the Democratic National Committee's Brad Woodhouse to reporters suggesting "maybe for his own sake [McCain] should stop going to places like Michigan and telling folks their jobs aren't coming back while going to Mexico and promoting Jobs First - just a thought."
Political -- and Batman -- junkies probably already know about Sen. Patrick Leahy's little infatuation with Bruce Wayne's alter ego, Batman. He loves the character, and all those colorful evil incarnates, like the Riddler, the Penguin and the Joker. Leahy has even talked his way into cameo roles in Batman movies, and in "The Dark Knight," which opens July 18, Leahy gets himself roughed up by the Joker's goons. Bam! Pow! Ooof!
So strong is the Democratic Vermont senator's infatuation that he wrote the introduction for a 1992 book collecting some of the Batman comics, "The Dark Knight Archive," and has done voice-overs for childrens' Batman cartoons. And on July 12, Leahy will play host to a special premiere of "The Dark Knight" in that hot spot of Hollywood's elite, Montpelier, Vt. The proceeds will go to a local library that has named a wing after him. Leahy, that is, not Batman.
So as we head into the long Fourth of July weekend (that phrase is a journalism cue that it's a slow news day, at least at the moment), we wonder what other politicians might harbor secret infatuations with fictional crusaders, caped and otherwise? Or even better, what superhero might actually dwell beneath those dark (pant)suits?
Maybe John McCain in his, shall we say, crankier moments, as The Hulk? Barack Obama channeling The Flash? Hillary Clinton as Wonder Woman -- the first major female superhero? John Edwards as Batman's sidekick, Robin?
And they don't have to be the heroes. Go ahead and link politicians up with your favorite bad guys, too.
The Republican National Committee has spun off its own independent expenditure committee and plans an initial $3 million ad buy targeting Barack Obama in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Politico reports.
Why the separate group?
Brad Todd, who will run the effort, blamed Obama in a statement to Politico:
"Following Barack Obama's decision to become the only major party presidential candidate in history to not adhere to campaign spending caps, the Republican National Committee has begun an independent expenditure campaign in accordance with FEC regulations."
Under federal law there are no limits on how much the group can spend, though it cannot coordinate efforts with John McCain's campaign or the RNC. Still, both have helped to raise some of the funds that will launch the new effort.
So now we know where the RNC will be funneling some of its cash advantage over the Democratic National Committee to try to compensate for the record-breaking fundraising Obama has enjoyed. And the decision to target those Rust-Belt states underscores the GOP view that Obama is vulnerable in that part of the nation. Three of the four -- Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin -- went Democratic in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections.
Lot of white working-class men and women in those states, which account for 68 electoral votes.
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.
Our colleague Dan Morain chatted up American Values' Gary Bauer Tuesday about gay marriage and Barack Obama's letter stating his opposition to a California ballot initiative (John McCain supports it). Morain points out that two other states will have similar measures on their fall ballot -- Arizona and Florida. While polls show California pretty safe for Obama and Arizona similarly so for McCain, a gay-marriage fight in Florida could have scale-tipping consequences.
Bauer, founder of the conservative Campaign for Working Families political action committee, said he hasn't decided whether to donate to California's "incredibly important" measure. "If the pro-same-sex marriage forces cannot win in California and Florida, it means that the people of this country still are resistant to radical social change," Bauer said.
Bauer said he was "somewhat heartened when Barack Obama said … that it should be a state decision" but that given Obama's recent statements opposing the California measure, "the idea that he is agnostic about this question doesn’t hold up any more."
"It is a major difference between the two candidates," Bauer said. "Before it is all over, we’ll have a great debate on tax policy, on foreign policy and on this fundamental question of what is the status of marriage."
Bauer said that John McCain and Barack Obama "did not seem far apart a few months ago" on gay marriage. "Now they are quite at odds with each other. It is something that voters in other states are looking at. When you have a significant number of other states that have voted to preserve marriage, it is the sort of thing that could hurt Obama."
Most significant: Obama "has very much been making a play for evangelical voters, suggesting that there would be no reason that an evangelical should vote against him. It becomes harder to make that case."
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.
Further evidence that the economy is taking a severe beating: Starbucks is closing 600 outlets and could cut 12,000 jobs as customer visits have declined. True addicts see Starbucks coffee as their lifeblood but for most people it's a luxury, and with the economy moribund and a gallon of gas costing more than a latte, people are deciding it's a luxury they can do without.
Now we're sure there will be snarky comments posted here about Barack Obama supporters going into withdrawals, shaking behind the wheel of their Volvos. But 12,000 cut jobs is a big hit, and judging by the staffs you see at the stores, it will put a lot of college kids, or young adults in that general age group, out of work. Add them to the already unemployed construction workers, auto workers -- just fill in the blank ________.
Yes, the Iraq war is a crucial issue for the nation, and the world. But poll after poll shows that at least for now, four months away from election day, it's the economy that has people's attention. And news like this will keep it alive until the picture improves.
The question for Obama and John McCain is who can forge the better -- or at least more convincing -- policy proposals.
While John McCain was jetting south, Barack Obama went to Ohio today and chatted up his belief in the Bush Administration's
faith-based initiative. Our colleagues at Countdown to Crawford delve into it here.
The unusual thing is that Obama has made a point of saying a first McCain term would be little more than a third Bush term, but then he goes and gloms onto a signature issue of the Bush years (admittedly of less note than some otherissues from the Bush years).
And Obama accented his support for the program in a session with reporters, with our colleague Peter Nicholas in the scrum. Obama was asked whether he would elevate the faith-based initiative to the cabinet level:
"I want this to be central to our White House mission. Just as I want a White House office on poverty to be -- which I've already discussed previously, and urban policy -- to be part of high level discussion in the White House.
"So whether we're actually creating a new cabinet position or we're simply making sure this person has a direct line to me and is working with all the cabinet officers to coordinate faith-based initiatives, we'll figure out the organization as we move forward in the context of our overall White House organization. But the important principle is that using the talents and the gifts of the kinds of folks who are here at Eastside Community Ministries -- their passion and commitment to empower the community -- making sure they can compete for the resources that are made available by the federal government to reduce poverty or help children or feed the hungry or house the homeless -– that we are getting those resources on the ground so that the people who are closest to those in need are able to access them. That is going to be a central principle of our administration.''
McCain addressed the issue in an interview in April, saying that he believed Bush's faith-based initiatives had "done very well," our colleague Maeve Reston reports. But he said he was less glowing, saying he would assess the program's effectiveness before making any decision on changes to it. But McCain cited the faith-based response to Katrina as particularly note-worthy:
"They didn’t get a heck of a lot of government help, but they got some government help, and some of the people that I talked to in those neighborhoods said they [the groups] were very effective in helping the people of New Orleans restore their daily lives."
"So I think there’s many examples of where faith-based organizations have been very successful," McCain continued. "There are times when they haven't -– so you learn the lessons. But I think the overall experiment has probably been good for America."
--Scott Martelle Photo credit: Jae C. Hong/Associated Press
What sparked this dominance? The Unity, N.H., appearance by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. It's a bit surprising, though, that the role of Bill Clinton was so light compared to the other mentions, since the former president is the major subtext to the Clinton campaign and Democratic unity.
According to the Project for Excellence in Journalism, "The wide gap in coverage between Obama and McCain can be attributed to several factors. In addition to Obama's efforts to unite his party, other story lines continued to generate press attention. Last week, James Dobson's accusation that the Democratic hopeful's view of the Bible is distorted -- and Obama's response -- filled 6% of the news hole. Rumors about Obama's religion coupled with Karl Rove's charge that he is an elitist helped lift various controversies surrounding Obama and his campaign to 11% of the coverage last week."
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."
