Our co-blogger over on the Technology blog, Jim Puzzanghera, has dug up an interesting new device in Washington -- yes, there are some. Or can be.
It seems the Sunlight Foundation, which seeks to explain the workings of Congress -- good luck with that one, too -- has come up with some way to pore through all of the blather uttered on the floors of the Senate and House every day.
And then their magic program distills it all down into one word each day.
We'd have some nominees here on The Ticket, but we're not allowed to publish those. Tuesday's Sunlight Foundation distilled word was, for instance, "health."
This letter is from John McCain's campaign manager Rick Davis this morning to Barack Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe:
"Dear Mr. Plouffe,
"Thank you for responding to our proposal. Just to reiterate, we have proposed at least ten joint town hall meetings once a week until the week before the Democratic Convention begins. As we understand your counter-proposal, you have proposed only one town hall meeting before the Democratic Convention.
"In keeping with our original proposal, we are planning a joint town hall meeting in Minnesota next Thursday evening (June 19, 2008). We will hold time on our schedule for joint town halls every Thursday night until the Democratic Convention. I hope Sen. Obama would reconsider his position and agree to join Senator McCain as early as next week.
"We have also today accepted the invitation from Mrs. Ronald Reagan, Lynda Johnson Robb and Luci Baines Johnson to attend town hall meetings in July at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library. As Mrs. Johnson said, these town halls will truly be an opportunity to "deliberate the great issues of our time." Their sponsorship certainly meets our standards for a positive and productive opportunity for voters to interact with the candidates. I hope you will agree.
"However, at this moment, we fear that our negotiations over joint town hall meetings are turning into a debate about process. That is exactly what we have always hoped to avoid, and why we proposed a town hall format that would render many of these process issues moot. As Sen. Obama has said, he is prepared to meet 'anywhere, anytime' for a town hall.
"We remain committed to this idea because joint town hall meetings offer the best format for presenting both candidates' visions for our country's future in a substantive way. We have a chance to change the way presidential elections are run and elevate the political dialogue. Americans deserve this kind of opportunity, and we hope that Sen. Obama will join us at town hall meetings throughout the summer months."
This from Plouffe:
"Barack Obama offered to meet John McCain at five joint appearances between now and Election Day—the three traditional debates plus a joint town hall on the economy in July and an in-depth debate on foreign policy in August. That package of five engagements would have been the most of any Presidential campaign in the modern era -- offering a broad range of formats -- and representing a historic commitment to openness and transparency.
"It's disappointing that Senator McCain and his campaign decided to decline this proposal. Apparently they would rather contrive a political issue than foster a genuine discussion about the future of our country.
"Sen. Obama believes that the American people deserve an open and accessible debate as they choose between real change and four more years of failed Bush policies, and he welcomed McCain’s invitation to offer voters 'the rare opportunity of witnessing candidates for the highest office in the land discuss civilly and extensively the great issues at stake in the election.'"
Now, doesn't this new kind of politics make you feel positively warm and fuzzy? And stuck in a time warp?
On this, the first anniversary of our Top of the Ticket blog, we are reminded of the mercurial, unpredictable nature of U.S. politics -- part of what makes what we do so fascinating.
Our goal -- one of us on the East Coast and the other on the far more important or at least less humid West Coast -- was to write about Campaign '08 virtually around the clock.
Our second-ever posting, 12 months ago today, previewed an upcoming L.A. Times/Bloomberg Poll; later in the day, we detailed the results of the nationwide survey. The findings were in line with other polls of the time.
In the Republican presidential race, which then seemed the most likely to last deep into the primary season, Rudy Giuliani was perched in first place. His lead wasn't overwhelming, but it was strong enough that he appeared certain to remain a major contender.
His liberal record on social issues loomed as an obvious liability within his party, but his tough-on-terrorism message was attracting substantial support from moderates and GOP-leaning independents.
His major headache among rivals last June was an as-yet-undeclared candidate who was riding a wave as the great conservative hope -- Fred Thompson. He ran a strong second in the poll.
Lagging far behind were John McCain and Mitt Romney, each barely with double-digit support. In our preview posting, we were especially scornful of McCain, noting sarcastically (and foolishly, as it turned out) that in the poll, he found himself "in heated competition with the 'Don't Know' category."
Meriting no mention from us was Mike Huckabee, one of several back-of-the-pack candidates barely earning any support across the country.
The Democratic race, at that point, seemed so much more cut-and-dried.
Our colleague Maeve Reston reports from Baton Rouge that John McCain, the war veteran, wants a little direct engagement with Barack Obama: A series of town halls beginning June 12. The initial response from Obamaland -- not a bad idea. And apparently the two sides aren't planning much of a summer vacation.
Reston reports that McCain has raised the idea before, citing the never-held sessions agreed to between Barry Goldwater and John Kennedy for the 1964 election. McCain told supporters this morning he had sent a letter to the Obama campaign suggesting the joint appearances.
"I don’t think we need any big media-run productions, no process questions from reporters, no spin rooms -- just two Americans running for the highest office in the greatest nation on earth responding to the concerns of the people whose trust we must earn," McCain said. "I even suggested we travel to them together on the same plane; it would probably help out on energy savings. Given our expenses, I know my campaign would agree to it."
McCain wants 10 joint town-hall meetings over the summer, ending before the Democratic National Convention, each held before 200 to 400 voters with an independent moderator.
From David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager: "As Barack Obama has said before, the idea of joint town halls is appealing and one that would allow a great conversation to take place about the need to change the direction of this country. We would recommend a format that is less structured and lengthier than the McCain campaign suggests, one that more closely resembles the historic debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas. But, having just secured our party’s nomination, this is one of the many items we will be addressing in the coming days and look forward to discussing it with the McCain campaign."
Considering the little spurt of synchronicity between Obama and McCain Tuesday on transparency, we're astounded by all this agreeableness. Can it last? Um, probably not.
Sen. Barack Obama's campaign has been working overtime to finesse the nettlesome (for him) answer during one of the 5 million presidential debates in recent months that, if elected president, he would meet with the leaders of U.S. enemies without preconditions during his first year in office.
The answer has proved hugely problematic for Obama because it first gave Sen. Hillary Clinton and now Sen. John McCain openings to attack him as a foreign-policy naif.
So Obama and his surrogates are doing what one does in Congress: They are revising and extending his remarks to willing media ears, trying to fuzz the edges, as Frank James explains on the Swamp.
John McCain's campaign sent a top advisor packing after questions surfaced over his role in a 527 group -- the kind of organization that is barred from coordinating activities with political campaigns.
Consultant Craig Shirley, a public relations veteran, got the heave-ho after a reporter for Politico began asking questions about his role in the "Stop Her Now" 527 and his former spot as a paid advisor to the McCain campaign (he apparently was most recently an unpaid volunteer).
And given McCain's insistence that he represents a new kind of politics, you can expect this to echo into the fall in various incarnations. As Politico reports:
"McCain campaign manager Rick Davis moved to avoid a recurrence of the situation with his conflict-of-interest policy, released late yesterday. It also sought to stem the impression that McCain’s campaign is run by lobbyists — a characterization Democrats have tried to make since it was reported that a senior adviser, Charlie Black, made lobbying calls from McCain’s signature bus, the Straight Talk Express. Davis himself is currently on leave from his lobbying and consulting firm, and the campaign removed two other officials this week for work they’d done on behalf of Burmese junta."
No time to read a complete newspaper? Or hop around to your usual list of websites including, of course, The Ticket?
Well, we'll make this real easy for you. The clever folks over at Slate have constructed a wondrous video that tells the complete story of the Democratic race for the presidential nomination so far.
Seven minutes covering 14 months.
You must watch sharply.
And listen quickly.
But it's a hoot. You'll laugh for twice as long. Don't miss it here.
Here's a screen grab of a shot they showed on "Fox & Friends" the other morning. They were illustrating the repeated calls by New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, reported in detail on The Ticket, for a Lincoln-Douglas style debate between the two remaining Democratic presidential candidates, Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama before next week's Indiana and North Carolina primaries.
Remember we suggested in that item that it's a sure sign of someone losing when he/she seeks a "Lincoln-Douglas style debate," meaning one-on-one, no moderator, as Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas did seven times in their fabled U.S. Senate race in 1858.
By the way, do you see anything wrong with this screen shot from Fox?
Hint: That's Lincoln on the right, all right. (By the way, we know subjects were not supposed to smile in 19th century photographs. But do you think that mug would let Abe get elected in today's made-up, beautified media world?)
So the fellow on the left must be Stephen Douglas, right? The winner of that 1858 race that left Lincoln free to prepare for his successful 1860 Republican presidential run. Wrong! Old Steve D. wasn't African American for starters.
That's actually a photograph of Frederick Douglass, the 19th century black abolitionist who sure wasn't running for the Senate in 1858. Fox's producers put up the wrong guy on national TV.
But who's gonna notice on a chat-filled TV morning show? With a tip of the hat to our pals at the Swamp and MSNBC, which caught their competitor's photo flub.
He's got nothing to gain by accepting -- give in and give her more TV face time with voters when, frankly, debating hasn't been his strong suit, especially the last one when he got pressed harder. And now his good friend, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, is back on the scene talking trash and raising new questions for the media.
As a debate response, Obama says he wants to spend the remaining time until May 6 meeting real voters and hearing and addressing their genuine concerns. He says he recalls from school days that....
Barack Obama is off the clock with "Fox News Sunday," and -- 772 days after he first promised moderator Chris Wallace that he would chat on camera with him -- the result was a generally easygoing conversation notable mainly for the ability of the Democratic presidential candidate to avoid being pinned down.
Obama did give one direct answer, which Fox spotlighted on Saturday, saying that despite renewed requests from Hillary Clinton and her surrogates, he won't be sharing a stage with her for another debate before the May 6 primaries in North Carolina and Indiana. Instead, Obama said he wanted to concentrate on meeting voters in those states.
On several other topics, Obama artfully steered clear of specific answers to questions from Wallace.
He dodged saying whether he tried to personally discourage the Rev. Jeremiah Wright -- whom he pointedly referred to as his "former" pastor -- from embarking on his current round of public appearances that culminates Monday with a sold-out address at the National Press Club in Washington on Monday.
While reiterating that he was not sitting in a pew when Wright uttered the inflammatory lines that caused the political headache for Obama in March when they gained wide circulation via YouTube, he was vague about the nature of other provocative comments he has said he heard the preacher utter from the pulpit.
The CBS News anchor was looking forward to moderating a Democratic presidential candidate debate in North Carolina on Sunday, an event network executives hoped would spotlight something other than a recent spate of stories suggesting Couric may leave her post in the coming year.
But without a commitment from Sen. Barack Obama that he would participate, the North Carolina Democratic Party canceled the tentatively scheduled forum today because of “time constraints and logistical issues associated with such a large, national event,” according to a statement on the party’s website.
The party had gotten 20,000 requests for tickets, but suggested there’s a diminishing appetite among the Democratic rank-and-file for another showdown between Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton.
“You have shown tremendous passion and interest in being....
We've got something really special this morning, possibly the last Sunday this spring The Ticket will be able to use the words "Keystone State."
As you know if you've been awake at any time since Texas and Ohio, Tuesday is the Pennsylvania primary, which seems to have been "the next one" for about eight months now. To get everyone warmed up for that and the usual laugh-riot Sunday morning talk shows, The Ticket is steering loyal readers to some political humor.
Sheigh Crabtree, one of our creative LATimes.com blogging pals over at Show Tracker, has come up with a pretty hilarious collection of online political parodies. They erupted from last week's, shall we say, much-discussed Democratic debate on ABC-TV, where a former top Clinton presidential aide helped question a current Clinton presidential aspirant and her opponent for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Here's one of Show Tracker's gems, a fictitious exchange between George Stephanopoulos and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama:
STEPHANOPOULOS: "Senator Obama, your childhood friend Jimmy Choi told us that as a six-year-old boy living in Honolulu, one day you were both engaged in a typical game of cops and robbers, running around your yard with plastic guns, when suddenly little Jimmy tripped and fell.
"Before you helped little Jimmy back to his feet, you stood over him and said, "Pow! Pow! Pow!" over and over again, seemingly taking great pleasure in unloading your fake gun into your supposed friend. How can Democrats vote for a candidate who has shown, beginning at the age of six, to have such little regard for human life?"
OBAMA: "You're serious."
STEPHANOPOULOS: "Yes, Senator, I am serious. But not bitter."
CLINTON: "If I may, George, I feel Senator Obama's response, to what I consider a legitimate question, is once again indicative of an arrogance and elitism that has offended many, many hard-working and proud Pennsylvanians. By the way, Charlie, my father once shot a man dead in Scranton just to watch him die."
You can also nominate your own favorite parody at Show Tracker. But, first, check out this newly uncovered ABC-TV program promotion video just below. Then, click here to visit Show Tracker.
Hillary Clinton (to start the show) and Barack Obama (to end it) made brief (very brief) appearances on "The Colbert Report" tonight. But it was the Democratic rival they left in the dust almost three months ago -- John Edwards -- who stole the show.
Edwards strolled onto Stephen Colbert's set to punctuate the point the comic was making that in a race between a woman and a black, the key to success in their battles has hinged -- and presumably will continue to depend -- on which one white men support.
It's about time this demographic ruled, Colbert smirked. And Edwards quipped that no white male voter is being "more vigorously courted than this one."
He began his shtick by reiterating that he remains undecided -- and provided some elaboration as to why. On the one hand, he said, he doesn't want to be seen as "anti-hope." With fine timing, he added: "On the other hand, I don't want James Carville to bite me."
He then detailed some expected -- and unexpected -- ways that Clinton or Obama might win him over.
A commitment to ending poverty in 30 years -- his prime platform -- was mentioned. But so was comping him a jet-ski (and maybe two, so his wife, Elizabeth, could join the fun). And he'd like to be assigned to spy duty ... and get his face on new money ... and have national holidays declared for each of his three children.
No word from Clinton on meeting this wish list, since her walk-on had ...
ABC anchorman Charles Gibson, in previewing the campaign story on the network's evening news show tonight, cooly and impassively (or was there a trace of a smile?) noted that in the aftermath of Wednesday's debate between the Democratic presidential contenders, "the questions themselves drew criticism."
That, of course, was putting it mildly.
As this post in our Showtracker blog details, debate has raged among mainstream media commentators and in the blogosphere over the appropriateness of many of the queries posed by Gibson and George Stephanopoulos -- especially the latter's inquiries about Barack Obama's association with a college professor in his hometown of Chicago who once was a notorious, bomb-planting radical.
To read more about how ABC covered itself on its evening news program -- the top-rated one among the big three -- see here. What caught our interest was not only Obama's bid to turn the tenor of the debate to his advantage (why not, though traditionally, such efforts fall short), but his campaign's effort to raise money off it. Also intriguing was the reaction of an old pro -- a certain former president with a particular interest in this year's race -- to the complaints about the debate that emanated from the Obama camp.
The money quote from Obama today, as he campaigned in North Carolina, concerned ...
Wow, now we know why some of these folks are perennial candidates for president!
Campaigning for president has been very good in the money department for the 46-year-old Illinois senator and Democratic Party presidential candidate Barack Obama.
With most of the media and public attention focused on Philadelphia on Wednesday and the last nationally-televised debate between Obama and his rival, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, before Tuesday's important Pennsylvania primary, the Obama campaign quietly released the family's tax returns.
They showed his household income with Michelle more than quadrupled in the one year between 2006 and 2007, multiplying from $991,296, which wasn't all that bad, in 2006 to a whopping $4.2 million in 2007.
Clearly, the campaign worried that numerous detailed stories about the candidate's sudden explosion in wealth could detract and...
Will the taint of the late 1960s and early '70s -- at least as it affects mainstream politics -- ever fade?
Barack Obama, who was grade-school age during the peak of the counter culture, could be excused for muttering that question to himself after Wednesday night's debate in Philadelphia on ABC-TV.
Throughout much of its first half, the faceoff with Hillary Clinton must have seemed like a root canal for him -- and no more so than when his links (however tenuous) to an extremist from the days when radicalism was often the norm on college campuses was explored.
As we noted in a running blog on the debate, questioners Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos were in a no-win situation. After a period when it seemed there was a debate every other day, almost two months had passed since the last one.
Gibson and Stephanopoulos could have ignored the various furors that have flared -- and been thoroughly covered -- over that time. But they would have been widely scorned had they done so.
So they raised the expected topics (and, as a result, have been widely scorned anyway): Rev. Jeremiah Wright's rants; the non-existent sniping in Bosnia; "bittergate."
The unexpected came when Stephanopoulos, under what he termed "the general theme of patriotism," asked Obama about "a gentleman named William Ayers (pictured above and, as a young man, below). He was part of the Weather Underground in the 1970s. They bombed the Pentagon, the Capitol, and other buildings. He's never apologized for that."
Ayers and his even more notorious wife, Bernadine Dohrn, were on the lam ...
Lots of folks are looking for some body-language clues as the ABC-sponsored debate begins. No such luck.
As the cameras click on, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are already standing at their respective podiums.
*
In a break from most of the previous debates, both candidates get to make an opening statement. And both strike a high-minded tone -- Clinton especially so. She notes that although neither she nor Obama, as a woman and a black man, were fully accounted for in the Constitution written in Philadelphia, site of the debate, their presence on the stage demonstrates the promise of America.
Obama references his now-infamous "bitter" comment. He says that as he has campaigned in Pennsylvania, he has been struck by the "core decency and generosity" of the state's residents but that he also has taken note of their "frustrations" (not bitterness) over the state of the nation.
*
After an initial question on whether whichever candidate emerges as the winner in their battle will commit to picking the other as a running mate -- and after the predictable dodge by both -- ABC's Charles Gibson cuts to the chase and asks Obama about his comment at a private fundraiser in San Francisco that small-time Americans, faced with economic frustrations, "cling" to guns and religion.
Obama repeats his refrain of the last several days that he didn't express himself artfully but that he stands by what he insists was his overarching theme -- that people are frustrated by the feeling that Washington has passed them by.
Of his original remark, he says, "It's not the first time I've made a statement that got mangled up. It won't be the last."
He then stands by, looking balefully at Clinton, as she notes (with her immediate audience of Pennsylvania voters in mind) that ...
If Hillary Clinton'shead is spinning as she goes into this evening's eagerly anticipated debate with BarackObama , it's easy to understand why. Talk about getting conflicting signals!
There was data aplenty this week showing that, as the slings and arrows have intensified in the Democratic presidential contest, her image has suffered. But then there was this advice from an ally closely linked to her now-deposed chief strategist, Mark Penn: Go on the attack, relentlessly.
First the data:
The new L.A. Times/Bloomberg poll that focused on the next three primary states -- Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Indiana -- found her credibility suffering in each among likely Democratic voters. Obama trounced her when the voters were asked which candidate had more honesty and integrity. Here are those results:
Nationally, a new Washington Post/ABC News poll found that her favorability has taken a hit. Among all those surveyed -- Democrats, Republicans and others -- Clinton's positive ratings now stand at 44%, down from 58% in January. (Obama's image also declined over that period, but not by as much. His favorability numbers went from 63% in the year's first month to 56% now.)
Reflecting on the nasty turn the Democratic contest ...
Alan Keyes, the former Republican who came within about 1,200 convention delegates of thumping Sen. Bob Dole for the GOP presidential nomination in 1996 and then came just as close to dismantling Gov. George W. Bush in 2000 for the party's White House nod, is seriously considering trying to embarrass another political party.
Keyes announced Tuesday night that he was officially leaving the Republican Party, which was relieved to hear it.
Keyes is best known recently as the former Illinois Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate singlehandedly responsible for halting the rise of a Democratic state senator there named Barack Obama. In their fabled statewide 2004 contest, Keyes came within 43 percentage points of tying Obama.
In what Keyes' website billed as a "major announcement," the outspoken abortion opponent said he was considering joining the Constitution Party.
"They're considering me, I'm considering them," Keyes told a conference call of several people Tuesday night. "We have so much in common that I find it hard to believe we won't be able to work out a common basis for working together."
The website of the Constitution Party, which has national headquarters in the well-known political hub of Lancaster, Pa., proclaims its political goal is "to restore our government to its Constitutional limits and our law to its Biblical foundations." The party holds its presidential nominating convention later this month in Kansas City, Mo., which is famous for great barbecue.
According to Keyes' very own website, he is busy these days writing books and speaking out on America's moral crisis. During a candid moment backstage at a Des Moines GOP debate in the 1999-2000 campaign, Keyes admitted to a bystander that perennially running for president was very good for boosting his speaking fees.
"Alan's stated purpose in life," his website says, "like that of America's Founders, is to provide a secure future for our posterity."
In Barack Obama's mind and within his braintrust, there must have been some temptation for him to deliver another big speech in an attempt to defuse the uproar sparked by his now-notorious effort to interpret the frustrations of small-town folk for urbane San Franciscans.
That approach, after all, worked well for him last month after the intemperate comments by his ex-pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, came to light. In the current contretemps, however, Obama has adopted a much more (dare we say it?) Clintonian response.
Since the story broke Friday afternoon, he's made a nod toward his foul-up, acknowledging that he chose his words poorly in linking an embrace of guns and religion with the bitterness some of those who live off-the-beaten-track feel about their economic plight. But mainly, he's gone on the attack, standing by the essence of his point and, on Sunday, delivering a mocking riff about Hillary Clinton.
During an appearance in Pennsylvania -- the state that gets the first crack at showing how much damage Obama has inflicted on his presidential hopes -- Obama told an audience in the town of Steelon that the outraged reactions from Clinton and Republican John McCain's campaign to his discourse on small-town attitudes is a matter of "politics being played" (gee, that's a surprise).
Obama said he expected such from McCain. But he proclaimed himself "a little disappointed" in Clinton's response. We doubt that, but it set up a refrain he then used to punctuate his defense of himself: "She knows better; shame on her."
A minuscule slice of the U.S. population -- the children of big-shot politicians -- suddenly seems to have emerged as a major influence in the spirited Democratic presidential contest.
Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, in shifting from a neutral position to an endorsement of Barack Obama, said support for the Illinois senator among his four daughters influenced his decision.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who followed Casey's lead and signed up with the Obama team, had this to say in a conference call with reporters Monday: “To continue to stay silent would be, as my 12-year-old daughter, Abigail, likes to say, ‘Awkward, Mom, awkward.’ ”
Obama obviously appreciates these shows of support (every superdelegate counts at this point in the race). But his campaign may want to consider suggesting to backers that they put a lid on calling such attention to their kiddies. Astute strategists that they are, his advisers assuredly recall that perhaps the most famed reference to a child in contemporary politics didn't work out so well.
It was during the second half of President Carter's one and only debate ...
Whatever happened to all that lovey-dovey stuff from the Democratic debates, when Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama sounded as if they were the co-presidents of the Candidates Mutual Admiration Society?
Today the Obamans railed against Clinton, with campaign manager David Plouffe calling her a "deeply flawed nominee," suggesting that if the Democrats went with her in the fall there'd be four more years of a Republican White House. "She is not seen as trustworthy by the American people," Plouffe said. "It will nearly be impossible to win a general election if more than half the electorate thinks you're untrustworthy."
The Clintonites tossed their own handful of rocks. In an unsigned e-mail to reporters this morning, the campaign accused Obama of disenfrachising voters and practicing "low-down politics" and concluded -- without citing anyone specific -- that "it’s no wonder that top journalists are calling the Obama campaign desperate, saying that it’s amateur hour in Chicago."
Apparently it pays for a presidential candidate to inject "Saturday Night Live" into a serious political dialogue, as Hillary Clinton did during her most recent debate with Barack Obama.
Clinton's gambit may have struck some of those critiquing the debate as woeful, but SNL opened its latest show with another skit depicting Obama as the media's darling --- and her as its victim. More to the point, the coda to the sketch was an "Editorial Response" -- delivered by the candidate herself.
Clinton exchanged a few quips with her SNL portrayer, Amy Poehler. The pair were dressed precisely alike; cracked Clinton, “I love your outfit. I do want the earrings back.”
Then, Clinton got to deliver the program's signature line: "Live, from New York, it's Saturday Night."
Not a bad burst of free air time as the crucial Ohio and Texas primaries approach. Indeed, while ...
The nation's political scene, as it stumbles through another leap year party nominating process, has all the trappings of a fully functioning democracy -- the banners and bunting, the overheated rhetoric, and hyperbole, the scientifically-sculpted, carefully-uttered campaign message phrases, the feigned outrage and pointed fingers for the cameras' benefit.
This process also has stale, divisive and short-term political strategies that cause and exacerbate, rather than relieve, turmoil and frictions. Proposed policies aplenty. But real, new ideas seem dessicated.
From that well-televised scene in recent years, William F. Buckley Jr., a fountain of ideas who led two generations of conservative political thinking, had left New York, sold his beloved sailboat and settled into his packed study in Sharon, Conn., to intensely compose letters, columns and books, of which he's written 55.
In that sacred private place, he thought and wrote and coughed in the short raspy breaths of emphysema and endured the regimen of diabetes, either of which could have killed him Wednesday at 82. Buckley, who was widowed last spring, was found by a cook, at his desk, where, despite the pain and short breath, he would write every day, including his last.
With a Barry Goldwater book due out this spring, Buckley was within two months of finishing a book on Ronald Reagan with his sights set on another; ironically, a collection of the 450 graceful obituaries he wrote for the magazine he founded in 1955, National Review. There, he displayed his famous wit, announcing one week after Lyndon Johnson's inauguration in 1965 that he'd lost patience with that administration. He was also famous as a sesquipedalian, someone who routinely uses long words like that.
To a generation that finds the Bee Gees ancient history, Buckley must seem a strange duck. Well-educated, well-read, well-spoken, wealthy, he almost single-handedly cradled the modern conservative movement in the early post-World War II years.
Then, through the '50s and '60s, he drove it with the power of his spoken and written words, enduring the painful but formative 1964 candidacy of Goldwater, the last Arizona Republican nominee, which ...
Hands down, the award this week goes to the top officials of the Tennessee Republican Party.
Even before conservative radio talk show host Bill Cunningham on Tuesday dramatically upped his national name recognition by making sure to invokeBarack Obama's middle name as part of a tirade against him, the Tennessee GOP leaders had employed the technique in a release criticizing the Democratic presidential contender.
And the release spotlighted words of unsolicited praise Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan had showered upon Obama -- even before the candidate was forced to grapple with the issue during his debate Tuesday night with Hillary Clinton.
The release, headlined "Anti-Semites for Obama," was issued Monday, and it sought to make the case that, in the words of Robin Smith, head of the Volunteer State's GOP, "an Obama presidency will view Israel as a problem rather than a partner for peace in the Middle East."
Obama, of course, would hotly dispute such an assertion. And the foreign policy section on his website lists ensuring "a strong U.S.-Israel partnership," supporting "Israel's right to self defense" and backing "foreign assistance to Israel" as three of his prime goals.
Judging by the viewing success of recent televised political debates, it seems millions of Americans are starting to pay attention to the presidential race, especially on the still unsettled Democratic side.
Thankfully hosting what will likely be the last scheduled debate of the 2007-08 presidential primary season between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, MSNBC captured a major ratings victory today. It was the Democrats' 20th such forum.
The 96-minute decorous debate, anchored by Brian Williams and Tim Russert, drew 7.8 million viewers, the biggest audience the cable news network has ever had in its 11-year history and twice the size of the channel's previous record. (But that Tuesday night audience figure did include those watching on nine local Ohio stations that simulcast the debate.)
Until now, MSNBC's largest viewership was on March 19, 2003, at the beginning of the Iraq war, when 3.7 million people tuned in.
The Democratic face-off in Cleveland was the third highest-rated debate of the season, and made MSNBC the second-most watched network between 9 and 10:30 p.m. ET in all of television on Tuesday. Only Fox did better, airing “American Idol” and “Back to You” during the debate's first hour.
MSNBC even drew more viewers than its sister broadcast network. NBC attracted an average of 6.6 million during that time period with the second half of “The Biggest Loser” and the first half of its new show “Quarterlife.”
Less than 24 hours after Hillary Clintonskillfully maneuveredBarack Obama into denouncing and rejecting the unwanted embrace he recently received from Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, she was asked to similarly distance herself from inflammatory remarks she was told were made by one of her prominent Texas supporters.
Clinton took a pass, in part because, as she noted, she knew nothing of the incident other than what a television reporter had just told her. Still, it will be interesting to see if this evolves into any sort of sustained flap as Tuesday's big vote in the Lone Star State approaches.
Today, during satellite interviews with a handful of TV stations, a reporter from station KTVT in Dallas asked Clinton about comments purportedly made by Adelfa Callejo, a trail-blazing Latina lawyer in Texas. According to the reporter, Callejo "recently told us that African Americans never help Hispanics when they gain power and influence and that she would never vote for Sen. Obama. And now, quoting here, she said, 'Obama's problem is that he happens to be black.' "
MSNBC's David Shuster (back from exile after his ill-considered Chelsea Clinton crack) did the grunt work and came up with the information we've been awaiting: Over the course of the last 10 Democratic presidential debates, starting with one in Philadelphia on Oct. 30, it's close to a draw in terms of who draws the opening question.
To be precise, the initial query was posed to Hillary Clinton six times, to Barack Obama four.
Perhaps the most aggrieved party should be John Edwards, who was still on stage for seven of these faceoffs and never once got to spout off first.
A closer look at Shuster's data does buttress Clinton's contention in Tuesday night's debate in Ohio that she's been asked to replay first an unusually large number of times.
In four out of the last five debates, the opening questions have been directed at her. Also, Shuster's research did not include the onerous task of trolling through transcripts to determine how often, as the debates proceeded, Clinton was singled out for the first response.
As we suspected, her comment about the flow of the questioning -- as well as her segue to last weekend's "Saturday Night Live" skit poking fun at the press for supposedly fawning over Obama -- has been much-remarked-upon. And the critiques ...
OK, Disciples of Paul, here's the chance you've been waiting for to get Mike Huckabee, the only remaining contender between your guy, Rep. Ron Paul, and the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, that nobody senator from Arizona, John McCain.
Do you know what Huckabee wrote on Tuesday? You won't believe it. Seriously.
Because he needs the publicity and doesn't have the money to buy much advertising to convince the rapidly growing number of Republicans who see the former Arkansas governor as a lingering nuisance who can't take a hint that his presidential hopes are over, smoked, done, dashed, cooked, fried, kaput, finished, completed and hopeless, Huckabee has challenged McCain to a debate. Hey, it only cost a stamp.
Huckabee's letter says: "I believe a Lincoln-Douglas debate so that voters can better understand our views on critical issues such as health care, education, energy independence, terrorism and national security is just what we need."
Of course, the Lincoln-Douglas debates occurred in....
One of the things that is driving Hillary Clinton and her husband and their latest presidential campaign absolutely crazy is the favoritism of the media they see directed toward her opponent, Barack Obama.
This was captured last weekend in the opening episode of "Saturday Night Live" on a mock panel with actor reporters openly admitting they were "in the tank" for Obama, pressing Clinton with difficult questions while asking Obama if he was comfortable, with the followup question, was he sure he was comfortable.
Clinton couldn't hold it in any longer early in Tuesday night's debate in Cleveland. "Well," she said when asked the first two questions first, "could I just point....
Powered by a mounting national interest in the presidential races, CNN scored a rare ratings win over top-ranked Fox News in February among the key viewer democraphics of 25- to 54-year-old viewers during prime time for the first time in six years.
CNN drew an average of 614,000 viewers in that age group, a spike of 150% over February 2007, while Fox News earned 454,000 viewers, up 10%, according to Nielsen Media Research. MSNBC placed third with 326,000 viewers, an increase of 71%.
Fox News, however, still won a larger overall audience this month, with 1.87 million viewers in prime time, making it the third-most watched among all basic cable networks. CNN had 1.66 million and MSNBC drew 771,000.
The big audience gains for CNN were largely due to primary night specials and the three widely-watched debates the network hosted this month, including last week’s Democratic forum in Texas, which garnered more than 7.5 million viewers.
When you've debated as often as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have, it's hard to find fresh material to spar over. But -- who knew? -- Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan provided such fodder Tuesday night. And the result may have been some crucial points scored by Clinton in their face-off in Ohio.
At the least, Obama appeared to dance around how far he should distance himself from the unsolicited backing he received over the weekend from Farrakhan until Clinton cornered him. At that point, he both denounced AND rejected that support.
Obama had been asked a straightforward question by moderator Tim Russert: Did he accept Farrakhan's support.
The following exchange occurred:
Obama: "You know, I have been very clear in my denunciation of Minister Farrakhan's anti-Semitic comments. I think they are unacceptable and reprehensible. I did not solicit this support. He expressed pride in an African American who seems to be bringing the country together. I obviously can't censor him, but it is not support that I sought. And we're not doing anything, I assure you, formally or informally with Minister Farrakhan.
Russert: "Do you reject his support?"
Obama: "Well, Tim, I can't say to somebody that he can't say that he thinks I'm a good guy."
On national television Tuesday night, Hillary Clinton seemed to wonder if she's being picked on -- by debate questioners.
And, in an offbeat moment sure to be replayed, she went on to refer to a skit on "Saturday Night Live" that (no doubt to the show's supreme delight) her campaign aides have previously sought to spotlight.
Clinton squared off with Barack Obama in Ohio and the two Democratic presidential contenders quickly engaged in a lengthy debate on their healthcare plans (16 minutes, according to moderator Brian Williams). Neither gave an inch -- each insisting their respective plans were superior and that a panoply of experts agreed. Presumably, it now will be up to voters in Ohio and Texas to vet this dispute in their closely watched primaries next Tuesday.
Clinton was asked to comment first on the issue, given that she harshly accused Obama over the weekend of unfairly representing her healthcare plan.
Turning to their next major dispute of late -- the North American Free Trade Agreement -- Clinton again was asked to comment first, given that during the early 1990s she seemed to stand foursquare behind her husband, President Bill Clinton, as he pushed the controversial pact through Congress.
Before focusing on the topic, she said she found it "curious" ...
A new L.A. Times/Bloomberg survey of Democratic voters nationwide underscores Barack Obama's spectacular rise from spirited underdog to commanding figure in the party's presidential race.
We won't reveal the precise numbers here; for that, check for the detailed story on our home page about 4 p.m. PST and in Wednesday's print editions. Suffice to say that among a national sample of those who have voted or plan to cast ballots in Democratic nominating contests, Obama has erased the once-daunting lead held by Hillary Clinton and now appears to enjoy a slight advantage over her.
The results roughly parallel the figures of other national polls conducted in February, most of which have found Obama ahead or locked in a virtual tie with Clinton.
The race could still turn again, with both candidates keying on the March 4 primaries in Texas and Ohio (and squaring off tonight on MSNBC in another debate, starting at 6 p.m. PST). But here's a reminder of the ground Obama has made up:
* Just four months ago, a Times/Bloomberg poll found Obama barely holding onto second place against John Edwards, with both far behind Clinton. Her lead in that mid-October nationwide survey: 31 percentage points.
* In mid-January, after the pair had traded wins in the race's initial skirmishes in Iowa and New Hampshire, Clinton clung to a nine-point lead in a Times/Bloomberg national poll.
Another day, another mini-dustup between the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama campaigns.
Regardless of how "honored" she felt late last week about sharing a debate stage with Obama, Clinton spent the weekend expressing both anger and ridicule toward him, as The Times' Michael Finnegan and Mark Barabak detailed here. Today, there surfaced a more indirect effort to undermine Obama, apparently emanating from the Clinton team.
Throughout much of the day, the lead item on the influential Drudge Report has been a photo of Obama dressed in native garb as he visited Kenya two years ago -- a picture that, according to the post, was circulated by "stressed Clinton staffers."
Obama aides, already having dealt with anonymous efforts to depict Obama as a "Muslim plant," reacted with indignation. Campaign manager David Plouffe issued a statement saying: “On the very day that Senator Clinton is giving a speech about restoring respect for America in the world, her campaign has engaged in the most shameful, offensive fear-mongering we’ve seen from either party in this election."
The response from Clinton's newly installed campaign manager, Maggie Williams, was intriguing: she essentially told ...
Much as we enjoy the occasional joke about Chuck Norris' toughness (i.e., "Some people wear Superman pajamas. Superman wears Chuck Norris pajamas"), he's got nothing on Arnold Schwarzenegger, who apparently is tough enough to move thousands of Ohio Democrats from Columbus to Cleveland.
It seems Columbus was in the running for next week's Ohio debate (where the unsecured Lake Erie border with Canada is not expected to be a dominant item, much to Lou Dobbs' regret; how do you fence that?). But "The Arnold" already had dibs on most of the hotel space. "The Arnold" in this case is the annual Arnold Sports Festival scheduled for later next week, and apparently there wasn't enough room in Columbus for Arnold and the Democrats. Our colleague Joe Mathews tells us that Arnold will be there in the flesh.
So the Feb. 26 debate is being held at Cleveland State University. And you have to pity poor Dennis Kucinich, who has represented the Cleveland area in the House of Representatives since 1997 and served as mayor of Cleveland in the 1970s. A presidential debate finally comes to him -- and he's out of the race and back running for reelection to his congressional seat.
Hillary Clinton, after effectively hijacking tonight's Democratic presidential debate from its moderators for a few minutes, has to feel good about how she spotlighted differences between herself and Barack Obama on healthcare policy. It's an argument they've had for months but, by forcing a sustained discussion of it, she was able to drive home their core disagreement on the subject.
Obama, as befits his new front-runner status, sought to paper over their split on whether universal coverage should be mandatory. She would have none of it. "I think it's a substantive difference ... I just know that if we don't go and require everyone to have health insurance, the health insurance industry will still game the system ..."
For voters wanting to focus on the issue, Clinton made sure that they had something to chew over.
That said, Obama has to feel good about his response to inferences she's made that he's not up to the task of protecting the United States. He began with a to-t
are some. Or can be.
Apparently it pays for a presidential candidate to inject "Saturday Night Live" into a serious political dialogue, as Hillary Clinton did 
verheated rhetoric, and hyperbole, the scientifically-sculpted, carefully-uttered campaign message phrases, the feigned outrage and pointed fingers for the cameras' benefit. 
and the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, that nobody senator from Arizona, John McCain.
