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Al Gore is challenging the next president of the United States, whomever that may be, to embrace an ambitious energy plan that would make the country’s electricity carbon-free within 10 years.
But while he outlined the steps he thinks the future president should take, he says he won’t be beside him as vice president, even if the Democrats win.
Gore dashed the hopes of those pining for an Obama-Gore dream team ticket in an interview with Katie Couric on the CBS Evening News Thursday. The interview was conducted after Gore gave a speech on alternative energy in Washington.
“I have a personal term limit,” said Gore, who served for eight years as Bill Clinton’s vice president. “Only two terms as VP.”
Couric then wondered what Gore would do if Barack Obama came to him and begged, “Al, buddy, listen. I really, really, really need you."
Gore said the answer would still be no.
Speculation about a possible Obama-Gore ticket has bubbled in the blogosphere since last month, when Gore gave Obama a hearty endorsement after the primary struggle with Hillary Clinton had already been settled.
Gore, who won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to draw the world’s attention to global warming, even used his website to solicit donations for Obama.
But when Couric suggested that Gore was playing coy in denying an interest in the VP spot, Gore shook his head and vowed, “This interview will not come back to haunt me. You can believe me.”
-- Kate Linthicum
As if he's not got enough to worry about with helpers like Phil Gramm, John McCain is learning the hard way that having the Gubernator on the stump for you can be a gamble.
The California governor appeared by tape on ABC’s "This Week" today intended, everybody thought, to give a boost to the Arizona senator's Republican candidacy for the White House.
But instead, when asked, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger seemed to suggest he would have no qualms about joining an administration run by someone called Barack Obama -- who, if memory serves, is the Democrat actually opposing the Republican man the Republican Schwarzenegger endorsed for president.
The show's host, George Stephanopoulos, questioned the governor about a report in Newsweek that the Democratic senator, if elected president, might ask the Republican governor to serve in an Obama Cabinet post, as something like an energy czar. Which is Russian for big kahuna, but you get the point.
The immediate answer from most any other McCain surrogate would be: "Are you serious?" "What are you drinking from that cup, George?" "Of course not." "Absolutely not." "No." An outburst of laughter combined with a shaking head. Or perhaps a cackle.
Everyone understands Schwarzenegger's got to live with his wife, Maria Shriver, who's a Democrat. And she's endorsed the other guy. Fine.
But instead of full support, what the McCain camp got was their surrogate nibbling at the Democratic bait.
Stephanopoulos: “If he were president and he called, you would at least take that call?”
Schwarzenegger: “I would take his call now, I will take his call when he's President. Any time. Remember, no matter who is president, I don't see this as a political thing, I see this as we always have to help no matter what the administration is.”
"When" Obama's president?
The governor might try to "clarify" Monday. But with friends like these ...
(UPDATE: Sure enough, as predicted the Governor made a clarifying statement Monday saying, among other things, "I have no interest in leaving the state of California until my mission is finished.")
-- Evan Halper
Peering into its secret crystal blog ball, The Ticket confidently predicts that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will criticize the Bush administration Sunday during his appearance on "This Week With George Stephanopolous."
He'll probably say something like: "This administration did not believe in global warming. They just didn't believe in it or they didn't believe that they should do anything about it, since China is no t doing anything about it and since India is not willing to do the same thing, so why should we do the same thing?"
"We don't wait for other countries to do the same thing," Schwarzenegger is almost certain to add. "That's what makes America No. 1."
No doubt George will ask Arnold's reaction to the recent decision by the Environmental Protection Agency to sit back on new moves against global warming before the end of Bush's presidency.
"Well, to be honest with you," the California governor is likely to respond, "if they would have done something this year, I would have thought it was bogus anyway. Because you don't change global warming and you don't really have an effect by doing something six months before you leave office."
See the extra value you get by reading The Ticket?
Actually, ABC released excerpts of the interview, which was taped Friday morning, no doubt because the governor didn't want to get up early Sunday.
And now you don't have to either.
-- Andrew Malcolm
This weekend, just a few minutes from where Barack Obama lives, a new challenger will emerge to his White House bid (as well as John McCain's).
The Green Party -- which with Ralph Nader as its standard-bearer played a major role in the 2000  election (and then, with little-known David Cobb as its candidate, had virtually no impact on the 2004 vote) -- opened its national convention today at the ornate Palmer House Hilton in downtown Chicago. On Saturday afternoon, it will choose its nominee for this year's presidential race (with the acceptance speech to follow).
The odds-on favorite to claim the nod is Cynthia McKinney, who represented a Georgia House district for five terms, surprisingly got knocked off in the 2002 primary, reclaimed the seat in 2004 and then lost the primary two years later -- in part because of the furor over a scuffle she had with a Capitol policeman.
If she triumphs in the delegate balloting over three rivals, McKinney would be the first black and the first woman picked for president by the Greens. That's not quite as impressive as what Obama is in line to achieve and what Hillary Clinton came close to -- the party, dedicated to environmentalism and nonviolence, only began running a national ticket in 1996 (with Nader heading it).
In his consequential 2000 showing, Nader won almost 2.9 million votes nationwide and -- Democrats forever will be convinced -- cost Al Gore the White House by siphoning enough support to keep him from carrying Florida and New Hampshire (carrying with one would have won Gore the presidency).
Cobb won all of 119,859 votes four years ago ... and did not affect the outcome in a single state.
Given that McKinney has a degree of national name recognition, she ought to be able to surpass Cobb's total vote. But as of now, it's hard to imagine she'll sway the outcome in a particular state.
-- Don Frederick
Photo credit: Associated Press
The Democratic National Convention is making a show of trying to be environmentally friendly, and as longtime polar bear fans we can't object. And as fans of a certain beverage that has been part of the human experience since, well, forever, we can't object to the way they plan to fuel their ethanol cars.
With beer. Coors beer, to be precise.
Turns out Coors has been converting some of its bad beer -- yes, there is such as thing -- into ethanol at a plant in Golden, a Denver suburb. They make about 3 million gallons of it a year to blend with gasoline for E85 ethanol (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline).
And come August, some of it will be poured into part of the Democrats' convention fleet of 450 vehicles, 20% of which will run on E85, DNC transportation director Al Timothy Andrew Ballard told KUSA-TV in Denver.
Coors is the official ethanol sponsor for the convention, and you have to wonder if someone in Coors marketing pondered the sagacity of being known as the firm that gave gas to politicians. But it all makes us wonder which will consume more alcohol August 25-28 -- the cars, or the delegates?
Our money's on the delegates.
-- Scott Martelle
Jason Burnett has made a lot of news lately, criticizing the Bush administration for rejecting California’s request for a federal waiver that would allow the state to enforce greenhouse gas restrictions.
Burnett, until recently the associate deputy administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, last month testified before a congressional panel about the possible White House role in overruling the EPA staff’s recommendation of the waiver. Since then, Burnett has given numerous interviews on the issue.
Now Burnett is using his checkbook to do his talking. After quitting the administration last month, he donated $3,600 to Democrat Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. That came on top of a $1,000 contribution he made to Obama before joining the EPA.
A Stanford-trained economist and a Democrat, Burnett, 31, said in an interview that he is moving back to Northern California to campaign for Obama and Democratic Rep. Sam Farr of Carmel. He's counting on them to support more efforts to curb greenhouse gases.
“Climate change endangers health and welfare," Burnett said. "The EPA is required to use existing law to reduce greenhouse gases. The sooner we begin addressing it in earnest, the better off we’ll be.”
Burnett predicted that California will get its waiver, either by court order or after the next president--Obama or his Republican opponent, John McCain--takes office.
--Dan Morain
Well, they did it, though it would have been quite the surprise if they hadn't after all the build up. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton shared the stage in Unity, New Hampshire, a few minutes ago and sought to put their often contentious pasts behind them and focus their supporters on the general election. (See video below.)
Given the goal of the day -- unity -- it wasn't a time to break out new policy, and Obama didn't. They essentially made nice, smiled a lot, sang each other's praises and then tried to rally the troops (The Swamp has a take on this, too).
And the coziness of the day began before they even left Washington, reports our colleague Noam Levey, who traveled with them. Obama and Clinton shared a half-embrace on the tarmac at Washingto n Reagan National airport then boarded the plane that Clinton used in her campaign. They settled in next to each other in the second row on the left side of the plane, Obama taking the window.
The chumminess continued once they arrived at Unity, with Clinton telling the crowd of more than 4,000 people, "Unity is not only a beautiful place, as we can see it's a wonderful feeling isn't it?" Obama joined the audience in applauding the sentiment, "And I know what we start here in this field in Unity will end in the steps of the Capitol when Barack Obama takes the oath of office as our next president."
Later, Clinton addressed the sometimes edgy tone of the campaign, saying "It was spirited because we both care so much." But we are one party, we are one America,” she said. We "are not going to rest until we take back out country and put it on the path to peace, prosperity and progress."
Then it was Obama's turn (his prepared comments are after the jump). He sang Clinton's praises as a rival, then made a direct play for unity citing her and Bill Clinton's lengthy presence in national politics. "We need them," Obama said.
"We need them badly... That's how we're going to bring about unity in the Democrat Party and how we're going to bring about unity in America."
After making some odd comments about Clinton campaigning in heels -- that won't do much to dispel anger among some of Clinton's female supporters -- Obama talked about the historic nature of both their campaigns. "Hillary and I may have started with separate goals in this campaign, but we have made history together.
"Together, we inspired tens of millions of Americans to participate, some to cast ballot for the very first time, others who voted for the first time in a very long time. And together, in this campaign, in 2008, we shattered barriers that have stood firm since the founding of this nation."
(UPDATE: Susan Pinkus of the L.A. Times Poll provides the following information:: In our latest Times/Bloomberg national poll, two-thirds of Clinton's supporters said they would vote for Obama, 11% said they would vote for John McCain, the Republican nominee, 12% said they were undecided and the rest went to third party candidates.)
--Scott Martelle and Michael Muskal
Photo credit: Mario Tama / Getty Images
Read more Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton tie the political knot in Unity »
Sen. John McCain campaigned in California Monday evening and spent much of his time at a fundraiser in Santa Barbara where, not surprisingly, the locally sensitive subject of offshore oil drilling came up.
Moments after McCain made a lengthy presentation on how Republicans cannot afford to write off California to the Democrats in the general election, which the GOP hasn't won in a presidential race in many cycles, the Arizona senator was asked about his position on offshore drilling.
According to the pool report provided to The Ticket by The Times' Maeve Reston, D an Secord made a statement to McCain and then asked his question:
"Santa Barbara has among other things a great natural beauty -- one of our great natural beauties lies before you out there to the south. We're really kind of goosey here about oil spills. And we're goosey here about federal drilling and oil lands, which are abundant offshore.
"So we ask you to look out there to the south and the southeast and remember the greatest environmental catastrophe that's hit this state and then balance that with the notion of winning California. This is a vibrating blue city and a vibrating state, and it’s gonna be a tough haul.”
“This gathering is adjourned,” McCain promptly quipped.
He noted that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger disagrees with him on the offshore drilling issue, but that Florida Gov. Charlie Crist now agrees with the presumptive Republican nominee.
McCain stressed that he believes in states' rights. As he did campaigning earlier in the day, McCain cited the successful examples of Louisiana and Texas, noting they have allowed drilling and weathered two devastating hurricanes with minimal or no oil spills.
“I think the environmental situation is today -- that we could probably do that,” McCain said. “But I don’t want to override the state of California.”
Then the candidate added, "I want the states to decide."
--Andrew Malcolm
Photo credit: Chris Gardner / Getty Images
It strikes us that both presidential campaigns this week ignored the cardinal rule of real estate: location, location, location.
 It was a foregone conclusion that Barack Obama would receive an official blessing from Al Gore, the question was when and where. The ringing endorsement Gore bestowed Monday came a bit later than might have been expected, but the real surprise was the setting -- a rally in Detroit, the leading city in the one state where words from perhaps the world's best-known advocate for transforming oil-based economies might be greeted with chagrin.
True, Gore carried Michigan by about 5 percentage points in his 2000 presidential bid. But in that campaign he did not stress the environmental call to arms that since then has become his life's mission.
Although we appreciate the skepticism with which many greet any analysis of Democratic maneuvering by Karl Rove, we do think he got it right on Fox's Hannity & Colmes when he said, "If you're an autoworker or in the auto-parts business or somebody who feels strongly about the auto economy, you don't want to have Al Gore sort of rubbing your nose in it in your own hometown."
Rove mentioned alternative sites for the Gore/Obama love-fest, and two made particular sense to us: Colorado or New Mexico, states expected to be battlegrounds in the general election and places where the environmental movement is revered by some and supported by most.
Similarly, of the possible venues for John McCain to announce his change in position of offshore oil drilling, was Houston the best choice? We don't think so.
McCain's decision to propose an end to the longstanding federal moratorium on oil exploration in coastal waters -- a ban he had long backed -- may play out as a bold stroke that benefits from growing public anger over rising gasoline prices. And, as the Houston Chronicle reported, McCain's audience at a ballroom "in the nation's energy capital gave him two standing ovations as he called for fewer federal regulations on oil exploration."
Maybe his campaign wanted to ensure he received a warm response. But the chosen audience also made it that much easier for critics to argue that McCain, on most issues, was little different than President Bush and that his policies were more oriented toward big business than the average citizen.
An audience of long-haul truckers or residents of exurbs in Ohio or Pennsylvania -- two of the key targets in November -- probably would have been just as welcoming toward McCain's new policy.
-- Don Frederick
Photo credits: Associated Press
Here's what Democratic strategist and former Clinton aide James Carville says:
"If I was Sen. Obama, I would say the biggest economic problem we face is the biggest national security problem and the biggest environmental  problem. And if I were him, I would ask Al Gore to serve as his vice president, his energy czar, in his administration to reduce our consumption and reliance on foreign energy sources.
"That would send a signal to the world, to American people, to Congress, to everybody, that America's getting serious about this horrendous problem that we face."
Here's what Al Gore said last winter:
"I haven't ruled out the idea of getting back into the political process at some point in the future. Don't expect to. But if I did get back, it would be as a candidate for president, not in any other position. But I don't expect to ever get back into the political..."
To which Carville, a self-described "Capt. Cueball," responded today on CNN's "Situation Room:"
"Well, I'm not suggesting he's just any vice president. I'm suggesting that Sen. Obama as president would give him a lot of authority to deal with our consumption of oil."
James Carville supported, contributed to and wrote fundraising letters for the unsuccessful campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton.
Here's another problem: Gore hasn't even endorsed Obama yet, raising some political eyebrows. He could be awaiting a grand televised entrance at the national convention in late August. And, actually, Gore has not expressed any interest in joining yet another Democratic ticket in the No. 2 spot.
--Andrew Malcolm
Photo Credit: AP
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.
Hillary Clinton was the clear front-runner; Barack Obama was just as clearly ...
Read more Top of the Ticket, the start of Year Two »
Mark Friday on your calendars -- a politician freely acknowledged allowing provincial interests rather than the greater good to guide him.
The admission came from U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), and it occurred as he was trying to carry some water for presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain.
 McCain, campaigning Thursday in the Sunshine State, was asked why -- despite his professed support for using federal money to help restore the Everglades -- he last year voted against a bill that authorized such spending.
The problem, McCain said in Ft. Lauderdale, was that the bill also authorized spending for hundreds of other water-related projects. Thus, by his lights, it was one of those dreaded "pork-barrel" measures.
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama voted for the bill, and, predictably, his campaign got into it with McCain. Aside from disputing the negative characterization of the other projects, Obama aides noted that Florida Republicans were among the lawmakers who backed the legislation.
That latter point brought Diaz-Balart into the back-and-forth. Part of a conference call for reporters set up by the McCain campaign, he was asked to attack Obama for backing a bill that he also voted for.
Not an enviable position.
The Times' Terry McDermott listened to the call and relates that Diaz-Balart had this to say: "It’s important to note that out of $23 billion in the water bill -- a bill that I supported, having to hold my nose because of the issues that Sen. McCain correctly points out -- only $2 billion was for Everglades restoration.
"I voted for it because I was being parochial. I represent the entirety of the Everglades. Sen. McCain, thankfully, doesn’t play that game."
We can't help but wonder if Diaz-Balart wanted to so candidly concede that he does.
The water-projects bill, by the way, overwhelmingly cleared Congress last fall, becoming law despite President Bush's veto.
McCain, for his part, visited the Everglades on Friday. (Above is a shot of him and his entourage; he's in the front row, wearing a cap.)
-- Don Frederick
Photo credit: Getty Images
Is this another Bosnian sniper incident, where a Democratic candidate for president describes a scene involving some personal courage, but later videotape shows that maybe perhaps it wasn't really quite all like that exactly?
Sen. Barack Obama, the leading Democratic candidate for his party's nomination, is very fond of telling receptive audiences the story about how last May he walked right into the automotive lion's den of Detroit and told those industrialists they were going to have to shape up, change the way they do things and start making more fuel-efficient vehicles to protect our environment.
"And I have to say," the straight-talking Obama tells his chuckling followers, "that when I delivered that speech, the room got really quiet. [Laughter] Nobody clapped."
Well, in honor of Obama's return campaign visit back to Michigan this week, someone -- perhaps Republicans, perhaps someone closer to home politically -- assembled videotape of Obama's oft-told tale and spliced it side by side with videotape of that actual Detroit speech.
You'll never guess what. The room wasn't quiet at all. Obama, in fact, got a loud round of applause. And at the end of his address the camera's view of him at the podium is partially blocked because the audience of local businesspeople and automotive executives was rising to give him a standing ovation.
(UPDATE: Ben LaBolt, an Obama spokesman, has provided numerous contempoary independent news accounts of the candidate's Detroit speech. They describe the audience as presenting a standing ovation at his introduction but only delivering "polite" or "light" applause during it, along with selected quotes from some audience members praising his courage or consistency in delivering the message about better mileage.)
There were no departure ceremonies after the speech because of sniper reports. Far too dangerous for that. It was all he could do then to duck his head and just run for the vehicles. See for yourself below.
-- Andrew Malcolm
John McCain got an unexpected boost in his bid to woo independent and Democratic voters this afternoon: a shared stage with Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski.
Kulongoski is a Democrat who has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. So reporters were stunned to see him turn up at wind-power firm Vestas near Portland International Airport along with McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. The event, a major speech on global warming, was designed to pitch McCain's environmental views to moderate Western voters.
The governor didn't mention McCain in his brief remarks. Instead, he introduced Jens Soby, the president of Vestas, and promoted Oregon's attempts to be "the renewable [energy] capital of America."
Soby introduced McCain, who did not miss the chance to thank Kulongoski and use his presence to push a second independent-wooing pitch: his ability to work across party lines.
McCain lauded Kulongoski -- a former Marine who attends every funeral for an Oregon serviceman or woman killed in Iraq -- for his military service. He called him "a great governor" whose leadership had lured Vestas to Oregon.
"As president of the United States," McCain said, "I will sit down with Gov. Ted Kulongoski and all of the governors of this country, whether they are Democrat or Republican, and work for the betterment of the nation."
-- Jim Tankersley
Jim Tankersley writes for the Swamp of the Chicago Tribune's Washington bureau.
Ah, Oregon. The beautiful Northwest. Rain. Trees. Clouds. Rain. Friendly territory for Sen. Barack Obama, the leading contender for the Democratic Party's long-disputed presidential nomination.
So there he was in Beaverton today at the start of a two- day swing through Oregon, virtually ignoring his remaining Democratic opponent, what's-her-name from New York, as part of his new strategy to act like the actual nominee while she flails around way behind in numbers.
Naturally, this being the Northwest where everything is not ruined quite yet, his staff had Obama visit an eco-friendly company, Vernier Software & Technology, that makes products for science teachers. He could get education in there too, see?
In his prepared remarks Obama was ready to start blasting Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, to show the Illinois Democrat is moving on to the general election campaign.
But first the freshman senator had to go through all the....
Read more Barack Obama wants to be president of these 57 United States »
PORTLAND, Ore. -- We're guessing neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama has ever climbed Mt. Hood, hiked the Wallowas or pulled salmon from the Columbia River. But that isn't stopping the two Democratic presidential hopefuls from arguing their Oregon credentials in the run-up to this state's May 20 primary.
As they've done across the country, both candidates released state-specific issue plans here in recent days. They're mostly detailed highlights of the campaigns' national policy proposals with some local stats thrown in. But they each tackle a few local concerns too. Clinton's "Oregon Compact," for example, promises to protect the state's unique assisted-suicide law. Obama's "Change Oregon can Believe In" pledges to restore dwindling wild salmon runs.
These are big issues in Oregon, a state that equally prizes its natural resources and its political independent streak. So of course, as the Oregonian newspaper reported this morning, the campaigns are hammering each other over them.
Clinton's Oregon spokesman ripped Obama Thursday for including a reference to the Great Lakes in his plan, calling it proof that the state is an "afterthought" for ...
Read more Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama looking ahead to Oregon »
OK, here's what's going to happen in the messy Democratic presidential race: Neither one of your favorites is going to win. They're gonna tear each other apart to no successful end.
It'll stay stalled into the convention in late August, while John McCain and Condi Rice raise money  and get the Republicans united and organized.
In Denver, the Democratic superdelegates, like the unelected elites they are, will gather in great worry, maybe after an inconclusive first round of general balloting.
And these big names will pick not the best candidate nor the one with the most delegates or, actually, any delegates or any popular votes.
To solve this self-destructive stalemate, they'll pick someone who denies even being a candidate, the least-worst candidate, somebody hardly anyone can really object to, except the Clintons.
They'll pick one of their own superdelegates, Al Gore, Mr. Party Elder, Mr. Nobel Prize, Mr. I-Got-Screwed-Out-of-Victory-Last-Time and Mr. Trust-Me-the-Globe-Really-Is-Round-and-Warming and I'm finally gonna get a chance to do something about it from the White House. The Draft Gore folks will be ecstatic and the Democratic blogosphere is already excited.
To keep the Obama zealots in the tent, Gore in turn will pick Barack Obama as his vice presidential running mate with the silent understanding that Big Al will ....
Read more It's solved! Democratic race prediction: Neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama will win »
Californians who've contributed hard-earned cash to presidential campaigns finally will start to see some of what it buys: TV ads.
Democrat Barack Obama raises the curtain Saturday with the first television pitch by a presidential candidate on Golden State stations this cycle. The environmentally themed spot is slated to air on broadcast outlets in the Bay Area, according to a campaign official.
The 30-second ad's last lines encapsule Obama's efforts to define himself as a politician willing to break from the past: "We can't just tell people what they want to hear. We need to tell them what they need to hear. We need to tell them the truth."
It's titled "Quiet," and you can view it here.
No word on how extensive the ad buy is or when the campaign will go up in the most populous -- and costly -- Southern California market.
-- Don Frederick
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose father was gunned down in Los Angeles while seeking the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination, today backed Hillary Clinton's bid for the party nod.
The endorsement should burnish Clinton's environmental credentials. Kennedy, 54, has a high-profile as an environmental activist; he serves as a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council.
He also earned plaudits within some Democratic circles for arguing the case, in a lengthy Rolling Stone article last year, that the 2004 presidential election was stolen from the Democrats. Its subhead: "Republicans prevented more than 350,000 voters in Ohio from casting ballots or having their votes counted -- enough to have put John Kerry in the White House."
There's one more niche group (albeit, a minuscule one), in which Kennedy's support may carry some sway -- he's a master falconer.
Still, today's news from the Clinton camp served mainly as a reminder that, in the Democratic race, the prospective endorsers who are being closely watched are, as the National Journal's Hotline political briefing put it on Wednesday, the "Three Kings."
That trio would be ...
Read more Kennedy endorses Clinton!!! (But it's not the one who counts) »
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gets back in front of the camera (OK, as a politician he never really left, but still) as part of a new ad campaign geared toward pressuring recalcitrant members of Congress to move swiftly on legislation to lessen global warming.
The ad, to begin airing next week in 17 markets, was put together by Environmental Defense and features Schwarzenegger, Gov. Brian Schweitzer of Montana, a Democrat, and Jon Huntsman Jr., the Republican governor of Utah. All notably are governors of Western states with wide areas of stunning natural beauty -- and the tourism-based economy that goes with it.
Schwarzenegger has been pressing the federal government on global warming, but also has his own well-heeled baggage on the issue. Frustrated with what they view as a lack of federal leadership on the issue, Schweitzer and Huntsman also have struck out on their own.
The reason for the ad campaign now? Environmental Defense wants to make sure the issue gets its due during the current election cycle. And with Al Gore still not running for president, the political dialogue has revolved primarily around the war in Iraq and healthcare. Place your bets on how much attention the issue gets in tonight's Democratic debate in Las Vegas on CNN at 5 Pacific time.
-- Scott Martelle
Oh, no! No more Gore Watch?
No more seizing on every strand of hope -- his daughter's wedding, his appearance on an NBC TV show, his sighting at a global environmental concert in New Jersey of all places -- that the 2000 Democratic presidential candidate would become the 2008 Democratic presidential candidate and save the party from more planted questions, who can get out of Iraq faster and who to tax more next.
Can it be true?
"I don't expect to be a candidate again," he told the New York Times. Maybe they got it wrong and what he really said was, "I do intend to be a candidate again."
But it doesn't look good for the Draft Gore movement here and here and here.
It seems Gore has taken a job in industry promoting a whole new string of coal-fired electrical-generating plants throughout the Ohio Valley. They wanted someone with good Washington connections and some environmental credentials to make the case for acid rain on "Larry King Live" and elsewhere.
Just kidding. The Times reports that Big Al has taken a part-time partnership in a Silicon Valley venture capital firm called Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers where he'll devote time to investigating the potential of new green industries, especially the growth potential of start-up companies in the alternative energy sector.
Al Gore already has an advisory role with Google in the Bay Area, sits on the board of Apple and is founder of Current TV, the San Francisco-based cable channel you've never heard of because it's devoted to viewer-created material.
Gore says he will donate his salary to promote national energy independence to the APSNWP, the Alliance to Promote Stripmining in National Wildlife Preserves.
Just kidding. He intends to contribute the money to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a nonprofit foundation. Maybe in 2012 we can try to get him to run again.
--Andrew Malcolm
CNN reporters Chris Welch and David Schechter have scored an interview with Muriel Gallo-Chasanoff. You might not recognize her name at first. But she's the 19-year-old Grinnell College sophomore who was an audience plant at the Hillary Clinton public forum on energy in Newton, Iowa last week.
Gallo-Chasanoff's story about being driven to the event by Clinton interns and introduced to a Clinton staffer who asked her to pose a specific rigged question that allowed the candidate to expound on her energy plan appeared in the school newspaper and set off a weekend furor over improper campaign tactics and ethics. The Clinton campaign said it was an isolated incident, denied it was standard procedure and promised it wouldn't happen again.
Other campaigns criticized the practice and said they didn't rig public sessions like late-night infomercials.
But the Grinnell student's new detailed account raises additional questions, indicating the staffer had a set procedure he followed and the student said she knew of at least one other audience member there who was given a question to ask of the four Clinton answered that day.
Rigging candidate forums that are highly valued in Iowa and New Hampshire as genuine ....
Read more It seems there's more to the Clinton question planting »
Hillary Clinton stopped at a bio-diesel plant in Newton, Iowa earlier this week to see alternative fuels in the making and drive home the week's campaign theme of her energy plan. After a tour, the candidate took questions from the crowd.
She called on a young woman. "As a young person," said the well-spoken Muriel Gallo-Chasanoff, "I'm worried about the long-term effects of global warming. How does your plan combat climate change?"
"Well, you should be worried," Clinton replied. "You know, I find as I travel around Iowa that it's usually young people that ask me about global warming."
There's a good reason for that, too. The question was a plant, totally rigged in advance, like a late-night infomercial. Just before the public forum a Clinton staffer had chosen the young woman, a student at Grinnell College, and asked her to ask that specific question. To watch a video of the staged question and the pefectly-formatted response, click here.
Trouble is, the young woman told others and today her account showed up on the Grinnell website, including a mention that the staffer signaled Clinton who to call on.
Tonight, as other campaigns chuckled and hypocritically spread the news far and wide, a Clinton campaign spokesman admitted sheepishly, "On this occasion a member of our staff did discuss a possible question about Senator Clinton's energy plan at a forum. However, Senator Clinton did not know which questioners she was calling on during the event. This is not standard policy and will not be repeated again.”
Perhaps in large urban centers such stage-managed set-ups are acceptable, even expected. But in smalltown Iowa and New Hampshire, where even political opponents run into each other at the Dairy Queen after the high school football game, they take great pride in genuinely meeting candidates face-to-face in living rooms and diners for honest questioning. Rigging a show like this is extremely bad form and Clinton could take a real hit for it, especially since it suits her reputation for being calculating.
But here's the catch. Although other campaigns are righteously denying it tonight, virtually every...
Read more Clinton admits planting questions in public forum »
And it's not just the war.
The daily Poll Track column at the National Journal collates a few disparate surveys this morning and finds that, to quote another politician in another time, we're in something of a national malaise. As Poll Track points out: "A full two-thirds of respondents to a new Marist/WNBC poll said they believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, a 9-point increase from fall 2006. Harris' 'Alienation Index' has also risen slightly since last year, as more Americans told pollsters this month that they feel the nation's leaders don't care about them and are out of touch with the country at large.
"Considering such widespread dissatisfaction with the status quo, it's no wonder 58 percent of registered voters responding to a new Gallup/USA Today poll said the outcome of the 2008 presidential race matters more to them than previous elections. For many months the conventional wisdom had placed the blame for the public's angst squarely on President Bush and the Iraq war. But recent polls suggest that Americans are increasingly worried about traditional bread-and-butter issues, too."
And the butter has been melting. So it's a "pox on both their houses" mood out there, though other polls show that more people think the Democrats are better suited to straighten the mess out than the Republicans. Those sentiments won't mean much in the primaries and caucuses, but they will come next November. And of course anything can happen between now and then to change the current mood.
But you have to wonder what might have happened had the national elections been this week instead of next year, and how many babies would have gone out with the bathwater.
-- Scott Martelle
The verdict is in: Winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to sound the alarm about global warming has not sparked a surge in the draft-Al-Gore-for-president movement.
The Gallup Poll, in conjunction with USA Today, surveyed a cross-section of Americans over the weekend -- hot on the heels of the announcement of Gore's award -- and found that 41% said he should join the White House race, whereas 54% preferred that he remain on the sidelines.
That's comparable to the poll's findings in March, about a month after "An Inconvenient Truth," the documentary that featured Gore, won an Oscar (but before he garnered an Emmy). Back then, 38% said he should run, whereas 57% said he shouldn't.
The current poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points. The one in March, which featured a larger sample pool, had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
-- Don Frederick
Former Vice President Al Gore was named a co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize this morning for his work on global warming, capping 24 hours of speculation driven in part by his role in a San Francisco fundraiser for Sen. Barbara Boxer's 2010 reelection bid.
Gore was the scheduled headliner for the Thursday afternoon event, but canceled late Wednesday to attend a hastily scheduled global warming conference with top government officials in China. Boxer's campaign scuttled the event, e-mailed supporters who had bought tickets and began making plans to reschedule it for next month.
But about 8 a.m. Thursday, Gore called Boxer to say he was still in the country. The fundraiser was back on, as was the speculation that Gore might have received an inkling of the pending announcement and decided he'd rather be on home ground than in China when the word came (which regular Ticket readers knew yesterday).
Speaking before more than 400 Boxer supporters in an ornate ballroom of the Westin St. Francis Hotel, Gore reprised his now-familiar call for a new bipartisan and international approach to attacking global warming, as well as humanitarian crises such as Darfur. Calling such issues "a moral imperative," Gore said the world needed to change its consciousness and work to end such vast threats to human life.
The appearance also sparked -- no surprise -- an impromptu crowd chant of "Run, Al, run!," which he sought to cut off by waving his arms like a baseball umpire calling a runner safe. Gore, of course, has maintained he has no intention of joining the already crowded Democratic field of presidential contenders despite the persistent urging of a loyal band of supporters.
Many Democrats still believe that Gore won the 2000 election decided by the Supreme Court. And he was greeted by the liberal Democrats in San Francisco as something of a conquering hero.
On stage, Gore followed a short musical set by pop performers Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne. While talk of a possible Nobel swirled in the crowd, Gore did not mention it from the stage.
But the work that earned him the honor was front and center. Gore argued that half a century ago concerns that an unsettled Europe might spawn another world war led to the development of the Marshall Plan -- and the result is a much different world perception of Europe. Gore said: "Europe saw things differently after they had the opportunity to work together. Consciousness has changed. Thinking has changed. It hasn't been that long ago that it wouldn't have been ... absurd to ask how likely is it that Germany will invade France or France will invade Germany. But now, thank goodness, because of the political changes in consciousness of the last 50 years, that ... is utterly absurd. We need to create a future in which when people say, 'How likely is it we'll have a genocide in Africa this year?' people will say, 'That's absurd.' Right now, it's not absurd."
-- Scott Martelle
Fred Thompson didn't exactly assuage questions about his attention to detail when he seemed out of the loop late last month when his top communications director was let go.
Then, during a trip this month to all-important Florida, he appeared at sea when asked to comment on the Terri Schiavo end-of-life case that had so consumed first the state and then the nation. "That's going back in history," he said. "I don't remember the details of it."
Also in Florida, he was taken aback when asked about the touchy issue of energy exploration in the Everglades. "Gosh, no one has told me that there's any major reserves in the Everglades, but maybe that's one of the things I need to learn while I'm down here," Thompson said.
On Thursday, there came a question about his home state. The result was another Thompson whiff.
Talking with reporters while fundraising in Tennessee, he was asked about a federal court ruling last week that ruled unconstitutional the Volunteer State's lethal injection procedures. Replied Thompson: "I hadn't heard that. I didn't know."
He probably should get some points for not trying to bluster his way through a non-answer. Plus, when he's not on the campaign trail, he's still got his hands full --- at age 65, he's the father of a toddler and an infant, which makes it tough to stay on top of the local news. And, more seriously, none of these recent lapses is especially bothersome, individually.
Collectively, though, they create a context that likely will magnify inevitable missteps by Thompson down the road. And, for a candidate whose late start means he has less time to hone a political persona, that cannot be a welcome prospect
-- Don Frederick
Clinton/Gore, together again.
It was a reunion -- however brief -- that must have been heartwarming for most Democrats (and a cause of heartburn for most Republicans).
It happened today in Manhattan, at an annual conference on world problems that Bill Clinton sponsors, now that he's not president anymore (and now that his wife is the family's working politician).
Clinton led the opening panel, and one by one he introduced its heavy-hitter participants: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, World Bank President Robert Zoellick, Aghan President Hamid Karzai, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott Jr.
Last to take the stage was Al Gore, who with Clinton formed the only Democratic team to occupy the presidency and vice presidency for two full terms since 1941 (a pretty amazing stat, when you think about it).
The symbiotic bond they once seemed to exude (remember the bus blitzkrieg through Middle America after their party's 1992 national convention?) has long since dissipated, frayed by a slew of political and personal recriminations. Still, a hint of a good vibe between them was in evidence....
Read more A political dynamic duo reunites »
And no, this isn't about music and the rock band David Byrne fronted. It's about the online Democratic presidential debate put together by Huffington Post, Slate and Yahoo!, which went live today. After being billed this spring as the first online debate and promising to make it interactive with viewers, the planners turned in a different direction and opted for the "mash-up" approach, according to Mario Ruiz, spokesman for Huffington Post. And with the candidates being asked questions separately by PBS' Charlie Rose, there was no debate involved.
For Web-savvy folks, this seems more like a missed opportunity than anything groundbreaking. The best that can be said for it is that users can narrow the presentation to the candidates they like, but it's still static. There's a mechanism for voting for your favorite candidate, and some message boards, but as of mid-morning the boards were mostly silent, even after moderators salted them with questions to try to start a dialogue.
And the one potentially interesting element -- letting users grab raw video from the answers and creating their own Q&A mashups -- died on the vine. Too bad. It could have been entertaining (though not very informative) to find alternative answers to the "wild card" question Bill Maher asked John Edwards on whether he would extend his criticism of SUVs to cows, since methane (and clear-cutting for grazing lands) also contributes to global warming. Imagine cutting and splicing answers to that question from Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama's responses to a question about Gen. David Petraeus' report to Congress this week.
-- Scott Martelle
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger tonight threw down the gauntlet with his own party, lecturing some 1,200 people at the semiannual Republican state convention in Indian Wells that the party was "dying at the box office" because it has "lost the middle. And we will not regain true political power in California until we get it back," according to Schwarzenegger's prepared remarks.
Schwarzenegger has long been at odds with the conservative elements of the party that tend to dominate policy positions, though he has twice proven his popularity with the rank-and-file members and with independents. Tonight the governor homed in on his greenhouse-emission policies, which he said three-quarters of party members support: "They want this party to do something more about climate change than simply doubt it." And he made the same point about healthcare reform on his way to a plea to shift the party from the political right to closer to the center. "The majority of Republicans prefer progress with messy compromise over defeat with pristine principles. Compromise is part of politics. And it is especially part of politics if you are the minority party... The road to our comeback is clear. The California Republican Party should be a right-of-center party that occupies the broad middle of California. That is a lush, green, abandoned political space. It can be ours."
Click on the More line to read the complete prepared text.
--Scott Martelle
Read more Schwarzenegger: 'We are dying at the box office' »
We would not have expected to find this piece in the Washington Times, the paper founded by Sun Myung Moon to provide a conservative voice in the nation's capital. But there it was ... and on its front page, no less: a detailed look at the early efforts by three presidential candidates to formally offset greenhouse gas emissions tied to their campaigns.
The trio--John Edwards, Hillary Clinton and Chris Dodd, all Democrats--list payments in their campaign finance statements made to third-party companies that, as the article explains it, use the money "to plant trees, build clean-energy projects or take other steps that will lead to less carbon dioxide being emitted."
Reporter Stephen Dinan tracked down the information, and you can read his story here.
The steps seem pretty paltry right now. And in the grand scheme of combating global warming, the virtue of the candidates' offsets is mainly symbolic. Still, just as the Internet and YouTube are recalibrating the ways candidates communicate with voters, this strikes us as an idea that can only take root and grow--especially among candidates who want their commitment to the environment taken seriously.
-- Don Frederick
Well, now we have some explanation for why former vice president Al Gore is delaying the announcement of his 2008 presidential campaign. He's making a big bundle off the environment by talking about it.
Thanks to thesmokinggun.com website, we have access to a copy of the contract for the recent speech by Gore at the University of California, San Diego. It's an inconvenient truth that he got $100,000 for the 75-minute environmental slide presentation at the public school and agreed to an extra 10 minutes of questions.
Among the other requirements set out by Gore:
First-class roundtrip air transportation for himself and one traveling companion, who is also to receive $1,000 per day in expenses; all meal, phone and other expenses to be covered for both; a security guard for every minute of his visit; a sedan, preferably a hybrid but definitely not an SUV, for all transportation; no press access or interviews; no video or audio taping or broadcast of the event; no photographs; approval of all scenery, logos, banners and settings for the appearance; approval of all communications and mailings regarding the appearance; Gore agrees only to a brief reception with sponsors and invited guests; and the contents of the contract must be kept strictly confidential.
Other than that, the university was free to do as it pleased with the May 21 event.
As far as we can discern, Gore did not announce his presidential candidacy during that visit. But then again, because the press was barred, there's no word that he ruled one out either. There are, however, still 13 months left before the Democratic National Convention picks its nominee in Denver.
--Andrew Malcolm
On Friday, John McCain opened the latest new phase of his troubled presidential campaign by stressing in New Hampshire --- where opposition to the Iraq war runs especially high --- that he remains foresquare behind President Bush's troop-surge plan.
On Saturday, as he wrapped up a swing through the all-important state, he took Bush on, criticizing the administration on global warming.
One thing about the Republican senator from Arizona, you can't say that he's a slave to consistency.
The Times Michael Finnegan was with McCain as he traveled to the rural town of Claremont and reports that the candidate opened a forum at a veterans hall with negative words about Bush's approach to climate change.
"I'm not happy that the Bush administration ignored this issue for a long period of time," McCain said. Reiterating his call for expansion of nuclear, solar and wind power, he said the U.S. must work more closely with other nations to reverse global warming. He added: "I'm convinced that it can be incredibly serious, and every day we wait in order to act will be a day that we cannot reclaim."
McCain took questions for more than an hour from the crowd of about 100, and was warmly received. But outside the hall, there was a clear sign of his diminished status in the state he took by storm during the 2000 primary season. A heckler wearing a McCain rubber mask was there to greet his entourage, holding out a tin cup and wearing a sandwich board that read, "My campaign spends money like a drunken sailor."
The barb not only referred to the financial problems afflicting McCain's campaign, but was a play on one of his tried-and-true laugh lines: after accusing Congress of spending money like a drunken sailor, he likes to say that he received a letter from a Navy vet with a drinking problem who said he resented the comparsion.
After spending Sunday at home in Arizona, McCain heads to Northern California Monday for a town hall meeting in Santa Clara.
-- Don Frederick
The good news for Al Gore is that his Live Earth concert highlights show on NBC, designed to raise public awareness about global warming, attracted some 19 million viewers at one point or another Saturday night, according to Nielsen ratings released late yesterday.
 The bad news is that more than 16 million of those folks switched away from the three-hour concert that consumed the network's prime time Saturday evening. Many, perhaps disappointed that Gore did not announce his candidacy for president, were no doubt out back gathered around smoking grills helping to further warm the earth's atmosphere.
This left NBC with about 2.7 million viewers to earn fourth place for the night behind ABC with 3.4 million, Fox with 4.6 million and CBS with 5.2 million. Times columnist Jonah Goldberg has a different take on the concert here.
In Britain, the BBC reported 3.1 million watched the show, which was less than a third of the 11.4 million audience for the Princess Diana concert two weeks ago. Of those 3.1 million, 123 rang up the BBC to complain about foul language during the concert. Madonna, among others, felt compelled to use the mf word.
Perhaps what we really need next is a live global concert to raise awareness about the omnipresence of live global concerts trying to raise awarenesses.
--Andrew Malcolm
Photo: Al Gore and Cameron Diaz; Credit: Justin Lane/EPA
For someone who keeps saying he has no intention of running for president we keep seeing Al Gore pop up in all kinds of places where he can reach millions of people. Maybe billions if his 24-hour Live Earth global concert works this weekend, although there are reports of problems, including tepid ticket sales.
This morning Gore showed up on the Today Show on NBC, which just happens to be broadcasting the concert. “I don’t have any plans or intentions to be a candidate again," | |
