Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon, a potentially endangered Republican in November's election, raised many an eyebrow recently with an ad that included an unexpected cameo.
"Who says Gordon Smith helped lead the fight for better gas mileage and a cleaner environment?" asks a narrator. "Barack Obama."
TV viewers in the Beaver state then saw a flash of Obama's face and his campaign Web site as the ad went on to say the two lawmakers had teamed up "and broke through a 20-year deadlock to pass new laws that increase gas mileage for automobiles."
Despite Smith's effort to scramble the partisan divide, it's comforting to know that in some cases, the old rules still apply -- such as a conservative Republican from Texas invoking a tried and true symbol of California liberalism, Sen. Barbara Boxer, as a way to raise money.
Boxer did her part to rate such a mention. On the Web site for a political action committee she set up, she recently conducted an online "Choose a Challenger" contest. Participants were given a list of various Democrats challengers trying to win GOP-held Senate seats this year and asked to vote on which one should be singled out for fundraising help by the PAC.
Down in the Lone Star State, Democrat Rick Noriega launched an effort to stack the deck. As part of his longshot bid to topple GOP Sen. John Cornyn, he urged backers to cast ballots for him in Boxer's tourney; a win, he said in an e-mail, could funnel "tens of thousands of dollars" into his coffers.
Not surprisingly, the Cornyn camp got wind of this and sought, in turn, to use it for its own financial advantage.
A solicitation to potential donors notified them that Noriega "is enlisting California Liberal (sic) Barbara Boxer’s help to raise money. The note continued:
"Barbara Boxer, the one who opposed Chief Justice Roberts' nomination to the Supreme Court and verbally assaulted Justice Alito during his confirmation process."
"But it gets worse. You know what Senator Boxer is up to now? To quote her own website: 'I want you to know that I won't give up in our fight to stop the drilling…'
"Gas is approaching $4.10 a gallon with no end in sight and Rick Noriega is asking for help from Barbara Boxer, who is leading the charge to stop domestic drilling making us even more dependent on foreign oil?"
"While Rick Noriega is counting on Californians to help his campaign, John Cornyn is counting on Texans just like you."
Sounds like Cornyn would be loathe to get caught in the same elevator with Boxer.
But here's another side of Washington. Cornyn is the vice chair of the Senate Ethics Committee that Boxer heads. And about a week after the missive excoriating her, Cornyn's Capitol Hill office issued a release touting an amendment they were jointly offering to require members of Congress to publicly disclose their residential mortgages (a touchy topic these days in the Senate).
The release included both of their names in its headline, provided quotes from each promoting their mutual cause and offered nary a hint of discord between the two.
Noriega, by the way, triumphed in Boxer's contest (for the results, go here).
As Barack Obama continues his focus on states that usually vote Republican in presidential elections, word comes that he may campaign at a NASCAR event. Why? Well, to paraphrase a supposed Willie Sutton line that he robbed banks because that's where the money is, if Obama needs white working-class voters in the fall, there are few better places to find them than at a NASCAR event.
Roll Call has the news, but it's behind their subscription wall. Briefly, they quote Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki as saying a campaign appearance was a possibility but no dates or firm confirmations were offered. "We would love to make it to a NASCAR race if the schedule permits," she said.
Bill Clinton tried that tack in September 1992, campaigning at the Southern 500 Stock Car race in Darlington, S.C., but drew jeers and catcalls and insults about his lack of Vietnam War service. That was the year Richard Petty was retiring, and the staunch Republican and racing icon told track officials he wouldn't drive the pace car -- part of his retirement-year sendoff -- if Clinton was in the parade.
Clinton lost South Carolina by 8 points. And more recently George W. Bush actively courted NASCAR fans -- getting a much better reception.
Political -- and Batman -- junkies probably already know about Sen. Patrick Leahy's little infatuation with Bruce Wayne's alter ego, Batman. He loves the character, and all those colorful evil incarnates, like the Riddler, the Penguin and the Joker. Leahy has even talked his way into cameo roles in Batman movies, and in "The Dark Knight," which opens July 18, Leahy gets himself roughed up by the Joker's goons. Bam! Pow! Ooof!
So strong is the Democratic Vermont senator's infatuation that he wrote the introduction for a 1992 book collecting some of the Batman comics, "The Dark Knight Archive," and has done voice-overs for childrens' Batman cartoons. And on July 12, Leahy will play host to a special premiere of "The Dark Knight" in that hot spot of Hollywood's elite, Montpelier, Vt. The proceeds will go to a local library that has named a wing after him. Leahy, that is, not Batman.
So as we head into the long Fourth of July weekend (that phrase is a journalism cue that it's a slow news day, at least at the moment), we wonder what other politicians might harbor secret infatuations with fictional crusaders, caped and otherwise? Or even better, what superhero might actually dwell beneath those dark (pant)suits?
Maybe John McCain in his, shall we say, crankier moments, as The Hulk? Barack Obama channeling The Flash? Hillary Clinton as Wonder Woman -- the first major female superhero? John Edwards as Batman's sidekick, Robin?
And they don't have to be the heroes. Go ahead and link politicians up with your favorite bad guys, too.
So, you want to know where John McCain and Barack Obama have been on the campaign trail? Where they've been in their lives? Google has a new toy tool that lets political junkies get cartographic.
Our colleagues over on the Technology blog have the details and a deeper explanation of Google's intent to have people adapt the tool for their own uses.
But there already are a lot of different ways to play with it. This, for instance, shows you the McCain and Obama campaign trails. This is a "bio map" of McCain, and this is of Obama. The Twitterati have got one going. So far, nada for tracking delivery of late-night pizza to various campaign headquarters, or kitchens where couples are arguing Obama versus McCain. But you just know that's coming sometime.
A personal favorite: Huffington Post's fundraising map. See if you can spot yourselves in there.
Aboard the 'Straight Talk Express' -- No one cracked a bottle of Champagne on its nose. No one cut a ribbon. Perhaps that was because the maiden voyage of John McCain’s new campaign plane was missing one vital ingredient: the senator himself.
McCain's new 95-seat Boeing 737-400 left Washington this morning carrying journalists and staffers to Harrisburg, Pa., where McCain had spent the night. The plane, paid for by the campaign (media riders reimburse the campaign for their shares), had been refurbished to re-create an airborne version of the Straight Talk Express bus, McCain's signature campaign vehicle, and replaced a plane leased from Jet Blue.
As always, press rides in the back, Secret Service agents in the middle cabin, and the candidate in first class. To replicate the horseshoe shaped banquette of the bus, where the candidate engages in free-wheeling discussions with reporters, one of the forward cabins has been modified to include a captain’s chair for McCain and a straight banquette for the press. FAA regulations require clear aisles, so a curved bench was out.
The plane's outer shell was repainted, as well, with McCain’s motto "Reform, Prosperity, Peace" on the side and the campaign's Web address -- www.johnmccain.com -- on the blue-and-gold tail. McCain got his first ride for the short hop from Harrisburg to Allentown, Pa., and apparently missed some of the most salient exterior décor.
"I thought it just says 'Straight Talk Express,' " he told reporters who asked how it felt to see his name emblazoned on the tail. "Whoops. I feel wonderful ... Maybe it’s a little added free publicity, I don’t know, at various airports."
There is one thing he’ll miss about his old Jet Blue-leased plane, though, and he’ll be feeling the loss starting Tuesday, when he is scheduled to fly from Indianapolis to Cartagena, Colombia, for a trip that will include a stop in Mexico.
"In interest of full disclosure," said McCain, "you know we used to have television sets on Jet Blue, and I miss out on my fix."
Well this was a little long in the coming but it finally happened -- Barack Obama and Bill Clinton shared a little quality phone time earlier today. Obama communications director Robert Gibbs said Obama made the call and the two men talked for about 20 minutes as Obama rode from Kansas City, Mo., to Independence.
Obama asked Clinton to campaign with him, and for him, and Clinton agreed, though spokesmen for the men didn't break out who spoke for how long during those 20 minutes. The Swamp has a bit of it here too.
Clinton's communications director, Matt McKenna, described the call as "a very good conversation" and said Clinton "renewed his offer to do whatever he can to ensure Sen. Obama is our next president. President Clinton continues to be impressed by Senator Obama and the campaign he has run, and looks forward to campaigning for and with him in the months to come."
Added Obama spokesman Bill Burton: "Senator Obama had a terrific conversation with President Clinton and is honored to have his support in this campaign. He has always believed that Bill Clinton is one of this nation's great leaders and most brilliant minds, and looks forward to seeing him on the campaign trail and receiving his counsel in the months to come."
So what's that you see in the rearview mirror? Looks like South Carolina.
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.
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?
Don't you hate it when old Navy guys just can't get along? John McCain took a swipe at Jimmy Carter the other day in an interview, with the transcript getting posted over at the Las Vegas Sun earlier today. As the folks at CNN's Politicker point out, it's not just a gratuitous political shot, since McCain has been trying to tie Obama to Carter, generally considered by the right (and quite a few centrists) to have been an ineffectual president.
But the comments are a bit jarring. McCain was asked by interviewer Jon Ralston, a Nevada political observer and blogger, about Yucca Mountain and nuclear waste and Carter's decision to end reprocessing, which McCain held up as a possible solution to the nuke waste problem.
"Q: You know why he did that then? "A: Yes, because Carter was a lousy president .... This is the same guy who kissed Brezhnev ...."
Ralston also asked McCain whether his call for a gas tax holiday for the summer amounted to pandering. "I don’t think so. When I meet a guy who owns two trucks that run on diesel, who says he's going out of business, but may not have to if he is spared the 24-and-half-cent tax, which goes to things like a bridge to nowhere in Alaska." Ralston pointed out a Republican (actually it was two, Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young) proposed that bridge. "As you know," McCain replied, "I've taken on Republicans and Democrats. Some of them dislike me intensely and some of them still won't endorse me."
The Barack Obama for president campaign rolls into Las Vegas today.
And the candidate revealed he's collected a whole slew of good luck charms, not for the tables but for the election. He told reporters he's got maybe 100 lucky trinkets of one kind or another. And each day he makes a selection to carry with him.
This is very exciting news to start off the first workweek of summer.
The other day, you may remember, we had a great kerfluffle over Michelle Obama's revelation on national television that while she does buy and wear some high-priced duds like another presidential candidate's wife, she just happened to be wearing at that very moment a dress that cost $148.
This was apparently huge news to half the country and could well somehow decide whose husband becomes president of the United States.
Under Michelle's husband's tax proposals, that $148 could turn out to become more like $174. So to beat the crush, thousands of women who would never be caught dead in the same dress as another woman were reported to rush out and buy up the entire existing national stock of that dress so they could wear the same dress as another woman. Yeah, well, go figure.
Now, thanks to the Canadian Press, we have just this morning received urgent news from overseas that Italian fashion goddess Donatella Versace has dedicated her entire 2009 spring-summer collection ...
It's Friday, and we have made it our mission to find something with which you can waste valuable work time. Thank you, John McCain Web folks, for supplying it.
Back in January Lou Dobbs, the pudgy, grumpy CNN personality who's really totally against people entering America illegally, in case you hadn't heard, was not running for president as an independent.
We know that because he had no comment when the rumors started to spread, including on a website by his fans. And anyway, the anti-immigrant thing didn't work too well for Tom Tancredo.
Now it seems Big Lou is not running for governor of New Jersey yet.
Business Week has an article that raises the possibility of a gubernatorial bid (we love that word, 'gubernatorial'). And Lou's office has dutifully said, "No comment." Which prompts the question, "Never?"
And then when Lou or his secretary says something like, "You can never say never," we're off to the rumor races. It's part of the fun of writing about politics. If they say, "Never," you've got them forever. If they don't, you're free to speculate endlessly, which is often what they really want anyway.
The 62-year-old Dobbs lives on a 300-acre Sussex County farm in rural northwestern New Jersey; yes, there are still some of those places in the Garden State. The Sopranos have to have somewhere to dump the whacked.
Jon Corzine, the gazillionaire who bought the governor's office with his lavish spending in the last election, plus he also got the most votes, says he intends to run again. So that's good news for billboard companies, and New York and Pennsylvania TV stations that broadcast ads into New Jersey.
But remember, Corzine is the elected Democrat who doesn't wear a seatbelt at 91 mph on the way to an important meeting with Don Imus. So you don't really know how long Corzine might last.
But because Lou isn't saying anything, lots of other people are offering suggestions that he register as a Republican -- he sort of sounds like one. And get out there and talk to voters. A novel idea for even a non-candidate. But so far, nothing.
The next office Lou will have no comment about running for but never say never is likely senator from New Jersey. Like most states, New Jersey has two of them, a senior senator and a junior one. That's because usually one of them is under indictment or about to be. So they always need a spare.
Not running for office is great publicity for Dobbs' CNN show. Who knows, when you tune in for the afternoon rant, you might be watching a future president/governor/senator right before your very eyes.
Neil Cavuto over at Fox should also not run for some office. We've been meaning to get a "No comment" and "never say never" from him. Make a real competition out of this thing.
In fact, here at The Ticket we've seriously considered issuing a "No comment" to unreported reports that we might run for office. Jack up our business because, you know, you can never say never.
Tony Schwartz, who made the famous Elect Lyndon Johnson "daisy ad" among many other political statements, died over the weekend at the age of 84.
The controversial ad -- which did not name, but was aimed at feeding war fears and uncertainty about, Johnson's opponent, Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona -- was, like the 1988 Willie Horton TV commercial for George H. W. Bush, only broadcast one time: during NBC's Monday Night Movies in 1964.
But that was enough to send shock waves through the election's politics at the time. Ironically, Johnson's alleged anti-war ad helped create a resounding election victory that led him to escalate the Vietnam War. The resulting social and political turmoil of the late '60s and a re-energizing of conservatives went on to produce seven Republican White House wins, to three for the Democrats.
A recluse in Manhattan, Schwartz produced thousands of commercials over the years with clients such as Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, Coca-Cola and Chrysler as well as anti-smoking ads.
As the little girl counted daisy petals, the ominous loudspeaker voice of someone counting down to zero led to the terrifying blast sound of the nuclear bomb.
As the menacing sound rumbled through TV sets across the nation, the voice of President Johnson could be heard intoning, "These are the stakes. To make a world in which all of God’s children can live, or to go into the dark. We must either love each other, or we must die."
Obviously, everyone didn't die. And everything worked out just swell after this ad. In 1968 internal Democratic Party strife forced Johnson to give up any hope of a second elected term. His vice president, Hubert Humphrey, lost to Richard Nixon, who had no political problems except maybe becoming the first president ever forced to resign.
Goldwater never did reach the White House, but his political disciples reorganized around someone named Ronald Reagan, who had some electoral success.
And it took 44 more years for another Arizonan to make a serious bid to become president.
As we noted on the actual day, June 11, it's been an eventful year that began with front-runners who ended in the rear. We wanted The Ticket to be a virtually round-the-clock, coast-to-coast operation with unpredictable items written in surprising ways.
We wish you could have been at our party. An amazing time. Hillary Clinton was there. A new pantsuit. Barack Obama was hitting everyone up for more money. Mitt Romneywas handing it out. Rudy Giuliani was taking some to cover his debts.
John Edwards was hedging on his plans. Fred Thompson was supposed to attend, but he overslept after another long two-hour campaign day. John McCain called for a 100-year party.
And Rep. Ron Paul, the millionaire with his money in precious metals, was warning everyone about an impending financial crisis if we don't dump the Fed. And Al Gore couldn't decide if he wasn't coming or not.
We've published some 2,300 items, received nearly 47,000 reader comments and more than 11.5 million page views in this last year. We're now ranked in the world's top 140 blogs and we thank you for that.
We look forward to thousands more items and comments and millions more readers through this historic election and way beyond.
As a gesture of our generosity here on The Ticket, we wanted everyone to have a piece of our cake. So here you go. Dig in. Enjoy. Thanks again.
Sure, there's world wars and toxic pollution and corruption and Social Security reform and a few other things like trillions of dollars in debt to worry about.
But before getting to those easy issues, politicians who want to be chief executives must first get elected. And to do that they must decide if they're going to wear funny hats.
It's the bane of most big-time campaigns. And why you don't see candidates so often visiting construction sites; hard-hat zones, where they must don those funny-looking helmets that sit so high on their head. They may save lives, but they scare image-conscious campaigns.
Remember in 1988 Gov. Mike Dukakis driving that tank? It's a lot of fun. Looked good on paper to associate him with defense issues, a traditional Democratic weak spot. But you gotta wear the XL helmet. So he did. He looked like a pretender. And the rest is doofus history.
Long before him, there was the classic headgear disaster, Calvin Coolidge in the Indian headdress. Scroll down for that baby.
So, even though he's a freshman senator and a rookie national campaigner, Sen. Barack Obama faced a quandary last weekend.
Should he wear one of those stupid-looking bicycle helmets that legislators say we must wear but only look good on Tour de France racers? And get mocked? Or should he go without the hapless headgear and get criticized for defying the law? Who does he think he is? Above the rules that apply to everyone else?
These are everyday decisions now. Obama opted for the hat. At one of two lucrative campaign fund-raisers in Chicago Thursday night, at the home of a businessman who donates bicycles to charities, Obama couldn't resist a little boasting. He explained that he faced a tossup: Risking ridicule or sending children the right message about bike gear.
"I had an internal debate," Obama admitted when a supporter thanked him for wearing a helmet. "Because I knew that the AP was going to take a picture, and they were trying to portray it like Dukakis wearing that tank helmet.
"But I wanted to make sure that the children who saw that picture knew that even the Democratic nominee for president wears a helmet when he goes biking," he said to applause.
"Now, obviously the rest of my apparel was apparently not up to snuff, because I got a hard time from all sorts of blogs ... who said I looked like Urkel."
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?
"I did this as a symbol of my commitment to my dad and to represent the faith I have in his ability to be an effective leader for our country and to grow and strengthen the Republican Party when he is elected president of the United States," she wrote on her blog. "Happy Father's Day, Dad!"
But the bigger present from daughter to dad might be the book she's working on -- a children's story about her father due out in September. The press release says it's untitled but Simon & Schuster's website says it's called "My Dad, John McCain." The book is geared toward kids ages 5 to 10. Not many voters in that demographic, so you can't accuse the McCains of pandering to the youth vote. But those kids have parents.
"I am truly excited about the opportunity to write a children’s book about my father, who is not only a fantastic dad, but also a great American," the daughter said in the Simon & Schuster release. "This book will offer children the unique opportunity to see the character-building events that happened over his lifetime, experiences that led up to his current bid to become the future president of the United States."
All that in 32 pages. With illustrations (by Dan Andreasen).
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.
First, we need to clear the air about our colleague, David Sarno, the clever fellow who writes for The Times' Web Scout blog.
No one has come forward with any proof of the rumors that he's a Chinese sleeper agent sent here to confuse Americans about how the Internet and popular culture interface while his parents are held hostage back home.
None of that is probably true.
As far as we know at The Ticket, David is hardly behind on his taxes at all. Most of the speeding tickets have been paid. And the Hollywood incident never came to court.
So he's perfectly well-qualified to write about what he's writing about today: the damaging power of rumors in politics, their viral spread on the Web and the urgent need to combat them constantly. It's a fascinating column that deals mostly with the efforts of Barack Obama'scampaign to fight distorted truths and outright lies.
All candidates have rumor problems and virtually all campaigns experience and/or employ some dirty tricks, some as simple as stealing opponents' lawn signs, others push polling or worse.
It didn't take the speed of the Internet for 19th century political campaigns to spread ugly words about their opponents, things like illegitimate children, for instance. And without widespread photographs, cartoons in partisan papers could distort into ugliness an opponent's visage free of visual refutation.
In 2000, Sen. John McCain ran into a rumor buzzsaw in the South Carolina Republican primary when word was spread that the McCains' dark-skinned adopted daughter from Bangladesh was really -- here we go again -- an illegitimate child of his with a black woman.
This time the campaign against McCain is much more subtle and wrapped in smiles. It's ageism. His opponents spread and encourage all kinds of jokes and stories about his age and mental capabilities, using the cover of humor to try to make acceptable the undocumented planting of doubt.
If the same kinds of "jokes" were told about Sen. Hillary Clinton's, let's say, inability to drive properly because, well, you know women drivers, or her mood swings at certain times during the campaign, people would be quite properly outraged.
But Sarno, who isn't very old for a young person, focuses on Obama's efforts to combat untrue stories of the candidate's Muslim faith. It's a really good and revealing read here, despite what we heard about David's hunting trip to Manitoba.
-- Andrew Malcolm
P.S. Some people may have noticed Scarlett Johansson's stunning photograph here. And they may also have wondered what she has to do with our blog item on David Sarno's blog item on politics and the Internet. That's a good question. To get the answer, place your cursor on the photograph. Also, we warned Ticket readers way back here.
With all the sudden emergence of unity talk and who should be president at today's long-awaited endorsement of Barack Obama by Hillary Clinton, it's easy perhaps to forget that it wasn't so long ago that these two -- plus others involved in this historic Democratic nomination contest -- had some contrary, not-so-nice things to say about the party's new presumptive nominee.
Now here, like clockwork in the two-party political system, comes the Republican National Committee, which has cleverly assembled a series of film clips of both Clintons, John Edwards and Joe Biden talking about Obama in unflattering ways from the not-so-distant past. It has also created a lengthy web display of transcripts and videos here of Clinton's many criticisms of the man she now heartily endorses.
As these tit-for-tat political ploys go, this one packs a bit of a punch. Here's a little piece of timing to ponder. You remember how long it feels since that cold caucus night in Iowa when Obama took first and Clinton's third-place finish foretold fundamental troubles that ended with today's euthanasia of her flailing campaign?
Well, we're not quite halfway from that night until election day Nov. 4.
And in the remaining 21 weeks until then, we're pretty sure to see this video or pieces of it many more times.
John McCain, campaigning in Louisiana, simultaneously is making a play for Latino voters in Nevada and New Mexico -- likely battleground states in the fall. The campaign just released a Spanish-language radio ad to air in both states.
What's interesting that while his national focus seems to be national security, the targeted ads are all economy -- which he has acknowledged isn't exactly his strong suit. Here's the ad in Spanish, and the campaign-provided English translation is below:
"ANNOUNCER: When we are buying groceries, we don't have a political party. When we are filling up the gas tank, we are not Republicans, Democrats or Independents. We are Hispanics, and we all are hurting together in this uncertain economic time. We need someone that has a good economic plan, and that is John McCain. His plan is a realistic plan, not a political one, and it will help jump-start the local and national economies.
"He proposed to Congress a federal gas-tax holiday for the summer months. He wants middle-class families to pay less taxes so we can have more money in our pocket and less in Washington. And he wants to help families hurt by the housing crisis under his HOME Plan.
"He is optimistic and knows that we all, 'unidos,' together, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, can find a better way to fill up our tanks, our shopping carts, and our dreams.
"That's why in (Nevada/New Mexico), 'Estamos Unidos con John McCain.'
"JOHN MCCAIN: I'm John McCain and I approve this message."
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.
There's loyalty in politics, and then there's loyalty. Terry McAuliffe, Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, appeared on Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show" Tuesday night a few hours before Clinton's non-concession speech. She's going to The White House in January, he says. As president.
-- Scott Martelle
(McAuliffe shows up at about the two-minute mark.)
Given that we live out here within smelling distance of the smoke from Universal Studios, we open this with the caveat that agents are always talking with someone about movie rights. That's what they do. Usually over lunch. A long lunch.
Still, given the reception for HBO's recent "Recount," about the Florida leg of the 2000 election, and the other projects already in the works on the Bush years (and there's still seven months to go), why not a film version of Scott McClellan's "What Happened" memoir of the George Bush White House?
Politico suggests Jonah Hill to play McClellan, which gets our speculation gene fired up. Who to play Bush? Who to play Dick Cheney?
That's why we have a comments section -- to let you answer such burning questions (hey, this is politics; it can't all be strategy and policy-wonk talk). Who would you cast?
Barack Obama has cautiously avoided saying anything that might give someone the idea that he wishes Hillary Clinton would just pack it up and go back to the Senate. But he came close in Thornton, Colo., the other day at the Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts, just north of Denver.
At the end of a town hall meeting on education issues, Obama told the cheering crowd: "All right, everybody, thank you very much. I'll see back in August!" That can be interpreted different ways -- a candidate waxing hopefully, a reference to him being a superdelegate and thus in a chair at the Democratic National Convention, or just meaningless pablum from the stump (now that would be a first for a political candidate).
But the plans he's making for Tuesday night are hard to interpret in any way other than as an act of confidence, with a dollop of provocation. Obama plans to celebrate the end of the five-month Democratic presidential nominating calendar not in Denver, or his home city of Chicago, or straddling the Montana-South Dakota border.
This could be the ultimate merger of politics, the Web and entertainment. The Republican National Convention and John McCain's campaign have teamed up to solicit user videos of "someone in your neighborhood who goes above and beyond the call of duty to serve what Sen. McCain calls, 'a cause greater than their own self-interest.'" Then viewers get to vote on the best submission. The winner gets a pass to the convention in St. Paul, Minn.
Of course, the devil is in the details. When you look at the FAQs, the convention staff winnows down the submissions to five finalists, and then they'll open it up to a vote. Kind of like a private primary by the insiders to winnow down the list of acceptable candidates (now, that's democracy). So you can probably write off any chance of a talking snowman making the cut.
Still, the Republicans have generally lagged behind the Democrats in Web innovation. This might catch them up a bit. Meanwhile, we'll be watching for the Paulista backlash. Ron Paul's supporters have proven themselves to be adept at both the Web, and videos. And since they're still fighting for a bigger place at the St. Paul table, you can bet they'll be submitting.
And you can also bet that if they don't make the "final five," they'll be flaming (read any comments section on a blog post about Paul).
As if the dispute over whether to seat the Florida and Michigan delegations isn't enough, the Democratic National Committee is facing a mini-uprising in the blogger world over which local blogs will be seated with state delegations at the Democratic National Convention in August.
The DNC, perhaps recognizing how many activists get their political fixes from blogs, decided to grant a seat to (usually) a single blog with each state's delegation in Denver. This is in addition to the large-scale blog sites (think Huffington and Kos) that will get media credentials to cover the event. And some of the state-level blog sites are fairly large, such as Calitics, which gets a seat.
Yes, there are still states -- and a territory -- to vote, Democratic delegates to select, superdelegates to decide and conventions to be held, but it's hard not to peek ahead to the fall matchup. You can make your own presumptions about whether the Dems will go with Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, but for the sake of argument, we'll presume it's Obama.
And polls, fickle though they may be, show that the general election could be just as tight as the Democratic primaries in crucial swing states where Obama's race and perceived class work against him (witness Kentucky). The tallies maintained at Real Clear Politics give a broader sense of the challenge for Obama and for John McCain.
You can go over there and play, but the overview is the latest state poll aggregates give the current advantage (some of these are within the margin of error) to McCain in Ohio, Florida and Missouri and the advantage to Obama in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin (though McCain led in the most recent poll) and Iowa with Michigan essentially a dead heat.
Now take those poll numbers over to an interactive electoral college map and the advantage is: Nobody. Under that scenario, with Michigan a virtual tie and polls too erratic in New Mexico to count, Obama and McCain would be separated by four electoral votes and both would need Michigan to put them over the 270 threshold.
Later this week, John McCain's campaign is expected to confront head-on questions about his physical fitness to be president -- an issue stemming partly from his age -- with the release of his medical records and a briefing from doctors.
Over the weekend, McCain himself took a crack at using humor to deflate concerns about whether, at 72 years old on Inauguration Day, he would be stretching the appropriate age for someone about to start serving as president. During an appearance on "Saturday Night Live," he joshed about the matter. (Sample: a reference to his "great, great, great grandchildren," some of whom "are nearing retirement .")
McCain, though, is not alone in poking fun at his age. A recently unveiled website creating a buzz also has that goal -- as well as stirring a serious discussion of the topic.
The site, thingsyoungerthanmccain.com, is the brainchild of a fellow who, for now, simply wants to be identified as Joe. We talked to him and did learn that he lives in New York City and works by day as a graphic designer and copy writer. As for his own age, he's 40 -- not so far away from being viewed as hopelessly out of it by some of those born a few decades after him.
He makes no bones about his age-inspired skepticism toward a McCain stint in the White House.
"Am I being 'age-ist'?, he asks on his home page. "Maybe. But maybe not. The world is a pretty complicated place right now and I’m thinking that it’s not such a great time to elect our oldest president ever. So sue me."
He put up a handful of younger-than-McCain posts in April (Superman, the Hindenburg disaster, the ballpoint pen).
But he really kicked himself into gear earlier this month, upon learning that on May 12, his would be the featured site on veryshortlist.com. That sparked traffic, which in turn, spurred audience suggestions. Items younger than McCain (who was born Aug. 29, 1936) that are now featured include the shopping cart, the Slinky, macaroni and cheese ...
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.)
Yesterday The Ticket broke the stunning news of America's acquisition of seven, maybe eight, new states, according to future president Barack Obama.
He was speaking at the start of a two-day swoop through Oregon, which is already a state.
In Beaverton, which is not a state yet, the Democrat let it slip that during this marathon 16-month party presidential nomination struggle against a bunch of dropouts and this female political zombie from New York who won't surrender short of a silver stake, he had already visited 57 states with one more to go.
That's not counting the existing states of Alaska and Hawaii, he said, which his staff decided aren't important enough to visit. Unless maybe you're Mike Gravel or Dennis Kucinich, who weren't very important either, come to think of it.
Here's the spoof-proof Obama video as evidence:
Has this aging freshman senator -- he'll be almost 60 in 13 years -- lost his bearings? Are the eight new states caucus or primary? And will Howard Dean bar them from the convention too?
Besides trying to noodle out what the new states are, some clever campaign folks over at the phenomenal Suitably Flip blog got to thinking right away.
And they've now unveiled a new patriotic lapel pin that anyone can wear with pride even, say, a Harvard-educated senator from Illinois who's been trying to make a point about opposing a war before it even started.
Here is the new pin replete with all 57 stars:
You'll probably want to order several for friends and family. And any Chablis-sipping senators you might know.
Despite Smith's effort to scramble the partisan divide, it's comforting to know that in some cases, the old rules still apply -- such as a conservative Republican from Texas invoking a tried and true symbol of California liberalism, Sen. Barbara Boxer, as a way to raise money.
