Top of the Ticket, the start of Year Two

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 ...

Condoleezza Rice helps the fight against breast cancer

While the spotlight in Washington today was on the National Building Museum, the site of Hillary Clinton's highly anticipated concession speech in the Democratic presidential race, the morning began with thousands gathering near the Mall for the annual Race for the Cure to benefit breast cancer research.

Condoleezza Rice was among those who helped kick off the event, and in comments to the crowd the never-married secretary of State sparked interest with a reference to "a very important man in my life."

President Bush, of course, long has been the mentor of Rice, who's become a real fitness buff, as The Ticket has reported. But that's not who she had in mind. The Swamp's Bay Fang was there, and provides the answer here, along with perspective on Rice's particular interest in battling breast cancer.

-- Don Frederick

Photo Credit: AP / Kevin Wolf

UPDATED: Sen. Robert Byrd, 90, hospitalized again

The longest-serving senator in U.S. history was hospitalized again Monday night. (UPDATE: Aides now say the senator will remain in the hospital in Fairfax, Va., for several days.)

It's the third time in the last five months that the 90-year-old Democrat, Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, has been hospitalized. This time the reason given to the Associated Press was lethargy and sluggishness.

The senator began feeling ill after a 5:30 p.m. Senate vote, went home and then to the hospital, where he had a fever. In March, he was admitted for a reaction to an antibiotic and a week before that for a fall at his home.

Colleagues have noticed that Byrd, who entered the Senate in 1958, has become increasingly frail and emotional since the death two years ago of his wife of 69 years, Erma. There have been whispers, well out of his earshot, that he might not be strong enough to remain chair of the powerful Appropriations Committee.

In an oddly-timed endorsement last month, Byrd signed on with the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama six days after his state's primary voters overwhelmingly rejected the Illinois senator in favor of New York Sen. Hillary Clinton.

The current party balance of power in the Senate is 49 Democrats and 49 Republicans with two independents who usually vote Democratic. Although a departure by Byrd would reduce Democrat control to 50-49, the governor of West Virginia, Joe Manchin III, would be expected to name a fellow Democrat to fill a vacancy.

Although George W. Bush won West Virginia twice, Republicans have not controlled the state's governorship since Cecil Underwood's term ended in 2001.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Photo: Associated Press / Lauren Victoria Burke 

Barack Obama's doctor gives him a clean bill of health

Last week, John McCain's doctors attested to his hardiness to sit behind that big desk in the Oval Office. Now, it's Barack Obama's doctor's turn. McCain let selected reporters sit down for three hours with copies of his medical records. Obama has offered less. But then, his records don't show a history of melanoma, and questions about his age don't crop up nearly as often as they do for McCain.

Obama apparently hasn't had a physical for more than a year. Here's the release from the campaign:

DAVID L. SCHEINER, M.D.
Hyde Park Associates in Medicine, Ltd.
1515 East 52nd Place, Chicago, IL 60615

To Whom It May Concern:

I am David L. Scheiner, a board certified general internist licensed to practice in the State of Illinois.  I am on staff at the University of Chicago Hospitals and Rush University Medical Center.  I have been Senator Barack Obama’s primary care physician since March 23, 1987. The following is a summary of his medical records for the past 21 years.

During that period of time, Senator Obama has been in excellent health.  He has been seen regularly for medical checkups and various minor problems such as upper respiratory infections, skin rashes and minor injuries.

His family history is pertinent for his mother’s death from ovarian cancer and grandfather who died of prostate cancer. His own history included intermittent cigarette smoking.  He has quit this practice on several occasions and is currently using Nicorette gum with success.

Senator Obama’s last medical checkup was on January 15, 2007; he had no complaints.  He exercised regularly often jogging three miles. His diet was balanced with good intake of roughage and fluids.  A complete review of systems was unremarkable.  On physical examination, his blood pressure was 90/60 and pulse 60/minute.  His build was lean and muscular with no excess body fat.  His physical examination was completely normal.

Laboratory studies included triglycerides of 44(normal under 150), cholesterol 173 (normal under 200), HDL 68 (normal over 40), and LDL 96 (normal under 130). Chem 24, urinalysis and CBC were normal, PSA was 0.6, very good.  An EKG was normal.

In short, his examination showed him to be in excellent health. Senator Barack Obama is in overall good physical and mental health needed to maintain the resiliency required in the Office of President.

Sincerely,

David L. Scheiner, M.D.

-- Scott Martelle

John McCain and his 'unremarkable' buttocks

First, we have to start with this reasoned medical opinion buried deep in John McCain's medical files, released for review earlier today. From his oncologist, Dr. Suzanne Connolly of the Mayo Clinic:  "Buttocks unremarkable except for some very light tan freckling." That noise you hear? A massive "thank you" from Jon Stewart's writers.

On a more serious tack, the way the records were made available to reporters wasn't exactly a "release." It was more an environment of controlled access at the Copperwynd Resort and Club in Fountain Hills, Ariz., limited to a handful of media, none of whom were allowed to make copies. From the pool report just disseminated (by Michael D. Shear of the Washington Post):

About 20 reporters -- including CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta and NBC's Dr. Nancy Snyderman -- were allowed to enter a room at the resort in the back of the Alchemy restaurant. We were allowed in at 7:30 and given three hours to review the records and take notes. Most reporters used computers to take notes from the three stacks of documents that were provided to each of them. The main stack, labeled "Records from Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, Arizona, 2000-present" were the main documents and are summarized below. The other two stacks were backup documents, including handwritten notes, lab results and insurance documents. In all it was 1,173 pages, in addition to 1,500 pages distributed the last time he ran for president.

The backup stacks included the statement of financial responsibility, assignment of benefits and authorization to release information, forwarded documents from the attending physician of the U.S. Congress, including lab results, clinical notes, pathology reports. Insurance details, doctor's orders and anesthesia reports. The documents went into great detail about his operations to remove melanomas and colon polyps.

While the records seemed to be comprehensive, a three-hour review by pooled media isn't exactly a full release. (At least they had a chance to eat: "It was a cloudy day of about 56 degrees and we were given fruit, bagels and some muffins, along with some nicely sculpted mounds of cream cheese. No one ate anything, as far as I could tell.")

Add that controlled environment, though, to the financial records McCain has made available, and there are some pretty significant questions about a McCain administration's approach to openness -- especially against the backdrop of the Bush administration, which has shown a penchant for secrecy.

ADDED NOTE: We've e-mailed the Barack Obama campaign about when his records will be available. Will update when we hear.

UPDATE: From Bill Burton, Obama spokesman: "We'll put out a summary early next week." Note that he says a "summary" will be released. So while Obama seems to have revealed more of his family financial records than McCain, it looks like Obama will be revealing less of his medical records. Unless there isn't anything to reveal (McCain, given his age and experiences, obviously has had a lot going on). So we'll have to be patient and see what the Obama "summary" contains.

Also, for those of you who missed the other coverage (there have been comments to that effect), we blogged about this earlier and our colleague Maeve Reston has a full story elsewhere on the site.

-- Scott Martelle

John McCain releases medical records

John McCain's campaign has just posted an overview of his medical condition, and the doctors conclude there is "no medical reason or problems that would preclude Sen. McCain from fulfilling all the duties and obligations of president of the United States."

We'll add details in a bit, and there's a media conference call coming up in which the report will be discussed.

UPDATE: The overview details McCain's known problems with melanoma, but the report gives him a clean bill of health on that front. No current melanomas, and he gets checked every three or four months. The report also answers the question of why it seems the side of his face juts out to the left: "This is a result of an absence of soft tissue on the face in front of his ear that makes the masseter (the chewing muscle) over the jaw appear more prominent.  To be clear, the swelling is not due to any evidence of cancer."

The senator also has recurring trouble with kidney stones, and had "4 bladder stones which were fragmented with laser in August 2001 and at the same time some benign enlarged prostate tissue was surgically removed."  Heart's fine -- it notes he  did a Grand Canyon rim-to-rim hike two years ago with no problems.

-- Scott Martelle

Tobacco dollars still in politics, but few go to Clinton, McCain or Obama

California competes with Utah as the state with the lowest per capita tobacco use. Less than 14% of the adult population smokes, California health officials estimate.

Now, in honor of the primary tomorrow in North Carolina, the nation’s largest tobacco-producing state, The Ticket takes a look at political donations by the growers of those ground-up leaves to the 2008 presidential campaigns. “The golden leaf is a bedrock to North Carolina,” that state's Department of Agriculture proclaims on its website.

The truth is, The Times' indomitable campaign finance expert Dan Morain finds, where once tobacco interests and money carried a lot of influence, this time there's not much tobacco money flying around this cycle.

The candidates who took the most tobacco money have dropped out of the White House race. So much for big business picking winners. One-time Republican front-runner and cancer survivor Rudy Giuliani took $114,000 during his unsuccessful run. Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, whose home state is home to UST Inc., formerly known as U.S. Tobacco Inc., accepted $55,000.

Among candidates still standing or running...

Clinton, healthcare advocate, behind in staff's health care premiums

Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, who has made universal healthcare one of the centerpieces of her campaign for the Democratic nomination for president, was more than a quarter-million dollars behind in payments for her own campaign staff's healthcare premiums, according to financial records.

The unpaid health insurance bills had been accumulating for months, according to Politico.com, which examined her latest campaign financial filings with the Federal Election Commission. They ended 2007 with $213,000 owed to Aetna Healthcare for "employee benefits." During January and February of this year, the debt rose another $16,000.

A Clinton campaign spokesman, Jay Carson, said at no time did employee insurance coverage lapse for campaign staff, spouses, partners and children because of the unpaid bills. He said that during March the campaign paid all outstanding healthcare bills and the balance would be zero in upcoming reports covering March.

By comparison, neither Sen. John McCain nor Sen. Barack Obama's campaign reported any substantial healthcare debts. In terms of overall debts, Obama's effort reported only $625,000 in debts. McCain's reported $3 million owed on a bank loan and only $1.3 million owned to vendors.

Clinton's overall debt on Feb. 29 was reported as $8.7 million, including $3,161 owned to her old high school, as reported in a previous item today. After its publication, Carson said the check had been written to Maine South High School in Park Ridge, Ill.

-- Andrew Malcolm

John McCain on '60 Minutes': Reintroducing himself, in a new role

Just a few months ago, John McCain's White House hopes were barely on life support. The Republicans getting all the attention -- and the money -- included Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee and Fred Thompson; no one, it seemed, wanted to hear from the Arizona senator, whose campaign was almost broke (he fired many of his staff and flew on commercial flights by himself, in coach, to campaign appearances) and whose bipartisan work on legislation (including campaign finance reform and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants) made him a pariah among the party's conservative base.

But in one of the most remarkable turnarounds in recent political history, McCain clinched the GOP presidential nomination last week. Now he's beginning another sort of campaign -- introducing himself to the American people not as the self-styled maverick on the Straight Talk Express, but as the presumptive leader of his party, hoping to knit its various skeins -- social conservatives, moderate pragmatists, immigration hard-liners, and so on -- into a tapestry that pictures him taking the oath of office on the Capitol steps in January.

To that end, he appeared Sunday on CBS' "60 Minutes" ...

Giuliani, back on the trail, explains his medical problem

Having felt completely miserable and been briefly hospitalized in the Midwest the other day, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani returned to the campaign trail today and tried New Hampshire this time for a change.

An energetic Giuliani hit the home of Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta late this afternoon to make his regular pitch to supporters and some undecideds. Afterwards, he told The Times' Maeve Reston, “It was a severe headache, yeah, and everything has turned out fine. All the tests turned out 100%. As you can see, I’m very healthy.” 

Though his campaign, to ease the load a little, canceled a town hall meeting scheduled for Friday in Merrimack and removed an Exeter house party from his public schedule for Sunday, Giuliani insisted his campaign was back in full swing.  “Now we’re right on schedule,” he said.

News bulletins flashed late the other evening when Giuliani, en route home to New York after a full day of campaigning across Missouri, ordered his plane turned around and returned to St. Louis. There, on the telephoned advice of his New York doctor, Giuliani spent the night in Barnes-Jewish Hospital, which specializes in cardiac care. The ex-mayor's staff cited "flu-like symptoms," a catch-all public relations phrase that sounds minor and forthcoming while really saying nothing that can be contradicted later. They said the symptoms had been worsening all day. 

In a taped interview to air Sunday morning on ABC-TV's “This Week with George Stephanopoulos," Giuliani says it was actually a severe headache -- the most painful he's ever had -- that worsened all day and especially after takeoff. Within 10 minutes of departure, he said, he ordered the plane turned around.

Giuliani, a prostate cancer survivor, said he was tested for "everything" and "every test came back normal." His doctor saw him Thursday in New York and pronounced him in good health, but Giuliani said the doctor would be making a full statement after Christmas, when more test results will be back, to assure all of his continuing fine health.

"I'm back on the trail, hale and hearty, ready to go, feeling great," said Giuliani, "and, you know, actually reassured by the fact that I had so many different tests and they all came back 100%."

So after all that, what kind of prescriptions did the doctors give him? Said Giuliani: "Take one aspirin a day."

--Andrew Malcolm

Breaking News: Rudy Giuliani hospitalized in Missouri

Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani aborted a campaign flight from Missouri to New York late tonight because of illness.

A spokesman said the former New York mayor developed flu-like symptoms earlier Wednesday, but persevered with his campaigning in one of the later-voting states that he has focused on. However, the symptoms worsened and shortly after takeoff for New York this evening, the plane was ordered turned around and returned to Chesterfield, Mo. There, Giuliani consulted by phone with his personal physician in New York.

Shortly after, the GOP candidate entered Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis for observation and at least an overnight stay. A spokesman said further decisions on his travels would be postponed until Thursday and the return of test results.

Earlier in the day Giuliani's airplane experienced mechanical difficulties and an overflow crowd of several hundred waited in Columbia while Giuliani was driven across the state.

--Andrew Malcolm

John Edwards and the great divide

CLEAR LAKE, Iowa -- While Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were tussling elsewhere over Obama's PAC and whether a childhood essay signaled early -- and lied about -- ambitions (blame the polls), John Edwards was busy driving around north-central Iowa trying to win over the uncommitteds and make sure his supporters get out to the caucus sites on Jan. 3.

He declined to weigh in on the PAC "fracas," as he called it, but made light of the essay spat. ''It's fine to talk about our records and about issues,'' he said. ''But we probably ought to stop at age 14.''

But later in the same talk, Edwards offered a revealing choice of words that signaled he might perceive of himself as something a little different from the voters he's wooing with his populist themes of returning government to the people. It was somewhat jarring, too, coming from a candidate who is remarkably consistent on the stump.

Speaking to about 70 in the library of a Clear Lake high school on a night when the temperature outside hovered in the teens, Edwards talked about his family's encounter with health care insurance from his wife's battle with breast cancer. "I have first-class, real-life experience with this, with what people go through," Edwards said. He talked about going with Elizabeth for doctors' visits and chemotherapy treatments, then getting the insurance company statements in the mail.

"We had good insurance. And we get the statements from the insurance company -- I had no idea what those statements mean. And we're both lawyers. I ran for president and vice president of the United States. And one month they'd cover something and the next month, the same thing, they wouldn't cover. It was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen. And I just felt to myself, I can't imagine what these insurance companies are doing to regular people out there."

The "regular people" nodded as Edwards cited that as a reason the nation needs universal health care. But even wearing jeans and talking about the nation's growing class divide, the choice of words signaled that Edwards' self-perception has moved a long way from the blue-collar kid from the Carolina mill towns.

-- Scott Martelle

Democratic health plans -- not so different

The National Journal today has a concise overview of the different health plans the candidates are floating, and concludes that the major differences are in the details.  Which is interesting, given the strong interest voters have shown in healthcare.

A recent Times/Bloomberg poll found that healthcare was the top domestic issue among voters, and that 62% supported requiring large employers to foot some of the bill (31% opposed that) and 51% favored requiring people to carry health insurance much as drivers must carry auto insurance (39% opposed that).  Both of those concepts underlie Democratic proposals.  Using tax breaks to make insurance more affordable, the heart of the Republican approach, was a virtual draw, with 44% in favor and 45% opposed.

But key is that independents and moderates generally sided with the Democratic plans, and we all know that middle block of voters decides general elections.

The Republican contenders haven't aired a lot of details yet on what they would do to address something that many Americans consider to be a crisis.  Reports the Journal: "Traditionally, healthcare hasn't been a driving issue in GOP presidential primary seasons because the party's conservative base tends to care more about candidates' stands on taxes, foreign policy and social issues such as abortion.  The party's 2008 nominee will likely focus somewhat more on healthcare during the general election campaign to appeal to swing voters."

The Democratic plans are just so many shades of the same tree.  All are looking for universal coverage of some stripe, though only Dennis Kucinich is pushing for anything like the kind of single-payer model that drives conservatives up a tree -- and doomed "Hillarycare" more than a decade ago.

The upshot: For all the importance voters are placing on healthcare, it doesn't seem as though it will be a decisive issue in the Democratic nomination fight, since they're all so close on the issue.  You can read that as further evidence that the lever-pushing issue for many Democrats will be electability.

-- Scott Martelle

The SCHIP was really flying

A caustic -- some might say classic -- outburst by Rep. Pete Stark (D-Fremont), during yesterday's House debate over President Bush's veto of a health insurance program for children is ricocheting wildly around the Internet.

The outburst was part of the ongoing Washington political stalemate over funding for the State Children's Health Insurance Program, SCHIP, for short. Times expert Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar covered the main story here.

And he also witnessed Stark responding to a GOP lawmaker who tagged the program as "socialized medicine." Waving his arms, Stark first launched into a rhetorical riff about the Iraq war and its costs.

"You don't have money to fund the war or children," he thundered, aiming his fire toward the Republican side of the aisle. "But you're going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the president's amusement."

A video clip of Stark's flipout was all over the evening's TV news broadcasts yesterday, and you can see it for yourself here on YouTube.

The presiding House officer, Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Walnut Creek), cautioned Stark to refrain from such remarks. But she ruled against a Republican motion that would have barred him from the floor for the rest of the day's debate.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino declined to respond to Stark's bitter broadside, but the National Republican Congressional Committee called it "an outrageous and delusional tantrum on the House floor," and demanded an apology to the American people, the troops and their families.

House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio demanded a similar apology and added, "Congressman Stark’s statement dishonors not only the commander-in-chief, but the thousands of courageous men and women of America’s armed forces who believe in their mission and are putting their lives on the line for our freedom and security."

Today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued her own apology. Admitting that emotions were running high on both sides of the House aisle, she said, "While Members of Congress are passionate about their views, what Congressman Stark said during the debate was inappropriate and distracted from the seriousness of the subject at hand."

Stark adamantly remained unapolegtic. "I have nothing but respect for our brave men and women in uniform and wish them the very best,"  he said in a later, cooler press release. "But I respect neither the commander-in-chief who keeps them in harm's way nor the chickenhawks in Congress who vote to deny children healthcare."

See, that's the problem with today's politicians. You never know where they stand.

(UPDATE: On Oct. 23, Stark issued a formal apology.)

--Andrew Malcolm

Sunday morning: Can't-miss Hillary TV

If guessing three winners in three races at the horse track is called a trifecta, what do you call Hillary Clinton's scheduled near-sweep of the Sunday news shows?  We count five separate appearances.  Would that be a quinfecta, then?

So far, Clinton's set to appear on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" on ABC, "Meet the Press with Tim Russert" on NBC, "Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer" on CBS, "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer" on CNN and "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace.  It's the last show that has the most potential, frankly.  It comes almost a year to the day after Wallace had a not-so-warm-and-fuzzy moment with Bill Clinton when asking about the former president's efforts to neutralize Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda.

Hillary Clinton's appearances are all playing off her healthcare plan announcement this week, which gives it a news peg.  Still, it's quite a scheduling coup.

-- Scott Martelle

It all comes down to the cash

If you tuned into PBS last night to see the Democratic debate on healthcare and financial security from Davenport, Iowa, you might have noticed the field of candidates was a little narrower than in the other zillion of debates that have been held so far.

Barack Obama was missing, otherwise engaged trying to raise even more money, though the campaign also has sworn off attending forums not endorsed by the Democratic National Committee. But Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel were missing too. That's because they weren't invited. The reason? Neither low-financed campaign has a paid staffer in Iowa, a rule that sponsor AARP insisted on. And both candidates had something to say about it.

The next debate, for Republican candidates, takes place Oct. 25 in Sioux City. It's unclear how many candidates will miss the cut there, but John McCain and Mike Huckabee have both committed, the AARP says. The AARP website says all of the GOP candidates have been invited; but AARP Iowa spokeswoman Ann Black said if they didn't have a paid staffer in the state, the invitation wouldn't be honored. She also said she couldn't confirm late Friday whether any of the Republican candidates would be excluded.

- Scott Martelle

Obama ad gets personal

As our friends at the The Swamp point out, in recent speeches Barack Obama has been using his mother's 1995 death from ovarian cancer as a lead-in to argue that he's best suited to fix healthcare. Iowans tomorrow will see a new ad that takes the appeal one step further -- opening with a brief still image of his dead mother with a toddler-age Obama at her side.

The ad is aimed at affirming Obama's theme that, despite his experience as an Illinois state legislator and his three years in the U.S. Senate, he's a Washington outsider.  And of course, a certain Democratic front-runner with her own healthcare policy baggage would, by contrast, be a Washington insider.

- Scott Martelle