What H1N1 swine flu? Majority of Californians intend to ignore the late vaccine: Times/USC poll

A new poll confirms that the Obama administration and federal health officials have failed to convince Americans -- at least those in the most populous state of California -- of the seriousness of a H1N1 swine flu pandemic.

A majority of those registered voters polled by a new survey team involving The Times and the University of Southern California said they believed the new, delayed vaccine was safe.

But a majority also said they had no intention of getting it.

The findings come from a new Los Angeles Times/University of Southern California College of Letters, Arts & Sciences Poll. The survey, which interviewed 1,500 registered voters from Oct. 27 through Nov. 3, was conducted for The Times and USC by two nationally prominent polling firms, the Democratic firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner and the Republican firm Public Opinion Strategies.

Today's results have a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.

Only 5% of those polled said they had already been vaccinated. Of the rest, 52% said they didn't plan to get vaccinated. Of the 40% who said they wanted the vaccine, 12% said they already had attempted to find it but couldn't. 

Of those polled, 70% said they think the H1N1 vaccine is safe for most people, and only 17% said there was a strong chance the vaccine is unsafe.

Last month the Obama administration declared a national emergency over the H1N1 pandemic, as The Ticket reported here. But the government program has come under fire for long delays in deliveries of the vaccine.

Rep. Ron Paul has even called the federal program a "total failure." Obama officials, who are overseeing the vaccine distribution, have blamed the delays on manufacturers.

A previous national poll, as The Ticket reported here, found a large majority of Americans also intended to skip the recommended medical action.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Baltimore Sun (Another satisfied young vaccination customer).

Joe Biden update: Now, a secret oath-giving closed to the press

A short time from now Vice President Joe Biden will disappear again from the public eye.

Don't worry too much. It's nothing involving a hidden bunker, that anyone knows about at least.

We've mentioned here before the Veepster's proclivity for the same kind of private, which is to say closed to the press, which is to say secret meetings that his evil predecessor Dangerous Dick Cheney also preferred, despite denunciations by Democrats in Congress, where Biden had served since his current boss was 11 years old.

Funny coincidence too because today is the first anniversary of that 2008 election eve when Obama and Biden wrapped up their successful $750 million campaign for the White House promising change to believe in and historic governing transparency involving such things as no lobbyists, publicly posting legislation days before signing and open meetings on C-SPAN.

This is another busy day for Biden, full of speech-listening and lunch-giving. This morning he heard German Chancellor Angela Merkel address a joint session of Congress. Then, Biden hosted a closed lunch for U.S.-European Summit participants, and later he'll sit in on the private meeting between President Obama and Secy. of Defense Robert Gates.

But the Biden schedule item that intrigues most today involves another one of his secret meetings, one that on the surface would not seem to require secrecy. It's the swearing-in of the president's Committee on the Arts and Humanities.

Not only that, it's the ceremonial swearing-in, meaning they're already been sworn in officially. This one is just for fun.

What kind of Democratic arts projects require secrecy?

Here's how the session appears on today's official vice presidential schedule as published by the White House, which apparently forgot to turn its clocks back last weekend:

At 4:00 PM EDT (sic), the Vice President will administer the oath of office at the ceremonial swearing-in of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. This event is closed press.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Joshua Roberts / Bloomberg News

Obama's backup presidential pet walker for Bo

Presidents, of course, don't have time to walk their dogs, unless it's a scheduled photo op to make millions feel warm and fuzzy.

So the primary walker of Bo Obama is reportedly Michelle Obama. But even she is sometimes too busy.

So, Darlene Superville explains in a charming Associated Press story tonight, the walking job falls to a little-known, 57-year-old man named Dale Haney.

He's walked presidential dogs for decades now all the way back to 1972, which was, wow, in the last century back when Joe Biden first entered the Senate and Obama was barely in the sixth grade.

You think you've got a lot of leaves to pick up, besides whatever your dog deposits during his walks. As the White House's chief groundskeeper, Haney's got 18.5 acres to take care of.

He's been amazed over the years about how interested the public is in presidential pets, often showing more interest in them than the officeholder.

Haney likes Bo just fine. But he still carries a soft spot in his heart for George and Laura Bush's dog Spot. Spot was actually born to the White House, way back in 1989 as the daughter of Millie of the first President Bush. (see photo below),

Spottie, as George W.'s family called her, had a distinctive self-assurance that charmed many over the years including Haney. Before her reelection to the White House in 2000, Spot lived....

... in Texas and when the future president became governor, Spot took over the governor's mansion in downtown Austin, going pretty much wherever she pleased whenever she pleased.

But Spot quickly learned that tirelessly patrolling the block-square grounds was unnecessary if she just curled up in the security room. When the buzzer went off, Spot would explode from the room barking ferociously in search of the security breach. Spot left this earth in 2004 after several strokes.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Gerald Herbert / Associated Press (Haney takes Bo for a recent walk); Associated Press (The first Pres. Bush walks with a proud Millie and her new brood including Spot in 1989).

Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman challenges Obama to let her play in his all-guys basketball games

Nancy Lieberman, a Basketball Hall of Fame member, is calling the president out.

Barack Obama, who's noted that he's surrounded by females with his wife, two daughters and mother-in-law living with him, loves his basketball with male pals.

The president has had some recent basketball games on the White House basketball court  -- guys only. Mainly congressional guys.

Last Sunday for the first time as president he allowed a female to join his regular golfing foursome.

And that fraternity-like atmosphere has caused some gender grumbling.

Now, in a "frank" open letter to the Democrat chief executive today on More.com, Lieberman challenges Obama to some hoops mano a mana, so to speak.

She says:

Some women are saying you need a time-out. Your men-only basketball games have been scrutinized — and criticized for consistently leaving women out.

Your defenders call that charge ridiculous, saying everyone knows that women can play golf with men, but not basketball...which of course only annoys women more.

Well, I have a solution. To score some real points with the public, stop arguing and just play ball — with the best. Shoot some hoops with yours truly.

Lieberman, an Olympic gold medalist at 18, WNBA veteran and ESPN analyst, even signed a short-term contract to play as a pro at age 50. 

Her good-natured but firm letter says she'd like to help him bring change to the country. "It's what I've done my whole life as a woman in sports," she writes.

"It's always good for sports when new barriers are broken," she adds.

And Lieberman promises:

If invited to play at the White House, I solemnly vow to protect, preserve and defend the basketball until my team wins.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photos: Associated Press; ESPN.

Obama did consider Hillary as VP but Bill Clinton's presence quashed it, Obama ex-aide says

Yes, it's holiday book-buying time in the publishing industry. But before we get to Sarah Palin's rogue book in two weeks, we have David Plouffe's audacious book.

You'll remember him as campaign manager for that also audacious Illinois guy who creamed the Palin-McCain Republican ticket last year, talking about change to believe in and transparency.

Tempting little out-of-context pieces of the Plouffe book, "The Audacity to Win," are beginning to leak out (well, actually, in the book business, they're pumped out by promoters).

Plouffe says he and David Axelrod, now an Obama White House advisor, were surprised how seriously their boss considered Hillary Clinton as his vice presidential running mate over the old Senate guy from Delaware he eventually chose just before the Democratic National Convention in late August.

Plouffe reportedly says Obama insisted her name be on the initial list after the Democratic primaries were settled in early June and kept it there into early August.

But, Plouffe writes, Obama then said to him, "I think Bill may be too big a complication. If I picked her, my concern is that there would be more than two of us in the relationship." Our concern is that this sounds rather stilted for real campaign chatter. But such a thought was also a prominent theme in media speculation at the time: Could the two recent competitors operate together with the ex-prez always in the background?

Judging by the energy and verve the former first lady shows in the State Department job she eventually got, talking politely and firmly to folks all around the world on behalf of the United States and Obama, things worked out pretty well this way.

Come to think of it, though, Plouffe's account conflicts starkly with the latest version that ultimate choice Joe Biden told just the other day, as The Ticket reported here.

At a Democratic dinner in Pennsylvania 10 days ago, Biden said he initially turned down Obama's VP offer. But, Biden recounted, the persistent future president asked him again two months later and Biden finally acquiesced after eliciting a promise that Obama really meant real change.

That version, however, would put Obama's alleged opening offer to Biden somewhere around mid- or late June, when Plouffe has Clinton's name on a longer list with others. Unless somebody is misremembering ...

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo credit: CNN (not the best body language between the future Democratic teammates during the 2008 primary season)

Clever Calif. Dem Garry South says one specific Republican would make 'a great governor'

Garry South, the ever-voluble, ever-quotable political strategist, has made a name for himself with his provocative, often outrageous statements on behalf of Democratic candidates and causes.

More than a few of his candidates have cringed -- even if they were privately pleased -- as South scorched the Republican opposition. (Most of his inflammatory, over-the-top remarks are, in truth, about as random and spontaneous as a precision-guided missile.)

Nonetheless, it was something of a surprise at a California Chamber of Commerce forum today in Napa, Calif., when South had this to say about GOP gubernatorial hopeful Tom Campbell:

"He's a great guy. He would make a great governor. You can quote me on that."

OK.

True, South probably said those nice things because he's convinced that Campbell, the pauper in the 2010 Republican gubernatorial race against big-spending Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner to succeed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, has no chance of winning.

That, of course, remains to be seen.

Some have drawn a comparison between Campbell's circumstances and another vastly outspent dark horse candidate who improbably managed to beat a pair of free-spending millionaires: Gray Davis in 1998.

His campaign, not incidentally, was run by none other than -- oh, look! -- Garry South.

The difference, South pointed out, was Davis' support within the Democratic base, something the heretical Tom Campbell -- he of the 32-cent-a-gallon gas tax hike proposal -- seems to lack among the state's tax-hating Republican base.

What makes South's comment especially noteworthy, however, is his current role, managing the gubernatorial primary campaign of Democratic San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

If Campbell is such a great fellow with all that promise, why isn't South supporting his bid for governor?

"I'm a Democrat," South replied. "You need to ask?"

Jamie Fisfis, a Campbell strategist who joined South on the panel along with consultants for Poizner, Whitman and Democratic Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, had this to say afterward: "Sounds like Garry's trying to destroy another Republican candidate he doesn't want to face in the general election."

South, it might be recalled, helped engineer the defeat of former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan in the Republican primary of the 2002 governor's race, helping ease the way for Davis' reelection. [Updated 9:40 a.m. Oct. 30: An earlier version of this post incorrectly said Riordan ran in the 2006 primary.]

-- Mark Z. Barabak

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Photo: South's office.

Cheers and jeers for Nevada's Harry Reid

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is no doubt divisive: Polls show that about half of Nevada voters don't like him. But it’s still surprising to see who's cheering and jeering him these days. (Though with the election a year away, there’s also plenty of time to change minds.)
 
CHEERING: Progressives who are thrilled with Reid’s announcement today that he’s backing the inclusion of a public option in the Senate’s healthcare legislation (see news video here),....

...although states would be able to opt out of it and it's unclear whether he has the votes to ward off a filibuster.
 
JEERING: Moderates who support a “trigger” plan — in which public health coverage would kick in only if private insurers failed to meet certain benchmarks — and think, like President Obama reportedly does, that it’s more likely to win over conservative Democrats and moderate Republicans.

OUR THOUGHTS: There's along way to go, but if Reid gets the public option into a final bill, it might help him woo progressives who’ve told pollsters they find him weak and ineffective. Those voters wouldn’t have cast ballots for the Republican TBD anyway. But they sure might stay home — there are plenty of other things to do in Las Vegas. 
 
*
 
CHEERING: The parents of embattled Nevada Sen. John Ensign, a Republican, who donated $4,800 to Reid. Some people think that smells funky, since Ensign’s been in political purgatory and Reid has declined to criticize him.  But father Mike Ensign is a former casino executive and Reid has long been a Friend of Gaming.

CHEERING: Casino magnate Steve Wynn, who recently ripped into the Obama administration’s economic policies but supports Reid’s reelection. “My friend of 40 years will protect Americans from this kind of foolishness,” Wynn said of the chief torchbearer for Obama's policies. (Did we mention Reid’s a Friend of Gaming?)

JEERING: Sue Lowden and her casino-owning husband, Paul, who once donated thousands to Reid. Lowden is considered the front-runner among a gaggle of Republicans who’d like to elbow out the majority leader, as the GOP did in 2004 to Tom Daschle, the previous Democratic majority leader.

OUR THOUGHTS: When you’re polling as low as Reid, being a Friend of Gaming might not be enough.
 
*

CHEERING: Rock god/humanitarian Bono, who gave a shout-out to Reid last week during U2’s Las Vegas concert.

JEERING: No one. Bono’s awesome.

OUR THOUGHTS: Bono got 40,000 people to sing "Viva Las Vegas." You think he could push through a public option?

— Ashley Powers

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Photo: Associated Press

A Newt Gingrich run in 2012? Quite possible but...

No one in their right mind announces or confirms a White House run this far out.

Yes, presidential campaign announcement dates have been creeping up. In 1960, John F. Kennedy announced on Jan. 3 of election year. Bill Clinton announced the fall before election year. George W. Bush announced the summer before election year.

And Barack Obama the winter before the summer before the fall before election year. And that successful run cost $750 million in other people's money.

Why ask to be politically targeted this soon?  It's -- what? -- 1,107 days now until Nov. 6, 2012.

So C-SPAN's Mr. Excitement, Steve Scully, knew better Sunday than to ask former House Speaker Newt Gingrich whether he was going to run in the next presidential contest.

Savvy fellow that he is, Scully inquired instead what kinds of things Gingrich would think about as he contemplated that decision. (See C-SPAN video below.)

Gingrich, who engineered the stunning 1994 Republican election victories in....

... both houses of Congress with the Contract with America before quitting after some defeats four years later, walked through the thinking process. 

Callista and I are going to think about this in February 2011. And we are going to reach out to all of our friends around the country. And we'll decide, if there's a requirement as citizens that we run, I suspect we probably will. And if there's not a requirement, if other people have filled the vaccum, I suspect we won't.

Gingrich ran through a lengthy list of other possible Republican suspects, praising Mitt Romney and Haley Barbour and Tim Pawlenty and whats-her-name with the new book and the Nov. 16 appointment with Oprah. Gingrich said, "I have no great personal ambition needs to run for president."

Although, to be honest, he's not exactly hiding himself either, analyzing for Fox News, writing books, gathering nearly 1.14 million followers on Twitter (only 387,000 behind John McCain), giving speeches all over and rising early on an autumn Sunday to answer questions on C-SPAN from even the Democratic and Independent phone lines.

Gingrich also harkened back to the '94 Contract, saying politics needs to be about ideas -- he called them "vivid, powerful alternatives" -- not just maneuvers. "I want to see an alternate Republican Party," Gingrich said, "not an opposition Republican Party."

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Video courtesy of C-SPAN

A first! President Obama actually golfs with a woman!

Another crack in the gender glass ceiling. And just nine months into his first term.

Despite the H1N1 swine flu national emergency he declared Saturday, President Barack Obama went golfing Sunday. And for the first time in the White House, he took a female along on his golf outing. She's Melody Barnes, his chief domestic policy adviser.

Because of Obama's sensitivity to privacy and his athletic skills off the basketball floor (think bumbling bowling in Pennsylvania), there will be no video or photos of the coed sports outing on the course at Washington's Fort Belvoir this afternoon.

But the tireless Lynn Sweet, today's print pool reporter from the Chicago Sun-Times who knows the competitive president well from his Illinois days, confirmed the golfing firstness.

At first she was told by a White House aide that Barnes was not the first female to swing a golf club with the rookie president.

When Sweet asked for the names of the others, the aide corrected himself and confirmed Barnes was the first, though he said Obama had golfed with unidentified women during the campaign.

The sensitivity in the Democrat White House arises from growing grumbling about recent evening basketball contests there with congressmen that were literally with congressmen. No females allowed. And then there was the all-male beer summit.

Golfing like this has historically been a guy thing. In business too. The import of the absence of women is not so much the guys' worry that they'll get thumped by a woman in front of others (although come to think of it.....)

It's the bonding that goes on through the shared competition and stories, some of them suitable for mixed company. And the lead in familiarity that shared social experience gives guys when promotion times come around.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Associated Press (Barnes with Obama). Jewel Samad / AFP / Getty Images (Barnes enroute to the golf course).

Obama on life in a family of women: 'It's me and Bo'

President Obama sat down for an interview yesterday with NBC's Savannah Guthrie. As part of her network's week-long focus on the role of women (captained by California First Lady Maria Shriver), Guthrie asked the president for his views.

His short answer, "If women are thriving, everybody is thriving."

Kind of diplomatic for a guy who lives with First Lady Michelle Obama, their two daughters and his mother-in-law.

"I'm surrounded," Obama said when asked about his all-female household. "It's me and Bo," the first family's Portuguese water dog.

Elsewhere in the interview, Obama talked about the career sacrifices women routinely make in raising children, and about how men tend to be "a little obtuse about this stuff." Take a listen.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

But he did take issue with critics who assailed his recent invitation to the House of Representatives' pick-up basketball squad, calling it "bunk" to suggest a sexist motive.

A full transcript, provided by NBC, is below.

-- Johanna Neuman

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