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Barack Obama wanted to talk about the economy today as he campaigned in Pennsylvania, especially in light of the new government report showing unemployment increasing to 6.1% in August. 
But gun rights, it appears, is an issue Obama can’t avoid in the Keystone State.
It was an issue that plagued him in his primary battle there with Hillary Clinton because of his comment about "bitter" small-town Americans clinging to guns and other things.
And campaigning today near Scranton (this campaign's "in" city), the Democrat was asked whether -- as some foes keep insisting -- he would take guns away if elected president.
The Times' Noam Levey was on the scene at a factory in Duryea, and he reports that Obama fiercely denied any such intention, and then explained his position: This has been pedaled again and again. Here’s what I believe: that the 2nd Amendment is an individual right and it means something -- that people have a right to bear arms.
What I also believe is that there is nothing wrong with some common sense gun safety measures. For example, that we should have strong background checks to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, to keep them out of the hands of the mentally disabled. We should have mechanisms to trace guns that are used in crimes back to the gun dealers that sold them to shut down supplies of illegal guns.
That kind of thing is common sense, and it has nothing to do with the guy who has got his rifle and wants to go hunting.”
But Obama had some choice words for the National Rifle Assn., which has been hammering him for months in its publications and plans a major ad campaign opposing him this fall: Their general attitude is ... if you even breathe the word gun control or gun safety, then you must want to take away everybody’s guns. Well, that’s just not true.
But what we have to understand is that there are two realities about guns in this country. There’s the reality of people who are lawfully and safely using guns for hunting and skeet shooting and protecting their families. And you’ve got illegal handguns being dumped in Philadelphia, in the hands of teenage gang-bangers and drug dealers who are wreaking havoc and killing people. And surely we can come up with a system that protects lawful gun owners but at the same time tries to do something about kids getting shot.
Many have thought so in the past. But so far, as Obama well knows, that's proved a difficult challenge.
-- Don Frederick
Heretofore little-known Rep. Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia was born in 1950 in Atlanta and was raised in one of its surrounding communities.
 Which means the Republican grew up at a time when the racial divide in the South was stark, a time when Jim Crow laws helped enforce a segregationist credo that limited opportunities for blacks, a time when -- as an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article puts it today -- "uppity" was "a word applied to African-Americans who tried to rise above servile positions."
But to hear Westmoreland tell it, he had no clue he was using a racially tinged word when, as reported by The Hill newspaper, he said in Washington this week: "Honestly, I've never paid that much attention to Michelle Obama. Just what little I've seen of her and Sen. [Barack] Obama, is that they're a member of an elitist class ... that thinks that they're uppity."
The remark, the Journal-Constitution reports, quickly "zipped around the Internet, causing Westmoreland’s office phones to ring off the hook."
That furor, in turn, prompted the two-term congressman to issue the following statement: I’ve never heard that term used in a racially derogatory sense. It is important to note that the dictionary definition of ‘uppity’ is ‘affecting an air of inflated self-esteem -- snobbish.’ That’s what we meant by uppity when we used it in the mill village where I grew up.
It's amazing that someone with such a sheltered upbringing could achieve such success in life.
-- Don Frederick
Photo: Associated Press
After initially taunting Barack Obama about tire gauges, the message-makers for the just-concluded Republican National Convention segued to a new target -- that portion of his resume when he worked as a community organizer in some of Chicago's lower-income neighborhoods.
Several speakers made cracks about the job, none more memorably then the GOP's new vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, in her Wednesday night speech to an enthralled partisan throng.
Referring to her own background as the chief executive of Wasilla, Alaska, she said: "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities."
Clearly she (and her handlers) like the line: Palin just recycled it at a rally in Cedarburg, Wis., with John McCain.
For its part, the fraternity of community organizers are fighting back (after getting over what must have been the shock of hearing their chosen field singled out for ridicule).
Our colleague Frank James at The Swamp blog noted The Center for Community Change, a D.C.-based group that trains community organizers, quickly responded with a sharply worded statement. It said, in part, that when Palin "demeaned community organizing, she didn't attack another candidate. She attacked an American tradition --- one that has helped everyday Americans engage with the political process and make a difference in their lives and the lives of their neighbors."
And the New York Post has more quotes today from upset community organizers. Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, says: "I don't like seeing the really hard work that goes on in really poor communities being demeaned by cheap politicians."
Add this to the list of disputes in this campaign season that we didn't see coming.
-- Don Frederick
ST. PAUL -- Joe Mathieu and Scott Walterman aren't even hoarse this morning.
After two weeks of virtually nonstop talking on one of our nation's broadcast treasures, they can now go home. And resume talking some more about all politics all the time.
They are one of the lively teams on XM Radio's POTUS 08, Channel 130, that's been covering this most amazing of political campaigns since its start last year.
For those political junkies who listen often, as The Ticket does, here's a little video tour of their set-up at the just-completed Republican National Convention here.
The first person you spot on the video is producer Joanna Welch, who does 99% of the work, according to her. The guy on the right is Mathieu, a veteran broadcaster. The other guy on the left -- physically, not necessarily politically -- is Walterman.
XM is so important the convention planners put them way up in the nosebleed section with one of the best views in the Xcel Energy Center. (Also they didn't get confetti in their hair last night.) And there's a little video of their teetering view as a singer practiced the National Anthem one recent morning.
--Andrew Malcolm Video by Andrew Malcolm
ST. PAUL -- Scott Hennen's personal phone book contains the numbers of some of the nation's top political leaders, strategists and experts. And when he leaves a message, they call him back.
The animated, 43-year-old Hennen is one of the better-informed, better-known of a legion of regional radio talk-show hosts, most of them conservative, who chatter on hour after hour weekday after weekday across the heartland in between ads for mattresses and mufflers.
The talk shows are deemed quite influential, not so much in telling listeners from state to state what to think, but what to think about.
Hennen, for example, was going on this week about...
Read more Scott Hennen is a real good friend of Karl Rove's and others »
Ron Paul, the Texas congressman who unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for president, has been said to resemble Gandalf, the magician from the movie version of "The Lord of the Rings."
Republican officials seemed to make Paul's supporters magically disappear during Wednesday night's roll call vote, in which the GOP convention officially nominated John McCain as the party's presidential candidate.
During the hour-and-a-half voting procedure, convention Secretary Jean Inman recorded each state's votes. Even though several states cast a portion of their votes for Ron Paul (among them Alaska, Oregon, Washington and West Virginia), none of those votes were repeated aloud by the secretary, and therefore they were not confirmed by the chair.
According to the Oklahoman newspaper, two delegates from Oklahoma also cast their ballots for Paul, but the microphone was cut off before their votes could be recorded.
The result of the roll call vote -- before it was made unanimous by acclamation -- recorded five votes for Paul, while a news reporter counted at least 15.
"There were several discrepancies," said Drew Ivers, Paul's delegate coordinator. "The RNC was roughshod, a little careless. They weren't as respectful as they could have been. I don't think that's very professional, and it's not a good reflection.
"They had five ladies keeping the score, plus the chairman, so they had six people and still couldn't get the numbers right."
The convention did not reject all dissenters to McCain's nomination. Two votes that the Utah delegation cast for Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, were promptly repeated and recorded in the final tally.
-- Ole Jann
Photos: Supporters of Ron Paul, right, disappeared as if by the magic of Gandalf from "The Lord of the Rings," played by Ian McKellen, left. Credits: New Line Productions; Todd Goodrich / Associated Press
ST. PAUL -- Well, he's no she.
But they both meant every word of it.
Sen. John McCain gave the most important speech of his life here tonight, accepting the presidential nomination he has so long sought from the Republican Party he has so long annoyed.
He got the nomination along with the plaudits of a series of speakers, including his wife, Cindy, hailing his patriotism, sacrifice, service to country, maverickness, values, bipartisanship, fighting spirit and some other really good things.
The right words were there in his speech, many of them familiar words he has uttered so many times the same way out on the trail to much smaller crowds than the national TV audience and some 20,000 rabid Republicans assembled here in the Xcel Energy Center.
It was the final act of the truncated Republican National Convention that got postponed by a hurricane far away and then got blown away by the performance of its first female vice presidential nominee since the party's founding in 1854.
McCain's 53-minute remarks, interrupted both by applause and three protesters, were all about Country First, the week's theme. (The full text of the speech is published below the jump.)
But also not surprising for a 72-year-old ex-pilot blown out of the sky 40 years ago by a missile the size of a phone pole. With numerous broken bones, he had 66 months and countless beatings to think about life and his country.
"I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else's," McCain admitted.
It was one of the most heartfelt -- and powerful -- lines from a man who like many of his generation genuinely does not like to talk about himself, especially if it involves war. But he did tonight, telling....
Read more From a tiny cell to a huge arena, John McCain tells his story and accepts a presidential nomination »
ST. PAUL -- Our creative colleague Johanna Neuman over at the Countdown to Crawford blog, chronicling the closing days of the George W. Bush administration, has been counting the mentions of the president's name each night during both parties' national conventions.
Perhaps counterintuitively, the Democrats talked a good deal more about the Republican president from Texas than has the president's own party. And not in a nice way. The reason?
The president has a low approval rating so Democrats want to associate their opposition with him and Republicans would really rather not talk about him.
Neuman's complete report is available here. Here's part of it: We don't know if Bush watched the Republican National Convention Wednesday night -- probably not if a Texas Rangers game was on. If so, he might have been surprised to hear his name mentioned.
As Countdown to Crawford has been noting over the last two weeks, Democrats made frequent use of the president's name from Denver. Tuesday, the first night of the Republican National Convention, the only mentions of the president's name -- five -- came from his wife, First Lady Laura Bush.
So we might have expected a no-Bush night on Wednesday. And most of the top speakers -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee -- stayed away from any talk of the president, whose popularity ratings hover around 30%.
You might never guess who did mention the Texan's name. You'll have to go over to Countdown to find out.
--Andrew Malcolm
Photo credit: Associated Press
John McCain had several hurdles to overcome in his nomination acceptance speech this evening, not the least of which was that he might suffer in comparison to Sarah Palin's boffo performance Wednesday night.
McCain has overcome challenges throughout his adult life, including some unimaginable for most. But here's one that was laid out for him by the Chicago Sun-Times that asks too much, even of him.
An editorial noted, "On the day a presidential candidate gives the big speech accepting his party's nomination, it is customary for newspapers to weigh in beforehand with editorials telling the candidate what they'd like to hear."
And so it does. "McCain must address one concern above all others tonight: He must convince us he's not going to die. At least not anytime soon. Because his pick for vice president, Sarah Palin, is woefully unprepared to be Leader of the Free World."
Republicans no doubt will note the Sun-Times is one of Barack Obama's hometown papers.
-- Don Frederick
Gay Republican.
We've known some Democrats to deride the term as an oxymoron. But for years now, openly gay Republicans not only have stayed the course in the party, but sought to raise their profile through the Log Cabin organization. And today, that group reveled in a visit from John McCain's campaign manager, Steve Schmidt (below, next to a cutout of his boss).
 Schmidt spoke at a luncheon in Minneapolis hosted by Log Cabin and, according to a release quickly sent out by Scott Tucker, its communications director, he said, "I admire your organization."
Other quotes from Schmidt, as related by Tucker: "Keep fighting for what you believe because the day is going to come," and, "We are the party of freedom. We will keep fighting as a party to reach it in full."
Schmidt's interest in the group's efforts may be more than academic; a recent Washington Post profile of him noted that his lone sibling is a lesbian.
Tucker said in his release the luncheon was held to honor the openly gay delegates at the Republican National Convention in neighboring St. Paul. We tracked him down by phone to ask how many that would be among the confab's total of 2,380.
Tucker told us that although the party "doesn't keep those demographics," he estimated the number at about two dozen.
Log Cabin did not actually get around to endorsing McCain until Tuesday (a little shy of seven months after he effectively locked down the presidential nomination). But in its statement of support, the group lavished praise on the Arizona senator ...
Read more Key John McCain aide reaches out to gay Republicans »
ST. PAUL -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican Party's first-ever female vice presidential nominee, made just one brief public appearance before today's convention proceedings.
It was a formal statement to reporters during a luncheon where Palin reprised themes of Wednesday night’s speech that drew an immense audience of 37 million: casting herself as a Washington outsider and defending her qualifications. (The Ticket covered her Wednesday speech and supplied its comple te text.)
One of her “missions” in the two months ahead, she said, is “bring the experience and the knowledge of a chief executive to the issues in this campaign.”
During a Republican Governor’s Association luncheon at the Museum of Russian Art in Minneapolis, Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle introduced Palin to reporters gathered in a dimly-lit art gallery as “our fellow CEO of the states all across this nation.”
“As chief executives, it falls on us to represent all the people and speak for the common interests in our state,” Palin....
Read more The first day of the rest of Sarah Palin's campaign for VP »
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- We knew that last night's boffo speech to the Republican National Convention here by newly minted vice presidential nominee Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was a huge hit inside the house. The Tic ket covered that many ways last night.
But now comes rush word that Rush Limbaugh --that's right, the Rushman, El Rushbo, the Rusher, who's been the self-appointed voice of broadcast conservatism to his many millions of faithful listeners -- has also been less than enthusiastic about the GOP presidential candidacy of Sen. John McCain.
But today, Sept. 4, 2008, a day that will go down in the annals of political history as one of the all-time greatest show biz flip-flops, Rush has fallen in love with Gov. Sarah.
As noted by The Page's Mark Halperin, in his broadcast today Limbaugh said this:
I did not want that to end last night ... I didn’t want the night to end. I didn’t want Rudy to stop. What a night! Folks, we have a future beyond November here. Regardless what happens.... The convention has been unified on the basis of conservatism. Properly executed, beautifully articulated.
Believe me, Barack Obama has a lot to fear today and he knows it ... the drive-bys are in panic, the Democrat Party is in panic, the liberal left is in panic ... they do not know who hit them, they do not know how to respond to this.
This lady has turned it all around ... from now on, on this program John McCain will be known as John McBrilliant.
No, really! Rush said that.
--Andrew Malcolm
Photo credit: RushLimbaugh.com
After CNN dominated coverage of the Democratic National Convention last week, Fox News regained the upper hand Tuesday night when the Republicans took the stage, drawing a bigger audience than any of its broadcast or cable news competitors.
Fox News attracted an average of 6.18 million viewers during the 7 p.m. PDT hour when Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman addressed the GOP gathering in St. Paul. NBC placed second with 4.47 million viewers, followed by CNN with 3.22 million, beating out ABC, CBS and MSNBC.
This marks the second such victory for Fox News.
-- Matea Gold
(The rest of the ever-reliable Matea Gold's story is over on our Show Tracker blog.)
Photo credit: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times
With his pick of Sarah Palin as his running mate, John McCain unquestionably shored up his standing with the Republican base -- any doubt about that was removed by the unbridled enthusiasm she sparked among GOP conventioneers Wednesday night.
Now, McCain faces a new challenge: Delivering a nomination acceptance speech this evening that generates as much buzz as Palin's did.
He will benefit from low expectations; traditional oratory never has been his forte. And the set at the convention hall in St.Paul is being redesigned to simulate the town-hall milieu in which he is more comfortable.
McCain takes center stage shortly after 10 p.m. EDT (7 p.m. PDT), following the showing of a video about him.
Here's the list of other speakers for the conclave's last night:
8 p.m. EDT: Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida, former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee.
9 p.m. EDT: Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina (one of McCain's best buddies).
9:30 p.m. EDT: Former Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania, Cindy McCain.
-- Don Frederick
Republican-speechwriter-turned-columnist Peggy Noonan was a center of attention Wednesday when, in a casual conversation inadvertently recorded after she had wrapped up an appearance on MSNBC, she seemed to say that, in her view, John McCain had no chance of winning the presidency.
"It's over" Noonan can be heard saying on the clip as she, NBC political director Chuck Todd and Mike Murphy (another one-time GOP political operative) discuss the ramifications of McCain's pick of Sarah Palin as his running mate.
Noonan has since clarified the context of her comment, and it's not as has been interpreted, she says.
She doesn't believe McCain can't win. Indeed, in a message she sent out after the conversation on the MSNBC set made it onto YouTube, she noted that "at an on-the-record press symposium on the campaign on Monday, when all of those on the panel were pressed to predict who would win, I said that I didn't know, but that we just might find, 'This IS a country for old men.' That is, McCain may well win. I do not think the campaign is over, I do not think this is settled ..."
Her "it's over" comment, she said, referred to the assumption among some GOP leaders that reactions within the Republican base -- such as the enthusiastic embrace of Palin -- reflect the attitudes of most Americans. It is those days, Noonan says, that are "over."
Our colleague Frank James at The Swamp blog has more on Noonan's clarification.
-- Don Frederick
St. Paul, Minn. — Sarah Palin is quick.
No more than five minutes after completing her rousing speech last night, the newly minted vice presidential candidate sent out her first national Internet fundraising appeal as a nominee seeking campaign money.
The Republican National Committee, which sponsored the pitch, is hoping that Palin’s stem-winder delivered at the national convention to a prime-time audience of millions transformed the first-term governor into Alaska gold.
The 10-paragraph note signed by Palin asks no fewer than three times for “$2,000, $1,000, $500, $250, $100, $50 or $25.” It also asks donors to give generously.
The missive was time-stamped at 9:10, when she, her family and presidential nominee John McCain were still on the stage of the Xcel Energy Center, basking in the Republican delegates’ four-minute ovation.
The money note says in part:
“As recent polls indicate, this year's election will be close. In tight contests, voter turnout is absolutely critical. The Obama Democrats and their liberal special interests allies are spending unprecedented amounts of money on get-out-the-vote drives.
"We must counter this effort and the nearly $1 billion the Obama Democrats and their allies will spend to defeat John McCain and our Republican candidates at all levels. And we need your help to succeed.”
Again, the pitch asks for “$2,000, $1,000, $500, $250, $100, $50 or $25,” which would be “crucial to providing the advertising and get-out-the-vote programs our candidates need to fight back and win.”
The self-described hockey mom asked for the “$2,000, $1,000, $500, $250, $100, $50 or $25” on behalf of the Republican National Committee. The RNC can raise and spend unlimited sums on behalf of the McCain-Palin ticket.
The candidates themselves cannot raise money directly into their campaign accounts because McCain has agreed to accept an $84-million federal grant to help fund his campaign. And that money comes as soon as he accepts the nomination tonight.
Democrat Barack Obama was not far behind Palin.
At 3 a.m. today, the Democrat’s campaign sent out an e-mail saying: “I wasn't planning on sending you something tonight. But if you saw what I saw from the Republican convention, you know that it demands a response.”
The e-mail signed by campaign manager David Plouffe sought small-dollar donations, saying: “McCain's campaign has decided that desperate lies and personal attacks — on Barack Obama and on you — are the only way they can earn a third term for the Bush policies that McCain has supported more than 90 percent of the time. ...
"But you can send a crystal clear message. Enough is enough. Make your voice heard loud and clear by making a $5 donation right now."
The amounts raised by the appeals won't become clear until late October, when the campaigns must file their September fundraising reports.
— Dan Morain
Photo credit: Joshua Roberts / Bloomberg News
As we learned during the Republican primary season, Mike Huckabee rarely can resist one-liners -- even when, as was the case in his speech Wednesday night at the GOP's national convention, facts get in the way.
As part of the concerted party effort to respond to questions raised about Sarah Palin's experience level, Huckabee said John McCain's running mate got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, than Joe Biden -- the vice presidential nominee on the Democratic ticket -- could garner in his failed White House bid this year.
The crowd laughed. But the numbers don’t add up.
In 1996, when Palin was elected mayor, she won 651 votes; in 1999, she was reelected with 909 votes, according to records posted on the city's website.
Although Biden's fifth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses led to him quickly exit the presidential race, Democratic officials recorded that 2,328 Iowans showed up to back him that night.
And because Biden's name remained on the ballot in some contests, he ended up with 79,754 votes in the overall tally for the nomination race.
Also as part of the bid to square what Palin brings to the table with Biden, a six-term senator, Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle, noted for the delegates that Alaska has the same number of electoral votes as Delaware -- three -- but was more than 200 times as large in land mass.
-- James Hohmann
 John McCain and Barack Obama are to appear on stage together at Columbia University in New York next Thursday -- Sept. 11 -- the president of the university announced this afternoon.
It will be the candidates' second joint appearance since they won enough votes in the primaries to claim their parties' nominations.
Columbia President Lee C. Bollinger broke the news in a e-mail message sent to students Wednesday, the first day of school. According to Bollinger, next week's forum is sponsored by ServiceNation, a nonpartisan community service coalition.
Like last month's Saddleback Church forum, the Columbia event will not be a debate. In this case, Obama and McCain will give separate speeches about public service, according to Bollinger. It will be moderated by Time magazine editor Richard Stengel and PBS "News Hour" anchor Judy Woodruff. New York Gov. David Paterson is also scheduled to appear.
Bollinger wrote excitedly about the scheduling coup in his e-mail to students.
"While it will not be a presidential debate, but rather two individual conversations, this nonpartisan Forum is one of only a few times that John McCain and Barack Obama are scheduled to appear on the same stage during the general election campaign," he said.
The intrepid reporters at the Columbia Spectator have more on the story here.
Columbia -- and Bollinger -- are no strangers to world-famous politicians. The president of the university made headlines in 2007 when he invited controversial Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to appear at a forum on campus.
Both presidential candidates have ties to Columbia.
Obama graduated from Columbia in 1983, but next Thursday will be his first appearance at his alma mater since he began his run for president.
McCain's daughter, Meghan, graduated from Columbia in 2007.
McCain last appeared at the school in 2006, when he spoke at its graduation ceremony. He was heckled by many attendees for his support of the war in Iraq.
-- Kate Linthicum
Photo: Thousands of Columbia University students gather at the school's New York City campus during Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's appearance there last fall / European Pressphoto Agency
ST. PAUL -- It was a passionately partisan crowd. Its 20,000+ members were eager to love her. And after recent relentless days of negative stories about Sen. John McCain's pick for a running mate, the Republicans packing the Xcel Energy Center here were feeling besieged by an alien media, as the GOP has for decades.
But tonight for the first time in its more than 16-decade history, the Republican Party nominated a woman vice president, and fell in love with her at the same time.
Whether that translates into enough votes for the John McCain-Sarah Palin ticket to win the White House on Nov. 4 will be decided in the next 61 days of campaigning. But for tonight among her own extensive family and among the GOP family assembled in this graceful old city named for a saint known for patience, Gov. Palin scored a rhetorical hat trick (a term any hockey mom would know).
At least inside the building.
We'll publish the historic speech's entire text below, along with some of our favorite lines.
Palin praised the top of the ticket for his courage and leadership. She vowed they'd reform a national capital that was once a swamp.
She delivered some pretty sharp elbows to the opposition's chin, as she did on the high school basketball court, where her nickname was Sarah Barracuda.
And she presented herself as a determined small-town mom aware of the needs and challenges of real American families.
The 44-year-old Palin had the presence of a former broadcaster, the poise of a former beauty contestant. The down-to-earthiness of a mom with five children, from 19 years old down to 4 months. And the realistic eye of a natural politician who knows the sales appeal of reform and the power of the pause.
And in doing so, Palin won the hearts of the delegates, who were but enthusiastic extras in the television drama transmitted into millions of homes. There, many Americans got their first impression of....
Read more SARAH! SARAH! SARAH! Gov. Palin wows her national GOP »
It looks like another tradition has been added to our convention rituals -- the "surprise" appearance by the top of the ticket to join the vice presidential candidate in the spotlight on the gathering's next-to-last night.
Barack Obama did it last week in Denver, after Joe Biden did his part to rouse fellow Democrats.
Tonight, John McCain did the same after Sarah Palin delivered her stem winder to an adoring Republican crowd in St. Paul.
Obama spoke just a few sentences, praising Biden, as well as Bill and Hillary Clinton.
McCain's comments were even briefer. "Don't you think we made the right choice for the next vice president of the United States?" he asked (for this audience, a rhetorical question if ever there was one).
"And what a beautiful family," he added of the Palin clan, which had preceded him on the stage.
Clutching a hand-held microphone, he appeared to want to say more. But while he and Palin basked in the sustained applause and cheers, the band struck up.
Eventually, McCain shrugged and exited, along with all the Palins.
The delegates stayed (well, at least most of them) for one last piece of business: officially nominating McCain as the party's presidential nominee.
[UPDATE: And so the delegates did, at 11:05 p.m. local time (12:05 a.m. EDT, 9:05 p.m. PDT. The entire roll call of states was called, with a long list of them passing so McCain's home state, Arizona, had the honor of putting him over the top.]
-- Don Frederick
Many Republicans may have an uneasy relationship with Rudy Giuliani, given his support for abortion rights and gay rights, and liberal record on a host of other social issues.
But the former mayor of New York, delivering tonight's keynote address at the Republican National Convention, gave the party faithful what they wanted -- an unvarnished attack on Barack Obama.
To mounting cheers, he belittled Obama as "the least experienced candidate for president in at least 100 years."
The Times' Bob Drogin reports that at that point, the Colorado, Texas and Michigan delegations seated directly in front of the stage chanted of Obama's experience, "Zero! zero! zero!"
Giuliani said his characterization "was not a personal attack, just a statement of fact. Barack Obama has never led nothing, nada."
To even louder hurrahs, he added: "This is no time for on the job training."
For at least this one night, Republicans of all stripes gave Giuliani some love.
-- Don Frederick
ST. PAUL -- Excitement is already beginning to mount in the convention hall for the arrival at tonight's podium of the first female ever on a Republican presidential ticket. All of the men in the 114-member Florida delegation, gentlemen all, have given their floor passes to the women in their lives.
Their spouses, daughters and other women now sit in the official delegation seats so that they can all rise as one to salute Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin when she arrives shortly to give her speech at the Republican National Convention.
As 35-year-old Jennifer Samuels, a Miramar homemaker standing in for her husband, explained, "She's very human. And I think a lot of women relate to that."
Like tonight's speakers, many of the delegates blamed members of the media for what they consider unfair initial coverage of Palin and her family.
Arlene Krings, an interior decorator from Fairway, Kan., complained that liberals in the press "ridiculed" Palin's pregnant teenage daughter, Bristol.
"I believe the only two groups that attack children are terrorists and liberals," she said.
-- Bob Drogin
Photo credit: Reuters
Based on a few excerpts made available from Sarah Palin's much-anticipated speech tonight to the Republican National Convention, she seems ready to give as good as she's been getting since her selection as John McCain's running mate.
Referring to questions about her readiness for the national stage, she says in her prepared remarks: Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown. And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities.
Barack Obama, of course, has made much during his chase for the White House of his background as a community organizer in Chicago.
And then there's this passage, clearly aimed at Obama: Here’s how I look at the choice Americans face in this election. In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change.
-- Don Frederick
What John McCain's multiple residences were to Democrats gathered in Denver last week -- a source of seemingly endless derision -- Barack Obama's embrace of tire gauges as a good way for Americans to conserve energy is proving to be at the Republican get-together in St. Paul.
Sen. Norm Coleman of convention-hosting Minnesota appeared before his fellow Republicans earlier this evening and scoffed at Obama's overall prescription for dealing with the nation's fuel problems. The Democrat's proposals amount to "way too little," he said, like "trying to fix a flat tire with a tire gauge."
And just moments ago, Mike Huckabee offered this in promoting his party's standard-bearer: "John McCain doesn't want the kind of change that allows the government to reach even deeper into your paycheck and ... pick your doctor, your child's school, or even the kind of car you drive or tells you how much you inflate the tires."
-- Don Frederick
ST. PAUL -- Conventions are intended to get the faithful revved up, and get millions of voters excited about the presidential candidates.
They also offer excellent fundraising opportunities.
Hours after former Sen. Fred Thompson grabbed the limelight with a partisan speech attacking Barack Obama on Tuesday here at the Republican National Convention, he announced the formation of a new political action committee named, appropriately enough, Fred PAC.
The money would not be for him, he says. Rather, Thompson promises in a mass e-mail to donors, that he intends to use the money to help other Republicans win office this November.
“It’s clear that we need men and women in Washington and in the statehouses across America who believe, as we do, in the fundamental principles of limited government restricted by enumerated powers,” said the appeal, sent 15 hours after his speech.
“That is why I am announcing the formation of Fred PAC, a political action committee dedicated to helping elect candidates who stand for the principles you and I hold dear -– principles that are the only sure salvation for America.”
For more about Thompson, please visit our friends over at The Swamp.
Democrats do the same. On Wednesday, Mark Warner, the front-running candidate for U.S. Senate in Virginia against Jim Gilmore, followed his keynote speech given to the Democratic National Convention last week with a pitch for money.
“There's no better way for you to help our country move beyond the failed policies of the past eight years than by investing in Mark's campaign,” says the plea, signed by his wife, Lisa Collis.
Warner’s twist: for $50 you can get a DVD of him delivering the convention remarks, which were free on TV.
--Dan Morain
We assume you’re on the edge of your seats wondering what the John McCain camp thinks about the disparaging remarks aimed at Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin by former Republican aides Peggy Noonan and Mike Murphy.
As The Ticket reported earlier today, Noonan, the former speechwriter for President Reagan, says the McCain campaign is “over.” Murphy, the former McCain strategist and the man who steered Arnold Schwarzenegger's 2003 gubernatorial campaign, said the pick reflects “cynicism” on McCain’s part.
You might think the disparaging comments, recorded in an MSNBC session when Murphy and Noonan thought they were not being recorded, might sting, coming as they did from GOP insiders and now being widely circulated on the Internet, including some obscenities added by the two Republicans.
Perhaps they did sting. But you’d never know it from Steve Schmidt, the man overseeing day-to-day operations of McCain’s campaign and the man Schwarzenegger chose to run his 2006 reelection.
“Who cares?” Schmidt said in an e-mail.
-- Dan Morain
MINNEAPOLIS -- The crowd cheered at Rep. Ron Paul’s daylong counter-convention in Minneapolis. As many as 12,000 disillusioned Republicans and independents, according to organizers, had showed up at the Target Center, an NBA basketball arena, to cheer for the former Republican presidential candidate who raised so much money and so few delegates.
Paul told the crowd that he was told by Republican National Convention officials that he would need to be chaperoned if he showed up at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.
But who wants to go to a boring old Republican convention that goes on and on for days in St. Paul when you can spend nine eternal hours indoors in Minneapolis listening to a host of conservative and libertarian speakers preach the virtues of the Republican congressman's libertarian-type politics?
But then came former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura. He suggested that there may be a government conspiracy covering up what....
Read more Ron Paul's counter-convention; Jesse Ventura takes over »
A trio of the contenders for the Republican presidential nomination who John McCain bested -- Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani -- each will do their part for the GOP ticket tonight with speeches at the party's national convention.
Excerpts of their remarks have been released, with Huckabee attacking Barack Obama on foreign policy, Romney taking a none-too-veiled shot at Michelle Obama and Giuliani rallying to the defense of McCain's pick for a running mate, Sarah Palin.
Huckabee, in one excerpt, warns of the potential consequences in America's dealings with foreign enemies if the Democrats win the White House: Maybe the most dangerous threat of an Obama presidency is that he would continue to give madmen the benefit of the doubt. If he’s wrong just once, we will pay a heavy price.
The economy is not directly addressed in any of the released comments by Huckabee (same with the blurbs from Romney and Giuliani). Obama today took the Republicans to task for failing to address the nation's economic problems in the convention's Tuesday night program. But Huckabee does say this, contrasting the two parties' philosophy: I’m not a Republican because I grew up rich, but because I didn't want to spend the rest of my life poor, waiting for the government to rescue me.
Romney's shot at Michelle Obama references her much-publicized remark this year about her husband's showing in the Democratic primary race making her proud of America for the "first time" in her adult life (she later stressed that she misspoke). Says Romney: Just like you, there has never been a day when I was not proud to be an American. We inherited the greatest nation in the history of the Earth. It is our burden and privilege to preserve it, to renew its spirit so that its noble past is prologue to its glorious future.
He also scorns Barack Obama's performance -- and touts McCain's -- at last month's forum at Saddleback Church in Orange County sponsored by Pastor Rick Warren, saying (in the prepared remarks): And at Saddleback, after Barack Obama dodged and ducked every direct question, John McCain hit the nail on the head: radical Islam is evil, and he will defeat it! Republicans prefer straight talk to politically correct talk!
Giuliani makes this case for Palin (the night's featured speaker), saying she: represents a new generation. She’s already one of the most successful governors in America -- and the most popular. And she already has more executive experience than the entire Democratic ticket. She’s led a city and a state. She’s reduced taxes and government spending. And she’s actually done something about moving America toward energy independence -- taking on the oil companies while encouraging more energy exploration here at home. Taxpayers have an advocate in Sarah Palin -- she even sold the former governor’s private plane on Ebay.
-- Don Frederick
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Fully 20% of Hollywood's Republican celebrities are gathered here this week to officially nominate John McCain as their party's presidential nominee and to make Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin his vice presidential running mate.
Jon Voight is that 20% (The other 80% that are out of the closet are Tom Selleck and his wife, Jillie Mack, Jerry Bruckheimer and Patricia Heaton).
The 69-year-old Voight tells The Ticket this afternoon in an exclusive video chat (see below) that he is enjoying himself immensely at the gathering, where the excitement level exploded with Friday's surprise naming of Palin as VP choice.
Voight is outspoken in his support of McCain -- "an amazing guy." He predicts the Arizona senator and former POW is going to keep the country "safe with prosperity" because he knows intimately about war and enemies and carries on his body today the scars of his imprisonment and torture.
Voight calls Palin "a beautiful choice" and praises "the pure simplicity of her poise and experience." He talks about meeting McCain's 95-year-old mother, Roberta -- "tough as nails."
And he gets a couple of shots in on the Democratic nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, as being the "least experienced of anyone who's ever run for president" and performing his Senate job "in a less than mediocre manner."
Oh, and for both Republican and Democratic movie fans, Voight also confirms there's a third "National Treasure" movie in the works.
--Andrew Malcolm Video by Andrew Malcolm
Two Republican message-crafters who are well known within party circles but who in this presidential campaign find themselves outside looking in -- Mike Murphy and Peggy Noonan -- offered unvarnished opinions of the Sarah Palin VP pick today when they thought they were un-miked after an appearance on MSNBC.
The mikes turned out to be hot, their thoughts were not complimentary toward John McCain's choice and the comments quickly made their way onto YouTube.
Murphy terms the Palin pick "cynical;" Noonan says it means the race is "over" (and presumably not in a favorable way for her party).
See below. But be forewarned: Murphy, who worked for McCain previously but won't be anytime soon, and Noonan, famed for crafting George H.W. Bush's" No New Taxes" speech at the 1988 GOP convention and currently a Wall Street Journal columnist, use profanities in expressing themselves. -- Don Frederick
The opening acts of last week's Democratic National Convention were met with middling reviews, with even some party loyalists (such as James Carville) complaining of an unfocused message that, to their dismay, mostly passed on targeting John McCain. 
Barack Obama took care of that complaint in his speech accepting the Democratic presidential nod, offering a full frontal assault on his Republican foe. And today, campaigning in Ohio, he offered his thoughts on the GOP confab in St. Paul, Minn.
Not surprisingly, his critique was thumbs down.
Tuesday night's program -- the first full one, due to the disruption caused by Hurricane Gustav -- was dominated by stirring testimonials to McCain's courage and character and included a biting attack on Obama by Fred Thompson.
Here's what caught Obama's attention, though (as well as that of others): “You did not hear a single word about the economy,” he told a small gathering of supporters at a college campus in New Philadelphia, Ohio.
The Times' Noam Levey was with Obama, and he relates that the Democrat continued: Not once did people mention the hardships that folks are going through. Not once did they mention what are we going to do about keeping jobs here in Ohio. Not once did they mention what are we going to do about all these retirees that are losing their pensions. Not once did they mention how are we going to make sure Social Security is there for the next generation.
The other party and John McCain don’t get it. They don’t get it.
Obama also zinged McCain campaign manager Rick Davis for asserting, in a videotaped interview with the Washington Post Tuesday, that November's election would be more about personalities than issues.
“I guess I don’t blame them," Obama said, recycling a line he's been using often to characterize the Republican campaign. "Because if you don’t have any issues to run on, I guess you want it to be about personality."
-- Don Frederick
Photo: Associated Press
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- This is the first time in nearly a decade that Karl Rove, once called George W. Bush's brain, is not chief strategist for a major presidential campaign.
He won two of them in a row for the former Republican Texas governor, which has earned him the animosity of many Democrats and a highly visible job as a commentator on Fox News.
Before going on the air tonight from the Republican National Convention here, Rove, who's also writing an eagerly awaited behind-the-scenes book on his political experiences, took a couple of minutes off this afternoon to share some observations with The Ticket (see video below) on Sen. John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate.
He also talks about what Gov. Palin must do in her speech here tonight before some 20,000 Republicans eager to love her and before millions of Americans watching at home eager to see her and make a crucial first judgment about the Republican's VP nominee-to-be.
He calls these first few days of Palin's existence in the national consciousness her "big hello." (P.S. The audio isn't great. Turn it up. Sorry. But we're learning and will get better. Wait till you hear Jon Voight later today!)
-- Andrew Malcolm Video by Andrew Malcolm
ST. PAUL-- If all had gone according to plan, California Republicans would have been rubbing elbows with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger here these days at the swank Nicollet Island Pavilion in Minneapolis.
But the Governator, who supports the McCain-Palin GOP presidential ticket, was a no-show. Citing wrangling over the state budget as his top  priority -- putting state first -- the governor stayed in Sacramento.
To help delegates to the Republican National Convention suffering from possible Arnold withdrawal, state party officials handed out DVDs of movies that Schwarzenegger starred in over the years, including "Conan," "Terminator 3," "Junior" and "Kindergarten Cop."
Visitors were told they could take one each, but some made off with more. A few tipsy delegates wondered aloud which one they should take.
A sticker on each package said it was “compliments” of Schwarzenegger and the Motion Picture Assn. of America.
Not on the table of free movies was "Jingle All the Way," in which Schwarzenegger the Dad does whatever it takes to get his son a toy he wants for Christmas.
A bartender at the event -- and who would know better? -- said that a scene of the movie, which was set in the Twin Cities, was actually filmed in the same reception hall where the delegates were milling about.
Other non-Arnold movies were handed out too –- including "Live Free or Die Hard" and "Atonement" (which seemed like what the governor was trying to do).
Former presidential candidate and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was also a no-show at the delegate reception Tuesday night.
Instead of sending DVDs of his speeches on the trail in Iowa (yawn), he sent Meg Whitman, the former CEO of EBay and a Romney friend and key member of his national finance committee, who's reported to be pondering a run of her own for the state's open governor's office in 2010.
Pete Wilson, the former GOP governor of the Golden State, was there in person. So he didn’t have to hand anything out.
-- James Hohmann
Tonight's speaking schedule for the Republican National Convention is crammed with notables, but the spotlight will intensely focus on just one -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the surprise pick by John McCain as his running mate.
Palin, who has been kept under wraps by the McCain campaign for the last few days, will culminate the evening's program with an address that probably will begin around 10:30 p.m. EDT (7:30 p.m. PDT).
Although her appearance will be the night's climatic moment, the convention's delegates won't disperse after she departs the podium. Under the schedule that the conclave's planners have been scrambling to rearrange after Monday's opening session was abbreviated because of Hurricane Gustav, McCain is to be officially nominated after Palin's speech.
Those scheduled to precede Palin on the stage tonight include the almost-nominee's wife, Cindy McCain. Intriguingly, the would-be first lady, in an interview to air later today on the CBS Evening News, parted company with Palin on one aspect of the abortion issue.
Mrs. McCain told Katie Couric that while she is "pro-life," she does not oppose abortion in cases on rape or incest. Our colleague Mark Silva has more on the interview at The Swamp blog.
Others slated to speak during the 10 p.m. PDT prime-time hour are Rudy Giuliani (the keynoter) and Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle (who no doubt will offer herself as a kindred spirit with Palin).
Set for the 9 p.m. EDT hour: Former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, | |
