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The parallels between Barack Obama and John F. Kennedy apparently are getting off-track in Germany.
German reports say that Obama will speak Thursday at Berlin’s Victory Column rathe r than at the city’s historic Brandenburg Gate a mile-and-a-half away. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, among others, objected to the Democratic presidential candidate using the site for what is essentially a campaign event.
(Update: The Obama campaign confirms that it will skip the Brandenburg Gate site but a venue still hasn't been chosen for the speech.)
It was near the Brandenburg Gate in June 1963 where President Kennedy was greeted by ecstatic crowds and gave his famous, ‘Ich bin ein Berliner' speech.
But it’s not just a Democratic venue. The Brandenburg Gate also is where President Reagan, in June 1987, uttered his famous demand to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to raze the barrier dividing Berlin: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”
Obama, who plans to visit Europe and the Middle East to burnish his foreign policy credentials, has said he didn’t want the location of his speech to trigger controversy. So the Victory Column site apparently is becoming the compromise.
And Obama isn’t being snubbed by Merkel, her people now claim. The Associated Press reports she'll meet Obama in Berlin on Thursday.
--Stuart Silverstein
Reuters photo of Victory Column in 2001 during "The Love Parade" by Fabrizio Bensch
You don't have to be a history buff -- although it probably would help -- to get a charge out of the photos our brother blogger L arry Harnisch has assembled over on The Daily Mirror.
They're from The Times' coverage 70 years ago today of the visit to Los Angeles of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Note the president's own rail car, Railroad One, the 1930s equivalent of Air Force One.
The crowd members in their straw hats. The president driving past Broadway and 7th. Protesters demanding the end to an embargo on trade with Spain.
And the president waving his hat -- wait a minute, a president wearing a hat? -- as he prepared to deliver a speech from the back of his Baltimore & Ohio train.
There, standing forlornly next to him is L.A. Mayor Frank Shaw, who was supposed to introduce FDR. But the president ignored him and just started the speech without introduction, according to The Times account the next day.
That's something The Ticket would have definitely blogged about back then, had there been such a thing as an Internet, a blog and ourself.
Worth a look over here.
--Andrew Malcolm
Photo credit: The Los Angeles Times
John McCain might need a new map.
He keeps mentioning Czechoslovakia –- a country that hasn’t existed since 1993 –- as if it still did.
In an interview in Phoenix on Monday, McCain told a reporter, “I’m concerned about a couple of steps that the Russian government took in the last several days; one was reducing the energy supplies to Czechoslovakia.”
Oops. It happens to them all.
Czechoslovakia was split into two countries –- Slovakia and the Czech Republic –- 14 years ago, after the communist government was overthrown in the Velvet Revolution.
McCain, who likes to tout his foreign policy savvy, made the same mistake at a town hall meeting in New Mexico on Tuesday. And he’s done it before.
Three months ago, McCain told Don Imus that he would "work closely with Czechoslovakia and Poland and other countries" to install the European missile defense system in Poland.
And during a GOP debate in October, McCain said, "The first thing I would do is make sure that we have a missile defense system in place in Czechoslovakia and Poland." Our blogging colleague Elizabeth Snead over at Dish Rag has a fun version of this story and a better picture.
Being on the campaign trail seems to do things to your mind, including impose fatigue regardless of age. Not too long ago Barack Obama talked about having visited 57 of the 58 states and then bounced onto a stage in Sioux Falls and yelled, "Hello, Sioux City!"
-- Kate Linthicum
Recently, regular Ticket readers will recall, we celebrated the good news for politics junkies that PBS was going to have gavel-to-gavel television coverage of the upcoming Democratic and Republican national conventions.
The networks and even some print media have cut back their coverage drastically.
Well, here's some even better news. Those politics junkies aware of XM Satellite Radio's all-politics POTUS 08 Channel 130 have for 10 months now been getting round-the-clock expert reporting on the p residential election races, now focusing on Republican nominee-to-be John McCain and the Democrats' choice, Barack Obama.
This weekend XM announced that the channel will cover both parties' national conventions 24 hours a day, commercial-free, with all-day and evening live coverage and overnight reruns of highlights.
This coverage has long been available to millions of XM subscribers in homes, in cars and online. But, XM also announced, during the conventions the satellite radio operation will offer free 14-day trials to online users at www.xmradio.com/potus.
Timed right, those free 14 days will perfectly overlap both the Democrats' convention in Denver at the end of August and the Republicans' meeting in St. Paul, Minn., in early September.
XM will have its broadcast booth overlooking both convention floors, with the usual array of anchors on hand, including Joe Mathieu (pictured), Tim Farley, Rebecca Roberts and Scott Walterman. During each week's session, Adrienne Mitchell will report on the other party from Washington.
The channel is already broadcasting weekly sessions with each convention's organizers. And it plans to interview speakers, reporters, strategists, delegates and -- who knows -- maybe even some convention attendees wearing funny hats, which won't look so bad on radio.
By the way, The Ticket will be blogging both conventions in its usual unpredictable way.
-- Andrew Malcolm
Perhaps inadvertently, Sen. Barack Obama tonight lifted a bit of the secrecy surrounding his upcoming trip overseas, telling reporters aboard his campaign plane that Sen. Jack Reed might accompany him to Iraq along with sometimes Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel.
When a reporter asked what might make Sen. Joe Biden and Hagel good traveling companions to Iraq, Obama made a very revealing correction:“It’s actually Sen. Hagel and Sen. Reed who may be coming with us.”
Well, now! So Biden, who says he doesn't work for anybody else, is not going with Obama? What's that do to the guessing game about the freshman Illinois senator's vice presidential pick, which had previously focused on Biden's foreign policy experience and his reported upcoming travels with Obama?
And does this put Reed of Rhode Island, a three-term ex-House member, two-term senator and ex-Army Ranger, into the VP mix?
Obama's comments came during an infrequent 20-minute exchange with reporters at the back of his plane en route from Chicago to San Diego, a late-night media availability which will help keep him in the news on an otherwise quiet news weekend when his opponent, Republican John McCain, is inactive.
Obama is scheduled to speak to Latino voters in San Diego on Sunday. He also was asked about recent fundraising figures and a crude comment made about him.
Obama went on to say that both Reed and Hagel are foreign affairs experts who “reflect a traditional bipartisan wisdom when it comes to foreign policy.”
“Neither are ideologues," he added, "but try to get the facts right and make a determination of what is best for U.S. interests.”
Then he added: “And they are good guys.”
Obama didn’t want to confirm a trip to Afghanistan, where....
Read more Obama reveals Biden not going overseas with him; it's Hagel, Reed »
This is another in The Ticket's continuing series of items called In His/Her Own Words, in which we dedicate the entire story to the full text of someone's remarks in politics.
Recent Ticket Word items have included Hillary Clinton speaking about Barack Obama, Obama explaining his view of lapel flag pins and Clinton, Obama and John McCain talking about one another at the end of the primary season.
This one is the complete text of Sen. McCain's first weekly radio address today, intended as a regular feature of his general election campaign to become president -- and to get the chance to give his own weekly presidential radio addresses that not that many people actually listen to but that have become a regular PR tool for White House residents for putting out a particular message they want to be seen/heard talking about.
Here's the text of today's McCain radio remarks:
"Good morning. I'm John McCain, and this week I've been on the road in Colorado, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. I've been holding town hall meetings to talk over the subject on most everyone's minds these days -- our slowing economy.
"More than 400,000 Americans have lost their jobs since December, and the rate of new job creation has fallen sharply. Americans are worried about the security of their current job, and they're worried that they, their kids and their neighbors may not find good jobs and new opportunities in the future.
"It's a big problem when gasoline, food and other necessities of life carry the price tag of luxury goods, and that's what it feels like to millions of Americans.
"I have a plan to grow this economy, and it starts with getting a handle on the cost of gasoline and regaining America's energy ...
Read more In his own words: John McCain on taxes, earmarks, the economy »
Ticket readers no doubt remember our item the other day about German Chancellor Angela Merkel sending out a spokesman to express "great skepticism as to whether it is appropriate to bring an election campaign being fought not in Germany but in the United States to the Brandenburg Gate."
It's a really nice-looking gate all right, not in the Wyoming sense, but in that monolithic, stone European horses-and-chariots  sense. In fact, the Brandenburg has horses on top.
It would make a terrific backdrop for some freshman senator from Illinois with not that much foreign affairs experience to be seen giving a speech on, say, foreign affairs.
Ronald Reagan, who was also from Illinois, spoke there as a sitting president, not someone running for it. And when he went against his advisors' urgings and called on Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall, the gate was a symbol of the Cold War.
Today, it's a symbol of German unity. But to Americans, it just looks really foreign -- in large part because nothing in the United States would be allowed to stand like that for 219 years.
Not without being rezoned for lofts.
Foreign-looking is all an American candidate really needs anyway.
Friday, just two days after the Germans seemed to ...
Read more Barack Obama, in Dayton, says nice things about Angela Merkel, in Germany »
For some reason, we're having trouble shaking the image of a toreador, el toro and a little pas de deux.
While John McCain was focusing on businesswomen in Wisconsin today, Barack Obama made energy the theme in a talk before about 1,300 people at the Stivers School for the Arts in Dayton, Ohio, with our colleague Louise Roug in atten dance.
There wasn't much new in Obama's rhetoric on the subject, but there was one moment that jumped out, and reminded us of earlier speeches in which Obama used the same tactic. It points up a problem facing McCain, who has nurtured an image as a maverick despite spending the last quarter-century -- longer than his military service -- in Congress, first in the House and now in the Senate.
Obama's tactic is to wait for McCain to throw a rock at how Washington works, and the failed policies, and then chain McCain to his own political history. This is how it played out this morning: "Now, a few days ago, Sen. McCain said, and I'm quoting, 'Our dangerous dependence on foreign oil has been 30 years in the making, and was caused by the failure of politicians in Washington to think long-term about the future of the country.' I couldn't agree more. John McCain is exactly right. The only problem is that out of those 30 years of inaction, John McCain was one of the most powerful [men] in Washington for twenty-six of them. And in that time he has achieved little to help reduce our dependence on foreign oil. He voted against raising our fuel mileage standards when it could have made such a difference over the last decades and joined George Bush in opposing legislation twice in the last year that included tax credits for more efficient cars.'
McCain, Obama said, also "voted against alternative sources of energy. Against clean biofuels. Against solar power. Against wind power. Against an energy bill that represented the largest investment in renewable sources of energy in the history of this country."
You get the idea. Obama slides into the rhythm that sets him up for the insertion of the rhetorical blade (which may be what got us conjuring up images of a bullfight): "When John McCain talks about the failure of politicians in Washington to do anything about our energy crisis, understand that John McCain should look in the mirror because he has been a part of that failure."
As we've pointed out before, having a relatively limited voting record can be a good thing in the presidential bullring.
(UPDATE: No campaign utterance comes without pushback, in this case somewhat tangential to the point of the post, Obama's tactic of using McCain's statements to propel a counter-offensive. From McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds: "Barack Obama is the quintessential definition of what's wrong with Washington. Today Barack Obama claimed to be for change, while touting his own vote for the Bush-Cheney energy bill, that's just the type of Washington-style spin and empty rhetoric that John McCain has fought against his whole career.")
-- Scott Martelle
Photo by Cesar Rangel / AFP-Getty Images
Yes, it's hard to picture, but good for her.
The woman who made pantsuits a staple of the late-night joke sessions and nearly became the first female presidential candidate of a major American political party has revealed a secret about her new life as presidential loser.
Lost in the thousands of words Hillary Clinton uttered in praise of Barack Obama, her party's nominee, and its political agenda during a speech earlier today to 2,000 women supporters in New York City, were a few litt le-noticed paragraphs that caught The Ticket's eye.
The 60-year-old senator tossed them out to the receptive audience almost in passing. But The Times' Louise Roug was transcribing the speech (which you can find in its entirety in one of our occasional In Her Own Words items here).
And here's what Clinton said in a kind of girlish admission:
"There are some differences (between Obama and myself).
"For example, Barack said (to me), 'you look kind of rested.' I said, 'well, kind of is the right descriptor.'
"But I'm actually -– don't tell anybody –- trying to exercise a little bit, which I'm told does wonders for a person.
"Because during the campaign," Clinton continued in a confessional tone, "I'm sure you've read, Barack would get up faithfully every morning and go to the gym. And I would get up, and get my hair done.
"It's one of those Ginger Rogers-Fred Astaire things that are part of our lives."
Yes, sure, she was dating herself by referencing movies from the '30s and '40s (the nineteen-thirties and forties, when Democrats owned the White House), when the often-paired duo of Rogers and Astaire would glide across studio floors as if their feet weren't moving.
And maybe some of the 30-somethings in the audience were puzzled enough to hustle back to their office and try Googling these Asthair and Rodgers people. And they would learn that she was originally Virginia McMath and died in 1995 and he was originally Frederick Austerlitz and passed away in 1987.
But that's history. Clinton's coiffured confession and romantic reminiscence by someone who looked anything but romantic going after politics' Big Prize these last 18 months was rather refreshing. We wish her luck on the treadmill and the elliptical.
Now, how long do you suppose before someone re-starts pairing up Obama-Clinton as an ideal political couple dancing their way together to Nov. 4?
-- Andrew Malcolm
Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire dance the Oscar-winning number "The Continental" in the 1934 classic "The Gay Divorcee."
File photo
From time to time, instead of excerpts with comments and background, The Ticket publishes the full text of a statement or speech so readers can get the full flavor of the remarks for themselves.
Here we're publishing Sen. Hillary Clinton's introduction today of Sen. Barack Obama before about 2,000 "Women for Obama" assembled in New York City's Hilton Towers. We're all indebted to the tired fingers of The Times' Louise Roug, who transcribed the lengthy remarks. Also, there's a video excerpt down below the Read More line.
The text begins here:
Good morning, New York. Thank you all. Thank you so much. Thank you for being here with all of us this morning. That's such a great way to start a day…I am grateful to all of you who have come together on behalf of Sen. Obama's campaign, on behalf of unity in the Democratic party. [loud applause]
One of the challenges of being in such a packed ballroom is that they have these bright lights which are in our eyes. I can't see anybody who is out there. But I know you're there. And I know you'll be there in November. [She then thanked local politicians in the crowd.]
Barack and I were talking before we came out about the rigors of the campaign trail, which are many. But it is such an extraordinary privilege to have done what we both of us had the honor of doing over the last many months. To travel this country on behalf of the values and ideals that we share and to see, day after day, the resilience and resourcefulness, the goodness and greatness, of the American people.
There are some differences. For example, Barack said, 'you look kind of rested.' I said, well, 'kind of' is the right descriptor. But I'm actually -– don't tell anybody –- trying to exercise a little bit, which I'm told does wonders for a person.
Because during the campaign, I'm sure you've read, Barack would get up faithfully every morning and go to the gym. And I would get up, and get my hair done. It's one of those Ginger Rogers-Fred Astaire things that are part of our lives.
But we share this remarkable journey. And I could not be prouder to have this opportunity in front of so many of my friends and supporters to express my confidence in his candidacy and my commitment in ensuring that he will take the oath of office come next January.
I have had countless conversations with many people since the end of my campaign and I know how difficult it is for people who have invested their time, their energy, their money, their emotion, their entire being into any campaign, into any campaign, into any cause, that it really is an extraordinarily personal experience and I think it's one of the great opportunities that we offer to ourselves because of our political system, that really does depend upon thousands, hundred of thousands, millions of people coming together to support someone like Barack or me who decides to step into the public arena.
When it is over, I know how difficult that is. I have been in winning and losing campaigns for a very long time. And I have been in primary campaigns here in our Democratic party and I understand how challenging it is to turn on a dime, to say, O.K., close that chapter, now we're onto next chapter.
It is a process and it does take time for people to take a deep breath and go forward. But, of course, those who supported me, for who I am forever grateful, knew that we were on this journey together because we believed so strongly in the kind of country we want to see again and anyone who voted for me have so much in common with those who voted for Barack and it is critical that we join forces, because the Democratic party is a family –- sometimes a dysfunctional family –- but it is a family and we care about what is going to happen to the economy and health care and education, what is going to happen in Iraq and Afghanistan and to our young men and women in uniform, what is going to happen to energy policy and whether we ever take on climate change in a meaningful way.
We know that all of these concerns are ones that we get up in the morning with, we worry about and go to bed at night, still, wondering will we ever start acting like Americans again, will we roll up our sleeves collectively and start tackling those problems. There's nothing beyond us, once we make up our minds that this is the work we will do and that work cannot be done if we do not have a Democratic president in the White House.
The stakes in this election are high for everyone. Not just in this country but around the world. We have seen in a very painful way what happens when an American president leads us in the wrong direction, making decisions not premised on our values and who we really are.
We have seen the impact and many of us have witnessed it first-hand, traveling around the world: the quizzical, even angry, looks and words that come from those who just can't understand what has happened to America.
So the stakes are high for everyone, literally around the world. But I would argue they are particularly high for women. It matters....
Read more In her own words: Hillary Clinton on Barack Obama (and herself) »
The unity thing is proving something of a stubborn problem for the no longer officially dueling camps of Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. There've been reports in recent days of some die-hard Clinton supporters being less than supportive of the fellow who crunched her.
But confirmed Clintonite Terry McAuliffe says it's only one or two people. So that can't mean much. And there's probably hardly any Obama folks saying, "Remind me again why I should help pay the bills for the travel and events when she was always attacking Obama?"
But what happened Wednesday night was a little embarrassing.
After the two Democrats voted differently on the Senate's FISA retroactive surveillance O.K. bill, Obama flew Clinton from Washington to New York City on his plane for two fundraisers where they'd both appear together and she'd graciously introduce him and there'd be that cheek peck.
And Obama would repeat his eloquent thing about change and how George W. Bush is really the first two terms of John McCain or something and ask the folks for money and kinda push them toward retiring Clinton's campaign debt. Depending on the numbers you hear, her debts could be as large as $23 million or maybe "only" $10 million, which is like -- what? -- 20 speeches or something for her husband.
So The Times' Louise Roug was at the Hyatt in the crowd of 1,000 who'd each paid $1,000 (what a coincidence!) so they could also pay cash at the bar. She dutifully listened to his familiar, 30-minute talk about promise. The crowd applauded. "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" blasted out of the sound system and Obama bounced off the stage to work the rope line and shake hands, not looking nearly as weary as The Times story says he is.
But about two minutes later Obama bounces back onto the stage. (See the video below.) Waves his hands. Had he forgotten to mention about the jobs program?
The music stopped. Or maybe he neglected to praise his distant cousin Dick Cheney?
"Hold on a second," he shouted. "I got one more thing." Oops! It seems Obama had forgotten to mention the part about giving money to Hillary Clinton in the spirit of unity, the whole reason they were gathered there in the first place.
"Sen. Clinton still has some debt. And I could have had some debt -- if I hadn't won -- so I know the drill. There are many supporters of mine here who have not yet given something to help her retire that debt. I would be very grateful if you looked under your chair. I think there should be an envelope or a pledge sheet or something.
"If people would take the time not only to pick it up but put something in it and mail it back...that is part of the process of making sure that we're unified...Allright, turn on the music again. Let's keep on partying."
And so they did. In perfect unity, no doubt.
--Andrew Malcolm
Photo credit: CNN
Perhaps Barack Obama and his logistical crew would be well advised to go to Plan B as they plot a possible speech by him in Berlin later this month.
That's because no less a personage than German Chancellor Angela Merkel has taken umbrage at the idea of Obama's using the city's famed Brandenburg Gate as a telegenic backdrop for an Obama appearance during his upcoming overseas jaunt.
Merkel has expressed "great skepticism as to whether it is appropriate to bring an election campaign being fought not in Germany but in the United States to the Brandenburg Gate," Thomas Steg, a spokesman for the chancellor, told reporters.
An Associated Press story on Merkel's concern notes that the edifice "was once a symbol of Germany's Cold War division and now stands for its reunification."
Merkel, according to Steg, expressed doubt that a German candidate for political office "would think of using [Washington's] National Mall or Red Square in Moscow for rallies, because it would be considered inappropriate."
Countdown to Crawford, a new Times blog focused on the waning days on the Bush presidency, has more on the story.
As for a venue for Obama in Berlin, perhaps he could borrow a page from the revised script for the Democratic National Convention and rent a large soccer stadium.
While the Barack Obama Democratic presidential campaign keeps the dates of its upcoming international trip a tightly-guarded secret from American voters, details are leaking out elsewhere in the world.
The Obama campaign announced late last month that the candidate would travel to Israel and Jordan in the Middle East and Britain, France and Germany in Europe.
The campaign had already disclosed plans to travel to Iraq and Afghanistan, though it has left unclear whether the trip to the war zones will be included in the same international trip.
It's all kind of a required element of any American presidential campaign for the two parties' nominees to be seen in foreign locales with foreign leaders. Such trips, of course, prove nothing about their qualifications to run anything other than a travel agency but look great on TV during a slow summer of reruns.
Sen. John McCain has visited Iraq numerous times during his efforts to change strategy there and this year has already toured the Middle East, Europe, and visited Canada, Colombia and Mexico.
(UPDATE: Cindy McCain, who last month traveled to Vietnam as part of an international relief effort, said Monday she will travel to Rwanda for four days next week as part of a USAID hospital-orphanage group. The Obama campaign says it is sending former senator Tom Daschle instead of Michelle Obama.)
Obama is somewhat behind the travel curve, having been preoccupied much of the spring with denying the Clintons their White House inheritance by visiting such exotic locales as Bloomington, Ind., Butte, Mont. and Sioux City, er, no, wait, Sioux Rapids, no, it was Sioux Falls but he called it Sioux City.
Obama's never been to Afghanistan, where he wants more U.S. troops, and in 2005 last saw Iraq, where he wants less U.S. troops, though the timing of the withdrawals seems to have gotten a little fuzzy recently.
So the former state senator has got some frequent flyer miles to rack up and lots of photos to take before his party's convention in late August. Reports in foreign media now suggest the Obama trip is scheduled for late July.
The French news agency Agence France-Press reports French President Nicolas Sarkozy will meet with Obama at the Elysee Palace on Friday July 25. In Israel, Obama is expected to arrive on Tuesday July 22 or Wednesday July 23 for a two- or three-day visit to include a meeting with embattled Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The German magazine Der Spiegel says the Obama campaign is considering a major speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, the site of a famous 1987 Ronald Reagan speech.
Our Swamp colleague Mike Dorning has more details here.
--Andrew Malcolm
Photo credit: AP
To be sure, no politician goes online like normal people, not unless he/she wants those candid opinions published somewhere or subpoenaed by somebody else.
So it's not surprising that GOP presidential candidate  Sen. John McCain claims to be computer illiterate. When George W. Bush entered the White House, he stopped e-mailing his brother Jeb for the same reasons.
What's a little unusual is that one of the country's most tech-savvy women, Carly Fiorina, is touting McCain's economic plans as tech-savvy and tech-friendly. Fiorina, who used to head Hewlett-Packard, has emerged as a prominent surrogate spokeswoman for the Arizona senator.
She says it matters not whether the former fighter pilot is on IM or Twitter. It's his broad, thoughtful economic and tax plans that are good for the tech world.
Our colleagues over on the Technology blog have the full story.
-- Andrew Malcolm
Photo credit: Associated Press
It's official -- Barack Obama is taking it outdoors on Aug. 28 to formally accept the Democratic presidential nomination that will be bestowed on him the previous night.
As The Times' Doyle McManus anticipated in this item last week and as The Swamp writes about here, Democratic Party officials announced today that Obama will deliver his speech at Denver's Invesco Field at Mile High, presumably packing the stadium's 76,000-plus seats and praying that the thunderclouds that often roll across the Rockies in the summer won't rain on his spiel.
So much for the traditional balloon drop at the end of acceptance speeches; we'll be eagerly anticipating what sort of pyrotechnic displays the Democrats come up with in its stead.
As has long been noted, Obama's big rhetorical moment coincides with the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s famed "I have a dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Monument in Washington.
And as McManus noted, the venue for Obama's remarks forges another link for him with John F. Kennedy, who after receiving the 1960 Democratic nomination at a nearby convention hall gave his acceptance speech at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (little reason to worry about rain intruding in the City of Angels).
Over the weekend, the prospect surfaced of another Obama/Kennedy comparison (as well as a nod to Ronald Reagan). The German magazine "Der Spiegel" reported that Obama's "planned European tour might make a major whistlestop in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. The candidate's schedule isn't set, but a Berlin appearance before the end of July looks likely."
As the story recalls, the Brandenburg Gate is where Reagan gave his powerful 1987 speech urging then-Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down" the Berlin Wall (and, within a few years, what was perhaps the most obvious symbol of the Cold War was gone).
But Kennedy also made history in 1963 in what was then known as West Berlin, famously establishing his solidarity with its residents during a trip there by declaring, "Ich bin ein Berliner."
-- Don Frederick
Gridiron fans, move over.
The Barack Obama campaign hopes to turn the last evening of the Democratic National Convention in Denver on Aug. 28 into a giant rally of voters in a football stadium.
The unusual move, confirmed by two sources, would be an echo of John F. Kennedy’s acceptance speech in 1960. Kennedy delivered his address before thousands of supporters at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Obama’s big moment also would fall on the 45th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.
The first three days of this year’s convention are still scheduled to be held at downtown Denver’s Pepsi Center, a basketball and hockey arena. But the Pepsi Center holds no more than about 19,000 people, and the Obama campaign thinks it can assemble a much bigger crowd for the acceptance speech — making a more compelling television picture.
Invesco Field, home of the Denver Broncos pro football team, can seat more than 76,000.
Officials involved in planning the event said the challenge of filling the stadium didn’t seem to be much of a worry for the Obamians, who attracted huge crowds during their primary campaign this spring. More worrisome, they said, were issues of logistics and security for all the Democratic dignitaries at the convention — plus the possibility of afternoon thunderstorms in the open-air stadium.
The football stadium plan appears to be what was in the works when word surfaced earlier this week that the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee were kicking around the idea of shortening the party convention to three days instead of four.
Obama campaign officials didn’t respond to requests for confirmation. Shannon Gilson, a spokeswoman for the campaign, simply told the Denver Post via e-mail: “We think Thursday night in Denver will be very special.”
-- Doyle McManus
Barack Obama got good reviews from some conservative quarters after his Tuesday speech outlining his plan for building upon the faith-based initiative established by President Bush.
But John McCain is getting better news from the right -- signs of a real push by conservative Christian leaders to coalesce on his behalf.
 First, a taste of the reaction to the Obama speech in Ohio.
During an appearance Tuesday night on MSNBC, Pat Buchanan said that although Obama wouldn't "win over the evangelicals," his embrace of the federal program that aimed to make it easier to funnel tax money to religious-based charities would "diminish some of the hostility" toward him among social conservatives.
Added Buchanan: "It looks like he's reaching out to them. ... It's a win for him."
And David Brody, senior national correspondent for the Christian Broadcast Network, said on CNN today that the reaction to Obama's speech within the community he covered was "relatively positive." Obama, he added, "has seemed to be one step ahead when it comes to this faith and politics intersection."
Brody, meanwhile, details on his website a huge step that a major figure on the religious right has taken to build support for McCain.
Phil Burress, head of the Ohio-based Citizens for Community Values, not so long ago said of McCain: "We don't like him and he doesn't like us." But, as Brody relates, Burress is now in McCain's corner, following a sit-down with him. Indeed, the evangelical honcho sent out a note to allies which wraps up by saying: "I was once one of those people who said 'no way' to Senator John McCain as President. No longer. The stakes are too high. And if Obama wins I need to able to get up on November 5th, look at myself in the mirror, and when I pray, say, 'Lord, I did all that I could.' "
Burress also was among about 100 conservative Christian leaders who met in Denver on Tuesday and "agreed to unite behind" McCain's candidacy, Time magazine's Michael Scherer reports.
In a comment comparable to the concluding line in Burress' missive, one of those at the get-together explained the backing for McCain partly as a reaction to Obama.
Mat Staver, head of a group called Liberty Counsel and a former Mike Huckabee supporter, told Scherer: "Collectively we feel that [McCain] will support and advance those moral values that we hold much greater than Obama, who in our view will decimate moral values."
The full story can be read here.
Noticeably absent from the meeting ...
Read more Religious right starts to consolidate for John McCain »
Some actors inhabit their roles, then move on. Some get typecast in a particular part, much to their chagrin. Others simply roll with that reality.
 Like Erik Estrada.
Although the 59-year-old has worked steadily over the years -- and ensured himself a consistent paycheck by serving as the infomerical voice for National Recreational Properties -- for most Americans, he will be forever known for his star turn as Francis "Ponch" Poncherello on the 1977–83 television series "CHiPs."
Cruising the freeways on his motorcycle as a California Highway Patrol officer on the show, Estrada became one of those iconic law-enforcement figures that TV specializes in creating. So perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that The Times' Robin Abcarian sends word that Estrada was among those in the crowd of about 2,000 listening to John McCain today address the National Sheriffs' Assn. in Indianapolis.
McCain made a point of recognizing Estrada, who Abcarian reports was at the gathering to promote ways to protect children from the more nefarious influences of the Internet (he also is a spokesman for rigorous use of child car seats).
McCain, as James Oliphant writes for The Swamp, touted his law-and-order credentials in his talk, as well as excoriating the U.S. Supreme for its recent ruling overturning a Louisiana law that made child rapists eligible for the death penalty.
[UPDATE: Abcarian e-mails that after McCain's speech, he chatted briefly with Estrada and the actor told the candidate he was arranging a fundraiser for the him at the Laguna Beach home of an associate. “I told him we’d guarantee $250,000,” Estrada said. “I said I want to help him with the Latino vote. I consider him one of my heroes. He’s a loving father, a terrific husband ... a man’s man.”
Estrada also revealed he is now a part-time deputy sheriff in Bedford County, Va., and was a reserve police office in Muncie, Ind., for a short-lived reality show called “Armed & Famous." He duly whipped out his wallet and displayed his badges. “Before, I was an actor playing a cop,” he said. “Now, I am a cop who will act once in a while.”]
-- Don Frederick
Photo credit: NBC
Wesley Clark told ABC's "Good Morning America" a little while ago that Barack Obama and his campaign had nothing to do with the comments he made the other day that John McCain's service record did not equip him to lead the nation.
Clark took a lot of heat for the comments -- and a veiled rebuke from Obama Monday -- and today added a little context: "I served 38 years in uniform. I'm proud of my service and I was asked to give my opinion about professional qualifications based on my experience." Clark said that as both a wounded combat vet and a high military officer "I have some appreciation for both levels of command and the qualities it takes at the top. I simply say it's a matter of judgment — experience, yes, it's important. It shows character and courage, but on the other hand there are other ways to show character and courage."
Clark didn't back down but said he respected McCain and his service, and was "very sorry this has distracted from the message of patriotism that Sen. Obama wants to put out."
You can see the video of Clark here.
UPDATE: The McCain surrogates are having none of it, describing Obama's relationship with comments by Clark and others as a "wink and a nod game." But shouldn't that presumption cut both ways? To paraphrase an old axiom, live by the surrogate ...
UPDATE (3:53 p.m. PDT): Obama addressed the issue with reporters in Ohio today and said his comments in Missouri Monday were not intended as a rebuke to Clark, despite the timing: "Sen. McCain deserves the utmost honor and respect for his service to our country. I’ve said that repeatedly, I’ve said it all the time. I notice that in at least one publication it was reported that my comments yesterday on Sen. McCain were in response to Gen. Clark. I think my staff will confirm that was in a draft of a speech I’d written two months ago." -- Scott Martelle
It attracted attention last summer when the then-crowded field of Democratic presidential contenders stiffed the annual convention, held in Nashville, of the Democratic Leadership Council (which, we noted in a post at the time, once was "the prime incubator for fresh party approaches to politicking and governing, with an emphasis on addressing middle-class concerns)."
Today, the DLC wrapped up its 2008 gathering in, of all places, Chicago. Yet despite the convenient location for the newly crowned presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, the Windy City's own Barack Obama, the DLC still isn't feeling the love.
Obama was back in his hometown Sunday but, rather than swing by the convention, he was represented by a surrogate. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley pressed his case, explaining to the conventioneers that Obama needed some family time.
Despite the absence of the party's star attraction, DLC members were strongly urged in a closing speech by the group's head, former Rep. Harold Ford of Tennessee, to marshal their efforts on Obama's behalf.
The Chicago Tribune's Swamp blog wrote about the wrapup on the conclave in an item headlined "DLC leaders embrace Obama," which can be read here.
-- Don Frederick
We all remember John McCain's "bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran" mini-aria, and many of us have caught McCain during his late-night talk show appearances. He can be funny (though the laughs at his reworking the Beach Boys' "Barbara Ann" were far fewer than he may have anticipated). But can comedy kill the campaign?
Gawker has a piece (which includes some language inappropriate for this blog and which we want to warn readers about) on McCain's sense of humor and parallels to Ronald Reagan. It concludes McCain is no Gipper.
What strikes us as interesting is the issue of timing the piece raises. McCain made his "bomb Iran" joke more than a year ago -- before before his spectacular political collapse and resurrection. In many ways, McCain got a pass then. There was some backlash from people who likely wouldn't support McCain anyway, but the feeling was his campaign was moribund anyway, and the mini-flap quickly faded.
But what would happen if McCain cracked that joke now? Would that kind of stumble derail him? Or would it just further separate the pro-war from the antiwar votes?
Politics -- it's all in the timing.
-- Scott Martelle
Barack Obama just delivered a speech on patriotism in Independence, Mo., hometown of what was once America's most powerful haberdasher, and offered a mild rebuke to Wesley Clark, who took on John McCain's mil itary record the other day in rather scorching terms.
And just to make it clear, an Obama spokesman sent out this brief statement as Obama was speaking: "As he's said many times before, Senator Obama honors and respects Senator McCain's service, and, of course, he rejects yesterday's statement by General Clark."
Obama's speech focused on his own sense of patriotism, quoting Mark Twain (it's good to quote the locals when you can) and his definition: "Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it." And, he argued, "no party or political philosophy has a monopoly on patriotism."
But Obama, citing the political divide still lingering from the Vietnam War, said that he will not question the patriotism of others and would "not stand idly by" when his own patriotism is questioned. A little bit later, in a comment that seemed to have Clark in its sights, Obama said: "Beyond a loyalty to America’s ideals, beyond a willingness to dissent on behalf of those ideals, I also believe that patriotism must, if it is to mean anything, involve the willingness to sacrifice -– to give up something we value on behalf of a larger cause. Now for those who have fought under the flag of this nation -– for the young veterans ... I meet when I visit Walter Reed; for those like John McCain who have endured physical torment in service to our country –- no further proof of such sacrifice is necessary. Let me also add that no one should ever devalue that service, especially for the sake of a political campaign, and that goes for supporters of both sides. We must always profess our profound gratitude for the service of our men and women in uniform, period."
Patriotism is the theme of the week, leading into the Fourth of July holiday.
UPDATE: Our colleague Robin Abcarian, who is traveling with the McCain campaign, reports that he was asked about Clark's comments a little while ago during a news conference after a
tour of a Harrisburg, Pa., company that manufactures aircraft turbine parts. Specifically, he was asked about Clark's assertion that getting shot down in a fighter plane is not a qualification for the presidency.
"I think that that kind of thing is unnecessary," said McCain. "I am proud of my record of service, and I have plenty of friends and leaders who will attest to that. But the important thing is if that’s the kind of campaign that Sen. Obama surrogates and supporters want to engage, I understand, but it does not reduce the price of gas by one penny...doesn’t help Americans stay in their homes...it certainly doesn’t do anything to address the challenges that Americans have in keeping their jobs, and their homes and supporting their families."
And: "Gen Clark is not an isolated incident. I don’t know how much Sen. Obama has to do with that issue. I’ll let the American people decide that."
-- Scott Martelle
Photo by Larry W. Smith/EPA
You kind of remember the long Democratic primary campaign as, first of all, long. Even at times bitter.
Hillary Clinton, speaking today with the Democratic winner, Barack Obama, in New Hampshire, said, "It was spirited because we both care so much." Watching this video no one would doubt the caring, but it sure wasn't about each other.
"Spirited" would not quite describe some of the exchanges by Democratic candidates discussing Obama, which in the interests of the opposite of unity, the Republican National Committee has generously assembled and is suppressing widely around the country today as an antidote to the Democrats' "Kumbaya" spirit.
No doubt it's deeply appreciated.
--Andrew Malcolm
Among the concerns some of Hillary Clinton female backers have with Barack Obama is the perception that he can slide into misogynist comments at the blink of an eye. And as we mentioned in an earlier post today, he made an odd, unplanned comment about women and heels during his Unity moment of rapprochement with Clinton. (The Swamp looks at Obama and John McCain on women's rights.)
This is from the transcript of the appearance: "[B]ecause of the campaign that Hillary Clinton waged, my daughters and all of your daughters will forever know that there is no barrier to who they are and what they can be in the United States of America. They can take for granted that women can do anything that the boys can do (cheers begin) -- and do it better, and do it in heels. I still (Obama laughs) -- I still don't know how she does it in heels."
Clinton laughed with him, but for a guy with some pretty good political instincts -- or who has at least hired people with good political instincts -- it was an odd verbal cul de sac to turn into. Remember, Obama caught some serious flak a few weeks back by dismissing a Michigan television reporter with a "sweetie." And he was criticized during a debate performance for another off-the-cuff comment about Clinton being "likable enough." Now he falls into the faux-joke of expressing amazement that a woman can outperform a man despite wearing heels.
That's not likely to go very far in mending fences with women already suspicious of him.
UPDATE: Tommy Vietor, Obama spokesman, says via e-mail that although Obama didn't cite Ann Richards, that was the genesis of his comment: "Sen. Obama was referencing Ann Richards' famous quote: 'Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels.' Certainly Gov. Richards didn't mean [to] make that comment, as you described, as a 'faux-joke of expressing amazement that a woman can outperform a man despite wearing heels,' and it's disappointing that you'd draw that cynical conclusion."
Fair enough. But Vietor -- like many posters below -- missed the point of the blog item. For a candidate with past troubles with off-the-cuff comments on gender, it struck us as an odd comment. Some took offense; many did not (read the comments for a rather scathing discussion). Remember, this is a political blog, where we write about the political implications of campaign events and appearances.
-- Scott Martelle
Sen. John McCain stood up at a fundraiser late last evening at the oceanfront home of former ambassador George Argyros in Newport Beach. There were probably 80 people there. They dined on filet mignon, which cost $25,000 a couple.
McCain held his arms in that stiff bent way that he always does, a result of his nearly six years of POW imprisonment in Vietnam. The Republican nominee-to-be looked out at the guests and he told the truth:
"My friends," he said, "this is a tough race. We are behind. We are the underdog."
And then he uttered another truth that McCain's competitors ignore at their peril, "That's what I like to be."
He says it all the time. But that's no canned stump speech. The Ticket's been publishing a multipart video conversation in recent days with Matt Welch about the man in his new book, "McCain: The Myth of a Maverick." We'll publish the eighth and final episode later Wednesday.
But in Part V, Welch described how McCain's literary heroes are those who disregard the odds and how integral being an....
Read more Inside John McCain's game plan: 'It's not supposed to be easy' »
Sen. John McCain campaigned in California Monday evening and spent much of his time at a fundraiser in Santa Barbara where, not surprisingly, the locally sensitive subject of offshore oil drilling came up.
Moments after McCain made a lengthy presentation on how Republicans cannot afford to write off California to the Democrats in the general election, which the GOP hasn't won in a presidential race in many cycles, the Arizona senator was asked about his position on offshore drilling.
According to the pool report provided to The Ticket by The Times' Maeve Reston, D an Secord made a statement to McCain and then asked his question:
"Santa Barbara has among other things a great natural beauty -- one of our great natural beauties lies before you out there to the south. We're really kind of goosey here about oil spills. And we're goosey here about federal drilling and oil lands, which are abundant offshore.
"So we ask you to look out there to the south and the southeast and remember the greatest environmental catastrophe that's hit this state and then balance that with the notion of winning California. This is a vibrating blue city and a vibrating state, and it’s gonna be a tough haul.”
“This gathering is adjourned,” McCain promptly quipped.
He noted that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger disagrees with him on the offshore drilling issue, but that Florida Gov. Charlie Crist now agrees with the presumptive Republican nominee.
McCain stressed that he believes in states' rights. As he did campaigning earlier in the day, McCain cited the successful examples of Louisiana and Texas, noting they have allowed drilling and weathered two devastating hurricanes with minimal or no oil spills.
“I think the environmental situation is today -- that we could probably do that,” McCain said. “But I don’t want to override the state of California.”
Then the candidate added, "I want the states to decide."
--Andrew Malcolm
Photo credit: Chris Gardner / Getty Images
Here at The Ticket, as no doubt all across America, we are huge fans of the irrepressible Howard Mortman. And today is no exception.
Today, the impatient Mortman announces his Top 10 Political Quotes So Far in 2008. There are so many candidates to choose  from. Yes, yes, of course, Larry King is in here, as always. But diligent Howard has whittled them down.
By the way, here's a nice photo of Howard. He's the one on the right, the one with the right hand that's afraid to actually touch his newest BFF, a lovely Miss Universe.
And there's still five more months of campaign blabbering to go for even more funny quotes. (and photos, we hope).
We won't spoil the fun of reading Howard's entire list. So just a couple examples to whet your appetite:
8. Hillary Clinton: "The last time I looked, Virginia had more sunny days than Germany."
6. Mike Huckabee, on what squirrel tastes like:
"It tastes like squirrel."
5. Larry King’s questions to his panel discussing New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's involvement with a prostitution ring:
"Under what circumstances, Jason, did you first connect with her?"
"How successful was she when she went to work for you? How successful was she at what she did?"
"Because someone is physically beautiful, does that mean they would be a good prostitute?"
"Not wanting to wear a condom. What would it be to you, Babydoll?"
"How does the escort feel, Kathleen?"
"And, apparently, it’s going to get, if the term is right, more huge."
"Kathleen, is this going to be bigger and bigger, do you think?"
"Natalie, do any hookers ever marry their Johns?"
For the rest of the list, go here. And bookmark it for repeated laughs.
-- Andrew Malcolm
Photo credit: A friend of Howard's who wishes to remain anonymous in case Miss Universe has a large boyfriend.
So much for that presidential-looking seal on the front of the lectern during a Barack Obama  appearance Friday in Chicago.
Widely mocked (here, here and here, to cite but a few of the items that wryly took note of it), the intrepid Marc Ambinder of TheAtlantic.com reports that the insignia will be consigned to some closet to gather dust.
He writes: "I'm told that Obama recognizes that it was a silly mistake, that the universal reaction at (his Chicago headquarters) was, "Boy, was that dumb.' "
We doubt there will be much argument with that conclusion.
The Swamp's Mark Silva has his take on the seal imbroglio here.
Ambinder's full post can be read here.
[UPDATE: Obama's communication director, Robert Gibbs, confirmed to CNN that the seal was history. “That was a one time thing for a one time event," Gibbs said. And, he must hope, the type of one time mistake that won't be repeated.]
-- Don Frederick
Photo: Getty Images
O.K., it's the first day of summer. There's still something like 134 days until The Election. No tornadoes in sight. The annual hurricane controversies have yet to form wherever they start. Lots of lakes and sunshine outdoors. And blizzards of blabber on TV.
Hope the traffic wasn't too bad getting home. Here's a reverse birthday gift from The Ticket: What you didn't miss today:
SO MUCH FOR SUMMER IN MONTANA: Tom Brokaw will pause in writing his next book on our grandfathers and take over moderating "Meet the Press" through the election. Not Tim Russert, of course, but wise and he won't talk about the Bills who are hopeless until poor Jim Kelly returns. (See video below.)
If NBC is not going the blonde-in-short-skirt route like over at Fox and since Bob Schieffer is under contract elsewhere, our top permanent nominee is Chuck Todd, (not pictured here) who clearly knows everything about politics and says it succinctly. Seriously.
WHY NOT JUST ARM EVERYBODY ON AIRPLANES? Our blogging colleague James Oliphant over at the Swamp has joined the periodic chorus wondering about Virginia Sen. James Webb as the running mate for Barack Obama.
Webb, you'll remember, is the guy who packs personal heat everywhere, which does tend to diminish disagreements on the street. Obama does need a military mate because he's talked so much about opposing war and the simple peacemaking power of sitdowns with dictators. Also, he seems unlikely to pick Geraldine Ferraro.
Being a turncoat Republican and former Reaganite will surely....
Read more Ticket Takings: A Sunday full of Richardson, Webb, Daschle, Fiorina and Richardson »
Elian Gonzalez.
Remember him?
Maybe you remember his terrified picture here, when he was seized by U.S. federal agents in 2000 to be returned to Cuba as an illegal immigrant during the Clinton administration.
Elian was a Cuban refugee who made the perilous crossing from his homeland to the United States, losing his mother to the ocean in the process.
Attorney General Janet Reno decided in the spring of 2000 that the six-year-old boy must be returned to Cuba and his father.
And with that, Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore kissed Florida goodbye in that fall's election, which was decided by -- do you remember how many? -- 537 votes.
Well, Elian -- or his cause -- is back in the news this weekend. As Democratic presidential nominee-to-be Barack Obama spoke to the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Miami, dozens of Elian protesters demonstrated nearby.
Obama foreign policy adviser Greg Craig represen | |
