Campaigning for the U.S. presidency has its really unpleasant personal aspects. Criticism of the candidate is hard for family members to take. And criticism of the family is hard for the candidate to take.
That's why, for instance, in 1999-2000 at their request, George W. Bush kept his teenage daughters out of the spotlight. Until their recent "Access Hollywood" interview, the Obamas did the same with their younger daughters and later said they regretted that exposure.
But now Sen. Barack Obama says he wishes what he calls the conservative press would lay off his wife, Michelle, because she's a civilian who "didn't sign up for this."
Today, she campaigned in Washington state where the state Republican Party welcomed here with an ad (see video below the Read more line, with a hat tip to WakeUpAmerica).
Obama says he finds criticism of his spouse "infuriating." And he adds: "If they have a difference with me on policy, they should debate me. Not her."
In an interview this week with Glamour magazine, Obama complained that “the conservative press -– Fox News and the National Review and columnists of every ilk” had been too critical in its coverage of her.
He said he thinks reporters from those organizations “went fairly deliberately at her in a pretty systematic way” and, he asserted, “treated her as the candidate in a way that you just rarely see the Democrats try to do against Republicans.”
Obama would get a real argument about that from some....
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 Larry 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.
A funny thing happened over on the Barack Obama campaign website in the last few days.
The parts that stressed his opposition to the 2007 troop surge and his statement that more troops would make no difference in a civil war have somehow disappeared. John McCain and Obama have been going at it heavily in recent days over the benefits of the surge.
The Arizona senator, who advocated the surge for years before the Bush administration employed it, says the resulting reduction in violence is proof it worked with progress on 15 of 18 political benchmarks and Obama's plan to withdraw troops by now would have resulted in surrender.
When President Bush ordered the surge in January 2007, Obama said: "I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq is going to solve the sectarian violence there. In fact, I think it will do the reverse," a position he maintained throughout 2007. This year he acknowledged progress, but maintained his position that political progress was lacking.
Tuesday, while Obama gave a speech on foreign policy, the New York Daily News was the first to notice the removal of parts of Obama's campaign site listing the Iraq troop surge as part of "The Problem." An Obama spokeswoman said it was just part of an "update" to "reflect changes in current events," as our colleague Frank James notes in the Swamp. The update includes a new section on the rise of Al Qaeda violence in Afghanistan.
But some might see the updating as part of Obama's skip to the political center now that he's secured the Democratic nomination. "Today," McCain said Tuesday, "we know Sen. Obama was wrong" to oppose the troop surge.
An old quote of Obama's criticizing the "rash war," which helped him with the left wing of his party and helped differentiate his stand from that of Sen. Hillary Clinton, a primary opponent who voted for the use of force in Iraq, has been replaced on his site by one saying that ending the Iraq war will make America safer. That's more of a general election message.
And hat tip to the folks over at the Wake Up America blog for their continuing trenchant analyses of the summer campaigns in general and, specifically, for highlighting the video below that contrasts Obama's pre-surge position with a more recent interview of David Axelrod, his chief campaign strategist, denying Obama's statements. A reminder of how carefully voters must listen during these last four campaign months.
And, yes, we know Rep. Ron Paul isn't going to be anybody's nominee. But he could be.
We are sincerely indebted to loyal Ticket reader Travis for this morning's week-ending chuckle.
He found a website that lets you nominate anyone for president (insert name here) and incorporates their name in a most realistic TV news video report.
You can see how ridiculous the site is by watching this version -- before you start pranking family and friends. (It might take a minute or so to load if busy.)
And thanks again to Travis. If anybody else comes across good/fun/unusual political sites, just send them to The Ticket please. We might highlight yours.
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.
Steve Schmidt, the political veteran named last week to run the stuttering presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain and save it from itself, has moved quickly to install another veteran of previous Republican campaigns that opposed the Arizona senator.
The new style first emerges at lunch hour today in Denver with a trademark town hall meeting and a series of local media interviews focused on, of all things, the economy, which pretty much everyone but the McCain operation has long believed was campaign issue No. 1 in 2008.
On Sunday, as first reported by ABC News, Schmidt named as McCain's new political director Mike DuHaime, whose job will be to provide just such nonstop relevant focus.
DuHaime's most recent political feat was to lead the one-time frontrunning GOP presidential campaign of ex-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani to crash in flames somewhere in the Florida swamps.
But don't be fooled. The tough-talking, aggressive Schmidt and the milder but equally methodical DuHaime, both in their 30s and both New Jerseyans, are part of a new generation of professional Republican operatives getting their first chances to direct the unruly multimillion-dollar monsters that massive national campaigns can become.
Many like Schmidt were schooled in the successful style of....
Our crafty collegial blogger over on All the Rage confesses that she can't take her eyes off Cindy McCain's chest.
But it's not what you guys might think.
It has to do with Republican bling, which the possible next first lady seems to like. (Come to think of it, why would she like Democratic jewelry anyway?)
Our jewelry fetish at The Ticket extends only to collecting political buttons of all kinds. So we can claim no knowledge of such particularly female finery.
(Warning to guys: Yes, the idea of marrying a blonde multimillionaire heiress to a beer distributorship in a part of the country that never sees snow or chains may sound like an intriguing job opening, especially during football and hockey seasons. But the aforementioned jewelry discussion is, uh, somewhat catty.)
Here's a quirky little web poll we stumbled upon today over at one of our favorite daily checkpoints, MediaBistro.
The majority of people who've taken this particular poll could be supporters of Hillary Clinton or fans of Tim Russert or the Seattle Mariners or even many Republican House members.
We found ourselves in the distinct minority, which makes sense because bloggers have no feelings whatsoever. But the results would seem to indicate that many Americans are not a terribly happy bunch in these early days of a Leap Year summer, which means president-picking time.
Once presidential candidates were always placed on podiums, above the crowds, on balconies or the backs of trains speaking down to the voters from on high.
In the last few presidential election cycles, however, populism became the theme. It's been the stage fashion to plop the candidate amid adoring throngs. All campaigns now line the back of rally stages with handpicked, politically correct supporters who represent the message of the day -- young college students, old white women, a rainbow array of ethnicities. The president does it too, lots of soldiers behind him, men, women, black, white, Latino.
These are the happy, adoring, enthusiastic supporters who will be on camera with the candidate for presumably millions of Americans to see and identify with. The others in the front audience are there to yell and scream and wave signs.
The candidate's advance team and its volunteers are charged with arranging this human facial bouquet before the event. There are risks, of course. Young children easily get bored and fidgety and sometimes pick their noses on camera.
Others may yawn or fall asleep and provide evil news photographers with an inadvertent comment on the candidate's remarks that will appear all over the country as quickly as you can say, "Hot dog, not another candidate holding a microphone photo!"
Trouble is, apparently a Barack Obama volunteer or two in Detroit on Monday barred two Muslim women from standing behind Obama because they were wearing head-scarves. Everyone knows how hard the Obama forces have fought viral rumors that with the middle name Hussein and a childhood in Indonesia he is really a closet Muslim plotting to subvert the United States of America.
So the volunteer, described as a black woman in a green shirt, barred the women from the stage.
Our colleague over at the Swamp, Katie Fretland, has this version of the embarrassing episode. And the Politico.com has a longer one here.
She explained, according to the women, by citing the political climate and widespread antipathy toward Muslims. It's particularly awkward for the Obama campaign, which talks often about its inclusiveness and the fact that Michigan is a major center of American Arabs.
The campaign apologized. "“This is of course not the policy of the campaign," said Bill Burton. "It is offensive and counter to Obama’s commitment to bring Americans together."
But at least one of the women has indicated that an apology is insufficient. She wants an invitation to stand right behind Obama at another rally.
Watch for that. And watch for Obama then to walk over and personally apologize. Turn a minus into a plus.
As consumers of politics, Americans watch these campaign events unfold before their eyes on TV or in person and they can only imagine the countless hours of planning behind each one. They probably don't even think about that part.
Right on the redesigned website's homepage in the middle upper right is a tab called "Strategy." Click on that and watch a 15-minute PowerPoint demonstration led by Campaign Manager Rick Davis.
It fits in with the McCain Straight Talk image because campaigns are not normally comfortable laying out such detailed presentations for just anyone to see. These are the kinds of demonstrations that go on daily inside campaign conference rooms -- and they're stopped if anyone other than the invited walks in.
Whether or not you like McCain as a candidate, the fast-moving video is....
As we noted on the actual day, June 11, it's been an eventful year that began with front-runners who ended in the rear. We wanted The Ticket to be a virtually round-the-clock, coast-to-coast operation with unpredictable items written in surprising ways.
We wish you could have been at our party. An amazing time. Hillary Clinton was there. A new pantsuit. Barack Obama was hitting everyone up for more money. Mitt Romneywas handing it out. Rudy Giuliani was taking some to cover his debts.
John Edwards was hedging on his plans. Fred Thompson was supposed to attend, but he overslept after another long two-hour campaign day. John McCain called for a 100-year party.
And Rep. Ron Paul, the millionaire with his money in precious metals, was warning everyone about an impending financial crisis if we don't dump the Fed. And Al Gore couldn't decide if he wasn't coming or not.
We've published some 2,300 items, received nearly 47,000 reader comments and more than 11.5 million page views in this last year. We're now ranked in the world's top 140 blogs and we thank you for that.
We look forward to thousands more items and comments and millions more readers through this historic election and way beyond.
As a gesture of our generosity here on The Ticket, we wanted everyone to have a piece of our cake. So here you go. Dig in. Enjoy. Thanks again.
Sure, there's world wars and toxic pollution and corruption and Social Security reform and a few other things like trillions of dollars in debt to worry about.
But before getting to those easy issues, politicians who want to be chief executives must first get elected. And to do that they must decide if they're going to wear funny hats.
It's the bane of most big-time campaigns. And why you don't see candidates so often visiting construction sites; hard-hat zones, where they must don those funny-looking helmets that sit so high on their head. They may save lives, but they scare image-conscious campaigns.
Remember in 1988 Gov. Mike Dukakis driving that tank? It's a lot of fun. Looked good on paper to associate him with defense issues, a traditional Democratic weak spot. But you gotta wear the XL helmet. So he did. He looked like a pretender. And the rest is doofus history.
Long before him, there was the classic headgear disaster, Calvin Coolidge in the Indian headdress. Scroll down for that baby.
So, even though he's a freshman senator and a rookie national campaigner, Sen. Barack Obama faced a quandary last weekend.
Should he wear one of those stupid-looking bicycle helmets that legislators say we must wear but only look good on Tour de France racers? And get mocked? Or should he go without the hapless headgear and get criticized for defying the law? Who does he think he is? Above the rules that apply to everyone else?
These are everyday decisions now. Obama opted for the hat. At one of two lucrative campaign fund-raisers in Chicago Thursday night, at the home of a businessman who donates bicycles to charities, Obama couldn't resist a little boasting. He explained that he faced a tossup: Risking ridicule or sending children the right message about bike gear.
"I had an internal debate," Obama admitted when a supporter thanked him for wearing a helmet. "Because I knew that the AP was going to take a picture, and they were trying to portray it like Dukakis wearing that tank helmet.
"But I wanted to make sure that the children who saw that picture knew that even the Democratic nominee for president wears a helmet when he goes biking," he said to applause.
"Now, obviously the rest of my apparel was apparently not up to snuff, because I got a hard time from all sorts of blogs ... who said I looked like Urkel."
Yes, allright the Lakers are in something of a hole here against those other guys.
But there's Hope. For Sunday. And beyond. Thanks to political history.
Yes, fans, in the last nearly six decades of professional bouncing basketballs, the Lakers have played in the league Finals eight times during presidential election years.
This year is No. 9.
The good news is they've won five of those eight times.
The bad news is they've lost three times -- to Detroit 4-1 during the most recent presidential election and to these same Massachusetts guys 4-3 in 1984 and 4-2 exactly 40 years ago.
The Lakers beat the Pacers 4-2 in 2000, the Pistons 4-3 in 1988, the 76ers 4-2 in 1980 with Magic at the MVP podium, the Knicks 4-1 in 1972 with Wilt Chamberlin as MVP and the Knicks again 4-3 as the Minneapolis Lakers in 1952.
Interestingly, win or lose, every time L.A. plays in the Finals during presidential leap years, the Republican candidate wins -- Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon twice, Ronald Reagan twice, George H.W. Bushand George W. Bush twice.
So it's safe to say that instead of the predictable Navy baseball cap, Sen. John McCain, who is a real basketball fan (he did his own NCAA brackets online this March) who doesn't like to lose. As anyone can see from his game face here.
So McCain really oughta be wearing a Lakers cap and two Lakers shirts, plus a Lakers jacket and several pennants on his cars.
Until he returns home to Arizona.
Now you can see the take of our two Lakers bloggers -- Andrew and Brian Kamenetzky -- on our take on their team by going here. But please come back.
(UPDATE: Obviously, totally due to this blog item the Lakers came storming back Sunday. A belated thanks to loyal Ticket reader John and K.C. for their help with this. Now, if you're a Lakers fan, you must click dozens of times on this item for ongoing good luck. :-) )
Great news for political junkies! PBS is gonna broadcast gavel-to-gavel television coverage of both parties' national conventions this summer.
Years ago the commercial broadcast networks stopped their blanket coverage. The inner, internecine workings of democracy are not boffo broadcast. Scenes of people in funny hats and long-winded politicians just can't compete against episodes of "Lost" and correspondent and technician overtime at such affairs can cut into profits.
But PBS says it will carry live coverage of all the proceedings:
This summer's national political conventions take place (Democratic National Convention in Denver, CO; August 25 to 28; Republican National Convention in St. Paul, MN; September 1 to 4), The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer will produce 24+ hours of live.
Prime time coverage to be broadcast in high-definition nationwide on PBS. These eight nights of convention coverage will be the only complete broadcast coverage made available by a U.S. broadcast television network.
The PBS coverage will be anchored by Jim Lehrer, anchor and executive editor of "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," from sky boxes overlooking the podiums in both convention halls. Lehrer will be joined by, among others, NewsHour senior correspondents Gwen Ifill, Ray Suarez, Judy Woodruff and Margaret Warner.
Political analysis will be provided by New York Times columnist David Brooks; syndicated columnist Mark Shields. Presidential historians Michael Beschloss and Richard Norton Smith will add historical perspective and Andy Kohut, President of the Pew Research Center, will update viewers with the latest polling information.
In a recent story, Politico.com noted even though the commercial networks don't plan on doing much coverage, what they do will look good since, like PBS, they'll all be broadcasting in high definition.
And like PBS, the other networks will be using the Internet to carry coverage not provided over the air.
Even though the commercial networks have cut way back, you get the sense they still want some props for what they're doing, based on a quote from ABC News Vice President Bob Murphy in the Politico.com story:
"If we covered conventions for ratings, we would have gotten out of the business a long time ago," Murphy said.
Good thing there are round-the-clock blogs like this one.
--Frank James
Frank James writes for the Swamp of the Chicago Tribune's Washington bureau. Photo Credit: PBS
On this, the first anniversary of our Top of the Ticket blog, we are reminded of the mercurial, unpredictable nature of U.S. politics -- part of what makes what we do so fascinating.
Our goal -- one of us on the East Coast and the other on the far more important or at least less humid West Coast -- was to write about Campaign '08 virtually around the clock.
Our second-ever posting, 12 months ago today, previewed an upcoming L.A. Times/Bloomberg Poll; later in the day, we detailed the results of the nationwide survey. The findings were in line with other polls of the time.
In the Republican presidential race, which then seemed the most likely to last deep into the primary season, Rudy Giuliani was perched in first place. His lead wasn't overwhelming, but it was strong enough that he appeared certain to remain a major contender.
His liberal record on social issues loomed as an obvious liability within his party, but his tough-on-terrorism message was attracting substantial support from moderates and GOP-leaning independents.
His major headache among rivals last June was an as-yet-undeclared candidate who was riding a wave as the great conservative hope -- Fred Thompson. He ran a strong second in the poll.
Lagging far behind were John McCain and Mitt Romney, each barely with double-digit support. In our preview posting, we were especially scornful of McCain, noting sarcastically (and foolishly, as it turned out) that in the poll, he found himself "in heated competition with the 'Don't Know' category."
Meriting no mention from us was Mike Huckabee, one of several back-of-the-pack candidates barely earning any support across the country.
The Democratic race, at that point, seemed so much more cut-and-dried.
First, we need to clear the air about our colleague, David Sarno, the clever fellow who writes for The Times' Web Scout blog.
No one has come forward with any proof of the rumors that he's a Chinese sleeper agent sent here to confuse Americans about how the Internet and popular culture interface while his parents are held hostage back home.
None of that is probably true.
As far as we know at The Ticket, David is hardly behind on his taxes at all. Most of the speeding tickets have been paid. And the Hollywood incident never came to court.
So he's perfectly well-qualified to write about what he's writing about today: the damaging power of rumors in politics, their viral spread on the Web and the urgent need to combat them constantly. It's a fascinating column that deals mostly with the efforts of Barack Obama'scampaign to fight distorted truths and outright lies.
All candidates have rumor problems and virtually all campaigns experience and/or employ some dirty tricks, some as simple as stealing opponents' lawn signs, others push polling or worse.
It didn't take the speed of the Internet for 19th century political campaigns to spread ugly words about their opponents, things like illegitimate children, for instance. And without widespread photographs, cartoons in partisan papers could distort into ugliness an opponent's visage free of visual refutation.
In 2000, Sen. John McCain ran into a rumor buzzsaw in the South Carolina Republican primary when word was spread that the McCains' dark-skinned adopted daughter from Bangladesh was really -- here we go again -- an illegitimate child of his with a black woman.
This time the campaign against McCain is much more subtle and wrapped in smiles. It's ageism. His opponents spread and encourage all kinds of jokes and stories about his age and mental capabilities, using the cover of humor to try to make acceptable the undocumented planting of doubt.
If the same kinds of "jokes" were told about Sen. Hillary Clinton's, let's say, inability to drive properly because, well, you know women drivers, or her mood swings at certain times during the campaign, people would be quite properly outraged.
But Sarno, who isn't very old for a young person, focuses on Obama's efforts to combat untrue stories of the candidate's Muslim faith. It's a really good and revealing read here, despite what we heard about David's hunting trip to Manitoba.
-- Andrew Malcolm
P.S. Some people may have noticed Scarlett Johansson's stunning photograph here. And they may also have wondered what she has to do with our blog item on David Sarno's blog item on politics and the Internet. That's a good question. To get the answer, place your cursor on the photograph. Also, we warned Ticket readers way back here.
This is getting pretty pathetic. First, this Illinois yahoo Barack Obama, who beat Alan Keyes of all people for the Senate job, waltzes into that chamber and usurps the Democratic presidential nomination that was to be Hillary Clinton's by rights.
Then he raises all this money, nearly a quarter-billion or something.
And now? Now, he's got Scarlett Johansson whipped over him. Give us a break here. Like, where's the fairness in any of this?
The guy rides a bicycle around in public in one of those goofy-looking but really, really safe helmets that legislators who don't ride bikes have declared that everyone must wear. Next thing you know they'll say we can't talk on cellphones while driving.
And Obama bowls like a Martian. And golfs like he's weed-whacking. And Scarlett falls for him.
Unbelievable. Anyway, here's Scarlett talking over on our sister blog The Dish Rag, which she isn't:
"I am engaged to Barack Obama. My heart belongs to Barack." Doesn't that make you sick? She's doing a lot of campaigning for him and everything.
We're tired of that politician's mug for a while. Seems like we use it every day. So we're gonna take this opportunity to publish Scarlett's photo instead. Nice and big too.
In fact, we may publish her photo in several unrelated items. Because bloggers are really powerful people.
In their own minds.
The Dish Rag, by the way, is written by Elizabeth Snead. Here's her photograph. Obviously, not a politician. Now, you'll really want to bookmark her blog and go there and read more on Scarlett and this topic. And all the other pretty people stuff they have over there.
OK, give yourself a little treat for making it through to Friday afternoon and in a couple of minutes go read the revealing and entertaining interview by our colleague, James Rainey, of one of the neatest bylines going these days in online or print journalism -- Mayhill Fowler.
Sound familiar?
She just happens to be the Huffington Post media writer who revealed that "inartful" bitter small-town guns and religion crack of Barack Obama's some weeks back at an allegedly private fund-raiser in a San Francisco mansion that got the Ivy League-educated lawyer in so much trouble for an elitist streak that didn't go over too well with central Pennsylvania's small-town voters.
Imagine politicians saying one thing in San Francisco and another in a Keystone State bowling alley. And while the professional ...
Chances are, Barack Obama, the newly minted nominee of the Democratic Party's presidential ticket, and Hillary Clinton, its latest loser, are sound asleep as we write this. But The Ticket never sleeps.
So here to officially mark the end of the primary season is a new feature, The Ticket Video: Five things to think about as the rhetorical dust settles from a historic primary race that saw the original Republican front-runner, John McCain, fall into oblivion and then recover to win the GOP nomination while the original Democratic front-runner, Clinton, simply fell into oblivion and the victor, Obama, rose from the same place to clinch his win a few hours ago.
This video is about an hour-and-a-half long. Just kidding. It's 88 seconds.
Mark Glaser is a veteran journalist who writes a regular column called "MediaShift" on the digital media revolution for PBS.org He's also a very handsome fellow, as you can see.
Glaser is a recognized expert on the rapid and bewildering changes that are revolutionizing the media world that we all consume and rely on and criticize and that is so vital for the proper functioning of a democracy.
This month Glaser chose to write his column about The Ticket. So he's obviously a loyal Ticket reader. Here's a snippet of the interview with Andrew:
This was spring of last year, and they asked how I saw the blog developing. Well we had to be different. I asked myself: What do I enjoy about being online? If you distill it down, what I liked about being online was it was like beachcombing. You never know what you’ll find. And that’s the opposite of what newspapers have tried to do over the years. You’ve got the most important story in the upper right, and you’ll have a picture here above the fold and it’s less important as you go down the page. [The newspaper] is directly contradictory of what the new experience is where I’m in control and I’ll go where I want. There are no lane markers, you can jump to wherever you want and do what you want.
Unpredictability was at the top of my list. And we had to be pretty well informed and well written, and Don and I had done a lot of that. And I liked the idea of having it run around the clock because a lot of blogs shut down at night. The first thing I wrote, I said we wanted this to be a dialogue, and sometimes I’ll go in and put comments on other people’s comments. Then we’ll have a discussion with others commenting, and I find that to be exciting. It’s like a conversation, imagine that.
For those interested in learning more about that media topic in general and this blog in particular, that column and his columns are available by clicking here.
This could be the ultimate merger of politics, the Web and entertainment. The Republican National Convention and John McCain's campaign have teamed up to solicit user videos of "someone in your neighborhood who goes above and beyond the call of duty to serve what Sen. McCain calls, 'a cause greater than their own self-interest.'" Then viewers get to vote on the best submission. The winner gets a pass to the convention in St. Paul, Minn.
Of course, the devil is in the details. When you look at the FAQs, the convention staff winnows down the submissions to five finalists, and then they'll open it up to a vote. Kind of like a private primary by the insiders to winnow down the list of acceptable candidates (now, that's democracy). So you can probably write off any chance of a talking snowman making the cut.
Still, the Republicans have generally lagged behind the Democrats in Web innovation. This might catch them up a bit. Meanwhile, we'll be watching for the Paulista backlash. Ron Paul's supporters have proven themselves to be adept at both the Web, and videos. And since they're still fighting for a bigger place at the St. Paul table, you can bet they'll be submitting.
And you can also bet that if they don't make the "final five," they'll be flaming (read any comments section on a blog post about Paul).
As if the dispute over whether to seat the Florida and Michigan delegations isn't enough, the Democratic National Committee is facing a mini-uprising in the blogger world over which local blogs will be seated with state delegations at the Democratic National Convention in August.
The DNC, perhaps recognizing how many activists get their political fixes from blogs, decided to grant a seat to (usually) a single blog with each state's delegation in Denver. This is in addition to the large-scale blog sites (think Huffington and Kos) that will get media credentials to cover the event. And some of the state-level blog sites are fairly large, such as Calitics, which gets a seat.
Later this week, John McCain's campaign is expected to confront head-on questions about his physical fitness to be president -- an issue stemming partly from his age -- with the release of his medical records and a briefing from doctors.
Over the weekend, McCain himself took a crack at using humor to deflate concerns about whether, at 72 years old on Inauguration Day, he would be stretching the appropriate age for someone about to start serving as president. During an appearance on "Saturday Night Live," he joshed about the matter. (Sample: a reference to his "great, great, great grandchildren," some of whom "are nearing retirement .")
McCain, though, is not alone in poking fun at his age. A recently unveiled website creating a buzz also has that goal -- as well as stirring a serious discussion of the topic.
The site, thingsyoungerthanmccain.com, is the brainchild of a fellow who, for now, simply wants to be identified as Joe. We talked to him and did learn that he lives in New York City and works by day as a graphic designer and copy writer. As for his own age, he's 40 -- not so far away from being viewed as hopelessly out of it by some of those born a few decades after him.
He makes no bones about his age-inspired skepticism toward a McCain stint in the White House.
"Am I being 'age-ist'?, he asks on his home page. "Maybe. But maybe not. The world is a pretty complicated place right now and I’m thinking that it’s not such a great time to elect our oldest president ever. So sue me."
He put up a handful of younger-than-McCain posts in April (Superman, the Hindenburg disaster, the ballpoint pen).
But he really kicked himself into gear earlier this month, upon learning that on May 12, his would be the featured site on veryshortlist.com. That sparked traffic, which in turn, spurred audience suggestions. Items younger than McCain (who was born Aug. 29, 1936) that are now featured include the shopping cart, the Slinky, macaroni and cheese ...
Hey, remember that tall Tennessee guy who played a presidential candidate last year? He looked kind of like a president or an admiral or district attorney. Anyway, somebody who carries a lot of authority on his stooped shoulders and a lot of heavy thoughts that take awhile to come out.
What was his name? He was going to play the next Ronald Reagan for the nation and Republican Party as a kind of wise Southern grandpa, even though he just became a father again in real life not too long ago.
He had a few good lines in the debates. He was the only Republican presidential candidate who dared to propose a detailed Social Security rescue plan.
Oh, what was it? Thompson. That's it! Not Tommy. The other one. Fred.
Just put his first one up. Kind of heavy on the "nation must preserve its conservative ideals" stuff. And light on the details. Although he does take a shot at a person or persons who do a lot of talking about "change," "bold change" or "change we can believe in." He's just saying.
This new job could mean he's going to stick around to have a say in public affairs too.
Not a bad thing to have some physically healthy senior Republican statesmen around, thinking deep thoughts, ready to re-lead the opposition party if the much-talked-about political slaughter of the GOP really occurs come Nov. 4.
He won't be close to the implosion. Unless, of course, his good friend from Arizona talks him out of his reluctance to play a vice presidential candidate.
One of the primary season's most publicized votes won't count.
As Hillary Clinton basked in her West Virginia romp Tuesday night -- and sought to inspire her supporters not to lose heart despite the long odds against her in the Democratic presidential race -- she invoked, literally, the spirit of Florence Steen.
Clinton told her cheering crowd that the South Dakotan, "88 years old and in failing health," had "asked that her daughter bring an absentee ballot to her hospice bedside. Florence was born before women had the right to vote, and she was determined to exercise that right, to cast a ballot for her candidate, who just happened to be a woman running for president.
"Florence passed on a few days ago, but I am eternally grateful to her and her family for making this such an important and incredible milestone in her life that means so much to me."
South Dakota's Rapid City Journal had written a feature piece about Steen's vote last weekend and in its Wednesday edition took note of Clinton's mention of the woman in her speech.
On Wednesday, however, Chris Wilsonposted an item on Slate.com pointing out that under South Dakota law, absentee ballots cast by voters who die before an election are not to be opened. Thus, Steen's vote won't get tallied for ...
Below is a passage from a major speech given today in Columbus, Ohio by Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president. It's a fairly trenchant, and many would say accurate, description of the sometimes socially destructive synergy between politicians making charges and the media reporting on them.
"In his/her own words" is a regular feature of The Ticket in which we print some public remarks in total without interruption or comment.
"The hectic but repetitive routine of presidential campaigns often seems to consist entirely of back-and-forth charges between candidates, punctuated by photo ops, debates and the occasional policy speech, followed by another barrage of accusations and counter-accusations, formulated into the soundbites preferred by cable news producers.
"It is a little hypocritical for candidates or reporters to criticize these deficiencies. They are our creation. Campaigns and the media collaborated as architects of the modern presidential campaign, and we deserve equal blame for the regret we feel from time to time over its less than inspirational features.
"Voters, however, even in this revolutionary communications age, with its 24-hour news cycle, can be forgiven their uncertainty about what the candidates actually hope to achieve if they have the extraordinary privilege of being elected president of the United States. We spend too little time and offer too few specifics on that most important of questions.
"We make promises, of course, about what kind of policies we would pursue in office. But they often are obscured, mischaracterized and forgotten in the heat and fog of political battle."
Rep. Maxine Waters, who frequently seems to have something critical to say about other people, comes under not a little heat now from our blogging colleague over at L.A. Land.
Seems she's jumped on the foreclosure bailout bandwagon, proposing and successfully prompting the House of Representatives to pass a bill spending some $15 billion of taxpayers' money to run out and buy foreclosed houses. Rep. Barney Frank has another mortgage rescue bill. But he's not from California, so who cares about him?
As blogger Peter Viles puts it about Waters' measure: "Giving local governments money to buy houses is a sweet deal for lenders -- they get a willing buyer with cash who is also a clueless negotiator. And do you really trust your government to go shopping for bank-owned properties without playing favorites?"
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As our Showtracker blog noted earlier today, Hillary Clinton is slated to headline FOX News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor," conversing -- for the first time -- with host Bill O'Reilly from Indiana. The interview will air in two parts, with the first segment shown Wednesday night and the next on Thursday (all the better to milk the ratings, presumably).
Her appearance predictably follows Barack Obama's long-awaited interview on FOX News Sunday with Chris Wallace. From the viewpoint of the mainstream media (like us), Obama emerged unscathed from his encounter with Wallace (little knowing a new Jeremiah Wright-inspired firestorm awaited him).
But some liberal bloggers, who as part of decrying what they see as FOX's over-the-top conservative bias generally urge Democrats to boycott the network, were displeased with Obama and the way he handled his chat (see here, here and here).
Clinton may not take quite as much grief because many in the liberal blogsphere have long since written her off. Still, she hasn't gotten a complete pass.
Jason Linkins of the Huffington Post had unpleasant things ...
The Ticket had another one of its occasional live online chats with loyal readers this afternoon before the interesting Pennsylvania Democratic primary results started flowing in. (Put your cursor on the photo for a further explanation.)
As usual, the blogger, whose name escapes us at the moment, performed brilliantly. But it was the readers who stole the show with some insightful observations and numerous enlightening phrases.
Several backers of Barack Obama objected that Hillary Clinton had not yet dropped out (they thought she had even less reason after the results came in). The blogger observed in mock shock that the Clintons play hardball politically and noted that the ongoing Democratic competition, though expensive, makes the ultimate winner a better candidate.
"I like the idea of not playing ball," replied barackthevote, "like the bullies in school played dodgeball. There are other ways to win. And I'd vote for noble people of the other any day."
Andy asked about Clinton's money situation. An excellent point. She's hurting and though Obama's 3-to-1 or better spending in Pennsylvania didn't prevent her double-digit victory, it did sap her treasury for later contests including Indiana and North Carolina. (Tonight after her win, Clinton officials said she had received $2.5 million in donations online in the first of couple of hours after the victory. We could not independently verify that sum.)
The blogger asked the readers a question for a change: As Democrats, would they still vote Democratic in November if their favorite lost out in this ongoing chase? Surprisingly, most said, yes.
There was chat talk of Obama's recent gaffes and what impact, if any, that might have on Pennsylvania and other states. Then Seth observed, "I'm just chagrined to live in a country where you have to line-dance to prove you could run the free world. Thanks for the fun, Andrew. I'm out."
Click on the Read more line below to see the entire chat transcript, typos and all. Next time, join us.
their recent "Access Hollywood" interview, the Obamas did the same with their younger daughters and later said they regretted that exposure.
