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LIVE DEBATE BLOG
September 26, 2008 10:27 PM
9:41pm CT: And that's a wrap. The first debate is in the history books and that means the spin can begin. We'll see you back here next Thursday, Oct. 2 for the Biden-Palin vice presidential showdown and then again on Oct. 7 and 15 for the final two presidential debates. In the mean time, check out all the latest in The Note every morning and keep the conversation going. G'night from Oxford.
9:32 pm CT: It may just be me but I feel like Obama is getting his best shots in very late -- one of the key parts of his appeal has to be the different tone he would set with the world. I think he would have been well-served to be talking like this about 50 minutes ago.
9:29 pm CT: Obama pledges to "restore America's standing in the world." A critical part of the message -- and it only took 89 minutes to get to it. A missed opportunity?
9:26 pm CT: Watch a GOP talking point get made! This is Barack Obama, saying John McCain is right.
9:24 pm CT: Republicans are in full drill, baby, drill mode -- but does McCain want to "exploit" oil reserves?
9:20 pm CT: Meaty discussion on Russia -- with lots and lots of Russian names for McCain to pronounce. IF people care about this, McCain looks strong.
9:15 pm CT: I've got to think the McCain campaign is happy with what this debate has and hasn't covered. I don't know if he was better prepared, or just jumped at more opportunities, but he's hitting the pitches to the right parts of the field.
9:12 pm CT: McCain: "I'm not going to set the White House visitors' schedule before I'm president of the United States."
This is another area where McCain is in his comfort zone. He's having a long discussion on the preconditions line.
9:10 pm CT: From ABC's Bret Hovell, who covers McCain: He may have missed Ahmadinejad, but he got that string of 5 or 6 russian words right on.
9:04 pm CT: ABC's Sunlen Miller has some details on the bracelet: It was given to him on 2/15 in Greenbay by Tracy Jopek of Merrill, Wisconsin. He's worn it every day since. The bracelet says her son's name, Sgt Ryan David.
9:03 pm CT: From ABC's John Berman: Remember the line from the convention: "If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next Commander-in-Chief, that's a debate I'm ready to have."
That is the debate that they are having on foreign policy...and Obama is getting in his licks.
9:02 pm CT: First flash of meanness from McCain, to me -- when he heads up subcommittees, they do things...
8:59 pm CT: A few times tonight, McCain has slowed things down to tell a personal story. Surely rehearsed, but it doesn't come off that way -- breaks through in a debate that features long lists of talking points. (Obama liked the last story so much he offered up one of his own: "I've got a bracelet, too.")
8:57 pm CT: "That business about bombing Iran . . . " McCain says. And his first Reagan reference is about a break with Reagan.
Oddly, tonight John McCain seemed marginally better on the economic issues, while Barack Obama has been a little stronger on foreign policy/national security.
8:53 pm CT: McCain talking diplomacy, Obama talking military force. Hmmm...
8:51 pm CT: So far -- I'm left flat. I wonder if the fasct that they've been otherwise occupied has had a big impact on preparations.
8:49 pm CT: Obama talks tough: "Capture and kill bin Laden and crush al Qaeda."
8:45 pm CT: It took Obama halfway through the debate to find a groove. "You were wrong," was his refrain, repeated several times. Yet McCain had a good rejoinder: "We are winning."
8:40 pm CT: "We will win in Iraq," McCain says (finally, on foreign policy). Notice he makes the question about the success of the surge. Obama in his comfort zone too -- shouldn't have gone in in the first place. "Sen. McCain and President Bush had a very different judgment," Obama said. "We took our eye off the ball."
It's taking him a while to marry McCain and Bush -- but he's getting there.
8:38 pm CT: "Your president," Obama says, presided over this "orgy of spending." McCain says AGAIN that he was not Miss Congeniality. (Scary that he might have been.) But can't he limit the lame jokes to once each per debate?
8:36 pm CT: That's pretty close to an outright lie by Sen. McCain -- saying he wants to hand over healthcare to the federal government. (Also, as a colleague notes, why is he suddenly in favor of handing over the economy to the federal government?)
8:33 pm CT: A third of the way into this debate, Barack Obama is the first to mention a foreign policy subject, in the context of saying he wants to save money by ending the Iraq war.
I like that Lehrer is hammering this point about being realistic about the financial crisis. But time is ticking on this debate.
8:32 pm CT: From ABC's David Chalian: It seems to me there is a clear attempt on McCain's part to use his contrast or anti-Obama moments to paint him as an entirely typical politician willing to put politics ahead of principles.
8:30 pm CT: Obama: "I'm not willing to give up the need to do it, but there may be individual components that we cannot do."
8:28 pm CT: Asked what he'd give up, Barack Obama told us what he'd do. What wouldn't he do? "Eliminate programs that don't work." Some more specifics, at least, from McCain -- he likes to cite spending horror stories.
8:24 pm CT: Next up the energy bill. McCain, again, on the offensive. (And still nothing on foreign policy.)
8:22 pm CT: Obama delivered a good answer on taxes -- touting his tax cut -- but I don't think the country is going to get angry that we have low business taxes. Then he accuses McCain of wanting to raise taxes -- by taxing health benefits. "It is not a good deal for the American people, but it's an example of the [notion] that the market can do everything."
8:21 pm CT: STILL on earmarks. "Senator Obama is a recent convert," McCain says.
8:20 pm CT: Guess who's wearing a flag pin tonight -- Barack Obama. Not John McCain.
8:19 pm CT: Don't look now -- but John McCain is dominating the discussion on economic policy. He has steered it toward ground that's comfortable for him. Very early on, I'm seeing McCain in a groove.
8:17 pm CT: "Evils" of earmarking, McCain says. (Has he seen the Thad Cochran Research Center that's a few hundred feet from here?)
New attack -- nearly $1 million in earmark requests per day from Obama since he's been in the Senate.
Obama can't be comfortable defending earmarks here -- though of course he would never (NEVER!) be influenced by a special interest . . . So he turns it to taxes -- some engagement on economic policy.
And we're 17 minutes into the debate on foreign policy without a single word uttered on foreign policy.
8:13 pm CT: From ABC's Sunlen Miller: It only took Obama 1 min and 44 seconds from the start of his first answer to hit McCain
"We have to recognize that this is a final verdict on 8 years of failed economic policies of Gorge bush, supported by Sen Mccain."
8:12 pm CT: Obama: "John, you said 10 days ago that the fundamentals of the economy are strong." There's that word again. . .
8:08 pm CT: Thanks to Jim Lehrer for pointing out that the question wasn't answered.
Obama so far is more aggressive than McCain -- maybe it's the topic, but I'm struck early by how McCain is playing optimistic -- I thought he was the populist on the trail of late.
McCain said "sure" he's going to vote for the plan -- did he mean to say that?
8:06 pm CT: An odd comment on Kennedy from Sen. McCain -- he's actually out of the hospital, unless he has better information than we do.
Then -- an optimistic tone on the economic crisis -- that's an eyebrow-raiser. But it fits in with McCain's argument that he helped along the package that's working its way toward a vote on the Hill. "I went back to Washington," he says.
8:04 pm CT: Sen. Obama gets the first question -- a direct one, on the financial bailout project. And he ticks off his principles, in a solid recitation. Also, chalk up the first hit on the Bush administration. (Plus the word "fundamentals" -- a coded tweak at Sen. McCain.
September 26, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (345) | TrackBack (0)
Judgment vs. Experience: A Viewing Guide
September 26, 2008 7:33 PM
It’s not easy to grade debates -- winners and losers being a matter of perception -- but one way to watch tonight’s debate is by counting the number of times Sen. Barack Obama cites his judgment in some way, and how many times Sen. John McCain cites his experience.
This is the crux of their competing foreign-policy arguments. Obama argues that he has superior judgment, typically citing his early opposition to the Iraq war, as contrasted with McCain’s long held support for the war.
McCain argues that he’s got the requisite experience, painting Obama as a naïve idealist who’d do things like meet unconditionally with leaders of rogue nations.
The topic matter -- foreign policy -- is probably a slight McCain advantage. But remember that the Obama camp asked that the topics be switched so this would be what they talk about in the first debate.
Another thought: Has McCain’s conduct these past two weeks -- the halting, stop-and-start efforts around the economy -- created an additional hurdle for him tonight? Or is there more pressure on Obama, who needs to be seen as a commander-in-chief, as well as a good campaign closer?
I’ll be blogging during the debate itself -- but offline in the 8 pm - 9 pm ET hour, where I’ll be on ABC NewsNOW with Sam Donaldson anchoring our coverage.
Watch it HERE.
September 26, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (41) | TrackBack (0)
Lindsey Graham: "You better be glad Sen. McCain came to Washington"
September 26, 2008 6:48 PM
More from the pre-game spin wars: Sen. Lindsey Graham, a top McCain surrogate/loyalist, offers a bit of a preview of what Sen. John McCain might say tonight if he’s asked to defend his roll in the bailout bill.
"Here's what I'm going to tell voters: You better be glad Sen. McCain came to Washington," said Graham, R-S.C.
Graham argues that without McCain, House Republicans would have been shut out of the process. If that had happened, he said, the draft legislation would have been defeated on the House floor.
"Nobody was going to vote for it," he said, adding that McCain had a "beneficial effect" on the legislation.
Under this argument, Graham is essentially conceding that McCain slowed the process -- but says this slowing was necessary to get a bill that can actually pass.
He also says that McCain’s participation was valuable to the candidate himself.
"There was no substitute for being in the room," Graham said. "Getting on the ground and watching this was what John needed to do."
September 26, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (57) | TrackBack (0)
Richardson: Obama Has No Weaknesses
September 26, 2008 6:01 PM
ABC's Sunlen Miller caught this quote from the pre-debate spin: "He doesn't have a weak point. He's very strong. He's very articulate," Gov. Bill Richardson, D-N.M., said of his former rival, Sen. Barack Obama. "I didn't detect any weak points that he has."
Apparently he didn't get the memo -- literally. The Obama campaign -- in furious, we're-gonna-stink, pre-debate mode -- sent around the following snippets of "opposition research" earlier today:
New York Times: Obama's Debating Skills Are "Uneven" As He Has "A Tendency To Overintellectualize And To Lecture" And "Frequently Rises Above The Mire Of Political Combat When The Battle Calls For Engagement."
AP: Obama Comes Across As "Lifeless, Aloof, And Windy" During Debates.
Fallows: Obama Never Managed To "Receive Big Acclaim After A Debate."
John King Said Democrats Worry That Obama Is To Professorial Or Too Subdued In Debate Settings.
Fallows: Obama Never Managed To “Receive Big Acclaim After A Debate.”
John King Said Democrats Worry That Obama Is To Professorial Or Too Subdued In Debate Settings.
By the way -- also spinning before the debate begins: Rudy Giuliani. Not spinning (but looking very lonely on his BlackBerry, outside the press filing center): John Kerry.
September 26, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (23) | TrackBack (0)
Does Obama Heart CNN?
September 26, 2008 5:17 PM
Just got an odd text message from the Obama campaign: “Watch Barack debate John McCain tonight at 9 pm Eastern on CNN.”
On CNN? Last time I checked, the debate will be on every channel this side of the Food Network -- including, of course, ABC and ABC NewsNOW. Tonight’s moderator is PBS’ Jim Lehrer.
Why the shout-out for the Cable News Network? (And does MSNBC feel jilted?)
Two Obama aides are chalking it up to a mistake made by a technical person who works for the campaign -- someone who, apparently, thought the debate would only be televised on CNN, like the National Service Forum from earlier this month.
They say a corrected version will be sent out later -- which means the Obama campaign will owe me another 10 cents.
UPDATE: In an 6:11 pm ET from the Obama campaign: "Watch Barack Obama debate John McCain tonight at 9 pm ET on any of the major networks or cable."
September 26, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (46) | TrackBack (0)
Monument to a Bygone Era
September 26, 2008 4:43 PM
John McCain, take note: Right here on the Ole Miss campus, not 1,000 feet from tonight's debate site, stands a monument to another age in American history. (No, this has nothing to do with James Meredith.)
It's the Thad Cochran Research Center, fortuitously named for Mississippi's senior senator -- the ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, and one of the greatest earmarkers in American history.
Just last year, Cochran helped deliver the University of Mississippi 27 earmarks worth a total of $37 million. (According to the Memphis Commercial Appeal, only one college in the country did better last year -- Mississippi State University.)
The tax dollars funneled to Ole Miss pays for such urgent federal priorities as $125,000 for the university’s music archive; $500,000 for the Center for Innovation Excellence (which doesn’t open until) December 2010; $2.5 million to train judges and prosecutors in handling electronic and computer crimes; and $10.2 million for the National Center for Natural Products Research -- which is housed at the Thad Cochran Research Center.
Given the anti-earmark fervor on the campaign trail these days, the University of Mississippi is almost certainly going to have to learn to do more with less under the next administration. That’s particularly true of Cochran’s favored candidate -- McCain -- is elected president.
Cochran, and those here are quick to remember is no particular fan of McCain. Last January, he told The Boston Globe: "The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. . . . He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."
After supporting Mitt Romney during the primaries, Cochran ultimately endorsed McCain -- but we'll let you know if we see him pop up on campus as a surrogate today. In the meantime, his research center is an interesting detour.
September 26, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Obama Wins Debate Over Debates
September 26, 2008 3:01 PM
Rick Klein here from ABC's The Note: The debate is still ahead of us, but with Sen. John McCain's announcement that he's showing up after all, Sen. Barack Obama won the debate over debates.
How's that? Well, when McCain announced Wednesday that he was "suspending" his campaign, he sought to recast the economic issue, placing himself at the center of the discussions.
He got just what he wanted. But the public perception is one he could live without: A deal looked closer to reality before he showed up. Democrats say his presence made things worse. He still hasn't said whether he's in favor of the draft bill that's been hashed out in consultation with the Bush administration, House Democrats, and Senate Democrats and Republicans.
And then, the morning of the debate -- with no one on the Hill seriously saying that the deal is really imminent -- McCain pronounces himself ready to head to Ole Miss after all, his previous statements notwithstanding.
What do you think? Can anyone discern a strategy here? Will any of this matter once the debate starts?
I'll be blogging all day and night, so check back here for updates. And our NewsNOW and www.abcnews.com/politics livestream coverage starts at 8 pm ET -- Sam Donaldson and I are anchoring an hour of pre-debate coverage, plus a 30-minute wrap-up show after the debate ends, at 10:30 pm ET.
September 26, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (37) | TrackBack (0)
McCain's Moment: Biography in Search of a Theme
September 05, 2008 12:16 AM
Sen. John McCain tonight made his play for the support of a nation that’s ready for change -- by introducing the public to the new party he intends to lead.
It was a speech largely devoid of overarching themes -- defined as much by its mundane qualities as by its vision.
“Fight,” McCain declared and promised, again and again, offering his unique biography as testament. “Fight with me.”
The speech’s emotional core was McCain’s personal story, told with a level of details he’s largely avoided in public settings. “I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else's,” he said.
It contained only hints of the battle to come with Barack Obama; for a night, he let subtlety reign -- for the most part.
“I'm not running for president because I think I'm blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save our country in its hour of need. My country saved me. My country saved me, and I cannot forget it. And I will fight for her as long as I draw breath, so help me God,” he said, in one of his few overt tweaks of his opponent.
But as his choice of running mates made clear, his is a Republican Party that wants desperately to believe in itself again. McCain made only passing attempts to appeal to those sentiments.
This was John McCain’s convention, of course, but it may long be remembered as Sarah Palin’s. And as the race moves into its final 60 days, McCain is asking an awful lot of his running mate.
September 5, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (57) | TrackBack (0)
The Palin Effect?
September 04, 2008 9:45 PM
From ABC News’ Rick Klein, author of The Note: Sen. John Ensign, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, has been among the most realistic assessors of the political landscape this year. He said in June that it would be a “terrific night” for the GOP if the party only loses three Senate seats this fall.
Well -- that was before Sarah Palin. On ABC NewsNOW this evening, Ensign told Sam Donaldson and me that the committee’s fundraising pace doubled just in the week since Palin emerged on the public scene.
“Our fundraising is certainly picking up, we had a much better August than we had anticipated, we raised $2 million dollars more than we had budgeted for, and it really was over the last couple of weeks things really picked up,” said Ensign, R-Nev. “So I'm confident that things are picking up.”
He said internal polling shows races much tighter than they had been in three states Democrats have targeted GOP-held Senate seats, though he declined to name them.
Could this be the beginning of a Palin effect? Might Palin do for the Republican Party what Sen. Barack Obama has done for the Democrats -- energize the party from the grassroots on up, and help in down-ballot races across the country?
“I certainly believe that she is going to attract a lot of people who want to volunteer, a lot of those small dollar donors, a lot of people who are really excited,” said Ensign.
“So I think that what Barack did for the Democrat Party, she is certainly doing for the Republican Party, and we're gonna surprise a lot of people,” he added.
“What I think that Sarah Palin brings to us is -- the Democrat base was real fired up, now the Republican base is fired up, and so for turnout, I think that's gonna be a big equalizing factor in this campaign,” Ensign said.
None of this is likely to change national trend lines that are literally years in the making. But it’s another sign of how this previously unknown Alaska governor is remaking the political landscape.
September 4, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (34) | TrackBack (0)
Live from the Republican Convention on McCain's Big Night
September 04, 2008 7:15 PM
Rick Klein here from ABC's The Note. I'll be co-anchoring ABC News NOW coverage one more night from the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, alongside Sam Donaldson, from inside the Xcel Energy Center (were the fine folks just presented Mr. Donaldson with a Minnesota Wild jersey -- DONALDSON 08). We'll be on starting at 7 pm ET tonight, and going through the end of the action.
We'll get you speeches, analysis, and a range of great guests: including Tom Moe, one of McCain's fellow POWs; Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev.; former Sen. George Allen, R-Va.; former Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss.; former Bush strategist Matthew Dowd; the Chicago Tribune's Jill Zuckman.
Watch it all by clicking following the link from HERE.
September 4, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (11) | TrackBack (0)
Cindy's Bling
September 04, 2008 6:06 PM
Our friends over at Vanity Fair have come up with a very rough estimate of the value of the clothes and accessories that took the stage of the convention on Monday.
We quote:
Laura Bush
Oscar de la Renta suit: $2,500
Stuart Weitzman heels: $325
Pearl stud earrings: $600–$1,500
Total: Between $3,425 and $4,325
Cindy McCain
Oscar de la Renta dress: $3,000
Chanel J12 White Ceramic Watch: $4,500
Three-carat diamond earrings: $280,000
Four-strand pearl necklace: $11,000–$25,000
Shoes, designer unknown: $600
Total: Between $299,100 and $313,100
Says Vanity Fair: "Wow! No wonder McCain has so many houses: his wife has the price of a Scottsdale split-level hanging from her ears."
We might add: That's a lot of haircuts.
September 4, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (46) | TrackBack (0)
First Sign of Signs
September 04, 2008 5:50 PM
Tucked under the arms of floor volunteers and now being placed onto seats on the delegate floor.
One side says "Peace", the other says "Country First". Both sides point you to John McCain's website.
-Nitya Venkataraman
September 4, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (27) | TrackBack (0)
Center Stage
September 04, 2008 4:28 PM
Rick Klein here from ABC's The Note: You'll notice a different setting inside the Xcel Energy Center tonight -- if you’ve been watching any coverage of the previous evenings.
Overnight and into this morning, workers dismantled the old set and built a new stage further into the center of the arena. John McCain, like George W. Bush four years ago, will accept the nomination for president in something closer to a theater-in-the-round setting, with his backdrop on all sides people, instead of, say, columns.
It means McCain will walk out along a catwalk of sorts to get to the middle of the room. His campaign insists he will take no questions, but other than that it will look like a town-hall meeting -- the formats he favors on the trail.
September 4, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
Palin’s Promise
September 04, 2008 12:01 AM
A whole lot of people watched Sarah Palin tonight and thought John McCain is a very smart man.
In towns across America, where people look and sound like Sarah Palin, she was given a fresh start. There’s the inside-the-hall audience -- who already loved her anyway -- and the outside-the-hall audience -- who have been given plenty of reasons to be skeptical.
To them, Palin showed two important qualities. First, there’s her resolve: This is a woman who has taken a beating in the national media for five days, and she stood before the American people and explained herself.
Then, there’s her fight: With no experience on the national stage, she challenged Barack Obama on his own turf.
Palin has much work to do to establish herself on the political scene. But she took a critical first step today.
September 4, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (95) | TrackBack (0)
Take THAT, Mr. President
September 03, 2008 11:30 PM
Our political director David Chalian, points out that the word "nuclear" is spelled out in easier-to-pronounce form in the advance text distributed by the McCain campaign.
As in: "Terrorist states are seeking new-clear weapons without delay ... he wants to meet them without preconditions."
September 3, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (52) | TrackBack (0)
Rudy's Red Meat
September 03, 2008 10:29 PM
This was the full-frontal assault we've been waiting for. Rudy Giuliani maintains a remarkable popularity inside the Republican Party.
The sun is coming up over New York City behind him, but he is shading darkness over Barack Obama -- slamming him for flip-flops, elitism, for having less executive experience than Sarah Palin.
On McCain: "Can you imagine how they’re going to shake up Washington?"
And dialing up the sexism argument: "How dare they question whether Sen. Palin has enough time to spend with her children and be vice president? How dare they do that?"
(Rudy, the family man?)
September 3, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (68) | TrackBack (0)
Ground Zero
September 03, 2008 10:14 PM
New chant inside the hall: "Zero, zero, zero."
That, they would argue, is the extent of Barack Obama's leadership experience.
One particularly classy delegate liked it so much that he turned around and yelled to the press box, "You hear that, media?"
You were heard.
September 3, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (77) | TrackBack (0)
Levi in the House
September 03, 2008 10:04 PM
ABC's Steven Portnoy reports that Levi Johnston and Bristol Palin are sitting side-by-side, in the center of the VIP box.
Levi is wearing a navy blue jacket and a light blue shirt with a McCain-Palin pin on his lapel. Brooks Brothers tie. Short, wavy haircut.
He and Bristol are chatting, softly.
Bristol's grandmother, Sally Heath, is on her left.
September 3, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
Beating the Press
September 03, 2008 9:39 PM
Mike Huckabee says the media has united the conservative moment -- saying that press coverage is "tackier than a costume change at a Madonna concert." (He still has a way with words.)
The Huckster is reading from the GOP talking points on this one -- I can't tell you how many Republicans, including high-ranking McCain aides -- are walking around this convention telling reporters how much their reporting stinks.
But how often has the beat-the-press strategy worked?
And this line hurts: "She got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, than Joe Biden did running for president of the United States."
(He got about 5,600 votes, by my math.)
September 3, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (36) | TrackBack (0)
Mitt Hits Libs
September 03, 2008 9:15 PM
Anyone think we've seen the last of Mitt Romney on a national presidential stage?
Listen to the cheers Romney got tonight in St. Paul -- and listen to the gusto with which Mitt railed against liberals.
"We need change alright -- change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington," Romney said. "I know that liberals don't have a clue. . . . It's time for the party of big ideas -- not the party of big brother. . . . This is no time for timid, liberal, empty gestures."
As for what Mitt really thinks . . . let's just say he can imagine the sight of a the party needing someone who looks like a president to run against Barack Obama in 2012.
September 3, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (25) | TrackBack (0)
Nancy Reagan 'Very Impressed' by Obama, Ron jr Says
September 03, 2008 8:02 PM
Former First Lady Nancy Reagan is not attending this week’s Republican convention but her son, Ron, is. Newsweek.com’s Tammy Haddad and her TamCam caught up with the son of the Republican icon. You can watch it HERE and hear Reagan describe his mother’s fondness for the current Democratic nominee.
“John McCain and my mother have known each for years and years. Her parents, and Cindy McCain’s parents go way back in Phoenix, Arizona. She’s grateful to John McCain for standing with her on the issue of stem cells and, of course, has officially endorsed him. She’s fine with John McCain, as I said, they’ve been friends for a long time."
“I can tell you though that she’s also very impressed with Barack Obama...she’s just impressed by his demeanor, is not just that he’s an eloquent guy and a guy who gives a good speech, a lot of people said that about my father too. But she sees through that. She’s been around a long time and she looks at Barack Obama and she sees the words, hears the words and she perceives character there. She thinks this is a good guy, a guy who means well and is a strong character,” Reagan said.
And Ron, who has rarely shared the political perspective of his parents, had this to say about Sarah Palin, “Sarah Palin is in no way qualified to be vice president or certainly president. John McCain is a 72 year old cancer survivor, not just any cancer, melanoma. Not just any melanoma, melanoma above the neck. It was his obligation to choose somebody who could realistically step into the big chair and Sarah Palin is not that person.”
Haddad, always quick with the follow up, added: “What does your mom think of her?
But on that one, Reagan did not have a comment from his mother. “I haven’t spoken to her about Sarah Palin. I have no idea.”
September 3, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (106) | TrackBack (0)
ABC NewsNOW Gavel-to-Gavel Coverage
September 03, 2008 6:51 PM
Rick Klein here -- I'll be live with Sam Donaldson, starting at 7 pm ET tonight, with gavel-to-gavel coverage of day three of the Republican National Convention, in St. Paul.
We'll bring you all the big speeches -- plus a range of great guests, including actor Jon Voight, conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly, former Gov. Jane Swift, R-Mass., and Rep. Michele Bachman, R-Minn.
Click HERE to watch.
September 3, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)
Jane Swift: “Nobody Asks Those Questions of the Guys”
September 03, 2008 6:25 PM
Rick Klein, from ABC News’ The Note, Reports: Gov. Sarah Palin, R-Alaska, earlier this year became the second sitting governor in US history to have given birth while in office.
Former Gov. Jane Swift, R-Mass., was the first. In 2001, after ascending from the office of lieutenant governor when Paul Cellucci became ambassador to Canada, Swift gave birth to twin girls, her second and third daughters.
(As a reporter for The Boston Globe, I was at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston waiting for those bundles of history to be delivered.)
I caught up with Swift in St. Paul this afternoon, thinking she might have some interesting insights on what Palin is going through these days.
She said she definitely detects “sexism” in the media’s coverage of her candidacy -- particularly when commentators have wondered aloud about how she’s able to balance her parenting duties with governing.
“Nobody asks those questions of guys,” said Swift, who left office in January 2003, after Mitt Romney elbowed her out of the 2002 GOP primary and won the governor’s office. “The ‘good mom, bad mom’ stuff is ridiculous, and there’s no place for it.”
“I think there have been some aspects of the coverage where she’s been held to a different standard,” she added. “People have used tired old gender stereotypes to describe her, and where that happens, women who see that I think have an obligation to stand up and call folks on it, and hopefully that creates a better atmosphere for my daughters.”
Swift, whose oldest daughter is now 9, and whose twin girls are 7, said she and her daughters were rooting for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to win the primaries -- even though she endorsed McCain early in the primaries.
“My daughters are old enough now, they actually have been following the campaign, and we rooted for Hillary Clinton to do well -- absolutely,” Swift said. “We don’t want her to win,” she added with a laugh.
“But that was great for my girls, to see someone of Sen. Clinton’s accomplishments and strength out there every single day. It’s a great role model for my girls -- role models are important.”
As for what Palin is facing now, Swift said she has sympathy for the way her life has been turned upside down in the space of the past week.
“The level of scrutiny and the reality that your entire life becomes an open book,” she said. “There’s no doubt that there were times when the focus on my private life prevented me from talking about the important issues I was working, and that was frustrating.”
She said she made plans to come to the convention without plans to play an active role -- but felt compelled to join other prominent Republican women in speaking up, with her girls in mind.
“There haven’t been enough of us where we could get a good research group,” Swift said. “These are things that, hopefully -- when we don’t continually have firsts -- we’ll start to be able to change and address.”
Sam Donaldson and I will be chatting with Swift during out ABC NewsNOW coverage from the convention tonight, starting at 7 pm ET. Check out abcnews.com/politics for the link to live, gavel-to-gavel coverage.
September 3, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
More From the Supermarket Aisle . . .
September 03, 2008 4:52 PM
Yesterday, we shared the cover of the new US Weekly -- the one that's pretty devastating to Sarah Palin.
Today we get a sneak peek of the new cover of People -- and they went the opposite direction.
"SARAH PALIN’S FAMILY DRAMA," reads the headline, promising a sympathetic take on the vice-presidential candidate "raising a baby with Down syndrome and coping with her teen daughter's pregnancy -- while running for office." (We haven't been given a copy of the text yet, just the cover.)
It doesn't hurt that People scored the first interview with John McCain and Palin, just as it did with Barack Obama and Joe Biden a week earlier.
But might this be a good omen for Palin's image? As we noted today, Palin has her biggest chance yet to redefine her image, with her speech tonight, and she needs all the help she can get.
If you don't think the McCain campaign is worried about these sorts of things, check out this response to the latest issue of the National Enquirer -- the first time I can recall a campaign responding proactively to an unsubstantiated allegation in this particular publication.
"The smearing of the Palin family must end," McCain senior adviser Steve Schmidt said in a statement. "The allegations contained on the cover of the National Enquirer insinuating that Governor Palin had an extramarital affair are categorically false. It is a vicious lie."
This strikes me as including a touch of taking down a straw man -- the campaign sees political opportunity in the image of Palin under siege. But they’d rather these stories went away entirely.
September 3, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (27) | TrackBack (0)
Jane Swift: “Nobody Asks Those Questions of the Guys”
September 03, 2008 4:36 PM
Rick Klein, from ABC News’ The Note, Reports: Gov. Sarah Palin, R-Alaska, earlier this year became the second sitting governor in US history to have given birth while in office.
Former Gov. Jane Swift, R-Mass., was the first. In 2001, after ascending from the office of lieutenant governor when Paul Cellucci became ambassador to Canada, Swift gave birth to twin girls, her second and third daughters.
(As a reporter for The Boston Globe, I was at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston waiting for those bundles of history to be delivered.)
I caught up with Swift in St. Paul this afternoon, thinking she might have some interesting insights on what Palin is going through these days.
She said she definitely detects “sexism” in the media’s coverage of her candidacy -- particularly when commentators have wondered aloud about how she’s able to balance her parenting duties with governing.
“Nobody asks those questions of guys,” said Swift, who left office in January 2003, after Mitt Romney elbowed her out of the 2002 GOP primary and won the governor’s office. “The ‘good mom, bad mom’ stuff is ridiculous, and there’s no place for it.”
“I think there have been some aspects of the coverage where she’s been held to a different standard,” she added. “People have used tired old gender stereotypes to describe her, and where that happens, women who see that I think have an obligation to stand up and call folks on it, and hopefully that creates a better atmosphere for my daughters.”
Swift, whose oldest daughter is now 9, and whose twin girls are 7, said she and her daughters were rooting for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to win the primaries -- even though she endorsed McCain early in the primaries.
“My daughters are old enough now, they actually have been following the campaign, and we rooted for Hillary Clinton to do well -- absolutely,” Swift said. “We don’t want her to win,” she added with a laugh.
“But that was great for my girls, to see someone of Sen. Clinton’s accomplishments and strength out there every single day. It’s a great role model for my girls -- role models are important.”
As for what Palin is facing now, Swift said she has sympathy for the way her life has been turned upside down in the space of the past week.
“The level of scrutiny and the reality that your entire life becomes an open book,” she said. “There’s no doubt that there were times when the focus on my private life prevented me from talking about the important issues I was working, and that was frustrating.”
She said she made plans to come to the convention without plans to play an active role -- but felt compelled to join other prominent Republican women in speaking up, with her girls in mind.
“There haven’t been enough of us where we could get a good research group,” Swift said. “These are things that, hopefully -- when we don’t continually have firsts -- we’ll start to be able to change and address.”
Sam Donaldson and I will be chatting with Swift during out ABC NewsNOW coverage from the convention tonight, starting at 7 pm ET. Check out abcnews.com/politics for the link to live, gavel-to-gavel coverage.
September 3, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (26) | TrackBack (0)
Simple Is As . . .
September 02, 2008 11:10 PM
Republicans are good at using simple images and words to make deep points -- and Tuesday night is a case in point.
With signs like "COUNTRY FIRST," and "SERVICE," delegates found plenty to cheer about when the convention finally got going.
And with two speakers -- Fred Thompson and Joe Lieberman -- this convention found a groove that highlights McCain's biography and begins to draw the sharp contrasts we've all been waiting for.
We saw the convention take shape tonight -- raising the stakes in the election, connecting biography to the race. And now, it falls to Sarah Palin to keep the momentum going . . .
September 2, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (43) | TrackBack (0)
Watching Fred . . .
September 02, 2008 10:14 PM
You can see when Fred Thompson was once seen as the great conservative hope. The guy is good when he brings it. And he brought it for his friend tonight.
He also, by the way, brought the red meat -- few people can make liberals seem ridiculous the way Fred Thompson can.
That was an emotional speech, a compelling way to tie John McCain's biography to his vision. That was the sound of a convention hitting its groove.
September 2, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (80) | TrackBack (0)
Bush Speaks
September 02, 2008 10:12 PM
The most fascinating of relationships comes full circle with President Bush's hearty endorsement of John McCain tonight.
The president tells the life story in a compelling way -- speaking to McCain's heart, vouching for his conservative bona fides.
"He's not afraid to tell you when he disagrees -- believe me, I know," the president said. He does.
September 2, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)
Lindsay Lohan: Palin 'Distracting from the Real Issues'
September 02, 2008 7:24 PM
For anyone worried that the Republican convention didn't have a celebrity twist....
You can now add Lindsay Lohan's name to the list of bloggers moved to share their thoughts on reports that surfaced yesterday that Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's teenage daughter is pregnant.
The erstwhile tween queen-cum-paparazzi target posted to her MySpace blog this morning decrying Palin's daughter's pregnancy as 'distracting from the real issues, the real everyday problems that this country experiences."
Writes Lohan, "I am concerned with the fact that Sarah Palin brought the attention to her daughter's pregnancy, rather than all world issues and what she believes she could possibly do to change them-if elected." On that note, the actress invites Palin to take cues from her Democratic rival, 'Maybe focus on delivering some words and policy with stronger impact like Joe Biden."
(The AP confirmed with Lohan's publicist that the blog was written by the star herself.)
--Nitya Venkataraman
September 2, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (75) | TrackBack (0)
John McCain, According to His Colleagues
September 02, 2008 5:18 PM
The meaty portion of the Republican National Convention gets off to a delayed start Tuesday evening -- with a theme of "service."
Two senators are being called on to tell the John McCain story -- former Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn. (who qualifies as a bona fide celebrity in St. Paul, given that most Hollywood types are Democrats), and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn. (who qualifies as a bona fide celebrity Democrat, given that most of all types in St. Paul are registered Republicans).
It may seem odd to have this candidate running as an outsider have his praises sung by a pair of insiders -- plus President Bush, who appears a day late, and via satellite from the White House.
We’re being told to expect a ramp-up to the harsh stuff: after yesterday’s call to service in the cause of hurricane relief, it may take some time for the red meat to be served. But here’s guessing we’ll get it before the convention is over.
September 2, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (16) | TrackBack (0)
How Palin is Playing in the Supermarket Aisles
September 02, 2008 12:54 PM
Rick Klein, from ABC’s The Note, reports: Let’s say you don’t read The New York Times or The Washington Post (or The Note, for that matter). Let’s say you don’t follow the big political blogs and you’re not obsessed with every turn of the screw of this fascinating presidential race.
Let’s say, instead, like millions of working-class Americans, you get your “news” on the political race from the supermarket aisle. Let’s say you’re -- I don’t know, a “hockey mom” -- and you’re intrigued by this Sarah Palin person you’ve been hearing so much about since Friday.
So you’re shopping this week -- and what do you see on the cover of US Weekly? That esteemed journalistic institution is taking it right to John McCain’s running mate -- with a hard-hitting piece that details the “scandal” involving her daughter’s pregnancy.
“BABIES, LIES & SCANDAL,” screams the headline on the cover, with a picture of a smiling Palin holding her fifth child, 4-month-old Trig.
Inside is a collection of Palin lowlights -- from her daughter’s now well-known pregnancy; to Internet rumors that the governor pretended to be pregnant to cover for her daughter; to “troopergate”; to her onetime support for the “bridge to nowhere”; to a radio appearance where she giggled while shock jocks called a political rival a “bitch” and a “cancer.”
“Within hours of McCain’s surprise introduction of the little-known, charismatic mother of five as his running mate, the scandals began to emerge as quickly as flies at a Labor Day picnic,” Mara Reinstein writes for the magazine.
“While putting to rest one scandal, Palin appeared to have opened another of even greater significance. Staunchly antiabortion (even in cases of rape) and opposed to sex-education classes (she believes in abstinence instruction for teens), questions began to arise about not just her judgment, but that of McCain’s as well,” Reinstein writes.
It should be noted that there is no new reporting here that I can discern -- just a greatest hits from what’s out there.
But this, to me, is the clearest evidence yet that the McCain-Palin campaign is losing the battle over Palin’s image. US Weekly readers are the voters her selection was designed to attract. There’s not much to like in this early take -- and not much to indicate that the next round will be much better.
September 2, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (390) | TrackBack (0)
The Bizarro Convention
September 01, 2008 3:31 PM
Rick Klein, from ABC's The Note: The latest from the weirdest first day of a convention anyone is likely to see for a while . . .
Item One: The convention actually isn't a convention today at all.
Item Two: This morning, the always colorful Karl Rove called Sen. Joe Biden "big, blowhard doofus."
Item Three: Biology as pushback -- the McCain campaign puts out word about the Palin pregnancy.
Maybe it's just as well that this day is lost to the McCain campaign -- and they still have three days to tell the story they hoped to tell in four.
Maybe (as seems to be the case early on) the GOP base will rally around Gov. Palin in this latest revelation.
But how many more weird developments before that becomes the story -- that nothing else can be told this week?
September 1, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (15) | TrackBack (0)
