Obama to Stephanopoulos: I could take Palin in basketball

September 07, 2008 7:15 AM

ABC News' George Stephanopoulos Reports: The rivalry between the Democratic and Republican tickets for president could shift from the ballot box to the hardwood if Barack Obama has his way.

In an exclusive interview airing this morning on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," the Democratic nominee for president said he would be open to going one-on-one in basketball with Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

"You know, I would play her a game of horse," said Obama. "She looks like she’s got some game."

Palin was a standout high school basketball player whose skills on the court earned her the nickname Sarah Barracuda. But Obama said he doesn’t fear her.

"On the basketball court, I think I’d stand up pretty well," he said.

Still, Obama said he wouldn’t want to go head-to-head with Palin in another sport: target shooting.

"I know she’s a sharpshooter, and I know that -- I probably wouldn’t do target practice with her," he said. "I think she’d be a better shot than me."

The idea of an Obama-Palin basketball matchup was suggested by Linda Lilley, a viewer from Union City, Pa., who submitted her question for Obama on abcnews.com.

September 7, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)

Obama to Stephanopoulos: Palin more Bush-Cheney than McCain

September 06, 2008 5:09 PM

ABC News' George Stephanopoulos Reports: Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin is a "skilled politician," but the country doesn't know much about her yet, said Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., in an interview that will air tomorrow exclusively on "This Week."

But Obama refused to say Palin is qualified to be president, and claimed that picking Palin brings Republican presidential nominee John McCain closer to President Bush.

"He chose somebody who may be even more aligned with George Bush – or Dick Cheney, or the politics we’ve seen over the last eight years – than John McCain himself is," said Obama.

In a poll conducted by ABC News and released yesterday, half of Americans said they have a favorable first impression of Palin.  That number rises to 85 percent of Republicans and 53 percent of independents. 

"She wouldn't be governor of Alaska if she wasn't a skilled politician, and I think her performance at the convention showed what a skilled politician she is," said Obama.

(Photo by Tom Strickland)

September 6, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (941) | TrackBack (0)

Obama To Stephanopoulos: Government Intervention 'Necessary' For Fannie, Freddie

September 06, 2008 4:07 PM

ABC News' George Stephanopoulos Reports: Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama said Saturday he is inclined to support a government plan to place mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under federal control. 

  "Intervention was necessary," said Obama in an exclusive interview that will air tomorrow on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos." "I'm inclined to support some form of intervention to prevent a long-term, much bigger crisis."

Obama said he was briefed on the plan by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in a Friday night phone call.  According to published reports, Treasury officials yesterday told executives that the government would temporarily take control of the mortgage companies and inject them with capital, allowing the companies to continue playing a crucial role in the housing market, where they currently are responsible for nearly 70 percent of new loans.

But Obama said he'll only support such a government takeover if shareholders and executives of Fannie and Freddie don't profit from it.

"We are not bailing out shareholders and investors and management," said Obama. "They were making a lot of money because of the lack of regulation. All those profits were private. We don't want to make all those losses suddenly public and they get away without taking a haircut."

Obama said the Treasury plan, which could be announced later this weekend, should be only the first step in reforming the housing markets.

"We're going to have to take a look at how we regulate the financial markets and mortgage markets going forward," he said.

(Photo by Tom Strickland)

September 6, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (448) | TrackBack (0)

Biden Goes Back To School

September 06, 2008 3:30 PM

ABC News' Matthew Jaffe reports: Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., went back to school Saturday, surprising his students at Widener University School of Law in Wilmington by returning to teach his weekend class there.

Since 1991, Biden has taught "Selected Topics in Constitutional Law", a two-hour class held Saturdays at 9:00 am, but for obvious reasons the Democratic vice-presidential candidate hasn't been around the last few weeks.

Biden's co-professor Bob Hayman, who has helped teach the class since 2003, and their students were surprised to see Biden make an unexpected, but welcome, return from the campaign trail.

"Today we had a regular class," Hayman said, laughing. "We almost talked about the campaign not at all. We talked about separation of powers, we talked about the framers' vision of the Constitution. I think maybe today was a refuge from the campaign for him to some extent, a time for him to be a teacher again."

"Even though he couldn't be there in the same capacity as he was before he became the nominee, we were all thrilled to see that he came this morning," said Christell Hershey, a student who works at a financial firm during the day and takes law classes on the side.

"It was just nice," she said. "We had coffee and doughnuts and we had a nice relaxed Saturday morning class and it was just really fun."

"It was a pretty neat experience," echoed fellow student Joseph Pultrone. "It's not that often that you have, you know, a candidate for vice president talking to you within ten feet from your face. It was pretty cool."

"He definitely had our attention," added Pultrone.

The seminar, with a limit of 18 students, is "not the easiest one to get into," according to Widener Law School public relations director Dan Hanson. With the senator's busy schedule, the class hasn't always been the easiest for Biden to get into, either - in the past, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has taken the red-eye flight from Afghanistan to get back in time for it.

Biden, whose wife Jill is an English professor at nearby Delaware Technical & Community College, is "a really good teacher", according to Hayman, who noted that the senator is "obviously a very gifted speaker", but also a good listener.

"He's real good at listening to students and understanding not only the surface of things, but also understanding what their concerns are and addressing those concerns," he said. "I guess that comes from his day job, too."

The students should enjoy Biden's presence while they can because in the next 60 days, his schedule as Sen. Barack Obama's running mate may not allow him to come back many more times.

"I think they've got a pretty full calendar between now and November," said Hayman.

September 6, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (61) | TrackBack (0)

Obama Targets McCain and Palin on 'Change'

September 06, 2008 1:59 PM

ABC News' Sunlen Miller reports: Senator Obama dusted off an argument from his primary days as he debuted an almost completely new stump speech against John McCain and Sarah Palin in Terra Haute, Indiana today.

"Everywhere I go we've been talking about change, that's been the theme of the campaign. And we must be on to something, because I notice now everyone's talking about change now," Obama said in reciting a line that he once used against Senator Clinton during the primaries.

This time the target was John McCain.

"John McCain has said that change is coming!" Obama laughed, "Now think about this coming from the party that's been in charge for 8 years, they've been running the show! Been up in the White House, John McCain brags, '90% of the time I have voted with George Bush. He and I we we're right there' and suddenly he's the change agent!"

A feisty and perplexed Obama continued on his tirade.

"He says I'm going to tell those lobbyists that their days in Washington are over. Who's he gonna tell? Is he gonna tell his campaign chairman who's one of the biggest corporate lobbyists in Washington? Is he going to tell all the folks who are running his campaign who are the biggest corporate lobbyist in Washington? Who is it that he's going to tell that change is coming?"

Obama then asked the voters in the town hall, "I mean come on, they must think you're stupid!"

Senator Obama then offered up his own definition of the what the Republican's version of change means.

"I mean maybe what they're saying is 'watch out George Bush' you know except for economic policies, and tax policies, and energy policies, and health care policies, and education policies, and Karl Rove style of politics – except for all that, we're really going to bring change to Washington! We're gonna shake things up! What are these guys talking about? Do you think we haven’t been paying attention over the past 8 years?"

Obama then went point by point through education, tax policy, energy policy and health care telling voters why McCain’s version of change is not change like the kind he will bring.

Obama then opened up rare criticism on VP nominee Sarah Palin, "I know the governor of Alaska has been, you know, saying she is change. And that is great. She is a skillful politician. But when you been taking all these earmarks when it is convenient and then suddenly you are the champion anti-earmark person. That is not change, come on. I mean, words mean something. You can't just make stuff up. You can’t just make stuff up. We have a choice to make and the choice is clear."

The Illinois Senator continued on with one last warning, "Don't be fooled. These are the folks who have been in charge. John McCain's party, with the help of John McCain, has been in charge."

UPDATE: McCain-Palin campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds responds: "Barack Obama has requested the equivalent of one million dollars in new pork barrel spending for every working day he's been in the U.S Senate, while John McCain has never once asked for an earmark, and Governor Palin has vetoed hundreds of millions in government spending including killing the infamous 'bridge to nowhere'. Just like so many other issues Barack Obama is all talk, has no record to back it up and isn't ready to make change."

September 6, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (450) | TrackBack (0)

Obama, McCain to Visit Ground Zero Together on 9/11

September 06, 2008 12:52 PM

ABC News' Sunlen Miller reports: Senator Obama and Senator McCain on 9/11 will make a stop together to Ground Zero in New York City to commemorate the day.

"All of us came together on 9/11 - not as Democrats or Republicans – but as Americans," said a joint statement issued by both Senator's campaigns, "In smoke-filled corridors and on the steps of the Capitol; at blood banks and at vigils - we were united as one American family. On Thursday, we will put aside politics and come together to renew that unity, to honor the memory of each and every American who died, and to grieve with the families and friends who lost loved ones."

Both campaigns have already said that they will pull negative ads off the air-waves for the day.

The Senators are both scheduled to appear later that evening at the "ServiceNation Presidential Candidate Forum" at Columbia University.

The joint appearances on 9/11 marks only the second time during the general election that the candidates have appeared together.

September 6, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (76) | TrackBack (0)

White House Reacts to Bob Woodward Book; Revelatory ABC News Interview From April

September 05, 2008 10:21 PM

ABC News’ Luis  Martinez reports:  The White House has issued a statement tonight from National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley saying Bob Woodward's new book paints an "incomplete" portrayal of the Bush administration's Iraq policy in 2006 when it appeared that Iraq was spiraling out of control.

Hadley takes issue with Woodward's claim in "The War Within: A Secret White House History, 2006-2008" that President Bush continued to maintain publicly that U.S. forces were "winning” in Iraq while privately he had come to believe that the long-term strategy of training Iraq security forces and handing over responsibility to the new Iraqi government was failing.

The book is scheduled to be released Monday, but the book's contents have been written about in The Washington Post.

In his statement Hadley says, "The Washington Post article suggests that the President in his public statements during 2006 did not present a realistic picture of the situation in Iraq.  This is not the case.” 

However, in an interview in April with ABC News' White House correspondent Martha Raddatz,  President Bush himself acknowledged that he had not been totally forthcoming about his Iraq strategy in 2006 at a time when Iraq was driven by ethnic conflict.

President Bush told Raddatz that he had continued to deliver upbeat public assessments of how the war was going even though by then he believed the Iraq strategy was failing.   

RADDATZ: Did you think it would fail?
BUSH: I thought it was failing, yes, I did, and that's why -- and I listened to a lot of opinions.   And as you remember, there were like all kinds of opinions. ....

RADDATZ:  … All during that period -- April, May, June, July -- when things were really going downhill, people were talking about there being civil war … 
BUSH: Yes.

RADDATZ: ... you were saying, "We're winning. We have a plan for victory. We are winning," up through October. 
BUSH: Well, there was -- I also recognized -- I think if you'd go through the -- kind of fully analyze my statements, I was also saying, "The fighting is very tough, it's -- you know, the extremism is unacceptable. The murder is unacceptable." And you know, it's very important to be realistic …

RADDATZ: ...  But the overall thing, when you say, "We're winning," you know what the American people hear. You know how that will play. 
BUSH: Well, yes. I think we -- and I wanted -- that's as much trying to bolster the spirits of the people in the field as well as -- look, you can't have the commander in chief say to a bunch of kids who are sacrificing either, "It's not worth it," or, "You're losing." I mean, what does that do for morale? …
   
RADDATZ: It's one thing for the troops and boosting morale. I totally understand that. But do you think you lost credibility with the American people? Do you think that's one …
BUSH: Yes.
RADDATZ: ... of the reasons you couldn't sell this?

BUSH: I think the quickest way to lose credibility with the American people is for them to think the president makes decisions based upon the latest public opinion poll or what's good for a political party.

September 5, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (158) | TrackBack (0)

Biden Blasts 'Deafening' Republican Silence on Key Issues

September 05, 2008 7:19 PM

ABC News' Matthew Jaffe reports: In his most animated performance thus far on the campaign trail, Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., delighted supporters Friday at a campaign stop outside of Philadelphia, going on an extended rant against Republicans and their presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

"It's not so much what I heard in the Republican convention, when you heard John speak last night, not so much what I heard when I heard part of what the governor had to say, the vice presidential candidate -- it's what I didn't hear: the silence, the silence of the Republican Party was deafening," Biden said, the applause of the Langhorne crowd starting to build with each word.

"It was deafening on jobs, on health care, on environment, on all the things that matter to the people in the neighborhoods I grew up in!" roared the Scranton-born senator as the audience rose to their feet.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he continued, his voice lifting over the cheers. "Their America is not the America I live in, they see something different than I see.

"Do any of you recall either candidate on the Republican ticket utter the phrase middle class?" he asked the crowd.

"No!" they yelled back in unison, and so it continued, back and forth.

"Did any of you hear them utter the phrase health care and how we're gonna help?"

"No!"

"Did you hear them talk about aid to get kids to college?"

"No!"

"Did you hear them talk about AIDS education?"

"No!"

"Did you hear them talk about putting more cops on the streets to make them safer?"

"No!"

"I didn't hear a thing, a thing, about any of the things that matter to the lives of the people," Biden concluded.

Speaking in a middle school gym, the colorful Delaware senator compared Republican behavior at their St. Paul convention this week to the mean kids making snide remarks at school.

"They were like the kids, you know, when you went to school and you were very proud of the new belt you had and the shoes you had. And there was always one kid in the class who said, 'Oh, are they your brother's?' Remember that kid? That's what this reminded me of. 'Oh, I love that dress, is that your mother's?' You know what I'm talking about."

Not everyone in the crowd did, but Biden soon got his fans back on track, sending them into a standing ovation moments later.

"What do you talk about when you have nothing to say?" he asked, criticizing their attacks on the man at the top of his ticket, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. "What do you talk about when you can't explain the last eight years of failure? What do you talk about? You talk about the other guy!"

September 5, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (213) | TrackBack (0)

In First Official Party Ticket Appearance, Palin Comes Out Swinging

September 05, 2008 3:00 PM

ABC News' Imtiyaz Delawala and Bret Hovell report: John McCain and Sarah Palin made their first appearance as the official Republican party ticket Friday, at an idyllic Main Street rally in Cedarburg, Wis.

Palin, the vice presidential nominee and governor of Alaska, came out swinging, criticizing rival Barack Obama for initially opposing the troop surge in Iraq, and, as the McCain campaign has repeatedly said, not admitting that it worked.

"But, just last night, Sen. Obama finally broke, and brought himself to admit what all the rest of us have known for quite some time, and that’s, thanks to the skill and valor of our troops, the surge in Iraq has succeeded," Palin said, referring to an answer Obama gave to Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, Thursday. 

In his first appearance on "The O'Reilly Factor," Obama said that the troop surge succeeded "beyond our wildest dreams. ... I think that the surge has succeeded in ways that nobody anticipated, by the way, including President Bush and the other supporters," he told O'Reilly.

Palin took issue with Obama’s response and reminded voters that McCain initially supported the troop surge.

"I guess when you turn out to be profoundly wrong on a vital national security issue, maybe it's comforting to pretend that everyone was wrong, too. But I remember it a little differently. It seems to me there was one leader in Washington who did predict success, who refused to call retreat, and risked his own career for the sake of the surge and victory in Iraq, and ladies and gentlemen, that man is standing right next to me -- Sen. John McCain," Palin said.

Despite the staggering job loss numbers released today by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, McCain largely glossed over the report that 84,000 jobs were lost in the month of August, giving it only a tiny mention in the middle of his speech.

"These are tough times.  Today, the job report is another reminder.  These are tough times.  They're tough times in Wisconsin, they're tough times in Ohio, they're tough times all over America," McCain told the large crowd in Cedarburg.

He did however, have a lot to say about his new running mate, Palin -- who has been credited with helping to energize the conservative base.

"Isn't she the most marvelous running mate in the history of the nation?” McCain asked the crowd.  "She's magnificent, and I'm so proud, I'm so proud, my friends."

McCain also had glowing things to say about Palin's professional snowmobiler husband Todd.

"Could I mention her husband Todd?  That guy is crazy!" McCain exclaimed.  McCain called his 2,000-mile treks in 40 degree-below weather "remarkable." "You'd have to be crazy to do that.  But what a guy, a commercial fisherman, union member and a devoted father.  What a  family."

September 5, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (386) | TrackBack (0)

McCain Green Screen -- By Design or Accident?

September 05, 2008 9:37 AM

ABC News' George Stephanopoulos reports: When John McCain began his acceptance speech last night, the staging was decidedly less grand than the sweeping stadium vista that the Obama campaign constructed at Invesco Field in Denver last week. And purposefully so. It was more intimate, with the candidate standing closer to his supporters, with a giant screen behind him.

A giant green screen. Or so it appeared to TV viewers for the first several minutes of the speech.

McCain has had trouble with green screens before, when Internet mischief-makers used a green backdrop at one of his worst-received speeches of the year in June to superimpose other images behind him -– making for some popular YouTube spoof videos.

So, had the McCain campaign set designers really picked an image for the screen that highlighted the same unfortunate shade of green?

On close-up, the viewer only saw green, but on a wider shot, and to those in the convention center itself, the green was part of a lawn in front of a distinguished white building. What building?

A little Googling reveals that the photo appears to be the exterior of Walter Reed Middle School in North Hollywood, Calif. Was this a school McCain attended or is otherwise significant to the campaign? Symbolic of his message, perhaps? The campaign isn't saying. But there is speculation on the Web, asking, could it simply have been an error and Walter Reed Medical Center was the intended image?

No comment at this writing from the McCain campaign.

September 5, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (207) | TrackBack (0)