Campaign schedules for the weekend

09/05/08 12:05 AM

As they blow out of St. Paul, John McCain and Sarah Palin will start a push across multiple swing states before they go their separate ways. Meanwhile, Barack Obama and Joe Biden will be stumping through several suburban and rural communities. Here’s a look at some of what awaits them on the trail.

John McCain and Sarah Palin -- This morning, McCain and Palin will be in Cedarburg, Wis., for what’s being billed as a “McCain Street USA” event. The campaign is promising a small-town emphasis for the weeks to come.

--In the evening, the running mates are headed for Sterling Heights, Mich. Sterling Heights is dominated by a Chrysler plant and is part of the far suburbs of Detroit that are crucial for Republicans this year.

-- On Sunday, McCain is scheduled to appear on “Face the Nation” on CBS. The sit-down session with Bob Schieffer is to be McCain’s first one-on-one interview since claiming the nomination.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden -- Obama is taking his fight for usually Republican Indiana seriously. On the first weekend on the trail after the Republican convention, Obama has opted to be in Terre Haute in the southern part of the state. The Saturday economic issues event will be held at a county fairgrounds.

-- Today, Biden and his wife, Jill, will be in Langhorne, Pa., outside Philadelphia, for an event at a middle school near Jill Biden&rs...

McConnell: Come on over, Liebs!

09/04/08 11:27 PM

“We certainly would welcome him.”

So said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, in what amounted to an open invitation to disaffected “Independent-Democrat” Joe Lieberman of Connecticut for Lieberman to switch parties. The question arose because Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has openly speculated about somehow punishing Lieberman for speaking on behalf of his friend John McCain at the Republican National Convention.

Graham: 'I'm saying he doesn't get it.'

09/04/08 11:15 PM

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is known as McCain’s closest confidant in the Senate, and he was rewarded with one of the final prime-time speaking positions before McCain’s own address.

His message was all about the troop surge in Iraq, which he had advocated along with McCain before President Bush decided to try it. And his words about Democratic nominee Barack Obama’s rejection of the surge were among the toughest of the whole convention.

“I’m not saying Barack Obama doesn’t care,” Graham said, turning the tables on one of the candidate’s own often-repeated phrases. “I’m saying he doesn’t get it.”

Joe Gibbs brings on the faith

09/04/08 11:12 PM

Hall of Fame former Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs made a late-scheduled appearance on Thursday night, making the convention’s most explicit references to faith, by far.

But Gibbs called in a late play when he abandoned his prepared text, which also dealt with faith, and instead ad-libbed a more personal explanation of why he thinks it important to follow “God’s playbook.”

“Falling away from God’s will leads to disaster,” Gibbs said.

The coach and NASCAR team owner didn’t explicitly tie his religious message to the current campaign.

Pawlenty taps McCain as man for 'Sam's Club Republicans'

09/04/08 11:03 PM

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, also playing convention host, didn’t get the vice presidential nomination many had predicted for him, but he raised his national profile substantially this week.

Afforded a top speaking spot Thursday night, he was greeted warmly by the crowd when he took the stage. The originator of the description of a middle-class voting bloc as “Sam’s Club Republicans,” Pawlenty said McCain is the man for them.

“These voters are on a tight budget,” Pawlenty said. “They’re looking for value and accountability at the store. And they’re looking for value and accountability from their government.

John McCain connects with Sam’s Club voters. He gets it. He will force government to live within its means, just like families do. He knows that small businesses are the job growth engine for our country.”

Cindy McCain shows up all over at RNC

09/04/08 11:00 PM

Most spouses of nominees are put in one section of a convention program, as Michelle Obama was. But Cindy McCain was all over the Republican conclave.

The would-be first lady spoke twice from the podium on Monday’s abbreviated session, leading efforts to put together care packages for those harmed by Hurricane Gustav, spoke to several state delegation breakfasts, and on Thursday was honored at a big luncheon.

But all that was mere prelude to her formal speech Thursday night in introduction of her husband John.

One of her most moving passages told not about the Arizona senator’s suffering in a North Vietnamese prison camp, but about his return there decades later to retrieve remains of Americans who had been missing in action.

It was part, she said, of the effort to normalize relations with Vietnam — and “to bring closure to both sides.”

Obama jabs back at Palin on the trail

09/04/08 10:44 PM

Barack Obama was on the trail in Pennsylvania Thursday, and gave a press conference in which he shot back at vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. Palin tweaked Obama for his record as a community organizer. Obama said he’d heard tougher taunts on the basketball court. But the main event for Obama was his interview with Fox News talker Bill O’Reilly taped in York, Pa. The first part of the sometimes awkward interview aired Thursday night.

The birth of McBrilliant

09/04/08 9:20 PM

“This lady has turned it all around. From now on, on this program John McCain will be known as John McBrilliant.” — Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh

Sound Bites: Jon Huntsman, Jr.

09/04/08 9:18 PM

“In a little town called Washington, she’s not afraid to kick a few fannies and raise a little hell.” – Jon Huntsman Jr., Governor of Utah, nominating Sarah Palin for vice president

Major Player: Tucker Eskew

09/04/08 8:02 PM

The man who will be glued to Sarah Palin as she runs for vice president is the same one who helped end John McCain’s 2000 run for the White House. Eskew was running George W. Bush’s press operation in South Carolina that year when McCain’s candidacy was derailed in the state’s Republican primary. Eskew, who worked in the White House communications shop until 2005, is a veteran of GOP campaigns back to 1988.

Major Player: Steve Schmidt

09/04/08 8:01 PM

Insiders with the John McCain campaign say that the person most responsible for the candidate’s stronger performance in recent weeks is probably Schmidt. His title is senior adviser, but Schmidt, bald and built like a fullback, blends in with the security detail. Every time McCain is on the trail between now and Election Day, Schmidt — who’s also worked for George W. Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger — will be at his side, wrangling with reporters and keeping the candidate on message.

"Drill, baby, drill!"

09/04/08 5:32 PM

Quin Hillyer

Former Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, also a former U.S. Senator from Michigan, was making the rounds at a convention where the single issue that most energized the delegates was his former bailiwick.

A few hours before former Maryland Lt. Gov. got the whole convention chanting "Drill, baby, drill!," Abraham was explaining that failure to drill for petroleum a decade ago could have meant "a huge amount, huge, in terms of the money" consumers would be saving now if the drilling in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge had not been vetoed by Bill Clinton in the mid-1990s.

He said between five and 10 percent more oil -- one to two million barrels a day -- would be available today if ANWR drilling had begun back then. Abraham blamed Democrats in Congress for having sustained Clinton's veto.

Vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin is well known for favoring drilling in ANWR, mentioned the same subject in her speech Wednesday night.

McConnell on Lieberman and appeals court confirmations

09/04/08 5:19 PM

Quin Hillyer

"We certainly would welcome him." So said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, in what amounted to an open invitation to disaffected "Independent-Democrat" Joe Lieberman of Connecticut for Lieberman to switch parties. The question arose because Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has openly speculated about somehow punishing Lieberman for speaking on behalf of his friend John McCain at the Republican National Convention.

"He would be out of sync with most of our members on domestic issues, but frankly we have other members who are," McConnell said, but added that he would fit in well with Republicans on foreign policy and military matters: "He is the last Scoop Jackson Democrat in the Senate."

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell also made a prediction that is sure to frustrate conservative activists: He said he doesn't expect the Senate to confirm even a single new federal appeals court judge before the end of the current Congress.

"It's an appalling record," he said. "My counterpart [Reid] did not keep his word to me that he would at least match the records of previous presidents."

On average, the Senate confirms 17 appellate judges in the last two years of a president's term, with Bill Clinton's 15 confirmed nominees being a low point. "But I expect us to end up with a paltry ten,&...

Obama campaign responds to Palin speech

09/04/08 4:26 PM

Susan Ferrechio

Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin put Barack Obama and his campaign on the defensive Thursday, a day after the Alaska governor energized the GOP convention with some of the strongest attacks yet of the Democratic nominee.

Obama told reporters Republicans are picking on him because they have nothing else to talk about.

“This what they do, they don’t have an agenda to follow,” Obama said. “They have spend the entire two nights attacking me and extolling John McCain’s biography. I’ve been called worse on the basketball court.”

Obama would say nothing directly about Palin, but his campaign staff spent the hours after her speech and first part of Thursday on the defensive.

“This is what politicians do when they don’t have a record to run on,” Obama chief strategist David Axelrod told reporters Thursday in response to questions about Palin’s speech. “There wasn’t one thing that she said about Obama or what he’s proposing that’s true.

Obama campaign communications director Robert Gibbs told reporters at a press event sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor that Palin, “gave a tremendous speech,” that resonated with the Republicans in the convention hall.

But, Gibbs cautioned, “they are going to get a full measure of all these candidates over the next...

Odd men out

09/04/08 3:09 PM

Five of the nine losing candidates for the Republican presidential nomination -- Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson -- were given key speaking spots at this convention, but four were left out.

Ron Paul hosted his own event here in Minnesota, though, but Virginia's senatorial candidate and former Gov. James Gilmore was passed up entirely, as were U.S. Reps. Tom Tancredo and Duncan Hunter.

Hunter, though, who is retiring at the end of the year, seemed unbothered by what some might have seen as a snub. He was at the convention with his son, also named Duncan, who garnered a strong 72 percent of the vote in winning the Republican primary to fill his father's seat. The younger Duncan recently returned from his second tour in Iraq and Afghanistan, including service in Fallujah during the first, failed battle for that key Iraqi city.

"My job here is just to play a supporting role for my son," said the congressman. "And when I get back to Washington, I have one more big challenge, which is to get more assistance to our troops in Afghanistan."

Hunter, the ranking Republican (and former Chairman) on the House Armed Services Committee, said he is committed to passing an "equipment package" for Afghanistan before he retires.

Poll: Obama's and Palin's experience levels similar

09/04/08 2:37 PM

Whitney Blake

Rasmussen's daily tracking poll shows that non-committed voters don't see much difference between Barack Obama's and Sarah Palin's experience levels:

"Perhaps most stunning is that, among unaffiliated voters, just 42% believe Obama has better experience than Palin to be President. Thirty-seven percent (37%) say Palin has the edge on experience." Among all U.S. voters, Obama leads in the experience area by 49 percent to 39 percent, according to Rasumssen.

Most of the interviews for the poll were conducted before Palin's speech last night.

The poll also revealed that the media's negative coverage of Palin may have backfired:

"Over half of U.S. voters (51%) think reporters are trying to hurt Sarah Palin with their news coverage, and 24% say those stories make them more likely to vote for Republican presidential candidate John McCain in November."

Rising star: Joseph Cao, first Vietnamese refugee to run for Congress

09/04/08 2:14 PM

Quin Hillyer

Only one delegate to the Republican National Convention appears to have suffered significant home damage from Hurricane Gustav.

He also happens to be the only delegate whose father suffered in North Vietnamese "re-education camps" for years after John McCain himself was released. He also happens to have completely lost his home in Hurricane Katrina.

He also happens to be the unopposed Republican nominee — it becomes official Saturday — for Congress in Louisiana’s Second Congressional District, for the seat now held by disgraced “Dollar Bill” Jefferson, now under indictment for bribery in the incident that led to federal agents finding $90,000 in cash hidden in Jefferson’s freezer. Jefferson has a tough primary for renomination on Saturday.

The delegate/candidate is Joseph Cao, who emigrated to the United States from South Vietnam in 1975 at age 8, as his father — a South Vietnamese army officer — was suffering in a Vietcong prison. He believes, and it appears to be correct, that he is the only Vietnamese refugee ever to be the official congressional nominee of a major American party.

Cao is a former Jesuit and member of the National Advisory Council for the U.S. Conference of Catholic bishops, and a former adjunct professor of philosophy at Loyola University of New Orleans. Now a lawyer, married with two childre...

Kasich in 2010?

09/04/08 1:18 PM

Quin Hillyer

Former House Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich, who former Speaker Newt Gingrich and a number of conservative writers were pushing as a good potential pick for vice president but who the McCain camp appears not to have seriously considered, told the Examiner Wednesday night that he is almost certain to run for governor of Ohio in 2010.

"I've been in 50 of the state's 88 counties so far," he said, "and I'm not doing it just for laughs. I'm very, very serious about it. Ohio has significant economic problems... That can't be fixed with minor little things."

Kasich said he would call for gradual elimination of the state income tax, for almost immediate elimination of the state inheritance tax and, for education, a dramatic expansion of school choice.

Kasich and an aide were handing out a glossy newsletter for a political organization called "Recharge Ohio," which will be working in this fall's campaigns to elect conservatives to office in the state. Kasich is the group's "honorary chairman," and such organizations often serve as vehicles for its chairmen to set the groundwork for their own campaigns.

Sound Bites: Carly Fiorina

09/03/08 9:22 PM

I have seen [John McCain} with our wounded veterans, far away from the cameras. I have seen his eyes fill with tears of gratitude for their service. -- Carly Fiorina, McCain adviser and former Hewlett Packard head

Sound Bites: Mitt Romney

09/03/08 9:20 PM

“[John McCain is] for taking a weed-whacker to excessive regulation and mandates, for putting a stop to tort windfalls, and to stand up to the Tyrannosaurus appetite of government unions.” - Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney

Sound Bites: Dan Bartlett

09/03/08 9:19 PM

“There’s no middle ground on this for John McCain. She is either going to be a wild success or a spectacular failure.” - Dan Bartlett, adviser to President Bush, on the consequences of picking Sarah Palin as his running mate

Major Players: Linda Lingle

09/03/08 9:16 PM

The Republican governor from the overwhelmingly Democratic state where Barack Obama was born got the chance to introduce the biographical video about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. In Hawaii, Lingle has claimed the mantle of bipartisan reform and had glowing praise for Palin. Lingle is the first Republican to govern the Aloha State since 1962 and enjoys approval ratings at home approaching Palin’s 80 percent. Lingle was elected to her second term in 2006 by the largest margin in state history.

Major Players: Michael Steele

09/03/08 9:15 PM

Maryland’s former lieutenant governor drew a prime speaking slot on Wednesday. As the chairman of the party’s candidate recruitment effort, GOPAC, and a prominent black Republican, Steele was put on the program with two Republican stars, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. Steele, who spoke of the need to energize the next generation of candidates, is considered a potential challenger for Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley in 2010.

Obama goes blue-collar in pitch to eastern Ohio

09/03/08 6:19 PM

While the Republicans were getting to know Sarah Palin, Barack Obama was taking his pitch to eastern Ohio. Polling shows that region has been one of the most problematic in the swing state for the Democratic nominee, and he used the opportunity of the GOP convention to try to connect with voters there. Obama blasted Republicans from giving short shrift to economic issues and promised relief for struggling families.

DeMint waits for Energy Freedom Day

09/03/08 6:14 PM

Current legislative controversies so far have been pushed to the back burner at this convention by Hurricane Gustav and by the ongoing scrutiny of Sarah Palin — but Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina said that conservatives should be particularly excited by one issue that soon will come to a head.

“Oct. 1 is Energy Freedom Day,” he said. He explained that if Congress does not act to pass new legislation by Sept. 30 that extends the federal prohibitions on offshore drilling, those prohibitions will expire even without a congressional vote.

He said that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is threatening to attach an extension of the offshore drilling ban to legislation keeping the whole government operating in lieu of individual spending bills. DeMint said he expects at least 40 Republican votes to stand firm against the drilling ban no matter what.

Mark Sanford reflects on Bush's role in convention

09/03/08 6:12 PM

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford waxed eloquent Tuesday night about the reduced role being played at the convention by President George Bush, who addressed the delegates only by remote video.

“The end of a sentence or a paragraph or a book does not capture the whole paragraph or book. At the end of the day, one speech is a moment that represents nothing more than the period at the end of a very small sentence at the end of eight years of tumultuous times that in no way represents the totality of what he did.”

Bristol Palin and fiance greeted at airport by McCain

09/03/08 6:10 PM

One of the people who greeted John McCain at the airport when he landed in Minnesota on Wednesday was the father of the child of Sarah Palin’s five-months-pregnant, 17-year-old daughter, Bristol. McCain greeted the engaged couple warmly, spending a solid minute or two talking to both while repeatedly patting the shoulders of each with his outstretched arms, in an almost protectively avuncular fashion. Microphones could not pick up what he said, but the cameras showed what appeared to be a serious attempt to offer reassurance to the teenagers.

Obama to sit down with O'Reilly

09/03/08 6:08 PM

John McCain managed to deflate some of the reaction to Barack Obama’s acceptance speech one week ago by naming Sarah Palin as his running mate the day after. Obama will look to keep McCain’s grip on the media cycle to a minimum by at long last appearing on the “O’Reilly Factor” with host Bill O’Reilly, one of the figures most loathed by the American left.

According to published reports, the O’Reilly appearance came only after high-level negotiations between Obama and the head of the Fox News, Roger Ailes, about the network’s coverage and Obama’s backhanded treatment of the cable news leader.

When she was trying to rally to a win in the Democratic primaries in the spring, Hillary Clinton similarly lifted her own ban and sat down with O’Reilly.

The program will air from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern tonight. McCain’s speech will likely be on in the 10 o’clock hour.

Headline speakers for tonight

09/03/08 1:18 PM

Quin Hillyer

Pushing five high-profile events together into one convention session, tonight's schedule will be headlined by vice presidential nominee-to-be Sarah Palin's speech, by the roll call vote making John McCain the official presidential nominee, and by speeches by McCain's primary rivals Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee.

The session formally begins at 7 and handles the roll call and several lesser known speakers for the first hour and a half. At 8:30, former e-Bay president Meg Whitman auditions for a potential future political career, and approximately 20 minutes later former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina gets the chance to do the same.

Popular former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele follows at about 9, and Romney and Huckabee follow. Then, when all major networks are expected to be tuning in, Giuliani takes the stage right around 10 p.m. Finally, Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle will come on about 10:20 to introduce Palin for Palin's much-anticipated convention debut.

Keene: Conservatives "wild" for Palin

09/03/08 1:13 PM

Quin Hillyer

American Conservative Union Chairman David Keene has long been known for being unenthusiastic about John McCain -- but he says the choice of Sarah Palin as nominee for vice president makes a huge difference, not just with him, but with conservatives in general.

He was in town last week for all the meetings of the platform committee, and here's how he describes what happened last Friday when the Palin selection was announced: "The platform was good but the mood was dismal. But when he named Palin it was like turning on an electric switch. Everybody went wild."

Keene said he is now thoroughly supportive of the McCain-Palin ticket. As for Palin's qualifications, Keene compared it to Obama's by quipping: "Id rather have a vice president being mentored by a president than the other way around."