Fri, September 26, 2008 - 10:17 AM

Sen. John McCain is going to debate tonight.

McCain had said he wanted to delay the debate until after there was resolution on the $700 billion economic bailout bill.

While no deal has been struck on that bill, McCain felt enough progress has been made"that he could leave Washington for the debate in Mississippi, his campaign said in a statement.
McCain and Sen. Barack Obama both joined President Bush for a meeting on the bailout bill yesterday.

This morning Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said their presence did not help lawmakers make progress on the plan.

"The insertion of presidential politics has not been helpful. It's been harmful," Reid said.

--Neil H. Simon

Thu, September 25, 2008 - 8:57 AM

John McCain was scheduled to be on CBS's Late Show With David Letterman Wednesday night, but canceled at the last minute. Letterman said the GOP candidate called him and said he was "rushing back to Washington" because the economy was about "to crater."

Letterman was not happy.

After emphasizing McCain's status as a war hero and generally good guy, Letterman spent much of the show ranting about McCain's no-show. He suggested that McCain didn't let Sarah Palin take his place on the campaign trail while he focused on the economy because she's not ready, and wondered if the real reason McCain called for a halt to campaigning was his drop in the polls.

To add insult to Dave's injury, he learned that McCain was not winging his way to Washington, but instead sitting for an interview with Katie Couric. While interviewing Keith Olbermann, Dave cut to a shot of McCain sitting at the CBS News desk with Couric, having makeup applied before they went on the air.

-- Mark Young

A senior adviser to Sen. Barack Obama questioned Thursday morning whether John McCain truly put his presidential campaign on hold to focus on passage of a massive government bailout of bad Wall Street debt.

McCain said Wednesday afternoon that he would “suspend” his campaign beginning today to return to Washington to meet with President Bush and congressional leaders to help coordinate passage of a $700 billion plan to purchase securities tied to bad mortgages. Obama is scheduled to do the same today.

But Obama has not put his campaign on hiatus, arguing that in a time of financial crisis, it was more important than ever that voters hear directly from the person who will take over the country early next year. And, he argued, it was important for the next president to be able to juggle several important things at once. McCain has called for the suspension of Friday night's scheduled debate, over the objections of Obama and the commission that runs the presidential debates.

Speaking to reporters at a breakfast meeting Thursday, Obama adviser Robert Gibbs questioned whether McCain’s campaign had truly put all activities on hold, noting that McCain was going ahead with a speech in New York this morning, the McCain campaign was still raising money, and top surrogates were still on the air talking politics.

“I was on TV today with (McCain campaign spokeswoman Nicole Wallace), so if they’ve suspended their campaign, she apparently didn’t get the memo,” Gibbs said, referring to the Today show on NBC.

Gibbs also said he suspected that if he went to McCain’s Web site today, he would still be able to contribute money. Indeed, a check of the site, JohnMcCain.com, shows the campaign is still accepting donation.

--Sean Mussenden

Wed, September 24, 2008 - 3:56 PM

What may be even more fascinating then when the two presidential candidates will debate is the back-and-forth about what happened today.

According to Barack Obama, he called John McCain this morning to suggest the two put out a joint statement to encourage Congress to act in a bipartisan manner and because some of their positions align on the bailout.

The two spoke at 2:30 p.m., Obama said. The conversation was cordial and the two agreed to put out a statement, he said. McCain then he would like to postpone the debate; Obama said their staffs should hash it out.

Shortly after McCain appeared on television and issued this statement.

So did McCain try to blindside Obama on this? It’ll be interesting to hear the McCain camp’s version of events today.

And what do you think? Should the two debate? Is McCain right to ask that the debate be delayed?

-- Amy Dominello

Speaking in Tampa, Barack Obama told reporters he wants to debate John McCain Friday at the University of Mississippi.

Obama said the American people want to hear about the solutions the two are offering.

And in a dig to McCain, he noted that the two candidates have big jets that take them all over the country and that the next president will have to juggle a few things.

“It’s going to be part of the president’s job to deal with more than one thing at a time,” Obama said.

-- Amy Dominello

John McCain is calling for a delay in Friday’s debate.

NEW YORK (AP) _ Republican John McCain said Wednesday he wants to delay Friday's debate with Democratic rival Barack Obama and temporarily put aside their partisan campaign to resolve the nation's financial crisis.

McCain's announcement came after the two candidates held private talks about joining forces to address the Wall Street meltdown. The Obama campaign said the Democrat initiated the talks, but McCain beat Obama to the punch with the first public statement calling for the two to rise above politics in a time of crisis.

McCain said the Bush administration's plan seemed headed for defeat and a bipartisan solution was urgently needed.

McCain said he would put politics aside and return to Washington Thursday to focus on the nation's financial problems after addressing former President Clinton's Global Initiative session in New York. McCain said he had spoken to President Bush and asked him to convene a leadership meeting in Washington that would include him and Obama.

"It has become clear that no consensus has developed to support the administration's proposal," McCain said. "I do not believe that the plan on the table will pass as it currently stands, and we are running out of time."

McCain said he has spoken to Obama about his plans and asked the Democratic presidential nominee to join him.

Obama's campaign did not immediate say whether he supported a delay of the debate or would also stop campaigning.

The Obama campaign said in a statement that Obama had called McCain around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday to propose that they issue a joint statement in support of a package to help fix the economy as soon as possible. McCain called back six hours later and agreed to the idea of the statement, the Obama campaign said. McCain's statement was issued to the media a few minutes later.

Stay tuned. Obama is about to speak in Tampa momentarily.

-- Amy Dominello

After a day of back and forth between the Obama and McCain campaigns on coal, McCain released this new on-line ad. The ad (below) is simple - a little country music, some stump speech clips from Obama and then the big Biden gaffe in Ohio expressing opposition to clean-coal, which Obama has said he would invest money in if elected.



The punchline calls the Democratic campaign "ready to pander," but not "ready to lead," Ouch.

See our earlier reporting on this issue here.

--Neil Simon

Mon, September 22, 2008 - 1:55 PM

Tie goes to Obama?

There is interesting speculation about the possibility that Barack Obama and John McCain could find themselves in an Electoral College tie – 269 to 269.

That could happen if Obama, for instance, wins all of the states that Democrat John Kerry won in 2004, but also Iowa, New Mexico and Nevada, points out one such analysis today in CQ Politics.

Then the Democratic-controlled House would get to decide, thanks to a provision of the Constitution’s 12th Amendment.

The House balloting would be one vote per state – with the party holding the majority of congressional seats from the state getting to decide. That means Montana would get the same say-so as New York and California.

CQ notes that in the current House make-up, 28 votes would be awarded to Obama to 21 for Republican McCain. Two states currently have their congressional delegations split evenly. But the District of Columbia also gets to vote.

But it’s the incoming House of Representatives that will decide. And the makeup of that Congress won’t be known until after the election. However, Democrats are widely expected to expand their House seat advantage.

-- Billy House

Fri, September 19, 2008 - 1:01 PM

STERLING, Va. -- Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., campaigning today in Northern Virginia, tried to make the case that Sen. Barack Obama's policies are better for women than those of Sen. John McCain.

Obama's running mate used his past record on women's issues and the current state of the economy to rally a crowd of 700 people, mostly women, at a park in Sterling.

The senator from Delaware, campaigning with his wife, Jill, in Virginia for the first time, drew contrasts with McCain, saying the Republican presidential nominee opposes increasing the minimum wage and bringing wages of female workers in line with their male counterparts.

Referring to McCain's changing positions on regulating the U.S. economy, Biden said McCain fell off his horse and "got back up on the same one."

"We got to change horses, folks," Biden said to roars from the crowd.

On Saturday, Biden will headline a United Mine Workers fish fry in Russell County in Southwest Virginia. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and Rep. Rick Boucher, D-9th, will join Biden for the event in Castlewood.

Biden's two-day swing through Virginia, following Michelle Obama's campaign trips Wednesday to Richmond and to Charlottesville, underscores the importance Obama's campaign is giving Virginia, which has not backed a Democrat for president since 1964.

Also yesterday, Susan Allen, wife of former Virginia Gov. and Sen. George Allen, and Jeri Thompson, wife of former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee, appeared in Loudoun County to make their case that McCain's policies are better for Virginia's families.

-- Neil Simon

Thu, September 18, 2008 - 2:15 PM

I can see the ads from the McCain camp already about Michelle Obama’s remarks in Charlotte today.

From the Associated Press:

Michelle Obama says voters need to decide this election by examining the issues, not because they like a candidate or think "she's cute."

Obama spoke in Charlotte on Thursday morning at a women's round-table on economic issues. The crowd roared at her remark disparaging voters who might cast a ballot because of a woman's looks, a clear jab at Republican vice presidential pick Sarah Palin.

Obama tried to clarify her remark with a smile, saying she was talking about herself.

Mercifully, there were no mentions of "pigs" or "lipstick."

-- Amy Dominello

Wed, September 17, 2008 - 3:33 PM

With the economic crisis worsening, both John McCain and Barack Obama have adopted increasingly populist, anti-business tones on the trail this week.

With that in mind, let’s review a pair of endorsements that each campaign touted in press releases Wednesday as the candidates reached out to struggling working class voters.

The Obama camp was endorsed by Lilly Ledbetter, a manager at a tire plant in Alabama for 20 years who became famous when her equal-pay-for-women case reached the Supreme Court last year. She found out she was paid a lot less than her equally qualified male co-workers, sued, won $3 million, then had that verdict overturned by the nation's highest court. The message it sends: a working class woman from the heartland harmed by unfair workplace policies supports Obama. The verdict: on message.

Meanwhile, McCain was endorsed by Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a former Hillary Clinton supporter. And who is she? She and her husband are worth more than $600 million. She was a New York City society magnate and former corporate lawyer. She now lives in London with her husband, banking scion Sir Evelyn Rothschild, and is known as “Lady de Rothschild” in social circles there. They’re currently spending much of their fortune to develop new businesses not in the economically depressed Rust Belt region of the U.S., but in China and India. The message it sends: a society magnate who is married to a knight, no longer lives in America, is worth hundreds of millions of dollars and is creating jobs for foreign workers supports McCain. The verdict: off message.

--Sean Mussenden

Sen. John McCain, 72, would be the oldest American elected to a first presidential term -- a record now held by Ronald Reagan, who was two weeks shy of 70 on inauguration day.

So what are the odds that his vice presidential pick Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin might have to step in for him?

Forty percent, said John Banzhaf, a professor of public interest law from George Washington University.

His age, combined with smoking early in life, give McCain a 20 percent chance of dying in office. Combined with the possibility of McCain developing a disabling condition, the likelihood that Palin would have to succeed McCain are 40 percent.

Banzhaf, an anti-smoking advocate known for statistical analysis, bases his numbers on new tables from the National Cancer Institute. He said his research should not imply an endorsement for any candidate.

But McCain, a skin cancer survivor, may have genetics working for him. His mother, Roberta, is a spry 96.

-- Amy Dominello

Tue, September 16, 2008 - 10:32 AM

Looking for a free trip?

A new Web site built by Barack Obama-backers promises to help get campaign volunteers into swing states across the country.

Travelforchange.org offers Obama supporters a forum to say why and where they want to volunteer and then matches them up with a sponsor to help them get to one of 15 labeled swing states, including Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida.

Sponsors can give the volunteers money to pay for a flight or give frequent flyer miles to get them from point A to point B.

The site says it has already sponsored travel for 50 volunteers and hopes to help hundreds more get out the vote for Obama before Election Day.

Most volunteers posting so far are from San Francisco. The site was founded by recent graduates from Stanford University.

--Neil Simon

Mon, September 15, 2008 - 10:35 AM

There's no doubt that McCain campaign rallies have grown with Sarah Palin has joined the ticket. The larger crowds are one measure the media have used to show how fired up conservatives have become about the election. The argument: before Palin, many were going to stay home on Election Day, but the larger crowds suggest otherwise. The evidence: Palin-McCain rallies now pack in as many people as Obama's.

Except for, it turns out, the evidence is not true.

After a week in which pretty much every media organization in the country documented falsehood after falsehood in McCain's attack ads, it turns out the campaign is also lying about the number of people attending its rallies, Bloomberg News reports.

For example, the McCain campaign told reporters that 23,000 people attended a campaign rally in Fairfax last week. We had reporters on hand who estimated the crowd to be less than 10,000, as did the Washington Post. The McCain campaign attributed the 23,000 number to a city fire marshal.

The truth, from Bloomberg. "Fairfax City Fire Marshal Andrew Wilson said his office did not supply that number to the campaign and could not confirm it. Wilson, in an interview, said the fire department does not monitor attendance at outdoor events."

And it wasn't just in Fairfax. It began with Palin's first appearance with McCain in August, at the Consol Energy Arena in Washington, Penn. The campaign attributed the 10,000 person crowd estimate it provided to reproters to "U.S. Secret Service figures, based on the number of people who passed through magnetometers," according to Bloomberg.

``We didn't provide any numbers to the campaign,'' Malcolm Wiley, a spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service told Bloomberg.

This might seem like a non-issue. After all, no one will really vote based on crowd size. But it nonetheless presents a real danger. Combined with the documented falsehoods peppering McCain campaign ads over the last week, and the repetition of those falsehoods on the campaign trail, the crowd size inflation feeds the emerging consensus that McCain, whose reputation was once based on telling it like it is (i.e. the truth), is running perhaps the most dishonest presidential campaign in recent history.

--Sean Mussenden

Fri, September 12, 2008 - 4:48 PM

Florida Sen. Bill Nelson is telling members of the Senate’s so-called bi-partisan “Gang of 16” that he won’t go along with their push for additional oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico unless a 125-mile buffer zone is maintained off of Florida’s coast.

According to Nelson’s office, he is also telling the group that even beyond 125 miles, he wants the Pentagon to be consulted – and that it even certify – that any new drilling still protects all military training areas in the Gulf.

“And to make sure we’re not right back here again in two years,” says a note sent out by his office today, “Nelson wants to require a (Senate) super-majority (60 or 75 votes) for future changes (depending on what the rules will allow. )

Led by Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu, the "Gang of 16" has been calling for a much more modest buffer zone of Florida, only 50 miles, as part language they want in a new energy bill to open up more drilling. Their bill would allow new drilling not just in the Gulf, but also along the coast of several Atlantic Coast states.

Will Nelson's suggestions to the group carry any weight? Who knows?

And word is that even as Nelson is making his pitch, the “Gang of 16” has actually grown to more than 20 senators.

But if they do get their plan passed in the Senate, it would still have to be reconciled with one to be passed in the House, where Democrats there have agreed not to push for any added Gulf drilling.

-- Billy House