Ad Watch
Claiming the 'Maverick' Brand
By Howard Kurtz
The Ad: Announcer: The original mavericks. He fights pork barrel spending. She stopped the Bridge to Nowhere. He took on the drug industry. She took on big oil. He battled Republicans and reformed Washington. She battled Republicans and reformed Alaska. They'll make history. They'll change Washington. McCain. Palin. Real change.
McCain: I'm John McCain and I approve this message.
Analysis: John McCain is using this ad to try to reclaim the "maverick" label once routinely attached to his name, before he embraced the Republican right more tightly in seeking the GOP nomination. His new running mate, Sarah Palin, can also claim to have taken on her state's Republican Party as Alaska governor, although it is conservative media outlets that most often call her a maverick.
The Arizona senator has made a crusade of battling pork-barrel "earmarks," but the whopper here is that Palin opposed her state's notorious Bridge to Nowhere. She endorsed the remote project while running for governor in 2006, claimed to be an opponent only after Congress killed its funding the next year and has used the $223 million provided for it for other state ventures. Far from being an opponent of earmarks, Palin hired lobbyists to try to capture more federal funding.
Posted at 10:16 AM ET on Sep 8, 2008 | Permalink
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Sarah Palin
Cheney Supports McCain-Palin Ticket
By Michael Abramowitz
Vice President Cheney weighed in for the first time on the selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate, dismissing suggestions she may not be up for the job.
"We've had all kinds of vice presidents over the years. Everybody brings a different set of experiences to the office and also a different kind of understanding with whoever the president is," Cheney told the group of reporters traveling with him in Rome.
"Each administration is different," added Cheney, whose long experience in Washington before becoming President Bush's running mate laid the groundwork for his role as one of the most powerful vice presidents in history.
"And there's no reason why Sarah Palin can't be a successful vice president in a McCain administration. It won't look exactly like the Bush administration or the first Bush administration, the Ford administration. It'll be relatively unique to this president and this time that they're in office."
Cheney said Palin's speech at the Republican National Convention last week "was superb. Watched that with great interest. I loved some of her lines."
"What was the difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull? 'It's lipstick,' " he paraphrased, laughing. "I think she's a good candidate, and I don't see any reason why she can't be an effective vice president."
Posted at 8:34 AM ET on Sep 8, 2008 | Permalink
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Sarah Palin
Palin Plans Interview With ABC Next Week
By Anne E. Kornblut
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has agreed to her first interview since last month, a aide to Sen. John McCain's campaign said today. She will sit down with ABC News anchor Charles Gibson later this week, the aide said.
Palin's media relations are off to a rocky start, with reporters grumbling about being unable to ask her questions directly and campaign officials complaining about what they regard as the intrusively personal nature of some reporters' inquiries.
Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager, said this morning on "Fox News Sunday" that Palin would not submit herself to a "cycle of piranhas called the news media" until reporters started to treat her with "with some level of respect and deference."
Hours later, the campaign aide disclosed the plans for Gibson to interview Palin later this week in Alaska. The adviser spoke on condition of anonymity because an official announcement had not been made.
Palin has delivered speeches since she was named to the Republican ticket, but she has given only one interview, to People magazine on the day she was introduced as McCain's running mate. McCain advisers rebuffed interview requests last week by saying that she needed all her time to prepare for last Wednesday's speech before the Republican National Convention.
That has left campaign aides and surrogates to address questions about her political record, including policies she followed in Alaska and a state investigation into whether she improperly tried to get her ex-brother-in-law, a state trooper, fired.
"Eventually she's going to have to answer questions and not be sequestered," Sen. Joseph Biden, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, said today on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Posted at 4:38 PM ET on Sep 7, 2008 | Permalink
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Battlegrounds
Virginia Adds 49K New Voters in August
By Alec MacGillis
With time running out on its push to register thousands of new voters in Virginia, the Obama campaign is picking up the pace. State election officials told the campaign Friday that 49,000 new voters signed up in August, a sharp increase from the 36,500 who signed up in July and the 28,000 who registered in June.
The campaign had predicted that its August numbers could lag given the difficulty of reaching residents during vacation season. But the August gain puts the Obama campaign very much on track toward its goal of signing up 150,000 new voters by the early October voter registration deadline, on top of the 142,000 new voters who registered during primary season.
There is no way of knowing how many of the newly registered will vote for Obama, especially since Virginia does not record voters by party affiliation. But the campaign is encouraged by the demographic profile of the new voters -- about 40 percent of those who registered in August are aged 25 or under.
Posted at 3:50 PM ET on Sep 6, 2008 | Permalink
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Barack Obama
Obama and McCain to Make Joint Sept. 11 Visit to Ground Zero
By Michael D. Shear
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- John McCain and Barack Obama announced today that they will visit Ground Zero in New York on Thursday to mark the seventh anniversary of the 9-11 attacks that brought down the Twin Towers.
In a joint statement, the campaigns said they would "put aside politics and come together" to honor the memory of those who died in the attacks.
"All of us came together on 9/11 -- not as Democrats or Republicans but as Americans. In smoke-filled corridors and on the steps of the Capitol; at blood banks and at vigils -- we were united as one American family," the statement read.
"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.
"We will also give thanks for the firefighters, police, and emergency responders who set a heroic example of selfless service, and for the men and women who serve today in defense of the freedom and security that came under attack in New York City, at the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania."
Posted at 12:32 PM ET on Sep 6, 2008 | Permalink
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Sarah Palin
Playing Politics -- With Oprah?
By Anne E. Kornblut
Is the McCain campaign playing politics -- with Oprah Winfrey?
A Drudge report item surfaced on Friday about Oprah's programming plans -- saying her staffers were divided over having Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, on as a guest.
The rumor seemed designed to force Winfrey's hand and call her out as a partisan. Winfrey -- whose largely female audience is a prime target for both parties -- took heat during the Democratic primary for backing Sen. Barack Obama over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Winfrey swiftly knocked the report down, calling it "categorically untrue."
"There has been absolutely no discussion about having Sarah Palin on my show," Winfrey said in a statement. "At the beginning of this presidential campaign, when I decided that I was going to take my first public stance in support of a candidate, I made the decision not to use my show as a platform for any of the candidates. I agree that Sarah Palin would be a fantastic interview, and I would love to have her on after the campaign is over."
Posted at 6:00 PM ET on Sep 5, 2008 | Permalink
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Ad Watch
McCain Ad for Florida
By Jonathan Weisman
The new Republican National Committee-John McCain campaign ad isn't so new at all: Another mocking jab at Barack Obama's celebrity, another assertion that the Democratic nominee will raise taxes.
What is new is the target: Florida.
After months of letting Obama saturate the Sunshine State's airwaves alone, Republicans are finally moving in. The new ad, entitled "Temple," will be running in Florida, Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, a significant expansion of the playing field for the GOP with an ad buy that RNC officials insist will be substantial.
Obama has spent more money and run more ads in Florida than any other state. Most recent polling shows McCain still holding a narrow lead there, but a Mason-Dixon poll taken Aug. 25-26 showed a tossup, with Obama leading 45-44.
Posted at 5:26 PM ET on Sep 5, 2008 | Permalink
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Sarah Palin
Plane Not Sold on eBay
Updated 7:10 p.m.
By Anne E. Kornblut
One of the compelling anecdotes about Sarah Palin is that she auctioned off the Alaska governor's jet on eBay after taking office -- a swift move made by a reformer hoping to clean up the excesses of her predecessor.
But in fact, the jet did not sell on eBay. It was sold to a businessman from Valdez named Larry Reynolds, who paid $2.1 million for the jet, shy of the original $2.7 million purchase price, according to contemporaneous news reports, including a story in the New York Times.
Dan Spencer, the director of administrative services for Alaska's Public Safety Department, said that the Republican speaker of the Alaska House, John L. Harris, brokered the deal. Reynolds made campaign contributions to both Palin and Harris in 2006 and 2007.
What happened? It appears that, as promised during her bid for governor in 2006, Palin did try to sell the plane on eBay but that doing so was not as easy as it might have sounded. After putting it up to auction, there was one serious bid, in December 2006, and it fell through. Still, the Westwind II was sold about eight months later, achieving Palin's goal of ridding the state of a luxury item.
But that hasn't stopped Palin, or John McCain, from implying -- and, on Friday, claiming outright -- that Palin did sell the jet on the Internet.
"You know what I enjoyed the most? She took the luxury jet that was acquired by her predecessor and sold it on eBay -- and made a profit!" McCain declared in Wisconsin at a campaign stop on Friday. It could not be immediately determined what that profit was.
The video tribute to Palin that aired at the Republican National Convention on Thursday night made the same claim. "She signed sweeping ethics reform legislation, auctioned the governor's jet on eBay," the narrator said, citing it in a list of Palin's achievements.
Palin has been more cautious in her comments. Rather than claiming she sold it on eBay, she gave in her convention remarks a description that was true but, nonetheless, still left the impression she had sold the jet online. "That luxury jet was over the top. I put it on eBay," Palin said.
"She put the plane on eBay," said Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for McCain's campaign. "It didn't meet the minimum threshold the state desired so they used a broker. The plane was purchased by the former gov against the wishes of the legislature and voters -- was a symbol of corruption."
She sold the plane and saved the taxpayers money on maintenance and costs."
Posted at 4:15 PM ET on Sep 5, 2008 | Permalink
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On the Issues
Congress and New Political Minefields
By Jonathan Weisman
Add a new variable to the suddenly unsettled presidential race -- Congress.
Lawmakers return to the Capitol next week for a quick session in which they and presidential nominees Barack Obama and John McCain will face political traps and minefields. First up is energy. Republicans spent their August recess demanding an "all of the above" strategy to lower gasoline prices and decrease dependence on imported oil, pushing legislation that would open the offshore Outer Continental Shelf to drilling and fund alternative energy and conservation. House Democratic leaders are preparing legislation they say will call the Republicans' bluff.
The Democratic House bill would open the coasts of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia to oil drilling outside a 100-mile buffer zone, provided the plan is approved by the state legislatures and the governors of the Southeast. Florida is expressly exempted. The package would also include extension of tax breaks for wind, solar and biofuels projects, funding for alternative energy research and additional conservation measures, financed in large part by the repeal of tax breaks for oil companies.
Republicans said today most of them would have no problem turning down the deal, which they believe does not go nearly far enough in opening up the coast to oil exploration.
Posted at 3:55 PM ET on Sep 5, 2008 | Permalink
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Making the Rounds
Andrea Mitchell vs. the Balloons
By Garance Franke-Ruta
NBC's Andrea Mitchell demonstrates the perils of live television as she gamely tries to report from the Republican National Convention during the midst of a major balloon drop in this clip that's amusing the chattering class the day after the two-week convention marathon has come to an end.
Posted at 1:48 PM ET on Sep 5, 2008 | Permalink
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