Barack Obama hits back against the Republican National Committee ad on energy running in Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
** END OF DAY. Let’s see, lots of back and forth between Obama and McCain on their respective unrealistic economic proposals. The G8 met in Hokkaido to discuss high energy and food prices, as well as climate change, but got virtually nothing done, though agreed to cut greenhouse gases in non-specific ways. And had a nifty 18-course dinner last night. I feel hungry just looking at that menu. … Crude oil dropped, in part responding to lower consumption in reaction to the obvious price signal — translation: gasoline costs too much so folks are driving less, with driving down sharply over the 4th of July weekend — but seems likely to go up again. Oh, and in California, nothing got down on the chronic state budget crisis. Per usual.
Gary Hart writes, incidentally, saying that he is a fan of McCain TV ad narrator Powers Boothe, calling him “one of the best and most underappreciated actors.” Hart, by the way, was John McCain’s groomsman at his wedding to Cindy McCain.
** IRAQ WANTS TIMETABLE FOR U.S. WITHDRAWAL.This is a fascinating wrinkle. Yesterday, Iraq’s prime minister said that the US must set a timetable for withdrawing troops. The White House said it was “a transcription error.” Today Iraq’s national security advisor said that the US must set a timetable for withdrawing troops. This all comes in the midst of an improved security situation there in the wake of the surge, ongoing negotiations for a status of forces agreement prior to the end of the UN mandate at the end of this year, and an emerging election campaign inside Iraq, where the US role is not popular. Clearly, this further undercuts the Republican position on Iraq.
Question: “What would or should we do if, in the post-June 30th period, a so-called sovereign Iraqi government asks us to leave, even if we are unhappy about the security situation there?”
McCain: “Well, if that scenario evolves than I think it’s obvious that we would have to leave because — if it was an elected government of Iraq, and we’ve been asked to leave other places in the world. If it were an extremist government then I think we would have other challenges, but I don’t see how we could stay when our whole emphasis and policy has been based on turning the Iraqi government over to the Iraqi people.”
** MAC AND MURPH. A not inconsiderable amount of drama around Team McCain, with much of it around consultant Mike Murphy, familiar to Californians from his successful and then very unsuccessful tenure with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Bill Kristol says he’s coming back to save the day. Not so much. From my other blog.
** ANTONIO AND OBAMA. Who is introducing Barack Obama at today’s LULAC convention in Washington? LA Mayor — and former Hillary for President national chairman — Antonio Villaraigosa.
** TECH PROBLEMS. Some of you are having trouble logging on to and posting on New West Notes. There seems to be another server problem of some sort at PJ Media.
John McCain’s new TV ad starts running today.
THE MORNING COLUMN
Back to the future with John McCain?
In the wake of a campaign shuffle which has resulted in former Arnold Schwarzenegger campaign manager Steve Schmidt taking over most of the direction from campaign manager Rick Davis, John McCain has yet another new TV ad. It’s a 60-second biographical spot which reminds us that McCain is a Vietnam War hero.
Isn’t this like the first ad of the general election, which featured McCain speaking to camera in very moody lighting?
Well, no. And yes.
No, in the sense that McCain doesn’t speak in his new ad. Actor Powers Boothe (most recently the villainous vice president on 24 out to undermine the black president and start a war in the Middle East) does the narration over action shots of McCain.
But yes in the sense that this is familiar material. At least to many of us. The campaign must figure that McCain, famous as he is as a fixture in the national political firmament for many years, has a story that is not quite so well known amongst swing state voters.
What is that story?
As recounted in the ad, that while hippies frolicked during the “Summer of Love,” McCain was half a world away demonstrating a different kind of love, getting shot down over Hanoi. That he was a heroic POW who went on to continue a lifetime of service in Congress, a “maverick,” someone who’s not — in an obvious crack at Barack Obama — into delivering “beautiful words,” but someone who will deliver not just “hope” but a better life itself.
So, four-and-a-half weeks after launching his general election advertising campaign with a TV ad emphasizing his background of national service, McCain is back to a new TV ad emphasizing his background of national service. Albeit one that is more colorful and action-packed. And upbeat, as the first ad — I’d show it again but the links, oddly, no longer work — was so somber that it achieved a certain kind of stark elegance.
It feels like the campaign is still trying to get its sea legs. The ad only makes sense if you believe one of two things. Or perhaps both those things.
That the famous John McCain, who after all has been running for president this time around for a year and a half, needs an introduction to America. Or that the introductory spot of just four-and-a-half weeks ago simply didn’t work.
** WHERE THEY ARE TODAY.
Barack Obama is in Powder Springs, Georgia and Washington, DC.
John McCain is in Washington, DC and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Obama and McCain will both address the League of United Latin American Citizens convention. And both will continue their economic focus of the week, with McCain saying he will produce a balanced budget in four years despite his program of big corporate tax cuts and continuation of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy he once opposed and Obama pushing for new stimulation programs funded by ending the Bush tax cuts and closing loopholes.
** SCHWARZENEGGER LIVE WEBCAST THIS MORNING. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger joins state Senate leader Don Perata this morning at the Capitol to sign a bill requiring adequate notice of any foreclosure proceedings. The event will be webcast live at 10:30 AM on www.gov.ca.gov.
** TV AD WARS: CHANGING MCCAIN V. WORKING OBAMA. It’s John McCain who is the candidate of change in the latest round of the TV ad wars, changing to his third campaign slogan in less than four weeks. Barack Obama shows more consistency, as in consistently emphasizing work over welfare in his battleground states message. From my other blog.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the new Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.
While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** MORE COMPLAINTS ABOUT SITE MANAGEMENT. Incidentally, I’m again getting more complaints about PJM’s management of my web site. I’m busy now, and will see how it plays out.
Some people say they can only post here intermittently. Everything went swimmingly here until the PJM folks decided they would “upgrade” by changing everything a few months ago, whether they had permission or not.
** WEBB SAYS HE’S “NOT A CANDIDATE” FOR VICE PRESIDENT. Neither, incidentally, am I. But if I were asked, I might say yes …
Should Murphy return to McCain, there will be many interesting things on NWN about the Schwarzenegger saga …
** OBAMA WILL ACCEPT DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION IN MASSIVE STADIUM RALLY. Barack Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, has just announced that the Democratic candidate for president will accept the party’s nomination on August 28th — 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech — not in the Denver convention hall but in the Mile High City’s football stadium at Invesco Field. In front of a crowd of 80,000.
John F. Kennedy did much the same thing after winning the Democratic presidential nominaton in Los Angeles in 1960. H gave his acceptance speech at the LA Memorial Colisseum, site of the 1932 and later 1984 Olympics, and home field of the USC Trojans. Kennedy, however, delivered a high-pitched and not exactly successful speech in front of the crowd. Obama’s speech, to an expected crowd of 80,000 in battleground Colorado, is likely to go better than did the JFK effort.
THE MORNING COLUMN
Barack Obama will kick off the week by hosting a discussion on economic security for America’s families in Charlotte, North Carolina. On Tuesday, he will host a town hall meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. After speaking to LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens — he has a commanding lead over McCain amongst Latino voters, despite earlier speculation to the contrary) Wednesday in Washington D.C. – Obama will wrap up the week by campaigning in Virginia and Ohio.
This week’s campaign swing comes after Obama spent a week campaigning in traditionally red states in the Midwest and Mountain West, including Missouri, Ohio, Colorado, North Dakota and Montana.
John McCain on Monday will announce a JOBS FIRST economic plan as he kicks off a five-day economic tour that will take him to Colorado, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Meanwhile, the G8 (group of 8 leading industrialized nations, from which McCain would unsuccessfully seek to dump Russia) is meeting this week on the Japanese island of Hokkaido. They will attempt to deal with the daunting recent rises in fuel and food costs.
With regard to which, you know, I am recalling some folks who said oil would go down right away in price, and so on. Meanwhile, in the real world, crude oil broke two more all-time records just before the long 4th of July weekend, in which AAA says fewer than ever American families ventured forth in their cars for holiday weekends.
As all this was occurring, the Republican National Committee was going up with attack ads on Barack Obama in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. All states in which Obama has leads, of one size or another. Quite a mistake for Obama to forego public financing and decide not to give up his fundraising advantage …
And, of course, Steve Schmidt, a very familiar figure to NWN readers, who ran Arnold Schwarzenegger’s re-election campaign and has long served as senior advisor to John McCain, took over the day-to-day management of the McCain campaign. As I reported earlier, the very capable Schmidt had been travelling with McCain but left his side to go to campaign headquarters to take on more of an operational role there. Campaign manager Rick Davis will remain with a key strategic role.
It will be interesting to see if this improves the relative incoherence of the McCain campaign, about which I have been writing for weeks, or if the incoherence is actually dictated by the strategic situation.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will be in the rural Northern California community of Paradise, some 110 miles north of Sacramento, this morning reviewing the fire damage in Butte County, which he has declared a disaster area. This is another part of California which has stinted on emergency preparedness in favor of tax relief for big property owners. Any progress on California’s chronic budget crisis? That would be — no.
** WHERE THEY ARE TODAY.
Barack Obama is in Charlotte, North Carolina and Atlanta, Georgia.
** TV AD WARS: CHANGING MCCAIN V. WORKING OBAMA. It’s John McCain who is the candidate of change in the latest round of the TV ad wars, changing to his third campaign slogan in less than four weeks. Barack Obama shows more consistency, as in consistently emphasizing work over welfare in his battleground states message. From my other blog.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the new Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.
While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND U.S. ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Crude oil is trading in the $141 to $143 per barrel range, on concern about a potential Israeli military strike on Iran, which experts tell me is unlikely, for various military reasons, sans ideology.
The Batman pictures do very well when America is in a dark mood. The Dark Knightopens weekend after next.
… Not so serious on this holiday weekend as the national service essay on the 4th itself, but serious enough.
** SUNDAY — WHERE THEY ARE TODAY.
Barack Obama is off the trail in Chicago.
John McCain is off the trail for a third day in a row in Sedona, Arizona.
After being booed during a satellite address to the National Education Association yesterday when he again called for merit pay for teachers — all of it, obviously, by design — Obama is readying for a week-long economic tour to counter McCain’s week-long attempt to gain traction on economic concerns with the Arizona senator’s new “Jobs First” theme under the direction of new campaign director Steve Schmidt.
** OBAMA LEAD OVER MCCAIN STEADY GOING INTO 4TH OF JULY WEEKEND. In the latest Rasmussen tracking poll, taken just before the 4th of July, Barack Obama continues to hold a 7-point lead over John McCain, 47% to 40%. More often than not, the candidate who leads at this stage of the campaign ends up winning, though there is always the counter-example of Michael Dukakis. Whose unfortunate campaign manager didn’t think the American flag was an issue …
** HALF SAY AMERICA’S BEST DAYS ARE BEHIND HER.In a special Rasmussen poll for the 4th of July, 50% of American voters say the nation’s best days are behind her. Just 32% say the future will bring America’s greatest years. Only 25% of women voters agree with the minority opinion.
** TV AD WARS: CHANGING MCCAIN V. WORKING OBAMA. It’s John McCain who is the candidate of change in the latest round of the TV ad wars, changing to his third campaign slogan in less than four weeks. Barack Obama shows more consistency, as in consistently emphasizing work over welfare in his battleground states message. From my other blog.
** SATURDAY — WHERE THEY ARE TODAY.
Barack Obama is in Butte, Montana and St. Louis Missouri.
John McCain is in Sedona, Arizona, off the campaign trail.
Next week, I’ll be explaining here and elsewhere what the McCain campaign shakeup means — with exclusive material on new campaign director and old NWN friend Steve Schmidt — and what to expect from both the Obama and McCain campaigns.
For one thing, Obama and Hillary Clinton will raise money together next week in New York. For Obama. So much for those widespread predictions of blood in the streets of Denver.
UPDATE: England’s own Lewis Hamilton won Sunday’s British Grand Prix in smashing fashion in the rain, lapping everyone in the field other than the runner-up. At the midpoint of the F1 season, the young Mercedes-McLaren star is now tied for the world championship lead with defending champ Kimi Raikonnen and his Ferrari teammate, Felipe Massa. It was an exciting race in the rain, as there multiple spin-outs, with Hamilton winning through with two key moves. First, he passed poll-winner Heikki Kovalainen on a curve, in the wet. Then, barely leading the flying Finn Raikonnen, he switched to more wet-appropriate tires when the two pitted simultaneously, as the Ferrari champ stuck to his existing tires, gunned it out of the pit lane a split second ahead of the “Iceman,” and then built a huge lead.
** F1 BRITISH GRAND PRIX ON SUNDAY.The globe-spanning Formula One racing circuit reaches the midpoint of its season this weekend with the British Grand Prix. The race goes off live at 5 AM Pacific; shown on tape delay by Fox at 10 AM Pacific. England’s favorite Lewis Hamilton of McLaren, F1’s first black driver who was last year’s world championship runner-up by a single point in his rooke season, continues his battle against three other top drivers for the title: Reigning champion Kimi Raikonnen of Ferrari, Raikonnen’s teammate Felipe Massa, and BMW’s Robert Kubica.
The brand-new teaser trailer for Quantum of Solace, sequel to the outstanding Bond reboot Casino Royale, coming in November.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the new Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.
While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND U.S. ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Crude oil closed at $144.18 a barrel on Friday, on concern about a potential Israeli military strike on Iran and reports of a mysterious supply drop in the US. Energy markets are closed on the weekend.
Right off the top, I favor national service in America. I think something is lost for both the nation and the individual when citizens do not perform some form of national service early in their young adult lives.
There is a focus on the overall, on the common good, on what it takes to build America and defend America, that is to be gained from serving in the US Armed Forces or in civilian organizations such as the Peace Corps, VISTA, and Americorps.
You also learn about sacrifice, discipline, and how to function as a member of a team, a community.
All too often, such things are bypassed in our success and materialism-oriented society. Instead of undertaking the rigors of military life, or the sacrifice of helping a downtrodden community, most plunge right on in their quests to become financial and/or cultural elites, or at least comfortable. And too often, those who do serve the nation are derided as warmongers or losers if they join the armed forces, or as silly do-gooders if they seek to help to build a community.
What this does is engrain too much cynicism and selfishness in the society, and a too cavalier attitude about what it takes to defend America and build its communities.
Which brings us to this week’s dust-up over Wes Clark’s comments about John McCain.
As will not surprise you, I do believe that military service is a qualification for the presidency. It demonstrates a basic commitment to the nation. It also gives you a sense of the essence of the thing. But while service in and of itself is a qualification — and anyone who has not served starts out behind, especially if they turn out when conveniently too old to serve in the military to be persistent advocates of military intervention — it’s just a basic level qualification. The next thing to look at is the nature of the service.
John McCain has an extraordinary record of military service. He’s probably America’s most famous Vietnam War hero, though Virginia Senator and former Navy Secretary Jim Webb may be about to give him a run for his money in that department.
McCain was a heroic pilot — or naval aviator, as the Navy prefers — prior to being shot down and imprisoned in the Hanoi Hilton. There he underwent years of deprivation and torture, and courageously refused to accept an early release when his Vietnamese Communist captors discovered that his father was the commander of all US forces in the Pacific Theater. He won the Silver Star in Vietnam and later commanded the largest squadron in the Navy, the “Hellrazors.” He ended his naval career as a captain, the Navy’s equivalent of a colonel in the other services, one rank short of being an admiral.
McCain has served for decades on the Senate and House Armed Services Committees and also has the benefit of having learned from his father, a four-star admiral with enormous command experience, and his grandfather, also a four-star admiral with tremendous command experience. It won’t surprise you to learn that I have a cherished, personally inscribed, copy of McCain’s recommended memoir, “Faith of My Fathers.”
But while McCain has tremendous experience in the field, far more than Barack Obama — who I would be happier with had he spent a little time in the Army Reserve — his experience is not of a nature that it trumps all discussion about what he thinks.
Clark is a very impressive character in his own right. His military background actually surpasses that of any politician. He’s not the son of a four-star admiral, he is a retired four-star general in his own right. First in his class at West Point, a Rhodes Scholar (he met future President Clinton when they studied at Oxford), an Army Ranger who won the Silver Star as a company commander in Vietnam and later commanded NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the largest multinational military force in the world) during the successful Kosovo War which stopped “ethnic cleansing” and toppled the regime of Serbian thug Slobodan Milosevic.
On Hillary Clinton conference calls on national security and geopolitics, frequently I or someone else would ask a question, Clinton would give a brief answer, ask Clark to elaborate, then say, “I agree with General Clark.”
Should Clark have fallen into Face The Nation host Bob Schieffer’s trap of mirroring his question back to him? “Riding in a fighter jet and getting shot down is not a qualification for the presidency.” Certainly not. It came off as denigrating McCain’s service. (Ironically, Clark had showered McCain with praise for his service moments earlier.) My view is that McCain having the courage to get in that jet in the first place is a qualification. Just not a determinative qualification.
Clark’s point is that, for all his heroics and proximity to high-level decision-making, McCain has not been the actual decisionmaker. In other words, despite his fame, he ain’t Ike. A fair point to make, though one can certainly infer that McCain has had plenty of opportunities to absorb the essence of the thing.
Webb got into the middle of the fray as well, suggesting that his old friend McCain — the Republican candidate blurbed the front cover of Webb’s excellent history of the Scots-Irish in America, “Born Fighting,” calling Webb “a legendary fighting man” — ought to “calm down” his talk about the military and politics. Republicans got a little perturbed with Ronald Reagan’s Navy secretary and assistant secretary of defense, saying his remark showed that Obama is coordinating an assault on McCain’s military record.
Which Webb mostly shrugged off. He’s feeling kind of amused and magnanimous at the moment, coming off his big win in gaining passage of the new GI bill, which both McCain and President Bush strongly opposed, then took some credit for after the fact.
Webb’s not as smooth a character as Clark, who rubs some people the wrong way, and, in contrast to Webb’s old friendship with the GOP candidate, crossed swords with McCain on the Armed Services Committee when he ran NATO. Webb has more of a down home manner than Clark. But he’s a brainiac in his own right — those terrific novels and non-fiction books of his didn’t write themselves — and his combat medals as a Marine platoon leader in Vietnam, which include the Navy Cross, surpass those of either McCain or Clark. Each of these men is viewed as arrogant by more than a few, by the way. One may be better than the others at tamping it down.
It will be interesting to watch if Webb is Obama’s running mate. A possibility which increased this week with Clark’s not entirely deserved new level of controversy.
Incidentally, I hope you enjoy the video. I always get a kick out of that classic opening scene from Patton. A lot of people though George Patton was crazy. He was certainly intense, and obviously at times over the top. But that is an important part of the mix of what it takes to defend America. It was Patton’s brilliance and aggressiveness as a commander that helped shatter the German Army in World War II and defeat the sheer evil of Nazism.
** WHERE THEY ARE TODAY.
Barack Obama is in Butte, Montana for a 4th of July picnic with Michelle Obama and their two kids. Obama leads in the newest poll of the longtime red state of the Mountain West.
With world oil markets rattled by talk of war with Iran, Barack Obama talks up national service yesterday in Colorado Springs.
** OBAMA RESPONDS ON F.I.S.A. Barack Obama’s position on FISA is controversial on the left, as he does not want to pulverize the telecoms for going along with the Bush White House on surveillance in the wake of 9/11. On his Huffington Post blog.
** 4TH OF JULY GUBERNATORIAL GAMES. As San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who I defended vociferously last year against sneering netrootsers in the wake of the affair with his campaign manager’s wife and subsequent entry into alcoholic treatment, rolls out an exploratory campaign for governor, there have been a few developments.
Second, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, a Republican inventor of the technology that enables corporations and the government to track you via your cell phone, who backed Al Gore in 2000 and is now an official of the John McCain campaign, is in the late stages of negotiating with strategist Mike Murphy to come on board for his 2010 gubernatorial campaign. Murphy did a good job in California as a key part of the 2003 ensemble for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first election as governor. But he crashed and burned after that.
** NEW RECORD OIL PRICE. After spiking past the $146 per barrel mark during intraday trading, a new record, oil settled at $145.62 per barrel, a record high closing price. Notwithstanding what some of my associates over on the right have been saying. They thought the price would shoot way down. Ah, that woudl be, no. Meanwhile, more revelations are emerging about the role of the Bush Administration in oil contracts that seem to fly in the face of national policy.
** MAC’S NEW SUPREMO: STEVE SCHMIDT. I’ve talked with old NWN friend Steve Schmidt, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s re-election campaign manager and Senator John McCain’s senior advisor — who is now running the McCain for President campaign — yesterday and this morning. I will have a column/profile on him on Monday, following the 4th of July weekend.
** THE IRANIAN CONUNDRUM. To attack or not to attack, that is the question. And who should attack? (If anyone attacks.) The US or Israel? And why?
Frankly, I knew more about this six months ago than I do now. Before the endless Democratic primary campaign. Actually, it’s the Clintons’ fault. (I’m joking a bit.) And the new media culture. The Clintons continued their quest for a return to the White House for months after it was obvious that Barack Obama was the winner. As for the emerging media culture, it puts a premium on endless bickering and not on contemplation of larger issues.
Is Iran a threat? Certainly some sort of threat. What to do about it?
** OBAMA LEADS IN … MONTANA! Yes, according to the new Rasmussen poll, Barack Obama leads John McCain in generally red state Montana, 48% to 43%. It is where Obama won the last primary of the season, in a landslide over Hillary Clinton. And it is part of the Mountain West, the new battleground region where Obama has shown real strength. I guess this is why the Obamas will be in Butte, Montana for the 4th of July.
** TV AD WARS: CHANGING MCCAIN V. WORKING OBAMA. It’s John McCain who is the candidate of change in the latest round of the TV ad wars, changing to his third campaign slogan in less than four weeks. Barack Obama shows more consistency, as in consistently emphasizing work over welfare in his battleground states message. From my other blog.
** WHERE THEY ARE TODAY.
Barack Obama is in Fargo, North Dakota.
John McCain is in Mexico City.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the new Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.
While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND U.S. ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Crude oil is trading in record territory, around $144 per barrel, on concern about a potential Israeli military strike on Iran and reports of a mysterious supply drop in the US. But gas at my station is down a nickel.
Barack Obama’s speech promoting faith-based programs yesterday in Zanesville, Ohio.
** OIL IN THE REAL WORLD. You know, I am recalling some folks who said oil would go down right away in price, and so on. Meanwhile, in the real world, crude oil broke two more all-time records today on the verge of the long 4th of July weekend, in which AAA says fewer than ever families will venture forth in their cars for holiday weekends. Oil broke the $144 per barrel barrier in intraday trading, shooting up to $144.13 per barrel. And it settled at a record closing price, a whopping $143.57 per barrel. I’d better gas up, well, now, before my friend the local service station owner raises his price tomorrow …
** R.N.C. TO START ATTACK ADS ON OBAMA. The Republican National Committee is going up with attack ads on Barack Obama this coming weekend in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. All states in which Obama has leads, of one size or another. Quite a mistake for Obama to forego public financing and decide not to give up his fundraising advantage …
It will be interesting to see if this improves the relative incoherence of the McCain campaign, about which I have been writing for weeks, or if the incoherence is actually dictated by the strategic situation.
** FROM COLORADO TO CARTAGENA. What an interesting choice. Is this the moment for John McCain to venture to Latin America, extolling the virtues of free trade while frontrunner Barack Obama is in Middle America talking about faith, patriotism, and economic insecurity in a region which, rightly or wrongly, views trade deals like NAFTA as a principal cause of its problems?
** WHERE THEY ARE TODAY.
Barack Obama is in Colorado Springs, Colorado for a speech on his plan for national service. He will visit NORAD (North American Air Defense Command) at Cheyenne Mountain. He has a fundraiser in the home town of the U.S. Air Force Academy and the Rev. James Dobson tonight.
John McCain is in Cartagena, Colombia. He is promoting free trade and examining the drug trade and the country’s security concerns.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger tours the fire scene near Big Sur with FEMA Administrator David Paulison this morning and discusses the situation. With the Sierra snowpack notably reduced, California is in a near drought situation, which naturally makes wildfires more prevalent. Schwarzenegger has asked local communities to avoid 4th of July firecrackers, but has not banned them. The chronic state budget deficit is at an impasse, with legislative leaders of both parties deadlocked amidst no progress.
** TV AD WARS: CHANGING MCCAIN V. WORKING OBAMA. It’s John McCain who is the candidate of change in the latest round of the TV ad wars, changing to his third campaign slogan in less than four weeks. Barack Obama shows more consistency, as in consistently emphasizing work over welfare in his battleground states message. From my other blog.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the new Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.
While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND U.S. ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. After crashing through the $143 per barrel barrier Monday, crude oil is trading in the $142 to $143 per barrel range, on concern about a potential Israeli military strike on Iran and reports of a mysterious supply drop in the US. But gas at my station is down a nickel.
Barack Obama dominates the presidential race in California. Here he talks about patriotism yesterday in Independence, Missouri.
It began as Clinton Country. For awhile, it seemed John McCain might stake his claim on the Golden State. But now, it is clearly Barack Obama’s California.
Without campaigning all that much here, Obama has developed a powerful hold on California. Up by 17 points over McCain in the two most respected public polls in the state, Field Institute and Public Policy Institute of California, taken some weeks ago, the new Rasmussen tracking poll last week shows Obama now with a stunning 2 to 1 lead over McCain, 58% to 30%.
The latest Rasmussen tracking poll of California — bear in mind that pollster Scott Rasmussen is an avowed Republican — shows Barack Obama opening up a massive lead over John McCain in the Golden State, which Team McCain once saw as a possibility. Frankly, this is the biggest lead I can recall in any such presidential poll of California voters. McCain’s shift in position for offshore oil drilling is a major backfire. The McCain connection has become not a badge of honor in California, but a negative. Unfortunately for the Republicans, all of their most credible 2010 gubernatorial candidates are officials in the McCain campaign. Hasta la bye bye.
So the state in which McCain essentially won the Republican nomination, knocking Mitt Romney out of the race back in February, is now off the table for Republicans both in this election, and likely in 2010 as well, when Schwarzenegger is termed out of the governorship.
Instead, it is a central power base for the new Obama-era Democratic Party. And as Obama dominates here — as much through a sort of political and social osmosis as through personal campaigning, as Obama became more nationally known and familiar, weathering various crises — leadership within the state is shifting also.
When Obama appeared at the LA Music Center for last Tuesday’s big gala fundraiser for his campaign and the Democratic National Committee — most operations of which the freshman Illinois senator has moved from Washington to Chicago — he was introduced by California Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, a former nurse from Los Angeles who happens to be the first African American woman to head a state legislative body anywhere in America. The Music Center event raised $5.5 million for the integrating Obama and party operations.
Bass is part of a power shift inside California politics, with Obama backers supplanting Clinton backers. She replaced termed-out former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, who was a national co-chair of the Hillary campaign. And the incoming new leader of the state Senate, Darrell Steinberg, is also an Obama backer who also replaces another Clinton backer, Don Perata.
And two years ago, yet another Clinton backer, then Treasurer Phil Angelides, narrowly won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination over ex-eBay honcho Steve Westly. But Westly, then California’s state controller and now a greentech venture capitalist in Silicon Valley, signed on with Obama, becoming one of his earliest and biggest supporters. Now he’s leading California’s Obama delegates to the Democratic national convention in Denver, and Angelides is staying home.
Westly was very much on hand at the Music Center. As was the leader of California’s Clinton delegates, LA Music Center board chair John Emerson. Emerson ran Bill Clinton’s two campaigns in the Golden State, was a top aide to President Clinton, and a national finance co-chair for Hillary. But last month he went with other Clintonites to Chicago to join Obama’s national finance team.
“Barack is a great fit for California,” says Emerson. “I think Californians are getting to be very excited about his candidacy.”
Also on hand at the Music Center was former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown, the favorite for governor in 2010 if he chooses to run. (The state’s term limits law was passed after his two terms.) Brown, who has useful advice for those who ask, was officially neutral in the primary. He ran against Bill Clinton in 1992, ending as the distant runner-up for the Democratic nomination. Brown had earlier predicted that Obama would prevail easily in the fall here over McCain.
Westly might run again for governor, as well. Other potential Democratic contenders, such as San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi, and LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is not likely to run, campaigned hard for Hillary Clinton around the country. Newsom was a national co-chairman of the Clinton campaign.
There is nowhere in America that received more attention from then President Bill Clinton than California. Even more than New York, the classic, aging power center the Clintons selected as their base of operations as they sought to extend their reach in national and global power politics well into the 21st century, California was the key to the Hillary experiment. It was the endless fundraising bonanza, and the state longtime chief strategist Mark Penn selected as the close-out contest to clinch the nomination for Hillary. (Yes, many Clintonites insist that Penn quite mistakenly thought it was a winner-take-all primary. The Democrats don’t have winner-take-all contests.)
But polling before she conceded in early June showed Obama leading Clinton in any California re-run, 51% to 38%, and he was running stronger than she against McCain. In any event, while she won California, 51% to 43%, back in February as Obama left the campaigning to surrogates, she and Bill had to spend more time than they expected to hold the state, with the former president devoting the final two days of the Super Tuesday campaign locking down a long-expected win.
Obama had closed a huge gap in California as he did around the country leading into the more than 20 Super Tuesday contests on February 5th. With a few more days time to devote to California, which he did not have, he could have beaten the Clintons here. But without that time, but with his strategic feint in California having succeeded in drawing the Clintons back to the state, he pivoted to other other contests. As Obama garnered a big delegate haul in the Golden State due to the party’s proportional representation rules — with Oprah, Michelle Obama, Caroline and Ted Kennedy, and California First Lady Maria Shriver campaigning for him — he was off winning other states while the Clintons furiously defended their heavily-cultivated electoral crown jewel.
With Westly and others, such as David Geffen, building an operation from scratch, Obama nearly matched the Clintons in California fundraising. While strong in LA — he actually raised a little more Hollywood money than Clinton — Obama was clearly the toast of Silicon Valley. Now it’s falling together for Obama, with the base so painstakingly assembled by the Clintons joining with Obama’s new machine to form something even more powerful. Geffen will probably join with partners Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg for another big Obama gala this fall.
But there’s at least one problem still for Obama in California. And that’s the ongoing phenomenon of rumor-mongering about Obama, no little of which seems to emanate from Los Angeles. The conspiracy theories are very involved, but center on the notion that Obama is some sort of “Manchurian candidate” — folks pushing that stuff might want to check out the actual novel or movie, which doesn’t mean what they think it means — a deeply un-American figure out to advance radical Islam and destroy Israel.
So former LA Congressman Mel Levine, an early Obama backer who is one of Israel’s biggest supporters, joined forces with his former congressional colleague from LA, House Foreign Affairs Committee chair Howard Berman, to shoot down the rumors and get the truth out about Obama. Decrying the “persistent effort to undermine and distort Obama’s record,” Levine and Berman have formed a Jewish community committee to get the truth out about Obama and shoot down the rumors.
Just another way in which California has suddenly become a bulwark of this once seemingly most unlikely of prospective presidents.
John McCain’s web ad touting a trade deal with Colombia.
** MOVES BY BROWN AND NEWSOM. Former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown has started raising some national campaign money, as he looks at possible 2010 gubernatorial race. But while his committee is called Jerry Brown 2010, it’s not a formal exploratory gubernatorial campaign committee, so he can’t raise money in the same big chunks as, say … San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who did open such a committee today.
** TV AD WARS: CHANGING MCCAIN V. WORKING OBAMA. It’s John McCain who is the candidate of change in the latest round of the TV ad wars, changing to his third campaign slogan in less than four weeks. Barack Obama shows more consistency, as in consistently emphasizing work over welfare in his battleground states message. From my other blog.
** PELOSI AUTOBIOGRAPHY ON THE WAY. San Francisco’s longtime congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, now the speaker of the US House of Representatives, has an autobiography on the way. In “Know Your Power: A Message To America’s Daughters,” coming on July 29th, Pelosi “tells how her work on behalf of then-California Gov. Jerry Brown’s 1976 presidential campaign helped turn her from a San Francisco housewife and mother of five who dabbled in Democratic Party politics into a serious political figure who became California’s state party chair in the early 1980s. In 1987, all her hard work paid off when she was elected to the House in a special election from San Francisco, the Baltimore native’s adopted hometown.”
Barack Obama is in Zanesville, Ohio, for a speech on religious faith. Obama is reaching out to Christian evangelicals, and will discuss his plan as president to expand faith-based programs.
John McCain is in Indianapolis, Indiana and Cartagena, Colombia. McCain is addressing the National Sheriffs Association in Indianapolis and will meet tonight in Cartagena with Colombiana President Jose Uribe and members of the his cabinet and military general staff. McCain is in Latin America this week to promote free trade and explore security issues in Colombia, beset by a leftist guerilla movement, and Mexico, beset by increasingly bold drug cartels.
** SCHWARZENEGGER LIVE WEBCAST THIS MORNING. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will be in the rural Northern California community of Anderson to tour the fires around Mount Shasta. He will give a briefing on the Shasta fires and the fire situation around California. Schwarzenegger is bringing in National Guard troops to fight fires on the ground, in addition to the previously committed air support.The event will be webcast live at 10:20 AM on www.gov.ca.gov.
California missed its constitutional deadline for budget passage last night, per usual. There is no progress at present, with the usual ultra-government and anti-government factions holding sway in the Legislature.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the new Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.
While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND U.S. ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. After crashing through the $143 per barrel barrier yesterday, crude oil is trading in the $142 to $143 per barrel range. on concern about a potential Israeli military strike on Iran.
The Tesla sports car may be a harbinger of future all-electric vehicles.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was putting on his best cheshire cat impression this morning in San Carlos as he joined state Treasurer Bill Lockyer and officials of Tesla Motors to announce that the all-electric vehicle company will manufacture its next set of cars in the San Francisco Bay Area. Silicon Valley-based Tesla, named in homage for early 20th century inventor Nikola Tesla, created a stir with its first car, just now in production at Lotus in England, a stylish $98,000 sports car that does 0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds with a range of 225 miles per battery charge. Schwarzenegger got one and has been touting the car as a harbinger of a cool new clean tech future, an alternative to the Soviet-era styling of the hybrid Prius, which Schwarzenegger tells me he “wouldn’t be caught dead in.”
It’s what the industry calls a “halo car,” a car to capture the imagination and show what’s possible. But at $100,000, the Tesla Roadster is a car for folks like Schwarzenegger and Dennis Haysbert, of TV hit 24’s first black president fame. It’s the follow-on cars, a mid-size sports sedan for $60,000, a competitor to the BMW 5-series and Jaguar XF set for the end of 2009, and a smaller sports sedan for $30,000 set for 2011 that will start to make a difference.
And the next cars were set to be be made in New Mexico.
Schwarzenegger’s friend, Governor Bill Richardson, made Tesla a good deal. So Schwarzenegger set out to work with Tesla officials, including Tesla board member Steve Westly, the former California state controller and Obama for President national finance co-chair, to come up with a better deal. State Treasurer Bill Lockyer provided the lynchpin, using the little-known California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority to finace the purchase of $100 million in equipment for the new plant. Tesla is leasing the equipment from the state and can buy it later, but would pay no sales tax in the end. The state is also providing grants for employee training.
Schwarzenegger is fond of telling Detroit to get off its butt. So far, it hasn’t. The big US automakers have resisted not only fundamental technological changes, but also significant increases in fuel efficiency, and as a result have fallen behind world automakers in Japan in Europe.
So now Schwarzenegger has an increasingly famous car company not only headquartered in his state and designing its vehicles here, but also producing them here. I think it will be the first car manufacturing plant since GM shut down in the San Fernando Valley a quarter-century ago.
Schwarzenegger has also adroitly switched the vehicle most associated with him. For years, it’s been the Hummer. But the Hummer, the civilian version of the massive HumVee, which has proved to be so problematic in Iraq combat situations, is on its way out. The Brobdingnagian vehicle, the military version of which caught Schwarzenegger’s fancy following the first Gulf War, is, in this sudden era of very expensive oil, a luxury that’s simply not affordable. I’ll write about the Hummer, and Schwarzenegger’s association with it, another time.
Meanwhile, the Tesla sports car is starting to appear, as you see in the video above. As a vehicle designed to compete with the likes of Porsche and Ferrari, it’s clearly an aspirational vehicle rather than a realistic one. But it gets people’s attention for what comes next. And maybe it will shame the conventional US automakers into making some changes, before it’s too late for them.
There aren’t many political writers who pay attention to energy — too bad it’s the key to so many issues in the new environment — and only a few, like Slate’s Mickey Kaus and Instapundit Glenn Reynolds, who are into cars and gadgets. None seem to have paid attention to this yet.
** END OF DAY. Barack Obama has placed himself in direct opposition on the proposed California gay marriage ban on the November ballot. He’s against it; McCain’s for it. When you have the kind of lead Obama has in California, you can take risks. And I wouldn’t bet on its passage. … Rough day for General Wes Clark, who was discussing John McCain’s qualifications for the presidency on one of the Sunday chat, doing fine in delineating what McCain actually has and hasn’t done till he spoke disparagingly of McCain’s Vietnam service as “riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down” — after speakingly glowingly of him as a hero! Obama disavowed the remark, but Clark won’t. While this might have removed Clark from the veepstakes, the McCain folks shouldn’t overplay their hand here, as I expect them to do. Clark’s other points are cogent, and the former NATO commandeer and Vietnam War hero will just keep repeating them. … But it was a big day for another potential Obama veep, Virginia Senator and former Navy Secretary Jim Webb. His new GI bill was signed into law. With President Bush and John McCain both taking some credit. Whoa! They both fought hard against the Webb bill, as the Vietnam War hero rather gleefully pointed out. … Obama and Bill Clinton finally talked on the phone today. Clinton will be campaigning with Obama later. … California, to no one’s surprise, misses the constitutional deadline for budget passage at midnight tonight. Legislative leaders are nowhere on this, nothing is getting done, and the ultra-government and anti-government factions that dominate the two legislative parties are locked into reflexive positions.
** WHERE THEY ARE TODAY.
Barack Obama is in Independence, Missouri, Harry Truman’s hometown, for a speech on patriotism.
John McCain is in Harrisburg and Pipersville, Pennsylvania, trying to catch up in a state many had thought would be a big problem for Obama.
** SCHWARZENEGGER LIVE ELECTRIC CAR WEBCAST THIS MORNING. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger joins state Treasurer Bill Lockyer and officials of Tesla Motors this morning in San Carlos to announce that production of the firm’s innovative new all-electric sports cars — 0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds — will take place in California. The event will be webcast live at 11:30 AM on www.gov.ca.gov.
** OBAMA’S CALIFORNIA. It began as Clinton Country. For awhile, it seemed John McCain might stake his claim on the Golden State. But now, it is clearly Barack Obama’s California. From my other blog.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the new Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.
While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
