Former President Bill Clinton delivers a stemwinding address at last night’s Democratic National Convention in Denver.
** OBAMA’S BIG SPEECH. Good Lord, he’s done it again. And he brought his baseball bat. Meanwhile, I’ll be thinking on this. Clearly, a pretty good speech …
The McCain campaign response is on the meager side: “Tonight, Americans witnessed a misleading speech that was so fundamentally at odds with the meager record of Barack Obama. When the temple comes down, the fireworks end, and the words are over, the facts remain: Senator Obama still has no record of bipartisanship, still opposes offshore drilling, still voted to raise taxes on those making just $42,000 per year, and still voted against funds for American troops in harm’s way. The fact remains: Barack Obama is still not ready to be president.”
** DRUDGE GETS IT WRONG ON MCCAIN VEEP SELECTION. It’s so surprising. The Drudge Report, which breathlessly reported earlier today that the McCain campaign would “leak” the running mate selection this afternoon and “confirm” it later, is wrong. No kidding. But this obvious ploy did get some of the very credulous members of the media to eat into Barack Obama’s coverage.
** EXCERPTS FROM BARACK OBAMA’S ACCEPTANCE SPEECH TONIGHT.
“Four years ago, I stood before you and told you my story – of the brief union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren’t well-off or well-known, but shared a belief that in America, their son could achieve whatever he put his mind to.
“It is that promise that has always set this country apart – that through hard work and sacrifice, each of us can pursue our individual dreams but still come together as one American family, to ensure that the next generation can pursue their dreams as well.
“It is why I stand here tonight. Because for two hundred and thirty two years, at each moment when that promise was in jeopardy, ordinary men and women – students and soldiers, farmers and teachers, nurses and janitors — found the courage to keep it alive.
“We meet at one of those defining moments – a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been threatened once more.
“Tonight, more Americans are out of work and more are working harder for less. More of you have lost your homes and more are watching your home values plummet. More of you have cars you can’t afford to drive, credit card bills you can’t afford to pay and tuition that is beyond your reach.
“These challenges are not all of government’s making. But the failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed presidency of George W. Bush.
“America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this.”
“This moment – this election – is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive. Because next week, in Minnesota, the same party that brought you two terms of George Bush and Dick Cheney will ask this country for a third. And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look just like the last eight. On November 4th, we must stand up and say: “Eight is enough.”
“Now let there be no doubt. The Republican nominee, John McCain, has worn the uniform of our country with bravery and distinction, and for that we owe him our gratitude and respect. And next week, we’ll also hear about those occasions when he’s broken with his party as evidence that he can deliver the change that we need.
“But the record’s clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush ninety percent of the time. Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush was right more than ninety percent of the time? I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to take a ten percent chance on change.”
“You see, we Democrats have a very different measure of what constitutes progress in this country. We measure progress by how many people can find a job that pays the mortgage; whether you can put away a little extra money at the end of each month so that you can someday watch your child receive her diploma. We measure progress in the 23 million new jobs that were created when Bill Clinton was President – when the average American family saw its income go up $7,500 instead of down $2,000 like it has under George Bush.
“We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500, but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a business, or whether the waitress who lives on tips can take a day off to look after a sick kid without losing her job – an economy that honors the dignity of work. The fundamentals we use to measure economic strength are whether we are living up to that fundamental promise that has made this country great – a promise that is the only reason I am standing here tonight.”
“That’s the promise we need to keep. That’s the change we need right now. So let me spell out exactly what that change would mean if I am President.
“Change means a tax code that doesn’t reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it. Unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship our jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America.
“I will eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses and the start-ups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow.
“I will cut taxes – cut taxes – for 95% of all working families. Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle-class.
“And for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as President: in ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East. Washington has been talking about our oil addiction for the last thirty years, and John McCain has been there for twenty-six of them. In that time, he’s said no to higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars, no to investments in renewable energy, no to renewable fuels. And today, we import triple the amount of oil as the day that Senator McCain took office.
“Now is the time to end this addiction, and to understand that drilling is a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution. Not even close. As President, I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power. I’ll help our auto companies re-tool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America. I’ll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars. And I’ll invest $150 billion over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy – wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels; an investment that will lead to new industries and five million new jobs that pay well and can’t ever be outsourced.”
“We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don’t tell me that Democrats won’t defend this country. Don’t tell me that Democrats won’t keep us safe. The Bush-McCain foreign policy has squandered the legacy that generations of Americans — Democrats and Republicans – have built, and we are to restore that legacy.
“As Commander-in-Chief, I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I will only send our troops into harm’s way with a clear mission and a sacred commitment to give them the equipment they need in battle and the care and benefits they deserve when they come home. I will end this war in Iraq responsibly, and finish the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. I will rebuild our military to meet future conflicts. But I will also renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. I will build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century: terrorism and nuclear proliferation; poverty and genocide; climate change and disease. And I will restore our moral standing so that America is once more the last, best hope for all who are called to the cause of freedom, who long for lives of peace, and who yearn for a better future.”
** QUIET PANDEMONIUM PRECEDES OBAMA’S BIG SPEECH. From what I can tell, about 100,000 people are trying to get into Denver’s Invesco Field for Barack Obama’s historic presidential nomination speech tonight. The stadium, home of the Denver Broncos, has 75,000 seats. Figure another 5000 or so on the football field.
Add in a cumbersome daily credentialing process, confusion about buses for VIPs and delegates, and only 50 magnetometers — obviously required by the Secret Service — and it’s taking about an hour and a half for people to get into the stadium. Once they get to its vicinity, that is …
** MCCAIN PLAYS IT CLASSY WITH A CHANGE-UP PITCH. John McCain’s new TV ad counter to Barack Obama’s big speech tonight is … congratulatory. And makes note of the historic occasion of the speech coming on this day, the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech. You can watch it here.
** V.P. PAWLENTY? OR A BREAD CRUMB? There’s a report that Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, a John McCain shortlister, has cleared his schedule the next few days. Of course, you can expect more of the dropping of bread crumbs today by Team McCain, as they seek to distract from Barack Obama’s big speech tonight.
** CALIFORNIA POLL: PPIC ON NOVEMBER INITIATIVES AND A FEW OTHER THINGS. Sorry, with so much going on, I forgot about this Public Policy Institute of California poll I got on Tuesday that was embargoed until 10 PM last night. It shows that the anti-gay marriage initiative is losing, the redistricting reform and parental notification for abortion initiatives are favored only by bare pluralities, and that a majority of Californians favor balancing the state budget through a mix of cuts and tax increases. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s job approval rating, a healthy 49% at the end of July, is now at 43%. The Legislature’s approval rating is a mere 20%. Congress has a 22% approval rating, and President Bush has a 27% approval rating.
84% of California voters think the state budget impasse is a big problem. 44% say the problem should be solved through a combination of cuts and tax increases, 8% say tax increases, 38% say cuts, and only 4% say it should be done through borrowing (which appears to be the conservative Republican position, as legislative Republicans want to borrow and won’t say what cuts they want).
** MAC TRIES TO COUNTER OBAMA’S BIG NIGHT. Readers may have guessed this was coming, following the Team McCain pattern as I laid it out in my “Distract and Detract” column. McCain’s campaign will release a new TV ad — suitable for playing on TV news shows, naturally — to counter Barack Obama’s big speech tonight at the Denver Broncos football stadium. We’ll see how the media plays with this shiny lure.
Also, the Drudge Report has obligingly led with speculation that John McCain may announce his vice presidential pick early. Say, late this afternoon.
All to get the focus off of Obama’s Democratic nomination acceptance speech.
** MCCAIN’S CROWD-BUILDING PROBLEM FOR TOMORROW’S BIG ANNOUNCEMENT. John McCain is expected to unveil his running mate tomorrow morning at Wright State University outside Dayton, Ohio. But he’s having trouble filling the hall. Still plenty of the 10,000 tickets left, according to the local paper.
In contrast, Barack Obama’s acceptance speech tonight at the football stadium home of the Denver Broncos, with 75,000 seats, has been sold out for weeks.
The Morning Column: CALIFORNIA LEADERS: 2010. Before we get to the big stories of the day, Barack Obama’s acceptance speech tonight at the home of the Denver Broncos, and speculation about John McCain’s running mate, to be announced tomorrow, let’s look at some California Democrats mentioned by the Great Mentioner as prospective successors to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
First, those who are not at the Democratic national convention. Who happen to be by far the biggest names.
U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, about whom I’m happy to fly to Vegas to bet on her not running, isn’t there. She broke her foot while on a walk up at Lake Tahoe the other weekend. I’ve been through the breathless speculation about her running for governor before, in 2003, when I told Arnold Schwarzenegger she would definitely not run, and in 1998. Feinstein was to have been the California delegation chair in Denver. But her absence is easily made up for the working delegation chairmanship of state Democratic chairman Art Torres coupled with Hillary Clinton’s California leader John Emerson, an LA investment banker, and Barack Obama’s California leader Steve Westly, about whom more below.
The frontrunner, should he choose to run, former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown, is also not in Denver. As he puts it: “My work is in California.” Brown, a former Oakland mayor who is a two-time runner-up for the Democratic presidential nomination, used this week to crack down on abuses by the state’s pot clubs and to plan future moves against greenhouse gas emissions.
So who is there?
The only potential candidate with an actual role at the Democratic national convention is former state Controller Steve Westly, the one-time eBay honcho who is now a leading greentech venture capitalist in Silicon Valley.
Westly, who ran a near-miss campaign for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2006, is a big player in Barack Obama’s campaign, so he is pretty busy in Denver. The first California co-chair of the Obama campaign, a national finance co-chair for Obama, is the leader of the California Obama delegation. He’s the only one in the bunch who can immediately fund a big-time campaign by opening his checkbook.
The other potential candidates all backed Hillary Clinton, and as a result have little official role in the national convention.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who I don’t expect to run for governor in 2010, was one of four national chairs of the Hillary campaign. He has managed to get sideways with the Obama campaign — there’s a longer explanation for that — and was not invited to address the Democratic national convention, notwithstanding the key role of Latino voters in this election. He has spoken to the California delegation breakfast and to a couple of Latino events.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has reportedly had the busiest schedule aside from that of Obama leader Westly. Newsom was a national co-chairman of the Hillary campaign, and made a number of derogatory comments about Obama. He, too, was not invited to address the national convention, despite his status as mayor of one of America’s most important cities. Newsom has done a lot of media interviews, though, and last night hosted an indie rock show sponsored, at first, by MoveOn.org, Pacific Gas & Electric, and a big telecom company whose name escapes me at the moment. Following protests from the lefty blogosphere, which Newsom is trying to cultivate, about corporate “greenwashing,” MoveOn dropped its sponsorship of the event. But Time magazine hosted Newsom at a panel for hot new politicians.
Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi, a longtime Clinton backer who served as deputy secretary of the interior in Bill Clinton’s administration, addressed the California delegation breakfast, as did state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell, a favorite of the teachers union.
Incidentally, not much of a presence by Democratic legislators.
After some waffling by legislative leaders, they mostly decided to stay away, due to the optics of being seen partying in Denver while the chronic California budget crisis drags on in Sacramento.
One notable exception to the absence of Democratic legislators is former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, who served as a national co-chairman of the Hillary campaign and is a member of the party’s national platform committee. He was very much in evidence in Denver yesterday, on the floor of the convention and elsewhere.
** OBAMA NEEDS BILL CLINTON. No big-time Democrat got more sideways with the rise of Barack Obama than the big dog himself, Bill Clinton. Wouldn’t it be ironic if it turned out that the former president needs to play a very crucial role in Obama’s elevation to the office he once held?
I think that, if Obama is to win, Clinton does need to play that very crucial role, and he can play that very crucial role. From what I know of Clinton’s schedule, he will be available, assuming that he and the Obama campaign can continue bridging what has been a very large gap. And from what I know of John McCain’s strategy, Bill Clinton can be an absolute difference maker in this election. He certainly gave a rousing speech for Obama last night in Denver.
Now, I am not historically a big Bill Clinton fan. While I’ve found him likable and smart for a couple of decades, I worked against him when he ran for president in 1992. After he became president, I wrote a number of critical columns and articles about him and his administration. I did come to admire the many innovative global good works of his post-presidency. But after seeing in early 2007 that Obama was the emerging figure in the presidential race, Clintonian tactics began to grate.
I think Bill Clinton played the key role in saving Hillary Clinton’s campaign after her big loss in Iowa. He gave her good advice, raised big doubts about Obama, and played the key role in reversing Obama’s lead amongst blue collar voters in New Hampshire. Obama skidded to a stunning loss. … From my new Huffington Post column.
** WHERE THEY ARE TODAY.
Barack Obama is in Denver, Colorado. He accepts the Democratic presidential nomination in a speech at the city’s NFL stadium.
John McCain is in Sedona, Arizona. He is finalizing plans for the introduction of his running mate tomorrow in Dayton, Ohio, and for his convention speech next week.
Joe Biden is in Denver.
** DISTRACT AND DETRACT: MCCAIN COUNTER-PROGRAMS THE D.N.C., AND HIMSELF. While the Democrats continue rolling out their convention and the Obama-Biden ticket, Team McCain is playing it tough, trying to disrupt Barack Obama’s storyline at most turns of the media cycle. Free from the no doubt horrifying responsibility to run positive TV ads during the Olympics after it was brought to their attention that John McCain is the only one ever to have run negative ads, the campaign is back to its all-attack ways.
McCain’s fast and tough new campaign, under new campaign director Steve Schmidt — who I know very well from his direction of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s landslide re-election and profiled here — is making a real race of this, when it shouldn’t be. Schmidt believes in winning or at least muddying the waters at every phase of the news cycle. Incidentally, there is no reason why Schmidt’s tactics can’t be used against McCain. The media, mind you, is not going to change. … From my recent column.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will hold private meetings and conversations in and around the Capitol today, focusing on the chronic California budget crisis.
** 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 over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, crude oil is trading around $120 per barrel. Up again from yesterday on fear of extreme weather in the Gulf of Mexico.
The drop of over $31 per barrel comes on acknowledgement that the weak US economy will cut future demand and the easing of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. The Russian war with Georgia, confounding much speculation and reporting to the contrary, actually decreased the geopolitical risk premium. Though the repercussions may not.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum.
Read 
| Comments (101) |
It all definitely will become really exciting to see if Mitt Romney can easily take off of the Republican nomination this year. The only factor which worries me right at this moment is there’s so a lot of job hopefuls right at this moment.