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PRESIDENTIAL WATCH
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(caricatures by
Linda Eddy)
Friday, August 29, 2008
GENERAL NEWS HEADLINES with excerpts
John McCain made a surprise choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate on Friday, adding a political unknown to the presidential ticket who could help him appeal to women voters.
Palin, 44, a self-described "hockey mom," is a conservative first-term governor of Alaska with strong anti-abortion views, a record of reform and fiscal conservatism and an outsider's perspective on Washington.
"She's exactly who I need. She's exactly who this country needs to help me fight the same old Washington politics of me first and country second," McCain told a roaring crowd of 15,000 supporters in Dayton, Ohio.
Storm could postpone GOP convention
As
the political spotlight shifts to the upcoming Republican convention
in Minneapolis-St. Paul, GOP leaders are closely monitoring the
movements of Tropical Storm Gustav, which is approaching hurricane
strength as it heads toward the Gulf Coast.
Party officials are discussing the possibility of postponing convention proceedings if the threat to New Orleans and other Gulf Coast areas grows. If there is serious damage in the Gulf Coast, images of Republicans partying in Minneapolis-St. Paul could be an embarrassing reminder of the Bush administration's delayed response to Hurricane Katrina three years ago.
Forecasters predicted that the storm could come ashore Tuesday morning as a Category 3 hurricane, with winds in the 113- to 130-mph range. That would be in the middle of the Republican convention, which runs from Monday through Thursday.
Obama tells huge Dem crowd he'll fix Washington
Surrounded by an enormous, adoring crowd, Barack Obama promised a clean break from the "broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W. Bush" Thursday night as he embarked on the final lap of his audacious bid to become the nation's first black president.
"America, now is not the time for small
plans," the 47-year-
old
Democratic Illinois senator told an estimated 84,000 people packed
into Invesco Field, a huge football stadium at the base of the Rocky
Mountains.
He vowed to cut taxes for nearly all working-class families, end the war in Iraq and break America's dependence on Mideast oil within a decade. By contrast, he said, "John McCain has voted with President Bush 90 percent of the time," a scathing indictment of his Republican rival—on health care, education, the economy and more.
Politico: Tricky balance:
new, old politics clash in speech
That was one more bravura performance from Barack Obama Thursday night, and 85,000 supporters in the football stadium here—and no doubt millions watching on television—were ecstatic over the oratorical flights of the newly crowned Democratic nominee.
Listen closely to the 46-minute address, however, and you heard two speeches crushed somewhat jarringly together.
The first half, one suspects, was the speech that Obama felt he had to give: a traditional partisan appeal that, for all his sonorous cadences, read like it could have been stitched together randomly from speeches delivered on any given day from rank-and-file Democrats on the floor of the House of Representatives.
There were denuciations of outsourced manufacturing jobs and promises to save Security Security and frequent baiting of John McCain for being the candidate of the rich and a weakling against Osama bin Laden.
The second half sounded like the speech
Obama wanted to give: a plea for a new brand of politics, one in which
politicians don’t attack each other’s motives or character, and
Washington calls a ceasefire in such drearily familiar fights as
abortion and gun control.
see also:
Politico: Obama masters his moment
AP: Obama spares details, keeps up attacks
BreitbartTV: Obama - 'We cannot turn back'
Oprah: 'I cried my eyelashes off'
More than 84,000 attend Obama speech
Obama speech inspires fans, turns off Republicans
BreitbartTV: Ceasefire - McCain congratulates Obama on historic nomination in new campaign ad
A Christian ending benediction/prayer
Obama and Gore raise the roof at Invesco Field
[LA
Times article]
For its final and by definition historic night the Democrats moved their convention to Denver's Invesco Field -- a move meant to express the party's oneness with the people, but a choice not without pitfalls. There was the danger of seeming too pretentious on the one hand, too rock 'n' roll on the other, but also of diffusing the ricocheting energy one can generate in a contained meeting hall in a huge open space built for sports. And it invited ridicule from an opposition that earlier mocked Barack Obama's Berlin love parade, that cast him as a celebrity without substance.
With a day's program that included music from Jennifer Hudson, Sheryl Crow and Stevie Wonder ("a personal highlight for me," CNN's Wolf Blitzer said), it was a bit of an Obamapalooza. Joe Biden showed up unannounced -- to jam, as it were. Perhaps he just wanted to feel what it was like to address a crowd of 84,000.
Thursday it was Al Gore, who has become a kind of rock star himself in the eight years since he folded his cards and let Bush take the pot. He took the stage to the Aquarian Age strains of "Let the Sunshine In" to tell his inconvenient truths.
THE CANDIDATES:
John McCain... today's headlines with excerpts
McCain announces running mate today
Carter: McCain milking POW time
Carter spoke Thursday with USA TODAY and Gannett News Service reporters before Barack Obama's acceptance speech to cap off the Democratic National Convention.
Team McCain outsmarts Team Obama with Internet marketing
John McCain is in some ways outsmarting Sen. Obama when it comes to Internet marketing. One example: As of Wednesday, a Google search for "Joe Biden" or even just "Biden" resulted in a prominently displayed ad labeled "Joe Biden on Obama" that links to Sen. McCain's site. There, a video begins playing that shows Sen. Biden criticizing Sen. Obama during the Democratic primaries. The move mimics the "ambush" strategy that advertisers often employ: buying a competitor's term so that an ad for the buyer's own product appears when a consumer searches for the other brand.
Sen. McCain was able to pull off that sleight of hand because he outbid his opponent for the search term "Joe Biden." As a result, Sen. McCain's ad takes the top spot alongside search results, while Mr. Obama's ad appears lower in the results.
His first stop: the battleground states of the Midwest. On Friday, Obama flies to Pittsburgh, where he and running mate Joe Biden will kick off a bus tour of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan.
The goal is to maintain the buzz of a convention that culminated Thursday night with Obama addressing an energetic, flag-waving crowd of 84,000 packed into Denver's pro football stadium. ..
Gallup Daily Poll: Obama up by 6 points now
Barack Obama has gained ground in the latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking average from Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and now leads Republican John McCain among registered voters by a 48% to 42% margin
TIME investigation reveals Biden family enmeshed in D.C. money game Obama denounces
Biden's brother and sons have close ties to a law firm that has benefited from the senator's congressional votes...
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