IOWA
PRESIDENTIAL WATCH
Iowa...
Where Presidents Begin
click
on each candidate to see today's news stories
(caricatures by
Linda Eddy)
Thursday, Sept. 18, 2008
GENERAL NEWS HEADLINES with excerpts
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McCain: |
Obama: |
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McCain: “The government was forced to commit $85 billion. These actions stem from failed regulation, reckless management and a casino culture on Wall Street that has crippled one of the most important companies in America.” |
Obama: |
Press shield:
Little access to McCain or
Obama...
On Air Obama, reporters gawk at him moving around up front, talking with aides or on a cell phone, but can only guess what he is saying or thinking. On Straight Talk Air, the flying McCain campaign, aides draw the curtains so that not even glimpses are possible.
Not only do the reporters have little interaction with the candidates, but increasingly they are having little impact on the broad campaign narratives and daily story lines that supply most voters with their impressions of the candidates.
That's more often taking place in cable studios or on Web sites far removed from the ceaseless grind of the press bubble
Palin's
e-mails hacked,
posted online
Hackers broke into the Yahoo! e-mail account that Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin used for official business as Alaska's governor, revealing as evidence a few inconsequential personal messages she has received since John McCain selected her as his running mate.
"This is a shocking invasion of the governor's privacy and a violation of law. The matter has been turned over to the appropriate authorities and we hope that anyone in possession of these e-mails will destroy them," the McCain campaign said in a statement.
The Secret Service contacted The Associated Press on Wednesday and asked for copies of the leaked e-mails, which circulated widely on the Internet. The AP did not comply.
Study shows recent Obama ads
more negative than McCain's
Despite perceptions that Sen. John McCain has spent more time on the attack, Sen. Barack Obama aired more negative advertising last week than did the Arizona Republican, says a study released yesterday.
Seventy-seven percent of the Illinois Democrat's commercials were negative during the week after the Republican National Convention, compared with 56 percent of the spots run by McCain.
High turnout, new procedures
may mean an election day mess...
The
crush of voters will strain a system already in the midst of
transformation, with jurisdictions introducing new machines and rules
to avoid the catastrophe of the deadlocked 2000 election and the
lingering controversy over the 2004 outcome. Even within the past few
months, cities and counties have revamped their processes: Nine
million voters, including many in the battleground states of Ohio,
Florida and Colorado, will use equipment that has changed since
March...
THE CANDIDATES:
John McCain & Sarah Palin... today's headlines with excerpts
McCain, Palin impress at Grand Rapids, MI town hall
Palin:
"I have that readiness. If you want specifics with specific countries, you can even play stump the candidate.
"But we are ready to serve."
The line drew cheers from many in the crowd of 3,500, as West Michigan Republicans gave a warm welcome to the GOP ticket.
... Following an appearance earlier in suburban Detroit, McCain vowed to put Michigan back on track by supporting the auto industry and its workers. With polls at nearly a dead heat, the state remains a key battleground for both the McCain campaign and Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.
Trump endorses McCain on Larry King Live
Donald
Trump, the flamboyant New York magnate, said on CNN’s
“Larry King Live” on Wednesday night that he is
supporting Sen. John McCain for president.
Trump, never shy with his opinions, went on to say that McCain appears to be winning, and that Sen. Barack Obama should have chosen Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as his running mate.
“I know John McCain, and John McCain's a great guy, a tremendous guy,” Trump told King. “I've known him for a long time. And I'm with him, and I'm with him based on the fact that I have great knowledge of John McCain. Also, this is not the right time for tax increases. And Obama wants to increase your taxes drastically.”
... “The fact is, that Obama went limping across the
finish line. He should have chosen Hillary, It would
have been a much different race, I believe. Right now,
it looks to me like McCain is probably winning.”
Barack Obama & Joe Biden... today's headlines with excerpts'
Obama invokes Rush Limbaugh in new Spanish-language ads
"They want us to forget the insults we've put up with, the intolerance," the television ad's announcer says in Spanish as a picture of Rush Limbaugh appears onscreen with quotes of him saying, "Mexicans are stupid and unqualified" and "Shut your mouth or get out."...
Limbaugh hits back, says Obama "stoking racism"
Rush
Limbaugh, featured in a new, Spanish-language Barack
Obama ad, says the commercial distorts his past
statements and amounts to "race-baiting" by the
Democratic nominee.
... As for the quotes, Limbaugh said they were taken out of context.
The first, "stupid and unqualified," was from the NAFTA debate of the mid-90s, he recalled. Limbaugh, a NAFTA proponent, said in the fall of 1993 he got a call from a listener who was upset at the potential loss of American jobs.
In response he said, "If we are going to start rewarding no skills and stupid people--I'm serious, let the unskilled jobs, let the kinds of jobs that take absolutely no knowledge whatsoever to do--let stupid and unskilled Mexicans do that work."
Explaining his comments, Limbaugh writes: "I was referring to jobs in MEXICO. I was not discussing immigrants, illegal or otherwise."
On "shut your mouth," Limbaugh produced an April 2006 transcript from what he described as a parody of Mexican immigration laws.
Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden says paying more in taxes is the patriotic thing to do for wealthier Americans.
In a new TV ad that repeats widely debunked claims about the Democratic tax plan, the Republican campaign calls Obama's tax increases "painful."...
... Noting that wealthier Americans would indeed pay more, Biden said:
"It's time to be patriotic ... time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut."
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