| | Prime timers: Senator Lieberman, Fred Thompson
Good Tuesday morning. Prayers are answered in the Gulf as Gustav fades,
allowing the Republican National Convention to get back on track. ABC's
George Stephanopoulos was first to report (online last night) that
President Bush will address delegates today.
CBS News' Steve Chaggaris has the deets: The convention will return to
a regular program today at 6 p.m. CT. Tonight will be a 'biographical
sketch' of John McCain. Key primetime speakers (9 to 10 p.m. local, 10
to 11 p.m. Eastern) will be former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) and
Sen. Joe Lieberman, (I-Conn.)
***President Bush reported to address the convention via satellite at approximately 8:38 p.m. CT, 9:38 ET.
AP: 'The revamped schedule suggested that convention planners were
easing back into partisan politics with an appeal to independent-minded
voters.' AP reports Mayor Giuliani may be off program as keynoter, but
will address delegates in prime time Wednesday or Thursday.
BREAKING, from AP: 'President Bush says Gustav should prompt Congress to OK more domestic oil drilling.'
National Journal Convention Daily leads with, 'A Touch of Glamour:
Laura Bush and Cindy McCain kick off a Day One blown off course by
Gustav.'
Mrs. McCain and first lady Laura Bush go before cameras at the
Minneapolis Convention Center to preview the care-pack assembly line
that will be open Wednesday and Thursday, and to thank Target, FedEx
and the American Red Cross.
Vets for Freedom today launches a $7 million campaign calling on Senator Obama to 'acknowledge the surge worked.'
Senator Obama is on ABC's 'This Week' on Sunday.
THE BIG IDEA – Politico, 'New Palin details may help, not hurt,' by
Charles Mahtesian: 'Fishing permit violations. A blue-collar husband
who racked up a DUI citation as a 22-year-old. An unmarried teenage
daughter who is pregnant and a nasty child custody battle involving a
family member. All of this, to one degree or another, has surfaced in
recent days as a result of efforts to discredit or undermine Alaska
Gov. Sarah Palin. But these revelations may have the opposite effect:
In one sense, they could reinforce how remarkably unremarkable she is.
'So far - and it is hard to tell what the future may hold for Palin's
unexpected national candidacy - the travails of the Palin family
probably seem awfully familiar to many average Americans. It is this
averageness that makes her such a politically promising running mate
for John McCain - and such a dangerous opponent for Democrats. Many
voters will find it easy to identify with her family's struggles - a
significant advantage in an election where the voting calculus is so
unusually and intensely personal.'
SCOOP – ABC News, 'October Surprise' Over Palin Investigation? 'Likely
Damaging' Report on Governor Scheduled for Release Days Before November
Election,' by Brian Ross and Len Tepper: 'The Alaska state senator
running an investigation of Gov. Palin says the McCain campaign is
using stall tactics to prevent him from releasing his final report by
Oct. 31, four days before the November election. 'It's likely to be
damaging to the Governor,' said Senator Hollis French, a Democrat,
appointed the project manager for a bi-partisan State Senate
Legislative Counsel Committee investigation of claims that Palin abused
her office to get the Alaska public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan,
fired.' TALKER
– The aforementioned ABC's Brian Ross: 'As residents of New Orleans
were fleeing Hurricane Gustav, top Republican party officials donned
pink boas and swigged vodka shots at a wild whirl of corporate and
lobbyist-paid parties this weekend in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Many
corporate sponsors and their lobbyists carried through with plans for
lavish entertainment of GOP lawmakers and others despite calls from the
campaign of Sen. John McCain that Republicans should tone down the
convention festivities. ... [L]obbyists for the National Rifle
Association, Lockheed Martin and the American Trucking Association put
on a raucous six-hour party at a downtown bar featuring music by the
band 'Hookers and Blow.' There was no evidence of any actual
prostitutes or cocaine.'
DRIVING THE DAY -- ABC's George Stephanopoulos: 'I think what a lot of
Republican operatives and delegates here are asking is: What else is
out there about Governor Palin? Was the vetting process complete and
professional?'
***A top McCain official tells Playbook: 'She was vetted as fully as
all the candidates before her selection. The team sent to Anchorage
last week was the communications jump team, set up for whoever the pick
was, to integrate their world into ours.'
DRUDGE BANNER: 'MEDIA TURN ON MCCAIN IN ELECTION SHOWDOWN' -- links to
Bloomberg News' 'McCain Turns Sour on His Onetime Media `Base' as
Election Nears.'
P.S. 'MANY THANKS FOR MAKING AUGUST 2008 THE MOST-VISITED MONTH IN
DRUDGEREPORT'S 13 YEAR-HISTORY!... THE PAGE LOADED 614,577,960 TIMES
WITH 14,163,025 UNIQUES, SMASHING PREVIOUS HIGH, SET IN MARCH...'
L.A. Times A1, Mark Z. Barabak: 'Palin spokeswoman Maria Comella said
more than two dozen McCain aides reviewed public records and legal
documents, her credit history, news accounts, speeches, financial
records and any formal complaints against her. Palin completed a
40-page questionnaire and was interviewed for three to four hours by
Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr., a longtime Washington attorney, and spoke at
length with McCain's top advisors. In the interview with Culvahouse,
Palin disclosed her daughter's pregnancy and her husband's DUI, Comella
said.'
The McCain campaign's Nicolle Wallace says on ABC's 'Good Morning
America' that Senator McCain knew about Gov. Palin's unmarried pregnant
daughter: 'We all knew. ... It was certainly known, and it didn't give
senator McCain any pause.' Wallace wouldn't tell Diane Sawyer when
McCain found out, or whether he and Governor Palin talked about it.
Wallace, on NBC's 'Today,' says the disclosure was prompted by
'Democratic- and liberal-leaning fervor, really, in the blogosphere
[delving] into the private life of the Palin family. after her
announcement. There was a hateful slew of rumors and innuendo about her
most recent pregnancy-- a roar of activity about the personal life of
this family.' On the vetting: 'I think a process that is secret
shouldn't be confused with a process that's hasty.'
NBC's Matt Lauer asked Mary Matalin why the information was put out 'on
the eve of the Republican Convention and she replied: 'It was an open
secret.'
GOVERNOR PALIN IS IN THE TWIN CITIES, WITH NO PUBLIC SCHEDULE.
QUESTIONS OF JUDGMENT -- USA Today drives the conversation with a tough
headline on Martha T. Moore's front-pager about Senator McCain and
Governor Palin, 'Privacy, judgment raised after news of pregnancy':
'Delegates to the Republican National Convention, as well as Democrat
Barack Obama, reacted sympathetically Monday to the disclosure that
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's unmarried teenaged daughter is pregnant. But
others said the revelation raised questions about John McCain's
judgment.
'Steve Schmidt, chief strategist for the presumptive GOP presidential
nominee, insisted the party's ticket would not be hurt and said the
idea that 17-year-old Bristol Palin's pregnancy would affect Palin's
ability to be vice president 'is demeaning.' ... McCain learned of the
pregnancy last week, Schmidt said, before he offered Palin the spot as
his running mate. McCain adviser Mark Salter said Palin disclosed her
daughter's pregnancy to rebut rumors on the Internet that Palin's son,
Trig, who was born in April and has Down syndrome, is Bristol's child.'
HASTE, JUDGMENT -- The N.Y. Times' off-lead (col. 1-2), 'Palin
Disclosures Spotlight McCain's Screening Process: Daughter's Pregnancy
One of Several Revelations,' By Elisabeth Bumiller: 'Aides to Mr.
McCain said they had a team on the ground in Alaska now to look more
thoroughly into Ms. Palin's background. A Republican with ties to the
campaign said the team assigned to vet Ms. Palin in Alaska had not
arrived there until Thursday, a day before Mr. McCain stunned the
political world with his vice-presidential choice. The campaign was
still calling Republican operatives as late as Sunday night asking them
to go to Alaska to deal with the unexpected candidacy of Ms. Palin.
'Although the McCain campaign said that Mr. McCain had known about
Bristol Palin's pregnancy before he asked her mother to join him on the
ticket and that he did not consider it disqualifying, top aides were
vague on Monday about how and when he had learned of the pregnancy, and
from whom. While there was no sign that her formal nomination this week
was in jeopardy, the questions swirling around Ms. Palin on the first
day of the Republican National Convention, already disrupted by
Hurricane Gustav, brought anxiety to Republicans who worried that
Democrats would use the selection of Ms. Palin to question Mr. McCain's
judgment and his ability to make crucial decisions.
'At the least, Republicans close to the campaign said it was
increasingly apparent that Ms. Palin had been selected as Mr. McCain's
running mate with more haste than McCain advisers initially described.
Up until midweek last week, some 48 to 72 hours before Mr. McCain
introduced Ms. Palin at a Friday rally in Dayton, Ohio, Mr. McCain was
still holding out the hope that he could choose a good friend, Senator
Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, a Republican close to
the campaign said. Mr. McCain had also been interested in another
favorite, former Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania.'
OUT TODAY – John Fund's latest -- 'Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud
Threatens Our Democracy,' Revised and Update by Author (75 percent
new), Encounter Books, $17.95.
OBAMA GETS HIS BOUNCE -- USA Today 6A, 'In poll, Obama gets 'convention
bounce,' by Susan Page: 'The Democratic National Convention
significantly boosted Americans' views of Barack Obama as a strong
leader who 'shares your values' and can manage the economy and Iraq, a
USA TODAY/Gallup Poll takenSaturday and Sunday finds. Republican John
McCain's advantage in handling terrorism was dramatically reduced, and
his 'unfavorable' rating ticked up to its highest level this year. ...
In the head-to-head race, Obama leads 50 percent-43 percent among
registered voters. In the USA TODAY Poll taken Aug. 21-23, the Illinois
senator held a 4-percentage-point lead.'
CBS News: 'Democratic nominee Barack Obama's lead over Republican John
McCain has grown after the Democratic convention, which 71 percent of
Americans say they watched. Obama and his running mate Joe Biden now
lead McCain and Sarah Palin 48 percent to 40 percent, according to the
latest CBS News poll. This is the first CBS News poll to include the
vice presidential candidates in the horserace question.'
SCOOP -- Newsweek Exclusive – 'Top Clinton Supporter John Coale
Endorses McCain' John Coale, who traveled with the Senator Hillary
Clinton, President Clinton and her family through out the primary
season has endorsed John McCain, complaining of sexism and saying the
party is 'being taken over by the moveon.org types' in an exclusive
interview with Newsweek. He told Tammy Haddad that he tried to prevent
Hillary Clinton's brother, Tony Rodham, from attending an August 18th
meeting in Scranton, Pa. with McCain campaign surrogate Carly Fiorina.
'I urged him not to go and told him it would embarrass his sister, but
he has a mind of his own.' Coale says Mr. Rodham asked Ms. Fiorina
about McCain's Supreme Court picks.'
NEW AD on GOP Katrina failures TODAY FROM CAMPAIGN FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE
-- Playing across the country, including on news channels in more than
5,000 hotel rooms where Republican delegates are staying in the St.
Paul area. Called 'Thanks for the Memories.'
HAPPENING TODAY: At the convention, TIME Managing Editor Richard
Stengel hosts a breakfast discussion with Meg Whitman, former president
and CEO of eBay.
ST. PAUL DAYBOOK: Lesley Stahl of '60 Minutes' moderates former HHS
Sec. Tommy G. Thompson and former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee,
both of whom were very involved in Katrina, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30
p.m. at the historic James J. Hill Library. (Good chance for reporters
to catch up with either of them.) Kirsten Fedewa was hired to organize
the event, which is co-hosted by The Mayo Clinic, the Universityof
Minnesota, the University of Colorado and the Obesity Society. New
Hampshire State Sen. Bob Clegg will also speak.
HUCKABEE'S BAND, 'CAPITOL OFFENSE,' PLAYS TONIGHT.
WHAT'S THE LEAD? AP, 'Convention Rdp, Republicans try to get convention
back on track,' by Sara Kugler: 'Hamstrung by Hurricane Gustav and
distracted by the revelation that Sarah Palin's unmarried 17-year-old
daughter is pregnant, Republicans were trying to get back on track
Tuesday with the political pageantry that celebrates John McCain's
candidacy for president. ... One of the speakers scheduled for Tuesday
night's session, independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, said he
would address delegates as planned.'
SPOTTED: Wearing Team America hats, Team McCain
(Conant/Wilkerson/Bounds) raises a glass with Team Obama (Vietor/
Sevugan/Cherlin). The venue, 'The Spirits of Minneapolis,' renamed 'The
Spirits of the Gulf Coast' as an American Red Cross funder. Sponsorted
by the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, The Weekly
Standard, The Hill, etc.
DID LABASH REALLY THINK HE COULD PASS HIMSELF OFF TO THOSE GIRLS AND PHOTOGS AS 'RON BONJOVI'?
BUSINESS BLINK – WSJ lead story – 'Google Tackles Microsoft In Launch Of Browser.'
DESSERT – LA. Times A1, 'Movie theaters offering upscale ambience: Some
cinemas are kicking up the experience -- and the ticket price --
offering such things as reclining seats, high-end food and alcoholic
beverages,' by Josh Friedman: 'The upscale theater trend is
accelerating as exhibitors cater to the over-40 crowd, the
fastest-growing segment of the population and a relatively affluent
demographic ... Over-21 screenings, where alcohol is permitted, enable
adults to avoid yakking teenagers. ... The Gold Class experience starts
with online seating selection, valet parking and a concierge desk at
check-in.' | |
